[Sadly for me, that doesn’t seem to be in right now.]

When I wrote about garish weddings earlier this month, the linked page included an image that really caught my eye:

The woman on Jeff Bezos’s arm is apparently Lauren Sanchez, his wife. I poked around a bit more, and wound up on an article that included this comparison of Sanchez at age 33 (2002) and age 55 (2025):

Yes, how do these rumors get started?

Look, I make an effort not to comment on the appearance of other people. If someone stops looking like a person, however, an exception may be made. If that’s the result of plastic surgery for a billionaire’s wife, no one is safe.

This came up again when I read about a bizarre murder (and beheading!) in Australia. Tamika Chesser is charged with killing her boyfriend Julian Story. In something of a reverse “In The Pines”¹, Story’s body was found in an apartment, but his head never was found.

Chesser’s head, meanwhile, looks like this:

[Photo credit: Tamika Chesser]

When I saw this picture, I wondered how police were going to arrest a mid-2000s video game character. Chesser has somehow fallen backwards from human into something out of the Uncanny Valley, and she looks like a virtual reality rendering.

That led me to ask ChatGPT to re-draw Chesser in the style of Fortnite. It came up with this:

Somehow, that AI creation looks more realistic than her actual photograph. Compare!

Anyway, seriously folks, aging is OK. So is looking your age! Looking like not a person, and paying for the privilege? No thanks.

Footnotes:

1. Perhaps more familiar as “Where Did You Sleep Last Night?”. ↩︎

The CEO seemingly having an affair with the head of HR at his company at the Coldplay concert is a viral video for the ages, but it is also, unfortunately, emblematic of our current private surveillance and social media hellscape.

The video, which is now viral on every platform that we can possibly think of, has been covered by various news outlets, and is Pop Crave official, shows Andy Byron, the CEO of a company called Astronomer, with his arms around Astronomer’s head of HR, Kristen Cabot. The jumbotron cuts from one fan to this seemingly happy couple. They both simultaneously die inside; “Oh look at this happy couple,” Coldplay lead singer Chris Martin says. The woman covers her face and spins away. The man ducks out of frame. “Either they’re having an affair or they’re very shy,” Martin said. The camera pans to another company executive standing next to them, who is seemingly shaking out of discomfort.

It is hard to describe how viral this is at the moment, in a world in which so many awful things are occurring and in which nothing holds anyone’s attention for any length of time and in a world in which we are all living in our own siloed realities. “Andy Byron” is currently the most popular trending Google term in the United States, with more than double the searches of the next closest term. 

There are so many levels to this embarrassment—the Coldplay of it all, the HR violation occurring on jumbotron, etc—that one could likely write a doctoral dissertation on this 15 second video.

But the aftermath of this video demonstrates a phenomenon that we have now seen over and over again on all of social media, but on TikTok especially: The instant, gleeful doxing of people for reasons that run the spectrum from the very bad (being a Nazi) to the utterly benign (dancing weird at a Taylor Swift concert, being a hot security guard, standing in public). “TikTok help me find him / her” is now so common that it is a meme.

404 Media doesn’t know what’s going on in Byron or Cabot’s marriages and neither does anyone else posting about it; we have zero clue what’s going on behind the scenes or what is currently occurring in the personal lives of everyone involved.

It is worth briefly considering the dystopia of this situation and its aftermath. It is not clear exactly how the Astronomer CEO was initially identified, but we have seen numerous cases where TikTok commenters and creators use Pimeyes and other readily available, often free facial recognition and social media research tools to identify a person. 

The Astronomer CEO’s name, his wife’s name, the head of HR’s name, and the third company executive’s name and social media profiles are all over the TikTok comments and Reddit comments. His latest LinkedIn post was full of comments about the incident, left before he disabled comments and ultimately deleted the post. Commenters have pointed out that his wife has removed his last name from several of her social media profiles. 

Polymarket’s degenerate gamblers turned the scandal into a market. The site lets users bet on events with binary outcomes like whether or not Byron will lose his job as CEO of Astronomer. A gambler pays a few cents to vote “yes” or “no” on the outcome of the event and wins the difference up to a dollar on each vote if they guessed right. Each vote shifts the odds up and down.

Today Polymarket opened two new Byron-related bets. The first asks the question: “Andy Byron out as Astronomer CEO by next Friday?” As of this writing, the site is giving him a 40 percent chance of leaving. Polymarket doesn’t care if he resigns or gets fired, the bet pays out to its “yes” voters so long as he leaves.

