Water.org

Like most(?) other people who can afford it, I donate money to charities when I come across something which I support. Since I haven't really focused on one charity or other, it means my spending has been a bit shatter shot, and probably hasn't been put to the best use.

This year I decided to do something different - instead of donating money to several charities, I decided to donate to just one - water.org. Not only that, I've created an campaign, where I can keep track of what I've donated (and where others can donate as well).

Water.org does an incredible job of helping people getting clean water, often enabling children to go to school instead of spending all their time carrying water back to their home.

If you have some spare money, and want to support a good cause, I can certainly recommend this particular charity (which is secular).

Part of my concept is that what I donate should at least match what I spend on t-shirts and books, since I have too many of these things, and instead should try to help others. In all honesty, I am a bit behind on this, so expect my donations to go up a bit before the campaign finish.

Lazy linking - catching up edition

A few things I've come across recently, which I thought might be of interest for others.

Paul Krugman explains how the legacy of Milton Friedman is getting eroded in today's GOP: Milton Friedman, Unperson

If you're on facebook, you've probably come across posts which claims that court rulings have shown that there is a link between autism and MMR vaccinations. As anyone with a minimum of science literacy knows, that's not the right venue for such things to be decided. Even so, Emily Willingham explains at greather length, why the claim is nonsense in Court Rulings Don't Confirm Autism-Vaccine Link

A chart telling the difference between extroverts and introverts, but with input from an extrovert.

I've always been a bit in awe over Randall Munroe's work ethics when it comes to his fantastic online comic xkcd, and my awe certainly didn't become lesser when I read this Wired article about his epic 3,099 panel comic.

Researcher David Kriesel has found problems with numbers being substituted when scanning on certain Xerox scanners. Xerox has looked into it, and have confirmed that there seems to be a problem - they are working on a software patch.

I expect that everybody, and their dog, have already seen this, but anyway: An Open Letter to David Cameron and the IOC

Via Jill - The Ghost Rapes of Bolivia (trigger warning: rape)

And finally: the most important map of Europe you'll see today!

It has been awfully quiet around here

I know, it has been awfully quiet around here, and I am a bit unhappy about that, but I hit outrage fatigue at some point, and I seem to have gotten into the habbit of being an ex-blogger.

Will this change? I hope so. I have a few subjects I want to write about, but right now, it would feel wrong to write about anything else than about the horrible stories we have heard about high profile skeptics.

If I did that, I would quickly be heading towards outrage fatigue again, burned out by my rage against the scum who sexual harass and assault people, covering behind their status in the community. This is not the way I think I should go, so I think I will wait a bit before starting writing again - at least about that subject.

Until then, I hope I can get back to some light blogging, hopefully about science and international politics.