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Gates Donates $500M+ To Fight Malaria and Other Diseases

Posted by samzenpus on from the end-the-suffering dept.

jones_supa writes In the 63rd annual meeting of the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene in New Orleans, Bill Gates announced that he will donate over $500 million to fight malaria and other infectious diseases in the developing world. Gates described the Ebola epidemic that has killed more than 4,900 people in West Africa since the beginning of the year as a "critical moment in the history of global health", and said it underscores the need for stronger efforts to stay ahead of disease threats such as drug-resistant malaria and dengue fever. The more than $500 million announced Sunday includes over $150 million to the PATH Malaria Vaccine Initiative to advance development of next-generation malaria vaccines, and $29 million to the Clinton Health Access Initiative to support malaria elimination efforts in Southern Africa and the Greater Mekong Sub-region of Southeast Asia.

106 comments

  1. How long will it take slashdot to spin this? by NotDrWho · · Score: 4, Insightful

    How many posts until someone finds a way to still hate on him, despite the fact that he's done more for the poor than all of us put together?

    How many Apple fans will make fun of him, in spite of the fact that Steve Jobs never gave a dime to charity?

    How many of you will take a potshot at Microsoft, even though Bill hasn't worked there in years?

    --
    SJW's don't eliminate discrimination. They just expropriate it for themselves.
    1. Re:How long will it take slashdot to spin this? by peon_a-z,A-Z,0-9$_+! · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Your comment posted at 4:52PM Eastern Time, followed by such a "hater" comment at 4:53PM Eastern time below.

    2. Re:How long will it take slashdot to spin this? by Savage-Rabbit · · Score: 3, Informative

      How many Apple fans will make fun of him, in spite of the fact that Steve Jobs never gave a dime to charity?

      Did he? Even if he wasn't as generous as Bill, it seems you are wrong:
      http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new...
      Now... how many Apple haters will try to use this to take cheap shots at Apple and to crap on the memory of Steve Jobs?

      --
      Only to idiots, are orders laws.
      -- Henning von Tresckow
    3. Re:How long will it take slashdot to spin this? by loganljb · · Score: 2

      Well, now that you've ruined the entire thread, what's the point in posting? You killed every point a loyal Slashdotter should cover. Nicely done, sir.

    4. Re:How long will it take slashdot to spin this? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

      Your comment paints all people with your brush...

      Many people with a lot less money do much more than Bill Gates to help the poor, every day in communities all
      over the earth...people who give their time and materials without a thought of recompense or worrying
      about honor and glory, these people do not make announcements, or have publicity teams, they make a real
      personal difference in other's lives.

      Gates and his ilk may give money, it may even do some good, but it is the day to day work
      of the unsung hero that actually makes a difference.

      You may do nothing but I know of many who care every day. Instead of worrying about
      Bill's reputation, and complaining about his detractors, maybe you should try helping someone else.

    5. Re:How long will it take slashdot to spin this? by nine-times · · Score: 3, Insightful

      How many posts until someone finds a way to still hate on him, despite the fact that he's done more for the poor than all of us put together?

      I don't know the man personally, but I don't see why doing something good should remove anyone's right to have some level of "hate" for the man. Setting aside the particular example of Mr. Gates, does it seem fair to say,"[Person X] has done a good thing. Therefore, nobody can dislike him or object to anything else he does!"

      How many Apple fans will make fun of him, in spite of the fact that Steve Jobs never gave a dime to charity?

      I'm not sure why the those things should be connected, or how you can be so sure that Jobs "never gave a dime to charity". There's been at least a couple reports that Jobs did give money to charity, but didn't publicize the fact because he was very private.

      But again, what does that have to do with anything? I'm sure there fans of Apple who are not huge fans of Jobs personally. I'm sure there are people who admire Jobs who also admire Gates. I'm sure there are Windows users who hate Gates.

      How many of you will take a potshot at Microsoft, even though Bill hasn't worked there in years?

      Ok, I'll do this. I'm annoyed at Microsoft because they still haven't included support for non-Microsoft file-systems. Microsoft sucks!

      Now what? Have I offended you by criticizing the company connected to The Great Gates?

    6. Re:How long will it take slashdot to spin this? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2

      I'm not sure that he has done "more to help the poor than all of us put together" - one might argue that our particular choice of global economy (often called "capitalism", but it's certainly not that) is what creates and maintains an under-developed world, and he's a staunch upholder of the current system. In the long term, it is not clear what contributions will be of greatest benefit, so it's really stupid to rank the living or the recently deceased - though men love to.

      OTOH, I believe that he is acting with the best of non-selfish intentions, that his work is having a positive effect, and that what he is doing now is no longer causing harm, so I admire him, even though I don't think his approach is anywhere near optimal.

    7. Re:How long will it take slashdot to spin this? by arbiter1 · · Score: 3, Insightful

      wow 10's of millions, from a guy that made billions off over priced devices. Pretty freaking cheap of them to only donate that pocket change.

