Tube Map for Miss SC: The Iraqs and Everywhere, Like, Such As.

Many BoingBoing readers sent in copies of this lovely Tube Map, composed for Miss South Carolina after her most inspirational speech at a recent beauty pageant about the people of Iraq and Such As. Link to full-size at Morning Toast blog, and better grab a hanky before you watch that video Mark posted earlier. (thanks, Method77, Nev Cornforth, Rick P.)

Boing Boing editor/partner and tech culture journalist Xeni Jardin hosts and produces Boing Boing's in-flight TV channel on Virgin America airlines (#10 on the dial), and writes about living with breast cancer. Diagnosed in 2011. @xeni on Twitter. email: xeni@boingboing.net.

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Anonymous

The poll mentioned is probably the National Geographic – Roper Public Affairs poll, May 2006. You can find it online. It did not quite say that Americans couldn’t find themselves on a map, but the results were bad enough.
charlesfrith

I think its the emphasis on style over substance, US cultural and geographical ignorance and stereotypes about blondes. That’s it.

I’m reminded of US Americans and maps from a while back over here.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XxFz4LQUR1w
Anonymous

You have to wonder though, after watching the morning show where she was given a “second chance” to answer that question, and the very obvious practiced teleprompter read response she *still* didn’t answer the question did bring up the *true* question in all of this: “Who is the dumb ones here, she or the people who are applauding her?”
Anonymous

U.S. Americans won’t pay for mass transit so there is no need for a mass transit map.
Tim Howland

I think that everyone has missed something important here; she’s actually been pioneering a new art form- a combination of Hindi Ghazal poetry and blank verse.

Look at the transcription:

I personally believe that us americans
are unable to do so
because osama.

People out there
in our nation
don’t have that,

And I believe that our education
like such as south africa and
such as the Iraq.

everywhere “such as”.

And I believe our education
should help the US
should help the south africa
and the iraq
and the asian countries
so we can build up
our future.

The themes are clear; she’s worried about the way we are reacting to the war on terror, the way Osama Bin Laden still is free, and the way that we are being “educated”. The irony is simply dripping from the last stanza.

She was able to deliver this call to revolution absolutely deadpan, cunningly pulling the wool over America’s eyes- and people here have the temerity to mock her intellectual accomplishments? She is the latter-day heir to Rosa Luxemborg- only, without the boathook.
David H

I’m with you guys. I laughed at the video when I first saw it and I’m done. I can’t guarantee that I would have been able to give a great response to that question if I was under pressure.

On fark.com someone mentioned that the study stating that 20% of Americans can’t find the United States on a map was outdated and the most current study gave a percentage closer to 6%. I can’t quote their source, though.
Anonymous

Wow, I actually found something interesting and funny in the youtube comments :)

“hhamdy283 (23 minutes ago)

I love how every single video on YouTube ends in people butting heads over whose country is better. Many of these fights quickly degenerate into racist name calling. Instead of jumping in on this and calling everyone horrible things, I’m just going to jump the gun and insult myself to save you all the trouble. Commie maple-syrup eating pot smoking gay marrying hockey playing igloo living hoser!

Take that, Internet.”
Anonymous

in knitted cake form?
Anonymous

Now, don’t misunderestimate this girl.

;-)
Anonymous

@35

You obviously failed to read the report you linked.
Just from the opening:

What We Found

Americans are far from alone in the world, but from the perspective of many young Americans, we might as well be. Most young adults between the ages of 18 and 24 demonstrate a limited understanding of the world, and they place insufficient importance on the basic geographic skills that might enhance their knowledge.

Young Americans answer about half (54 percent) of all the survey questions correctly. But by and large, majorities of young adults fail at a range of questions testing their basic geographic literacy.

* Only 37% of young Americans can find Iraq on a mapâ€”though U.S. troops have been there since 2003.
* 6 in 10 young Americans don’t speak a foreign language fluently.
* 20% of young Americans think Sudan is in Asia. (It’s the largest country in Africa.)
* 48% of young Americans believe the majority population in India is Muslim. (It’s Hinduâ€”by a landslide.)
* Half of young Americans can’t find New York on a map.

