Volunteers needed to go to Mozambique

There's a time to code and tinker around with little networking gadgets, and there's a time to get one's hands dirty. Well, unfortunately for me right now, I'm stuck doing network engineering tasks. But if I were slightly more mobile, I'd be heading to Mozambique.

The Church of Scientology International and the Church of Scientology of Johannesburg in South Africa are putting out a call to all Scientology Volunteer Ministers and people who have wanted to train to be Volunteer Ministers, to saddle up and get to the Zambezi river in Mozambique to help with the massive flooding they're having there.

Following is the release on this from ScientologyToday:

The Church of Scientology of Johannesburg urges all Scientology Volunteer Ministers in Southern Africa to join the Scientology Disaster Relief Team, preparing to move into Mozambique in the wake of Cyclone Favio.

With estimates of more than 120,000 homeless from this and earlier flooding, and possibilities of a second cyclone hitting this weekend, supplies, funds and emergency relief personnel are urgently needed.

Scientology Volunteer Ministers are needed to lead the teams and train others who want to help. With hundreds of thousands needing assistance, the VM team will follow the pattern developed over recent years, of training local residents and other volunteers and emergency relief personnel in the techniques from the Scientology Handbook. This maximizes their ability to provide help, and was effective in their work after the South East Asian tsunami of December 2004, the 2005 hurricanes in the US, cyclones in Australia and typhoons and earthquakes in Indonesia and the Philippines.

The team is funded in the field entirely by donations, and anyone who can do so is urged to help. You can give your donation online at the Volunteer Ministers web site.

If you can participate in the relief effort, contact the Scientology Volunteer Ministers Coordinator at the Church of Scientology of Johannesburg, or visit www.volunteerministers.org.

References:

• ScientologyToday news article on Mozambique
• Mr. David Miscavige briefing on Scientology Volunteer Ministers
• Scientology Volunteer Ministers Blog
  

What Social News Sites Drive the Most Traffic?

This is a question I'm trying to answer for myself, but am now looking for empirical research to back it up.

There are all sorts of social news sites around now. Digg, Reddit, Netscape, Newsvine, Slashdot, etc. Which one of them is most beneficial for the content producer, or for the interested individual, to be posting on? Which delivers the most bang for the buck?

I had my own initial results with many different social news services, and the resultant traffic they can drive to one's site. Everyone knows that Digg has the best Alexa ratings out of all these, but is it the best for actually directing interested people to on-topic news?

My initial response to it all would fall under the concept of "publics". In an essay called "Wrong Publics", an essay written for people in business, PR and Marketing, L. Ron Hubbard discusses the need to only promote to correct publics, and not go after wrong distinct publics. The "people" aren't just "the people". They're cynical college kids or high-school girls or they're housewives or whatever. You can't put the same stories up on Digg and expect them to be gobbled up if they're for the 60-yr-old housewife public.

I've noticed this on posts that I've done, and that a friend of mine did on Scientology Volunteer Ministers. Now, firemen nearly escaping death, and excellent stories showing such is definitely a newsworthy item. It's a story of hope, and bravery and camaraderie. Now, you'd think this sort of thing would rise up in social news services. Of course, it doesn't. What does instead? Well, let's take some of the top stories in Reddit right now:

Inkless Metal Pen Never Runs Dry
Duke Nukem Forever approaches *10 years* of active development

It's terrible. Why do dorky articles outpace meaningful ones?

It does come down to who is reading them, and what audience they're destined for. The selfsame article that went nowhere on Digg, erupted on Reddit. Similarly, articles that went nowhere on reddit erupted on Netscape.

It is indeed a matter of looking at what you're writing, and then write for the people that will be reading it. I.e., if you're writing for the 22-yr-old Linux hacker, definitely post on Digg.

Scientology Volunteer Ministers in Australia

Photo: Media inspect a fire some 30 kilometres south of Mansfield. Firefighters battling Australia's massive wildfires amid soaring temperatures and fierce winds are looking forward to a white Christmas to dampen the bushfire emergency, officials said.

Funds are still needed to support the volunteers. If you can help, go to the Volunteer Ministers website and fill out the contact form they have there.

• Scientology Volunteer Ministers Blog
• Scientology
• International Association of Scientologists
• Volunteer Ministers - Mr. David Miscavige describes the Volunteer Minister Program

Miracle Stories of Scientology Volunteers in the Philippines

Scientology Assist technology can produce products routinely that many might consider "miracles". To the average Scientology Volunteer Minister though, this is all part of the normal day's work.

Two Scientology Volunteer Ministers giving assists to children in the evacuation center.

There have been so many miracle stories that have come in from the Scientology Volunteer Minister activities in the Philippines.

Two young girls they helped were devastated. Having lost both parents in the typhoon, they were overwhelmed with grief. They calmed down, stopped crying and both of them experienced some relief. Nothing the Volunteer Minister could do would bring their parents back, but at least they could now get on with their own lives, and start caring for themselves and each other.

In another room the volunteers helped a whole family that seemed to have given up after their home was destroyed. It started with an assist to a woman who was clearly very sad. She was lying listlessly on a mattress on the floor, and told the volunteer she felt very lonely. After her assist she got off the floor and started watching the volunteer as he gave an assist to a little girl nearby. She was so interested that he asked her if she wanted to learn how to do this too. She was very emphatic when she said she did, because the child the volunteer had just helped was now giggling and smiling. And that child was her daughter. The volunteer then taught the mother and daughter how to use this technique and the daughter gave an assist to her father. When she began the assist, her father was lying down and said he couldn't move. But after his assist he felt much more energetic and he got up to prove it!

