Re: 8/15/14 WDT NSFW so it is official every other post on my facebook is the ice bucket challenge. i am becoming more apathetic to als by the hour. bill burr pointed out on his podcast this week this might open the floodgates for every other affliction that has a charity behind it to push their own super marketed viral donation drive. i'd like to start the "show us your fucking tits" challenge for this year's breast cancer awareness month. "i challenge you angelina jolie to show us your newly refabricated ta ta's! 100 bucks from me on it if you do."
Re: 8/15/14 WDT NSFW considering they went from raising zip code money to raising double digit millions for their cause i'm more or less willing to give them a pass. then again i don't know anyone doing it and have mostly just seen the hockey players (and bill gates) doing it
Re: 8/15/14 WDT NSFW i really want to start the 16lb sledgehammers for traumatic brain injuries drive. if done correctly, raise money in awareness and eliminate the lemmings in one go.
Re: 8/15/14 WDT NSFW much more tedious than the ice bucket challenge videos are the links to pompous screeds about how it doesn't actually raise money or awareness, and the links to smug responses that it is actually raising a lot of money, and then the links to the even more pompous screeds about how all that money being raised for als is actually taking away money from other charities because people are only capable of giving money once in their life and once they've done this one good deed they will feel justified in stealing or some other stupid moral psychology bullshit.
The boob challenge. is the fact that they're all posted on facebook, instagram, vine, etc where there is a no nudity policy. i think websites would generate a lot more traffic with topless girl ice bucket challenges. i googled to see if there were any, and this one came up: NSFW i thought it was funny that it's titled ". . . in a club" - that looks like some dude's basement. i also think it's funny that backwards hat guy looks at her boobs as she turns around, and then jots down a few notes. "hmm, that reminds me, i need to get milk on the way home." you don't see the actual ice bucket dumping, so maybe she's just getting a head start on kubla's idea.
Re: 8/15/14 WDT NSFW this is the new general reaction to everything and why i hate all new viral trends. ever. except my "show us your tits" viral campaign for breast cancer.
Re: 8/15/14 WDT NSFW here's my sticking point with the ice bucket thing; if i'm supposed to go through with this, because it's for charity, it seems like there's more effort in promotion than in the actual donation. no one's gonna argue against donating to als, but i was always raised that the true definition of charity is that it's anonymous. this feels like the philanthropic version of candy-crush invites.
Re: 8/15/14 WDT NSFW but its awareness. its up there with alzheimers and cancer as one of the most dastardly of diseases, but i would imagine alot of people don't really know about it. especially a younger generation where even calling it lou gehrig's disease would be met with a blank stare. so in addition to donations, if it raises awareness going forward, even superficially at first, that helps. people just like to gripe cause its en vogue to bitch about every new viral trend. that's not to say that all of these are great. some are clearly attention-whoring and have no mention of als, and those people can fuck off.
Re: 8/15/14 WDT NSFW here's the thing: who gives a shit? when it comes to raising money for charity or disease research, results are more important than process. the only reason this particular viral trend works is because people get to make it about themselves. people who anonymously donate to charity will continue to do so, but those people were already donating. what this does is allow a bunch of people to feed their need for validation on social media by posting something of themselves, about themselves, and getting a bunch of likes and comments on it. that's why it went viral in the first place. lots of people (including myself) are mostly taking it as a joke and participating because it's somewhat entertaining for friends, but that wouldn't be enough - it's that self-involved social media validation that really keeps it going. so who cares if some people are making it about themselves? is this really that different from me participating in a charity bike ride and asking people to sponsor? that's kind of about me and it's not anonymous. "look at me, i'm riding a bike for charity!" there's just no scenario where i care if some narcissistic guy wants to use this as an excuse to post a video with his shirt off, if it results in a few bucks being thrown at a good cause.
Re: 8/15/14 WDT NSFW yes. i agree with this. why do you care what it's about if the result is a net positive? who does it hurt?
Re: 8/15/14 WDT NSFW i'm not saying you're necessarily wrong, but at least with this ice bucket challenge thing, the people that are donating are typically donating directly to the groups and foundations that are either doing the research themselves, or distributing all, if not most of their donations to research groups; whereas almost all of the pink ribbon stuff actually contributes little to no money to cancer research of any kind.
Re: 8/15/14 WDT NSFW yea, this whole fad isn't really contributing that much to als research. as of yesterday, donations were at the $23million mark. in the scope of research, thats hardly a drop in the bucket. between the billionaires and millionaires participating, only 23 million has been raised, kind of rings hollow. if people really cared about als they'd volunteer in a hospice. the money raised most likely won't do a thing to contribute to the qol of those people suffering als, it likely won't make a difference in the research. however, going to a hospice, spending time with someone who is suffering will make a difference. in a way this reminds me of when my brother got sick, everyone was there and excited to help in the beginning, but give it time and people will get bored and move on to other shinier things. unfortunately for people with als, their disease will not get bored and move on, they'll continue to suffer the horrible effects of this devastating disease.
Re: 8/15/14 WDT NSFW i could not disagree more. spending time with someone who is suffering is a very nice thing to do, and may help an individual or two. but, 23 million dollars will absolutely help with research. curing, or at a minimum making als more treatable, will help far more people than one or two at the hospice.
Re: 8/15/14 WDT NSFW bwahahaha. an additional $20 million into research - a net increase in donations by an order of magnitude (source) - isn't contributing to research? did you freeze your brain while attempting the challenge? they raised their entire previous year's expenses in less than a month (source). no, you're right. fuck the donations. they're worthless. just because it's also a good thing to volunteer, doesn't mean it's a bad thing to donate money.
Re: 8/15/14 WDT NSFW ok, clearly you have no idea how much it cost to fund a single lab which works on a single thing. and clearly you have no idea how much money it takes to effect actual research. look into it, research is incredibly expensive. 23 mil may pay for one lab working on one specific thing. it won't make a difference. for big pharma to produce a single new drug, the total sunk cost is anywhere between 4-6 billion, 23 million is a drop in the bucket, i'm sorry. i think you guys are actually being incredibly naive about this. not saying the money is empty, but its simply not enough to actually effect any research. my dad does research for a big company, and i'm sorry, while its a nice gesture, 23 million isn't that much. look into it.
Re: 8/15/14 WDT NSFW the entire als foundation research budget was 7.2 million last year. i don't know what else to say.
Re: 8/15/14 WDT NSFW cool, so the als foundation got a boost, but you can't and won't make a new drug on 23 million. to make a new drug you need a lot of smart people working on something for decades with the hope that maybe they get lucky and their idea works and then the drug can be effective and safe. the entire research, process is incredibly costly, never mind developing a drug than taking it through clinical trials. remember, 4-6 billion to develop a drug right now. its shocking that people think making a new drug is so relatively simple.
Re: 8/15/14 WDT NSFW okay, so everyone pack it up and go home. we didn't raise enough to fix all the world's problems so it's time to quit and move on. let's all volunteer at the hospices rather than making an effort to keep people out of them. non-profit research is not typically targeted around new drugs. the drug companies will pay for research and investment into drugs - that's not the problem. the problem is nobody knows how als works yet, and that's what non-profit research is targeted towards.