10 Things I like about America

[SurfDemon]

Okay, I was thinking that I've been slagging off America alot lately, and there are lots of things I like about the states, So here are 10 things I really like about the country (in addition to the VB-Forum Americans of course!)

1)Burger bars.
2)Ford Expedition
3)Obese people (they make me look slim next to them)
4)Friends (excellent)
5)Coke-cola (gets me through the day)
6)Nasa and all their really cool toys
7)Movies (they certainly make the best movies in the world)
8)Buffy the Vampire Slayer.... mmmm.. buffylicious
9)Introducing the doughnut as a breakfast food... pure genius
10)Roadrunner ..... meep meep

SD

[CiberTHuG]

Originally posted by SurfDemon
Okay, I was thinking that I've been slagging off America alot lately, and there are lots of things I like about the states, So here are 10 things I really like about the country (in addition to the VB-Forum Americans of course!)

1)Burger bars.
2)Ford Expedition
3)Obese people (they make me look slim next to them)
4)Friends (excellent)
5)Coke-cola (gets me through the day)
6)Nasa and all their really cool toys
7)Movies (they certainly make the best movies in the world)
8)Buffy the Vampire Slayer.... mmmm.. buffylicious
9)Introducing the doughnut as a breakfast food... pure genius
10)Roadrunner ..... meep meep

SD

We call 'em burger joints. I assume you are talking about McDonald's ad the ilk. I personally hate the Expedition, but I'm in the minority, I'm sure. And, well... I have personal issues with obesity. I truely hate it, but ain't much I can do but close my eyes. Dr Pepper is better than Coke, but it has been sold to the UK Schweeps. :(


NASA
The Wright Brothers
Issaac Asimov, Albert Einstein
The Internet
The computer (the phone, the radio, et al)
It is freakin' huge
Rock -n- Roll (Though Australia produces some great bands: Men at Work, Midnight Oil, Tears for Fears(?))
Southern Fried Food
Cajun Food
Chinese, Japanese, Italian, Thai, and Indian resturants ;)
Big movies, big naval ships (Nimitz), big airplanes (Tomcats)
DCI, ACC


I hate that we don't have WRC or GT, that our soccer is weak, and baseball bores me. I'm also not too pleased with our public education.

[SurfDemon]

Originally posted by CiberTHuG


NASA
The Wright Brothers
Issaac Asimov, Albert Einstein
The Internet
The computer (the phone, the radio, et al)
It is freakin' huge
Rock -n- Roll (Though Australia produces some great bands: Men at Work, Midnight Oil, Tears for Fears(?))
Southern Fried Food
Cajun Food
Chinese, Japanese, Italian, Thai, and Indian resturants ;)
Big movies, big naval ships (Nimitz), big airplanes (Tomcats)
DCI, ACC


Woooooo, hold on there.
The Internet... CERN wasn't it (invented in Geneva or Stockholm or one of those funny places).
The computer - you have got to be sh*tting me (ever heard of Babbage?)
It's freaking huge (not compared to Canada ;))
The Phone - Alexander Graham Bell ... er, He was Scottish.
The Radio - Marconi - er, He was Italian I think
Albert Einstein was German!
Next thing, you'll be congratulatong America on inventing the Pizza :D

SD

P.S. What's DCI and ACC???

[SurfDemon]

P.P.S. I thought Assimov was Russian? He might have immigrated, but thats just a weird thing about American immigration (that you have to denounce the country your coming from... weird).

SD

[chrisjk]

No, the internet started life as a nework used by the Us military so all sites could share info...at least that's what we're told ;)

I think CERN was the first place to conduct collision experiments on electrons, they spun electrons up to the speed of light and shashed them into each other...cool!! :cool:

[SurfDemon]

Yeah you're probably right... or was it CERN that developed HTML, I'm sure they were in there somewhere.


(OR was it Al Gore??)

