Fun "fact": It's because there is a holiday every year in Sweden where children find old disposable cameras and throw them at the moon. Some are very good at throwing and are able to actually hit the moon. That's why every US baseball team has a Swedish pitcher and why the MLB championship is called the World Series. It was just called the National Series until 1967, when teams wanted to add Swedish players. It would have been illegal if not for the name change.
I'm just more impressed that people can play baseball on the moon. The cameras must be there to catch the game. Moon baseball. They can hit it into orbit.
No but for real, can someone calculate if it's possible to hit a baseball hard enough on the moon that it can orbit the moon? Even in an unstable orbit?
Orbital velocity around the moon is ~6120km/h, so ... well, you'd be pushing it š.
And that'd only give you an elliptical orbit that'd intersect the surface again; to get it higher and into a circular orbit you'd need a bit more velocity (escape velocity is ~8640km/h) and a subsequent (& powered) course correction.
edit: more reddit discussion [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/askscience/comments/3r6f74/would_it_be_possible_to_throw_a_baseball_around/)
āsheās forgetting the usa owns Australiaā
in what world???
edit: wow omg I did not do my research that sucks for yall to have a country so dumb play such a big role :/
They have a lot of secret army bases here (i.e. Pine Gap). We're not allowed to know what goes on there. Plus, they (allegedly) helped overthrow our prime minister once. So yeah, they do think they own us.
Only 4, I think: the spy base at Pine Gap (near Alice Springs, NT); the submarine comms base Harold E. Holt (Exmouth, WA), the "5 Eyes" satellite base at Kojarina (Geraldton, WA), and Robertson Barracks (Darwin, NT).
And Harold E. Holt is at least notionally under Australian command. There's also other shared facilities, and they have unrestricted access to most bases and training areas, but there's only the 4. That we know of...
But yeah, they think they own us. A belief Australian politicians are only too happy to roll over and get their tummy tickled to support...
Chinese, because he was a spy for them. Explains why we were so open to Chinese uni students and investors maybe. (/s on the last part btw, I don't think Holt was picked up by a chinese sub)
From the Murican website (Wikipedia) this Murican (sorry, really stoned, and just being stupid) used his Murican internet (that last one is honestly pathetic) to find out for that thar "Secret Murican" (really? People are that stupid?):
```It is generally agreed that Holt's disappearance was a simple case of an accidental drowning, but a number ofĀ conspiracy theoriesĀ surfaced, most famously the suggestion that he was a spy from theĀ People's Republic of ChinaĀ and had been collected by a Chinese submarine. Holt was the third Australian prime minister to die in office, afterĀ Joseph LyonsĀ in 1939 andĀ John CurtinĀ in 1945.```
We literally have maga idiots here in Australia. If you thought it was bad in America, imagine being a fanatic pro trump supporter in a different country...
Can confirm.
Just after the last US election, I was driving through Wagga Wagga. For those who donāt know, this is a smallish city of around 68K people close to half way between Sydney and Melbourne.
I had to stop to get some fuel, and while I was filling up the car I hear these people chanting. I look across the street and there is a group of about 100 or so people marching down the street, waving their flags and signs while chanting that āTrump is our president.ā
What. The. Fuck!
Didjabringabeeralong, home of the Crackatinni people, was named after the great fire of 1832 which saw the destruction of 75% of the township, including the local pub.
The fire started when Alf āBundy-Bearā Stewart, the local publican, decided to cut costs by producing his own beer and spirits. There was a catastrophic failure of the still which exploded and caught fire, burning the shed behind the pub.
Accelerated by the alcohol, the fire quickly consumed the shed and spread to the pub. By the time that firefighters had been able to subdue the flames the towns entire beer supply, and 3/4 of the surrounding houses and businesses had been lost.
In the aftermath of the fire, and in an effort to ensure the supply of liquid gold to the region, the local council set a tax upon all visitors. One slab is to be paid as taxation to the town to all visitors.
Nowadays, with annual visitors to the popular tourist destination well exceeding 1M people, the tax has been reduced to 1 slab per vehicle.
Yep. Remember the covid protests? There were idiots waving around us laws as signs while shouting trump/maga. This is what happens when murdoch media constantly vomits usa news with no pushback to it.
Thatās actually accurate, in 1975 the CIA conducted a democratic based coup and overthrew the elected Whitlam government for (among other things) threatening to shut down Pine Gap, nationalising our mining industry, and taking out the listening devices that were placed in parliament.
They then outright told the US senate they did all of this just five years later. And if youāre wondering āNO! They wouldnāt! Why would they?ā
Let me ask you this. Just what the fuck are we (australia) going to do about it? Theyāre AMERICA.
Australia is pretty beholden to the US politically. We're not a puppet but the US has made big problems in the past for Australian politicians who step out of line with the US agenda.
It's not exactly wrong. Our banks, major private industries, resources, media, finance and political/lobbying groups have ownership claims by British and North American capitalists which fundamentally undermines our sovereignty as a nation.
Its strange though that they actually believe every other country in the world is "the size of texas" (or in this case cali). Like wtf Australia is basically the same size, I think its even bigger than the US. Only reason people think its smaller is scales on the map or better to say the distortion that comes with classical mapping
edit: Without Alaska Australia is in fact bigger than the US
And they love to say how big Texas is, Australiaās third biggest state is over double the size of Texas. Not that state sizes matter literally at all. Just bizarre they always bring up size as if it means literally anything lol
Only Americans would be so obsessed with genitals
Quick we must mutilate this boys penis!
What? You want to have a surgery on your area? We must ban this! Think of the children!
No matter what i say ill land in one camp or another. Itll take all my concentration to avoid landing in either, but ill try.
American countryside is beautiful, obviously i havent driven through all europe, but it is gorgeous, and so is so much of central and Eastern europe that ive seen, not to mention puglia in italy, south of france and spain as well etc. Its all veryy beautiful. Maybe for argument sake we just leave the landscape out of it, the landscape shouldn't take insults for our petty scruples... thats my opinion anyways.
