What Has Your Country Ever Done For Us?!

[Edith The Hutt]

The town next to my home town once hanged a monkey because they thought it was French. Does that count?

 

[kasperbbs]

We provide the world with illegal immigrants, be grateful.

 

[Dr Snakeman]

We made the Moon our *****, were a vital Allied power in the second World War, had all the scientists responsible for the invention of nuclear fission... stuff, and we invented superheroes, the "movie studio", and half of the internet (the Swiss made the other half).

Oh, and this guy:

'Merica.

 

[NiXi]

Northern Ireland:

The Titanic
The Delorean
Dame Susan Jocelyn Bell Burnell - Discovered Pulsars(some neutron star thing)
Frank Partridge - Invented the portable defibrillator.

Sporty things:
George Best (alcoholic 70s/80s football player)
Rory McIlroy

 

[Snowblindblitz]

The Beatles, and consequently, most of all modern music.

As a non Beatles fan, I call foul. They were influenced by 1950's rock where blatantly stole from blues in America. Blues being the foundation of almost all rock and roll, I must say, you are welcome.

Aha! But I would have to counter your argument with the fact that the Beatles took those 1950's rock n roll influences and went on to create the genres we know now as pop, alternative and psychedelic. In fact, if you check out this article....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Beatles'_influence_on_popular_culture

...you'll see that the beatles influence stretched far and wide.

Of course i dont doubt the importance of blues and rock n roll, its just that it was the Beatles' innovation that helped modern music to develop into newer, more lasting institutions, rather than languishing and going stagnant.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_sabbath

Much better band to pick to represent your country.

 

[Coffinshaker]

who's that?

Tricia Helfer as "Number Six" from the reimagining of Battlestar Galactica. A very good watch if you have some time!

 

[Castratikron]

U.S.A. invented right turn on red.

 

[thiosk]

sorry to ruin your pick nick, but i do think the submarine was actually a dutch invention.[/quote]

While a dutchman did indeed build the first boat that went underwater, leave it to 'Merica to first use it to blow up some bitches.

 

[vivster]

our country supplied you with the last word of any discussion

Hitler

wait a minuite.... are you talking about Austria?
well thanks for stoping the Ottoman armies in the Siege of Vienna, 1529 and Battle of Vienna, 1683. and thanks for Gregor Mendel, Sigmund Freud and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

we are known to 'perfect' things. (sorry for that)

but we gave you the Age of Enlightenment. modern world to speak. started by Immanuel Kant.
also a fest for the sole reason to get drunk, Oktoberfest.
also the birth of books for the masses and newspapers, the Printing press by Johannes Gutenberg
the diesel engine by Rudolf Diesel
x-rays by Wilhelm Röntgen.
MP3 by Karlheinz Brandenburg and Bernhard Grill

also Geiger counter, Zeppelin, quantum mechanics(?),the bunsen burner, modern day assault rifles, submachine gun, Morphine, aspirin, Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte, (Black Forest cake),
the world's oldest universal health care system,The first electric elevator,the electron microscope, Kindergarten ....

not to forget the brothers grimm, goethe, carl friedrich gauss, Friedrich Schiller, Karl Heinrich Marx, Ludwig van Beethoven, Johann Sebastian Bach, Johannes Brahms, Richard Wagner, Caspar David Friedrich, Albert Einstein, Max Planck,Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, Karl Benz, Gottlieb Daimler and Otto Hahn "The father of nuclear chemistry" and the "founder of the atomic age".
and more:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_inventors_and_discoverers

that is why we were called the land of poets and thinkers.

and sorry for tokio hotel. we fucked up, badly.

actually i was talking about germany
he might've been born in austria but we nurtured him so he can become the big conversation ender he is today
same with mozart... and any other guy born in austria and made big in germany

yeah we are THAT nice to our inferior southern neighbors

 

[ShotgunZombie]

My family comes from Honduras a little country in Central America that mainly exports Bananas... You're welcome for the daily supply of Potassium that it ships to you while it's ripped apart by gang warfare and an incompetent government.