SD

[chrisjk]

I dunno about HTML but BT developed those little things you click on all day..that's right...hyperlinks.

Sarah Gellar (I refues to include peoples middles names when they only use it to make themselves more posh - I shall hence forth be known as "Christopher John Kilhams" if you don't mind ;) ).......mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm buffylicious!! ;)
That Willow came even higher in the FHM 100 Sexiest Women poll though...

[SurfDemon]

[QUOTE]Originally posted by chrisjk
[B]

Sarah Gellar (I refues to include peoples middles names when they only use it to make themselves more posh - I shall hence forth be known as "Christopher John Kilhams" if you don't mind ;) )]

Well said,

Surf "Spanky" Demon.

Mmmm, doesn't really work with my middlename!

SD

[CiberTHuG]

Originally posted by SurfDemon


Woooooo, hold on there.
The Internet... CERN wasn't it (invented in Geneva or Stockholm or one of those funny places).
The computer - you have got to be sh*tting me (ever heard of Babbage?)
It's freaking huge (not compared to Canada ;))
The Phone - Alexander Graham Bell ... er, He was Scottish.
The Radio - Marconi - er, He was Italian I think
Albert Einstein was German!
Next thing, you'll be congratulatong America on inventing the Pizza :D

SD

P.S. What's DCI and ACC???

Okay, the Internet started as the ARPANET, which was a DoD project with a few universities. CERN started HTML/HTTP as a way for research papers to be shared.

You are right about the computer, technically. And regardless of Charles Babbage, Ada the Countess of Lovelace financed it, so I would peg it on the UK because of her. Like-wise, yes Bell, Tesla (radio credit), Einstein, and Asimov may have been born elsewhere, but they were given the chance to blossom here. After all, Einstein was a patent clerk in Switzerland (not Germany). He was gainfully unemployeed as a theoretical physist here. :)

In any case, I should've said the modern PC (IBM).

Yes, though, the US doesn't recognize dual citizenship.

DCI is Drum Corps International (http://www.dci.org/). It is international if you count Canada as another country and the lite beer version of America. :D

ACC is the Atlantic Coast Conference. The best college basketball conference. In ACC country, college basketball is much more important than the NBA.

[SurfDemon]

:D Einstien moved to America in the 1940's, some 35 years after he wrote the theory of relativity (amongst his other great works). I think he only spent his last 10-15 years in America.

The bit about the patent clerk was only up until he started getting published (1905) and receiving Nobel prizes, then he was lecturing in various german/swiss universities.

Bell actually immigrated to Canada if you want to be picky. He just happened to be working over the border (in Boston) when he completed his work:D

Okay, I'll give you the internet ;):D

But even the modern p.c. is dubious. Where do you draw the line between what was the first modern p.c. (Valves, transistors) Colossus?

Certainly IBM invented the IBM p.c., but other companies had been making personal computers for years beforehand. (Sinclair, Atari, Commodore, Apple, Amstrad, Apricot, Acorn etc.) There is no denying Americas contribution to the advancement of computers (Xerox, Apple, Microsoft, Digital), but being first is debatable.

SD

[barrk]

1. Tom
2. Ian
3. Erin
4. Travis
5. California
6. Weather
7. Plenty of entertainment (i.e. politics)
8. Suburbans
9. NASA
10. me

[CiberTHuG]

I did not know that about Einstein.

Bell is surprising, but he spent so much time in the States. And like I said, Canada is just America Lite. :)

As to the modern PC, the companies you mentioned are enough: IBM, Xerox, Apple, DEC, Sun. I will say that I respect Atari and Commodore, too, even though they weren't American. What was the company that made the Altair? They were in the Southwest, right?

Regardless of who made the IC (integrated circuit) Motorola and Intel made them into household names. Motorola is American, right? I know Intel is.

