American Bastard

http://www.850koa.com/shows/shows_rosen35.html#Past ^ | 8/10/2005 | Letter to the Editor

[Fierce Allegiance]

Ice racing ATV's up in Riviere Du Loop and a couple other Godforsaken spots within around 500 miles of there taught me how vast it is, and that was just Quebec.

[mad puppy]

"We all know the Canadian military has become a shadow of itself. Things have gotten so dire that a Queen's University study (titled "Canada Without Armed Forces?") predicted the imminent extinction of the air force. This unpreparedness has become such a joke that Ferguson says their military ranks just above Tonga's, which consists of nothing more than "a tape-recorded message yelling 'I surrender!' in thirty-two languages."

---

Now that is funny. I don't care where you're from.

To be fair, there are some great Canadian Snipers doing amazing work in the WOT.

[Lekker 1]

I agree with you. I can think of a heck of a lot of countries that would make worse neighbors. Why they would align with the EU more than the U.S., I will never understand.

[Heartofsong83]

Quebec is by far the worst part of Canada to be in if you are an American. That is where anti-Americanism is concentrated. If you ever go from Ontario to Atlantic Canada, make a hard right in Cornwall and just travel through northern New England and come out in New Brunswick.

[albee]

How many of the people on this list:

a) Became famous while in Canada?

b) Dumped Canada and became American Citizens?

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm???

[navyblue]

Gee! Sounds almost like what we used to hear out of the old Soviet Union several years ago. They invented just about everything.

Not to pick on your whole list, but two things stand out.

The wireless was invented by Guiglio Marconi. And if I'm not mistaken, Alex Graham Bell was a Scot. Although he did do much of his work at labs both in Canada and New York.

[Modernman]

Quebec is notorious though for its poor treatment of non francophones. And it's a well deserved reputation.

Part of it could be that I lived in NYC for a couple of years, so my instinct is to simple barrel through the rudeness and demand what I want in such situations.

Seems to work pretty well. Maybe the Quebecois expect everyone to be as polite as people from Ontario :-)

Montreal's a lot of fun. I was just there for a wedding in May. Everything's really cheap, too.

[Alexander Rubin]

Reginald Fessenden Trained as an electrician, his research subsequently took him to the United States to work with Thomas Edison as a chemist developing insulation for electrical wires. In 1892, he worked with George Westinghouse to light the Columbian Exposition in Chicago. Fessenden then became professor of electrical engineering at Purdue University, and a year later he was named head of electrical engineering at Western University of Pennsylvania. Reginald Fessenden had considerable difficulty in attracting capital for research and development of his radical ideas. He lacked the showmanship of Marconi and Edison, and his frustration often showed in his personality that made it near impossible to market himself or his inventions. In 1900 he joined the United States Weather Bureau on the understanding that the bureau could have access to any devices he invented but that he would retain ownership. On December 23, 1900, he transmitted his own voice over the first wireless telephone from a site on Cobb Island in the middle of the Potomac River near Washington, DC. Finally, two wealthy Pennsylvania businessmen joined with him to form the National Electric Signaling Company (NESCO) to develop Morse code services between Brant Rock, Massachusetts and several American points and to carry on his own research. In 1903 he sent a voice message to an assistant 50 miles away, and another voice sound was heard at his experimental towers in Scotland. In 1904 he was hired to help engineer the Niagara Falls power plant for the newly formed Ontario Power Commission. In 1906 he opened his own Canadian company in Montreal and on Christmas Eve, 1906, using his heterodyne principle, Fessenden transmitted the first audio radio broadcast in history from Brant Rock, Massachusetts. Ships at sea heard a broadcast that included Fessenden playing the song O Holy Night on the violin and reading a passage from the Bible. Marconi had sent radio signals from England to Newfoundland in 1901, but only one-way and only in Morse Code. In 1906, Fessenden achieved two-way voice transmission by radio between Scotland and Massachusetts. Still, the potential for his invention was not recognized and even his own backers were not interested in voice or music communication and their business partnership dissolved. A lengthy lawsuit would follow that years later resulted in a large settlement in Fessenden's favour. Working for a company in Boston, Reginald Fessenden developed a wireless system for submarines to signal each other, and a device using radio waves designed to locate icebergs miles away avoiding another Titanic disaster. At the outbreak of World War I, Fessenden volunteered his services to Canada and was sent to London, England where he developed a device to detect enemy artillery and another to locate enemy submarines. Fellow Canadians, Henry Woodward and Mathew Evans invented and patented the first light bulb that Thomas Edison commercialized. Later years An inveterate tinkerer, Reginald Fessenden vastly improved on their work. He would become the holder of more than 500 patents, including a version of microfilm. He patented the basic ideas leading to reflection seismology, an technique important for its use in exploring for petroleum. In 1915, he invented the fathometer, a sonar device used to determine the depth of water or a submerged object by means of sound waves for which he won Scientific American's Gold Medal in 1929. The Institute of Radio Engineers presented him with its Medal of Honor, and Philadelphia awarded him a medal and cash prize for "One whose labors had been of great benefit to mankind." Death and afterwards It sometimes happens, even in science, that one man can be right against the world. Professor Fessenden was that man. He fought bitterly and alone to prove his theories. It was he who insisted, against the stormy protests of every recognized authority, that what we now call radio was worked by continuous waves sent through the ether by the transmitting station as light waves are sent out by a flame. Marconi and others insisted that what was happening was a whiplash effect. The progress of radio was retarded a decade by this error. The whiplash theory passed gradually from the minds of men and was replaced by the continuous wave -- one with all too little credit to the man who had been right I believe he also held one of the earlier patents for television, but he lost out to Farnsworth because he wasn't too bright when hit came to publicity or business.

