How do U.S. states compare to European countries?
Okay, so the American Northeast and Northwest are just like the Scandinavian / Northwest area of Europe. This includes countries like Sweden, Norway, Denmark, and the Netherlands. We are EXTREMELY liberal and always lean socialist. The American Southwest and sort of Middle Northeast states (California, coastal states Maryland and Virgina) are like the west coast of Europe; think Spain, France, and Portugal. Colorado is like Switzerland, Texas is like Poland, the Middle / Middle America (states that do not share a boarder with Canada) are like the rest of Eastern Europe. States that share a boarder with Canada are like states that share boarders with Russia (including Finland) and states that share boarders with Mexico are like Russia, which shares a boarder with Asia.Minnesota, specifically, is probably closest to Finland in the sense that, I believe, they still lean liberal, but they also have a lot of different ethnic groups living there, where most Eastern Europen countries don't.
How many states can the average American recall?
I can list them all in alphabetical order in less than 30 seconds, and I haven't thought about them for a couple years, and hate geography. Elementary school songs are awesome. I'd say almost all of the college age kids I know could name 90%-100% of them.
If 45% of Americans don't know that the sun is a star...?
It pains me as an American to say that the stupidity of the majority of Americans is staggering. I think that those who don't know it's a star have probably just never even thought about it before until someone asked them what the Sun is for the survey. So they don't think it's anything, because they don't think. Which is really depressing. How can you go through your life with this huge blinding ball of heat and light moving through the sky over your head and not want to know what's up with that? I can understand just not being interested in astronomy or space, and maybe not being able to name all the planets or what order they're in or whatever. But not even knowing that the Sun is a star?? Our education system is completely broken and needs to be rebuilt from the ground up. I once saw a video where they had taken a map of the Earth and changed the names of countries around. They had labeled Australia as Iran and walked up to people on the street and asked them to find Iran. Every one in the video pointed to Australia. I mean really???? I don't mean to sound as if I'm bashing all American teachers, because I had a few great ones. But we have some really poor teachers (probably because our education system encourages the best and brightest to not become teachers....). I remember being 11 years old in tht 6th grade and learning about the bombing of Hiroshima in history class. We learned that many Japanese saw the plane but weren't concerned because they thought it was a weather plane, that flew over daily. My teacher said but I just don't understand why they couldn't see the bomb hanging under the wing. I didn't talk much in class but had to speak up. Do you never look up in the sky at airliners? The plane was 6 MILES up, and the bomb was inside the plane's bomb bay. How could they have seen it? It's sad when an 11 year old can call a teacher out in class.