Science Addiction

A dormant blog by Devanshu Mehta

Tag: geek

Change Watch: President Fanboy

A few facts about the next President, from Telegraph.co.uk:

  • He collects Spider-Man and Conan the Barbarian comics.
  • He has read every Harry Potter book.
  • His favorite films are Casablanca and One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.
  • He says his worst habit is constantly checking his BlackBerry.
  • He uses an Apple Mac laptop.
  • He drives a Ford Escape Hybrid.
  • His favorite fictional television programmes are Mash and The Wire.

And that’s just the (mildly) geeky stuff.

Introducing Geek Activism

I’ve been running this blog for more than 3 years, but “Science Addiction” had always been a stop-gap name. It was a domain name I had lying around and the blog- at the time- didn’t have much of a direction.

Over time, the blog got a direction- which probably had something to do with this article of mine– and the name no longer fit the bill. And so, after thinking about it for a long time, I’ve rebranded the blog as GeekActivism.com— a name that actually describes what you’ll find here.

NOTE: The old links and RSS feeds will still work.

Seasons Givings: 2008

A few years ago, this blog made the front page of Slashdot with a list of “geek” charities and projects that I thought were worth my donations.

For this year, I have a shortened list- a couple of old favorites and a couple of new favorites. Let me start with the new:

DonorsChoose.org
In their own words:

DonorsChoose.org is a simple way to provide students in need with resources that our public schools often lack. At this not-for-profit web site, teachers submit project proposals for materials or experiences their students need to learn. These ideas become classroom reality when concerned individuals, whom we call Citizen Philanthropists, choose projects to fund.

Proposals range from “Magical Math Centers” ($200) to “Big Book Bonanza” ($320), to “Cooking Across the Curriculum” ($1,100). Any individual can search such proposals by areas of interest, learn about classroom needs, and choose to fund the project(s) they find most compelling. In completing a project, donors receive a feedback package of student photos and thank-you notes, and a teacher impact letter.

This is fantastic- and you can select a school close to your home if you want. They funded over $6.4 million worth of school projects in 2008.

Kiva

Kiva lets you make loans to the working poor- you will be repaid, but without interest. You can fund real people, with real small business projects. They partner with expert microfinance institutions in the regions where you lend money. I’ve been lending small amounts of money to projects all over the world for a couple of years now- it works, the money has always been repaid.

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And then there are a few old favorites- no surprise if you read this blog regularly.

Electronic Frontier Foundation

If you believe in any of the things I write about here- defending your rights in the digital world- then EFF is fighting for you. Just today, they announced that they are challenging the constitutionality of the law granting telecom immunity to the companies that helped the government in its domestic illegal wiretapping.

Creative Commons

For an idea about why I support Creative Commons, check out my article about why this blog is CC licensed. I joined the Creative Commons network a couple of days ago- if nothing else, it gives you a free, privacy-protected openID profile.

And a few honorable mentions: