This was a post from a few months ago, but in light of the recent Stand Up for Cancer broadcast I thought it was a good idea to run this through again. 60 Minutes does a very good job in showing what private research can do, since grants from the government are harder to receive and with budgets, well we all know that story. 
Research and breakthroughs are largely taking place today with private funding and this video gives you a pretty good idea. On the other hand, I enjoyed the blending of the history of Howard Hughes here, and the one thing in the archives covered was his standing up to Congress and the government. We could use a couple like him today, and granted his sole purpose of setting up the foundation was not initially to benefit heath care, but it worked out well. If any of us really knew the entire story with his genius mentality, who knows it could have had some strategic planning underneath, as there was no will, so perhaps even a little smarter than we even thought, but that is speculation here on my part. We may have all known folks that come across our paths that are accelerated beyond what most of us consider normal, and it is a fight sometimes to have the gift of higher level thought processes and still switch gears to do a "brain dump", shift gears, and fit into society, but we need to not lose sight of who they are and the breakthroughs they contribute.
Today, with budget cuts having priority over all other concerns and the lacking ability of anyone thus far to create new projects, issues and plans that reach out and help citizens, from the government without long drawn out legal affairs, private contributions are more important than ever. BD
Howard Hughes: Medical Research Institute Is America's Second Largest Charity Good story on the Howard Hughes Institute. I am an eternal Howard Hughes fan and image this story goes though how the institute got started. Researchers are free to delve and go in to areas whereby otherwise red tape would make some of projects impossible to fund. If you missed 60 minutes this week, here's the story, fascinating. To think the entire project evolved getting to get out of the clench hold of the Air Force, and when challenged by the IRS, research began. In an earlier post I talked about the recent influx of funds of 600 million in to the pool of endowments. BD
The Medical Quack: Howard Hughes: Medical Research Institute Is America's Second Largest Charity
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