16% of 2066 Americans are average :)

[Feuer Frei!]

I like average Americans too. But...

Those Americans who struggle to correctly point out even the continent Ukraine is located on are more likely to support US military intervention to resolve the crisis and the advancement of US national security interests, a new survey has revealed

Study was conducted btw March 28-31 2014.
2066 Americans were asked where Ukraine is located.
A heat map of results is in link.
Oh, and the men scored better than the women
Oh, and CNN struggles too with the location of Ukraine:
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=d3e_1399853434

SOURCE

[Dread Knot]

Maybe the old Parker Brothers world conquest game, Risk is to blame. On the board, Ukraine was basically all of western Russia.

I was a compulsive map-gazer as a kid (and still am), so I don't even know how much I was taught geography in school. It couldn't have come close to what I taught myself. I would pin the more colorful ones from National Geographic on my walls as a kid. Which is how at one point I knew all the capitals of Africa, and all the provinces of China. Although I've forgotten most of them by now.

I know there's a lot of ignorance about, and it doesn't really surprise me when someone doesn't know Greek mythology or art or literature or science or history, but somehow it's more shocking to be ignorant of geography. The only ignorance I can think of that's more shocking than geographical ignorance is medical ignorance. I'm talking about the people who haven't the vaguest notion of how the human body works, or what various organs do, or what certain symptoms mean or don't mean. There is a great deal of that.

Part of the problem with our current technological society is that one can't understand everything, and one needs to rely on specialists. (The standard example I've often heard is that no one single person in the entire world could make a pencil by himself.) I consider myself reasonably broadly educated, but I can name dozens of services I demand, literally on a daily basis, that I couldn't myself perform and I don't need to understand. I can't harvest coffee, I can't mill paper, I can't manufacture fiber-optic cable, I can't refine petrol, I can't bind a book, I can't vulcanize rubber, I can't injection-mold plastics, etc. I also can't set a bone, fill a cavity, weld pipe, lay brick, adjust spark plug timing, install lock-sets, make cheese, butcher a steer, .... the list goes on and on. Not to mention that we are now living in a world where people often don't even bother to memorize their address or phone numbers. The numbers are always changing and it's all at your fingertips if you need it.

But I can find Benin on a blank map of Africa. yeah.

[Skybird]

Originally Posted by Feuer Frei!

I like average Americans too. But...

Study was conducted btw March 28-31 2014.
2066 Americans were asked where Ukraine is located.
A heat map of results is in link.
Oh, and the men scored better than the women
Oh, and CNN struggles too with the location of Ukraine:
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=d3e_1399853434

SOURCE

Another finding reported in a German newspaper some days ago was that - hm, I forgot the exact number, but a high share of Americans assumed that Switzerland and the Ukraine are part of the EU already and are NATO members already. Sweden or Finland also was assumed to be NATO.

[Sinkmore]

I'd like to see how other nations compare to the U.S. In terms of geographical ignorance. Just out of curiosity. I don't know if the answer, either way, would make me feel better or worse.

I've seen some pretty shocking man-on-the-street interviews, where Americans couldn't find North America let alone N.Korea. I'm sure the filmmakers cherry picked the stupidest people, but it's still shocking that one could find so many idiots in one place. Other than Congress.

My geography knowledge is mediocre - putting me in about the top 2% lol. I'm not proud of winning by default.

Ignorance is upsetting, but what's worse is prideful ignorance, and that seems to be increasing. Maybe it's the "everyone's a winner" philosophy in schooling nowadays. No one can spell for **** anymore, no one has read anything that doesn't come with pictures, no one can name their representatives, and they don't even know to be ashamed.

Are "there" and "their" really so difficult to distinguish? Isn't "too" a word anymore? Does "lose" really have two O's now?

I'm not complaining about Germans or Italians who slightly misuse English - I'm talking about native "speakers". It makes me sad that the only way I can hear a complete and correct english sentence is to call tech support in Mumbai.

[Admiral Halsey]

While the fact that only not many people actually got the location right disappoints me i'm surprised that so many got the general area right.

[Sailor Steve]

Originally Posted by Sinkmore

No one can spell for **** anymore

Or compose a constructive sentence without swearing.

As to the rest, I'm well known as the forum's leading Grammar Nazi, so I've obviously commented many times on the lack of education among people who consider themselves qualified to discuss things in writing. Spelling doesn't bother me, because everyone makes mistakes. Mangling the language through bad usage, on the other hand, drives me crazy.

Geography? I used to pull my hair and grind my teeth at the number of people who couldn't find Vietnam on a map when we were fighting a major war there, but I have to admit that while I can identify general areas I can't pinpoint Iraq or Iran. Ukraine? Maybe on a good day.

Part of it is that young people don't usually care about anything outside their own current interests. I thought it was funny when several years ago I read an article on black people my age who were complaining because their own kids neither knew nor cared who Martin Luther King, Jr was. What goes around comes around.

[Wolferz]

It pays to be a "jack of all-master of none"

I prefer to be average. That way you're not expected to be extraordinary and will only shoulder the load you can handle.
People who excel in the classroom tend to think in a linear fashion and will bang their heads on a problem repeatedly. Thinking that it will change the result. I think that's also the definition of insanity.
4.0 is not better than 3.8.
One of my instructors in Electronics school summed it up succinctly...

"Information need not be stored by rote. You only need to know how to find, recognize and apply the information you need when you need it."
~Fred(Captain Caveman)Snyder

[Herr-Berbunch]

Originally Posted by Skybird

Sweden or Finland also was assumed to be NATO.

It wasn't until Russia's recent manoeuvres near the Finnish border that I found out they were not already in NATO - and I'd consider my knowledge on these things above the average Joe. I do know where Iran, Iraq, Vietnam, and Ukraine are, along with the whole top row and Eastern coast of Africa, plus a handful of others, but not Benin.

When my daughter's a bit older I'll definitely teach her to use a map and compass.

[Sailor Steve]

It just occured to me...

1+6=7
6+1=7
5+2=7
2+5=7
3+4=7
4+4=7

There are six chances of rolling seven on two six-sided dice. This makes seven the most common number on what are called "averaging dice".

Since the dice can't roll '1' there are 35 possible combinations. 6 divided by 35 is .1714285. This means that 17% is the absolute average you can roll on the dice.

This means that an "average" number of Americans are "average".

Well, very close, anyway.

[Wolferz]

• 1-8
• 2-8
• 3-8
• 4-8
• 5-8
• 6-8
• 7-8
• 9-8
• 10-8

Hmmm, I seem to be missing a finger.

[Jimbuna]

Best add a thumb or two.

[Betonov]

Originally Posted by Wolferz

Hmmm, I seem to be missing a finger.

You're telling ME ????