DonorsChoose Fundraiser
drorzel | November 2, 2007So, the final numbers are in, one day late thanks to that bastard Colbert. The official Uncertain Principles DonorsChoose Challenge raised $3,607 from 48 donors over the last month, good for second place among ScienceBlogs blogs, in both categories. That's better than I realistically expected to do (last year's challenge brought in about $1,400 in two weeks, so we more than doubled the take by going to a full month).
Many thanks to all those who contributed. Your generosity is much appreciated. I still owe some of you blog posts, and I'll get to those as soon as I can-- I'm at the World…
drorzel | October 31, 2007If you've been putting off donating for some reason, today is your last chance to contribute to the ScienceBlogs DonorsChoose fundraiser, and my challenge entry in particular. Their server appears to be getting whacked at the moment, so you might have trouble getting through to donate-- charity delayed is charity made annoying.
If you've been waiting and hoping for the dunning blog posts to just for God's sakes stop already, this is the last one you'll see this year. How about a donation to celebrate?
drorzel | October 29, 2007An anonymous donor asks a tricky question, namely:
how apparently successful research faculty ... can best make the transition to a small
teaching/research institution?
This is a tricky question not only because anything relating to academic jobs is tough, but also because I don't have a great deal of experience with it. I've been in on a bunch of job searches, but we've never hired anybody fitting this description. As a result, this is necessarily kind of hypothetical.
I think the key bit of advice is the same for faculty looking to switch instituions as for people looking for thier first…
drorzel | October 29, 2007The ScienceBlogs DonorsChoose challenge event runs through the end of this month, which means we'll take new contributions through the end of Wednesday. The Uncertain Principles challenge stands at $3,412 at the moment, which is terrific-- more than I realistically expected to get (I set the challenge goal too high at the start).
I'd love to say that I have a brilliant idea of something to offer to get even more contributions, but, frankly, I'm beat. I've gotten a few new donations in the last week, but not one entry for either of the incentive offers. I suspect we're pretty well tapped out,…
drorzel | October 26, 2007They're too cheap even to donate to DonorsChoose, and--
Oh. Wait. They are, aren't they?
This is the worst fundraising idea ever.
(I have no great love for China Mieville, either, and found that piece kind of annoying, on the whole, but I couldn't resist the joke. This may indicate that playing the dreaded "one more game" at lunch today deprived my brain of critical oxygen...)
drorzel | October 26, 2007As part of the "Buy This Blog" incentive for the DonorsChoose fundraiser, Ewan McNay asks for a post on
the superiority of Commonwealth sports (cricket, football) over the
US-favoured kind (baseball, american football) ;-). Oh, OK, then; I'll
setle for cricket.
Cricket? You want me to talk up cricket?
The best I can do is this: If you've ever been watching a baseball game, and said to yourself "Boy, I wish this could go on all week," well, then, have I got a game for you...
I can, however, make a case for the superiority of rugby to American football:
Now, don't get me wrong-- I'm a big fan…
drorzel | October 25, 2007Blah blah, blah-blah blah blah blah-- blah (blah)-- blah, blah blah. Blah blah blah, blah blah, blah-blah blah.
Chicken chicken chicken, chicken-chicken . Chicken, chicken chicken chicken. Chicken, chicken-chicken, chicken.
Badger badger badger, badger badger badger. Badger, badger badger. Snake!!!
(I figure, this is pretty much what people are hearing at this point with the DonorsChoose stuff, so why not cut out the middleman?)
drorzel | October 23, 2007The DonorsChoose fundraiser is winding toward its conclusion, which means I need to find some new way to raise money for a final push. So, here are two new offers, one for high rollers, one for small donations:
Incentive 1: Guest Post: Taking my cue from the Seed overlords, we'll add a random element to this, to enable small donors to take part. So, any new donation this week (from Monday Oct. 22 through Friday Oct. 26) will get you a chance to win a guest-blog post on this blog. This is distinct from the "Buy This Blog" incentive, in that it's not you choosing a topic for me to write about,…
drorzel | October 21, 2007Well, the DonorsChoose challenge came up short of the "stab myself with a fork" threshold by the Friday deadline, though the whole business turned out to be surprisingly effective. Go figure.
At this point in things, militant atheist baiting is pretty much played out as a fundraising strategy, which means I need to turn to ways to get other segments of the readership to donate. Sadly, I'm short on ideas, and Dave's quasi-scientific study of charity gimmicks doesn't provide much guidance (I've already put in a good chunk of money, so I wouldn't be able to offer much in the way of matching…
drorzel | October 19, 2007For those keeping score, the DonorsChoose Challenge stands at $3,262 right now. Only hours remain before this week's incentive deadline, so act quickly:
For another $290, I'll stab myself with a fork.
For another $540, I'll read and respectfully review Richard Dawkins's book, or some other atheist screed
For another $2,737, you'll get one blissful year free of post titles like this one.
