RE: Re: OT: SETI

["Mark Hetherington" <mark.egroups@xxxxxxx>]

Mark Harrison wrote:
> I, on the other hand had taken Tim's statement to mean "in case
anyone
> cares to join that particular team" and responded "It looks
like at
> least 21 of us care ".
>
> I hadn't meant that as an attack on people who didn't join the team.
I
> doubt that Tim did, either!
>
> Interesting how different people read different things into
different
> lines, eh?

I had assumed your use of "care" as purely a response to Tim's
original
reference to "care".

I do feel there was a little frustration behind Tim's post on the setup
of
the group due to the lack of "to join" after "in case anyone
cares". Tim's
original comment could easily have been taken as a form of
"emotional
blackmail" or resignation to failure or some other form of coercion
while
adding the phrase to join would have altered the context of the word
care
completely. It could of course just be Tim's way of writing so personally
I
ignored the potential negative side.

I read "at least 21 of us care" as you suggesting that the group
did care
and this was partially demonstrated by the level of signup. I suspect
that
this was a subconscious demonstration of support to ease Tim's
frustration.

Both statements have sufficient "controversy" for people to take
them the
wrong way or out of context. I don't think it is merely much a case of
people reading different things from the same statement, but people
reading
in a particular frame of mind. We all have ups and downs and it is
sometimes
difficult in an email to accurately reflect our meanings since we are
unable
to rely on the body language and expressions that we are used to using
IRL.

I thought that the statistic was currently running at 1 in 3 rather than
1
in 4 and that the statistic was largely "affected by cancer"
rather than
actually "contracting it". This at least appears to be the view
of the major
charities. UD are of course a US based company so the figures may
differ
slightly there.

As for donations. I have for a number of years now donated to various
charities including cancer research ones. Unfortunately, there seems to be
a
tendency for charities to "sell" on their list of contributors
and I must
receive donation requests for every cancer charity in the country and
various other medical charity requests. My other main area of donation
is
animal protection which has led to a similar deluge. I have various
direct
debits in place and every few months will send cheques to some
organisations, but I have to ignore most of the requests since I would
be
working just to cover my charity donations and need a second job for
ordinary bills :)

It can be difficult to say no to a charity supporting a worthwhile cause
but
is worth being aware of beforehand if you donate using a method that is
anything but completely anonymous. If you do donate anonymously, make
sure
this is not done for a large cash donation due to the recent changes in
money laundering regulations.

For those that cannot afford a donation (however small) most charities
offer
other ways for you to get involved. Selling raffle tickets, posting
leaflets
and surveys in the local area and arranging or helping out with their
events.

If you get a survey from a charity, (direct mail or hand delivered) fill
it
in and send it back. You can choose to remain anonymous, they are in
this
case primarily interested in your answers. They can't afford real
market
research, so this is their way of staying in touch with various things.
If
you supply your name and address, they will then ask if you can help
them
financially, but they do appreciate the feedback from surveys even if it
is
anonymous.

For postal donations, spring for the postage (even though many offer a
freepost address, you just cost them postage by using it so just use
second
class if you like) and tick the gift aid box so they can get the tax
back
>from
moment but for larger contributions I am pretty sure you can register
this
yourself to get the top rate of relief if you are in the higher tax
band.

I am probably preaching to the choir there, but some people I talked to
have
not been aware of things like postage impact and Gift Aid relief so
while
writing this, thought it worth bringing up :)

UD, if nothing else does offer a way to assist at least one form of
cancer
research. It costs nothing in either time or money.

I have not reviewed their IP agreement since I have not discovered the
link
to it. Since at least some of the group had the agreement, if you fancy
posting it (or emailing directly) I would like to review it. The
concerns
over the IP agreement appear to revolve around the use of patents
against
any drug developed from this research. Every drug in use today is subject
to
patents (excepting of course where they have expired) so this is not a
great
concern. Although such a drug would be extremely valuable, a patent
would
not allow the owner to exploit it as much as would be possible without
the
controls in place in the world today.

Mark.

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