Google Maps Meets Carmen Sandiego

Craig Miller writes "What better way to end the weekend than by playing a game of Brewster Jennings Protects America? This new game is a Google Maps mashup with the classic 'Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego' style of game. Run around the world trying to stop a terrorist from carrying an attack. Pretty amusing game and it shows what you can do with the Google Maps API and a little imagination." Despite the jingoistic title and concept it's a lot of fun, and quite challenging on hard.

Great

[gregbains]

Wow, this is amazing. Shows what innovation and imagination can prduce.

Re:Great

[ElleyKitten]

It would be better if they gave instructions. Seriously, can you tell me how to play this thing?

Re:Great

[Trejkaz]

Well, once you find out the place you need to go to, you're up for a lot of zooming and dragging to pinpoint it. It would be much better (more like a quiz and less like a pixel hunting exercise) if they had a text field so that you could put the location you want in and it zoomed straight to it.

Re:Great

[ElleyKitten]

How do you find out what place you need to go to?

Re:Great

[Trejkaz]

Google the hints. That part's easy.

The White House

[lilmouse]

That's right - somethis is missing! A terrorist has stolen the White House! Your job is to track the theif to his hideout, arrest him, and recover the loot! A white man was seen leaving the scene of the crime...

--LWM

What in the world

[Timesprout]

is a 'Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego' style of game?

Re:What in the world

[Celsius 233]

May I refer you to Wikipedia? [wikipedia.org]

Re:What in the world

[Mikkeles]

It was an early series of educational computer games for youngsters in which they had to figure out (with the help of an included encyclopaedia) clues in order to locate master criminal Carmen Sandiago.
Google [google.com] ref

Tip

[daniil]

If you want to find out where she is hiding herself right now, just ask Google: Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego? [google.com]

I don't know where Carmen is but...

[corngrower]

Waldo made an appearance in my Computer Engineering class last Friday.

Re:What in the world

[brunes69]

It was also a really cool TV show,/a> on PBS when I was young. [imdb.com]

Of course I also remember the PC game, which the TV show was a spin-off of.

Re:What in the world

[brunes69]

Yeah, IIRC the prize was like a flight or vacation to some remote country.. PBS doesn't have much money for that sort of thing, so I imagine they made it very difficult :P

Re:What in the world

[Traegorn]

I don't know whether to feel too old or too young for this comment.

but...

[FLAGGR]

I have dialup you insenstive clod!

World Dominance for Google by Open API

[Transcendor]

Yet another example of perfect marketing by Google:
1.make a more-than-average type of product, and establish it on the market.
2.Make everyone use it.
2.1Do that by quality
2.2 by offering the best possible solution for someone who just wants to USE it
2.3 by being the one who lets other people use it (by offering an API)
TADA
3. World Dominance
I don't hate Google, but isn't it a bit a strange thing that "fair use" methods like "letting others use your product for both's advantage" leads to some kind of strange quasi-monopolism?
is that something the Open-Source-Community has to worry about?


Don't let the facts bite you. Get bitten [linklike.de.vu] here instead.

Re:World Dominance for Google by Open API

[th0mas.sixbit.org]

2.1 is definitely a non-functional requirement, I'm going to dock you points for putting it in your use case...

Re:World Dominance for Google by Open API

[Seumas]

Where does CCH Pounder fit into all of this?

(Obscure...?)

Re:World Dominance for Google by Open API

[NitsujTPU]

She'll be released at the End of Days :-D

Re:World Dominance for Google by Open API

[TheSpoom]

Note to self: make world dominance game with Google Maps.

(Risk clone?)

Re:World Dominance for Google by Open API

[cgenman]

You forgot that it should be pushed by a company that is already directly in the public's eye. Google can launch Google Maps and have the world's passing attention, but who would go to maps.northernlight.com? There are things out there better than google, but you wouldn't know it unless you had done a deep and broad search.

BTW, your plot for world domination reduces to:
Make the best possible solution for users with an open API.
Which, while nice, hasn't saved everybody.

