Bill Gates unleashes mosquito swarm on TED Conference attendees

Brian Ambrozy (primesuspect)

February 4, 2009 5:09 PM ET in News, , ,

Bzzzzz. Look at meeeeee.

Bzzzzz. Look at meeeeee.

According to several conference attendees, Bill Gates unleashed a swarm of mosquitoes upon TED conference attendees, announcing “not only poor people should experience this.”

The stunt was clearly designed to make a vivid point about the continuing battle against malaria in developing nations, as Mr. Gates was at TED to discuss his work with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The Foundation has spent millions on fighting malaria in poor nations.

No word yet on the legality of his actions. One has to imagine that some sort of health code violation took place. We’ll keep on eye on the story as it develops.

16 Comments

  1. 4 Feb '09, 10:18 pm Snarkasm

    Pretty sure the mosquitoes have to be proven carriers of malaria for it to be anything illegal regarding health codes.

  2. 4 Feb '09, 11:43 pm Khaos

    Here is a picture courtesy of the TED2009 Blog entry showing Gates unleashing the mosquitoes. It was more of a small jar on the stage than a swarm on the conference, but it appears to have made quite the impression on the attendees and the public who heard about it so quickly via Twitter.

  3. 4 Feb '09, 11:46 pm jokerz4fun

    Oh there's so many other ways to get you point across. Just another fail moment for Bill.

  4. 5 Feb '09, 12:20 am Gargoyle

    Regardless of the morality or legality, I find it fascinating that Bill did something seemingly out of passion.

  5. 5 Feb '09, 2:53 am DrLiam

    /sarcasm O god, how could he do that. Mosquitoes. What a cruel world we live in.

  6. 5 Feb '09, 3:20 am Komete

    Way to stick it to the man. Although, you kinda are the man. Nice job anyways.

  7. 5 Feb '09, 3:46 am Leonardo
    Oh there's so many other ways to get you point across. Just another fail moment for Bill.

    Quite the contrary. The simple act got his point across, and into the worldwide press better than hours of lecture.

  8. 5 Feb '09, 5:47 am Casey Tinsley

    First Windows and now mosquito's! dang-it Bill quit subjecting us to your wrath!

  9. 5 Feb '09, 6:04 am Buddy J

    Can't suck blood from a robot.

  10. 5 Feb '09, 12:44 pm Liberator

    Now that he's no longer at Microsoft, he needs a new way to unleash bugs on the world. It looks like he found a much better engineered vector than Windows.

    Evidently it's his mission in life to send annoying, self replicating bugs out into the world.

  11. 5 Feb '09, 1:33 pm kryyst

    His plan has finally come to fruition. He used the mosquito's to deliver a tiny mind effecting microchip. This was his test group, next it's the world.

  12. 5 Feb '09, 2:06 pm Lincoln

    Nano swarm! Run!

  13. 5 Feb '09, 2:25 pm Gnome Queen

    I personally think this is pretty effing awesome, myself.

  14. 5 Feb '09, 3:05 pm Thrax
    Quoting Gnome Queen

    I personally think this is pretty effing awesome, myself.

    Truth.

  15. 5 Feb '09, 7:41 pm Nostradamus

    "One has to imagine that some sort of health code violation took place."
    Or one could actually do the RESEARCH to determine if there was a violation. But that might mean one would have to actually DO something, rather than repackage items one found on the web.

  16. 5 Feb '09, 7:42 pm primesuspect

    True

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