I have found myself in absolute admiration for Jeff Skoll and the work that he’s doing with the Skoll Foundation and the Uncommon Heroes documentaries. After seeing his TED talk “Film producer Jeff Skoll (An Inconvenient Truth) talks about his film company, Participant Productions, and the people who’ve inspired him to do good.” It led me to looking further into his career of shedding light on Social Entrepreneurship.
“I started Participant Productions with the vision to be a global media company focused on the public interest and our mission is to produce entertainment that creates and inspires social change.” –Jeff Skoll
Skoll Foundation on YouTube. Uncommon Heroes. Common Good.
(Posting this cry for help from IFAW.org)
Human and elephant lives hang in the balance while the dilemma over the need for food and water has caused conflict between the two.
We can help by donating to help move these elephants away from the conflict zone.
Please help us move them to safety – make your emergency donation today.
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This is your once-in-a-lifetime chance to save an entire herd of elephants from being gunned down.
WE MUST ACT NOW to save a large herd of elephants – adults and babies – that face the firing line in the southeast African country of Malawi. The elephants – in a desperate search for food and water – are raiding storage areas and feuding with human communities. Villagers are putting down nail-bedded planks and setting snare traps that cut through the elephants’ skin – leaving gaping wounds in their legs and trunks. Three of the elephants have already had their trunks amputated by these vicious snares. Now authorities plan to execute the entire herd if it is not moved from the area. IFAW has located a perfect spot for the elephants in a park called the Majete Wildlife Reserve. The animals that used to live there were poached to extinction, but the Malawi government has made the new park a protected sanctuary – an ideal place for these threatened elephants. Unfortunately, Majete is over 100 miles away – so moving these giants will be a monumental task. In order to transport over a half-million pounds of elephant 100 miles, we’re going to need major equipment, brute strength, a lot of animal-moving expertise, and funding to help pay for this urgent move. Your contribution will help us:
We have a large team in place…we have a helicopter and trucks ready to go…and we have plenty of experience moving elephants…. Now all we need is your donation. The Malawi Department of Parks and Wildlife has already agreed to partner with us on this special project. But we need to act fast. If the elephants aren’t moved by June 5th, they will be shot. Thank you from the elephants,
p.s. I know we can save the lives of these elephant families – but we must act now. Please rush to their rescue while there is still time to save their lives. |
Here we are entering another year of giving and making our world a better place to live in, one hand at a time. So, this is one of the easiest ways you can be the assisting hand of good. Why is it so easy? I’m happy you asked… It’s easy because all you have to do is the same thing you do every day, eat. You read me right, I wrote, EAT!
Go to http://goeatla.org for a list of participating restaurants. Andiamo a mangiare!
“GO EAT Los Angeles”
Thursday, February 26, 2009
Join an established, all-day event that is widely supported by restaurants, countless Angelenos and the entertainment community.
SIMPLY EAT OUT TO HELP OTHERS!
The 2009 list of restaurants grows daily.
GO EAT Los Angeles is an annual, one-day dining fundraising event. Los Angeles area restaurants donate 20% or more of their day’s proceeds to Aid For AIDS to help prevent homelessness and hunger for individuals and families impoverished and disabled by HIV/AIDS.
This is an easy way to support the HIV/AIDS community. You have to eat, right? So, on Thursday, February 26, 2009, choose from restaurants throughout Los Angeles for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Restaurants in West Hollywood, Silverlake, Hollywood, Long Beach, Pasadena, West Los Angeles, Beverly Hills, the Valley and more will be donating monies from meals purchased that day.
Just wanted to add a quick note about the Xobni’s newest upgrades, which includes most of our favorite social connectivity site, Facebook! Linkedin was already in the fold, which is great to make connections on a business level but now Xobni is truly reaching into the “social” aspect of online media and direct connecting your contacts to their Facebook profile. I’m thinking this is what Bill Gates envisioned when he said, “Xobni is the next generation of social networking.” We are no longer hiding behind email, as faceless typist and I personally love the window peek into my correspondent’s “face”! We are, after all, a society of voyeurs.
I am looking forward to Xobni connecting with even more of my favorite sites. Who knows, maybe one day Xobni will come built into Outlook?
KallOut is one of my favorite tools these days and I am very impressed with the moves they’ve made to give the people what they want. KallOut is a desktop search tool that has a varied menu of search options, which can be “Kall(ed)Out” by selecting text from within your desktop programs, (Outlook, Word, etc…). It started out with the usual suspects, Google, Yahoo, and Live but has now branched out and included our good friend Twitter. Here is a step by step process of running a Twitter Search directly from your desktop! If you’re not using KallOut I greatly recommend this tool for various reasons, but currently, this is at the top of my list.
