...the Bryster will play.
OK! So I feel like a bit of mischief!
Here's the deal.  We all live in different parts of the world (Some of us live on different Worlds altogether) So, what did/does your country contribute to the world?
Now there's no need to get nasty or political, just think of something your country/nation/state invented, produced/s, donated/s that makes the world a better place to live in.
For instance:
USA = CocaCola
UK = Shakespeare

(Because there are a lot of you guys in the USA, think of what your particular STATE contributes)
Have fun, be nice!

india : curry, spices, basically..food... :-P , bollywood, and so much more.

where is AS btw..I miss him... sorta feel empty without him...

TheBryster..what did " Cydonia, Mars" contribute???

TheBryster..what did " Cydonia, Mars" contribute???  = ME !!!!!

Re-cycled Mars rover parts, little green men, ufos, the inspiration for Jules Verne's 'War of the Worlds'..........:lol:

Texas: Perfect Chili and Cowboys

England : The Shires - I lived in a county without 'shire' at the end for a few years and hated it.

Note that the American 'shires' are all in New England !!!

Quote - Texas: Perfect Chili and Cowboys

And yummy blokes....Jensen Ackles and Jared Padalecki :biggrin:

Actually I think the one thing the UK has given the world is...how to take defeat in a generous manner.

psst
"the inspiration for Jules Verne's 'War of the Worlds'..........:lol:"

thats HG Wells ;)

Arizona - lots and lots of sand ...LOL; not to mention Copper, Silver and Gold.

Khai: ROTFLMAO !!!! You're right of course!! My Bad!  :lol:
:b_blush:

Virginia - Ummm,.......let's see,..........George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, The Declaration of Independence, did I mention that we opened up a big old can of whoop ass on the British at Yorktown.

Sackrat:     See my 1st post................Now there's no need to get nasty or political

Geez,...........not political or nasty,............just historical fact.

*just historical fact.

*Ok.

Well, keeping in mind that the original idea of the thread was things that your state or nation has contributed to make the world a better place, I'm not certain "whoop ass" qualifies, unless it was whoop ass directed at someone really evil.

However, as my "people" are from Virginia (starting in about 1623), I'll contribute a few things that I think do apply:

Virginia contributed:  Lewis and Clark, Booker T. Washington, Walter Reed (who discovered the cause of yellow fever this helping in its treatment and cure), both Sam Houston and Steven Austin (who helped to found the Republic of Texas and bring us the best chili ever), and more Presidents of the US than you can shake a stick at  .... although I leave it up to others to decide which among them ever contributed anything that improved the world).

New Zealand................ Aeroplanes, first flight before the Wright Bros.
                                         Sir Ernest Rutherford,Split the atom.
                                         THE ALL BLACKS
                                         Pavlova, The Ozzies Sole it
                                         Split Enz,The Ozzies Stole Them.
                                         Crowded House,The Ozzies Stole Them.
                                         Dragon,The Ozzies Stole Them Too.
                                         Wide Shearing Combs, The Ozzies Hated Them.
                                         Sir Peter Blake
                                         John Walker
                                         Phar Lap,The Ozzies Bloody Stole Him As Well.
              What We Have Done????!!!!!!!!! The list just goes on and on.

Cheers  
GG.

Kiwi_gg:  I'm glad to help out here..............New Zealand Lamb. I just love it! Roasted with mint sauce..............

Bryster......Dont forget the roast spuds,the roast pumpkin,the fresh garden peas and the rich brown gravy all finished off with Pavlova,fresh Strawberries and whipped cream.
 The Ozzies tried to steal our sheep too!!!!!!!.

Cheers 
GG.

Hey, how 'bout 'Soapstar Superstar'!!!!  

Hope Antony wins tonight :woot:

Louisiana - Increased size of the US (Louisiana Territory), Gumbo, cajun food, LSU! Jazz.

Texas - cowgirls ;-)

Btw, what state/country came up with Bryce?

 Canada -            Hockey.....and yes........even Basketball !

Quote - Louisiana - Increased size of the US (Louisiana Territory), Gumbo, cajun food, LSU! Jazz.

Texas - cowgirls ;-)

Btw, what state/country came up with Bryce?