Re:World Dominance for Google by Open API

[humina]

Too bad it backfired. I couldn't find the first clue, decided I didn't want to play the game, and left not thinking too highly of google or the Carmen like game.

Re:World Dominance for Google by Open API

[Suddenly_Dead]

Near as I can tell, that link is completely irrelevant to the discussion. Is there any reason you included it? You should consider using it in a signature, unless you want to mislead people or bump up your google rank or something.

Re:World Dominance for Google by Open API

[NitsujTPU]

What are you people who criticize Google for producing a good product and giving it away smoking? Would you rather they charge insanely high prices for garbage?

Are you really saying that the Open Source community needs to look at Google as a threat because of this? Now everyone who produces something and gives it away is evil? Is it just because it isn't Open Source?

Re:World Dominance for Google by Open API

[slavemowgli]

No. Google is just upping the ante; other companies are free to follow (or even outinnovate Google). If they can't or don't want to (or simply don't for some other reason), well... that's not really Google's fault, as long as Google does not use anticompetitive business tactics etc. do prevent or hinder competition.

Whoa

[isaf]

This would be so much cooler with real time satellite feeds and orbital laser command at your control

Jingoistic?

[Toasty981]

Jingoistic? So the desire to protect America is extremely nationalistic?

Either that, or Zonk has no idea what the word means.

Re:Jingoistic?

[nickco3]

Jingoistic? So the desire to protect America is extremely nationalistic?

Teaching geography via the Global War on Terror is certainly paranoid, I'm not sure it's jingoistic, exactly. It's no better than the demonization of commies in the 1950s.

He's a rule of thumb for you on the whole "terrorism" thing. Ask yourself this: If I change the word "terrorist" to "communist" and pretend it's happening during the fifties, do I laugh at the poor paranoid fools?

Let's try it.

"The story so far: You are an undercover CI

Re:Jingoistic?

[Toasty981]

Separate discussion, but fair enough.

I didn't get to see it before the server went down, but it almost reads like you're chasing down a guy like bin Laden...i.e. someone that definitely qualifies as wanting to cause harm.

Of course, I think I'm taking this way too far at this point!

(As far as the separate discussion goes, with regards to Iran, I found this link [blogspot.com] on AndrewSullivan.com. Interesting stuff...Iran scares me more than Iraq for sure, especially given the recent comments about Isreal. Scary stuff.)

Your ad hominem attack gives me the victory!

[CyricZ]

So the American military was just walking down the boulevard one day, window gazing, and then all of a sudden the meander into a full-fledged war with Iraq? Of course they deliberately attacked Iraq!

America has never expressed a desire to eliminate an entire way of life or people.

We hear on a daily basis how America would like to eradicate various extremists. Like it or not, they are people, and they have chosen a particular way of life. Yet you're all into destroying them. Frankly, I'm appalled by all such

OT

[DeafByBeheading]

First rate trolling, sir. Congratulations.

Or, in the off case you're serious, I'd like to point out that we *can't* win a war by eradicating everyone who sees America as an irresponsible and arrogant world citizen. I'm not saying the solution is to go hug them, but you can't treat life like a game of Counter-Strike.

Re:OT

[Mateito]

I'd like to point out that we *can't* win a war by eradicating everyone who sees America as an irresponsible and arrogant world citizen.

Why not? That would leave... um.. America!

Then the only possible war would be a civil war.

Re:OT

[sp0rk173]

Exacly how to YOU propse to stop those people?

I propose we send them cookies, then send over a few of our finest gentlement. Eventually, we will breed with their women, assimiliate our superior genes with theirs, and peace will come.

Re:OT

[DeafByBeheading]

I see where you're coming from, but don't the words "slippery slope" mean anything to you? I see as one of the possible outcomes of current foreign policy the complete destruction of the Middle East (Rice is already talking about taking on Syria and Iran, although on the other hand, Iran's talking smack about Israel is pretty scary--and Syria's always been pretty scary). And (if we ignore the ethical implications of that) that will *totally* unbalance our standing in the world community. Sure, it's not like

Re:OT

[sp0rk173]

Cultures are subjective. Their value cannot be calculated. I would say our culture is pretty shitty. The individual is no longer nurtured and told to develop into a strong minded and strong fisted saint, instead we're told that to be a good citizen means to be a good consumer. No other means are possible for success. Work at your upper-middle-wage job. Fight to retire and do what makes you happy. Buy, eat, sell, buy, buy, trash, eat, destroy. Dream, but don't dream too much, becuase you probably won

Re:Your ad hominem attack gives me the victory!

