Thursday, May 27, 2010

on the same level

time magazine recently made a list of the 50 worst inventions of all time. while it isn't in any particular order, this sequencing has one of the funniest turns I've ever seen:

1. The Segway
2. New Coke
3. Clippy [Office 1997]
4. AGENT ORANGE

7 comments:

Ethan said...

Worst accidents of all time:

1. I stubbed my toe
2. That time my mom cut her toe with the nail clipper
3. When you bump into someone and say "Oh sorry" and they're like "It's ok"
4. Chernobyl

Richard said...

Another worst invention of all time: the weekly "news" magazine. Booyah!

thebaronette said...

Be fair. TIME serves its purpose. I mean, where else would you see DDT and Tamagotchis portrayed as equivalents?

Bolo said...

I don't see why Betamax or plastic bags are on that list.

thebaronette said...

i think they just included plastic bags to cash in on casual environmentalist outrage.

betamax was just to be smug. why not say "HD DVD"? or the sega dreamcast? they all worked fine.

Jack Crow said...

I know the QC guy who dogged himself to death on the Segway project, while also working Kamen's significantly more useful wheel chair.

He paints a picture of a bunch of really dedicated engineers, a whole lot of Bezos influence and money and terribly inept sales/marketing staff that was out promising what the engineers had already said they could never deliver.

thebaronette said...

TIME is always happy to put another nail in the coffin.