Originally by Metacreations in the USA!!! (At least I think so ... lol)

Alabama - Not sure if this is a contribution or not: American Idol Winners. But for over 100 years Alabama was one of the biggest steel producers in the US. Hardly exists here today. Also the Muscle Shoals Sound - Aretha Franklin, Alman Bros, Lynard Skynard, Rolling Stones, to name a few. Also mostly gone. Harper Lee and "To Kill A Mockingbird". Bryce: Carpinteria, California (although Eric Wenger wrote most of the Bryce core code in Paris, France)

DAn: You might add Forest Gump to that there list! ;-)

Alabama??

Nat King Cole, Peanuts, George Washington Carver (which means Alabama gave us PEANUT BUTTER!!!), Rosa Parks (who's bravery and nobility was legend), Coretta Scott King, Helen Keller, Hank Aaron (for you baseball fans).

Ricky (who thinks that peanut butter is right up there with perfect chili in the great things of the world)

UK = Railways.
UK = Computers (Remember Turin? and before him the Babbages?).
UK = = Hovercraft (but like usual, we were to scared to invest in it, so the principle was taken up and exploited by foreigners).

And, slightly off-topic...
Africa (in general) = Homo Erectus (always struck me as a funny name, but then my mind tends to drift into the smutty sometimes) ->(eventually)Homo Sapiens.... without which none of us would even exist..

Cheers,
Diolma

To go with Diolma.....The Harrier Jump Jet. The Jet Engine. The Industrial Revolution.....

@TheBryster - did we Brits "invent" the Agricultural Revolution, or did we just take advantage of stuff known from elsewher? I don't know.

UK = Penicillin (although it was originally dicovered in France, and Alexander Fleming re-discovered the idea later IIRC).
UK = Television (John Logie Baird, or John Yogi Bear - not Blair - as I like to thinnk of him)
UK = Radar (2nd World War)
UK = Dictionary (I think, not sure.. Samuel Johnson)

Cheers,
Diolma

Who is not going to mention Transistors, Telephones, Space-flight, ***burgers, Production-lines... all invented in "Another Place". But will mention "Tanks" cos I think we invented them (WWI), but not 100% sure..

China - tea, compass, silk, interesting landscapes, gunpowder, calculus (along with UK and Germany at about the same time)

USA - Fortune cookies!

Sorry all, I'm getting hungry and thus thinking through my stomach. All that talk about peanut butter and chili....

UK - Monty python, Doctor Who, Red Dwarf, Terry Pratchet, Spike Milligan, Pink Floyd, Prog Rock, Prof Stephen Hawking, Winston Churchill, the Laser, Fish 'n' chips (yum)
There's more...........................................

Steve:)

Attached Link: http://www.lichfield.gov.uk/sjmuseum/

*Yea, I live about 5 miles away from his birthplace - pass the building every time I go on a retail therapy outing

Dr. Johnson

For a while I was thinking of adding modesty as a characteristic of the British.  :ohmy: but hearing my fellow countrymen/women boasting  :blushing: .,forces me to wonder if we should cool it and  allow the other members of the world a chance to get a word in edgewise.:thumbupboth:

You also forgot the clockwork radio by the way.   

Uh oh, I'm in trouble . On the one hand, I'm 6th Generation Texan (family from Waco, halfway between Crawford Ranch and the Branch Davidian compound...don't mess with us..;)

But I live in North Carolina.

Let's see...

Tobacco, the Chapel Hill 'scene' (back in the 90's..;) Research Triangle Park (where I make a livin'..;), uh....Andy of Mayberry, uh.....uh....hmmm...Myrtle Beach is in SC, so that don't count...the wreck of the Monitor, the Blackbeard ship, test site of the 1st airplane, uh....hmmm.

sigh...;)

The Netherlands:

• Legal drugs,
• Illegal drugs,
• Drug tourism,
• Legal prostitution,
• Harrypotter's job as a prime-minister,
• First "office upgrade" for local politicians to put radio controlled toy cars as "decoration" paid by taxpayers money on a higher priority then "new computers to replace the really old ones.
• Dutch language,
• The VOC,
• Dancing with the stars, (tvshow)
• Amsterdam (also known to some as the gay capital of europe)

And for the india and canada peeps... add "fine women" to the chart
for canada, also add "lauren lee smith" in particular (me fav' actress, mainly due to the show "Mutant X")

which country gave donuts and scones??
austrailia for strawberries and cream?? wasn't it the UK??

Diolma: A guy called Thomas Telford invented cast-iron, which meant that parts could be pre-fabricated in large quantities, or cast into large pieces, and created the foundations of the Industrial Revolution...........I think...

Colorado- a place for the rich to dump their money without actually making the residents wealthy....go figure, where at every turn you have post card perfect landscapes.....

