Just a note: I’m leaving for Yurp tomorrow (details follow) and today’s the last day you can get in requests for a free, autographed copy of WEIT (with a hand-drawn cat bonus!) if you donate $100 or more to Doctors Without Borders.  I think the readers here have raised nearly $5000 for that awesome organization, and maybe we’re not done yet.

Donate here (if you’re feeling in the chips, give more than $100) and then send me proof of donation and your home address. A book will go out in late October when I’m back in Chicago. You can specify how you want it signed and what kind of cat you want (no dogs, please!).

Just think, you, too can have something like this (posted on reader Jeff Lewis’s website, “Jeff’s Lunchbreak”):

That one had a gratis mouse, too.

Over at The Friendly Atheist, Hemant notes that three secular organizations—Camp Quest, The Secular Student Alliance, and Foundation Beyond Belief—are in the running to get big bucks from the Chase Community Giving Program so long as they accrue enough votes. I’m just going to paste in what Hemant said about voting (the deadline is in three days):

As I write this, the Secular Student Alliance, Camp Quest, and Foundation Beyond Belief are all within striking distance of *major* money courtesy of the Chase Community Giving Program.

. . . Voting runs until September 19^th.

The top 46 charities are assured $50,000 or more. (Foundation Beyond Belief is *so* close to that position…) [JAC: SSA is now #38, and if everyone here voted, we might push the other two past the critical #46 threshold!]

How can you help?

If you’re on Facebook, you get two votes. If you want to vote for the Secular Student Alliance, go here. If you want to vote for the Foundation Beyond Belief, go here. If you want to vote for Camp Quest, go here.

Hate Facebook? Fine! Vote at Chasegiving.com for FBB, SSA, or CQ!

If you get your friends to vote (using your referral), you’ll get an additional vote!

And if you’re a Chase customer, you can get an additional two votes.

Make this happen before time runs out next week.

Why wouldn‘t you vote? It takes only a minute and can garner some big bucks for some good organizations.

I don’t sell you tee shirts with my face on them nor push cephalopodic geegaws to pad my income; all I ask, in return for my awesome posts, is that you consider clicking a few buttons to advance our cause.  We have several thousand readers here, and if every one of you voted, all three organizations would get $50,000.

kthxbye

It’s almost time for the annual 24-hour marathon run by D. P. R. Jones to raise money for Doctors without Borders (Médecins Sans Frontières) from the atheist/agnostic/skeptical/humanist community.  100% of the donations will go to Doctors Without Borders, one of the finest volunteer organizations I know of, and one completely untainted by faith. And there’s already an auction where you can bid for cool items, again with the proceeds going to DWB.

There are several ways to donate.  First, visit the event site here, where the 24-hour marathon will be hosted by Jones and others beginning at 4 pm UK time (11 a.m. EST U.S. time) on September 8 and running for 24 hours straight. You can see the tentative schedule here, which includes people like Eugenie Scott, James Randi, Cristina Rad, and Mr. Deity.

Second, you can donate directly at two sites (here and here) if you’d like to give early.

Finally, there’s an awesome eBay auction of nonbeliever-related-items that have been donated by various people, and you can see all the items here. They include books on science and atheism, handbags, prints, a talking Jesus doll (signed by The Thinking Atheist!), teeshirts, autographed and otherwise, and a whole bunch of other stuff.  There are even two copies of Why Evolution is True (here and here) that I’ve autographed for the auction.  You have a bit over two days to bid on these items, and again, every penny of the take goes to Doctors Without Borders.

So bid ’em up, folks! I don’t want to see my book going for peanuts.