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posted by Fnord666 on Friday February 16 2018, @12:53PM   Printer-friendly
from the don't-let-the-door-hit-ya dept.

Netflix's CEO offered to resign from Facebook's board in 2016, citing his fellow board member Peter Thiel's support of Donald Trump:

Netflix CEO Reed Hastings — who called his fellow board member Thiel's support of Trump "catastrophically bad judgment" in an email leaked to the Times — also offered to resign over his disagreement with Thiel, according to a Wall Street Journal report published Thursday. Sources told WSJ that Facebook CEO Zuckerberg declined Hastings' offer to resign. Facebook declined to comment on the matter to Business Insider.

Now, Thiel may resign from Facebook's board instead in the midst of packing up and leaving the Bay area:

The founder of PayPal and a prominent investor in Silicon Valley, Thiel is reportedly moving his investment firms Thiel Capital and Thiel Foundation out of the Bay Area and into Los Angeles this year, according to WSJ.

In L.A., Thiel is also reportedly planning to build "a right-leaning media outlet to foster discussion and community around conservative topics." Thiel bankrolled the lawsuits that eventually forced Gawker Media into bankruptcy, and has been trying to buy Gawker's now-defunct flagship site.

Although Thiel has called Silicon Valley a "one-party state", in the 2016 Presidential election, Hillary Clinton beat President Trump 72 percent to 22 percent in Los Angeles County.

The Guardian also has an article about Thiel's involvement in New Zealand.

Also at Ars Technica, The Mercury News, LA Times, and Vanity Fair.

Related: Peter Thiel Acquires NZ Citizenship and Large Property
Everything Wrong with Peter Thiel's Doomsday Survival Plan
University Could Lose Millions From "Unethical" Research Backed by Peter Thiel
"Black Hole" of Accountability for Drug Trials Flouting FDA Oversight?
Peter Thiel Makes a Bid for Gawker.com


Original Submission

Related Stories

Peter Thiel Acquires NZ Citizenship and Large Property 88 comments

During their investigation of the purchase of a large estate in New Zealand by Peter Thiel, Matt Nippert and Anne Gibson, reporters for The New Zealand Herald, noticed that certain processes required by the Overseas Investment Act had not been followed. The explanation: Peter Thiel is a NZ citizen and hence wasn't required to follow the procedures for an overseas investment.

If Thiel is so sure that Trump will deliver, why does he need a bolt hole and more importantly, citizenship in another country?

The New York Times adds:

One question being asked was why Mr. Thiel became a New Zealander in 2011. Close behind that was how it happened.

If you like New Zealand enough to want to become a citizen, the country's Internal Affairs Department noted on Wednesday, one requirement is "to have been physically in New Zealand for a minimum of 1,350 days in the five years preceding the citizenship application." Another requirement is that you "continue to reside" there after becoming a citizen.

Mr. Thiel, 49, does not appear to have done either.

[...] If Mr. Thiel was not a resident in New Zealand for the necessary amount of time, an exception must have been made. The government has not responded to questions about whether that happened and, if so, what the reason was.


Original Submission

Everything Wrong with Peter Thiel’s Doomsday Survival Plan 38 comments

Doomsday prepping is not a usual Soylent subject, but apocalypses are a staple of geek culture. Do Peter Thiel's preparations make sense?

You know things are getting risky when billionaires start making plans to flee to New Zealand on the off chance civilization might collapse. This week's New Yorker details the doomsday survival plans of Peter Thiel, and other notable Silicon Valley tech moguls.

The thing is, despite their virtually unlimited budgets, none of these guys is doing it right.

[...] In more realistic circumstances, there are 21.8 million veterans in the U.S., with various levels of professional expertise in solving problems like bunker busting. Hell, there's more guns than people in this country. Fixed locations are inherently vulnerable by their very nature, subject to siege, and allowing attackers to patiently plan ways to penetrate them. Any billionaire's hoard of survival supplies will be a natural target following the breakdown of society. Keeping them secret will be a challenge too, when contractors have been paid to construct them, delivery men have carried the supplies in, and even the armed guards may decide their friends and families could use all those tins of spam a little more desperately than their paranoid employer.


Original Submission

University Could Lose Millions From “Unethical” Research Backed by Peter Thiel 77 comments

Questionable herpes vaccine research backed by tech heavyweight Peter Thiel may have jeopardized $15 million in federal research funding to Southern Illinois University School of Medicine. That's according to documents obtained by a Freedom of Information Act request by The State Journal Register.

