FreeRice is Trying to End Hunger

Today instead of pontificating on the insanity of the world, I'm turning my efforts to lauding the good in it.

I'd like to bring your attention to FreeRice.com. You'll find a banner link to it right above this post. Free Rice is simple. You go to the website, play a vocabulary game and for every definition you match correctly, 20 grains of rice will be donated to be distributed through United Nations World Food Program.

There are no gimmicks, it's simply a humanitarian effort that combines philanthropy with education. You get to add to your vocabulary and learn new words and hungry people have more food to eat. So please, do your part in helping.

Here, from the website, are the answers to my initial questions. Yours may be answered in the FreeRice FAQ section.

Who pays for the donated rice?

The rice is paid for by the advertisers whose names you see on the bottom of your vocabulary screen. This is regular advertising for these companies, but it is also something more. Through their advertising at FreeRice, these companies support both learning (free vocabulary for everyone) and reducing hunger (free rice for the hungry). We commend these companies for their participation at FreeRice.

If FreeRice has the rice to give, why not give it all away right now?

FreeRice is not sitting on a pile of rice―you are earning it 20 grains at a time. Here is how it works. When you play the game, advertisements appear on the bottom of your screen. The money generated by these advertisements is then used to buy the rice. So by playing, you generate the money that pays for the rice donated to hungry people.

Does FreeRice make any money from this?

No, it does not. FreeRice runs the site at no profit.

Is Reading a Lost Art?

I'm both boggled and saddened by my latest "What's up with this world?" experience and here's hoping that most of you will be too. Considering you've taken the time to stop by and read this, I'm assuming that the concept that reading for pleasure is a dying art is disturbing to you as well. So here's the story of the day:

J. and I went to the mall last night. (Robin Sparkles fans are certainly chuckling right about now, be sure to check out the video if you don't know what I mean.) In any event, the mall in itself gives me more than enough fodder for my "what's up world" blog entries, but I digress.

J. went to have his haircut at Mastercuts and I decided to wander down to the bookstore and see what was cooking. Came back just in time for J. to cash out. Here's how the conversation went.

J: Find anything good?
Me: Yeah, I bought this (holds up novel here) book and was looking at one called "666 Urban Legends." It looked kind of cool.
Cashier: That's funny, we were just talking about reading.

Not, "We were just talking about reading book X" or "We were just talking about what we're reading" but "We were just talking about reading." She was truly amazed that I had a book and they had just talked about the process of reading.

J. filled me in later. As he was having his hair cut, the aesthetician, who was also the cashier, was polling her colleagues, asking them "Do you read?" Apparently, the 3 that she asked did not. Did not read. At all.

She then asked J. who answered affirmatively and, when prompted, listed off the past few books he had read. She was stunned and told him she'd gotten a book from the library but didn't really like it. My question: did she not like the book or did she not like to read?

What's up with the world? Has the Internet completely won out? Is reading a lost art?

Perspectives on War from 5-yr-olds and Fisher Price

This morning j. was playing with what he lovingly refers to as his "guys." Being 5 years old, he has more "guys" then I could possibly count. Lately, they all live on my living room floor inside, on top of or near the Imaginext creation that serves as their buildings. j. has the fire house, castle, coastal patrol station and the dungeon, but he has snapped them together in strange formations, creating an amalgamous creation with trapdoors, winches and all the other things "guys" need.

This morning, however, the story is not about the strange building. It's about "good guys" and death.

j. informed me that he set up extra good guys just in case some of them were killed by the bad guys, so there were some more to take their places. Without even thinking I replied: "That's what President Bush does."

Ah, so aside from revealing my political leanings, it also made me stop and think. It is what Pres. Bush does. Has more good guys ready to go in case others get killed. He even has good guys who were done being good guys come back and play the good guys again (think: Stop Loss).

I got me wondering. Is war run by people who never gave up playing with "guys?" Does it really boil down to a 5-year-old's logic?