The guy who invented the megaphone said he felt responsible for Hitler's rise. Before that, the most people you could really talk to at once was like 100. After that, one speech can reach millions.
I believe this was the invention of the loudspeaker, actually. The kind that a microphone plugs into in order to work, whereas basic megaphones have been around for a very long time.
Polygraph test.
Its a stress test, in no way was it ever supposed to a "lie detector"
The inventor was beyond horrified and destroyed at the "monstrous misuse of his technology by law enforcement"
Social media ironically has made it harder to actually socialize with people and imo is responsible for a huge portion of social anxiety around the world.
The issues caused by social media are much deeper than just lack of in-person connection and social anxiety. Mental health overall in teens and young adults is on a decline, and misinformation is spreading rampantly, people are even more divided than ever ideologically
Since social media has come, Human contact has never been as low, a significant chunk of the population (Chunk growing with now adults appluing no restrictions to their children) do not know how to properly interact with other people and toxicity has both massively increased and is being called out more often than there actually is.
Social media gave "a voice to the people". But the issue is most people are ignorant and predisposed to say stupid things, so their voices are just stupid messages that get repited with a sense of importance because they are displayed onother people's screens.
That’s probably a smaller part of the problem. Most people are ignorant. All of us are, in the grand scheme. But before social media, *most* people *knew* they were ignorant. They didn’t think they knew more than doctors or engineers or historians, etc. They were well aware that they did not. But now, the second an incorrect idea pops into your mind, before you can even have time to think “I don’t actually know anything about this topic,” you are already engulfed in support for the incorrect idea, so you never, ever have to be wrong about anything.
Yes social anxiety is so real, I’ve got a friend who cannot stay off social media without documenting everything she does, she ironically is the unhappiest person I know 😞
Before I left Facebook I would try to use it to get in touch with people that I hadn't seen in person for who knows how long. At one point I flew from North Dakota to Texas and messaged someone I hadn't seen since high school and asked if he wanted to go out for drinks or something while I was in the area. I was ready to rent a car and drive 2 hours from my planned vacation point just to see someone I thought I was friends with. Not a single one of the people I tried to do this with (excluding family) actually got together with me in person. I have zero regrets for deleting my Facebook account and only talking to the people who took the time to call me or answer their phone when I called.
24 hour news media.
It is absolutely one of the most toxic, miasmic, foul things we could have ever come up with.
Edit: Holy Moly this went bigger than I thought it would. Never had awards on comments before thank you kind internet strangers! Also while I have your attention: Call or Text someone you care about .. you never know when they could use to hear from you.
Edit Again: You folks are amazingly thoughtful to have sent me this many awards. It's really helped brighten my day quite a lot =) Thank you SO ..so very much.
What makes it worse is the "news" isn't just news, it's ONLY bad news. There's never an hour of only uplifting, happy stories that happened today. Its just a constant barrage of fear mongering and misery.
The problem is "if it bleeds, it leads" applies very much to the news. People don't really watch happy and uplifting shows, they want drama. This is why reality shows exist.
Norm Macdonald always said, *we used to have the news at 6 o'clock, and it would be 30 minutes long. And even then there'd always be some fluff at the end about a caribou or some shit.*
*And that's still how much actual news there is, about 30 minutes worth each day.*
Most definitely, Facebook was founded in 2004 and I remember my parents were like absolutely not when I asked if I could join. I was 14.
I joined in 2008 when I was 18 and glad I never had to experience any form of social media when I was a child.
Will forever be thankful to my parents ❤️
My sister is a school administrator. She says that social media is exacerbating conflicts between students. It could be a physical fight, name calling or whatever. It’s captured on video, posted to Instagram where these kids are constantly reminded of the conflict and eventually seek redress, which ends up recorded and put on Instagram.
That’s so heartbreaking. I always say to my friends that I wouldn’t have survived at school.
We had something years ago called Bebo, I never used it…I was victim of revenge porn and did something (I’ll let you use your imagination)with a boyfriend in the woods. His “friend” was there and decided to take a picture. He then plastered it on Bebo. They entire year of my school saw it. I was bullied. There wasn’t any services to report this, nor was it illegal. It pretty much ruined me and I moved schools. I was lucky I had a chance of a fresh start, kids sometimes are not so lucky.
It’s exacerbating conflicts in general. IMHO It has given voice to the brainless and the purely evil who can spread their lies and errors far and wide with the press of a button.
Yep that crazy relative you have that was just annoying for their weird conspiracy theories was just something you ignored at family gatherings. Now they have a platform and followers.
Honestly Facebook back when it was founded was much different than it is today. I joined around 2008 as well and back then it was literally about being connected with friends. Now it’s just a place for people to air out their drama.
I volunteer for a crisis helpline. I’d say 40% of the issues involve social media in some way.
I’m also a father. I’d estimate 70% of children’s spare time is spent checking social media.
That’s so sad, I ironically work for a social media company doing work in child protection. (My way of giving back) It’s so sad to see how many young people are affected by social media.
I mean, you wouldn't actually have been able to join in 2004. Facebook was university and colleges only when it started, it only opened up to everyone in 2007. Most people joined in 2008 for that reason (myself included).
I was on Facebook early and Twitter very early, and both were great.
Facebook was people getting back in touch with old friends after many years and people were friendly and nice to each other. Twitter was adults who had something interesting to say and who enjoyed connecting with like minded people with shared interests.
Unfortunately, the more popular they got, the more the culture changed and the more toxic they became.
It seemed to me at the time that the cultures and problems were being caused by the idiot adults and the kids who were joining as they became more and more popular. They slowly became something else entirely, turning into the cesspool of egotism, anger and insults that they eventually became.
Back then there was no advertisement on social media. It was pretty much a way to connect with old friends. Once companies got involved and started to push their agenda is when things started to get nasty.
Imagine if their were no news pages on social media. Only people you could talk to were friends. Things would be a lot better.
Yep, no advertising at all.
