In case you missed 60 Minutes this weekend, this is a great interview and “travel 
with” view of what the 10 year old foundation is doing and where. The Gates plan to give away 90% of their fortune to create cures and help fight disease and educate the world and the US. You don’t hear a lot about the foundation as they are not plastered all over the world looking for donations, they are self funded and thus it’s up to them where the money is spent. India is a focus with Melinda’s efforts on educating women having children as so many die, and she felt it was a neglected crisis with showing how to attend to the child after childbirth first. Polio is also a problem and the goes over how the vaccination needs to be distributed. They are knocking on doors to find every child that has not tasted the polio vaccination and they saw people afflicted that we have not seen here in the US in the 60s.
Deaths of infants have been cut in half with education. Melinda Gates works with 
hard facts and determines where money can be best spent so more can benefit. She finds much more joy in connecting with people.
The foundation has over 800 employees and is in the process of constructing a new headquarters. The video focuses on Melinda’s efforts but there’s also some coverage with Bill Gates here and how they think and work together. The Gates children will be wealthy and are not at a loss and discussions continue with the inclusion of Warren Buffett and the challenge for others to give. Malaria is a focus as they discovered that very little money has been dedicated in this area and thus it is an area for focus. We might all remember the TED presentation in Long Beach from a couple of years ago when Bill Gates turned loose a jar of mosquitoes to make his point.
The Giving Pledge Call for Philanthropy Continues to Grow–40 
Billionaires Committed
American student education is the big focus in the US. Only 1/3 of high school seniors are prepared to go to college. The Gates want to move this up to 80%. Bill Gates describes Melinda as very analytical and the correspondent from 60 Minutes comments on how the couple are just a very normal match with goals, thinking and where they are going. The video below is a “plus” web only show that discusses how the 60 Minute interview an presentation was created.
Bill Gates was also recently on Oprah taking about the new movie, “Waiting for Superman” and for years he has testified almost to the point of being an annual fixture with Congress stating the same information as relates to education for children and in my opinion, if some of those folks in that Congressional room became at least minimal participants in general consumer literacy, the might have a better idea and grasp this a little better as most come from the older generation and this is something you can’t get without some participation and first experience and they need to participate to write better laws today too.
Waiting for Superman An Inconvenient Truth” Movie – Bill Gates and Oprah Discuss The Future and Today of Education
Bill Gates doesn’t give up and will be the keynote speaker at the mHealth Summit next month in Washington DC along with many other prominent names in Health IT today. You might say he’s wearing them down to gain participation. My own opinion, we would have a highly more productive arm of government if we could get more participation with healthcare technology and would have better created laws as a result as we are so much growing tired of the type of soap opera we hear and see about today and to move this up to the next level with members of Congress participating and
expanding their knowledge would be great. It’s just not all for the kids and “for those guys over there” anymore. If we can kills that old paradigm and drag some folks out of the 70s, I think we would really see the US progress.
Bill Gates Named Keynote Speaker at 2010 mHealth Summit To Be Held November 8-10
Bill Gates also see the future of creating drugs and cures with investments as such 
with technology that simulates creation and makes it safer for researchers to work in this environment.
Bill Gates Invests In Software Company That Predicts and Helps Generate Creating New Drugs
This was such a good story by 60 Minutes and compared to all the lust and algorithmic formulas running out there in the world for greed, so refreshing to see the human element has not been lost the the commitment of the foundation to bring all of this together as their philanthropy group is like no other in the world, they have both the brains and the money and believe that sharing and working together is the key. BD
They visited rural Uttar Pradesh, India, to learn more about some of our work in family health--to save maternal and newborn lives, with a focus on social and behavioral change in village households and communities--and Washington, D.C., where they toured a public school and discussed what makes an effective teacher. In addition, Pelley sat down with Bill and Melinda in Seattle to talk about the work of the foundation and reasons behind their giving.
"60 Minutes" Profiles Melinda Gates and Our Work - Gary Darmstadt | Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
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