Random Acts of Altruism
bioephemera | October 13, 2009As you'll have noticed by now, I'm not doing a BioE DonorsChoose challenge this year. It was a really tough decision, but I currently have neither the time nor the spare cash to do a DonorsChoose promotion proper justice. Fortunately, I have a baker's dozen Sciblings who are going all out this year to beat the crews at Discover and Nature!
Currently, PalMD is somehow ahead of Chad, but I'm sure that's only because there hasn't been any monkey-dancing yet. Plus, I hear Isis is threatening to deploy a secret weapon, so stay tuned. There's fun, schwag, and warm fuzzies to be had by all, so if…
bioephemera | August 17, 2009No, I'm not being rude, I promise! The Gates Foundation is matching DonorsChoose donations to high-need schools. They'll fund 50% of any classroom project request that prepares students in rural and high-poverty schools for college, up to $4.1 million.
Just jump in and pick from a list of projects eligible for matching funds here. Here's a project that caught my eye:
One of my former students had done water rockets at his school in another state. He introduced this to me and I have been hooked on it ever since then. Normally, I have teaching funds from our state. This year my funds have been…
bioephemera | July 19, 2009Ethan at Starts With a Bang has promised to shave his head if 100 commenters promise to give at least $10 to charity or volunteer for 4 hours. So naturally, I had to chip in. Wanna help?
bioephemera | July 4, 2009Wow. . . coming off the Silence is the Enemy rape awareness initiative, it's more depressing than usual to see the Telegraph's latest bad science reporting. Their story implies that rape victims deserve blame for what happens to them:
Women who drink alcohol, wear short skirts and are outgoing are more likely to be raped, claim scientists at the University of Leicester (source).
Ben Goldacre of the excellent Bad Science blog didn't think so. So he tracked down the (student) author of the (unpublished) (MS) dissertation cited by the Telegraph. She said the article was completely wrong:
"We…
bioephemera | June 30, 2009Last Friday, in my post on Nature's comprehensive coverage of science journalism, I mentioned the recent Nature Biotechnology conference paper on science communications co-authored by scibling Matt Nisbet. I also said I'd come back to one of the points in it that bothers me.
As I said yesterday, most of the material in this paper (the issues of media fragmentation, framing problems, incidental exposure, etc.) has been expressed elsewhere. I agree with the majority of it, and it's nice to see it all in one place. But I have to take exception to a small piece of the paper - an example that I've…
bioephemera | June 30, 2009Today is the last day of the Silence is the Enemy fundraising drive here at BioE - when I get my proceeds I'll send them along to Doctors Without Borders, probably along with a little extra, since I don't usually make an appreciable amount here at BioE. But I did notice a slight uptick in traffic this month, so thank you for the clicks! And don't forget about the issue of rape - these "awareness months" are supposed to raise awareness year-round, not make it seem like we've done our duty and don't need to think about it for the other 11/12 of the year (which I admit, I often do).
bioephemera | June 28, 2009
nmohan of the collaborative artists group Robot Disorder just contacted me to let me know they've launched the Robot Disorder 2.0 website, with more robot hordes (and easier navigation). He says they have literally thousands of robot drawings to clean up and post in the coming weeks, so if you haven't yet seen your personal robot, never fear - it's on its way.
And it's not too late to contribute your own robot to the project - just visit the top floor at Artomatic in Washington DC before July 5!
bioephemera | June 25, 2009
a ten year old rape victim from the Congo
photo by Endre Vestvik
Almost a month ago, a number of bloggers launched Silence is the Enemy, a blog initiative against sexual violence. Since then, we've seen a number of thoughtful and provocative conversations throughout the blogosphere, trying to pinpoint the factors, like war, that can create a social climate where, tragically, rape is considered normal.
For example, consider this interview with Dumisani Rebombo, a South African man who sought forgiveness from the woman he gang-raped as a teenager:
A friend and my cousin pressured me to prove…
bioephemera | June 18, 2009
If you read my February piece for the SEED website on art, science, and synesthesia, you'll remember Christopher Reiger's intriguingly ambiguous painting Synesthesia #1. I'm very pleased to report that it is now available as a limited edition print. I'd also like to call attention to Christopher's unusual sales model - what he calls his "charitable sales model:"
In the fall of 2008, I decided to contribute a significant percentage of every art sale to non-profit organizations that are working to redress environmental and social ails. By generating money for important causes through the sale…
bioephemera | June 10, 2009One of the challenges we faced with our new blogosphere initiative, Silence is the Enemy, was how to mobilize people to do something about the plight of rape victims. It's not that people don't have empathy for rape victims; it's that the experience of living in a war-torn nation where rape and murder are routine facts of life is so foreign and horrifying to us, we tend to tune it out. Part of the way to deal with this is to give people a clear mission - something simple they can do; in our case, donating to Doctors without Borders (as I am for the month of June), or writing to Congress, or…
bioephemera | June 5, 2009Thanks to SEED's matching Bloggers Challenge funds and some generous donors who gave me DonorsChoose gift certificates for Christmas, I got to push several worthy projects to completion this winter (by "topping off" their funding). That meant that I got real, snail mail thank-you packages from those classrooms.
