For your summer reading pleasure, Bill Gates recommends:
Read the rest• “Leonardo da Vinci” by Walter Isaacson
• “Everything Happens for a Reason and Other Lies I’ve Loved” by Kate Bowler
• “Lincoln in the Bardo” by George Saunders
• “Origin Story: A Big History of Everything” by David Christian
• “Factfulness” by Hans Rosling with Ola Rosling and Anna Rosling Ronnlund
Microsoft founder Bill Gates admittedly hasn't been in a supermarket in a long time, so when Ellen put him up to estimating the prices of some pretty typical grocery store items, he was hilariously lost. Particularly watch the look of pity Ellen gives at the 1:12 mark when the billionaire guesses that a container of Tide Pods is only four dollars.
With a lot of help from the audience, Bill was able to get the price right (within a dollar) of three items. Because of his "win," that audience will return for Ellen's popular "12 Days of Giveaways" segment.
If you're looking for something good to read during the holidays, you might want to check out one of Bill Gates' top five "amazing books" that he recommends for your winter 2017 reading list. "You can’t go wrong with one of these," he promises on his blog, Gatesnotes. Here's the list:
The Best We Could Do, by Thi Bui – "This gorgeous graphic novel is a deeply personal memoir that explores what it means to be a parent and a refugee." Read Gates' review here.
Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City by Matthew Desmond – "Desmond has written a brilliant portrait of Americans living in poverty. He gave me a better sense of what it is like to be poor in this country than anything else I have read." Read Gates' review here.
Believe Me: A Memoir of Love, Death, and Jazz Chickens, by Eddie Izzard – "Izzard’s personal story is fascinating: he survived a difficult childhood and worked relentlessly to overcome his lack of natural talent and become an international star." Read Gates' review here.
The Sympathizer, by Viet Thanh Nguyen – "Despite how dark it is, The Sympathizer is a gripping story about a double agent and the trouble he gets himself into." Read Gates' review here.
Energy and Civilization: A History, by Vaclav Smil - "Smil is one of my favorite authors, and this is his masterpiece. He lays out how our need for energy has shaped human history—from the era of donkey-powered mills to today’s quest for renewable energy." Read Gates' review here. Read the rest
Last week, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates expressed his regret over Windows' Control-Alt-Delete function, stating, "If I could make one small edit, I'd make that a single key."
Since he can't travel back in time, that three-key reboot function is here to stay.
Enter Joy Complex's snazzy Ctrl+Alt+Del statement ring, a cast steel way to make your nerdier side known. These keyboard button "brass knuckles" are available in several different colors for $40+ each.
It sucks when Xbox Live is down.
I'd love to play some Star Wars Battlefront with Snoop. I bet he has his force choke down. Add me, Snoop! My gamertag is "The Muir Beast" Read the rest
Fulvio Obregon, an illustrator from Cali, Colombia, created a series of portraits that show younger and older versions of the same celebrity as if they are in the same room together.
Here's Bill Gates, Warren Buffet, and others raving about Business Adventures, by the late John Brooks. It was written in 1971, and consists of 12 stories from The New Yorker. The print edition has been out of print for a while, but it is now available as an e-book. It sounds great! Read the rest
Don't get too excited about the RTS,S malaria vaccine, the development of which is being funded by the Gates Foundation. At present, the vaccine doesn't seem to work well enough to make a difference and nobody knows what it's going to cost (a big deal when you're talking about a disease like malaria, which goes hand-in-hand with poverty). Beyond that, several leading vaccine researchers are questioning the methodology used to analyze the results of RTS,S trials. The vaccine may be even less effective than previously thought. Bottom line: The research is valuable, but this particular vaccine probably won't be the breakthrough people are hoping for. Read the rest