In August, Kaiser Health News reported that Thiel and other conservative investors had contributed $7 million for the live-but-weakened herpes virus vaccine, developed by the late SIU researcher William Halford. The investments came after Halford and his private company, Rational Vaccines, had begun conducting small clinical trials in the Caribbean nation of St. Kitts and Nevis. With the off-shore location, Rational Vaccines' trial skirted federal regulations and standard safety protocols for human trials, including having approval and oversight from an institutional review board (IRB).

Experts were quick to call the unapproved trial "patently unethical," and researchers rejected the data from publication, calling the handling of safety issues "reckless." The government of St. Kitts opened an investigation into the trial and reported that health authorities there had been kept in the dark.

Source: https://arstechnica.com/science/2017/11/university-could-lose-millions-from-unethical-research-backed-by-peter-thiel/


Original Submission

"Black Hole" of Accountability for Drug Trials Flouting FDA Oversight? 34 comments

Unregulated herpes experiments expose 'black hole' of accountability

Recent revelations that a U.S. researcher injected Americans with his experimental herpes vaccine without routine safety oversight raised an uproar among scientists and ethicists. Not only did Southern Illinois University researcher William Halford vaccinate Americans offshore, he injected other participants in U.S. hotel rooms without Food and Drug Administration oversight or even a medical license. Since then, several participants have complained of side effects.

But don't expect the disclosures after Halford's death in June to trigger significant institutional changes or government response, research experts say. "A company, university or agency generally does not take responsibility or take action on their own to help participants, even if they're hurt in the trial," said Carl Elliott, a professor in the Center for Bioethics at the University of Minnesota. "These types of cases are really a black hole in terms of accountability." The federal government once scrutinized or even froze research at universities after learning of such controversies. Now, experts said, the oversight agencies tend to avoid action even in the face of the most outrageous abuses.

Experts said the U.S. regulatory agencies are especially unprepared to deal with off-the-grid experiments like Halford's. He recruited subjects through Facebook and in some cases didn't require signed consent forms, or informed participants outright that the experiments flouted FDA oversight. These patients, many who struggle with chronic, painful herpes, proceeded anyway in their quest for a cure. After Halford's offshore trial, Peter Thiel, a libertarian and adviser to President Donald Trump, pitched in millions of dollars for future research.

Previously: Hopes of Extended Lifespans Using Transfusions of Young People's Blood
University Could Lose Millions From "Unethical" Research Backed by Peter Thiel


Original Submission

Peter Thiel Makes a Bid for Gawker.com 15 comments

Thiel Makes a Bid for Gawker.com, a Site He Helped Bankrupt

Peter Thiel, the technology billionaire, submitted a bid this week to purchase Gawker.com, the remaining unsold property from the Gawker Media gossip empire that was nearly destroyed in 2016 by a lawsuit largely bankrolled by Mr. Thiel.

If approved, the acquisition could be the last step in a yearslong effort by Mr. Thiel to finish an independent journalism outfit that angered him in 2007 when it reported, without his permission, that he is gay, a fact widely known at the time in Silicon Valley.

Gawker.com has received other offers, and it is not clear if Mr. Thiel, a co-founder of PayPal and an early investor in Facebook, will prevail. A winning bid is expected to be announced in the coming weeks, if representatives of Gawker.com do not take the site off the market.

Previously: Hulk Hogan's Sex Tape and a Tech Billionaire's Revenge on Gawker
Gawker Files for Chapter 11; Won't Pay Hulk Hogan and Peter Thiel
Peter Thiel Wants to Buy Gawker!


Original Submission

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  • (Score: 2) by looorg on Friday February 16 2018, @12:56PM (8 children)

    by looorg (578) on Friday February 16 2018, @12:56PM (#638782)

    So some "evil" billionaire is moving himself and/or his company from San Francisco to Los Angeles? /careface Am I supposed to be upset cause it is Thiel or what?

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 16 2018, @06:13PM (7 children)

      by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 16 2018, @06:13PM (#638917)

      Thiel is gay. The fact that San Francisco is intolerant of him is shameful.

      He'd be more welcome in Texas.

      • (Score: 3, Insightful) by DeathMonkey on Friday February 16 2018, @06:56PM (6 children)

        by DeathMonkey (1380) on Friday February 16 2018, @06:56PM (#638941) Journal

        Thiel is gay

        Yep, it turns out being gay doesn't prevent one from being an unmitigated asshole.

        • (Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 16 2018, @07:10PM (3 children)

          by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 16 2018, @07:10PM (#638955)

          Thiel's support for our president mitigates being an asshole, not that he is one.

          Trump has also nominated the first openly gay ambassador. (some prior were in the closet) Democrats are blocking confirmation. It seems that democrats really don't like the log cabin republicans. Could it be that the democrats feel that they own the political allegiance of gay people? That could also explain the unusually strong reaction to republicans who happen to be female, hispanic, or black. Accept it: you don't own these people, and they don't owe you their vote or money.

