It was probably named by some Dwemer. (Is that where they disappeared to?)

I always assumed they just moved to Taumata-whakatangihanga-koauau-o-tamatea-turi-pukakapiki-maunga-horo-nuku-pokai-whenua-kitanatah, Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch or Lake Chaubunagungamaug.

Are you intentionally being obtuse? Let me spell it out again:

I said that Russia is considered European (despite the fact that part of it is in Asia) because of historical, cultural and political reasons and because a lot of Russia (including most of its people) actually is in geographical Europe.

Israel does have cultural and political links to Europe but none of Israel straddles the European continent.

Do you not see how the two cases are different? Seriously?


I'm not even saying Russia shouldn't technically, depending on how you choose to split it up, be counted as one of the countries in Asia - just that on a website like JetPunk or Sporcle, which splits the countries up and assigns them each to one continent, it seems pretty obvious why Russia is counted as European but Israel isn't.

Me saying that Israel is in some ways more European than its Arabic neighbours (which is true) isn't a contradiction to any of that. Japan is more European than China, but that doesn't mean that it's in Europe. I'm not operating to double standards. I'm explaining why Russia is usually seen as European by reference to two different ways of judging it, which in this case is an inevitability, because one of those standards (the geographical) is ambiguous.

The Europe/Asia continent split is silly anyway. It's all Eurasia It'd be like calling Central America its own continent.

The Americas are really the only continents with any sort of profound geographic distance from the others (save for Alaska/Siberia).

Oh, I agree. I'm not arguing that the traditional seven continents thing has any actual basis in physical reality. The boundaries of what "Europe" means have always shifted, obviously. I was just trying to explain why it's understandable and not particularly controversial that this quiz should choose to divide them up that way.

Israel maybe Asian, but whwn I think of Israel I don't think of Asians. Asia really is too big to be meaningful. There are too many types of people in Asia.

I know alot of asian countries. I just can't spell worth crap.

37/48
Missed Uzbekistan
68% Singapore
65% Turkmenistan
64% Azerbaijan
60% Bhutan
58% Qatar
57% Tajikistan
55% Bahrain
49% East Timor
42% Maldives
39% Cyprus
35%
Cyprus is considered part of Asia?

Cannot believe I forgot Singapore, Turkmenistan and Qatar though...
I am currently taking Asian History classes so I should know more than like 77% That percentage does not bode well for my grade...Well not like we are studying 90% of those countries anyways but my professor is a hardass and I can easily see him giving a quiz like this. I can only hope it is extra credit!

Just remembered...he doesn't give extra credit...

In the case of Russia, you have a country that straddles two continents, Europe and Asia. So when you have to decide which one it's "in" and you can only pick one, most people pick Europe. Why?
Because most of the Russians live in Europe.
Most Russian culture is more European.
Most major Russian cities are in Europe.
Russia's economics tie it very closely with Europe.

Those are all supporting factors for why Russia is often considered European, but only when you have to make a distinction.

Now, with Israel, some of those factors also apply. For instance, politics, culture, and economics all tie Israel with the US and Europe more than Asia. However, Israel is different because there is no need to select which continent it is on. It rests entirely within Asia. Therefore, the argument that Russia can be considered European does not apply to Israel because Israel doesn't have any ambiguity about it.

The same would be true for South Africa. It's very European/American culturally and economically, but there's no ambiguity about the fact that it lies in Africa. Therefore, it's African. Japan is similar as well. The exact opposite is true for Turkey. (A small piece of it and many Turks reside in Europe. However, most of it is in Asia and it is culturally and economically "not European," and so it is often not considered part of Europe, even though it has territory and citizens there.)

That was his argument, and it's very reasonable. While he may not have specifically said as much all in one place, it's fairly easy to see that this is what he was implying.

Since when did the Middle East stop being Asian? It's not in Africa, not in Europe, and by the sounds of it, not in Asia according to you. Where is it then? The Americas? http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/80/Asia_%28orthographic_projection%29.svg This is Asia. The last time I checked the line between Africa and Asia is drawn by the Suez canol, the line between Europe and Asia between the Bosphorus strait, the Urals and Caucasus mountains (even though countries like Georgia are considered European at times, but anyway). So, Israel is obviously in Asia. And we've already established that leaving Russia out of the quiz is a bit questionable (even though I agree with the points being made about it being mainly European in terms of religion, culture etc)

And you are right, Egypt has stronger ties to the Asian countries of the Middle East than it has to south-eastern countries like Thailand, as you said (even though you can find ties, like Islam). And I've seen quite a lot of people in modern times who seem to think that you have to be Chinese, eat with chopsticks and have thick eyelids to be Asian, which is not true. I can admit that whether a country is more culturally European, African or Asian culturally is open for discussion, but the Middle East has links to other Asian countries as well. You will find countries with Islamic populations all the way to south-east Asia(as mentioned). The Turks are related to other Asian steppe peoples in different ways, Iran, Afganistan and other countries have a heritage influenced by the Arab conquests etc.

