The United States is 49th in the world in literacy (the New York Times, Dec. 12, 2004).
The United States ranked 28th out of 40 countries in mathematical literacy (NYT, Dec. 12, 2004).
Twenty percent of Americans think the sun orbits the earth. Seventeen percent believe the earth revolves around the sun once a day (The Week, Jan. 7, 2005).
Think of something new instead of this copy pasta, retard. As for your first point, the literacy rate is in the upper 90's and as for your the second point, obviously the vast majority think the opposite.
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Anonymous2006-04-03 11:36
>>4
The literacy is 97 or 98 percent, that means every 20th person is a complete retard. Several millions of billions of people, that is.
63% is not a "vast majority."
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Anonymous2006-04-03 11:40
You're forgetting the millions of Mexicans drag down the literacy rate.
Sun: 100 % - 20% = 80%
Earth: 100% - 17 % = 83%
Do you know math, retard?
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Anonymous2006-04-03 11:52
>>6
>You're forgetting the millions of Mexicans drag down the literacy rate.
Actually they're the one that bring it up. Without them USA would be WAAAAYYY down.
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Anonymous2006-04-03 12:01 (sage)
>>3
I'm not American, but even if I was why should I care how literate my fellow countrymen or how good they are in science? It's their problem and it won't affect my live in any way.
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Anonymous2006-04-03 12:02
>>5
"The literacy is 97 or 98 percent, that means every 20th person is a complete retard. Several millions of billions of people, that is."
And yet the US is hands down the country with the highest quantity and quality research institutions. It just shows that they're betting their money on the people that actually matter. And it's paying off too.
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Anonymous2006-04-04 11:16
I'm an American-bashing European, I laugh at your McDonalds culture, your soccer moms, and your pious imbecile, yet I can't help but agree with >>14.
Europeans created modern Americans. Without Europe the native Americans would still be living in caves, eating shit and raping their siblings. Oh wait, they still do that.
And your point is? You can construct anything like that.
An eagle flies, a parrot flies.
Eagle != parrot
A trivial comment meant to distract from the truth.
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Anonymous2006-04-04 17:46
>>20
Europeans created modern Americans. Without the Americans Europe would probably have retained their position as the world's super power. Therefore Europe screwed itself.
That was probably one of the bigger fuck-ups in human history.
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Anonymous2006-04-04 18:11
OTTAWA NATION!
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Anonymous2006-04-04 18:38
>>23
Good fuck up, America is better world power than those god damn Germans or Brits.
>>22
I believe the point he was trying to make was that Native Americans do not live in caves
>>23
Europe is more than one country.
If the Americas never existed, WW1 or 2 would have been won by the Germans.
My my... maybe I'll write a novel about that
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Anonymous2006-04-06 23:38
>>29
"Europe is more than one country."
Lie was told.
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Anonymous2006-04-07 1:38
penis penis penis
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Anonymous2006-04-07 3:07
>>14
China is catching up actually on that level. They are pumping money into it.
If Europe never existed the America you are talking about wouldn't exist. We're higher up the food chain. Sucks to be Americans.
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Anonymous2006-04-07 3:55
>>33
And if Africa never existed then humanity as we know it would not have evolved.
By your definition, Africa is higher up in the 'food chain' than everyone else. Sucks to be not-Africa.
Way to miss the point. My point was that Americans can't use "Zomg if America never existed then Germans would have won WWI and WWII" argument. Sure if Africans wanted to use that fact against us that would be fine, but it doesn't affect the fact that Europe is higher in the food chain than Americans.
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Anonymous2006-04-07 6:41
>>35
incorrect
'the food chain' as you call it, is not dictated by who comes first. If it were, then bugs would be at a much higher level. If ANYTHING, the foodchain is dictated by who comes LAST, as animals evolve to adapt and get better.
I am not talking about food chain in that respect. Since USA wants to argue that without them Germany would have taken over Europe, they fail to recognise that without Europe there would be no America in the first place. That's what I mean by being higher in the food chain. Perhaps that was a bad choice of words but you know what I mean.
