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I've seen the HBO documentary, listened to the podcasts, and read the Carryou book and it really wasn't until watching the last two episodes that from my POV the worst thing that Theranos, Holmes, and Balwani did was how badly they treated their employees. Most of them, including Ian Gibbons, Erika Cheung, and Tyler Schultz, and the other composite characters on the show bought into the mission and the thought that they were making the world a better place. Instead, they had to endure a workplace where collaboration and working together with colleagues across departments was very much discouraged because TPTB (Holmes, Balwani, and their yes people) didn't want it coming out that their product was a failure. As someone who works in a highly siloed, very top down workplace, aspects of Theranos really struck me, especially claiming to have an open door policy and using feedback given in the supposed spirit and good intent against people wanting to do their jobs and have a good workplace. Granted, my workplace is nowhere near as toxic or dysfunctional as Theranos was in its prime, but it's still not a great workplace. Just what we've seen on the show makes you wonder how effective and/or competent their HR and compliance people were. There's been multiple incidents of bullying and hostile and intimidating behavior (from Sunny, Elizabeth, and the yes people), gender and racial discrimination, and violation of the ADA, especially with Ian Gibbons. I wonder how busy the Northern California EEOC office was processing complaints from Theranos in its heyday. Having that toxic and hostile work environment and work culture, in addition to the medical fraud is probably the worst of Theranos' offenses. Taking advantage of rich, gullible older white men with not much scientific literacy seems mild by comparison.

I was pulling for MSU over Duke because once March Madness starts, I root for any Big 10 teams left. It's better for the conference to have teams advancing. Plus, Izzo is more tolerable than Krzyzewski, who's a sanctimonious hypocrite. His year long farewell tour was just the cherry on the sundae of his phoniness. Plus, Duke and other elite programs has been taking top recruits from the Midwest for nearly 15 years now. It's inevitable with the rise of club and AAU teams playing nationally and players transferring high schools, both in and out of state, based on their AAU teams. I live in Wisconsin and Jalen Johnson, the top recruit in the state in 2020, went to 3 different high schools during his HS career, 2 in Wisconsin and 1 in Florida. He ended up transferring to a powerhouse private school in the Milwaukee suburbs after a stint at IMG Academy in FL. It wasn't a shock that he played less than a full season for Duke. I've been critical of the Big 10's expansion of basketball tournament sites out east in both Washington, DC and NYC. At the time in the mid 2010s when the decision was made, it was justified as a way to use it to expand subscribers to the Big 10 network in those areas. Now, with increasing cord cutting, it's harder to explain. I'd be fine with having a rotation but with Minneapolis, Detroit or Milwaukee replacing NYC and DC in addition to Chicago and Indianapolis. Maybe, that would help keep future players the caliber of Chet Holmgren, from Minneapolis, or Jalen Johnson playing for a Big 10 team, especially with programs starting to develop NIL partnerships.

Multiple posters here have made comparisons between Eteri and the Karoylis regarding both their training methods and how both view the young women under their care as disposable. Both seem to view the young women as useful and beneficial to them when the women are winning and making them look good.

Yeah, I don't see the Big 10 playing the full schedule through December 12. Between the weather and the majority of campuses trying to get the number of Covid cases down, I would be very shocked and surprised if Michigan plays Ohio on December 12. I work at Wisconsin and the campus testing situation is not good now. Two dorms are in lockdown through the end of this week and a third dorm was added to the mandatory testing group this past Thursday. That means that there is only one walk up location for students and staff to get tested at, on the west side of campus. The second location, closer to my office, was shut down this week. My supervisor is asking those of us working on campus to get tested weekly, herself included, but that's been made more difficult by having only one testing site. Dane County and the city of Madison were not happy about the decision to restart Big 10 football. The Madison Police Department will start to work with Dane County Public Health to enforce occupancy limits for bars and restaurants, currently 25% for indoor spaces and 50% for outdoor seating. First violation is a fine and second violation is a hearing to revoke the establishment's liquor license. Dane County Public Health released numbers for persons affiliated with Badger Athletics who have tested positive this week, with 29 testing positive in the first two weeks of September. They aren't releasing the breakdown of student athletes or staff, but if you look at the UW Smart Restart website, it looks like it's mostly student athletes. House parties and tailgates are being strongly discouraged, but given the Wisconsin weather, hosting them outdoors is only realistic for the first couple weeks.

