the last few years, American has been the centre of news stories, controversy and media debate. It hasn’t helped that the country’s leader is not the sharpest tool in the box. As a result of bad press and dumb actions, at times, on the part of the US, many of us see it as a nation of stupid, dim witted idiots. Luke Bailey looks at the American inventions that prove we should give these guys a break…


In the early 70s the US helped to transform the pastimes of youths across the world forever. ‘Pong’, based on the concept of table tennis, may not sound like much now but it was the beginning a new era where go-carting would be replaces by intense driving games and ‘tig’ would be replaced by online shoot-em-ups. A company called Atari Inc. based in New York was to pioneer arcade and video gaming from the 70s to the mid 80s. The company's products, such as Pong have paved the way for modern favourites such as Halo 3, Gears of War, Super Mario, Sonic and Grand Thief Auto. And let’s face it, they are much more fun than tiddlywinks or marbles.

Ask anyone in the world for their favourite well known cartoon and you can guarantee most will say –The Simpsons. Not only is it one of the longest running cartons today, it has given rise to a whole new genre of cartoonary that only Americans seem to know how to do. Family Guy, King of the hill, Futurama and South Park have all taken cartoons to another level. The satirical cartoon has opens cartoons up to every age group, given America a great platform for exploring its own politics and culture and most importantly allowed it a safe place to laugh out loud at itself.

Imagine a world without PCs… No email, no internet and most importantly, no Wikipedia to copy and paste your homework from. An American named Steve Wozniak designed the first home computer with friends, which we now know as the Apple Macintosh. PCs came next and borrowed Apple’s user friendly icon navigation which has made computing accessible to everyone across the world. Since 1983 the PC has changed the way the world works. The storing of data, filing, gaming, art, business, the list is endless. Hell without PCs, I wouldn’t be writing this!


Where would we be without the Hollywood blockbuster? American films are loved the world over and nobody does them quite as a big and bold as the yankees. 28 Days Later and The Green Mile are personal favourites of mine. If you love special effects, American movies are packed with them. Films like Superman and Star Wars just wouldn’t be the same without them. The US has even pioneered their own styles including the ‘romcom’ (romantic comedy) and nobody does horror and action car chases quite like they do. The variety and variation in American films ensure the world gets a wide range of subjects tackled through every genre and they don’t all have the traditional Hollywood happy ending.

So now we’re reminded of some of the positives that have come out of America, perhaps we can also be reminded that every nation has its good goodies, and its baddies…George Bush say no more!

Luke Bailey

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