FreeRice Update

Last week I posted links to several games that I like to play online. FreeRice is definitely one of the better games. Anyway, what I didn't realize was that FreeRice had just been started about two weeks before my post. Anyway, they've started to release the daily totals of donated rice, and I've got to say I'm impressed. I did a quick search to find out how much a grain of rice weighs, and found this (from here):

Rice grains vary widely. Mostly they weight 20-30 mg, although experimental breeding has produced them as large as 78 mg.

So, let's use 25mg per grain. How much has been donated so far? Let's look at the totals:

Total Donations by Day

Date	Grains of Rice
7 October 2007	830
8 October 2007	5,670
9 October 2007	76,020
10 October 2007	287,960
11 October 2007	4,584,100
12 October 2007	3,541,350
13 October 2007	3,194,630
14 October 2007	4,343,350
15 October 2007	6,403,920
16 October 2007	6,645,520
17 October 2007	12,157,010
18 October 2007	26,703,160
19 October 2007	40,373,060
20 October 2007	16,175,550
21 October 2007	13,276,900
22 October 2007	26,881,930
23 October 2007	30,423,770
24 October 2007	37,670,700
	__________
	232,745,430

So, 232,745,430 grains x 25 mg = 5,818,635,750 mg, or 5,818,635.75 grams, or 5,818.64 kg. Not a bad haul over three weeks.

How many people will this feed? As of right now, I don't have numbers to use to answer that. I'll try and figure that out later. If anyone has the answer, or disagrees with the rice grain weight used, let me know.

I'd also like to point out that my first post on this was on the 19th, which also recorded the highest daily donation total so far. I'm going to go ahead and take credit for that - and pass some along to you. Way to go!

Bored? Play A Game And Be Productive.

I spend a lot of time on the internet. Sometimes, I am actively searching for a way to kill time. At these times, I like to go to sites that turn a useful activity into something of a game. There are three sites I would recommend checking out if you are ever in this situation:

1. Free Rice. This site turns a vocabulary test into charity. You are presented with a word, and four possible definitions. For every word you get right, they donate 10 grains of rice to a hungry person through international aid agencies. I played for about 3 minutes, and donated 300 grains of rice. The game also has a built in level system to keep the words at the fringe of your vocabulary. For every word you get wrong, you decrease a level, and you advance after 3 correct words. I have been hovering around at level 42, out of 50 possible levels (the FAQ says it is rare to get above 48 - take that as a challenge).
2. The ESP Game - Labeling the Web. This game matches you up with another random player, and presents you both with the same image. You both are supposed to start typing in words to describe the image, and some images have taboo words (usually really obvious descriptors). You and your partner advance to the next image after you both enter the same word. The goal of this game is to label all the images on the internet. By doing it through this game, they manage to assign the most probable and useful labels to all the images. This game is fun, but the rounds are timed, and it is more challenging than you might think.
3. The Galaxy Zoo. This is the least like a game, but I still think it is fun. This site takes lots of deep space images of galaxies that need to be categorized. You have to start by going through a short training exercise that teaches you the classification scheme. Once you pass the training test, then you set to work. There are some amazing images of huge spiral galaxies and other objects. This site does keep track of your work, so I guess that is sort of like a point system.

So, like I said, if you are going to kill some time, you may as well do some good.