Ice Bucket Challenge
- Thread starter Kerplunk
- Start date
Soldato
- Joined
- 11 May 2007
- Posts
- 9,204
- Location
- Surrey
Charity or attention seeking? I can't tell.
Completely agree. I was nominated by my little sister and knew it would eventually hit me. I will donate, as I know my sister will have and those I nominate as well.
However many of you are correct, lots of people are doing it for the "likes" rather than to donate. I know for a fact several of the ones on my wifes feed will not have donated. I dont agree with that side of it.
The fact it has raised 10x the last years donation means it works, whether you agree with it or not.
Soldato
- Joined
- 21 Mar 2013
- Posts
- 3,032
- Location
- Lincolnshire
just been nominated, thought i'd got away with it. Will do it and donate
Man of Honour
- Joined
- 29 Mar 2003
- Posts
- 57,681
- Location
- Stoke on Trent
Same here but as long as everybody is donating then it can't be a bad thing.
Caporegime
- Joined
- 18 Oct 2002
- Posts
- 33,188
People are stupid and jump on bandwagons. The massive majority I've seen don't or barely mention charity.
More importantly is you can't just throw money at research or a charity and expect results.
The charity both doesn't give an awful lot to research, but that is also being heavily misrepresented. They have 50 or something regional centres that run classes, help people with ALS in the community and offer support. I can't say(because there isn't a lot of information on specifics) how useful these centres are but managing people with ALS would generally speaking cost more than researching.
There isn't unlimited researchers out there, and someone has to have an idea what to look for, an avenue to go down that might help.
This is where the Ice Bucket challenge is wrong. They've spent circa $30mil a year or so on research and running the centres. Just because there is more money doesn't mean there is more people actually with an idea how or what to research.
The ALS foundation has gotten enough money to run for two years, or enough money to fund the research they fund for a decade. Switch to another charity that needs money to fund research. There are thousands of horrible diseases that hurt people, ALS is "done", they can triple funding overnight and have enough to keep that going for 5 years, another equally horrible disease will likely now be struggling.
Because don't forget, most people will have donated $5-100 on ALS INSTEAD OF who they usually donate to. There will be some extra for sure, but a lot of people give to the most vocal charity, that is why ALS spends $10mil a year in advertising/promoting/charity events to get donations(three times what they spend in research btw).
ALS is safe, it's secure, it's got more than enough cash to do what they currently do for a donkeys years. That doesn't mean never donate again but, other charities will have people looking for funding for research... should we give $300mil to ALS for $10mil to go out a year, or actually give some money to other charities to get other research done now?
It's also worth remembering that cures and fantastic breakthroughs frequently come from research into completely non related subjects, penicillin, etc. It could be that a piece of research done into parkinson's disease ends up not curing parkinson's but ALS.
Spread the money around, and tell everyone you know that ALS has more than enough and to pick other charities that don't have enough cash.
Pretty much all the "locked in" type syndromes, be that intact brain locked into a body you can't move or control or the other way around, body is pretty much fine but mind is gone, all of them are horrific diseases. Donate to any/all of them.
More importantly is you can't just throw money at research or a charity and expect results.
The charity both doesn't give an awful lot to research, but that is also being heavily misrepresented. They have 50 or something regional centres that run classes, help people with ALS in the community and offer support. I can't say(because there isn't a lot of information on specifics) how useful these centres are but managing people with ALS would generally speaking cost more than researching.
There isn't unlimited researchers out there, and someone has to have an idea what to look for, an avenue to go down that might help.
This is where the Ice Bucket challenge is wrong. They've spent circa $30mil a year or so on research and running the centres. Just because there is more money doesn't mean there is more people actually with an idea how or what to research.
The ALS foundation has gotten enough money to run for two years, or enough money to fund the research they fund for a decade. Switch to another charity that needs money to fund research. There are thousands of horrible diseases that hurt people, ALS is "done", they can triple funding overnight and have enough to keep that going for 5 years, another equally horrible disease will likely now be struggling.
Because don't forget, most people will have donated $5-100 on ALS INSTEAD OF who they usually donate to. There will be some extra for sure, but a lot of people give to the most vocal charity, that is why ALS spends $10mil a year in advertising/promoting/charity events to get donations(three times what they spend in research btw).
