Koch gives Smithsonian $35M for new dinosaur hall
Source: AP
WASHINGTON (AP) -- An energy businessman is donating a record $35 million to the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History to build a new dinosaur hall on the National Mall, the museum complex announced Thursday.
The donation by David H. Koch, the executive vice president of Koch Industries Inc. of Wichita, Kan., is the single largest gift in the museum's 102-year history. The Smithsonian Board of Regents voted Monday to name the new dinosaur hall in Koch's honor.
Koch, an engineer trained at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, is a billionaire who lives in New York City. He was the Libertarian Party's vice presidential candidate in 1980 and has been a major donor to conservative political causes targeting President Barack Obama's policies, as well as to educational, medical and cultural groups.
Read more: http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_SMITHSONIAN_DINOSAURS_GIFT?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT
what is that popping-splat sound from over by FR?
klook
(12,174 posts)as one of the nation's leading dinosaurs.
ProfessionalLeftist
(4,982 posts)And take his brother with him.
KansDem
(28,498 posts)RobertEarl
(13,685 posts)Last edited Thu May 3, 2012, 11:53 PM - Edit history (1)
There once was a rumor that the reptilian republicans are really an ancient breed of evolved-into-humans-dinosaurs.
All this donation will do is feed that rumor, because it makes it look like dinosaurs are being put on some pedestal, and it is a modern day economic dinosaur that is making the donation to do so.
Hey, all i can do is warn ya. (smile)
freshwest
(53,661 posts)They're coming to eat all of us.
KamaAina
(78,249 posts)That's what I thought.
freshwest
(53,661 posts)KamaAina
(78,249 posts)Makes you wonder why Koch didn't start bankrolling him after the casino guy pulled out. They could even have started a third party, with the dinosaur as their answer to the donkey and elephant.
Sanity Claws
(21,863 posts)I guess he feels an affinity with the extinct ones.
global1
(25,293 posts)Fearless
(18,421 posts)zaj
(3,433 posts):^/
glinda
(14,807 posts)jberryhill
(62,444 posts)A monument to extinction. A present reminder that, however brief our individual lives on this planet are, our manifestation as a product of earth's ecosystem is but a wink of the eye of the cosmos - as is earth itself and the star it orbits.
The ultimate fate of the Universe is to end.
It'll have been fun while it lasted, so let's just fucking enjoy the ride while it's still here.
allan01
(1,950 posts)pay your taxes
Archae
(46,369 posts)They were on the Earth a HELLUVA longer time than mammals, including those ugly pink ones called "humans."
Now if only that big rock hadn't gone splat...
JI7
(89,283 posts)but humans survived while dinosaurs didn't.
Archae
(46,369 posts)But nowadays we call them "birds."
AtheistCrusader
(33,982 posts)Anything from the late triassic counts, I would think.
AlbertCat
(17,505 posts)Crocodiles are reptiles. Dinos are not (tho' for a while they were thought to be)
Mammals are in the late triassic too. "Mammal-like Reptiles" or Sinapsids...which became us... evolved long before the Dinos, but couldn't keep up as well after the Permian Extinction.
I know... I'm being a know-it-all. But it's so cool and fascinating!
Remember the BBC's "Walking With Dinosaurs"? There's a "prequel" called "Walking With Monsters". Put it in your Netfix queue!
AtheistCrusader
(33,982 posts)"Dinosaurs are a specific subgroup of the archosaurs, a group that also includes crocodiles, pterosaurs, and birds. although pterosaurs are close relations, they are not true dinosaurs. Even more distantly related to dinosaurs are the marine reptiles, which include the plesiosaurs and ichthyosaurs."
I tend to agree with the classification, but you are correct, I should not call a croc a dinosaur. They are very, very close cousins and they existed at the same time, and crocs and birds share a common dino ancestor, but they are not dino's themselves.
kitt6
(516 posts)that old republican reptiles are the world's ills.
crunch60
(1,412 posts)These are the wolves in sheep's clothing. Benevolent killers of democracy, buy and use as they see fit.
Princess Turandot
(4,787 posts)the project is being estimated at $60 million, which he's paying entirely. (It was announced in February; he's on the museum board.)
http://www.dnainfo.com/new-york/20120207/upper-east-side/david-koch-funding-major-metropolitan-museum-of-art-plaza-renovation
truthisfreedom
(23,163 posts)Yes, he believes in dinosaurs because he knows where oil came from. Millions of years of decomposition of earlier life forms. The goo left from a lush, lush world filled with life. I wouldn't be surprised if he's an atheist.
no_hypocrisy
(46,267 posts)(New York) City Opera re-named its home the Koch Theater in Lincoln Center.
wilt the stilt
(4,528 posts)He's advertising. If he was really giving money his name wouldn't be displayed.
tawadi
(2,110 posts)LiberalEsto
(22,845 posts)Will they show people riiding the dinosaurs?
AlbertCat
(17,505 posts)They support a lot of the arts... like the NY State Theatre which is now the David H. Koch Theatre.
Of course if the USA would support the arts like every other civilized nation does, we wouldn't have to depend so much on Koch....
cally
(21,599 posts)I went to the Smithsonian a few weeks ago and was surprised to see the Koch name on a great exhibit on human evolution. Reminds me of some of the great buildings funded by the railroad tycoons a century ago. At least some of their money is going to a good cause.
Igel
(35,383 posts)We hear a lot about $300,000 donations to conservative causes. We hear less about more frequent, larger donations, even if we like the cause.
What's really important is what gets through our filters and feeds our beliefs. In this, we're but human.
jpak
(41,760 posts)yup
lynne
(3,118 posts)- wonderful memories of my own grade-school trips, then taking my children, and now my grandchildren to the "Dinosaur Building" at the Smithsonian. My adult daughter still has the stuffed dinosaur she got there when she was 4 yrs. old.
Am glad to see this donation and am pleased to see his money benefiting everyone rather than just his own political interests.