Turns out the ice bucket thing worked out for ALS researchers.

This is nice:

The ALS Association says the money raised by the ‘ice bucket challenge’ craze has helped researchers identify a gene that contributes to amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. That could provide a new route for providing therapy for the incurable disease.

Not a magic bullet, by any means. But I doubt that there was ever going to be a magic bullet. What there could be would be a promising new line of research that only needed some dedicated funding, and that’s what we apparently got out of the deal. …Cool.