[qeveren]

Well, if you folks would simply stop overthrowing democratically elected governments and replacing them with psychotic tin-pot dictators for your own economic advantage, you wouldn't need to keep going back and overthrowing them every few years, now would you?

Yes yes, survival of the fittest. Ever notice how it's always the bully that espouses this philosophy?

Re:Your ad hominem attack gives me the victory!

[sp0rk173]

South Korea, eh? Ah well, all them yellers are alike.

Re:Your ad hominem attack gives me the victory!

[sp0rk173]

Left? I'm an Anarchist, sir. I would appreciate if you didn't call me names as I care not for your silly political classifications. I make up my own mind rather than follow a neatly laid path of talking points and illogical historical missconnections.

Re:Your ad hominem attack gives me the victory!

[sp0rk173]

Just incase you didn't get my reply, i just pointed out how you called me a name that I don't appreciate when I did nothing of the sort. I just pointed out a cute little freudian slip. So, from this little diatribe you went on, I can only conclude that you're a leftist.

So, hows it going over there in commieland, yah pinko?! Wand some hammers and sicles to go with your tea?!

For the record, the words North and South are two letters appart, which are placed at fairly distant locations on the keyboard.

Re:Your ad hominem attack gives me the victory!

[sp0rk173]

Ah, you have much to learn about anarchy. It's not all about slashing and burning. That's what makes democracies.

Re:Jingoistic?

[sp0rk173]

In other words:

You're an idiot.

You really don't understand the history of the Isreali-Palestinian conflict, it extends back to before Islam was even a dehydration induced wetdream of Muhammad - when it was then the Isrealites against both the Philistines and the Sea Peoples of modern day Syria and Egypt. Only now has this orgy of blood and spit taken on the face of Islam instead of the other random social and political movements of the middle east. It's a territorial dispute where both sides are j

Re:Jingoistic?

[sp0rk173]

No, I can insult it. I'm also on it's side here in this particular case. I'm against the proto-nazi extermination of Muslims simply because they piss a few people off from time to time.

Re:Don't Be An Ignorant Twat.

[mr100percent]

So where is the outrage from the 1.3 billion that are against it?

Council of American-Islamic Relations condemns 9/11 [cair-net.org] in national full-page newspaper ad the next day.

Ayatollah Muhammad Husain Fadlallah of Lebanon condemns Osama Bin Laden. [sullivan-county.com]

Grand Imam of Al-Azhar seminary, Shaikh Muhammad Sayyid Tantawi, condemns Osamah Bin Laden [usembassyjakarta.org] (Plus official text [usembassyjakarta.org])

Prominent Pakistani Cleric Tahir ul Qadri condemns Bin Laden. [newsmax.com]

Television preacher Yusuf Al-Qaradawi condemns Al Qaeda [islamfortoday.com]

Spanish Muslim Clerical authorities Issue Fa [geocities.com]

Re:Don't Be An Ignorant Twat.

[mr100percent]

That's not what is says. Show me the actual verses. You're just spouting what the detractors say.

[5:82] "...And you will find that the closest people in friendship to the believers are those who say, "We are Christian."

Nothing about subjugating other nations. And I don't think I've ever heard any Muslim call it tribute, anyone who lives in an actual Islamic state has to pay taxes, Muslims pay their charity tax (zakat) and non-Muslims have to pay similar for citizenship.

Re:Don't Be An Ignorant Twat.

[Xner]

Aside from the little thing about buring in hellfire a few verses later.
But that's how religious texts are supposed to be written i guess.

Re:Jingoistic?