From within an email to a friend, using Outlook, I selected the text “BlogHer” and under the search options, chose Twitter Search.
The KallOut box then pops up and I clicked on Search All Tweets.
Tah-Dah! You’ve got the tweets about BlogHer
I know that most will never see what AIDS can do to a person, how sick and debilitated one can become from the suffering caused by this disease…I have. Even at the young age in which I encountered myself watching the havoc tear apart a life that I cherished, I felt the sad feeling of helplessness. At that time AIDS was not as prevalent and treatment was scarce and experimental, eventually her only way to end suffering was suicide. This experience left a need for me to be a constant voice for the cause. I have become one of many that is whispering, speaking, pushing and shouting, when need be, just to get the message out that the need for every one of us to intervene, in any small way we can, is vast. We cannot standby and let the poor, underprivileged and geographically unfortunate suffer. We should all find a role of responsibility in the line of global support to facilitate treatment and better living for those that we will never meet. There are approximately 301 million people in the US, if we all just gave $1, just one dollar to support the cause globally, we could change people’s lives, ease suffering and help find a cure for this epidemic. It’s a small gesture that could make an enormous impact on the world.
I especially feel for the orphaned Children of Africa, the children that may not even have the fortune of an orphanage, they live alone at very young ages, siblings caring for each other. Most are unable find means to acquire HIV testing, causing the spread to continue weaving it’s deadly web. It is a sad state and one that we could never understand. Imagine an 8 and 10 year old living alone here? Yet through such pain and loss I’ve read and seen so many inspiring stories of ways that they find to help each other, truly amazing spirits and I have a goal to head to Africa, be a physical servant there but for now, I do it here and ask for everyone to I know to join me.
“Eight out of every 10 children in the world whose parents have died of AIDS live in sub-Saharan Africa. During the last decade, the proportion of children who are orphaned as a result of AIDS rose from 3.5% to 32% and will continue to increase exponentially as the disease spreads unchecked. As a result, the disease is in effect making orphans of a whole generation of children, jeopardizing their health, their rights, their well-being and sometimes their very survival, not to mention the overall development prospects of their countries.”
It’s December now and as the Holiday Rush is upon us, I know that I can do without another lotion set, gift card or chocolate basket, my joy would come from knowing someone is feeling relief, care and love from someone they will never know. This is the legacy we have an opportunity to leave behind.
One Day For AIDS is a great organization that has 3 options for directing 100% of your donation. I hope that if you can, you will make a difference in someone’s life.
12 Great Tales of De-Friending
Posted using ShareThis
I’ve had this curious obsession with Mr. Edgar Allan Poe. Well, I’ve been a poetry fan since the age of 12 when I found that the lyrics could flow in your head like music dancing through your mind. And one day, I found Poe and everything made sense. He used his his pen with such knife-like precision, that to this day cuts into me. I often thought, if I could only be like Poe, if I could only take a walk in his mind. That was when I thought I would one day find myself a great writer, never thought popular or well-known but great. I even named my daughter after one of his well known poems.
I woke early this morning, that’s usual even for a Saturday unfortunately, and immediately turned on the laptop to see what I missed in the couple of hours I slumbered but as I stood at the espresso machine waiting for my fuel, my antique poem books peculiarly caught my eye and I pulled them off the shelf. I can’t tell you how thrilled I am that I did! It’s bringing peace into my life to sit here drinking coffee and reading my first crush’s writings. These antiques are so old I feel guilty every time I turn the pages but there is something about the old books that draws me and and keeps me stimulated. It’s good to read a book every now and then, those of us that live online are losing touch with this, well, at least I am.Though, if Poe had lived in this day, I’m sure he’s have been a blogger!
This one in particular is sticking to me today. It truly dances. I’m *crushed*
To One in Paradise
Edgar Allan Poe
Thou wast all that to me, love,
For which my soul did pine-
A green isle in the sea, love,
A fountain and a shrine,
All wreathed with fairy fruits and flowers,
And all the flowers were mine.
Ah, dream too bright to last!
Ah, starry Hope! that didst arise
But to be overcast!
A voice from out the Future cries,
“On! on!”- but o’er the Past
(Dim gulf!) my spirit hovering lies
Mute, motionless, aghast!
For, alas! alas! me
The light of Life is o’er!
“No more- no more- no more-”
(Such language holds the solemn sea
To the sands upon the shore)
Shall bloom the thunder-blasted tree
Or the stricken eagle soar!
And all my days are trances,
And all my nightly dreams
Are where thy grey eye glances,
And where thy footstep gleams-
In what ethereal dances,
By what eternal streams.
