An Anonymous Group Claims it Took DNA From Global Elites -- And is Auctioning It Off (medium.com) 86
An anonymous organization called the Earnest Project is offering the chance to own DNA samples of a handful of world leaders and celebrities. The group claims it has surreptitiously collected items discarded by attendees of the 2018 World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, that may contain their DNA. President Trump, French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, and Elton John all attended the conference. From a report: The group has compiled these artifacts -- napkins, paper coffee cups, a glass parfait jar, cigarette butts, and other items -- in an online catalog it calls the "Davos Collection." Each has an estimated dollar value: A strand of human hair is listed at $1,200 to $3,000. A used breakfast fork has an estimated worth up to $36,500. And a wine glass is valued at up to $65,000. None of the items are identified with names, but it's assumed they come from the leaders or celebrities at the forum. The Earnest Project is planning to auction off the items to raise awareness about "surveillance capitalism," the practice of monetizing people's personal data. They fear that our genetic data could eventually end up in the hands of tech companies like Facebook and Google, which already harvest a lot of personal data.
"By collecting and selling vital and sensitive data harvested from the most powerful people on the planet, we hope to encourage a visceral reaction against surveillance capitalism among the elite," the Earnest Project told OneZero in an email. "We're all constantly depositing our DNA around us and on discarded items. Once you start paying attention, it's really quite easy to collect a target's DNA." Now that genetic testing is getting cheaper and companies are developing hand-held DNA sequencing devices, it's no longer a far-off possibility that someone could take your DNA, get it analyzed, and use it against you for blackmail, extortion, or discrimination. The Earnest Project had planned to hold the auction in New York on February 20 but is postponing the sale due to "unresolved legal issues," according to a statement emailed to OneZero.
"By collecting and selling vital and sensitive data harvested from the most powerful people on the planet, we hope to encourage a visceral reaction against surveillance capitalism among the elite," the Earnest Project told OneZero in an email. "We're all constantly depositing our DNA around us and on discarded items. Once you start paying attention, it's really quite easy to collect a target's DNA." Now that genetic testing is getting cheaper and companies are developing hand-held DNA sequencing devices, it's no longer a far-off possibility that someone could take your DNA, get it analyzed, and use it against you for blackmail, extortion, or discrimination. The Earnest Project had planned to hold the auction in New York on February 20 but is postponing the sale due to "unresolved legal issues," according to a statement emailed to OneZero.
Could answer "Nature vs Nurture" (Score:1, Interesting)
It would be interesting to see how Donald Trump would fare if he were raised:
- In a middle-class suburban family
- By a single parent
- By a family of Mexican heritage
- A pair of lesbians
You could have a lot of fun coming up with different places in which he (or anybody really) was raised.
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e.g. severe parental neglect or abuse
Well, apparently Fred was by turns neglectful and abusive, so hopefully the majority of the alternatives would have grown up better adjusted.
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Let's not forget the bigotry. Arrested at a Klan rally, condemned by name in a Woody Guthrie song, sued by the US over the systematic racism in his rental empire. Having Fred Trump for a role model would leave anybody pretty fucked up.
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Bash him for all your political reasons. Then the DNA matches Macron or Elton John and you're the fool. Who knows, maybe a high school dropout named Greta.
Joke is, any of that stuff could be from anyone there. Including the hired help. Pay $1300 for a discarded cup that the toilet cleaner used. HA.
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Worst. Serpentor. Ever. (Score:3)
n/t
Blackmail? (Score:2)
Who do you blackmail with a DNA sample, Elizabeth Warren for not being an indigenous north american?
Re:Blackmail? (Score:5, Insightful)
The ability to track and identify someone conclusively? The ability to check them against criminal records, disclosed genetic health risks/illnesses, true paternity, or even clone them. Someone could theoretically replace the DNA in cells they replicate in the lab and plant the evidence. Those are just off the top of my head.
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You could start with a certain "very stable genius" though...
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Oh Mr CEO, I see you have deadly cancer. That can't be good for your stocks if it was accidentally released.
Re: Blackmail? (Score:1)
Elton John (Score:2)
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He was receiving an award for raising awareness of human rights issues. He let the elites have it both barrels in his acceptance speech. Called them out for the rampant income inequality. I doubt he'll be invited back.
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Called them out for the rampant income inequality.
Always hilarious when the super rich talk about inequality and then jerk each other off by giving themselves awards for being oh so brave. Did he also get a $150k gift basket?
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"Always hilarious when the super rich talk about inequality and then jerk each other off "
That would even be better than a hair or a paper cup for DNA.