    8. Re:How long will it take slashdot to spin this? by MozeeToby · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Setting aside the particular example of Mr. Gates, does it seem fair to say,"[Person X] has done a good thing. Therefore, nobody can dislike him or object to anything else he does!"

      No, but if there's a conversation going on about said "good thing" it is a little unreasonable for people to jump in the middle of it to shout "Yeah but he did this bad thing 15 years ago!". Yes, Gates did bad stuff. There are plenty of articles on Slashdot about the bad stuff that he's done (and that his legacy continues to contribute to). This isn't one of those articles. Couldn't we just take a minute to say "Mr Gates is doing something worthwhile with his money".

    9. Re:How long will it take slashdot to spin this? by Savage-Rabbit · · Score: 2, Insightful

      wow 10's of millions, from a guy that made billions off over priced devices. Pretty freaking cheap of them to only donate that pocket change.

      Just because you guys hate Apple products it doesn't mean that you get to crap all over the some person's memory without being called out for being petty hateful trolls you are. I'll gladly burn karma to do that. He said, and I quote: "Steve Jobs never gave a dime to charity" which is demonstrably wrong no matter how you try to spin it. secondly how lazy do you have to be to not do a simple google search before making a stupid statement like that? ... and then he gets modded +5 insightful to boot... slashdot at it's finest!

      --
      Only to idiots, are orders laws.
      -- Henning von Tresckow
    10. Re:How long will it take slashdot to spin this? by gweihir · · Score: 0

      Pretty simple: Bringing better medicine to areas that have not mastered population control (and are unlikely to master it soon) will create a lot of pain and suffering. The logic is pretty old and it validity is established: Reduce the rate of people, and especially children, dying and there will just be a lot more dying a generation down the road when they exceed what they can feed/house/employ/etc. again.

      As such, I can confidentially state that BG continues his evil ways, as so many goody two shoes before him have in that area. If you are messing with a complex system and do not understand its inner workings, you are on the road to hell. Or maybe he just does not care.

      --
      Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
    11. Re:How long will it take slashdot to spin this? by f3dup · · Score: 1

      All he does is pushing corporate interests with the money he "earned" exploiting a monopoly. Hard to find that appealing. Not sure it actually helps the poor either.

    12. Re:How long will it take slashdot to spin this? by rtb61 · · Score: 1

      You can not buy contribution to human society. You can not steal the real efforts of others just by temporarily subsidising their life whilst they do the actually real work. The doctors, scientists and other health practitioners who studied and devoted their life to those causes are the ones doing the real work. By temporarily subsidising their life you under no circumstance take any ownership of their efforts and it is really pretty slimy egoistic to attempt to do so.

      You have all those pigopolist based copyright laws to protect the works of authors but apparently the credit for all the direct efforts of all those hundreds of millions who directly support human society can be simply bought and claimed by the rich and greedy and this is fully supported by those who totally oppose the sharing of their work, the copy rightists.

      Lets limit those donations to the reality of what they are, Bill Gates is just 'temporarily' supporting the lives of the people who will actually do the work of curing those diseases and saving humanity, he is not actually bloody doing it. When the donation dries up and before it started, it was properly government funded over the long term by EVIL TAXES (snark) or it should have been.

      It is just plain nucking futs to claim "he's done more for the poor than all of us put together". Check the numbers, just the simple efforts of the Linux and FOSS community has done more by 'SAVING' money so governments could spend software licensing fees on others things, rather than just making a few people rich.

      --
      Chaos - everything, everywhere, everywhen
    13. Re:How long will it take slashdot to spin this? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Given how many viruses and entrail devouring worms he's allowed and even encouraged in the computer world, and how much of his fortune is stolen, it's like Robin Hood robbing the national treasury keeping enough money for his castle and troops, and making a free donut shop.

      It does not make up for the abuse and theft, it's just a way to pretend that he's worth something morally and get appreciated at public gatherings.

    14. Re:How long will it take slashdot to spin this? by the+gnat · · Score: 1

      Reduce the rate of people, and especially children, dying and there will just be a lot more dying a generation down the road when they exceed what they can feed/house/employ/etc. again.

      Actually, this has it almost exactly backwards: reducing infant mortality has been a major cause of stabilizing population growth. Increasing prosperity also helps a great deal, and there's a strong argument that malaria is a huge economic drain.

      If you are messing with a complex system and do not understand its inner workings, you are on the road to hell. Or maybe he just does not care.

      Or maybe he doesn't share your misanthropic view of humanity, and your insistence that "those people" need to stop breeding before they can enjoy the comforts of Western civilization?

    15. Re:How long will it take slashdot to spin this? by the+gnat · · Score: 3, Insightful

      All he does is pushing corporate interests

      What corporate interests are involved in curing malaria? The entire reason that Bill Gates is subsidizing these efforts is that there isn't much financial incentive for Big Pharma to develop drugs for diseases that primarily afflict people in Third World nations.

