Tiny plastic microbeads for exfoliation in soaps and other cosmetics.
15 Likes
Someone online has mentioned the UK’s plugs. In line with internet regulations, I now have to post this:
13 Likes
Religion was mentioned as an unfortunate invention.
My nomination is ‘gods’, since religions are based on 'em.
3 Likes
Couldna happened to a better fella, altho sooner woulda been much better.
2 Likes
The ‘advantage’ of TEL in petrol was that - at least if you made the stuff - its use as a fuel additive could be patented and the supply controlled. Ethanol could not.
Standard Oil of New Jersey and General Motors hired DuPont to make the what they branded ‘Ethyl Fluid’ under a new brand - the Ethyl Corporation - a concern which is perhaps surprisingly still going.
Midgeley wasn’t there to see the first sales of leaded petrol, he was in bed recovering from lead poisoning, probably as a result of one of his public demonstrations of the ‘safety’ of TEL in which he poured it over his skin and inhaled the vapours.
The first serious backlash against TEL was in 1924 when five workers at a DuPont plant died from lead poisoning by what became known as ‘Looney Gas’ - however, it was soon forgotten because leaded petrol was a far superior product in terms of performance than the fuels that came before.
There was news last week that, at least in the UK, environmental lead levels are no longer falling. Lead deposited decades ago from petrol and paint is being returned to the air and water and then into people’s bodies.
7 Likes
Trickle-down economics.
6 Likes
FTFY (at least here in the states) 
3 Likes
Aluminum and plastic tray’d tv dinners (I’m looking at your family, fucker swanson carlson), pre-packaged snacks, most chemical fertilizers and weedkillers (I’m looking at you, monsteranto corp), monsteranto’s suicide seeds (google and be horrified), breast implants, cigarettes, planned obsolescence, the stock market, billionaires, top 40 radio, polyester doubleknit, pantyhose…
Will edit as I think of more.
5 Likes
The UK plugs and receptacles are ginormous, but they are really smartly designed with some clever safety features.
But there’s really no excuse for those silly shaver sockets.
3 Likes
Nope.
https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/om030621b
You have to add a hell of a lot of ethanol to gasoline to get the same effects as a tiny droplet of TEL. So it ends up being quite a bit cheaper, for both the manufacturer and the consumer. Still toxic as hell.
And judging from this paper,
a gallon of ethanol cost between 27 and 40 cents per gallon to make in 1949 but a gallon of gas sold to the consumer for 27 cents/ gallon that same year. Fact #741: August 20, 2012 Historical Gasoline Prices, 1929-2011 | Department of Energy
5 Likes
The ones that all look the same and plug in the same, but its’ near impossible to tell what you have. Is it a USB 2.0, USB 3.0, USB 3.1 Gen 1, USB 3.2 Gen 2, USB 3.2 Gen 3, or a USB 4.0?
Does the cable you have let you power 10W, 40W, 60W, 80W, 100W?
It it thunderbolt 2, or thunderbolt 3 or thunderbolt 4?
Blech.
4 Likes
Harmful inventions? More harm than good?
GOLF!!
4 Likes
Not an invention, but a fantasy. A right-wing fuckwit economist’s wet dream.
6 Likes
…and calling it voodoo economics insults an ancient religion.
3 Likes
Umm, see my earlier post.
2 Likes
XLNT point. Vodoun is, of course, also a pre-colonial, non-colonial culture.
1 Like
The big advantage of ethanol in fuel is that it’s carbon-neutral. The two downsides are that it’s less energy dense than petrol, so you’ll go 30-15% less far on a tank of E85. The other problem is that it eats away at basic rubber hoses, so you need to use ethanol-safe hose (and possibly pump etc.).
I still think burning only 15% as much dino-juice is a big win though.
2 Likes
Hah! Ditto what @anothernewbbaccount said, fantasy does not equal invention.
But I concur, definitely has done more harm than good.
4 Likes
Gunpowder
1 Like
And you have to frequently run your engine to avoid gunging up carbs and injectors.
And fibre-glass tanks on motorcycles can go soft.
1 Like
