Rev 4 beta status

[viktoras d.]

That's influence of Hollywood, movies...

Is the immortal Duncan McLoud from Scotland? So they must have a few 
immortals there, lots of fights with swords and lightnings.
---
People sometimes state funny "facts" or ask questions about my part of 
the world too.  Just a few - "Oh I know, Hannibal Lecter was 
Lithuanian!",  "Do you have roads?.." Well, at least no one asked "if 
cannibalism is so widespread in your country" - I guess they are afraid 
to :-) . B.t.w we are not that far away on the edge of the world (check 
wikipedia entry on Geographical Centre of Europe or the Guinness Book of 
World Records on same subject), country is a member of the EU and NATO.

On the other hand if somebody asked me facts about Georgia, my first 
thought is far from the USA, I would not be able to list all names of 
the USA states or presidents, or even capitals of all Balkanian 
countries that make part of the Europe without digging deeper into my 
memory or asking google. Therefore I think this lack of knowledge is 
quite normal. Although the funny (and still somehow unpleasant) part of 
it is that "unknown" = "wild, uncivilized and dangerous place" 
stereotype in some foreign minds.

Viktoras

Andre Garzia wrote:
> Here in Brazil our image of scotland is that of cheesy actors wearing
> kilts choping the heads out of their foes with swords while the queen
> is playing and Sir Sean Connery is smiling pretending to be spanish...
>
> *joke*ducks*
>
> which is better than what the average european or american thinks
> Brazil is.... during travels, I had to answer the following very
> peculiar questions:
> 1) Do you live in a jungle with indians? Me: Yes, My Father is the
> shaman and eat the catholic priest to aquire his powers of chocolate
> making.
> 2) Do you really walk naked on the street? Me: Yes, but I am forbidden
> to do that by law because people were falling in love all the time.
> 3) What about all the wild animals like lions and elephants? Me: Once
> I had to shoo a lion with a broom, he was just there on my living room
> licking my baby elephant, the lion though it was his child.
> 4) How come your a software developer, do you have electricity or
> computers there? Me: no we don't, my computer is crank powered and was
> smuggled on elephants into the country.
> 5)  All you are soccer stars, do you know Pelé? Me: Yes I had an
> agreement with him, he teached me how to code and I teached him how to
> play soccer.
>
> The list goes on forever... Even U.S. Presidents on official visits
> had the location of the country and it's capital wrong.... ARGH!
> during school here I had to learn the basic history of each single
> american, european and asiatic countries. During my university exams,
> I had questions on politics and geography from hundreds years past for
> countries such as France, China, India. Questions about the russian
> revolution and african cleptocracies. Now, people can't locate my
> country on a map... at least people know where Scotland is...
>
> On Fri, Jul 10, 2009 at 6:14 PM, Richmond
> Mathewson<richmondmathewson at gmail.com> wrote:
>   
>>> As all readers of Diana Gabaldon's books know, scotland IS the synonym for
>>> the highlands :-D
>>>       
>
>
>
>