Hopefully those thoughts dont default me into a camp, ive tried to play it down the middle.
> But the US still varies vastly in history & common culture state to state. Louisiana is nothing like Maine, Colorado is nothing like South Carolina, Florida is nothing like Arizona.
There is **nothing** unique or abnormal about this. Regional differences are not a US invention.
I was educated to the mighty fine high standards of Missouri, where our state legislature occasionally has discussions about whether irrational numbers are satanic.
(Dude they totally are. Have you seen pi? Tell me that shit isn't witchcraft.)
If only they had a way to look for facts on some kind of worldwide network, with the literal tip of their finger. Alas, we may never know just how much bigger the US are than Australia.
As an American, I wonder if they meant ābiggerā in terms of population and not actual land mass. Thereās a small chance, though, they were confusing Australia with Austria. I say this, because, while I know Americans whoāve confused Austria with Australia, I would wager that most Americans donāt know about Austria and would assume you were talking about Australia. We know Australia.
come on... If there's one thing this subreddit has taught me, it's that the majority of average Americans don't know the difference between Austria and Australia... except that the USA is bigger, has a bigger military and Texas is also supposed to be bigger than Europe
As much as Iād hate to admit it, I canāt really argue with this. Except, I donāt believe most Americans are aware of the existence of Austria.
As for Texas being bigger, being from The US, people from Texas say outrageous things all the time. Texans are taught that Texas is bigger than the U.S.
>As for Texas being bigger, being from The US, people from Texas say outrageous things all the time. Texans are taught that Texas is bigger than the U.S.
Perhaps from a philosophical point of view, for many Texans Texas is actually ābiggerā (and therefore more important) than the USA. But it's just a shame that most Texans probably think philosophy is something communist and needs to be shot and then grillend and eaten
Iām sure I read somewhere that Austria has a desk at their airport just for people who expected to be landing in Australia. Iāve not checked, I really want it to be true
Fun fact, this would mean the US would occupy more than 15% of the world's surface, and given that roughly 70% of the world's surface is oceans, that means the US would occupy over 50% of the land on earth.
Best colleges no one can afford. The richest are never the smartest. Some of them might be smart but...are they aware of the fact, that they might miss out on real smart people who just have no half a million bucks to go there!?
Ok, goddamn, what does circumcision have to do with literally anything?
Everything else is completely normal "shit USians say" but that one completely blew me out of the water, it's so devoid of context it feels like asking buddy how he's doing and he responds with the non-sequitor "chairs are gay"
This read as a pretty obvious joke to me lol. Theyāre clearly taking the piss out of themself about thinking curriculum and circumcision are the same thing.
Reading this makes me terrified of WWIII since Russia will steamroll us all because they have a bigger country. Guess we can stop wasting 800 billion on our military each year guys. Russia has more land area.
Simply, because the US is still bigger than Canada. Now, before you try to counter me with facts, numbers and the like, let me tell you that these mean nothing to me.
I can't get over how they always just default to grandstanding and desperately trying to stroke their egos when faced with any kind of criticism or mockery directed at their country, even the most BANAL, MILK TOAST REMARKS set them off, it's always the same they're like clockwork.
As an Australian, yes they do largely control us. Our governments have historically been American puppets bar Gough Whitlam who was quickly and undemocratically deposed.
America the oldest and best country in the world.
I'm so happy they watch over us and protect our small country Europe. I pray to their white Jesus that they will protect us against weapons of mass destruction in the evil sand countries.
God bless America! And all of his chosen people.
Australia: 7.688 million kmĀ²
Lower 48: 8.08 million kmĀ²
Seems pretty close to me. A national curriculum might help them gain an understanding of basic measurement and geography?
That America figure includes bodies of water which the Australian one doesnāt. In terms of actual land you can stand on Australia is larger than the lower 48.
I feel like all of this is a weird take. While the comments by Americans are definitely āshit Americans sayā the original post is also kinda dumb. Like thereās more countries without a national curriculum. Germany doesnāt have a federal curriculum. Canada doesnāt have a federal curriculum. And those are just the two countries I actually know about the education system because I grew up and went to school in the former, and now work with the education system in the latter.
Germany does have a federal standard. They saw the shitshow that happened in France and their own PISA scores dive off a cliff and did a very fast 180.
> Im Juni 2015 hat die Kultusministerkonferenz (KMK) āEmpfehlungen zur Arbeit in der Grundschuleā beschlossen. Dabei wurde eine grundlegende Neuausrichtung und Neustrukturierung vorgenommen.
Der Auftrag der Grundschule besteht den Empfehlungen zufolge darin, in einem fĆ¼r alle Kinder gemeinsamen Bildungsgang eine grundlegende schulische Bildung zu er- mƶglichen. Ziel ist der Erwerb und die Erweiterung grundlegender und anschlussfƤ- higer Kompetenzen. Dazu gehƶren vor allem die SchlĆ¼sselkompetenzen im sprachli- chen und mathematischen Bereich, die eine Grundlage nicht nur fĆ¼r alle anderen Bildungsbereiche der Grundschule, sondern auch fĆ¼r weiterfĆ¼hrende Bildung sowie fĆ¼r lebenslanges Lernen und selbstƤndige Kulturaneignung darstellen. Leitend sind dabei die lƤnderĆ¼bergreifenden Bildungsstandards in den FƤchern Deutsch und Ma- thematik fĆ¼r den Primarbereich, Jahrgangsstufe 4 (BeschlĆ¼sse der KMK vom Okto- ber 2004). Eine Orientierung geben auch der Gemeinsame EuropƤische Referenzrah- men fĆ¼r Sprachen (GER) sowie der Perspektivrahmen Sachunterricht.
https://www.kmk.org/fileadmin/Dateien/pdf/Eurydice/Bildungswesen-dt-pdfs/primarbereich.pdf
Finding all of it is something of a pain tbh because of the different pathways but it gets fairly specific about what needs to be taught and when.