    16. Re:How long will it take slashdot to spin this? by hawkfish · · Score: 2

      I think there are serious questions about accountability, undue influence and private priorities that can be raised without touching how he made his money:

      Research by Devi Sridhar at Oxford University warns that philanthropic interventions are ‘radically skewing public health programmes towards issues of the greatest concern to wealthy donors’. ‘Issues,’ she writes, ‘which are not necessarily top priority for people in the recipient country.’

      --
      You will not drink with us, but you would taste our steel? - Walter Matthau, The Pirates
    17. Re:How long will it take slashdot to spin this? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      http://newsjunkiepost.com/2013/06/07/bill-gates-big-pharma-bogus-philanthropy/

    18. Re:How long will it take slashdot to spin this? by KiloByte · · Score: 0

      Even his "charity" can be bloody and harmful. The guy put $50M for a campaign to promote genital mutilation.

      --
      The creatures outside looked from Alt-Right to Antifa; but already it was impossible to say which was which.
    19. Re:How long will it take slashdot to spin this? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "How many posts until someone finds a way to still hate on him, despite the fact that he's done more for the poor than all of us put together?"

      The reason he can do that is because capitalism deny's shared ownership and because of this it is trivially easy to exploit people who work for you, the negotiating position of an employer (bill gates was born into the upper class remember he had money) and the employee (I will starve if I don't get this job) are miles away. If everyone who worked at microsoft got a share of ownership according to their merit, bill gates couldn't extract that kind of value from the employee's. The idea that billy gates "earned" that money is laughable. It's an artifact of large populations (large numbers of customers) and history. Try being bill gates in a town of 10,000 people. Not gonna happen. This doesn't even get into bill gates anti-competitive practices and all the bad shit he's doing and done to people, if you doubt this... for every "donation" bill gates giveth, he takes away with bullshit intellectual property laws that hold other nations hostages to drugs and other health necessities.

      Microsoft also uses permatemp employees (employees employed for years as "temporary," and therefore without medical benefits), use of forced retention tactics, where departing employees would be sued to prevent departure, as well as more traditional cost-saving measures, ranging from cutting medical benefits, to not providing towels in company locker rooms.

      More criticism can be found here:

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticism_of_Microsoft

    20. Re:How long will it take slashdot to spin this? by jrumney · · Score: 1

      Richard Branson once pledged $3 billion of the profit from his airlines over ten years towards efforts to combat climate change. If his airlines didn't make that much profit, he said he would take it from other parts of his business empire. When someone checked up 8 years in, he'd managed to give $200-300k over those 8 years, and the forecast for the next 2 years was not looking good. Two things to take away from this - 1) that Steve Jobs' 10s of millions is not bad compared to his peers, and 2) that so far Bill Gates has said he will give $500M for this particular cause, but what really matters if you're going to compare this with Steve Jobs' donations is what he actually gives out in the end. (not that I think Gates has as bad a record as Branson).

    21. Re:How long will it take slashdot to spin this? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Gates foundation critique:

      http://techrights.org/wiki/index.php/Gates_Foundation_Critique

    22. Re:How long will it take slashdot to spin this? by jrumney · · Score: 1

      All he does is pushing corporate interests with the money he "earned" exploiting a monopoly.

      Before he got into health issues, I'd agree - mostly he invested in pushing developing countries towards using Windows PCs for education. But more recently he's investing a lot into healthcare issues that are important to the developing world, and without his money, unprofitable for the drug cartels to research.

    23. Re:How long will it take slashdot to spin this? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Any small amount he gave, was done to give himself face. This is offset by the years of fucking over customers since day 1.

    24. Re:How long will it take slashdot to spin this? by cavreader · · Score: 1

      He "earned" his monopoly because all his potential competitors at the time damn near sold every price of technology and accompanying rights to MS. These were business decisions that benefited both parties. When MS gained it's monopoly it was investigated and penalties, both monetary and operational, were implemented. And who really cares what you think if you can say the Gates Foundation almost 2 Billion dollars worth of world healthcare investments have not helped anyone.

    25. Re:How long will it take slashdot to spin this? by Truth_Quark · · Score: 1

      How many posts until someone finds a way to still hate on him, despite the fact that he's done more for the poor than all of us put together?

      Are you counting creating poor as doing something for the poor?

      His management of the Gates Foundation is not great for the poor. He is maintaining the unaffordable costs of medicines.

      Doctors Without Borders criticizes Gates-backed global vaccine strategy

      If his intention is to spend his ill-gotten gains to the benefit of humanity, he should put a humanitarian at the helm. Gates was very good at bullying governments and businesses, and illegal attacks on competition to drain the profits from businesses all over the world, but he's no manager.

    26. Re:How long will it take slashdot to spin this? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      What part of "secretly gave" would give himself face?

    27. Re:How long will it take slashdot to spin this? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And how many poor were created or denied the opportunity for improvement thanks to the obscene concentration of wealth to which he personally promoted?

      despite the fact that he's done more for the poor than all of us put together

      If I were to donate a gajilion dollars to charity, but also boil babies alive and eat them, then would any reasonable person not hate me? The function of one's net effect on the world takes both the positive and the negative.

