National Geographic Quiz

[MOBIUS]

Originally posted by Azazel
Sava, you can stop the self hating. The Europeans didn't do much better.

Yes but what amazes me is that Al Qaeda destroys the World Trade Centre and America bombs the f*ck out of Afghanistan and yet 42% of the Americans polled STILL don't know that they were based in Afghanistan OR that 83% couldn't even place the country on a map...! That is f*cked up!

Also, why is it that the Canadians are waaaay smarter than their neighbours regularly scoring 10-20+% more in most of the questions?

[Uncle Sparky]

42% of Americans didn't know the Taliban and al Qaeda movements were bases in Afghanistan. No wonder Dubbya found so much support to attack Iraq to defeat terrorists.

Answer 6 - Kashmir question - China also has claims, but there haven't been any significant skirmishes in over 30 yrs..

find Russia - 38% of Americans couldn't
find Japan - 58% of Americans couldn't
find Sweden - 84% of Americans couldn't
find Afghanistan - 83% of Americans couldn't

Sweden should be safe from US attack - unless they mistake it for someplace else.

I notice that Swede's scores were usually in first or second place. Our Finns should consider becoming Swedes.

Also, If we use our already established "I'm With Stupid" rules, "I don't Know" would be the correct answer to most of the questions, giving Americans the most consistently correct answers.

oh, and 20/20 of course !

[Az]

@ the Anti-american troll.

[MOBIUS]

A total of 300 interviews were conducted in each country except the U.S.; in the U.S. nearly 500 interviews were conducted with 18-to 24-year-olds and an additional sample of more than 300 25-to 34-year-olds

The Americans were supposed to have an advantage with almost half their pollsters being 25-34 y.o.'s - Oops!

[Az]

[Uncle Sparky]

Originally posted by Azazel
@ the Anti-american troll.

Hey, I LOVE Americans ! They make me proud to be a Canadian.

[Az]

[Berzerker]

The second question about religious adherents is a bit unfair given the numbers are quite close, I guessed lucky but heard both Islam and Christianity had about a billion each. But it was interesting how the percentages of accurate respondents depended in part on where they live and where the question was dealing with. Like Mexico had the lowest number of people who knew the ME exported the most oil while Mexico has sufficient domestic oil production so they don't need ME oil. And the Pacific rim countries did better on the El Nino question than Europeans who don't see much of an effect from it because they're half way around the world. Plus, Euros scored lowest on locating the Pacific, while peoples in the western hemisphere were lowest on questions about Europe and Asia. What's the saying? All politics is local? Kind of what we see here...

Oh yeah, 20/20 with 1 lucky guess.

[Az]

Damn ignorant american.

[Imran Siddiqui]

Yeah, Mexico was kinda scary in not knowing what 'West' was!

And US sucks at geography... again. Though only 51% of people from the UK knew where Mexico was... which I thought was kinda strange. And pitiful amounts from every country had no idea where Afghanistan was.

I guess all politics is local, as Berz said.

[Berzerker]

Sweden should be safe from US attack - unless they mistake it for someplace else.

Hey, maybe Sweden is the stealth nation, not Canada.

[Berzerker]

Azazel, does that graph show actual Christians or just populations from "Christian" countries?

[Az]

Originally posted by Azazel
And other people don't know where Sweden is.

Sweden is the true Stealth nation.

[Az]

Originally posted by Berzerker
Azazel, does that graph show actual Christians or just populations from "Christian" countries?

Since the paragraphs "Non-religious" and "Atheist" exist, I think the number is about right.

[Berzerker]

I've heard Muslims and Christians are about a billion each, so I'd be surprised if there were 2 billion Christians. Oh well, as for being ignorant, I did get the question right.