Eyes of the Cosmic Whale
“…leaving the heavens naked, glistening blue-black, like the belly of some cosmic whale…”Archive for Activism
Click and raise your voice for politicians to hear!
This seems way too urgent not to ignore. You may or may not know that right now, an international conference is occurring in Bali, to discuss climate change.
As it happens, the US, Canada and Japan have rejected mentions of emission cuts by 2020. We knew the US was being selfish, but the fact that more countries are following this trend is simply alarming.
Avaaz launched an emergency petition before the summit climax in 48 hours. So sign the petition here, and sign it quick!
YOUR name might be the one that makes the difference!
Free Rice: play this vocab game and feed a hungry person
Free Rice is a website that allows you to enhance your English vocabulary and feed a hungry person at the same time.
The site asks you vocabulary questions, and for every answer you get right, 20 grains of rice are donated to the UN’s World Food Programme to be distributed in some of the poorest countries in the world. Now, 20 grains may not seem like a lot, but in two months and 4 days, 6,306,039,810 grains of rice have been gotten because of the number of people playing.
This website has two aims:
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Provide English vocabulary to everyone for free
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Help end world hunger by providing free rice to truly needy people
Unsure that this is a hoax? You can cross-check it isn’t at the WFP website and the BBC.
Free Rice gets the rice from the sponsors who put ads in the site.
It helps one’s vocabulary too, since for every word you get right, you’ll advanced to a higher level with more difficult words, while if you get one wrong, you’ll go to an easier level.
But what are you still doing here? Free Rice is fun too, almost addictive, and it makes you (or, well, at least it makes me) knowledge thirsty.
Go to Free Rice and help improve someone’s life!
* Dedicated to Ryan, self proclaimed selfish yet wanting to help the world 
Easy ways to help the world, one month at a time
From now on, every month I will post at least one way to help the world in super easy ways. The Internet is a great way to promote action towards great, noble causes. When a click can feed a person, all you know is you want more people to click.
And alas, this is why I have decided to officially post once a month (at the very least) about ways of helping people in poverty and need, or caring for the environment. On going green…but not with envy, in fact, much to the contrary. It worked so well with Aidgle, it’s worth repeating. And repeating.
I propose a toast…to a better world!
EDIT: I will actually list every post so that it’s all neatly organized!
October-
December
The little things matter in the greener life
Today’s post is dedicated to the difference each one of us can make when it comes to climate change and to the bloggers of Blog Action Day.
Global warming is everywhere. It’s a phenomenon that has, in some ways, already changed our lives. When a mid-winter day is warm and sunny, people explain it with an “It’s global warming”. When I see ads for “greener” products, I know it’s because of global warming. When I read of polar ice caps melting, or polar bears’ habitats being destroyed, I think “global warming”.
Global warming’s a big thing. What’s sad is that it was caused by us humans. What’s sadder is that it will consume life as we know it (and that includes our very existence).
This shouldn’t be a reason to feel discouraged or suicidal or whatever. It’s not all lost. (Yet.)
Which is exactly why all of us need to do the simplest of things: live consciously. The little things matter, and they’re easily changeable.
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If your tap won’t close itself properly, battle it (or repair it).
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If you see a light on in a room but no one’s in it (very likely if you have afraid-of-the-dark sibilings or sons), turn it off.
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If there’s a charging device plugged on but nothing’s getting charged, unplug it.
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Time your showers, and make an effort to shorten them by a minute every time.
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Explain the phenomenon to young children, and make sure they know of its consequences (“Think of the penguins! Think of the polar bears!”)
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Turn off your printer and computer screen when you’re not using it (even better, turn off the computer)
Those are the little things that won’t cost a penny to change (and might save you more than one in electricity and water).
Those are the little things that matter when you’re trying to live a greener life. And they’re also the little things that make a difference.
On Aidgle and its growing revenue
The growing popularity of Aidgle, the search engine that donates its revenue to disaster victims, is beginning to show.
Aidgle began less than a month ago, yet by the beginning of this week, over 440 US dollars had been made by the search engine. It might not sound like that much at first sight, but considering that 1 cent is made for every search, it’s quite an achievement.
This amount will be paid to Aidgle’s (genius) creator, Roberto Thais, at the end of the month (Google’s slow in that matter), who will in turn donate it to two organizations who are already taking action in the affected areas of the earthquake in Peru on August 15th.
So far, so good. But the revenue has to increase, for these people’s sakes. So many, many people lost it all while so many more forget of their existence, while in their comfortable homes.
Particularly for those who don’t live in Peru, here’s a chance to make a difference from our comfortable homes.
Hopefully one of these days we’ll hear ”Aidgle, miracle search engine changes lives of hundreds”.
It’s up to us, Aidgle users, to make that happen!
Petition for China to pressurize Burma- trying to get 1mil people to sign!
This brilliant petition has been created to pressurize China (and the UN) to oppose the crackdown from the dictatorship in Burma. China has a lot of influence over Burma, seeing as it has energetic interests on it and is Burma’s main commercial partner.
Last time the Burmese protested to the regime, thousands were killed. Now, if the world stands united there’s a chance it doesn’t happen again. Sign the petition! These people need us.
Already there are 550,000+ signatures, but the aim is to get to 1 million signatures by the end of the week. It’s possible. Please do sign and ask others to sign.
We can truly make a difference.
Aidgle: better than Google!
Aidgle is a search engine with a different approach: revenue goes to relief efforts in disaster locations around the world. It works just as well as Google, because it’s a custom version of the Google Search Engine, but the fact that it helps people in need makes it even better.
Right now, they money generated is being sent to Peru, where there was an earthquake on August 15th (I plan to make a blog post about my memoirs on that day, too…some other time). It was of 7.9 magnitude, killed over 500 people and left more than 85,000 without a home. These people are hungry, and homeless, and doing their best to survive the harsh winter. Aidgle is directing the money in rebuilding homes in the most affected areas: Pisco, Ica and Chincha.
Needless to say any help is welcome. And now the world has the chance to keep helping just by using a search engine! It couldn’t be easier!
I’m totally going to use Aidgle from now on.
The big question is: Will you?
