Photo by Glorianna Davenport for Time

Our chosen charity, One Laptop Per Child, has focused a good portion of their efforts on Rwanda, both because it represents a worst-case-scenario and because its president has embraced the program to a degree unmatched by other heads of state.  Because of this concentrated effort, OLPC is hoping to see an effect that stretches beyond the schoolhouse and into the economy at large.

“The President wants to make Rwanda a technology and services hub — another tall order considering that just 7% of the country’s 11 million people currently have electricity. And that, curiously enough, is where the laptops come in. He and OLPC proponents hope the computers will both teach the students the language of technology and offer them a way to chase down simple information they lack but which kids in rich nations take for granted. According to the government’s vision, the laptop will be the engine for the spread of electricity and Internet across the country…”

We’re proud to be a part of such a noble effort.  If you’d like to join in, you can contribute by visiting the OLPC donation page.

(via Time)

… also, we should probably just start shooting any laser weapons we may have, randomly, into the sky, in the hope of hitting the space aliens that are clearly in the last stages of their pre-invasion plot.

(Link via Neatorama)