I kind of went down the rabbit hole on Theranos and Elizabeth Holmes. She was the Silicon Valley entrepreneur who managed to create a multi-billion dollar health technology company. It centered around alleged technology that would give people the ability to run basically all blood tests at home with only a tiny amount of blood. But the technology never actually existed, and she's (along with her business partner Ramesh Balwani) now been indicted by a grand jury for wire-fraud. From Wikipedia:
HBO did a documentary about this (it premiered yesterday), and I'll be watching it as soon as I've caught up on a couple other ones. It's so fascinating how she was able to pull this off and manipulate people all the way up to the President (Obama). The lists of Theranos' top end investors is staggering.
Holy hell.
So I finally got through all of this and it never ceases to amaze me how people, even seemingly intelligent, competent and powerful people can buy into crap like this.
I like to try and pinpoint one or two really well done segments or interviews that hammer the point home and for me it was these:
The female Professor who specialized in Medical Businesses who tells her:
"Thats not how medical testing works and thats not how antibiotics work."
Shes not trying to be a dreamer's buzzkill or anything, shes just brigning to bear decades of incredible experience combined with a basic understanding of fundamental principles.
Your tiny little crapbox cant do that because it cant hold enough...well, anything, because they dont work how you think they work.
But she wont listen so the Prof refers her to a colleague who then quits his tenured position to work for her. Unreal.
And the tech. I cant remember his name, but he was basically saying:
"The box isnt big enough to be able to perform all the tests you want it to and you dont have enough blood to do all the tests, so...can we make the box bigger and have more blood?"
At which point its just become a conventional lab-setting blood testing machine and further, she ignores him entirely to get into a discussion about what they're going to name the cloud server that holds the as-yet non-existent medical data from their as-yet impossible tests from their as-yet completely useless hunk of junk.
And then the legal bullying. That really made my blood boil.
The super-lawyer was basically putting his name and reputation on the line (in exchange for Theranos stock no less) to make sure that the people who left when they realized that this was all one huge hoax wouldnt say anything until they ended up picking on the wrong kid.
I have no tolerance for that crap. If a lawyer is using his position to bully people for his own gain they should Dis-Bar that clown immediately.
What I really dont understand is how anyone in their right mind found that woman charming enough to invest millions of dollars with. Shes a dime a dozen con-artist who drank her own koolaid.
That being said, America is locking away people for decades for minor stuff but this woman and her BS adversely affect the lives and health of thousands and she gets sued.
They need tougher laws on nonsense like this.
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The Alpinist on Prime Video... absolutely incredible.
Spoiler!
Pretty confident in saying I have never cried during in a movie before, but was pretty close here. Did not know the real story at all and was completely stunned at the ending
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I remember making note of this post years ago and adding to my watchlist, finally got around to watching it this weekend. Best documentary I've seen in years, if you snoozed on it like I did, just watch it.
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Watched it this weekend. Perfect followup to Free Solo, if not equal to might be slightly better. Decent amount of Canadian content and locations.
I would recommend to anyone who has hiked in the mountains or even looked at a mountain.
Watch this documentary in high def and with the volume cranked up. Listening to the tapping and scraping sounds of his equipment as he does his ascents is amazing.
I've watched this documentary like a half a dozen times. I rarely do that for any type of visual media. But the film does an immersion into the craft in a way that made it hard for me to look away and made me want to know more. I never understood why people did ultra long hikes and/or rock climbing/bouldering and after watching this documentary, I was like, "I get it."
It's also crazy that Marc was acknowledged by Alex Honnold in being an absolute master in his craft. I also loved how Alex acknowledged that he and Marc approached climbing in a totally different way philosophically. Alex is a pure bred competitor chasing accolades and records and Marc was a more pure bred explorer chasing dreams of an experience that few could even begin to fathom.
Alex also described how what Marc was doing was just next level, how he and Marc likely though similarly, but also different. It's insane how under the radar Marc Andre Leclerc was when he was trail blazing a new era of alpinism.
I still don't get it, the amount of physical torture and incredibly uncomfortable situations he puts himself in is unbelievable. Not just the sub zero temps spending the night on those mountains but the injuries to his hands, etc.
What was the face he climbed in Banff? Was it Stanley Peak or Storm Mountain? Just south of Hwy 1 and Hwy 93. Also made me realize I've never been West of Jasper and have not seen Mount Robson.
The footage of Torre Egger is incredible. I remember watching documentary on the Andes range that started in the north and finished up in that area. Gotta find the name of that.
I still don't get it, the amount of physical torture and incredibly uncomfortable situations he puts himself in is unbelievable. Not just the sub zero temps spending the night on those mountains but the injuries to his hands, etc.
