DonorsChoose Fundraiser
drorzel | October 25, 2012I'm barely keeping my head above water with the day job at the moment, so I'm a bit behind the curve on this. It's October, though, which means it's time for a DonorsChoose fundraiser. If you've been following this blog for any length of time, you've seen a few of these. If not, there's too much to explain, but let me sum up: DonorsChoose matches people with money with schools that need money, and takes donations to support specific projects proposed by teachers in needy school districts. A whole host of fine science blogs have been recruited to raise funds through blog-specific pages, and a…
drorzel | October 20, 2011I've been too busy to really work on the DonorsChoose fundraiser this year, but it's worth taking a little time to mention this opportunity: Starting today and running through Saturday midnight, the DonorsChoose board will match donations to the Science Bloggers for Students fundraiser. thus, a $5 donation becomes $10, $10 becomes $20, and, well, you know how to multiply by two.
So, since you're quick with arithmetic, why not throw a couple of bucks to DonorsChoose, to help the next generation learn to do addition and multiplication, and eventually multivariable calculus? Such as, say, this…
drorzel | October 11, 2011Alternate title: I Have an Overdeveloped Sense of Responsibility, Which Is Going to Get Me in Trouble Someday.
So, it's October, which means the annual DonorsChoose fundraising challenge is upon us. I really don't have time to do a good job of this, but having raised a whole bunch of money for them in the past, I felt bad not participating. So, I planned to do an apologetic blog post saying "I'm too busy, but give to the challenge of one of these other blogs on ScienceBlogs." Only, it turns out, there aren't any ScienceBlogs bloggers signed up.
Then I said, "Well, I'll just steer people to…
drorzel | November 5, 2010I haven't been flogging it as hard as in some past years, but the DonorsChoose Blogger Challenge is still going on, though it wraps up on Tuesday. To date, we've raised just over $1,300 to support education in needy schools, which is great, and thanks to all those who have donated.
If you haven't donated yet, and have some cash, there's still time to win fabulous prizes, including the naming of one of the example animals in the forthcoming sequel to How to Teach Physics to Your Dog after a pet of your choosing. One animal will be named after a pet chosen by the biggest single donor (the…
drorzel | October 21, 2010I haven't been flogging the DonorsChoose Blogger Challenge as hard this year as in past year, but I do want to post a reminder that the challenge is ongoing. If you donate, the money will go to help deserving school kids; if that's not enough, it can also earn you cool stuff like:
The largest individual donor will get a signed copy of How to Teach Physics to Your Dog, and the chance to have their pet appear in the sequel. Want to read about your companion animal moving at relativistic speeds? Make a big donation (current leader is just over $370), and you can get it.
Too cash-strapped to buy…
drorzel | October 18, 2010As you may or may not be aware, we are once again in the middle of a DonorsChoose fundraiser to support public school students and teachers. The good news is, the Uncertain Principles entry for the 2010 Challenge is in second place among ScienceBlogs blogs with $373 in donations thus far; the bad news it that more than half of that money is from the initial contribution I made when I set the challenge up.
We've done much better than this in the past, but I realize these are tough economic times, and people may not have as much disposable cash to give to charity. I was thinking, though, about…
drorzel | October 12, 2010It's that time of year again, which is to say "October, when we raise money for DonorsChoose." As you may or may not know, DonorsChoose is an educational charity which has teachers propose projects that would make their classrooms better, and invites donors to contribute to the projects of their choice. Every October since ScienceBlogs launched, we have done a fundraiser for them here, and this year's entry is now live:
While the warm-fuzzy sensation of doing a good deed for school children in poor districts may be enough to get some people to donate, I'll also sweeten the pot a little with…
drorzel | December 1, 2009Back during the DonorsChoose fundraiser, I promised to do a re-enactment of the Bohr-Einstein debates using puppets if you contributed enough to claim $2,000 of the Hewlett-Packard contribution to the Social Media Challenge. I obviously aimed too low, because the final take was $4064.70, more than twice the threshold for a puppet show.
So, I put together a puppet show. It took a little while, because I couldn't find any Niels Bohr puppets (maybe in Denmark?). I found an acceptable alternative, though, and put together a video of the Bohr-Einstein debates, using puppets. Here's the whole thing…
drorzel | November 24, 2009During this year's DonorsChoose fundraiser, I promised books as prizes to people who contributed to my challenge. Now that the finished books are ready, it's time to congratulate the winners.
Lauren Uroff wins one copy for giving the largest individual donation of the people who forwarded me receipts (the largest overall contribution was from Hewlett Packard, but we're not giving books away to faceless corporations). The person who posts as tcmJOE was the winner of the random drawing (the person has a real name, but I'm not sure it's public. He also used an email address that may be a spam…
drorzel | November 2, 2009This year's DonorsChoose Challenge entry came up just short of $8,000, at $7,976. Many thanks to everyone who donated.
As promised during the challenge, I will be giving away one advance copy of the book (either a real copy when they start printing in a few weeks, or a galley proof if you want one Right Now) to the largest individual donation, and one to a donor chosen at random from the set of donors who sent me email asking to be considered.