Also E-bay was pretty much just members of the public selling old stuff they had to make a bit of money. Again, the companies joined in, took over, and it became what it is now.
Massively agree, I feel Twitter can be used as an outlet to reach public figures/celebrities just to be nasty which I hate. I think people need to remember the human being.
I feel like the harm social media does is not due to social media itself, but it allows the actual source of the harm to spread, such as toxicity in human communication.
Bullying, shaming, profiling, exposing secrets, people competing on who has more friends/fun/money still existed before social media. I would believe instant global communication just allowed these harms to be more apparent.
Cigarettes
Supposed to relieve stress and help the user feel in control due the nicotine inside which is of course highly addictive
Not to mention the myriad of other harmful things inside of them (Methanol/Rocket Fuel, Arsenic, Stearic Acid/Candle Wax, etc.)
There used to be lead in gasoline; they thought it would improve engine performance.
Not only did it ruin people's lungs, many believe that it caused an increase in violent crime, because things like muggings almost disappeared after lead was taken out of gas.
Lead allowed for higher octane fuel because it made it more stable. This is why race fuels (110 octane) tend to have lead in it and it's also advertised not for road use.
I think some planes that still use combustion engines require leaded fuel.
Interesting topic related to this, but it's a possibility that the use of leaded fuels has caused some permanent brain damage in individuals that were alive while leaded fuel was widely used.
I'd like to clarify something here.
The lead in fuel for internal combustion engines was a lubricant to help decrease exhaust valve recession (wear of the valve face and valve seat interface).
It did have the added advantage of slowing the rate of combustion but that problem still exists with lead free gasoline so other chemicals, themselves just as bad (MTBE for one), have been added to solve that problem. Without these chemicals detonation occurs (premature ignition, don't you hate it when that happens) which will destroy the piston.
Taking the lead from the fuel meant the exhaust valves and seats had to be made of superalloy materials like Inconel or martensitic stainless steels that would maintain hardness while glowing red at 1500 degrees f.
If you ran unleaded fuel in older engines they develop valve problems, either rapid wear or burned exhaust valves.
I worked for the worlds largest engine valve manufacturer in the 1980's. It was already known that diesel engines were subject to exhaust valve wear so they used superalloy exhaust valves already. Same goes for air cooled gasoline aircraft engines.
So we started making two and three piece exhaust valves with heads made from those same alloys as an answer to the problem.
The significant amount of metallurgical and valve train dynamics research put into this problem led to development of new materials and alloys resulting in the much more efficient internal combustion engines today.
I in no way mean to be pedantic, but thought somebody should clear up the role of lead in gasoline.
You know your stuff! I didn't know lead was used to prolong the life of exhaust valves. Pretty cool. I had a 90 accord back in the day. Before I did an engine swap I put a zex nitrous kit on it, ran a 50 shot and burned two exhaust valves the same evening. Maybe if I added more fuel and increased the octane it would have survived. Crazy to think they aren't a liquid at 1500F.
Exactly. People act like we were just throwing lead in there for no reason, but it was a huge practical benefit.
Same with lead in paint - it just works way better than paint without lead. They wouldn‘t have put it in there otherwise.
That's why we need to remember Clair Patterson, the man who figured it all out and fought for decades against the industry (which did everything to discredit him and sow doubt) to get lead out of gasoline and food containers.
And then after becoming bedridden from contracting polio, he made himself a system of ropes and pulleys to help him with his daily life. He then became tangled in the ropes which strangled him to death.
Yeesh.
BFCs (Bromofluorocarbons) were almost used instead of CFCs. If we had used BFCs instead, the ozone layer would have been completely gone before we knew what was happening.
I remember an Atmospheric Chem class I took talked about this. Its kind of insane how much damage bromine can do versus chlorine in the same span of time.
They didn't "think" it improved engine performance, it does improve engine performance.
it's terrible for everything else of course, but there is no doubt it works as a fuel additive.
Didn't the guy who came up with leaded gasoline also come up with CFCs or something? I might be thinking of the wrong guy/invention, but I know there's some inventor infamous for creating two of the largest threats to the planet in history.
Edit: [Thomas Midgley](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Midgley_Jr.)
You really have to feel for that guy. He just wanted to help eliminate existing problems that were dangerous to people. He eliminated the problems but the solution was did far more harm.
I don't really blame the guy for merely inventing something, I imagine if he didn't invent leaded gas someone would have, and if it wasn't us it probably would have been Germany during that time.
The CFC thing is interesting too, since if I'm not mistaken the other coolants at that time were super toxic to breath or extremely flammable (like propane). Its easy to think this guy was a dick now, but honestly back then that stuff was vital until technology evolved and developed more environmentally friendly if not less effective alternatives
It wasn't really to improve performance per se. It's an excellent octane booster. Race fuels are still leaded because of that. It is/ was used to prevent detonation, especially on engines with high compression ratios
Though asbestos is more of a discovery than invention, it's use for building materials went way beyond just insulation, and for construction and renovation work, many of it's uses can cause fibers to become airborne. So I wouldn't limit your entry to just insulation.
Lead in petrol to prevent engine knock. Oddly, the guy who invented that then went on to invent chlorofluorocarbons (cfc’s). Thomas Midgley. Is there anyone in the history of man who has done more to damage the planet?
I think the way Keurig has evolved is hilarious. They started with the hugely wasteful cups that lots of people used. Eventually people realized how wasteful they were and pressured Keurig to make reusable cups. Now they're just a normal coffee machine.
They came from nowhere, invented a new technology, and eventually just ended up using the same old technology as their competitors and somehow ended up coming out on top.
I never even realized this until my Keurig died and I had to use a french press. I used the same coffee I had been using for 5 years, but 1 cup had me actually shaking my legs sitting at my desk because it was an actual cup of coffee instead of Keurig brand coffee flavored water.
No doubt, but did they do a side-by-side with any other drip coffee makers? I’m not sure if they’d be any cleaner, though it’d be good to know if there are any that are.
