America to propose indolence tax at UN

Using that logic, the world owes the US a regime change....

Tim Berners Lee, the inventor of the world wide web, was born and educated in England.

You may want to claim credit for DEVELOPING the internet, but don't forget that you nicked it from a Brit.

....and don't forget that Konrad Zuse (German) made the first machine to work on Binary, and that Alan Turing (British) made the first electronic "computer" which was used to crack the develish German war codes.

Britain also started the Industrial revolution, and spread it across the world through her empire. Does that mean that we should charge royalties for every machine that is used, anywhere in the world?

In essence, Yankeecat, what you have in actual fact is MASSIVE production capability. This creates wealth (and also about four times as much pollution per head than most of the rest of the world) and this wealth pays for fine Universities and a good education system for those that are able, or who can afford it.

Come back to this thread in about ten years time, when most of your goods will be imported from China, and then we can talk about how well America has been doing in cutting its pollution (because you won't be making half as much owing to the Chinese).

We now live in a consumer driven world. If people carry on expecting a new car every two years, and throwing away perfectly good T.V's so that they can buy the latest model, the pollution problem will only get worse.

Anyone who is concerned about the environment, should stop "consuming" unnecessarily.

My car is ten years old and, touch wood, gets me from A to B in comfort, and is still very reliable. How many cars have you had in the past ten years (directed at anyone reading this, not just the author) ??


Your "innovation" (mainly high tec) again comes from elsewhere. Einstein (German) was instrumental in the development of many things, including the Atom bomb.

The main driving force for your technological development comes from the space programme at NASA. The whole space programme in the USA revolves around the fact that you grabbed GERMAN rocket scientists who had done most of the work for you, and continued to do so right through the 50's and 60's.

No.....your problem, as far as the world sees it, is the amount of pollution you produce. No smokescreen about how brilliant you are will detract from this awful fact.

I'm on my second car. Sadly, her predecessor bit the dust 150 miles from home.

Since the US is evidently superior to the rest of the world, it also has the responsibility to help the rest of the world and to go further in reducing pollution and ecological damage. I don't see that happening, just more drilling in pristine forests and supposedly protected lands. With size come arrogance and blindness and almost phobic selfcenteredness.

I was lucky to grow up in the US, but I have seen changes that would make my grandmother, a gentle and very religious woman, sob for what has been lost, including separation of church and state.

The usual rationalization and retreat to irrelevancy... let me make it simple for you:

DARPA invented the Internet, Lee was an American who as one of many, took part in it's creation,
your other references are historic and only buttress my point, the Germany and Britain of the days your refer were definitely not the Germany and Britain of today, in othet words, you're simply grasping at rationaliztions.

Many academics are transplanted foreigners. The US has been robbing poorer nations of their talent pool.

Let's see, the US assasinated how many heads of state, invaded how many nations, trained and financed how many terrorist organizations?

And you really want to be paid back? How weird!

I think the point is valid. The U.N. is nothing but a bunch of third world thugs with their hands on Uncle Sam's wallet. If you cannot see that, you are truly blinded by your own ignorance.

Who created the UN? Isn't it the US? You resent what the US created shows you are anti-American.

F*ck, the Internet is a convergance of about a dozen technologies, some of which go back to the invention of writing. The Arabs actually 'invented' the '0' (zero) - without that you would just be stringing together '1's; with very little success I may add.



Anyhow's Al Gore invented the Internet - why the hell isn't HE president instead of some dyslexic dumb-f*ck from Texas?

"Lee was an American", eh?.................

Like quite a few Yanks (most of whom work in Hollywood), you seem to enjoy re-writing history.

"Berners-Lee was born in London,...... ENGLAND,....... the son of Conway Berners-Lee and Mary Lee Woods. His parents, both mathematicians, were employed together on the team that built the Manchester Mark I, one of the earliest computers".......

......."In 1980, while an independent contractor at CERN (June - December 1980), Berners-Lee proposed a project based on the concept of hypertext, to facilitate sharing and updating information among researchers. With help from Robert Cailliau he built a prototype system named Enquire.

After leaving CERN in 1980 to work at John Poole's Image Computer Systems Ltd, he returned in 1984 as a fellow. By 1989, CERN was the largest Internet node in Europe, and Berners-Lee saw an opportunity to marry hypertext and Internet. In his words, "I just had to take the hypertext idea and connect it to the TCP and DNS ideas and ?- ta-da! ?- the World Wide Web"......."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tim_Berners-Lee

Yes we did... Hitler, Tojo, Stalin, all the heads of marxist east european puppet states...

Old europe, you are either an intellectual simpleton or a liar... but then... I should remember you're old europe.

Here's a question for you... was it good or bad the U.S. overthrew the Warsaw Pact? Was it good or bad the U.S. fought the Bosnia/Kosovo War and fot rid of Milosevic?

Of course we should be paid back... you owe us. To say otherwise is a lie.

Lord Ellpus, you're grapsing at straws (but then, as a european rationalization is your milieu). It is absulutely unquestioned that the U.S. has and does now produce scientific and technological innovation far out of proportion to the rest of the world. The fact the British produced a proto-computer (using much american technology, by the way) in no way changes this FACT>

P.S.- Every technology is the result of previous technologies... your point is a non starter and does not address the question at hand...

You write speeches for George Bush in your spare time?



Yes, a Briton DID invent the computer and a bunch of Britons DID build the first real computer (with Polish help if I recall). Your point, and you are grasping for one, is??????

Once again, children, take time out from circle jerking each other and look it up- the U.S. is and continues to be the engine which drives the planet, scientifically, technologically, culturally, politically and militarily.

Attempts at digression are dishonest and ludicrous. The fact is, America is perfectly entitled to charge the rest of your for your indolence as you charge us for our wealth and success.

Charles Darwin wasn't from the U.S. now was he?