[Jack]

No Canadian ever goes to the US for healthcare because we have top class free medicare right here. Why go to your country for lousy healthcare service.

I don't care about what you think Canada offers, the fact is I am quiet happy with our way of life and trust me I do not envy your lousy lifestyle. Keep your crime, your guns and your lawsuits. I rather live a lifetime in Canada or Japan than a day in the US. Your cities are boring and have no culture. Your walls are covered with graffitis and the people are narrow-minded.

Keep your military and freedom. I don't have to thank the US for my freedom. Go get yourself some humble pie and stuff it. This is my last statement on this subject.

[Andocrates]

I just think it's unproductive to rag on another country (including Japan) well, maybe Africa. But every country, including your own, has good and bad points about it. Just like every thing else in life, it's what you make it.

If you can find the good parts of a thing you will be much better off. Even the most rabid anti-japan among you will, in the years ahead, look back fondly on Japanese things that you never appriciated while you where there. Kinda' sad.

Myself I have never seen much diff. between Canada and the upper mid-west.

[GomiGirl]

BWWHHAAAAAHHHAAAAA ROFLMFHO

That is the funniest thing I have read in ages. Thanks for the laugh. You have just confirmed my belief in your absolute ignorance.

HAHAHAHA I am going to be laughing all day now.

Thanks!!

[GomiGirl]

A real catch you are - bet you're beating them back with sticks...

[cstaylor]

The Australians didn't have much of a choice... after they decided to send their troops (known as Diggers from the first world war) in support of the Commonwealth, they had no one to defend their own borders from the Japanese. The Austrialian government pleaded with the British to return a single division. In response, the Americans brought MacArthur over from Corregidor (before the Japanese captured the remnants of his troops and sent them on the Bataan death march) and put him in charge of defending Australia from the Japanese.

[Taro Toporific]

The Australians didn't have much of a choice... after they decided to send their troops (known as Diggers from the first world war) in support of the Commonwealth...

Thanks for the historical reminder/context--that puts some needed perspective to this discussion.

Speaking of perspective in an upside-down sort of way, check out this map of the world...

[Taro Toporific]

[quote="Rob Pongi"]OK, everyone let's take a moment here, and pretend that we can actually feel our own blood running through our veins. Now, who are we?

'Everyone's a book of blood]

Compare and contrast with...
"I like the color red. It's so pretty when it flows."
--"Our Town" act 3, Thornton Wilder

So what's this thread's significance?
To use Thornton Wilder's line for reflection:
"So--people a thousand years from now--this is the way we were."

[Steve Bildermann]

The U.S. is the country that invented cars, planes, television, the light bulb (although that is being debated by a few conspiracy theorists) computers and the operating systems. The artificial heart, the telegraph, the submarine, the revolver, power tools, anethesia, the telephone, vulcanized rubber, the elevator, the burglar alarm, the oil well, roller skates, barbed wire, the typewriter, the steel bridge, the mimeograph, phonograph, the hearing aid, the skyscraper, the camera, the dishwasher, film, air conditioning, the zipper, the escalator, hydrofoil, wirephotos, the rocket, nylon, the electric guitar, the heart-lung machine, the polio vaccine, laser technology, optical fibers, video games (pong in 1972 by Normand Bushnell- just in case you though Japan invented video games). The bar code, the supercomputer, space shuttles, genetic engineering, and the hubble telescope. Pretty much everything around you.

Dear F**** Gaijin.

I would like to have my small invention considered for your comprehensive list of useful things invented.

I am sorry to say I am English but if you like my invention I hope you will use it from time to time.

Yours faithfuly
Tim Berners-Lee
Oxford, England.

[Taro Toporific]

I am sorry to say I am English but if you like my invention I hope you will use it from time to time.

Yours faithfuly
Tim Berners-Lee
Oxford, England.

In two words Berners-Lee kamisama: "Prior art"

In three more of your own words: "Vannevar Bush, 1945"


What year was it that you started passing around links in the beginnings of the web at CERN? 1989?

