Idiot Extraordinaire - Bill Gates

[AnCap Dave]

Source

Billionaire Bill Gates criticized capitalism saying that it causes fundraising efforts to go to trivial issues that bother rich people as opposed to global health epidemics that are devastating the poor.

The Microsoft founder was speaking at a conference about his latest philanthropic push to end malaria, saying that it gets slighted in terms of funding because the ones with the checkbooks are typically men in wealthy countries.

'The malaria vaccine in humanist terms is the biggest need. But it gets virtually no funding. But if you are working on male baldness or other things you get an order of magnitude more research funding because of the voice in the marketplace than something like malaria,' he said.

[Ibrahim90]

he's of course completely forgetting that charities and organizations dedicated to aiding in the eradication of malaria must contend with Corrupt governments, extreme poverty, and of course the natural conditions in areas where Malaria is at its worst. Doesn't help that a lot of the work against Malaria is via a government agency, the UN, in the form of its relevant branches. some very effective charities exist, but as they aren't as famous as the gov-co organizations, nor have the funding, their range of effects is limited (e.g. Medicine without borders).

of course, the problem could have been solved ages ago, in much the same way it was in the US: through the liberal usage of DDT. granted, it's a shit method due to the extreme collateral damage, but it's still the best we've got. All that's required at the very least, is a better, more discriminating administration of the chemical.

alternately, people could find ways of making chemicals similar to DDT but without the nasty side effects. But take a wild guess at what's stopping this from happening (hint: it isn't the whims of the charity givers).

[Lord T Hawkeye]

Far as I heard, DDT is safe.  They just needed to tone down the usage of it and all would have been fine.

[Ibrahim90]

Far as I heard, DDT is safe.  They just needed to tone down the usage of it and all would have been fine.

well, I'm not sure from who you heard it from: I got my information from the papers on the topic I've read when I was in Uni--though how reliable they are I cannot answer for, as I never specialized in toxicology. most describe the damage to bird population, as well as fish population. neither good when they are a food-source. this was the collateral damage I refer to.

doesn't change the point I was making either way: we're better off using it anyways (in moderation, as you and I both said), and improving on it would be even better, though with the bans on it...

in case you're wondering about the papers:

[spoiler]
Vos JG, Dybing E, Greim HA, Ladefoged O, Lambré C, Tarazona JV et al. (2000). "Health effects of endocrine-disrupting chemicals on wildlife, with special reference to the European situation". Crit Rev Toxicol 30 (1): 71–133. doi:10.1080/10408440091159176. PMID 10680769.

Holm L, Blomqvist A, Brandt I, Brunström B, Ridderstråle Y, Berg C (October 2006). "Embryonic exposure to o,p'-DDT causes eggshell thinning and altered shell gland carbonic anhydrase expression in the domestic hen". Environ. Toxicol. Chem. 25 (10): 2787–93. doi:10.1897/05-619R.1. PMID 17022422.[/spoiler]

[Lord T Hawkeye]

http://www.cracked.com/article_16078_the-5-most-ridiculously-over-hyped-health-scares-all-time_p5.html

It turned out, a lot of birds were actually going up in population during DDT's hayday and those going down, it turned out they already were going down before DDT was widely used.  The studies linking it to leukemia were just downright sloppy.

[Ibrahim90]

http://www.cracked.com/article_16078_the-5-most-ridiculously-over-hyped-health-scares-all-time_p5.html

It turned out, a lot of birds were actually going up in population during DDT's hayday and those going down, it turned out they already were going down before DDT was widely used.  The studies linking it to leukemia were just downright sloppy.

I see. well, I concede my mistake then.