Microsoft founder and philanthropist Bill Gates cheered us up by drinking water that moments before had been a pile of faeces. Watching Mr Gates drinking ex-poop wasn't an exercise in schadenfreude; the reason for cheer is that the water is from a machine designed by US engineering firm Janicki Bioenergy. It burns excrement to produce safe drinking water and some electricity to boot. Funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation as part of an initiative to improve sanitation in developing countries, the Omniprocessor incinerates waste as 1000c so there are no bad smells. "The water tasted as good as any I've had out of a bottle," Gates declared on his blog.