Washington State University

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December 2, 2010 | 1:01 PM | By  | 

Paul Allen gives $26 million to WSU’s global animal health program | 

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Paul Allen

Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen has given $26 million to Washington State University’s School of Global Animal Health, the Associated Press reported today, the largest donation WSU has ever received.

That’s a million more than the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation gave to launch this program a few years ago, which is now being used to construct a new global health animal sciences building that today was named after Allen. Maybe that’s due to the $1 million more or because Allen is a Coug and Gates is not.

And that was about all we learned, even though there should have been much more to say about WSU’s role in studying the animal-to-human disease link. Continue reading →

FILED UNDER: Science, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Guy Palmer, Paul Allen, Washington State University, zoonotic diseases
August 25, 2010 | 12:30 PM | By  | 

Are Do-Gooder Organizations Self-Loathing? | 

Psychologists at Washington State University have determined that nobody likes do-gooders in the workplace.

Selfless people, says WSU social psychologist Craig Parks, are viewed as “deviant rule breakers” — meaning they break the “rule” (is this Parks’ rule or some presumed rule of nature?) that we are supposed to operate according to self-interest. You can read about Parks’ research here.

This must therefore be magnified tenfold for those working at all these do-gooder organizations supposedly dedicated to saving lives, reducing suffering, empowering women and all those annoying kinds of things.

FILED UNDER: Basics, Science, do-gooders, research, Washington State University