There was a poll not many years ago, and a huge percentage (can't remember what it was, but it was really large) couldn't find Russia -- RUSSIA! -- on a world map. Americans' lack of knowledge about the rest of the world -- heck lack of knowledge about America itself -- cannot be overestimated.
Heck, when Sarah Palin was being prepped for the debates in 2008 they had to explain to her where Germany was, that they were part of the Axis in WWII, etc. Really scary.
This is from 2006, but if anything it's most likely gotten worse:
I mean, COME ON! How can nearly half of Americans aged 18-24 not be able to find India?! I mean, ooh, if it were like Montenegro or Andorra or something, even say Serbia, I could understand. But not only is India a HUGE country, it is also very distinctive looking. And not knowing where Louisiana is? Give me a break. You have to either live in your basement 24/7 doing nothing but playing Xbox or be partially retarded.
60%+ of all High school graduating seniors routinely can't name Washington D.C., as the capital of The United States of America, nor find it on a map.
I've always wanted to see a weighted distribution mapping cause I'd wager some parts of the US are heavily skewing this metric.
Meanwhile is Arizona... "Eeeuuu... Eeee rep... eeerp, Erp!!"
Speaking of Arizona, the proper name of `Tew-Sahn' (Tucson) is `Tewk-Sun' and the only person to ever say it correctly is the chief representing the natives in that area.
Then there is `War-sheeng- tun' DC, instead of `Wah-sheeng-tun', DC.
A company like Apple that is supposed to be a producer of premium products puts out a buggy release of Safari and you think that is being focused. Hell, some developers have even called the release "sloppy".
... and that's okay with you.
Pet peeve? Okay, man, sure... whatever.
Describe the showstopper bugs you're eluding to; and have you tested the WebKit Nightlies of late? The huge gutting of the trunk has purged a lot of crap from Google and company.
Describe the showstopper bugs you're eluding to; and have you tested the WebKit Nightlies of late? The huge gutting of the trunk has purged a lot of crap from Google and company.
Why I ever would bother to respond to you, I have no idea. But here goes.
GOOG needs to gain about $70bn on AAPL. Sorry, that's pretty unlikely.
And GOOG did not blow by XOM. GOOG is still behind XOM, though by only $200M.
Gaining $70Bn on AAPL is not unlikely at all. GOOG just need to gain 10% and AAPL to lose 10% (and remember that AAPL is up some 35% from its lows of last year).
"Europe was a name that somebody came up with for Americans who didn't understand that Europe was a lot of countries that weren't like U.S. states. They were very different."
I was born in 1963, which is in the range of Tim. As I think about how I learned about Europe, I remember my elementary school teachers repeating Europe was made up of individual countries not states. This part of Tim's remark is enough for my historical memory.
Europe did not happen until 1957. In grade school, Tim could have been taught what he said in the first part of his statement. Without completely sticking with adult knowledge to make his point, he could have momentarily picked up his childhood lessons.
Since the WSJ is only publishing an edited interview we cannot know EXACTLY what Tim said.
Special note... Elementary vs. grade was done only because I am from the North and Tim is from the South. I remember my Southern cousins saying grade school while we said elementary school in the North. Hopefully this will prevent a flame war.
Europe did not happen until 1957? Did Charlemagne get the memo?
Europe did not happen until 1957? Did Charlemagne get the memo?
I know you did not read my other explanation about 1957. Take a moment to do so. I will edit my first post with a link to the second post to prevent further responses like this one ????
One way to show him off would be to present evidence -- even vaguely related to such views -- that counters his point of view. Do you have any?
His point of view being that southerners as a group are a bunch of ignorant rednecks (where by "ignorant" I mean "more so than the rest of the country"). Does one really need evidence to prove him wrong? What if he had said "I am guessing it is all those Indian immigrants skewing the metric"? Would you have given him a reasoned explanation, or just told him to go **** himself?
No, Apple doesn’t have to turn its customers into whores.
They already did, Sherlock and of course they have their unified search patents, which have been successfully used against Google's lesser Android offerings.
