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Science Literacy Survey (Blog Entry by jwray)
I'm not trying to forgive ignorance, I'm just saying that people don't all have the same knowledge set. Ask me about science all day long, but kindly don't ask me about contemporary poetry. I can tell you who Linus Pauling is or the charge of and code for each aminoacid, but all I know about Immanuel Kant is that he was "a real pissant and was very rarely stable." Sometimes you have to trust what experts tell you. Otherwise you'll wind up a Jack of all trades and a master of none. That, and not everyone is smart.

The fact that people should know most of these answers goes without saying, but understanding why those that don't don't is far more interesting to me than what they in fact know. How the heck can you NOT know that the center of the earth is hot?! Where is all that molten rock coming from, the sky?

I'd be interested in seeing a poll of our house and senate with the same questions.


written by Doc_M  | 15 hours 10 minutes 8 seconds ago | CH
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Obama faces racism in West Virginia
Don't mind my poking, lesserfool, it was slightly tongue in cheek. However I find it more and more so that urban folks are NOT in fact more educated than smaller town folk (with the exception of true hillbillies). They are simply educated in different areas, and people in both places are poorly educated in certain areas. Yuppy elitism is a huge annoyance to me. I've met too many yuppies who only believe what the nuts at Union Square tell them on T-Shirts and Posters. My town is small and rural, but LOADED with huge minds.

Anyway, even if Obama did have some Muslim history, he left it behind so who cares. His church might be a disgrace, but he essentially disowned it recently so who cares. He has at no time implied the things that Wright preached were true. He never said the US made HIV and he obviously isn't a racist. If people want to encourage people not to vote for him, there is enough fodder in the issues themselves to work with. They don't need to dig around in the mud.

P.S. If you nominate Hillary, there's no way in Hell that any republican is going to cross the lines to vote for her. With Barak... not so.


written by Doc_M  | 2 days 10 hours 55 minutes ago | CH
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Obama faces racism in West Virginia
^ Your map simply shows that urbanites are liberals, and suburbanites and small town folk are generally conservatives. So you're saying that conservatives are ignorant, lesser people than liberals then? How very unbiased of you. -.-


written by Doc_M  | 2 days 12 hours 11 minutes ago | CH
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Huckabee's shameful use of the cross courting Christians... (Wtf Talk Post)
As happy as I am that both of our actively running candidates are open, practicing Christians, I wish our presidents would stop implying that they are the representative of God on Earth. Too Ahmadinejadi IMO.


written by Doc_M  | 2 days 12 hours 21 minutes ago | CH
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Science Literacy Survey (Blog Entry by jwray)
In the US and in the EU, the general majority knew the answers to almost all the answers with the exception of those that are either unproven or subject to religious opposition. In Democracy, majority rules, so our democracy is in the hands of a not completely incompetent population. In addition, these questions bare almost NO consequence on daily life and law. On top of that, I think you'll find that people who don't know shit, don't do shit, and don't vote.

Still, if you don't know the [assumed true] answer to (this), you're (this):
Question 1: A moron.
2: Brainwashed
3: Old
4: Not thinking
5: Not interested in science (normal)
6: Old (or misinformed) (in general normal, your doctor needs to know this more than you do)
7: Religious (normal) or uninformed (unfortunate) or apathetic (even more normal)
8: Religious (normal) or uninformed (unfortunate) or apathetic (even more normal)
9: Religious (normal) or uninformed (unfortunate)
10: Moron

We can't all know everything folks, even if I do. Most people probably knew a number of the questions, but not all of them. This doesn't mean that about 50% of the world is stupid, it means 50% of the questions are not common knowledge. Also don't forget this study isn't studying only college graduates. It likely covers people of most ages (if it's any good), so that means your grandma as well that uncle that's always drunk at family reunions... Remember that before you despair. Do you really expect your grandma who spent her life in social work to give a crap what an electron is or what Pangaea was?


written by Doc_M  | 2 days 12 hours 32 minutes ago | CH
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Any Sift medical experts or medical insurance experts out there? (Blog Entry by eric3579)
Also as others said, if they know you have no insurance, you'll find that the bill will DIVE. heh They will worry that they will not get paid anything and will just take a loss, so the bill will be reduced the minute they know they are billing an individual and not an insurance company.


written by Doc_M  | 2 days 13 hours 12 minutes ago | CH
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Any Sift medical experts or medical insurance experts out there? (Blog Entry by eric3579)
First, I'm sorry this happened. I hope you are not in too much pain.

CT scans simply don't cost that much. I've had one. Because of a bad house fire and some bad smoke inhalation, I wound up in the hospital here. My ENTIRE bill including a CT of my noggin and tons of other tests was like $2,000. The ambulance trip cost almost as much as the rest of the visit. But for the future, get insurance. The ENTIRE accident would be covered in full if you have decent insurance. In addition, you're lucky you weren't in a room under medical watch for a week, that'd be tens of thousands of dollars. Also consider if you had needed reconstructive surgery, you'd need near $100,000 for that. BTW, if you did ride the ambulance, as great as that is for service, it's about $1,300. =/

I also recommend you call another hospital and get a price for the same tests you got. That might give your argument some more weight. Hospitals hate competing. Get ahead of them and don't let them push you around. They have FAR more options available to you than they say. I've known people who had their entire bill annulled due to their inability to pay it in full. Show an initiative to solve the problem and square the bill, but an inability to do so reasonably. They often fold to that. Of course, if you have the ability to pay for it, you'll have to, but don't overpay for tests.

