Rants and Ramblings: random commentary about culture, media, politics, technology and whatnot.

yuletide

Random holiday-related tidbits…

You know those mailings from charities that you get with the address labels pre-printed with your information on them, along with a solicitation for your information? Not a particularly efficient way of raising money, reports the St. Petersburg Times. In fact, the real money lies in the mailing list. (“Charities give, hope to receive” - 12/13/05)

Another watchdog group, Charity Navigator, says those who donate token amounts - usually out of a sense of obligation - may unwittingly set themselves up for even more solicitations.

“The smaller your donation, the more likely a charity will sell your name - they never sell the names of high-end donors,” says Sandra Miniutti, a Charity Navigator spokeswoman.

(Link found via Al’s Morning Meeting.)

Borders has set up a special holiday gift site that quizzes you about the recipient’s personality before offering you gift recommendations. The illustrations are adorable, but it seems like an awful lot of trouble to go through just to get a few book, movie and music recommendations.

For a little creative holiday fun, make your own snowflake with this Flash application. When you’re done, you can even export your creation as a JPG or EPS file.

Have a burning desire to send a note to Santa? The U.S. Postal Service knows all. (Weirdly, the first time I visited this page, it also had instructions for sending a letter to God. The references to powers higher than Santa have since been removed from this FAQ.