Chris Got Very Wet. And Cold. #icebucketchallenge

The Ice Bucket Challenge is taking the world in storm. And to those who say “enough already”, I respond: if you don’t want to see it, ignore it.

Here’s what this is about: Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, also known as ALS. It’s a devastating disease of the nervous system and simply said: it kills in a slow and horrible way. Patients slowly lose control over their muscles. ALL their muscles. One of the more famous people with ALS is Stephen Hawking.

ALS is not fun. ALS is dead serious. And the ice bucket challenge isn’t making light of it. The challenge is a wonderful way to raise awareness, and it’s necessary because most people don’t even know what ALS is. It’s is a rare disease of the nervous system (approx. 30,000 US Americans have it) and as a result of that, the pharmaceutical industry has no incentive of making any serious investments into finding a cure.

Which is why everybody should chip in for ALS and all the other rare neurological diseases. A good place to do so is the ALS Assocication at www.alsa.org.

Back to the ice bucket and how I got involved: Jon Miller took the Ice Bucket Challenge and then challenged me.

After I did my part (and obviously donated too), I challenged Sean Galbraith (see his video here), Ingo Quendler (here is his video) and Sebastian “Schlingel” WΓΆlfle (watch him get wet here).

You should seriously look up the translation for the German word “Schadenfreude” πŸ™‚

Author: Chris Marquardt

Chris Marquardt is an educator and podcaster. He wrote Wide-Angle Photography and is the co-author of The Film Photography Handbook and Absolut analog. He's the host of this podcast and a few others. Chris teaches photography all over the world. He is a regular on the TWiT Network.