December 9, 1968, Douglas C Engelbart and 17 researchers at the Augmentation Research Center, Stanford Research Institute, in Menlo Park, California presented a 90-minute live public demo in which hypertext was wheeled out for all to see. That demo also included the first public appearance of the "mouse".

Hypertext over networks has been around for a loooong while. The birth of the Net mirrors your scattered background: London, Oxford, CERN, MIT, etc.

Yours faithfully ,
Taro Toporific, online since '69*

"Vanity of vanities, all is vanity...there is nothing new under the sun."
Eccl. 1: 1,9

*Fax transmission of marksheet data of my computer homework to University of Chicago

"AS WE THINK" by Vannevar Bush, July 1945 foretold of hypertextual thought which was quoted by Berners-Lee in his CERN proposal as "prior art."
http://www.theatlantic.com/unbound/flashbks/computer/bushf.htm

[canman]

Am I suppossed to be impressed. I'm not. You mention stop adopting your culture, but it is pretty hard when it is shoved down your throat, by morons like you. I never said that I hated the US, I just said that I prefer Canada. What amazes me is that some not all Americans feel that everybody is an American "wannabe". Well I hate to burst your bubble, but there are a lot of us who are very happy to live in our imperfect, backward useless countries. Or at least that is what you would have us believe.
Oh yes Mr. Guest, could you tell me exactly what date the world began, or if I took a wild guess and said 1776, would you think that was about right.

[Jack]

To GUEST and other arrogant Americans. Stuff all your inventions and keep them. Get your facts straight when you take credit for inventions. The telephone was invented in Canada. A lot of the day-to-day shit that you use was invented in China like ink, gunpowder, presses. The clock was invented by Egyptians. Basically, of the millions of inventions out there you list a few to describe how smart Americans are, when in actual facts, Americans are the most ignorant people on the planet.

Like I said, keep your crime-infested, graffiti-covered, cities to yourself. Go suck eggs you arrogant ignorant shit.

[Gaisaradatsuraku!]

Thanks for the laughs. So you think you can do without America's technological gifts to the world and the freedom that you enjoy by free riding underneath our defense umbrella. Well, if you really could do that you would be living in a shack, hunting for your own food and praying that some outside power doesn't decide they like your country's resources so much that they decide to make them their own. Thanks for the laugh. Have no idea where the chip on your shoulder about America came from but neither does anyone care. Your assertions that "Americans are ignorant" only makes you look like a moron. Maybe you think I am arrogant for telling you the truth but that is your opinion. No arrogance here my friend. I am just telling it like it is. Maybe that is what gets you. The knowledge that your country is a pathetic free riding nation that is fortunate to be sitting next to a great economy. By the way, the crime statistics for Canada are pretty rough. Better lock your snowmobile and tie down your two pots that you piss in because somebody might just rip you off.

As for your question about how much does it cost to get married in Japan? It costs more than Canada I will tell you that and unless your spouse is located in Nagoya don't expect Daddy to pay for it. You can do a cheap wedding for probably 1.5 million yen but it will depend on the number of guests. Prices go up for things like flowers, hikidemono, MCs and a whole host of things that will blow your mind. Well, just to show you I am not such a bad sort (just a truthful one) I wish you good luck. You might get a decent wedding down to 1.0 million yen but your wife is the controlling factor here and it will all depend on how much of a show she feels she needs to show to her friends and guests. Another big factor is the amount of money you get as gifts from the friends and relatives. That can take a big bite out of the cost. However, you will now be on the treadmill of being obliged to return the favor by contributing cash to the weddings of those people who kicked in for yours. So what looks like a gift really isn't. GET READY FOR SOME FUN!

[Taro Toporific]

The telephone was invented in Canada.

Show me some proof that the telephone was invented in Canada. I await your response.

Q. Did Alexander Graham Bell invent the telephone in Canada or the U.S.?

A. This question rings with controversy]http://www.triviaguys.com/archbell.htm[/url]



My ding-a-ling!

[Gaisaradatsuraku!]

