Reducing hunger, building vocabulary

It's the week before Christmas, when charities are sending out more requests for help and you probably don't feel like working. Alleviate both issues with this website freerice.com.

I heard about it on NPR this morning and I've already killed a few too many minutes doing "research." (The highest level I've made it to so far is 41 out of 50.) The website is set up as a vocabulary quiz. For every question you get right, they donate 20 grains of rice to a UN World Food Program. Have fun.

Ode to the Internet

As I connected e-mailed an article and photos using a lap top a cell card in the Natchitoches Events Center this evening, I couldn't help but think about the wonders of the Internet. It has changed our lives and the way we reporters and photographers do journalism.

I think it's only appropriate to show you USA Today's list of 25 things that changed the Internet. This is part of the newspaper's 25th birthday celebration, culminating Sept. 15.

Happy birthday, USA Today. And to the Internet... wow.

(The photo is from the Associated Press: Richard Stengel, editor of Time, holds the magazine's Person of the Year edition in December. The magazine named anyone who used or created content on the World Wide Web as the 2006 winner.)