Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

The National Guard is not Batman.

It’s possible to be a liberal firebrand without crapping on the party.

It’s the corruption, stupid.

One of our two political parties is a cult whose leader admires Vladimir Putin.

Something needs to be done about our bogus SCOTUS.

T R E 4 5 O N

“In the future, this lab will be a museum. do not touch it.”

The Supreme Court cannot be allowed to become the ultimate, unaccountable arbiter of everything.

Polls are now a reliable indicator of what corporate Republicans want us to think.

Reality always lies in wait for … Democrats.

SCOTUS: It’s not “bribery” unless it comes from the Bribery region of France. Otherwise, it’s merely “sparkling malfeasance”.

This is dead girl, live boy, a goat, two wetsuits and a dildo territory.  oh, and pink furry handcuffs.

This has so much WTF written all over it that it is hard to comprehend.

There are consequences to being an arrogant, sullen prick.

The worst democrat is better than the best republican.

So fucking stupid, and still doing a tremendous amount of damage.

If America since Jan 2025 hasn’t broken your heart, you haven’t loved her enough.

Hell hath no fury like a farmer bankrupted.

The next time the wall street journal editorial board speaks the truth will be the first.

“woke” is the new caravan.

Seems like a complicated subject, have you tried yelling at it?

There is no right way to do the wrong thing.

“The difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits.”

Tick tock motherfuckers!

You are here: Home / Economics / C.R.E.A.M. / Weirdness Open Thread: Peter ‘Bathory’ Thiel Vants to Transfuse Your Plasma

Weirdness Open Thread: Peter ‘Bathory’ Thiel Vants to Transfuse Your Plasma

by | 86 Comments

This post is in: , , , ,

And here we all assumed Ayn Rand fanatic Thiel was just encouraging strapping young men to drop out of college and visit his palatial seasteading for the usual reasons. According to Inc:

More than anything, Peter Thiel, the billionaire technology investor and Donald Trump supporter, wants to find a way to escape death. He’s channeled millions of dollars into startups working on anti-aging medicine, spends considerable time and money researching therapies for his personal use, and believes society ought to open its mind to life-extension methods that sound weird or unsavory.

Speaking of weird and unsavory, if there’s one thing that really excites Thiel, it’s the prospect of having younger people’s blood transfused into his own veins.

That practice is known as parabiosis, and, according to Thiel, it’s a potential biological Fountain of Youth–the closest thing science has discovered to an anti-aging panacea. Research into parabiosis began in the 1950s with crude experiments that involved cutting rats open and stitching their circulatory systems together. After decades languishing on the fringes, it’s recently started getting attention from mainstream researchers, with multiple clinical trials underway in humans in the U.S. and even more advanced studies in China and Korea…

In Monterey, California, about 120 miles from San Francisco, a company called Ambrosia recently commenced one of the trials. Titled “Young Donor Plasma Transfusion and Age-Related Biomarkers,” it has a simple protocol: Healthy participants aged 35 and older get a transfusion of blood plasma from donors under 25, and researchers monitor their blood over the next two years for molecular indicators of health and aging. The study is patient-funded; participants, who range in age from late 30s through 80s, must pay $8,000 to take part, and live in or travel to Monterey for treatments and follow-up assessments…

Because the RNC convention was such a multi-ring circus, I never found time to link to the NYTimes essay on Thiel’s speech endorsing Trump there. “Peter Thiel’s Heroic Political Fantasies,” frankly, presented Thiel as someone who thinks of himself along the lines of the genetic vampires in Peter Watts’ novel Blindsight — a member of a predator species only distantly related to Homo Sap.

But that’s an unduly heroic fantasy. Thiel’s just another Dives trying to avoid the final judgement — during the first Gilded Age, he’d have been visiting Switzerland to have monkey glands (or the testicles of executed criminals) sewn into his scrotum.

Reader Interactions

86Comments

  1. 1.

    Roger Moore

    It would serve him right if there was a slip-up in their testing for some of the blood he received and he wound up with an incurable disease.

  2. 2.

    Hal

    Looking at all these polls coming out this week I’m thrilled Trump is flailing, but I would really like Hillary to be well above 50%. Is that unrealistic of me? I’m thinking of Bill Clinton in 1992 more and more, which is fine by me in the end, but I would really love Hillary to take this election in a landslide popular vote wise, not just electoral.

  3. 3.

    PhoenixRising

    Open thread: Final meeting with the oncology department was final.

    Exactly 5 years after the first meeting with a slightly nervous doctor who had to tell me that there was a 99.99 chance that the thing on my eye was nothing, but…that’s why we biopsy…

    For the rest of my life, “what are the odds of that?” will not be my final answer.

    Also: Thanks, Obama. I have my life,my vision and my house only because I had the ACA protecting me from a rate increase forcing choices between appropriate care and financial health.

