Copy-Editing Is Your Friend

While the news of the devastating quake in S-E Asia is horrible and so sad, I have to say that I did get a giggle out of this one snippet from a CNN article:

Some of the tsunamis reached as far as 1,600 kilometers (91,000 miles)

Someone needs to either watch their typos, or redo their conversions, because at 91,000 miles, that tsunami would have been around the planet a good couple of times...

(http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/asiapcf/12/26/asia.quake/index.html)

Oxfam

I just noticed something interesting. In the wake of this earthquake and the tsunamis and such, silverthoughts had links up to some charities, including Oxfam. Now I'm no stranger to their name, especially not as they've been an institution that I've known of since before I was even old enough understand what they actually did, but I hadn't actually been on their site before. I just noticed that you can donate in memory of someone, and they'll also send a card to the person you're remembering, or their family. They also have the options for donating in name of someone's birthday or the holidays and other such things.

In my case I'm considering donating in the name of Merijn, the family friend who died tragically earlier this year. It would be a nice way of being able to give aid to people who need it desperately, as well as add a personal touch to it too. You can even pick where you want the money to go... from wherever it's needed most, which right now would likely be south east Asia to projects in Ethiopia, Sudan, Haiti, Southern Africa etc.

Not that one needs an additional reason to donate to a worthy cause, but something just struck me about the fact that you can dedicate it to a person's memory.