America's Best/Worst Contribution to Humanity?

[Sensuikan San]

Best Contributions :

Hamburger
French Fries
Coleslaw

The Liberty Ship
Mass Production

Open Government

Hamburger
French Fries
Coleslaw

Janis Joplin
Buddy Holley

Hamburger
French Fries
Coleslaw

Light Bulb
Phonograph

Hamburger
French Fries
Coleslaw

The Skyscraper

JFK
FDR

Hamburger
French Fries
Coleslaw

Blues Music
Jazz
Swing

Hamburger
French Fries
Coleslaw

Worst Contributions:
Rap
Country Music

Richard Nixon
Mass Production
The Skyscraper

Britney Spears

Rap
Country Music

Right Wing Christian Evangelism

Rap
Country Music

Belief in the Monroe Doctrine

?W????

 

[Tim33]

Worst: President Bush
Best: Kentucky Fried Chicken

http://www.kentuckyfriedcruelty.com

 

[Matadon]

What really stands out, however, has to be the Pizza Delivery service. It's a known fact to anyone living in Chicago that you can get three cheese pizza's to your apartment in less time than it takes for ambulance to get there after calling 911.

Please tell me you've read 'Snow Crash' by Neil Stephenson. *grin*

 

[Matadon]

http://www.kentuckyfriedcruelty.com

The site is run by PETA, a group only marginally short of being as 'out there' as the Ku Klux Klan. They are about strict vegitarianism ("Meat is Murder"), animal rights OVER human rights, and are generally a bunch of nutjobs. In fact, whenever a PETA member hands me a pamphlet about how meat is somehow 'wrong'[1], I go out an get a cheeseburger, come back to wherever they are handing out pamphlets, and enjoy that thing with a look of gusto that rivals kinky porn-star sex.

Yes, there is cruelty in the meat industry, things can be improved, and Americans *do* need to eat less meat, but PETA goes too far -- human beings are omnivores, and meat is an important part of our diet. Until we figure out a good way to synthesize the stuff (we're close), we're going to continue killing animals and consuming their flesh.

[1] Right, there are tons of carnivores and ominvores sprinkled throughout nature, things are killed and eaten all the time, but because we're human, participating in this is somehow 'wrong'.

 

[Ma Cherie]

I ignore PETA. Yes, they've gone way too far. You know what I do after one the PETA members gives me a pamplet. I just go out and myself a large slab of ribs. Besides, drenching yourself in blood in protest? I won't take you seriously.

 

[Matadon]

I ignore PETA. Yes, they've gone way too far. You know what I do after one the PETA members gives me a pamplet. I just go out and myself a large slab of ribs. Besides, drenching yourself in blood in protest? I won't take you seriously.

Y'know, I'm really starting to like you. *grin*

 

[Frank D. White]

Most Of The Best.....

killing weapons in the world; (good or bad) depends on what they were used for I guess.

Frank

:?

 

[jamosaka]

Best contribution:

Putting a man on the moon

Worst contribution:

Putting a monkey in the Whitehouse

 

[Tsuyoiko]

Best: Pennicilin,

Penicillin was discovered by Alexander Fleming in LONDON

The telephone
-The lightbulb
-The camera
-The motion film camera
-American Literature
-The automobile
-The radio
-The television
-The video game
-The computer
-The internet
-Jazz music

The telephone and TV were invented by Scotsmen, the camera by a Frenchman, the automobile by a German, the radio by an Italian, and the computer by an Englishman.

Looks like America's worst contribution is trying to nick other countries' inventions!

 

[Rich303]

Slightly off-topic, but I want to suggest great American people too.

I will start with the (sadly missed) comedian,Bill Hicks. One of the funniest,passionate and most angry men to ever walk this planet.

Also, Juan Atkins, Kevin Saunderson and Derrick May for making pioneering Techno music in Detroit, but I suppose this comes under the music option in the poll -

Rich303

 

[Rich303]

I almost forgot, the worst; THE BUSH FAMILY!!!

Wipe dem out!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[No-name]

Pennicilin is English? Mea Culpa...Oy vay. Seems like we not only try to steal the credit, but also the inventors and the inventions, too.