• Scientology Volunteer Minister Relief Corps
• Scientology
• Scientology Handbook (training for anyone on how to be a Volunteer Minister)
• Scientology in Australia
• Scientology in New Zealand
• David Miscavige on Scientology Volunteer Ministers
• How to do Scientology Assists
  

Technology: How Bushfires Spread

As I've been covering quite a bit on what Scientology Volunteers have been doing, as relates to the Bushfires in Australia, I figured I'd find out a bit how these bushfires spread and what one can do about this.

Found this interesting one on BBC news:

One home was destroyed at Stonyford, in Victoria's south-west, despite the efforts of firefighters working in temperatures of 41.1C - the hottest December day in more than 50 years. Dozens more houses are under threat.

Military personnel have been mobilised to help volunteer civilian fire crews fight the bush fires.

Specially modified planes and helicopters are dumping water on the flames from above.

Environment department spokesman Stuart Ord said crews were being stretched by trying to tackle fast-moving fires on several fronts in extreme conditions.

"There is no doubt the fire will hit settlements, the question is which ones?" he said.

Victorian Premier Steve Bracks has compared the situation to the state's "Black Friday" in 1939, when 71 people died in bush fires.

No-one has died in the current emergency, but Mr Bracks said the danger remained critical.

"We expect the next two weeks are going to be really like standing on our toes, waiting and hoping the communities are protected as the fires rage and move through," he said.

He condemned arsonists who, early on Sunday, lit grass fires on the outskirts of Melbourne that threatened homes before they were brought under control.

"The full force of the law will be brought to bear to find these people, to bring them to justice," Mr Bracks said. "We have increased penalties in place."

Volunteer Resources on Bushfires:

• Scientology Volunteer Minister Relief Corps
• Scientology
• Scientology Handbook (training for anyone on how to be a Volunteer Minister)
• Scientology in Australia
• Scientology in New Zealand
• David Miscavige on Scientology Volunteer Ministers

Scientology Volunteers in Victoria, AU

Scientology Volunteers are still needed in Victoria, AU, more than ever.

Contact any of the following locations to find out how you can help.

Resources to contact:

• Scientology Volunteer Minister Relief Corps
• Scientology
• Scientology Handbook (training for anyone on how to be a Volunteer Minister)
• Scientology in Australia
• Scientology in New Zealand
• David Miscavige on Scientology Volunteer Ministers

Typhoon Utor - Volunteer Help Needed

DOUBLE DISASTER. Over a week after Supertyphoon “Reming” left 90 percent of all houses either destroyed or damaged in Marinduque, including this hut, Typhoon “Seniang” battered the island-province again yesterday. CONTRIBUTED PHOTO

DOUBLE DISASTER. Over a week after Supertyphoon “Reming” left 90 percent of all houses either destroyed or damaged in Marinduque, including this hut, Typhoon “Seniang” battered the island-province again yesterday. CONTRIBUTED PHOTO

Talk about an engineering nightmare. Scientology Volunteers are still needed desperately in the Philippines to help patch up their villiages literally blown apart by Typhoon Utor. Contact the Scientology Volunteer Minister Coordinator for more data on how you can help.

3,000 Firefighters Needing Help

Apparently, there are currently over 3,000 firefighters on the ground fighting the Australia bushfires. However, there are barely any support personnel keeping those firefighters on their feet, which is the problem. Anything anyone can do to assist those firefighters would be most welcome. One should contact the Scientology Volunteer Ministers hotline for more on how they can help.

The Technologies of Being an Effective Volunteer

There are two major disasters going on right now in the ANZO area (Australia, New Zealand and Oceania) -- with the fires going on in Victoria, and the Typhoon which just hit in the Philippines. Now, Volunteer Minister teams are being dispatched to both locations -- but what are the technologies they use which makes them so effective? Governments praise them, the people on the ground wonder at why they can just get in and get things done -- but they're just people.

What's the difference between what they've got and what other groups might lack? The difference is that Scientology Volunteer Ministers are studied and drilled heaviliy in L. Ron Hubbard's organization technology -- for handling situations which seemingly are a confusing mass.

They're also drilled on L. Ron Hubbard's Scientology Assist Technology, which is a technology anyone can learn to help others. That in itself -- that anyone can learn it -- is something that Scientology Volunteer Ministers use to the hilt -- because when only a few hundred Scientology Volunteers hit a three-state disaster zone line Hurricane Katrina was, it's imperative that as many people as possible become empowered to themselves provide effective help to each other.

So, as an engineer concerned with Technology, that's where I salute the PEOPLE technologies like was created by L. Ron Hubbard and is put to use by Scientology Volunteer Ministers all over. I learned it -- and I think anyone else who could possibly run into similar such situations (which, if you live on earth, is you) -- should learn it.

Scientology Volunteer Ministers Needed -- Victoria, Australia

Scientology Volunteer Ministers need help in Australia, fighting fires which are now burning out of control just north of Melbourne. Contact the Scientology Volunteer ministers coordinator to find out how you can help.

Scientology Volunteer Ministers Needed in the Philippines

Scientology Volunteer Ministers Needed in the Philippines to Help in the Wake of Typhoon Durian Volunteer Ministers from Taiwan, Japan and Australia are traveling to the Philippines to help the people of the region recover from the devastating typhoon that ravaged the area leaving as many as 1,000 presumed dead and 40,000 homeless; and Scientology churches from around the world are assembling teams to join them.

(full story >>)

Live Spaces - Scientology VM Blog

How about this one:

http://scientology-vm.spaces.live.com/

MSN, or the artist formerly known as Hotmail, is now offering blogs under the "live.com" guise. This one goes over Scientology Volunteer Ministers and what they're doing around the world.

Looks clumsy to deal with, but at least th Volunteer Ministers content is good.