  6. 6.

    Mnemosyne

    @PhoenixRising:

    Hooray!

    On topic, I can continue to donate blood because I’m (well) over 40, so my blood is old and worn-out. ?

    Also, wasn’t Thiel supposed to be living on his oceangoing Waterworld theme park by now and leaving the rest of us alone?

  7. 7.

    redshirt

    Thiel has set a dangerous precedent: Any rich person can sue the publication of their choice out of business. There’s plenty of rich enough people and not that many publications who care to speak truth to power. And why should you? You’ll get sued and you can’t win.

  8. 8.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @PhoenixRising:

    That is such great news! I hope you’ll write to President Obama (and Secretary Clinton, not to mention your Congressperson and Senators) and share your personal story.

    Congratulations and good health to you.

  10. 10.

    Captain C

    Thiel is a creepy solo orbital home away from being a villain in an early William Gibson novel.

  12. 12.

    PhoenixRising

    @SiubhanDuinne: oh, Hillary is tired of me already! (My family made a short marketing video for the ACA for events in my state.) but thank you for thinking of the political implications.

  13. 13.

    Hungry Joe

    “Blindsight” is one hell of a good book: VAMPS … IN … SPAAAAAAAAACE! But seriously, it’s a smoothly written first-contact novel — first contact like you’ve never seen or imagined — crammed with fascinating ideas/riffs and riddled with sly humor.

  15. 15.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Ruviana: I remember seeing that when it happened. The comment below made it seem like something that just happened. You know like the way the Wall Street Journal covers 7 month old news.

  16. 16.

    Punchy

    Stitching their curculatory systems together? WTF? Uh…massive immune system responses to each others organs, no?

  19. 19.

    PhoenixRising

    @Punchy: no. For a less creepy discussion of this topic, Bill Gifford’s book ‘Spring Chicken’ is readable and contains a surprising amount of science on aging.

  20. 20.

    Enhanced Voting Techinques

    “I live off the blood of the young”..er I mean that’s really taking the Twightlight cospay a bit to far there Mr. Theil.

    It is a bit funny how these billioniars think they should be immune to things like aging.

  21. 21.

    Schlemazel

    @PhoenixRising:
    WOW, that was a close call, so glad this worked out so well for you, particularly the insured part, that was a close call too.

    @PhoenixRising:
    Well that was nice of you. You very well may have svaed some others by carrying ACA forward.

  24. 24.

    Dork

    You fuckers all laugh and cringe at this, and I’ll be busy perfecting afterbirth milkshakes and cord blood pudding and, after 3 years inside a Kiosk outside of Mountain Valley, be swimming in Benjis.

  25. 25.

    Roger Moore

    @Punchy:

    Uh…massive immune system responses to each others organs, no?

    In humans, yes. But lab rats are generally syngeneic, i.e. so thoroughly inbred that they’re almost genetically identical. That can have its own drawbacks, since specific strains can have particular genetic problems, but it means they’re immunologically compatible.

  26. 26.

    Credenzal Jocularity

    I guess we can add Skeksis:Mystic::Trump:Clinton to the pile next to:
    Sith:Jedi
    Death Eaters:Order of the Phoenix
    Nazgul:The Fellowship

  29. 29.

    Truegster

    He has no eyebrows, which is already a step towards Evil Villian. He should film his journey across the globe to find the poor youth who he talks into giving them their blood to feast upon for eternal life…and sell it as a horror movie. It would be the Libertarian thing to do.

  32. 32.

    Villago Delenda Est

    People like Thiel are PRECISELY the wrong people to retard the aging process in. Randian twits should be encouraged to live very short lives.

  34. 34.

    pat

    Umm, it’s been a while since med tech training but I seem to remember that O neg was the universal donor. No antigens for the other antibodies to work against.
    As I said, it’s been a while….

    B pos myself.

  36. 36.

    sm*t cl*de

    a company called Ambrosia recently commenced one of the trials. Titled “Young Donor Plasma Transfusion and Age-Related Biomarkers,” it has a simple protocol: Healthy participants aged 35 and older get a transfusion of blood plasma from donors under 25, and researchers monitor their blood over the next two years for molecular indicators of health and aging. The study is patient-funded; participants, who range in age from late 30s through 80s, must pay $8,000 to take part, and live in or travel to Monterey for treatments and follow-up assessments…

    The head guy at Ambrosia, Jesse Karmazin, previously “co-founded a company called xVitality Sciences that aimed to offer plasma treatments at clinics overseas”. There was a large element of stem-cell scamming, and the company was purely aspirational, undiluted by any concern about evidence. The idea was that an injection of youthful plasma would reawaken the recipient’s own stem-cells, therefore rejuvenation.
    XVitality went tits-up within six months, but its Twittertrail still exists as a source of entertainment.

