BS: Worst inventions of all time.

Subject: RE: BS: Worst inventions of all time.
From: GUEST,Guest from Sanity
Date: 18 Mar 14 - 01:25 AM

Politicians and propaganda!

GfS

P.S. 'Religion' being right up there, as well!

Subject: RE: BS: Worst inventions of all time.
From: GUEST
Date: 17 Mar 14 - 09:19 PM

processed cheese slices.

Subject: RE: BS: Worst inventions of all time.
From: frogprince
Date: 17 Mar 14 - 07:50 PM

Cooking hamburgers in the toaster...why do I suspect that might have been Canadian beef?... : )

Subject: RE: BS: Worst inventions of all time.
From: GUEST,BobL
Date: 17 Mar 14 - 06:40 PM

Naa, Silas, all you gotta do is turn the doneness control to minimum, then when the bread pops up, turn it upside down and give it a second shot.


Either that or avoid budget-price toasters.

Subject: RE: BS: Worst inventions of all time.
From: GUEST
Date: 17 Mar 14 - 05:41 PM

Silas, you should try cooking burgers from frozen in one. You might learn some new expletives...

Subject: RE: BS: Worst inventions of all time.
From: The Sandman
Date: 17 Mar 14 - 05:34 PM

sex?
look at all the diseases it has transmitted , and all the idiots that have been born as a result of sex

Subject: RE: BS: Worst inventions of all time.
From: Silas
Date: 17 Mar 14 - 07:00 AM

The very worst invention was the electric pop up toaster.

It may have worked if the fucking idiots who designed it actually made it big enough to take a full slice of bread insted of a quarter of the bleeding slice still sticking out the sodding top and remaining uncooked whilst the rest of the fucking slice is burnt to a frazzle.

Just my opinion of course.

Subject: RE: BS: Worst inventions of all time.
From: GUEST,Troubadour
Date: 17 Mar 14 - 06:59 AM

Amen to that JiK!

Along with degrees in transport management, social studies and most of all my pet hate, UK Nursing 2000, which enables students to qualify as nurses with minimal contact with patients, bed pans, or any other of the day to day challenges of the job.

The upsot is that they go in to hospitals and lord it over nurses who learnrd the job from the bottom up and because they haven't a degree, must obtain one, or wave goodbye to any chance of promotion.

An E grade nurse with twenty years experience does the dirty work for the University tyke, who hasn't learned how and onsiders it beneath her.

Subject: RE: BS: Worst inventions of all time.
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 17 Mar 14 - 01:16 AM

Based on observation of recent customs, I would suggest nominating for discussion the increasingly popular "advanced degrees," MBA and MBM. (Master of Business Administration and Master of Bunsiness Managment.)

While either field of study could teach useful things, in the recent past they've been largely an "escape" for those who tried to learn something useful but were unable to apply what they learned successfully, so they saw these as "routes into being a boss," where they hoped to be better compensated and "respected."

I've seen a very few who entered those studies because it was what they wanted to do, and had some success. Recently those who tried to escape a prior record of incompetence have shown only that if you can learn to "suck up" to the right people who got there ahead of you, incompetence doesn't matter all that much.

Along the same line, many years ago a local University announced the establishment of a degree course to teach people how to start and run a business, claiming that it was the "first school of its kind." They ran the TV ad announcing the new "School of Enterperneurship" for more than twelve years before anyone at the school noticed the misspelling.

"Shure Teech, tell me somthin' that'll make me a genyus."

John

Subject: RE: BS: Worst inventions of all time.
From: olddude
Date: 16 Mar 14 - 11:59 PM

JELLO

Subject: RE: BS: Worst inventions of all time.
From: Gurney
Date: 16 Mar 14 - 08:07 PM

As this thread seems to be devolving..... A couple of observations.

In American films involving stagecoaches, I noticed that the footbrake was on the right, so the driver obviously sat there, and the coaches would pass RHSide to RHSide. As the British do.
This may, of course, be arranged so that the right-handed guard could turn to shoot pursuing baddies without blowing the driver's head off.

The metric system was introduced, forcibly, by Napoleon. This joker wanted standardisation throughout his empire. After his time, the people he forced it on didn't go back to their old systems. Except as regards where Longitude is measured from and the calendar, both of which he changed in most of Europe.
(Anyone have any more examples of Napoleonic standardisation that didn't catch on?)