These results suggest that young people in the United Statesâ€”the most recent graduates of our educational systemâ€”are unprepared for an increasingly global future. Far too many lack even the most basic skills for navigating the international economy or understanding the relationships among people and places that provide critical context for world events.
Anonymous

wahahaha that thing was the funniest thing ive ever seen
phasor3000

#20, if she had managed to work in a couple of references to DRM and steampunk, she’d be the patron saint of BB.

As a great philosopher once said, “there’s such a fine line between clever and stupid.”
Anonymous

Whoever made this map must be from Boston due to the useless destinations, the confusing nature, the looping effect, the parts that have the exact same destination from the same location, and the annoying colors.
Anonymous

I think her whole speech is code for the evildoers; I swear she said Osama at one point.
bruski89

I find this map far too complicated. Would you be able to dumb it down for me? And besides I’ve never heard of the country Education. Is near like, countries such as Africa?
philipb

I find it ironic that a bunch of TV presenters who spend their lives reading prompter screens & cue cards see SCs gaffe as so amusing.
Anonymous

yay now i have a map
Anonymous

To all the people who feel that this is so wrong and mean and boo hoo…. why the hell are YOU here? If you don’t like it – DONT VISIT THE WEBSITES PROMOTING IT – every hit counts and each visit keeps it going.
Anonymous

The stupidity is astounding.
Anonymous

Somebody said in this comment thread that it’s mean-spirited to find entertainment in Miss Tenn SC’s fumble of a question. I disagree. First, she put herself in the public spotlight by entering a TELEVISED beauty pagent. It’s an opportunity for her and teen beauty pageant contestants worldwide to learn now what can happen when one is NOT prepared. Hopefully, she’ll learn from this and study harder in college.

Second, this experience will give her something to discuss with her therapist in adulthood. (smile)

Third, this is no different than 6+ years of factual fumbles by Chimpy McFlight-suit about “Mission Accomplished” in ‘The Iraq.’

George from MASS.
Anonymous

UM, Mr. Rosenberg,

This is the internet – PLEASE dont confuse us with facts!
Anonymous

All your maps are belong to us.
Anonymous

Just FYI to everyone who is saying we are causing her to do self harm, etc. – she appeared on NBC and laughed at herself for her stupid answer. She’s a strong kid, and has ambitious plans to ultimately live in LA and work in animation. So, although I think people have been rough on her, and perhaps a weaker person may have had a harder time dealing with it, we are in no way driving her to self harm here… such as. ;)
Anonymous

So she’s dumb.. who cares? Shes smokin hot!
Anonymous

I dont care. she is hot as #$^#! I would #@% her #*^^% on a cracker!
cherishhellfire

If I could afford this map, I would be able to read it. Guess I’m stuck in Iraq.
Anonymous

Why does anyone ask those poor girls questions? No one cares what they say anyway. We are just staring at the booty.
Prostetnic Vogon Jeltz

dont hate me because i’m beautiful
Anonymous

I work as a tech support agent. one thing I do is walk people through setting up a remote connection so that I can control their pc. A part of this process is that they have to click on the region they live in. In other words they have to click on the USA. I can confidantly say, of my American customers about one in six or seven cannot find the USA on a world map. Canadians can always find Canada, but about one in two or three people from the UK can’t find their country. I only deal with Americans, Canadians and Brits.
gbv23

Yes, yes, we all know pageant entrants are air-heads ha ha—–

I found this whole video/meme to be mean-spirited and not especially funny
Philipp Lenssen

This the new star wars kid, such as?
Anonymous

Has anyone found a link to the actual survey results that claimed a % of Americans couldn’t find the US on a world map? I’d be interested in taking a look at that survey and how it was done…
coxmage

Does anyone know who won that contest? What that girl even looks like? (Off the top of your head, no GooFu.)

Right, didn’t think so.

But everyone knows who she is, or at least what she looks like.

My money’s on this being planned by her- okay, her Mom- because now she’s famous.

Scandal is celebrity.

[Or if not it should have been. Brilliant!]
Anonymous

rather hot pants than smarty pants – especially if she is sweet and has sense of humour – i DEFINITELY wood i mean would
Anonymous

Someday she’ll be president.
Tricky Trev

Ha!

But wait…how does she get to “our children”?
Anonymous

Less funny, more… depressing.

The fact that the massed hordes of the interpipes have hopped on and started ripping this girl a new one in front of a global audience is even more disheartening.

So she got stumped by a question and failed to ad-lib a coherent answer. Big deal.