      How many of you will take a potshot at Microsoft, even though Bill hasn't worked there in years?

      Gates set Microsoft on it's path, much of it's current policies and effect on the world is the result of his explicit choices. It's reasonable to criticize him on those points, as long as one cares not to criticize him for policies set after he relinquished control.

    28. Re:How long will it take slashdot to spin this? by nine-times · · Score: 1

      Gates is doing some good things with some of his money. You can take a minute to point that out, and we're free to use that minute however we see fit. I'm not looking to get into an argument about whether Gates is wonderful or terrible, but sorry, no, you don't get to tell all the rest of us that we have to worship the guy. Because ultimately we get to make up our own minds, and the fact that he has given some portion of his enormous money to charity does not make him immune to criticism.

    29. Re:How long will it take slashdot to spin this? by DNS-and-BIND · · Score: 1, Insightful

      Bill Gates is a robber baron who made his money through despicable behavior and monopolism. Now he's buying his way to respectability and people like you are fooled by it. Just look at how you view the names of cruel tyrants like Rockefeller and Carnegie.

      --
      Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
    30. Re:How long will it take slashdot to spin this? by nine-times · · Score: 1

      it is a little unreasonable for people to jump in the middle of it to shout "Yeah but he did this bad thing 15 years ago!"

      And I want to comment on this, also, and say that I don't think it's unreasonable. If you're going to praise a man for donating millions of dollars to charitable causes, then it's fair game to criticize him for how he got those millions of dollars.

      Now we could argue about whether "that bad thing" he did 15 years ago was actually bad. I don't want to argue about that right now. But if without having done "that bad thing" he wouldn't have the millions of dollars to give to charity, then it's relevant to the conversation.

    31. Re:How long will it take slashdot to spin this? by N_Piper · · Score: 1

      How about pushing price cut Apple II's into schools when nobody consider computers a necessity?

    32. Re:How long will it take slashdot to spin this? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Okay. Now ask yourself how he made that money he is now deciding how to redistribute. Did he make it by making the world a slightly better place or a slightly worse place?

    33. Re:How long will it take slashdot to spin this? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      What, exactly, has Mr. Gates and his lovely bride done for the poor? If you are talking about throwing money around, he has done some of that. But what has he actually accomplished? Please cite references.

    34. Re:How long will it take slashdot to spin this? by Undead+Waffle · · Score: 1

      How many posts until someone finds a way to still hate on him, despite the fact that he's done more for the poor than all of us put together?

      How many Apple fans will make fun of him, in spite of the fact that Steve Jobs never gave a dime to charity?

      How many of you will take a potshot at Microsoft, even though Bill hasn't worked there in years?

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B...

      He stepped down as chairman of Microsoft in February 2014, taking on a new post as technology advisor to support newly appointed CEO Satya Nadella.

      Board member of: Microsoft, Berkshire Hathaway

      He still works at Microsoft and the rest of your post is absurd. I believe the correct response here is to mark this post "troll".

    35. Re:How long will it take slashdot to spin this? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Bill Gates has already given away billions of his wealth. He is one of the most charitable individuals in history. Say what you will about how he earned his money - it's at least going to good use now.

    36. Re:How long will it take slashdot to spin this? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Gates makes INVESTMENTS not donations. Anyone with a net worth of 82 billion dollars has already robbed the rest of us blind. No one should be allowed to wield the power/influence that that kind of money commands.

    37. Re:How long will it take slashdot to spin this? by dryeo · · Score: 1

      He's giving away 1% of his unimaginable fortune, probably less when tax breaks and other business is taken into account. he could give away 90% and still be unimaginably rich. Compare to the homeless guy splitting his last meal with another.
      Percentage wise he has done a lot less then some people I've known, he was just lucky to be born with a golden spoon in his mouth, had amazing luck and timing and took full advantage of that. It's good that since meeting Melinda he has become more generous but considering what he could do he's doing the equivalent of many of us giving a grand or 2 to charity to get a write off.

      --
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inverted_totalitarianism
    38. Re:How long will it take slashdot to spin this? by davester666 · · Score: 1

      What could be wrong with Bill donating $500M dollars worth of Windows 8.1 Pro licenses and Microsoft Office 365 subscriptions to fight malaria and other diseases?

      --
      Sleep your way to a whiter smile...date a dentist!
    39. Re:How long will it take slashdot to spin this? by Dutch+Gun · · Score: 2

      Gates is now pretty much a full time philanthropist. When he says he's going to give $500 million, I think we can take him at his word.

      Anyhow, good for you Mr. Gates. I think this is money well directed, and hopefully will be well spent. For all of our first world problems and complaints about our health care system, we sometimes forget that there are still many millions of people suffering and dying because they don't have the advantages we have.

      --
      Irony: Agile development has too much intertia to be abandoned now.
    40. Re:How long will it take slashdot to spin this? by tehcyder · · Score: 1
      I always thought the parking in disabled areas thing was a more damning indication of his character.