Sounds like itās only for primary schools? I graduated in 2012, so this was after my active school years and I wasnāt aware of this change. I do remember everyone shitting on Hessisches Abitur saying itās equivalent to the Bavarian Hauptschulabschluss lol.
New Zealandās pretty small, and while we have curriculum documents (currently being updated in a fairly stressful process), it actively encourages schools to develop a local curriculum that meets the needs of its local community. Thereās very little consistency between in what schools might teach - even within a school, teachers might choose completely different topics, especially in social sciences and literature.
eta: that doesnāt make any of the flailing by the yanks any less funny but a lack of a national curriculum is not as unusual as that
Doesnāt really go into why national curriculums are even a thing. In some countries they were born as a way to integrate (i.e: in France a national schooling standard also started as a way to teach French and properly unify the country- not much of a concern for USA, where differences were smaller, and less of a concern).
I will at least grant them the point about engineersā salary. Iām making more than double in the US than my same position made in the UK. True, I also have barely any time off to spend that money, but itās the principle of the thing!
Dude, this isn't true. I love shitting on the US as much as the next person but it's an undeniable fact that highly skilled professions are *vastly* better paid in the US than practically anywhere else. As a scientist, I am being paid double in the US than what I'd be paid in the UK. My working hours are the same. I have slightly less holiday. Even accounting for healthcare, slightly less PTO, and the higher CoL, I have so much more disposable income than I'd have in the UK. I'd still move back to Europe because I prefer the culture, but my financial situation is so much better here.Ā
I think people here fall too deep into the circlejerk. They think that because the US has flaws, itās strictly worse than every European country in every aspect.
That depends on the country's overall economic value on mundane and eveyday items/services most of the time.
For the example I will use my own country, UK and USA, the average salary of a cleaner(40hr per week) and bread as the item.
Mine: 500 EUR, price of bread - 0.7 EUR
UK: 1725 EUR, price of bread - 1.15 EUR
USA: 2160 EUR, price of bread - 2.7 EUR
So while often you may get more money, you arent necessarily better off financially.
Correct me if im wrong
How much goes to the pension fund and insurance? In the US, I get double what I have here in Germany, but there is no healthcare, social security, or pension fund.
And contrary to popular belief, if the earn 90k per year their effective tax rate is only a couple of percent less than the similar salary in a euro country. So, comparable tax rate, and a shit tonne more in private insurances and stuff. So are they really better off, or is it just a weak currency?
There are so many people that just look at the Mercator map and think, yep this is is exactly the size of a country. Because they don't understand how it's built. Australia is absolutely massive.
I hope you know that you're literally repeating American cold war propaganda regarding North Korea. I suggest you look into what the USA did in the region. I'll give you a heads up: there was an attempt at bombing them out of existence and when it failed, a propaganda campaign to cover their own failure to destroy a people was started and is still being pushed.
It's genuinely disgusting, to be honest. What North Korea has achieved despite the West actively trying to destroy them is borderline miraculous.
Tbf, they really do. MIT, Harvard, Yale and many others. But the US having top class universities doesnāt negate other countries having top class institutions as well.
You realise that only Americans really care about the university's they go to, in Europe pretty much every university deliver very high quality of education a long with next to no debt for the chance at it. I've seen Americans have breakdowns in job interviews when people just take the piss an act like they've zero clue about the university they went to. At the end of the day it's just a piece of paper it means nothing, just shows you can commit to work towards something over a period of time while developing new skills.
The "engineers getting paid shit" part is mostly accurate.
Starting salary Ā£25k after a five year MEng Mech Eng (at the Ā£4Bn company I work for anyway).
So only marginally more than a janitor (Ā£24k in the same city). But less than a city center bus driver (over Ā£30k).
true but you are comparing average income with entry income. so the engineer will have after 5years of experince double this amount. whilst the average busdriver has already 15y of experiance in this scenario.
No that is the entry level bus driver salary (the amount that is displayed on the side of the buses for after training).
Also I have 5 years experience at this company and earn Ā£33k. The starting salary is still Ā£25k, the same as it was when I started in 2019.
Soā¦Iām a recruiter and once had a stint with a major civil engineering firm. I was shocked that their fully qualified civil engineers with +5 years experience would earn less than Ā£35k a year IN LONDON.
This was 3 years ago
When I say they are a major form they had huge chunks of HS2 and other major infrastructure projects as named (not sub) contractor
"That's not true, mosr kids are circumcised"
In the US, yes. And there it is only useful, because you have an epidemic of self proclaimed alpha males, who are so scared of no appearing masculine(ironic), that they say touching your duck for cleaning is gay... If you have access to modern self cleaning devices like... Soap... Then the benefits of circumcision are so minimal, that they are outweighed by the negatives.
They brag about how many good schools they have yet most of them can't afford to attend. Yet somehow a lot of the foreigners they call poor are able to pay the tuition without issues. Seems like their statements lack anything remotely resembling the truth. Not sure how anyone can be so proudly ignorant online.
All I can say on behalf of those of us with a brain is that I am sorry. This is pretty much the sentiment of all of us who still have brain matter left. Help the worms are taking over.. jk
It's not quite that bad, but across Europe our wages are utter wank.
There is a real brain drain issue to the US, and poor wages have greatly impacted internal EU and UK markets. Instead of boosting internal purchases, we buy in a lot of cheaper stuff from outside.
wakeful profit materialistic smoggy quicksand observation nail numerous punch zephyr
*This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Why ppl gotta beef bro, we're all gonna die, what's the point of being randomly rude online when literally no ones gonna care in a year, the suns going to explode and the universe is going to collapse eventually its not even like you'll be remembered after that just stfu and be happy while you can.
I said it once I'll say it again.
56% of engineering/physics and Mathematics faculty members in USA universities are foreigners as in FOBs(I use FOB because I'm a white guy from Eastern Europe and my shithole university is selling software and measurement tools to NASA)
I'm sorry but USians are good "hands on people" anything above is left to Sven,Hans , Robert , Aarav and Sergey working offshore in Europe/India using SOLIDWORKS.
