Virgin Health Bank : It's not what you think. Richard Branson has started a hybrid (pun intended) umbilical cord blood bank. There has been a fascinating ongoing debate over whether the blood-forming hematopoietic stem cells found in umbilical cords should be banked privately (for individual, autologous use, not accessible to public registries) or publically (for allogeneic use). Branson's alternative requires parents to split their cord blood unit: 80% for the public bank and 20% for their own private banking. The parents pay $3000 or so for their "biological insurance" and if anyone in the world needs the public portion of the cord blood unit, they can have it free-of-charge.
posted by scblackman on Jul 5, 2007 - 10 comments

Branson makes $3bn climate pledge Following, perhaps, the recent philanthropic example of Warren Buffett, Richard Branson, chairman of Virgin Group has pledged to donate 100% of the profits from his transportation interests for the next ten years to fight global warming. Given California's recent lawsuit against auto manufacturers for contributing to global warming (previously), could this be a way to blunt similar criticisms and liability generated by contributions from Virgin Group's own activities?
posted by kcds on Sep 21, 2006 - 27 comments

Virgin Comics. You've sold records, broke records (sort of), flown balloons (and planes), furthered communication, worked on a railroad, launched an airline and promised to send us to space*, not to mention several other forays into fashion, restauranteuring, books and film. So what do you do next? Sell comic books with Deepak Chopra, obviously. (via Warren Ellis's Bad Signal)
posted by grabbingsand on Jan 6, 2006 - 22 comments

This past week (Sir) Richard Branson (otherwise known as "That Nutty Billionaire"), showed that corporate disclosure is a good thing, as he stripped bare, except for a muscle suit, to launch the U.S.'s first Virtual Phone carrier, Virgin Mobile.
posted by benjh on Jul 28, 2002 - 33 comments

The Bad Taste Tour of Branson, MO. "Branson is a strange, kooky place nestling deep in the Ozarks. One of those quaint, old-fashioned American country towns where ... the menus in the restaurants have Biblical quotes next to the appetizers and where people walk around wearing orange duck beaks. "
posted by grabbingsand on Feb 5, 2002 - 22 comments

As if we needed it, another reason not to participate in the "stupidity tax" here in the States.
posted by Steven Den Beste on Aug 26, 2000 - 0 comments