You clearly don't actually know very much about America at all. What you think you know is highly superficial.

Actually Australians and Americans are culturally, on a deep level, incredibly similar. We both tend to be rather obnoxious cultures on the lowbrow level much of the time often valuing independence and individual liberty above total efficiency. We both have a disdain of authority and state (generally speakign relative to other cultures) which is a result of being former British colonies. We're both the rebellious teenager countries in many regards.

However, America is obviously the far more populous and wealthy nation. Which gives us certain advantages of power, and disadvantages of hubris.

And as Australian friend likes to joke, "we got the criminals, you got the Puritans, and it's yet to be determined who got the better deal."

Probably she was quite nervous and really lost it, her answer doesn't strike me as stupid but rather as losing her thoughts completely in the spotlight. She really jumps around like her memory is disrupted, as anxiety will do. I hate public speaking myself and have almost done what she did.

She still made more sense than W! Why aren't we considering her for president? That shows sexism, and other ...isms, that people will really write this young girl off yet W gets the support of the elite due to his gender and birth, plus his very inanity allegedly shows that he's not one of the elite.

Obviously she was nervous, but let's not pretend she's a genius either.

She's coached to deal with pressure and these questions. And they didn't exctly ask her for a unified theory of physics. It was a pretty damn easy question.

She could have just said "more emphasis on geography" and then added, "for the children" or whatever fluff.

And the reason these questions are asked, is to make at least a passing attempt at inner beauty and intelligence, and weed out the complete airheads.

Yes he's an idiot as well. Which is why he makes such a willing finger puppet.

Remember that it's people like her who tend to support GW Bush. They don't do "nuance" and they vote from the gut for an anti-intellectual, fundie, hick like Bush.

How the hell is a teenage beauty pageant contestant supposed to know why Johnny can't find the U.S.? Unless one has read the details of the study, is a school teacher or a researcher, the average person would be pulling an answer out of their ass. Was that the point of the question? Here, contestant, make up a plausible answer to a question you, nor most of the people in the audience, know anything about.

Know what the correct answer is?

"Well, I believe this reflects the continuing tendency of researchers to use unclear and vague methodology when they survey students. It would have been easy enough for them to ask the students to point out all 50 states in the U.S.A., but they did not, even though they knew that many schools still use maps with U.S.A. printed on the first 48 states. This way they create a study that people will cluck about, and will subsequently bring in more money for more crackpot reasearch. I'm sorry, I know you want me to say that today's students are just stupid. Or maybe that geography is not taught in many schools, but this study does not bear that out."

The answer given by the contestant reflects the fact that she didn't know how to pull herself out of a potentially embarassing situation by just asking to have the question repeated. No biggie.

And I would have just loved it if she had simply said. "How the heck I am supposed to know? Should I just make something up?"

And there it is, clear as day on pg 26, 96% of young americans can find the US on a world map. Sure, I wonder about that 4%, but honestly, I don't think this is the national catastrophe we should be asking pageant contestants about.

I thought we were supposed to have some moderation these days? Would that include, oh, moderating people who make posts with no other point than to call other letter writers stupid?

Is anyone listening?

If this were a face-to-face situation, I'd put a paper airplane in your ear, editor.

That's irrelevant. The question presumed the truthfulness of the study, and her job was to respond to the implications of the study.

Regardless, she didn't either answer the question well, or challenge the question. Her answer was stupid.

and btw, the easy answer was: "more emphasis on teaching geography."

It really was lobbed over the plate for her. She was supposed to hit a home run and give the illuson of a brain to avert cliams beauty contests are totally superficial.

If that's a hard question for anyone here...

It would have been easy enough for them to ask the students to point out all 50 states in the U.S.A., but they did not, even though they knew that many schools still use maps with U.S.A. printed on the first 48 states.

btw, that's a pretty lame excuse. They didn't say point out only the 48 contiguous states. The question was to point out all the United States of America.

If students don't know that Alaska and Hawaii are states in the USA, and can't point that out on a map, that's exactly the problem.

Are you in a flyover state by the way? Or just chose that name to troll the topic?

Hey healthyskeptic, relax. You're being overly aggressive. I actually agree with most of what you've said, and the rest is not very important. I understand the US OK - I've lived in the Bay Area - but happy to agree to disagree on some stuff. Have things to do (it's early afternoon here), won't be returning to this thread.

You claim Andrew Burke has only a superficial knowledge of your country but the huge generalisations you lobbed back about Australia showed no difference on your behalf.

You have an Australian friend, good for you I hear they're great. That does not indicate a larger knowledge of our country.

The points you refuted me with were valid but you missed that I was saying you are not *geographically* as isolated as you made out. I never once disagreed with your cultural reasoning because I wouldn't enter that argument with the little knowledge I have.

And as a sidebar I don't hate America or Americans. A friend of mine from work just got back from a trip over there and had nothing but nice things to say about the people - even though he and his party were constantly mistaken for being English and nobody understood his name (Michael).