Call me paranoid, but Bill Gates and an army of flying drug-needles? Fuck right off with that bullcrap!

Bill Gates Funds Research Into ‘Flying Syringe’ Mosquitos to Deliver Vaccines
October 23rd, 2008

Via: AFP:

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation awarded 100,000 dollars each on Wednesday to scientists in 22 countries including funding for a Japanese proposal to turn mosquitos into “flying syringes” delivering vaccines.

The charitable foundation created by the founder of software giant Microsoft said in a statement that the grants were designed to “explore bold and largely unproven ways to improve global health.”
The grants were awarded for research into preventing or curing infectious diseases such as HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis and limiting the emergence of drug resistance.

They are the first round of funding for the Gates Foundation’s “Grand Challenges Explorations,” a five-year 100-million-dollar initiative to “promote innovative ideas in global health.”

The funding was directed to projects that “fall outside current scientific paradigms and could lead to significant advances if successful,” the Gates Foundation statement said.

“We were hoping this program would level the playing field so anyone with a transformational idea could more quickly assess its potential for the benefit of global health,” said Tachi Yamada, president of global health at the Gates Foundation.

The Gates Foundation said 104 grants were awarded from nearly 4,000 proposals. The recipients included universities, nonprofit organizations, government agencies, and six private companies.

“It was so hard for reviewers to champion just one great idea that we selected almost twice as many projects for funding as we had initially planned,” Yamada said.

Among the proposals receiving funding was one from Hiroyuki Matsuoka at Jichi Medical University in Japan.

“(Matsuoka) thinks it may be possible to turn mosquitoes that normally transmit disease into ‘flying syringes,’ so that when they bite humans they deliver vaccines,” the Gates Foundation said.
It said Pattamaporn Kittayapong at Mahidol University in Thailand received a grant to “explore new approaches for controlling dengue fever by studying bacteria with natural abilities to limit the disease.”

Founded in 1994, the Seattle, Washington-based Gates Foundation is the largest private philanthropical organization in the world.

Research Credit: AV

— By Akira The Don on Thursday, October 23rd, 2008

— By Akira The Don on Wednesday, October 22nd, 2008

Sheeeeeeeeet!

Biden to Supporters: “Gird Your Loins”, For the Next President “It’s Like Cleaning Augean Stables”

October 20, 2008 7:35 AM

ABC News’ Matthew Jaffe Reports: Sen. Joe Biden, D-Del., on Sunday guaranteed that if elected, Sen. Barack Obama., D-Ill., will be tested by an international crisis within his first six months in power and he will need supporters to stand by him as he makes tough, and possibly unpopular, decisions.

“Mark my words,” the Democratic vice presidential nominee warned at the second of his two Seattle fundraisers Sunday. “It will not be six months before the world tests Barack Obama like they did John Kennedy. The world is looking. We’re about to elect a brilliant 47-year-old senator president of the United States of America. Remember I said it standing here if you don’t remember anything else I said. Watch, we’re gonna have an international crisis, a generated crisis, to test the mettle of this guy.”

“I can give you at least four or five scenarios from where it might originate,” Biden said to Emerald City supporters, mentioning the Middle East and Russia as possibilities. “And he’s gonna need help. And the kind of help he’s gonna need is, he’s gonna need you – not financially to help him – we’re gonna need you to use your influence, your influence within the community, to stand with him. Because it’s not gonna be apparent initially, it’s not gonna be apparent that we’re right.”

Not only will the next administration have to deal with foreign affairs issues, Biden warned, but also with the current economic crisis.

“Gird your loins,” Biden told the crowd. “We’re gonna win with your help, God willing, we’re gonna win, but this is not gonna be an easy ride. This president, the next president, is gonna be left with the most significant task. It’s like cleaning the Augean stables, man. This is more than just, this is more than – think about it, literally, think about it – this is more than just a capital crisis, this is more than just markets. This is a systemic problem we have with this economy.”