Ah, the UK .... high tea, and plum pudding with hard sauce!!   Lousiana ... gumbo, and Louis Armstrong, rice and beans.  Not that I'd cook Louis Armstrong, I just like his music, especially while eating really good gumbo with rice and beans.

Cold weather makes me hungry and sleepy.  We're having freezing rain and one of my neighbors brought me a lost dog to take care of ... and I'm hungry and sleepy (yawn).  Gonna go to bed now.

Oh oh oh ..... totally OT, but if you get a chance you HAVE to see "A Scanner Darkly" .... fantastic movie.  Saw it today and it is amazing.  G'nite.

Noteworthy Wisconsin Contributions:  

Famous People: Harry Houdini, Jackie Mason, Spencer Tracy, Don Ameche, Willem Dafoe, Laura Engles Wilder, Charles & John Ringling (Ringling Bros. Circus), Liberace, Frank Lloyd Wright, Bob Ucker, Orson Welles, Greta Van Sustren, Tyne Daly, Chris Farley, Frmr Chief Justice William Renquist, John Muir, Seymore Cray,  Joseph McCarthy, Aldo Leopold

Inventions: The Transistor, The Electric Guitar, Colby Cheese (and about 40 other types of designer cheeses), The Republican Party (Organized in Ripon, WI), Snowmobile,

Folklore legends: Paul Bunyan, The Hodag

Most US circuses started in Baraboo, WI

Worlds Largest independent Air Show : EAA Airventure

Because there is so much about the UK in general I will go back to the rot countires of my mixed heritage and say

Ireland...GUINESS
Scotland.......WHISKY
England.......Flat BITTER

hic!

Ewwwwww, mboncher, Joseph McCarthy as a contribution to the betterment of the world??  I'll give you the Republican Party .... but McCarthy?  I'm sorry ... but ewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww.

New Mexico...ummmmmmmmmmmmmm?

New Mexico??  Easy .... me!!

And then there is Hanna (of Hanna and Barbera ... the animators), and John Denver, Robert Crichton (the author), Demi Moore, Lew Wallace (he's the guy that wrote "Ben Hur"), Conrad Hilton (who started the hotel chain), and Pat Garrett (who shot Billy the Kid .... I Knew Sheriff Garrett's daugther ... she was an old lady when I was a little girl.) 

The best Mexican food anywhere ... sopapillas to DIE for, with honey and fresh butter ... omigod!!  Oh, and New Mexican whipped peppermint, hard to find outside of the area.

Well, and the "A Bomb", but I don't know if I'd consider that a good thing, even if you could argue that it put a quick end to the war in the Pacific.

Oh, and erosiaart, the donut type cake (no hole) was invented by the Dutch, but the hole was added by a New England sea captain while out at sea.  (He didn't like the stuff people put in the center of the cake, but if you didn't have stuff in the center, it didn't back properly ... so he had his cook back the cake with the center cut out.)

So, credit the USA for the donut.

oh...thanks..that reminds me. Krispy Kreme donuts, started in Winston-Salem. Knew I forgot something. Texas Pete, and every part of the pig but the squeal (their idea of barbecue was termed by my sweet departed grandmother as 'dog meat'...;)  It's essentially 'pig in a blender', chopped and stringy pork in a vinegar and pepper sauce..it's...filling..;) But I was raised on Texas brisket, so I may be a bit prejudiced (if you want to start an argument, mention barbecue..;)

I forgot one! this one's for angie

The netherlands:

• Heineken!

Hello Pakled! I'm in Waco, Texas right now! Small world.

Texas brisket ..... oh yuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuum!!!  My neighbor will slow smoke his for most of a day, and it comes out so tender.  I wish they were home, they are a great family to mooch lunch from.  They always have something good in the fridge.

But alas, they are in Los Angeles at a Hollywood/Country Music hybrid baby shower for their daugther who married into HW/CM royalty.  I bet the food at that thing is going to be gooooood!! 

Hey, Death at Midnight .... I'm about 2 hours away from you, outside of Marble Falls.  Small world.

lol..i will die for a donut, esp for a krispy kreme....thanks rickmaveety.

Washington State- Boeing aircraft, Starbucks, Amazon.com, Microflacid, Jimi Hendrix, Kurt Cobain, Grunge, Mackie soundgear, largest US producer of apples, allegedly  the deepest hole in the world (Mel's hole). Bruce Lee lived and was buried here.