For TV I have Philo Farnsworth from Utah and Vladimir Kosma Zworykin, originally from Russia, but working in his adopted America for Westinghouse. Some English guy named Edwin Belin (working in France) had a patent, but no working picture.

Bell may have been born in Scotland, but he and his phone are ours. There's also Gray (US) and nothing phone like happens with out Mr Faraday (English). The Russians, Germans and French all had phones independently arrived at at nearly the same time.

The computer is a bit harder- Konrad Zuse in Germany had a working model in 1943. Bletchley park's Colosus and the Bomb date to later in 1943. Eniac(US) was built by John Mauchley and J. Presper Eckert in 1946. Another American named Aiken had a computer named Mark I making naval charts in 1945. There is an entirely mechanical pocket calculator called the Curta that a guy drew up in a Nazi prison near Buchewald and built for sale in 1947. It is totally cool.

Marconi is Itallian, but they wouldn't listen to him in Italy- so he went to England, and then France, and then America, and then England, back to Italy for WWI....

I would like to replace my nomination of pennicillin with the California Roll.

 

[Pararousia]

Worse contribution: Michael Jackson

I don't agree with PETA, but watch that video clip and I doubt you'll eat KFC again.

 

[Ma Cherie]

Hey that reminds me, there's a book out now called 100 People Who are Screwing Up America[ by Benard Goldberg. I'm thinking about reading it, but he criticizes most of the liberals. But in all honesty, are people like Jerry Springer and Michael Jackson really helping to improve the image of America? I think not.

 

[Maciamo]

Pennicilin is English? Mea Culpa...Oy vay. Seems like we not only try to steal the credit, but also the inventors and the inventions, too.

Double mistake (triple I should say). Penicillin was discovered by a Frenchman in 1896 and rediscovered by Alexander Fleming (a Scot, not an Englishman) in 1928.


Funny how Americans so often mistakenly think that they invented most of what is good or useful. I was told a few times by an American with whom I discussed : "Just look, the world around you is all American. Every major inventions in the last 100 years were American." I am not sure how many people think likewise in the States, but I wish I had already written the thread Who invented what and had a PC at hand at that time.

 

[Tsuyoiko]

The computer is a bit harder- Konrad Zuse in Germany had a working model in 1943. Bletchley park's Colosus and the Bomb date to later in 1943. Eniac(US) was built by John Mauchley and J. Presper Eckert in 1946. Another American named Aiken had a computer named Mark I making naval charts in 1945. There is an entirely mechanical pocket calculator called the Curta that a guy drew up in a Nazi prison near Buchewald and built for sale in 1947. It is totally cool.

I was referring to Charles Babbage as the inventor of the computer, although his difference engine was never built.

 

[No-name]

Babbage was a definite genius and has a wonderful story. (I saw a Nova program about him yeas ago) He just needed to wait for the invention of electronics...

I never thought Americans invented everything- Edison invented many things, the rest came from China. (LOL)

How about vulcanized rubber?

 

[Ma Cherie]

American Literature, a positive contribution.


The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
The Scarlet Letter by Nathanial Hawthorne
Moby Dick by Herman Mevile

And poetry from Emily Dickenson and Edgar Allen Poe just to name a few. I haven't read much of this literature. :blush:

 

[Tsuyoiko]

I agree, there is a lot of excellent American literature. My husband likes Mark Twain and Ernest Hemingway. We both enjoyed The Great Gatsby by F Scott Fitzgerald. One of my favourite books is Walden by Henry David Thoreau (who is almost as quotable as Oscar Wilde) and I love Isaac Asimov's robot stories. (Asimov was born in Russia, but as he moved to America as a small child I think he can be considered American). Stephen Jay Gould is my favourite non-fiction writer - although he was a scientist, I think his writing is compelling enough to be considered literature.

 

[Rich303]

Babbage

I saw a TV programme on Charles Babbage.

Apparently,he was quite a grumpy character and when his projects were abandoned this intensified.
While he was working on the difference engine he used to get annoyed by buskers playing outside the building he worked in, and he also hated cats.

After his invention was abandoned, the various people he had upset over time would pay buskers to play outside his house, and they threw dead cats at him!

I thought this was quite funny - poor old Babbage!.......................................Rich