The crueler bet, and the one with more activity, is the “Astronomer Divorce Parlay.” A parlay is a series or combination of bets, and this Polymarket listing requires both Byron and Cabot to get  divorced. An announcement will satisfy the bet, it doesn’t have to be an official filing. But it can come from Byron and Cabot themselves or their spouses. The image attached to the bet is a screenshot from the moment the Jumbotron filmed the couple embracing. 

As of this writing, the odds are 21 percent that both couples divorce.

Polymarket’s X account got in on the action. As both of the markets opened, the account posted about Byron and Cabot four times in a row. “Smart bet?” Polymarket asked above a picture showing social media photos of the pair listed next to the current odds that they’d divorce their spouses.

Brands are using Byron and Cabot’s face to build hype. The NEON film studio posted a picture of the couple on X to promote its upcoming horror movie Together. Chipotle commented on the story with a picture of its billboard that reads “It’s OK to Cheat.” Most chilling, the NYC Department of Sanitation used the viral moment to remind everyone that it has cameras everywhere.

Scrolling through a TikTok search for “CEO of Astronomer” (a TikTok-recommended search term) is full of wannabe influencers giving their own take on the saga, greenscreening the video behind their cut out faces with titles like “CHEATING COLDPLAY AFFAIR BOSTON CONCERT COUPLE UPDATE,” and “COLDPLAY EXPUSO A DOS AMANTES.” Fox News, Buzzfeed, and other huge accounts have posted the footage more or less unedited on their own accounts. Writing this article, we understand, puts us into this exact fray.

But one does not have to have sympathy or empathy for a CEO to see how this sort of thing could and often does go off the rails. This example is emblematic of the problem specifically because it’s easy to laugh at these people and because they’re doing something distasteful, but not illegal. The same technologies used to dox and research this CEO are routinely deployed against the partners of random people who have had messy breakups, attractive security guards, people who look “suspicious” and are caught on Ring cameras by people on Nextdoor, people who dance funny in public, and so on. There has been endless debate about the ethics of doxing cops and ICE agents and Nazis, and there are many times where it makes sense to research people doing harm on behalf of the state or who are doing violent, scary things in to innocent people. It is another to deploy these technologies against random people you saw on an airplane or who had a messy breakup with an influencer. And of course, these same technologies are regularly deployed by police and the feds against undocumented immigrants, regular people, and people wanting to visit the United States on tourist visas. 

“JUST IN: Astronomer CEO Andy Byron’s wife removes his last name from her Facebook profile,” a follow up post said next to a screenshot from Byron’s wife’s Facebook account. And in a reply: The odds of them both getting divorced this year are soaring. 52% chance.”

Unlike Istanbul, Ankara lacks monumental examples of Byzantine, Ottoman and Baroque architecture. However, stretching from the Ottoman downtown area of Ulus to Atatürk's mausoleum and presidential mansion in Çankaya, Ankara is an open-air museum of modern Turkish history, spanning the period from the national liberation war of 1919-1922 to the present day.

Ulucanlar Prison, centrally located in Ankara’s traditional Ottoman downtown, operated as Ankara’s central prison between 1925 and 2006. Throughout its years of operation, it was notorious for its informal function as a prison for political prisoners, shedding light on an 80-year period of modern Turkish history. The prison’s former inmates span all of modern Turkey’s main political ideologies, both right-wing and left-wing, and many of them are central figures in Turkey’s political and intellectual history.

Three internationally renowned Turkish artists — the communist poet Nâzım Hikmet (1902–63), the novelist Yaşar Kemal (1923–2015), author of Memed, My Hawk, and the Kurdish actor and director Yılmaz Güney (1937–84), who won the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival for his film Yol in 1982 — all served sentences in this prison, alongside many other famous politicians and intellectuals.

Güney's 1983 film Duvar which depicts the poor humanitarian conditions in Turkish prisons during the military regime established in 1980, was inspired by Ulucanlar Prison. This was at a time when the 1978 film Midnight Express, which featured an American imprisoned in Turkey, had prompted diplomatic protests from the Turkish government.

As well as housing many political prisoners, Ulucanlar Prison was the site of some of the most significant executions throughout its years of operation, until Turkey abolished the death penalty in 2004. The prison witnessed the execution of leaders of the Committee of Union and Progress (the ruling party of the Ottoman Empire from 1913 to 1918) on charges of attempting to assassinate Atatürk in 1926; two military officers in 1964 following a failed coup d’état; three leftist university students who became national symbols after their execution in 1973; and numerous other left- and right-wing political activists by the military regime installed in 1980.

