Does the rest of the world hate still hate Americans?

just saw on cracked:
http://www.cracked.com/photoplasty_771_39-innocent-gestures-that-will-make-people-overseas-hate-you/




BTW the most shocking things americans don't understand is that in alot of countries, you barter for anything that doesn't have a price on it. And try to see if they will take 10% of what they first offered( not 10% off). Some may see you as a westerner, and that you can pay their days or weeks wage by your ignorance of local prices. I can live off $200 in a week in Thailand while vacationing comfortably, and I see my peers paying thousands. Hard fact is most Americans don't want to be bothered with bartering, and some are actually scared???. They are willing to pay american prices for items in foreign countries. This also makes auto dealerships in our country rich.

 

Everything is relative, even math and business and technology. At a certain point the truth reveals it self, namely that nothing is certain. Everything is just a probability.

 

For buisiness and technology you're right, but math when well done is autocoherent in itself. You start by setting the boundaries of your calculations, (approximations, regime, considerations on variables, etc.) then your answer is exact in this framework. Given your didn't do algebra errors or misinterpretations of the framework.

Sometime the math is more profound that you might think. In fact I can show you a lab experiment that more or less proves than the weird properties of the math used in quantum mechanics are completely True and factual. While nobody would've imagined it has it not been a consequence of the linear algebra. (i.e. Bell inequalities)

 

I'll have to be frank with you and confess that I'm a highschool dropout, so any deep scientific discussions with me are pointless.
Philosophy is one of those things that anyone can do, but I don't have the needed knowledge for mathematical discussions.

About quantum mechanics: wasn't there a thing that said something like both 1 and 0 can be true at the same time.
Meaning that everything can be true and false at the same time.
And, among other things, this supposedly made a new type of computer possible that could count both the 1 and the 0 at the same time instead of going one by one?

In the end, my humble, opinion is that definite things only exist if we allow them to, by setting boundaries.
I love the idea of the infinite improbability drive.

 

Whilst I also the infinite improbability drive, I don't think it's feasible. In fact I know!

BTW you're not too far from the big picture on your layman's quantum physics explanation. In quantum information, the smallest information quantum, a qubit, is a complex vector with the classical 0 and 1 as its basis vectors. (like x and y for the 2D plane). We also put variable in little symbols like this |x ⟩ mainly because it impress our moms when we show them our homeworks. (other reasons too)

So a qubit is represented by the state: |x ⟩= a |0 ⟩ + b|1 ⟩
where a²+b²=1 and a and b are complex numbers.

Which is really just a vector. But this also mean the state x represents something that's 0 and 1 at the same time in proportions a² and b².
Clasically it's impossible to be part something and part something opposite.

Using this description and the nice properties of linear algebra, you can accelerate some calculations drastically, using parallellism. It's not good to speed up everything though. A full-fledged quantum computer hasn't been realized yet, but people are working on it. Some calculation have been made though, but more proof of concepts than anything (e.g. factoring 15 -> 3,5)


An experimental set-up can be made to verify if this description is fundamental to information and physics or if it's just a consequence of our lack of knowledge on the system.

And it turns out it's fundamental to nature.

[EDIT]
A neat exemple of quantum speed-up is being able to do a reverse dictionnary lookup in an average time sqrt(n) rather than (n/2); e.g. Find the name associted with a phone number in a phone book of 1,000,000 persons in 1,000 attemps versus 500,000 for the classical case (mean number of attemps for success).

 

Any non corporate store is worth bartering in. There's a junk shop in town that occasionally gets good stuff in [I got a WoW playset for £5 brand new in there, £20 new at the time) that might sometimes have shit prices, but they're really open to bartering and will always shoot for a "This is £5 but I've only got a fiver, would you do that?". Can barely barter for stuff at garage sales in the US let alone stores

 

Just spotted this thread on Reddit and thought it was relevant to this discussion:
http://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/1vre0r/nonamericans_of_reddit_what_is_a_dead_giveaway/

Have a read through the comments.

 

That is way over my head.. lol

 

With bartering like that, I am not surprised they dont mind.

 

ah crap, I meant £4

 

LMAO!

 

My experience (I study modern languages) is absolutely never express your own opinion in an essay here, regardless of the subject. If you want to structure an essay's conclusion a certain way, find academic articles which support what you actually want to write about and reference the hell out of them. I prefer being assessed on essays rather than exams, as I feel they're a lot harder to fail on. It also means being able to doss about for most of the term before knuckling down to do an essay shortly before it's due in.

As for homework, for most humanities subjects it will revolve around quite a bit of reading. Given that I'm studying languages, I get a lot of Italian, French and Chinese exercises or translation to complete every week, but that's specific to the subject. I don't really have many friends who do maths based subjects, other than a few business students who do stats, so couldn't really speak for them.

Regarding generally living in the UK (and Western Europe), bartering isn't really a common thing - it's not Thailand or China we're talking about here. You can expect some at markets or second hand shops/car dealers, but that's about it.

Also, Eurail passes do not include the UK, as far as I'm aware. Interrail ones do, but Americans (or anyone outside of Europe for that matter) can't buy them.

 

I play a sport that involves playing with a lot of american players in my home country and in a country known for great meat and meat products if you say "take me to mcdonalds, I want real meat", you're nothing but ignorant.

 

I hate bartering. Either I'm going to buy something for a certain price, or I'm not going to buy it. The value of the item doesn't change in the middle of a conversation. Likewise, my idea of what I'm willing to pay doesn't change mid-conversation. To me, bartering is just a psychological tactic to either A) make you pay more than you would otherwise or B) give you the impression that you're getting a good deal, even if you're not. It works well on people who are easily persuaded/manipulated, but I'm not that kind of person.

 

Do some Americans believe that "McDonald's" counts as real meat..? I'm from the US, and I've never believed this what so ever, I'd have to say my favorite meats are Bear and Deer, delicious.

 

I dont really mind. But some american shows gives a really bad image of Northamerica here in Spain. Like Hardcore Pawn, i like the way they are trying to say that all people in Detroit are furious and foul-mouthed and Jews are loan sharks.

 

all of the americans I played with think that and I played with about 20 of them.

 

I've never heard anyone seriously think that. I often hear it as a joke.

 

It has to be a joke because no one I know thinks McDonald's burgers contain 100% real meat.

 

It's just snouts and entrails.