Free Rice

I just donated 250 grains of rice to the UN... http://www.freerice.com/. They give you a word and you click on the matching word. They donate 10 grains of rice for each correct word. You can go up to vocabulary level 50, I stopped at 46 or 47. I'll go back and try again later.

One Laptop Per Child

Want a cheap laptop for a kid and want to have one sent to empower a child to learn in a developing nation? One Laptop One Child has a deal where you buy a laptop for $399 and they will send one to a child in a developing nation. This was originally known as the One Hundred Dollar Laptop Initiative. It has a 7.5" screen and a bright green case, so it's not designed to appeal to adults. It might be useful as an ebook reader, or (because it's very rugged and has very long battery life) it might be something you can take on a camping trip so you can type your journal.

2007 Nobel Conference

I'm at the the 43rd Nobel Conference at Gustavus Adolpus College. The topic this year is "Heating Up: The Energy Debate". We have heard about peek oil, bio-fuels, and global warming from scientists. Now we are about to hear from an economist. Tonight Will Steger will speak during the banquet (which is sold out, but I JUST managed to get a ticket to). There are 6,500 people here (not including the Gustavus students).

The message everyone is saying..."There are things we can do...it isn't going to bankrupt us...call your representative today!"

Next years topic...."Who Were the First Humans?"...

"Who were the first humans? Where did they come from? How did they live? These questions have traditionally been the domain of paleontologists and anthropologists studying fossils and pottery shards, More recently, molecular biologists, population geneticists, evolutionary biologists, evolutionary psychologists, paleoclimatologists, and even cognitive archeologists have added their unique scientific views to these questions as well." (first paragraph of the description of next years topic).