Anyone know where Linux Torvaldis went to university? He is working for Transmeta now, but I don't know if he is working in the states or not. 'Course, not that it matters too much, AT&T/BellCoRe is the American company responsible for UNIX. BSD and GNU (as well as MacOS and MS-DOS/Windows) are American. :)

We also have Larry Wall.

I oh so like the fact that we don't have to put .us on every domain name to get resolution. 'Course, other countries can set it up so they don't have to for domestic address, but they have to for foreign (.us) addresses. But we don't have to, since we kinda started the internet and all. :)

Yeah, sorry to sound like an American and all, but we rule the Internet. :)

[CiberTHuG]

Originally posted by barrk
4. Travis


I assume that is not me. :(

[chrisjk]

Originally posted by CiberTHuG
Motorola is American, right? I know Intel is.
Yep,and they just made a load of british workers redundant because of the american economic slowdown.

We also have Larry Wall. He is king of the internet!! (or at least should be)

I oh so like the fact that we don't have to put .us on every domain name to get resolution. 'Course, other countries can set it up so they don't have to for domestic address, but they have to for foreign (.us) addresses. But we don't have to, since we kinda started the internet and all. :) They are trying to make it less confusing by giving US businesses the us.com domain. So I went and registered loads like just.us.com (very cool!!) and loads of other stuff like chrysler.us.com just in case they decided to have them. He he ;)

[CiberTHuG]

Squatter.

Well .us exists, its just American companies can get .com instead of something in .us.

[SurfDemon]

Originally posted by CiberTHuG
I will say that I respect Atari and Commodore, too, even though they weren't American.

I always thought they were American. Where were they from.... I could have sworn they were American???


Regardless of who made the IC (integrated circuit) Motorola and Intel made them into household names. Motorola is American, right? I know Intel is.

True. And I think Motorola is American.



We also have Larry Wall.

Oh yeah, the world famous Larry wall :) Who he then?

I oh so like the fact that we don't have to put .us on every domain name to get resolution. 'Course, other countries can set it up so they don't have to for domestic address, but they have to for foreign (.us) addresses. But we don't have to, since we kinda started the internet and all. :)
He He. I hate to disapoint you, but any country can get .com registrations (hell I even have a handful), it's just that other countries use the internet properly with their registration id's. They're talking of binning the .us one as nobody uses it. I usually register .co.uk and .com in Britain and .ca and .com in Canada.



Yeah, sorry to sound like an American and all, but we rule the Internet. :) [/B]

Funny, last time I looked it was world-wide. Are you sure you just don't look for American things? ;)

SD

[chrisjk]

Originally posted by CiberTHuG
Squatter. He he he:)

Well .us exists, its just American companies can get .com instead of something in .us. Anyone can. I have a .com

[CiberTHuG]

True. I couldn't justify a .com or a .org, so I got a .net. I wanted garr.net, but that was taken, as was gar.net.

I wonder if I could get garr.net.us. Oooo... that would be cool.

*scrambles*

[SurfDemon]

ToysR.US??

[CiberTHuG]

ICANN does not specifically accredit registrars to provide ccTLD registration services

So who handles .us?

SD, it should be toys.r.us and babies.r.us.

[SurfDemon]

and

strippers.r.us

[barrk]

Originally posted by CiberTHuG


I assume that is not me. :(


You're a wonderful American too but I was referring to Travis Hugh Barr, kid extraordinaire!

[CiberTHuG]

*hehe* I was once a kid extraordanaire, but I went into retirement.

Still freaks me out that someone else thought "Travis Hugh" was a good idea, too.

'Course, I'm sure there are umpteen kabillion Tracy Michelle.

[barrk]

Originally posted by CiberTHuG
[BStill freaks me out that someone else thought "Travis Hugh" was a good idea, too.
[/B]

It is an odd coincidence, isn't it?