    Researching rejuvenation through the restoration of circulating youth factors

    Karmazin lists “paralympic rowing” as one of his enthusiasms on his LinkedIn entry. It may be that he has personal reasons (not just financial gain) motivating his belief in the cargo cult.

  37. 37.

    scottinnj

    An interesting fact from the Marist poll today which has Clinton up 14.
    In a four-way race, with voters 18-29, Trump polls 4th after Clinton/Johnson/Stein (41 HRC, 23 Johnson 9 Stein 7% Trump). 53-17 in a two way race.
    Trump may destroy the GOP for a generation.

  38. 38.

    OldDave

    @redshirt: Er, no. O- is universal. O+ can only be given to other Rh+ types. At least I think I have that right. I’m not a doctor, and I don’t play one on TV.

    Edit to add: Should have read all the responses before responding. I’m the CEO and Chief Bottle Washer of the Department of Redundancy Department tonight.

  39. 39.

    tybee

    and roger moore and pat beat me to it. (also, FYWP for not letting me edit my own comment)

  40. 40.

    Mnemosyne

    @Roger Moore:

    They really want my blood for some reason. The Red Cross would literally call me the day I was cleared to make another donation to ask when I wanted to set up my next appointment.

  41. 41.

    lamh36

    So today, started and ended completely differently than I expected today.

    To start, I was supposed to have a phone interview at noon for this job I applied for bout 1 week and a half ago. this one was moving fast. I literally applied last Wednesday. Got a call from recruiter last Friday. Had a pre-screening interview with the recruiter Monday. got an email from the Tech Manager who’s over all the Techs yesterday and the phone interview was setup for noon today!

    So there was some roof work going on at my apartment and the AC was gonna be off all day, so I figured I’d get in my car and drive to a quiet place and have the interview in my car via bluetooth. Well…noon came…no call…30 min more…no call. This woman said she’d be calling about 12noon CST. I even re-read the email to try to see if I misunderstood the working. But now, it’s after 12:30…NO CALL.

    So, ok, I have her number so I called her and it went to voicemail. I left her a message and said “just in case you got pulled into a conference and missed our appointed time I wanted to reach out to you” . Also told her that I “wanted to make sure I’m available to her but that I am only gonna be available to talk today within the next hr…after that we’d have to reschedule our talk. I sat in my care another 30-45 min and still NO CALL.

    Finally, I just said fuq it… I have things to do…so I went about my errands. Now it’s at least 2pm when I get back home…no call and no missed calls to my cell. I got distracted a bit because due to the AC being off, the house was “cool” (thanks to ceiling fans) but not really “cold” like I like so I was trying to do as little over heating things as possible. So then 4pm rolls around and I realize, STILL no call or voicemail. It’s one hour ahead in OH (where her cell seems to be located) so it’s likely 5pm where she is…which means it’s the end of the day. If she was gonna call today, he would have called by then.

    So by now of course, I’m REALLY pissed. But my final action of the day was to email the lady who was supposed to call and interview me this morning. I was as nice as possible and I once again gave another time which I would be free to talk. Hopefully I hear something, but as of now, I’m done with it if I do not get a response to my voicemail or email.

    To be honest, I”m really at the point where I’m just not interested anymore. I have a friend who worked for this company in the past and who has heard of this lady. She tells me that this is a thing with this woman, an issue with not getting back to people and that alot of folks were leaving and complaining about the management by this woman. I mean, I’m already trying to leave a place where the management is the big issue as well. Why in the hell would I want to work with/under another situation like the one I want to leave. Ugh.

    The one good thing from today, the AC is back on so at least I won’t have to try to sleep with no AC.

  44. 44.

    Roger Moore

    @Mnemosyne:

    They really want my blood for some reason.

    They really want blood from any healthy donor. If you’ve been reliable in the past, they will hit you up regularly. I find it annoying that my employer, which is also where I donate, will send me notices telling me I’m good to donate even though I’ve already scheduled an appointment the first day I’m eligible. They should be smart enough to leave me alone as soon as I’ve scheduled an appointment.

  48. 48.

    Anne Laurie

    @Punchy:

    Stitching their curculatory systems together? WTF? Uh…massive immune system responses to each others organs, no?

    I’m assuming this was a massively inbred strain of lab rats, who are all pretty close to genetically identical. Wouldn’t work with humans, although I’m sure Thiel has also thrown a few millions into growing his own forebrain-pithed clones to farm for parts.

  49. 49.

    pat

    @Mnemosyne:

    Probably because O pos is the largest group. Plus they look at a LOT of other blood groups that were frankly discovered after I went through blood bank in the early 60s.
    Get a full report of your antigens….. could be interesting to google some of them.

  52. 52.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @Mnemosyne: Last visit to my PCP I asked what my blood type was & she refused to tell me. Does this sound kinda skeevy to yinz?

  54. 54.

