The United States is a backward nation

[Christa]

A VIEW FROM AUSTRALIA
The United States of America, despite its professed belief in technology, is really are remarkably backward nation.
A few random examples will illustrate this assertion:

The US has failed to adopt the metric system of weights and measures (SI), which is used throughout the rest of the civilised world. The authorities have even made a feature of the fact that the Freedom Tower being built on the World Trade Center site in New York is to be exactly 1776 FEET high.

The US still uses Fahrenheit for temperatures. Actually this draws attention to its non-scientific attitude whenever it broadcasts weather reports to the rest of the world.

Businesses in the US also refuse to use metric paper sizes such as A4, continuing to use assorted quarto and foolscap sizes instead.

People in the US think that the duration of a day somehow lies between the duration of a month and the duration of a year. They thus persist in writing dates in the absurd MMDDYY format, to the confusion of readers in the rest of the world.

Companies listed on stock exchanges in the US in many cases still use scrip certificates, a highly expensive and inefficient system. The stock exchanges in civilised jurisdictions generally trade shares on an uncertificated basis.

More here: http://users.bigpond.net.au/renton/945.htm

[BlueJazz]

1. Oh Yeah?..Well let me tell you something.... You...You..Aussie!,

We have more Rednecks than you do.
..and more Churches!..Ha!

[izzie]

2. Yes and if we have our way we will bomb the Middle East into

doing it just like us. It must be right as this is Gods country!!!!!!!!!!!!:crazy: What is wrong with the people in that place knot to know that about us? Their world must be up-side down. I bet they have Winter in our Summer.

[dapper]

3. Just read his website

Anal... definately anal.

Dap

[ComerPerro]

10. That post, alone, sounds awfully anal

[bryant69]

4. This is an article that will be more interesting in reactions

than it what it actually says. The argument of this article is really pretty banal. What's more interesting is how people would react to it on a gut level. My gut reaction is to come back with a defense of the United States; while others reactions will presumably be "right on!"

Bryant
Check it out --> http://politicalcomment.blogspot.com

[CottonBear]

5. Well, Aussies spell "civilised" incorrectly. There. Hah! n/t

[lectrobyte]

6. Yeah, but at least we agree with most of Europe and put the

steering wheel of our SUV's where God intended.

[Toots]

7. Well by just now noticing that Australia has shown they also are inept

The rest of the world has known this for decades.....Australia has just figured it out. How embarrassing for them..

[Atman]

8. Here's what convinced me how "backward" we are

I couple of years ago -- maybe it was just last year, I can't recall exactly -- I heard of the terrible train crash in Turkey. Bummer, lots of people died when one of their bullet-trains derailed.

Then I got to thinking...TURKEY.

Our government is always telling us these are jerkwater, backward countries full of backward people, so we shouldn't care much about them. They aren't as good as us Yew Essers.

Turkey.

FUCKING TURKEY HAS A BULLET TRAIN? WTF! I can't hop the metro to NY and count on it running on time, but the "backward" nation of Turkey has bullet trains!

That's when it hit me...we are like I remember the Soviet Union in the sixties...spoon fed happy pablum about ourselves, taught to fear everyone else. Soon we'll all by lining up in the town square to read USA TODAY off a giant bulletin board. We are SO backward. Hell, compared to Australia, even our dirty bathwater circle the drain the wrong way!

[salvorhardin]

12. I wasn't aware Turkey had any bullet trains

High speed rail is an interest of mine. Can you help me out with a link? I just googled, but "turkey" "bullet" "train" aren't very useful as keywords.

[Atman]

13. Here you go...

Always count on the Beeb!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/3918473.stm

[salvorhardin]

14. Thanks!

The article doesn't give enough information (like top speed) to determing if this is really what we'd think of as a bullet train. Bullet train actually is the English translation of 'dangan ressha', the name of Japan's original high speed rail project so I'm not sure if it really applies outside of Japan.

I think that it's not so much the U.S. goverment as just an artifact of American culture as to why we seem to think of most countries as backward. Americans have just been traditionally uninterested in learning about other countries, plus there's that streak of superiority that we've inherited from the Puritans. There's probably many reasons to explain why Americans haven't been very much interested in other countries. I just don't think we can necessarily blame the government on this one.

[DrDebug]

30. It looks like a fast train. It was travelling at 100mph

So it's probably a high speed train (upto 130/140mph), but not a bullet train. It looks like an ordinary train with some additional streamlining.

[Notary Sojac]

9. My impression: Australia is a lot like Texas. nt

[WernhamHogg]

11. Oh yeah???

Yeah, well...at least Americans know better than to take their infants with them to feed our pet crocodiles:



We wait until our children are in pre-school, AT LEAST, before feeding them to our pet crocodiles!

[realisticphish]

15. Ok

About the metric thing...

