Naked Science Forum
On the Lighter Side => Famous Scientists, Doctors and Inventors => Topic started by: Barry Buternowsky on 02/12/2009 18:55:21
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I wonder who had the most inventions that we wish had never been invented.
Perhaps a good candidate is Thomas Midgley:
- CFCs
- leaded gasoline
Eventually strangled to death by his own invention.
Barry
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Who ever 'invented' MacDonalds!!
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Who ever 'invented' MacDonalds!!
I get the strangest idea that could have been a chap by the name of.......... MacDonald
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Perhaps Oppenheimer might be a good candidate.
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Next thing you'll be telling me a McChicken burger has chicken in it!
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(https://www.thenakedscientists.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fbestsmileys.com%2Fthinking%2F5.gif&hash=006fb41e945c7d7d662f7b7cd06255f7)Chicken in a McChicken burger...... I wonder if McDonalds ever thought of that?
Nah! That idea is as daft as putting beef in a Big Mac.
Personally, I don't like big macs, I much prefer a small overcoat. (https://www.thenakedscientists.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fbestsmileys.com%2Fclueless%2F1.gif&hash=ba6e884e2ac18d739c0e89967c82862b)
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macdo's is up the in my most hated establishments. did you no there are more macdonalds per head of population in france then any other placde in the world.... there everywhere
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I imagine the guillotine was up there as one of the more controversial.
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There are more MACs in the UK.
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The photo-chromic lightbulb.
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I've just written a piece on Midgley - although he's widely credited with inventing CFCs and TEL, he wasn't alone; Charles Kettering played a big role. And to be fair to Midgely, he was only doing as he was told!
What people don't realise is he did a lot of other work on rubber and vulcanisation, which he considered to be his best work.
He never knew of the damaged TEL and CFCs caused to the environment because - as pointed out - he did unfortunately strangle himself in a system of pulleys he created to help him get in and out of bed after contracting polio.
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Lead in petrol is still causing problems. Chocolate has very high levels of lead because chocolate husks are uniquely capable of soaking it up, and they still use leaded petrol in the countries where it's produced.
Chocolate is actually significantly toxic because of this, you can get lead poisoning if you eat a lot of chocolate.
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Lead in petrol is still causing problems. Chocolate has very high levels of lead because chocolate husks are uniquely capable of soaking it up, and they still use leaded petrol in the countries where it's produced.
Chocolate is actually significantly toxic because of this, you can get lead poisoning if you eat a lot of chocolate.
And your evidence for this is...?
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It's actually moderately well known:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Health_effects_of_chocolate#Lead
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Who ever 'invented' MacDonalds!!
I get the strangest idea that could have been a chap by the name of.......... MacDonald
The original restaurant idea was developed by the McDonald brothers but it was a little burger place in California. The monster it has become is due to Ray Kroc who opened the ninth "McDonald's" and bought out the brothers along with their patented "Speedee Service System" that replaced short order cooks with a assembly line of barely pubescent teens.
The wikipedia page covers it a little but otherwise there is a great book called Fast Food Nation that goes into the history of fast food. Interesting stuff.
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McD, a place that serves cardboard food packed in cardboard ( they taste the same) guaranteed to taste the same no matter where in the world you are. Last time I ate there was 2000, changed to a locally owned chain , it just tastes better. Anyway, of the 4 outlets that opened here when McD came to S Africa, only 2 survive still. One serves the top end of the market and the other the bottom end - cheap food made fast and sold cheap, and a lot of targeted advertising to children to get them to buy it.
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Who ever 'invented' MacDonalds!!
hahaha
I vote for tobacco.
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Come on folks, I think that this is an easy one! It has to be either the Nuclear bomb or Guns! Although the potential for a nuclear winter seems to have been looming over our heads for quite some time I suspect that guns are responsible for more unhappiness then any other artifact in human history therefore making them without doubt the worst invention ever. Of course if your American then you probably sleep with them and have a little shrine in your gun cupboard that you worship from time to time! [xx(]
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Perhaps Oppenheimer might be a good candidate.
Come on folks, I think that this is an easy one! It has to be either the Nuclear bomb or Guns!
Whoever thunk up the idea that one could ever win an arms race?
Leonardo da Vinci was a most unique inventor, yet many of his ideas were far from being practical.
(https://www.thenakedscientists.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fartfiles.art.com%2F5%2Fp%2FLRG%2F14%2F1459%2FT5DQ000Z%2Fleonardo-da-vinci-flying-machine.jpg&hash=1a0c2180299372766fce494757fad6d8)
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CliffordK, I have to say that this flying machine isn't that far off from a design of a modern day hang glider..