The Delaware lawmaker managed to rake in an estimated $1 million total from his two money hauls at the downtown Sheraton, the same hotel where four years ago Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., clinched the Democratic nomination. Despite warning about the difficulties the next administration will face, Biden said the Democratic ticket is equipped to meet the challenges head on.

“I’ve forgotten more about foreign policy than most of my colleagues know, so I’m not being falsely humble with you. I think I can be value added, but this guy has it,” the Senate Foreign Relations chairman said of Obama. “This guy has it. But he’s gonna need your help. Because I promise you, you all are gonna be sitting here a year from now going, ‘Oh my God, why are they there in the polls? Why is the polling so down? Why is this thing so tough?’ We’re gonna have to make some incredibly tough decisions in the first two years. So I’m asking you now, I’m asking you now, be prepared to stick with us. Remember the faith you had at this point because you’re going to have to reinforce us.”

“There are gonna be a lot of you who want to go, ‘Whoa, wait a minute, yo, whoa, whoa, I don’t know about that decision’,” Biden continued. “Because if you think the decision is sound when they’re made, which I believe you will when they’re made, they’re not likely to be as popular as they are sound. Because if they’re popular, they’re probably not sound.”

Biden emphasized that the mountainous Afghanistan-Pakistan border is of particular concern, with Osama bin Laden “alive and well” and Pakistan “bristling with nuclear weapons.”

“You literally can see what these kids are up against, our kids in that region,” Biden said in recalling when his helicopter was forced down due to a snowstorm there. “The place is crawling with al Qaeda. And it’s real.”

“We do not have the military capacity, nor have we ever, quite frankly, in the last 20 years, to dictate outcomes,” he cautioned. “It’s so much more important than that. It’s so much more complicated than that. And Barack gets it.”

After speaking for just over a quarter of an hour, Biden noticed the media presence in the back of the small ballroom.

“I probably shouldn’t have said all this because it dawned on me that the press is here,” he joked.

“All kidding aside, these guys have left us in a God-awful place,” he then said of the Bush regime, promptly wrapping up his remarks. “We have the ability to straighten it out. It’s gonna take a little bit of time, so I ask you to stay with us. Stay with us.”

— By Akira The Don on Wednesday, October 22nd, 2008

Spotted at Syc‘s.

— By Akira The Don on Wednesday, October 22nd, 2008

“ALL THESE INDIE KIDS IN THE LINE FOR THE TOILET!”

Oh Yeeeeyah! Marvin’s new mixtape is OUT NOW! And it’s FREE! Whoo! Sheeet, free mixtapes, who’da thunk it?

I haven’t heard the whole thing yet, but it’s sounding pretty ace so far. My Phone Is Rubbish

is fucking killer tomatoes. Here’s what Marv’s saying:

Here it is. 4 months after My last tape, 3 months after My debut album. I give you, mixtape of the year 2008. I’m so proud of this thing right here. It actually ended up taking about a month longer than intended. Bang this in your whips, your headphones, your houseparties, your evictions! This is Recession music right here. This is industrial, the 80s are back, I don’t give a fuck, dole queue, dark nights, cold days music right here. Send the link to your friends, post it on your forums, post it on your blogs, put the songs on BitTorrent, this is not for profit, this is not for a label, this is not for the radio, this is not for the critics, this is for the people who want it, the people who need it. This is for you and yours.

Download here.

Visit Marv here.

— Wednesday, October 22nd, 2008

Hot new shit from ATD16. really, that tape is fucking PACKED with awesomeness.

Youtube and coppage details after the jump.

Akira The Don . ATD16 – The Don

Out Now!

ATD16 – The Don is the new mixtape from Akira The Don. An hour-plus of brand new songs, bootlegs, awesomeness, and special guests including Littles, Big Narstie, Pixel, Marvin, Trencha, Shizzio, Son Of King Rebel and Mary Turner.

Listen to a 160kbps one track MP3 below. You can also buy a track-seperated CD quality MP3, or a personalised CD plus T Shirt.

— Tuesday, October 21st, 2008