Now she’s probably wondering how she can ever go out in public again and contemplating self harm.

Well done, guys !
Anonymous

yeah,. sure she is an air-head, but come on people,. think what kind of damage you can do to someones life by making them into an international joke for some crap they said under pressure of an audiance etc. have a laugh and move on,. she is a person too. respect.
Anonymous

Wht bnch f bg blbbrng vgns thr r rnd hr. “h, why d y gys hv t b s mn? Sh ws jst flstrd.”

Bllsht. Tht shtty sgmnt n th Tdy shw ws cchd rspns, nd th strm f rtrdd blthrng t th pgnt s th rl ndctn f hr ntllgnc. Sh’s md t thrgh lf thsfr n hr gd lks, s ntrlly hr mntl cpblts hv trphd. t’s nt mn, t’s th pnfl trth. T fckng bd fr hr f w fnd ntrtnmnt n hr stpdty.
Anonymous

Of course a % of Americans can’t find the US on a world map. This % closely tracks the % of people who will give you a stupid answer to a stupid question.
Micah

I don’t see what any of this has to do with Miss South Carolina, when it was Miss South Carolina Teen USA (i.e., the Donald Trump sponsored pageant, not the old-timey Atlantic City Chamber of Commerce sponsored one) who said the stupid stuff.
Matt Rosenberg

That statistic of one-in-five is totally inaccurate. According to the National Geographic-Roper Public Affairs 2006 Geographic Literacy Study, “Nearly all (94%) young Americans can find the United States on the world map, and Canada (92%) and Mexico (88%) are nearly as familiar.” For moreâ€¦

http://geography.about.com/b/a/257537.htm

-Matt Rosenberg
Geographer
http://geography.about.com
Anonymous

It was hysterical, and I don’t pity ignorance.
Anonymous

Oh come on. Her comments were beyond dumb. They showed a complete lack of intelligence. Her response was a string of regurgitated media keywords with no understanding whatsoever of their meaning. She deserves to be mocked. Why is everyone coming to her defense, as if this is a mistake anyone could make?

Really, are all those defending her unable to speak in complete sentences, or at least coherent sentence fragments? Do you listen to the news and just hear unconnected words? Are you incapable of putting together a simple argument or having a simple opinion?

This is imminently mockworthy and depressing. It shows the victory of (so-called) beauty over intelligence. It’s been a hard lesson to learn, but it’s not what you know that leads to success, but how you look and who you know. And that sucks.
Anonymous

She was on the Today show and was able to save face, laugh at herself. So why the hell can’t we laugh? The whole pageant thing is a joke anyway.
Anonymous

Totally agreed with GBV23 and others – this was pointlessly mean and harmful to an innocent person. It was far, far beneath the level your readers expect. Wouldn’t it be nice to offer the girl a unicorn chaser with a couple words of apology? (I can hear your lawyers’ sharp intake of breath right now.. but why not go out on a limb to help someone who you’ve hurt?)
Anonymous

Maybe I should know a little more about this, I didn’t watch the video or anything.. but what was the right answer anyways? (A little help here, I’m from SC.) When they say [%of people that can't find the US], this includes people ages 0-6..up until your first geography class if you didn’t have flash cards and possibly those with dementia, the percentage of people presently too inebriated, etc.
How many people right now are asleep…

It sounds like a trick question, I probably would have said the same thing.
notyou

I agree with the scolds. Nobody deserves this kind of abuse. I’m disappointed BoingBoing perpetuates it with a link mashing up last week’s favorite meme (dumb Miss Teen SC), with one of last year’s favorites (tube maps of whatever).

I suppose we won’t be done with her until we’ve been treated to the Steam Punk Miss Teen SC and the Miss Teen SC Flowchart.
Anonymous

“Everywhere like such as” is just her “All your base are belong to us” We’re just not geeky enough to get it… well either that or she got a invisible intelligence.
Anonymous

I have to say… the best part of it was that her (very odd) answer is actually slightly logical.

35% of people can’t find the USA on a map. Why? They don’t have maps.

Yes, it’s *silly* logic, but, you have to admit, it’s still logic.

Another great part is the whole fact that I can even see how the answer is ‘right’ (ignoring the whole US Americans/The Iraq thing). Part of the problem is the education system failing, and part of that is because of a lack of basic supplies, including.. wait for it… Maps.

