homehome Home chatchat Notifications


What YOU can do to help Haiti

As you probably know, a 7.0 earthquake struck Haiti, basically destroying the country. The situation there was extremely bad even before, but now hospitals are down, there’s no water and no food for a very big part of the population and no way to receive medical treatment; it’s estimated that there are between 100.000 and […]

Mihai Andrei
January 14, 2010 @ 9:55 am

share Share

As you probably know, a 7.0 earthquake struck Haiti, basically destroying the country. The situation there was extremely bad even before, but now hospitals are down, there’s no water and no food for a very big part of the population and no way to receive medical treatment; it’s estimated that there are between 100.000 and 500.000 deaths. I will NOT go into further details (which you can find here), I won’t post any heartbreaking photos (unbelievable ones here), and won’t post videos (one here); if you want more, you should just google it, you won’t get it from me. WHY ? Because just knowing doesn’t change anything.

Instead, I’m gonna tell you what you can do to help, which is what you should do; or at least what I know.

  • Pick up your phone and text. “HAITI” to 90999 to donate $10 to the Red Cross, or “YELE” to 501501 to donate $5 to Yele Haiti (Wyclef Jean’s foundation). This is probably the easiest and most useful thing you can do.
  • Even if you don’t have money, you can help just as much (if not more). If you live in a big city, there’s probably a place where people can donate clothes, food or medicine that will go in Haiti. If you don’t, you can just gather some people, friends and such, make a big package and send it. I’m not really sure how fast it will get there, and you might want to avoid sending food if it takes too long. Just ask the local post office, they’ll explain.
  • Donate more! C’mon, I know some of you are in the full half, and nobody got poor by giving. The Red Cross (as pretty much always) mobilized to help; you can donate via their website, so you don’t have to text more messages.
  • If you live near Haiti, or know any people that do, you really need to look at this tracking form !
  • That’s about all I was able to find out. You can still help, no matter when you read this! Just don’t let it get by. If you don’t believe me, just listen to Letterman.

    share Share

    The Real Singularity: AI Memes Are Now Funnier, On Average, Than Human Ones

    People still make the funniest memes but AI is catching up fast.

    Fish Feel Intense Pain For 20 Minutes After Catch — So Why Are We Letting Them Suffocate?

    Brutal and mostly invisible, the way we kill fish involves prolonged suffering.

    Scientists Invented a Way to Store Data in Plastic Molecules and It Could Someday Replace Hard Drives

    What if your next hard drive wasn’t a box, but a string of molecules? Synthetic polymers promises to revolutionize data storage.

    A Lawyer Put a Cartoon Dragon Watermark on Every Page of a Court Filing and The Judge Was Not Amused

    A Michigan judge rebukes lawyer for filing documents with cartoon dragon watermark

    Japan 3D printed a train station. It only took 6 hours

    Japan shows the world that 3D printing can save aging infrastructure even with limited labor and money.

    We Don’t Know How AI Works. Anthropic Wants to Build an "MRI" to Find Out

    A leading AI lab says we must decode models before they decode us

    The world is facing a rising dementia crisis. The worst is in China

    As the world ages, high blood sugar has emerged as a leading risk factor in developing dementia.

    “How Fat Is Kim Jong Un?” Is Now a Cybersecurity Test

    North Korean IT operatives are gaming the global job market. This simple question has them beat.

    A New Type of Rock Is Forming — and It's Made of Our Trash

    At a beach in England, soda tabs, zippers, and plastic waste are turning into rock before our eyes.

    Meet the Indian Teen Who Can Add 100 Numbers in 30 Second and Broke 6 Guinness World Records for Mental Math

    The Indian teenager is officially the world's fastest "human calculator".