Aussies vote America.

http://www.impty.com/parlidex/1876.html

[GomiGirl]

All of this is just geography. The most important point is that the phone was invented by Bell. It was his success and his alone. I personally don't care where he did it.

Where people were born or of what racial group is all a huge lottery over which the individual has no control. It requires no talent or effort to be born (not true for your parents) and where that happens to be is again something the individual has no control over. It is what you achieve or create personally and under your own steam that is impressive (the opposite is also true).

So can we please stop the jingo-ism as it is really getting old. These arguments will never be settled.

I hear the same sort of disagreements between Austrians and Germans - they never get settled. BTW did you know that Hitler was born in Austria and Beethoven was born in Germany...

Get out there and make something of yourself and not take credit for another's success just because you happen to be born in the same country.

[GuyJean]

So can we please stop the jingo-ism as it is really getting old.

I totally agree.. Next topic!

Anyone been to the Cosplay Festa!?

http://www.tokyo-dome.co.jp/park/cosplay/index.htm

Going this weekend, and was just wondering if there's anything I should pay special, digitally-zoomed attention to.

Rob, are you available? Let's enter the costest!

GJ

[Gaisaradatsuraku!]

If so how do the findings of that book affect your assertion that race means nothing. Can you prove race means nothing?

To the above question you will undoubtedly retort, "no, I cannot, but can you prove that it does?"

To which I reply, "read the bell curve and don't get emotional."

All of your sugar coated public education bilge is just that. It is jingoism and it is high time that your type of non-thinking is challenged. So aim your pointy head away from innocent bystanders (so that they aren't splattered with that paltry dab of grey matter that will inevitably fly out of the tippy top of your noggin) and think for yourself for a change. Stop aping the dirge that we have all heard ad nauseum.

Where we are born and who we are born to means a great deal (although there will be exceptions they are just that exceptions). As a descendent of British religious freedom seekers, Dutch merchants seeking more opportunity and other dreamers I can justifiably be incredibly proud of my heritage and the independence that my direct relatives have instilled in me (not you). There drive I have inherited. There intelligence I have inherited. I, and many other Americans, share the legacy that is the best of Europe and the extraordinary and the short history of America. Surely, as an Aussie you are a punter. Doesn't past performance mean anything to you. Americans are the fast horses. The rest of you are incredibly slow. You might beat us once in awhile like longshots have been known to do but the fact of the matter is that in the horse race called progress you are outclassed. Breed the best to the best is the general rule of the ponies. Goes for cultures too. We are the thorougbreds. You are still in the unrefined state.

Furthermore, as for my own accomplishments I have more than enough already to be satisfied with. I judge myself fairly. How about you?

[GomiGirl]

The fact the this inflamatory, innaccurate and non-scientific book is cited speaks volumes. This was written with a political (and commercial) agenda in mind rather than as a true unbiased study. It is a, not very thinly veiled, source of ammunition for advocates of divisiveness and controversy. Dare I say it is a racist's attempt to justify their own racism????

The scary thing is that already ignorant people read this and become even more ignorant but feel a false sense of superiority and arrogance for having read a "scientific" book but is only adding fuel to myths.

Arrogance that is often hiding a deep self loathing combined with the fear that others will recognise ones own putrid flaws.

[canman]

Gaisa. A lot of the accomplishments were not even invented by US citizens. Does this make there accomplishments 100% American. I think not. I agree with Gomigirl. Natoinality is a toss up at best. The fact that you are claiming a lot of success by people who weren't even born in your country, goes to show how reaching you are to prove that your country is the best. Don't you notice only you and our favorite "guest" are the only ones stating exactly what your country has accomplished. The rest of us either don't care, or are above such a petty argument. But then again in the US, might always meant right. Grow up and join the rest of the world!

[Blah Pete]

The European agriculture revolution and the industrial revolution were all made possible by Chinese inventions.

**note Some of these inventors may have not been Chinese at the time but their villages was overun by the army of one of the dynasties and have been considered Chinese ever since.