Gentlemen, I think you will find the exits quite locked.

[Pulp Hero]

None will stand before my genetically modified insectoid army!

"Bill Gates just released mosquitos into the audience at TED and said, 'Not only poor people should experience this.'"

That was the post by Facebook's Senior Platform Manager Dave Morin on social networking site Twitter.

The event took place at the TED2009 (Technology, Entertainment and Design) conference on Wednesday in Long Beach, Calif., where the Microsoft chairman was delivering a presentation about malaria education and eradication. Malaria is transmitted from person to person via mosquito bites.
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The mosquito incident was confirmed by the media office of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which also noted that the insects released were not carrying malaria.

(Msnbc.com is a joint venture between Microsoft and NBC Universal.)


Fact file
Image: Mosquitoes

All about malaria
Lean about this serious, sometimes fatal disease.

msnbc.com
The philanthropist has been pushing to reduce malaria deaths through the nonprofit. In September, Gates announced that the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation would provide $168.7 million to the PATH Malaria Vaccine Initiative to help develop a vaccine for the deadly disease.

Malaria is an infectious disease caused by parasites in the red blood cells. Each year, 350 million to 500 million are infected, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and more than one million cases result in death. Symptoms include high fever, nausea, chills, sweating and weakness.

The disease is still prevalent on continents such as Africa and Asia, which have tropical or subtropical climates. Malaria has been eradicated in most countries with temperate climates. There is currently no effective vaccine against malaria.

I think its a brilliant way to make a point.

[Darth Wong]

I love the Bond super-villain imagery.

[Zixinus]

I have to say, this is pretty damn effective way for some people to get an idea. Especially for spoiled rich people who lived most of their life in luxury.

[CaptainChewbacca]

Bill Gates is definitely one lab explosion away from being a supervillain.

[Ghost Rider]

Fun stuff...but more OT then not.

[Solauren]

Wow. Considering the legal power that could be tossed against him for that...

Balls of steel (or in Gate's case, silicon + plastic)

[The Jester]

Video. He unleashes the mosquitoes at about five minutes. Pretty unexciting, actually.

[Agent Fisher]

Damn, I had this mental image of a cloud of them, Bill Gates laughing evilly.

[kinnison]

I think that Mr. Gates was being and continues to be a total asshole, who completely misses the point.

Hundreds of billions of dollars, pounds, roubles, yen, you name it have been poured into Africa for most of a century, and damn near all of it has ended up either in Switzerland or in various high-class casinos, clothing vendors, arms dealers and purveyors of expensive cars. And that will continue, as long as the West continues to allow post-colonial guilt to determine its actions.

If Mr. Gates had really wanted to help Africans (and the rest of us) he would have put his billions into a prize fund, to be paid out when some determinant of our progress towards large-scale space industry was reached. I would nominate some fairly large amount (perhaps a gigawatt) of power delivered from space with good reliability for an extended period of time. That would really help the whole of humanity - partly by cutting down the money tree that funds global terrorism.

[CarsonPalmer]

I think that Mr. Gates was being and continues to be a total asshole, who completely misses the point.

Hundreds of billions of dollars, pounds, roubles, yen, you name it have been poured into Africa for most of a century, and damn near all of it has ended up either in Switzerland or in various high-class casinos, clothing vendors, arms dealers and purveyors of expensive cars. And that will continue, as long as the West continues to allow post-colonial guilt to determine its actions.

If Mr. Gates had really wanted to help Africans (and the rest of us) he would have put his billions into a prize fund, to be paid out when some determinant of our progress towards large-scale space industry was reached. I would nominate some fairly large amount (perhaps a gigawatt) of power delivered from space with good reliability for an extended period of time. That would really help the whole of humanity - partly by cutting down the money tree that funds global terrorism.

How on earth is a space ship going to help Africans dying of malaria? Unlike a lot of other things, this is actually an area where progress is being made, and continues to be made. Heck, a Rick Reilly column in Sports Illustrated helped finish off malaria in the entire country of Malawi, so an effort by Bill Gates is sure to make a serious dent in the disease.

Regardless, he is under no obligation to give any of his money to any charity, so he can't be an asshole just because he prefers fighting diseases to building spaceships.

[Pulp Hero]

I think that Mr. Gates was being and continues to be a total asshole, who completely misses the point.

Hundreds of billions of dollars, pounds, roubles, yen, you name it have been poured into Africa for most of a century, and damn near all of it has ended up either in Switzerland or in various high-class casinos, clothing vendors, arms dealers and purveyors of expensive cars. And that will continue, as long as the West continues to allow post-colonial guilt to determine its actions.

If Mr. Gates had really wanted to help Africans (and the rest of us) he would have put his billions into a prize fund, to be paid out when some determinant of our progress towards large-scale space industry was reached. I would nominate some fairly large amount (perhaps a gigawatt) of power delivered from space with good reliability for an extended period of time. That would really help the whole of humanity - partly by cutting down the money tree that funds global terrorism.

[Patrick Degan]

I think that Mr. Gates was being and continues to be a total asshole, who completely misses the point.

Hundreds of billions of dollars, pounds, roubles, yen, you name it have been poured into Africa for most of a century, and damn near all of it has ended up either in Switzerland or in various high-class casinos, clothing vendors, arms dealers and purveyors of expensive cars. And that will continue, as long as the West continues to allow post-colonial guilt to determine its actions.

