This says a lot about politicians and environmentalists

Buskerdoo · 03-19-2007, 05:01 PM

Great one from Penn and Teller

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yi3erdgVVTw

littleFella · 03-20-2007, 04:56 AM

Actually, this says a lot about education in the US. It's always fun to see those little interviews some comedians take on American streets:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mWuvq1APX2w

Btw. the dihydrogen monoxide trick is over 20 years old and reveals as much ignorance among environmentalists as it does among those who choose to the delusional approach that humans can do to this planet whatever they want cuz of a few verses in an old book.

chicgeek · 03-20-2007, 08:36 AM

I love those two.

John Scott · 03-20-2007, 09:16 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by littleFella

Actually, this says a lot about education in the US.

US? My guess is that it would play out the same in Canada or any other English speaking country.

littleFella · 03-20-2007, 09:49 AM

http://youtube.com/watch?v=q0mjZR8-vw0

John Scott · 03-20-2007, 11:05 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by littleFella

http://youtube.com/watch?v=q0mjZR8-vw0

I don't see the humor in the video, and you can't possibly think it's valuable for any serious discussion purposes. So why post it?

Zap · 03-20-2007, 02:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by littleFella

http://youtube.com/watch?v=q0mjZR8-vw0

Funny as all hell.

WooHoo! We have electric lights in the parliament buildings now???

How come nobody told me?

In all seriousness, I think that when a country considers itself a world superpower, they tend to lose interest in the rest of the world. It's kind of sad, actually. I see it all over the place and not just in that video. I saw a game show, just the other night, where the question asked about the US sharing a land border with a country to the north and the contestant got it wrong.

Come on, people. You share a land border with exactly 2 countries. It's not like you border 10 countries or anything. Then, I could understand some confusion. But, 2 countries... One is up and one is down. How hard could it be?

John Scott · 03-20-2007, 06:58 PM

Quote:

I saw a game show, just the other night, where the question asked about the US sharing a land border with a country to the north and the contestant got it wrong.

What was the name of the game show?

Zap · 03-20-2007, 07:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by John Scott

What was the name of the game show?

1 vs. 100.

I don't know if you can get it there in Japan. It's relatively new.
1 contestant vs. 100 other players.
If the 1 can knock out the other 100 through a series of questions with escalating prize payoffs, they can walk out with $1 million. (Before taxes, of course)

There's another game show that fits into this topic quite nicely. It's also new.
"Are you smarter than a fifth grader?" hosted by Jeff Foxworthy from "You might be a redneck if..." fame.
You should see some of the questions and answers from that one.

Folks with PHDs are getting their asses whooped by 11 year olds.

robert s. · 03-25-2007, 10:09 AM

in my opinion has the US a top-quality education, once you make it into university, but it is way, way below the global standard in ground- and high-school. i was an average pupil in my country and in the one year exchange to the US i was second in my class. something i never achieved again in my school carreer!

school-hours per year in US: 180 - 190
school hours per year in europe: 220 - 250

i might be wrong, but this can be allready the first indicator for the low education standard in the US.

i remember vividly:
before the first gulf-war, a german tv-programm went over to thw states with a map of europe and asia, WITHOUT borders, and they asked people from the street, to stick a pin into IRAQ.
the pin ended up in (amongst many other solutions) spain, sweden finland, russia, germany and sibiria. the statistics at the end showed that about 10 % of the people asked, were able to put the pin within the borders of Iraq and another 15 % were within 500 km.

littleFella · 03-26-2007, 02:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by robert s.

i was an average pupil in my country and in the one year exchange to the US i was second in my class.

A lot starts with the labels. See, there are no pupils in the US or Canada. They are all... students

Yup, when my daughter was going through grade 1 spelling exercises the teachers called it "studying". Before I came to this continent I never associated any education less than tertiary as studies.

Another funny label is "high school" which seems a bit ridiculous. I'm not sure what makes it so high, unless it's about some kids smoking pot at school. Again, to me high school was more like a German Hochschule, which offers tertiary, and sometimes quaternary level of education.

Quote:

Originally Posted by robert s.

US a top-quality education, once you make it into university

I would not go for such a blanket statement. You can get to a university here with grades as low as 60 to 65% average. Unthinkable in many European countries.

There are many great universities in the US and Canada, but I had a taste of the less than great ones too. Vanderbilt was OK and it did feel like a university indeed. Others did not. To make a long story short, secondary level education in my home country was much more demanding by far. Back there I wouldn't even dream about going for a computer science degree. They wouldn't even accept me with my math skills, which back then were close to the failing mark. Here I averaged 90%