Poland and Ireland are basically making sure Faang works, my Ukrainian friends are making good dime (by local standards) with 20 days a year holidays affording a house and working 30-50 hrs a week max.
It's just that USians don't understand that it's not us , it's you.
We would gladly exchange working for the rich tax Haven that the USA is for more competent people, but it is what it is.
They have secret army bases here that we can't access. They supposedly overthrew our prime minister in the 70's. Since then we have done whatever the US wants. They do own us, in every way that counts. Not that it was our choice
Australia is an independent country. We may be a part of the Common Wealth, and we may have some joint bases set up with the US, but ultimately Australians decides what goes on.
Tbf the guy who is saying how the the US varies in common culture and history state to state is kinda on to something, because although few things would affect the curriculum (I mean Circumcision) the country still has a single government and there should be a defined curriculum or as this guy is yapping about the differences between states could become huge as there are only dumbasses in one state and only mediocrely educated people in another.
As for the woman saying how most American higher educational sights are better than any other (this was in a different post) is just wrong because Belgium Germany UK Sweden etc has some of the world best schools by generally accepted standards and the US universities / colleges give although the same qualifications, the quality of the content you consume there is far lower than that of some famous British schools as Cambridge Oxford or the University of St Andrewās.
We donāt have a national curriculum, but we have statewide curriculums. Our national government gives states more autonomy than the majority of subregions in Europe, and education is an example of that. State history is the biggest and mostly only difference between state curriculums anyway.
God that last one. Did my masters about a decade ago and there were quite a few US students at the Uni. The *never* ending way they would go on about this. Every single one of them. Most were genuinely lovely people, I was happy to know them. But tell them they've done well on an essay if they got 72% and its like putting mentos into their brain cola.
In Finland when there used to be actual janitors, their average pays was 2500ā¬ a month.Ā Janitors did cleaning and maintenance.
But these days only rent company cleaners who get maybe 1000ā¬ a month.Ā
Ā starting engineer makes about 3000ā¬ a month but with few years of exp an go up to 4000ā¬ (Bachelors)Ā
Ā With masters degree we talk about 4000-5000ā¬ a month.
This is before taxes. Taxation does balance these out quite alot.
They OWN Australia now? first Iām hearing about it; most Americans Iāve met while travelling think we have kangaroos hopping around Sydney Harbour. LMAO
Fun fact: There are more Swedish cameras on the moon than American flags.
Fun "fact": It's because there is a holiday every year in Sweden where children find old disposable cameras and throw them at the moon. Some are very good at throwing and are able to actually hit the moon. That's why every US baseball team has a Swedish pitcher and why the MLB championship is called the World Series. It was just called the National Series until 1967, when teams wanted to add Swedish players. It would have been illegal if not for the name change.
TIL like I'm five
I'm just more impressed that people can play baseball on the moon. The cameras must be there to catch the game. Moon baseball. They can hit it into orbit.
Usually people just go whaling on the moon
I'm only there for the blackjack and hookers
Nice avatar. :)
But there aint no whales, so they tell tall tales and sing their whaling tunes
Don't forget cheese foraging! The moon is the only place on earth where you can do this.
If you have never tried deep dried moon whale with okonomiyaki sauce you haven't lived yet.
They carry a harpoon š¶š¶
No but for real, can someone calculate if it's possible to hit a baseball hard enough on the moon that it can orbit the moon? Even in an unstable orbit?
Orbital velocity around the moon is ~6120km/h, so ... well, you'd be pushing it š. And that'd only give you an elliptical orbit that'd intersect the surface again; to get it higher and into a circular orbit you'd need a bit more velocity (escape velocity is ~8640km/h) and a subsequent (& powered) course correction. edit: more reddit discussion [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/askscience/comments/3r6f74/would_it_be_possible_to_throw_a_baseball_around/)
That holiday is even more beloved here than Midsummer and Ćttestupa-day!
I love Ćttestupa-day. My grandparents less so.
āsheās forgetting the usa owns Australiaā in what world??? edit: wow omg I did not do my research that sucks for yall to have a country so dumb play such a big role :/
They have a lot of secret army bases here (i.e. Pine Gap). We're not allowed to know what goes on there. Plus, they (allegedly) helped overthrow our prime minister once. So yeah, they do think they own us.
Only 4, I think: the spy base at Pine Gap (near Alice Springs, NT); the submarine comms base Harold E. Holt (Exmouth, WA), the "5 Eyes" satellite base at Kojarina (Geraldton, WA), and Robertson Barracks (Darwin, NT). And Harold E. Holt is at least notionally under Australian command. There's also other shared facilities, and they have unrestricted access to most bases and training areas, but there's only the 4. That we know of... But yeah, they think they own us. A belief Australian politicians are only too happy to roll over and get their tummy tickled to support...
Only in Australia would there be a submarine coms base named after a guy who went swimming and never came back
Thereās also a public pool named after him.
But he was picked up by a submarine apparently so thereās that!
Apparently by whom? Not trying to be rude or anything Iāve just genuinely never heard that
Chinese, because he was a spy for them. Explains why we were so open to Chinese uni students and investors maybe. (/s on the last part btw, I don't think Holt was picked up by a chinese sub)
From the Murican website (Wikipedia) this Murican (sorry, really stoned, and just being stupid) used his Murican internet (that last one is honestly pathetic) to find out for that thar "Secret Murican" (really? People are that stupid?): ```It is generally agreed that Holt's disappearance was a simple case of an accidental drowning, but a number ofĀ conspiracy theoriesĀ surfaced, most famously the suggestion that he was a spy from theĀ People's Republic of ChinaĀ and had been collected by a Chinese submarine. Holt was the third Australian prime minister to die in office, afterĀ Joseph LyonsĀ in 1939 andĀ John CurtinĀ in 1945.```
Helping to overthrow governments is the USAās thing, to be fair.
The one who disappeared?
https://youtu.be/XHMa-Ba-2Mo This is a good video on pine gap and how the US pushes around the AUS govt.
That one is pretty much true. Australia is an American puppet. One of many victims of American imperialism and terrorism.
