Worst inventions ever?

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schneiderguy

Lifer
Jun 26, 2006
10,801
91
91
Worst invention ever? Has to be the nuclear bomb.

Nowhere in the history of mankind, has a weapon of war been more effective, then nuclear weapons.

Best invention ever, you mean. WW3 hasn't happened yet, nuclear weapons are why.

And even if the world does erupt into a fiery nuclear holocaust, I'm not so sure that getting rid of a majority of the world's population would be a bad thing :whiste:
 

Jeff7

Lifer
Jan 4, 2001
41,596
20
81
Worst invention ever? Has to be the nuclear bomb.

Nowhere in the history of mankind, has a weapon of war been more effective, then nuclear weapons.
Link.


Nuclear weaponry did kind of go a bit too far though. Once each warring side can kill everyone on the planet once, what's the point of having more? At that point, the trick is to be able to hit quickly, without retaliation. Being able to kill someone multiple times doesn't give much of a tactical advantage. There's not much point to shooting someone after he's dead, other than to lighten your gun a little bit.
 

OutHouse

Lifer
Jun 5, 2000
36,410
616
126
Oh...in addition to just being outright painful to operate...you also have the auto-on sinks that have like 9 bajjion PSI of water pressure run to them and they impact the sink with so much velocity it ends up spraying everywhere and it almost always happens when you are wearing white/light colored pants and it looks like you dribbled piss all over yourself.

Good times!

sounds like our sinks at work. god i hate them.
 

Ichinisan

Lifer
Oct 9, 2002
28,298
1,235
136
Link.


Nuclear weaponry did kind of go a bit too far though. Once each warring side can kill everyone on the planet once, what's the point of having more? At that point, the trick is to be able to hit quickly, without retaliation. Being able to kill someone multiple times doesn't give much of a tactical advantage. There's not much point to shooting someone after he's dead, other than to lighten your gun a little bit.

:thumbsup:
 

Exterous

Super Moderator
Jun 20, 2006
20,569
3,762
126
Motion sensing toilets that flush every time you so much as flinch. Yes...I love having the thing flush 4 times as I'm trying to wipe my ass and pull up my pants. And then I go over to the motion sensing sink and have to wave my hands around furiously trying to find the magical spot where it notices I'm trying to get it to turn on. Only to be faced with the same motion-retarded soap dispenser that doesn't know your hand is there until it's gone and then blows it's load on the counter. And once I have consumed 14x the amount of water that I normally would, taken 4.3 times longer to wash my fucking hands while leaving foaming piles of lightly scented antibacterial spooge on the counter I have to go over and spend another 45 seconds drying my hands under a motion sensing hand dryer consuming god knows how much electricity it requires to fire up, make heat, and blow it at 180 miles per hour across my hands when I could have just grabbed a paper towel and been on my merry way.

lol - although your forgot the part about the hand dryers that stay on for 2 seconds

Robertson screws own both. The heads don't strip like phillips screws do.

I loves me some robertson screws! I actually had to use some flat head screws the other day and was wondering why the hell they still make them when there are so many better options

I'm going to have to second blister packaging. I understand their reasoning (anti-theft) but I shouldn't need nuclear intervention to open a package I just bought. Plus those cut edges are razor sharp and I'm always afraid I'll cut the product when knifing the package open.

I've always wanted to return one of those products covered in my blood that I just decided to let run all over the product after one of the razor sharp edges nearly amputated one of my fingers
 

Exterous

Super Moderator
Jun 20, 2006
20,569
3,762
126
Also, I read a study that showed Hand blowers are actually LESS sanitary than using paper towel. This is because the friction from rubbing your hands together can work out bacteria, virus, etc, that were deeper in your skin. Where as the paper towel will actually swab it away.

There are some new ones out there that use UV light as well I believe

My company has the "no-flush" version of urinals that you walk up, take a leak, and then walk away. This may be fine with saving water and all, but damn is that disgusting. Makes you wonder sometimes if they get cleaned regularly or not

As does ours. That bathroom doesn't smell as nice as the ones with the flush ones do

I'm going to put the HDMI cable out there.

Ok - we have a really great idea - one cable to rule them all. Do we want to use some current standard connector (Oh like - I don't know - RJ-45?) No! We need something new so people have to buy all new stuff! But how to market it?

We clearly need to differentiate it from other cables. Now - what do all other cables out there have? A way to secure the cable in place. Let's get rid of that - Now our cable is special and unique!

But it still kind a stays in place. Lets make it weight a lot but make the connector really thin so it flops out or breaks (Good thing we thought ahead and didn't add any type of securing method)

And we have standardized it right? Great - now lets change it now that a bunch have shipped. And change it again. And change it again

Oh HDMI - you could have been great....
 