          • (Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 16 2018, @08:45PM (2 children)

            by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 16 2018, @08:45PM (#639029)

            Could it be that the democrats feel that they own the political allegiance of gay people?

            They do, and it's extremely irritating to this LGBT AC, because the flip side of that coin is the stereotype that since I'm LGBT, I must be a D teamer.

            For example, I like guns. I think guns are necessary for freedom.

            I would rather be judged by the political positions I've come to as a rational being through long contemplation and the weighing of evidence. It's incidental that I'm found somewhere in the LGBTOMGWTFBBQ acronym; that's how I was born, not who I am.

            Disclaimer: I'm not a Log Cabin Republican. I tend towards the Libertarian Party, but I consider all candidates.

            • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 17 2018, @12:12AM (1 child)

              by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 17 2018, @12:12AM (#639133)

              Radio/TV presenter Thom Hartmann is a D.
              He is also a sport shooter.

              He thinks that to have a gun, a USAian should (just as with cars and drivers)
              1) have to periodically demonstrate proficiency with a firearm.
              2) have to carry liability insurance.
              and
              3) All guns should have traceable registration and be tracked from the moment of manufacture to their ultimate destruction.

              What do you think about that?

              -- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]

              • (Score: 1) by khallow on Saturday February 17 2018, @03:39AM

                by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Saturday February 17 2018, @03:39AM (#639189) Journal

                What do you think about that?

                Should be great for disarming poor people.

                Why should one need to demonstrate proficiency, especially on a periodic basis? It's not like cars where health conditions can make them dangerous to others on the road every time they get behind the wheel. Sounds like a stealth means to punish people for not having the normie psychology or for rich people to throw roadblocks in the way of universal gun ownership.

                Liability insurance just makes firearms more expensive. Sucks if you're a poor person who just wants a firearm for protecting yourself and nothing to a rich person who pays for armed bodyguards.

                All guns should have traceable registration and be tracked from the moment of manufacture to their ultimate destruction.

                Because?

        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 16 2018, @10:59PM (1 child)

          by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 16 2018, @10:59PM (#639096)

          It certainly doesn't prevent one from having an invaded asshole, though.

          • (Score: 2) by lentilla on Saturday February 17 2018, @12:11PM

            by lentilla (1770) on Saturday February 17 2018, @12:11PM (#639313)

            Grow up, child. Different people like; desire; different things. Unless there is something truly wrong with an individual, their behaviour with others is consensual.

            You really don't need to be worried about The Gays Invading Your Arsehole. If a man finds you attractive; and the attraction is not reciprocated; he'll look to someone else. We have all felt attraction for someone that doesn't "feel it" for us - and... what do we do?... we move on. Same as, same as.

            Just be who you are, but please don't put down others.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 16 2018, @01:56PM (22 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 16 2018, @01:56PM (#638790)

    Can't handle anyone with a different opinion existing. How dare anyone disagree on something completely unrelated to job.
    Why doesn't he get to work on better parental controls and a better rating system of videos. Seriously, I had hysterical blindness after a particular scene in Altered Carbon. How about giving us the option. Of watching cleaned up versions of movies like the ota networks.

    • (Score: 5, Funny) by takyon on Friday February 16 2018, @01:59PM (14 children)

      by takyon (881) <reversethis-{gro ... s} {ta} {noykat}> on Friday February 16 2018, @01:59PM (#638791) Journal

      Seriously, I had hysterical blindness after a particular scene in Altered Carbon.

      We got two unique snowflakes over here.

      --
      [SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
      • (Score: 2) by zocalo on Friday February 16 2018, @02:21PM

        by zocalo (302) on Friday February 16 2018, @02:21PM (#638801)
        Now I'm curious as to exactly which scene it was. Depending on your particularly sensitivities - or lack thereof - it seems you'd either be fine with the entire show or have issues with multiple scenes, so to single out just one scene is indicative of a pretty specific sensitivity. "Unique snowflakes" might be particularly apt in this instance.
        --
        UNIX? They're not even circumcised! Savages!
      • (Score: 5, Touché) by deadstick on Friday February 16 2018, @02:24PM (7 children)

        by deadstick (5110) on Friday February 16 2018, @02:24PM (#638803)

        two unique

        ...and Soylent scores a new oxymoron!

        • (Score: 4, Insightful) by JNCF on Friday February 16 2018, @02:52PM (3 children)

          by JNCF (4317) on Friday February 16 2018, @02:52PM (#638817) Journal

          Zero and one are two unique numbers; they are unique in different ways, and the uniqueness of one does not preclude the uniqueness of the other.

