Gates unleashes mosquitoes, makes rich people nervous

Bill Gates is ______.

  • a terrorist

    Votes: 1 6.7%

  • an activist

    Votes: 1 6.7%

  • an eccentric rich guy trying to do something good

    Votes: 10 66.7%

  • Other

    Votes: 3 20.0%
  • Total voters
    15
  • Poll closed .
reminds me of in the movie erin brockovich when they give the lawyers the water

Good for Gates
 
Downside is, rich people funding some kind of goofy all out war on mosquitoes.

We could see a large scale ecological version of anti-bacterial house cleaners, as the wealthy defend their aversion to bugs.
 
Tiassa said:
So what do we call this?

Microsoft founder turned philanthropist Bill Gates released a glass full of mosquitoes at an elite technology conference to make a point about the deadly disease malaria.

"Malaria is spread by mosquitoes," Gates said while opening a jar onstage at the Technology, Entertainment, Design Conference — a gathering known to attract technology kings, politicians, and Hollywood stars.

"I brought some. Here I'll let them roam around. There is no reason only poor people should be infected" ....

.... Gates then waited a minute or so before assuring the audience the freed insects were malaria-free.

(FOXnews.com)​

Is it terrorism? After all, sending a harmless white powder in the mail in order to pretend to threaten someone is a prosecutable offense. Is it mere activism?

I find the whole idea rather amusing, but making rich people uncomfortable is often viewed as a bad thing.

And, hell, if teachers are terrorists, one would think making a room full of rich people think they're about to get malaria ought to count as something.

Does anyone remember the time when this sort of thing was funny?
____________________

Notes:

"Bill Gates Unleashes Swarm of Mosquitoes on Crowd". FOXnews.com. February 5, 2009. http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,488348,00.html

Toppo, Greg. "Education chief calls teachers union 'terrorist organization'". USA Today. Updated February 24, 2004. http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2004-02-23-paige-remarks_x.htm
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Well done. Bill. Well done.

Maybe, I'll buy Windows 7 this year.
 
how did those stupid people get to be so rich? Did they seriously think Bill Gates released bugs with malaria?? They have never seen anyone bluff before?
 
betrayor said:
No No. Wow. No. That's not at all what Gates is proposing to do.
Click to expand...
Gates, being an intelligent person, probably has other plans; but the message is as the message is received.

I sat at a table once and listened to wealthy owners of recreational mansions in an eastern US county plan to poison every flowing creek in the county every spring to kill black fly larvae.
 
I doubt that anyone was truly "terrorized" by Gates's action. No doubt it made some people in teh audience very mad, and with their panties in a bunch they now claim that they felt terrorized, but I see that is being more in the nature of pretense.

(Anyone in the audience who seriously thought Bill Gates was trying to kill them, is crazy. If you get an envelop of white powder from an unnamed sender, it is not as crazy to think it might be anthrax. Some line between the two has to be drawn for free speech considerations alone.)

Besides, malaria, even if you caught it, is not that lethal as long as you have access to modern health care. It's dangerous for children in regions where medicine is hard to come by, but with the proper medicine and quick treatment it's almost never a big deal. There would have been a risk to a fetus if a pregnant woman had been bitten and infected, as there the disease can cause greater problems.
 
Tiassa said:
Is it terrorism? After all, sending a harmless white powder in the mail in order to pretend to threaten someone is a prosecutable offense. Is it mere activism?

I find the whole idea rather amusing, but making rich people uncomfortable is often viewed as a bad thing.
Click to expand...

Invoking mortal fear in another human being to make a point is always a lark. I mean, just imagine if after fucking your girlfriend, she turned to you and said, "By the way honey, I have AIDS!"

And after giving you a few minutes to shit yourself in fear and wonder how you were going to pay for all that AZT, she slapped you on the back and confessed, "Haha, I was just kidding you dumb fuck! I was simply demonstrating why we should make a donation to the 'Cure HIV association'. But oh, if you start to piss blood, that's the Hep C."
 
LOL, my husband and I do thing like that to each other all the time.
ah yeah, good times, good times. :D
 
iceaura said:
I sat at a table once and listened to wealthy owners of recreational mansions in an eastern US county plan to poison every flowing creek in the county every spring to kill black fly larvae.
Click to expand...

...Ok?
What point are you trying to make? That wealthy mansion owners should care about sparrows and ephemeroptera over their own personal comfort?

That's just irrational.
 
Yeah. What exactly do people on this forum have against rich people? Does your 'evilness' increase with every dollar in your bank account or something?
 
...Ok?
What point are you trying to make? That wealthy mansion owners should care about sparrows and ephemeroptera over their own personal comfort?
Click to expand...
That some people have enough money and power to do enormous damage in their clueless pursuit of relief for irrational and comparatively petty aversions.

Scare them about bugs, and they'll kill every living living thing in their yards except the grass, which they will then spend a fortune on growing and cutting in a basically hydroponic arrangement, for example.

Scare them about germs, and they will sterilize their houses with hazardous chemicals, simultaneously raising mildly poisoned children with dysfunctional immune systems who will be sickly for the rest of their lives, and germs resistant to ordinary sterilization methods when sterilization would be good idea.

Poor people can be just as crazy, but it's harder for them to avoid reality correction, and they can't do damage on the same scale - they aren't as dangerous.
 
Just to compare, then ...?

Okay, so ... excepting the moron who sent a white powder to a newspaper that turned out to be cocaine, what of those who send laundry detergent or some other harmless powder? Why should they face three hundred years in prison?
_____________________

Notes:

Robinson, Christine. "Cocaine found in letter after evacuation of Star-Tribune building". Casper Star-Tribune. January 30, 2009. http://www.casperstartribune.net/ar...l_breaking_news/doc49833a74f3bd5527195187.txt

KOB-TV. "NM man arrested in suspicious powder mailings". MSNBC.com. February 6, 2009. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29001115/
 
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