Unofficial American Embassy

What is the unofficial American embassy? What is the symbol of America that you have find in nearly every country in the world? Where would I go if I were stranded with no money and felt homesick? What place has a location on every habitable continent in all developed or developing countries? McDonald's. Not to eat there, of course, I stopped eating fast food years ago, but the comforting roof of the golden arches is like being back home in America, or at least, the closest thing you can get if you can't cook up your own comfort foods. I go there just for the WiFi sometimes, since there's a McDonald's just a 5-minute walk from my apartment here in Strasbourg. All McDonald's in France seem to offer free WiFi, which is nice.
I go because I can't study in my room and the library is sometimes too stiff. Cafés are nice, but I don't want to pay 3€ for a coffee and stay for a few hours and try to avoid the waitstaff's scrutinizing glares. McDonald's staff doesn't seem to care whether I buy something or not, so I usually go upstairs, find a quiet corner by the window, read, study, and whatnot when I feel I need to get away from my apartment or the library. And if I do have to buy something someday, a coffee would be just 1€, compared to the 3+€ coffees offered by other places.

French people do seem to eat there. The place gets rather crowded during lunch and dinner hours. It's especially busy on Sundays since most other stores close here in France while McDonald's, keeping up the American tradition, stays open 7 days a week, though here in Strasbourg, there are no 24-hour McDonald's. The latest one stays open until 11p.m., though.
Going off on a tangent, this map shows you basically where all the people live in the contiguous U.S. The more McDonald's there are, the brighter the concentration of lit areas, meaning there are more people there. The Western half of the Midwest and the Southwest are quite clearly sparsely populated, noting the lack of McDonald's =)

Today's Random Picture:
Apparently, McDonald's isn't doing so well in New Zealand and so, this is a promotional tray liner, with a fry shaped like the New Zealand archipelago.

McDonald's = Democratic Peace?

I was talking with one of my friends and confessing how I was craving cheeseburgers while in Mali. I don't know why, but I was craving junk food. It never happens when I'm in the States, so why did it happen in Mali? I think it might have just been the fact that I couldn't have cheeseburgers that made me crave it. There are absolutely no "fast food" chains in Mali or in most of Africa, so this fact might have made me crave cheeseburgers. It's human nature to want what you can't have, right? Somehow, this conversation led to the democratic peace theory.

Which countries fight wars? Does democracy really spread peace? It's all debatable... but from this comes the "McDonald's" political theory. The theory is: "no two countries that have McDonald's has ever fought a war against each other." Here's a map of countries with (and without) McDonald's.
The colors indicate in what time frame the country's first McDonald's opened its doors while the gray areas are countries that don't have McDonald's.

This theory proves to be "true," discounting Serbia and Montenegro and countries of the former Yugoslavia, though that arguably doesn't even count since it was more of a "civil war." But why is that? Because everyone loves hamburgers, eat it, become fat, happy, and too lazy to go to war? No, probably not. It makes sense. McDonald's wouldn't want to open a business in a politically or economically unstable country. Otherwise, they wouldn't make any money. So, they pick the countries carefully before opening a store in those countries. For example, Mali doesn't have any McDonald's because no one would be able to afford one! Similarly, the strongly anti-American governments (i.e. Cuba, Tunisia, Libya, Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan etc.) don't have McDonald's because business there would probably be slow... and risk a few bombs perhaps. Ugh, now that Iraq and Afghanistan are going to be "democratized," I suppose McDonald's may end up opening their doors there, too, spreading their mystery meat and mystery fries, clogging up people's arteries, and addicting people to MSG in those countries, too. Ugh. I'm proud to say I haven't eaten at McDonald's in over 2 years!

Today's Random Quiz:

You Are a Chocolate Chip Bagel

You are creative, experimental, and and self-aware. You are a very bohemian person, and you tend to live a strange life. Of all the types, you're the most likely to go for strange food combinations. You tend to have coffee for breakfast. Anything with lots of caffeine will do.

What Kind of Bagel Are You?