I guess the 100mpg carb story must not be very popular up there. Here's a link to one of the hundreds of web pages a quick google search turned up:

http://www.mikebrownsolutions.com/fish3.htm

I'm still a little curious about you blaming capitalism for stifling creativity. Last time I checked, most capitalist countries seem to generate the most innovative ideas. I do agree that it's not a perfect system. I honestly believe that at the point the USA is at, it can no longer be considered a capitalist country. Fully half the income of the average citizen goes into federal, state, and local income taxes, property taxes, sales taxes, corporate taxes, and all means of other taxes. It's a hybrid capitalist-socialist government, really. It seems to work darn well. I'd love to see a different hybrid government tried with better checks to limit corruption while metering out further power to the government. It's a tough balance though. You can't go fully one way or the other.

 

azcivic -- take away 1st and 2nd generation immigrants to the US, and you are pretty much left with the intellectual equivalent of a long queue at crispy creme. Nothing to be proud of, and certainly denigration of Canada is is WAY out of line.

 

I don't see anything in your post that proves me wrong in any way. The USA apparently is the center of the universe for new ideas (which the US government steals/hides) and also the source of all problems in the world. The country seems to be either Pandora's Box or the Tree of Knowledge perhaps. Maybe even both.

I don't really care why it is that so many innovations come from so few countries, and neither does anyone else on the planet. If anyone did care, they would all be trying to copy the countries that have the most wealth and the most technological advancements. I don't see it happening. In general, humans are not designed to care about personal wealth or technological advancement, we're programmed to procreate and care for our families. That's why folks in extremely poor and "backward" nations can still be so happy even though they don't have the latest fashions and fancy cars or other luxuries.

 

I am trying to point out that a large fraction of the inventions you would like to ascribe to the US, did not come FROM the US; they came TO the US.

Local resources, monetary gain, and a relatively open, tolerant society has attracted the world's talent to the US for more than a century. Not so much anymore, btw. Pick your fav theory why; I pick intolerance as a leading candidate.

 

Regardless of your to or from semantics, it sounds like the mere existance of the United States was needed regardless of if the invention came to or from the USA. I think it will only be another 70 to 100 years or so until we hit a point where technological advancements are sufficient that innovation really won't be needed in any of the developed countries anymore. That's around the time when we'll have completed our transition to a proper democratic/socialist hybrid government. There won't be the rapid advancement and get rich quick opportunities of today, but the poverty level will have risen so high that all citizens of developed countries can achieve fulfilment and hapiness.

 

Blindness is not a semantic difference. Neither is ignorance. Or arrogant nationalism.

To be hampered by all three is a rotten state of affairs for the individual and his country

 

These guys can power a Hydrogen car for 240 miles with 7 gallons of water and 7 gallons of organosilane:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases...0831071741.htm