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Anonymous2006-04-07 7:30
>>29
Counterfactuals are for retards. If history was changed enough so that America didn't exist, who knows what else would have changed? Would Germany even unify? Who knows.
>>32
I wouldn't say "catching up." Anyone who has a chance to gtfo of that country and go "west" (read America, Europe, even New Zealand for godsakes) would gladly give a testicle to do it. China is growing stronger on a whole, but academically it's still far behind. More importantly, they have to stop worshipping white people. Really. It's getting ridiculous.
Funny thing is you and I have never won a lottery. Just because you haven't been polled doesn't mean it's biased.
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Anonymous2006-04-08 5:20
>>41
the absense of evidence is not the evidence of absense
May not mean that it's biased, but it doesn't mean it isn't either
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Anonymous2006-04-08 5:32
Funny thing is, where are the statistics for the same shit about europeans. I bet if you asked all those welsh the same questions they'd be like giving you all the wrong answers. Don't get me started with eastern europe.
>>43 >>44
Face up to the fact that America is dumb.
>The United States is 49th in the world in literacy (the New York Times, Dec. 12, 2004).
>The United States ranked 28th out of 40 countries in mathematical literacy (NYT, Dec. 12, 2004).
That's what happens when everyone gets asked the same questions. America comes near the bottom when it comes to developed countries.
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Anonymous2006-04-08 6:12
>>45
That's because all of the stupid foreigners immigrate into the USA. The intelligent ones with educations stay in their own country and get somewhat important jobs. The stupid ones come here and work on farms and in factories.
168 universities / 298 million people = .6
5 universities / 5 million people = 1
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Anonymous2006-04-08 15:48
Look, what does it matter if 10% of the population don't know how to read? In any sufficiently developed country, that is not the fault of the education system. I'm pretty sure that in the US, like most non-third-world countries, if you wanted to learn how to read, there is no shortage of resources enabling you to do so. The fact that there is a salient illiterate subpopulation suggests that there are jobs that the illiterate can sustain themselves with, most likely manual labor.
I think the bigger problem is the fact that there are all these overeducated college graduates that end up working in data-entry or sales counter positions.
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Anonymous2006-04-08 15:52
>>51
Yes, but the fact is that the main purpose of the 168 universities is not to educate the entire population.
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Anonymous2006-04-08 15:53
Literacy rankings is also stupid. How many Mexicans are there in Finland? ;)
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Anonymous2006-04-08 16:32
>>52
If the goverment does not force its population to learn how to read, there is a big problem.
China has a bigger population. How come their universities are not on top?
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Anonymous2006-04-08 16:57 (sage)
>>53
Not of those 168, but of educational institutions in general. So it's only fair to divide by the population when comparing between different nations.
>>56
Because China sucks even more at educating its population? What are you getting at?
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Anonymous2006-04-08 17:26
The statistic before that already stated that the percentage of kids in college is higher. Whether that education is superior or not depends the school and most likely money.
I can make two obvious points here to clarify these stats.
First point:
In certain other countries (names ommitted to avoid flame wars) if you fail a certain amount of classes they ship you off to a "lower school" or roughly translated "janitor for life". In other words, these people are not polled. In the United States, such things are not done as everyone is given as best a chance as possible to be what they want. The rest is left for individual effort, but this means that the bad eggs are mixed in with the good eggs for such studies where in the other countries the bad eggs are hidden in the closet and not counted.
Second point:
I remember a study once that proved that 50% of bats have rabies. It was later discovered that the study consisted of only 2 bats. I think the point here is obvious.
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Anonymous2006-04-09 3:33
>>60
>I remember a study once that proved that 50% of bats have rabies. It was later discovered that the study consisted of only 2 bats. I think the point here is obvious.
The universities are great because they are mostly full of foreign students. To really check the level of literacy it only make sense to test the primary and secondary.
Just because a small percentage of Americans make it to university doesn't change the fact that the majority are completely retarded like the statistics show.
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Anonymous2006-04-09 14:00
Also just looking at universities is silly as only clever people get there. If you want to look at the general level of education then you must look at primary and secondary, in which Americans fail hard.