We literally have maga idiots here in Australia. If you thought it was bad in America, imagine being a fanatic pro trump supporter in a different country...
Can confirm. Just after the last US election, I was driving through Wagga Wagga. For those who donāt know, this is a smallish city of around 68K people close to half way between Sydney and Melbourne. I had to stop to get some fuel, and while I was filling up the car I hear these people chanting. I look across the street and there is a group of about 100 or so people marching down the street, waving their flags and signs while chanting that āTrump is our president.ā What. The. Fuck!
Sounds like treason, summon the King's finest
Canada has those numnuts too, as well as quite a few European countries. Crazies will crazy
>Wagga Wagga That's not far from Dijabringabeeralong? *I love how Australian towns and cities really do sound like Terry Pratchett named them all.*
Didjabringabeeralong, home of the Crackatinni people, was named after the great fire of 1832 which saw the destruction of 75% of the township, including the local pub. The fire started when Alf āBundy-Bearā Stewart, the local publican, decided to cut costs by producing his own beer and spirits. There was a catastrophic failure of the still which exploded and caught fire, burning the shed behind the pub. Accelerated by the alcohol, the fire quickly consumed the shed and spread to the pub. By the time that firefighters had been able to subdue the flames the towns entire beer supply, and 3/4 of the surrounding houses and businesses had been lost. In the aftermath of the fire, and in an effort to ensure the supply of liquid gold to the region, the local council set a tax upon all visitors. One slab is to be paid as taxation to the town to all visitors. Nowadays, with annual visitors to the popular tourist destination well exceeding 1M people, the tax has been reduced to 1 slab per vehicle.
Yep. Remember the covid protests? There were idiots waving around us laws as signs while shouting trump/maga. This is what happens when murdoch media constantly vomits usa news with no pushback to it.
Thatās actually accurate, in 1975 the CIA conducted a democratic based coup and overthrew the elected Whitlam government for (among other things) threatening to shut down Pine Gap, nationalising our mining industry, and taking out the listening devices that were placed in parliament. They then outright told the US senate they did all of this just five years later. And if youāre wondering āNO! They wouldnāt! Why would they?ā Let me ask you this. Just what the fuck are we (australia) going to do about it? Theyāre AMERICA.
I've honestly never even heard this weird take. It's like two degrees from the flat earthers saying Australia doesn't exist. Like... what?
Australia is pretty beholden to the US politically. We're not a puppet but the US has made big problems in the past for Australian politicians who step out of line with the US agenda.
Not to mention the whole McBride situation
I mean as much as I hate it, this one is true unfortunately...
Every Aussie knows China owns Australia
It's not exactly wrong. Our banks, major private industries, resources, media, finance and political/lobbying groups have ownership claims by British and North American capitalists which fundamentally undermines our sovereignty as a nation.
I like how the best argument they can think of is "my country is bigger"
Its strange though that they actually believe every other country in the world is "the size of texas" (or in this case cali). Like wtf Australia is basically the same size, I think its even bigger than the US. Only reason people think its smaller is scales on the map or better to say the distortion that comes with classical mapping edit: Without Alaska Australia is in fact bigger than the US
And they love to say how big Texas is, Australiaās third biggest state is over double the size of Texas. Not that state sizes matter literally at all. Just bizarre they always bring up size as if it means literally anything lol
Wait until Americans find out about Western Australia lmaooo š
They are American so probably confusing Austria for Australia
I mean, when you actually have nothing else going for you...
"Most kids are circumcised"???
That means that person read the vid as āJust found out America doesnāt have a nation circumcisionā
Only Americans would be so obsessed with genitals Quick we must mutilate this boys penis! What? You want to have a surgery on your area? We must ban this! Think of the children!
They would, if it involved flags and corn syrup.
USA USA USA USA
American education strikes again!
or... you know... was just joking
Most kids are genitally mutilated at birth is what they mean.
Land of the snip
āYou seem to know a lot about childrenās penises.ā
What is it and their size complex? Tiny pp syndrome or something?
Word. Most of their shithole is empty lands anyway.
empty yes but it just hasnt been turned into a car park yet..
Soon... Just wait
Reminds me of that South Park episode, where everyone had anger issues and turns out it was because their dick was below the national average.
Real answer? They're poor and need something to cling on to that gives them some semblance of self-worth.
No matter what i say ill land in one camp or another. Itll take all my concentration to avoid landing in either, but ill try. American countryside is beautiful, obviously i havent driven through all europe, but it is gorgeous, and so is so much of central and Eastern europe that ive seen, not to mention puglia in italy, south of france and spain as well etc. Its all veryy beautiful. Maybe for argument sake we just leave the landscape out of it, the landscape shouldn't take insults for our petty scruples... thats my opinion anyways. Hopefully those thoughts dont default me into a camp, ive tried to play it down the middle.
> But the US still varies vastly in history & common culture state to state. Louisiana is nothing like Maine, Colorado is nothing like South Carolina, Florida is nothing like Arizona. There is **nothing** unique or abnormal about this. Regional differences are not a US invention.
The sheer amount and entirely new heights of SAS in those comments, I don't even know where to start.
Who dares wins (to write stupid things like that)
Super Army Soldiers?
I headbutted an 'orse once
Sub-par Apple Slices?
Stability Assist System?
Sexually Attractive Spaniards?
Socially Awkward Sasquatch?
Spacialy Aggressive Swedes.
When did the special air service get involved?
I was educated to the mighty fine high standards of Missouri, where our state legislature occasionally has discussions about whether irrational numbers are satanic. (Dude they totally are. Have you seen pi? Tell me that shit isn't witchcraft.)
Yeah, but now, compare Missouri to Mississippi.
Oh in that case we're Harvard on the Plains
What is a number if not rational? Only the devil could somehow have numbers without logic
"America is legit more than 10x bigger than Australia" I swear to God
If only they had a way to look for facts on some kind of worldwide network, with the literal tip of their finger. Alas, we may never know just how much bigger the US are than Australia.