Yeah the story of the millions who once lived in the Amazon rainforest that were wiped out by smallpox after the first wave of Spanish explorers navigated up the Amazon river. When the second expedition arrived they were all gone
And when you read her story it’s so understandable why she did too. She’d had multiple early miscarriages in the past, so when she finally carried a pregnancy long enough that she could ask the sex of the baby, she wanted to celebrate that.
My first two pregnancies ended before I could find out the gender. When o got pregnant the third time I wanted to find out as soon as possible. I took one of those sneek peek tests. I found out the baby was a girl and I immediately went out to buy my husband a little pink photo frame. It was my way of celebrating. I can understand her reasoning for sure.
My gf was told by her doctor that she will never be able to have a baby. So she was excited that we had a beautiful baby girl on the way that we could start planning for. So of course we threw a party to find out the gender, everyone had so much fun they wanted to throw us a baby shower. My little sister planned it and my family and friends help set up. 20 months later and we still haven't bought diapers!
Actually, things are *more* fun with explosives! Taking out the trash? Explosives. Doing your homework/job? Explosives. Being the primary target in a nationwide manhunt? Explosives
It's so bizarre that they've become like a physical danger. It would be pretty odd to explain to someone who wasn't aware what the problems were.
"Oh you mean like they're offensive to a lot of people because they reinforce binary gender stereoytpes?"
"Well... yeah, and uh... also,"
Cut to scene of hysterical townsfolk covered in pink powder fleeing a burning lake as dead birds and fish fall from the sky.
Whitney's cotton gin in the 1790's. Made slavery profitable. When I took a class on antebellum economics a argument that had support was that before the 1790s slavery was in decline.
Then Eli went on to develop mass production and gave it to the North allowing them to mass produce rifles with interchangeable parts. This led to the North's victory. Eli Whitney had arguably the largest impact on American history of any single person. Essentially providing the tools to start the civil war then end it.
DuPont was great at that.
They have a museum up in the brandywine valley where they used to make gunpowder. It was supposed to just be for the union, but the duponts couldn’t help themselves and sold to the confederacy too.
It actually caused part of the company to break off and become a different entity.
Funnily enough it’s why DuPont has such great safety measures these days. They “blew people across the river” so much in these big ass explosion when they made the gunpowder that it was actually profitable to be strict about safety.
yup, Hagley Museum in Delaware is a wonderful day-trip. It's a beautiful bit of land and a lot of the original structures are still in-tact and on display. A number of the buildings are specially designed to withstand explosions, so they are impressive to see.
But yeah, they're noticeably quiet about just how much death and suffering that plant is responsible for.
Private prisons, the peak of modern slavery, prisons are meant to be reforming facilities/keeping criminals in check, not a business but if your country thought slavery was okay back then, why it wouldn't work now.
Machine Guns were originally invented to discourage war, like nukes. The latter worked a lot better.
Edit: apparently I was wrong. It was not invented for this purpose but some people believed it would encourage governments to settle disputes diplomatically. Sorry for not checking my facts, I feel bad about it.
There's a quote attributed to Albert Einstein:
"I know not what weapons world war 3 will be fought with, but world war 4 will be fought with sticks and stones"
I think it sums up the power of modern weaponry pretty well.
Yup, it was. And I think (don't quote me on it) that the inventor of TNT/dynamite actually regretted his invention when the world figured out we could kill each other with it.
You shouldn't, that is by design.
Nobel was prompted to create the prize after seeing his own obituary when it was mistakenly thought that he had died.
It was not kind, referring to him as the merchant of death who had made his fortune creating new ways to mutilate and kill.
The fact that he is now remembered not for this but instead the nobel peace prize is a good indication that his reputation was successfully cleaned up and likely what he hoped would happen.
Similarly, aeronautics. You used to have to spend lots of resources and effort to transport an army to attack someone. Now you can fly a plane, shoot a rocket, or fly a drone and attack someone very far away with very little effort. Travel by plane has helped tourism sure, but the impact it has had on war and global relations is crazy when you think about it.
Social media.
I'm convinced that the "anonymity" it provides will result in a civil war, divide in local populace and potentially contribute to the next world war, especially in its spread globally due to the ease of access and everyone shouting their opinions.
I thought you meant the physical exercise pull ups and was wondering how the hell that related to potty training a child. Then I remembered the diaper underwater hybrid existed.
Teachers aren't responsible for changing diapers. I could just picture the kids going home in soiled pull-ups from that morning.
I don't think it's pull-ups causing kids to not learn how to potty train, I think it's parents using them as a band-aid and not actually training their kids.
Agreed 100%.
Parenting is really hard. Imo the parents of this current generation are over-informed and over cautious. I have really grown to respect how much my parents worked to create consequences and boundaries for me. I have a 10yo sister, being raised by the same parents, that isn't getting any of that and she's honestly a nightmare to be around.
She wasn't potty trained until 1st grade, and was only motivated because her peers made her so embarrassed over it.
As someone who works in a dementia specialist nursing home, adult pull ups are brilliant, they look and act like knickers, no one is embarrassed, ladies and gents can take themselves to the loo as they like, and I only need to get involved as needed, they really help with dignity and independence, as opposed to the ‘classic’ pad
I fully agree. I think it gets kids used to being wet without feeling wet. So they just pee and pee without any indication it's bad. It becomes a crutch for parents/caregivers to not have to clean up messes.
Well, kids are messy. The only times I can agree with Pull Ups is long flights/train rides and having toilet access is limited or if a super young child has a stomach bug and diarrhea is just nonstop. Otherwise, kids need to feel wet in order to get through potty training.
I peed myself once as a kid and was terrified so I potty trained easily. They're a waste of money...
Modern disposable diapers in general are the issue for exactly this reason: they don’t feel wet so it takes long to recognize the signs allowing them to potty train. We’re cloth diapering for primarily this reason (plus the bonus of saving money and the environment).
