Play FreeRice

This online game/quiz is quite addicting. When I first began, FreeRice quizzed you on English vocabulary. For each word you answered correctly, a certain amount of rice grains would be donated to help end world hunger. The difficulty level moved up according to your level of accuracy.


Well, I just got back on today, and boy has the site changed! There are more categories to be quizzed on, including geography, Spanish, chemistry, and math! This really is an ingenious way to learn and help out at the same time. It's quite a good study aid too. I definitely would have used it last year to memorize the chemistry symbols I needed to know. Now I can use it to increase my Spanish vocabulary (currently in my fourth year of Spanish). The ads are really unobtrusive, too. I barely notice them.

There are some arguments that giving aid to Third World Countries is actually making them dependent and less self-sufficient. I agree to an extent - we shouldn't just be sending in food and undermining their local economy. However, donating the basics while bolstering the agricultural production and distribution is necessary. People who literally are starving can't possible be as productive. I really don't think donating some rice will hurt.

An alternate version of this game is available on Facebook, if any of you use it.

Find a Better Search Engine

Did you know that there are search engines that you can use that donate to your favorite charities? Every time you use that site, you are increasing the money going to the organization, mainly generated from the ads on the page. These search engines are mostly convenient to use and donate to pretty good causes. Here are some that I have found.

1. SearchKindly- this search engine has raised over $13,000. Different charities are featured each week, and you get to vote on who gets the money. This week features an environmental group called Climate Cycle, that works to raise awareness in communities.

2. Everyclick- the UK based site has a pretty snazzy and clean page. They provide over 200,000 charities with fundraising options. You can register as a supporter of a particular organization, or the revenue will just go into a general pot.

3. GoodSearch- you chose a charity, and every search you make on this search engine increases contributions to the charity. A LOT of non profits participate in this, so you will be sure to find one to support.

4. MagicTaxi- cute name. Gives 50% of revenue to a selected charity of the week. Pretty cool in that in has a tab to search Wikipedia.

5. GoodTree- kind of looks like the Google homepage, only personalized. It has different features such as bookmarks and news.

And this last one, not as much charity related, but one of my favorites

6. Blackle- basically a Google with a black page. This saves energy - "864,680.675 Watt hours saved."

It is a hard habit to break, just opening up Internet Explorer or Firefox and mindlessly typing in Google. You might want to set one of the above as a homepage so you don't forget. A few clicks can make a difference. The image is from Core77.

Milk Ice Cream

I saw this in Time magazine and just had to say something about it.

So PETA says to Ben and Jerry's (the ice cream maker) that they should use human breast milk to make ice cream instead of cow milk. Their argument is that it is even more absurd to drink the milk of another animal than our own species, and milking cows is cruel, etc. Yeah...I don't think this is going to happen any time soon.

However, the response of Ben and Jerry's was even more ridiculous. They replied, word for word, "We believe a mother's milk is best used for her child." Hello? They're not giving their ice cream to baby cows, are they? The company is directly contradicting itself. If a mother's milk is best used for her child, why is the ice cream company stealing it to manufacture a product for another species?

I don't have a problem with them using cow milk, but I do have a problem with their view of animals. Yes, cows are mothers too. They are not machines. I don't care about the argument whether people are animals etc, but the biological fact is that cows are mothers and they have babies. The end.

This image is from Will Work For Food.

Vice Presidential Debate

Did any one watch the "Global warming" section of the debates on Thursday night?

I thought it was pretty ridiculous how Palin's response to global warming was domestic oil. No matter where we get our oil from, it still comes out the same way from the exhaust pipe our our cars! Oil doesn't magically become less polluting because it is American oil. So what if America has more regulations than other countries? As long as we are using the same amount of oil, we will create the same amount of greenhouse gases. She focused too much on the effects of global warming and not the causes. I know she's from Alaska and all - didn't she see the Exxon Valdez disaster and the tremendous damage of the oil spill? She seems pretty eager to drill her land up.

Biden's focus on alternative energy was much more realistic. He did talk about the causes of global warming, and how our reliance on oil was detrimental. Alternative energy would create more jobs in the job market, maybe even better than producing domestic oil would. After all, the oil supply isn't infinite. Eventually people would have to be laid off as our oil dwindled away. Why not just start with alternative energy? There is always more to research, more to develop, to further enhance solar, wind, hydroelectric, and geothermal energy.

