When I heard about this, I thought it was a joke: The Gates Foundation is investing in the development of a urine-powered cellphone.
Frankly, I have always harbored a secret wish that someone would develop a urine-powered engine for automobiles. No one would ever run out of fuel. Now, that would be a wonderful idea and would provide an endless supply of sustainable energy forever!
But a urine-powered cellphone?
Who would have thought of that?
It does make more sense to invest in a urine-powered cellphone than to spend hundreds of millions to persuade school districts to evaluate teachers based on test scores. That dog of an idea went nowhere. It led to false positives, to high error rates, to narrowing the curriculum, cheating, and endless test prep as the stakes got higher and higher.
Last year, the Gates Foundation issued a challenge to reinvent the toilet of the future. An Israeli firm won the grant. There is a theme here but I don’t know if I am the right one to put a name to it.
I admit the idea of a urine-powered cellphone is intriguing. Also somewhat alarming. I am thinking about what will happen in public places, when people find that their cell power is low. But that’s just me worrying about proprieties. Hmm.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Thanks for the chuckle: I needed it!
Teachers have already mastered the art of what to do with our urine.
We hold it in for hours.
I call it “teacher bladder.”
Perhaps Bill knows as much.
Perhaps he has tapped into an idea more in line with his real value of us.
He treats us like crap.
Now he wants our urine.
What a man.
Gates is full of $hit and now he is running out of piss and vinegar.
No one wants to tell this man, who has an endless supply of money and who lives safely protected in a private compound, that he’s lost his mind and his ideas suck.
Linda–I will happily tell him.
Very well played Diane.
Guess he got tired of pissing on public schools.
Caller A. – Why didn’t you return my calls?
Caller B. – I couldn’t find a restroom.
and NSA: Bill Gates here, I am listening to every word. Piss off.
Only logical to assume that Gates will next sponsor research to utilize BS for power, the he would be able to supply the entire world
We have easy access to clean water. Many children in the world die because they only have sewage laden water to drink. Just because Bill Gates is doing harmful things in K.12 education doesn’t mean that he can’t save a lot of lives in developing nations in clean water projects.
Chris, I agree with you. I think it is great when Gates invests in clean water and uses his great wealth to improve the lives of people who live in desperate poverty.
I do not think it is equally great when he uses his vast wealth to force metrics onto teaching that most testing experts say are inaccurate.
Perhaps this idea won’t work out. Perhaps it will, saving resources, expanding opportunities.
Not every new idea is a good one. But there is a value to trying new approaches.
http://www.upworthy.com/the-sly-little-thought-that-gives-birth-to-mad-geniuses-2?g=2&c=ufb1
About 5,000 children die every day because from diarrhea, a disease closely associated with poor sanitation. About 1.2 billion people in the world do not have access to a toilet, another 1.3 do not have access to a hygienic toilet. This is arguably the most important childhood health problem in the world.
As for the importance of communication, especially in the rural developing world where electricity is scarce, folks might want to listen to a TED talk by Iqbal Quadir, the founder of GrameenPhone. It can be found here: http://www.ted.com/talks/iqbal_quadir_says_mobiles_fight_poverty.html
If this is true, I must say that is really disgusting.
Even “dry cell” batteries occasionally leak.
Sent from my iPad
ANDREW WOLF Editor & Publisher The Bronx Press and Riverdale Review 5752 Fieldston Road Bronx, NY 10471 (718) 543-5200
>
Teachingeconomist is right, lack of sanitary water is an extreme problem. There was a campaign from one of the clean water groups that focused on how more people have a cell phone than a toilet. I’m not sure what that has to do with this. I have read that the Gates Foundation does some work related to this. Maybe he is trying to do something good?
Reblogged this on Roy F. McCampbell's Blog.
Reblogged this on Roy F. McCampbell's Blog.
Personally, I think he has GONE ‘ROUND the BEND. Put him in a looney bin. He can’t even build a toilet.
