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The Intercept directs our attention to a Bloomberg report from earlier this year that reveals Robert Mercer — a hedge fund manager who is also a major funder of a pro-Trump Super PAC — has been funding the creation of a massive stockpile of human urine in Oregon.
The urine is being collected by the Oregon Institute of Science and Medicine, a research outfit founded by Arthur Robinson, a chemist who unsuccessfully ran for Congress in 2010 with financial help from the Mercer family. So far, Robinson and his institute have collected and 14,000 frozen samples of human urine.
What is Robinson’s interest in urine?
It seems that he believes that analyzing urine with an expensive piece of equipment called a mass spectrometer will be able to help him predict patients’ future likelihood of contracting diseases, thus creating a whole new era in the realm of preventative medicine.
“He’ll use the spectrometer to decode the chemical patterns in urine, the red flags that warn of disease before it strikes,” Bloomberg writes. “The human life span will stretch. It’s hard to judge the credibility of his claims; although he earned a Ph.D. from the University of California at San Diego in the 1960s, he hasn’t published peer-reviewed research on diagnostic medicine in decades.”
Despite the fact that Robinson hasn’t produced any recent peer-reviewed research, Mercer has spent $1.4 million funding this gigantic urine storage center.
Blood transfusions, miracle pee! Oh all the things the super rich think will magically extend life. Given the intense fright and paranoia all that wealth seems to engender, I’m glad I’m not rolling in money. Not that I wouldn’t mind having a bit more, life’s rough when you’re prone to outbreaks of stone brokeness. That said, I think all around, I’m a whole lot happier, enjoying life moment by moment and day by day, rather than constantly fretting how I can stick around longer, so no one can get my money, power, or privilege. Strikes me as a miserable way to live.
Via Raw Story.
He’s funding Arthur Robinson? Wow that guy is a crank. He’s running for Congress again in Oregon’s 4th district. He’s a climate change denier and thinks public schools and public education is eeeeeeeeeeevil. He’s popular in some fundamentalist Xtian homeschooling circles. His homeschooling company sells reprints of a 1911 encyclopedia (I guess later editions of scary modern ideas?) and other dull ‘very religiously and politically correct’ (and by politically correct, I mean all the politics and beliefs near and dear to fundie crackpots) books.
So, I guess it all goes to show (yet again) that having piles of $ does not necessarily mean that person has intelligence or common sense.
Patricia:
Oh lord. Here’s hoping he loses.
I think this is the same crank, from the Encyclopedia of American Loons (an extremely long entry!):
I’ve omitted a great deal from the above excerpt, this loon is incredibly delusional. One of the comments claims he is(? was?) elected “Chairman of the state GOP” (I have not attempted to verify that).
Blf:
Which answers for his piss hunt.
@3blf, what an entry! Yup, Robinson is an amazing loon -- honestly, his partnership with Linus Pauling is about the least odd thing he’s ever done. (I was a student at Oregon State Uni from 1989-1992, I have vague memories of briefly meeting Pauling at some event or other -- Pauling was regarded as a famous alum then, maybe he still is I don’t know).
@2Caine -- I think this is the 4th time Robinson is running in this race. His opponent is Peter DeFazio who has been the rep there for many years now, and he’s popular enough in the northern part of the district (Eugene area) that he has always won these races pretty easily.
Analyse urine for signs of medical dysfunction?
Hm.
Considered in isolation, that notion isn’t obviously implausible. Urine is a byproduct of metabolic processes; if those processes have gone wonky, it makes sense that there might be some detectable effect on the urine they produce. Alas, it’s highly unclear that a schmuck who’s into multiple flavors of science denialism will be able to use that notion to produce anything resembling a medically-valid result.
sez Patricia Phillips: “His homeschooling company sells reprints of a 1911 encyclopedia (I guess later editions of scary modern ideas?)…”
Basically, yes. I’d bet a year’s rent that your use of the term “1911 encyclopedia” is a reference to the 11th edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica, which was published in 1911. EB11 is indeed rife with unvarnished prejudices of various flavors; it’s also out of copyright, so anybody who cares to can print up their own edition of it without fear of getting any cease-and-desist notices from copyright holders. As well. EB11 contains material written by many of the most respected scholars of its era. Put it all together, and it’s no wonder that EB11 is venerated by the sort of people who choose to homeschool in order to avoid contaminating their children with degenerate modern scholarship.