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8 Apr 2024 | 12
Bill Gates declined offer to serve as Donald Trump's science advisor
Bill Gates reportedly turned down an offer to serve as President Donald Trump's science advisor. The offer was first reported by health sector site Statnews, which interviewed the Microsoft founder and philanthropist about his public-health-related activities. During the discussion, Gates told Statnews he'd discussed …
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Tuesday 1st May 2018 10:33 GMT Teiwaz
If a requirement of being in government meant you had to know anything about the area you were responsible for then "Cabinet reshuffle" wouldnt be a thing.
A mere reshuffle would do nothing - the requirements could only mean an entirely new cabinet constructed with thought on effectiveness and planning rather than the usual nepotism, and better quality materials than the usual weak dull planks.
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Tuesday 1st May 2018 11:39 GMT Prst. V.Jeltz
I fear we are stuck with the weak dull planks , but i wish they could stick at a task for more than five minutes without fucking up and having to be moved on to another department , rather than sacked.
I mean , whose gonna do that Javid fellas job now? theyre gonna have to train someone all over again ,
no wait , theyll just get some dull plank in to make platitudes in the media while the head civil servant of that area actually tries to get the work done , even with each new plank at the top moving the goal posts all the time.
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Tuesday 1st May 2018 14:45 GMT sisk
Microsoft make hardware too and spend many billions on scientific R&D, it's not that far apart.
Running a company that employs a lot of scientists does not make one qualified to be a science adviser. At the end of the day Gates is a very intelligent businessman but also a college dropout. He does not have the qualifications for any sort of science based position.
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Wednesday 2nd May 2018 09:25 GMT annodomini2
...He's also a hugely successful businessman, which seems to earn him Trump's respect...
Yes Gates is very financially successful, more so than Trump.
I think this is more to do with having 'control' over someone with a higher net worth, than actually the right person for the job.
You'd be surprised how much the 'upper echelons' of society can be childish and petty .
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Tuesday 1st May 2018 07:22 GMT Mark 85
Or perhaps White House Science Advisor Elon Musk could construct a suitable simulation to convince Donald he's destined to be on the first crewed mission to Mars, thus saving the world?
Maybe a large bonus and our eternal gratitude if Musk could get Congress to go on the second crewed mission to Mars.
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Tuesday 1st May 2018 08:57 GMT Anonymous Coward
It worries me that there probably *are* lots of people who are, let's say, not convinced the Earth is not flat in congress: how did we get here?
Serious question: how to flat Earth people explain the Sun being above the horizon (or just visible) for some people and not for others, which can't happen on a flat surface? Do they just think people far away from them who they can speak to on the phone are lying or something?
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Tuesday 1st May 2018 09:29 GMT ArrZarr
Their explanations generally rely upon some scientomagical effect that makes light bend, therefore making it appear that the sun has gone down somewhere earlier than somewhere else, but the bending light....Personally I prefer the Discworld explanation that light loses its sense of urgency when it interacts with strong magic fields, like the ones flat earthers produce.
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Tuesday 1st May 2018 16:27 GMT Rich 11
Flat Earth
Serious question: how to flat Earth people explain the Sun being above the horizon (or just visible) for some people and not for others
Apparently it's all a matter of perspective.
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Tuesday 1st May 2018 08:02 GMT jake
Gates never said "640K should be enough"[0] ... But Steve Jobs once said "128K should be more than enough for home users" (at a Homebrew Computer Club meeting, when introducing the Mac for the first time, a few weeks before it was unveiled for the general public.)
[0] The supposed "640K limit" was an IBM hardware limit, not a MS software limit. And it wasn't really 640K, it was more like 704K, if you knew what you were doing. I find it absolutely amazing that this piece of incorrect trivia is still being parroted as fact after all these years ...
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Tuesday 1st May 2018 08:09 GMT Anonymous Coward
Re: Does Bill like 'his baby' now under new management?
Oh look a Article about Bill gates, lets shoe horn yet another repetitive post in about Window 10, with the same tired quote.
Remind me again how much money do MS make from advertising? Maybe, just maybe the up-sell is getting to get people to buy apps from the app store, buy O365 subscriptions, using Edge and therefore Bing and pay for One drive...y'know, the things that make them billions of dollar profit.
Still be the complete fucktard that thinks they gave it away free (which of course it no longer is) to push ads (which I've never seen) generating fractions of pence per users.
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Tuesday 1st May 2018 10:37 GMT TRT
Well...
It wouldn't be the first time Gates has taken on a trump challenge.
I know, I know. Cheap joke based on someone's name. But someone's got to do it.
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Tuesday 1st May 2018 11:46 GMT cambsukguy
He's 62 and, having a still reasonable amount of hair, I think he looks, at most, 62.
One thing I have noticed about white westerners that spend a lot of time in the poorest African countries, is that they get thinner, browner, and more wrinkly.
But he looks better than most 60-ish year-olds I happen to know.
Not that it matters of course.
