Poll: Could you find Ukraine on a map?

Could you find Ukraine on a map of the world?

  • Yes, definitely.

    Votes: 82 90.1%

  • Not sure.

    Votes: 4 4.4%

  • No.

    Votes: 3 3.3%

  • If it's not in the U.S. I don't care where it is.

    Votes: 2 2.2%
  • Total voters
    91
  • Poll closed .
I grew up playing Risk. Ukraine is above Turkey and east of the European end of the continent.
 
Where is the option for "'Murica **** yeah" and why aren't we allowed 2 votes?
 
DavidWhite said:
Where is the option for "'Murica **** yeah" and why aren't we allowed 2 votes?
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It's not on my map.

the-world-according-to-americans.jpg
 
Those profs are just ****y cause no one listens to them anymore. Why does it matter if Muricans can find Ukraine? It ain't our fight, if we get in it that decision was fixed. Public opinion will be molded to at least tolerate another war.
Besides aren't they all dirty reds over there anyway? That is what they told us not that long ago. All of em bad dirty reds. Secret police, spying on their citizens, encouraging people to rat out their neighbors, dirty filthy reds.:lol:
 
Well...
When I was in my pre- and early teens I generally advanced along the Minsk - Smolensk route to Moscow when I played the Germans in Avalon Hill's "Stalingrad" war game. Sometimes I'd try a southern thrust below the Pripyat marshes toward Moscow through Kiev.

I learned a little geography and a little history playing those games that I wouldn't have otherwise. That and don't invade Russia....
 
I've been to Ukraine twice.

I visited:
* Kiev. There was a big parade through the main square. The public was not allowed in. Only public officials got to enjoy the festivities. This was post-Soviet times. I was also there in Soviet times, when I discovered that on the street a pack of Marlboros was worth ten times what it fetched in Moscow -- apparently arbitrage hadn't yet been discovered there.
* Odessa. Where packs of feral dogs ran through the streets near the airport, and everywhere else.
* A seaside resort on the Black Sea. I stayed in the best hotel in town, which seemed pretty good, except that Comrade Nyet was in charge of the breakfast buffet.

I also took the night-train from Kiev to Moscow. A sleeping car. This was during the Soviet years. In the middle of the night I thought I heard explosions, so I got out of bed to see what was going on. The porter for the sleeping car was drinking with a passenger, and they were throwing the empty vodka bottles out on the tracks. The explosions I kept hearing were just the impact of the vodka bottles.

It's a different kind of place.
 
I've been to the Ukraine (admittedly it was the Ukrainian SSR at the time but I spent several days in Kiev before stopping in Brest-Litovsk on the way to Warsaw.
 
ClimbnSink said:
Those profs are just ****y cause no one listens to them anymore. Why does it matter if Muricans can find Ukraine? It ain't our fight, if we get in it that decision was fixed. Public opinion will be molded to at least tolerate another war.
Besides aren't they all dirty reds over there anyway? That is what they told us not that long ago. All of em bad dirty reds. Secret police, spying on their citizens, encouraging people to rat out their neighbors, dirty filthy reds.:lol:
Click to expand...

The problem is that when you sign treaties or agreements, or make public statements in support of a country, you insert yourself into their fight(s) before they've even begun. Not that anyone has to worry about The One keeping any of his commitments, unless of course the commitment is a fundraiser.


JKG
 
JGoodish said:
The problem is that when you sign treaties or agreements, or make public statements in support of a country, you insert yourself into their fight(s) before they've even begun. Not that anyone has to worry about The One keeping any of his commitments, unless of course the commitment is a fundraiser.


JKG
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That speaks true of the forum as well.
 
Sac Arrow said:
That speaks true of the forum as well.
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Haven't you already been told that fundraising is against forum rules?

But seriously, defending a position only becomes a problem if you don't have the will or ability to do so. That may be true in all areas of life, but the stakes are much higher on the world stage.


JKG
 
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Well, before Fukushima, you simply had to find the part of the map that was clicking fastest.
 
NoHeat said:
Only one out of six Americans can. Link.
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I don't even believe that one out of six random Americans could find it.

And I really don't believe that almost 92% of POAers could find it on a map. I do believe that POAers would score much higher than average, but NOT 92%. I don't mean to call anyone a liar, but pilots are sort of known for having an oversized ego and rarely admit to not knowing something.
 
FastEddieB said:
Voted yes, but could not have prior to this latest news cycle.
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Ah, an honest answer.

And I also believe those that have been there and a few others, but 92%? No way.
 
JOhnH said:
I don't even believe that one out of six random Americans could find it.

And I really don't believe that almost 92% of POAers could find it on a map. I do believe that POAers would score much higher than average, but NOT 92%. I don't mean to call anyone a liar, but pilots are sort of known for having an oversized ego and rarely admit to not knowing something.
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Random is the key word. Not many people want to admit they can't find it. But I'd bet of the 42 who said "yes", most were probably telling the truth.

For example, I didn't vote, because I was off by one country to the north. Didn't feel like saying no, because I was kind of close :)
 
ebykowsky said:
Random is the key word. Not many people want to admit they can't find it. But I'd bet of the 42 who said "yes", most were probably telling the truth.

For example, I didn't vote, because I was off by one country to the north. Didn't feel like saying no, because I was kind of close :)
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You could be right. I checked and there were 324 views of the thread and 44 YES answers. That is 14%. One out of six is 17%. But I gess that some of those 324 views were from many of the same people so the percentage would be higher.
 
While I haven't been to Ukraine, I was in Transnistria last year which is right between Moldova and Ukraine. We tried to go to Odessa but the train and bus schedules from Chisinau were terrible and we ended up taking the train back to Bucharest. Our Transnistria visa did not allow us to cross into Ukraine, as we had to leave by way of the Moldovan border at Bender.