Subject: RE: BS: Worst inventions of all time.
From: GUEST
Date: 16 Mar 14 - 08:37 AM

"The Mudcat Americans are much nicer than the Brits.
Why is that?"

You could help to solve that by leaving!

Well,........If you must lead with your chin......LOL :-)

Subject: RE: BS: Worst inventions of all time.
From: GUEST,Troubadour
Date: 16 Mar 14 - 08:06 AM

"Private cars. They're a weapon of war against the future."

I take it you live somewhere with decent public transport, like the middle of a city.

Where I live, the last bus arrives at about 7pm, so if you had your way, I'd be living with a curfew, permitted no social life whatever.

Add to that the fact that I'm a disabled driver, and there goes the rest of the day.

Housebound by order of a luddite who cannot see the difference between necessity and luxury.

Since my income is tiny, my only possibility of any holiday is by caravan. It may have escaped your notice, but you can't hitch them to a bus or train, so you've buggered that as well.

Do you ever give any rational thought to what you post Mr Campin?

Subject: RE: BS: Worst inventions of all time.
From: Bert
Date: 15 Mar 14 - 05:40 PM

What we need Donuel is a Government Department of Common Sense who can step in and control the stupidity and the bribes.

Subject: RE: BS: Worst inventions of all time.
From: Donuel
Date: 15 Mar 14 - 12:52 PM

Bert your initial post about organizations is too simplistic. The reason for a Bureaucracy was to support Imperial power that communicated as quickly as ships could go.

Today the reason why exasperation is the chief product by some organizations is that they become hobbled by out side agency political tricks of cash starvation and hyper vigilance over the small stuff to the point, for example, that we can not give a cup of coffee to an eminent scientist who just traveled 10 hours to advise the NIH, because, supposedly, we are fighting government waste.
In reality the cup of coffee rule ends up having a 90 minute line with one clerk collecting money from each scientist,. 228 wasted man hours result from the law that says we can not buy coffee in one transaction for an invited guest who is volunteering their time and expertise.

It gets worse but Gov. waste is an invention to cover up the oily wall street military handouts and shout about a free muffin or cup of coffee.

Subject: RE: BS: Worst inventions of all time.
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 14 Mar 14 - 05:36 PM

Philadelphia had one interchange with exit ramps to the crossing Interstate with signs that said North or South, but the other road ran East or West. The Govt said "people will get used to it."

John

Subject: RE: BS: Worst inventions of all time.
From: frogprince
Date: 14 Mar 14 - 03:33 PM

Or... the sign at the expressway exit says, "Hwy 17 West"; you drive by it, because you want the exit that will take you east on # 17. No such exit. To go either east or west on 17, you need to take the exit that says "west"; the sign just means that the section of road that the ramp leads to is designated "Hwy 17 West".

Subject: RE: BS: Worst inventions of all time.
From: Bert
Date: 14 Mar 14 - 02:38 PM

Yes John, MOST of them do. But some of them don't so you never really know.

Then there are those stop signs with a modifying sign on them saying something like "Traffic from the right doesn't stop". Of course you see that there is the sign there when you are approaching from a different direction but you don't know what it says. Traffic engineers get paid to think up crap like that.

Subject: RE: BS: Worst inventions of all time.
From: GUEST,1812
Date: 14 Mar 14 - 07:41 AM

Seems like 1812-14 had no clear Brirish or USA war winner. The big loser was the First Nations peoples, (aka, the Indians). So, the worst invention or these folks were European invaders/colonials/settlers.




1812-14 

Subject: RE: BS: Worst inventions of all time.
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 14 Mar 14 - 06:46 AM

There are some exceptions, but most 4-way stops in my region are an ordinary octagonal "STOP" sign with a small rectangular sign below that says "4 WAY" or sometimes "ALL WAY" (if fewer or more than 4 ways) and in places where confusion is likely (or has occured) the little rectangular one may say "CROSS TRAFFIC DOES NOT STOP."

It can't be denied, of course, that the Frat Rats sometimes steal one or more of the signs to decorate their rooms, but that's only common in "University Towns." And even then mostly just when the football team won a big one and they all got drunk.

