

How Should We Donate $53,000 of xkcd Book Profits? - kn0thing
http://breadpig.com/2010/05/10/how-should-we-donate-53000-of-xkcd-book-profits/

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chime
I said the following in the reddit thread but don't know if anyone read it.
Award $5k to ten "help-the-world" projects ($3k would probably go towards
organizing everything). Spread the word via reddit/xkcd/HN. Sorta like the
Pepsi-Refresh contest but more open and social. Let each of the 10 project
owners do a reddit IAMA and keep the online community updated with their idea
and progress. Allow them to share videos, photos, and post guest entries on
blog.reddit.com. Let reddit/xkcd/HN users vote on all the submitted projects
and select the top 10.

If $5k seems too low, then maybe have five $10k projects or some other mix. In
a way, this would be a gift that keeps on giving.

~~~
kn0thing
heya! Yes, I should've made this more clear :) but we've already promised xkcd
book profits to Room to Read (it says so on the copyleft page of each book).

2 years ago when I started breadpig, I had ambitions for a vague 'breadpig
prize' -- what your proposing is a much more concrete idea. It's great and I
think you're absolutely right on with this (and would love to have your help
in the near future, if you're up for it). I'm officially retired from reddit,
tho, so there'll probably be no blog.reddit takeover ;)

But I do like this idea. I'm proud to be one of the AwesomeFoundation
trustees; the org itself is nothing short of awesome:
<http://awesomefoundation.org/>

Creating something with a more 'help the world' bent would be great,
especially if it's software-based. To even play a small part in starting the
next Ushahidi...

~~~
chime
I'm totally up for this. AwesomeFoundation could be the main host for the
prize and you can probably have additional sponsors for each idea, maybe in a
different field each (health, farming, education etc.) Give me a shout out
whenever you are ready.

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MikeCapone
I can't vote because I have no idea which of these countries needs the help
more and where the dollars would have the biggest marginal utility (maybe it's
time to go check GapMinder.org?), but I just want to say that I'm glad they're
doing this, and access to education is a great way to change some lives for
the better.

~~~
kn0thing
And sell more books - that's the real reason breadpig puts profits into
nonprofits related to the product. Higher literacy rates means more potential
book buyers. It's quite sinister, really.

We did the same thing with LOLmagnetz (for the SF SPCA) so that more dogs &
cats get adopted, creating more dog & cat owners and thus more potential
LOLmagnetz buyers.

~~~
rms
I don't believe that you are actually sinister here. I think it's more like
you are claiming to be sinister because the process of narrowing down which
specific charity to support out of the vast array of needy charities just
feels evil.

Literacy is a good cause. If I was in your position, it would be hard for me
to pick a specific cause like literacy over saving the most human lives per
dollar.

Out of all the developing country education charities, Givewell rates Pratham
highest. <http://www.givewell.net/international/charities/pratham> Have you
considered them for the next Breadpig book project?

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pavs
Reddit search...

Ok, I am just kidding :). Its hard to vote on donations like this because I am
sure they could all use some help, so I only voted for the countries and
causes I am more aware of.

~~~
kn0thing
I keep telling people: we're open-source :) please consider that an open
invitation to fix our search.

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kashif
<http://kiva.org>

Your money will make more money and grow.

~~~
kn0thing
I just finished a 3month kiva fellowship :) so I can assure you that your kiva
loans do not generate interest for you. You will (in most cases, if the loan
is repaid in full) at best get all of your loan back, which you can then
reloan, donate to kiva, or withdraw. It's still a great nonprofit, but I
should've made it more clear that we've already promised publisher profits to
Room to Read, we just need to decide where in the world to build.

~~~
kashif
Great :)

------
blumer
Two words: Raptor Awareness

~~~
kn0thing
You can never be too safe. All xkcd-book-built-buildings will have raptor
emergency escape plans installed in conspicuous parts of each room, of course.

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gte910h
Old age/metabolic dmg reseach: benefits 99% of all humans on earth.

~~~
jodrellblank
Benefits some of the humans on earth who are still alive and can afford it at
the time it becomes working and widely available.

If you mean people on Earth right now... at a death rate of around 150,000
people per day, assuming 7 billions alive right now, that gives about 500 days
before 1% of the population dies, and it needs to benefit everyone else.

Death rate citation: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mortality_rate>

~~~
gte910h
Benefits 99% of humanity, as opposed to any other disease which benefits only
that one.

~~~
jodrellblank
Benefits only those who live long enough to suffer age related problems, and I
doubt that's 99% of all humans born.

~~~
gte910h
"99% of all ________" is an idiom. I'm sure your nitpick is factually correct
in the small. I doubt we'll ever get infant mortality down that low. However,
you do get the "Comic book guy" award for picking apart an argument on a
completely inconsequential detail.

However, the point is _MOST EVERYONE_ dies from something that's a result of
getting older, and they'll benefit from age related research.

Most cancers even can't actually progress until older ages, as younger
peoples' immune systems are so much better they typically fight off the
disease.

Here's a pretty good TED talk on it.
[http://www.ted.com/talks/aubrey_de_grey_says_we_can_avoid_ag...](http://www.ted.com/talks/aubrey_de_grey_says_we_can_avoid_aging.html)

~~~
jodrellblank
If the measure is "donate to the cause that will benefit the most people"
(which the inclusion of "will benefit 99% of people" suggests it is) then
pulling apart "how many people will benefit" is hardly a nitpick of a
completely inconsequential detail - it's a rebuke of _the main_ detail.

For all de Grey's antiaging speculation, Dean Kamen's external combustion
water purifier has the potential to benefit poor people who die young _this
year_ , not rich people who live a long time 25+ years from now. On the "where
should we donate money _now_ " question, de Grey's ideas are very distant with
no clear paths to their realization.

And if you include speculative future technologies then Eliezer Yudkowsky's
arguments for pushing AI development seem fundamentally more compelling than
de Grey's argument for pushing antiaging research. Not that I can ever find
specific Eliezer writings when I want to link to them :/

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mkramlich
My immediate thought was to hire a band of ninja to appear at every XKCD
speaking appearance.

------
robg
<http://roomtoread.org>

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daniel-cussen
Do nerd solidarity.

------
27182818284
Scholarships.

~~~
apsec112
I don't think these work very well, in general. What colleges tend to do is
look at their student body, observe "Hey! A lot of them are getting big
scholarships, so if we raise tuition, they can afford it", and then raise
tuition.

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mschaecher
EFF

------
puredemo
Freedom From Religion Foundation

<http://www.ffrf.org/>

