Worst Inventions
Segway
New Coke
Clippy
Agent Orange
CueCat
Subprime Mortgages
Crinoline
Nintendo Virtual Boy
Farmville
Hydrogenated Oils
Honegar
Hydrogen Blimps
Hair in a Can
DDT
Auto-Tune
Red Dye No. 2
Ford Pinto
Parachute Jacket
Betamax
Baby Cage
Tanning Beds
Crocs
Hula Chair
Foursquare
Pop-Up Ads
Phone Fingers
CFCs
Plastic Grocery Bags
Bumpit
Electric Facial Mask
Sony CD Copy Protection
Venetian-Blind Sunglasses
Pet Spa
Pontiac Aztek
Snuggie for Dogs
Mizar Flying Car
Asbestos
Olestra
Comfort Wipe
Fake Ponytails
HeadOn
Pay Toilets
Tamagotchis
Leaded Gasoline
Vibrating Ab Belt
Spam E-mail
Smell-o-Vision
Smile Checks
Microsoft Bob
Vio
some of this are bad marketing of a good product and others are a result of good marketing of a bad product.
This whole article confirms two items 1) reporters have a very low IQ and 2) time magazine is an epic fail.
WOW - are they nuts, about many of their listings of chemical products.
DDT, as some above have mentioned, was and is spectacularly effective and useful.
CFCs (Freon, etc.) are incredibly efficient and important agents and more and more it appears they have little to do with ozone depletion. We have gone from refrigerators that lasted 40 years to refrigerators with a lifetime of less than five years as a result of that ban. The loss of their efficiency has meant loss of refrigeration in the Third World for vast numbers of people. There is still no good delivery agent other than CFCs for certain drugs.
I know people have made a great case for Agent Orange, but I am not able to do so off the top of my head.
There is really no good substitute still for Asbestos, and eliminating that from the World Trade Center towers may well have been the cause that the steel in those columns lost integrity so quickly.
Red Dye #2 - I willingly will not defend.
I don’t have major argument with any of their others, though I would love a Segway, enjoyed Pinto, love to use plastic bags, and understand pay toilets.
As far as the chemicals above, though, I believe that they will re-emerge in time of need since they are still very viable.
Smell-o-vision? When was that invented?