John

Subject: RE: BS: Worst inventions of all time.
From: Bert
Date: 14 Mar 14 - 05:47 AM

Ah yes The Four way stop, where the knowledge of your right of way depends upon the existence, or not, of a sign down another street which if it is there, you can only see it edgeways on, if your view is nor blocked by another vehicle.

Subject: RE: BS: Worst inventions of all time.
From: Musket
Date: 14 Mar 14 - 04:56 AM

Ah, you see... The bit about yielding to the guy on your right...

That's how we do roundabouts! (Err.. If you go to mainland Europe, yield to the left....)

I suppose the awful suspension you put up with makes curved roads a no no?

I remember when Top Gear reviewed an American car that had just gone on sale here, they tested it on the A15 between Scunthorpe and Lincoln on the basis that it is the longest stretch of road in The UK with no bends.

Classic.

Subject: RE: BS: Worst inventions of all time.
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 14 Mar 14 - 02:33 AM

According to those who taught the non-credit course in "Offensive Driving for Newcomers" in the Massachusetts Universities when I was there, different rules apply for ordinary cross-street intersections there.

There, the rule is that the first one who admits seeing another vehicle must yield to that vehicle.

The "admission" is obvious if you look in their direction, but other more subtle indications are frequently applied.

It is suggested that "yielding" means just slowing down, since coming to a full stop means that you have yielded to all crossing traffic until there aren't any more of them (which almost never happens).

Elsewhere, it is pretty much universal that the one approaching first has the right of way, or in case of a "tie" the one "on the right" goes. "Four-way" stops are fairly common in the US, and there it's whoever comes to a full stop first goes on through first. (And in case of a tie, it's the one on your right that you must yield for.)

John

Subject: RE: BS: Worst inventions of all time.
From: GUEST,Musket
Date: 14 Mar 14 - 02:21 AM

When on the other side of the pond, where roundabouts haven't grasped the imagination, I find four way junctions aren't always what they are cracked up to be.

After you
No, after you
Be my guest
No. You go first , I insist.

( all translated through facial expressions)

How the hell do you manage to have so much gun crime?

Subject: RE: BS: Worst inventions of all time.
From: Bert
Date: 14 Mar 14 - 01:40 AM

Here's how to adjust your mirrors so that you don't get blind spots.
I'll try to make the instructions Cross the Pond proof.

Sitting in the driver's seat, lean your head close to to driver's window and adjust that mirror so that you can just see the side of the car.

To adjust the passenger side mirror lean towards the middle of the car and again, adjust that mirror so that you can just see the side of the car.

The new views take a little getting used to at first as they are unfamiliar. To check that they work watch a car approaching in your inside mirror; as it disappears from view, it should come into view in one of your side mirrors.

Subject: RE: BS: Worst inventions of all time.
From: GUEST
Date: 13 Mar 14 - 05:00 PM

I resubmit: Cheezes, as they taste so good and are so bad for you. Difficult to eat while driving, as a residue sticks to your fingers (and even some folks nostrils).(AKA, Cheetos, cheese crisps, balls etc., invented by James E. Marker (died May, 2012, marketed by W.T. Hawkins in a plant which started in 1949).

Subject: RE: BS: Worst inventions of all time.
From: GUEST
Date: 13 Mar 14 - 04:31 PM

Crisps. Ask any traditional singer.

Subject: RE: BS: Worst inventions of all time.
From: Jack the Sailor
Date: 18 Jan 14 - 02:28 PM

It wasn't hard to figure out which side of the road to drive on in England. The conventions like you are talking about Q was an entirely different matter.

Other driver found me much too timid on the large roundabouts Excuse Me for not wanting to have to explain to a Bobby that my blind spots were reversed and the mirrors on the van were too small.

Getting back to Bert's purpose of this thread. Having tiny mirrors that fold in in tight quarters proved handy. Having them be too small to be useful as mirrors, not so much! Not the Worst invention but certainly they fell short of the mark.

Subject: RE: BS: Worst inventions of all time.
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 18 Jan 14 - 02:12 PM

Went around a traffic circle (roundabout) in Scotland the wrong way. That was fun!

