Scotland is Worthless

[Xerxes]

Yes this is an epiphany I had over the last month- Scotland has given civilization nothing great and world reknown- paintings, architecture, language, government. Yet everyone brags of their lineage to whatever clan and William Wallace. All they did in history is get in the way of a civilization that actually had an agenda, before being assimilated by that civilization.

IMHO, Scotland is probably the most over-hyped culture in existence. Not to mention the one with the least fashion sense and the worst traditional food.

Who's with me? ;)

[hestermofet]

FOOL!

BLASPHEMER!

HAVE YE NOT HEARD OF ADAM SMITH, YE SUBVERSIVE CUR?

:-)

[binary hero]

bagpipes and men in skirts

(*waits for zootm and prodangle)

[Xerxes]

Originally posted by hestermofet
[b]
HAVE YE NOT HEARD OF ADAM SMITH, YE SUBVERSIVE CUR?

:-)

The way I look at it, he was more English than scottish. But I will concede that point. :-x

[hestermofet]

Originally posted by binary hero
bagpipes and men in skirts

Yes, men in klits. I mean kilts. Men in kilts.

[Xerxes]

Originally posted by binary hero
bagpipes and men in skirts


There you have it, the most obnoxious wind instrument combined with the most nauseous site.

[Mr Jones]

http://www.worldtravelgate.net/gm_graphics/images/bottle1.jpg

'Nuff said

[Xerxes]

Isn't alcohol the opposite of civilization?

[Widdykats]

The Scottish people have great dogs, Sean Connery and
"The House of zootm", who made my hat.:D

[Mr Jones]

Technically not Scottish, but he wanted to be, you can tell...

http://services.tos.net/pics/st4/st4-scotty.gif

[hestermofet]

Hey, at least they're not as bad as Australia, whose only contribution to mankind was John Hopoate :igor:

[Xerxes]

Engines, Mr, Scott!
Ya canna change the laws of physics
laws of physics
laws of physics
Ya canna change the laws of physics
laws of physics, Jim!!!

[Xerxes]

Originally posted by hestermofet
Hey, at least they're not as bad as Australia, whose only contribution to mankind was John Hopoate :igor:

I take it Yahoo Serious is not considered a contribution? :p

[Widdykats]

http://www.lassie.net/lassie.jpg Look at that face!:D

[fwgx]

Perhaps not, but they have made plenty a buck out of daft American tourists and 'scientists' looking for a giant brontosauraus :blah:

[hestermofet]

Originally posted by Xerxes


I take it Yahoo Serious is not considered a contribution? :p

Good God NO! That would require the USA to claim responsibility for Carrot Top...

[Widdykats]

Originally posted by hestermofet


Good God NO! That would require the USA to claim responsibility for Carrot Top...
It's early here in New York ,so I just say ahhhh

[binary hero]

Originally posted by Xerxes
Engines, Mr, Scott!
Ya canna change the laws of physics
laws of physics
laws of physics
Ya canna change the laws of physics
laws of physics, Jim!!!
the same laws of physics that say that you can't travel faster than the speed of light?

(btw, did anyone else see william shatner on V graham norton on friday - that was real comedy :D)

[Merlin]

Actually, Scotsmen invented the TV and the telephone. Possibly Tarmac and the Radio too. Not bad for a bunch of strange-talking hairy blokes in skirts with only whiskey and ropey women for company in the freezing cold barren wasteland that is Scotland :up:.

;)

[mat]

We look to Scotland for all our ideas of civilisation
- Voltaire

I think this settles it.

Mat.

[ujay]

Originally posted by watadoo
Did I mention TV? Blechhhhh. I think you'll find this was invented by a Scotsman :)

But I'm sure you were referring to the TV programs, rather than the machine you're staring at right this minute.

What have you got against cubicles ?

UJ

[binary hero]

Originally posted by ujay
I think you'll find this was invented by a Scotsman :)
he wasn't a scotsman, he was a good liar :confused:

[zootm]

Originally posted by Xerxes
Yes this is an epiphany I had over the last month- Scotland has given civilization nothing great and world reknown- paintings, architecture, language, government. Yet everyone brags of their lineage to whatever clan and William Wallace. All they did in history is get in the way of a civilization that actually had an agenda, before being assimilated by that civilization.
scottish inventions/cultural additions/discoveries: adhesive postage stamps, anaesthetics, antisepsis, artificial diamonds, reaping machine, latent heat, Brownian movement, Buicks, chemical bonds, penicillin, the decimal point, documentary films, Encyclopedia Britannica, engineering sciences, fax machines, first cloned mammal, flailing machines, geosciences, golf, historical novels (in the western world), hypodermic syringes, Kelvin scale, percussion powder, logarithms, Maxwell's equations, marmalade, mackintosh raincoats, macadamized roads, microwave ovens, colloid chemistry, breech-loading rifle, tubular steel, quinine, Sociology, pneumatic tyres, pink bathtubs, hollow pipe drainage, Peter Pan, radar, paleobiology, polarization, cure for scurvy, Halloween, refrigerators, Neptune, bakelite, iron bridges (ok, fat lot of good that did us, we're still painting that fucking thing), the steam engine, telephones, thermos flasks/dewars, the telegraph, television, the stereotype (in printing), sulphuric acid, the steam-hammer, paraffin, Sherlock Holmes (based on a scottish professor, if you were wondering about that one), Toad of Toad Hall, Long John Silver, Jekyll and Hyde, Auld Lang Syne, Whisky, US Navy (founded by a scotsman), Chilean Navy (ditto), Economics (adam smith), Cloud Chamber.

that's after removing the ones i found a little dubious from the list, and not mentioning scottish artists through the years. and adam smith was about as english as i am - he comes from my home town, for the love of god.