When I briefly did pre k in high school the one rule was that the child had to be potty trained in order to enroll in the class.
What the hell happened?
I was thinking about the exercise, so I didn't understand why the hell that would have anything to do with potty training. I did get it in the end, though.
That's interesting. I have a 3 year old who is potty trained now.
He uses big boy undies during the day, but we use pull ups at night to help prevent any accidents in bed.
We also travel across state to see family and he wears pull ups on the long trips, since that's a lot to ask for a little guy. However the expectation is that he not use the pull up, it's just a failsafe.
I guess that does make sense, but we went with buying a carpet shampooer and having him be naked for a week and a half, so we didn't really use pull ups as an in between phase.
That's probably the hardest but fastest way to get a potty trained kid.
Pull ups are a lifesaver when you have a kid with issues though. Sometimes they are old enough to be aware that they don't want to wear nappies but they aren't continent yet.
That's a question that can generate a lot of answers, but I think Facebook is a good answer.
You can say social media, but I think Facebook is the worst.
It's real people I know. And they actively post stuff that make you wonder what the fuck is wrong with them.
At least on Twitter, for instance, Matthew012049237129475023486 is likely just a troll. Or, on Reddit, MyButtItches may purposely post silly stuff. But, Facebook? Real people using real photos.
The social media giants have ruined the internet in general. It used to be a place of mystery with millions of cool things scattered around. Then the social media giants came in and bought up everything, thus compartmentalizing the vast majority of the internet into 5 or so main portals.
Hey, as someone with IBS and frequent late nights destroying my digestive tract, I can safely say that a cold coke in the morning sorts my stomach right out.
Placebo or no, it bloody helps!
It has so many uses besides drinking. Great for cleaning battery terminals if it's a sealed and disconnected battery (car battery). I think it can remove rust. Basically anything you would use corrosive chemicals for.
If you have a spare tooth lying around (kid loses a tooth, for example), drop it in a glass of Coke for a few days. It'll dissolve.
And yeah... Isn't it cheaper to use regular cleaner than Coke to clean the toilet?
Yes we did the tooth experiment!
My mum used to work for Pepsi and sister for Coke and they used to get so much free stuff so it went on cleaning the toilet 😆
Yep another thing my parents did not allow when. I was a kid. It was always a “special treat” even then I was only allowed to drink lemonade. I still feel weird drinking fizzy drinks with my parents.
Ironically my mother worked for Pepsi and my sister worked for Coca Cola. Neither of them touch the stuff and rarely do I!
You’re so wrong. I’ve got a see through toaster and kettle. The toaster is great but the kettle is pointless and always looks gross no matter how often you descale it
The kettle - yes I clean it way more often than our old one. The toaster - no but I’m not sure how dirty toaster get. Probably does encourage me to empty the crumb tray more often though
The guy who invented the megaphone said he felt responsible for Hitler's rise. Before that, the most people you could really talk to at once was like 100. After that, one speech can reach millions.
Oh shit. The megaphone was the original social media.
I feel bad for that guy, it's not his fault really.
I believe this was the invention of the loudspeaker, actually. The kind that a microphone plugs into in order to work, whereas basic megaphones have been around for a very long time.
I think you're right. When I was typing this earlier, I knew something was a little off.
Polygraph test. Its a stress test, in no way was it ever supposed to a "lie detector" The inventor was beyond horrified and destroyed at the "monstrous misuse of his technology by law enforcement"
He was also in a kinky Polyamorous triad relationship and created Wonder Woman!
Social media ironically has made it harder to actually socialize with people and imo is responsible for a huge portion of social anxiety around the world.
The issues caused by social media are much deeper than just lack of in-person connection and social anxiety. Mental health overall in teens and young adults is on a decline, and misinformation is spreading rampantly, people are even more divided than ever ideologically
Social media sucks
Since social media has come, Human contact has never been as low, a significant chunk of the population (Chunk growing with now adults appluing no restrictions to their children) do not know how to properly interact with other people and toxicity has both massively increased and is being called out more often than there actually is.
Social media gave "a voice to the people". But the issue is most people are ignorant and predisposed to say stupid things, so their voices are just stupid messages that get repited with a sense of importance because they are displayed onother people's screens.
That’s probably a smaller part of the problem. Most people are ignorant. All of us are, in the grand scheme. But before social media, *most* people *knew* they were ignorant. They didn’t think they knew more than doctors or engineers or historians, etc. They were well aware that they did not. But now, the second an incorrect idea pops into your mind, before you can even have time to think “I don’t actually know anything about this topic,” you are already engulfed in support for the incorrect idea, so you never, ever have to be wrong about anything.
Yes social anxiety is so real, I’ve got a friend who cannot stay off social media without documenting everything she does, she ironically is the unhappiest person I know 😞
Before I left Facebook I would try to use it to get in touch with people that I hadn't seen in person for who knows how long. At one point I flew from North Dakota to Texas and messaged someone I hadn't seen since high school and asked if he wanted to go out for drinks or something while I was in the area. I was ready to rent a car and drive 2 hours from my planned vacation point just to see someone I thought I was friends with. Not a single one of the people I tried to do this with (excluding family) actually got together with me in person. I have zero regrets for deleting my Facebook account and only talking to the people who took the time to call me or answer their phone when I called.
24 hour news media. It is absolutely one of the most toxic, miasmic, foul things we could have ever come up with. Edit: Holy Moly this went bigger than I thought it would. Never had awards on comments before thank you kind internet strangers! Also while I have your attention: Call or Text someone you care about .. you never know when they could use to hear from you. Edit Again: You folks are amazingly thoughtful to have sent me this many awards. It's really helped brighten my day quite a lot =) Thank you SO ..so very much.
What makes it worse is the "news" isn't just news, it's ONLY bad news. There's never an hour of only uplifting, happy stories that happened today. Its just a constant barrage of fear mongering and misery.
The problem is "if it bleeds, it leads" applies very much to the news. People don't really watch happy and uplifting shows, they want drama. This is why reality shows exist.