ALS is safe, it's secure, it's got more than enough cash to do what they currently do for a donkeys years. That doesn't mean never donate again but, other charities will have people looking for funding for research... should we give $300mil to ALS for $10mil to go out a year, or actually give some money to other charities to get other research done now?
It's also worth remembering that cures and fantastic breakthroughs frequently come from research into completely non related subjects, penicillin, etc. It could be that a piece of research done into parkinson's disease ends up not curing parkinson's but ALS.
Spread the money around, and tell everyone you know that ALS has more than enough and to pick other charities that don't have enough cash.
Pretty much all the "locked in" type syndromes, be that intact brain locked into a body you can't move or control or the other way around, body is pretty much fine but mind is gone, all of them are horrific diseases. Donate to any/all of them.
Last edited:
The fact that anyone needs pushed to donate, is a picture in itself.
It is infinitely more useful for people to become scientists themselves, low and behold...we have a shortage. Throwing money at things just means someone is making pocket out of it in some way or another.
We need more scientists, not inefficient use of resources because someone has a nice advertising facade...God forbid this nations education system gets as bad as the States.
/cynicism
It is infinitely more useful for people to become scientists themselves, low and behold...we have a shortage. Throwing money at things just means someone is making pocket out of it in some way or another.
We need more scientists, not inefficient use of resources because someone has a nice advertising facade...God forbid this nations education system gets as bad as the States.
/cynicism
Caporegime
- Joined
- 18 Oct 2002
- Posts
- 33,188
Private education rules, why, because they don't change leadership every 4 years and aren't effected by political changes. They need to show results, but their results are on producing hard working well rounded intelligent kids who go on to get high paying jobs. If they stopped doing that rich people would stop sending their kids there.
Same for the states, private education and the best colleges/uni's blow most of the rest of the world away, but public services with politicians bickering over results and willing to sacrifice actually useful workers in the future for a half a percent increase in pass rates to win an election.... they have no chance.
If we stopped 80% of defence spending(if we stopped wanting to be involved in wars for instance that would help) and paid teachers double(at least) what they get, with only the best teachers getting paid a lot in a generation we'd have great teachers and in two we'd have great students as well.
Caporegime
- Joined
- 21 Nov 2005
- Posts
- 41,491
- Location
- Cornwall
Seems like a harmless bit of fun that's for a good cause as well as being a covert wet t-shirt contest which hot girls take part in without realising what they're doing. How can this not be good?
Link?
I was nominated but didn't bother doing it, why? The sight and thought of them ****es me off, because my entire Facebook feed is littered with them.
Having said that I did watch a funny one today, some poor Irish girl got drenched and then ran into a pole nigh on knocking herself out.....'av it!
Having said that I did watch a funny one today, some poor Irish girl got drenched and then ran into a pole nigh on knocking herself out.....'av it!
I thought the point of this was that if you were nominated you could do the bucket or donate to get yourself out of doing it, thus making more people donate? Everyone seems to be doing the former, very few paying attention to the latter....most videos i watch dont even mention ALS, raising awareness or donations.
Caporegime
- Joined
- 12 Mar 2009
- Posts
- 26,778
Most people on my friends list haven't even mentioned the charities involved, a select few have but they've been far outnumbered by the same sort of muppets who jumped on the Neknomination rubbish a few months back.
Caporegime
- Joined
- 18 Oct 2002
- Posts
- 33,188
Firstly, they have gotten more money than they can spend and are more likely to waste it not, and other charities need plenty of money also and with all of it going to ALS other charities are getting less.
Pretty much every major foundation for a disease will get dozens of applications for grants for research, some will be genuinely viable, some a complete waste, some would be nice to fund but they don't have money. But there is a limit to which avenues to go down. ALS has more than enough cash from current donations to fund the research for at least 5 years, while other charities need more cash to fund research.
IE there might be a really good research proposal for Parkinsons but no money to fund it currently while all the promising research for ALS is now funded and they'll either just sit on a stack of cash and/or start funding almost pointless research.