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You call it hilarious, I say the super rich are so insulated, who else will they even begin to listen to? They literally have no shame when it comes to the judgement of the world at large. They could care less what the common man thinks. But tell them something is gauche or out of fashion among their peers and they will cut a cartoon silhouette through the wall in their haste to distance themselves from it.
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But then he'd be poor and no rich person would listen to him. You honestly think one rich person giving away all their wealth would solve anything? I mean, I hate rich folks as much as you seem to, but let's be pragmatic. They don't give a flying fuck what the poors think.
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I bet he didn’t announce he is giving away 99% of his annual income to the govt for redistribution though, did he?
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I'll say it again. One rich guy giving away everything won't solve anything. It will just make one rich guy poor, and the rich don't listen to poor people. They only care about what other rich people think.
No one is suggesting anyone give away 99% of their annual income. Why do you need to resort to such easily debunked hyperbole? Even back in the 50s we only had a 92% top marginal tax rate. Realistic assessments of the Laffer Curve say the government would take in the most income with a 60-70% top marginal
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Of course you could. The top 10% own the vast majority of wealth on this planet, about 85% of everything.
Re: Elton John (Score:2)
If a rich guy giving away his money is not going to help, then a poor guy like me giving away his money is not going to help either. so I will just keep my money, thanks.
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Dude. No, that's not how math works. Of course ONE PERSON, rich or poor, giving away their wealth won't help anything. It's not the existence of wealth that is the problem, it is how it is used.
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Why would he have attended the World Economic Forum? He's a musician.
He's one of the few people who can spend money faster than the invited politicians.
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I guess all we need now is a healthy ovum (Score:1)
You go ahead and pay for that..... (Score:4, Insightful)
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Perhaps their auction should be delayed until April 1.
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Bezos just dropped $165 million on a house, reputedly less than 1/8th of 1% of his net worth. Apple just lost a huge contract to Microsoft, some believe over Trump's personal distaste for the Amazon founder and Washington Post owner.
What might he pay, on the outside chance he was getting Presidential DNA, and it soon may be possible to clone a human/pig hybrid?
Need to have it analyzed and uploaded to GEDMatch (Score:4, Insightful)
Someone needs to upload the DNA data to GEDMatch, and allow access to law enforcement.
No Thanks (Score:5, Funny)
Why would I want a bunch of lizard DNA, yuck.
Not much good without authentication (Score:2)
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That's not the point, the point is pissing off the elite. Anything you pay for an item might be for novelty but more likely is to support an organization making the elite feel a hint of what this kind of rampant violation might be like for the rest of us.
Of course, at those prices the likely buyers are other elite.
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That's not the point, the point is pissing off the elite. Anything you pay for an item might be for novelty but more likely is to support an organization making the elite feel a hint of what this kind of rampant violation might be like for the rest of us.
Rampant violation? These are people who consider a lightweight bulletproof vest standard breakfast attire. I highly doubt some elitist is actually getting pissed off at a bunch of unverified (and likely bullshit) claims of their spittle being sold with dirty silverware.
Of course, at those prices the likely buyers are other elite.
The buyers are morons, regardless of status. Rick Harrison is still laughing.
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You are confusing the elite with the famous, rarely are they the same. Famous people are generally poor in relative terms.
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How are you going to "piss off the elite" by scamming some suckers into buying your old wine glasses and cigarette butts?
I would wager this is completely phony. That is, if I were a gambling man, and I'm not, so I wouldn't wager or buy these items.
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"How are you going to "piss off the elite" by scamming some suckers into buying your old wine glasses and cigarette butts?"
It's a breach of their privacy, something which we routinely feel to the point of near numbness and they rarely experience.
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Well, the individual *samples* have very little probative value, but if I wanted the *data* I'd collect samples from at least two different venues, or even better two different conferences. It's possible that a random security guard snarfed a little of Emmanuel Macron's wine at one banquet location, but a match from two locations is more reliable assuming that the French version of the Secret Service is not in the habit of consuming table scraps.
The data itself would also give you considerable confirmatory
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I would be shocked if various intelligence agencies haven't done this sort of thing, hoping to gain some insight into the health of world leaders.
They do:
https://toilet-guru.com/blog/1... [toilet-guru.com]
https://www.vice.com/en_us/art... [vice.com]
National intelligence agencies have groups whose duties include trying to diagnose any potential health issues of leaders/government officials of other countries. I'm sure one of the methods they try is getting DNA samples to see if the target might be predisposed to, say dementia or something which may affect their decision making.
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Epstein... (Score:4, Interesting)
See if this DNA can be found in Epstein's sex dungeon. Oh wait, that's right. Already scrubbed and filled with concrete. Bastards.
Well, I were going to clone just one . . . (Score:2)
President Trump, French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, or Elton John?
