[Closed] How can people be so clueless !!!!

Dumbasses. It's obviously Santa Brooklyn.

why wasn't CLAUS an answer.......

Ooohhh! I cracked a nail....

My wife isn't sure, her first try was Victoria. Now she's checking a World Atlas. Dumb, dumb, dumb!
She still maintains it's Santa Victoria.

It's obviously Santa Brooklyn.

No, the chap (the brains of the two) knew that Brooklyn was a state, not a city... 😯

Santa Cruz is a very small place in the US, apparently it has a population of 56,124. I wouldn't expect the majority of people in the UK to know it. Would you expect the majority of people in the US to have heard of a UK town with a population of 56,124 ?

They could have guessed of course. Specially if they rode mountain bikes.

So wait, wait wait. It's not Santa Brooklyn?

*cancels holiday*

Think I was aware of Santa Cruz before I got seriously into mountain bikes, but that might have had something to do with surfing or something that I was into then.

Monica.
Barbara
Clara

And yes, there is a Santa Clause (Indiana)

My g/f had never heard of Captain Scott (yes, that one) which I found odd. Mentioned this at work and my colleague said "the name sounds familiar. Was he in Star Trek?" 🙄

Santa is spanish so pick something that matches, even if it is a guess, that would be cruz.

I've heard of Santa Cruz - I've even been there. It's clearly not any of the others.

Santa Cruz is a very small place in the US

It is quite a small town by population; but it's quite a small town in California, a place that is at the heart of a huge amount of western pop-culture and as such Santa Cruz punches well above it's population weight in global recognition.

Plus [i]The Lost Boys[/i] was filmed there.

Plus there are numerous songs, some recent, with it mentioned in the lyrics.

Plus The Lost Boys was filmed there.

ta i was struggling with my brain about something untill you said that.

....Santa Cruz punches well above it's population weight in global recognition.

Well I'm sure that it punches well above it's population weight in the US, but for me it's rather reassuring if people in the Britain have never heard of it. I find this whole attitude that everyone in Britain should know all things American really rather depressing. The United States is not the centre of the universe, it only contains a very small percentage of the world's population, and it needs to be seen much more in that context. Besides, it's hardly an attitude which is reciprocated by the Americans towards us (or towards anyone else for that matter) hence my comment would you expect the majority of people in the US to have heard of a UK town with a population of 56,124 ? The Americans are really not [i][b]that[/i][/b] important. Britain is an independent nation, and British people really do not need to know US geography, history, etc. any more than they need to about the geography, history, etc. of other countries, specially Commonwealth countries.

oh dear... I think you've got the wrong end of the twinkie ernest.. we as a nation import all of our pop culture second hand from the US.. it's a fact.. even you yourself were completely enamored by the exotic americas as a child.. deny it! GO ON!

US is cool... hence we know of the places.. we're not taught it or expected to know it.. it's ingrained in us from birth through teevees by our disturbing capitilastic state and the filthy media henchmen.. and there is certainly no attitude that everyone should know everything [i]american[/i].. that concept is in your befuzzled mind..
the attitude is that we should know EVERYTHING..

the yanks don't care cos they are fat and stoopid

Santa Cruz is also famously the home of the Santa Cruz Operation. Made infamous by Darl McBride. I'm amazed no-one has heard of it.

would you expect the majority of people in the US to have heard of a UK town with a population of 56,124

we're not taught it, or expected to know it

Erm, I think we are expected to know. Hence this thread.

And the media makes certain we are kept informed. News from the US is often treated with almost equal standing as news from the UK.

I know the answer, but only because i bought my santa claus bullit thinking i would get huge air like i had reindeer strapped to the front of my bike, was gutted to find it was santa cruz and named after a shitty little american town!

How can he be Spanish when Santa is from Lapland?

I find this whole attitude that everyone in Britain should know all things American really rather depressing.

We aren't expected to know it because it's the USA. We end up knowing it because we consume a lot of culture. The OP was surprised that the people didn't know it given that it's a widely recognised place. That's not the same as considering it important to know.

