Palegoldenrod

The FreeRice website is a cool little project where you match up words to their meanings – for every question you get right, they donate 10 grains of rice to the UN World Food Program.

While that is a very, very small amount (and obviously is very cheap for the sponsors) it is something, which is great.

Its a really cool idea – there seems to be something for everyone: companies get publicity (and probably a tax write-off); the UN gets funding for food; the user gets to improve their vocabulary – and even if they don’t aim to learn, they can use in with competition in mind and try to outdo their friends, either by the amount of rice they donate or the level of difficulty they reach.

It is somewhat addictive too – I found myself thinking “just one more – I know this one!”. I guess if you are going to be addicted to something its better that it be something that benefits both you, and those in need. Rather than, say… err… World of Warcraft. D’oh.

By the way – who wants to have a stab at how many grains of rice are in a kilo? And how can we verify it? I’m interested because the site claims that about 30 million grains of rice were donated yesterday and I am wondering how much that really is. Is it 10 kilos – a pittance?

Anyway, go over and check it out. Its cool.