Hello Pinball Wizard!
Whereas I would probably pay to keep the others from EVER being cloned
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Hello Pinball Wizard!
Pete Townshend?
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Hello Pinball Wizard!
Pete Townshend?
Who?
Re: Well, I were going to clone just one . . . (Score:1)
Paternity (Score:2)
Since the samples aren't directly connected to any individual, what you get for your money is rather unpredictable. However, once you get the DNA, you can probably match it through ancestry sites to specific people with fairly high accuracy. Then how many of these people have people asserting that they're the father of illegitimate children and owe child support? How many of those cases assert sexual assault as well? I know there are lawsuits against President Trump demanding his DNA in discovery for ju
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I was thinking that some of the UK papers would probably love to get a sample of UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson's DNA and send it to a DNA testing service in order to see how many hits it comes back with possible family members. I really can't understand how he gets women to (1) have sex with him and (2) have unprotected sex with him.
Let's do the test (Score:1, Troll)
Since they claim to have DNA of the con artist, someone should run it then compare it against the DNA of the child who the con artist apparently fathered out of wedlock.
Like Karen McDougal or Stormy Daniels, both of whom he paid to have affairs with and not talk about the affairs, he claims not to know this woman even though she was one of his housekeepers.
Nigerians (Score:2)
Are the sellers Nigerians by any chance?
My Uncle Oswald (Score:5, Interesting)
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including Albert Einstein and Sigmund Freud
Yeah, I'm not sure Trump fits that premise.
I'm sure we can believe them (Score:1)
Did they upload the formula for the Polyjuice Potion too?
Somebody is going to turn into Morris the cat.
Trolling world leaders. (Score:2)
Am I the only one who thinks this group is actually trolling the establishment with this announcement?
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No, those of us who read the article know they are trolling the establishment because it says they are.
One of the hardest parts of having principles (Score:3)
If you believe people have a fundamental right to privacy, then this is wrong, period. You cannot violate that right simply because you dislike the people whose right you're violating. Either everyone has a fundamental right to privacy, or nobody does. By violating that right as a publicity stunt, you undermine your own cause. (Of course the more likely reason is that these guys don't give a damn about privacy, they just wanted to try to make a buck. And they came up about that spiel about "raising awareness" as a thin veneer to deflect criticism over what they're doing.)
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basic applied psychology supports the notion that someone will only change when unpleasantness is a consequence of their current choices
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Glorifying objectivity in social justice debates can be really harmful for a number of different reasons. Surely you didnâ(TM)t think the same rules against lies and insults and harassment should apply to oppressed and privileged people, did you?
Go ahead and use lies, insults, and harassment if they are effective ways to enforce your preferred social norms.
"Politics is war and arguments are soldiers" Political arguments are about more than just determining whoâ(TM)s right. They are dominance fi
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You cannot violate that right simply because you dislike the people whose right you're violating.
You're assuming the rationale, without evidence. A different rationale is that public officials have largely given up their right to privacy as part of their decisions to pursue public office.
unlikely (Score:2)
The US Secret Services collects and destroys any glasses or cutlery a sitting US president touches. If it is true, this is a *fucking* massive opsec scandal.
Re:unlikely (Score:4, Funny)
"The US Secret Services collects and destroys any glasses or cutlery a sitting US president touches. "
Thank god the current one rarely uses any of these.
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Do they collect his shit and piss as well - as the North Koreans do?
Great! (Score:2)
So I can finally finish my Voodoo puppet.
I for one (Score:1)
I for one welcome our future clone overlords
but (Score:2)
can they prove there is " elite" dna on the items sold.
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Upload the SNP data to GEDMATCH or Family Tree DNA and it you will likely find some relatives already online...
Ancestry has better mixed genetic & genealogy data, but you'd have to PCR amplify the DNA and put it into some faked spit to send it in for analysis.
Find the Psychopath gene! (Score:2)
This is the perfect opportunity to try to find out if there’s a common gene responsible for making high functioning psychopaths.
Cloning (Score:2)
Eventually it may be possible to use it for cloning or using the DNA to make a sperm or egg cell and make a kid. By law would that kid be an heir? Can child support be demanded?
Yes itâ(TM)s sick, but there are nuts out there.
Maybe a sample of ... (Score:2)
... the Russian prostitute's urine?
Brand new suckers? (Score:1)
So they pulled trash from the event? Could be something one of the guests used, could be a toilet cleaner used that cup/fork/etc or it's hair left over from the Carter administration that belongs to a German on vacation there 40 years ago.
Only the really stupid would be buying that stuff. Don't even know if it's from there. Could be trash from a local hotel. If they're getting $1300 for a fork you can bet they'll "find" a lot of forks to sell.