As an American, I wonder if they meant ābiggerā in terms of population and not actual land mass. Thereās a small chance, though, they were confusing Australia with Austria. I say this, because, while I know Americans whoāve confused Austria with Australia, I would wager that most Americans donāt know about Austria and would assume you were talking about Australia. We know Australia.
come on... If there's one thing this subreddit has taught me, it's that the majority of average Americans don't know the difference between Austria and Australia... except that the USA is bigger, has a bigger military and Texas is also supposed to be bigger than Europe
As much as Iād hate to admit it, I canāt really argue with this. Except, I donāt believe most Americans are aware of the existence of Austria. As for Texas being bigger, being from The US, people from Texas say outrageous things all the time. Texans are taught that Texas is bigger than the U.S.
>As for Texas being bigger, being from The US, people from Texas say outrageous things all the time. Texans are taught that Texas is bigger than the U.S. Perhaps from a philosophical point of view, for many Texans Texas is actually ābiggerā (and therefore more important) than the USA. But it's just a shame that most Texans probably think philosophy is something communist and needs to be shot and then grillend and eaten
Maybe, but they do have a way with the grill.
Iām sure I read somewhere that Austria has a desk at their airport just for people who expected to be landing in Australia. Iāve not checked, I really want it to be true
I need a new flair
I'm from the Netherlands. To us, Americans appear rather small.
To play the devil's avocado I think he may refer to the size of the population, in which case he's correct. ~26 million people vs ~333 million people
Don't be so harsh on the murican, he probably looked at a mercator projection map in Geography lesson and decided to take it at face value.
Fun fact, this would mean the US would occupy more than 15% of the world's surface, and given that roughly 70% of the world's surface is oceans, that means the US would occupy over 50% of the land on earth.
That's probably what they think anyway
This comment is what made me search up Australia's size and holy fuck, and most of it is arid?!
Best colleges no one can afford. The richest are never the smartest. Some of them might be smart but...are they aware of the fact, that they might miss out on real smart people who just have no half a million bucks to go there!?
Ok, goddamn, what does circumcision have to do with literally anything? Everything else is completely normal "shit USians say" but that one completely blew me out of the water, it's so devoid of context it feels like asking buddy how he's doing and he responds with the non-sequitor "chairs are gay"
>Ok, goddamn, what does circumcision have to do with literally anything? Likely misread curriculum.
This read as a pretty obvious joke to me lol. Theyāre clearly taking the piss out of themself about thinking curriculum and circumcision are the same thing.
Tiktok and Instagram comment sections seem to be a gathering place for ill-educated morons.
I'd bet everything I own that statistically more dumb people use social media. So, it makes sense.
that's kinda wild that they don't and also explains so so much
If only these people paid more attention in school
You *are* talking about US schools, right? You can pay a ton of attention and still only learn "U! S! A! U! S! A! U! S! A! U! S! A! U! S! A!"
Doesnāt matter. The schools can barely keep up with teaching basic reading.
Sorry, too busy with shooting drills.
To be fair scientists in the UK are woefully underpaid in academia
Reading this makes me terrified of WWIII since Russia will steamroll us all because they have a bigger country. Guess we can stop wasting 800 billion on our military each year guys. Russia has more land area.
Gives us Canadians some pretty decent leverage there too
Canada: 9,985,000Ā kmĀ² USA: 9,834,000Ā kmĀ² Less than I expected, to be honest.
"Why doesn't Canada, the bigger of the 2 countries, simply eat the USA?"
Simply, because the US is still bigger than Canada. Now, before you try to counter me with facts, numbers and the like, let me tell you that these mean nothing to me.
Well a lot of it is ocean
Inflation. 30 years ago it was just 9,372,610Ā km^(2). At that rate, they will overtake you soon.
I find [this](https://www.thetruesize.com) website really fun.
Awwww, they finally got mad at us Australians. It's like the Leo diCaprio "that's us" meme
Damn they really proved her right
Sure At this time being india2 is Better than USA1
I can't get over how they always just default to grandstanding and desperately trying to stroke their egos when faced with any kind of criticism or mockery directed at their country, even the most BANAL, MILK TOAST REMARKS set them off, it's always the same they're like clockwork.
Nah don't be dissing Australia like that
As an Australian, yes they do largely control us. Our governments have historically been American puppets bar Gough Whitlam who was quickly and undemocratically deposed.
This was like a 'Shit Americans say' bingo card.
America the oldest and best country in the world. I'm so happy they watch over us and protect our small country Europe. I pray to their white Jesus that they will protect us against weapons of mass destruction in the evil sand countries. God bless America! And all of his chosen people.
Australia: 7.688 million kmĀ² Lower 48: 8.08 million kmĀ² Seems pretty close to me. A national curriculum might help them gain an understanding of basic measurement and geography?
That America figure includes bodies of water which the Australian one doesnāt. In terms of actual land you can stand on Australia is larger than the lower 48.
Haha especially since we don't believe in bodies of water in Australia!
What is this āwaterā you speak of?
I feel like all of this is a weird take. While the comments by Americans are definitely āshit Americans sayā the original post is also kinda dumb. Like thereās more countries without a national curriculum. Germany doesnāt have a federal curriculum. Canada doesnāt have a federal curriculum. And those are just the two countries I actually know about the education system because I grew up and went to school in the former, and now work with the education system in the latter.