      I really don't give a crap about how much/little someone donates to charities, they shouldn't need to exist as alternatives to proper government spending in the first place. (Yeah, blah blah, socialism I know).

      --
      To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
    41. Re:How long will it take slashdot to spin this? by tehcyder · · Score: 2
      Everyone has different gifts: if you're a billionaire, the ability to give away 100s of millions of dollars is your main one.

      Money may not solve all problems, but it makes most of them a lot easier.

      --
      To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
    42. Re:How long will it take slashdot to spin this? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I agree, and I'd also point out that the "percentage of disposable income" argument applies here. Gates' stock brokers will replace that money almost as fast as he spends it. He might be the most charitable, but it's not a coincidence that he's still the richest man in the world. In the meantime, literally millions of people who have little to no disposable income will volunteer at charity and community events and give what they can. We need both kinds of charity, to be sure, but Gates is putting less than 1% of his wealth, from many consider to be ill-gotten gains, to fight malaria.

      On the other hand, people probably think similar things about the entire United States, and about China. The US is only rich (at least in terms of per capita GDP) because we were the safest place for the world's greatest scientists as they fled Europe, making our country the center of human scientific achievement. China is only catching up on the backs of low wage workers in horrendous environmental conditions. Money's gotta be somewhere, I guess.

    43. Re:How long will it take slashdot to spin this? by tehcyder · · Score: 1

      But if without having done "that bad thing" he wouldn't have the millions of dollars to give to charity, then it's relevant to the conversation.

      The problem is the disproportionate view taken of the "badness" of Microsoft on sites like slashdot. He produced an inferior Operating System and for a while prevented Linux from taking off.

      He didn't massacre babies for fun.

      --
      To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
    44. Re:How long will it take slashdot to spin this? by tehcyder · · Score: 1

      Even his "charity" can be bloody and harmful. The guy put $50M for a campaign to promote genital mutilation.

      Source?

      --
      To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
    45. Re:How long will it take slashdot to spin this? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      wow 10's of millions, from a guy that made billions off over priced devices. Pretty freaking cheap of them to only donate that pocket change.

      And every bit of it to hospitals that just happened to be doing cancer research, after he got cancer.

      My hero!

    46. Re:How long will it take slashdot to spin this? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Steve Jobs lied on an affidavit stating that he was sterile to get out of paying child support to his daughter.

      Steve Jobs was a lousy, pathetic worm.

      If I believed in such things, I would hope the sack of shit is burning in hell. I can only hope that the cancer really fucking hurt.

    47. Re:How long will it take slashdot to spin this? by nine-times · · Score: 2

      So now you're turning this into an argument about the particulars of the "bad things" he did. I'd like to point out that, in general, the people who are bringing this up are pro-Gates people saying (and I'm going to exaggerate to make a point), "Gee, look at how wonderful and amazing a person Bill Gates is. He's perfect and wonderful and lovely, and is the ideal human being. Not fair criticizing him! No fair saying anything bad or bringing up his past! We shouldn't even talk about what he did int he past because it's irrelevant, and also what he did in the past was not actually bad."

      Not that last part at the end there is important. I don't really want to get into an argument about what he did in the past, but my point is that you are opening that door, which is important and meaningful for this other conversation we're having-- whether it's fair to bring up his past.

      The thing is, in bringing up his past, you're belying the idea that his past has nothing to do with his present good deeds. You're presenting an implied argument that his present good deeds make him so immune to criticism-- not just to the point where we're supposed to ignore his past bad deeds, but so much so that we're supposed to revise history and pretend his bad deeds were actually totally fine. Any possible sins in his past can be summed up, "He only failed to be perfect, which is hardly a sin, and he's perfect now, so let's overlook that."

      Right about now, you think I'm going too far and reading too far into things, but you misunderstand. I'm not saying this is your actual logical position on the argument, but I'm trying to verbalize the emotional/social position that's implied in your pseudo-logical argument. You're saying, "All he did was produce an inferior operating system," when, unless you're completely ignorant to the historical facts, that's not 'all he did'. But from your standpoint, we should all whitewash his past in order to sanctify him now.

      And frankly, I think that's what he intends.

    48. Re:How long will it take slashdot to spin this? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      you're a fool. For your sake I hope you're still a high school student thinking he knows what the fuk he's talking about.

    49. Re:How long will it take slashdot to spin this? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      His good luck was that when he tried to sell Microsoft in the early days there were no buyers. Warren Buffet, it is said, did not see the value in Microsoft. That was his luck.

    50. Re:How long will it take slashdot to spin this? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The part where it's not secret, hence we know about it. It also looks like he didn't give anything until he knew that he was dying. What a beacon of altruism!

    51. Re:How long will it take slashdot to spin this? by f3dup · · Score: 0

      Obviously, the drugs will come out for free, and nobody will make profit on them. GSK is a well known non-profit organization.

      Also, the good publicity won't have any impact on the guy's image and the companies he's involved with...

      Pure altruism.

    52. Re:How long will it take slashdot to spin this? by Shalhav · · Score: 0

      You seem like a very happy individual.

