Texting to Help In Haiti

First Lady Michelle Obama encourages text message donations to the American Red Cross. Text HAITI to 90999 to make a $10 donation.

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Carnival of the Green #206

Daily Mitzvah is delighted to host this week’s installment of the Tree Hugger Carnival of the Green. A big thank you to last week’s host, Pragmatic Environmentalism. And you’ll definitely want to check out the carnival’s next stop, Lighter Footstep, on December 21.

Let the carnival begin!

Want to see your climate question answered live on television? Earth PM has the details in “COP 15: Let your voice be heard.”

Fake Plastic Fish is offering a plastic-free lip balm and body cream giveaway. As a bonus, the containers are compostable. Check it out!

Other blogs are embracing gender roles this week. For the boys: Guffly has green gifts for the men on your list, including my faves the upcycled Lego® cufflinks, as well as vegan sneakers, old-timey razor kits, and more. And for the young ladies: Go Green Street has tips on eco-friendly nursery decorating for a baby girl.

After you finish the nursery, Home Addition Plus has ideas for Inexpensive Green Home Improvements. And while we’re focusing on a happy home, Pragmatic Environmentalism offers useful advice for How to Preserve Your Laptop Battery

For those who are paring down, The Digerati Life reminds readers that they can donate older cars for a tax deduction

For those of a more theoretical bent, Project Earth offers thoughts on the connections between psychology, human behavior, and environmentalism.

And What Green Investments muses on climate and language

Last but not least, here is our Best Green Tweet of the week:

• @SallyKneidel tweets about the Irvine, CA, school system’s plans to go solar
  

(Gang, we need more Twitter action! Interested in submitting your own tweets to Carnival of the Green? Learn more here.)


Thank you for visiting. Don't forget to stop by Lighter Footstep next week for the next installment of Carnival of the Green!

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International Literacy Day

September 8th has been designated by UNESCO as International Literacy Day. Do you part with an easy start: for every click on the orange box on The Literacy Site, site sponsors make a small donation to support literacy efforts, including First Book in the U.S., and Room to Read in developing countries. All you have to do is click!

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Pandemic Pupils: Resources for Instructors

Like most campuses we’re bracing for H1N1, with daily messages about pandemic contingency plans. I’ve been looking through my favorite online resources for things that could also be handy in the unlikely event we have to cancel in-person classes for a few weeks and switch to virtual classroom instruction. Here’s a rundown of my faves — all free!:

Group Chat – chatrooms to hold small class discussions
URL-based, “disposable” (temporary) chatrooms
* Tiny Chat: http://tinychat.com/
* Disposable Chat: http://www.disposablechat.com/
URL or embeddable
* Chatroll: http://chatroll.com/
Embeddable
* Parachat: http://www.parachat.com/basic/

Instant Message – IM for office hours in real time
* Yahoo!Messenger (desktop app, but also has a web-based option; and an embeddable Pingbox): http://messenger.yahoo.com/
* AIM (desktop app, but also has a web-based option): http://www.aim.com
* GoogleTalk (desktop app, or talk within Gmail page): http://www.google.com/talk/
* Meebo (web-based, embeddable): http://www.meebo.com

Other – to create short presentations or mini-lectures
* Video screencast: Jing http://www.jingproject.com/
* Audio recording and editing: Audacity http://audacity.sourceforge.net/
* Video hosting: TeacherTube: http://www.teachertube.com/
* Sharable online documents, spreadsheets, presentations: GoogleDocs http://docs.google.com/
* And of course a class blog, right here on Blogspot!: http://www.blogger.com

If anyone else has resources for online classes or ideas for creative ways to keep some semblance of school going in the unlikely event we can't go to campus, please don’t hesitate to share in the comments!

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Huricane Season

Here’s an animated radar loop, which is focused mostly on TS Claudette at the moment, although it looks like Ada may show up here soon, too. I also put a Weather Underground feed in the right sidebar — their site has great tracking maps and five-day projections, too. Welcome to late summer!

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Ask Google Earth to Upload Iran Photos

Student protesters in Iran are getting news out only by the power of the web. Google Earth has tools to show the world the people in the streets — join the petition drive to have Google earth upload current images.

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Secret Tips for Saving Gas

A few small tips — including a trick involving turning the nozzle upside down to get an extra half cup of gas.

With thanks to Mom Go Green for the link!

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National Train Day: May 9

Yep, today is National Train Day! Check it out here.

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Help Your Mail Carrier Stamp Out Hunger

The National Association of Letter Carriers is holding its annual “Stamp Out Hunger” food drive this Saturday, May 9th. Participating is easy — this is a food drive that comes to you! Just leave your nonperishable food donations in a bag next to your mailbox. You mail carrier will happily do the rest.

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World Malaria Day: April 25

Got 5 bucks? That’s all it takes to contribute a malaria-fighting bed net for a person in a vulnerable country. April 25 is World Malaria Day — a perfect day to head over to MyBednet.com, give $5, and add yourself to their Honor Roll. Check it out!

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