Which actually makes all of it funnier. What she said is correct on so many levels that the sheer absurdity of which she said it just… well… roXX0rs.
Monty Taylor

I had a fantastic laugh/cry at this when it was posted. However, I’d like to mention that they had her on the Today show where she defends/explains herself. Might be worthwhile to post that, too, for completeness.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=fQKNvPn3V-8
Anonymous

Still posting tube maps here? That’s so 2006.
Blazorge

OK, so she was kind of an airhead (“Miss Teen” contestant? give me a break) but she didn’t say anything any less ridiculous than George W. Bush has said on countless occasions and he is only the President of the United States. So, then who are the real airheads? hmmmmmm….

-B
Anonymous

Guys, I don’t think we need to weep for little Miss Whatsis. It’s completely different than the so-called Star Wars kid who thought he was living out a private fantasy–this girl was in front of an audience, and everything she said was expected to be broadcast and/or commented upon. If she can’t have a sense of humor about herself, she needs to get out of the public spotlight. I’ve seen her on the morning talk shows, she’s getting far more publicity out of this than a fourth runner-up has a right to expect. Most of what I’ve seen hasn’t been that mean-spirited, anyway. It’ll go away soon.
phasor3000

Part of the reason why Americans are so poorly educated is that they spend their time doing useless wanky stuff like lolcats, felt typewriter replicas, and joke tube maps.
travelina

The funny thing is, the essence of Miss Teen South Carolina’s answer was correct– part of the problem with geographic ignorance in this country is that lots of people don’t have maps! The 2006 Roper Public Affairs-National Geographic study revealed that only 19% of young Americans have a world map. And the other funny thing is, as other commenters have pointed out, the folks at the Miss Teen USA pageant were totally wrong in phrasing their question: they said that 1 in 5 young Americans can’t find the U.S. on a world map, when in fact 94% can. Check out the Roper-National Geographic Study on Geographic Literacy here: http://www.nationalgeographic.com/roper2006/pdf/FINALReport2006GeogLitsurvey.pdf

You can combat maplessless by buying a deliciously detailed map, globe or atlas from the National Geographic Society here, including the gigantic mural world map that’s 110″ wide and sticks to your wall like wallpaper. You never have to be mapless again:
http://shop.nationalgeographic.com/gateway/120/105.html
Anonymous

Tim Howland – how is this hindi ghazal poetry ? Please dont mock or associate art that you dont understand with such rubbish air-headed-ness.
jeblis

People like this because it reinforces their stereotypes of beauty queens (also makes them feel superior to someone who has them beat in the looks department)

She was obviously very nervous and got flustered when it wasn’t going well.
Drew from Zhrodague

I think it is important to note that people on TV are stupid, the things said on TV are stupid, and the entire concept of the lowest-common-denominator attract-highest-audience perpetuates stupid Americans. When people say stupid things on TV (El Presidente, dumb blondes, newscasters, etc), they should be made fun of until someone more competent takes their place.

Isn’t that why we’re all reading blogs, posting LOLCats pictures, boingboing, slashdot, and the like? Just like Jon Stewart and the Daily Show is more newsworthy than CNN. Go figure!
Anonymous

jeblis “makes them feel superior to someone who has them beat in the looks department” ?! have you gone out and checked already if the people ridiculing her are indeed worse looking than her ? i found her answer ridiculous as well and i agree with the person that pointed out that if she wants to enjoy the pluses of fame and public image, she has to be prepared to live with the minuses of public scrutiny that come with her air-headed-ness in her public appearances. does that make me worse looking than her ? even if yes, what has SHE done to beat me in the looks dept ? did SHE shape her face / body to be actually better than mine ? for the first time, i have seen the q/a section of a beauty pagent have the effect it is actually supposed to have.
Anonymous

Did anyone else notice that she says “Diraq” (twice)? I had to keep rewinding to check, because I didn’t believe it at first.

Chelsea
Anonymous

this belongs on mapsforus.org
Anonymous

this video has been seen around the world. i know her european and asian counterparts are enjoying more evidence that demonstrates the failure of government schools in this country.
Rodney

Why is she being mocked? Revenge of the Nerds, of course. If you sat at your High School cafeteria’s Freaks & Geeks table you’d know this already. If girls like her sat at your table, then you can’t be expected to understand.
Anonymous

Maybe she will make president someday or such as???