America By the Numbers

[KrazyHorse]

Apparently you guys like to laugh at yourselves.

Thread started by an American, 47/64 responses from Americans.

[Pyrodrew]

Originally posted by KrazyHorse
Apparently you guys like to laugh at yourselves.

Thread started by an American, 47/64 responses from Americans.

We get more fun from that then going through 3+page threads counting the nationalities.

[Pekka]

"The reason there are fewer foreign students attending US universities is because since 9/11 the government has made it much more difficult for foreigners to get visas. The news is full of stories about foreigners who have been accepted at American universities but who can't get visas to enter the country."

This is VERY true. Also it's not the only reason, well it derives from this... people are simply afraid, if they apply for visas, that some undereducated evil bastard at the customs will take their visas, take them to the room in the back and put then to prison or something. You may laugh at this, but this is a very common .. scare. You know this scare only applies for NK and US these days. Yeah, only the ones who have something to hide have to worry about it? WRONG.

It would be better for some to get over their own salivating arrogance and to recognize the reality. If the US does not keep being on the top of where people want to go to Uni's to finish their degrees or what ever, it will simply stop being the number 1 ANYTHING soon. ****, only thing it is no1 these days is some economical facts and military. Face it, it's on the downfall soon if it doesn't get directed into better direction, and that starts from attracting prominent people there again. Now it attracts terrorists and not the prominent people.

And YES, US is definitely NOT the place to be anymore, as the only option. It is a great choice, yes.. but these days so is Canada, EU region, some Asian places.. it's not so clear anymore even if it still leads. The point is, the future does not look better, it looks worse unless something is done, and this is for your benefit so don't get your panties on a twist 'well stay the hell away then commie111!'. Take these words and learn from it, it's about ****ing time to start getting back on the track again, or start the downfall. And how do you know it will happen? I know it, because there are now other options that seems to be as good as US is for many things, the things that makes it the top player. Mainly, it's attractiveness. Get a boobjob.

[Az]

Personally, I am sort of frightened by so many people of ALL nationalities not knowing these things....

[KrazyHorse]

Originally posted by Pyrodrew


We get more fun from that then going through 3+page threads counting the nationalities.

Click on the part on the forum index which tells you how many responses there are to this thread...

[Dauphin]

NM

[Edan]

The United States is 49th in the world in literacy (the New York Times, Dec. 12, 2004).

I'd like to respond to this, but I couldn't read the article.

According to the statistics I could find, the US has a literacy rate of 97%. I don't think it's nearly as serious a problem as the above suggests.

[Jon Miller]

Re: America By the Numbers

Originally posted by chegitz guevara
[
• Foreign applications to U.S. grad schools declined 28 percent last year. Foreign student enrollment on all levels fell for the first time in three decades, but increased greatly in Europe and China. Last year Chinese grad-school graduates in the U.S. dropped 56 percent, Indians 51 percent, South Koreans 28 percent (NYT, Dec. 21, 2004). We're not the place to be anymore.

This is mostly a function of the climate after 9-11, than the schools I believe. It is a terrible hassle to come to the US to study now.

Jon Miller

[centrifuge]

Originally posted by KrazyHorse

-Electrons are smaller than atoms. (True)

Electrons have no well-defined size...

Are you suggesting that the part is larger than the whole?

Originally posted by KrazyHorse

-The center of the Earth is hot. (True)

Pffft. It's not even on the weak scale.

compared to the Earths surface I'm sure...

[DinoDoc]

Originally posted by Edan
I don't think it's nearly as serious a problem as the above suggests.

You should do alot more than that on several of his topics.

Originally posted by Ramo
I take it that you're gonna pay the Austin Chronicle for adding these rediculous extra publishing costs?

Why should I? How much extra money would it have taken to follow the rules I was taught in English 101 and put in the title of the article cited?

[Boris Godunov]

Originally posted by Oerdin
By your logic I could claim 25% of Americans believe bananas are space aliens yet it must be true.

Uh, no...where did you get that from my "logic?" Nothing I said remotely correlates to that.

All I said that arguments that state "I haven't personally encountered it, so ergo it isn't true" are so obviously stupid that only an idiot would proffer them.

That's about as likely as the bogus claim that 25% of Americans believe the sun rotates around the Earth.

And Ramo showed you that the claim is NOT bogus. Care to rescind your unfounded comments now?

Especially given that I've already pointed out several factual errors and/or obvious omitions with this op-ed piece. The guys screwed up several facts and this one smells fishy too.

You haven't pointed out a single "factual error" that I've seen, just pointed out some omissions/logical errors on the part of who wrote it.

Regardless, even if you had shown a factual error, it wouldn't mean everything in it is wrong. Care to guess which fallacy that is?

I'm not agreeing with this piece in toto, but there are definitely some things pointed out within it that are of valid concern to me as an American.

[Boris Godunov]

Originally posted by Azazel
Personally, I am sort of frightened by so many people of ALL nationalities not knowing these things....

Indeed. Reminds of the Jay Leno bit where he goes to the "person on the street" and asks basic questions you would think everyone would know. The answers are often frightening.

Of course, we don't see in those bits all the people he approached who answered the questions correctly.

[chequita guevara]

Originally posted by DinoDoc
When only one source is easily checked, warning bells go off for me that someone is either lieing or grossly missrepresenting their facts.

I guess you aren't much one for grading term papers. What, no hyperlinks on this paper!?! He must be making up his facts!

[mrmitchell]

This puts Europeans at a level of prosperity on par with states such as Arkansas, Mississippi and West Virginia.

I can assure you Europeans are better off than Arkansans. After you're done whining about GDP, look up things like divorce, poverty, hunger, availability of healthcare, education, and other development indicators that look at more than a few numbers, and see the difference.

• One-third of all U.S. children are born out of wedlock. One-half of all U.S. children will live in a one-parent house (CNN, Dec. 10, 2004).

(One to add, I think it was el freako that said we ought to be glad for our outrageous teenage pregnancy rates, as teen mothers account for 1/3 of the births gap between the US and the EU)
This is probably the most disturbing stat in the article. Is there any similar comparison for any European or developed Eastern nation?

[chequita guevara]

Originally posted by Oerdin
Polls are often junk unless they are done correctly. I have seen anti-abortion rights people claim that 80% of the American population is anti-abortion (true figure is closer to 1/3). How'd they get that poll result? They passed out the poll at a Sunday Catholic mass in a consevative town.

While that may be the case for a specific survey, depending on how you interpret the data, you could come up with the number they did. It also depends on the questions asked. "Should the government allow partial birth abortions?" will get you a very different set of results from, "Should abortion be legal?"

In the case of this poll (Earth centric universe), there isn't a lot of wiggle room for such things. Either the Earth goes roun the sun or it doesn't. As far as those who think the Earth goes round the sun in a single day, I suspect its people who got their terminology mixed up, rotation versus revolution.