In the Loop: February 9, 2009 Archive

Bill Gates releases mosquito menace on TED2009 audience

Posted at 7:00 PM on February 9, 2009 by Steve Mullis
Filed under: People, Technology

OK, so it wasn't a menace. In reality, Mr. Gates was giving a talk on malaria prevention at the TED2009 conference when he released the vampiric insects into the audience.

His follow-up explanation that, "...not just poor people should experience this..." drips with a certain tastelessness, similar to the Davos Refugee Run, of trying to make wealthy donors understand the plight of us meager plebians.

Again, my thought here is that these stunts do not go far enough. Doing anything less than going the whole nine yards seems a little pointless. Besides, it's not the mosquitos Bill, we've got those in abundance in Florida. It's the malaria that is the problem.

Next time, maybe bring a jar of that instead.