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Then of course you have the people rather hoping that entire US military bases and the people in them were wiped out because of something that happened 40 years ago. It's not just Americans that are so disgusting at times like these, when we should just care about the people... instead of feeling ashamed to be an American because of one AC, perhaps you should feel proud to be part of a country that can bring so many resources to bear on a problem like this. That includes the people living in America who have a lot to spare to help.

And for something practical people can do, you might start with a donation to the Red Cross (a good sign is that the donation link is Very Slow).

That's 15 million to the UN for aid, and that's for "starters". Forget that we contribute over 20% of the UN's budget, and in the past few years have actually paid in the billions.

With the oil for food fiasco, the UN is not the logical place to put all the money for this, unless you want it horribly mismanaged.

Personally, I think groups like the Red Cross/Red Crescent would be able to make better use of the funds.
Links:
American
International/Red Crescent

Initial estimates 12,000 souls dead and rising, plus over 1 million displaced or affected.

I am watching horrific news footage from Sri Lanka, Aceh (Indonesia) and Thailand on TVRI Berita Pagi (Indonesian news service) & SBS.

We are all one family of human beings - imagine it is your house, your brothers and sisters. I've lived in Indonesian archipelago for example and know how gentle, kind and loving these people are.

Please help by donating here http://www.careaustralia.org.au/donate_now.asp, here http://www.redcross.org/, or another organisation who can assist.

The average income in most of these places is just a few dollars a day (and often less) - so anything you do will help a lot!

I live in a typically selfish and miserly 'first world' country that shares an embarassing 0.25% of GDP on foreign aid. Please help fellow citizens and our governments wake up to this so we can all live in a safer, more compassionate and peaceful world. Capitalism and free markets can only go so far - human life and the environment are priceless - and most valuable of all.

The earthquake of magnitude 8.9 as measured by the U.S. Geological Survey struck at 7:59 a.m. (00.59 a.m. British time) off Sumatra and swung north with tremors into the Andaman islands. A warning centre such as those used along the Pacific Rim could have saved most of the thousands of people who died, A USGS official said. "And I think this will be a lesson to them," he said, referring to the devastated countries.

• The ACLU Foundation is the arm of the American Civil Liberties Union that conducts its litigation and communication efforts. ACLU Foundation is tax-deductible, but the ACLU is NOT tax-deductible.
  
  
• The American Red Cross offers domestic disaster relief; community services that help the needy; support and comfort for military members and their families; the collection, processing and distribution of lifesaving blood and blood products; educational programs that promote health and safety; and international relief and development programs.
  
  
• The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) provides effective means for the prevention of cruelty to animals through national programs in humane education, public awareness, government advocacy, shelter support, and animal medical services and placement.
  
  
• Amnesty International undertakes research and action focused on preventing and ending grave abuses of the rights to physical and mental integrity, freedom of conscience and expression, and freedom from discrimination.
  
  
• The Cato Institute seeks to broaden public policy debate to include the traditional American principles of limited government, individual liberty, free markets, and peace.
  
  
• The Electronic Frontier Foundation works to protect fundamental rights regardless of technology; to educate the press, policymakers and the general public about civil liberties issues related to technology; and to act as a defender of those liberties.
  
  
• The Nature Conservancy preserves the plants, animals, and natural communities that represent the diversity of life on Earth by protecting the lands and waters they need to survive through land acquisition and conservation easements.
  
  
• The Rainforest Action Network campaigns for the forests, their inhabitants, and the natural systems that sustain life by transforming the global marketplace through grassroots organizing, education, and non-violent direct action.
  
  
• Trickle Up helps the lowest income people worldwide take the first step up out of poverty, by providing conditional seed capital and business training essential to the launch of a microenterprise.
  

Their life expectancies are still better than they would have been through most of history, even if they are at substantial risk of AIDS.

Also, some of us /.ers regularly give blood (I'm picking up my two gallon pin next month). And, as noted, since we're in the celibate "safe" pool (well, the majority of us who also don't usually inject recreational drugs), there's at least hope until either a cure is found, or AIDS develops a pneumonic form to match the black death.

I don't know what's worse-- the Geraldo quality news story, or the slashdotter over-reaction. If everyone had waited a few hours (Noon Eastern, to be exact), the updated track forecast would have been out.

