You are now reading at high-school level

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My friend Beth stumbled across a Web site that ranks the readability of blogs. What level of education is required to understand your favorite blog? Type in the URL here, and voilà! It tells you the reading level. The site actually rates any Web site, not just blogs. So, dear readers of FP Passport, you will be glad to know that you are currently reading at high-school level. You are officially more edumacated than those who only look at the ForeignPolicy.com home page without delving into the blog. They read at a junior high-school level.

What about the readability level of some other popular Web sites out there? New York Times (junior high school), Washington Post (high school), Financial Times (genius), Economist (genius), Arms Control Wonk (college undergrad), Andrew Sullivan's Daily Dish (high school), Daniel Drezner's blog (high school), the State Department's Dipnote (high school), and the Huffington Post (junior high school). 

And the readability of the home pages of presidential candidates? Here are a few: Hillary Clinton (elementary school), Rudy Giuliani (genius), Barack Obama (genius), Mitt Romney (elementary school), John Edwards (genius! His blog, however, is at junior high-school level), John McCain (junior high school).

This silliness reminds of a Web site that was all the rage a few years ago: The Dialectizer. Type in a URL, and the site will translate it into your choice of dialects, including "redneck," "jive," and "cockney." The headine and intro for The List on FP's Web site this week, translated into Elmer Fudd-speak, reads: "De Wist: Five Weasons to Be Dankfuw Dis Danksgiving." Oh, dat scwewy wabbit!

Hat tip: BKNY 2.0 (elementary school)