Bad things America has given the world

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ejsmith, "The Ring" is in fact a translation of a Japanese movie titled "Ringu", so the US didn't give us that...

 

Regarding the Internet and television, inventors from other countries may have demonstrated the first instances of such communications but it was Americans who developed the technology that turned such academic demonstrations into practical applications. Ever hear of Philo T. Farnsworth, of Rigby, Idaho?

 

Dungeons and Dragons:The Movie

 

Vermillion, no one EVER claimed that U-571 and Braveheart were accurate histories. You seem to be unable to differentiate between popular entertainment and a textbook

 

@AMaster

The point I was trying to get across is that certain people are trying to present these versions as the truth, and more alarmingly certain people accepting them as the truth, after all, it is based on 'real life stories'.
And when a thick idiot tourist says 'gee, thats a nice monument you guys built to Mel' when referring to the Wallace Monument in Stirling I get irritated. Incidently, that was an American .

@Rallymama
Next point, I have never oce denied that America developed others inventions into practical and commercial uses but what I have said is America cannot lay claim to it as thats all it done. Americans didn't invent it.

Next week, trhe summing up debate, I'll get to list writing then . Something tells me this is going to rage though.

Small addition, thick Americans. No, it's not an all empassing thing, just the ones who are thick.

[ December 15, 2002, 20:50: Message edited by: Vermillion ]

 

Werner von Braun was the german scientist, who was the head of the nazi V1 and V2 missile programme. After the war he went to USA and he worked for NASA.

As for bad things America has given the world? Zena and Hercules. I don't know if this realy happens, but I have the feeling that the average american child believes that this is the real greek mythology.

 

1. its Xena not zena and 2. its from australia or new zeeland not america

 

I have the impression that it is from america but nevermind.The important thing about these shows is not their origin but the effect they have on young people.

 

If you wanto bash misinterpretation and falsification of greek mythology there are better targets than the Hercules and Xena shows. Disney's Hercules make the tv-series appear like an univerity lecture on greek history and mythology in comparison. Poor Hades made into the bad guy in a story he had nothing to with really, atleast not as a bad guy...
And I think the tv-series are some kind of joint-production between several countries.

 

Ah, yeah, poor Hades is misinterpreted everywhere, actually he is the only good and wise god of the whole Greek Mythologie bunch, after all, he has to chose between "heaven" and "hell"

 

@vermillion

point taken

 

Minor comments:
Werner von Braun is the correct spelling and indeed, he was the head of the german missile program (V-2 only, the V-1 was a completely different story - not even a missile) and a high ranking SS officer. His association with the slave working in the V-2 missile plants didn't hinder the US to hire him since his expertise was outstanding.

The US were pretty generous here and then, so they even hired the japanese general Ishii, who was active in the japanese bioweapon program and tested his developments on US, british and other allied POWs. This cuties know-how was deemed indispensable as well so he exchanged his know-how for freedom of prosecution.
Maybe it's because this lack of stringency, that the Japan never had a war-criminal trial, that created the misperception in japan that the japanese did not start the war in the pacific. That would be a bad thing america has given to the world.

As for the enigma:
AFAIK the code was originally cracked and aquired by the polish, then, when poland was overrun, given to the french, and when france was overrun, given to the british who eventually shared it with the US.
As the americans failed to mention the british involvement (like the ingenious Alan Turing and his brainchild, Colossous) in their funny movie the british just as patriotically failed to mention the polish BS4 and his group of mathematicians who laid the foundment for their work - just like the french support that granted them access to the polish know-how. The polish developed the *bomb*, the decrypting aid that helped so much countering the enigma.

[ December 16, 2002, 09:48: Message edited by: Ragusa ]

 

That addition in the edit wasn't at the people i was talking to in the thread, i just had to add the edit there becuse no one had actually posted a reply after i did that one, so nope, not @ you AMaster, or @ Rallymama, was very annoyed at another thing that happened to involve an American who IMO was being very very thick indeed. Someone once said that tourism is a counties way of getting rid of it's thickest idiots for 2 weeks, now I know it to be true, by why send them to me?

 

Ever heard of the word ' Americanization'?
Some of the aspects of americanization are individualism, pressure at job/stress (must do anything for your boss), commercializing any possible event. Christmas, for example, is known of the huge amount of presents, wonderful meals, family and George Eikel (or more recently Mariah Carry). Birth of Jesus is about 6th on the list.
For the people who didn't know: Christ is born at Christmas about 2000 years ago. That's where the name comes from

Something else: Windows-monopoly

[ December 16, 2002, 13:35: Message edited by: Master of Nuhn ]

 

Sorry, Vermillion, I wasn't reading the board much over the weekend - took my Mom to see Harry Potter instead. My toddler watched the whole thing, too!

I admire your restraint in not laughing the idiot with the "monument to Mel Gibson" comment right back into his dark hole. I doubt I could have been so kind, unless I was knocked senseless by his stupidity.

I do apologize if I came across as gruff. I simply wanted to raise the distinction between demonstrating something academically and putting it into practical use. Where should the line of "invention" be drawn? The patent office holds one opinion, although that may differ from what matters to "real" people.

 

Erm a few recent studies have pointed out that
1. Jesus was born in 7 BC, not in the year 0, like many people think, so its now 2009, confused??
2. The settlement Nazareth was first settled somewhere around the year 500
3. And (I´m not sure about this one, will search for the accuracy soon) that Maria wasn´t a maid, it was another of those many mistranslations somewhere between the Hebrew and Latin version of the New Testament

But, sorry ´m getting a little , again

 

An off topic answer on an off topic post:

1) That's exactly the reason why I said it's about 2000 years ago

2)Pottery remains testify to a continuous settlement during the period 600-900 BC. Silos and oil presses show it's been an farmers village for a few millennia.

3)No clue. Have to admit that translation is not done very precisely allways. That's why our vicars must be able to understand Latin, Greek and Hebrew.

Back to topic:
Barbie and other dolls. Britney Spears, f/e

 

McDonalds. For the greasy food.

 

NP Rallymama, I was just sure that the debate about what the nationality of inventors was had been agreed upon in an unspoked decision. But I do confess the thicko got a very patronaising answer nand history lesson. Hey, who wouldn't have?

 

The common calender started with Jesus' birth. It revolved around his birth. No matter what year he was born in, THAT year was labelled 0. One other thing. Heard somewhere, think it was TLC, that Jesus was actually born in April, but somewhere along the way, the Christmas celebration was moved to December. Now let's remain on topic. Grrr...

I admit it, I dislike the Americans, but only because in my opinion, they are trying to start WWIII.