    53. Re:How long will it take slashdot to spin this? by KiloByte · · Score: 1

      LMGTFY: "bill gates genital mutilation"

      --
      The creatures outside looked from Alt-Right to Antifa; but already it was impossible to say which was which.
    54. Re:How long will it take slashdot to spin this? by red+crab · · Score: 1

      How many of you will take a potshot at Microsoft, even though Bill hasn't worked there in years?

      Let me try. Apple doesn't yet depend on government contracts in developing nations.

    55. Re:How long will it take slashdot to spin this? by Stuarticus · · Score: 1

      Well, "give away" is a very interesting description, maybe you should look into the PATH malaria initiative and their policies on Private Sector collaboration, what will this Malaria vaccine be worth if it is discovered and who will profit from it?

      --
      If you think someone isn't free to have a different definition of "freedom" you may be a tyrant.
    56. Re:How long will it take slashdot to spin this? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Those "unsung" heroes wouldn't be able to even do anything were it not for people with money, like Bill Gates. Also, if you are trying to equate the work of some minimum wage, uneducated sack of shit with the billions Gates has given away, then you're delusional. Those people's time are worth maybe $50 a day each.

    57. Re:How long will it take slashdot to spin this? by General+Wesc · · Score: 1

      To be clear, by "genital mutilation" he means "male circumcision", which is incomparably less bad than female circumcision, which is what the term is generally reserved for.

      Male circumcision = cutting off the foreskin, which is not a procedure I'm a fan of, but is still performed on the majority of Americans boys, and is fairly harmless, in addition to potentially reducing risk of AIDS. Female circumcision = cutting off the clitoris, and has been condemned as a human rights violation by the UN.

      It may not be a strictly false statement on his part, but it's obviously a shady, misleading way of saying it. Now if Bill Gates had funded the lopping off of kid's penises, it would be an apt description, and analogous to female circumcision.

    58. Re:How long will it take slashdot to spin this? by KiloByte · · Score: 1

      The only shady thing here are claims by the pro-mutilation party that it somehow reduces the risk of transmitting AIDS. The only study that shown this result was Camp Orange, and it: 1. was ran by a group funded by MGM proponents, 2. has multiple claims of scientific misconduct pointed against it, 3. contradicts actually peer-reviewed studies, 4. included the time of recovery from the surgery within study time (a man with a penis in pain isn't exactly going to conduct in sexual contact), 5. gave sexual education to only one of the groups (during the surgery), and 6. destroyed the control group, making any further study on those people impossible.

      --
      The creatures outside looked from Alt-Right to Antifa; but already it was impossible to say which was which.
  2. How long will it take slashdot to spin this? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    You will not stomp on my spirit, sir.

  3. He should give it back ... by CaptainDork · · Score: 0

    ... he took so much, he is having trouble spending it all before he dies.

    --
    It little behooves the best of us to comment on the rest of us.
    1. Re:He should give it back ... by mean+pun · · Score: 1

      ... he took so much, he is having trouble spending it all before he dies.

      Uhm, isn't this what he's doing?

    2. Re:He should give it back ... by CaptainDork · · Score: 1

      According to TFS.

      --
      It little behooves the best of us to comment on the rest of us.
  4. Re:Window 8.1 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Yes, but it is in the form of 2,500,000 Windows 8.1 licenses. That might be so repugnant that it would repel mosquitos, too.

    That is great! The developing world will have access to a real operating system instead of the toy Linux!

  5. Re:Window 8.1 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Eh had you said windows 7 then maybe one could agree. But there isn't an os out there right now that feels more like a baby's 1st pc kind of OS than windows 8.x.

  6. It's all in the percentages ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    First I think it's commendable that he is giving back. Fortune has been kind to him and it is only appropriate that he reciprocate in some small way.

    By small I might point out that Forbes lists his net worth as $76B for 2014(1). So that $500M donation is roughly equivalent to 0.7% of his net worth. To put his donation in a more realistic perspective it is equivalent to someone of median net worth(2) donating $310. Hardly worth lionizing the man over IMHO.

    1. http://www.forbes.com/pictures/mel45hdjl/1-bill-gates/
    2. http://money.cnn.com/2014/06/11/news/economy/middle-class-wealth/

    1. Re:It's all in the percentages ... by gweihir · · Score: 1

      Well, he is trying to buy himself a good public image on the cheap.

      --
      Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
    2. Re:It's all in the percentages ... by mythosaz · · Score: 4, Informative

      You're right. It is percentages.

      Maybe the 40 billion he's given in trust to the B&MGF should be in your totals.
      http://www.gatesfoundation.org...

      Gates has pretty much decided to give all of his money to the foundation by (and in the 10 years following) his and Melissa's death.

      Oh, and the other richest guy in the world is on board with matching contributions in the form of BH stock.

    3. Re:It's all in the percentages ... by mythosaz · · Score: 1, Flamebait

      Cool story bro.

      The B&MG foundation has already disbursed over 30BN, the majority of which came from Bill.