His point of view being that southerners as a group are a bunch of ignorant rednecks (where by "ignorant" I mean "more so than the rest of the country"). Does one really need evidence to prove him wrong? What if he had said "I am guessing it is all those Indian immigrants skewing the metric"? Would you have given him a reasoned explanation, or just told him to go **** himself?
Heh heh. Good one.
I would have asked him for evidence, as I usually do. I would not called him (or you) a 'bigoted asshole'.
And if the evidence convincingly pointed to Indian immigrants skewing the metric, I would (hopefully) have turned the discussion to try to examine why.
I would have asked him for evidence, as I usually do. I would not called him (or you) a 'bigoted asshole'.
And if the evidence convincingly pointed to Indian immigrants skewing the metric, I would (hopefully) have turned the discussion to try to examine why.
I think the larger questions are whether it is worth one's time arguing with bigots, and whether it is worthwhile calling them out (on being bigots). My opinion (fairly obviously) is that the answers are "no" and "yes", in that order. The "yes", because it is important to establish who you are dealing with and the "no" because bigotry is an emotional/religious (in a broader sense) phenomenon, and reason simply does not work, as in the ancient proverb: never try teaching a pig to sing; it wastes your time and annoys the pig. However, if you have reason to believe that either the OP is a logical person, or that your skills with swine transcend ancient wisdom, you certainly have my blessing (not that you need it) to try.
I think the larger questions are whether it is worth one's time arguing with bigots, and whether it is worthwhile calling them out (on being bigots). My opinion (fairly obviously) is that the answers are "no" and "yes", in that order. The "yes", because it is important to establish who you are dealing with and the "no" because bigotry is an emotional/religious (in a broader sense) phenomenon, and reason simply does not work, as in the ancient proverb: never try teaching a pig to sing; it wastes your time and annoys the pig. However, if you have reason to believe that either the OP is a logical person, or that your skills with swine transcend ancient wisdom, you certainly have my blessing (not that you need it) to try.
Actually, I can point to a lot of evidence that Southeastern states in the US do lag the rest of the country on a wide variety of developmental, educational, social, and survey-based metrics of beliefs (esp. those regarding scientific evidence).
I’d be very happy to point you to a list, but it’ll probably have to be tomorrow. I think I am going to go watch the women’s moguls now…
What's wrong with lacking curiosity? Why should Americans need to know where Russia is? I don't find it at all sad or disturbing.
Stupidity and ignorance are not positive qualities. .....
Do you have any idea how difficult it is to truly, fully appreciate practically anything if you live in near complete ignorance?
As Zappa once noted, "stupidity has a certain charm; ignorance does not."
As Dean Wormer (Animal House) said to Bluto Blutarsky: "Fat, drunk, and stupid is no way to go through life, son."
Also: “You can't be a real country unless you have a beer and an airline - it helps if you have some kind of football team, or some nuclear weapons, but in the very least you need a beer.” - Frank Zappa
I thought the Europe analogy was counterproductive, seeing as we have technological marvels like the LHC, and ESA's Planck mission, as well as Concorde and a host of individual bits of genius wedded to history like BMW and Porsche and on and on. Using Europe sort of bigs up Android.
Yeah, and like history, they don't teach anything about the rest of the world in most schools anymore. And so many Americans lack any curiosity about anything at all outside of sports and the Kardashians. It's really pretty scary, if you think about it, this near total lack of interest in anything.
I mean, imagine someone who can't recognize Russia on a world map, cannot recognize the WORLD'S LARGEST COUNTRY! I mean, the thing's only 6.5M sq. miles and 9 times zones across. I also remember a survey of Americans during the Cold War (so obviously this was a while ago) where a MAJORITY of Americans believed that we fought *against* the Soviets in WWII.
It's all very, very sad and disturbing.
I'm always surprised how many people have advice for Americans. I'm not saying we couldn't use it, but we're no different than any other country. I don't see corrections about the Nigerians mass machete killings of Christians in a random comment, or the fgm type III (female genital mutilation) practices of Muslims across all northeastern Africa, where they leave a hole small enough to use the restroom and then reopen the wound for intercourse. I do hear about how Americans should learn more geography and other problems. But then, without your help these Americans may not have been smart enough to write the software we're all using to leave comments on these phones of ours, or tablets/desktops/laptops? I mean if you think about it, why is there never any advice for Sweden? Or Chile?