So what did you think about the debates?

This image is from CNews.

Organize Your Fridge

Did you know refrigerators are the largest consumers of energy in your home? At first when I heard this fact, I was surprised, but then I thought about it. They have to keep their temperature freezing cold all day and all night long, no matter what the surrounding temperature is. Not only that, but many times a day people open the doors and stare at the innards, wondering what to eat (I know I'm guilty of this.) Lastly, hot food is sometimes placed into the fridge, which consumes even more energy in order to cool down the food.

Here are some tips I have found all over the web, including from Helium, Associated Content, and Consumer Energy.

1. Don't put hot food directly into the fridge. This not only uses up more energy, but also is an unsafe practice for foods such as chicken and fish.

2. Keep your fridge full! This helps it keep a cool temperature. You can place ice packs or water-filled containers inside too. But don't completely stuff it, because this may interfere with air flow.

3. Switch off features such as ice makers when not in use. These add-ons can increase your energy usage by 20%.

4. Check door seals to make sure they shut tightly. You can easily test this by sliding in a dollar bill between the door and shutting it. If the dollar slides out smoothly, the seal is not closing tight enough.

5. Think about what you want to grab out and on what shelf it is located before opening the fridge door, instead of standing mindlessly at the open fridge. Hopefully this will make the process faster.

6. Label leftovers if you keep them in Tupperware so you can easily grab and shut.

7. Keep the coils clean. This practice can improve efficiency by up to 30%.

8. The fridge should be between 36 to 38 degrees Fahrenheit. Any colder and you are probably just wasting energy. The freezer should be around 3 degrees.

9. Brush off dust around the condenser under the fridge to encourage air flow.

10. Consider removing the refrigerator lights if there is already plenty of light in the room.

I know this is an area that I can definitely improve on, and I hope you all will find some of these tips helpful as well! This image is from Corbis.

Find a Carpool Buddy!

Seriously, carpooling is one of the easiest ways to save money and reduce air pollution from car exhaust. I carpool with friend(s) to school every day. Once you get a schedule set, it's really quite easy and becomes routine. The difficult part is actually finding someone who lives near you, travels where you are going, and has the same schedule. Well, some websites are here to help!

This website, eRideShare.com, claims to be the "top" site of its kind in the world. It has worldwide coverage and a large user base. So if you don't live in the U.S., maybe this should be the link you check out.

Carpool Connect seems a very simple. All you do is enter in your address and destination. The site brings up a list of people that have descriptions matching some of the keywords of your search. It's not the most effective - I typed in Richmond to DC and got someone pretty close (Richmond to Arlington) but they were last updated two years ago. Well, its pretty simple, so there's no harm in giving it a try.

Carpool World has a large database with over 70,000 registered trips.

RideSearch is another similar website that also has a gas calculator to see how much you save.

Of course, always take precautions when contacting someone over the internet. Check up on the person, arrange a meeting beforehand with a third party, let someone know where you are going and when you will be there, etc. Better safe than sorry.

And another advantage? You can take those special carpool only lanes on highways and avoid some traffic! This image is from Commuter Connections. So, have any of you ever tried carpooling?

Beware of Exotic Species

Do you have a parrot in your home? How about some sort of tropical plant, or a flower not native to the area? If you do, please keep track of them!

Introduced species are one of the main reasons for decreasing biodiversity. When organisms that are not native to an area are let out into the environment, they have no natural predators and may quickly spread. Of course, not all species can be established in an area. On average, out of every 10 introduced species, 1 will become established. Out of 10 established species, 1 will become a "pest." This is known as the Tens Rule.

These "pests" can out-compete native animals and plants, and completely change the structure of an ecosystem. Examples of introduced species include the African Honey Bee, which preys on North American bees and has really destroyed a great part of the honey-making industry, and Kudzu, which has really taken over a lot of plant communities. Zebra Mussels too, have threatened the biodiversity in the Great Lakes.

So, don't just let your pets or plants out into the wild if you don't feel like keeping them any more! You never know what may happen.

This image is from The Hedonistic Imperative.