It sounds humorous and potentially positive until you realize who were are talking about here. Always beware of Gates’ villainthropy disguised as altruism. His push of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) in 3rd world countries turned out to be an agricultural nightmare for farmers, peasants and the earth, but a huge boon for Monsanto and a major investment for him: http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_21606.cfm
Just imagine what could happen if this cut-throat businessman, with more money, influence and power than God, who has already demonstrated he has no problem with invading the privacy of others, recognizes a heretofore untapped, perpetual resource as having the potential for being exploited and becoming the source of increased wealth, and this resource comes from YOUR body multiple times each day… Can’t get much more personal than this one. With so many politicians who can be readily bought and a lot who are much more inclined to regulate a woman’s uterus than big business, I really don’t like where we might be headed…
Actually I already feel a bit urine-powered myself due to these reforms…;)
No to denigrate the man’s GOOD work but the theme here could be the flushing of America or perhaps the world.
Bill Gates has way too much time and money to piss away. 😉
I, too, would like to believe that he can find a way to turn human waste into human potential. Alas, I just don’t think his heart is in the right place. Wish I had the link…I probably accessed it through this blog.. but if you read about his own account of his trip to Africa that got him thinking about the issue of toilets in third-world countries, you realize that it’s not entirely a philanthropic venture.
He claims that he knew by the time he was 30 that he wanted to use his fortune to help humanity (my paraphrasing). He says he could have chosen from a variety of issues — but he and the rest of the billionaire boys’ club are obsessed (my words) with a new kind of philanthropy, I forget his term for it, but essentially it’s how to get the most bang for their charitable bucks (again, my words).
In my opinion, that is why he is staying away from our own, home-grown version of poverty. Too messy. Besides, as an oligarch, he’d have to face his own complicity in the problem. If he really had a heart he would follow it. But again, it’s that need for adulation that gets in his way.
Beware of oligarchs with too much money.
It’s either malanthropy or villianathropy or venture capitalism….it’s pretend you care while making money off the chumps less fortunate or less evil than you.
If we are interested in saving the most lives per resource used, Bill Gates would be well advised to invest more in public health concerns in the poor areas of poor countries in the world, unless,of course, not all lives are equally valued .
Folks here are saying is that people in poverty are of value because they are people, regardless of where they live, and based on his track record, such as with the impoverished in developing countries and Monsanto, the poor need to be protected from Gates’ villainthropy, True humanitarians don’t exploit the poor, seek to profit off them and then call that charity.
Once again 5,000 children die a day from diarrhea. Finding a way for the 2.5 billion without adequate sanitation to get adequate sanitation does not seem like exploitation to me. I doubt it seems like exploitation to the families of the dead children either.
And once again, Gates’ history demonstrates he is a profiteer, not a savior of the poor or down-trodden.
Teaching Economist, if you have to think about saving “the most lives per resource used” than it’s no longer philanthropy; it’s still about getting the most bang for your buck, but then again, you’re an economist.
My heart bleeds for the poor all over the world. But as a public school teacher in New York State, in the United States of America, my heart bleeds more for the children of families living in poverty that I face daily in one of the wealthiest areas of our nation. I don’t understand how anyone with substantial amounts of money can sleep at night thinking, “I’m more interested in saving the world’s poor than the poor in my own backyard.”
It’s not about some lives being more valued than others. It’s about I can’t save the world, but maybe I can make a difference here, in the part of the world in which I live. The United States is not the only nation with billionaires…there are billionaires who live on some of the continents with some of the poorest countries in the world.
I just can’t understand how we can turn our backs on our neighbors.
It is about saving one life or ten. Which would you choose?
Gates’ villanthropy in 3rd world countries circumvented 1st world regulations and best practices and as such has destroyed lives, “Bill Gates’ Polio Vaccine Program Caused 47,500 Cases of Paralysis Death” http://nsnbc.me/2013/05/08/bill-gates-polio-vaccine-program-caused-47500-cases-of-paralysis-death/
If every penny of Bill Gates’s personal fortune were confiscated and divided evenly among the 16 million children in America living under the poverty line, it would amount to a one-time payout of about $4500. This would be a wonderful benefit in the short term, but I think it’s safe to say it wouldn’t do much to fix poverty in the long haul.
Bloomberg was pilloried when he said in a response to the NYT piece on Dasani that the depth and extent of poverty in developing nations is on a vastly different scale than the poverty we have in the US. Dasani’s family is living in deplorable and unacceptable conditions, but if the figures in the article are right, they are receiving $77,000 in direct (survivor’s benefits, food stamps, EITC) and indirect (the cost of their housing) cash support every year. The median household income in New York State is $52,000. The problem isn’t resources, it’s that the resources aren’t used effectively or efficiently. It’s not an area where even lavish philanthropy would make much of a difference, whereas investments made in nations where the average annual GDP/capita is <$500 stand a much greater chance of having a high rate of return (where "return" = lives saved or improved).