A lot of people know that Manchester United play at Old Trafford, even if they care not a jot about the team. It's not in any way important but I'd still be mildly surprised if a person didn't know.

However I am bloody amazed that it was the £1m question - assuming this is WWTBAM.

Erm

I find this whole attitude of trying to pour scorn on a post that rationally and logically undermines a post of your own, by smarmily pointing out pedantic points of little or no consequence, really rather depressing.

I find this whole attitude of trying to pour scorn on a post that rationally and logically undermines a post of your own, by smarmily pointing out pedantic points of little or no consequence, really rather depressing.

Is that what I did ? 😀

I had no idea. I thought I was just saying "hang on a minute, I'm not sure I entirely agree with that point"

But your interpretation sounds much better yunki ........[i]thanks[/i] 8)

😐

Don't look so glum !

Here's a banana dancing to cheer you up

[img] [/img]

🙁
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.
.
.
.

EDIT: I watched it for a little bit longer and it did actually noticably cheer me up..

thanks 8)

Is capitilastic a real word ?

I'd kind of expect most people in the US have heard of a UK City with a population of 11,500.

Really? 12000 population is getting pretty small (the biggest 66 settlements in the UK are all 100k+, to give you an idea of scale); there will be plenty of people in the UK who may not have heard of British towns that size, and, in any case, the Yanks are often poor at the geography of the next state, never mind the UK.

Andy

However I am bloody amazed that it was the £1m question - assuming this is WWTBAM.

Nah, it was Million Pound Drop Live, where they seem to only allow morons! I was going to apply, but you can't go on your own any more, and I suspect it would ruin friendships rather easily!

News from the US is often treated with almost equal standing as news from the UK.

So what? Have you seen the coverage the UK gets in countries like India and Australia?

I'm with the OP. It's nothing to do with any US bias, just decent general knowledge, which a lot of people simply don't have any more.

I like stories of stupid people, makes me feel better.

Is it the equivalent of asking about Todmorden in the US?

I know it but only because of the bikes and the song... by the Thrills?

there's a song about Todmorden?

Im sure I was well aware of Santa Cruz from an early age, cant think why though. Perhaps something to do with skateboarding in the 70s?

Is capitilastic a real word ?

yes.. I learnt it from our ex-president George Dubya Bush.. Now there was a man with honourability.. He could have taken our twin nation conglomarationality right to the top..

Im sure I was well aware of Santa Cruz from an early age, cant think why though. Perhaps something to do with skateboarding in the 70s?

[url= http://www.santacruzskateboards.com/ ]Santa Cruz Skateboards[/url]? Would have been the first place I heard the name, I remember them from when I was about ten.

All questions are easy..... if you know the answer.

News from the US is often treated with almost equal standing as news from the UK.

[b]"So what? Have you seen the coverage the UK gets in countries like India and Australia?"[/b]

So what ? Well, we are not the United States ....... if that needs explaining. There is no reason at all why news from the US should get so much prominence. And it often enters the realms of ridiculous with even inclement weather in the US getting completely totally disproportionate coverage.

Sometimes even just the "threat" of inclement weather in the US gets a high billing on UK news. For example, a particularly nasty hurricane can rip through the Caribbean without getting any coverage at all from UK news providers, despite the fact that many people in the UK have very strong links with the Caribbean and would be concerned about relatives and friends. But as soon as the hurricane starts to threaten the US coast it suddenly becomes news worthy.

And I would expect news of the UK to get fairly high coverage in countries like India and Australia because a great deal of people in those Commonwealth countries have relatives and friends in the UK.

I'd kind of expect most people in the US have heard of a UK City with a population of 11,500.

Stoke-on-Trent has a population of almost half a million. Ask the average American whether it's Stoke-on-Thames, Stoke-on-Tyne, Stoke-on-Trent, or Stoke-upon-Sea, and I am absolutely sure that they would not have the slightest idea.

Don't ever underestimate just how clueless your average American can be :

Of course not all Americans are so ill-informed and dumb, as the kid proves. And besides, she's pretty and has lovely teeth, so I don't think it's really much of an issue here.