[Wyatt Earp]

Because the Clinton or Kennedy Administrations never ever did anything unprovoked or invasionary.

Yea, it's all Bush doing this illegal and unprovoked stuff.

As for Iraq not posing a threat to the United States, thats not what Clinton, Gore and the majority of the United States House and Senate thought from 1990 to 2002.

Re:Jingoistic?

[CyricZ]

You're the only one coming up with the idea that it is just the Republicans who are scummy. It's the Democrats, too. But then again, the Democrats and Republicans are virtually indistinguishable, and have been for a long time. The one common interest they do not represent is that of the American people.

Re:Jingoistic?

[quantax]

Actually, the issue is not whether Iraq was a threat; of course it was a threat so long as Saddam was the head of the state. The question is whether he was an immanent threat. We now know he was not and there are questions about the portrayal of him as such.

Re:Jingoistic?

[MullerMn]

Is there an internet law that covers the fact that when you put a word in bold you are moire likely to misspell it?

Re:Jingoistic?

[mr100percent]

If the Iraq fiasco was about eliminating threats to America, there were many more that had priority. North Korea's nuclear program was well-established as a real thing, and they test-fired an empty missile that landed in Alaska [hankooki.com]. If it was for humanitarian reasons, other places like Darfur took precedence. If it was for solving regional conflict that was aggravating the area, then Israel-Palestine would take precedence.

Also, the anger is over the US administration claiming that Iraq as an "imminent threat" t

Re:Jingoistic?

[Psykosys]

Because the Clinton or Kennedy Administrations never ever did anything unprovoked or invasionary.

Clinton did do "invasionary" things, just on a much smaller scale. Kennedy indeed escalated the war in Vietnam, which probably also met the definition of invasive. But neither he nor Clinton repeatedly lied to justify their own war/invasion.

As for Iraq not posing a threat to the United States, thats not what Clinton, Gore and the majority of the United States House and Senate thought from 1990 to 2002.

Re:Jingoistic?

[_Sprocket_]

...the unprovoked invasion of sovereign nations which posed no threat to America.

With the recent sabre-rattling directed at Iran and Syria, the definition of "protect" might become even more perverted and twisted.

I'm curious - what do you think was going on with Iraq for the last 15+ years? And what do you think Syria and Iran has been doing during that same time?

I'm no fan of the Bush Administration and am not keen to defend it's actions. However, I also find it a little odd that you use language that makes other players sound like innocent victoms of a bully superpower.

Re:Jingoistic?

[blibbler]

What was going on in Iraq for the last 15 years did not threaten the US in the slightest. There was no connection between Iraq and the four hijacked planes on 11th of September 2001. Osama Bin Laden reportedly hated Sadam because he maintained a relatively secular country. Even if the arguments of weapons of mass destruction were true, they wouldn't pose any threat to the US, or any other western country. Beyond that, Iraq's armed forces were relatively underpowered compared to many of the regional countrie

Re:Jingoistic?

[_Sprocket_]

There was no connection between Iraq and the four hijacked planes on 11th of September 2001. Osama Bin Laden reportedly hated Sadam because he maintained a relatively secular country.

Agreed.

Even if the arguments of weapons of mass destruction were true, they wouldn't pose any threat to the US, or any other western country.

This I don't agree with. Iraq, under the Sadam regime, became a threat when it attempted to expand its borders. It has continued to be a threat since then. And while any Iraqi invol

Re:Jingoistic?

[mr100percent]

North Korea attempted to expand its borders, but why was it considered less of a threat than Iraq? North Korea actually has nukes to threaten with.

The attempted assassination of a US president? You mean the alleged plot that an Iraqi man confessed under torture by Kuwaitis? The man was allegedly angry because he lost his family to a US bombing strike. Aside from the fact that people will say anything under torture, how does this link to Iraq? A lone vigilante doesn't have any link to the government of Iraq.

Re:Jingoistic?

[_Sprocket_]

North Korea attempted to expand its borders, but why was it considered less of a threat than Iraq? North Korea actually has nukes to threaten with.