Our scientists DO use the metric system. I work in a laboratory; we don't use tablespoons, we use mL.

So why the fuck does anyone outside of the US care what our speed limit signs say, or what temperature scale we use? Science integration is the main reason for SI, and that has been accomplished for the most part.

Now, I know America isn't perfect. In fact, that may be the understatement of the century. But I get sick and tired of these self-righteous little articles, etc, about how "tee hee, america does this, or that." America is an easy target, I grant you that. But until these other countries have removed all social and economic problems from within their OWN borders, they should watch being the proverbial pot calling the kettle black

[Jara sang]

16. What are you talking about? Australia is exactly like America

and every bit as racist.

[nick303]

17. Almost nothing in that article has anything to do with tech. advancement

Most of it is a matter of style.

However, I look forward to the day when both popular date conventions are replaced by YYYYMMDD e.g. 20060111. (Lexicographically sortable).

[slackmaster]

18. I've been saying it for YEARS!

The USA's ongoing failure to adopt the Metric System is the single greatest threat to Western civilization.

When I visited Disneyland in 1966 we were promised picture phones, the 30-hour work week, and the Metric System all by 1980!

We were lied to.

We have been let down by our leaders.

I'm as mad as Hell, and I'm not gonna take it any more!

:freak:

[raysr]

19. Backward and stuck in reverse!

[RagingInMiami]

20. Everybody seems offended by the article

But the truth is, we should have learned the metric system decades ago. I remember back in 1977 when I was in fourth grade, they made an attempt to teach us. We needed to learn because it was what's "going to be used in the future".

But after fourth grade, I never heard anything else about the metric system. Perhaps it would have screwed too much with the NFL and their 100-year football fields.

[slackmaster]

21. Honestly I believe the real issue is old industrial infrastructure

We have a lot of machine tools and measuring instruments that are graduated in thousandths and tenths of thousandths of an inch. Japan got a leg up on making everything metric when we destroyed their industrial production apparatus in World War II.

Metric machine tools and instruments have an advantage of sorts. One hundredth of a millimeter is less than half of a thousandth of an inch. People who do precision work on Japanese or European cars and motorcycles appreciate this.

[European Socialist]

22. At least when we flush the toilet, the water circles the right direction.

[baby_mouse]

23. Blink....You guys don't use metric...?

...

You must use metric in SOME things? How do you write distance measurements down?

Doesn't the US Army use km?

[Ravenseye]

24. I read somewhere the most common way to write down distance is actually...

drivetime...in the U.S....how long it takes to get somewhere in a car.

I remmeber reading it somewhere but don't have a link so it's totally anecdotal but I do remmeber reading that the most common way to measure distance in the U.S. is in minutes and hours.

"How far away is the movie theater?"

"15 minutes."

"How far are you from Buffalo?"

"About four and a half hours."

[baby_mouse]

25. Ok, that sounds like the most *common* way to describe distance

And, actually, sounds a bit more useful and informative to me than using miles or kilometers. Traffic's a bitch.

[RagingInMiami]

27. American coke dealers use metric

Coke comes in kilos and grams, but it also comes in eight-balls (1/8th of an ounce)

[baby_mouse]

33. Hah! cutting edge business always ahead of the game, eh?

Figgers.

[long_green]

26. Two probs

One, he drops "the American public is very parochial" in the middle like it's some kind of fact. It may be true, heck I think it's true, but it's an unsupported opinion when he's trying to cite facts.
Two, he says we're one of the few civilized nations that still execute people. Are we backward or civilized, mate?
I think we're backward as hell but I'll kill and eat any furriner who sez it to mah face.

[KittyWampus]

28. Australia is a lot like Pre-Civil Rights era in the United States

[mmonk]

29. Those things listed in the post aren't exactly what I think of

in terms of backwardness and America.

[dflprincess]

31. When we have a national healthcare program,

and have also done away with homelessness and hunger in the U.S., then I'll worry about how we measure weight, distance, and temperature. Somehow, I don't think this is the issue that really makes us backward.

[lapislzi]

32. Can we use another word besides "backward?"

That's just too open ended and loaded with judgments and connotations. I agree with your assessment that the U.S. lags behind in adherence to science (metric, etc.)

But don't talk to me about "backward" when a few months ago I had to walk the gauntlet through something called a "men's bar" to use an ATM! (near Pokolbin, NSW) And visited a sports field where the restrooms were labeled "men" and "visitors." And was offered a brand of cheese called "Coon" (nobody could understand my astonishment at this).

I'm not saying these things to point fingers at the Aussies, whom I dearly love. I'm saying these things to point out that "backward" is in the eye of the beholder, and use of a loose term like that is likely to get 4 fingers pointing back at you.

We could all use some improvement. Some of us more than others. You people work on your gender issues. We need to do something about the metric system. Agreed.

Peace.