Bill Gates, the TED Conference, and a jar of mosquitoes.

Those are not the elements of a Joke

Bill Gates did something this week that’s a far sight more endearing than shaking his tuckus in a parking lot with Jerry Seinfeld. He was giving a talk at the TED Conference about the persistent threat of Malaria in the third world. Speaking of the lack of interest and funding available to fight the disease, he said:

“There is more money put into baldness drugs than into malaria. Now, baldness is a terrible thing and rich men are afflicted. That is why that priority has been set.”

Then, the awesomeness happened

He took out a jar, removed the lid, shook its contents out over the front rows of the audience, and said:

“Malaria is spread by mosquitoes. I brought some here. I’ll let them roam around. There is no reason only poor people should be infected.“

Despite the fact that he hastened to add that the mosquitoes in question were Malaria-free, this might well be the coolest, and, well, most egalitarian, goddamned thing he’s done in, like, a decade. Almost makes up for leaving a baboon in charge of Microsoft.

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