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Tuesday 1st May 2018 12:02 GMT Chris G
"He's 62 and, having a still reasonable amount of hair, I think he looks, at most, 62."
I'm 5 years older than Bill, compared to me and most of my contempories he looks 15 to 20 years older.
I would have thought by looks that he was at least mid to late 70s. One of my friends like me still has (mostly) dark brown hair, one is bald but looks younger than me the others are comparable, we all still indulge in various sports etc and none of us smoke, that is a skin ager.
I don't who the 62s are that you know but they should look after themselves a bit more.
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Tuesday 1st May 2018 14:12 GMT David Austin
In this case, “not a good use of my time” may be a euphemism, but I honestly believe it to be true;
Like it or loath it, Bill's work at Microsoft changed the world.
I genuinely believe his work at the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation is even more important, and will have even more impact in the long term (And eradicating polio is probably going to be more popular than Windows Me).
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Tuesday 1st May 2018 15:31 GMT John Smith 19
"“not a good use of my time”"
Well he's right.
Imagine.
You have a personal fortune in the 10s of $Bn.
You want to spend your time explaining complex ideas (you might not fully understand) to some verbally incontinent, attention deficient Ahole with near total contempt for his employees*?
Anyone smart enough to do the job is smart enough not to touch it with a barge pole. $Diety know what moron he'll actually get to fill it.
*Fires people through Twitter, lips always flapping, lies often coming out.
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Tuesday 1st May 2018 14:43 GMT sisk
I don't think ANY of the men mentioned in this article would be qualified to be the White House science adviser. Gates was right to turn down the position, and of the three men mentioned towards the end of the article Musk - whom I quite like but whose idea of science is commendably lacking in considerations of what's actually feasible much of the time - is the closest to being qualified, but he's still no scientist. I know who would be on my personal short list for that role and, sadly, none of them are from Silicon Valley. In fact a couple of them aren't even from the US.
One in particular - a British scientist who would be #1 or 2 on my list if we didn't have to consider nationality for White House positions - is a rather infamous YouTuber who would really piss off the radicals at both ends of the spectrum (bonus!) but who would be fantastic at the job. That's especially true with a President like Trump who needs to be told things in a blunt fashion by someone who's not easily intimidated.
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Tuesday 1st May 2018 17:02 GMT jake
Re: Matter / Anti-matter
Speaking as a registered American Voter, I can state quite safely that Trump has very, very rarely told me anything that I wanted to hear.
Speaking as a pseudo-normal human being, I categorically deny Gates has ever told me what I wanted ... at least not in any meaningful way.
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Thursday 3rd May 2018 14:52 GMT ArrZarr
Re: "No man is so ignorant as one whose livelihood depends on his ignorance"
After due care and consideration going back a thousand years, we've taken the wise decision to kick the monarch back into the role of figurehead.
This frees us up to elect honest and intelligent Ministers so they can govern the people freely, fairly and with integrity.
To be fair, The Monarchy serves its purpose as a tourist attraction and the land they rent to Parliament returns way more money than the rent cost.
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Tuesday 1st May 2018 17:05 GMT Gene Cash
Re: "No man is so ignorant as one whose livelihood depends on his ignorance"
> Isn't it time you sorted out that election system of yours?
Yeah, we had a "choice" between Hillary and Trump. They both suck.
What will REALLY take the cake:
1. Trump runs for re-election.
2. The Republican party LETS him
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Tuesday 1st May 2018 17:08 GMT 2Nick3
Missed opportunity?
I have to wonder if Mr. Gates took the opportunity to suggest someone well suited to the role? You would think he could come up with 3-5 names pretty quickly.
"Sorry, Mr. President, but I don't think I would be a good fit, all things told. But why don't you consider asking A or B, maybe C. I think any of them would be well suited to the role."
I would hope Mr. Gates wouldn't have been as dismissive as the comments that are sure to follow.
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Sunday 17th March 2019 04:59 GMT Jim84
Thiel gives $1 million per year to the SENS Research Foundation
“What if he were to ask Peter Thiel (who totally isn't “harvesting the blood of the young” but is keenly interested in anti-aging research)?”
Peter Thiel donated $1 million to Trump’s election campaign, but seems to have had f all influence on Trump for his million dollars.
The above quote is having a bit of a dig at Thiel implying that he is interested in anti aging research only for selfish reasons, and in fact may be impinging on the health of the young to further his own health. But an action can be in a persons self interest as well as that of the public.
The point that Thiel and others make is that most health care spending is on people over 65, and if we could keep these people healthy and youthful it could lower health care costs and raise economic productivity a great deal.
It’s very difficult to get the public and politicians to think about anti aging medicine as humans have psychological coping mechanisms that prevent them paying attention to seemingly inevitable and awful things like aging. This is sometimes called the “Pro Aging Trance” and usually results in people’s minds coming up with quick and often contradictory objections to quickly change the subject. Examples of these contradictory objections are “what about overpopulation?” and “anti aging would only be for the rich”.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
