Weekend Diversion: Doing Something Thankful

Saying thanks is one of the best things we can do to appreciate the good things in our lives. This goes for our partners, friends, families, coworkers, acquaintances, and for some of us, our dear readers. (Thank you all!) There are many musicians who've said thanks over the years, too, and so here's Led Zeppelin's version of Thank You from the BBC sessions.

This past Thursday was Thanksgiving in the United States, and I had a great time with some wonderful people and some outstanding food! As is "tradition," I suppose, I've been eating leftover Thanksgiving food every day since, and that will deliciously continue until it's all gone. For most of us who read this site, this is just a standard part of life. But for millions upon millions of people, it is unfathomable that food could be this abundant.

Well, there's something we can all do to help that takes almost no effort and helps you improve your skills. I present to you FreeRice.

Basically, you go to freerice.com, you pick what subject you want to learn (and the list includes Math, Chemistry, Geography, Art, and vocabulary in English, German, French, Italian, and Spanish), and it starts asking you multiple choice questions. Each answer you get right donates 10 grains of rice through the UN World Food Programme. There's no penalty for wrong answers, and the more you play, the more food gets donated.

There is a bunch to explore on the site and a myriad of neat things to try, so I hope you enjoy it! So far, since the site started in October of 2007, they have donated 71 billion grains of rice, or well over one million tonnes of uncooked rice. Need to take a five-minute break at work? Try checking out freerice, and help give complete strangers something to be thankful for!