Guess what? It's going to track far southwest of the Cape by current estimates, and the local forecast, is only calling for tropical force winds to maybe category 1 hurricane winds at the Cape. Science will be safe. Only families and lives will be destroyed in the next few days. Comforting, huh?

The far bigger threat to NASA is the budgetary process in Congress. If every writer in this thread wrote a letter to Congress, rather than worrying out loud about the weather, maybe we could get NASA real resources. In the mean time, send a little support to the Red Cross.

Look for non-profit organizations such as the local Food Bank, the American Heart Association, the Red Cross, or Junior Achievement.

Even if these organizations don't need technical help, volunteer your time and encourage friends/coworkers to join you. It won't (or at least, it shouldn't) kill you to walk away from the computer world for a few hours a week.

Yeah, white Christians are way better than that! No way white Christians would ever launch a brutal armed campaign...

An interesting proposal. Spews and SBL are probably Leukocytes. SpamCop users might be APCs. But I don't see any Macrophages in our virtual immune system. That must be why spam is so rampant -- we need activists to go eat the spammers! Volunteers, anyone?

It's very interesting to think about how the law of armed conflict and the Geneva Conventions (International Humanitarian Law, I'll call it IHL) fit into this. It's also somewhat frightening. IHL regulations will cover this sort of thing somewhat - for example, using computers to direct attacks toward the civilian population is directly forbidden.

The problem is, a lot of this law is not fully developed. I went to a talk 2 months ago about "Cyberspace and the Law of Armed Conflict." The person giving the talk is a head lawyer for the Red Cross's IHL division. He said that talk was about the first given on that topic; it is a very new issue of international law. The problem with new issues is they tend to be developed as they play out - so the loudest voice will often make the law.

Here is more information about IHL.

Disclaimer: I am not a lawyer. Most of what I know about IHL comes from the Red Cross, whose purpose is to preserve international humanitarian law (according to the Geneva Conventions).

The company I work for donated money in my name for charity.
I suggest you donate to a good cause too.
Here are some links with information:
American red cross
Doctors without borders

Merry Christmas.

pitch in some CPU time for a good cause.

Not to sound crabby, but how in the world is this a good cause? Get out of the house and volunteer helping the needy and homeless for fucks sake, its getting colder outside and help is always needed. American Red Cross and the Canadian Red Cross volunteer sites.

If you need an excuse, sure download the clients that crack the TiVo code and leave your system so that its idle time is maxed out and your free to help the homeless and needy...

The Red Cross is for bigots and faggot socialists who think making the world better involves destroying the lives and dreams of others.

If you really want to do something worthwhile, devote your life to Linux kernal development and release other software under the GPL for the entire world to use.

Did it not occur to them that there are platforms on which they could test the effects of prolonged weightlessness? Or that studies have been done, including similar lab studies. Oh, well.

Free software is built on a pre-existing cultural norm - ie hacking - that doesn't exist for these other media.

Accidental DHMO(dihydrogen monoxide) inhalation statistics. Source.

* There are more than 6,000 DHMO inhalation fatalities per year in the U.S.

* It takes only 20 to 60 seconds to die from DHMO inhalation.

Another source reports worldwide fatalities at 140,000 per year and that most victims are CHILDREN!

We must protect the CHILDREN! Ban DHMO!

-

The American Red Cross, American Rescue Team, the Salvation Army are only a few organizations among many others for which you can volunteer to help the poor and disadvantaged people in a foreign country called America. Hope it helps.

Maybe it's just me, but after the Red Cross were less than forthcoming about what they were going to do with all the money raised to help out the September 11th terrorist attacks and then destroyed excess blood donations instead of passing them on, I have a hard time supporting them.

There are definitely charities that do a lot of good, but I think it's up to each individual to choose how they want to contribute. If someone wants to contribute to the EFF, then at least they're contributing to something.

As for the Red Cross, if they can't handle a national crisis when the country turned to them first and gave so much, then maybe they should step aside and let another organization do it. I helped raise $1,500 through the high school where I teach, and when I found out they weren't going to use all the money for the terrorist attacks, I felt used. Fortunately, they've changed their minds and decided to do the right thing, but I will never ever donate to the Red Cross again, nor will I support them.

