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Free Rice

wicker woman

03:33 / 24.10.07

freerice.

Figured this was worthy enough to spread around as much as possible. Go there, see how your vocab skills measure up, and donate rice (presumably) while doing so.

Papess

04:24 / 24.10.07

That is fun, but it is making me hungry for rice.

Yay Paul

08:20 / 24.10.07

That's ace!... Have spammed friends.

This Sunday

08:32 / 24.10.07

I really could have used a bowl of rice, or some dry rice to cook, doing that. Wil go back to it again and have blanket e-mailed the link. Addictive.

Olulabelle

09:07 / 24.10.07

I really thought I had a good vocabulary but then I got 'Lachrymal'. Pardon?

HCE

09:11 / 24.10.07

Weepy, or something along those lines. A number of the ones I didn't know were types of gazelle, but then they looked like they were types gazelle. The ones where I had to guess were actually quite fun.

Olulabelle

09:18 / 24.10.07

Yes but the guess ones made me feel like I was cheating or something and then I got really worried that the new words it gave me would be too hard for my category, because it would think I knew them when in fact I'd only guessed. And then I thought that guessing was knowing in a way, anyway.

I think I might have been taking it too seriously.

This Sunday

09:28 / 24.10.07

Interwebby things are used to being lied to, so if you just make a correct guess, I'm sure they're happy to believe you knew the answer all along (in the same way it's polite to presume nobody ever checks google for a definition or wikipedia for a citing mid-internet-conversation, I guess). And the rice still gets delivered.

Heck, maybe we should cheat just to push the rice levels up? (Presuming that's on the level.)

Olulabelle

10:23 / 24.10.07

In the FAQ it says the program tailors itself to your ability - that if you get an answer wrong it drops a level. The highest level you can get is 50. I would like to see those words.

Regrettable Juvenilia

11:44 / 24.10.07

I came acropper at alary (level 42) and claudication (level 45) and collogue (level 44) - annoyed I messed the last two up...

Ava Banana

15:05 / 24.10.07

I got to 48 and was scuppered by calvarium. Damn you calvarium! *Shakes fist* It is very addictive isn't it?

grant

15:28 / 24.10.07

Kerf, amaranthine and hebetate are level-50 words. I missed a synonym for "sea lavender" at 47, and "hebetate," which means "to blunt" and not "to tangle."

Laboratory readers will be delighted to learn that "gyrus" pops up at 49.

The Falcon

16:23 / 24.10.07

I am weak, having attained only level 41 yesterday which is.. well, let's just say I'd not have made it out the first series of Dragonball.

The Falcon

16:44 / 24.10.07

'Newel'?! (at 45, a bit more heartening.)

My Mom Thinks I'm Cool

16:45 / 24.10.07

I actually know what amaranthine means.

couldn't personally get past 45 though. grant truly is the human equivalent of wikipedia.

grant

17:05 / 24.10.07

The funny thing is that I know both "kerf" and "amaranthine" not because of anything I did in university, but because I was a landscaper over summer breaks - they're both related to things in gardening. (To "kerf" a patch of grass would be to break it into squares of sod, like edging in the middle of the lawn. "Amaranth" is a flower that legendarily bestows immortality.)

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

17:41 / 24.10.07

That's wicked- I got to 44 before the beers set in. A couple of my misses were due to drunkenly clicking the wrong thing.

Ticker

19:11 / 24.10.07

I am proud of all the rice I donated while battling my way up to 45. Is way too addictive!

I can has vocab?

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

19:40 / 24.10.07

IS IT CAN BE WERDZ TIEM NOW PLZ?

c0nstant

20:22 / 24.10.07

It really is addictive! I spent two hours on this at work today, but I can skive with a clear conscience, knowing I'm doing it for the greater good! Hovering around 44.

Withiel: DALI'S ROTTWEILER

23:39 / 24.10.07

...although after reading Miéville's An End to Hunger, it does make me wonder rather about "gimmick-to-give-food-to-the-starving". That is, one does rather wonder why the various corporate sponsors can't just provide enough rice in the first place. Or possibly I'm humourless and drunk.

Papess

00:26 / 25.10.07

Because then, Withiel, the corporations wouldn't get to creep into our minds when we are not looking and feeling really smart while we let the counters add all the time we have wasted up for the execs to nod their heads about. They be doing the jedi mind tricks while us word addicts feel all warm and fuzzy with givin' and the larnin'.

Saint Keggers

01:39 / 25.10.07

I first read the title and thought Condolezza had been sent to prison.

Dutch

03:41 / 25.10.07

perambulate = walk

this is how far I got...

donating 650 grams of rice...

Sadly I am very drunk and unable to continue this very very addictive game without descending into complete and utter languagelessness

wicker woman

05:45 / 25.10.07

And so, my plan has succeeded... mwah ha ha, and all that. =)

imaginary mice

11:39 / 26.10.07

Today I learnt that a female pilot is called an "aviatrix", which sounds deliciously kinky.

I also like "misologistic". A lot. In fact, the next time I'm having an argument with someone, I can just call them a "misologistic twat". Brilliant.

grant

13:38 / 26.10.07

"misologism" would have to be a Japanese alphabet soup.

And speaking of soup, how exactly is this thing supposed to be feeding people?

I've been thinking a lot lately about how simulations of good works are replacing the real thing - clicking here is easier than donating to a soup kitchen and that.

wicker woman

05:19 / 30.11.07

Update, and an answer to grant's question.

According to Public Radio Internationals' program The World, more than 4 billion grains of rice have been donated to the World Food Program through FreeRice; they don't actually donate the rice itself, but the cash equivalent (cash provided by the advertisers at the bottom of the page), which is then used to purchase the rice.

I wouldn't really agree that this is a "simulation" of a good work. Just a way to do good works while you're bopping about online anyway. Not to mention that the site has apparently become so popular that WFP is receiving requests by email from various countries for a version of the site in their languages.

Armchair activism it may be, but hey, so long as people are getting fed...

astrojax69

19:40 / 30.11.07

noice, f/v... hovered about 46, donated about 9000 grains and wondered sometimes why i knew some words and why i knew of others but realised i had no idea what they meant.

glad to do something good for the world to start the day - happy december everybody! more coffee for me now...

back to the words...............

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