Human Being wrote:Pardon me for raining on any parades, but the test is largely worthless.
Anyone care to read my previous post and give me some feedback? 
The test is just for fun. Most of the questions is information readily available that you can memorize. Whether you score 0 or 100 do not make you any smarter or dumber just more or less informed in the matters being tested for. I will say that some of the answers such as the one below is narrow in the sense on how the answer was arrived to.
News Target Network said:
The U.S. is the most technologically advanced nation in the world.
FALSE. Japan, Korea, Hong Kong and many European countries easily eclipse the U.S. in terms of bandwidth, wi-fi and overall connectivity. Japan leads the world in hybrid vehicle technology and robotics research. Canada is a world leader in fuel cell technology, far surpassing the United States. India now graduates ten times as many engineers as the U.S., and China is fast becoming a major technical contender as well. The U.S. has fundamentally lost its manufacturing technology base, and its universities no longer dominate the world's technical learning institutions. Although the U.S. is still a technology player in the global marketplace, it is clearly no longer the most technologically advanced nation in the world.
End of quote.
The author is using certain fields of technology where the USA is not the leading country to conclude this country is not the most advanced in terms of technology. If you look at the entire spectrum of Research and Development one most conclude that USA is by far the most technologically advanced country in the World. This of course does not even include the sensitive high-tech research being done by the Military. It is a shame that all this research (Government research) is being used for military applications only. Anyways, the USA has more cell phones, radios, HD TV's, VCR/DVD Players, peripheral devices, etc... on a per household basis than any other country in the World. I guess we are turning into couch potatoes.
Here is an article discussing electronic devices per household in the US.
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By Ian Bell
Staff Writer, Designtechnica News
U.S. households now own an average of 25 consumer electronics products, according to a new study. We have all turned to couch potatoes.
U.S. households now own an average of 25 consumer electronics products, according to the 2005 "CE Ownership and Market Potential" study released today by the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA). Moreover, each U.S. household typically spends more than $1,250 annually on consumer electronics (CE) products. The study also reveals that households are equally enthusiastic about their content, owning on average approximately 100 music CDs, more than 40 DVD movies and 16 video games.
"The consumer electronics industry grew 11 percent in 2004 and is expected to grow another 11 percent this year," said CEA President and CEO Gary Shapiro. "U.S. households spend heavily on consumer electronics because they recognize the tremendous value these products deliver. Few industries provide products where prices consistently fall while features and performance consistently rise."
The on-going transition from analog products to digital products continues to power growth in the CE industry. The study shows that the average U.S. home now has 3.1 television sets, up from an average of 2.4 sets last year. This implies that the digital transition is continuing to influence purchasing decisions as digital high-definition televisions (HDTVs) are present in roughly 13 percent of households, flat-panel televisions in about 10 percent of homes, digital video recorders (DVRs) in almost 10 percent, and DVD player penetration rates are on the verge of eclipsing VCRs.
"The video arena illustrates how rapidly consumers are adopting digital technologies. From image capture devices to displays, penetration rates in many digital video technology segments show steady increases over prior year figures," said Steve Koenig, CEA senior manager of Industry Analysis.
In many categories, the transition is more than just a move to digital, but rather a move away from products that use physical media (i.e., CDs) and a move towards hard drive-based products (i.e., portable MP3 players). The portable MP3 player category shattered all expectations last year by more than doubling unit shipment volumes and nearly tripling revenues to $1.2 billion. These devices now can be found in approximately 15 percent of homes.
The quantitative survey provides household product ownership rates and intent to buy for more than 40 consumer electronics products. The "CE Ownership and Market Potential" study was administered via telephone interview to a random national sample of 869 U.S. head of household adults between February 17 and 20, 2005. The margin of sampling error for aggregate results is +/- 3.4 percent. The study is available for purchase for non-members at www.CE.org and is free for members.
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Below is an article on Japans' economy moving towards a more service oriented country. The USA has been on this road since the 80's. It is kind of contradicting in the sense that as a country moves towards services the research and development fields (new technology development) are neglected but the Military research in the USA continues. Maybe one day the civilian population of the USA will rip the benefits of this research. And I hope it is just not velcro!
http://au.news.yahoo.com/040816/3/qc13.html
I am not trying to pump the USA (I was not even born here) but realistically the USA is the most advanced country in the World. Others are close but their economies are far worse than that of the USA. Read the article below comparing the economies of Japan and Europe to the USAs.
http://economics.about.com/cs/moffatten … econ_5.htm
One good point to mention to close my argument: As we continue to move our manufacturing plants outside the USA the recipient countries will benefit and as time progresses their technological saviness will also improve and move towards equalling the USA. Nobody has one up on everybody forever......
