U.S.A.
Everyone Else
Health
Science
Business
Technology
Sports
Video Games
Entertainment
Future
Humour
NEWS > BUSINESS >BILL GATES TAKES STAB AT REINVENTING THE TOILET
BILL GATES TAKES STAB AT REINVENTING THE TOILET
July 21 2011
Redmond, WA – The story is as old as the world; a small man, beaten down by society and with little to show in life but possessed of a great, secret skill. Eventually that man finds a way to express that skill, to utilize it in his real life, and in so doing
becomes great. All the people who dismissed him and made fun of him now kneel before him and he becomes legend. The weakling slays the giant, the man comes around.
That story has played out in fiction and in real life over and over again throughout human history, changing the course of human development and changing the world, for good or bad. In the late 1970’s one such story began in a garage in New Mexico when Paul Allen and Bill Gates came up with the idea to start a computer company. Two computer geeks, in an era when computers where almost unknown, would go from University dropouts to two of the wealthiest, most powerful, and most influential people the world has ever seen. If such a tale had been written, it would certainly have been fiction, but it did happen. Now all these years later, the world has shifted to one that could not have been without those garage days, and the founders have moved on to other things, trying to change the world in different ways, including a new effort by Gates to redefine the toilet just as he did with the home computer.
“No innovation in the past 200 years has done more to save lives and improve health than the sanitation revolution triggered by invention of the toilet,” said Sylvia Mathews Burwell, President of the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation. “But it did not go far enough. It only reached one-third of the world. What we need are new approaches.”
Approximately 40 per cent of the world lacks access to proper toilet facilities which in turn results in water contamination and serious disease. Gates is reportedly working on cheap toilets in his Washington area garage.
“As much press as things like AIDS and cancer get in the press, the biggest killer worldwide is water-borne diseases. The principle cause of that contamination is contact with human waste, which is a result of poor sanitation. This affects a huge portion of the world and, unfortunately, impacts children the most severely,” said Scrape TV Health analyst Rebecca Phelps. “No one wants to see children die, not even billionaires like Bill Gates. After all many of these people may not be using their software right now, but given the opportunity to live a long and healthy life I’m sure they would be eager to use windows, Live, Xbox, and all the other services Microsoft offers. Sure, some of them would use other products but at least a percentage would go to Microsoft and you are talking about a large number of people. ”
Steve Jobs has apparently no interest in helping poor children as few would be able to afford Apple products even in the long term.
“It really does make great business sense and is also good for humanity. Very few people like to see children suffering and dying but most are helpless to do anything about it. Gates is not, Gates has the ability to change their lives and he can do that by making a better toilet. It’s actually very exciting,” continued Phelps. “I mean who knows how the project will go. Not everything Gates has touched has turned to gold after all, I mean no one wants this to be the Vista or Zune of toilets because, well, they either won’t work or no one will use them and that doesn’t help anyone. Hopefully this works.”
Paul Allen has also reportedly been working on a toilet project which will allow him to use the facilities without leaving his couch.
William Ashford, Business Correspondent
NEWS > BUSINESS >BILL GATES TAKES STAB AT REINVENTING THE TOILET
LINK IT! http://scrapetv.com/News/News%20Pages/Business/pages-6/Bill-Gates-takes-stab-at-reinventing-the-toilet-Scrape-TV-The-World-on-your-side.html |
TWEET IT! http://goo.gl/IXwZb |
BOOKMARK IT!  
|
|---|
Scrape Store
