An Interesting Fact About Your Country

[loc978]

In an effort to become more multicultural and end the non-existent amount of seething nationalism on the Escapist [/sarcasm], put forward your best ice breaker (or the most interesting fact to you) about your home country. Mine most definitely is the United States was a nation built on weed, without which the 13 colonies` economy would`ve collapsed.

I'm going to request that you cite your sources on this one please

I suppose I could fill in for him there. The summary of such can be found here [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hemp#History]. The sources, well... there are a lot of them, and they're all commercially available books. Look at the references list here [http://extension.oregonstate.edu/catalog/html/sb/sb681/].

OT: I'm from the US, and some people from here invented the metal lathe and milling machine, without which it would take considerably longer to fabricate metal parts for machinery. Unfortunately, we seem to have forgotten how to be an industrialized nation at some point in my lifetime... I can make more as a security guard than as a machinist, unless I'm willing to relocate a few thousand miles.

 

[Mr Thin]

Apparently, Australia is the fattest country in the world.

... woo Australia.

No we're not, we're the 21st fattest country.

OT: Australia is home to the only Monotremes in existence, which, if you didn't know, are basically mammals that lay eggs.

Edit: OK, Monotremes are actually in New Guinea too, so that invalidates that.

Uh... we have the worlds most poisonous snakes?

 

[artanis_neravar]

I come from the UK, the land of weird idiosyncrasies

We are one of only three countries to have an uncodified constitution.

Can anyone name the other two?

Izreal and New Zealand!
[sub]note i did not look that up -_-[/sub]

Well done! I knew that because I'm a law student, how did you know that?

I honestly don't know I just knew it from somewhere, kinda weird now that I think of it

 

[Iron Lightning]

The United States: We're the third biggest country on the planet.

 

[Ham_authority95]

In an effort to become more multicultural and end the non-existent amount of seething nationalism on the Escapist [/sarcasm], put forward your best ice breaker (or the most interesting fact to you) about your home country. Mine most definitely is the United States was a nation built on weed, without which the 13 colonies` economy would`ve collapsed.

The majority of my country likes being broke while we're sick, as shown by our lack of a decent public healthcare plan. That's quite weird, considering that we're considered a developed country by ourselves and most other countries.

pfft. But why save jobs for our own citizens when we can send them all to China and India? And hey, we`re slowly progressing toward Universal Healthcare! Obama five! *obama*
I live in the US, by the way.

[/quote]

Your quote was confusing. I think you formatted it wrong.

I don't see how Obama has any influence over our jobs being put overseas(since it started 20 years before he came into office), or how it's related to a national healthcare plan.

 

[maturin]

Our national anthem is set to a popular drinking song.

The anthem commemorates a battle with the country that the drinking song originates from.

 

[AtmaPhil]

We invented hockey? Although we might be the only ones to care about that.
So I guess the name of our country means village.

 

[infohippie]

My country, Australia, is larger than all of Europe, yet only has roughly the same population as New York.

 

[Blind Sight]

The majority of the founding fathers were either Atheist or refused to describe their religion

They were mostly deists, they believed that it was impossible for humans to understand a higher power and thus there was no point in organized religion, (despite this some still practiced for social reasons)but they were not atheists.

In an effort to become more multicultural and end the non-existent amount of seething nationalism on the Escapist [/sarcasm], put forward your best ice breaker (or the most interesting fact to you) about your home country. Mine most definitely is the United States was a nation built on weed, without which the 13 colonies` economy would`ve collapsed.

You're talking about industrial grade hemp, not marijuana, different breeds of the same plant. It's somewhat misleading to say weed considering that the hemp was used in the construction of rope and other products, not for drug use.

I'm from Canada...we're nowhere near as polite as you think. Our apologies are really only a knee-jerk reaction, we don't actually mean it. Also, our healthcare system is nowhere near as good as we make it out to be. My grandfather learned that the hard way.

 

[Reyalsfeihc]

In an effort to become more multicultural and end the non-existent amount of seething nationalism on the Escapist [/sarcasm], put forward your best ice breaker (or the most interesting fact to you) about your home country. Mine most definitely is the United States was a nation built on weed, without which the 13 colonies` economy would`ve collapsed.
I live in the US, by the way.

The majority of my country likes being broke while we're sick, as shown by our lack of a decent public healthcare plan. That's quite weird, considering that we're considered a developed country by ourselves and most other countries.
pfft. But why save jobs for our own citizens when we can send them all to China and India? And hey, we`re slowly progressing toward Universal Healthcare! Obama five! *obama*

Are you saying you like Obama? serious question by the way, I'm not trying to pick on you for your beliefs.

