The Gates Foundation Seeks To Reinvent The Toilet

[Zema Bus]

Gates hosted the Reinvent the Toilet Fair in Seattle, Wash. Tuesday and Wednesday, showcasing the designs and working prototypes of eight design finalists from around the world, who followed though on his August 2011 challenge to reinvent the toilet. The former Microsoft chief invited innovators to create a product that could function without water pipes, a sewer connection or outside electricity, while costing less than 5 cents per day to honor. The eight universities that presented at the fair received a cumulative $400,000 to develop their prototypes.

The winning toilet came from California Institute of Technology, receiving $100,000 for its model of a solar-powered toilet that generates hydrogen and electricity. The second place toilet, hailing from the UK”s Loughborough University receives $60,000 for its toilet that produces biological charcoal, minerals and clean water. The third prize winner, from the University of Toronto, receives $40,000 for its toilet that sanitizes human waste.

From Mashable, where the story continues. I bet from the title you really did think this was going to be about Windows

 

[muckshifter]

your title is misleading ... what has Microsoft got to do with the toilet?

While I appreciate the fact that Win 8, IMHO, is a load of crap, I fail to see the connection with the 'story' to re-invent the toilet and Microsoft. Or are insinuating that because Bill Gates foundation is involved, so too is Microsoft?

Title changed.

... developing countries are in need of a system that is practical and hygenic. About two-thirds of the people on Earth use latrines or defecate right out in the open, according to a report from the the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

That's not just gross, it's also deadly. The Gates Foundation says 1.5 million children under the age of 5 die each year because of sanitation problems.

Gates is hoping to stop to these deaths by coming up with a safer, cheaper and more energy-efficient toilet.

Last year, the Gates Foundation gave grants to eight universities around the world, asking them to start inventing the toilet of tomorrow: a toilet that uses little or no water, is cheap and easy to install, and that is safe and hygienic.

 

[floppybootstomp]

Well I reckon anything that Gates & spouse are involved in is ipso facto associated with Microsoft. Just gotta be, mention Gates to most anyone and they will reply 'Microsoft'.

I mean, prior to messing about with karzi research, what did Bill Gates do except have the good sense to accumulate half a dozen of eberybody else's ideas when the OS forming in his head was more or less open source, then market the flawed result until he'd accumulated a cash fortune that wouldn't fit in all of the Egyptian pyramids.

So to our Bill's credit, and partly to divert people's minds from his insidious business practices, he got started on the charity kick. Everybody then went 'Ooh, Big Bad Bill is Sweet William now cos he's giving loads money away to good causes'.

But some of us have long memories.

Bill Gates getting involved in alternative crappers is too easy a target, really, it's actually not a bad idea, the results have to be better than some of the toilets at the Glastonbury Festival