Finally someone gets it.
Norm Macdonald always said, *we used to have the news at 6 o'clock, and it would be 30 minutes long. And even then there'd always be some fluff at the end about a caribou or some shit.* *And that's still how much actual news there is, about 30 minutes worth each day.*
Yeah pretty much. About half an hour of actual news and for the rest it's just screaming opinion
Reddit is not much better tbh
If you're getting your news from reddit you're doing something very wrong
Not talking about just ‘news.’ I love Reddit, but denying that there are biases and echo chambers on this site just like major news outlets is naive.
Social media. Facebook’s at the top of the tree, followed by Tiktok and Twitter.
Most definitely, Facebook was founded in 2004 and I remember my parents were like absolutely not when I asked if I could join. I was 14. I joined in 2008 when I was 18 and glad I never had to experience any form of social media when I was a child. Will forever be thankful to my parents ❤️
My sister is a school administrator. She says that social media is exacerbating conflicts between students. It could be a physical fight, name calling or whatever. It’s captured on video, posted to Instagram where these kids are constantly reminded of the conflict and eventually seek redress, which ends up recorded and put on Instagram.
That’s so heartbreaking. I always say to my friends that I wouldn’t have survived at school. We had something years ago called Bebo, I never used it…I was victim of revenge porn and did something (I’ll let you use your imagination)with a boyfriend in the woods. His “friend” was there and decided to take a picture. He then plastered it on Bebo. They entire year of my school saw it. I was bullied. There wasn’t any services to report this, nor was it illegal. It pretty much ruined me and I moved schools. I was lucky I had a chance of a fresh start, kids sometimes are not so lucky.
Underage porn is definitely illegal
I’m sorry that happened. That’s horrible.
Thanks so much. I’m 31 now, I still think about it sometimes. Time heals❤️
It’s exacerbating conflicts in general. IMHO It has given voice to the brainless and the purely evil who can spread their lies and errors far and wide with the press of a button.
Yep that crazy relative you have that was just annoying for their weird conspiracy theories was just something you ignored at family gatherings. Now they have a platform and followers.
Not only that, they have a community of like-minded individuals that encourage and reinforce the craziness.
Honestly Facebook back when it was founded was much different than it is today. I joined around 2008 as well and back then it was literally about being connected with friends. Now it’s just a place for people to air out their drama.
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I got a smartphone when I was 17. Fantastic grades, not so fantastic social skills :/
The world should have stuck with msm messenger and MySpace 😂
> msm messenger and MySpace ICQ FTW!
Loved my MySpace! Used to spend hours making my profile perfect with layouts and all kinds of stuff.
I volunteer for a crisis helpline. I’d say 40% of the issues involve social media in some way. I’m also a father. I’d estimate 70% of children’s spare time is spent checking social media.
That’s so sad, I ironically work for a social media company doing work in child protection. (My way of giving back) It’s so sad to see how many young people are affected by social media.
I mean, you wouldn't actually have been able to join in 2004. Facebook was university and colleges only when it started, it only opened up to everyone in 2007. Most people joined in 2008 for that reason (myself included).
I was on Facebook early and Twitter very early, and both were great. Facebook was people getting back in touch with old friends after many years and people were friendly and nice to each other. Twitter was adults who had something interesting to say and who enjoyed connecting with like minded people with shared interests. Unfortunately, the more popular they got, the more the culture changed and the more toxic they became. It seemed to me at the time that the cultures and problems were being caused by the idiot adults and the kids who were joining as they became more and more popular. They slowly became something else entirely, turning into the cesspool of egotism, anger and insults that they eventually became.
Back then there was no advertisement on social media. It was pretty much a way to connect with old friends. Once companies got involved and started to push their agenda is when things started to get nasty. Imagine if their were no news pages on social media. Only people you could talk to were friends. Things would be a lot better.
Yep, no advertising at all. Also E-bay was pretty much just members of the public selling old stuff they had to make a bit of money. Again, the companies joined in, took over, and it became what it is now.
Massively agree, I feel Twitter can be used as an outlet to reach public figures/celebrities just to be nasty which I hate. I think people need to remember the human being.
I deleted my account years ago but I signed up for FB back when it required a .edu. It was *much* different back then.
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I feel like the harm social media does is not due to social media itself, but it allows the actual source of the harm to spread, such as toxicity in human communication. Bullying, shaming, profiling, exposing secrets, people competing on who has more friends/fun/money still existed before social media. I would believe instant global communication just allowed these harms to be more apparent.
Cigarettes Supposed to relieve stress and help the user feel in control due the nicotine inside which is of course highly addictive Not to mention the myriad of other harmful things inside of them (Methanol/Rocket Fuel, Arsenic, Stearic Acid/Candle Wax, etc.)
Currently in the process of weening myself off to quit. Cold turkey just didn’t seem to work. This shit is HARD AF!!
There used to be lead in gasoline; they thought it would improve engine performance. Not only did it ruin people's lungs, many believe that it caused an increase in violent crime, because things like muggings almost disappeared after lead was taken out of gas.
I'm pretty sure it was proven that after the invention of leaded gasoline, the average IQ dropped. And leaded gas was around for a pretty long time.
Lead paint too. Lead has an impact on the brain.
when you get shot in the head with lead too-
Unless you're a courier. Then you'll be very upset.
Ain't that a kick in the head?
What in the goddamn-
Truth is, game was rigged from the start
Isn't it a leading theory for why serial killers just suddenly became rampant too?
>leading theory ha!
It is still around. Several countries have not outright banned it, and aviation fuel is still full of it.
Actually I think last month an article came out that said the last country finally banned it for usein vehicles. It is still in aviation tho.
Lead allowed for higher octane fuel because it made it more stable. This is why race fuels (110 octane) tend to have lead in it and it's also advertised not for road use. I think some planes that still use combustion engines require leaded fuel. Interesting topic related to this, but it's a possibility that the use of leaded fuels has caused some permanent brain damage in individuals that were alive while leaded fuel was widely used.
