Girl Can't Name All the Continents?!

[Banks2334]

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If a chick just randomly came across these forums and found this thread I wonder if she would register? If so, 100% chance she has eyesight problems and gives toothy BJs.

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But can she name the continents?

[Warik]

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To say that she is stupid or otherwise unworthy of going to whatever school this is implies that it's important. If you agree that it's useless, why is it important?

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It, in combination with other questions that focus on common knowledge, provide us with a simple litmus test for stupidity. True, some people who really are morons could pass it, but I doubt anyone who isn't a moron would fail it.

I'm sorry, but if you don't know what side of the street you're supposed to drive on or know what the square root of 7 x 5 x 2 / 37 x 10,293 / 200 x 1,000,000,000 x 50 / 37 x 0 is, then you're simply not college material. You're going to waste the professor's time with your dumb questions, piss off the other students, end up on academic probation, and then probably flunk out or drop out. Please - it was hard enough to sleep in class with the professor blabbing all hour. Having some stupid dolt(s) asking questions all day made it nearly impossible.

[Warik]

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BTW, what if I asked you to name all the planets in the Solar System that are inhabited by humans?

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Do we count pluto as a planet?

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Depends - will it change your answer?

[Evan]

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The legal drinking age in your country?

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This is FAR more important to the average person (at least in America). I couldn't imagine someone growing up with friends and not knowing this, while I could certainly wrap my head around 18 year olds not discussing geography.
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The significance of the 4th of July (assuming it's an American student)?

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We're a very self-centered nation, again this is way more important to us than world geography. I would think it was weird if you didn't know your birthday, but I would think it was a lot less weird if you didn't know your uncle's birthday. It's just a matter of what you care about, and most Americans care about America.
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The alphabet?

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I need to know this to write and writing is important for obvious reasons.

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The kids who'd waste the most of the professor's time (and mine) with their stupid questions probably couldn't answer most of the above either. Keep them out of the classroom so I can learn. jeez.

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This isn't like not understanding a language or not understanding integrals. failure to grasp concepts slows down learning, facts do not.

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Capital of Wisconsin, do you know it?

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If I was born in Wisconsin or was planning to go to school there, it should be common knowledge for me. Neither is the case, so that is not common knowledge and therefore I'm not expected to know it.

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But Wisconsin is in America, Asia is on the other side of the world. There's all kinds of stuff you don't know that's easily justifiable as less important than stuff you do, for no good reason.

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Same with the continents, they just happen to be easier to know because they're more commonly taught.

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Exactly.

BTW, what if I asked you to name all the planets in the Solar System that are inhabited by humans?

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Much different basis of knowledge, the concept of where human life can exist is far more important than what the names of the continents are or what the capital of Wisconsin is.

Do you know the capital of New York? How about California? Michigan? Massachusetts? I'm sure you know some of these regardless of not living in or near them. It's just a matter of what you happened to remember and what's important to you. In the case of this girl with the continents she obviously neither cared nor remembered from the last time she'd seen/heard them, most likely because they are completely unimportant to her.

[Rhand]

On a dutch TV show they asked 20 ppl who were previously randomly selected from the audience wether the Moon circled Earth or the other way around. Without kidding more then 50% got it wrong... thats sad. Not being able to name all continents well if she really could only name 1-3 thats sad yea if she missed out on 1 and went oh yea when pointed out its not.

[splashpot]

I was making small talk with a girl I just met and there happened to be a map of the US in front of us. I tell her I'm from Massachusetts and point at the map. She says "Huh? I thought Massachusetts was over here" (she points to Florida).

Long pause. I'm going WTFWTFWTF over and over in my head while I resist the urge to smack her upside the head.

PS. She's from California.

[sevenhigh]

my friend was just sitting next to me while i was readin this post and said,

"geography is so easy i bet i can name all 52 states" granted he is canadian but come on!

[Reprobate]

Evan,

I understand your point and I like it, it is one I have often made myself on other topics, but come on! It's the seven continents of our world for christs sake! That is not some arbitrary list that needs to be hard learned like the seven dwarves. Even if you lived under a rock you couldn't help but here about them all the time. Sure, it is not necessarily dumb to need time to think of the answers, but to not know them at all is pretty conclusive IMO.

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BTW, what if I asked you to name all the planets in the Solar System that are inhabited by humans?

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Do we count pluto as a planet?

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Depends - will it change your answer?

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I heard Pluto has not left our solar system yet. Like, what if it won't go? Can it be evicted?

[bisonbison]

This is clearly a trivia thread. No cheating.

What's the world's most populous metropolitan area?
Who's the head of state in the world's most populous country?
What are the 4 tournaments in the men's tennis grand slam?
What's the closest star to our sun?
What country won the 2002 World Cup (men's footie/soccer)?
Name 5 varieties of red wine.