Dasani’s “father” is actually her step-father and he is not legally responsible for her financially. His “survivor benefits” are not government funds. Survivor Death Benefits consist of what his late first wife (and her employer) paid into Social Security. The Earned Income Tax Credit is a once a year credit that people with dependent children can claim when they file their taxes. An annual refund is based on income and unpredictable, so it’s not something that people can readily plan their lives around during the rest of the year. Anyways, last year, her step-father’s tax refund was garnished by the government because he owes child support for the kids he IS responsible for financially from his first marriage.
Jobs with livable wages would go a long way towards lifting people out of poverty, especially the millions of working poor. If I was a billionaire and really wanted to help poor people, I would advocate for ensuring livable wages for workers. As long as today’s billionaires make no efforts to support livable wages, the sincerity of their commitment to helping the poor is questionable at best.
Gates, Bloomberg, the Waltons, etc. have a MUCH stronger commitment to their fellow members in the Billionaires (mostly) Boys Club than to ameliorating poverty. When was the last time you heard any of them supporting labor unions or promoting a raise in the minimum wage? Equitable pay is not on the neo-liberal agenda, even at highly profitable corporations such as Walmart and McDonalds, where there are many working poor who need Food Stamps to be able to feed themselves and their families.
You are correct that Supreme has no legal obligation to care for the children in the marriage that are not biologically his. However, the article takes great pains to point out that the other children have no father in the picture, and they all consider Supreme to be their father. When Chanel abandoned the family overnight and was banned from living with them in the shelter for about a year, a family court judge gave Supreme sole custody of all the children, whether they were his or not.
I strongly support a significant increase in the national minimum wage and any other measures that will increase the number of living-wage jobs and the purchasing power of the working poor. If you have read any of my posts on this blog, you’ll also know that I believe segregation and racism play an enormous role in poverty and education, and these factors make the question of whether Supreme and Chanel are doing enough (or anything) to help themselves a little more complicated.
With all that said, I still think the accusations that society has somehow turned its back on families like these to be completely absurd. The real problem here is that $36,000 in annual housing funding is seemingly being completely wasted, and the Times piece stops short of finding out the how and why. It likely has something to do with fraud, waste, mismanagement, the legally mandated bidding process that all too often sticks the city with high costs but lousy services, and, yes, work rules and union protections that leave the agencies stuck with a ton of dead wood. The buck stops with Bloomberg (and now de Blasio), so they do deserve scorn for not fixing the problem, but on many fronts their hands are tied, and I can understand completely why reforming the NYC Dept of Homeless Services wouldn’t be high on any billionaire philanthropist’s bucket list.
Thank you, Reteach 4 America for making this point. I don’t know, but it seems to me that in a nation committed to public education for ALL children, that if we could get it right for more kids like Dasani, there would be more of us here to extend an outstretched arm to the ones over there.
Tim, are you suggesting that we’re throwing our money away on families like Dasani’s? Are you also suggesting that our system is too broke to fix? I’m not in favor of dividing the Gates fortune equally among the 16 million poor students here in the U.S. I’m saying that instead of Gates spending his money here trying to line his own pockets so that he can go be a white knight over there, he needs to come clean, roll up his sleeves, and do the right thing over here.
As for Bloomberg, he deserved to be “pilloried”. The man has more money than some nations, he has tax shelters in Bermuda or wherever, and his response to an expose on the deplorable conditions in a homeless shelter in the city in which he is mayor is to say that Dasani’s family and others like hers’ are still better off than the poor elsewhere? Are you kidding me? The arrogance is outrageous.
Let’s cut to the chase. What I hear you all saying is that those like Bill Gates should look to poverty in the US. It seems to me that all we need from these billionaires is for them to invest in ways to get these poverty stricken areas back by providing sources for making a good living with a good job. This means investing in development plans that allow the people in these areas to be gainfully employed with continuing training as our world changes. This seems a small investment for the gains to our economy.