Stardate 20010831.1456 (On Screen): In 1999, at the height of the dot-com bubble, Jim Clark (founder of Netscape and one of the dot-com millionaires) pledged $150 million to Stanford to help build a research center for work on stem cells. Today, long after the dot-com bubble burst and many paper $millions have evaporated, he announced that he's not going to give the final $60 million dollars of that pledge after all. He says he's doing so as a protest against Fearless Leader's decision on Federal Funding for stem cell research. Frankly, if he really wanted to protest that then the right way would have been to not only provide that last $60 million but also to spend
more money to finance creation of new stem cell lines, which is why I'm really quite skeptical about his stated motivation here. The suspicion rises that he's feeling a bit less wealthy than he was 2 years ago and regretting his pledge (especially since he's now
financing his own startup in a less-than-friendly VC environment).
Regardless of his motivation, I find his behavior reprehensible. Based on his pledge, Stanford committed to a very expensive building project. Now he's pulled out and left Stanford holding the bag. The next charity that he promises money to would be well advised to ask him to sign a contract. (discuss)
Update 20010903: Apparently I'm not the only one who's skeptical.
