A few weeks ago I wrote a post warning about the growing threat of Ebola in West Africa and that it had the potential to spread rapidly through contagious diffusion. While the threat of Ebola persists I wanted to take a moment to acknowledge a positive form of contagious diffusion, the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge.

Over the past few weeks celebrities, athletes, average citizens, a former President, and even I have taken the Ice Bucket Challenge. The objective is to challenge people to donate $100 to the ALS Association or dump a bucket of ice cold water on their head and donate at least $10. It has grown wildly successful and has increased typical donations to the organization by 400% compared to this same time period last year. Social media has allowed this fundraiser to go viral and not only increase funds but awareness for the cause.

There is one aspect of this that I did find a bit concerning, perfectly fine water is being wasted when there are so many people in the world dying due to lack of access to safe drinking water. In hopes of offsetting my personal impact on the water supply, I made a matching donation to water.org and encourage others to do the same.