10 ms·

>Because the headline is written according to the expected understanding of the American reader. Not exactly a high bar it seems...

freehunter 13y ago
Can you tell me where every country in the world is?
- stephenhuey 13y ago
  Can you use Google? :) Not meaning to offend! As someone who grew up in an African nation, I will easily concede to some of the parents in this thread that it's often just easier to get people's attention if you use something recognizable in a news headline. That being said, it is odd to me that it's the MIT Technology Review doing it in an age when anyone can double-click a string of text in the browser, e.g. Ivory Coast, and use the right-click menu to search with Google. Or copy and paste into their favorite search engine and instantly find out where the place is located with a string of search results and a map embedded into the page...
  - freehunter 13y ago
    Here's the real kicker: if I don't know where the country is, why would I care enough to google it? "Africa" in this situation gives me more info than the name of the country would.
    - stephenhuey 13y ago
      You never look up things you don't recognize? I care to look things up every day, and before the web I used physical dictionaries and encyclopedias on a frequent basis. Some people may never feel that inquisitive, but quite a lot of us are, and I'd imagine most people on HN are like that.
      - freehunter 13y ago
        There's a lot of articles posted to HN every day that I don't understand. If I researched them all, I'd have no time to actually do something productive. I skip them and move on unless something else about it catches my eye.
- trailfox 13y ago
  Most of them, yes. Most 12 year olds from my country are taught the names of all countries in the world and where to find them on a map and the names of the capital cities.
  - freehunter 13y ago
    The I guess I'm less intelligent than most of the 12 year old kids in your country, because to be honest there's more relevant things I still have yet to learn before I get around to memorizing the name, location, and capital city of all 195(?) nations in the world and keep this information updated in my mind when, for example, a regime change in Central Africa means the name of the country is now different or what was one country is now two. I should have your middle schoolers tutor me.
    - deleted 13y ago
      [deleted]
    - trailfox 13y ago
      >I guess I'm less intelligent than most of the 12 year old kids in your country I think you just hit the nail on the head.

freehunter 13y ago

Can you tell me where every country in the world is?

stephenhuey 13y ago
Can you use Google? :) Not meaning to offend! As someone who grew up in an African nation, I will easily concede to some of the parents in this thread that it's often just easier to get people's attention if you use something recognizable in a news headline. That being said, it is odd to me that it's the MIT Technology Review doing it in an age when anyone can double-click a string of text in the browser, e.g. Ivory Coast, and use the right-click menu to search with Google. Or copy and paste into their favorite search engine and instantly find out where the place is located with a string of search results and a map embedded into the page...
- freehunter 13y ago
  Here's the real kicker: if I don't know where the country is, why would I care enough to google it? "Africa" in this situation gives me more info than the name of the country would.
  - stephenhuey 13y ago
    You never look up things you don't recognize? I care to look things up every day, and before the web I used physical dictionaries and encyclopedias on a frequent basis. Some people may never feel that inquisitive, but quite a lot of us are, and I'd imagine most people on HN are like that.
    - freehunter 13y ago
      There's a lot of articles posted to HN every day that I don't understand. If I researched them all, I'd have no time to actually do something productive. I skip them and move on unless something else about it catches my eye.
trailfox 13y ago
Most of them, yes. Most 12 year olds from my country are taught the names of all countries in the world and where to find them on a map and the names of the capital cities.
- freehunter 13y ago
  The I guess I'm less intelligent than most of the 12 year old kids in your country, because to be honest there's more relevant things I still have yet to learn before I get around to memorizing the name, location, and capital city of all 195(?) nations in the world and keep this information updated in my mind when, for example, a regime change in Central Africa means the name of the country is now different or what was one country is now two. I should have your middle schoolers tutor me.
  - deleted 13y ago
    [deleted]
  - trailfox 13y ago
    >I guess I'm less intelligent than most of the 12 year old kids in your country I think you just hit the nail on the head.