What attempt to expand its borders? Perhaps you've missed the Korean War? Or was there another invasion that I missed?

In any case, I'm not sure what this has to do with Iraq. You're not advocating invasion of North Korea, are you? Or are you claiming that the situation with Iraq is identical to the one on the Korean peninsula? I agree that there are some i

Re:Jingoistic?

[aug24]

One major point is that, as far as I know, North Korea has not violated terms of their cease fire agreement

I think you misspelt "has nukes and no oil" ;-)

Justin.

Re:Jingoistic?

[mr100percent]

Why would Iraqi intelligence support an assassination attempt, when everyone knows Iraq would be blamed (right after Gulf War) and would lead to a sequel of the Gulf War (which no Iraqi wanted after losing so bad). It's just an accusation, and I don't take it as credible, and certainly not cause enough for a full-scale invasion and war in which 20,000+ (by US military count, which is the minimum) civillians died.

If that's the case, why didn't we invade Cuba or nuke Russia for being somehow linked to the Ken

Re:Jingoistic?

[_Sprocket_]

Why would Iraqi intelligence support an assassination attempt, when everyone knows Iraq would be blamed (right after Gulf War) and would lead to a sequel of the Gulf War (which no Iraqi wanted after losing so bad).

Because Saddam ordered them to. Saddam has certainly taken steps that defied rational thought and advice. Saddam has a personal grudge against (now) the Bush family. Besides, if the bomb had been set off as it was supposed to be, there would have been even less evidence to point back to Iraq.

Re:Jingoistic?

[_Sprocket_]

...one of several major or splinter terrorist groups operating in the region.... or even, say, a lone vigilante.

Re:Jingoistic?

[blibbler]

I think you are mistaking hippies for leftists/liberals. It is similar to the distinction between feminists and man-haters. In the hippies' defense, most of that evil kurd-killing happened in the 80s when Iraq was the West's (and especially the USA's) bestest buddy.

Re:Jingoistic?

[JahToasted]

I'm curious - what do you think was going on with Iraq for the last 15+ years? And what do you think Syria and Iran has been doing during that same time?

Well the US support the Shah of Iran who was a corrupt dictator. The people of Iran revolted. So the US started supporting Saddam Hussein, another corrupt dictator, fight a brutal war against Iran. The US sold chemical weapons to Saddam Hussein and told him where to drop them. Since he wasn't really going anywhere in his bloody war against Iran Saddam ma

Re:Jingoistic?

[_Sprocket_]

Well the US support the Shah of Iran who was a corrupt dictator. The people of Iran revolted. So the US started supporting Saddam Hussein, another corrupt dictator, fight a brutal war against Iran. The US sold chemical weapons to Saddam Hussein and told him where to drop them. Since he wasn't really going anywhere in his bloody war against Iran Saddam made peace with Iran. So the US stopped supporting Saddam.

Amazing what's happened in the last 15 years. :P But I suppose you have to go back a ways to get

Re:There was never a threat.

[Rahga]

"Except as any intelligent person knows, Iraq was not a threat to America. That was well-known before hand, and proven completely true afterwards."

1) Iraq under Saddam was a threat to Shiites.
2) Iraq under Saddam was a threat to Kurds.
3) No-fly-zones were set up and run for a decade to prevent slaughter because of (1) and (2).
4) Considering #3, in hindsight, every intelligent person obviously had no idea whatsoever know how much of a threat Iraq was or was not. If it was obvious, then surely you could point

I guess...

[Nolkyan]

...Brewster Jennings couldn't stop the incoming terrorist attack on his server...

FFS

[Anonymous Coward]

Ok so NASA World Wind gets high resolution terrain mapped Moon data, lots of people submit the article to /. all get rejected, someone makes a game for google and /. say "WOW OMFG how cool we mustwrite an article"

The only thing I found

[13bPower]

Is that Bostons roads are REALLY messed up.