I like a lot of his policies he's enacted, although I do believe he has his flaws like every past president. Sorry for the misquote too, stupid phone.

 

[Sacman]

Apparently, Australia is the fattest country in the world.

... woo Australia.

What? no way the US should totally have you beat...<.<

OT: The US, we have the largest military budget in the world...

 

[artanis_neravar]

Rwanda: In retaliation to the Tutsi (one Rwandan ehtnic group) invasion, the Hutu (the controlling ethnic group) committed mass genocide of all Tutsi and the Hutu who supported peace. When the Tutsi managed to gain control of the capital the returned the favor by beating raping and killing any Hutu they could find. All of this happened in 1994 and most people I have talked to have never hear of it before.

Note: I am American not Rwandan

 

[Reyalsfeihc]

In an effort to become more multicultural and end the non-existent amount of seething nationalism on the Escapist [/sarcasm], put forward your best ice breaker (or the most interesting fact to you) about your home country. Mine most definitely is the United States was a nation built on weed, without which the 13 colonies` economy would`ve collapsed.

The majority of my country likes being broke while we're sick, as shown by our lack of a decent public healthcare plan. That's quite weird, considering that we're considered a developed country by ourselves and most other countries.

pfft. But why save jobs for our own citizens when we can send them all to China and India? And hey, we`re slowly progressing toward Universal Healthcare! Obama five! *obama*
I live in the US, by the way.

Your quote was confusing. I think you formatted it wrong.

I don't see how Obama has any influence over our jobs being put overseas(since it started 20 years before he came into office), or how it's related to a national healthcare plan.

I wasn't pinning our jobs going overseas on Obama, I was saying it's the corporations' faults. And the Universal Healthcare thing was separate from my comment on the economy, since Obama has enacted a Universal Healthcare plan.

 

[Ham_authority95]

In an effort to become more multicultural and end the non-existent amount of seething nationalism on the Escapist [/sarcasm], put forward your best ice breaker (or the most interesting fact to you) about your home country. Mine most definitely is the United States was a nation built on weed, without which the 13 colonies` economy would`ve collapsed.
I live in the US, by the way.

The majority of my country likes being broke while we're sick, as shown by our lack of a decent public healthcare plan. That's quite weird, considering that we're considered a developed country by ourselves and most other countries.
pfft. But why save jobs for our own citizens when we can send them all to China and India? And hey, we`re slowly progressing toward Universal Healthcare! Obama five! *obama*

Are you saying you like Obama? serious question by the way, I'm not trying to pick on you for your beliefs.

I like a lot of his policies he's enacted, although I do believe he has his flaws like every past president. Sorry for the misquote too, stupid phone.

Oh whoops, sorry for taking your quote from you and answering it. D:

 

[Mcapplepie]

Apparently, Australia is the fattest country in the world.

... woo Australia.

What? no way the US should totally have you beat...<.<

OT: The US, we have the largest military budget in the world...

I don't know, that's just what the TV told me.
TV said, there are more fat Americans, but supposedly the percentage of fat Australians is higher than the percentage of fat Americans.
TV must have lied, again.

 

[Oliman43]

My country, New Zealand *woo* has approximately 10 times more sheep than people. Thats somewhere around 45 million sheep.

 

[Reyalsfeihc]

Apparently, Australia is the fattest country in the world.

... woo Australia.

What? no way the US should totally have you beat...<.<

OT: The US, we have the largest military budget in the world...

Ya sorry Australia I'm pretty sure we have a higher obesity rate than you. In fact apparently the most obese nation in the world is American Samoa which has a 93.5% obesity rate 0.o
http://www.expatify.com/news/the-worlds-top-10-fattest-countries.html

 

[Sacman]

Apparently, Australia is the fattest country in the world.

... woo Australia.

What? no way the US should totally have you beat...<.<

OT: The US, we have the largest military budget in the world...

I don't know, that's just what the TV told me.
TV said, there are more Americans, but supposedly the percentage of fat Australians is higher.
TV must have lied, again.

Percentage I could probably believe but shear amount of people I think the US wins...

 

[Dags90]

No we're not, we're the 21st fattest country.
-snip-

OT: Australia is home to the only Monotremes in existence, which, if you didn't know, are basically mammals that lay eggs.

Edit: OK, Monotremes are actually in New Guinea too, so that invalidates that.

Uh... we have the worlds most poisonous snakes?

This [http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/health/article4171160.ece] times article begs to differ.

Strictly speaking snakes are venomous, not poisonous.

 

[Mcapplepie]

Oh well that's a relief.