87 percent cannot find Iraq
83 percent cannot find Afghanistan
76 percent cannot find Saudi Arabia
70 percent cannot find New Jersey
49 percent cannot find New York
11 percent cannot find the United States
Holy fuck, how retarded do you have to be not to find your own country the size of a gaping vagina on a map. Americans fail.
Looking at universities is irrelevant, because university by construction only contain the cleverest of people. The statistics are about the general level of literacy. And there, the americans fail hard.
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Anonymous2006-04-09 14:06
Math we suck at but 97% for literacy is not failing hare. Stop being overly dramatic.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6462790/from/RL.2/
"American universities are highly dependent on foreign students for teaching and research help, particularly in the sciences and in engineering, a field in which foreigners comprise 50 percent of graduate enrollment."
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Anonymous2006-04-09 14:13
^bleh, ignore that, it's talking about graduates, but the point about irrelevancy of universities when looking at the general literacy still stands.
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Anonymous2006-04-09 14:23
Are you the same as >>63? If so, it is up to you to prove that there are more foreign students. Don't just say it's irrelevant because you can't find the stats to back you up.
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Anonymous2006-04-09 14:28
>>75
I never said universities were irrelevant, but that looking at universities to check the general literacy rate was irrelevant since universities are by construction full of clever people.
Not exactly "there are more foreign students than americans at universities", is it.
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Anonymous2006-04-09 14:39
The universities are are referring to are American universities. "...mostly full of foreign students" would mean that you think the majority of the students are foreign. Ok, now prove it.
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Anonymous2006-04-09 14:42
>>81
Just because it "mostly" rains in Amazon, doesn't mean it always does. What I said could be taken in many ways. In anycase, I might be wrong, but foreign students make up a significant percentage. For example http://www.aps.org/apsnews/1105/110505.cfm
"The percentage of first-year students from outside the United States declined from a peak of 55% in the 2000-2001 academic year to about 43% in fall 2004."
But you are just distracting from the fact that majority of Americans are stupid as fuck.
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Anonymous2006-04-09 14:44
Also now that I have provided few sources that suggest I Might be right, I would like you to post some sources to suggest I might be wrong.
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Anonymous2006-04-09 14:45
So, if I had a box with pens and pencils and you state it's mostly full of pens, that means it's most full of pencils???
>>56
The fact you think the absolute number of universities matter proves you are an American with American-quality education.
>>68 11 percent cannot find the United States
hahaha oh wow
Seriously, if I was ever going to use "hahaha oh wow" it was now. The USA must be even more retarded than I already thought it was.
>>71
When any decent country's literacy ratio goes from 96% to 100%, 97% is failing, especially when you claim to be the first power. First power in what? Not in literacy, that's for sure...
Well then, since postgrads used to fill more than half of the seats, it's only pefectly reasonable that the ratio stays true for undergrads, unless YOU can show otherwise that is.
They do NOT fill up half the seats. I don't know where you got that from.
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Anonymous2006-04-09 15:13
"The percentage of first-year students from outside the United States declined from a peak of 55% in the 2000-2001 academic year to about 43% in fall 2004."
It's reasonable to assume that they have gone up again to normal levels once the hoopla over 911 calmed down.
"The actual number of foreign first year graduate students declined only slightly in the past few years, from 1485 in the fall of 2000 to 1294 in the fall of 2004, while the number of US students rose from 1228 in the fall of 2000 to 1746 in the fall of 2004. "
There are more undergraduate students than that. Way, way more.
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Anonymous2006-04-09 17:07
From the same site again:
"The AIP report also found that foreign students made up a smaller fraction of the total first-year graduate student enrollment in 2004. The percentage of first-year students from outside the United States declined from a peak of 55% in the 2000-2001 academic year to about 43% in fall 2004."
I think everyone in this thread is missing a very important concept here. This is a political discussion and has no place in this board. Just because the political discussion is vaguely related to science and mathematics does not imply that it belongs here. Seriously! Bitching back and forth about who is retarded and you all couldn't figure out that this thread is in the wrong board!