Entering a large open parking area (also UK)I met a car coming toward me. Now which way do I turn, left or right, to avoid collision?
We met nose to nose, but stopped before colliding, threw up our hands, and laughed.

Subject: RE: BS: Worst inventions of all time.
From: Jack the Sailor
Date: 18 Jan 14 - 12:57 PM

Ebbie, if there was a like button, I would like your post.

Subject: RE: BS: Worst inventions of all time.
From: Jack the Sailor
Date: 18 Jan 14 - 12:56 PM

Bicker bicker bicker......

Subject: RE: BS: Worst inventions of all time.
From: GUEST,Musket
Date: 18 Jan 14 - 12:53 PM

"FUCKING"

Violation of rules






How come when I spell Jack the Sailor as Jerk the Sea Cadet it is violating the rules but when he calls Musket Ian Mather it isn't?

One rule for the sailors, one for the poor downtrodden rational folk.

Subject: RE: BS: Worst inventions of all time.
From: Ebbie
Date: 18 Jan 14 - 12:23 PM

"US toleration of slavery (never legal in England itself under common law, declared as common law in 1722...." R. Bridge

sheesh. Keep in mind that those who first engaged in slavery in the 'new world' were Englishmen. sheesh.

Subject: RE: BS: Worst inventions of all time.
From: Jack the Sailor
Date: 18 Jan 14 - 10:42 AM

How about Ian Mather's invention of bickering on EVERY FUCKING THREAD? I call it Mathering.

Subject: RE: BS: Worst inventions of all time.
From: GUEST,Musket
Date: 18 Jan 14 - 10:07 AM

If it is possible to reluctantly agree with the thrust of Bridge's post without sounding so bloody miserable, I'll try.

Watch out though Bridge. Living in one of the lynching states for so long has affected our nautical friend. He reckons free speech is, well... Damn. You are right.

Another worst invention ? These rules Jack The Sailor keeps harping on about. Sheer invention eh?

Subject: RE: BS: Worst inventions of all time.
From: GUEST,Eliza
Date: 18 Jan 14 - 06:02 AM

Heavens above Bob, it's a wonder you weren't killed instantly! I'll never, ever forget the sight of a wall of cars heading straight at me as I went round the thing the wrong way. In fact, I was permanently traumatised, as I've dreamt about it quite a few times since, and woken in a sweat!

Subject: RE: BS: Worst inventions of all time.
From: GUEST,BobL
Date: 18 Jan 14 - 03:31 AM

Eliza, adverse opinions of HH's Magic Roundabout were numerous at first, but once the local drivers had got used to it, they decided it was actually quite a good idea after all.

However a local sport is to spring it on unsuspecting American or Continental drivers who have only just got used to driving on the "wrong" side...

My own first encounter with it came in a newly-acquired car - in the rain - with a dodgy indicator - and I found the driver's side window didn't open. Fun days!

Subject: RE: BS: Worst inventions of all time.
From: Bill D
Date: 17 Jan 14 - 08:36 PM

I think The Magic Roundabout beats Dupont Circle in Washington D.C. (Look THAT up in a map site.. or better, get Google Earth and 'drive' thru/around it.) It is a circle within a circle,with places to cross from one to another and traffic lights within the circles. It is ummm.. 'interesting' at busy times.... and very large buses make it hard to see where you need to be.

Subject: RE: BS: Worst inventions of all time.
From: GUEST,Eliza
Date: 17 Jan 14 - 05:35 PM

Good gracious Bob (ketchdana) I'm astonished that the Magic Roundabout is still there! You're quite right, it was totally confusing and almost impossible to negotiate safely. The sign just before one approached it looked like a piece of knitting, or a bowl of spaghetti. I wonder just how many bad accidents have occurred on it? As I had a prisoner to visit at The Mount prison for a period of several months, I took to parking outside the town and taking a taxi to the jail instead. The taxi drivers laughed their heads off about it; they seemed inordinately proud of their Magic Roundabout! I used initially to arrive on the visit chalk white and trembly; the officers thought I was nervous, and always searched me extra carefully for smuggled drugs!
(Sorry about the thread drift, but Bob's answer has interested me so much.)

