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Comment by ukulele | Hacker News Reader

Part of me dislikes the title "Blood Unicorn" for being sensationalist, but part of me really likes it for being completely accurate and even a little bit poetic. It kind of feels like all titles should strive for this balance, but I also kind of hate it. I'm sure there's a German word for what I'm feeling!

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"Blood Unicorn" is a great name for a metal band, though.

Came here to laugh and and celebrate a really silly name. BLLOOOOOOODDDD UNIIICORNNNN.

… or for a gruesome Viking ritual human sacrifice.

Ambivalent (and its the same in German)

I've always thought of ambivalent as meaning no strong feelings either way, but I see that it can also mean mixed feelings (even strong ones). Is there a word that doesn't also include the first part, where it means solely having strong mixed feelings?

Goodbad

"Conflicted" seems to capture it but isn't very poetic.

There is more interesting language available if you are oscillating between views e.g. "vacillate" but not really the same as ambivalence.

"Zwiespältig"

Torn?

"I'm all out of faith / This is how I feel, I'm cold and I am shamed / Lying naked on the floor ..."

And appropriately for this story, "illusion never changed / into something real" :)

I've always thought of "ambivalent" as indicating fairly strong mixed feelings. I think it's actually the word you want. For the first meaning, I would go with "indifferent".

They are ambivalent, but the headline isn’t.

It seemed to me as if the author semi-sheepishly is admitting being caught up in the fervor surrounding Theranos:

> I used to refer to it pretty regularly as the Blood Unicorn, Elasmotherium haimatos, because it was a Silicon Valley unicorn with a peak valuation of $9 billion that managed to raise $700 million from investors.

I suppose if "unicorn" is meant to describe fundraising activities, it's accurate. They really raised that money.

At one time, it was valued at $10 billion and being called a dekacorn based on valuation.

He's always been skeptical of them as far as I can remember. The whole "Blood Unicorn" thing is a long running joke in his column.

I believe this[1] is the article in which the author, Matt Levine, introduced the phrase “blood unicorn”. That article continues with a quote about Theranos's “bait and switch”; the author concludes the section with “‘There will be an appropriate time and place to talk about the past,’ said Theranos; my guess is that the place might be court.”

EDIT: This article[2] (also by Matt Levine) predates [1]. “And here is a unicorn being barbecued in what looks like a medieval manuscript that I will just assume prophesies the coming of Theranos. ‘And lo, a Unicorne shall come among ye, and ye shall call it by the name Theranos, or in the Old Tongues, Elasmotherium Haimatos. And it shall take your Bloode, but only a lyttle bit of your Bloode, and it shall do strange Magick upon said Bloode, and tell ye many Things. But then it shall come to pass that its Magick was [makes 'so-so' hand gesture], and that those Things were mostly not true. And ye shall barbecue that Unicorne.’”

[1] https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2016-08-02/mergers-u...

[2] https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2016-05-26/libor-cha...

Matt would appreciate your use of footnotes!

FYI, the author regularly discusses unicorns in his daily column, and often gives them funny/appropriate names. E.g. Blood Unicorn for Theranos, Decacorn for Unicorns over 10b in value, and other ones I can't remember now.

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