Comments
There was a poll not many years ago, and a huge percentage (can't remember what it was, but it was really large) couldn't find Russia -- RUSSIA! -- on a world map. Americans' lack of knowledge about the rest of the world -- heck lack of knowledge about America itself -- cannot be overestimated.
Heck, when Sarah Palin was being prepped for the debates in 2008 they had to explain to her where Germany was, that they were part of the Axis in WWII, etc. Really scary.
This is from 2006, but if anything it's most likely gotten worse:
I mean, COME ON! How can nearly half of Americans aged 18-24 not be able to find India?! I mean, ooh, if it were like Montenegro or Andorra or something, even say Serbia, I could understand. But not only is India a HUGE country, it is also very distinctive looking. And not knowing where Louisiana is? Give me a break. You have to either live in your basement 24/7 doing nothing but playing Xbox or be partially retarded.
60%+ of all High school graduating seniors routinely can't name Washington D.C., as the capital of The United States of America, nor find it on a map.
I've always wanted to see a weighted distribution mapping cause I'd wager some parts of the US are heavily skewing this metric.
Meanwhile is Arizona... "Eeeuuu... Eeee rep... eeerp, Erp!!"
Speaking of Arizona, the proper name of `Tew-Sahn' (Tucson) is `Tewk-Sun' and the only person to ever say it correctly is the chief representing the natives in that area.
Then there is `War-sheeng- tun' DC, instead of `Wah-sheeng-tun', DC.
Are you shittin' me?
A company like Apple that is supposed to be a producer of premium products puts out a buggy release of Safari and you think that is being focused. Hell, some developers have even called the release "sloppy".
... and that's okay with you.
Pet peeve? Okay, man, sure... whatever.
Describe the showstopper bugs you're eluding to; and have you tested the WebKit Nightlies of late? The huge gutting of the trunk has purged a lot of crap from Google and company.
Describe the showstopper bugs you're eluding to; and have you tested the WebKit Nightlies of late? The huge gutting of the trunk has purged a lot of crap from Google and company.
How many links are you prepared to read today?
Why I ever would bother to respond to you, I have no idea. But here goes.
GOOG needs to gain about $70bn on AAPL. Sorry, that's pretty unlikely.
And GOOG did not blow by XOM. GOOG is still behind XOM, though by only $200M.
Gaining $70Bn on AAPL is not unlikely at all. GOOG just need to gain 10% and AAPL to lose 10% (and remember that AAPL is up some 35% from its lows of last year).
"Europe was a name that somebody came up with for Americans who didn't understand that Europe was a lot of countries that weren't like U.S. states. They were very different."
I was born in 1963, which is in the range of Tim. As I think about how I learned about Europe, I remember my elementary school teachers repeating Europe was made up of individual countries not states. This part of Tim's remark is enough for my historical memory.
Europe did not happen until 1957. In grade school, Tim could have been taught what he said in the first part of his statement. Without completely sticking with adult knowledge to make his point, he could have momentarily picked up his childhood lessons.
Since the WSJ is only publishing an edited interview we cannot know EXACTLY what Tim said.
Special note... Elementary vs. grade was done only because I am from the North and Tim is from the South. I remember my Southern cousins saying grade school while we said elementary school in the North. Hopefully this will prevent a flame war.
Europe did not happen until 1957? Did Charlemagne get the memo?
60%+ of all High school graduating seniors routinely can't name Washington D.C., as the capital of The United States of America, nor find it on a map.
I've always wanted to see a weighted distribution mapping cause I'd wager the Southeastern part of the US is heavily skewing this metric.
Oooh, being a bigoted asshole, are we?
I know you did not read my other explanation about 1957. Take a moment to do so. I will edit my first post with a link to the second post to prevent further responses like this one ????
Oooh, being a bigoted asshole, are we?
He could be that, or he could be right.
One way to show him off would be to present evidence -- even vaguely related to such views -- that counters his point of view. Do you have any?
He could be that, or he could be right.
One way to show him off would be to present evidence -- even vaguely related to such views -- that counters his point of view. Do you have any?
