You can't have it both ways

Even the best artists (scam artists included) slip sometimes - they are human, after all.  Let's take a listen to what the CEO has to say in the Nanox "vision" video released in late November ahead of RSNA 2020:

"Our mission is to democratize medical imaging, to make it way more available.  There are simply not enough machines today - it is too expensive - expensive to buy, expensive to maintain, expensive to operate, and therefore not very practical." (starting at 47s)

So, medical imaging  is not practical and accessible today?  

Here is what he wrote in his March 30, 2020 blog post:

In Israel, as in practically every country in the world, we have a real shortage of [COVID-19] testing kits.  Lung scans on the other hand are accessible, cheap, and the results are immediate - a critical factor in patient outcomes and in preventing the spread of the infection.

He can't have it both ways.  Chest (or lung) radiographs represent the majority, about 40%, of all imaging procedures performed worldwide, according to the World Health Organization (Communicating Radiation Risks in Paediatric Imaging, page 16).  The CEO states that they are accessible, cheap, and with immediate results in practically every country in the world.  So, it seems there are enough medical imaging machines, they are not expensive, and they are easy to operate and quite practical, no?  Poof goes Nanox vision!

In his blog post, he also states that Nanox machines

can be installed not only in medical facilities but also in offices and even retail locations, so people don’t need to drive hours to get to a scanning machine.

But Nanox now admits that is not possible - Nanox proposed machines leak radiation - and any potential deployments of those proposed machines, in the unlikely event that they ever become real, is at risk due to:

the inability or unwillingness of potential customers to invest in the required safety infrastructure, including customary X-ray shielding, to allow the Nanox.ARC to be safety[sic] operated (page 17, prospectus)

 

Asking stupid questions

So, a stupid question arose today in a discussion about what would be a plausible defense by a scam artist.

Question: Did Nanox CEO graduate from Bezalel Academy of Art and Design, or not?

Checking English-language internet sources left me confused.  This one says he only attended the Academy, that is, he did not graduate.  Another one says he received a Degree in Industrial Design there.

In a November 2020 blog post, the CEO states:

When I submit my bio (prior to lectures or interviews), my educational background often surprises people. I do not have a degree in machine engineering, computer engineering, or in any type of engineering for that matter. I studied arts and design at the Bezalel Academy of Arts in Jerusalem.

So, he did not graduate, after all?

According to a Muddy Waters report,

Charismatic CEO Poliakine appears to have no formal training in radiology, physics or medicine—or to have even finished college. His only academic credentials seem to be a two-year stint he spent at the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design. Our investigators contacted a Bezalel administrator who confirmed that he did not graduate (page 42)

In his blog post he essentially describes himself as a modern Leonardo Da Vinci, "the great artist and innovator," but with the inclination to ask stupid questions:

This is something I do all the time: go into new areas and ask stupid questions. I have no choice: I am not an established scientist or a researcher with formal education. So I go in and ask the kind of questions that people who’ve been in this field for a while would not consider asking. 

Essentially, he is paraphrasing Meredith Perry of the fraud uBeam (now, SonicEnergy).  The problem in the real world, of course, is that if people take time to answer all the stupid questions, there is no time left for anything else.

It is a great defense, though  - I did not know what I was signing or talking about - I am an artist.  And an artist is allowed to pretend to be something more:

I am a technologist. I want to tell you about the technology of Nanox... (02:05 in the RSNA 2020 demo)

 

And then to lie outright that Wilhelm Roentgen used a hot filament to discover X-rays (Nanox own technology white paper, published just a few days prior, states that the hot filament was introduced by GE's Coolidge, many years after Roentgen's discovery)... 

The dictionary seems to define technologist as an expert in a particular field of technology, not just an artist.

Nanox mission

 Not to be confused with Nanox vision (announced in a press release with SKT in June 2019), Nanox mission is:

“to replace all legacy sources with our digital X-ray.” (November 2019 press release)

From/To in Nanox November 2019 press release 

Yes, that digital X-Ray source has a field of nano-gates (that is, holes) that emit pixie dust (because electrons are emitted by nano-cones, not nano-holes) in discrete streams instead of a Schrödinger cloud, according to the illustration above.  And cathodes, anodes, and years do not matter (based on the From half).

Unfortunately, Nanox own facilitator and option holder testifies that nobody wanted that non-existent digital X-ray source.  Not even when the current CEO, then the Chief Strategy Officer of Nanox predecessor, went to RSNA 2015 to show it around.  Now the title of his blog is IMAGING 3.0 which is remarkably similar to Imaging3.  Coincidence or Freudian slip?  No way he did not know about Imaging3.