Daily review 18/03/2022

Written By: notices and features - Date published: - 8 comments
Categories: Daily review

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8 comments on “Daily review 18/03/2022”

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  1. 1

    Interesting account of how Bill Gates became a big baddie to conspiracy theorists from the man himself, courtesy of David Farrier who staged the event:

    A few weeks ago we took the podcast I work on — Armchaired and Dangerous — on the road, recording in a number of theatres down the West Coast of the United States.

    Our big surprise in Seattle was having Bill Gates join us on stage, where we could talk to him about what it was like to be at the centre of so many conspiracy theories: Especially ones involving vaccines and the pandemic.

    Bill doesn’t really turn up for live podcast recordings in giant theatres, and he doesn’t tend to talk about the conspiracy narratives he often finds himself embroiled in — so this felt special. It was a fun reveal — the audience didn’t know what the night’s topic was until I rolled the pre-recorded introduction, setting up the fact that we were in Bill’s hometown… Then — when I gave a cue (mentioning Mr Clippy, the very questionable digital assistant) Bill Gates just wandered onto the stage, and took a seat. People went apeshit and it was a lot of fun.

    Gates said it was his first time in public for ages, explained how a couple of things he'd said at his 2010 & 2015 TED talks were misinterpreted.

    David: And I think Johns Hopkins also ran a simulation, right? About a coronavirus spread that happened just before this coronavirus spread out…

    Bill: Yeah, that was really ironic. That literally in the month when it may have been breaking out in Wuhan, here in the United States — just to try and get people to think though, “Okay, how do we scale up diagnostics and therapeutics” — we were doing not big simulations, where you would have people move around — it was all a table top thing where you would talk through the scenarios.

    Monica: Well it’s big of you to not be like, “What about these Johns Hopkins people!” and pointing your finger at them.

    Bill: Well… I funded them to do that!

    [Big audience laughter at that line]

    Read the whole thing here: https://www.webworm.co/p/billgates?s=r

    1. 1.1

      It's not really ironic.

      Coronavirus was associated with two previous pandemics in the last 20 years. It was high risk for another one up there with influenza and ebola.

      Sure, some simulations are hypothetical analogs, e.g. a "zombie apocalypse" or simulating combat against a fictional nation that happens to share characteristics with peers in your nation's sphere of influence. But a lot of training and planning involves picking the most likely threats.

      Basically, the conspiracists think that the experts planned it simply because, surprise surprise, the experts happened to be good at their job.

    1. 2.1

      Incredible, isn't it? Right at the peak of NZ's Covid-19 experience we have right wing reckons again calling for the dropping of health measures because they think it might earn them a few votes.

      I'm so glad RNZ at least has asked the question and am very disappointed that Luxon was so ill-prepared. He thinks the tobacco-lobbyist must have spoken to Reti about this.

      And some people want this shower running the country?

    1. 3.1

      "But, as the company had claimed more than £15m in grants and furlough assistance – and paid out £270m in dividends to shareholders – that was turned down.

      With fuel costs escalating, DP World now states that the losses it's making on P&O ferries – £100m last year – aren't sustainable.

      So it is cutting other key costs – staffing – to survive.

      But this announcement comes days after DP World, now owned ultimately by the Dubai government, revealed it made over £8bn in global revenues last year."

      Trigger?

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