[Ignatz]

Canada: "We're #1 at being just north of the United States!"

[Alexander Rubin]

I think you meant that to be directed at me. As to the first, a few. Not as many as you'd think. As to the second, quite a few. We've always had a problem with a brain drain. It doesn't change the fact that they were Canadians.

I plan on moving to America one day. But if I invent something, or write something, I fully expect and hope to be claimed by both Canada and America. Because even if I renounce my Canadian citizenship, I will still have been born and raised in Canada.

[LibWhacker]

God bless this man.

[navyblue]

Couple more errors if you don't mind.

On the radio tube thing, Fleming invented the diode and DeForest invented the triode.

I may not know much, but forty years working as a ship's radioman should give me some standing on these things.

[geezerwheezer]

I now know more about Canada than I ever wanted to. Not that I don't like the place, but who really cares that the hockey face mask was invented there? Like man,...duh... why would a South Georgia boy ever care about a hockey mask? Get those Canucks to invent something I can use, like a 'gator repellant, or something....then we can talk.

[concrete is my business]

I drove through Southern BC last week following a truck with Alberta plates. It had a large graphic in the back window proclaiming I AM CANADIAN, with the Calvin and Hobes character pissing on the American flag.

[Alexander Rubin]

Oh, look at the list. Plenty of things you use. Zippers? AM Radio? Look at those long lists. ;)

[Always Independent]

And where did they choose to live and get rich and famous?

[Alexander Rubin]

I don't mind at all. I'm at work and spending too much time on this thread, so I'll look into those tonight, if you don't mind. Almost immediatel, though, y I will say a) patent dispute and b) simultaneous development (happens more often than most people think).

[Alexander Rubin]

Hey. It isn't what you do with it, it's the size that counts.

[-YYZ-]

You know, I always hear this about Quebec, that they treat anglos poorly, and yet I have never had that experience while traveling in Quebec. Some language difficulties, sure, since my high school French is sadly lacking, but never any poor treatment. Maybe I'm just not sensitive enough, or don't understand enough French to catch them talking about me behind my back. Or maybe some people travel there with a chip on their shouder, expecting poor treatment and seeing it in every interaction. Me, I've never gotten the impression that the Quebeckers were anything other than hospitable, although sometimes they clearly get a little tired of non-French-speaking tourists, particularly in the not-so-touristy areas that I've sometimes ended up in. But you'd be surprised how far a few words of French, used appropriately, like "bonjour", "bon soir", "combien", "merci" and "au revoir" will take you in interactions in Quebec. They appreciate it if you make the effort to use even just a few words of their language, which are easy enough to learn. I've even learned to say a few words, like bonjour, with little enough accent that they mistake me for a fellow Quebecker at first.

[NorthOf45]

Please ... the whole letter/opinion is a blanket statement. Where's the credibility?

Do Canadian leftists have credibility? No, of course not. My question then is why should this letter, which is basically saying "Those damn Canadians, I hate those bastards", have any credibility?