          • (Score: 3, Funny) by DannyB on Friday February 16 2018, @03:52PM (2 children)

            by DannyB (5839) Subscriber Badge on Friday February 16 2018, @03:52PM (#638846) Journal

            Zero and One are also unique in the same way. They are not in the set of all integers excluding zero and one.

            So now Zero and One are unique in different ways, first that they are unique in different ways, and second that they are unique in the same way.

            But then this leads to . . .

            oh, nevermind

            --
            People today are educated enough to repeat what they are taught but not to question what they are taught.
            • (Score: 3, Funny) by aristarchus on Friday February 16 2018, @08:26PM (1 child)

              by aristarchus (2645) on Friday February 16 2018, @08:26PM (#639013) Journal

              Zero and One are also unique in the same way.

              Especially the one on the left. (Sorry, very old philosophy joke about the indiscernability of identicals.)

              • (Score: 2) by DannyB on Friday February 16 2018, @08:45PM

                by DannyB (5839) Subscriber Badge on Friday February 16 2018, @08:45PM (#639028) Journal

                The value of Zero and One are unique -- just like every other integer.

                A snowflake is unique -- just like every other snowflake. (Two unique snowflakes.)

                You are unique! Just like everyone else.

                To improve efficiency the USPTO no longer requires patents to be unique. We'll have the best patent system. The best. I promise. And believe me, I know my patent systems. The most beautiful patent system ever!

                --
                People today are educated enough to repeat what they are taught but not to question what they are taught.
        • (Score: 3, Funny) by takyon on Friday February 16 2018, @06:27PM (2 children)

          by takyon (881) <reversethis-{gro ... s} {ta} {noykat}> on Friday February 16 2018, @06:27PM (#638922) Journal

          *special snowflakes.

          But damn do we have some wonkey_monkeys in here today.

          --
          [SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
          • (Score: 2) by DannyB on Friday February 16 2018, @08:45PM (1 child)

            by DannyB (5839) Subscriber Badge on Friday February 16 2018, @08:45PM (#639030) Journal

            I wonder exactly what distinguishes an *ordinary* snowflake.

            --
            People today are educated enough to repeat what they are taught but not to question what they are taught.
            • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 16 2018, @11:07PM

              by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 16 2018, @11:07PM (#639103)

              Eats kale with a double mocha java latte in a safe space while reading the Huffington Post instead of studying for that Modern LGBTQRSTUVWXYZ Studies final.

      • (Score: 2) by DannyB on Friday February 16 2018, @04:00PM (3 children)

        by DannyB (5839) Subscriber Badge on Friday February 16 2018, @04:00PM (#638852) Journal

        two unique snowflakes

        Aren't all snowflakes unique?

        That information was included in my education, I think in kindergarten.

        --
        People today are educated enough to repeat what they are taught but not to question what they are taught.
        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 16 2018, @05:01PM

          by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 16 2018, @05:01PM (#638893)

          “Everyone knows that dragons don’t exist. But while this simplistic formulation may satisfy the layman, it does not suffice for the scientific mind. The School of Higher Neantical Nillity is in fact wholly unconcerned with what does exist. Indeed, the banality of existence has been so amply demonstrated, there is no need for us to discuss it any further here. The brilliant Cerebron, attacking the problem analytically, discovered three distinct kinds of dragon: the mythical, the chimerical, and the purely hypothetical. They were all, one might say, nonexistent, but each non-existed in an entirely different way.”

          --Stanslaw Lem

        • (Score: 1) by nitehawk214 on Friday February 16 2018, @08:25PM (1 child)

          by nitehawk214 (1304) on Friday February 16 2018, @08:25PM (#639010)

          It depends on who [harvard.edu] you ask [caltech.edu].

          --
          "Don't you ever miss the days when you used to be nostalgic?" -Loiosh
          • (Score: 2, Troll) by DannyB on Friday February 16 2018, @08:46PM

            by DannyB (5839) Subscriber Badge on Friday February 16 2018, @08:46PM (#639031) Journal

            So kindergarden was wrong -- just like everything else in the 1960's.

            --
            People today are educated enough to repeat what they are taught but not to question what they are taught.
      • (Score: 2) by HiThere on Friday February 16 2018, @06:44PM

        by HiThere (866) Subscriber Badge on Friday February 16 2018, @06:44PM (#638932) Journal

        I think you missed a bit of sarcasm.

        --
        Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
    • (Score: 4, Insightful) by Grishnakh on Friday February 16 2018, @04:29PM (6 children)

      by Grishnakh (2831) on Friday February 16 2018, @04:29PM (#638874)

      Can't handle anyone with a different opinion existing.

      Maybe it's a matter of just not wanting to be around someone toxic like that.

