What Are You Reading Now?

[BigPiney]

Ha. That is a very woke list.

I have only read No One is Talking About This on that list, such a dumb book. Hated it.

[SeattleUte]

Ha. That is a very woke list.

I have read one of them, Intimacies, and panned it here.

[SteelBlue]

Read the new Joshua Ferris novel "A Calling for Charlie Barnes." I have enjoyed all of his works and this was no exception. For you audiobook folks, I read that Nick Offerman is the narrator. That sounds fun.

[SteelBlue]

The House on Vesper Sands by Paraic O'Donnell. Highly recommend to all. Victorian inspired murder mystery that also manages to be incredibly funny.

[BigFatMeanie]

This doesn't really belong in this thread but this thread seems to have the bulk of comments about Theranos so...

Elizabeth Holmes was found guilty today on 3 charges of wire fraud of investors and 1 charge of conspiracy to commit wire fraud. She was acquitted on 4 fraud charges related to patients and to Theranos advertising, and the jury deadlocked on 3 other charges related to fraud with investors. So guilty on 4 out of 11 total charges. She faces 20 years in prison for the convictions. I doubt she will get the full 20 years but she definitely deserves to do time.

Sunny's trial starts in a few of months. He seems like an arrogant insufferable asshole so I'm betting his lawyers don't dare put him on the stand.

Update: Here is the breakdown of the charges and verdicts:

1. Conspiring to commit wire fraud against investors in Theranos between 2010 and 2015: Guilty.
2. Conspiring to commit wire fraud against patients who paid for Theranos' blood testing services between 2013 and 2016: Not guilty.
3. Wire fraud in connection with a wire transfer of 99,990 on or about Dec. 30, 2013: No verdict.
4. Wire fraud in connection with a wire transfer of 5,349,900 on or about Dec. 31, 2013: No verdict.
5. Wire fraud in connection with a wire transfer of 4,875,000 on or about Dec. 31, 2013: No verdict.
6. Wire fraud in connection with a wire transfer of 38,336,632 on or about Feb.6, 2014: Guilty.
7. Wire fraud in connection with a wire transfer of 99,999,984 on or about Oct. 31, 2014: Guilty.
8. Wire fraud in connection with a wire transfer of 5,999,997 on or about Oct. 31, 2014: Guilty.
9. Charges dropped
10. Wire fraud in connection with a patient's laboratory blood test results on or about May 11, 2015: Not guilty.
11. Wire fraud in connection with a patient's laboratory blood test results on or about May 16, 2015: Not guilty.
12. Wire fraud in connection with a wire transfer of 1,126,661 on or about Aug.3, 2015: Not guilty.

[Scott R Nelson]

This doesn't really belong in this thread but this thread seems to have the bulk of comments about Theranos so...

If you were reading John Carreyrou's book Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup, it could belong here.

I read that book a few months back and it was quite revealing. Now I at least understand how Theranos went from a good idea, to something that didn't quite work, to one of the biggest scams of all time. Apparently Elizabeth Holmes was a very persuasive person.

[Clark Addison]

This doesn't really belong in this thread but this thread seems to have the bulk of comments about Theranos so...

Elizabeth Holmes was found guilty today on 3 charges of wire fraud of investors and 1 charge of conspiracy to commit wire fraud. She was acquitted on 4 fraud charges related to patients and to Theranos advertising, and the jury deadlocked on 3 other charges related to fraud with investors. So guilty on 4 out of 11 total charges. She faces 20 years in prison for the convictions. I doubt she will get the full 20 years but she definitely deserves to do time.

Sunny's trial starts in a few of months. He seems like an arrogant insufferable asshole so I'm betting his lawyers don't dare put him on the stand.