    Anne Laurie

    @Truegster:

    He should film his journey across the globe to find the poor youth who he talks into giving them their blood to feast upon for eternal life…and sell it as a horror movie. It would be the Libertarian thing to do.

    As I understand it, he doesn’t travel outside the ‘Davos bubble’ — since he’s not interested in mere scenery (not even the human kind), he just trolls prestige university events and venture capitalist parties looking for ambitious young lads who want “special mentoring” and a crack at some of those billions. Still creepy, but not very widescreen-friendly.

  59. 59.

    Mike E

    The Rio Hillary Olympics start tomorrow… Katy Perry’s Rise is the theme song for NBC’s coverage of the games

    ETA A- for me, no extra credit I guess

  60. 60.

    Archon

    A future where the blood of young people potentially helping extend the life of older people?

    That’s not dystopian at all…

  62. 62.

    RepubAnon

    @Adam L Silverman: When does Mr. Thiel start looking like Bela Lugosi, wear a black cape with red silk lining, and start claiming that he never drinks – wine.

    On a side note, there were a number of science fiction stories in the 1950s and early 1960s about eternal life through blood transfusions – and at least one TV series: The Immortals, based on a 1962 novel of that name by Peter Gunn: The Immortals

  63. 63.

    Brachiator

    @Hal:

    but I would really love Hillary to take this election in a landslide popular vote wise, not just electoral.

    I would like to see Clinton flip more states from red to blue, making it harder for the GOP to claim that she has no mandate.

  64. 64.

    BR

    @Hal:

    Yeah, same — she’s not breaking 50%, which isn’t good. That means these folks are just embarrassed GOPers who might flood back to Trump given the right line of attack on Clinton.

  65. 65.

    la gata gris

    Creepy. My first thought was ‘shades of the Blood Countess” (Elizabeth Bathory)

  66. 66.

    SoupCatcher

    @Dork:

    You fuckers all laugh and cringe at this, and I’ll be busy perfecting afterbirth milkshakes and cord blood pudding and, after 3 years inside a Kiosk outside of Mountain Valley, be swimming in Benjis.

    You’re too late, seeing as how people have been dehydrating the placenta, grinding it down, and putting it into gel caps for years.

  67. 67.

    Penn

    I am sadly not allowed to donate blood here in Canada due to Mad Cow. I lived in Britain for too long during specific years and thus may have it. Seeing as the test involves an autopsy I’ll just live with the possibility.
    On the other hand I’m AB+, the universal recipient, so not as much call for my fluids anyway.

  68. 68.

    Joe Falco

    Thiel would be the perfect hero in the anarchist webcomics I read because reasons. The only thing missing is he’s not a SUPERGENIUS intellect that can somehow invent the very cure he’s seeking. He’ll have to settle for supporting someone else’s blow and hookers needs.

  69. 69.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Penn: I can’t give blood in the US for the same reason, plus too long in continental Europe during the relevant period as well. I would think that if I had the disease, I would be showing signs by now. O+, so there is some demand.

  73. 73.

    SFAW

    Apropos of nothing in particular, but just because I want to vent:

    EndCitizensUnited.org has now sent me two fund-raising mails, to which I responded “Screw you.”

    I had no problem with their raison d’etre, but it was the titles/subjects (approximately) of said mails that kind of pissed me off:
    1) “Does SFAW Hate Ruth Bader Ginsburg?”
    2) “Is SFAW Now Supporting Donald Trump?”

    I assume it was because I haven’t donated in the last 2 or so months.

    I guess I should be glad they didn’t send me one titled “Does SFAW Skull-Fuck Kittens?”

    Assholes.

  75. 75.

    SFAW

    @Uncle Cosmo:

    Kinda fucked up. Find another PCP, or ask her to explain what is preventing her from doing her fucking job.

    Maybe she thinks HIPAA doesn’t allow you to share your medical information with yourself.

  79. 79.

    Citizen_X

    @Anne Laurie:

    looking for ambitious young lads who want “special mentoring” and a crack at some of those billions. Still creepy, but not very widescreen-friendly.

    So, like Baron Harkonnen, then. Does he install heart plugs in his employees?

  81. 81.

    SFAW

    @Mnemosyne:

    I watched the clip, and two thoughts came to mind:
    1) The Grinch
    2) Wasn’t that Raymond Massey telling the story?

    I have never denied that I am weird, in case you wuz wondering.

  82. 82.

    Mnemosyne

    @SFAW:

    Poor Karloff. He REALLY wanted to play that part in the movie, but they wouldn’t let him out of his Broadway contract.

    And I didn’t realize until I was an adult that the whole point of Cary Grant getting married at the very beginning is that he’s frantic to fuck his new wife, but he can’t get a minute alone with her. (In the play, there is no marriage, they’re just looking for a place to fuck.)

Comments are closed.