Hurrah for Bill and Buffett

We already knew about Bill Gates's largesse in establishing the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Today it was announced by Warren Buffett, the Omaha billionaire, that he would be donating a large part of his fortune to the foundation. No 300-foot yachts for Buffett, or a line-up of rich relatives (a la the Wal-Mart clan). Instead, he's teaming up with Gates to help rid the world of malaria, river blindness and other preventable diseases. I've ragged on Bill Gates in years past (by helping Sun's Scott McNealy to mock him), but he and Buffett deserve an enormous amount of respect for attempting to turn their fortunes to the most productive work they can find. After all, don't those researching vaccines for viruses that could devastate populations deserve the money more than jewelers and Mercedes-Benz dealers?