Every year, TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) Conference brings together the world's most fascinating thinkers and doers, who are challenged to give the talk of their lives. Bill Gates, Microsoft Chairman, who retired last year to devote himself into the Bill & Melinda Foundation, was invited to speak at TED Conference this year devoted to "Great Unveilings."Gates Foundation has been recently working on ending Malaria and has spent millions fighting the disease. Malaria is a dreadful disease affecting only poor countries and it looks Bill Gates wanted everybody to have a feel of it at the TED conference!
Bill Gates let the mosquitoes loose on his audience at his TED talk saying - "Not only poor people should experience this", according to some tweeters!-
Tweet by Facebook manager Dave Morin!
Tweet by eBay founder Pierre Omidyar
Tweet by Twitter CEO Ev Williams
And, Pierre Omidyar's response
It looks like Gates wanted everybody to understand the importance and the need to eradicate Malaria ;)
Yet again, twitter was used to spread this little news and many twitterrers picked it up so fast! No wonder twitter has exploded in popularity!
Why AIDS? Why not cancer!? Why not {insert random fatal disease or deadly virus here}!?!?
Last edited by rpgfan on 04 Feb 2009 - 23:58
You can't "spray" cancer
Anyway, these would not be infected mosquitoes, y'know.
He's losing it.
Or how many people will try to sue him LOL
If a few little bites bother you just think how it feels to live with twice (if not more) of that 24/7 for all your life.
I'm not surprised LTD doesn't get it though, typical.
At best, it might be amusing. At worst, it's a really stupid PR stunt that I'm quite certain ****ed off a lot of people there.
Don't forget: Bill Gates has no clue how to market anything. With this, we've finally seen something even more awkward and uncomfortable than his CES keynotes. Which continue to be awkward and uncomfortable under Uncle Fester.
eBay founder Pierre Omidyar's reaction was the best: "That's it, I'm not sitting up front anymore."
That comment pretty much sums it up. The blogosphere is already all over it.
Hahahahaha! Uncle Fester... That's a good one!
+1 ^_^
At best, it might be amusing. At worst, it's a really stupid PR stunt that I'm quite certain ****ed off a lot of people there.
Don't forget: Bill Gates has no clue how to market anything. With this, we've finally seen something even more awkward and uncomfortable than his CES keynotes. Which continue to be awkward and uncomfortable under Uncle Fester.
eBay founder Pierre Omidyar's reaction was the best: "That's it, I'm not sitting up front anymore."
That comment pretty much sums it up. The blogosphere is already all over it.
You're an Apple fanboy (which is your right) but you don't need to force opinions onto others especially not when they are anti-MS
He's losing it.
Here's you.
And here's your conclusion. I wish I could jump that well.
At best, it might be amusing. At worst, it's a really stupid PR stunt that I'm quite certain ****ed off a lot of people there.
Don't forget: Bill Gates has no clue how to market anything. With this, we've finally seen something even more awkward and uncomfortable than his CES keynotes. Which continue to be awkward and uncomfortable under Uncle Fester.
eBay founder Pierre Omidyar's reaction was the best: "That's it, I'm not sitting up front anymore."
That comment pretty much sums it up. The blogosphere is already all over it.
Wow, what a strong reaction! :eyeroll:
Neither you nor 99.99% of the blogosphere are TED attendees so you didn't sum up anything for anyone.
MASSIVE FREE PRESS SPREE.
Look what it's done so far.
At best, it might be amusing. At worst, it's a really stupid PR stunt that I'm quite certain ****ed off a lot of people there.
Don't forget: Bill Gates has no clue how to market anything. With this, we've finally seen something even more awkward and uncomfortable than his CES keynotes. Which continue to be awkward and uncomfortable under Uncle Fester.
eBay founder Pierre Omidyar's reaction was the best: "That's it, I'm not sitting up front anymore."
That comment pretty much sums it up. The blogosphere is already all over it.
The idea was to possibly put people too stuck up to worry about anyone else but themselves in the shoes of people in lesser conditions. But I suppose some are just too stuck up to care regardless of the matter. Not that I'm calling you stuck up that is... ahem.
