I’ve posted quite a few times about various web tools that allow students to type in words or sentences and then have the computer “verbalize” them. You can find the best of these sites at The Best Reference Websites For English Language Learners — 2008. They’re excellent applications for English Language Learners to help develop pronunciation skills.

Now, here’s the weirdest text-to-speech site ever — Talk To The Plant.

Heinz Ketchup is sponsoring this site that is supposed to determine if talking to a tomato plant will make it grow larger.

On the site you see a picture of two plants (one is a “control” plant).  You type in a “message of love” to the non-control one  and both you and that plant hear it spoken.  You can see for yourself if these “messages of love” have made a difference.

Of course, it could also be a rather unusual way to either introduce or reinforce some of the methodologies of scientific experimentation.