Tom Hanks and the Freeplay Foundation joined forces with eBay, and launched a charity auction to raise funds benefitting rural poor areas of Africa.
Hanks has autographed the wind-up and solar-powered radios, and is auctioning them up on eBay - the winning bidders will also get a personal letter and a signed photo from Tom.
One-hundred percent of the auction proceeds will be used to help Freeplay's work in Africa.
Check out the video below...
My first thought, other than the fact that this is a pretty cool cause (somewhat similar to One Laptop Per Child), is that this feels like a missed opportunity for WorldSpace.
Yes, I know all about WorldSpace's involvement with First Voice International (formally the WorldSpace Foundation) which uses 5% of WorldSpace's bandwidth to broadcast free and unencrypted service to underserved communities in Africa. But WorldSpace can't guarantee that service anymore, and they're lacking that whole celebrity-ism that folks like Tom Hanks can provide.
That aside, it's a cool idea, and it'd be even cooler if Sirius and/or XM set aside a stable of emergency satellite radios for disastrous events here in the States. Hey, whatever happened to that crank-powered satellite radio anyway?
Again leave it to Ryan to waste bandwidth on yet another lame story. You can tell its a slow news day when Ryan brings up worldspace. I will be so glad to see this site disappear after the merger. Nobody has been able to compete with Tylers website.
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your welcome
haha! yeah RIGHT
http://siteanalytics.compete.com/orbitcast.com+siriusbuzz.com/
Hey "XM_LOVER" if you want to go promoting your blog, why not just post a link instead of acting like some fake fanboy.
I for one actually found this post intersting.
XM offers "Red Cross Radio" on XM 248 during major disasters, and IIRC even doanted many XM Radios to the Red Cross for their use.
XM offers "Red Cross Radio" on XM 248 during major disasters, and IIRC even donated many XM Radios to the Red Cross for their use.
It wouldn't be that hard to make a basic one lined solar/self-powered (wind-up) xm radio. Maybe if this merger goes through XM and Sirius will have the resources. But one thing at a time, right?