Yes, Dee, Australians have invented lots of useful things, but so have citizens of many other countries.

Incidentally, it’s a shame the blurb introducing this month’s topic regurgitates the furphy that Australia has the highest number of per capita Nobel laureates in the world. A quick Google shows several countries also claiming this honour including Canada, Israel, Hungary and St. Lucia. All of these in fact have many more Nobel prize winners per capita than Australia, with St Lucia topping the table with two prizes and a population of just 178,000 (11.9 per million population), compared to Australia’s nine prizes and population of 21,000,000, representing 0.43 prizes per million population.

By my calculations, 25 countries have more per capita prizes than us, namely Saint Lucia (11.9 per million population); Switzerland (3.42); Iceland (3.26); Sweden (2.94); Denmark (2.57); Austria (2.53); Ireland (2.32); Norway (1.92); East Timor (1.88); the United Kingdom (1.8); Hungary (1.59); Germany (1.14); Israel (1.11); Netherlands (1.08); Belgium (0.93); France (0.85); Trinidad and Tobago (0.77); New Zealand (0.71); Finland (0.57); Canada (0.54); the United States (0.52); Bosnia and Herzegovina (0.5); Slovenia (0.5); Czech Republic (0.49); and Tibet (0.48).

data on prizes from here: http://www.answers.com/topic/nobel-laureates-by-country

data on population from the imf: http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/weo/2007/01/data/index.aspx

In fact, Australians are much more heavily represented as recipients of the spoof Ig Nobel prizes for daft ideas (22 awards in a mere 16 years, including joint and institutional awards) than as recipients of the actual Nobel prize (9 awards in 106 years).

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Ig_Nobel_Prize_winners

Actually, I’m rather proud of that, too.

Thanks Col Rouge (or Col. Blimp?) for your marvelous post. You have thoughtfully reminded us of Australia's glory days. Days unsullied by the gooks, slopes, dagoes, garlic-munchers, wogs, spicks, balts, chinks, nig nogs, curry-eaters and other refuse from the gutters who have now degraded our once marvellous country. Days when a man could fell a tree without some pinko chardonay-swilling politically-correct bureaucrat swanning in to whinge about the environment. Days when a Britisher could walk tall, carrying a big stick. All that awaits us now is inevitable doom as our creative force is snuffed out.

Thanks also for reminding us of Baroness Margaret Thatcher, the great philosopher/warrior princess. I remember how British hearts swelled with pride when the windswept uninhabited tundra of South Georgia echoed to the sound of British gunfire as the brave Tommies recaptured it from the devious Argentines.

Well, I think I'll wind up my (British-made) Duophone gramophone and put on my (English) Columbia recording of Dame Clara Butt singing "Land of Hope and Glory". It always brings a tear to the eye....

The author falls into the same trap as the people he is attempting to criticise - that is, thinking that it's somehow relevant and important to rank countries based on what some of their respective citizens have 'invented'.

The foundation of the article is the first line - "The belief that Australians are a uniquely original and innately inventive people is one of the great Australian legends."
A pretty vague assertion really, which is impossible to varify. What does he mean by 'uniquely original'? And does inventiveness include the development of new ideas, techniques, methods, strategies or concepts? If it does, then how would one go about quantifying them? If it doesn't, why take such a narrow view of of what inventiveness means (ie. making 'inventions')?

Most importantly however, does it even matter which country an individual who invented something comes from?

Indeed Johnj. I can't remember when I've been so swelled with pride at my Anglo ancestry.

Alf Garnett lives!

(cont'd)

Spelling correction varify > verify.

"In Australia, we have made ourselves so proud of this single innovation that it has almost come to define Australian brilliance."
Who's 'we'?

"Though it will disappoint those who continue to believe Australia must be in all things a country of extremes, the quantitative evidence suggests that Australia is neither a uniquely clever country nor, fortunately, a uniquely stupid one. In terms of our fundamental abilities to make new discoveries or to create completely new technologies, Australians are fairly average in performance."

Quantitative evidence? New discoveries or inventions? Which one is the author actually talking about? Very very few technologies are completely new - rather they tend to evolve over time via the work of many different people. Take for example the refrigerator. In the Encylcopaedia Britannica list linked by Rhian, the refrigerator was apparently 'invented' by one John Gorrie from the US in 1842. However, consider this history of the refrigerator from Wikipedia:

"The first known artificial refrigeration was demonstrated by William Cullen at the University of Glasgow in 1748, and relied on the vapor-compression refrigeration process explained by Michael Faraday. Between 1805, when Oliver Evans designed the first refrigeration machine that used vapor instead of liquid, and 1902 when Willis Haviland Carrier demonstrated the first air conditioner, scores of inventors contributed many small advances in cooling machinery. In 1850 or 1851, Dr. John Gorrie demonstrated an ice maker. In 1857, Australian James Harrison introduced vapor-compression refrigeration to the brewing and meat packing industries. The absorption refrigerator was invented by Baltzar von Platen and Carl Munters in 1922, while they were still students at the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, Sweden. It became a worldwide success and was commercialized by Electrolux. Other pioneers included Charles Tellier, David Boyle, and Raoul Pictet."

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

So who 'invented' it? Get my point?

Johnj “Days unsullied by the gooks, slopes, dagoes, garlic-munchers, wogs, spicks, balts, chinks, nig nogs, curry-eaters and other refuse from the gutters’

Your words, not mine Johnj.

You seem to be suffering from a serious inferiority complex there but reading the rest of your invective, it is probably well suited.

Shame you cannot aspire to better than that which you are.

One is tempted to ask what sort of “other refuse from the gutter” you are but please, don’t bore us. Having read through your one post, any more would be enough to induce vomiting.

I guess you have, however, proved one of the awful truths about Australian society. –

That half the population are below average intelligence.

As for “pinko chardonay-swilling politically-correct bureaucrat swanning in to whinge about the environment”

you sound like a public servant (I was tempted to suggest civil servant, except I doubt there is anything “civil” about you).

Finally, I suggest , if you want to do something to benefit Australia’s cultural assimilation process, it should be to volunteer for an emergency vasectomy immediately.

Have a nice day

Dr Livingstone “Most importantly however, does it even matter which country an individual who invented something comes from?”

The answer is – no.

the obvious point is it is never the collective which invents or achieves anything but always the individuals which populate it, encouraged by the freedom of expression and inquiry which allows them to indulge their individual interests.

“Invention” is like being in a football club, you might have lots supporters but the players who scores the goals are always identifiable from the hangers-on around them.