Update: Here is the breakdown of the charges and verdicts:

1. Conspiring to commit wire fraud against investors in Theranos between 2010 and 2015: Guilty.
2. Conspiring to commit wire fraud against patients who paid for Theranos' blood testing services between 2013 and 2016: Not guilty.
3. Wire fraud in connection with a wire transfer of 99,990 on or about Dec. 30, 2013: No verdict.
4. Wire fraud in connection with a wire transfer of 5,349,900 on or about Dec. 31, 2013: No verdict.
5. Wire fraud in connection with a wire transfer of 4,875,000 on or about Dec. 31, 2013: No verdict.
6. Wire fraud in connection with a wire transfer of 38,336,632 on or about Feb.6, 2014: Guilty.
7. Wire fraud in connection with a wire transfer of 99,999,984 on or about Oct. 31, 2014: Guilty.
8. Wire fraud in connection with a wire transfer of 5,999,997 on or about Oct. 31, 2014: Guilty.
9. Charges dropped
10. Wire fraud in connection with a patient's laboratory blood test results on or about May 11, 2015: Not guilty.
11. Wire fraud in connection with a patient's laboratory blood test results on or about May 16, 2015: Not guilty.
12. Wire fraud in connection with a wire transfer of 1,126,661 on or about Aug.3, 2015: Not guilty.

I'm no law-talking guy, but it seems to me that the guilty verdicts were somewhat focused on the more serious charges. Anyone who followed things care to confirm or refute?

[Scott R Nelson]

I'm no law-talking guy, but it seems to me that the guilty verdicts were somewhat focused on the more serious charges. Anyone who followed things care to confirm or refute?

There is a pretty good analysis of it here: https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/...of-11-charges/

One issue with many of the not guilty items had to do with the way the law was written. The guilty verdicts were clearly guilty according to the law with no doubt.

[BigFatMeanie]

Interestingly, I think Sunny Balwani is particularly screwed. The majority male jury convicted Elizabeth Holmes on 4 counts and at least one of the juror's has now discussed in the media how sympathetic, likeable, and charismatic she was so the jury found it harder to convict her. Sunny, by every account I've read, is a walking anus so I'm guessing the jury won't find it hard at all to convict him. If I was that dude, I would be talking plea bargain right now...

[Jeff Lebowski]

Interestingly, I think Sunny Balwani is particularly screwed. The majority male jury convicted Elizabeth Holmes on 4 counts and at least one of the juror's has now discussed in the media how sympathetic, likeable, and charismatic she was so the jury found it harder to convict her. Sunny, by every account I've read, is a walking anus so I'm guessing the jury won't find it hard at all to convict him. If I was that dude, I would be talking plea bargain right now...

I don't get it. Every time I saw her speak, I felt the opposite of sympathetic. She seemed super slimy and arrogant.

[BigFatMeanie]

I don't get it. Every time I saw her speak, I felt the opposite of sympathetic. She seemed super slimy and arrogant.

I don't get it either, but that's because I read Carreyrou's book before I ever saw her speak, so I'm biased against her. I also hate "salespeople' in most forms, executives that spew BS, rah-rah business evangelist Steve Jobs wanna-be types, and scammers, so she checks a lot of negative boxes for me.

[Lost Student]

Did she use her fake deep voice while on the stand?

[BigPiney]

The House on Vesper Sands by Paraic O'Donnell. Highly recommend to all. Victorian inspired murder mystery that also manages to be incredibly funny.

I enjoyed this, thank you.

[Donuthole]

Just finished "Slade House" by David Mitchell. He wrote the first chapter on Twitter, and the rest in a fairly short time. If you like Mitchell, you'll enjoy this one. It's a lot of fun, and for the most part it can be read stand alone, though as with all of his novels, it is interconnected with the others and especially The Bone Clocks.

Just read Slade House over the weekend. Really enjoyed it.

[Bo Diddley]

I love Desert Solitaire too. And I like your point, Levin, and it's one I have to keep reminding myself of. Another way I've tried to view things is in the lens of creating vs criticizing. I'm afraid that as I've aged I've become much more of a critic and less of a creator.

Edward Abbey does a good job of selling the beauty of the SE Utah. I think he embellishes his stories for poetic value.