[WiggleYourIndex]

A simple gravity-fed, activated charcoal filled pipe with a germicidal UV LED final stage can remove and destroy everything, AFAICT. (I searched: ultraviolet hormones water purification.) I found some good guides searching, water carbon filter instructables. Sand and rock prefilters may also be important depending on sizes of filtration targets.

We should also note: if we want these technologies, we need to develop and deploy them by and for ourselves. This man will only lift a finger for humanity if it brings his hand closer to our necks.

[gambiting]

Then please spend few billion dollars of your own money, or try to raise that much if you feel inclined to do so, while I support the man who is already spending money on those issues instead of complaining on HN......you might think whatever you want about Gates, but the money he is spending is helping people. Period.

[WiggleYourIndex]

Maybe you are too young to remember how his empire behaves toward people who help themselves. Look into his past if you want to understand what he values.

Pointing out a solution that anyone can build for less than a quarter of a day's worth of work should give you some indication about what's possible without extravagant numbers of currency units extracted from people through lies, manipulations, and other self-degrading acts.

Hopefully, this site, being for hackers, is where we can dismantle our broken systems and build sustainable ones in their place. Ideologies are systems too, just like water purifiers.

[gambiting]

"Look into his past if you want to understand what he values."

Jesus, I held some views 2 years ago that I wouldn't identify with now, and you want to look at what he did 20 years ago and say he still has the same values?

And I am all up for dismantling broken systems,but there is nothing broken about him spending his fortune on helping the poor. If you can build things like this in a quarter of a day......have you considered helping out yourself? I mean if you went to India yourself you could be building over a thousand purifiers per year, that should help, no?

[WiggleYourIndex]

"The tiger cannot change its stripes." (One can't change one's essential nature.) More importantly, a guise of philanthropy is an understandably effective front for profoundly immoral conduct.

Without going into detail, if you look underneath thin, shiny, white veneers of people with exploitative, corrupt histories, you'll find worse in their present day actions. Today, a fortune can be useful for "shaping public opinion". A thoughtful person with a good memory can see past a fake smile and a Blah Blah Foundation name by reading about what is happening in this world through reports by self-directed journalists who work for reasons beyond currency units.

Yes, I am a helper. And, I do appreciate your push to do more and to ground this discussion in practicalities. People around our planet need water purification today; and we may need simple, effective tools as well if winds shift.

[LordKano]

Bill Gates has essentially "won the game" of capitalism.

He has spent time as "the richest man in the world".

There's nothing else he can do in that sphere.

Like many uber-rich men before him, he's spending his later years giving money away to help mankind.

Personally, I suspect that as people get older and start thinking of their own mortality, some people want to make sure that when they step into the great unknowable beyond, they do so with some good deeds under their belts.

Call it Heaven, Valhalla, Stovokor, Shangri La or whatever else you like. He can't take it with him and if it makes him feel like it's giving him a chance to get in by helping the needy, I say good for him.

His financial resources give him the ability to help more people than 99.99999% of us. I won't automatically ascribe nefarious motives to him doing so.

[pyrois]

> Without going into detail, if you look underneath thin, shiny, white veneers of people with exploitative, corrupt histories, you'll find worse in their present day actions.

I would be more likely to believe you if you did go into detail. What exactly has Gates done in the past year or so that you object to? Or two years, or any reasonable definition of "present day"?

[WiggleYourIndex]

* http://www.geekwire.com/2014/teachers-protest-gates-foundati...

* http://techrights.org/2014/08/11/rich-at-public-expence/

* https://www.popularresistance.org/protesters-want-gates-foun...

* http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2013/12/gates-foundat...

* http://www.thenation.com/article/181342/how-gates-foundation...

This is only a small part of a bigger story.

[soperj]

Not the OP but I really dislike what he's doing in the public school sector.

[rictic]

You're making your argument out of innuendo and rhetorical flourish, which can be used to argue for almost any position.

You will have more luck here speaking directly and to the facts, for example: "This year Bill Gates did X which is bad for reason Y."