Anna Delvey Under House Arrest: “I’m Still Living Better Than All of You!”
Did you see the Shonda Rhimes-produced Netflix series Becoming Anna? It tells the story of Anna Sorokin, a 31-year-old Russian woman going by the alias of Anna Delvey, who scammed her way through New York City’s upscale art scene, using an invented trust fund to persuade the city’s power brokers to invest in a members-only arts club. It’s a good-but-not-great series. But it will leave you wanting to know more about the central character.
The short version: She was arrested and convicted for bilking investors out of $200,000, spent nearly two years at Riker’s Island, and is currently living in a one-bedroom apartment in Manhattan, under house arrest.
This video was sent to me by a high school friend…
Under the link, he wrote: “Very cool! And the inventor is a kid.”
It’s a new technology that will make finding your gate at the airport, and getting to it, much easier. In the video, you can see how much people like it.
My friends that were copied on the email agreed that it is marvelous. “Amazing!” one wrote. “What will they think of next?” wrote another.
I’ll tell you what I think… I think it’s scary. Inevitable, but scary. And I’ll tell you why.
In the context of negotiating your way through a busy airport, it is a very attractive benefit. No more scouring the departure boards. No more worry about finding your gate or getting to it on time. The system will guide you every step of the way, letting you know about any changes and when, exactly, you will arrive at the gate.
That’s great. But how does it work?
When you confirm your registration, the device scans your body image and converts it into digital information. It will then be able to track you and communicate with you during the entire time you are in the airport.
After your plane takes off, your data is deleted from the database. That’s what the people behind the technology say. And in the beginning, that’s what they will do. But I am absolutely certain that before long the government will step in and claim this digital information for its homeland security database. It will be necessary, they will say, to track down terrorists and keep everyone safe.
And no one will object to it. Because no one, except terrorists, will have anything to hide. So, the digital body images will be collected and stored in a federal digital bank. And the collection of data will grow from there. Devices like this one will be installed at every train and bus station and inside and outside of all public buildings. To transport yourself by train, plane, or rented automobile, you’ll have to submit to a scan. And despite assurances that it won’t be done, this data will eventually be used to track every movement of virtually every person, citizen or alien, 24/7.
Add this to the coming of the digital dollar, and you have the makings of a zero-privacy society. It will be a society where we will all have social credit scores that will determine what privileges and freedoms we are allowed. And it will be a society where everyone is okay with that because everyone will have “nothing to hide.”
I had no idea this was a thing. It happens every year in Chile. Millions and millions of red crabs leave their homes in the wild to march, en masse, to the sea. My neocortex would love to see this up close. My basal ganglia would probably be horrified. Click here for details.
Here’s something I got from Joel Bowman, writing for Bonner Private Research. It’s enlightening.
Can you name this country?
Its government runs a state-funded, universal healthcare system, which provides free care to all nationals (plus a generous public insurance plan to help alleviate healthcare costs for expatriates working inside the country). It also spends considerable sums building and maintaining public hospitals and employing plenty of doctors, nurses, and healthcare professionals to serve all citizens.
All levels of education – from kindergarten to university – are completely free. This country enjoys one of the highest literacy rates in its region.
In addition, the state provides mothers with paid maternity leave and all citizens with unemployment insurance and disability benefits, should they be unfit to work.
The government invests heavily in its national infrastructure, including an extensive public transport system. There is also a state-owned airline and state-owned seaports and airports.
This country has the strongest currency in the world and one of the highest per capita incomes. And it has one of the richest sovereign wealth funds on the planet, which it manages on behalf of its citizens to guarantee retirement pensions for all.
No, it’s not Sweden. Or Norway. Or Finland.
It’s Kuwait.
Kuwait?
As Bowman points out…
Strangely, we seldom hear any of the above social programs as arguments in favor of adopting a Kuwaiti-style theocratic autocracy. Hmm… why don’t we see Bernie supporters waving “Anocracy Now!” placards, wearing “Tribal Monarchy Before Profits!” t-shirts, and ditching their Che Guevara-style berets for Arabic-style ghutras? Curious, no?
Could it be that these nations have something else in common, aside from generous welfare schemes, that lies at the root of their vast fortunes? Indeed, might they be rich despite their spending habits, rather than because of them? Could their enormous sovereign wealth funds (Kuwait: $693 billion; Norway: $1.36 trillion) have originated from something other than their respective styles of “giveaway government?”
Hmm… what else do these tiny nations have in common? If only there was a simple, three letter answer, something rhyming with foil… or turmoil… disembroil. Quick, somebody call Sir Arthur Conan Doyle!
The world population hit the 8 billion mark this year. Some pundits are saying it will hit 10 billion by 2050. I wrote about how the current population trends are drastically changing the world’s ethnic and cultural profile in the Sept. 30 issue.
This article from National Geographic attempts to explain where all those extra people will live.
It’s called the Literature Clock, and it works like this. Rather than glancing at your watch or phone, go to this website – https://literature-clock.jenevoldsen.com – and you’ll get the time expressed in a quote (usually from some obscure book and author). For example, I’m writing this at 3:59 p.m., and this is the quote that just came up:
“He looked at his watch: it was nearly 4. He helped Delphine to her feet and led her down a passage to a rear door that gave on to the hospital garden.” – The Blue Afternoon, by William Boyd
Karine Aigner won the Wildlife Photographer of the Year award for this photo of a buzzing ball of cactus bees spinning over the hot sand in Texas.
According to the awards committee, this “beautifully composed close-up captures the moment a group of male bees compete to mate with a single female. After a few minutes, the pair at the center of the buzzing ball flew off together.”
The annual competition is run by the Natural History Museum in London. Aigner is only the fifth woman in the competition’s 58-year history to receive the top prize.
This is one of her photos that I especially liked:
