words

Fight World Hunger Get Smarter At The Same Time

FreeRiceLogo

How I came across this blog is a story all on it’s own but I thought it was an awesome idea. FreeRice is a website that was created to accomplish two goals. To provide English vocabulary to everyone for free while also helping to end world hunger by providing rice to hungry people for free.

On the front page of FreeRice is a given word. Underneath this word is a series of choices. One of these choices is the correct answer. For each answer you get right, 20 grains of rice is donated to the United Nations World Food Program. For each answer that you get wrong, no grains of rice are donated and instead, you are shown the correct answer thereby making you smarter.

GameBoard

On the right side of the page is an image of a bowl. The more answers you get correct, the more rice that fills up the bowl. Once you reach 100 grains, a small picture of rice with the number 100 shows up and your bowl is emptied.

Bowl Of Rice

As you can see, in the span of 5 minutes, I’ve managed to donate 340 grains of rice. I’d be lying if I said that it didn’t make me feel good about myself in the process.

One of the problems I’ve noticed with this game, if thats what you want to call it is that, when you get an answer wrong, they tell you which word was the correct answer. But if I don’t know the meaning of the correct answer, or the definition of the original word, then I’m double screwed. I’m not sure, but it appears to me as if this game is based on Synonyms. That is, different words with the same meaning. If that is indeed the case, then I suppose my argument for definitions becomes a moot point.

So how do these guys pay for the 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.

Its worth noting that FreeRice is a non-profit organization and is not making a dime through FreeRice.

I thought this site and idea was definitely worthy of sharing. This is the ultimate example of being able to “kill two birds with one stone“. For more information in regards to the project, be sure to check out the FreeRice FAQ. By the way;

1000Grains Donated

How many grains of rice have you donated?

20 Weird Blogging Terms

Here is a list of 20 blogging terms with their supposed definitions. I’ve never seen most of these terms used which is why they qualify as weird to me. Let me know if you recognize any of these terms and be sure to add on to the list in the commenting area.

Weborexic – Referring to tiny (width-wise) layouts. Coined by Rhiannon Phillips.

instalanche – Sudden and possibly overwhelming increase in traffic to a site after being linked to by the Instapundit

K-log – aka “knowledge log”, a type of blog usually used by knowledge workers and posted on a company intranet for sharing company knowledge.

Gulog – A portmanteau of “gulag” and “blog”. Used when a blog is so dismal and depressing, it’s as if it were written in a Soviet labour camp.

Glog – A first-person recording of an activity, in which the person doing the recording is a participant in the activity. Probably a portmanteau of “gonzo” and “blog”.

Blooger – A blogger who exhibits adolescent tendencies and lacks basic social graces or good manners. A portmanteau of “blog” and “booger.”

Blistless or B-listless – When a blogger becomes listless or apathetic about posting. It is also indicative of what will happen to the blogger’s mailing list.

Bleg – A blog entry consisting of a request to the readers, such as for information or contributions. A portmanteau of “blog” and “beg”. Also called “Lazyweb.”

Biblioblogosphere – A humorous reference to the world of librarian blogging

Fisking – To rebut a blog entry in a line-by-line fashion.

Phlog – Type of blog utilising the Gopher protocol instead of HTTP

Scribosphere – Term to encompass blogs written by professional and aspiring screenwriters. A portmanteau of “scribe” and “blogosphere”.

Svithe – A spiritually themed post on a blog not normally focused on spiritual matters.

Vorage – A marriage between the words forage and video defined as “The act of foraging for video on the internet and sharing it with others.” Bloggers or vloggers who share streaming or downloaded video content on the web often engage in voraging, scouring search engines and obscure websites to present a curated collection of videos that usually fall within a set theme or editorial perspective.

Blogorrhea – A portmanteau of “blog” and “logorrhea”, meaning excessive and/or incoherent talkativeness in a weblog.