      Would a bunch of deep Southerners in a small, insular community in Alabama want to have a few "flaming liberals" around them, and not just ones who keep to themselves, but ones who try to convert them to their brand of liberal politics in a loud and obnoxious manner? Probably not; they'll do their best to run them out of town.

      So why is it surprising when a bunch of west-coast liberals aren't too friendly with a guy who strongly pushes Trumpian politics on them?

      Face it: people are tribal, even the liberals, and people generally like to be around people who are like them. With the conservatives, they want to be around people usually of the same race and cultural background. With liberals, they'll consciously overlook those factors because they usually believe more in diversity, but they still want to be around people who share their political values.

      • (Score: 0, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 16 2018, @08:13PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 16 2018, @08:13PM (#639003)

        With the conservatives, they want to be around people usually of the same race and cultural background. With liberals, they'll consciously overlook those factors because they usually believe more in diversity, but they still want to be around people who share their political values.

        I don't think I've seen multi-racial groupings of liberals, except at a demonstration, so I'll propose that liberals *say* they overlook those factors, but in reality will want to be around people of the same race, cultural background *and* political views.

        Eg. New York liberal jews being Trump Sr.'s bread and butter, because he kept the blacks from moving in between them.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 17 2018, @12:41AM (4 children)

        by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 17 2018, @12:41AM (#639140)

        who try to convert [rednecks] to their brand of liberal politics

        Be thankful that they're around.
        Wages Would Plummet Without The Existence Of Labor Unions (Free Riders Take Note) - David Macaray [googleusercontent.com] (orig) [counterpunch.org]
        (It was Commies and Liberals that got USA a "middle class"; without them, you'd still be working long hours for peanuts with no benefits.)

        A Day In The Life Of Joe Republican AKA Thank a Liberal [googleusercontent.com] (orig) [crooksandliars.com]

        in a loud and obnoxious manner

        Hey, don't forget us annoying Socialists who think you should have ownership of the company where you work (rather than a bunch of lie-abouts who perform no labor).

        -- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]

        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 17 2018, @12:59AM (3 children)

          by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 17 2018, @12:59AM (#639146)

          who think you should have ownership of the company where you work
          It is called stock. Buy some. You can do better than that.

          • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 17 2018, @02:28AM (2 children)

            by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 17 2018, @02:28AM (#639174)

            You're still just an employee.
            ...and you will always be outvoted by the majority stockholders who likely inherited their stock from their wealthy parents.
            Why should someone who doesn't WORK there get a vote at all?

            Publix supermarkets in Florida has an ESOP.
            Some of their employees recently got screwed by such decisions made by the actual (majority) owners of the company.
            It's just more of the same old shit. [googleusercontent.com] (orig) [ajc.com]

            While an ESOP is a baby step in the right direction, The Workers still get screwed regularly.

            OTOH, in a Socialist worker-owned cooperative, every worker gets a vote and every worker's vote is equal to any other worker's vote.
            ...and no non-workers get a vote.
            IOW: One Worker==One Vote -NOT- $1==One Vote

            -- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]

            • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 17 2018, @04:26AM (1 child)

              by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 17 2018, @04:26AM (#639205)

              To start a business, you need to risk a lot of money. Who would do such a thing without any benefit? (there isn't a benefit if the non-investors are in control)

              • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 17 2018, @07:02AM

                by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 17 2018, @07:02AM (#639250)

                Boy, do you ever have a twisted view of the world.

                I already mentioned control over the quarter of the 168 hours in a week that you spend at work.

                When it's your own company and it's a co-op, you don't have a CEO or board of directors whose major efforts are to enrichen themselves greatly while doing no production (and screwing the people who -do- produce).

                Who would bother to start a business?

                Yogi Berra mode
                Nobody goes there any more. It's too crowded.
                /Yogi

                you need to risk a lot of money

                The self-employed guy who tends my lawn started with a lawnmower, a rake, and a broom.

                Mondragon started with 6 worker-owners and little else in 1956.
                These days, they have over 100,000 worker-owners in 40 countries on 5 continents.

                In Italy, since 1985, workers laid off by boom-and-bust Capitalists get help from the government in starting their own co-ops. [google.com]
                There are now thousands and thousands and thousands and thousands and thousands of worker-owned cooperatives there.

                there isn't a benefit if the non-investors are in control

                You are a fool with very limited vision.
                The Capitalists have brainwashed you into passivity and have convinced you that you need them.
                Keep working for The Man, making -him- rich instead of yourself.
                There are worker-owners around the globe scoffing at your ignorance.

                -- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 16 2018, @03:12PM (3 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 16 2018, @03:12PM (#638826)

    Guess he's looking for a social life again after being unpersoned by the arbiters of political correctness in SF.
    Don't see why he would give up his board seats though; people are forced to deal with him there.

