David Goldenberg

Pretty cool that both the IMDb Trivia app, which I wrote the...

Wed, 15 Feb 2012 22:08:02 -0500

Pretty cool that both the IMDb Trivia app, which I wrote the content for, and the Real or Onion Lite App, which I helped design and build, are both in the top 20 for Trivia Apps in the App Store.

The Real or Onion Lite App

Thu, 09 Feb 2012 19:28:34 -0500

This week, we released the new, free version of Gelf’s Real or Onion iPhone app. Lucky for us, it coincided with the hilarious news that Louisiana Congressman John Fleming thought that The Onion’s story about the Planned Parenthood Abortionplex was real. (We would never have included that story in our own game, as it’s just too ridiculous.)

If you dont have access to an iPhone, make sure to check out our Real or Onion website to see a bunch of the headlines we use.

Sports States: My New Sports Blog

Mon, 23 Jan 2012 18:09:00 -0500

Beginning in 2010, I started making a daily pilgrimage to ESPN.com to vote in the SportsNation poll on the front page of the site. Not because I necessarily cared about the issue being voted on, but because by voting I would get to see a US map of results of that poll, broken out by state. In many ways, sports fandom is one of the few vestiges of isolationism left; much of the rest of our differences has been washed away in a sea of connectedness and globalization.

I know, for example, that Boise St. fans (and thus Idahoans) passionately hate the BCS, while Southerners don’t mind an institution that has brought them so much success.

I know that fans love their favorite players long after they graduate or switch teams, and that religion can be a powerful factor for sports fans.

So, together with my brother Matthew, I’ve started collecting some of my favorite SportsNation polls of the past and present on a new blog called Sports States. Every few days, we post a poll that catches our fancy and play pop psychologist as we try to divine why fans from certain states vote the way they do.

Grate Reed: Homonym Puzzles

Thu, 12 Jan 2012 15:53:00 -0500

One of my favorite current projects is Grate Reed, a new blog about homonyms. My wife’s grandmother Laura Beck used to create fun homonym puzzles to help students in her remedial English classes. We’ve taken some of those and turned them into a visual puzzle blog. The reader gets two pictures, like those below, and has to guess what the homonym pair is:

In this case, it’s Fowl Bawl/Foul Ball. Check it out and play along. We’ll be releasing a new one each week, featuring drawings from the awesome illustrator Ben Schwartz.

The video for the new Real or Onion app. This was made for us in...

Fri, 06 Jan 2012 16:14:51 -0500

The video for the new Real or Onion app. This was made for us in less than a week by the supremely talented Andrew Iyageh.

Iron Horse Trail Walk

Tue, 27 Dec 2011 00:00:00 -0500

The Iron Horse trail is an awesome rail trail connecting Pleasanton and Walnut Creek in the East Bay. We were able to cruise the 20 miles pretty quickly, especially considering Ava got out of the stroller every few miles to join the walk.

I think I’m trying to convince Ava to smile in this photo.

Mt. Diablo Hike

Mon, 14 Nov 2011 20:00:00 -0500

Carl and I climbed all four peaks and about 16 miles in Mt Diablo State Park in the East Bay. Weirdly, the highest summit is indoors in a ranger station. Hardest part? Racing back in time to pick up Sara from work. We did not make it.

Lookin’ good at the top of the mountain.

Here’s a piece I wrote about soccer ratings for...

Sat, 10 Sep 2011 16:21:00 -0400

Here’s a piece I wrote about soccer ratings for Slate. Figuring out who started rating soccer players on a 1-10 scale was one of the deeper dives I’ve made as a reporter. I talked to about 15 soccer historians before I learned the agency responsible: Hayters. I should have guessed.

I live-blogged the Women’s World Cup for the Wall Street...

Wed, 20 Jul 2011 19:14:00 -0400

I live-blogged the Women’s World Cup for the Wall Street Journal. Fun fact: you dont get paid more for live-blogging when the game goes into extra time.

Manhattan Chocolate Walk

Sat, 11 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0400

Along with Alistair, Carl and several other folks, Iwalked roughly 13 miles visiting 15 chocolate shops and rating them on a one-to-five finger scale along the way. The fact that the stores got progressively lower scores as we walked is probably more a testament to the fact that I shouldn’t be eating 15 servings of chocolate than the actual quality of said eateries.

24 hour, 100 km Walk

Sun, 12 Apr 2009 00:00:00 -0400

Definitely one of the harder things I’ve ever been a part of. We left Park Slope at 8 pm on Friday and ended up in McCarren Park 24 hours later. We fought through blinding 3am rain in lower manhattan (see photo below), counting kilometers all the while.

Lower Haight to Mt. Tamalpais Walk

Sat, 12 Jan 2008 19:37:00 -0500

After hosting a party the night before at our house in the Lower Haight, Sara and I set off around 6 am with Carl, Cynthia, Nate, and Brannan for a 25-mile walk to the top of Mt. Tam. Highlights included the Presidio, Muir Woods, and of course finishing. Lowlights included feeling hungover for the first 5 hours of the walk.

Manhattan Pub Crawl

Tue, 10 Oct 2006 00:00:00 -0400

Starting at noon, Carl and I walked roughly 18 miles, stopping every mile or so for a beer. What’s that? You want a detailed breakdown of everywhere we went, how long spent at each place, and what we consumed along the way? Ok, weirdo. Here you go.

Go Hiking in Other Countries

Sat, 01 Jan 2005 00:00:00 -0500

on top of Mt Kilimanjaro, Tanzania (before everything melted). Here’s the PDF of an article about my trip in the New York Times Magazine.

on top of Mt. Stanley, Uganda, DRC. Here’s the PDF of an article about my trip in Uganda’s New Vision newspaper.

With Rich Wright on the top of Volcán Concepción, Nicaragua.

Teach Zambian Poachers how to Farm

Thu, 02 Jan 2003 00:00:00 -0500

I spent a year in Zambia working with the Wildlife Conservation Society near South Luangwa National Park. One of our projects involved teaching former poachers how to be better farmers so they didn’t have to risk their lives to feed their families.

Here’s an article I wrote about my work for Wildlife Conservation magazine:

Here’s an article I wrote for Legal Affairs about how poachers were created by post-colonial policies.

Study Monkeys and Chimpanzees

Wed, 01 Jan 2003 00:00:00 -0500

I studied macaques in Puerto Rico, capuchins in Nicaragua, and chimpanzees in Uganda. Here’s the Journal of Virology article I co-wrote with my BFF Jane Goodall.