So, yes, I can find it on a map.
 
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The results were plotted on a world map (source: WaPo), and the nice folks at ZeroHedge so kindly annotated it for us: :rofl:

20140408_ukraine2_0.png


Clicks inside the US? Come one, those must have been some wiseazzes.
 
Worse are the ones in the middle of the Arctic Ocean north of Russia.
 
Can you add a choice for "Yes, but I don't really care about it anyway?"
 
Well, if Georgia can be north of Florida, the Ukraine could be just west of Tennessee.
 
We knew where all of the USSR's warm water ports are, and watched them like hawks. ;)

The Russians couldn't fart without us knowing it, or at least that is what we were told. :lol:
 
timwinters said:
Well, before Fukushima, you simply had to find the part of the map that was clicking fastest.
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Hey! I used to live in Fukushima City, a whopping 30-ish miles from the power plant on the coast . . . Neat place, a large place by my standards [300,000 souls then] but it acted like a small town. I was tracked downtown by a coworker, and found on the 6th floor of a dept store, just by asking shop workers if they had seen a foreigner and getting directions on which way I went.
 
FastEddieB said:
I imagine a history of playing RISK is a major advantage:

map-96.jpg
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I thought it was "Yakutsk" up in the corner there, not "Yakursk." But then again, my game is 600 miles away and not nearly as brightly colored as this one, either. Great way to learn strategy and geography while filling many, many hours around tables with friends.
 
I think I see the origin of the problem - the Ukraine is no Spain - it gets little rain. It falls into the vast tracts between Mirkwood/Rhovanian and Rhûn. Hobbits Americans associate all the east with vile Orcs.

Map_of_Middle-earth-1024x765.jpg
 
I only know where Ukraine is because my neighbors are from there and I looked it up once. I had a vague idea where it was (west of Russia) before but I'm not sure I could have pinpointed it accurately. Today I spoke to one of them and, out of curiosity, asked how she felt about the situation there. I found out that the situation is emotional enough that it has divided families, hers for example.
 
Sure I can locate Ukraine on a map -- I just open Google Maps, type 'Ukraine' in the box and there it is. :D

Kidding aside, I can find Ukraine, but all the *stan countries around Russia, north of Afghanistan -- no way.
 
ColoPilot said:
Sure I can locate Ukraine on a map -- I just open Google Maps, type 'Ukraine' in the box and there it is. :D

Kidding aside, I can find Ukraine, but all the *stan countries around Russia, north of Afghanistan -- no way.
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I get most of the 'stans...although I sometimes get messed up between Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.
 
I don't think this is an indicator that Americans do not care, or are only interested in themselves, but more of a reflection of our low educational standards. 73% of Americans between 18 & 24 could not answer correctly, and that group actually did better than most.

Geography seems to have been pushed to the sidelines in our educational system. A few years back I was placing an order with a supplier in New York. She was asking for my address. After I told her San Diego, she asked me what state that was in. She got more than indignant when I responded with; "you've got to be kidding". She was not kidding. I could have told her New York, and I am sure that is what she would have entered. San Diego, NY.

The only reason I gave a yes answer in the poll was due to all of the maps I've seen on the news when all of this started over there. Prior to that, I would have been searching in the right area, but I would not have immediately gone to Ukraine.

That above map of most Americans view of the world is reasonably correct. Most Californians who live west of highway five think the east coast starts on the other side of it. (might be a slight exaggeration on my part)

Our nation is more interested in getting as many kids into college as it can, so all educational efforts are tuned to that goal, passing college entrance exams.

Actually ending up with a well educated product is at the very bottom of K-12 priorities. The main effort is toward passing advancement exams, which apparently do not include geography.

-John
 
John Baker said:
She was asking for my address. After I told her San Diego, she asked me what state that was in. She got more than indignant when I responded with; "you've got to be kidding". She was not kidding. I could have told her New York, and I am sure that is what she would have entered. San Diego, NY.
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You do realize there's a San Diego, TX, right?

https://www.google.com/maps/place/S...1s0x8667ac3d7e42a9c3:0x39a272d32cb6aa97?hl=en

So, you could well have had your crap shipped to west of Corpus Christi and then you would be bitching that the person who took the order was an idiot.
 
JeffDG said:
You do realize there's a San Diego, TX, right?

https://www.google.com/maps/place/S...1s0x8667ac3d7e42a9c3:0x39a272d32cb6aa97?hl=en

So, you could well have had your crap shipped to west of Corpus Christi and then you would be bitching that the person who took the order was an idiot.
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Yes I do know that there is a San Diego in Texas. Most of my suppliers clarify that by quiring "California?" This young woman really did not have a clue about where either of them were. She went so far as to tell me that "she never got that far in the book."

-John
 
John Baker said:
Yes I do know that there is a San Diego in Texas. Most of my suppliers clarify that by quiring "California?" This young woman really did not have a clue about where either of them were. She went so far as to tell me that "she never got that far in the book."

-John
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Ahhh...I get it. Someone asked you a legitimate question, and you responded in the manner of an *******, so you could feel intellectually superior. Gotcha.

See, most normal people would go:

Customer: San Diego
CSR: What state?
Customer: California
CSR: Thank you.

See, simple. No need to berate someone as stupid or anything.
 
JOhnH said:
And I also believe those that have been there and a few others, but 92%? No way.
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Yes way. The original article was fabricated by America-hating liberal professors.

BTW, I missed my chance to visit Kiev for my honeymoon. I arranged the trip, but confused the dates, so we thought it was a day later than train tickets were for in actual fact. We never went on the honeymoon... or to Kiev ever. Still married 25 years later though.
 
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