thanks for the explanation...I go to a site that works on the same principal...It's called
the Animal Rescue Site...
every tine somone clicks on, they donate food to shelter animals...this site the Pigeon pointed out seems to have the same deal, they probably just want to make it fun to go there..sometimes its easier not to be cynical...always a challenge for me too...
The reason you need to take word tests in order for them to send rice is because new ads are loaded/displayed everytime you move on to a new word. And every ad display earns their site a certain amount of $$. Assuming they're a non-profit organization, those proceeds are used to buy rice which is then given to the needy. They're not really interested in building your vocabulary, it's just a fun way to (1) hook people into visiting the site and (2) to get visitors to repeatedly click through as many word tests (and ads) as they can. The more ads that are displayed, the more money (i.e. rice) that's generated. I suspect the advertisers also go along with it to some extent and agree to pay rates associated with number of hits (instead of fixed rates).
Yeah, I'm sure if you're a child living on the street in say, Sao Paulo, improving your vocabularly is the first thing on your mind.
Homeless child's todo list:
A: Find food
C: Find shelter
C: Improve my vocabulary.
Not to mention, the vaste majority of street children don't speak english. But hey, I'm sure they can run it through babblefish on their Dell laptops when they take a break from digging through the dump looking for food. You know, all the best dumps have WiFi.
Don't get me wrong here. Not dumping on helping starving children OR scrabble, but I do wonder about the mind of the person who wrote that little tag line. You have to admit, it is odd to the point of being humourous. The idea of sending a few grams of rice by spelling a word right just seem kinda wierd to me. Or CEO and 'streetchild' in the same sentence....
But, feeding children is a good thing, no matter how bizarre the method.
I donate to Feed the Children every now and then. Never done the monthly sponser a child thing. Rather do the one time. My brother in law has a construction company and is really religious and does a lot of habitat for humanity building. He's one of those right wing religious fanatics that actually follows through, so I admire him for that but he when he say's grace before the T-day dinner, you better have something to snack on in your pocket, because you're going to be there for a while. He's been known to actually break down in tears saying grace. I find it a bit too much, but like I say, at least he follows through with his beliefs.
Okay, I had 3,260 grains of rice on the way then a spelling bee came up and asked me to spell all the vocabulary words back and so now I think maybe 3,260 grains of rice have made a U-turn and are on their way back to Boston. ; ]
Just kidding. It was fun pigeon. Thanks.
and I-horn,
" Whether you are CEO of a large corporation or a street child in a poor country, improving your vocabulary can improve your life. It is a great investment in yourself."
Jeez, it makes good sense to me. Just imagine, a thesaurus in the hands of every street child in a poor country! No child left behind!
If you click on the 'about' button it ads this little gem:
" Whether you are CEO of a large corporation or a street child in a poor country, improving your vocabulary can improve your life. It is a great investment in yourself. "
Yeah, I busted out laughing, I admit it.
Besides, at the rate we are going we will be the third world soon.
Why don't they just send it anyway ? So some kid is starving because someone spelled a damm word wrong ?
I don't get it.
What a cool program!
love it. :)
wyn
heard about this site on public radio..thks for posting....i guess every grain helps
thanks for this, verrrrry interesting, as Maxwell Smart used to say...:)