[Jethro]

Originally posted by CiberTHuG


We call 'em burger joints. I assume you are talking about McDonald's ad the ilk. I personally hate the Expedition, but I'm in the minority, I'm sure. And, well... I have personal issues with obesity. I truely hate it, but ain't much I can do but close my eyes. Dr Pepper is better than Coke, but it has been sold to the UK Schweeps. :(


NASA
The Wright Brothers
Issaac Asimov, Albert Einstein
The Internet
The computer (the phone, the radio, et al)
It is freakin' huge
Rock -n- Roll (Though Australia produces some great bands: Men at Work, Midnight Oil, Tears for Fears(?))
Southern Fried Food
Cajun Food
Chinese, Japanese, Italian, Thai, and Indian resturants ;)
Big movies, big naval ships (Nimitz), big airplanes (Tomcats)
DCI, ACC


I hate that we don't have WRC or GT, that our soccer is weak, and baseball bores me. I'm also not too pleased with our public education.

Er, Tears for Fears are pommie.

If you like oz bands check out,

Baby Animals
Killing Heidi
The Whitlams
Something for Kate
Regurgitator

etc etc etc..................

[barrk]

What about AC/DC, Jethro....aren't they Aussies as well?

[parksie]

I thought Einstein was Austrian...or is that someone else?

Larry Wall -- invented Perl?

[Jethro]

Originally posted by barrk
What about AC/DC, Jethro....aren't they Aussies as well?

accadacca...mate! Yes, aussie boys. With wonderful tunes such as "Give the Dog a Bone":eek: L.A pointed out the US meaning of that one to me.


And while l am at it,

CiberThug

The Wright brothers were not the first to fly:mad: This is typical seppo re-writing of history. The New Zealander Pearson flew approx 6 months earlier, over a paddock l think. You might like to ask one of the kiwis about it.;:

[barrk]

Originally posted by Jethro


accadacca...mate! Yes, aussie boys. With wonderful tunes such as "Give the Dog a Bone":eek: L.A pointed out the US meaning of that one to me.



How 'bout such classics as "I've Got Big Balls" and "Stiff Upper Lip"? Now there's some lyrics for you!;)

[CiberTHuG]

What does pommie mean, Jethro?

As to the Wright Brothers, well... they get credit. They started the aeronautics industry. *shrug* We are kind of selective, but we are big enough to be. ;)

Yes, Larry Wall wrote Perl.

And yes, Einstein was Austrian or Swiss or something, but he was not German, merely Germanic.

I'm not a big AC/DC fan.

[Jethro]

parksie is a pommie, he is also a pom;)

Wouldn't expect a boy band loving guy like you too be into AC/DC Ciberthug:rolleyes:

[simonm]

The Blues!
Jimi Hendrix
The Velvet Underground
Iggy Pop & the Stooges
Beck
Some of the films (I'm no going to say which ones)
Muhammad Ali
The Simpsons
The slang expression: 'Man!'
All the other things I like that haven't made it onto this list.

[SurfDemon]

How could I forget Bay-Watch. Mmmmm, bouncy-licous.


P.S. Einstein was german. Just checked it up, he was born in 1879 in Ulm, Wurttemberg, Germany. Though he later renounced German citizenship and was stateless for a number of years before becoming a Swiss Citizen.

SD

[CiberTHuG]

Okay, so he was German, Gypsy, Swiss, then American?

[Jethro]

Originally posted by CiberTHuG
Okay, so he was German, Gypsy, Swiss, then American?

No, he was German, Gypsy, Swiss, Australian, Kiwi, Fijian, South African, Nigerian, English, and then American:rolleyes:

Simmo

The Igg rocks!!!!