    4. Re:It's all in the percentages ... by mythosaz · · Score: 1

      It only runs in the black until Bill and Melissa (and Warren) finish dumping their live savings into it.

      You could have easily given your kids 60BN by any number of creative means that didn't include giving 5BN/year away on things like malaria.

    5. Re:It's all in the percentages ... by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      It only runs in the black until Bill and Melissa (and Warren) finish dumping their live savings into it.

      False. The Gates foundation makes investments for profit, and operates on the return. It's a place for Bill to park his money. There's ways to get the money back out again. One way is by heavily investing in Big Pharma, then using your charity to funnel billions to them.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    6. Re:It's all in the percentages ... by tehcyder · · Score: 1

      By small I might point out that Forbes lists his net worth as $76B for 2014(1). So that $500M donation is roughly equivalent to 0.7% of his net worth.

      Yes, 0.7% of his total net worth, not 0.7% of his salary/earnings in one year.

      Big difference.

      --
      To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
    7. Re:It's all in the percentages ... by tehcyder · · Score: 1

      The Gates foundation makes investments for profit, and operates on the return

      Because, of course, every other charity in the world is run so that it makes a loss on its investments each year.

      It's practically a badge of honour to show in your annual accounts that you squandered the maximum amount of donations each year on poorly conceived, hopeless investments.

      --
      To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
    8. Re:It's all in the percentages ... by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      It's practically a badge of honour to show in your annual accounts that you squandered the maximum amount of donations each year on poorly conceived, hopeless investments.

      I'd like to see that the money was spent effectively, in a way not designed primarily to promote profit and control.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
  7. Re:The Real Agenda of The Gates Foundation .. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Let us look at two numbers:

    Add up all the money donated by Gates
    Add up all of the money individually donated by all Linux supportes and contributors.

    Enough said!

    Thank you Mister Gates for working to improve the lives of millions of people.
    Thank you Linux "community" for more pointless debates on DMARC vs. DKIM and the merits of systemd.

  8. Re:500 million of Microsoft WIndows licenses by gweihir · · Score: 1

    In fact he has utterly wasted so many hours of so many people that calling him a "mass murderer" becomes reasonable.

    --
    Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
  9. The World is Overcrowded by johnsie · · Score: 2

    While I don't doubt the intentions of Bill and others who want to try and people alive, sadly this is natures way of making sure the world doesn't get overcrowded. It's a sad fact but people NEED to die.

    1. Re:The World is Overcrowded by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Rather than having people die, controls should be in place to govern the proliferation of individuals who cannot in fact care for their family without assistance. Doesn't really matter if that is mostly owing to the circumstances of their place of birth; bringing someone into the world when it is effectively assured they will only suffer is criminally irresponsible, and therefore justifiably subject to lawful control.

    2. Re:The World is Overcrowded by the+gnat · · Score: 2

      this is natures way of making sure the world doesn't get overcrowded. It's a sad fact but people NEED to die.

      Then how do you explain the fact that some of the countries with the highest life expectancies, and almost no severe endemic diseases, are also the ones with the slowest-growing (or even shrinking) populations?

    3. Re:The World is Overcrowded by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Wow, CONTROLS! Will you and your trusted associates be the ones to decide?

    4. Re:The World is Overcrowded by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Most western countries are below the rate of sustainable popuations. The US, UK, Australia, New Zealand, Canada etc... All countries that if they completely closed their borders would reduce their population each generation. The entire world is heading towards this trend, this isn't new knowledge, try to educate yourself before pretending to know something.

    5. Re:The World is Overcrowded by stealth_finger · · Score: 1

      this is natures way of making sure the world doesn't get overcrowded. It's a sad fact but people NEED to die.

      Then how do you explain the fact that some of the countries with the highest life expectancies, and almost no severe endemic diseases, are also the ones with the slowest-growing (or even shrinking) populations?

      Because they don't spit out 5-10 kids each?

      --
      Wanna buy a shirt?
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    6. Re:The World is Overcrowded by BetterThanCaesar · · Score: 1

      this is natures way of making sure the world doesn't get overcrowded. It's a sad fact but people NEED to die.

      Then how do you explain the fact that some of the countries with the highest life expectancies, and almost no severe endemic diseases, are also the ones with the slowest-growing (or even shrinking) populations?

      Because they don't spit out 5-10 kids each?

      Because their 1.9 children will survive long enough to support them after retirement, and since life is not just a struggle to survive, they are productive enough that they can afford to support their parents.

      --
      "Stop failing the Turing test!" -- Dilbert
    7. Re:The World is Overcrowded by jittles · · Score: 1

      While I don't doubt the intentions of Bill and others who want to try and people alive, sadly this is natures way of making sure the world doesn't get overcrowded. It's a sad fact but people NEED to die.

      Are you volunteering to be the first to die for your cause? Or did you just mean that other people sh

  10. Re: Thanks Windows :D by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I want a few billion dedicated to fighting hay fever.