    • (Score: 3, Insightful) by DannyB on Friday February 16 2018, @06:27PM (2 children)

      by DannyB (5839) Subscriber Badge on Friday February 16 2018, @06:27PM (#638921) Journal

      Someone who is gay and can't make friends in San Francisco is probably too toxic to have a social life.

      "A darkness carried in the heart can not be cured by moving the body from one place to another."
      -- Lennier to Vir in Babylon 5:"Dust to Dust"

      --
      People today are educated enough to repeat what they are taught but not to question what they are taught.
      • (Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 16 2018, @08:27PM (1 child)

        by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 16 2018, @08:27PM (#639014)

        Well, he is married to Matt Danzeisen according to Wikipedia.

        • (Score: 2) by realDonaldTrump on Sunday February 18 2018, @10:57AM

          by realDonaldTrump (6614) on Sunday February 18 2018, @10:57AM (#639667) Homepage Journal

          I can confirm that. I would have loved to attend the wedding. But I've been so busy lately. With documents. And nobody knew, it was a surprise. It was supposed to be his birthday party. I would have sent @VP [twitter.com] Pence if I'd known. I bought them a subscription to Harry & David's Fruit of the Month Club, the organic one (Peter's very careful about what he puts in his body). So they can have fresh fruits every month. I've met Matt, he's a big fan. They make a beautiful couple and I wish them the best!

  • (Score: 4, Interesting) by bzipitidoo on Friday February 16 2018, @03:35PM (12 children)

    by bzipitidoo (4388) on Friday February 16 2018, @03:35PM (#638837) Journal

    So many people buy into the notion that the wealthy earned their wealth, and merit such good fortune for being smarter than the average bear. Some of the worst deluded are the rich idiots themselves. A strange finding is that the more incompetent a person actually is, the more they think they're such geniuses. Trump is of course a stellar example of that. So Thiel being an avid Trump supporter is disappointing to say the least, but not particularly surprising.

    There has to be a lot of rich morons for the Republican Party and their gerrymandering, voter suppression, propaganda, and other damaging, cheating tactics to have the financial backing that it does. I've been wondering who these rich fools are. So Thiel is one of them, eh? Republicans are seriously overrepresented in the House. Several states should have sent more Democrats than Republicans to the House, yet thanks to the most severe gerrymandering pulled off in a generation, the "packing" and "cracking" down to the level of the individual house, the Republican representatives outnumber the Democratic ones by 2 to 1 or more in those states. And a guy like Thiel probably thinks that is good.

    Another bad problem is the 2 party lock. Democrats are no saints either, but 3rd parties have almost no chance of winning an election. Which of the 2 parties has really embraced the plank of cleaning up Wall Street? Neither.

    The rampant rule breaking, cheating and theft that goes unpunished, unchallenged, and even unmentioned is very corrosive. Mainsteam media's complicity is due in part to the huge technological change that has all but destroyed the old system of selling printed copies of newspapers and magazines, and their failure to adapt. Technology has made the dissemination of information far, far cheaper, but instead of embracing wholeheartedly this vast gift to humanity, the idiots cry that artists will starve and journalism will die, and fight the change and show no scruples in their embrace of dirty tactics, the old "the end justifies the means" fallacy, hardly pausing to realize that the end they really seek is the rolling back of technological advance to the 1980s, and that is evil. It would hurt a lot of people to give up the Internet. No print newspaper or record store full of stamped audio CDs is worth that.

    That Thiel is (or was?) on the boards of new wave companies that have embraced the Internet better than most-- well, just another piece of evidence in the mountainous pile he has created that shows he's an idiot. Los Angeles may be highly Democratic, but it is also the home of Hollywood, one of the most entrenched special interests fighting the hardest to stop the Internet. I find the ongoing lovefest between Democrats and Hollywood a bit puzzling. The Democrats are all for the people, except when Hollywood feels it is against their interests, then the Democrats are all for Hollywood.

    • (Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Friday February 16 2018, @04:32PM (2 children)

      by Grishnakh (2831) on Friday February 16 2018, @04:32PM (#638877)

      I find the ongoing lovefest between Democrats and Hollywood a bit puzzling. The Democrats are all for the people, except when Hollywood feels it is against their interests, then the Democrats are all for Hollywood.

      This is just another good example of the old saying that goes something like, "politics makes for strange bedfellows". Another one is probably the example I brought up yesterday about authoritarian, Islamist Turkey being allied to the US and part of NATO.

      • (Score: 3, Interesting) by HiThere on Friday February 16 2018, @06:57PM (1 child)

        by HiThere (866) Subscriber Badge on Friday February 16 2018, @06:57PM (#638943) Journal

        The California Democrats are basically owned by Feinstein, and while she has a few good points, I normally think of her as a Republican in masquerade. And Feinstein is owned by Hollywood.

