It's interesting how when faced with the decision that might negatively affect themselves, people will not stand up for their own beliefs.
That's often the way it goes. Discovery is often made by a publicly funded university, then a private company steps in. You're typing on the Internet which began as publicly funded.
I'm still waiting for all of those cures you're talking about. Show us twenty years of NIH budgets and what they've produced. Other than a shitload of wealth to those on the receiving end of the grants....
Here you go -- I don't know which diseases you might be interested in, but here's a chart. http://www.nih.gov/news/fundingresearchareas.htm Just opt out of treatments for any disease on that list.
DARPA was a military project, not "science" grant. you know what, you make a very good point, The military seems extremely competent at discovering some great things. Let's increase defense spending.
Artificial distinction. You're the first person who's ever thought of the military as competent, (obviously you've never been in the military) but okay, if you really think that funding science through the military is better than funding science through universities.
Actually yes, you didn't read my post, my wife is a PhD student, I know how universities "work". They don't
I'm sure there is some waste, and yet, the cures are there. Ironically, you want to give funding over to the $500 screwdriver people. Opt out, my friend, it's the only way you can show you have the courage of your beliefs that you will not tolerate waste.
had I not seen by myself the amount of corruption surrounding gov grants, I'd sure be more sympathetic to this type of funding esp for big projects (stem cell) that require outrageous amounts of money. I'd say stop the finding, the way it's done now, re-architect the system from scratch and give it a try again.