Lake Como - Nesso, Italy
 

I guess there's not enough glory or publicity in offering a Billion dollar prize to someone who cures a particular cancer by 2020.


"Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (BRK/A) is backing a $1 billion prize offered by Quicken Loans Inc. if a contestant predicts the winner of each game in the National Collegiate Athletic Association’s men’s basketball tournament.

The prize will be paid in 40 annual installments of $25 million and split among multiple winners if there is more than one perfect entrant, the Detroit-based lender said today in a statement distributed by PR Newswire. The winner also has the option of a single payment of $500 million.

Berkshire has specialized in unusual insurance risks for decades, protecting clients against big losses in return for premium payments. The Omaha, Nebraska-based company won a bet in 2010 on the World Cup after France was eliminated from the tournament in South Africa. Berkshire has previously guaranteed against the potential payout of $1 billion in a contest sponsored by PepsiCo Inc.

“We’ve seen a lot of contests offering a million dollars for putting together a good bracket, which got us thinking, what is the perfect bracket worth?” Quicken Loans Chief Marketing Officer Jay Farner said in the statement. “We decided a billion dollars seems right for such an impressive feat.”

The 68-team team tournament begins in March. Submissions will be limited to one per household and capped at 10 million entrants, according to the statement. "

Can I get an Amen?!!!!

I'm waiting!

No, but there might be plenty of glory and publicity and money in enabling infertile women to bear children. A couple guys won the Nobel prize for that a few years ago. A Nobel Prize. For enabling (the very, very few) people who can afford it, to have a biological child thanks to extraordinary and expensive medical measures—when there are hundreds of millions of abandoned and orphaned children around the world needing homes.

Yay! I found my car!
 

A man in a hot air balloon realized he was lost. He reduced altitude and spotted a woman below. He descended a bit more and shouted, "Excuse me, can you help? I promised a friend I would meet him an hour ago, but I don't know where I am."

The woman below replied, "You are in a hot air balloon hovering approximately 30 feet above the ground. You are between 40 and 41 degrees north latitude and between 59 and 60 degrees west longitude."
"You must be an engineer," said the balloonist.
"I am," replied the woman, "How did you know?"
"Well," answered the balloonist, "everything you told me is, technically correct, but I have no idea what to make of your information, and the fact is I am still lost. Frankly, you've not been much help so far."
The woman below responded, "You must be in Management."
"I am," replied the balloonist. "But how did you know?"

"Well," said the woman, "you don't know where you are or where you are going. You have risen to where you are due to a large quantity of hot air. You made a promise which you have no idea how to keep, and you expect people beneath you to solve your problems. The fact is you are in exactly the same position you were in before we met, but now, somehow it's my fault!”