Exterous

Super Moderator
Jun 20, 2006
20,569
3,762
126
Also, I read a study that showed Hand blowers are actually LESS sanitary than using paper towel. This is because the friction from rubbing your hands together can work out bacteria, virus, etc, that were deeper in your skin. Where as the paper towel will actually swab it away.

There are some new ones out there that use UV light as well I believe

My company has the "no-flush" version of urinals that you walk up, take a leak, and then walk away. This may be fine with saving water and all, but damn is that disgusting. Makes you wonder sometimes if they get cleaned regularly or not

As does ours. That bathroom doesn't smell as nice as the ones with the flush ones do

I'm going to put the HDMI cable out there.

Ok - we have a really great idea - one cable to rule them all. Do we want to use some current standard connector (Oh like - I don't know - RJ-45?) No! We need something new so people have to buy all new stuff! But how to market it?

We clearly need to differentiate it from other cables. Now - what do all other cables out there have? A way to secure the cable in place. Let's get rid of that - Now our cable is special and unique!

But it still kind a stays in place. Lets make it weight a lot but make the connector really thin so it flops out or breaks (Good thing we thought ahead and didn't add any type of securing method)

And we have standardized it right? Great - now lets change it now that a bunch have shipped. And change it again. And change it again

And - lets make the connector and cable super complicated so self terminating is nearly impossible

Oh HDMI - you could have been great....
 
Feb 24, 2001
14,513
4
81
Link.


Nuclear weaponry did kind of go a bit too far though. Once each warring side can kill everyone on the planet once, what's the point of having more? At that point, the trick is to be able to hit quickly, without retaliation. Being able to kill someone multiple times doesn't give much of a tactical advantage. There's not much point to shooting someone after he's dead, other than to lighten your gun a little bit.

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

JimKiler

Diamond Member
Oct 10, 2002
3,561
206
106
I know it never was mass produced but Thomas Edison invented and tried to sell concrete furniture and houses. Sounds comfortable.
 
Feb 24, 2001
14,513
4
81
Pantyhose. Fingerfucking hasn't been the same since.

Yeah I thought I was really pounding it with this new chick one night. Her toes were curling and she was incredibly tight. Told her later how great she was and how she must have liked it with all the foot cramping. Apparently she had her pantyhose still on...
 

Aharami

Lifer
Aug 31, 2001
21,205
165
106
Read up on how they work. The ones on campus work quite well. No stink. Just needs the nightly pube hair cleaning.

Yea I recall reading a story on wired.com about the no flush toilets. When it was first installed in an army base, the people started complaining that it stinks. It turned out that there was a leak in a sewer pipe and the bathroom always stunk. But before the installation of the toilets people didnt have anything to blame the smell on. After the leak was repaired, the smell went away.
 

BurnItDwn

Lifer
Oct 10, 1999
26,353
1,862
126
Worst invention ever? Has to be the nuclear bomb.

Nowhere in the history of mankind, has a weapon of war been more effective, then nuclear weapons.

Only used for it's destructive purpose twice in the history of mankind though....

This is not what the OP was talking about, but, in the same vein as nukes, I think MUCH MUCH worse would be Land Mines....
 

ichy

Diamond Member
Oct 5, 2006
6,940
8
81
I know it never was mass produced but Thomas Edison invented and tried to sell concrete furniture and houses. Sounds comfortable.

The Navy experimented with concrete ships to get around steel shortages in WW2.
 

TheNinja

Lifer
Jan 22, 2003
12,207
1
0
Cell phone texting. Man I HATE it. It's all people seem to do now is sit in a row and click and clack away on the damn phone.
 

Bryf50

Golden Member
Nov 11, 2006
1,429
51
91
The little rubber jackets that cover the tab on Ethernet cable plugs. Extremely annoying and useless.
I remember there was a thread about this in the past so it might be a joke. But the jacket is there so you can pull it without the little clip getting stuck on everything and eventually breaking off. They make life so much easier.
 

msw1382

Member
Feb 25, 2008
136
0
76
Worst invention ever -

The automatic light that turns off when I am 10 min into the best shit of my life. I then find myself rolling up toilet paper and attempting to hit the sensor so I don't look like a complete tool when someone comes in and notices it was dark and yet there are my shoes showing from under the stall wall.
 
Feb 24, 2001
14,513
4
81
I remember there was a thread about this in the past so it might be a joke. But the jacket is there so you can pull it without the little clip getting stuck on everything and eventually breaking off. They make life so much easier.

You aren't supposed to run cabling with the ends already crimped on...
 

vi edit

Elite Member
Super Moderator
Oct 28, 1999
62,484
8,345
126
You aren't supposed to run cabling with the ends already crimped on...

They aren't pulling cable to a room. It would be like hooking up a PC to a bench to rebuild/troubleshoot and then unhook it. The jacket is there to prevent snagging as you pull it away from the ratnest of wires. Or in a datacenter when you are pulling cables out of one switch/port and plugging into a different one.

But yes, they do make the cables a massing pain in the ass to get unplugged.