Random Acts of Altruism
bioephemera | October 30, 2008stag beetle
Albrecht Durersource
... But life in nature manifests the truth of these things.... Therefore observe it diligently, go by it and do not depart from nature arbitrarily, imagining to find the better by thyself, for thou wouldst be misled. For, verily, "art" is embedded in nature; he who can extract it has it. -- Albrecht Durer
Thanks to your generosity, yet another of my DonorsChoose projects has been funded! Woot! And several very generous donors who have given in the three digits, with the leader at $300. That means to have a shot at the original watercolor, you'd have to give…
bioephemera | October 27, 2008Amazingly, it's already the last week of the DonorsChoose fundraising drive! SEED has generously kicked in matching funds for each blogger, which enabled me to contribute to several more projects - but we only have a total of $1,026 so far. That's much less than Chad is getting for promising to dance like a monkey.
Honestly, I'd dance like a monkey too, but none of you wants to see that, I promise you. I have no rhythm whatsoever.
So here it is, readers: I'm going to do something to persuade you to donate, too. I'm going to give away a painting. A new, original, watercolor painting that I am…
bioephemera | October 15, 2008Okay - it's halfway through the DonorsChoose challenge, and we need to do better. We still have several great projects left to fund. Luckily, our SEED overlords have decided to reward you for giving - not that helping kids learn isn't reward enough, but an iPod would be nice, wouldn't it?
So, Seed will be giving away Seed mag subscriptions and an assortment of mugs, laptop covers and USB drives each Friday from now until the end of October. In addition, there will be one 'grand prize' at the end of the drive: an iPod Touch!
All you have to do to enter is:
1) give to one of our DonorsChoose…
bioephemera | October 1, 2008
Today is the first day of the annual DonorsChoose Blogger challenge! As you may know, DonorsChoose is a website devoted to funding lessons dreamed up by creative (but underfunded) teachers. Everyone knows that teachers routinely spend their own time and money to create inspiring experiences for their students - and that those teachers don't get paid nearly enough to give their classes everything they need.
That's why i'm asking you, readers and friends, to help fund the bioephemera Classroom of Curiosity Challenge. Inspired by the Cabinet of Curiosities theme, the requests in my challenge…
bioephemera | September 29, 2008
A new conservation international ad for the "lost there, felt here" campaign pays visual tribute to the Amazon's nickname "lungs of the world."
bioephemera | August 26, 2008
Forestle uses the Google search algorithm, but the ad revenues associated with each search go to prevent deforestation (via donations to the Nature Conservancy).
According to the site, the average search saves about 0.1 square meter (0.11 sq. yd) of rainforest - approximately the surface of your computer screen. And Forestle's browser plugins make altruism about as easy as possible. (Its creators estimate that about 5% of revenues will go to admin costs).
Here's the interface - it's minimalist just like the real Google, and has most of the same functions:
Via ars technica