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maybe coz both r staying for the same shit

another sack of rise got spoiled in peking on the ground. happy congratualition for senseless commentary above!

Being from USA is no defence, he ought to know that displaying the flag is offensive and repulses people.

Boohoo.. we find Europe repulsing too.. but you don't hear us complaining.

America != The United States

*United States of America

sorry

"America != The United States" It's called abbreviation. Name another country with the word 'America' in its name. It's pretty obvious which country is meant then when someone says it.

"It's pretty obvious which country is meant then when someone says it."

"America" is the name of the continent. I'm from Argentina, and that makes me American too. If you want to abbreviate,
use USA or US or whatever.

it might be an interesting idea for an article - the love-hate relatioship people have with the USA. One the one hand people love itstechnology, Microsoft, BM, Apple .. and on the other hand people loath it for various reasons.
for a country that invented the computer
(http://www.law.ou.edu/hist/clinton2.html) they seem to attract a lot of dislike...

"Konrad Zuse, a German engineer, completes the first general purpose progammable calculator in 1941. He pioneers the use of binary math and boolean logic in electronic calculation."

http://www.pbs.org/nerds/timeline/elec.html

Of course, the USA is a great country and it has done more to the development of computers than any other country. But the earliest roots of the invention of the computer can be found in Europe.

1- Dearest Daniel Quintiliani, thanks for effort and time, this are the kind of thing real geeks do and that's what is all about. Good luck!

2- Dear Ktoggerax, I sorry to inform you that you are wrong, America STILL is the name OF THE WHOLE CONTINENT.

So, we can call ZA "Africa" from now? As it is the only country with name containing "Africa" as noun? Or is it not "first-world" enough to gobble the name of the whole continent?

amazing - even today people from the USA can't see why anyone else would be upset at thir point of view. sigh.

Perhaps the World Series also needs renaming to something more appropriate eh? ;-) A name, a form of identification, abbreviation of form of address, identification, way to call comething is just that a name and like all things a name is but a subjective interpretation subject to permutations - impermanance. Why get so stressed up over something that is impermanent? Peace.

TextOS hmmm another new distro, flavor call it what one may I'm sure some will see it this way. Further fragmentation in open source. Some sees it rather as a reflection of strength. Selective interpretation of things and conditions governed by situational variables like whims, fancies, moods, fashion, etc. ;-)

The last time I was in South Africa I took notice of how common is was for people to refer to their country as "Africa" and refer to themselves as "Africans." So I guess the answer to your question is yes.

The first people to commonly use the term "America" to refer to the area that is now the United States were the English, who were initially referring to the entire two continents. But since England didn't have any colonies in South America, it was mostly used to refer to the English colonies in North America, including Canada and the Caribbean. The early colonists called themselves Americans, though they were British subjects. Come 1776 and the revolution, and being an "American" as opposed to a British subject became an important political distinction. That's when the shorthand of "America" for the USA started, because those people called themselves American long before the USA even existed. Eventually, national identies in Canada and the Caribbean developed, and they didn't call themselves "American" anymore, as it was probably unwise to link themselves with rebellious colonists over there in the USA, so the name was narrowed (in the former British sphere, anyway) to mean just USA.

Of course, now the whole America thing gets linked with all this US foreign policy and hubris baggage, but I don't think it's any kind of conspiracy, just an accident of history and the fact that the name United States is unwieldy. For example, if we aren't allowed to use "American" what are we supposed to call ourselves? United Statesians? USAers?