We need to get you a decent thread to get stuck in to Ernie. Or Laid.

*back in a mo*

EDIT:

Here you go GG http://www.singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/arm-the-fuzz-now

There was me thinking the answer was Santa Beckham

a decent thread

Stoner, I suspect that you might be taking me more seriously than I take myself. I like this thread.

How can he be Spanish when Santa is from Lapland?

wasn't lapland dicovered by a californian explorer called arnie?

Stoke-on-Trent has a population of almost half a million.

I wasn't talking about SoT - I was talking about a city I expect they've heard of.

As that what this meant ?

[i]"I'd kind of expect most people in the US have heard of a UK City with a population of 11,500."[/i]

Well if they haven't heard of a city in the UK with almost half a million inhabitants, then they are not very likely to know many UK cities with a population of 56,124.

Which was precisely the point I was trying to make when I said [i]"Would you expect the majority of people in the US to have heard of a UK town with a population of 56,124 ?"[/i]

I have ask aracer, do you ever get bored with your obsessive pedantic forensic analysis of my posts ? I do of course feel hugely honoured that you should put so much effort in trying to "catch ernie_lynch out". But just occasionally, your focus on utterly irrelevant minute detail is ever so slightly tedious. Could you not perhaps leave it for issues which matter a little more ? ....you know, stuff like my opposition to neo-liberalism or my support for trade unions ?

Just pointing out that your argument that the likelihood of somebody having heard of somewhere is in direct proportion to its size is a complete load of rubbish.

I blame David Beckham's sperm . . .

apparently, . . . if Romeo had have been a girl, the one they have been longing for, . . .

she would have been named Barbara, . . . !

This would have rendered the question useless, and they would have had a question relating to how many times Santa appeared in last night's episode of Corrie, . . . a question they no doubt would have had little trouble getting right, and they would be now sitting pretty on £1m, . . .

Thanks Becks!!

Sometimes even just the "threat" of inclement weather in the US gets a high billing on UK news. .

Probably becasue we tend to get the back-end of their bad weather, you know, Gulf Stream and all that.....
And it cuts both ways, I know this becasue I have realtives in Canada. They get to hear about us you know....

And I think you're wrong anyway

Stoke-on-Trent has a population of almost half a million. Ask the average American whether it's Stoke-on-Thames, Stoke-on-Tyne, Stoke-on-Trent, or Stoke-upon-Sea, and I am absolutely sure that they would not have the slightest idea.

Oh, I think you may have underesimated the Yanks. Slash from G'n'R comes from Stoke on Trent.... 😛

Mountain out of a molehill? Nahh, not our Ernie! 🙄

your argument that the likelihood of somebody having heard of somewhere is in direct proportion to its size is a complete load of rubbish.

Only it isn't. Big cities tend to be known more throughout the world, than small towns. And the bigger they are, the more likely people will have heard of them. Why are you pretending to be an idiot aracer........is it just boredom ?

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Probably becasue we tend to get the back-end of their bad weather, you know, Gulf Stream and all that.....

Is that what it is ?

Well it certainly makes sense to me now. And from now on I will be paying much more attention to news of any possible inclement weather in the US, as I try to calculate what it will mean for us.

But hang on, I completely ignore all the Caribbean countries right ? Only if one of their hurricanes hits the US coast should I be worried ?

I think you're wrong anyway

Obviously it's something I'm going to have to live with. But I'm not going to pretend that it's gonna to be easy 😐

Obviously it's something I'm going to have to live with. But I'm not going to pretend that it's gonna to be easy

[img] [/img]
here is a thing-a-ma-jig to help you

Big cities tend to be known more throughout the world, than small towns. And the bigger they are, the more likely people will have heard of them

What's with all the ad-homs? Play the ball, not the man.

by your criteria they should be twice as likely to have heard of Hull.

Obviously the significance of the term [i]"more likely"[/i] in : "the bigger they are, the [b]more likely[/b] people will have heard of them" is lost on you. Still never mind eh ?

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yunki - thanks......that's thoughtful of you. And sure it will go a long way in cheering me up, as I try to cope with the thought that PeterPoddy thinks I'm wrong.

