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back to article Bill Gates gives $10m to probe the universe

Bill Gates has donated $10m to the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST) - an 8.4 metre beast boasting the world's largest digital camera designed to capture the entire available night sky every three days, "opening a movie-like window on objects that change or move on rapid timescales". The gift compliments another $20m from …

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Coat

    How big?

    A 3200 Megapixel camera, that's gonna hurt the Kodak photo printer in Boots !

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  2. Stephen Gray

    $10M would be better spent....

    On making sure that your OS actually works right out of the box?

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  3. Mitch Warner
    Dead Vulture

    @Stu

    Yeah...i'm guessing they won't be using Flickr for photo-sharing either ;-)

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  4. JimC

    @Stephen Gray

    Nope: whereas the 10mil makes a big difference to the Telescope project it would be damn all in the context of trying to make Windows reliable...

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  5. Paul Buxton

    Good on him!

    ...for giving the MS naysayers plenty of ammunition for their tiresome negativity and also for reconfirming his status as a philanthropist with this very generous donation which will benefit the whole of mankind. Good on you Bill - I can't wait to see the pics!

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  6. Senor Beavis

    Big webcam

    How long before some monkey points it at the observatory's coffee pot?

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  7. Alistair

    tiresome negativity

    Yet more proof, as if it were needed, that its much easier to throw cash at a grand new venture than to sort out whats gone wrong with your previous ones.

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  8. Mountford D

    With $50 billion even I...

    ... can be a philanthropist. What is $10 million but a fraction of the interest paid on Mr Gates' stash? Presumably by probing the universe we will come closer to finding some alien seed that will be the panacea for all the ills on Earth enabling us to live happily ever after. In the meantime, I'll settle for an Open Source version of Windows, thank you (as much chance of that as the alien seed).

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  9. Anonymous Coward
    Heart

    Ahem... for you bashers

    You will find the Bill and Mellisa Gates Foundation is one of the largest charities in the world, with a budget bigger than most of the worlds nations, dwarfing that of UNICEF

    "It has an endowment of US$37.6 billion"

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_and_Melinda_Gates_Foundation

    So before you dumb asses say that it's drop in his massive cash, do a teeny bit of research, but I'm sure the whinning freeloaders will still complain...

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  10. RMartin
    Gates Halo

    Sad people

    No thought given to improving the lot of the world, just to incessant and reflexive complaining about anyone that does. A sort of Tourettes caused by wearing black polo neck jumpers. Bill is a very principled philanthropist who has already signed over the bulk of his fortune and has said years ago that he intends to give away over 90% it. And as most of his fortune is MS stock, put simply, Microsoft is the world's biggest charity funder. Kind of reminds me of the facehugger acid blood defense in Alien - "what a wonderful defense mechanism, you don't dare kill it". So remember - if you attack MS you *want* AIDS to win!

    On the other hand, Bill's $10m only funds a small part of this project, so its probably unfair to give him all the credit. However if it discovers a nest of facehuggers heading our way then I'm sure it will all be his fault.

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  11. Anonymous Coward
    Coat

    Probing THEM Back?

    Just curious. It seems like a bit of petty revenge, to me...

    <trying to decide between the alien and coat icon -chooses coat- It's the one with the very long sleeves, thank you>

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  12. John Angelico
    Unhappy

    @Sad people

    "Bill is a very principled philanthropist who has already signed over the bulk of his fortune and has said years ago that he intends to give away over 90% it."

    Well, I wish he would just get on with it without all this trumpet-blaring publicity.

    Every time I see one of these I recall Matt 6:2 "So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full."

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  13. Paul Buxton

    @John Angelico

    I'm not sure what you're getting at here. You quote the bible yet the content of your post is so far away from Christian charity as to make you look foolish.

    What have you done for humankind lately apart from slag it off?

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