Subject: RE: BS: Worst inventions of all time.
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 17 Jan 14 - 04:21 PM

The Highway code tells you how to navigate roundabouts. In many cases they work better than traffic lights. Even at night, one should not drive faster than enables you to stop within the range of what you can see. And a driver ought to be able to decide how fast or slowly he can get round a roundabout. The accidents described above are due to execrable driving, or somnolescence.

And in general I find the cultural assumptions of Americans are far more offensive than others. The assumptions that guns solve everything, that US law prevails across the globe, that "shock and awe" delivers rectitude, that pistols will defend against an oppressive central government, that socialism is evil, that crisps are called chips and chips are called freedom fries are just the tip of the iceberg. The reason the "Sheriff GW Pepper" stereotype played so well across the globe is because those of us outside the USA have met him many times, in calf length checked trousers being strangled by camera straps and occupying two seats.

The US version of "freedom of speech" - behind which bullies are protected in schools so long as they avoid the N-word. Disaster.

The second amendment. Disaster.

The absence of rules restricting the filibuster. Disaster.

Citizens United. Disaster.

The absence of a "long title" rule restricting the ambit of bill amendments - disaster.

The absence of something like the Salisbury convention. Disaster.

US toleration of slavery (never legal in England itself under common law, declared as common law in 1722 so retrospective) - disaster that continues to the present.

Genocide of native Americans (sorry to sound like MLC) - disaster.

McCarthyism - disaster.

I could go on.

Subject: RE: BS: Worst inventions of all time.
From: GUEST,ketchdana
Date: 17 Jan 14 - 04:07 PM

Eliza,
Just checked on google maps (search bar: "The Plough Roundabout, Hemel Hempstead" UK ) and that Magic Roundabout (marked as such on the map) is a real piece of art! It first appears as a large circle with six exits, but is really six small roundabouts connected in a large circle. And traffic in the large circle is both directions!
To go straight across you need to go left and through four roundabouts (painted in the middle of each intersection). Or similarly go right and through four... And traffic already in each roundabout has the right-of-way.
It is worse than that. As you approach the whole mess, there are two lanes, each with a painted arrow, left and right. If you want to go right, and turn where the arrow points, you are put squarely head-on to on-coming traffic! Instead, you must bear left swing around sharply to the right to get going counter-clockwise around the large circle.
And no one has "sorted anything out" yet (as of June 2012, date of the latest google map street view).

Bob

It's worth the entertainment value to check it out. google maps is your friend (in this case, anyway). "The Plough Roundabout, Hemel Hempstead ..."

Oh, by the way, for Worst Invention, I submit/vote for the bicycle seat. Granted it's better than no seat at all on the stem post, but still there has GOT to be a better design somewhere.

Subject: RE: BS: Worst inventions of all time.
From: GUEST,Eliza
Date: 17 Jan 14 - 01:21 PM

Thank you John for clarifying that. Here in UK roundabouts are large and well-signed, with reflective arrow-boards, so you can't miss them in the dark. They usually have 2 lanes and there is a correct procedure for entering and leaving them. When I was prison visiting, I often drove to Hemel Hempstead in Hertfordshire, where there was a notorious Magic Roundabout. I'm a safe and confident driver, but every blooming time I headed for this roundabout, I ended up somehow going the WRONG WAY around it, becoming a trembling wreck. People later told me everyone did this, but the Herts Council seemed not to worry. I expect it's been sorted out now.

Subject: RE: BS: Worst inventions of all time.
From: GUEST,highlandman at work
Date: 17 Jan 14 - 11:08 AM

One place where I have seen traffic circles done well is southern New Jersey. They are actually a good solution for crossing highways where the terrain is flat and the water table high, making cut-and-fill construction of an interchange very expensive.
The trick is to make them really BIG in diameter and at least two lanes wide (this allows the faint of heart to stay in the inside lane while they go around and around gathering courage for the exit maneuver).
Seriously, they work well where they are appropriate but they tend to be a disaster otherwise.
When I was driving in New Zealand on business I found the wrong-side bit fairly easy to handle except for (1) right-hand turns into unoccupied side streets and (2) roundabouts -- they are very small there and going the wrong way around them is, well, interesting.
-Glenn

Subject: RE: BS: Worst inventions of all time.
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 17 Jan 14 - 12:49 AM

Honda, Sony, Mercedes engineers all use metric right?

