GASTRONORMOUS

Pancakes II: Pancakes for your Face is equal parts catchy music, fun stop-motion animation, and slightly obtuse humor; sort of like Peter Garbriel’s “Big Time” video crossed with a Mentos commercial. And that can’t help but be sort of awesome.

(The video shows how to make what the British call pancakes, but the Americans and French call crêpes–finally, something we agree on!)

Free Rice is an ingenious website that offers a multiple-choice vocabulary test for which every correct answer donates 20 grains of rice to be distributed by the United Nations World Food Program. The donations are paid for by advertisers seen in a banner at the bottom of the page. The FAQ page states that vocabulary levels go up through 55, but that few people go above 48. If that isn’t a challenge, I don’t know what is!