The last execution was that of Levon Ekmekçiyan, a militant of Lebanese-Armenian origin, in 1983. He had carried out a terrorist attack at Ankara’s Esenboğa Airport, leaving nine dead.

Following the abolition of the death penalty in Turkey in 2004, the gallows from the former prison can now be seen on display in an iron cage. 

A comment to Erik’s grave post this morning mentioned how in a sense the lynching of Leo Frank was an American version of the Dreyfus affair, although obviously there are many big differences. Robert Paxton in The Anatomy of Fascism points out how the original KKK was a kind of proto-fascist organization avant la lettre, and he notes as well that the Dreyfus affair was an important precursor to the rise of fascism proper.

Similar ingredients mingled in the popular emotions aroused in France after 1896 against Captain Alfred Dreyfus, a Jewish staff officer wrongly accused of spying for Germany. The case convulsed France until 1906. The anti-Dreyfus camp enlisted in defense of the authority of the state and the honor of the army both conservatives and some Leftists influenced by traditional anticapitalist anti-Semitism and Jacobin forms of nationalism. The pro-Dreyfus camp, mostly from Left and center, defended a universal standard of the rights of man. The nation took precedence over any universal value, proclaimed the anti-Dreyfusard Charles Maurras, whose Action Française movement is sometimes considered the first authentic fascism. When a document used to incriminate Dreyfus turned out to have been faked, Maurras was undaunted. It was, he said, a “patriotic forgery,” a faux patriotique . . .

The term national socialism seems to have been invented by the French nationalist author Maurice Barrès, who described the aristocratic adventurer the Marquis de Morès in 1896 as the “first national socialist.”
Morès, after failing as a cattle rancher in North Dakota, returned to Paris in the early 1890s and organized a band of anti-Semitic toughs who attacked Jewish shops and offices. As a cattleman, Morès found his recruits among slaughterhouse workers in Paris, to whom he appealed with a mixture of anticapitalism and anti-Semitic nationalism. His squads wore the cowboy garb and ten-gallon hats that the marquis had discovered in the American West, which thus predate black and brown shirts (by a modest stretch of the imagination) as the first fascist uniform. Morès killed a popular Jewish officer, Captain Armand Meyer, in a duel early in the Dreyfus Affair, and was himself killed by his Touareg guides in the Sahara in 1896 on an expedition to “unite France to Islam and to Spain.” “Life is valuable only through action,” he had proclaimed. “So much the worse if the action is mortal.”

Paxton also points out that at the height of the Dreyfus frenzy in 1898, Jewish shops were looted, and Jews in French Algeria were murdered. Indeed, he argues that if historians had been asked in say 1920 which country was more likely to engage in massive anti-Semitic repression, France or Germany, no one would have chosen Germany.

One big difference between the Dreyfus and Frank affairs is that the former was a vastly bigger deal within its respective culture. It’s almost impossible to overstate the degree to which the Dreyfus affair convulsed French society for an entire decade, while today I doubt one in a hundred Americans would recognize Leo Frank’s name (I’m assuming here that the Dreyfus case remains a central event in the contemporary French popular memory, which is admittedly a pure assumption, as I’m basing that on how famous it still is among educated people across the world).

That the Dreyfus affair featured many of the key ingredients that would erupt a couple of decades later into the fascist waves that swept across Europe seems clear. The recent emergence in public discourse in America of Leo Frank truthers, including an official DOD spokesman, is not a good sign to put it mildly. As so often turns out to be the case, the past isn’t even past.

The post The Dreyfus affair, the lynching of Leo Frank, and precursors to fascism appeared first on Lawyers, Guns & Money.

Dubai’s rise to global prominence has often led it to being one of the primary metonyms for the United Arab Emirates, a sovereign nation of which the Emirate of Dubai is a part. While Dubai and Abu Dhabi tend to dominate the spotlight, the United Arab Emirates is, in fact, a federation of seven emirates — each with its own distinct history, leadership, and culture. Before unification, these emirates existed as separate sovereign entities ruled by individual leaders.

The historic moment that brought them together took place in 1971, when the rulers of the emirates came together to sign the Constitution of the United Arab Emirates. This defining event — the raising of the first U.A.E. flag and the official formation of the nation, occurred at a site that now forms the location of the Etihad Museum

Architecturally striking and rich in symbolism, the museum was designed by Moriyama Teshima Architects to resemble an open manuscript, representing the beginning of the U.A.E.’s story. Seven towering columns are integrated into the structure, each symbolizing a pen used to sign the original declaration. The very declaration is preserved and displayed in Pavilion 6 of the museum.

