anonguest Posted September 16, 2015 Share Posted September 16, 2015 Poor kid! http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-34266389 This whole phenomenon of Americans becoming ultra sensitive, to the point of almost being scared of their own shadows......have they always been like this? or is it really just a post 9/11 thing? Don't these people have any sense of 'perspective' and realise just how dumb some of these sorts of actions make them look!? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrPin Posted September 16, 2015 Share Posted September 16, 2015 Generally I find Americans to be much brighter than they are portrayed in Europe. A bit like Australians aren't really like beer swilling hicks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GinAndPlatonic Posted September 16, 2015 Share Posted September 16, 2015 They do tend to think you are guilty before proven innocent. Sometimes police might even shoot and kill you before you are proven innocent. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anonguest Posted September 16, 2015 Author Share Posted September 16, 2015 Generally I find Americans to be much brighter than they are portrayed in Europe. A bit like Australians aren't really like beer swilling hicks. I broadly agree. I have met many Americans and the majority of them seemed perfectly intelligent - although it is important to distinguish between education and intelligence. By 'intelligence' I mean a collection of personal characteristics that includes what most would refer to as 'common sense'. In that particular respect I found a disconcerting number of them to be lacking levels of common sense that we here, mostly, take for granted. As for breadth of education? That was so shocking I won't even comment on it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MattW Posted September 16, 2015 Share Posted September 16, 2015 No surprise that it happened in Texas. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scunnered Posted September 16, 2015 Share Posted September 16, 2015 At le No surprise that it happened in Texas. At least they didn't shoot him. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scunnered Posted September 16, 2015 Share Posted September 16, 2015 A bit like Australians aren't really like beer swilling hicks. Is that a typo for "Austrians"? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest TheBlueCat Posted September 16, 2015 Share Posted September 16, 2015 When I was a kid I used to take all sorts of electronics projects to school. I also made my own gunpowder (you could still buy bags of saltpetre and sulphur in chemists in those days) and guns of a sort. Oh, and I once smashed a window 300 yards from my parents house with a potato fired from a spud-gun. I assume that any kid doing that today would be locked up in a youth detention centre. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrPin Posted September 16, 2015 Share Posted September 16, 2015 When I was a kid I used to take all sorts of electronics projects to school. I also made my own gunpowder (you could still buy bags of saltpetre and sulphur in chemists in those days) and guns of a sort. Oh, and I once smashed a window 300 yards from my parents house with a potato fired from a spud-gun. I assume that any kid doing that today would be locked up in a youth detention centre. Ha, I know a few people who did that. All very educational. Lucky I don't have an Arabic name. You could buy all sorts of dangerous stuff, at Boots. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrPin Posted September 16, 2015 Share Posted September 16, 2015 Is that a typo for "Austrians"? Ahem, maybe? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
longtomsilver Posted September 16, 2015 Share Posted September 16, 2015 Generally I find Americans to be much brighter than they are portrayed in Europe. A bit like Australians aren't really like beer swilling hicks. The ones we meet. Who are intelligent enough to migrate over here (Blighty) or work in international companies that bring is into contact with the yanks. We have friends in the US and one who worked here for a while (medical profession) and they are aligned that 99% of Americans are dumb. This one in particular, she hails from Ohio and we put on a film 'Napolian Dynamite' and she was convinced this was an accurate portrayal of her compatriots, specifically the non-passport carrying types. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
longtomsilver Posted September 16, 2015 Share Posted September 16, 2015 Ha, I know a few people who did that. All very educational. Lucky I don't have an Arabic name. You could buy all sorts of dangerous stuff, at Boots.Glycerine? I used to make fertilizer bombs and to this day there is a crater in a field near to where I used to live, lovingly made by me it was so loud that the police came out to investigate (driving by, then driving off) as me and my friend hid in the long grass with fits of uncontrolled laughter. I once put the same potion in a scaffolding pole (blocked at one end), weighted down with bricks aimed at an chunky old oak table with two pieces of carpet all contained within an outbuilding (pig sty)... the projectile was a huge bolt of the sort used on industrial works. Retreating to a safe distance the subsequent BOOM shook all the tiles and on investigation found the bolt had cleanly penetrated my target and was lodged on the outside wall, a little bit more energy and it'd have left the building. Fantastic! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrPin Posted September 16, 2015 Share Posted September 16, 2015 Glycerine? I used to make fertilizer bombs and to this day there is a crater in a field near to where I used to live, lovingly made by me it was so loud that the police came out to investigate (driving by, then driving off) as me and my friend hid in the long grass with fits of uncontrolled laughter. Fantastic! We got up to all that. Got me a chemistry A Level.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
