Name a nation.

[Rain Man]

One nation per post, and please name a country that hasn't already been named previously. I'm testing a theory. Thanks in advance, and in thanks I present to you a picture of Jamaal Charles making a Bronco eat dirt.

(I'll share my theory when I get 100 or so nations. I can't share it now or it would ruin the experiment.)

[Bugeater]

Originally Posted by Dave

I was trying to think of the most obscure countries.

Same here, less chance of reposting that way.

[KS Smitty]

Originally Posted by Rain Man

Okay, I'll share my theory now. The main crux was proven, I think, and the tertiary crux was possibly proven, but maybe not.

I read alnorth's thread about the soccer protest in Turkey, and I was thinking, "do people pay much attention to Turkey"? It seems like a country that is more or less off the radar of most Americans.

Turkey is the 17th most populous country in the world. I was wondering if you had Americans start listing countries, where would Turkey show up? Unless I missed an earlier reference, it looks like ks smitty mentioned it in Post 92.

So that's pretty low visibility. However, it's not necessarily proven that Turkey is ultra-low, because I think it was mentioned before the Philippines and Nigeria unless I missed them, and those countries have larger populations.

But the main crux of my theory is proven. I was pondering what country might have lower visibility relative to its size than Turkey, and the country that popped into my mind was Indonesia. No one ever talks about Indonesia, and it is the 4th most populous nation on the planet, ranked behind China, India, and the U.S. As I'm typing this, no one has yet mentioned Indonesia.

I expect that small countries like Moldova and the Central African Republic will be low visibility, but Indonesia is huge. And no one, including myself, ever pays attention to it. Interesting.

So do I win a prize?

[milkman]

Originally Posted by Dave

I was trying to think of the most obscure countries.

Originally Posted by Bugeater

Same here, less chance of reposting that way.

I stuck with the more obvious, knowing that over half of you dumbasses would be doing this.

[Rain Man]

Originally Posted by Bugeater

Huh, I thought Indonesia was listed.

Nope. Just did a search to confirm.

So what makes a country high visibility? It seems to me like the main reasons are:

1) projecting power on the world stage (e.g., Russia, the USA, UK).
2) tourism (France, Italy, Maldives)
3) having problems (Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria)
4) maybe being part of the Anglo-American club (e.g., Australia, Canada) or being "western"/white (e.g., Hungary, Sweden)
5) maybe being industrialized (e.g., Japan, Taiwan)

Indonesia doesn't really work in any of those areas other than maybe Bali as a tourist destination. It makes me wonder whey they don't try to project power in their region.

Turkey is a bit of the same, though I tend to think of Turkey as being reasonably active on the international front.

[JoeyChuckles]

Originally Posted by KS Smitty

So do I win a prize?

Nope, but you are a jive Turkey.

[ghak99]

Oman

[Talisman]

Not sure a theory of which countries come to mind first works on a BB where some people are trying to pick the most obscure country they can think of (or find on a list of countries they got from Google).

It is odd that I just came from the thread about strange soccer fans in Turkey and didn't think of Turkey at all. I'll give you that.

[Bugeater]

Originally Posted by milkman

I stuck with the more obvious, knowing that over half of you dumbasses would be doing this.

You still didn't win.

[Rain Man]

Originally Posted by KS Smitty

So do I win a prize?

Trip to Turkey? But not the nice part. Too expensive.

[Bowser]

MADA-FREAKING-GASCAR

[KS Smitty]

Originally Posted by Rain Man

Trip to Turkey? But not the nice part. Too expensive.

It's because I outed you and DaFace being in Machu Pichu isn't it.

[milkman]

I do think it's a flawed experiment, since people are going to try to think outside the box, so to speak.

I mean, think about it.

The U.S isn't mentioned until post 34.

[Rain Man]

Originally Posted by Talisman

Not sure a theory of which countries come to mind first works on a BB where some people are trying to pick the most obscure country they can think of (or find on a list of countries they got from Google).

It is odd that I just came from the thread about strange soccer fans in Turkey and didn't think of Turkey at all. I'll give you that.

Admittedly, implementation wasn't perfect, but at the same time it seems like with a large number of people some would've started with big countries. And China and India were named right off the bat.

I think we as a BB should make an effort to learn more about Indonesia. We would all be better as a result.

[Talisman]

You think about different things than I do.

I was thinking about whether to watch some more Breaking Bad on Netflix or fire up the 360 for a game of something.

But the country visibilitilization thingie is cool too.

[Rain Man]

Originally Posted by milkman

I do think it's a flawed experiment, since people are going to try to think outside the box, so to speak.

I mean, think about it.

The U.S isn't mentioned until post 34.

Yeah, it's feasible that obscure countries were getting more play, but at the same time most of the biggies were indeed hit too. In my list of reasons to think of a country top of mind, we could add a sixth one in this exercise, which is "obscurity". But Indonesia apparently doesn't rise to the top for that measure, either. It's like the country is invisible.

1) projecting power on the world stage (e.g., Russia, the USA, UK).
2) tourism (France, Italy, Maldives)
3) having problems (Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria)
4) maybe being part of the Anglo-American club (e.g., Australia, Canada) or being "western"/white (e.g., Hungary, Sweden)
5) maybe being industrialized (e.g., Japan, Taiwan)