The museum grounds house a remarkable collection of exhibits, including personal artifacts and original Emirati passports belonging to the founding rulers of the seven emirates. Visitors can also explore the diverse currencies that circulated in the region prior to unification, the most interesting of them being the Gulf Indian rupee, a currency created by the Indian government to combat the strain on its financial reserves as a result of gold smugglers misusing the actual Indian rupee in the Gulf during a tumultuous time when the rupee was legal tender in parts of the Middle East.

More than just a museum, this site serves as a national landmark, offering an immersive journey into the U.A.E.’s path to unity and celebrating the vision, diplomacy, and cooperation that brought the federation to life.

Disclaimer: I received this wine as a sample but all opinions are my own.

Narince is such a fantastically flexible grape. We’ve seen it in on its own, in blends, no oak ages, too much oak aging, skin contact, sparkling, and semi-sweet. It makes a wine for every palate. 

For years, Arda has made a Reserv Narince. It’s a beautiful wine, one of my favorites. But, I’ve always wondered why the grape wasn’t a regular part of its Kuşlu lineup. And, while I still don’t know the answer to that, I am thrilled that now there IS an Arda Kuşlu Narince!

Arda Bağcılık

Arda Bağcılık is a small, family-run winery tucked near the historic town of Edirne in Turkey’s Thrace region. Founded in 2007 by Ilyas Saç, this small production winery is a family affair tended to by Saç’s children. Wine lovers all, his daughter Şeniz oversees the wine production while his son Yavuz, a wine scholar, and his wife Bahar manage the winery. 

Situated in the north western tip of Turkey, winters here are cold and snowy, and summers are dry with constant northern winds. Stratas of sand and stone over terra rosa and clay ensure that drainage is not a problem in the fields and helps with Arda’s efforts to cultivate low yields and high-quality grapes. Arda has doubled its capacity since opening and now can produce up to 100,000 bottles a year spread across native and international grapes. They cultivate or cooperate with growers of Narince and Papazkarası alongside Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, Semillon, Cabernet Sauvignon, Syrah, Gamay, and Merlot. 

Narince

Narince is probably the most widely grown native white grape in Turkey. It originally comes from the Tokat region near the Black Sea, where it thrives in rich, alluvial soils. But over time, it’s made its way into vineyards all across the country—from the Aegean coast to Thrace.

Harvest usually happens in the second half of September, but that timing can be tricky for winemakers. Most of the vineyards in Tokat are owned by independent growers rather than wineries. These growers often sell the grapes to winemakers and the leaves to other buyers. In fact, Narince leaves are a traditional choice for making yaprak sarma (stuffed grape leaves). The problem is, the leaves are picked when they’re at their best—well before the grapes are ripe—leaving the fruit exposed to disease and damage from sun and wind. This disconnect in timing and quality control may explain why Narince has found homes in other parts of Turkey, where winemakers can better manage the entire growing process and create a variety of styles with this terroir-expressive grape.

One of those other parts of Turkey, Thrace, has been a great move for the grape. It is incredibly different from the Black Sea’s moderate and kind of maritime climate. Yet, Narince has thrived in the colder Thracian landscape and varied soils the Strandja Massif gives wines here an expression that at once is Narince…but also something else. 

Arda Kuşlu Narince, 2024

Back in the day, Arda sourced Narince—from outside growers. In fact, their first Narince release was actually under the Kuşlu label! But, back in 2013, they made the wine with purchased fruit. Nice though it was (I can only assume never having had it myself), it didn’t fully reflect Arda’s own hands-on approach—something they’ve since changed by planting Narince vines right there on the estate. Growing their own grapes has given them much more control over quality—and it shows.

But this is about more than just making better wine. By growing Narince in Edirne, Arda is helping expand the grape’s terroir footprint. And now, Arda has expanded its own footprint with this wine.

The Arda Kuşlu Narince used whole bunch pressed grapes, fermented in stainless steel tanks. Unlike the Rezerv, there’s not oak at all. I’d have known this was Narince without looking at the label as soon as I put the nose in my glass. The characteristic aromas of white flowers, tree and stone fruit, and notes of orange floated out of the glass. Sipping revealed a generous palate with a weighty finish giving a nod to Black Sea Narince’s weight and slight oiliness. The fruit and flower flavors wrapped around a strong, acidic backbone, balancing the 13% ABV. 

Not only is this a delicious wine, like all those in Arda’s Kuşlu series, its quality punches way above its price category.

The post Narince Taking Wing with Arda Kuşlu appeared first on The Quirky Cork.