Midas Oracle .ORG » Philanthropy

Through dogged persistence, Albert Barnes put together what many critics consider the world’s finest collection of post-Impressionist and early modern paintings. – [VIDEO]

Chris F. Masse — Mon, 22 Aug 2011 14:23:06 +0000

“The new facility is scheduled to open in May 2012, and is intended to reproduce the collection as laid out by Barnes himself, with rooms of the same size and proportion as those in Merion.”

Bloomberg TV profiles Charles and David Koch. — [VIDEO]

Chris F. Masse — Wed, 29 Jun 2011 09:43:41 +0000

Bloomberg TV profiles Charles and David Koch.

Conservative money is bad, and linked to greed, while liberal money is self-evidently philanthropic.

Chris F. Masse — Mon, 31 Jan 2011 15:53:38 +0000

The Kochs vs. Soros: Free markets vs. state coercion.

Peter Thiel: Funding intensive technologies means accepting weird, strange, and singular, ideas. – [VIDEO]

Chris F. Masse — Fri, 10 Dec 2010 16:52:34 +0000

This is an addendum to my yesterday’s post on the “Audacious Optimism” event.

His (excellent) point on weirdness is 2:50 into.

Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, and all the “Giving Pledge” billionaires, should rather do what Peter Thiel does –go investing their cash and/or (liquidated) fortune in futuristic projects. – [VIDEO]

Chris F. Masse — Thu, 09 Dec 2010 22:12:39 +0000

This morning, I wrote that I disaprove Bill Gates and Warren Buffett’s Giving Pledge operation, because I rather favor billionaires investing in young startups lead by visionaries. Well, just after the publication of that post, I stumbled on the “Audacious Optimism” event, which satisfies my request.

The Thiel Foundation is encouraging philanthropists to donate more money to scientific pursuits that could lead to big breakthroughs in medicine, artificial intelligence, and nanotechnology, among other fields.

Note that Peter Thiel draws a distinction between ‘extensive’ technologies, which “take things that are working and replicate them”, and ‘intensive’ technologies, which try to “take the things that are best in the world and make them qualitatively and dramatically better”.

Why I am against those billionaires pledging to “give away” the majority of their wealth

Chris F. Masse — Thu, 09 Dec 2010 15:44:48 +0000

Philanthropy has a low ROI.

They should rather put their money in a VC fund, and invest it in promising ventures, lead by visionaries.

Addendum: WSJ

UPDATE: See Peter Thiel’s “Audacious Optimism” event.

Prizes – [VIDEO]

Chris F. Masse — Fri, 26 Nov 2010 23:20:51 +0000

About the richest 1% of Americans who own roughly half of the entire nation’s wealth

Chris F. Masse — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 14:03:16 +0000

Born Rich – by Jamie Johnson

The One Percent – by Jamie Johnson

Peter Diamandis’s X Prize Foundation, founded in 1996 to usher in an era of private space flight, has brought a new era of innovation through competition along with it.

Chris F. Masse — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 08:02:56 +0000

“In 1997, the total value of philanthropic prizes with purses of $100,000 or more was roughly $74 million. Today that number is $315 million.“

When you ask for money, you get advice. And when you ask for advice, you might get money.

Chris F. Masse — Sun, 12 Apr 2009 23:53:44 +0000