What Will the New Year Bring?

You can count down to watch the ball drop — or count down with oracles and fortunes for a peek at the New Year! Here are my picks for the top 10 online prediction sites:

1. Bella Ball: a twist on the copyrighted Magic Less-than-nine, More-than-seven ball
2. Buddha Oracle: concentrate then pick a dot, whic will transform into a lotus with a cryptic reading
3. Dragon Predictions: toss a real coin and let Dragon interpret the results
4. Fortune Cookies: a calorie-free cookie and fortune!
5. Magical Smoking Head of Bob: also a variation on the magic you-know-what ball. Ask a Yes or No answer and receive answers in the familiar format
6. Oracle of Apollo: modeled on the classic Delphic oracle
7. Tarot Card reading from “What’s the Deal?” A fun flash-animated reading. It needs more graphics, but I like the upbeat orientation
8. Whack on the Side of the Head: click on Roger Van Oech’s head and paradigm-shifting card appears
9. Wishing Well: make a wish and toss a cyber coin, with a satisfying “plunk!”
10. Your 2008 Horoscope, from the always insightful Cafe Astrology
    

Happy New Year!

Enjoy this post? Click here to subscribe.

Track Santa’s Journey with NORAD

This is one of my favorite Christmas Eve activities. Each year NORAD (the North American Aerospace Defense Command) allows visitors to log on to their web site as they track Santa on his journey to deliver gifts to girls and boys around the world. This is fun for kids and grown-ups alike, and NORAD is careful not to break the mystery and wonder that is Santa.

The tracking begins at 2 a.m. (Mountain Time) on December 24. Click here to check Santa’s progress!

Enjoy this post? Click here to subscribe.

Time for Toons

The skies are gray, weeks of piled-up snow has begin to turn black and gritty. We need a happy infusion. It’s definitely time for cartoons! I thought of posting a cartoon Thursday Thirteen Things, but that was going to be a LOT of video! Herewith, then, just two of my favorites (but worth at LEAST 13 laughs): the Dali-esque “Porky in Wackyland” (Dir.: Robert Clampett, 1938, 7:22 min). And Bugs Bunny and Hoboken Penguin in “8 Ball Bunny” (Dir.: Chuck Jones, 1950, 7:08 min.). and Enjoy!

Porky In Wackyland

8 Ball Bunny

Enjoy this post? Click here to subscribe.

CNN Everyday Heroes: Wow

I’ve been down on CNN ever since they fired Aaron Brown. But a special that’s re-airing frequently this weekend has brought the network back into my good graces. CNN Heroes brings together an awe-inspiring group of “everyday superheroes.” Here’s a link to the companion web site, which profiles these amazing (and I don’t use that adjective lightly) men and women — most of whom view themselves as just average folks — who have done stunning things for their fellow humans over the past year. I can’t recommend this program enough.

And to make a good night even better: Sheryl Crow’s gripping rendition of Shine Babylon. I also like the music video version of the song, featured on her web site, which I’m including below.

Enjoy this post? Click here to subscribe.

13 Things: Free Ways to Give Back on the Web

In the spirit of Thirteen Thursdays, and the holiday month, here are 13 terrific ways to give back, for free, on the web. (For a 14th, check out Free Rice in an earlier post.):

1. Kiehls’ Click for Greenland (global warming)
2. The Hunger Site
3. The Child Health Site
4. The Breast Cancer Site
5. The Literacy Site
6. The Rainforest Site
7. The Animal Rescue Site
8. Care2’s Race to Stop Global Warming: Carbon Offset
9. Care 2’s Race to Save the Oceans
10. Sign a Petition at Care2
11. Send an email message for Human Rights at Amnesty International
12. Place a prayer in the Wailing Wall in Jerusalm, via email
13. Donate to charity with each web search at GoodSearch
    

Enjoy this post? Click here to subscribe.

Smart Cars

Nineteen years and counting. That’s how long I’ve been car-free. Living in New York City — no need. And now in grad school — no afford! With excellent public transportation and our favorite community car-sharing service, a car is an easy expense to do without. And yet . . . the new Smart Car piques my interest, just because it’s so darn cute. Probably not practical, and I worry it would cry when confronted by a big bully of a SUV. But you’'ve gotta give it style points.

Equally intriguing, Time magazine’s Best Inventions of 2007 article, which includes a CitiCar prototype from MIT. Intended to work like bike sharing in European countries: pick up one of these space-saving “stackable cards” at an airport or train station, drop it off at an approved location in town. Will this change the face of car ownership in the U.S.? Will manufacturers of the cute SmartCars realize that a lower price tag might be even cuter?

Enjoy this post? Click here to subscribe.

Is Burger King “Penny Foolish”?

Today’s New York Times ran a terrific Op-Ed piece, “Penny Foolish.” (Thank you to our friend the World Traveler for the heads-up!) Turns out the King isn’t so generous when it comes to treating farm workers fairly. Here’s an excerpt:

“In 2005, Florida tomato pickers gained their first significant pay raise since the late 1970s when Taco Bell ended a consumer boycott by agreeing to pay an extra penny per pound for its tomatoes, with the extra cent going directly to the farm workers. Last April, McDonald’s agreed to a similar arrangement, increasing the wages of its tomato pickers to about 77 cents per bucket. But Burger King, whose headquarters are in Florida, has adamantly refused to pay the extra penny — and its refusal has encouraged tomato growers to cancel the deals already struck with Taco Bell and McDonald’s... ”

A penny? C’mon. How cheap can one get? The Coalition of Immokalee Workers is marching on Burger King’s corporate headquarters tomorrow in Miami, to protest this silliness. Not in Florida? Our friends at Sojourners have posted a link that allows you to send an email message directly to Burger King executives urging them to treat farm workers fairly.

Subscribe to jengaworld

The Rice Game

I’ve been busy lately at my public blog, Daily Mitzvah, and neglecting my personal blog over here. But I just discovered something worth blogging about: The Rice Game! This web site takes “click to give” to new levels. The fascination is a vocabulary game: choose the correct definition for a word, “win” 20 grains of rice for the United Nations World Food Program. (Beginning today, the site has raised its correct-word donation from 10 to 20 grains of rice. So an auspicious day to blog about them!) Does 20 grains per word really amount to much? Yesterday’s total: 187,906,380 grains of rice donated. Killing time, word play, games, and giving to a good cause. What could be better?

Play the Rice Game today — you’ll be hooked!

Subscribe to jengaworld

Welcome to jengaworld!

Hello and welcome to my first blog post! If you have found your way here, you are quite the explorer!

Today I am all about Kiva, the terrific organization that allows individuals to help fund microloans to low-income entrepreneurs around the world. You'll see a changing photo of a Kiva entrepreneur on the right side of the blog each day. For as little as US $25, anyone can help fund a Kiva microloan. I am currently participating in microloans to two terrific female entrenreneurs: Mabel in Benin City, Nigeria, who sells soft drinks and pepper soup to neighbors and travelers; and Eang in rural Cambodia (above), who runs a small outdoor grocery in front of her home.

I first became interested in microcredit when Muhammad Yunus and the Grameen Bank won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006. And now thanks to Kiva, anyone can get involved as a mirocredit lender.

Today's mitzvah: check out Kiva.

What’s new in jengaworld?