P.S. Don't forget I'm not an MD. unless you consider my avatar to be a valid doctor, than I might be on weekends.


written by Doc_M  | 2 days 13 hours 15 minutes ago | CH
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MiG-29 thrust vectoring demonstration
^That's because one F-22 could take out 10 migs. lol.
If you think there is an airforce in the world that is even remotely competitive with the US, you are delusional.

Well, Iranian "experts" might agree with you, but that's about it.


written by Doc_M  | 1 week 1 day ago | CH
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Why Do ALL Europeans Hate America?
^The "compassionate, reasonable" approach only really works then the other side is also reasonable and compassionate, or in no position to be otherwise. So, yeah, that is always harder to say the least. Not unworthy of great effort, but hard.

I'd also prefer to give the keys to the country to some more than others, even if the some seems only the lesser of two evils. Europe should be equally cautious who they decide to pass the keys to in the near future.


written by Doc_M  | 1 week 2 days ago | CH
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Why Do ALL Europeans Hate America?
Because we like to talk, punk.


written by Doc_M  | 1 week 2 days ago | CH
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Why Do ALL Europeans Hate America?
My understanding is that both figures are relatively accurate.

Is this better:
http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/eco_gdp-economy-gdp

How about this:
http://siteresources.worldbank.org/DATASTATISTICS/Resources/GDP_PPP.pdf


written by Doc_M  | 1 week 2 days ago | CH
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Why Do ALL Europeans Hate America?
And in response to said hatred of "American Nationalism," there are two problems... First, you're getting an inaccurate picture of it from your media AND from ours. There is no doubt in my eyes about that. The BBC and other foreign news agencies just love to portray Americans as either Valley Girls or ignorant hill-billies who say "get-r-done" far to often with a Big Mac in one hand and a Shotgun in the other. I guarantee you can find the European version of each of those sorts if you look around for a second. Ironically, the American media likes to do the same thing... at least the comedy portion of it does.

The other problem is that Europeans seem just as Nationalist from this side of the pond as we seem to you from yours. Loving your country is by no means stupid if you have some sort of reason to do so. I happen to like it here. Sue me. hehe

Bottom line, every country contains its own idiots, yuppies, hillbillies, and "MOTHERLAND-shouters" --even if they come in different forms.


written by Doc_M  | 1 week 2 days ago | CH
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Why Do ALL Europeans Hate America?
I am serious. Perhaps a re-read is in order. The map I linked was just an interesting way to visualize just how the US GDP compares to a number of other entire countries. If you count the EU as a single "country," our GDPs are very similar. and I forgot to mention, but that "charity" and "foreign aid" figure, does not include military spending. If it did, that'd just be staggeringly high, sad to say.


written by Doc_M  | 1 week 2 days ago | CH
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Why Do ALL Europeans Hate America?
It's in Dollar amount. It's hard to compare the nations based on GDP when ours is so much more enormous than most other nations.
:: http://strangemaps.wordpress.com/2007/06/10/131-us-states-renamed-for-countries-with-similar-gdps/

Here's another that considers the entire EU as "one nation"
:: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_(PPP)

The US economy is a big producer, but also expensive to function. Our foreign aid is about twice that of the nearest nation, Germany... so when I say most aid, I mean most aid in dollars by at least 2x. I consider aid to Iraq and Israel to be legitimate aid. I don't know if it was considered in the numbers I've seen however.
BTW, the report I'm referring to can be seen in the link above. Israel isn't even on the top 10. Iraq is on top.

I should also mention our investment in the U.N... take 2005 for example:
$5,327,276,000 - which looks like it increases by about $800,000,000 or so per year.

"The top seven contributors to the UN are the USA (25%); Japan (15.7%); Germany (9.1%); France (6.4%); the United Kingdom (5.3%); Italy (5.2%); and Russia (4.3%). Collectively, they account for more than 71% of the regular UN budget." -Un.org

It's also worth mentioning the CDC and other foreign medical assistance we provide, HIV/Malaria/etc. It's pretty extensive work.


[edit]: Sorry Octo, I'm addicted to the "edit" button.


written by Doc_M  | 1 week 2 days ago | CH
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Why Do ALL Europeans Hate America?
I kind of find it ironic. The US is basically responsible for the most foreign aid (by a extreme margin), the most science and medicine, the most recent technological advancements, the most charity, and the very internet that everyone posts in to hate America. We also cherish that option and do all we can to allow people to express their malcontent whenever they want, within reason. So you can thank America for this very forum where you vent.

Also, I think people really ought to look at their own country and its merits and its citizens and its rights and governments before they go judging us. You accuse Americans of ignorance a lot. Can you claim that every one of your citizens is not? Do you really think your country is so righteous and perfect? This all sounds supremely aristocratic at best. This country is young and powerful, founded by farmers and industrialists, determined to push technology perhaps faster than it should be pushed. This country has done a great deal in pursuit of peace in the world. Unfortunately, not every attempt has bared fruit. People naturally focus on the negative.

I challenge each of us to consider what would happen if the US decided to retract all of our military from all over the world, divest all of our funds from all foreign corporations, and stop all foreign aid. Someone above compared us to North Korea... if we shut our borders and became a recluse as NK is, think about what would happen...

And if you still think we blew up our own buildings to start all this mess we're currently desperately attempting to clean up, I don't think you're worth arguing with.


written by Doc_M  | 1 week 2 days ago | CH
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