Skeptic Project

Congratulations, that's really cool. Well, 400,000 people can't even start a petition it seems, but they can spread the word.

Muertos, that requires doing something other than posting on a forum, it's not going to happen.

you can get jacques signature for a few hundred dollars on his website.

I'm tired of these long ass emails about how TZM _will_ do better than other movements, because "spreading the word"* is only step 1. Yeah, well where's step 2?

* And also repeatedly reminding me that the movement and movies aren't the same and that Peter Joseph doesn't promote conspiracy theories.

It says a lot, Brenton, that this small action by you guys got more attention than the entire year that TZM has been around with its claim of 400 times as many members.

@Cap'n Ferseus

I've ben listening to same tired excuse for about 9 months plus now on their forum and more recently in PM's and messages to my blog.

Its sad they have to make excuses for their inaction.

They need to get their shit together and admit theyre useless and sort it out.

Come on, TZM has a clearly detailed plan:

1) Spread the word
2) ???
3) Machines do all your work and everything is free

I did volunteer work for a couple of years myself in the past, and whilst it didn't really change the world, it at least educated me in the finer points of how parts of it work. (It was a drug and alcohol related charity.)

Its one of the areas of crossover I have some agreement with on that charity is often not a very good solution in practice. (Much of the money gets wasted before it gets to the people that really need it..) And that bigger solutions are needed to make a big difference in peoples lives on a larger scale.

But by that I mean more to imagine a large scale type charity solution, but one that is self financing and doesn't run off donations..

All of this, that I had hoped would be part of the TZM package, but alas..

> 2) ???

There is their, produce a film, makes lots of money, build a research centre and showcase the technology part..

Which isn't necessarly a bad idea.. just I'd rather showcase included a real community to test the equipment with, as things often operate differently when you put joe public in front of it.. (They tend to break things..)

I would rather though people work together in practical solutions than just signing something to show support..

It reminds me of my estimate (Based on asking 100+ random folk what it cost them to go and visit/see/etc...) 1 to 2 million dollars spent by folk going to see Fresco/PJ/TZM meetings that could have been spent on something practical instead, which could then have generated money afterwards, which then could have been spent on even more practical things to help..

I'm a big fan of say microfinance sites to help the poor help themselves. (Its on my todo list to create one for the UK, as we don't have one here..)

Ayn Rand told me altruism is wrong, I better go burn all this money I was going to donate.

Its often hard to find out from charities/etc. just where the money went, as many are very secret about the finer details. (Having worked in charities/organisations myself and had a close look at where the money went, I was very shocked to see it wasted in so many ways. (£2k for a new carpet for the office of the guy in charge, thats a tad expensive for such a small room! and why try to hide that amount from folk!))

I would be interested to know where you got the common average figure of 15% from. (If I had to pluck a figure out of thin air myself, based on my own experiences and listening to others, I might say 75% to 95% of money collected disappeared along the route.)

I would be interested to hear in what way folk think the putting their name to something has had an effect compared to if they had not ? (Eg. has it made any real difference is what I want to know.)

I'm also having difficulty trying to find out just how, eg. what is planned to be done to improve things, I couldn't seem to find any specifices..

Ed, we weren't paid. And for those that are, well, they have to eat. I know people that work in the not-for-profit sector, and they live comfortable lives - but they're not on uber big corporate paychecks either.

They genuinely care.

Nanos, on the road trip we weren't collecting money. We were creating an initiative where the public could show their support for the government increasing the percent of GNI devoted to foreign aid (there is strong support for that here) - we did this by getting over 50,000 everyday Australians to sign onto the Act to End Poverty.

We also created links with businesses (e.g., their declaration of support for us) and politicians throughout the country.

Here's two things I'd suggest:

Oaktree's summary of the impact: http://theoaktree.org/blog/2010/06/02/make-poverty-history-roadtrip-our-impact/<br /> My recollection of the trip (somewhat incomplete, makes no mention of the major summit and a few other things): http://brentoneccles.com/2010/06/a-week-experiencing-changing-the-world/