The majority of the Big 10 programs have made the decision not to allow fans, including students, to attend any games. Some, like Ohio State, had the decision made for them by the state of Ohio not allowing fans at any sporting events. Some states seem to have more relative success than others in dealing with Covid, including Illinois and Michigan, still are understandably being cautious. Illinois is only allowing 20% of stadium capacity. Michigan State, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota and Penn State all made the decision not to allow any fans to attend games. Some programs are being better towards their fans than others. Some, including Minnesota, Michigan State and Michigan are allowing season ticket holders to roll over their 2020 tickets and seat premiums costs into 2021. That way, the ones that chose that option have paid for their 2021 tickets. Penn State is allowing season ticket holders to roll their 2020 season tickets into 2021 but not the seat premiums. My Michigan alumna sister has lived in the Minneapolis area for several years now and had plans to go to the Michigan-Minnesota game in mid October. She's been very busy with work and had not been following the changes in scheduling and ticket policies. She seemed incredibly disappointed and heartbroken when I shared with her that no fans were allowed to go to the game. We had to cancel two vacations this year because of Covid, but I think that this was the hardest to take. She had thought that maybe things would be improving by now instead of getting worse and she could go see her Wolverines play. Between this news and having to go into quarantine because a coworker came down with Covid, she's lost what little tolerance she's had for people who aren't wiling to do the bare minimum to stop the spread. I hope we can get through the college football season, because it's something that many people, myself and my sister included, are looking forward to. If most P5 schools can have a successful football season, then that's a good omen for having college basketball.

The book version of Serena Joy seems to be inspired by Schlafly, Anita Bryant, and Tammy Faye Bakker to name a couple women in the then emerging right wing, conservative movement and the evangelical movement. In the book, Offred recalls seeing a pre-Gilead Serena Joy on TV as a kid watching her church TV show before her preferred cartoons were on. The TV version seems to be inspired by Schlafly and her present day counterparts on Fox News and other conservative media.

The first four episodes have been a fascinating watch. I had known prior to this that both Dennis Rodman and Scottie Pippen played for smaller college programs. Jordan was the only one who played for a blue blood program, UNC. It's interesting most players come from Power 5 programs or from overseas. The recent exceptions who have achieved success in the NBA are Steph Curry and Ja Morant. Given that Jordan's production company is involved, of course he's going to be presented in the most favorable light. The filmmakers aren't going to probe too deeply about his history of political neutrality and avoiding making controversial statements that would affect his endorsement earnings, his well documented gambling problems during his time with the Bulls, to name a couple touchy subjects. Michael Jordan was a player that was the greatest NBA player of his time for me growing up. As an adult, he's a great player, but a very flawed human being. As others have commented, the man can hold a grudge for a long time. As an NBA owner, he seems to be one of the ones pushing a harder line about capping current players' share of income, something that he himself benefited from as a player. His last part of his playing career really reminds me a lot of Brett Favre. In retrospect, both of their legacies as players would have been better if they had ended their playing careers with the teams they were most associated with. Jordan seems to have had a more successful post playing career than Favre, though.

I'm rewatching it from the beginning while working from home, thanks to HBO making it free to non subscribers on their streaming services. I've read all the books and it's probably for the best that the showrunners only followed the general plots of the books through season 4. The book series was 13 books, and the first half are the better written ones. The initial fan reaction to the last one was so negative that Charlaine Harris canceled her promotional tour for it. One noticeable difference between it and current HBO shows is that the first 5 seasons has 12 instead of 10 episodes. Those extra two episodes really do make a difference in how much screen time the side characters' plots get. I would miss some characters, like Hoyt, Jessica, Tara and Lafayette, as well as Jason who actually got plots that weren't tied to his relationship with Sookie with those extra episodes. On the other hand, I would not miss some of Sam and Arlene's plots being cut. There are a lot of changes from the books to the series, most for the better. Jessica is a show only character, and a great addition. Jessica and Bill's vampire child/parent relationship is one of the highlights of the show. Jason stays human instead of becoming a werepanther as he does in the books. The show chooses to omit most of the paranormal werecreatures that take up much of the focus of the second half of the series, which is a mercy because most of them are fairly one dimensional characters in the book.