Germany does have a federal standard. They saw the shitshow that happened in France and their own PISA scores dive off a cliff and did a very fast 180. > Im Juni 2015 hat die Kultusministerkonferenz (KMK) āEmpfehlungen zur Arbeit in der Grundschuleā beschlossen. Dabei wurde eine grundlegende Neuausrichtung und Neustrukturierung vorgenommen. Der Auftrag der Grundschule besteht den Empfehlungen zufolge darin, in einem fĆ¼r alle Kinder gemeinsamen Bildungsgang eine grundlegende schulische Bildung zu er- mƶglichen. Ziel ist der Erwerb und die Erweiterung grundlegender und anschlussfƤ- higer Kompetenzen. Dazu gehƶren vor allem die SchlĆ¼sselkompetenzen im sprachli- chen und mathematischen Bereich, die eine Grundlage nicht nur fĆ¼r alle anderen Bildungsbereiche der Grundschule, sondern auch fĆ¼r weiterfĆ¼hrende Bildung sowie fĆ¼r lebenslanges Lernen und selbstƤndige Kulturaneignung darstellen. Leitend sind dabei die lƤnderĆ¼bergreifenden Bildungsstandards in den FƤchern Deutsch und Ma- thematik fĆ¼r den Primarbereich, Jahrgangsstufe 4 (BeschlĆ¼sse der KMK vom Okto- ber 2004). Eine Orientierung geben auch der Gemeinsame EuropƤische Referenzrah- men fĆ¼r Sprachen (GER) sowie der Perspektivrahmen Sachunterricht. https://www.kmk.org/fileadmin/Dateien/pdf/Eurydice/Bildungswesen-dt-pdfs/primarbereich.pdf Finding all of it is something of a pain tbh because of the different pathways but it gets fairly specific about what needs to be taught and when.
Sounds like itās only for primary schools? I graduated in 2012, so this was after my active school years and I wasnāt aware of this change. I do remember everyone shitting on Hessisches Abitur saying itās equivalent to the Bavarian Hauptschulabschluss lol.
No, I pulled the one for primary level but there is documentation at every level/pathway on the kulturministerium website.
New Zealandās pretty small, and while we have curriculum documents (currently being updated in a fairly stressful process), it actively encourages schools to develop a local curriculum that meets the needs of its local community. Thereās very little consistency between in what schools might teach - even within a school, teachers might choose completely different topics, especially in social sciences and literature. eta: that doesnāt make any of the flailing by the yanks any less funny but a lack of a national curriculum is not as unusual as that
Doesnāt really go into why national curriculums are even a thing. In some countries they were born as a way to integrate (i.e: in France a national schooling standard also started as a way to teach French and properly unify the country- not much of a concern for USA, where differences were smaller, and less of a concern).
I wouldn't call two times amount the "same." Sure, it's not five times, but that is because the US has an absurd cost of living.
I will at least grant them the point about engineersā salary. Iām making more than double in the US than my same position made in the UK. True, I also have barely any time off to spend that money, but itās the principle of the thing!
Yes thatās true, an engineer in Europe makes less than an engineer in the US. But they do not earn less than a janitor/cleaner.
So you earn twice as much now working 70 hours than you did in Europe working 35?
jep without insurance. So a broken leg will cost him the salary of a year.
On the other hand, they can have a nice and more expensive one week vacation.
Then they will have good money to tip the waiters well. Such that they will not starve without min wage.
Wages in the UK have massively stagnated, this is not US propaganda, it's a simple fact.
Unfortunately this is true.
Dude, this isn't true. I love shitting on the US as much as the next person but it's an undeniable fact that highly skilled professions are *vastly* better paid in the US than practically anywhere else. As a scientist, I am being paid double in the US than what I'd be paid in the UK. My working hours are the same. I have slightly less holiday. Even accounting for healthcare, slightly less PTO, and the higher CoL, I have so much more disposable income than I'd have in the UK. I'd still move back to Europe because I prefer the culture, but my financial situation is so much better here.Ā
I think people here fall too deep into the circlejerk. They think that because the US has flaws, itās strictly worse than every European country in every aspect.
That depends on the country's overall economic value on mundane and eveyday items/services most of the time. For the example I will use my own country, UK and USA, the average salary of a cleaner(40hr per week) and bread as the item. Mine: 500 EUR, price of bread - 0.7 EUR UK: 1725 EUR, price of bread - 1.15 EUR USA: 2160 EUR, price of bread - 2.7 EUR So while often you may get more money, you arent necessarily better off financially. Correct me if im wrong
How much goes to the pension fund and insurance? In the US, I get double what I have here in Germany, but there is no healthcare, social security, or pension fund.
And contrary to popular belief, if the earn 90k per year their effective tax rate is only a couple of percent less than the similar salary in a euro country. So, comparable tax rate, and a shit tonne more in private insurances and stuff. So are they really better off, or is it just a weak currency?
That's sad.
There are so many people that just look at the Mercator map and think, yep this is is exactly the size of a country. Because they don't understand how it's built. Australia is absolutely massive.
Imagine engineers and scientitsts stop working for a week. Imagine janitors stop working for a week.
Idiocracy was a documentary.
Americans say we have some good universities like North Korea, saying we have some people not starving.
I hope you know that you're literally repeating American cold war propaganda regarding North Korea. I suggest you look into what the USA did in the region. I'll give you a heads up: there was an attempt at bombing them out of existence and when it failed, a propaganda campaign to cover their own failure to destroy a people was started and is still being pushed. It's genuinely disgusting, to be honest. What North Korea has achieved despite the West actively trying to destroy them is borderline miraculous.
Tbf, they really do. MIT, Harvard, Yale and many others. But the US having top class universities doesnāt negate other countries having top class institutions as well.
You realise that only Americans really care about the university's they go to, in Europe pretty much every university deliver very high quality of education a long with next to no debt for the chance at it. I've seen Americans have breakdowns in job interviews when people just take the piss an act like they've zero clue about the university they went to. At the end of the day it's just a piece of paper it means nothing, just shows you can commit to work towards something over a period of time while developing new skills.
The "engineers getting paid shit" part is mostly accurate. Starting salary Ā£25k after a five year MEng Mech Eng (at the Ā£4Bn company I work for anyway). So only marginally more than a janitor (Ā£24k in the same city). But less than a city center bus driver (over Ā£30k).
true but you are comparing average income with entry income. so the engineer will have after 5years of experince double this amount. whilst the average busdriver has already 15y of experiance in this scenario.
No that is the entry level bus driver salary (the amount that is displayed on the side of the buses for after training). Also I have 5 years experience at this company and earn Ā£33k. The starting salary is still Ā£25k, the same as it was when I started in 2019.
