Invisible wrote:

> Possibly. But how much do you want to bet that all the media coverage 
> would be about the huge lawsuit facing Gates, and not about the cause 
> he's actually trying to draw attention to?

Yeah.. hmm. Though it sounds like just the thing an evil genius would do. ;)


-- 
~Mike

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> It would have made the point stronger if some of the insects were actually 
> carrying malaria.

Or better yet, he could have just *said* that one of them was carrying 
malaria.  At the end he could have confirmed that actually they were all 
safe - if anyone was left in the room :-)

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On Tue, 10 Feb 2009 09:42:49 +0000, Invisible wrote:

>>>> Cute stunt.
>>>
>>> Sounds pretty pointless to me...
>> 
>> Only pointless if you consider 350 million cases of malaria every year
>> to be pointless.  I actually have more respect for the guy since he
>> began his humanitarian efforts.
> 
> No, pointless because throwing a few insects around a room isn't
> seriously going to make anybody sit up and take notice - never mind take
> action.

It is if they thought they were going to contract malaria as a result of 
his action.

Jim

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Jim Henderson wrote:
> It is if they thought they were going to contract malaria as a result of 
> his action.

I wouldn't be surprised if all the mosquitos he released were male, let 
alone uninfected.

-- 
   Darren New, San Diego CA, USA (PST)
   "Ouch ouch ouch!"
   "What's wrong? Noodles too hot?"
   "No, I have Chopstick Tunnel Syndrome."

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>> No, pointless because throwing a few insects around a room isn't
>> seriously going to make anybody sit up and take notice - never mind take
>> action.
> 
> It is if they thought they were going to contract malaria as a result of 
> his action.

AFAIK, malaria is actually a treatable disease. The problem is that 
Africa can't *afford* the treatments.

(I could, of course, be mistaken about that...)

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On Wed, 11 Feb 2009 09:16:40 +0000, Invisible wrote:

>>> No, pointless because throwing a few insects around a room isn't
>>> seriously going to make anybody sit up and take notice - never mind
>>> take action.
>> 
>> It is if they thought they were going to contract malaria as a result
>> of his action.
> 
> AFAIK, malaria is actually a treatable disease. The problem is that
> Africa can't *afford* the treatments.

Yes, but that doesn't mean it'd be pleasant to contract it because Gates 
decided to do something stupid to call attention to it (like giving it to 
a random sampling of an audience).

Jim

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On Tue, 10 Feb 2009 13:25:51 -0800, Darren New wrote:

> Jim Henderson wrote:
>> It is if they thought they were going to contract malaria as a result
>> of his action.
> 
> I wouldn't be surprised if all the mosquitos he released were male, let
> alone uninfected.

I wouldn't either, my point, though, is that the audience obviously 
wouldn't know anything about the bugs until he told them.

Jim

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Jim Henderson wrote:
> On Tue, 10 Feb 2009 13:25:51 -0800, Darren New wrote:
> 
>> Jim Henderson wrote:
>>> It is if they thought they were going to contract malaria as a result
>>> of his action.
>> I wouldn't be surprised if all the mosquitos he released were male, let
>> alone uninfected.
> 
> I wouldn't either, my point, though, is that the audience obviously 
> wouldn't know anything about the bugs until he told them.

Yes. I probably just picked the wrong message to follow up my comment on. :-)

-- 
   Darren New, San Diego CA, USA (PST)
   "Ouch ouch ouch!"
   "What's wrong? Noodles too hot?"
   "No, I have Chopstick Tunnel Syndrome."

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On Wed, 11 Feb 2009 10:44:17 -0800, Darren New wrote:

> Jim Henderson wrote:
>> On Tue, 10 Feb 2009 13:25:51 -0800, Darren New wrote:
>> 
>>> Jim Henderson wrote:
>>>> It is if they thought they were going to contract malaria as a result
>>>> of his action.
>>> I wouldn't be surprised if all the mosquitos he released were male,
>>> let alone uninfected.
>> 
>> I wouldn't either, my point, though, is that the audience obviously
>> wouldn't know anything about the bugs until he told them.
> 
> Yes. I probably just picked the wrong message to follow up my comment
> on. :-)

It happens. ;-)

Jim

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