How is Meduza’s ‘fundraising camel’ doing? He’s no longer sad, but he’s not smiling yet.
A month ago, we noticed that our donation graph looked like a camel’s humps. So our designers drew the saddest camel in the world — because his second hump just wouldn’t grow.
Thanks to your support, the camel isn’t quite so sad anymore. Take a look at him:
The new hump still isn’t growing much, but at least donations have stopped falling. Since we came up with the camel idea, we’ve gained 300 new monthly donors and received another 800 one-time donations. Thank you.
Let’s give it another push and make the camel smile.
Ever since we published the camel graph, camels and camel facts seem to be everywhere. Did you know Arabic has more than 100 words for different kinds of camels? Or that if you say “Solomon’s camel” in Hebrew, everyone will know you mean a praying mantis, not a camel? Or that a camel has been on the coat of arms of one Russian city since the 18th century?
Do you know which one?
Chelyabinsk!
It turns out we’re not the only ones who love camels. The Central Bank of Russia (there we go talking about money again!) even compared the country’s economy to one. But it was thinking of the camel’s ability to cope with extreme conditions, not its humps.
At Meduza, we are committed to transparency about our use of artificial intelligence in the newsroom. The story you’re reading was written by one of our living, breathing journalists and translated from Russian using an AI model configured to follow our strict editorial standards. This translation process is the result of extensive testing and refinements to ensure our English-language coverage is timely and accurate. A Meduza editor reviews every draft before publication.
If you find any errors in this translation, please contact us at reports@meduza.io.
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