I'm not anti-social; I'm just not user friendly
// January 23rd, 2010 // No Comments » // Entertainment, Make a Difference, Music, World
Bono, Edge, Jay-Z and Rhianna performing Stranded (Haiti Mon Amour) live at “Hope for Haiti Now: A Global Benefit for Earthquake Relief,” hosted by George Clooney, Wyclef Jean, and Anderson Cooper to raise funds for earthquake relief. Too bad Bono’s microphone volume was too low during chorus.
// July 27th, 2008 // No Comments » // Make a Difference, World
Randy Pausch (Oct. 23, 1960 – July 25, 2008) was a well-known Computer Science and Human-Computer Interaction?(Alice.org) professor at Carnegie Mellon (CMU) who gave his (now famous) “Last Lecture” at CMU on September 18, 2007.?The?”Last Lecture” was an ongoing series of lectures where top academics?were asked to think deeply about what matters to them, and then give a hypothetical “final talk” (i.e. what wisdom would you try to impart to the world if you knew it was your last chance). Sadly, this was truly Pausch’s “last lecture” as as he was terminally ill with pancreatic cancer and given 3-6 months of “good health” by his doctors. In?the ?moving presentation, “Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams,” Pausch talked about his lessons learned and gave advice to students on how to achieve their own career and personal goals. Long video (75 minutes) but worth the time.
// May 9th, 2008 // No Comments » // Make a Difference, World
I first heard of Kiva when a Senior Leader at work mentioned it in a weekly update. Kiva is a non-profit organization founded in 2005 by two Stanford graduates with the design and purpose of allowing people like you and I to lend to specific entrepreneurs (that you select based on their profile) in the developing world. The key concept with Kiva is that your money is truly an investment which will be repaid to you, rather than a typical charitable donation. When your loan is repaid, you can choose to invest in another entrepreneur or pocket your money.
From Wikipedia; “Kiva allows microfinance institutions around the world, called “Field Partners”, to post profiles of qualified local entrepreneurs on its website. Lenders browse and choose an entrepreneur they wish to fund. Kiva aggregates loan capital from individual lenders and transfers it to the appropriate Field Partners to disburse and administer. As the entrepreneurs repay their loans, the Field Partners remit funds back to Kiva. Once a loan is fully repaid, the Kiva lenders can withdraw their principal or re-loan it to another entrepreneur…Kiva claims that its borrowers have a historical repayment rate of about 99.7%- 99.9%.”
Great way to make a significant contribution to the global community for minimal cost and effort.
