3 ms·

Europe is not a country. Given how many times we must have this conversation, I wonder if you guys are even taught geography in school?

by sph 4mo ago

m2f2 4mo ago
Not yet, at least, but close to (thanks, POTUS). Back to AC... I have to fork out 4000€ to replace an aging AC in a small flat 60sqm (650 sq feet). Just looking out of my window right now I can see 600 similar places, so that's 2.4mil EUR for a couple of (city) blocks. As AC is to be added as it won't replace the winter central heating system we got in most condos -- well that's a lot of money.
- m4rtink 4mo ago
  Then you are being ripped off - I have seen 40000 Kč for a combined heat-pump/AC air/air unit here in the Czech Republic, which is about 1600 EUR. And you are getting a very efficient modern AC & heat pump.
- Kim_Bruning 4mo ago
  Why won't it replace the winter central heating? Can't turn it off? Or is it because you're in germany and the taxes on electricity actually offset your CoP (Coefficient of Performance)?
OkayPhysicist 4mo ago
Europeans are very proud of the fact that they're a bunch of different countries, but besides the language thing, Europe is only somewhat more culturally diverse than the US. The differences in philosophy, social norms, and general life outlook between Hawaiians, Northern Californians, and New Yorkers and Georgians is only marginally less wide than the differences between the French, English, Germans, and Italians. In my experience, the former Soviet block countries are pretty significantly different from those on our side of the Iron Curtain, but when an American says Europe they're probably not referring to anything east of Germany anyway.
- sph 4mo ago
  Hawaiians, Northern Californians, and New Yorkers and Georgians speak the same language, go to the same schools and watch the same TV shows. And even just Western Europe is larger than Germany, France, Italy, England. European countries have distinct histories that span thousands of years. Did you know that Arabs ruled over part of the Spanish peninsula for 3 times as long than US has even existed? The ignorance at this point is frankly insulting. Somehow, of all people in the world, it is just Americans seeing everything as an imitation of their own country.
  - OkayPhysicist 4mo ago
    They do not go to the same schools. The school system is controlled nigh-exclusively by the states, to rather infamously mixed results. That Northern Californian kid is getting a world-class education. The kid in Georgia is almost certainly not. Meanwhile, the US is wildly more diverse at the local level than Europe is, which leads to its own significant cultural differences. Up in Northern California, about a quarter of people are of Asian descent, predominantly Indian and Chinese. Another quarter is Latino. Southern California is half Latino. Jump across the country to the Midwest, you've got a lot more people of German descent, in the South you've got Black people making up a significant portion of the population. What the US lacks in local history, it makes up for in cultural admixture: all those diverse backgrounds end up stewing together in unique ways across the country, producing all sorts of unique cultures. Leads to some fantastic fusion foods: Spam wasubi, breakfast burritos, American pizza, soul food, Chinese-American cuisine. Sure we don't our own thousand years of rich fucks inbreeding over funny hats, but the wide spectrum of cultures across across the US draw from the histories of everywhere on the globe. Compare that with, say, Germany. Germany is 70% ethnically German. Most US states aren't even that 'White', never mind breaking that down by individual countries of origin.

Europe is not a country. Given how many times we must have this conversation, I wonder if you guys are even taught geography in school?

by sph 4mo ago

Europe is not a country. Given how many times we must have this conversation, I wonder if you guys are even taught geography in school?

m2f2 4mo ago

Not yet, at least, but close to (thanks, POTUS). Back to AC... I have to fork out 4000€ to replace an aging AC in a small flat 60sqm (650 sq feet). Just looking out of my window right now I can see 600 similar places, so that's 2.4mil EUR for a couple of (city) blocks. As AC is to be added as it won't replace the winter central heating system we got in most condos -- well that's a lot of money.

m4rtink 4mo ago
Then you are being ripped off - I have seen 40000 Kč for a combined heat-pump/AC air/air unit here in the Czech Republic, which is about 1600 EUR. And you are getting a very efficient modern AC & heat pump.
Kim_Bruning 4mo ago
Why won't it replace the winter central heating? Can't turn it off? Or is it because you're in germany and the taxes on electricity actually offset your CoP (Coefficient of Performance)?

OkayPhysicist 4mo ago

Europeans are very proud of the fact that they're a bunch of different countries, but besides the language thing, Europe is only somewhat more culturally diverse than the US. The differences in philosophy, social norms, and general life outlook between Hawaiians, Northern Californians, and New Yorkers and Georgians is only marginally less wide than the differences between the French, English, Germans, and Italians. In my experience, the former Soviet block countries are pretty significantly different from those on our side of the Iron Curtain, but when an American says Europe they're probably not referring to anything east of Germany anyway.

sph 4mo ago
Hawaiians, Northern Californians, and New Yorkers and Georgians speak the same language, go to the same schools and watch the same TV shows. And even just Western Europe is larger than Germany, France, Italy, England. European countries have distinct histories that span thousands of years. Did you know that Arabs ruled over part of the Spanish peninsula for 3 times as long than US has even existed? The ignorance at this point is frankly insulting. Somehow, of all people in the world, it is just Americans seeing everything as an imitation of their own country.
- OkayPhysicist 4mo ago
  They do not go to the same schools. The school system is controlled nigh-exclusively by the states, to rather infamously mixed results. That Northern Californian kid is getting a world-class education. The kid in Georgia is almost certainly not. Meanwhile, the US is wildly more diverse at the local level than Europe is, which leads to its own significant cultural differences. Up in Northern California, about a quarter of people are of Asian descent, predominantly Indian and Chinese. Another quarter is Latino. Southern California is half Latino. Jump across the country to the Midwest, you've got a lot more people of German descent, in the South you've got Black people making up a significant portion of the population. What the US lacks in local history, it makes up for in cultural admixture: all those diverse backgrounds end up stewing together in unique ways across the country, producing all sorts of unique cultures. Leads to some fantastic fusion foods: Spam wasubi, breakfast burritos, American pizza, soul food, Chinese-American cuisine. Sure we don't our own thousand years of rich fucks inbreeding over funny hats, but the wide spectrum of cultures across across the US draw from the histories of everywhere on the globe. Compare that with, say, Germany. Germany is 70% ethnically German. Most US states aren't even that 'White', never mind breaking that down by individual countries of origin.