National Geographic Quiz

[Hueij]

Originally posted by Locutus
Radio? Your age is showing I seem to vaguely recall the term from the '80s, what was it again?

(Seriously though, Radio 1 is the only channel I listen to, but only for 'Langs de Lijn' and 'Radio Tour de France' -- the only reasons why I still have one )

I know my age is showing. My hair is turning grey and I'm proud of it

But Radio 1 has a lot more to offer besides sports...

[Locutus]

Radio is a thing of the past, it bores me to death. I prefer a good magazine or news paper to radio for my information (fortunately we still have a few of those -- if not too many). Sports is the only thing that's exciting enough to keep me interested for a sound-only medium, and even then mostly just for the coverage you don't get elsewhere (i.e. live football matches (ALL of them, not just Ajax and Feyenoord) and the part of the day of the Tour that's not on TV).

[Hueij]

Ah, kids today... Radio can be the most exciting medium there is. Just a microphone and your own imagination providing the pictures...

[Imran Siddiqui]

Radio? Your age is showing

So what do you in the car? You watch TV or something?

[Kidlicious]

19/20. I missed the religion question. I suck at tests.

[Locutus]

I prefer public transport and bring along a good book (which is also one of the main reasons why I prefer it: by driving a car, one wastes so much valuable time that could be better spent ). On the extremely rare occassions I do travel by car, it's not my own so I'm driving with other people, in which case the time is passed with conversation (with or without a CD playing in the background).

[Nubclear]

This thread just came outta nowhere!!!

[Drake Tungsten]

1/20

At least I knew where America was!

[Urban Ranger]

These questions are elementary

20/20

[Heresson]

20/20
The British seem to be the dumbest of Europeans...
No offence, just according to this quiz

[MOBIUS]

Originally posted by Kramerman
err.. by that logic, only Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and California border Mexico (only 4 of the 50 states, mind you), and each state has its own school curriculum

Ah, so it's now the disUnited States of America - cos last I heard all the states made up one country...

And that still doesn't explain Canada...

As for smartness, OK we'll call it ignorance - the Americans appear poorly educated compared to the rest of the World. As Geeslaka says, it allows the populace of your country to be easily led like sheep, hence the way that the Bush administration has been able to hoodwink the US population by conveniently forgetting about the fact that the war against Iraq was because of WMD...

Ignorant people have a short attention span...

The British seem to be the dumbest of Europeans...
No offence, just according to this quiz

Yeah well we have spent the last few decades trying to catch up with the US - doing rather well too, as you've pointed out...

But we are still far smarter than the Americans considering only 18-24 year olds were quizzed in our country. It is almost as if National Geographic knew the Americans would do poorly and tried to 'sauce' the results by giving the American study a clear advantage - it seems the people they asked were even more ignorant than their worst nightnames!

[mactbone]

In my experience you don't magically gain intelligence* as you get older - so throwing in some trailer park yokels wouldn't exactly help skew the scores.

I got 20/20, though I had some slight trouble finding Afghanistan, way too many countries with flexible borders near the Mid-East. There may be some problems with our education system, but I would bet we're much more immersed in the information age than most countries - meaning why the hell should I memorize useless facts when I have the skill to find them if I ever need them?

Seriously, I'd rather understand the rules of American Football than memorize the location of every 'stan in the world. It's also more usefull in my everyday life - which makes it worth the space.

*they may get experience, but experience != intelligence

edit - that asterik is supposed to mean something...

[Kramerman]

Ah, so it's now the disUnited States of America - cos last I heard all the states made up one country...

And that still doesn't explain Canada...

um.... the point i was making is that each state has its OWN base education curriculum (not to mention the variation allowed at the local level)... the difference between the Texas curriculum and the New York curriculum im sure is comparable to the difference between the French and German curriculums.

You said that FRance bordered italy, but everyone else was excused for their poor ability to find italy (something you are probably taught in school, no?). Well, Texas, New mexico, arizona, california, since they border mexico probably have a much better percentage of finding it, then lest say, Maine or North Dakota (who could probably find canada better), as Mexico plays a large part in the border states affairs and so is probably taught a lot about in schools (i know i was taught a lot about mexican and hispanic culture, but didnt learn that Canada was both french speaking and english speaking till junior high). Mexico effects Indiana probably MUCH less than Italy effects Great Brittain.

Remeber, the United States is a very big and diverse country, nearly as much so as all of Europe

as for canada and the rest of the world, i thin its pretty clear they are better educated in GEOGRAPHY than the united states

[Giant_Squid]

20/20.
I guess Bierce was wrong when he said "War is God's way of teaching Americans geography." Doesn't seem to have worked.
I'll bet all those Americans missed that "Taliban based in Afghanistan" question because they thought it was Iraq. I blame our political system more than our educational system there.

[Hueij]

I don't know about the US educational system but way back then I had to pinpoint every US state on a blind map...