Gates looses mosquitoes on tech conference bloodsuckers
Malaria message in a jar
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Bill Gates opened a jar of mosquitoes on stage at a conference for elite technology bloodsuckers on Wednesday to make a point about the spread of malaria.
"Malaria is spread by mosquitoes," Gates said before unleashing the insects at the Technology, Entertainment, and Design (TED) conference in Long Beach, California. "I brought some. Here, I'll let them roam around. There is no reason only poor people should be infected."
Some breathless accounts of the incident described the philanthropist releasing a "swarm" of mosquitoes, although TED organizers claim it was only a few.
Gates waited a few minutes before assuring the audience none of the mosquitoes carried malaria. But then, he's also assured the world that SPAM would be eradicated by January 2006.
The former Microsoft head has been pushing to reduce malaria deaths through his nonprofit organization, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. In September, Gates said the Foundation would provide $168.7m to help develop a vaccine for malaria.
Despite the claims of safety, we'd say TED attendees should still probably be on the lookout for malaria symptoms, which include fever, joint pain, vomiting, shivering, and convulsions. Hmm, maybe Gates has been working on a malaria inoculation earlier than we suspected...
TED curator Chris Anderson joked that when the video is posted on the TED website, it would be headlined "Gates releases more bugs into the world." ®
COMMENTS
@Chris C
The comment "And while a lot of people will defend the guy, if he's that gung-ho about it, let him contribute a lot more of his personal fortune. He can afford it a lot more than those attendees" is ridiculous populist tripe. He funded the BMGF with $220m of his own money, which is far more than you'd most likely make in 50 lifetimes. While it is a small fraction of his estimated $40bn (most of which is perpetually falling US stock holdings), it's still a significant monetary amount.
Additionally, Gates has publicly stated that upon the death of he and his wife, 99% of his remaining wealth will be donated to charities, which will still most likely be in the neighborhood of $30-40bn. Additionally, when he and his wife die, the entire endowment of the BMGF must be distributed within 50 years.
Stupid idiot by Chris C
true dat.
There's nothing funny or clever about it. I think we all know that (poor?) countries have major problems with malaria. They also die from diahrrea. It is not my fault. So why should you put laxatives in the buffet? I am sort of sick of the rich countries being told they should help out the poor ones, when the actual reason they are poor is because of the RICH corrupted people in charge.
What good will it REALLY do, to donate nets to Africa? What good will it do when a supposedly common belief (or excuse) is that raping virgins cures men of AIDs?
Why is there a charity getting lots of press about stopping tetanus in poor countries? Yes, terrible. They are dying of tetanus. Lets help them. THEN we find out the reason they're getting tetanus is because they are stuffing open wounds with dirt from the ground in some weird attempt to make it heal?
Re; angry raving loony, andrew stevens
@angry raving loony
"It's about time that bloodsucking bastard got what's coming to him"
<sarcasm>That bastard! Where does he get off donating all of that money to charity? Someone really must put a stop to this, what a felonious cad!</sarcasm>
@ andrew stevens
"you spelt "fucking" wrong"
You spelled "fscking" wrong.
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