Google Earth games too

[Lord Satri]

OgleEarth points to three games involving GoogleEarth, Earth Contest [googleearthgame.com], GoogleEarthing [googleearthing.com] and GEwar [googleearthhacks.com]. Taken from http://industry.slashgisrs.org/article.pl?sid=05/1 0/07/134251 [slashgisrs.org]

Jingoism

[NitsujTPU]

extreme chauvinism or nationalism marked especially by a belligerent foreign policy (source m-w.com)

I don't really think of this as Jingoism. Fighting terrorists to prevent them from killing people in your country (particularly after they've done things like, say that they want to kill people in your country, is pretty natural.

Jingoism might be things like shooting illegal immigrants trying to run across the border from Mexico, such as the Minutemen are accused of doing. Notice the difference.

Re:Jingoism

[NitsujTPU]

You're right, that was flamebait. Clarifying that protecting your country is not jingoism, while killing people who are relatively innocent is jingoism. Thanks for the mod. Of course, Zonk wasn't at all pitching some flamebait in the article.

Re:Jingoism

[minus_273]

"Jingoism might be things like shooting illegal immigrants trying to run across the border from Mexico, such as the Minutemen are accused of doing. Notice the difference."

WTF I know slashdot has a leftist slant, but can you provide any links? how many illegals have been shot? any facts to back up that accusation?

Re:Jingoism

[NitsujTPU]

Accused. I didn't say that they were doing it.

I believe in the enforcement of the law. I'm not trying to say that we should permit lawbreaking activity. I just said that they were accused of such.

The Perils of being slashdotted

[calvin1981]

Update (Oct 30, 2005): Oh crap, here comes the Slashdotting.. The server probably won't be able to take the beating so if the game doesn't work now bookmark us and return in a few days time. Sorry! - Craig

This is from BrewsterJennings.com [slashdot.org].

Terrorist attack? Oh, great...

[MicroPat]

Run around the world trying to stop a terrorist from carrying an attack. Expect a full-fledged investigation from the Patriot Act police soon.

Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?

[x0dus]

Google helped me found her [google.ca].. She's in Cairo, Egypt.

Why in the hell

[dknj]

would you submit your site to slashdot when you already know you can't handle a slashdotting? Seriously, he submitted the article then writes on his site "here comes the slashdotting, come back later".

Just my $0.02

For Cheaters

[scienceguy55]

To get a rediculous amount of time left, type the following into yor address bar

javascript:void(min=99999999);

. To submit as the high score, type:

javascript:void(hi_score(true));

.

Re:For Cheaters

[Sigma 7]

What address bar?

While it is true that the adress bar is hidden in the game window, there are ways to get around that. For example, IE allows pressing CTRL-N to open a new window, which normally contains the contents of the previous window (or it can be confiured to do so.)

Mozilla does not have any visible feature to open the page.

I'm not sure about Opera, Konqueror or other browsers as they are not installed at this time. However, I know that Lynx still has an address bar, but it isn't useful as it do

For those who are wondering ..

[calvin1981]

Brewster Jennings and co. [wikipedia.org] is a "real" company. The CIA agent Valerie Plame [wikipedia.org], whose cover was blown for political reasons, "worked" for Brewster Jennings.

Brewster Jennings & Associates

[Rufus211]

In case you're wondering what the name Brewster Jennings [wikipedia.org] refers to, it's the CIA shell company that was exposed along with Valerie Plame's identity.

What I really loved.

[ToeNipples]

My favorite part of this game was looking up the word "jingoistic".

Where is Charles Manson?

[ChrisCampbell47]

Thank god this has Slashdot's attention, maybe now someone can tell me where Charles Manson is imprisoned?

It's the first step in one of the sequences, and I could not find it. I tried 4 different major California prisons, each of which had been indicated by some research (via Google, natch).

On a related note, how does hinting work? I turn it on but I see no effect.

Re:Where is Charles Manson?

[ChrisCampbell47]

Thanks, but Alcatraz stopped being a prison [checks via google] in 1963, before Manson even committed his crimes. But I tried it anyway -- no dice.

I tried to play it...

[jalefkowit]

... but all I got was this error message [blueyonder.co.uk]!