Those who don't help out make the decision. It's on their conscience. Swarming them with Mosquitos will only make the matter worse.
I'm all for the against malaria cause... but what was he thinking?
At best, it might be amusing. At worst, it's a really stupid PR stunt that I'm quite certain ****ed off a lot of people there.
Don't forget: Bill Gates has no clue how to market anything. With this, we've finally seen something even more awkward and uncomfortable than his CES keynotes. Which continue to be awkward and uncomfortable under Uncle Fester.
eBay founder Pierre Omidyar's reaction was the best: "That's it, I'm not sitting up front anymore."
That comment pretty much sums it up. The blogosphere is already all over it.
Its funny how you took this to slam Microsoft and BGs marketing strategy. Dont forget, Mr. Gates is no longer a part of MS...he stepped down so his marketing strategy has NOTHING TO DO WITH THIS.
They are bugs...uninfected bugs...get over it people. Geesh. If i was there, I would be laughing my ass off.
Try to remove your bias once in awhile before you comment. It would make your "contributions" more credible.
I'm sure it wouldn't have been harmful either, right?
Gates wouldn't be stupid enough to release them knowing they could hurt anybody, so he must have thought of a way around it, whilst still letting the mosquitoes out?
Besides, I doubt he let out this huge cloud of them, probably just enough to get the point across.
Huge cloud? OMG!! It's the apocalypse! Oh, wait... That's a swarm of locusts...not mosquitoes. I guess Gates is playing God again...
I'm sure it wouldn't have been harmful either, right?
Gates wouldn't be stupid enough to release them knowing they could hurt anybody, so he must have thought of a way around it, whilst still letting the mosquitoes out?
Of course they weren't malaria infected mosquitos (erm... at least I hope not)... he's not stupid.
Malaria then changed from a disease affecting many parts of the world to a disease affecting only poor countries. Efforts to fight malaria in Africa and elsewhere faded from lack of funding, but the disease continued to devastate communities in the developing world.
http://www.gatesfoundation.org/topics/Pages/malaria.aspx
I wonder if someone would bankrupt bill gates as a joke, and tell him not only poor people should experience this
LOL!
He's really loosing it. Too much time around Steve Ballmer, for sure...
No, I don't think the flamethrower would have worked too well. You seem to be missing something here though, so I'll point it out: releasing harmless bugs isn't the same as blasting people with fire.
Precisely. I wouldn't be too happy if he actually hurt someone, but a harmless publicity stunt is exactly what it says it is...and it worked.
Well, those "harmless" bugs kill people too, I admit, it's not as flashy as the flamethrower, but people die because of those too. That's what the conference is about, right?
Last edited by Lechio on 05 Feb 2009 - 01:26
Wrong again. Certain species of mosquito can carry malaria, which can result in death if untreated. It isn't the mosquitoes that kill people, they're simply the more visible facet of malaria. Obviously Bill didn't release infected mosquitoes, but you're welcome to keep trying to vilify his actions if you get your kicks from that.
... I know perfectly well what malaria is. And FYI, malaria is not the only disease that can be carried by mosquitoes.
(...)
The viral diseases yellow fever and dengue fever are transmitted mostly by Aedes aegypti mosquitoes.
Other viral diseases like epidemic polyarthritis, Rift Valley fever, Ross River Fever, St. Louis encephalitis, West Nile virus (WNV), Japanese encephalitis, La Crosse encephalitis and several other encephalitis type diseases are carried by several different mosquitoes. Eastern equine encephalitis (EEE) and Western equine encephalitis (WEE) occurs in the United States where it causes disease in humans, horses, and some bird species. Because of the high mortality rate, EEE and WEE are regarded as two of the most serious mosquito-borne diseases in the United States. Symptoms range from mild flu-like illness to encephalitis, coma and death.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mosquito-borne_disease
There's also those people who are allergic to insect bytes.
I'm commenting on the story, expressing my personal opinion, you don't have to agree with it. Stop being a naive fanboy.
I rather doubt Bill went down to the local swamp and got out a big net. Besides, as you quote yourself "in Africa, South America, Central America, Mexico and much of Asia". Not the US.
