24-10-2004 06:05									#31
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quote: Originally posted by Jaguar I don't think we have that many great artists, especially in proportion to our size. We're certainly not like Spain or Italy or France.

In terms of painters and the like, I have to agree. In fact, the only American painter I can think of is Andy Warhol, but I'm not sure if he'd actually rate as one of the greatest Americans ever.

There are lots of great writers though: Hemingway, Cummings, Whitman, Poe, Miller, Asimov, etc, etc.

And if you include popular musicians, actors and other pop artists then the list is endless. Many of them are amongst the most famous people who ever lived, world wide. But of course, it's very much an open question if they deserve to be in a top 10 of Greatest Americans...

	24-10-2004 06:06									#32
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quote: Originally posted by Pekka Jorma Alakyrö (inventor of the idea of the internet that later on became reality with arpanet and all that.)

clearly the internet is an American invention, thought up by Al Gore

	24-10-2004 06:07									#33
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quote: Originally posted by Locutus There are lots of great writers though: Hemingway, Cummings, Whitman, Poe, Miller, Asimov, etc, etc.

American literature is the suckiest literature of all time. Asimov gets a "B", and he's the least sucky on that list.

	24-10-2004 06:09									#34
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British literature is awesome.

	24-10-2004 06:13									#36
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quote: Originally posted by Kuciwalker American literature is the suckiest literature of all time.

If you truly believe that, you should try some Dutch literature You'll change your mind faster than you can say 'WWII trauma'...

	24-10-2004 06:16									#37
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I can't read Dutch

	24-10-2004 06:20									#38
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George Washington (general, politician)
Benjamin Franklin (businessman, scientist, politician)
Albert Einstein (emigre scientist)
Thomas Edison (inventor)
Nikola Telsa (emigre scientist)
Martin Luther King, Jr. (orator, civil rights campaigner)
Andrew Carnegie (businessman, philanthropist)
Henry Ford (businessman)
Thomas Jefferson (writer, politician)
Louis Armstrong (musician)
Abraham Lincoln (orator, politician)

Lots of scientists and inventors involved with electricity for us...

	24-10-2004 06:23									#39
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Bill Gates?

	24-10-2004 06:25									#40
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Bill Gates

	24-10-2004 06:25									#41
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Bill Gates is a good guy, but what is he "greatest" in? Andrew Carnegie already created the precedent of Americans giving their huge fortunes away to charity.

	24-10-2004 06:26									#42
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Bill Gates is much richer than Carnegie was.

	24-10-2004 06:29									#43
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There's lots of richest men in American history.

	24-10-2004 08:24									#44
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quote: Originally posted by Provost Harrison Actually there was a similar poll on the television to this in the UK...I think the winner came out as Isambard Kingdom Brunel...I can't remember the others, but needless to say, f**king Princess Di ended up in there somewhere

BBC UK Poll:
1. Churchill
2. Brunel
3. Diana
4. Darwin
5. Shakespeare
6. Newton
7. Lennon
8. Elizabeth I
9. Nelson
10. Cromwell

BBC World poll:
1. Sir Isaac Newton
2. Sir Winston Churchill
3. Diana, Princess of Wales
4. William Shakespeare
5. Charles Darwin


That list isn't too bad really. I think I'd take out the royals and stick in Wellington or Chaucer, or Turing, or Drake or Raleigh or something. And it's majorly lacking in Scots: Burns, Stevenson, Fleming, Napier.

	24-10-2004 08:25									#45
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Lenin!

	24-10-2004 08:30									#46
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greatest american. me- Dissident

	24-10-2004 08:38									#47
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Diss, that shows that your ego is healthy. Because Ted Striker already said he's the best, so that was already used, but you STILL used it again knowing this.

	24-10-2004 08:49									#48
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I just had to set the record straight.

I always ask, why does the greatest ___ person have to be someone from the past. Why can it not be somene living? We tend to put those historical figures on a pedestal. Like with the founding fathers, many were slave owners.

I think the best people are those living today- except Yankee fans of course. But other than them, we have some great people living. We are more caring as a race than we've ever been.

	24-10-2004 09:04									#49
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For the Brits, scrap Diana and Lennon and insert Adam Smith and John Locke.