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CliffordK, I have to say that this flying machine isn't that far off from a design of a modern day hang glider..
I think Leonardo's design was to flap the wings, and take off from the ground like a bird. Your hang glider looks more like a buzzard condemned to take off from mountain tops. But, having mimicked birds, Leonardo's wings do look surprisingly aerodynamic, and may create lift.
What about Leonardo's Screw Machine?
(https://www.thenakedscientists.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.leonardo.net%2Fp2.jpg&hash=180ff9022bc6a4bad03b180740ea29ba)
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Look, never mind all of these, we all know the answer (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinclair_C5) to this question......
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The Lartigue Monorail system would be hard to beat. Even more so because they even tried it in Ireland.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lartigue_Monorail
(You must read the bit about the transportation of a cow.)
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What about Antoine Louis & Tobias Schmidt [xx(]
Oops, I see that was already taken by wolfekeeper.
How do you define an invention that the inventors are unwilling to test themselves?
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What about Bull Durham (company), and the invention of prepackaged cigarettes.
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go ask rube goldberg or god
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I think I found a pretty bad invention, I am going to provide the link to the advert for it here, in a way this could be classed as spam but you would have to be pretty stupid to buy one! I just checked the website given in the youtube advert and you will be pleased to know that even if you did want to buy one you will not be able to as they went under so to speak a long time ago, lol.
It is called the comfort wipe. I thought it was a hoax at first but apparently it is a real product.
I watched this advert in utter amazement that someone out there actually paid to get this thing developed and then paid for the advertising. As inventions go I would have to say it is pretty bad but what makes it worse is the trouble they went too to promote it.
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Perpetual motion machines and reactionless engines are some of the worst since they don't work.
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It is called the comfort wipe.
Ye gods! "Extends your reach a full eighteen inches."
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Ye gods! "Extends your reach a full eighteen inches."
That is the part that made me chuckle. Absolutely ridiculous! [:0]
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About this time of year, farmers across the Northern Hemisphere are found standing around in circles cursing the very existence of knotters.
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My least favorite invention is the price tag that takes forever to remove. The same idiot probably invented the glued-tight advertisement stickers that also take forever to remove. I will never buy Rubbermaid again because the outside of the container was just covered with propaganda about how wonderful the product is. Half an hour of peeling and soaking failed to remove all the leftover glue.
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Pot Metal
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My least favorite invention is the price tag that takes forever to remove. The same idiot probably invented the glued-tight advertisement stickers that also take forever to remove. I will never buy Rubbermaid again because the outside of the container was just covered with propaganda about how wonderful the product is. Half an hour of peeling and soaking failed to remove all the leftover glue.
Geeze, you had me worried there for a min! I'll not tell you the kinky pictures which went through my mind.
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On that vein I will put forward that clamshell plastic wrapping that is impossible to open without either a knife or without cutting yourself.
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On that vein I will put forward that clamshell plastic wrapping that is impossible to open without either a knife or without cutting yourself.
Somebody invented a special tool for opening those things. Comes in a plastic clamshell package.
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What about Charlemagne & King Offa of Mercia, and the invention of the most complicated monetary system imaginable.
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What about Charlemagne & King Offa of Mercia, and the invention of the most complicated monetary system imaginable.
Ah yes! The king made an offa Charlemagne couldn't refuse.
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The curried tuna I once made could count as an all time bad invention.
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For an anniversary gift, a few years ago, we were given a smoothy maker. 'Great', thought I, I love smoothies and now I can make my own, with the fruits I like the most, raspberries, loganberries, gooseberries and so on and so forth.
At the time 1ltr of a popular brand of smoothy cost around £1.50 from most supermarkets. I now discovered, to my horror, that the cost of sufficient fruit to make around ½ltr of smoothy was coming in at around £5. Needless to say, the smoothy maker has been consigned to the back of that kitchen cupboard where similar useless stuff is stored until the day it is either flogged in a boot sale or heaved in the bin.
What reminded me of this was BC's curried tuna. I do, all too clearly, recall making a smoothy from cucumber, which I find a very refreshing salad ingredient and is, after all a fruit. I don't think I have tasted anything so vile in my entire life.(https://www.thenakedscientists.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.freesmileys.org%2Fsmileys%2Fsmiley-sick029.gif&hash=fd400235e869ddd58950723ef01f44c2) (http://www.freesmileys.org/smileys.php)
I'll add smoothy makers to the list of bad inventions.
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I am now gonna have to try a cucumber smoothy - just for the hell of it!