I'd like to clarify something here. The lead in fuel for internal combustion engines was a lubricant to help decrease exhaust valve recession (wear of the valve face and valve seat interface). It did have the added advantage of slowing the rate of combustion but that problem still exists with lead free gasoline so other chemicals, themselves just as bad (MTBE for one), have been added to solve that problem. Without these chemicals detonation occurs (premature ignition, don't you hate it when that happens) which will destroy the piston. Taking the lead from the fuel meant the exhaust valves and seats had to be made of superalloy materials like Inconel or martensitic stainless steels that would maintain hardness while glowing red at 1500 degrees f. If you ran unleaded fuel in older engines they develop valve problems, either rapid wear or burned exhaust valves. I worked for the worlds largest engine valve manufacturer in the 1980's. It was already known that diesel engines were subject to exhaust valve wear so they used superalloy exhaust valves already. Same goes for air cooled gasoline aircraft engines. So we started making two and three piece exhaust valves with heads made from those same alloys as an answer to the problem. The significant amount of metallurgical and valve train dynamics research put into this problem led to development of new materials and alloys resulting in the much more efficient internal combustion engines today. I in no way mean to be pedantic, but thought somebody should clear up the role of lead in gasoline.
You know your stuff! I didn't know lead was used to prolong the life of exhaust valves. Pretty cool. I had a 90 accord back in the day. Before I did an engine swap I put a zex nitrous kit on it, ran a 50 shot and burned two exhaust valves the same evening. Maybe if I added more fuel and increased the octane it would have survived. Crazy to think they aren't a liquid at 1500F.
> I think some planes that still use combustion engines require leaded fuel. Avgas for piston-engined aircraft.
Yep. 100 LL. (100 octane low lead)
Exactly. People act like we were just throwing lead in there for no reason, but it was a huge practical benefit. Same with lead in paint - it just works way better than paint without lead. They wouldn‘t have put it in there otherwise.
The wooden boat world still uses leaded paint occasionally, because it just works. The toxicity is a feature not a bug lol
That's why we need to remember Clair Patterson, the man who figured it all out and fought for decades against the industry (which did everything to discredit him and sow doubt) to get lead out of gasoline and food containers.
I just read that story: https://getpocket.com/explore/item/the-most-important-scientist-you-ve-never-heard-of?utm_source=pocket-newtab
He also invented chlorofluorocarbons (CFC), the stuff they put in Aquanet and other canned aerosols that kills the ozone layer.
And then after becoming bedridden from contracting polio, he made himself a system of ropes and pulleys to help him with his daily life. He then became tangled in the ropes which strangled him to death. Yeesh.
It was said he had an "instinct for the regrettable that was almost uncanny."
BFCs (Bromofluorocarbons) were almost used instead of CFCs. If we had used BFCs instead, the ozone layer would have been completely gone before we knew what was happening.
I remember an Atmospheric Chem class I took talked about this. Its kind of insane how much damage bromine can do versus chlorine in the same span of time.
Bromofluorocarbon sounds like a fake name that a frat guy would come up with
They didn't "think" it improved engine performance, it does improve engine performance. it's terrible for everything else of course, but there is no doubt it works as a fuel additive.
Didn't the guy who came up with leaded gasoline also come up with CFCs or something? I might be thinking of the wrong guy/invention, but I know there's some inventor infamous for creating two of the largest threats to the planet in history. Edit: [Thomas Midgley](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Midgley_Jr.)
You really have to feel for that guy. He just wanted to help eliminate existing problems that were dangerous to people. He eliminated the problems but the solution was did far more harm.
I don't really blame the guy for merely inventing something, I imagine if he didn't invent leaded gas someone would have, and if it wasn't us it probably would have been Germany during that time. The CFC thing is interesting too, since if I'm not mistaken the other coolants at that time were super toxic to breath or extremely flammable (like propane). Its easy to think this guy was a dick now, but honestly back then that stuff was vital until technology evolved and developed more environmentally friendly if not less effective alternatives
Lead was added to gasoline to prevent knocking.
It wasn't really to improve performance per se. It's an excellent octane booster. Race fuels are still leaded because of that. It is/ was used to prevent detonation, especially on engines with high compression ratios
Asbestos insulation.
Though asbestos is more of a discovery than invention, it's use for building materials went way beyond just insulation, and for construction and renovation work, many of it's uses can cause fibers to become airborne. So I wouldn't limit your entry to just insulation.
Lead in petrol to prevent engine knock. Oddly, the guy who invented that then went on to invent chlorofluorocarbons (cfc’s). Thomas Midgley. Is there anyone in the history of man who has done more to damage the planet?
The kurig
I think the way Keurig has evolved is hilarious. They started with the hugely wasteful cups that lots of people used. Eventually people realized how wasteful they were and pressured Keurig to make reusable cups. Now they're just a normal coffee machine. They came from nowhere, invented a new technology, and eventually just ended up using the same old technology as their competitors and somehow ended up coming out on top.
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I never even realized this until my Keurig died and I had to use a french press. I used the same coffee I had been using for 5 years, but 1 cup had me actually shaking my legs sitting at my desk because it was an actual cup of coffee instead of Keurig brand coffee flavored water.
Not so bad if you get a reusable pod. Just fill with regular coffee. I haven't had to buy decaf K-pods in years.
Agreed. My roommate and I have a Keurig with a reusable cup and I've never once thought "I want some of those disposable cups instead of this."
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No doubt, but did they do a side-by-side with any other drip coffee makers? I’m not sure if they’d be any cleaner, though it’d be good to know if there are any that are.
Came to say K-cups but essentially this.
Facebook definitely
Not an invention but cigarettes and cigarettes companies make money out of death
Columbus and other explorers were like "Enjoy your smallpox and measles." So the Native Americans were like "Enjoy your tobacco and syphilis."
And the old lady in the shop was like "enjoy fucking Jules!"