As for the idea of people being allergic to mosquito bites, link please?
Eastern equine encephalitis (EEE) and Western equine encephalitis (WEE) occurs in the United States where it causes disease in humans, horses, and some bird species. Because of the high mortality rate, EEE and WEE are regarded as two of the most serious mosquito-borne diseases in the United States. Symptoms range from mild flu-like illness to encephalitis, coma and death.
You didn't read this part?
Don't believe there's such a thing as a person exclusively allergic to mosquitoes, haven't said that.
I rather doubt Bill went down to the local swamp and got out a big net. Besides, as you quote yourself "in Africa, South America, Central America, Mexico and much of Asia". Not the US.
As for the idea of people being allergic to mosquito bites, link please?
Yeah, I'm sure that these mosquitos were tested and made sure they were not infected with any kind of disease. Bill isn't that ignorant - unlike some people in this thread.
No, but you said there are people allergic to mosquitoes, which I'm waiting for evidence of.
And if the mosquitoes are lab grown, how could they carry disease? (And fair point, I missed the reference to the US in the second half of your quote, which was the only relevant part).
And if the mosquitoes are lab grown, how could they carry disease?
Haven't said that there are people allergic to mosquitoes, but that there are people who are allergic to insect bytes.
http://allergies.about.com/od/insectallerg...uitoallergy.htm
http://allergies.about.com/od/glossaryofal...anaphylaxis.htm
"lab grown" doesn't necessarily mean sane.
You may think I'm ignorant, but at least I'm not the "eccentric" billionaire who thinks he can get away with pretty much everything, including toying around with people and get applauded by doing such things.
After all, it's all about him. What's this story about?
I'll tell you: Mr. Bill Gates...
Already read his post. Can you and Shadow Dragon be 100% sure about the sex of the mosquito?
The article doesn't say anything about that.
The article doesn't say anything about that.
So you're assuming Bill Gates is stupid, and our assumption is that he's a sane human being.
Nice, two established tactics of argument: 1). State that your position is a personal opinion which cannot be wrong. 2). Attempt to invalidate the argument of the opposition categorizing them as fanboys, thereby casting doubt upon their argument.
We'll ignore the fact that you bash all things Microsoft for now, and simply go with your original analogy that the harm associated with releasing mosquitoes at a conference is equatable to blasting the attendees with a flamethrower. This is an absurdly hyperbolic statement, and can be rejected because it is silly.
You've obviously continued to assert that mosquitoes are dangerous and that Bill Gates increased the potential for harm by releasing them at a conference. There are two problems with this argument. The first is that there are mosquitoes anyway, that is to say, they are not some imported exotic scourge that has never been previously seen in the United States. I'll bet you that every attendee at the conference has encountered mosquitoes in the past - in fact, so many times that many were able to correctly identify Bill's surprise as mosquitoes. Unless the people of this audience, in attendance of a malaria conference, live very sheltered lives, they will experience mosquitoes on a fairly regular basis, thus the release of them at a conference isn't significantly increasing their risk of being harmed. The second issue here has already been pointed out: Where does one get a box full of mosquitoes, in the winter? Of course, if you are Bill Gates, you can fly out to Australia and bag a few thousand live ones, but this would be time-consuming, and potentially dangerous. The more practical solution would be to order lab-grown species specifically bred for scientific experimentation. No doubt the characteristics of these lab varieties would be well-documented, especially given their use in science. Bill could easily have picked those that aren't host to any pathogens, or aren't able to bite people at all.
Essentially, you're still arguing absurdities here, and lashing out at those who disagree with you. Having fun yet?
1) Like I've said, it is my personal opinion that I have expressed. Doesn't have to match yours, doesn't have to be an absolute truth. That's the entire idea behind a discussion and a forum. And I pretty much welcome the debate with any other person.
Do you not agree with that?