If Mr. Gates had really wanted to help Africans (and the rest of us) he would have put his billions into a prize fund, to be paid out when some determinant of our progress towards large-scale space industry was reached. I would nominate some fairly large amount (perhaps a gigawatt) of power delivered from space with good reliability for an extended period of time. That would really help the whole of humanity - partly by cutting down the money tree that funds global terrorism.

Riiiiight... I'm sure Africans dying of malaria, famine, and AIDS now will find comfort as they breathe their last that we'll eventually have large-scale space industry in orbit sometime in the next century, maybe.

[Darth Wong]

I think that Mr. Gates was being and continues to be a total asshole, who completely misses the point.

Hundreds of billions of dollars, pounds, roubles, yen, you name it have been poured into Africa for most of a century, and damn near all of it has ended up either in Switzerland or in various high-class casinos, clothing vendors, arms dealers and purveyors of expensive cars. And that will continue, as long as the West continues to allow post-colonial guilt to determine its actions.

If Mr. Gates had really wanted to help Africans (and the rest of us) he would have put his billions into a prize fund, to be paid out when some determinant of our progress towards large-scale space industry was reached. I would nominate some fairly large amount (perhaps a gigawatt) of power delivered from space with good reliability for an extended period of time. That would really help the whole of humanity - partly by cutting down the money tree that funds global terrorism.

How on earth is a space ship going to help Africans dying of malaria?

Obviously, kinnison subscribes to the trickle-down economics theory. If venture capitalists make a spaceship in California, poverty-stricken Africans will magically benefit!

I'm sure that people suffering in Africa lie awake at night wishing that America could produce greater incentive for venture capitalists to make privately funded spacecraft.

Seriously, as much as I do enthuse about the space industry, it is absolutely ridiculous to claim that it is the most efficient way to achieve anything but advancing itself. If you want to do R&D toward some socially useful end, you can just fund R&D toward that end; you don't need to fund R&D for some completely different project in hopes that you will accidentally get useful spin-offs. Yes, it works, but it's hardly efficient.

[Kuja]

The best response I've seen to this thus far has been a blogger's humerous lament: "Just what we need; Bill Gates releasing more bugs into the world."

[Patrick Degan]

Video. He unleashes the mosquitoes at about five minutes. Pretty unexciting, actually.

Make an allowance now. Gates is a neophyte to the world of supervillany. He probably hasn't even set up his own underground lair, nevermind the secret volcano base.

[kinnison]

Mr. Wong, how exactly is an increase in the number of zeros in some African dictator's bank account going to help those same Africans dying of malaria?

The real cause of Africa's problems is massive corruption and inefficiency in government. Large amounts of any monetary aid end up in Switzerland, and all too often material aid such as sacks of grain ends up being stolen by the military and other gangsters who have the sanction of the State, and then sold on for huge profits to those who are supposed to have been given it for free.

The West did Africa no favours colonising it. They did even less leaving too early; there is a very good example of colonialism actually benefiting the native inhabitants of the colony. Its name is India.

[Phantasee]

So your plan is to fly all the dictators to the moon?

[Samuel]

Mr. Wong, how exactly is an increase in the number of zeros in some African dictator's bank account going to help those same Africans dying of malaria?

The real cause of Africa's problems is massive corruption and inefficiency in government. Large amounts of any monetary aid end up in Switzerland, and all too often material aid such as sacks of grain ends up being stolen by the military and other gangsters who have the sanction of the State, and then sold on for huge profits to those who are supposed to have been given it for free.

The West did Africa no favours colonising it. They did even less leaving too early; there is a very good example of colonialism actually benefiting the native inhabitants of the colony. Its name is India.

I think the Indians disagree- the whole famine thing was a big of part of that. How many millions did the Brits accidentally kill?

As for Africa being entirely a shithole, there are bright spots. Like Botswana, South Africa, the islands, etc. Not all the countries are corrupt dictatorships that exist only to oppress their people.

[Coyote]

He could spend a lot of that money in building a wall around the Vatican so that the Pope can't send missionaries there to teach the Africans that birth control is "evil". That'd be a good start.

[Phantasee]

He could spend a lot of that money in building a wall around the Vatican so that the Pope can't send missionaries there to teach the Africans that birth control is "evil". That'd be a good start.

Oh, there's already a wall. You just need to brick over the entrances.

[Ryan Thunder]

So your plan is to fly all the dictators to the moon?

That sounds like an excellent plan. But I think we should fly them to the sun instead.

[Darth Wong]

Mr. Wong, how exactly is an increase in the number of zeros in some African dictator's bank account going to help those same Africans dying of malaria?

http://articles.latimes.com/2008/feb/19 ... -malaria19

You're full of shit. Foreign aid programs are helping. They aren't magically turning Africa into a modern industrialized democracy, but they are saving lives. Certainly far more than some rich guy in California getting government grants to build boutique spacecraft.

The real cause of Africa's problems is massive corruption and inefficiency in government. Large amounts of any monetary aid end up in Switzerland, and all too often material aid such as sacks of grain ends up being stolen by the military and other gangsters who have the sanction of the State, and then sold on for huge profits to those who are supposed to have been given it for free.

Of course there is corruption. But you have asserted that all foreign aid is diverted this way, which is bullshit.

The West did Africa no favours colonising it. They did even less leaving too early; there is a very good example of colonialism actually benefiting the native inhabitants of the colony. Its name is India.

Actually, it's called India/Pakistan now, since that's what happened when the Brits pulled out: the country was split in two and there was a massive civil war which killed more than a million people and led to the rise of one of the world's most dangerous border disputes: a pair of nuclear armed nations fueled by religious hatred standing off against each other to this day.