Impossible

[someguy456]

The game seems fun and all, but I found it impossible to play, specifically with the counter in place. That is, I think that when you take into account factors such as the speed of google maps, the area of the map which you could click on, the rate of zoom, etc, it is very, very close to the 10 minutes allotted. This is of course, ignoring the human controllable factors such as the time it takes to read the clues or make up your mind onto where to click next. I've tried twice, playing with nearly dead-on "t

Great

[Sv-Manowar]

The Google Maps API is so open and easy to develop, this has caused stuff like this to develop. You have to hand it to Google for creating such an easy to use tool like that, I expect to see some great innovative sites based around different ways to use this API. Congratulations to everyone involved.

They did a poor job at teaching history.

[CyricZ]

Such games never really taught history. Yes, they taught you dates and names, but nothing serious. They never were able to delve into the complex socio-political situations that caused or arose from historic events. They never taught how to discern tainted or biased historic information from legitimate reports.

Are we missing something?

[Anonymous Coward]

Well, holy fuck, it's a game, not a goddamned graduate level course at Yale!

Re:Are we missing something?

[CyricZ]

Yes, you are missing something. You're missing the fact that merely knowing dates and names is not a clear understanding of history.

One should not think that they know the subject just because they played such a game.

Re:They did a poor job at teaching history.

[nosredna]

To be fair, neither did history class in high school.

Re:They did a poor job at teaching history.

[CyricZ]

I'm not suggesting it would. The education systems of many western nations are quite lacking these days. It's not surprising that the vast majority of young people are completely ignorant of history.

Re:They did a poor job at teaching history.

[patternjuggler]

The education systems of many western nations are quite lacking these days. It's not surprising that the vast majority of young people are completely ignorant of history.

When exactly was it where the western nations did have great proportions of people well-versed with history? Public education hasn't been around for much more than a century at least in the U.S., so sometime in the 20th century?

In my experience, there are two types of people who spout off on the 'they don't teach history well anymore' trol

Re:They did a poor job at teaching history.

[utexaspunk]

IIRC, it was mostly a geography game, and we played it when we were in 4-5th grade. Getting 4th and 5th graders to know the locations of various countries, cities, and landmarks on a map is all they were striving for, and that they succeeded at that goal is quite an accomplishment in itself. It also succeeds at teaching kids how to use reference materials. The games came with almanacs and desk encyclopedias so that the player could look up the answers. I think that is quite often the case that knowing how t

Re:They did a poor job at teaching history.

[Jardine]

IIRC, it was mostly a geography game, and we played it when we were in 4-5th grade. Getting 4th and 5th graders to know the locations of various countries, cities, and landmarks on a map is all they were striving for, and that they succeeded at that goal is quite an accomplishment in itself.

I remember playing it in 9th grade...in French. That just added a whole new level of difficulty to the game.

Re:Jingoist title?

[senatorpjt]

Then again, perhaps if anyone knew where the name "Brewster Jennings" came from, it might put things in a different perspective.

Re:Jingoist title?

[mako1138]

Perhaps it's the name of the front company [wikipedia.org] that Valerie Plame used as cover.

When you've got a fictitious company protecting America, the title isn't "jingoistic": it's just a joke.

Re:Jingoist title?

[patternjuggler]

the title isn't "jingoistic": it's just a joke.

Calling a joke title jingoistic is a joke. Asking 'why do you hate America so much?' of the person who called the joke title jingoistic is also a joke.

Of course, the authors of those posts and Zonk may not be in on it (what did Zonk know about Brewster Jennings and when did he know it?), but that makes the whole thing even more funny.

Re:Does anyone remember Punky Brewster ?

[pooly7]

Ho yeah ! It was even shown on french TV... What's the link with Carmen Sandiego ?

Re:Stop With The Stupid Online Journal Buzzwords!!

[aftk2]

No doubt. I'm going to use this opportunity to pimp my blog entry [electricstate.com] on the subject - I'll leave it as an exercise to the reader to determine whether this action is ironic or not.

Re:i figure i should post first

[Mahou]

if you search google for where in the world is carmen sandiego [google.com] it tells you she's in cairo, egypt.