Atom's Thoughts

Jimmy Kimmel Goes At Leno

// January 15th, 2010 // Comments Off // Thoughts

Saturday Night Live – Digital Short: I’m On A Boat *Uncensored – Video

// January 15th, 2010 // Comments Off // Thoughts

David Letterman – Dave Discusses Conan, Leno & NBC

// January 14th, 2010 // Comments Off // Thoughts

CL!CK: A LEGO Short Film

// January 14th, 2010 // Comments Off // Thoughts

Bill Maher On Ending Abusive Relationships – With Your Bank

// January 14th, 2010 // Comments Off // Thoughts

Made me laugh: GIRL GETS SILENCED Playstation 3 Singstar Ad

// January 14th, 2010 // Comments Off // Thoughts

Pants on the ground

// January 14th, 2010 // Comments Off // Thoughts

Parks & Recreation is the Wu-Tang Clan

// January 14th, 2010 // Comments Off // Thoughts

Haiti Disaster: Real Talk (I didn’t write this but it makes an interesting point)

// January 14th, 2010 // Comments Off // Thoughts

A couple of comments on the unbelievable devastation and human suffering in Haiti — there are few countries in the world that are less ready to deal with a crisis of this level. Haiti is the poorest country in the hemisphere (the average income is around $2 a day) , and has next to zero infrastructure for dealing with day-to-day life, much less a situation where there is no electricity, no safe water, little to no food, no hospitals, no gasoline, hardly any telephone service, and there are upwards of 100,000 injured to help. Folks, I hate to say this, but the situation is going to get worse over the next two weeks. When the total infrastructure of a region breaks down and the people have no way to travel to areas WITH resources, a catastrophe like this will quickly deteriorate. I don’t have to spell it out for you. Thousands of unburiable dead plus hundreds of thousands injured plus no food plus no water = a situation that you and I quite simply can not imagine. If you pray, I would suggest doing so. Regardless of your perspective on faith, you CAN do a thing or two. This brings me to point number two, which is Helping.At this moment, canned food drives, clothing drives, blanket drives, collecting bottled water, are all fairly pointless. Remember — total breakdown of infrastructure. Anything physical that YOU can purchase or donate has to then get to Haiti (flown in to the one working runway at the one airport) or shipped by sea (takes time, even from Miami, and then has to be offloaded at the not-very-functioning port). Also: if you receive an email, or see a link on a page asking you to donate, be VERY VERY VERY cautious. It is the sad truth that the scammers crawl like roaches out from the floorboards after disasters, and prey on compassion. Also, there has been a mobilization of the National Guard and the UN to send relief workers. Some very well-meaning folks have been talking about going down there to assist in relief efforts. Unless you are someone who is specially trained in working under the conditions likely to exist, and you are "in the system" as such a worker, you 1) really, really shouldn’t even consider going, and 2) you probably won’t be allowed to go if you try. Haiti has been under a State Department Travel Warning for years. There are endemic diseases there that we don’t have here, that WILL KILL YOU, especially without any hospitals. Your health insurance WILL NOT WORK THERE — I guarantee that if you’re insured and you file a claim from Haiti after intentionally traveling to Haiti, your insurance will decline you, and unless you’re working as a member of a recognized, funded relief/rescue group, if you do get hurt/sick, flying you back to the US in an Air Ambulance will set you back around $10,000 just for the flight. OK?So what CAN you do? The US State Department has suggested donating to the Red Cross. Their website (www.state.gov) has the following information listed:To help with relief efforts, text “HAITI” to “90999&” and $10 will be given automatically to the Red Cross, charged to your cell phone bill. Or visit InterAction to contribute. If your own church, club, or other organization is interested in raising money for a relief organization that isn’t the Red Cross, unless you are personally familiar with the relief org and have evidence that the VAST majority of donations go directly to those in need, please visit www.give.org. That’s the Better Business Bureau’s website for charitable organizations. Most charities are listed there, along with information about how much of the money you donate goes to the suffering, and how much of the money is paid to the fundraisers or to the people who run the charity. Many “legitimate” charities which are registered as such by the state spend as much as 90% of the money you give on salaries, and only give 10% to the needy. You don’t want to give to them.If you can’t handle the $10, but still want to help, call the Red Cross or another trustworthy charity and ASK THEM what you can do. Explain that a monetary gift isn’t in your budget, but you want to do something. They can probably figure out something for you.Remember, this one’s going to take a huge multinational effort, and the US is uniquely situated in terms of economic power and location to be a major contributor. We need to help, and more importantly, we need to help effectively.

This will be a hit soon. One More Day Music Video – Matisyahu & Akon

// January 14th, 2010 // Comments Off // Thoughts