Ahh the French

[giblets]

Decidedly average in the US sounds about right...

So I take it you never saw Supersize Me then?

I saw it. Only a complete dumbass would eat McDonalds every day. I wouldn't eat at any restaurant every day, for that matter.

[MOBIUS]

Well the USA is a nation of dumbasses - case closed!

[The Mad Monk]

McDonalds in Europe is actually decent food. In the US and Canada it is atrocious.

...so the Big Mac Index is based on a fallacy?

[rah]

Well the USA is a nation of dumbasses - case closed!

And this makes the US different from other nations how?

[Fake Boris]

The combination of arrogance makes it quite explosive.

[rah]

That wasn't my question.
Are there no dumbasses in Canada?

I just wanted to point out that using generalizations like that shouldn't be used when debating.

[molly bloom]

The idea of McDonald's being "bad" always has amused me. It isn't great cuisine, but at worst, its decidedly average. There are far more disgusting foods out there than McD's.

Well, I suppose it depends on what you mean by disgusting- I find it disgusting that they have to bolster their food sales by saturation advertising, product placement, 'meal deals' and movie tie-ins, and unashamedly target an impressionable child audience with toy 'give-aways', although how much of a give away when you factor in all the expenses for the meal and the outing against the actual cost of the toy, well...

And what do you get ? Bland white rolls and processed plastic 'cheese' and not terribly memorable meat or fish or chicken.

I could eat dim sum almost as cheaply, and any dim sum I've had here or abroad has been infinitely more satisfying and memorable than any McDonalds' product I ever had. But then some people who would happily eat a chicken nugget or hamburger would turn up their noses at chicken's feet in black bean sauce (a personal favourite) or tripe in chilli and garlic, or kidney kebabs...

Fortunately I was brought up with a healthy regard for offal and other disregarded meat items and had uncles who worked in an abattoir, so I've no illusions about what dead animals or their innards look like. Bring on the lamb's fry breakfast I had in Cooma...

[Felch]

Fortunately I was brought up with a healthy regard for offal and other disregarded meat items

So much stuff is starting to make sense now.

[Fake Boris]

That wasn't my question.
Are there no dumbasses in Canada?

I just wanted to point out that using generalizations like that shouldn't be used when debating.

You asked "how does that make the US different". I answered: it is more adamant and noticeable, because Americans don't get the humility that usually comes with people of less successful countries.

It does make the US different.

[rah]

Still a broad generalization. The french come off much more snotty than Americans. Another silly generalization.

The loudest are always most noticeable. The are many more that aren't and thereby ignored.

[Fake Boris]

They also happen to have a better culture, i.e. something to back their claims.

[rah]

That's a subjective judgement on your part. Who are you to judge that? Aren't you from Canada?

[dannubis]

Québec.

[Fake Boris]

That's a subjective judgement on your part. Who are you to judge that? Aren't you from Canada?

It does not require a lot of subjectivity to discover that French culture, in general, is more refined than US culture. Face it: the world is mostly comprised of idiots, and the US is mostly comprised of blissful idiots with a hint of condescending imperialism. France is mostly comprised of idiots with a hint of condescending intellectualism, which is not quite the same.

[Ben Kenobi]

If I was a teacher, I would give everybody top marks for everything. The following year, I would be considered a perfect teacher. All my students received perfect marks so that makes me the perfect teacher. Right?

If I know something about statistics, what are the odds that in a class of 30 that everyone will improve from one year to the next?

What would be the expected distribution of said improvement?