At first I was a little ambivalent because I didn't really want the kids to spend their valuable classroom time thanking me. But then I realized that while writing those thank-you notes, they spend at least a few minutes thinking about the fact that a complete stranger cares about…
bioephemera | June 1, 2009
A sexual violence victim recovers in Goma, Congo
photo by Endre Vestvik
A few weeks ago, the NYT published a horrifying account by Nicholas Kristof of the pervasive sexual violence left over from Liberia's civil war. A major survey in Liberia found that 75% of Liberian women had been raped - most gang-raped. And many of the victims are children:
Of course, children are raped everywhere, but what is happening in Liberia is different. The war seems to have shattered norms and trained some men to think that when they want sex, they need simply to overpower a girl. Or at school, girls sometimes…
bioephemera | April 28, 2009
Birth of the Gastric Brooding Frog
Photo Mike Tyler
Unfortunately, species are the ultimate bioephemera.
Amphibians in particular have been declining at an alarming rate over the past several decades; some estimates suggest that a third of amphibian species are on the verge of extinction. My latest essay for SEED's website opens with the story of the Gastric Brooding Frog, Rheobatrachus silus, an extremely peculiar species. It was discovered in the 1970s, and already believed extinct just over a decade later. That's barely enough time to describe a species, much less save it.
Save the Frogs…
bioephemera | February 26, 2009
The Cheerful Cricket and Others (1907)
Children's Digital Library
The Children's Digital Library doesn't have a sleek interface and it can be a bit hiccupy, but if you poke around you'll find a surprising number of vintage children's books like The Cheerful Cricket and Others (1907) or The Illustrated Alphabet of Birds (1851).
Best of all, several of the Oz books illustrated by John R. Neill are here in their entirety! I remember checking these out of the library when I was sick as a child. I think my mom must have charmed the librarian because I remember taking literally stacks of books at…
bioephemera | February 11, 2009
Leonotis nepetaefolia and Doctor Humming Birds, Jamiaca
Marianne North (1830-1890)
Kew Royal Botanic Gardens
Sponsorship price: £1,000
832 paintings in the Marianne North Gallery at Britain's Kew Botanic Gardens are up for adoption. No, you don't get to name them or take them home - but you do get a print and other benefits.
All of these paintings are the work of Marianne North, a prolific and Victorian artist who traveled throughout the British empire documenting native flora and fauna in her own idiosyncratic style. Independently wealthy, North gave the gallery building and the…
bioephemera | January 22, 2009Story from North America from Kirsten Lepore on Vimeo.
"Story from North America"
Garrett Davis and Kristen Lepore
Thanks to reader Claire for finding this strangely poignant yet bizarre short film. I'm not sure what to think of this one.
bioephemera | December 24, 2008Just FYI: a DonorsChoose gift card is a great idea. The recipient gets to browse teachers' projects and pick one to fund, and when the project is complete, several weeks to months later, they'll get a letter from the teacher and thank-you notes from students.
I just got the thank-you package for one of the projects I contributed to during my DonorsChoose Challenge, and it was adorable. I also received a generous gift in my name from one of my readers - thank you! - so I get to look forward to even more thank-yous down the line. It's a feel-good experience all around.
PS. no, they totally do…
bioephemera | November 30, 2008
"Please Hug Me"
artist: J. Keeler, 1987
Today is the 20th annual World AIDS Day. I can still remember when I first learned about AIDS, in the late eighties - it was an extremely scary and mysterious thing that the media seemed very uncomfortable covering. No one I knew was talking about it openly - family, friends, or teachers. That's why posters like this were so important.
AIDS awareness advertisements represent a history of creative and controversial images - largely because of their sometimes explicit* sexual content, but also because of the stigmas attached to STDs, casual sex, and…
bioephemera | November 16, 2008Scibling Brian Switek over at Laelaps is in the running for the $10,000 science blogging college scholarship, and he needs your help to win. I'm amazed again just typing this that Brian is a college student. He writes more eloquent, insightful essays than most graduate students! (And if you don't read Laelaps, you should. . . his worst crime lies in blogging too much for me to keep up!)
Vote here (voting is open until Nov 20.)
bioephemera | November 11, 2008The DonorsChoose challenge is over - and given the terrible economy and the distraction of the election, I feel very fortunate to have gotten over $2,000 in donations toward some incredibly creative science/art projects. Here's some of the feedback I've gotten from the teachers:
I am so excited about this project and am very grateful for your generosity. I really appreciate all that you have done to make learning interactive and a unique experience for my students. The chance to express themselves through art will hopefully open their eyes to new possibilities as well as enable them to begin…