Date: Wed, 27 Jun 2012 15:51:49 -0400
From: "Mike B." <yahoo at omniphile.com>
To: wsfa-forum at yahoogroups.com, WSFA members <WSFAlist at KeithLynch.net>
Subject: [WSFA] Re: Earth does not orbit the moon ....
Reply-To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at KeithLynch.net>

All true, however I don't have any trouble believing that a large
percentage of people in the USA don't know even the most basic science
facts.  I've talked to a lot of them personally.  Things like this are
one possible result of this ignorance:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dihydrogen_monoxide_hoax

It's not just science they don't know:

http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1338&dat=19691216&id=6LszAAAA=
IBAJ&sjid=IfgDAAAAIBAJ&pg=7374,97236

Even if you leave out those who didn't want to sign because they didn't
want to give away their autographs, the ones who didn't even recognize
the document are still an alarming percentage.

Other polls/surveys find similar levels of ignorance about the basics of =

our country:

http://billofrightsinstitute.org/blog/2010/12/15/do-you-think-teens-know-=
the-difference-between-madison-and-marx/

http://www.ericdigests.org/pre-929/rights.htm

http://www.joplinindependent.com/display_article.php/rachel-g1292453048

-- Mike B.

On 6/27/2012 3:09 PM, Steve Smith wrote:
> Yeah, far too many folks love to play "gotcha" with trick questions.  T=
here are also apparently a lot of people who get flustered when strangers=
 ask them questions, plus folks who just like to play with the questioner=
s' heads (and databases).
>
> Re trick questions, from today's Girl Genius comic:
>
> Jager:  Mine poppa vas a blacksmith, but he vanted to be a philosopher.=
  He was beeg into duality und de politics of non-beink as related to Pla=
tonic reality.
>
> Tevak:  ... Really?
>
> Jager:  HO!  Trick question!
>
>       -- Steve
>
> On 6/26/12 10:09 AM, Candy Madigan wrote:
>>
>> I could see myself not answering those questions.  Not because I didn=E2=
=80=98t know the answers, but because I thought they were trick questions=
=2E
>>
>> *From:*wsfa-forum at yahoogroups.com [mailto:wsfa-forum at yahoogroups.com] =
*On Behalf Of *samlubell at verizon.net
>> *Sent:* Monday, June 25, 2012 3:53 PM
>> *To:* wsfa-forum at yahoogroups.com
>> *Subject:* Re: [wsfa-forum] Earth does not orbit the moon ....
>>
>> Only 73% of Americans in a 2010 NSF poll knew that the earth goes arou=
nd the sun
>>
>> Only 52% knew it took a year for it to do so.
>>
>> http://www.nsf.gov/statistics/seind12/append/c7/at07-10.pdf
>>
>> So it's understandable that newspaper writers/editors might get confus=
ed about the moon.
>>
>> On 06/25/12, Michael Walsh<walshmichaelj at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> 
>>
>> mjw
>>
>