Friday Drive In: Dave Eggers on Ted Talks

I just applied to volunteer for the New York branch of the amazing institution 826. So I thought this would be a good time to spread the word a little. The video tells the story of the organization better than I could so I'll let it do the talking.

In case you live under a literary rock, Dave Eggars, besides being the founder of 826 is also the man behind McSweeney's, "The Best American Non-Required Reading" series, and a few novels including his first and most well-known: A Heart Breaking Work of Staggering Genius.

WNYC Bake Sale Disaster

I love NPR and especially my local station in New York, WNYC. Like all public radio stations they're always asking for money but they also always make it funny and interesting. Check out this hilarious fundraising video. It even features one of my favorite public radio hosts, Jad Abumrad from the awesome show Radio Lab.

Predict the Election Outcome and win $1,000 for Charity

This is a fun game and also an interesting way to follow how voters are feeling about the election. 

Peritus Pundit asks you to guess who will win, Obama or McCain, in which states by filling in a map of the US. 

After the Closing Date, all eligible entries will be compared against the Final Results on: 1) the winner of the popular vote of the Election; and 2) the winner of the popular vote of the Election in each state. The entry that contains the most answers that are closest to the Final Results will win first prize. The entries that contain the second and third most accurate answers will win second and third prize respectively.
First Prize: Peritus Pundit donates $1000 to a charity of choice (Chosen Charity) and send you a crystal bowl (retail value $225).

Second Prize: Peritus Pundit donates $500 to the Chosen Charity.

Third Prize: Peritus Pundit donates $250 to the Chosen Charity.

One of the coolest features is a map showing the average predictions. Obviously it's impossible to know how accurate or inaccurate of a sample population it represents, but it's still pretty darn interesting.

Use Your Brain to Feed the Hungry

No, I'm not talking about zombies...

Free Rice asks you vocabulary questions and for each one you get right, 10 grains of rice are donated to end world hunger.

Thanks to Gina Pensiero of Brooklyn, NY for letting us know about this great site. Gina's band Umberto is currently recoding a new album. You can hear some of her tracks on her Virb page.