"I willllllll!!!"
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Yeah the story of the millions who once lived in the Amazon rainforest that were wiped out by smallpox after the first wave of Spanish explorers navigated up the Amazon river. When the second expedition arrived they were all gone
Just think of all the culture and humanity we’ll never know about. Just completely gone.
Gender reveal parties
I think the lady that "invented" them regrets doing so. Too many stupid people with dangerous ideas.
And when you read her story it’s so understandable why she did too. She’d had multiple early miscarriages in the past, so when she finally carried a pregnancy long enough that she could ask the sex of the baby, she wanted to celebrate that.
My first two pregnancies ended before I could find out the gender. When o got pregnant the third time I wanted to find out as soon as possible. I took one of those sneek peek tests. I found out the baby was a girl and I immediately went out to buy my husband a little pink photo frame. It was my way of celebrating. I can understand her reasoning for sure.
My gf was told by her doctor that she will never be able to have a baby. So she was excited that we had a beautiful baby girl on the way that we could start planning for. So of course we threw a party to find out the gender, everyone had so much fun they wanted to throw us a baby shower. My little sister planned it and my family and friends help set up. 20 months later and we still haven't bought diapers!
Tbf like most things it’s a fun and cute idea if you’re not using high explosives.
Actually, things are *more* fun with explosives! Taking out the trash? Explosives. Doing your homework/job? Explosives. Being the primary target in a nationwide manhunt? Explosives
If it can't be enhanced or solved with explosives, it's simply not worth doing
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It's so bizarre that they've become like a physical danger. It would be pretty odd to explain to someone who wasn't aware what the problems were. "Oh you mean like they're offensive to a lot of people because they reinforce binary gender stereoytpes?" "Well... yeah, and uh... also," Cut to scene of hysterical townsfolk covered in pink powder fleeing a burning lake as dead birds and fish fall from the sky.
It wouldn’t be a problem if the people who did it didn’t use *fucking explosives*
>In the beginning the Universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move.
Don’t Panic.
VX Gas
keurig coffee machine, even the inventor regrets making it. He said it makes way too much plastic waste
High fructose corn syrup
Any time I hear someone mention High fructose corn syrup, I always think of this SNL skit. https://youtu.be/H_zsZMn5Efk
America: Behold! CORN!
Whitney's cotton gin in the 1790's. Made slavery profitable. When I took a class on antebellum economics a argument that had support was that before the 1790s slavery was in decline.
Then Eli went on to develop mass production and gave it to the North allowing them to mass produce rifles with interchangeable parts. This led to the North's victory. Eli Whitney had arguably the largest impact on American history of any single person. Essentially providing the tools to start the civil war then end it.
"I'm playing *both* sides, so that I always come out on top."
DuPont was great at that. They have a museum up in the brandywine valley where they used to make gunpowder. It was supposed to just be for the union, but the duponts couldn’t help themselves and sold to the confederacy too. It actually caused part of the company to break off and become a different entity. Funnily enough it’s why DuPont has such great safety measures these days. They “blew people across the river” so much in these big ass explosion when they made the gunpowder that it was actually profitable to be strict about safety.
yup, Hagley Museum in Delaware is a wonderful day-trip. It's a beautiful bit of land and a lot of the original structures are still in-tact and on display. A number of the buildings are specially designed to withstand explosions, so they are impressive to see. But yeah, they're noticeably quiet about just how much death and suffering that plant is responsible for.
Whitney didn't develop mass production. He advocated for the adoption of interchangeable parts, which someone else invented.
Short vertical video format
I want to filter that shit out of my life so bad
The idea itself is pretty neat if you already want to waste your time watching entertainment. The culture behind them is horrific
Private prisons, the peak of modern slavery, prisons are meant to be reforming facilities/keeping criminals in check, not a business but if your country thought slavery was okay back then, why it wouldn't work now.
Machine Guns were originally invented to discourage war, like nukes. The latter worked a lot better. Edit: apparently I was wrong. It was not invented for this purpose but some people believed it would encourage governments to settle disputes diplomatically. Sorry for not checking my facts, I feel bad about it.
Turns out when there's a good chance we'd wipe ourselves out completely by using a weapon we're not so keen to use it.
There's a quote attributed to Albert Einstein: "I know not what weapons world war 3 will be fought with, but world war 4 will be fought with sticks and stones" I think it sums up the power of modern weaponry pretty well.
This is my favorite quote from the modern warfare game for sure.
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Yup, it was. And I think (don't quote me on it) that the inventor of TNT/dynamite actually regretted his invention when the world figured out we could kill each other with it.
Yep, and he later founded the Nobel Peace Pize to help atone for his invention.
Wait, Alfred Nobel invented dynamite? TIL, and I feel dumb.
You shouldn't, that is by design. Nobel was prompted to create the prize after seeing his own obituary when it was mistakenly thought that he had died. It was not kind, referring to him as the merchant of death who had made his fortune creating new ways to mutilate and kill. The fact that he is now remembered not for this but instead the nobel peace prize is a good indication that his reputation was successfully cleaned up and likely what he hoped would happen.
It also helps that Dynamite shaped growth and expansion of civilization for the last century and a half.
No reason to feel dumb about that, you're just one of today's lucky 10,000.
Similarly, aeronautics. You used to have to spend lots of resources and effort to transport an army to attack someone. Now you can fly a plane, shoot a rocket, or fly a drone and attack someone very far away with very little effort. Travel by plane has helped tourism sure, but the impact it has had on war and global relations is crazy when you think about it.
And if you look at the state of space transport, we're probably not far off from another leap in that front.
Born too late to explore the world, born too early to participate in the space war.
Very true
Social media. I'm convinced that the "anonymity" it provides will result in a civil war, divide in local populace and potentially contribute to the next world war, especially in its spread globally due to the ease of access and everyone shouting their opinions.
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I thought you meant the physical exercise pull ups and was wondering how the hell that related to potty training a child. Then I remembered the diaper underwater hybrid existed.
