I ran across several different links in the last day or two that I thought were worth passing along:

• Message in a Bottle (Fast Company) - I read this article in the magazine a few months ago and made a note to mention it when it was freely available online. Its an eye opening read about the global impact of our water bottle consumption habits.
• Kitna seeks help from above (ESPN) - Usually, the title alone would be enough to turn me off on this article, but Todd Hiestand passed it along. I trust his judgment so I read it. Glad I did. It’s a pretty beautiful story about how Kitna’s faith seems to be reshaping his team for the better.
• the faith + hope + love series - My friend Blaine has created a series of t-shirts titled “faith, hope and love”. I dig the designs, and being the merchant of cool that I am, I think you should buy one.
• XOGiving.org - The “One Laptop Per Child” effort has rolled out this site where you can purchase two of these special laptops for $399. One comes to you, and the other goes to a child in a developing nation. (OK, I might not be a merchant of cool, but I am a tech maven, so how could I not pass this along?) (HT: Justin Baeder)

Even though he is a brand new daddy, my good friend Justin is finding the time to coordinate a donation of $2 million worth of water purifiers to a mission in Africa. To help make it happen, he and some other friends are trying to raise $8000 in shipping costs. (I know Justin and others involved in this, so I have no doubt that their intentions are legit.)

If you’d like more information or you are interested in helping out, visit this information page.