[SurfDemon]

Hey, I just noticed another of CyberThugs list that isn't american. Basketball was invented by a canuck (Canadian). So lets go over CyberThugs list again




NASA (Gotta agree on this one, they're cool)
The Wright Brothers (debatable)
Issaac Asimov, Albert Einstein (Russian/German)
The Internet (Okay, we'll give him this one as well :))
The computer (the phone, the radio, et al) (Nope Scottish/Italian etc.)
It is freakin' huge (Only 4th largest in world after Russia, Canada and Chine :))
Rock -n- Roll (Yip, I'll give you that - Elvis rules)
Southern Fried Food (Ok, it's american thats true)
Cajun Food (Yip, This is a great contribution)
Chinese, Japanese, Italian, Thai, and Indian resturants ;) (Er...:))
Big movies, big naval ships (Nimitz), big airplanes (Tomcats) (The Nimitz was not as impressive technically as the other warshps of that day - the Bismark etc., but I would have gone with the USS Enterprise etc. which are very impressive bits of engineering. Of course, are they good things? It's a bit like saying the Blitzkrieg was one of Germanies greatest inventions.....
DCI, ACC (Okay, Basketball invented by an Canadian)


So from Cyberthug's list of twelve, by my count we have six left.


NASA
The Internet
Rock -n- Roll
Southern Fried Food
Cajun Food
Big movies, big naval ships (Nimitz), big airplanes (Tomcats)

So do you want to try again? :D

SD

P.S. The television was also invented by a scotsman (John Logie Baird) before you try and claim it :D

[CiberTHuG]

NASA (Gotta agree on this one, they're cool) - And don't you forget it. We have the only fleet of shuttles. The Soviet shuttle now lies in disrepair, never having flown a manned mission. The Japanese, the Chinese, and the ESA are just now working with the idea.
The Wright Brothers (debatable) - Doesn't count if no one saw you do it. I'm still going to give this to the Wright Brothers. Leif Erikson (?) was the first European to land on America. But we still are going to give the credit to Christopher Columbus (for better or worse) since he actually did something about it.
Issaac Asimov, Albert Einstein (Russian/German) - You miss the beauty of America (after we stole it from the native tribal nations). We all come from somewhere else. I'm Norman, by way of England with William the Conqueor (sp?). I have read hair and times to the Bruce. But I'm American. Asimov and Einstein wouldn't've flourish nearly as beautifully if it weren't for the States.
The Internet (Okay, we'll give him this one as well :)) - Like there was doubt.
The computer (the phone, the radio, et al) (Nope Scottish/Italian etc.) - Bell was apparently a Canadian, but he did is work in Boston? I give radio credit to Tesla, but you can argue Niccoli and we will let it be. As to computers, I should've clarified the IC and the modern PC. There were companies who helped innovate that were not American (Commodore for example) but DEC, IBM, Intel, Motorola, Xerox....
It is freakin' huge (Only 4th largest in world after Russia, Canada and Chine :)) Yeah, but it is as big as Europe, and has more influence on the global economy than Russia, China, and America-Lite.
Rock -n- Roll (Yip, I'll give you that - Elvis rules)
Southern Fried Food (Ok, it's american thats true)
Cajun Food (Yip, This is a great contribution)
Chinese, Japanese, Italian, Thai, and Indian resturants ;) (Er...:))
Big movies, big naval ships (Nimitz), big airplanes (Tomcats) (The Nimitz was not as impressive technically as the other warshps of that day - the Bismark etc., but I would have gone with the USS Enterprise etc. which are very impressive bits of engineering. Of course, are they good things? It's a bit like saying the Blitzkrieg was one of Germanies greatest inventions..... - I was refering to the Nimitz class USS Nimitz, which was built after WWII, and is America's first (as far as I know) super carrier. We now have a larger class, with such ships as the USS John C Stennis and USS Ronald Reagan.
DCI, ACC (Okay, Basketball invented by an Canadian) - I don't care who invented it, we have the best league. The ACC is better than the Big East, the PAC-10, yadda yadda, and is much more fun than the NBA. We also win the Olympic Gold medal so much so, its boring.

[SurfDemon]

Before I start this, I should apologise, I'm in a really narky mood today, and I'm just looking for something to rant about.

