Thursday, October 22, 2009

Easy red cross question:

Just guess a number....

If I randomly went up to people in the United States. (Orange County - California) How many would I have to go up to before one person knew the name of the Founder of the Red Cross?


How many would know out of 100?


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Optional reading bellow
Optional questions bellow

What would you think of a wall of fame (blog photo hall of fame here) of pictures of the people that actually knew this question?

What do you think the age range would be of people that got it right?

A little thinking required:
I have thought about asking random survey questions to strangers that I think would get similar responce... Michael Jordans jersey number? The president of the us the year you were born? Score of last years superbowl? What interesting question can you come up with that you think would have a similar statisical outcome as the Red Cross Founder question?

20 comments:

  1. I always love it when Leno asks people on the street where the President lives and they don't know...but they can state instantly, with great pride, where Spongebob Squarepants lives.

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  2. Oh dear, these questions scare me! Sometimes when I am taken off guard my mind goes blank ;) Fun idea though...

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  3. I don't know the answer to that, but then again, I wouldn't care about it either. I would only care about the current management of it now, and to know if most of the donations are going to the actual cause or to administrative functions.

    My grandmother and great-grandmother volunteered for the RC back in the day during World War II. They both have shared amazing stories.

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  4. Clara Barton was the founder of the American Red Cross. As a nurse, she began volunteering with the International Committee of the Red Cross in Europe during the Franco-Prussian War. When she came back to the states, she organized the America Red Cross to respond to widespread disasters. Now, in addition to domestic disaster relief, the America Red Cross is involved in community services, communication services for military, preparedness programs on health and safety, international relief and development and collecting, processing and distributing blood and blood products. However, I should know this... I help write for "Red Alert." Thanks for reading!

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  5. uum, uuuuum, nope, i'm going away now.....

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  6. I bet less than 10% of people would pick Clara Barton out of a multiple choice question. The way to get her known would be to make a red cross video game. Here are a couple of questions that would get even less of a correct response: Where does your food, that you feed your children, come from? Who writes the laws that protect the quality of your food?

    Good Luck with all that.

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  7. Hey, Hey, I figured out some of the plot for the Clara Barton game. She could be the nurse that comes out to drag off the carcass after some fat kid on the couch eating doritos blows the hell out it.

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  8. Clara Barton is not the founder of the Red Cross. She is the founder of the American Red Cross.

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  9. Here is a question that crossed my mind when I was out doing chores. Get Leno to ask those morons: Why don't we ever hear of an unintended consequence like this, "Today the government introduced a policy that had the unintended consequence of making everyone blissful."

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  10. Anonymous - That is a good and fair point. I need to clarify the united states red cross.

    Tom - video game carrying off dead people. Sounds different but it could work.

    Stephanie - thank you very much for the award

    Shadow - very funny

    Kris - I can tell you do a good job

    Senorita - current management in your area does mean quite a bit and that is an excellent point

    The daily - off guard questions are tricky...

    Stephanie - Leno - I have honestly never watched him.. I always just associate him with Doritos when I see him I get this argue to drink mountain dew with doritos... The urge since I gave those things up years ago.

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  11. To be honest, I would have got it correct on a multiple choice, cause I needed the nudge. Clara Barton's name is not something I have thought about for a very long time.

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  12. I dont think anyone would know the answer to that question unless they looked it up. Quite sad, but prob true.

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  13. I'm a nurse and I don't know who was the founder of the red cross but I do know who Florance Nightandgale was...a prostitute than changed the way soldiers legs were handled. Instead of cutting them off she said that the Drs needed to use infection control techniques like washing their hands between patient...Most nurses at the time were old prostotutes because they were considered less than women and if they got sick it didn't matter...Can you believe..we owe so much to her

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  14. I had to Google but according to the Canadian Red Cross and Wikipedia, Henry Dunant was the Swiss founder of the Red Cross in 1863. A visit to Europe prompted Clara Barton to initiate her similar project in the U.S which began in 1873. Dr. George Sterling Ryerson founded the Canadian Red Cross in 1885. I would imagine that a large chunk of that 10% were thinking American and not International.

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  15. Before reading some of the comments I could not tell you the answer. I don't remember the score of the Superbowl (although I was not too nuts about the Steelers winning). That name sounds familiar from history class. I kind of remember learning about it being founded in history class...

    Here is another question: Who is the Prime Minister of Canada? I wonder how the responses would vary based on location. I would like to think that people living close to the Canadian border (such as those in Detroit or Buffalo) would be more likely to get the question correct than those further away (such as those in Dallas or Atlanta).

    I also wonder how many Americans realize that Canada has a prime minister. Visit this page of Lifeisgrand.org to see what made me think of this question. I knew that they had a Prime Minister when I first read it. I would like to think that there are more Americans who would know that Canada has prime minister than those who know who the prime minister is.

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  16. Thank you for the additional comments since my last entry. There are some very smart people that are commenting here.

    Very encouraging.

    Best regards

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  17. Erm...this made me go look it up.
    Feeling shameful I don't know :)
    Makes me wonder what else I should know...

    For some reason this made me recall when Canadian comedian Rick Mercer went down to Washington and asked people to congratulate canada on enclosing our "Parlaimentary igloo" in a dome so it would be preserved, after telling them "all about it"...and lot of them thought it was true.

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  18. I live in Orange County and I know who founded the American Red Cross.

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