I've heard of Santa Cruz (independently of bikes), and I'm about as geographically challenged as it's possible to get without actually needing a map to find the toilet in my own house.

My experience of your average US citizen's grasp of non-US geography isn't glowing. I had the following exchange with pretty much every American I met over there until I worked out the magic answer:
[i]
"Gee, where are you from?"

England.

"Whereabouts in England?"

Uh, the north-west.

"Yeah, but, whereabouts?"

Well, I'm from a small town called Accrington.

*blank look*

It's near Blackburn.

*blank look*

Uh, near Manchester.

*blank look*

Umm... near Liverpool?

"Aaaah! Liverpool! The Beatles!"[/i]

So yeah, for the duration of most of my time in the US, I was an honorary Scouser. Perhaps 40% of the time, I'd get the follow-up question after a moment's reflection, "is that near London?"

But hang on, I completely ignore all the Caribbean countries right ? Only if one of their hurricanes hits the US coast should I be worried ?

Yeah, basically, you got it!

Why would you care about the Caribbean anyway? That's even smaller and less interesting than the USA....... 😉

But it was a question aimed at Chat readers.

It's really a Beckham question pretending to be geography.

Absolutely. I don't know what I was thinking of.

It's moments like this that makes me realise just how much I have to learn. Good 'ol "helpful" Poddy eh ? 😀

So Ernie, you're admitting that size isn't the sole criteria, and there are reasons people might have heard of somewhere despite it being (relatively) small? I ignored your "more likely" because it was part of a response in which you started off by denying that "the likelihood of somebody having heard of somewhere is in direct proportion to its size is a complete load of rubbish." You do understand what I mean by "direct proportion"?

It's moments like this that makes me realise just how much I have to learn. Good 'ol "helpful" Poddy eh ?

Thank god someone's realised it! 8)

I think I was more shocked to be in Santa Cruz walking down the boardwalk with people who'd never heard of Lost Boys than somebody not knowing the name of Santa Cruz 🙂

Just realised I've visited 3 different places in the world all named Santa Cruz. Trying to work out if there's any similarly named towns/cities that I've visited multiples of

I saw that, and I knew the answer, but I didn't get so het up about it that I needed to 'calm down' and, indeed, tell the mtb community.

Its just telly.

Stoke-on-Trent has a population of almost half a million.

😯

How has this been allowed to happen?

Those poor, poor people. 😥

What can be done to resolve this?

Santa is spanish so pick something that matches, even if it is a guess, that would be cruz.

No he isn't he's Dutch!

No he isn't he's Dutch!

Elf, the poor poor people who live in Stoke-on-Trent need no positive intervention, they're as happy as pigs in shit. It's those of us who live nearby who need rescuing.

Never you mind about the mountain bikes (or surfboards or snowboards), these halfwits clearly aren't au fair with skateboarding culture either!

All of this size of population as core criteria for external fame is way off though. There are cities of 5-10 million in China that you've never heard of. Santa Cruz punches way above it's weight due to numerous references in pop culture. Obviously, American pop culture forms the bulk of Western pop culture and California is the dominant force within American pop culture.

Any British adult that struggles with that answer is on the thick side.

I'd be surprised if anyone heard of a city in the UK with a population of only 11,500. I live in a moderate sized market town with a population around 50,000, and I wouldn't expect many people in London to have heard of it, although I've found people in all sorts of places who have, to my surprise.
I'm sure I can name loads of small towns in America; London, Bristol, Norwich, Southampton, Plymouth...
Then there's Wounded Knee, North Platt, South Platt, Galveston, Witchita...
Unlike many people, I actually have an interest in places outside of our shores, have actually been to one or two, and read a great many books and magazines and watch tv programmes that are a bit further afield than Whetherfield or Albert Square or Brookside. Or Anfield
Bill Bryson is an excellent reference, btw.

I went to Stoke on Trent once. There were young women in just boob tubes, white stillettos and wide belts. They may or may nor have had pants on. It was freezing. 😯

I'd be surprised if anyone heard of a city in the UK with a population of only 11,500