At present, the list of people who have asked to be part of the drawing is much smaller than the list of people who donated. So, I'll hold off on the…
drorzel | October 30, 2009Last week, I promised to do a puppet show if my DonorsChoose challenge entry claimed more than 1% of the $200,000 that Hewlett-Packard is donating to this year's Social Media Challenge. If you're quick with arithmetic, you'll see that the puppet-show threshold was $2,000.
The actual contribution was $4,064.70, more than double the threshold amount. Clearly, I needed to aim higher...
So, you'll be getting a puppet show in the near-ish future. It'll probably be a couple of weeks-- I'm buried in work at the moment-- but I have some ideas for what to do. It'll be a little while before I have the…
drorzel | October 22, 2009This year's DonorsChoose challenge is doing pretty well, with the total standing at a bit over $2,200. Thanks to all who have donated thus far.
There's a new development in this year's challenge, which is that Hewlett-Packard is going to donate $200,000 to DonorsChoose, which will be divided among Social Media Challenge blogs in proportion to each blog's share of the total Challnge proceeds.
Currently, the Social Media Challenge as a whole has raised $250,000. Which means that the Uncertain Principles challenge is in line to get just under 1% of HP's donation, or not quite $2,000. That's…
drorzel | October 16, 2009This year's DonorsChoose challenge has brought in a respectable $1,929 thus far, helping reach almost 1000 school kids. Thanks to all those who have donated thus far.
We've been stuck at that level for a little while now, though, so it doesn't look like we're going to match last year's total of more than $6,000. Of course, last year's gaudy number came about in large part because I agreed to dance like a monkey if the Challenge total broke $6,000. So, I suppose I really ought to sweeten the pot-- a chance at winning books isn't going to put us over the top.
I asked for suggestions a while…
drorzel | October 12, 2009The Digital Cuttlefish looks at the Archie comics, and waxes poetic:
Two paths play out in a comic book,
When Archie walks down memory lane
"The road not taken" is the hook;
So now, the writers take a look
And re-write Archie's life again,
This time with Betty as his bride;
Veronica the woman spurned,
Who once upon a time, with pride,
Was wed to Archie. Thus allied,
They lived while many seasons turned.
Why am I commenting on this, given that what little I know about Archie I learned from The Comics Curmudgeon and Chasing Amy? Because he goes on to talk about the Many-Worlds Interpretation…
drorzel | October 6, 2009We're six days into the DonorsChoose challenge, and at the time of this writing, ten people have contributed just over $1,700 to the Uncertain Principles challenge entry. That's an impressive average, and I thank you all for your generosity.
I also offered a number of incentives, and Lauren Uroff is claiming one:
I'd like to take you up on your offer to answer questions. The first question I'd like help with is telling me how to tell my teenager about wave-particle duality, the classic experiments that show light is both a particle and a wave, and why he should care.
As It happens, I have…
drorzel | October 2, 2009We're currently in the early stages of the annual DonorsChoose fundraiser, helping to raise money for educational projects. This is especially important in the current economic climate-- even before things went south, many schools and classrooms were strapped for cash, but now it's even worse.
But I can understand if that's not a noble enough cause for you. Helping poor people isn't enough for everyone. So here's something to sweeten the deal: PETA doesn't like DonorsChoose because some of the science classes seeking funds are looking for dissection equipment for biology classes. Janet gives…
drorzel | October 1, 2009As you may have seen on some other ScienceBlogs blogs, it's time again for the annual DonorsChoose fundraiser:
If you haven't been here in past years, DonorsChoose is a charity dedicated to education. They take specific proposals from school teachers looking for items to help their classes-- anything from pens and paper to classroom furniture, to smart boards and computer projectors-- and allow donors to choose specific classroom projects that appeal to them. We've run a fundraiser for them every year since ScienceBlogs was started.
This year, they've expanded beyond blogs, to a more general…
drorzel | September 29, 2009SteelyKid has a bit of flu, so we're all a little discombobulated in Chateau Steelypips. I'm going to be trying to get a full day's worth of work before noon, which won't leave room for much blogging.
But here's something for you to think about/ comment on: the day after tomorrow is October 1, which means another year's DonorsChoose blogger challenge. 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…
drorzel | December 9, 2008I'm sitting at the dining room table eating lunch, when I get the feeling of being watched. I look around, and see the dog across the room, curled up on her pillows staring at me. She's quietly chanting to herself "I get stuff. I get stuff. I get stuff."
"You're not trying that hypnosis thing again, are you?" I ask. "You know it won't work."
"No. I'm manipulating the wavefunction of the universe to bring me good things. Such as, for example, that cheeseburger you're eating."
"Really. Manipulating the wavefunction of the universe?"
"Really. You see, all conscious beings are surrounded by an…
drorzel | November 4, 2008As you know, even if you're not Bob, I promised to "dance like a monkey" if my DonorsChoose challenge passed $6,000 in donations, which it did. Thus, I am obliged to dance like a monkey.
You might think this would be a simple matter of capering about in a loose-limbed, vaguely simian manner, but it's important to do these things properly, so some thought was required as to what, exactly, would best meet this obligation. As documented in this video:
I hope this meets my obligation, and provides three and a half minutes of entertainment to stop you hitting "refresh" on your favorite poll-…