May 24, 2005

It's official: Canadians are WEIRD

Check this out:
Michele tells us the story of Canada's private war against innumeracy: Give 'em an incentive, eh?

I'm sorry ma'am, no free shoes. You couldn't tell me what [(22+16)-18]*8/2 is.

Give me a freakin' break.

Evidently to win a prize in Canada you have to be smart enough to do strange math problems.... I hadn't seen this before, but according to this, it's been around a while.

Heh. It's like Jim Crow literacy tests for voting in the US in past days. Just as stupid, and frankly, in this case, silly. Wonder when all the liberals are going to rise up against this flagrant discrimination against the math impaired.....

Can you imagine what lottery sales would be like in this country if you had to answer math problems to collect your jackpot? Funding education would be a moot argument since the lotteries wouldn't make any money. Not that all Americans are stupid, mind you, it's just that I think most would resent such a test.

Posted by caltechgirl at May 24, 2005 12:29 PM
Comments

Long live the "skill testing question"!

Yes, it's true that just about every contest "requires" the winner to answer a skill testing question. Not sure what the purpose of it is, since no one actually answers those questions before they collect said prize.

Posted by: Gir at May 24, 2005 04:50 PM