	24-10-2004 09:06									#50
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for brits, erase someone and add sarah young please.

	24-10-2004 13:54									#51
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quote: For the record, the official top ten for the Dutch election is the following (in alphabetical order): Johan Cruijf (legendary football player) Willem Drees (post-WWII socialist prime-minister) Desiderius Erasmus Pim Fortuyn (populist politician who was assassinated a few years ago) Anne Frank (Jewish holocaust victim, famous for her diary) Vincent van Gogh Antoni van Leeuwenhoek Willem van Oranje Rembrandt van Rijn (famous painter; most famous work: "The Night Watch") Michiel de Ruyter

I saw this on the tele a couple of weeks and must say that it did make me chuckle a little.
I mean; Fortuyn????? Hey, you no longer get to leugh at the English for including Dianna.
I do hope they never do this show here though.
Gonna be pretty hard anyway, no idea where they would get 10 people anyway.

Ann Frank ???
Never understud what makes her so special.
Could be my aversion to subjects being force-fed at school though.

Well , it looks as if we've got some flemish influence on that list anyway.
Willem prefered Flanders over Holland.
IIRC Rembrandts parents were Flemish??or was it his grandparents?

Clearly the winner should be Cruijf; a great footballer only topped by his poetry, in itself inferior to his unique philosophy.

	24-10-2004 14:15									#52
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Well Boshko's a good old Belorus name. As for great Belorussians, I'm really drawing a blank. I'm so happy that my ancestors got out of that ****-hole...

	24-10-2004 14:32									#53
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quote: Ann Frank ??? Never understud what makes her so special. Could be my aversion to subjects being force-fed at school though.

You mean that the Holocaust should not be a subject in school?

	24-10-2004 14:49									#54
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quote: Originally posted by joncha The CBC is doing the same thing right now. Their short list of top ten Canadians: * Frederick Banting * Alexander Graham Bell * Don Cherry * Tommy Douglas * Terry Fox * Wayne Gretzky * Sir John A. Macdonald * Lester B. Pearson * David Suzuki * Pierre Elliott Trudeau

It's a real sign of desperation to see Alexander Graham Bell cropping up on a list of "Great Canadians".

	24-10-2004 14:51									#55
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quote: Originally posted by Pekka for brits, erase someone and add sarah young please.

OK- we'll swap her for Princess Diana.


Now for the Finns. Drop all those nobodies, and against every number from 1-10 write "Matti Nykanen". Embrace your nations's true fame.

	24-10-2004 15:03									#56
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quote: Originally posted by Hueij quote: Ann Frank ??? Never understud what makes her so special. Could be my aversion to subjects being force-fed at school though. You mean that the Holocaust should not be a subject in school?

That's not what I said and you know it.
What I mean is her personnal story, and let me firstly say, that it IS a horrific story indeed. However, I'm sure many others where in exact the same situation at the time, regretably.

Anyway, she's not even dutch...so.
---

Seeing as you brought up the holocaust, yes, there's one thing that always has bugged me.
If you go out talking to youngsters, ( heck, don't have to be young people) many, if not all, will be able to tell you the story of the jews during WWII, however I doubt many even know about the Polish, the gypsies, the gay's, the handicapped....
Why is that?

	24-10-2004 15:04									#57
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Don't feel bad Pekka. I don't even know who Matti Nykanen is, let alone the others.

	24-10-2004 15:09									#58
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Sadly, Matti's fame seems to be waning these days. During late summer he was still going strong in the tabloids, but now he's been eclipsed in the tabloid front by a pack of zoo baboons that people think shouldn't be killed and by a mother manipulating her two children in an effort to keep them from being sent back to their father in America. But I trust that Matti can think up something new and radical to do during his 2-year prison sentence.

Anyway, my list for greatest Finns would be:

Anders Chydenius
Johan Snellman
Elias Lönnrot
Eero Erkko
Jean Sibelius
Kaarlo Juho Ståhlberg
Pehr Evind Svinhufvud
Carl Gustav Emil Mannerheim
Juho Kusti Paasikivi
Jorma Ollila

Last edited by Stefu on 24-10-2004 at 16:12

	24-10-2004 15:13									#59
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What about Santa?

	24-10-2004 15:15									#60
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What about me?