Remembering the English names for the countries was also kind of annoying.
They're mainly the same, but there are spelling and language differences
The United Arab Emirates are de forente arabiske emirater in norwegian.
Cambodia is Kambodja
Yemen is Jemen
Kyrgyzstan is Kirgisistan etc.
I managed though.

This is not really a debate. Asia is not determined by culture or people. It was decisively split by geography. The only part up for debate is really Russia and since it is IN Asia it is in Asia. If there was a 'name all the countries in Europe' quiz you would put Russia there as well. Same with effing Turkey. As for colonies? Yeah, obviously they are not going to come into play if it is not nearby. Let us operate on this rule. The territory ends(for this discussion) when the next bit of land a Nation owns is ended by another nation's borders, a s ea and/or does not have more territory within an appreciable distance of it. In the case of Turkey for example there is land less than a few miles just over the Bosporus Straight. An example of territory that is too far would be the United States territory stretching all the way to Hawaii. Just for reasons of distance. That would make the United States just situated in North America, not Polynesia just for the sake of debate.

If you wanted to get into it technically the United States does NOT have legal ownership of Hawaii. Touchy subject over this way. Short read.
Anywaaays...Based purely on Geography, Most of the countries in that quiz looked alright, Russia being a little strange. Cyprus had me confused till i refreshed myself with a gander at a map.

As for the Middle East. The place is basically a melting pot for a host of various cultural influences. Alexander the Great Invading and bringing Classical Greek culture and ideals to them. Ghengis Khan and his hordes sweeping through the area leaving their impact. Rome conquering large areas of it and further creating more western culture. Various migrations of steppe peoples the most recent(I think?) and notable probably being the Turkish peoples. Founding the Ottoman Empire and such. Egypt as their neighbors and the migration of the ancient Hebrew tribes bringing Egyptian and Hebrew culture. Trade along the silk road from China and India having an effect too as well as the Tang dynasty(China) having troops and borders near the area at its zenith. A little further injection of Chinese culture and ideals. The list gets longer and more ornate the more you look at it. No one place has a truly dominant claim on that areas cultural growth. They are their own culture. You could say parts of Europe and North Africa and South-East Asia have Middle Eastern cultural influences. However, geographically, they are in Asia and this a part of that continent.

Stupid quiz is stupid.

It missed Russia and Egypt. It considers Indonesia and East Timor Asian, but not Papua New Guinea. It has Taiwan, but not South Ossetia, North Cyprus, Abkhazia or Nagorno-Karabakh. It also misses all the countries with overseas territory in Asia (Great Britain, Australia and potentially the USA, depending on where you draw the dividing line south of the Bering Strait). It misses every single historical country (Tibet, Tannu-Tuva, ...) despite the question not being restricted to currently existing ones.

Egypt is in Africa, don't try to argue, I'm right and you know it.
I agree that Russia could have been included.
Tibet is a part of China.
And Tuva seems to be a part of Russia in many ways.
Also Northern Cyprus only has recognision as an independent state by Turkey.
I don't know how old that quiz is either, South Ossentia was recognised as an independent state in 2008.

The Russia thing should be settled by now, but there's no way that you can seriously consider Egypt to be part of Asia. http://www.epals.com/search/maps/africa/africa_en.gif Notice where Egypt lies? Strong cultural ties don't mean [censored], this is a matter of geography. Otherwise the US would be part of Europe for crying out loud. And counting Great Britain as an Asian country? Please...

Egypt is an intercontinental country (same as Russia, Turkey, Italy and a ton of others). A good part of it - the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinai_Peninsula is in Asia.


Both were independant countries in the past. My point is that the quiz doesn't accept historical countries as valid answers despite not asking for currently independant ones only.

EDIT:


For Egypt, see above. Some 6% of Egypt's territory is in Asia.

The USA has no territory in Europe, but the UK has territory in Asia: the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Indian_Ocean_Territory south of India and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akrotiri_and_Dhekelia on Cyprus.

Why should it?
Should the quiz divide China into the original kingdoms?
Should India also include Pakistan and Bangladesh?
No it shouldn't obviously a quiz is about whats current unless anything else is specified.
Some of the countries you mentioned are only recogniced by a few countries. And the quiz may be outdated (I don't know how old it is).
Also the quizmaster may have a few mistakes, he/she is only human after all.

Because they are valid answers to the challenge "Name the countries that are generally considered to be part of Asia." Or to put it another way: Part of which continent would you generally consider Tannu-Tuva or Hyderabad to be?

They're Asian, but no independent countries.
It's like trying to put Scotland on a quiz about European countries.

The Netherlands has territory in the Caribbean, does that make it an American country?

Continuing on that, I suppose that between 1898 and 1946 the United States were an Asian country as well?

wut?

They're Asian and were independant. Same as Scotland for quite some time. The way the quiz is worded, if doesn't rule out such countries as valid answers.


Yes. That's why it is on the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_transcontinental_countries#Other_examples.

He's saying that Tannu-Tuva isn't a sovereign state, and thus shouldn't be in this quiz. And I thought that Hyderabad is a city, in which case I have no idea why that was brought up.

Okay, I think that your point is still completely ridiculous, but I understand where you're coming from.