What was the face he climbed in Banff? Was it Stanley Peak or Storm Mountain? Just south of Hwy 1 and Hwy 93. Also made me realize I've never been West of Jasper and have not seen Mount Robson.
The footage of Torre Egger is incredible. I remember watching documentary on the Andes range that started in the north and finished up in that area. Gotta find the name of that.
Here's a little bit of an extra excerpt that gives more insight into the thought process. It's kinda like any activity that has a sense of "torture" to us laymen but is just part of the journey for someone hardcore into an activity. Like running a marathon or being a triathlete etc. or playing hockey and be constantly covered in injuries. There's something about overcoming yourself as well as your circumstances/environment and feeling that hard to describe sense of accomplishment at the end. The injuries are just a minor thing in the end.
Like, hiking up to the top of Ha Ling Peak and looking down makes that effort worth it. I imagine the feeling is amplified if you climbed up the side of the mountain vs a pre-established path. I enjoy looking down from mountains. I just assumed this is the same for him, but completely different approach on how to get to the top and the dedication of what was considered possible in his mind.
I agree that I can't truly understand the climbing mentality and the sacrifices and injuries one has to endure to get to that level, but I have some friends who moved out to Squamish and somewhere in California and they do this stuff daily as if it was a daily jog + workout or something. They just can't see a world with a mountain where they'd wonder if they could do it, and if they felt they could within a certain amount of risk parameter, they're going to try. I have a few friends in Calgary who love hiking, rock climbing as well as diving and stuff like that when they go on trip and they too mentioned how they love the exploration aspect of places that few others typically go.
In the documentary, they'd mention how Marc would have this glow after a good climb that would stick around for a while. Alex Honnold also highlighted how different his world and Marc's was. Alex free solos rock. It's challenging, but it's basically a fixed medium in comparison to what Marc was doing. Marc was free soloing combinations of rock, ice and snow on certain mountains that others had not done. Ice and snow could easily break and melt an refreeze in different formations. Add on the fact that Marc typically preferred to show up and just do the climb "on-sight". Many other alpinists and climbers considered that an insanely high level gold standard of climbing. It wasn't enough he was taking on these crazy peaks. He had to do it on sight.
A few comments hinted at the thought process such as the feeling of being so small, being in an environment that was so finite, moving over a mountain unencumbered is the closest a climber can get to sprouting wings... etc. I've watched the documentary a few times just focusing on these ideals/philosophies that these interviewees are describing.
As for the specific mountains nearby, I'm not sure. Supposedly he did a ton of them in the area and for a bit he lived in a cave somewhere so that he could spend a bunch of time climbing combinations of rock and ice. Supposedly he'd spend a bunch of time hiking deep into the mountains and set up camp and just randomly climb a whole bunch of areas nearby. I'm pretty sure he did the same in the Canmore/Banff/Jasper area as well as a few other remote areas.
This blog entry below from his Robson ascent just has a ton of random Rockies locations thrown all over the place.
This seems to be hinted as in the "jog" as described by Bernadette McDonald in the other link above. I assume similar things exist for his time in the Canmore/Jasper/Banff area. He'd just randomly do climbs for fun without really keeping track of it in detail. It made me wonder what it would be like to hike to the top of some of the mountains we drive by on the way to Banff without a second thought. Nothing insane, but something rarely attempted by others.
The Robson ascent scenes were amazing. At first I was wondering who he was climbing with as a partner for some of those shots and then the drone zoomed out and I was speechless.
Watched the American Gladiators documentary series on Netflix. What a nostalgic watch that was. Some pretty crazy stuff they got into, but all in all the whole crew seemed like cool people who just got caught up in with some shady network production. Glad to see there wasn't really any true "controversy" with any of the gladiators other than the steroid benders.
I dont know if this has been mentioned here before, I know its somewhere, but:
Welcome to Wrexham
Its about Ryan Reynold and Rob McElhenney and Wrexham FC.
Its fantastic. I dont know really where to put this recommendation as its not really a TV show, its not really about Soccer and its not really about Ryan or Rob.
But its great. I highly recommend it. They're almost done Season 2 already and one of the things that I find fascinating is that they dedicate a lot of time to their Women's team which is quite cool.
Also...You gotta love and hate British Soccer fans.
I get it, your opposition got a huge boost by getting bought by two Hollywood Millionaires...thats gonna chap your ass as a fan.
So the "You can shove your Ryan Reynolds Up Your Ass" chant is just that much more hilarious.
Oh the English...
__________________ The Beatings Shall Continue Until Morale Improves!
This Post Has Been Distilled for the Eradication of Seemingly Incurable Sadness.
The World Ends when you're dead. Until then, you've got more punishment in store. - Flames Fans
Life is pain. Anyone who says differently is selling something. - The Dread Pirate Roberts
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