when local billionaires do stupid things

[rivendellrose]

Apparently the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation supports, of all things, the freaking Discovery Institute.

Damn it. I like the Gates Foundation - they do good work for the most part, and it really pisses me off to know that they're in the pocket of an organization that's trying to slip Creationism into education under the heading of "Intelligent Design." That's just plain absurd.

Pity. I'd always thought of donating to the Gates Foundation. Now, forget it.

Edited to add: Okay, I'm a bit compulsive today, it seems. I did a little searching on the Gates Foundation website, and can only come up with one reference to the Discovery Institute. Full quote:

Special Initiatives - Grant
October 2, 2000
Discovery Institute
Seattle, WA
$1,000,000 over 1 year to support the Cascadia Transportation Initiative

Unless there's something else hiding in there, I'm a little bit less upset - back in 2000, I'm not sure many people knew what the Discovery Institute was up to (hell, not a lot of people know now, outside skeptical and atheist communities), and... I have absolutely no idea what the Cascadia Transportation Initiative is, because Google searches for it turn up almost nothing beyond 1) this reference on Gates Found's website, and 2) P.Z. Meyers' website, referring to the same thing on Gates Found's site. (Note: The link for Pharyngula (Meyers' site) is from August of 05. So... how did this become such big news today? I'm checking back to my original source and seeing if I can track things backwards and see what's going on...

....And of course the entry on Daily Kos is from August of 05 as well. See the things you learn when you really pay attention? Let that be a lesson to me, I suppose.

Mild annoyance due to the SkepChick blog for posting old news under their "news" section.

Comments

[cyranocyrano.livejournal.com]

It couldn't hurt to mention it to somebody at the Foundation.

[rivendellrose.livejournal.com]

Good point. I'll see about writing a letter.

[zinjadu.livejournal.com]

You could always donate to us~ You know, the heart people. ^_^

It's not too late to donate to our Walk. www.pugetsoundheartwalk.kintera.org Search for me and donate!

[/plug]

Sorry about that, but you mention donating, and I gotta plug, dude.

[rivendellrose.livejournal.com]

Good point! Sorry I've been slow about getting back to you on that - I've been a bit stuck figuring out which of the various charities I want to support are actually going to get my money, lately. :)

[lovelies.livejournal.com]

That's too bad. :-/ They donated some money to our libraries a few years ago.

[rivendellrose.livejournal.com]

They do great stuff, normally. That's what really annoys me about this - I'd always had them in mind as a foundation I could trust to do good things. Hell, I had in mind to try for a job with them, someday, when I've got more experience and education... they have a good rep for hiring anthropologists.

[rivendellrose.livejournal.com]

And it now turns out that I should be more annoyed with the blog that I got the news from - checking the Gates Foundation's actual site shows that it was a one-time gift back in 2000, earmarked specifically to something called the "Cascadia Transportation Initiative." I still don't get it, but this is a lot less upsetting than I was led to believe.

[akashasheiress.livejournal.com]

Aren't they, like, big on pro-choice?

Now I'm all disappointet.

[rivendellrose.livejournal.com]

I'm not totally sure about their stance on abortion, but from material I'd seen before I've strong associated them with contraception and AIDS prevention materials in Third World countries, which, IMHO, is good and very important work.

Now that I'm digging through their grant lists, though, there's so much there that it's nearly impossible to get an overall view of everything. Which I'm guessing is how the Discovery Institute stuff stayed invisible for so long... I'm trying to track it, now, and figure out exactly what's going on with this. I'd like very much to believe it's just a mix-up of some kind. The money listed for Discovery Institute seems to be going to the "Cascadia Transportation Initiative," which... I've never heard of, and a Google search isn't turning up much. Upsetting.

[darthparadox.livejournal.com]

I searched for "Cascadia Transportation" and found something about the Cascadia Transportation Conference, sponsored by Microsoft, which appeared to be addressing energy concerns in transportation. Sounds reasonable to me.

[rivendellrose.livejournal.com]

A little bit of a false alarm, it turns out. I should be more annoyed with the blog that I got the news from - checking the Gates Foundation's actual site shows that it was a one-time gift back in 2000, earmarked specifically to something called the "Cascadia Transportation Initiative." I still don't get it, but this is a lot less upsetting than I was led to believe.

[akashasheiress.livejournal.com]

I believe they're vocal supporters of Planned Parenthood.

[otterknit.livejournal.com]

http://www.cascadiaproject.org/about.php ?

Possibly you've already gotten that far, but as of your edit, it didn't seem you had.

[rivendellrose.livejournal.com]

What a terribly strange thing for them to be involved in... but it does explain why the Gates Foundation got involved in that particular project. Thanks for the link!