Times "100 worst inventions" list.

Baby Cage is awesome.

This is a total embarrassment for the magazine. My mom used to write for TIME and worked on their person of the year covers many times. It's become a pathetic shell of it's former self and this is just the latest sign. A list of the hundred worst inventions of all time is a total joke and includes stuff like "fake pony tails". Seriously? You can't think of any worse inventions? Agent Orange, perhaps?

Can't say it comes as a surprise though when you realize that the magazine considers Taylor Swift and Zoe Saldana to be among the 100 most influential people in the world.


PS Red Dye #2 has nothing on fake blue food dyes. Fans of blue Chill Zones will know what I'm talking about. Yuck.

Agent Orange is on that list. Maybe you should read the list.

Sorry I thought I did. I don't have my glasses (I left them at my dad's before my stacation started) and the monitors at my job use tiny font.

There are still 100 000 worse inventions than a fake pony tail though. That list reads like something meant to be posted on CRACKED.com ( a great site, but it doesn't try to pretend to be TIME magazine)

Why the fuck is asbestos on there? It's a naturally occurring mineral. While the use of it is obviously bad and can be a pain in the ass when renovating an old building, it's silly to call it an invention.

Ryoken, you're only off by 50.

Kate is wearing a fake ponytail right now, guaranteed. And I'm sure it has something to do with her mother or father.

lolllllllllll

WTF.

That jumped out at me too. And just because it's not great to stuff the walls of an office building with asbestos does not mean that it's not still extremely useful in certain applications

I am not in the mood right now, Patrick. I'm having a god awful night

Sorry to hear that, PK!

Thanks Mr Sphere. It's my own fault and I know I can't expect everyone else to care I'm just feeling sort of low right now. Anyway, off to play videogames. Yaay..

I've been having loose stools lately too. It's my fault too, cause I downed a WHOLE box of Bottle Caps yesterday.

This list is ridiculous. The Pontiac Aztec is one of the fifty worst inventions of all time? What about radium lined water coolers? Shoe Store X-ray Machines? Or heck, what about the Hummer?


The Aztec is a fairly recently produced ugly car, nothing more, nothing less.

This is going to sound sexist and offensive. I'm fully prepared for any scorn filled shitstorms that may come my way and I'll accept the consequences with a smile:

Kate,

You really, really, really need to get laid.

I'm offended because the past participle of "lie" is "lain."

The smile check in the end creeped me the fuck out. And that's a huge achievement in a list containing both Agent Orange and DDT. What the fuck is wrong with you, Japan?

First, it's there to generate hits and hit cash.

Secondly you have to mix in some fun/light elements with the sad/heavy.

Don't want your readership killing themselves in despair.

Ask your mom, she'll likely understand there's a balance to things like this.

Bancroft Agee,

Without getting into it, that's exactly the last thing I need. I'm doing the abstinence thing, and have been for a while.

My mom absolutely would not understand. She and I talk about this all the time, the long slow death of print journalism in this country. It's really sad what's become of TIME, and having her insider view of things only makes it sadder. I have no problem with a few light items making the list, but the whole list seems like it was composed by someone with only a few functioning braincells. Keep it light in part, sure, but how is the Pontiac Aztec on a list of the 50 worst inventions of all time (let alone the 5000 worst inventions ever)? Radium Lined Watercoolers (designed for vim and vigor!) are both hilarious and seriously bad inventions. A way better choice than the aztec.

PS Here's a serious one that's missing from the list: the cotton gin that allowed slavery to become profitable again in the south, instead of dying out naturally like the pre-gin founders thought it would.

Or what about the indian reservation (Hitler's inspiration for concentration camps)? Or lead water pipes in ancient Rome? This list could be so much more interesting than it is.... but yes, smile check is terrifying. It sounds like something Lucas would insert into a rerelease of THX1138

I know the title says "worst" but imagine it says "most amusing" or "weirdest," PK. I pretty much think that's what they were going for.

I agree with you that there are probably many more horrible inventions - I bet you could fill up 50 spaces with torture devices - but I can't personally hold anything against them this time, because I never would have heard about the ingenious space saving device called the baby cage.

Right, but it's TIME magazine and they called their list "The 50 WORST INVENTIONS OF ALL TIME", not "50 silly items to give you the giggles". It's Taylor Swift as one of the 100 most "influential" people in the world all over again. These TIME lists used to mean something and used to be taken sort of seriously. They were read by thoughtful people looking for insight. I can't for the life of me figure out who the audience is for a list of the most influential people *in the world* that includes Taylor Swift.

You don't have to agree, but that's just my take

BTW, Re: BABY CAGE

Isn't a crib just a polite name for a baby cage?

It's an inventive way to reclaim space in your house by using the unclaimed space right outside of your own window! It's especially handy in high rise apartments with small rooms. Just think how much room you'll have for spare linens while your baby has its own space to just hang out!

As long as the baby can't fall out of the thing (or the thing can't detach from the window) I don't see a problem

Well who said there was a problem?

I assumed someone had a problem with it since it ended up on the list of worst inventions ever... but you know what? Maybe this is just another erroneous entry on that list. If the device works as advertised and does not pose a risk to the infant, it's inclusion on the list seems like nothing more a bunch of nay saying worry warts tsk tsking over the idea of hanging a baby out your window.

Well I sure didn't mean to derail this thread, so back on topic: smile checks are about a half inch away from thoughtcrime. It's kind of like taking the "mandatory fun day" irony and cranking it up to 11.

I think I'd find it more depressing to be forced to smile than to just let my face go slack. There is a reason people don't smile unless they're happy. It's creepy to disassociate the expression from the emotion

I like how it says that Betamax lost out to VHS because it could record longer. Not even close. Betamax lost because VHS was cheaper and so the porn industry got behind VHS. Porn killed the Betamax.

It certainly seems more reasonable to put things that aren't alive in a box outside your window if you're running low on space. My guess is it allows you to close the window, so when your annoying baby cries you can have a little peace.

It was definitely the worst product Eric Clapton ever bought.

What no Sinclair C5? It predates the Segway by 20 years.


http://www.finkbuilt.com/static/imag.../sinclair1.jpg

Wait... you mean hang the spare linens out the window instead of your baby? That's just crazy enough to work!

Ken, I have never heard of that thing. I read the wikipedia article that says it's like an electric bicycle? What's the story behind it?

Clive Sinclair invented it. Basically he and Chris Curry (Acorn Computers) were the ones who kickstarted the home computer boom. Sinclair (ZX Spectrum was his machine) however famously said he thought computers were a fad and would never last. So he switched tack and invented the electric car, or Sinclar C5, he went from genius to joke in about a month.

There is a great documetarry about the battle between Sinclair and Curry called Micro Men thats worth watching if you have access to the Iplayer.

Edited to add you can still by the c5 on Ebay, I have been tempted to pick one up once or twice.

Fantastic, the UK version of Pirates of Silicon Valley yeah?

Cheers

Sorry its not a documentarry its a Drama, here is the link

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/comedy/20...icro-men.shtml

Yeah, I noticed the dude from Armstrong & Miller on one of the other sites. Looks brilliant.

Thanks for the tip.

Tamagotchi, Virtual Boy...enough said.