(edit)and here's some more... "fun" scottish inventions... (http://www.firstfoot.com/patently%20scottish/patentlymain.htm)
(edit2)i think i missed out the internal combustion engine...

[J. Burnaway]

Originally posted by zootm
...flailing machines...
I don't know what this does, but it sounds good. Some people just need a good flailing sometimes. :up:

[zootm]

Originally posted by J. Burnaway
I don't know what this does, but it sounds good. Some people just need a good flailing sometimes. :up:
it was the first mechanical replacement for the hand flail that people used for centuries to husk grain. i was a bit confused by that one at first, too, though.

oh, and i just remembered that scotland has the best centre for artificial intelligence in europe, too. even if it did just burn down.

(edit)and wait... didn't Prolog have a large part of its development done in scotland? not to mention Standard ML!

[fwgx]

But the absolute best thing about scotland is that nice big wall between it and England :p ;)

[zootm]

Originally posted by Phily Baby
But the absolute best thing about scotland is that nice big wall between it and England :p ;)
lol! have you ever seen it? it's like a foot high in most places now...

[fwgx]

I went when I was pretty small, can still remember it a bit. Seamed big at the time :D

[J. Burnaway]

There have also been a number of great Scottish movies recently, though I can understand about 1 word in 4. Things will be so much better when you Scots learn English. :p

[zootm]

i can see my house from Ard Na Said.

that's about the extent of my gaelic.

[Vie]

55% of the worlds invetions come from the UK, the majoriy of which are Scotish

[stttafffy]

"helmet remains in contact with the skin as the patient relaxes and slumps in the treatment chair."

[Merlin]

Originally posted by zootm
pink bathtubs
oh, for joy! :p

[zootm]

Originally posted by [Merlin]
oh, for joy! :p
lol, i meant to take that one out!

the story for that one is "This car is the named after David Dunbar Buick, a Scot who immigrated to the U.S. in 1856. Buick started out as a plumber at age 15, and is credited with developing a method for bonding enamel to cast iron; a process responsible for our blue bathtubs and pink sinks."

also the whole buicks/internal combustion engine link is in that one too...

[Sandman2012]

Originally posted by zootm

lol! have you ever seen it? it's like a foot high in most places now...

I've seen it. Hadrian's footstool, anyone?

[Xerxes]

Originally posted by binary hero

the same laws of physics that say that you can't travel faster than the speed of light?


http://angel.scientium.com/special_videos/brian_matthews/star_trekkin.htm

[Xerxes]

Originally posted by zootm

scottish inventions/cultural additions/discoveries: blah blah blah

I take it that list is drilled into your head in grade school so you can mentally copy and paste it when these situations arise? ;)

In my original question, I kind of meant "scotland" as a seperate entity- not after the assimilation into the UK when it became a cultural group and not a nation, as then I see it as an "English Empire" achievement. But OK. ;)

[Bilbo Baggins]

I like Scotland, but from the tone of his posts, I reckon that zootm is painted blue now ;) :p

[John M]

well the scotsman clad in kilt left the bar one evenin' fair....


:p

[hestermofet]

Originally posted by binary hero
the same laws of physics that say that you can't travel faster than the speed of light?

"That's impossible. You can't go faster than the speed of light."
"Of course not! That's why scientists increased the speed of light in 2208."

Lord help me, I think I've downloaded one too many Futurama episodes :eek:

[zootm]

Originally posted by Xerxes
I take it that list is drilled into your head in grade school so you can mentally copy and paste it when these situations arise? ;)
nah, i searched google for about 20 seconds. i suspect you haven't researched this very well. :D i only knew about the odd ones before (combustion engine, television, penicillin).

but really though, you're initial argument was flawed and biased, rather than an "epiphany". i mean, i'm not a nationalist (i try and stay unbiased in these matters) but it's fairly clear that there is a lot of scotland-based additions to the world we live in. "scotland" as a separate entity has not existed for a long, long time now in the "united kingdom" sense, and previous to that were a clan-based society which did little until the english attacked and forced them to unite (or such is my understanding - i know very little history). the calvinistic scottish culture meant that people were a lot more interested in working than in art, though. scotland still exists as a separate entity in some ways, the cultures are similat but not same.

as for painted blue, that film was a fair bit of old toss. they showed the battle of stirling bridge as this big huge battle, and omitted the bridge, when it was essentially some good planning which let them kill off the english as they crossed the bridge two-by-two (hence very few at a time).