BTW - has anyone seen gooseberries for sale recently, I love them but just cannot seem to buy any
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BTW - has anyone seen gooseberries for sale recently, I love them but just cannot seem to buy any
EEC banned 'em. Insufficient goose content [::)]
Nobody in these parts has even heard of them. I'd grow my own, but I think the dang deer would snarf the lot.
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In my part of the world it's the damn blackbirds (aside from eurocrats) - I should invest in some nets and try again
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How would you rank a single invention that is the cause of about 1.2 million fatalities per year globally?
With about 30% of the fatalities affecting those under 25.
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I presume you are refering to Mr Benz.
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I presume you are referring to Mr Benz.
Well, here in the USA, we prefer to attribute it to Henry Ford... Certainly Henry Ford did not invent the car. He just figured out how to make a lot of them.
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Whoever invented beer has a lot to answer for in terms of deaths, but I prefer to think of it as a necessary evil.
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Although it was the Manhattan project that brought about the realization of the atomic bomb, it was Albert Einstein who was responsible for its development. I believe this is one of the worst inventions that can cause destruction to humanity.
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A further addition from the mind of a looney.
Child proof caps.
They may be very good at preventing children from accessing undesirable substances, but 'er indoors can never seem to open them. She’s forever bugging me to do it for her, or insists that I don’t close the lid/cap properly so she can open it next time.
Now you may think maybe she has weak appendages’, but I can categorically state that when she is throttling the life out of me (a common pastime of her's), she don't seem too weak to me!
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Child proof caps.
'er indoors can never seem to open them.
You need some kids around to help you get them open.
They can be very ingenious about getting things like that open.
Here in the USA, if you don't have young kids around, you can now request that prescription meds be put in easy-open containers.
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Which ever caveman first wrote an IOU note has a lot to answer for in my books.. and maybe the guy who thought there was only one god.. he caused a fair old amount of trouble..
Recently? Well Isaac Newton discovered something which weighed heavily on peoples shoulders and kept good men down.
can't say thats an invention though, calculus is just maths.
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Credit Cards...., because spending money to spend money is counter productive.
Make Up........., because you're not getting what you thought you were getting.
New President., because it's not new, just the same old same ole.
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Where I worked in EC1 there was a plaque on the wall praising the inventor of the Gatling gun
something we could probably have done without.
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Don't blame Einstein for atom bombs the idea of the conversion of mass to energy was around long before his time he only gave it formal expression
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A couple of contenders (take your pick)
God or
The serpent in the garden of Eden (as invented by God)
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I think the bloke who invented god has a lot to answer for. Except that he will say that god is the answer.
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Edward Bernays's invention of the concept of utilising phycology in public relations and propoganda!
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Packaging meant to make the contents safe that is so difficult to get of that you damage the contents opening it.
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Packaging meant to make the contents safe that is so difficult to get of that you damage the contents opening it.
I'm relieved to hear that it's not just me! Those packaging's make me feel inadequate.
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The worst for whom?
I vote for "Agriculture".
- It has been an incredible bonus for humanity
- But less so for most species around us
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Although they are worrying things to have around nuclear bombs have not killed many people as weapons go, the worst damage they cause is that they deter the building of nuclear power stations with the result that power is still generated from coal that results in a large number of deaths from pollution and causes climate change from CO2 emissions.
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Atomic bomb. Oppemheimer said "it was death, world destroyer"
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I think the worst invention is something nasty that can reproduce/replicate, then mutate without losing the nasty. If one gets loose, we're in trouble.
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I think the worst invention is something nasty that can reproduce/replicate, then mutate without losing the nasty. If one gets loose, we're in trouble.
From the point of view of many species on Earth, that's us.
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There's quite a few. The Cat Wig. The Pedal-Powered Wheelchair. The Inflatable Dartboard.
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Although it was the Manhattan project that brought about the realization of the atomic bomb, it was Albert Einstein who was responsible for its development. I believe this is one of the worst inventions that can cause destruction to humanity.
"I love the humans and I love my violin, but by my advice they built the atom bomb. I am Einstein. Professor Albert Einstein. Born at March 14 1879 in Ulm." - Friedrich Dürrenmatt, The Physicists.
I just love that quote, but in all seriousness: It's still kindda harsh to make Einstein alone responsible for the bomb because if we are fair here, basically everyone wanted the bomb during that time. If not for him, someone else might have invented it anyway. Heck, even countries like Switzerland and Sweden tried to get nukes at one point.
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Thomas Midgley Jr.
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I googled up and Thomas Midgley this name came up.
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I googled up and Thomas Midgley this name came up.
Gooogle is Good for gathering Information...
Okay in terms of Interpretation..
But Bad at Learning & Understand stuff!
ps - Fritz Haber and Carl Bosch