        Also, about as many famous actors are "liberal" as are "conservative". So there's no problem with finding mouthpieces for either party. And Feinstein can justify many of her positions as "supporting local industries", though she's rarely that explicit. She usually either doesn't say why she's taken a position or lies about it, or even lies about what her position is. (Well, at least whoever responds to messages to her lies about what her position is. I was told she was considering her position about something after she's voted on it in committee.)

        --
        Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
        • (Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 16 2018, @11:18PM

          by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 16 2018, @11:18PM (#639112)

          Wrongo. Di Fi is a pure Willie Brown Machine democrat and has been since her days on the SF Board of Supes. Her only position, like all good machine politicians, is an outstretched palm. Rumor has it her childhood hero was Chicago's Dick "Da Boss" Daley.

    • (Score: 4, Interesting) by edIII on Friday February 16 2018, @05:15PM (4 children)

      by edIII (791) on Friday February 16 2018, @05:15PM (#638895)

      There's all that, but the reason why Thiel will burn in the lowest and hottest levels of Hell, is Palantir.

      The rich don't suffer the same invasions of privacy that the poor do, and that fuckface believes he can suck up all information and create his "Eye of Horus". Evil fucker even named the technology after Sauron's (The epitome of all evil) intelligence gathering device.

      The man doesn't deserve to breathe on this planet.

      --
      Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.
      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 16 2018, @06:55PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 16 2018, @06:55PM (#638940)

        Met one of the founders of Palantir, he swore up and down it wasn't about creepy surveillance like the name implied.

        Supposedly he got out of that group when he realized that is exactly what it was all about. Seriously, so many techies just presume things will be above board while handing the keys of the kingdom to the snakes.

      • (Score: 4, Informative) by HiThere on Friday February 16 2018, @07:10PM

        by HiThere (866) Subscriber Badge on Friday February 16 2018, @07:10PM (#638954) Journal

        The Palantir was not created by Sauron, but rather by the Numenorians. They are the "seven stones" that were brought "over the flowing sea" from the sunken Numenor. They were created to link communications, but they had the defect that they were subject to what I can only call as neuroses and psychosis. A traumatic even could fix them in place. And they weren't all co-equal, only one of them had the ability to communicate with all of the others at once.

        Tall men and tall ships
        Three times three
        What brought they from the foundered land
        Over the flowing sea?

        Seven stars and seven stones
        And one White Tree.

        So the palantir were created for "good" and perverted by Sauron for evil.
        OTOH, I put good in quotes, because the "good" that they were created for was centralized governmental control. But in the context of "The Lord of the Rings" centralized governmental control by the rightful king is defined (and depicted) as good. Nobody is supposed to consider that the ancestors of the rightful king were from a race so wicked that "God" decided to sink their continent, so what will their descendants be like.

        --
        Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 17 2018, @12:36AM (1 child)

        by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 17 2018, @12:36AM (#639139)

        The rich don't suffer the same invasions of privacy that the poor do

        You know that recent book featuring rumors about wild Silicon Valley sex parties? Supposedly, those stories mostly were about Peter Thiel. But no journalist or writer will actually attach Thiel's name to any of those stories, not after what happened to Gawker.

        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 17 2018, @05:36AM

          by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 17 2018, @05:36AM (#639226)

          They could publish it anonymously. Send it to an amateur who can rewrite it to defeat stylometry. Then dump it somewhere.

          Oh, they want to make a quick buck off of lurid Silicon Valley hearsay? Tough.

          Rumor: Thiel is a gigantic misogynerd since he's both gay and libertarian.

    • (Score: 2) by HiThere on Friday February 16 2018, @06:50PM

      by HiThere (866) Subscriber Badge on Friday February 16 2018, @06:50PM (#638935) Journal

      Actually, it's usually a mix of luck and skill, with sometimes one predominating and sometimes the other. In the case of Mr. Thiel I think that there was nearly an even balance, but with a bit extra on luck. Still, he didn't achieve his wealth without skill.

      OTOH, his intolerance is something else, which he probably felt less free to make manifest when he was still trying to build his position.

      --
      Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 17 2018, @08:07AM (2 children)

      by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 17 2018, @08:07AM (#639261)

      In the 1912 presidential election, (Socialist!) Eugene Debs [google.com] got 6 percent of the popular vote.

      Ross Perot got 19 percent of the popular vote in 1992.

      ...and with your kind of attitude, Abraham Lincoln of the nascent Republican Party[1] never would have been elected in 1860.

      [1] That's right. There was a time when the Republicans were just another bunch of wannabes.

