

Bill Gates unleashes mosquitoes on TED conference - fromedome
http://www.alleyinsider.com/2009/2/bill-gates-unleashes-mosquitoes-on-rich-ted-crowd

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teej
Malaria sucks, and solving it is more than a Biology challenge, it's a people
challenge.

Last year I spent a few weeks volunteering at a health clinic in rural Ghana.
People walked in with various ailments and issues. To them, it's simply easier
and more cost effective to treat everyone as if they have malaria then to
spend the time diagnosing the real issue. The results of this being that
practically everyone walked out with malaria medication.

This is simply one facet in a complicated issue, but it's a big one. The
people issues require crossing cultural and logistical barriers and are just
as difficult to solve as the scientific ones.

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cchooper
Could you answer a question for me? When I went to Ghana, I noticed it had far
more volunteers (especially from the US) than any other country I've ever been
to. Do you know why this is?

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teej
It's considered the most stable country in Western Africa and one of the most
stable in all of Africa. Simply put, it's safe.

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gojomo
Also a likely factor: Ghana's official language is English.

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TrevorJ
Although most nationals can speak 2-3 languages very well, owing to the many
local dialects. English may be the language of business but the outlying
villages often speak different languages. In general though, yes I think it
tends to be a more stable country than some in Africa. There is even an
American-style burger joint in Accra.

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anuraggoel
(on twitter @wilshipley) Chris Anderson to Gates: We're titling your talk
'Bill Gates releases more bugs into the world.'

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a-priori
This is off-topic, but I'm curious: your name appears red to me, and I've
never seen this before. What is the significance of this?

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aneesh
A new feature released a few minutes ago. See
<http://ycombinator.com/newsnews.html#4feb09>

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ensignavenger
According to TED.com, the video is supposed to be released within 24 hours.

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TrevorJ
That's gotta be one of the cooler things I have heard of Mr. Gates doing.
Effective illustration.

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MikeCapone
Indeed, and not so much for the people on the room, but because it gives the
media a "hook" to sell the story and get people reading about it.

Kudos.

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Alex3917
His slides were terrible, they were impossible to read. He literally used a
12pt font to label his graphs.

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TrevorJ
Would you say "mosquito-size?"

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sheriff
Fortunately all the mosquitoes BSOD'ed before they could bite anyone.