If any of those options appeal to you, act quickly. Time is running out...
(I'll do something different for an incentive next week. What, I'm not sure, but there'll be something different.)
drorzel | October 19, 2007An anonymous donor cashes in a $30 donation to ask:
Homework solutions from intro physics through grad school physics are available online, and while working through Jackson and Goldstein problems can be miserable without some guidance, the temptation is there to plagiarize. When you teach, do you use book-problems or write your own? Do you trust that those who are really interested in the subject will do the right thing and slog through homework like thousands before them?
An excellent question.
Homework is really a vexing issue. There's no way to really learn physics without doing…
drorzel | October 18, 2007So, let's review the week in DonorsChoose fundraising:
Atheist baiting netted about $60, from three donors.
Appealing to your better nature brought in zip, zero, nil, nada. Not one person donated to the highlighted proposal after I posted that.
Offering to stab myself with a fork brought in $200 yesterday.
You all suck.
No, that's not true-- your generosity has been very impressive. The Uncertain Principles challenge currently stands at $3,118 raised, from 39 donors, second among ScienceBlogs, after Pharyngula, which gets more than 20 times as many pageviews as this blog. I'm flattered to…
drorzel | October 17, 2007That's exactly the sort of thing you won't have to read if I meet my Challenge goal by Friday. Or even get $1000 or 100 new donors by Friday, in which case I'll have to do a respectful review of his book.
Thus far, we've only picked up $120 in new donations, so it's not looking real likely. But, hey, a sudden surge of generosity could put it over the top... So why not donate?
drorzel | October 17, 2007In comments to my previous fundraising incentive offer, tceisele asks a good question:
Just out of curiosity: if you will read "The God Delusion" for $1000 [in donations], how much will it cost just to get you to stab yourself with a fork?
(based on my statement that I'd rather stab myself with a fork than read The God Delusion).
It is, as I said, a good question, and deserves a good answer: $750. For $750 in new donations by the end of the day Friday, I'll stab myself with a fork.
drorzel | October 16, 2007Continuing the theme of highlighting the occasional particularly worthy proposal, have a look at "Better Viewing for Students", which pretty much encapsulates everything you need to know about the reasons for the fundraising drive. The proposal is asking for money to buy an overhead projector for classroom use-- not a computer projector, an old-school overhead.
Why would anybody want that? Well, there's some educational jargon to justify it, but the real reason is here:
What makes these needs more pressing is the fact that traditional teaching can not take place in my classroom. The…
drorzel | October 15, 2007At the time of this writing (about 8:20 on Monday), my DonorsChoose challenge entry stands at $2,802, nearly double last year's take. That's outstanding, and I thank everyone who contributed.
Of course, I set a Challenge goal of $6,000, which means we're not quite halfway there. Which means I need to come up with some new way to solicit donations. History suggests that self-abasement often works, and local history shows that "new atheists" are a rich source of cash, so something along those lines would be good. Sadly, there isn't a local equivalent of the Creation Museum, and I'm not about to…
drorzel | October 13, 2007Here's another installment in the payoff for Rajesh Vaidya's donation. This is one of a bunch of pictures Kate took of me and Emmy playing on the floor:
This sort of looks like it ought to be a scene from one of our physics conversations, so here's my lame attempt at a caption:
I'm sure somebody out there can do a lot better than that, though, so have at it.
drorzel | October 13, 2007You may or may not have noticed the appearance of large banner ads promoting the ScienceBlogs DonorsChoose EccentricCapitalization Challenge. If you haven't, they go to this page explaining the challenge and offering valuable prizes. If you'd like to increase the range of swag you can obtain for your donation, head on over there and check it out.
And, of course, there's still the standing offer to purchase blog posts here, and I'll be offering some new incentives on Monday. So, well, go donate something, and get stuff in return.
drorzel | October 13, 2007It's Saturday, and it's Homecoming weekend at Union, so I'll be over on campus watching sporting events for a good chunk of the day. That means it's a perfect time to pay off another blog purchase, this one from Rajesh Vaidya who asked for LOLEmmys, at least five pictures worth.
There are two problems with this request: First, the Queen of Niskayuna is much too dignified to speak in LOLCat. More importantly, though, I'm not very good at coming up with these. However, that's why I have clever readers. So, here's a picture:
And here's my lame attempt at a caption:
I'm sure somebody out there…
drorzel | October 12, 2007I promised a while back to write a post on a topic of your choosing, in exchange for a $30 donation to my DonorsChoose challenge. I've got a fair number of requests, and I should really start paying them off. The first one comes from Ewan McNay, who aks:
what quantum mechanics can tell us about the existence of free will (if anything)
Oh, sure. Stick me with the tough questions.
This will be somewhat rambling and discursive, because it's not really an area that I've thought much about, or where I know anything solid about the science. In fact, my first thought on hearing the question has…