2) One can easily see what you are all about just by looking at your posts. You absolutely glorify everything made by Microsoft, and try to make others believe that this company provides the exclusive and absolute solution to everything. Here's a flaming example:
If a consumer is seriously too stupid to choose between three versions of Windows (and actually doesn't know what they need or can't read a simple feature/capability breakdown), then do you really want them to be able to buy an OS and get on the internet?
and before:
Guess we do not share any ideals, you defend segregation I defend integration and equal opportunities to all. I also defend that knowledge should be free to everyone who wishes access to it.
Yes, the "analogy that the harm associated with releasing mosquitoes at a conference is equatable to blasting the attendees with a flamethrower" is an "absurdly hyperbolic statement". No-one said it was to be taken seriously, maybe you didn't understood that.
Thank you for the enlightenment, your arguments with all that insightful data has certainly cleared up misunderstandings. The original story makes no mention to the fact that those mosquitoes were harmless, on the contrary it has a quote where Mr. Gates says:
What we are doing here is commenting on the article, and the data it provided.
You can also look in other places, it's not just me who finds Mr. Gates's actions absurd, and sees this as nothing more than a stunt to promote himself and his ideals. This is not about fighting malaria, it's about Mr. Gates and his own interests. Just look above in the article here at neowin.net, you don't even see the word malaria anywhere near the title nor in the first sentence of the article, you only see the words "Bill Gates" and a smiling picture of himself.
Last edited by Lechio on 05 Feb 2009 - 13:21
I'm only expressing my own personal opinion.
It's a pity your personal opinion is absurd. And that is my personal opinion.
Good, now that you think entirely by yourself know that others are also free to think that your opinion is absurd.
Add me to the list of people who thought your INITIAL opinion - equating throwing a flamethrower around to releasing mosquitoes - is insane. Flamethrower roasts people, there's no way to spin that around.
I like how you're accusing Relativity_17 of being heavily biased to MS and went as far as digging up two of his most recent posts. Maybe you should have dug deeper, I guarantee you'll find a few that criticize Microsoft. Hell, you can search through mine too. What was the whole point anyways? This is about mosquitoes not company bias (though technically he's done with MS so...)
It's more of a "joke", if you wish to put it that way.
... I'm not criticizing a company, I'm criticizing an action from Mr. Bill Gates.
But an action like this, that can be potential grounds for a lawsuit IF said insects were a) infected or b) are females capable of triggering attacks from those who are allergic to bites - you'd think he had already cleared this up with the TED organizers before going ahead and releasing insects to the crowd.
If it was some regular Joe activist from a reputable charity who did this, this story would've been one of the funny stories posted by Hum in RWN. Sigh.
So why all this outrage? Or this is because of his evil monopolistic proprietary software license loving past?
He does donate his money to charity. A hell of a lot of it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_and_Meli...ates_Foundation
Doing everything himself is not the point. It's better to get more people to help, because that will do more good than one person alone (however much money he has, or gives).
How much did you give this past year? 90% of your personal income?
A man who knows his mosquitoes! Thanks, I didn't realise that
Very true. Females only need blood to develop their eggs. They don't just go around sucking blood, just to eat - they mostly eat nectar.
I didn't know that, interesting. It probably was male mosquitos, or at least we hope.
UUGHHHHHHHHH
#palmface
Wait for Patch Tuesday
in fairness to Bill Gates and to microsoft for that matter, they gave 15,000 units of AIDS testing kits in our country and continues to do so.
however for this mosquito thing i'd say mosquitos cannot distinguish rich from poor so what is the point of this exercise?
Bill Gates spends TONS of his money on charities and helping others.
This explains why some people are calling the stunt genius while those who don't get it are calling it stupid.
Last edited by DARKFiB3R on 06 Feb 2009 - 05:35
Guess what? Bill has so much money that he can afford to buy a batch of disease-free mosquitoes like you and I can afford to buy a cheeseburger. Oh, and he's not a moron.
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/define.asp...3&dict=CALD
http://www.techflash.com/microsoft/Watch_B...wd39205632.html
(fast forward to the 5 minute mark if you don't want to listen to all it, although I'd advice you to see all of it).
And it is pretty clear that there was no "swarm" as some people seem to think, and he clearly states that they were not infected either.
Seems like the majority of Neowin are more interested in bickering than calmly discussing the matter at hand.
You should know better.
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