# Ice Bucket Challenge



## Cal (Jun 17, 2009)

Seems to be sweeping North America....below is a link regarding the origins if any are interested. I thought I would look it up when I had heard that ALS fundraising was up 30x in NY State. Haven't seen any Canadian stats though.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ice_Bucket_Challenge

Some video of local hockey players doing the challenge:

http://www.citynews.ca/2014/08/15/w...-ice-bucket-challenge-calls-out-drake-kessel/


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## cashinstinct (Apr 4, 2009)

Paul Bissonnette one with a helicopter is crazy.

Kind of tired already of this trend though...


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## tygrus (Mar 13, 2012)

Part of me thinks the cause is good...that is until I think about the 1.2 trillion dollars paid out to the banks and other institutions since 2008. That money could have eliminated every major disease and affliction on the planet. Our priorities are severely misplaced.


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## m3s (Apr 3, 2010)

Professional hockey players one-upping each other with the biggest buckets of ice? Is Charlie Sheen the first one who noticed how egocentric this was?


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## PrairieGal (Apr 2, 2011)

My Mom died from ALS two years ago, so I am especially thrilled and amazed at the money and awareness being raised by the Ice Bucket Challenge. I just hope that from this windfall of cash some progress can be made in the research to cure, or even treat, this horrid disease.


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## carverman (Nov 8, 2010)

tygrus said:


> Part of me thinks the cause is good...that is until I think about the 1.2 trillion dollars paid out to the banks and other institutions since 2008. *That money could have eliminated every major disease and affliction on the planet. Our priorities are severely misplaced*.


+1
greed rules over helping others.

I't's a silly idea someone has come up with.
What I don't understand is; about dumping a bucket over your head and looking like a fool helps the cause.
ALS is a death sentence..most people who contract it don't survive more than 2-4 years at the most.

But this is just a twist on the 5 second polar bear dunk on New Years Day..they wade in, get up to
their knees, shiver till their teeth chatter..then run right out and congratulate each other that they did it!

Some of these polar bear "swims" are for a charity though.

Here's an idea..
Why not set up a dunk tank at someone who really wants to go through with a thorough soaking
and charge $1 a ball to throw at him (or her) and donate all the money raised to ALS research.


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## tygrus (Mar 13, 2012)

In reality there is no way to contain the waste on this planet, like bank bail outs and stupid wars, so then the ice bucket challenge firmly places the cure to diseases square in the peoples hands.

Crowd fund every disease just like this one. A few hundred million people giving $10 to each disease and I bet in a decade they are all cured.


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## PrairieGal (Apr 2, 2011)

carverman said:


> +1
> greed rules over helping others.
> 
> I't's a silly idea someone has come up with.
> ...


It's a fun challenge that has caught on and gone viral, thanks to social media. Not only has it raised awareness, it has raised some serious money because people are donating as well as dumping icy water on their heads. Scotiabank donated $50,000. I read somewhere that $50 million has been raised. That is a lot of balls at a dunk tank.

For those of us who have lost loved ones to ALS, and those still suffering, I feel like it is our day in the sun. Before this, most people had only vaguely even heard of ALS. You had to say Lou Gherig's disease, and then they had a small understanding. 

If you want a glimpse of the reality of ALS watch this. http://www.upworthy.com/the-last-ic...ed-to-see-and-you-really-should-see-it?c=ufb1


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## Nemo2 (Mar 1, 2012)

Anyone interested in ALS, and how it could hit anyone at any time, might want to read "_ Laugh, I Thought I'd Die, My Life with ALS"_ by Dennis Kaye.....(a real "Make you laugh, make you cry" book).....I read it when I lived on Salt Spring Island (where, IIRC, Dennis was born), and received subsequent communication from him, (although he could no longer use what he referred to as his 'head pecker' to type).










http://www.insidebelleville.com/new...mark-author-s-humour-helps-him-cope-with-als/


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## cainvest (May 1, 2013)

tygrus said:


> Crowd fund every disease just like this one. A few hundred million people giving $10 to each disease and I bet in a decade they are all cured.


Would be nice to think that but our track record for curing serious diseases over the past 50 years, even with all the tech advancements, is not very good.


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## tygrus (Mar 13, 2012)

$50 million is nice, but its not a lot of money in the scheme of things. It can take $100 million dollars to bring a successful drug to market. You think about how some guys in lab coats can spend that kind of money, but they do. Thats just one drug. Think about how many are not successful but still eat up research dollars. Less than 10% of drugs are successful so its a huge hit and miss project.

There are about 6 or 7 major diseases in older adults. We are all pretty much guaranteed to get one of them in our lifetime. Cancer, ALS, Alzheimers, Type 2 Diabetes, Heart Disease, Parkinsons, MS, etc. Some of these are manageable, some for a while, some are killers. You would probably need a few billion into each of those to make a big impact.

So a 20 billion investment to wipe out just about ever major affliction, or spend 100 times that caring for people when they get it. So some perspective. The US military budget is 1 trillion dollars. Guys like Buffet & Gates are sitting on a 100 billion dollars each. 

If I was some rich a**hole, I would set aside a few billion a dedicate to curing one major affliction in 10 years. Instead these guys are buying mosquito nets and such for 3rd world countries.


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## Nemo2 (Mar 1, 2012)

tygrus said:


> Instead these guys are buying mosquito nets and such for 3rd world countries.


Thank you Rachel Carson.


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## moneyfighter (Aug 10, 2014)

yea...it's too much


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