First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win. -Ghandi

The redcross site is down. May be heavy load. From netcraft is running IIS. I KNOW this is not the time for advocacy.........

linuxlover

If you have not yet donated blood, money, or service to the National Disaster Relief Fund, please consider doing so. I realize that request is obvious and redundant, but bear with me.

I can honestly say that the WTC, Pentagon, and Pennsylvania disasters have had a stronger effect on me than I would have ever imagined. I've been somewhat wigged out for the past two days, functioning on auto-pilot in order to get along with the business of life while I deal with feelings of horror, sadness, rage, and worst of all, helplessness.

Horror subsides - the media onslaught will always lead to de-sensitization. The images and video remain horrific, but somehow become lest horrifying through continued exposure. (I hope that makes sense...)

Sadness persists. It should. You should never be able to look back on September 11th and not feel sadness.

Helplessness is altogether different - it won't subside on its own. It requires action, and gone unchecked, can amplify every other negative emotion. This is why I finally got off my ass and donated last night. I realized that it's pointless to feel helpless, because it's so easy to help.

Give blood. If, like me, you can't give blood, give money. It's needed. If you don't have any money, go volunteer at your local blood center. If nothing else, pack an ice chest full of bottled water and hand it out to people waiting in line to donate blood! Do something. On September 11, 2002, when I ask you "What did you do to help one year ago?", I hope you have an answer that you're comfortable with.

So I've conquered helplessness. Horror will take care of itself. I welcome sadness as a sign of my own humanity.

That leaves only sweet, sweet rage.

Amazon and PayPal both are collecting the money in a fund that will be sent to the Red Cross. This will also generate quite a tax break for both of them when they do submit their collections. If our country goes to war our government will need a return of funds, not two parties dodging out on taxes, the donator for their contribution, and -insert corp taking collection here-...

Please I urge people to donate directly to the red cross... Their servers may be getting hit pretty hard and it may take some time... like the lines for dontating blood right now. But give the medicine (money) to the horse that needs it directly.

Red Cross Donations Page: (instructions on how to make any form of dontation)
http://www.redcross.org/donate/donate.html

Red Cross Secure Online Dontation Form:
https://www.redcross.org/donate/donation-form.asp

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remove all .sig for great justice...

Amazon and PayPal both are collecting the money in a fund that will be sent to the Red Cross. This will also generate quite a tax break for both of them when they do submit their collections. If our country goes to war our government will need a return of funds, not two parties dodging out on taxes, the donator for their contribution, and -insert corp taking collection here-...

Please I urge people to donate directly to the red cross... Their servers may be getting hit pretty hard and it may take some time... like the lines for dontating blood right now. But give the medicine (money) to the horse that needs it directly.

Red Cross Donations Page: (instructions on how to make any form of dontation)
http://www.redcross.org/donate/donate.html

Red Cross Secure Online Dontation Form:
https://www.redcross.org/donate/donation-form.asp

---------
remove all .sig for great justice...

This is time for the nation to unite, donate to the red cross trough amazon, and give blood...

When so many news sites were going down yesterday we set up an aggregated news feed on the US attacks at our site. It's the top item on the main page.

PLEASE DONATE BLOOD! There is a continent-wide blood drive on. New York hospitals are critically low on blood supplies and many of the wounded are being transported to Canadian hospitals Toronto, Montreal and Ottawa to make space for the expected flood of critical patients in New York.

You can contact the US Red Cross or Canadian Blood Services to set up an appointment.

Please note that the Amazon donation is capped at $50 (although I presume you could donate more than once). Also, I didn't see any mention of the donation being tax-deductible. Crass, I know, but for some people it's important.

The Paypal donation link is unlimited, and Yahoo had a link to a Red Cross donation as well. Sorry, I don't have the link.

You may also donation directly at http://www.redcross.org although their site seems to be getting pretty slammed.

Select "Disaster Relief Fund" to have your money go towards the people affected by yesterday's attack.

To give money via Paypal: http://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=p/gen/rel ief-outside

relief@paypal.com

This money will go directly to the American Red Cross National Disaster Relief Fund and is tax-deductible.

To give money: write a check and mail it either to your local chapter (made out to "National Disaster Relief Fund") or to the national address at:

American Red Cross
PO Box 37243
Washington, DC 20013

To give blood immediately: GO TO your local American Red Cross blood donor center, expect waits. Check news media and/or the Red Cross Web site (http://www.redcross.org) for details. Note that many local chapters have Web sites which have local information and are not overloaded. If Red Cross donation centers are full, check local hospitals and news media for blood drives.