      Find a party that stands for what you stand for[2] [googleusercontent.com] (orig) [smirkingchimp.com] and get involved.

      [2] That's the bunch behind the World Socialist Web Site.
      Very pro-family, very pro-consumer, and VERY pro-worker.

      If there's not a party that's exactly what you want, you could find the one that's nearest to the mark and get inside it and make it better.
      (4-time presidential candidate Ralph Nader says a dedicated 1 percent getting involved is all it takes to effect change.)

      ...and hey, after the Dumbocrats stabbed Bernie Sanders[3] in the back repeatedly, Jill Stein offered him the top spot on the Green Party ticket.
      (You never know how the winds might shift.)

      [3] Currently the most popular politician in the country.

      -- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]

      • (Score: 2) by bzipitidoo on Saturday February 17 2018, @05:16PM (1 child)

        by bzipitidoo (4388) on Saturday February 17 2018, @05:16PM (#639374) Journal

        You're preaching to the choir, brother. I'm not the one who needs convincing to shake things up. My fellow citizens are. The ones who voted for Trump as a protest vote got more and worse than they bargained for. Sure wish they'd voted differently. Maybe next time they will.

        I live in a very red state. My first priority is whoever isn't even worse than the Republican. Most often that's the Democrat. But the Republicans have such a strong grip that it may as well be a one party state. It's so bad that there isn't always a Democratic opponent in every race. Not much point when it's unwinnable. I've voted for the Greens. And I've even voted for the Libertarians though I first want to know that the individual candidate isn't worse than the Republican. If there's a choice between Democrat and Green, then it's a tough call. If it seems that the Democrat has a chance of winning, that's where I'll vote. If not, I'll vote for the Green. We have a choice of 4 (!) parties if we want to vote straight ticket: Republican, Democrat, Libertarian, and Green. The Greens achieved that status a decade or 2 ago, and it's not hard to figure out why. The Republicans helped them, to split the Democratic vote.

        The Pirate Party is my first choice. It's not just copyright reform, it's also their platform of transparency and cleaning up the corruption. I have yet to see a Pirate Party candidate on any ballot. Currently, the Pirate Party in the US merely endorses other parties, doesn't run their own candidates.

        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 17 2018, @09:53PM

          by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 17 2018, @09:53PM (#639473)

          Yeah. Hey, who knows?
          Maybe a Soylentil has read our blurbs and has been convinced to investigate -every- name on the ballot rather than just sticking with the lesser of 2 evils among the Big 2.

          ...maybe even going with the "get inside" notion.

          Maybe someone will find this via a search engine and be convinced.
          (Yeah, a stretch.)

          Take the opportunities to proselytize as they come.
          You never know.

          -- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]

  • (Score: 5, Insightful) by fadrian on Friday February 16 2018, @03:54PM

    by fadrian (3194) on Friday February 16 2018, @03:54PM (#638849) Homepage

    So some tech weenie moves. Big deal.

    --
    That is all.
  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 16 2018, @08:38PM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 16 2018, @08:38PM (#639022)

    Young people in the LA area! Beware of advertisements offering money for giving blood!

    Grandpa: One thing about living in Santa Carla I never could stomach; all the damn vampires.

    Lost Boys, 1987 [imdb.com]

    • (Score: 2) by realDonaldTrump on Sunday February 18 2018, @10:47AM

      by realDonaldTrump (6614) on Sunday February 18 2018, @10:47AM (#639665) Homepage Journal

      Fake news, folks. Peter hasn't even STARTED the treatments. And when he does, Ambrosia will pay you well. If you're young enough!

  • (Score: 2, Funny) by Disinteresto on Friday February 16 2018, @10:14PM

    by Disinteresto (5812) on Friday February 16 2018, @10:14PM (#639080)

    Maybe the Soylent drinking nerds in silicon valley are too full of heavy metals, and today's vampire needs fresh blood. I bet you could sell tickets to your remote New Zealand property in case the garbage future you're peddling actually happens. Surely no one with that much money would be taken seriously, but he earned it by selling his brain not his body and that's different. Los Angeles would never sell its young, would it? To a rich creep?

    Check the news for the drained husks found in his wake. Alert Kolchak! Email Mulder and Scully, there's a new daywalker in town.

    --
    Attention protection units, anticitizen spotted in your district. Block. Contain. Cauterize.
  • (Score: 2) by ants_in_pants on Saturday February 17 2018, @05:58AM

    by ants_in_pants (6665) on Saturday February 17 2018, @05:58AM (#639235)

    Maybe he'll take all his VC buddies with him and the bay area will become a place where it's possible to live on minimum wage again!

    Ahhh.... one can dream.

    --
    -Love, ants_in_pants
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