I don’t usually go looking for a fight, but there are some cases where I’ll make an exception.
You know, of course that I’m a big fan of DonorsChoose. And you’ll recall that PETA’s tactics make them a problematic organization as far as I’m concerned regardless of what your views on animal welfare or animal rights might be.
So, when PETA takes a swing at DonorsChoose, of course I want to jump in off the ropes and swing back. What’s PETA’s issue with DonorsChoose?
DonorsChoose 2009 Social Media Challenge: Helping kids at the cost of a little dignity.
At Uncertain Principles, Chad is motivating his readers to donate to his DonorsChoose challenge by offering a big reward:
Last year, I famously got $6,000 in contributions by offering to dance like a monkey, but I’m not sure what would follow that. So,
What should I offer to do if I manage to reach the overall challenge goal of several thousand dollars in total contributions?
I’m obviously not going to do anything illegal or immoral, but I’m willing to sacrifice a little dignity for a good cause, as you can see at the link above. So, what can I offer to do that would get you to donate money to help school kids through DonorsChoose?
It looks like the discussion of Chad’s big reward is still ongoing. (I’m rooting for a recreation of a great dispute in physics with hand puppets.)
But Chad is not the only one with a DonorsChoose challenge to fund, nor is he the only one willing to put his dignity on the line to help public school students get the resources and experiences they need. So let’s talk about what you’d like me to do.
DonorsChoose 2009 Social Media Challenge: Did I mention fabulous prizes?
You already know that we’re working with DonorsChoose to raise some money for public school teachers who are trying to give their students the engaging educational experiences they deserve (and who, owing to dismal state and local budgets, need our help more than ever). You also know that our benevolent overlords at Seed will be randomly selecting some donors to receive nifty prizes (details about this to be posted as soon as I get them).
Of course, helping public school teachers deliver the education their students deserve is it’s own reward, but that doesn’t mean you might not want a little something to recognize your donation. So, as I did last year, I’m going sweeten the deal by offering some incentive to everyone who donates to my challenge.
Because money seems to be tight for almost everyone, I’ve knocked down the level of some of the donations needed to get particular thank-you swag, and I’ve added a “crafty” new incentive this time around. Here’s what you can get if you donate to my challenge:
DonorsChoose 2009 Social Media Challenge: raising our own classroom stimulus funds.
Around this corner of the blogosphere, folks frequently bemoan the sorry state of the public’s scientific literacy and engagement. People fret about whether our children is are learning what they should about science, math, and critical reasoning. Netizens speculate on the destination of the handbasket in which we seem to be riding.
In light of the big problems that seem insurmountable, we should welcome the opportunity to do something small that can have an immediate impact.
During the month of October, a bunch of us ScienceBlogs bloggers will be participating in the annual DonorsChoose “philanthropic throwdown for public schools”, which this year they’re calling the 2009 Social Media Challenge. (You may recognize it as the Blogger Challenge of yore.)
If you enter a dialogue, do you risk being co-opted?
On my earlier post, “Dialogue, not debate”, commenter dave c-h posed some interesting questions:
Is there an ethical point at which engagement is functionally equivalent to assent? In other words, is there a point at which dialogue should be replaced by active resistance? If so, how do you tell where that point is? I think many activists fear that dialogue is a tactic of those who support the status quo to co-opt them into a process that is unlikely to lead to any real change because the power is unevenly divided.
Send GrrlScientist to Antarctica!
GrrlScientist is in a contest to become Quark Expedition’s official blogger from Antarctica. (So is DN Lee from Urban Science Adventures.)
Grrl has been doing pretty well getting votes in this contest, despite the fact that her competition includes a radio personality from Portugal and a member of the Osmond family.
Of the top vote-getters, it is clear to me that Grrl would do the best job with the specified task (blogging from, and about, Antarctica). She has a personal and professional interest in nature, science, the environment, and conservation. She has a history of writing pieces that are accessible communications of both scientific content and aesthetic appreciation, in an astounding balance of clarity and lyricism. She takes lovely nature photographs, which she regularly shares with readers of her blog. And to say she’s an experienced blogger is an understatement on par with noting that Antarctica can get a little chilly.
The voting in the contest ends 30 September, 2009 at 12 noon (Eastern time). That’s less than 48 hours from now.
If you haven’t yet voted, consider giving Grrl your support. Voting does require registering your email address with Quark, but they are doing this to avoid poll-crashing, and I haven’t received any spam from them. And, if you’ve already cast a vote for someone else, you are allowed by the rules to reassign your vote. Some other worthy science bloggers in the competition have been throwing their support to Grrl as the voting winds down, so don’t miss this chance to give her your vote, too.
Dialogue, not debate.
At the end of last week, I made a quick trip to UCLA to visit with some researchers who, despite having been targets of violence and intimidation, are looking for ways to engage with the public about research with animals. I was really struck by their seriousness about engaging folks on “the other side”, rather than just hunkering down to their research and hoping to be left alone.
The big thing we talked about was the need to shift the terms of engagement.
Friday Sprog Blogging: reading magazines with the elder Free-Ride offspring.
Owing to the fact that I had to focus my attention on getting healthy in a hurry so I could catch a plane yesterday evening, I asked the elder Free-Ride offspring to write something for this week’s Friday Sprog Blogging entry. Owing, I think, to my apparent fragility, the elder Free-Ride offspring assented to this request without argument, and without demanding a cash payment.
I really do have wonderful kids.
In any event, the elder Free-Ride offspring offers a summary of an interesting article from a magazine that is a favorite at Casa Free-Ride, National Geographic Kids, and then pitches a few ideas for stories the sprogs would like to see in it in some future issue.
A question for the infectious disease and public health folks.
I ended up spending a significant portion of the last several days down with something flu-like. (It included a fever and the attendant aches, chills, and sweats, as well as the upper respiratory drowning-in-my-own-mucus symptoms.)
I did not drag my ailing butt out of bed to go to the doctor and have my flu-like thing characterized. (In part, this is because I knew it would pass in a few days. In part, it was because I managed to tweak a muscle in my right side by sneezing hard and thus was unable to straighten up or be as mobile as I normally am. Someday, I swear, I am going to figure out how to sneeze more ergonomically.)
As such, I don’t know if what I had was the cool new H1N1 flu that’s been going around locally or something else.
So, here’s the question for those more plugged into public health than I am: Should I still get the novel H1N1 vaccine? (Thanks to ERV for pointing out in the comments that the “novel” is important in distinguishing the H1N1 virus that causes seasonal flu from the H1N1 virus causing the *new* swine flu.)
The best laid plans.
Imagine you are looking ahead to a furlough day and taking seriously the piece of the agreement that specifies that you won’t actually do any work on that furlough day. To prevent yourself from backsliding by doing work to pass the time, do you: