Maybe they inadvertently polled a bunch of graphics programming students?
Apparently, one of the popular social studies books used in Norwegian schools back in the 1960s ago said that the US had 52 states. So many people who went to school during that era have that in the back of their heads. Some of my students (teenagers) have picked this up somehow, and though most of them believe me that the US has 50 states - and the English textbooks we use back me up of course - I have had one stubborn holdout. He said that the US did have 50 states, but then added Alaska and Hawaii. I said, no, the US had 48 states, then added Alaska and Hawaii, and that’s 50; check the US flag, it has 50 stars. He said, that’s because they couldn’t work out how to add two more stars, so they left it at 50 :dubious:
In the end, I told him to look at the US map in his English textbook and count the states himself. He did indeed come to 50, three times, no matter how he tried to count them, but I’m still not entirely sure he believes me…
Serial posting, but another thing I’m shocked some people don’t know: the difference between Arab and Muslim. What makes it worse is that many of them resist learning the difference.
Like I said, it’s debatable. Some astronomers class these objects as moons. Some don’t.
Anyway, someone telling **bup **that Earth has two, or even 5 moons isn’t necessarily ignorant.
Try explaining what the deal is with Puerto Rico to someone not from the US, at the end I always get sooo it is a state? I’ve just started saying yes it is a defacto state but for political reasons no one wants to admit it.
Not true. There are acutally 60 states.
No, Puerto Rico isn’t a state in any way. There is no such thing as a ‘defacto’ state and even if you made that argument, Puerto Rico isn’t the only U.S. non-state territory. It could be a state one day if it wanted to but it most definitely is not one right now.
Yea and next someone will ask if Puerto Ricans are US citizens, and if you need a passport to travel there from the US. What well then that is a state! :smack: People are mostly going by what the average person would experience.
It is a time saving measure, if they are interested in the minutia of territories they can check wikipedia.
Moon is kind of a nebulous term. People seem to gravitate to their own definitions, as if living in a vacuum. It’s a bit rocky, but if you define moon as being lunaoid (gravitationally spherical and in orbit of a planet), earth has but one. How ever if you define moon as a natural satellite, well, the second moon is kind of a tag team.
I would think it would be easy to explain to people from outside the U.S. There are a whole lot of countries that either have territories or used to be territories themselves.
The most important distinction is probably federal elections. You can’t vote for president in a territory like PR. In fact, US territories are the ONLY PLACES ON THE PLANET where a US Citizen cannot vote, even a US citizen abroad can cast a vote by mail to the last district they resided in.
And they have no representation in Congress.
No effective representation, although they do have a nonvoting delegate.
I’m surprised people don’t know that if you add 7 to today’s date, it’s the same day.
So May 37th is also a Wednesday?
No, Wednesday+7=Wednesday. It’s a mathematical fact!
I think I would stare at you a little funny too. She wanted to know what part of the world they come from. You really didn’t get that?
Har har. May 37 = June 6, in my book.
Don’t underestimate the power of listening. It can be very therapeutic. And don’t overestimate your bff’s ability to listen. Most people are pretty bad at it.
I’m not sure what type of low IQ it takes for someone to not be able to ask what they mean, and get frustrated at the correct answer to the question they ask.
I’ve been asked “Where are you from?”, I answer and get a blank stare, then “But where your PARENTS from?” I answer and blank stare. They want to know my race but don’t have either the intelligence or social skills to ask that.