All autos sold in the US since at least the early '70s have used metric fasteners exclusively in structural parts, and power train parts have been nearly all metric.

The SAE (Society of Automotive Engineers) that was/is the primary US source for standards for automotive parts and equipment changed their name to "SAE International" several decades ago, and their publications have included SAE/Metric (dual dimensions) in all articles and reports since about then. More recent publications (for 20 years or so) have used the metric specs with only occasional "translations" to equivalent "US" or "inch" terms.

For vehicles other than some UK designed airplanes anything other than metric nuts and bolts has been obsolete (in the US) for at least 40 years - and often longer.

The only "real metric" tool I can think of that you can't get easily "off the shelf" at Smears and Screwyabucks is a screwdriver (but most of the critical sizes/styles for those are proprietary and dimensionally identical regardless of what you call them).

John

Subject: RE: BS: Worst inventions of all time.
From: Jack the Sailor
Date: 16 Jan 14 - 11:58 PM

Oh, that's easy, automated phone dialers with recorded political messages.

Subject: RE: BS: Worst inventions of all time.
From: GUEST
Date: 16 Jan 14 - 09:28 PM

Silicone/Saline Breast Implants !!!

Subject: RE: BS: Worst inventions of all time.
From: Bert
Date: 16 Jan 14 - 09:16 PM

Yes Jack, it doesn't take long getting used to driving on the other side of the road. I always found that the problem came when I got back and thought that I could relax.

And it is much worse for pedestrians because they look the wrong way and step out into the road.

But the whole idea of this thread was to find out what other people thought were the worst inventions, not to keep arguing over the first one or two.

Subject: RE: BS: Worst inventions of all time.
From: Jack the Sailor
Date: 16 Jan 14 - 09:03 PM

Kilogram / 3 is .33 kg or 333 grams, not nearly as hard to figure out as a third of a pound. I had fully learned the Imperial system when Canada switched to metric. Then I used metric. Then I moved to the USA, back to ounces, inches, gallons. I always found metric simpler. The only thing I don't find more intuitive is liters/100 km vs mpg.

Honda, Sony, Mercedes engineers all use metric right? Clunky? OK.

I think you are right MthGM, I rented a Car in Gatwick when I went to the UK. It took about 10 minutes to get used to the other side of the road.

Subject: RE: BS: Worst inventions of all time.
From: Joe_F
Date: 16 Jan 14 - 08:08 PM

I think I would go for the loudspeaker.

Subject: RE: BS: Worst inventions of all time.
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 16 Jan 14 - 08:02 PM

Eliza - Yes the US abomination commonly called a "traffic circle" is the same sort of thing others call a "roundabout." The roundabout term is heard occasionally in New England where they've been around for a long time, but "traffic circle" is the more common term where they've only recently begun to appear.

I lived for a while in Boston (actually Dorchester) Mass near a classic one called Kosciuszko Circle. This was a small circle where FIVE streets came together. There was a nice little monument in the middle (vaguely resembling a 12 ft tall phallus) with an appropriate sign, another sign on a concrete marker, and a street sign on each of the five streets declaring it to be Kosz*****/Cos***/Koz (whatever) Circle, with a total of SEVEN different spellings of the poor guy's name.

A more representative "modern" circle appears a few miles East of our present location, where a four lane highway with 70 mph (110 kph) speed limit crosses a two lane road with 65 mph (104 kph) speed limit. They couldn't decide which one to put a stop sign on, so they made a circle, with 20 mph (32 kph) speed limit in the circle where the two come together. Since this is out in open country (about 20 miles from the nearest "town") there are no lights, and on a dark night the "signage" gives one about 150 ft of warning that you're coming up on "something." There are lots of skid marks on the pavement from people trying to slow down in time, but for large trucks even the 20 mph "limit" in the circle is a little too fast. (It's a small circle.) Three of the seven times I've gone through that circle, there was a semi or a semi trailer in the ditch, that went off the circle sideways. (The circle is slightly elevated, so that those who tip over can roll down the hill clear of the next crash, which I suppose the "designers" claim was an intentional "safety feature.")

John