>Several years ago, 80 bison were reintroduced two centuries after their disappearance from these territories... I had no idea there were bison in Europe. The provided hyperlink leads to an article about bison being reintroduced in Mexico. Here is an appropriate article about bison being rewilded in the Southern Carpathians: https://rewildingeurope.com/blog/free-roaming-bison-populati... .
Romanian postage stamp from 2001: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/05/Romania_... https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2008/06/23/first-impressi... Also check out Herzog's 2010 documentary "Cave of Forgotten Dreams" The nonstop gibberish about "AI" bores me to tears. These paintings suggest a different view of what it means to become "conscious". http://www.tcnj.edu/~library/e-reserve/shestakow/SHESHAAH…
Group buys up large tracts of land in Romania to create 'European Yellowstone'
231–235 of 235 posts
Re: Group buys up large tracts of land in Romania to create 'European Yellowstone'
#232Earlier quoted context omitted.
The goodwill he garnered probably shielded him from costly scrutiny of his less savory business practices, for one.
I.e. the presumption of guilt.
No, he was definitely guilty. But if you do good things in recompense, it's easier for people to let it slide. As with modern antitrust, labor rights infringements, etc., it's not so much, "Are they doing it?", as, "Do we care enough to investigate and build a case?". Bankrolling a public good that politicians know need to happen but don't want to go through the political pain of appropriating funds for makes them care less.
Re: Group buys up large tracts of land in Romania to create 'European Yellowstone'
#233Earlier quoted context omitted.
No, US-American tourists
As a frequent reader of r/europe, Americans have FAR from the worst reputation for tourists within Europe, it's not even close. At least among larger countries, they might actually have a better than average rep.
Untrue.
Coming from a tourist nation, the 3 worst traveller's countries are China, Russia and the US. There are statistics in Austria, and the US is not leading at all, rather China has a lead over the other stupidly annoying traveller's.
Behind them are the special cases, like the not-tipping cheap Dutch, the unable-to-drive rich Arabs (car rentals require special insurance rates for them), and the drunken hords of Brits and Swedes invading party towns in the south of Europe.
Re: Group buys up large tracts of land in Romania to create 'European Yellowstone'
#234Earlier quoted context omitted.
I am of the firm belief that this drink, mixed with apple juice, should be marked as Unesco world heritage already.
I never tried that combination (I also drink very rarely), but it sounds interesting .. and I do like the bison grass vodka on its own.
Yeah, it is quite good ..
Re: Group buys up large tracts of land in Romania to create 'European Yellowstone'
#235Earlier quoted context omitted.
The goodwill he garnered probably shielded him from costly scrutiny of his less savory business practices, for one.
I.e. the presumption of guilt.
Given that the US isn't a perfect capitalist system (i.e. what supports of capitalism often refer to as corporatocracy or crony capitalism) why would you assume that he didn't do the closest thing to illegal that he could get away with if it was most profitable to do so?
That said, the actual reason for his philanthropy seems to be fairly well documented: he did almost all of his philanthropy in the last two decades of his life (i.e. past what we would now call the age of retirement) and he was regarded as a shrewd business man up to that point and is now instead remembered as a generous philanthropist instead. So in other words, it was a very successful PR campaign to establish his personal legacy to survive his physical existence (i.e. "to secure his legacy" as the comment you originally replied to stated).
That said, he was also supportive of the ideas of progressive taxation and an estate tax, so the philanthropy may have simply been an act of last resort to part with his money when the government won't take it away through taxation. In that light it sounds more like his philanthropy aimed to meet the needs the welfare system failed to address. This is very different from the kind of philanthropy most billionaires (or "tycoons") get/got up to who are often very much against being taxed more (sometimes even despite publicly stating the opposite).