Seattlepi.com has an interesting series of articles on the work that the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is doing on improving world health. I know it's easy to be cynical about Gates' investments in such things, but the sheer scope and numbers are quite dizzying. For example:

• he is pumping $800 million a year into his global health initiative -- nearly matching the entire World Health Organization budget.
• Gates' immunization efforts have saved hundreds of thousands of lives.

One of my colleagues pointed out how working for Microsoft (and being a customer of Microsoft) we contribute in some small way to this ingoing work.