Geopolitical survey. Hardest one for me was finding Afghanistan, actually.

Sooooo. In general, looks like we Americans are a bunch of uninformed idiots. Why does this not surprise me?

Americans have always been more interested in Domestic issues and local problems than International events or locations.

It's been that way for the most part since the end of the War of 1812.

No matter how many times I learn, I can never find the People's Republic of Pavlodaksha or Liberooblia. I failed my 9th grade geography midterm because of those damn countries.

*sigh*

So, the question is, how do we teach geography in a way that helps people be able to point to, say, Afghanistan on a map (and understand who it borders with, and why that's relevant)?

Sadly....Most Americans knowledge of "local and domestic issues" is just as lacking as their knowledge of geo-political issues.

That quiz was easy Doyce....lets try something harder.

While I'm a huge geography geek and a guy that loves geo-political stuff, I think other things should be stressed in K-12.

When I say local and domestic issues, I mean - are people being mugged in the neighborhood, are there crank-whores down at the Pioneer Courthouse Square, etc.

The United States and most of North and South America have an isolationist bent to them, and I think they will for a long-time. Even the recent Cold-War and Post-Soviet world have left the vast majority of Americans desiring isolation.

As for borders, I'm not sure political boundries matter as much since the end of the Second World War as they used to, yet there is alot of stress on them in the Media.

An example would be Afghanistan, even if Pakistan hadn't "helped" and the Former Soviet Republics played ball, what happened in Afghanistan would have still happened, although with more US/NATO deaths. Really the only place the US couldn't project power before 9/11 would be the Moscow-St. Petersburg-Murmansk region and Central China.

As the US and Europe move from manned aircraft to UCAVs and orbital bombardment systems (conventional) the old political limitations of borders and geography will become less revlevant.

Clovis,

I had not realized that we were anywhere near developing an orbital bombardment system. It certainly makes sense, you would have an abundant source of solar energy, certainly enough to power some type of laser. Have you heard anything about the development of such a system? Just curious. Michael

I think I used ***Dave's method for finding Afghanistan. I knew that Afghanistan borders Pakistan which borders India. So I found India and then determined that there was only one number that could be Afghanistan.

As for the Orbital systems, USAF and RAF have made it clear that the B-1 and B-2 will be the last manned stratigic bombers developed.

Why I include the RAF is, the RAF gave the USAF and USN it's mandate for manned bombers when it was decided that the UK would not develop a fourth "V" manned bomber and moved it's nuclear role to the RN. That left RAF without a manned bomber, so USAF does it for them.

I get quite a few aerospace mags and read alot about it, what it looks like will happen is the follow-on to Shuttle will be developed with a USAF strike role as well.

It most likely won't be a space-based system, but more of a lifting-body Shuttle that can deploy a MIRV launcher from the cargo bay. B-52 and B-2 will be in service 'till 2032-2040 so look for it in the post 2010 time frame to start flying tests.

From 250km, 500 kilos of concreate in an RV will do low KT damage.

The lasers USAF are working on for AC-130X and the ABL are chemical lasers, take some drano and hair color chemicals and apply a current and whamo, laser.

I scored a 20 on the test too.

Cool. Mass-drivers ...

But...Mister President, the Anti-Balistic Missile treaty forbids us from using an Aegis Crusier from shooting down a SCUD.

Ink on a page...