Found online and posted without further comment

Hmmmmmmmmm...

Bill Gates releases mosquitos on audience

When I first read about this, I thought it must be an internet hoax/prank. But now they have video. Apparently, Bill Gates released a swarm of mosquitoes onto an unsuspecting crowd at the Technology, Entertainment, Design Conference.

"Malaria is spread by mosquitoes," Gates said while opening a jar onstage at the Technology, Entertainment, Design Conference — a gathering known to attract technology kings, politicians, and Hollywood stars.

"I brought some. Here I'll let them roam around. There is no reason only poor people should be infected."

...Gates then waited a minute or so before assuring the audience the freed insects were malaria-free.

I know this was supposed to be a way to make a point about first-world people caring about third-world problems, but it was wrong. Self-righteous displays like this only serve to alienate the audience. If it were me there, Bill Gates would have accomplished only one thing - ensuring I never gave his foundation another nickel as long as I live.

But maybe that's just me. What is your reaction?

Hormuz incident caused by prankster?

A lot of people have accused the Bush administration of concocting a false casus belli out of an incident between Iranian speed boats and a naval destroyer earlier this week. The US Navy and the Iranian Navy released conflicting recordings of the events, and confusion has been rife. Now, it is being suggested that the international incident may have been caused by a well-known Persian Gulf prankster broadcasting on military channels.

A heckling radio ham known as the Filipino Monkey, who has spent years pestering ships in the Persian Gulf, is being blamed today for sparking a major diplomatic row after American warships almost attacked Iranian patrol boats.
The US navy came within seconds of firing at the Iranian speedboats in the Strait of Hormuz on January 6 after hearing threats that the boats were attacking and were about to explode.

Senior navy officials have admitted that the source of the threats, picked up in international waters, was a mystery.

This falls under the heading of "truth is stranger than fiction" and shows what a knife edge we are walking in the Persian Gulf. Iranian and American diplomats need to work out a method to authenticate transmissions now, before we go to war over some idiot's version of "Is your refrigerator running?"