Nevertheless I still look forward to attending this at some point...

TED 2009: Bill Gates Releases More Bugs into the Public | Maximum PC

Bill Gates (the philanthropist, not the technologist) capped off the “reboot” segment of today’s TED speeches with a presentation about two of the important global problems the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation have been addressing since Gates retired from day-to-day operations at Microsoft: eradicating malaria and boosting education.
With regard to the Malaria issue, Gates noted that though the disease claims the lives of one million victims each year, this is a greatly reduced number from when Malaria was a global epidemic a hundred years ago. Now, the epidemic is centralized in poorer countries, whereas first-world nations have largely dismissed the problem. In fact, Gates noted more money was spent on developing baldness medication than on curing malaria – Malaria simply isn’t the rich man’s problem.
Gates then proceeded to release a handful of mosquitoes into the air, joking that there was no reason that only poor people should get malaria. These mosquitoes obviously didn’t carry the disease, though the surprise move drew more than a few nervous laughs from the 1,300 in attendance.
Chris Anderson, TED’s curator, drew additional laughs by proclaiming that no one should be surprised that “Bill Gates released more bugs into the public,” before conducting an interview with Gates while using an Apple Macbook Pro. Do’h.

...oh and word is none of the mac users left the room since they figured they were immune

 

Yeah, I have a lot of friends who are TED regulars, including a TED regular who has also been a speaker there, and offers me a free place to stay every year at his beach house. I gotta make time to do it.