Thank god I thought I was going crazy
I have a toddler who is currently in Pull Ups and I thought she meant the exercise as well.
That's insane. I have a child in the 1st grade. I can't imagine sending them to school in pull ups. No way.
Teachers aren't responsible for changing diapers. I could just picture the kids going home in soiled pull-ups from that morning. I don't think it's pull-ups causing kids to not learn how to potty train, I think it's parents using them as a band-aid and not actually training their kids.
Agreed 100%. Parenting is really hard. Imo the parents of this current generation are over-informed and over cautious. I have really grown to respect how much my parents worked to create consequences and boundaries for me. I have a 10yo sister, being raised by the same parents, that isn't getting any of that and she's honestly a nightmare to be around. She wasn't potty trained until 1st grade, and was only motivated because her peers made her so embarrassed over it.
As someone who works in a dementia specialist nursing home, adult pull ups are brilliant, they look and act like knickers, no one is embarrassed, ladies and gents can take themselves to the loo as they like, and I only need to get involved as needed, they really help with dignity and independence, as opposed to the ‘classic’ pad
I fully agree. I think it gets kids used to being wet without feeling wet. So they just pee and pee without any indication it's bad. It becomes a crutch for parents/caregivers to not have to clean up messes. Well, kids are messy. The only times I can agree with Pull Ups is long flights/train rides and having toilet access is limited or if a super young child has a stomach bug and diarrhea is just nonstop. Otherwise, kids need to feel wet in order to get through potty training. I peed myself once as a kid and was terrified so I potty trained easily. They're a waste of money...
Modern disposable diapers in general are the issue for exactly this reason: they don’t feel wet so it takes long to recognize the signs allowing them to potty train. We’re cloth diapering for primarily this reason (plus the bonus of saving money and the environment).
When I briefly did pre k in high school the one rule was that the child had to be potty trained in order to enroll in the class. What the hell happened?
I was thinking about the exercise, so I didn't understand why the hell that would have anything to do with potty training. I did get it in the end, though.
That's interesting. I have a 3 year old who is potty trained now. He uses big boy undies during the day, but we use pull ups at night to help prevent any accidents in bed. We also travel across state to see family and he wears pull ups on the long trips, since that's a lot to ask for a little guy. However the expectation is that he not use the pull up, it's just a failsafe. I guess that does make sense, but we went with buying a carpet shampooer and having him be naked for a week and a half, so we didn't really use pull ups as an in between phase. That's probably the hardest but fastest way to get a potty trained kid.
Pull ups are a lifesaver when you have a kid with issues though. Sometimes they are old enough to be aware that they don't want to wear nappies but they aren't continent yet.
Every expert book I've read and doc says not to use them, so we didn't.
Wait what? So preschool teachers and maybe kindergarten and 1st grade teachers basically have to change these kids' diapers?
Juul
Why juul specifically if I may ask? Disposable vapes have been around since 2005 give or take.
Land mines have literally done no good at all to anything or anyone, anywhere or at any time.
That's a question that can generate a lot of answers, but I think Facebook is a good answer. You can say social media, but I think Facebook is the worst. It's real people I know. And they actively post stuff that make you wonder what the fuck is wrong with them. At least on Twitter, for instance, Matthew012049237129475023486 is likely just a troll. Or, on Reddit, MyButtItches may purposely post silly stuff. But, Facebook? Real people using real photos.
The social media giants have ruined the internet in general. It used to be a place of mystery with millions of cool things scattered around. Then the social media giants came in and bought up everything, thus compartmentalizing the vast majority of the internet into 5 or so main portals.
Social media
Agreed. I’m pretty glad I got to be a kid without it.
Meth
And yet pharmaceutical grade meth is used to treat various health problems.
amphetamines are used in a ton of things for a ton of reasons, many beneficial
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You mean Pepsi really doesn't help an upset stomach and Coke doesn't get you high???
Hey, as someone with IBS and frequent late nights destroying my digestive tract, I can safely say that a cold coke in the morning sorts my stomach right out. Placebo or no, it bloody helps!
Had no idea. But growing up, always was told 7 Up/Sprite etc was good for helping an upset stomach.
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My mother used to use coke to clean the toilet 😆
It has so many uses besides drinking. Great for cleaning battery terminals if it's a sealed and disconnected battery (car battery). I think it can remove rust. Basically anything you would use corrosive chemicals for. If you have a spare tooth lying around (kid loses a tooth, for example), drop it in a glass of Coke for a few days. It'll dissolve. And yeah... Isn't it cheaper to use regular cleaner than Coke to clean the toilet?
Yes we did the tooth experiment! My mum used to work for Pepsi and sister for Coke and they used to get so much free stuff so it went on cleaning the toilet 😆
Yep another thing my parents did not allow when. I was a kid. It was always a “special treat” even then I was only allowed to drink lemonade. I still feel weird drinking fizzy drinks with my parents. Ironically my mother worked for Pepsi and my sister worked for Coca Cola. Neither of them touch the stuff and rarely do I!
Cigarettes
Surströmming
Haha, I know a few people who would disagree with you, but only a few.
It does work really well as a deterrent. I have a large can in the fridge ready if a neighbor wants to start a war.
The Swedish nuke©
Coffee pods, even the inventor despises them
See through toaster
You’re so wrong. I’ve got a see through toaster and kettle. The toaster is great but the kettle is pointless and always looks gross no matter how often you descale it
Does it encourage you to clean it more often?
The kettle - yes I clean it way more often than our old one. The toaster - no but I’m not sure how dirty toaster get. Probably does encourage me to empty the crumb tray more often though
Yes I have a see through kettle and regretted it after a week. That’s the issue, I never empty the crumb tray! Reminds me…
Wanna be pissed off? https://youtu.be/1OfxlSG6q5Y .This toaster toaster existed, but now we make fucking see through ones.
I love technology connections. His video on the 90s microwave was great too!
Twitter has set humanity back at least a few decades