sci.research.careers

On Aug 28, 1:06 pm, Straydog wrote:
> On Tue, 28 Aug 2007, Russell wrote:
> > On Aug 28, 4:07 am, Beladi Nasralla wrote:
> >> On Aug 28, 10:42 am, Old Pif wrote:
>
> >>> Everybody knows how Art likes Paris Hilton and Brittney Spears. Here
> >>> is another potential candidate for admiration:
>
> >>> /watch?v=lj3iNxZ8Dww#GU5U2spHI_4
>
> >> She replied self-confidently and with charm, and this is all what
> >> counts.
>
> >> Regarding the question: "Why cannot some Americans locate countries on
> >> the map ?" My reply would be that the Americans would be able to
> >> confidently locate the coutry on the map if they travelled there as
> >> tourists. But the powers-to-be hold the country's wealth away from
> >> those unfortunate Americans. It is their, government's, fault. As
> >> simple as that.
>
> > I don't think so, because such surveys (it seems like a new
> > one is reported yearly) show that X% of Americans can't locate
> > things like the state where they live on a map. So it isn't due
> > to lack of actually ever being someplace that so many
> > Americans can't point out the locations on a map.
>
> > Cheers,
> > Russell
>
> And, I have a number of friends--complete with not one, but several cell
> phones, and not one but several GPS units, and PDAs--and they need all
> this stuff just to locate their front door of wherever they live, so they
> can go out and do something. And, when I ask them "OK, how did you manage
> to live BEFORE you got all this stuff?" they can't see the elephant in the
> living room.
>
> And, Alexander-the-Great, and his army of 40,000 marched, on foot, 2300
> years ago, from northern Greece to western India and back (~5,000 miles),
> without roads, vehicles, aircraft. Just like all the other armies over all
> that time until mechanization came on the scene mostly in the last 100+
> years.
>
> And, educated people memorized 10,000-15,000 lines of poetry (Illiad,
> Oddessey, etc) to remember, eg., the Trojan War over some 600 years before
> it was first written down (by Homer).- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -

I think there is less importance attached to cultural
literacy today, or perhaps "culture" has just become
fragmented. I read some analysis along those lines,
but I don't remember where. I'm sure there are allusions
made by people heavily into some online role playing
subculture that I would completely miss, for instance.

Cheers,
Russell