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Entertainment, Edutainment, Enrichment ™
Sep 2012

Back to School Edition

In this edition


Beautiful Fall Colors
Image credit: backgroundpictures.org

Editor's Desk

Where does US stand on the World's Education ranking?

Bill Dodds once quoted, "Labor Day is a glorious holiday because your child will be going back to school the next day. It would have been called Independence Day, but that name was already taken." It is back to school time, again. If there had been no school then the parents would have been stressed beyond their limits!

Humor aside, we all know education is a serious business. Unfortunately, United States does not do very well on the world's education ranking. In a 2010 study conducted by OECD of 60 countries, US ranks 14th in Reading, 25th in Math and 17th in Science. Countries like South Korea, Finland, Canada, New Zealand, Japan and Australia occupy the leader positions. (Sorry, India is not part of the OECD study group.) On the IQ level US ranks 9th in the world behind Singapore, South Korea, Canada and others. Despite all this gloomy rankings, US still leads in the College education. In a study conducted by Universitas 21, US was ranked first followed by Sweden, Canada, Finland and Denmark. This ranking was based on the number of publications produced and participation level.

Truthfully, Statistics are so malleable that you can bend the way you want with your data collection and context parameters. At the end of the day, the purpose of education is to liberate one's mind, to see things which has not been seen, to connect things which has not been connected and to create things which can fulfill human needs. Not everything of the above can be taught at school. One has to go beyond the book of knowledge to gain the necessary wisdom! As Al McGuire said, "I think everyone should go to college and get a degree and then spend six months as a bartender and six months as a cabdriver. Then they would really be educated" ! Are you ready for such an extreme suggestion?

In this edition, we have hand picked humors,thoughts and songs on "School" theme to coincide with our "Back to School" month.. In the health section we have covered information and new researches about foods and low calorie diets. In addition we have picked some beautiful fall pictures to add color to this issue. Last, but not the least, take our "Pirate lingo's primer" to learn to talk like a pirate in your day to day conversation. Read, enjoy and share with your network!

  • In the Brain-tickler category:
    • Talk like a Pirate! The 5 As you must know ...
  • In the Health Topic section:
    • Learn about Food and gaining beauty by good health in the article "Food for thought!"
    • Learn about longevity study in the article- "Low calorie diet = Long Life?: Is Calorie reduction beneficial?"
  • In the English Song category:
    • Listen to our English song Picks - Night theme!
    • Listen to the picked songs continuously with our Jukebox!
  • In the Seriously Funny section:
    • Watch the clip - "It is the most wonderful time of the year!"
    • Read the humor, "Teaching Math ... a timeline!"
    • Read the humor, "Moneywise ..."
  • In the Surfboard section:
    • Read the thought "I did not know how to teach, until ..."
  • In the Tamil Picks section:
    • Enjoy the 10 Tamil songs picked out of 15 songs we reviewed for 'Tamil Songs: Back to School(Pallikoodam, Kalvi) picks.
    • new Anniversary Special: Enjoy the video picks continuously, on-demand in our new video channel.
    • Listen to the 15 best songs for 'Tamil Songs: Back to School (Pallikoodam, Kalvi) theme.
  • In the Recipe Spot section:
    • Learn how to make "Bengali Style Egg Plant Fry" at home.
  • Nuggets:
    • Don't miss to reflect on the thought and humor nuggets.
      - "You have 40 minutes to write an essay on a football match ..."- in Editor's desk section
      - "Your body is a baggage" and "Neglecting the diet ...." - in Health section
      - "It is easy to tell ..." - in Surfboard section
      - "Is education expensive?"- in Reader's footprint section
      - "Educated common sense ..." - in Your feedback section
  • Get Inspired by watching the video "You are the limit. Break your limit."

As always, we are very confident that you will enjoy our picks. Write your feedback about this issue by clicking on the email icon. We value your opinion, thoughts and time.


You have 40 minutes to write an essay on a football match ...


Image credit:wittyjester.com



Teacher: Students, you have forty minutes to write an essay on a football match.
Student: (After few minutes) Here’s my paper, sir.
Teacher: What did you manage to write so quickly?
Student: Match called off due to rain.



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