To give blood in a few days: call your local American Red Cross chapter for information or make an appointment through the national number 1-800-GIVE-LIFE.

The desperate need for blood will continue for weeks.

To donate your time or services: go to your local American Red Cross chapter HQ and volunteer your services, they are swamped.

If you have _real_ intel regarding NYC or Washington DC, something you saw personally (please don't waste their time):

https://www.ifccfbi.gov/complaint/terrorist.asp

In efforts in trying to help
We will donate to the redcross from every t-shirt sold
or please donate directly to the redcross either by blood or money

You can donate money to the Red Cross Disaster Relief Fund online by clicking here...

I have a medical condition that disqualifies me from giving blood, so I just donated my "Tax Relief For American Workers" refund to the Red Cross. Ironically, I deposited the check today on my way to work.

The Red Cross donation website is up and running, and so is a Yahoo page that is taking donations through their PayDirect system.

I'm certainly glad my tax refund is going to a good cause, and I will be donating more later.

to donate money to the red cross, check https://www.redcross.org/donate/donation-form.asp

Geekoid, please note that you have done your part, two weeks ago. If that pint isn't used in the rescue effort, it may have stood in place of a pint that will be.

Anyone who has not given blood since 7/17/01 is eligible to give blood today (9/11/01). The Red Cross says that they will need donations all through the week. I expect that NYC will go into "Spaghetti surgery" mode and stabilize everybody they can today, then spend the next few days performing more permanent medicine as supplies arrive. Thus, people eligible to donate within the next week are encouraged to do so.

Red Cross Internet: redcross.org (leads you to your local office, has news briefs, and is nearly slashdotted).

Red Cross Bellnet: 800-462-9400

Will someone post NYC donation data here, and someone else mod it up? That should save valuable phone lineage in NYC. I will post donation data if I can find it.

Find your local red cross chapter and donate!!!

It cannot be stressed enough that the American Red Cross and the FDA consistently agree that the current blood supply is safe and no patients have been harmed.

It cannot be stressed enough that the American Red Cross and the FDA consistently agree that the current blood supply is safe and no patients have been harmed.

How about giving:

• A car (get a tax reduction in return!)
• Blood
• An entire organ
• Or, my favorite, an ovum

At least not without dooming your children to a world of one massive natural disastor to another. Global climate change is real, it's already happening, and we need to faze out "fossil fuels" now.

CDN government .. impacts

Floods, droughts, massive crop failures.... the list even includes the possibility of another ice age within a few decades. It's not worth the risk.

CDN government.. understanding

This is recognized by most scientists, who have even managed to convince a lot of national governments to sign agreements commiting to a policy of reduced fossil fuel use. Unfortunatly, none of them are doing anything to follow through, so it was all just talk to appease a few iconoclastic environmentalists.

A couple more links:

West Coast Environmental Law

International Red Cross

David Suzuki Foundation

The Red Cross' International Response Fund goes to this sort of thing. Here's an article about what they did to help during Taiwan quake in September.

The Red Cross' International Response Fund goes to this sort of thing. Here's an article about what they did to help during Taiwan quake in September.

Sigh... Another uninformed post on /. You donate blood, but it costs quite a bit to get that blood to a point where it can be used. I don't know the exact breakdown, but I'd guess that most of the cost comes from testing. You really want blood with HIV in it? On top of that, there are costs from transportation, separation of blood into plasma/solids, repackaging, etc. They do in fact charge the hospitals more for the blood, than it cost to get it there, but they use blood to fund other efforts which they do not charge for.

If they're recooping their costs/making profits on blood, where does your donation go? Most of the money donated to the Red Cross goes towards disaster relief. Of the $1.964 billion spent by the Red Cross in fiscal 1997-1998, $1.791 billion or 91 percent, was spent on programs designed to meet the needs of people, leaving $174 million, or 9 percent for overall administration and fundraising.

I've worked with the Red Cross quite a few times in the past, and I have no clue what you are talking about with them charging high prices for food/drinks while working for them.

Next time consider some research. All of their audited financial reports are available off of their site, www.redcross.org

-Adam