FreeRice.com: build vocab, feed people

OK, OK! I'm finally hooked. Oodles of people have been telling me I should try this and I've resisted, but today I fell prey to the addictiveness of playing the vocabulary game at Freerice.com. It's just a quick little multiple choice vocabulary quiz. For each correct answer, 20 grains of rice are bought for hungry people through the UN World Food Program. Advertisers do all the money work. They don't need to know your name or anything. The addictive part is that it just keeps coming and coming! An uninterrupted stream of SAT type words. For a geek like me, it's a little slice of heaven.

Since it's inception in Oct 2007, they have donated 26,662,277,870 grains of rice. I wish I knew what that was in lbs or kilos.

I should have been writing a letter-to-the-editor, but I got sucked into this instead. I justify it by saying maybe the improved vocab will improve my LTE's. Thanks a LOT MKinSA ;)

Oh, and Happy Birthday to the other CCY if you are reading this!

Chuck Taylor: Project (RED)

Great news for Chuck Taylor converse fans! Converse has a program for the 2008 year called 1HUND(RED). They have teamed up with the Project (RED) to make a line of shoes to alleviate poverty. "Converse's 1HUND(RED) initiative brings together a hundred artists from around the globe to celebrate the artistic spirit and help fight AIDS in Africa. With our canvas as your canvas, 1HUND(RED) illustrates how the power of creativity can help change the world." 10% of the net wholesale price of these shoes will be given to The Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria.

Even more fun is Make Mine (RED), a fun program by which you can design your own Chuck Taylor sneaker fully customized for you! You can even specify tongue color or get text printed on them. 15% of the sale will go to The Global Fund.

I haven't ordered a pair yet, but if you see someone walking around with crazy Chucks that have "ccyl" up the back, you'll know it's me :)

http://www.converse.com//index.aspx?bhcp=1&mode=shoes&fid=26&CSID=44#100ArtistsMMR

Dramatic Increase in World Hunger Coverage

Some of you might have noticed that this blog has been a little (ok...a lot) light on the content for a while. Sorry! The reason was that I was traveling around the eastern US in a minivan, discovering how irritating dependence on someone else's i-phone for internet access can be. But I've been back now for a while and catching up on all the poverty coverage I missed and didn't comment on. As I scan the papers and reflect on the only decent news source I had recently (NPR), I'm struck by the rising amount of coverage that global hunger is getting lately. I remember, last summer, sometimes I would go weeks without hearing anything poverty-related. Now, I hear something daily. On one hand, I'm happy the issue is finally making front page news (literally front page on the Sunday Chicago Trib this AM) and entering the global and national debate. On the other hand, I think it's because things are really getting bad and they are likely to get much, much worse.

Last December, I posted an Economist article from the economist called "The End of Cheap Food" predicting that food prices would be skyrocketing within the year. And now it's happening. I'll write further posts about the reasons for it, but let's just leave today's observation at the fact that people are talking about it now. Riots in Haiti, unrest in India, American food stamp program in trouble... Not a day goes by that I don't hear something about it.

What point can I leave you with today? It's a great time to become an anti-poverty activist. The need is great, the coverage is plentiful. If you've been wondering whether to exercise your voice and speak out for people in need, the answer is "yes!" and the time to do it is now. To get started, please visit www.bread.org or www.results.org to learn more about how to make some real change.