The questions-not-worth-their-own-thread question thread V

[Ulyaoth]

History channel lied. Baseball started from stickball, a game made up in the streets of New York by immigrants. And I thought basketball was invented by the dutch?

 

[Bobbtjoe]

Yes, BRITISH IMMIGRANTS!!!!




And no, a Gym coach in (I think) Illinois or Ohio invented it using waste baskets.

 

[Ulyaoth]

I was taught basketball was invented by Dutch colonists in New Amsterdam using wicker baskets.

Baseball was most likely made by Irish German and Italian children in America, not British.

 

[Bobbtjoe]

In early December 1891, Dr. James Naismith,[2] a Canadian physical education professor from McGill University of Montréal and instructor at YMCA Training School[3] (today, Springfield College) in Springfield, Massachusetts, USA, sought a vigorous indoor game to keep his students occupied and at proper levels of fitness during the long New England winters. After rejecting other ideas as either too rough or poorly suited to walled-in gymnasiums, he wrote the basic rules and nailed a peach basket onto a 10-foot (3.05 m) elevated track. -wikipeida

There, setteled.

 

[cardgame]

I was taught basketball was invented by Dutch colonists in New Amsterdam using wicker baskets.

Baseball was most likely made by Irish German and Italian children in America, not British.

In any case, they were Americans. [/argument]

 

[Ulyaoth]

Well either Wikipedia or my New York is the most awesome place on Earth class back in 4th grade are lying.

 

[Bobbtjoe]

My last post was about basketball.

 

[Ulyaoth]

Yes, so? I knew that. Looking at the reported claims for baseball's start, it seem more of the same crap of Britishes claiming that all sports derived from their stupid little village games.

 

[Bigfoot3814]

Who else thinks it's strange that the Statue of Liberty is an American symbol, even though it was built in France?

Actually France sent the pieces, we put it together. Except not for a while, I don't think. The pieces were on display in different parts of the city before it was finally assembled.

Or that apple pie and baseball are british, yet considered American?

Baseball isn't British... I don't care what you say. Just leave me to my Abner Doubleday myth.

 

[Love]

Seriously!

Who cares?

 

[cardgame]

Not you.

Other people might.

Don't ask me who.

 

[Brighteye]

Baseball is rounders. Americans can claim to have invented it, but since it's identical to a children's version of cricket in this instance, like the Chinese do for almost everything else, the British can claim to have invented it first.

 

[salty mud]

Prime Minister Gordon Brown made a statement about Diversity winning Britain's Got Talent:

Meanwhile Prime Minister Gordon Brown claimed Diversity's shock victory was a strong sign that the British electorate would not vote for the far-right British National Party.

What? I totally fail to see the connection here.

 

[Mise]

America has invented a lot of things so I don't see why Baseball being a British invention should elicit such blind nationalism in the face of historical facts. Baseball is just another one of those games that the British invented but suck at.

 

[jessiecat]

Baseball is rounders. Americans can claim to have invented it, but since it's identical to a children's version of cricket in this instance, like the Chinese do for almost everything else, the British can claim to have invented it first.

Exactly. Baseball has certainly evolved from a form of rounders introduced by English and Gaelic immigrants before the 1840s but developed its first formalized rules with the Knickerbocker club in New Jersey in 1845. But how many people know that the old football ground in Derby was once called "The Baseball Ground", a name going back a lot earlier than that?

 

[Phlegmak]

Is the side of the road that societies drive on arbitrarily determined? I'm referring to driving on the left side of the road vs. the right. Is there any particular advantage of driving on either side?

 

[Mise]

It's largely correlated with whether you were at one point conquered or colonised by the British.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Driving_side

 

[Bigfoot3814]

I don't see why Baseball being a British invention should elicit such blind nationalism in the face of historical facts.

Because baseball is OURS, by George!!!

It's largely correlated with whether you were at one point conquered or colonised by the British.

I guess that doesn't count for us here in the states.

Fun fact though, in St. Thomas they drive on the left side of the road despite being part of the U.S. Virgin Islands and having American cars with the steering wheel on the left. It was quite zany when I was there.

 

[Flying Pig]

Prime Minister Gordon Brown made a statement about Diversity winning Britain's Got Talent:



What? I totally fail to see the connection here.

They're all black-ish, and the BNP are nazis who hate blacks, so nazis aren't going to vote to give black people a win on the talent show.

 

[GinandTonic]

Yes, so? I knew that. Looking at the reported claims for baseball's start, it seem more of the same crap of Britishes claiming that all sports derived from their stupid little village games.

Listened to the Simon Schama documentary on the origines of Baseball a couple of days ago. It was without any possible doubt invented by the British. There was also an expressed and documented program to claim it as an American invention and to brand it as patriotic etc

Is the side of the road that societies drive on arbitrarily determined? I'm referring to driving on the left side of the road vs. the right. Is there any particular advantage of driving on either side?

With a right hand drive the right hand stays on the wheel and the left operates the gears etc. Since most people are right-handed and the steering is the most critical task it is fractionally safer to drive on the left, with the dominant hand always on the wheel.