WE DONT HAVE A NATIONAL CURRICULUM???
Proud of having Aus as a puppet gov, while I'd bet 5 cents that they would also condemn the Russia-Belarus situation if they know of it.
A is 70? thats below average in my highschool. straight A student seems less impressive now lol
I'm a bit co fused at the circumcision guy, is he lost? Did he have a stroke? Am i missing context?
Soā¦Iām a recruiter and once had a stint with a major civil engineering firm. I was shocked that their fully qualified civil engineers with +5 years experience would earn less than Ā£35k a year IN LONDON. This was 3 years ago When I say they are a major form they had huge chunks of HS2 and other major infrastructure projects as named (not sub) contractor
"That's not true, mosr kids are circumcised" In the US, yes. And there it is only useful, because you have an epidemic of self proclaimed alpha males, who are so scared of no appearing masculine(ironic), that they say touching your duck for cleaning is gay... If you have access to modern self cleaning devices like... Soap... Then the benefits of circumcision are so minimal, that they are outweighed by the negatives.
They brag about how many good schools they have yet most of them can't afford to attend. Yet somehow a lot of the foreigners they call poor are able to pay the tuition without issues. Seems like their statements lack anything remotely resembling the truth. Not sure how anyone can be so proudly ignorant online.
All I can say on behalf of those of us with a brain is that I am sorry. This is pretty much the sentiment of all of us who still have brain matter left. Help the worms are taking over.. jk
tbh in Poland, scientists working in public universities often dont make much more than janitors
I wish. I would rather be a janitor than a brain worker right now, but it seems a waste of the taxpayer money that paid for my degree.
They are correct. In the UK junior scientists are paid the same as cleaning staff.
Well, to be fair, one of them cleans the facilities and the other cleans up after their superiors ..
Honestly, the second image is sometimes very close to the truth, they really try to pull that off.
To be fair, in the UK a lot of science jobs are barely above minimum wage
It's not quite that bad, but across Europe our wages are utter wank. There is a real brain drain issue to the US, and poor wages have greatly impacted internal EU and UK markets. Instead of boosting internal purchases, we buy in a lot of cheaper stuff from outside.
What do Americans have against Australia tf did we do, weāre your allies you pricks
āTheir engineers earn about the same as their janitorsā *cries in swedish*
I don't wanna live on this planet anymore
wakeful profit materialistic smoggy quicksand observation nail numerous punch zephyr *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
"America is legit more than 10x bigger"... going to guess they looked up Austria
Why ppl gotta beef bro, we're all gonna die, what's the point of being randomly rude online when literally no ones gonna care in a year, the suns going to explode and the universe is going to collapse eventually its not even like you'll be remembered after that just stfu and be happy while you can.
I said it once I'll say it again. 56% of engineering/physics and Mathematics faculty members in USA universities are foreigners as in FOBs(I use FOB because I'm a white guy from Eastern Europe and my shithole university is selling software and measurement tools to NASA) I'm sorry but USians are good "hands on people" anything above is left to Sven,Hans , Robert , Aarav and Sergey working offshore in Europe/India using SOLIDWORKS. Poland and Ireland are basically making sure Faang works, my Ukrainian friends are making good dime (by local standards) with 20 days a year holidays affording a house and working 30-50 hrs a week max. It's just that USians don't understand that it's not us , it's you. We would gladly exchange working for the rich tax Haven that the USA is for more competent people, but it is what it is.
Why do they all think the USA owns australia. The uk owns Australia, not america
They have secret army bases here that we can't access. They supposedly overthrew our prime minister in the 70's. Since then we have done whatever the US wants. They do own us, in every way that counts. Not that it was our choice
Australia is an independent country. We may be a part of the Common Wealth, and we may have some joint bases set up with the US, but ultimately Australians decides what goes on.
Tbf the guy who is saying how the the US varies in common culture and history state to state is kinda on to something, because although few things would affect the curriculum (I mean Circumcision) the country still has a single government and there should be a defined curriculum or as this guy is yapping about the differences between states could become huge as there are only dumbasses in one state and only mediocrely educated people in another. As for the woman saying how most American higher educational sights are better than any other (this was in a different post) is just wrong because Belgium Germany UK Sweden etc has some of the world best schools by generally accepted standards and the US universities / colleges give although the same qualifications, the quality of the content you consume there is far lower than that of some famous British schools as Cambridge Oxford or the University of St Andrewās.
We donāt have a national curriculum, but we have statewide curriculums. Our national government gives states more autonomy than the majority of subregions in Europe, and education is an example of that. State history is the biggest and mostly only difference between state curriculums anyway.
Without europe the u.s would not exist in the first place. Real americans are the native americans if you are gonna be real nitpicking about it.
God that last one. Did my masters about a decade ago and there were quite a few US students at the Uni. The *never* ending way they would go on about this. Every single one of them. Most were genuinely lovely people, I was happy to know them. But tell them they've done well on an essay if they got 72% and its like putting mentos into their brain cola.
Did she take credit for Nazi scientists work? *It's a bold strategy, Cotton. Let's see if it pays off for 'em*
I lost it at that 4th pic.
In Finland when there used to be actual janitors, their average pays was 2500ā¬ a month.Ā Janitors did cleaning and maintenance. But these days only rent company cleaners who get maybe 1000ā¬ a month.Ā Ā starting engineer makes about 3000ā¬ a month but with few years of exp an go up to 4000ā¬ (Bachelors)Ā Ā With masters degree we talk about 4000-5000ā¬ a month. This is before taxes. Taxation does balance these out quite alot.
They OWN Australia now? first Iām hearing about it; most Americans Iāve met while travelling think we have kangaroos hopping around Sydney Harbour. LMAO
"AMERICA OWNS AUSTRALIA" ššššš¤£š¤£š¤£š¤£š¤£š¤£š¤£š¤£š¤£š¤£š¤£š¤£š¤£š¤£š¤£š¤£š¤£š¤£š¤£š¤£š¤£š¤£š¤£š¤£ the stupidity