longtomsilver Posted September 16, 2015 Share Posted September 16, 2015 We got up to all that. Got me a chemistry A Level.... I barely scraped a pass at 'A' level chemistry and only did marginally better in Biology so won't say shooting poor defenceless animals helped in that respect either (genuinely remorseful for my misdemeanors). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scunnered Posted September 16, 2015 Share Posted September 16, 2015 Glycerine? I used to make fertilizer bombs ███ ██ ████ ███ █████ ██ █ ██████ ██ █ █████ ████ ██ █████ █ ████ ██ █████ ████████ ████ ██ ██ ██ ███ ██ ████ ████ ███ ██████ ████ ███ ██ ███████████ ████████ ███ ████ ███████ ████ ██ ██ ███ ██ ██████ ███ ██ ███ ████ █████ ████ ████ ██ ████████████ █████████ █ ████ ███ ███ ████ ██████ ██ █ ███████████ ████ ████████ ██ ███ █████ ████████ ████ ████ ██████ █████ ██ ██ ██████ ███ ███ █████ ████ ███ ██████ ██ ██████ ███ █████████ ██████ ██ ███████████ ████ ███████ ███ ██████████ ███ █ ████ ████ ██ ███ ████ ████ ██ ██████████ ██████ ██████████ ██ █ ████ ████████ ███ ██████████ ████ █████ ███ ███ █████ ███ ██ █████████████ █████ ███ ████ ███ ███████ ██████████ ██ ██████ ███ ███ ██████ ██ ███ ███████ █████ █ ██████ ███ ████ ██████ ███ ████ ████ ████ ███ █████████ Fantastic! Bomb-making instructions? It's probably illegal to post that kind of thing these days... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrPin Posted September 16, 2015 Share Posted September 16, 2015 Bomb-making instructions? It's probably illegal to post that kind of thing these days... You can go to charity shops for chemistry books! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
happy_renting Posted September 16, 2015 Share Posted September 16, 2015 I have a close female friend from the USA. She 'loves whales and dolphins' so presumably would have sufficient interest in them to know a few basic facts. Nonetheless, I managed to persuade her there is a species of mountain whale that lives in the pools left by glaciers. Oh, and she has a PhD in Education and is a professor in a Louisiana University. Seriously. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrPin Posted September 16, 2015 Share Posted September 16, 2015 I have a close female friend from the USA. She 'loves whales and dolphins' so presumably would have sufficient interest in them to know a few basic facts. Nonetheless, I managed to persuade her there is a species of mountain whale that lives in the pools left by glaciers. Oh, and she has a PhD in Education and is a professor in a Louisiana University. Seriously. I always warm to bright women. One of them spotted I had the late 80s tail lights on a 93 car. *******. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
whitevanman Posted September 16, 2015 Share Posted September 16, 2015 I have a close female friend from the USA. She 'loves whales and dolphins' so presumably would have sufficient interest in them to know a few basic facts. Nonetheless, I managed to persuade her there is a species of mountain whale that lives in the pools left by glaciers. Oh, and she has a PhD in Education and is a professor in a Louisiana University. Seriously. I knew a biology undergraduate (female) who was planning to travel to Africa to save the tiger.... she ended up with a 2:1 I don't think it's only Americans that are thick. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrPin Posted September 16, 2015 Share Posted September 16, 2015 I knew a biology undergraduate (female) who was planning to travel to Africa to save the tiger.... she ended up with a 2:1 I don't think it's only Americans that are thick. I don't think a 2.1 is a very big tiger. India has bigger ones. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steppenpig Posted September 16, 2015 Share Posted September 16, 2015 I've read a couple of books by europeans studying at American high schools during a year out. It does sound a bit like 'last day of term' for most of the curriculum, but if you have any special interest, be it basketball, computers or space exploration, then you can pursue that to a greater degree than you would have thought possible. Americans also aren't as fat as you think, but some are fatter the you thought possible. Edit, and to most wastern Europeans and east Asians, Brits look pretty stupid. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrPin Posted September 16, 2015 Share Posted September 16, 2015 I think it's a "fading empire" thing. We can no longer tell Pakistani, or Irish jokes, But Americans and Ozzies are still shit for the kicking. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anonguest Posted September 16, 2015 Author Share Posted September 16, 2015 I have a close female friend from the USA. She 'loves whales and dolphins' so presumably would have sufficient interest in them to know a few basic facts. Nonetheless, I managed to persuade her there is a species of mountain whale that lives in the pools left by glaciers. Oh, and she has a PhD in Education and is a professor in a Louisiana University. Seriously. ROFLMAO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
XswampyX Posted September 16, 2015 Share Posted September 16, 2015 Looks like a bomb, a bomb from CSI. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChumpusRex Posted September 16, 2015 Share Posted September 16, 2015 A friend at school did once trigger a bomb scare. He had built some sort of electronic device for his electronics GCSE coursework - I can;t remember what it was, I think it was some kind of flight sim controller. It basically had knobs and dials, switches and a big joystick sticking out of it. Anyway, as a bit of a joke he'd had the casing screenprinted with the name of the project which was something like "Death from above". One day, he left it outside the lunch hall when he went to eat. One of the teachers found it lying outside, and was concerned about the fact that there was one of those Hollywood missile switches, covered by a big flip-up cover labelled "bomb". They called security, who called the police, who called the bomb squad who evacuated the building, and ended up seizing and destroying the guy's project. As I recall, he got in quite some trouble mainly because he had labelled it "bomb". That said, this guy wasn't completely normal. And if someone was going to blow up the school, it would either have been him or me. Anyway, he passed his GCSEs, and went on to do A-levels. Having received a 2 E offer from Oxford, he then went out of his way to achieve 2 E grades at A-level (which he did). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.