  11. Re:The Real Agenda of The Gates Foundation .. by AmigaUser8 · · Score: 1

    Let us look at two numbers:

    Add up all the money donated by Gates Add up all of the money individually donated by all Linux supportes and contributors.

    Enough said!

    Thank you Mister Gates for working to improve the lives of millions of people. Thank you Linux "community" for more pointless debates on DMARC vs. DKIM and the merits of systemd.

    To improve the lives of most Linux users, Gates should donate to basement air quality improvement efforts!

  12. How is this news? by N_Piper · · Score: 2

    It's the Bill and Malinda Gates Foundation, it's been around since 2000, He and or his Wife regularly pump money into it.
    This is less news than Tim Cook being gay.
    I'm starting to think those news stories about smart phones and Google running everyone's long term memories may not be such BS after all...

  13. Great News by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    This is great news, however I would like to know why LondonPharma's treatment (ArTiMist) is not being rushed out to malaria prone areas.

    http://www.mrc-malaria.com/artimist-product/

    "ArTiMistâ was designed with a child in mind; a child living in a challenging environment where healthcare resources can be very scarce and time is of the essence."

    ArTiMistâ in 2011 was identified by Thompson Reuters as one of the Worldâ(TM)s 5 most promising drugs in Phase III clinical development.

    Does not require medically trained personnel to administer
    Not affected by GI complications
    By passes the liver and the significant metabolism seen from the first pass effect.
    Does not require a fatty diet for maximum effect
    Rapidly absorbed
    Negates risk of infection from needle injury
    Can be administered in comatose patients
    Does not require cold chain storage
    Long shelf life

  14. So... actively bleeding resources from the USA? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The USA is a dead cause anyway, might as well ship the resources to Africa. Who needs a jobs when there are healthy people in the heart of Africa?

  15. Good for him. Now I wonder why he didn't by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    just hand that money over to the government. Surely NIH or CDC or some other underfunded-but-ultra-efficient government body would know how to use that money better than Mr. Gate's sloppy private charities.

  16. And to follow up, why did he fund the B&MGF at by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I mean, why would he want to shift $30B of his wealth and the future earnings it would generate into a foundation? A true American would have wanted the Government to get most, if not all, of that money. For the children.

    And why oh why did he fund his foundation with appreciated Microsoft stock? By doing that he accidentally, I'm sure, missed his chance to pay his fair share of capital gain taxes to the Government to fund the wonderful things only the Government can do. I sure hope he didn't take a charitable donation deduction on top of that and compound his mistake?

    And now I hear he's got Mr. Buffett all confused too! Mr. Buffett was so upset that his tax rates were so low, but he's making the same mistake Bill Gates made: donating appreciated stock *and* taking a charitable deduction *and* depriving the munificent folks at the Government with not only his donation but the taxes those donations avoided! Why think what his tax rates would have been had he simply sold the stock, paid the capital gains taxes, handed the proceeds to B&MGF, and chose to *not* take the deduction for doing so?!

  17. Re:500 million of Microsoft WIndows licenses by tehcyder · · Score: 1

    In fact he has utterly wasted so many hours of so many people that calling him a "mass murderer" becomes reasonable.

    Talk about a fucking First World Problem.

    Ooh, I had to reboot my computer to complete the installation of a piece of software. Literally Hitler.

    --
    To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
  18. 500M out of 30B by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Some one with access to over 30B, 500M seems a bit cheap. Looks more like a PR want to look good in media rather then a true want to help.

    ()-()

  19. Techrights Critique Section by jbrax · · Score: 1

    Thanks! That was an interesting article to read! Techrights has also collected some Gates Foundation Critique.

    1. Re:Techrights Critique Section by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      There are a lot of flaws in that article. First off, corporations aren't required by law to try to maximize profits. That's an idiotic statement.

      Second, the Tuskegee experiment was done by the US Government (specifically, the US Public Health Service), not a pharma company.

      Third, vaccines are often tested in underdeveloped regions because those are the regions that have the disease. You can't test efficacy of a vaccine without exposing the recipient to the disease (without establishing a correlate of protection first, which requires this anyway), and it's both easiest and most ethical to do that in an area where the disease is already endemic rather than intentionally exposing vaccinated individuals to a disease when you don't know if the vaccine even works yet.

      Fourth, a working vaccine will not increase the virulence of malaria strains. The premise in the article is not supported by epidemiological studies in any other disease, and there's no reason to suppose it will happen with a working malaria vaccine.

      Fifth, public health infrastructure helps a lot to control malaria, but it won't wipe it out. Vaccines could, and they could do this without damaging the ecosystem.

      Sixth, the only polio vaccine that can spread polio is the oral polio vaccine, but the article states that they were given injections. Also, according to the WHO, malaria is nearly gone from India, despite the article's allegations otherwise.

      Seventh, donating money will not reduce Gates's tax bills by an appreciable amount, so looking at his contributions as a tax-avoidance scheme is silly and assumes malevolence when there isn't any good indication of it.

  20. Re:Thanks Windows :D by red+crab · · Score: 1

    Yes of course. And the developing nations need to oblige by buying Microsoft products.