I did. Take it up with Wikipedia.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_United_States_inventions

>> ^pmkierst:

Although the first liquid fuelled rocket was launched by an american, it was invented by a Russian.
I'm not sure about "inventing" heart transplants, but the first one was performed by a South African in South Africa.
The CD is harder to tell, because it was based on prior technology, but it would be likely attributed to Philips (Netherlands) or Sony (Japan)
Those are just a few I decided to fact check.
America has produced lots of innovations, but it would be nice if people could do at least a cursory investigation before attributing everything to it.

Although the first liquid fuelled rocket was launched by an american, it was invented by a Russian.

I'm not sure about "inventing" heart transplants, but the first one was performed by a South African in South Africa.

The CD is harder to tell, because it was based on prior technology, but it would be likely attributed to Philips (Netherlands) or Sony (Japan)

Those are just a few I decided to fact check.

America has produced lots of innovations, but it would be nice if people could do at least a cursory investigation before attributing everything to it.

>> ^jwray:

I don't know why I bother to split hairs with you over scum like this caller, but you're lacking some appreciation for subtle details:
1. He didn't say that the blackness of the callers on the republican line was the only reason he suspected them of not being real republicans. However, if black people are 12.4% of the population, and 7% of them self-describe as republicans, and republicans are 45% of the population, then the republican party is less than 2% black (do the math). A huge proportion of black republican callers would not prove anything, but it would certainly play a reasonable part in arousing suspicions that people were not calling the right line, in combination with whatever those callers may have said.
2. It is indeed very easy to tell the geographic and socioeconomic origin of someone by their voice, unless they have practiced another accent. Most actors, TV news anchors, and other people whose voice is crucial to their livelihood have worked hard on their voice and may not resemble the accent in their place of origin. But for nearly everybody else, I can reliably distinguish between dozens of accents, including Scottish, Irish, several varieties of British, Australian, French, German, Russian, South African, Chinese, Indian, Southern American, Ghetto, Boston, New York, Midwest, etc. Black people from the south speak differently than black people in new york, but both accents are distinguishable from the accents of white people in the same respective areas. There are of course exceptions, but by and large people speak according to where they're from and who they are.
3. The third alternative, disconnecting him after the "black-span" jibe without shouting profanities at him, probably would have been the best use of C-Span's time, but I was merely expressing my view that the C-Span moderator's response was better than just telling him to go fuck himself. Further estrangement, alienation, and fracturing of society will not make extremists less extreme. On the contrary, mingling promotes peace and mutual understanding. Simply telling the caller to go fuck himself would not accomplish anything.


Just quoting it now in case it gets changed again.

I don't know why I bother to split hairs with you over scum like this caller, but you're lacking some appreciation for subtle details:
1. He didn't say that the blackness of the callers on the republican line was the only reason he suspected them of not being real republicans. However, if black people are 12.4% of the population, and 7% of them self-describe as republicans, and republicans are 45% of the population, then the republican party is less than 2% black (do the math). A huge proportion of black republican callers would not prove anything, but it would certainly play a reasonable part in arousing suspicions that people were not calling the right line, in combination with whatever those callers may have said.

2. It is indeed very easy to tell the geographic and socioeconomic origin of someone by their voice, unless they have practiced another accent. Most actors, TV news anchors, and other people whose voice is crucial to their livelihood have worked hard on their voice and may not resemble the accent in their place of origin. But for nearly everybody else, I can reliably distinguish between dozens of accents, including Scottish, Irish, several varieties of British, Australian, French, German, Russian, South African, Chinese, Indian, Southern American, Ghetto, Boston, New York, Midwest, etc. Black people from the south speak differently than black people in new york, but both accents are distinguishable from the accents of white people in the same respective areas. There are of course exceptions, but by and large people speak according to where they're from and who they are.

3. The third alternative, disconnecting him after the "black-span" jibe without shouting profanities at him, probably would have been the best use of C-Span's time, but I was merely expressing my view that the C-Span moderator's response was better than just telling him to go fuck himself. Further estrangement, alienation, and fracturing of society will not make extremists less extreme. On the contrary, mingling promotes peace and mutual understanding. Simply telling the caller to go fuck himself would not accomplish anything.

>> ^Crake:
do i detect a South African accent?


No, sir. Very Aussie.

Aww Fark!!

do i detect a South African accent?

This video has been seconded as a duplicate; transferring votes to the original video and killing this dupe - dupeof seconded with isdupe by sometimes.

*dupeof=http://www.videosift.com/video/Zef-Side-South-African-Awesomeness

This video has been nominated as a duplicate of this video by lavoll. If this nomination is seconded with *isdupe, the video will be killed and its votes transferred to the original.

*dupeof http://www.videosift.com/video/Zef-Side-South-African-Awesomeness

*dupeof=http://www.videosift.com/video/Zef-Side-South-African-Awesomeness

Invocations (dupeof=http://www.videosift.com/video/Zef-Side-South-African-Awesomeness) cannot be called by mrsid because mrsid is not privileged - sorry.

>> ^mrsid:
The whole song and its super weird lyrics: http://www.watkykjy.co.za/2010/01/die-antwoord-beat-boy-met-lyrics/



Man, I really wish I hadn't read the lyrics.

I don't believe a soldier shot a baby intentionally, or even an unarmed civilian, for that matter.

That being said, Israelis need to recognize some harsh truths about Cast Lead. That operation started with the intention of stopping the rocket fire, toppling Hamas and possibly rescuing Gilad Shalit. While the second and third are obvious failures, the rockets are quiet for now, but that's only a lull while Hamas builds up it's arsenal again.

But we're still in denial. We look at the statistics of the dead and automatically say "the Palestinians are lying about how many died". We look at the percentage of civilians and say "they're lying, there were many more combatants there". I have yet to hear an excuse for the number of slain children during Cast Lead, but I'm sure some Israeli has one waiting.

After Cast Lead, the UN did the only thing it can do. It launched an investigation. It even appointed a South-African Jew to lead it. And still I heard people I live around, people I work with, people I grew up with, call him an anti-Semite. Saying the report was biased before the report was even started.

And of course Israel refused to cooperate with the investigation. Politically, cooperating has only a down-side. If we allow soldiers, commanders and politicians to be interviewed, if we allow documents to be subpoenaed, if we give any form of assistance to the investigative committee, we're essentially signing off on the result. If we deny any responsibility, claim sovereignty, and refuse to accept the committee's authority, we get to keep the Status Quo.

And what a Status Quo it is. Were listed as 141/144 in the Global Peace Index. Below us are Somalia, which has no government, and then only Afghanistan and Iraq, which I don't really need to explain.


No. I don't believe we deliberately killed innocent men, women and children.

But we did set out knowing full well that the goal was unattainable, that the fighting itself would take place in extremely-dense populated areas, that we would be facing an enemy that has no qualms with firing rockets from schools, with placing enough ambushes in second-floor windows that soldiers on the ground wouldn't feel safe without sending a rocket or grenade into every building first. I don't believe there was a single commander, at any level of command, who didn't expect high civilian casualties.

We are responsible. And we're not going to change unless forced to.

>> ^campionidelmondo:
Charlize Theron seemed really disappointed when she announced France as the 4th team in South Africa's group. Hooray for Italy getting an "easy" group, just hope they don't underestimate their opponents.


She has good reason to be disappointed. As a South African, she wouldn't want a talented team like France in her nation's group. Plus, she was obviously a bit miffed at France's qualification at Eire's expense judging by the little stunt she pulled during the mock draw earlier in the week (apparently her boyfriend is from the Emerald Isle, so that might explain it).