By the way I was born in the USA which has blessed the world with reality TV, celebrities famous only for being famous and Jack Thompson... Did I mention my family's from Honduras?

 

[Jorge Gonzalez]

America has given the world Chuck Norris.

 

[The_Emperor]

Physics.

Industry

The spinning Jenny

The central banking system sort of (sorry about that)

 

[Raesvelg]

No, no, no and no again.

Remainder deleted for the sake of brevity.

Anyhoo.

Technically, yes, the Brits were in the war on day 1. What did they do on day 1? Not much. Which is also pretty much what they did for the next 6 months. The Germans referred to that period as the Sitzkrieg, the "sitting war".

What were the Soviets doing at that time?

Divvying up Poland between themselves and the Nazis, signing a peace treaty with Japan, and a trade agreement with Germany to let them circumvent the British naval blockade.

After the disaster in France and the subsequent abandonment of the continent by the British, what were the Soviets doing then? Illegally annexing the Baltic states and strengthening their alliance with the Germans.

There's a reason why the Soviets are not often painted as the heroes of WWII outside of their home territories; they acted in a relatively despicable fashion for the first two years of the war. For all intents and purposes, the Soviets were on the wrong side until Operation Barbarossa.

What did the Americans do prior to December 7, 1941? Well, the US was providing material support, albeit in a limited fashion, throughout 1939-40. The "Cash and Carry" sales of equipment were theoretically neutral, but since Germany had no cash to speak of, in fact it amounted to a preferential trade agreement with Britain and France. In March of 1941, the Lend-Lease act was put into effect, and the US assumed 50% of the convoy security duties in the Atlantic.

How significant was Lend-Lease? Stalin said the war could not have been won without it.

There's been a revisionist trend of late, particularly among people who never much cared for the United States in the first place, to write off their involvement in World War II as trivial. Mostly because their view is centered in Europe, rather than in the Pacific, where the US did the vast majority of the work, but still.

It's irritating, and no more true than the "US won WWII singlehandedly woohoo!" view.

 

[Connosaurus Rex]

The Nuclear Bomb and basically every non previously communists nations weapons.
Also Peanut Butter!

 

[coolkirb]

Canada
-blackberry
-Telephone
-the zipper
-the Canadarm
-isulin
-the eltron microscope
-Time Zones
and much much more

 

[JustJuust]

south korea created the first MP3 player, and the first phone implemented with MP3 player

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kane_Kramer

Nope the UK again.

my bad
The world's first mass-produced Digital Audio Players were made in south korea oops

 

[schiz0phren1c]

We fought your wars,built you countries(infrastructure I mean),
and then gave you the greatest Poets and Writers...
AND GUINNESS.
nuff said

 

[Panda Mania]

Nothing. People have done things for the world, Thomas Edison built this, Issac Newton discovered that, Gandi supported this, etc, etc but not an entire country.

Sure, the governments of these countries may have pitched in with some funding, groups of people may have teamed up, but never in the history of existence has every man, woman, and child of a society banded together to create this, help that, or the like. Hell, plenty of people in said country have probably opposed a lot of these things. Sure maybe a majority did pitch in, but there has always been someone at home not giving a fuck.

Sorry if I'm a bit off topic, I've just never been a fan of "Well our country created Z"
discussions.

Edit: Though just to play along...

On behalf of the Moon and it's inhabitants...me, I must explain to you that the Moon may have played a crucial part in the creation of life on Earth. Also it's gives man a goal, controls your tides, and is pretty to look at.

Oh em gee yes. The Moon bleeds awesomeness Really, our ancestors payed so much more attention to it--what happened? We owe a lot to that silver sphere in the sky.

 

[Cockney Weasel]

The sandwich. The greatest justification for all the other crap we gave to the world.