It has been just over a year since I learned about the site Free Rice. I got addicted, then forgot about it. Now I am reminded of it again and getting readdicted.

Free Rice is fun and feeds the poor around the world. You play educational games and for every answer you get right, rice is donated to feed the hungry. Last night my wife and I had a nerdy good time with world capitals, chemical symbols and famous paintings, and in the process donated some 16,000 grains of rice to feed the hungry. Given that sometimes I get addicted to this kind of nerdy game anyway, it''s nice to be able to feed some people as well.

Do you know the capitals of Uzbekistan and Tajikistan? How about the difference between a Fanz Hals and a Bruegel? Learn math, science, Spanish, French, famous paintings, etc. while helping to feed the hungry. What could be better?  read more »

November 15th--L.I.V.E. World Summit 2008

The L.I.V.E. World Summit 2008 will take place at the Millennium Broadway in New York City on Saturday, November 15, 2008, from 8:00am-6:00pm. The L.I.V.E. World Summit offers industry leaders, innovators, social entrepreneurs, and student leaders with an opportunity to focus on solutions to some of the most pressing problems facing America and the world today: climate change and the environment, poverty and sustainable development, economic growth and stability, global health, energy and power, food and water crises, empowering women, and education.

Join SSBx's Executive Director, Miquela Craytor for her panel on Green Development: Best Practices in Sustainability Around the World

Other speakers include:
Alexandra Cousteau, Founder, Blue Legacy; Co-Founder, EarthEcho, National Geographic Emerging Explorer

Bruce Wrobel, Chairman & CEO, Sithe Global; CEO, Seacom and Global Alumina, Founder & Chairman, All for Africa

Connie Duckworth, Founder & President, Arzu, Inc.; Former Partner, Goldman Sachs.

Dina Powell, Managing Director & Global Head of Corporate Engagement Goldman Sachs  read more »

I hate it when Mayor Bloombertg does something right. Lucky for me, when, as here, he takes a positive step, he does it in a negative way. So the good news is also the bad news.

As long hinted, Mayor Bloomberg has taken the useful, if somewhat technical, step or implementing for NYC planning purposes a somewhat more realistic definition of “poverty.” Announced by Deputy Mayor Linda Gibbs at the annual convention of the NAACP, the new formula will take into account some actual costs of living unlike the previous standard still used by the Federal Government (a jury-rigged, back-of-the envelope calculation accidentally frozen into federal law). The New York Times account is here , the Washington Post's is here and Gail Robinson's Gotham Gazette squib is here. The result of the Bloomberg rejiggering is that there are now, by NYC count, somewhat more poor people and somewhat fewer extremely poor people. (Why? Because the new model counts as income government benefits such as food stamps and Medicaid)The NY Post's amazing take after the jump.

The bad news?  read more »

A friend, who counsels food pantry customers, tells me that – as the winter progresses – she has noticed increasing numbers of desperate, hungry and homeless “nouveaux poor.” They are formerly middle-class and working people who are have become surplus. They bring to mind the powerful Phil Ochs song There But For Fortune because, like many of us, they were just one illness, one job, one drink, one cop from disaster. (To see Phil Ochs sing his song in a time-warp 1967 Bitter End Video click here , or, for a somewhat downtempo take by Peter, Paul & Mary (1982), here.)

In this context, are you disturbed to see Mayor Bloomberg media boosters cranking out copy concerning his miserable skirmish on poverty? Tuesday’s New York Times, for example, features an editorial Mayor Bloomberg Tackles Poverty praising efforts which, to my mind, are microscopic, half-hearted and feeble.  read more »

Because spin, data manipulation and misleading statements seem so crucial to Mayor Bloomberg’s policies and practices, it’s as shocking as an ice cold shower when the NYC shifts to realistic data collection for policy planning. Evidence-based planning, absent elsewhere in Mr. Bloomberg’s universe (about which I will post shortly), is being introduced by NYC’s Center on Economic Opportunity. . It galls me to say it, but, Mayor Bloomberg and his Deputy Linda Gibbs deserve praise for this effort. Update: Late December New York Times report is here .  read more »