Bobby Knight returned to Indiana for a basketball game for the first time in almost 20 years, since he was fired. He's been having health problems, likely dementia. Last year, Don Fischer, IU's basketball announcer gave an interview in which he said that Knight had been having health problems. Given the bad blood between Knight and IU, perhaps it was best that both parties seemed to have come to a compromise of sorts and he got a triumphant homecoming when he's still able to enjoy it. It was very nice seeing the former players there and especially Gene Keady, the former Purdue Coach. Purdue ended up winning the game.

Michigan State is in a similar situation as well. They had a very disappointing year and barely made a bowl game. They are also struggling with recruiting as well. Dantonio is due to get a $4 million longevity bonus in mid January as part of the extension he signed after the 2016 season. If he were to retire after that, that probably would be the best scenario. It's a tough call for programs after disappointing years. There's a lot of factors to consider. It costs money to fire coaches, pay their buyout and then likely have to pay some portion of the buyouts of the person they hire. As far as the recruiting factor is concerned, my view is that if recruiting is looking up, give the coaches another year and see if they are willing to make some changes in their personnel to address the problem areas. If their isn't much coming down the recruiting pipeline and there hasn't been good development of current players, then it's time to go in a new direction.

Even though Minnesota lost today, they still had a great year and exceeded most people's expectations. They are still going to get a decent bowl game, and even better don't have to play OSU in the Big 10 championship game. Given that they are a young team, most players should be returning next year. Even with Michigan as one of their cross over games and playing Wisconsin in Madison, they should be a 8 to 10 win team. Fleck's extension and his ~$10 million buyout won't keep him at Minnesota in the long term, and that drops to $5 million after January 2021. He's going to break the hearts of both fans and players who finally have a program they are invested in. He was one of several names tossed around as possible replacements for Mark Dantonio if his time at MSU is coming to an end. Based on internet gossip, Fleck was seen as a reach even before his extension because MSU supposedly doesn't have the money, both AD funds and donor funds, to match Fleck's buyout.

The Chase Young situation at OSU with his suspension for the Maryland game is unfortunate. I'm no Buckeyes fan, but Young and OSU have handled the situation as well as they could have. Young's situation is likely more common that not, and it's probably the norm at some programs and in certain conferences.

I thought it was a worthy followup to The Handmaid's Tale, very much living up the expectations. It was interesting how some of the show's plotlines, especially in the last two seasons, get some resolution here. Aunt Lydia's backstory for her involvement in Gilead makes more sense here than it does on the show. Of course, the book has the benefit of her being of one three primary narrators and more development than on the show. It's a much more chilling and thought provoking path towards her rise in Gilead, because The quiet strength, power, and resilience of Becka, Agnes and Daisy/Nicole were one of the strengths of the book. For me it was the The book has been shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize already. Atwood has also never won a Nobel Prize for Literature, and this year 2 awards are being given. One will likely go to a writer who primarily writes in English, so it could be her year.

Having finally seen it, it's worth seeing. I had figured when the film was first announced that there would be some revisionist history, similar to Inglorious Basterds, especially when Debra Tate gave her blessing to it. As the only surviving immediate family member of Sharon Tate and her work with her late mother and sister as advocates for victim rights, she has been justifiably very protective of her sister's legacy and how she has been portrayed. A coworker also saw it and we had different takes on why Debra Tate gave her approval to it. His take was that it allowed her sister to live and gave Sharon a happy ending. My interpretation was that even with the little dialogue Margot Robie had, it portrayed her as more than a blond starlet, especially in the scene where she goes to see her own movie. My view was that it was that plus the happy ending that possibly pleased Debra Tate. I'm re-listening to Karina Longworth's You Must Remember This podcast episodes on the Manson Family and the Tate/La Bianca murders. It was made in 2015, pre-MeToo, and I wonder if her views on Polanski might be different now. It provides great background on both the movie and music connections associated with Manson.

That was something that I was expecting considering the huge influence that Tolkien and Lord of the Rings have on both GRRM and D&D. It's a lovely and fitting parallel to Eowyn taking out the Nazgul Witch King with an assist from Merry.