Re:Nasa. It might interest you to know that the European Space agency puts up more satellites than Nasa. Whilst I find the Shuttle impressive, I was far more impressed with the Apollo moon landings. Given the technology available they are very impressive. The shuttle is not really the success it was intended, it is not a quick turn-around reusable craft. The fuel tank is dumped and it has to be refurbished before each flight.

Nasa also deserve alot of credit for the Hubble telescope, that is a very impressive use of all those funds.

As for Einstein flourishing, he went to A merica to retire. He did the vast majority of his work before he went there. But you raise an interesting point, Americans consider themselves American when it suits them. I worked with a number of Russians and Americans just after the end of the cold war, and one of my colleuges commented that the only difference between the two is that "the Russians know they have a very skewed and narrow minded view of te rest of the world", his implication was obviously that America didn't realise that the things taught as being fact in America are infact very heavily skewed to show the achievements as being American.

Most other countries embrace other nationalities and recognise their achievements. When I worked in the states I noticed alot of things that were taught as 'fact' in America where plainly wrong. The USS Constitution is the oldest warship in the world, The american president is the leader of the free world (***??), America won the war of Independence un-aided, America bailed out Europe in the second world war, Commies and reds want nothing more than to kill capatilist americans and eat their babies, America invented democracy (*** again), americans are the only nation with true freedom of speech (the truth is it is one of the most oppressed when it comes to free expression), pearl harbour (a military target) was an attrocity yet Hiroshima and Nagasaki (Civilian targets) where not... the list goes on.

When you talk about size you change to influence of the economy. it may be the size of Europe, but it is a much smaller economy than Europe. I think America's in for a very nasty wake up call if the European Union ever gets it's act together.

I mistook you on the USS Nimitz, I was thinking about the USS Missouri for some reason (the one's the Japaneese surrendered on) (don't ask me, it must be the drugs:)). Yes, all of those super carriers are amazing achievements, both from a technical point of view and a logistics one.

As for Olympic gold (you have a pool of 350 million people to pick from) of course you are going to win more (now that the Russians are putting their cash into boring things like food and shelter). This is not something to be proud of, it's just a statistical cerrtainty. Which raises another point, American athletes have a reputation aroiund the world for being very poor losers. What other nations cry their eye's out like some spoilt child when they don't win (we see it all the time with Americans). They're the first to try certain new inventions, but when other natons introduce new inventions they scream 'cheat' and try to get it banned. When approached on television as to why the head of the American Olympic committe was trying to get a new british bike banned from the cycling but was advocating a new american shoe that aided in the high-jump, his reply was "The Olympics is played off the field as well as on it, we will do everything in our power to make sure that we give our atheletes every advantage" or some such. Now, this doesn't really seem in the spirit of sportsmanship does it.




Like I say, sorry to rant and rave, but I'm in a bad mood, and I have to say this has made me feel alot better. Thanks. I don't dislike America, I originally started this post to say the things I liked about it, but then the true American spirit always arises and shows it's very constricted view on the rest of the world. Americans should be forced to travel and visit other countries (I'm sure you're government is terrified that they will:)).


Thanks again, and no offence meant to the Americans as individuals you are very nice people.

SD (happier after his rant)

[SurfDemon]

P.S. I looked up Commodore on the Web and though, technically it was started in Canada, it was started by an American Jack Tramel and appears to have moved back to America fairly quickly. Therefore I think it's safe to say that it is really an American company. So thats a good thing to come out of America - the Amiga being a cool computer.

SD

[CiberTHuG]

I thought Commodore was a German company.

[SurfDemon]

Nah, according to the website they were bought by a german company after they went bankrupt, but that was after they had done all the revolutionary stuff (Vic-20, C64, Amiga), infact I don't even think they released anything after they were bought.

SD

[Jethro]

Originally posted by SurfDemon
Before I start this, I should apologise, I'm in a really narky mood today, and I'm just looking for something to rant about.
SD (happier after his rant)

Guess who didn't get sex last night.;)