Friday, September 3, 2010

Geography FAIL!

Okay, I'm doing a research survey this morning, and screen #1 asked me which country I resided in. So I checked "USA".

The next screen came up, and asked me what state I lived in. It featured a drop-down menu with all the states. And the "A's" went like this:

Alabama
Alaska
Alberta
Arizona
Arkansas...


I REALLY hope they did that to see if I was paying attention.

35 comments:

  1. sadly not the first time I have seen such a glaring mistake!

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  2. Did the have all of the proviences? or just alberta. Sometimes you'll see them all mixed in. Super annoying when your canadian and have to scroll though 50 US states!

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  3. I'm not American, please explain?

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  4. I work with someone who is extremely challenged geographically. Thought the Titanc sank in Alaska because that's the only place with icebergs. Thought you could drive across to England/Europe. Some people should never be allowed out of grade school.

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  5. Alberta isn't part of the U.S. It's a Canadian province.

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  6. You can have Alberta if you'd like...it's more like Texas than any other Canadian province. Take Steviebaby with you too, ok?

    BR

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  7. If Alberta was the only Canadian province in the list, then it was a mistake. But it might have been deliberate. We keep a library of common code, among which is a state drop-down for web apps. Someone asked why the Canadian provinces were mixed in, and the dismissive answer was "We treat Canada like it's the 51st state." Sorry, Canadians. Americans are nothing if not arrogant.

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  8. It was the only province I saw. I looked for the rest, and they weren't there.

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  9. As an outsider (British - although with a wife from Detroit), I am aware of a generalisation that that lists arrogance and geographic ignorance high on the list of American talents.
    However, a good screening tool (with decent sensitivity and specificity) that I have noticed is ownership of a (stamped) passport.
    Just an observation.

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  10. Admiral Michael Mullen, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of StaffSeptember 3, 2010 at 11:15 AM

    Dammit! Those plans weren't supposed to get out yet! Who else saw this?

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  11. Has there been an hostile takeover and nobody told me? I seriously need to start working for the FBI or the CIA or the DoD so I can stay on top of these sorts of happenings.

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  12. I wonder if you say you're from Canada, they list Alberta as a choice, or which of the US states are inserted as a choice. Or, maybe, in this case, Alberta is included as a kind of state of the mind, such as sort of an Edmonton, Red Deer, Calgary feeling when one is starting on the second day of the cross-Alcan route to Alaska. Yes, I'm in a Alberta 'state' versus a Yukon Territory 'state' implying a civilized hopefulness vs. a feeling that the trip is getting a little longer and primitive.

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  13. We are just one step closer to being the United States...of Canada.

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  14. Stephanie- Been reading "Night Probe" by Clive Cussler, huh?

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  15. Good one, Admiral .....
    I once worked with a woman who had literally never left her county of residence here in North Carolina, even for vacation. We took in passport apps, among other things, and I had to witness her ignorance twice -- both times calling the Department of State's national help line, asking a) what the requirements were for a passport to British Columbia (the "British" threw her off) and b) why the nation of Buenos Aires wasn't listed in our guidebook. Thanks to her, I now have TMJ.

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  16. I got a parking ticket. There was a spot for the cop to check off what state the license plate was from (yes, it said state). The choices were New York, Ontario, or Other.

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  17. As a Canadian I am not surprised that Alberta has become your newest state. I'm sure they are celebrating in Calgary today! Hopefully Alberta can be moved next to Texas and BC and Saskatchewan can swell up a little so we can maintain our east-west continuity.

    Alberta is a lovely place, I hope you guys enjoy it! Check out Banff (or whatever you guys decide to rename it), it's really amazing. The only downside is that you now also own our Prime Minister, so we are going to have to think about that one eh?

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  18. Somebody else reads Clive Cussler???
    Whoa!!

    Well we were told by a certain candidate in the last election there were 57 states....Just maybe......he was already planning....

    Just saying....

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  19. 57 states... so which ones are you taking and which ones are you leaving behind? Can I make some suggestions?

    I grew up along the border and on more than one occasion was handed a $20 as a tip since our "funny money" or "monopoli money" wasn't worth anything (at the time we were pretty close to par). I just smiled and said thanks since that was more than I was making an hour at the time. Ignorance/arrogance can be costly.

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  20. As long as we don't take Quebec..

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  21. Aye . . . maybe we're in the process of another land acquisition that hasn't been announced to the general public, or ...

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  22. That sounds like someone from New Mexico trying to get tickets to the Atlanta Olympics years ago only to be told "I'm sorry, we are only selling within the U.S. right now."

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  23. how do you spell Canada in 3 letters?
    C, eh N, eh D, eh

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  24. You do realize that most Americans wouldn't catch that, right?

    Most don't know who the first five presidents were. Or that there's a big country up north that actually isn't really a part of the US, darn it.

    (Canadians are, as a rule, touchy about that, too.)

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  25. Can we have New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, British Columbia, and Alberta (or Saskatchewan)? For, hmm, let's see. What about District of Columbia?

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  26. When I was living in London, England, I showed a co-worker a tourism article about British Columbia (where I was born). Says she: 'I thought you were from *Canada*' Seriously.

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  27. I am sure canada would be pleased to be known as USA now...NOT

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  28. Heh. I live in Alberta and have heard it said that the United States counts Canada's oil reserved among its "domestic" reserves, meaning they think our oil is their own.
    When the youngest living Kennedy came to Canada to preach environmentalism he called the United States "Canada's 13th province". We didn't have the heart to tell him that Canada has TEN provinces, not 12.

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  29. Did someone forget to tell them that the Articles of Confederation were no longer valid when the US Constitution was ratified?

    Articles of Confederation, Article XI:

    "Canada acceding to this confederation, and adjoining in the measures of the United States, shall be admitted into, and entitled to all the advantages of this union . . ."

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  30. Aw,c'mon Grumpy...don'tcha know some lazy programmer just gave you the selection list for all of North America instead of just the good ol' US of A?

    Probably saved plenty of time to play video games or something, dude.

    And he/she assumed no other American knows geography either....bwahahahaha!

    It's all a conspiracy BTW!

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  31. canada gets north dakota and a draft choice in return

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  32. I'm a Gen X programmer. Yes my peers are lazy, but this mistake would not have gotten by me.

    OTOH, some companies fire their best and brightest (and most expensive) programmers and hire inexperienced people. And this is one way their inexperience shows.

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  33. Another sign that the US has not given up on Manifest Destiny...

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  34. I feel your pain Canada, I'm in Scotland and am regularly taken aback to hear that we are 'part of England' or even that the UK is just called England *sigh*

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So wadda you think?