His point of view being that southerners as a group are a bunch of ignorant rednecks (where by "ignorant" I mean "more so than the rest of the country"). Does one really need evidence to prove him wrong? What if he had said "I am guessing it is all those Indian immigrants skewing the metric"? Would you have given him a reasoned explanation, or just told him to go **** himself?
They already did, Sherlock and of course they have their unified search patents, which have been successfully used against Google's lesser Android offerings.
His point of view being that southerners as a group are a bunch of ignorant rednecks (where by "ignorant" I mean "more so than the rest of the country"). Does one really need evidence to prove him wrong? What if he had said "I am guessing it is all those Indian immigrants skewing the metric"? Would you have given him a reasoned explanation, or just told him to go **** himself?
Heh heh. Good one.
I would have asked him for evidence, as I usually do. I would not called him (or you) a 'bigoted asshole'.
And if the evidence convincingly pointed to Indian immigrants skewing the metric, I would (hopefully) have turned the discussion to try to examine why.
Heh heh. Good one.
I would have asked him for evidence, as I usually do. I would not called him (or you) a 'bigoted asshole'.
And if the evidence convincingly pointed to Indian immigrants skewing the metric, I would (hopefully) have turned the discussion to try to examine why.
I think the larger questions are whether it is worth one's time arguing with bigots, and whether it is worthwhile calling them out (on being bigots). My opinion (fairly obviously) is that the answers are "no" and "yes", in that order. The "yes", because it is important to establish who you are dealing with and the "no" because bigotry is an emotional/religious (in a broader sense) phenomenon, and reason simply does not work, as in the ancient proverb: never try teaching a pig to sing; it wastes your time and annoys the pig. However, if you have reason to believe that either the OP is a logical person, or that your skills with swine transcend ancient wisdom, you certainly have my blessing (not that you need it) to try.
I think the larger questions are whether it is worth one's time arguing with bigots, and whether it is worthwhile calling them out (on being bigots). My opinion (fairly obviously) is that the answers are "no" and "yes", in that order. The "yes", because it is important to establish who you are dealing with and the "no" because bigotry is an emotional/religious (in a broader sense) phenomenon, and reason simply does not work, as in the ancient proverb: never try teaching a pig to sing; it wastes your time and annoys the pig. However, if you have reason to believe that either the OP is a logical person, or that your skills with swine transcend ancient wisdom, you certainly have my blessing (not that you need it) to try.
Actually, I can point to a lot of evidence that Southeastern states in the US do lag the rest of the country on a wide variety of developmental, educational, social, and survey-based metrics of beliefs (esp. those regarding scientific evidence).
I’d be very happy to point you to a list, but it’ll probably have to be tomorrow. I think I am going to go watch the women’s moguls now…
What's wrong with lacking curiosity? Why should Americans need to know where Russia is? I don't find it at all sad or disturbing.
Stupidity and ignorance are not positive qualities. .....
Do you have any idea how difficult it is to truly, fully appreciate practically anything if you live in near complete ignorance?
As Zappa once noted, "stupidity has a certain charm; ignorance does not."
As Dean Wormer (Animal House) said to Bluto Blutarsky: "Fat, drunk, and stupid is no way to go through life, son."
Also: “You can't be a real country unless you have a beer and an airline - it helps if you have some kind of football team, or some nuclear weapons, but in the very least you need a beer.” - Frank Zappa
I thought the Europe analogy was counterproductive, seeing as we have technological marvels like the LHC, and ESA's Planck mission, as well as Concorde and a host of individual bits of genius wedded to history like BMW and Porsche and on and on. Using Europe sort of bigs up Android.
I'm always surprised how many people have advice for Americans. I'm not saying we couldn't use it, but we're no different than any other country. I don't see corrections about the Nigerians mass machete killings of Christians in a random comment, or the fgm type III (female genital mutilation) practices of Muslims across all northeastern Africa, where they leave a hole small enough to use the restroom and then reopen the wound for intercourse. I do hear about how Americans should learn more geography and other problems. But then, without your help these Americans may not have been smart enough to write the software we're all using to leave comments on these phones of ours, or tablets/desktops/laptops? I mean if you think about it, why is there never any advice for Sweden? Or Chile?