links for 2010-08-30

Will giving this item do more harm than good?
Unfortunately we often know so little about the effects of our donations that you may not be able to answer this question. After the tsunami, due to media hype and a desire to help, thousands of people donated clothing. So many clothes were donated to India that truckloads of them were just dumped alongside the road. They became a choking hazard for the local cattle and government staff had to be diverted from the recovery effort to dispose of the donations.