March 25, 2013

Bill Gates wants to build a better condom.

He's offering a $100,000 prize.
[T]he foundation is calling for new shapes, materials and packaging that "significantly preserve or enhance pleasure, in order to improve uptake and regular use."

Trojan and Durex have been trying to do this for decades with ribs, contours and lubricants.

But "we know empirically that those don't work as claimed," the Gates Foundation's Stephen Ward recently told the Humanosphere blog. "The idea here is to seed innovative ideas."
Should this win?


44 comments:

David said...

seed?

Maybe Ford can give them some ideas?

George M. Spencer said...

Excel with Power Point

edutcher said...

If it works like all his other products, there should be an epic population explosion.

Dante said...

It's serious, right? Because AIDs sucks.

Sheepskin condoms are like having sex with a dead sheep. Does it count as bestiality?

Lucien said...

New shapes??

Like what -- dog-leg left, dog-leg right, &c &c?

I'm not sure how different packaging can enhance the pleasure.

Is this Bill's idea, or Melinda's?

Renee said...

They do I interfer with sex, because you have to pause to put it on no matter what.

Bender said...

Oh the absurdity of our utilitarian sex society. Trying to improve sexuality mechanistically, rather than humanly.

tim maguire said...

How is a mere $100,000 prize going to create any additional incentive to make a better condom? The better condom is itself a far greater prize han that.

Bender said...

Sex is always less than optimal - and must necessarily be so - when you literally have a barrier between one person and the other.

Anonymous said...

Condoms are like any other product, there are lots of great ideas that come along from time-to-time (actually quite a lot if you look around), but the shelf space is limited and controlled by a couple of key players.

That one's not going to slide into your wallet too easily.

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
edutcher said...

If it fails, do you take it out, restart it, and then try again?

Mark O said...

So the billionaire has become the analog to Sandra Fluke?

Here's a serious question. Does he still get the week with his former girlfriend?

kentuckyliz said...

The best condom is no-condom. Srsly, uncontracepted sex is light years better than contracepted sex. If you've never tried it, give it a try. Wide open and full throttle. Yeah.

kentuckyliz said...

Birds do it
Bees do it
Even monkeys in the trees do it

And no I wasn't talking about POTUS+FLOTUS.

Guimo said...

Like taking a shower with a raincoat on.

Unknown said...

When i think condoms the word Microsoft is the first thing that comes to mind.

gadfly said...

Everything you ever wanted to know about condoms.

Michael said...

This is a silly amount of money for something that could be truly valuable. Insulting small, actually.

I Have Misplaced My Pants said...

The Catholics be reppin' this thread : )

And yes. Condom sex sucks.

SteveR said...

That little hood deal looks like a buzz kill

Dante said...

Following the Clinton Paula Jones affair, and his alleged rape of Juanita Broderick, I was learned about peyronie's disorder.

Subsequently, I understood from some giggling talk show hosts that the bent penis is pleasurable for women. So perhaps a condom that is tight on one side, bending the erect male penis, would be good for women.

I'm glad the POTUS has enlightened me in this manner.

edutcher said...

I wish him all kinds of luck.

Guys will say, "Gates? The Microsoft? Sure, just what I want".

Synova said...

It's not a condom, it's a fake vagina (I watched to the end and it even *said* so.)

I can see how that might be awesome for a man, but I'm just not seeing it from a female perspective.

(Monogamy has it's perks.)

Saint Croix said...

Condom sex sucks.

In my experience, there is no sex that sucks. So to speak. It's all good. Even horrible sex is way more fun than anything else on the planet.

Saint Croix said...

It's possible too that many people subconsciously want to have a baby. We have a biological desire to breed. We might not acknowledge it. We might deny it. But it's entirely possible that our massive numbers of birth control failures is, as Freud might say, no accident.

Known Unknown said...

If his condom is anything like Vista, then forget it.

edutcher said...

Saint Croix said...

Condom sex sucks.

In my experience, there is no sex that sucks. So to speak. It's all good. Even horrible sex is way more fun than anything else on the planet.


Helen Thomas?

Pelosi?

Big Sis?

Barbara Mikulski?

Revenant said...

I don't see the prize having any measurable effect. The *market* payoff for such an invention would be measured in the billions of dollars, after all.

Astro said...

I know of at least one thing worse than having sex while wearing a condom. Finding out a half hour later that you're allergic to sheepskin condoms.
Oh. Holy. Jesus. I cannot describe how excruciating that itch was.

madAsHell said...

Is he still sore about that old joke??

Q: What did the newlywed Mrs. Gates find out on her honeymoon night??

A: It's both micro and soft!!

William said...

Think outside the box. I recommend a condom that when sucked really hard tastes like high end chocolate and has mildly addictive properties. OK, it's a niche market, but within that niche I see effective penetration.

madAsHell said...

oh, yeah....and better for who?

I didn't think women noticed a condom until the deed was done....cuz they didn't have to sleep in the wet spot.

I'm reading a comment here that contradicts that assumption.

Dr Hubert Jackson said...

With re: to $100,000 being small it's not for the best product, it's for the best proposal.

So even though 100k dwarfs the amount of money to be made you don't have to actually do anything other than type out your idea. 100k risk free.

Anonymous said...

Dang, you conservatives and Catholics are obsessed with sex.;)

Darrell said...

I'm thinking about condoms made with shape-memory polymers that make your penis look like a corn cob, carrot, zucchini or whatnot when it reaches body temperature. You know, just as nature intended.

Send my prize money to AA and she will forward it-- less a respectable handling fee. Of course.

bagoh20 said...

Both of those guys appear to have a painful degree of inflammation. I don't think increased sensitivity is what they need.

I Have Misplaced My Pants said...

Catholics do it better, Inga ; )

bagoh20 said...

"Catholics do it better, Inga ; )"

Out of habit, I assume.

Darrell said...

Feminists do it bitter.

Darrell said...

Feminists do it bitter.

Out of habit, I assume.

Tom said...

Given the Microsoft experience, it's highly doubtful that Bill Gates will actually be able to come up with anything that completely block pop-ups.

Peter said...

No, condoms do not come in small, medium and large.

They're sized as large, very large, and stupendously large!

Bruce Gee said...

A Lend-Lease story: in the late thirties when the US was sending tons and tons of stuff to the Soviet Union to be used against Nazi Germany, the Soviets asked for condoms. Millions of them. Requested they be 18" long--sort of bragging and threatening at the same time. They condoms arrived from the US in due time, marked "Medium Size".