# Good Ideas Killed By Association **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [December 7, 2014, 6:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-ideas-killed-by-association/706552 "2014-12-07T06:46:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![JohnGalt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johngalt/32/184_2.png) [@JohnGalt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnGalt)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2014, 5:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-ideas-killed-by-association/706552/41 "2014-12-10T05:13:06Z")
The diet candy named Ayds died shortly after the AIDS crisis started. ---
**Author:** ![Waymore](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/919ad9/32.png) [@Waymore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Waymore)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2014, 8:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-ideas-killed-by-association/706552/42 "2014-12-10T08:05:52Z")
Non-intervention, what critics would call isolationism, is another example from American history. History of the first half of the 20th century often casts America in a bad light for not being more involved on the world stage. But, avoiding entangling alliances has a long and positive history in American foreign policy. I think a lot of the issues we have today could have been adverted if the US government wasn’t so busy meddling in the affairs of other nations. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2014, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-ideas-killed-by-association/706552/43 "2014-12-10T20:46:25Z")
> [@puzzlegal](#): > > … Explosives – yes, that would be horribly messy, and kind of a nightmare for whoever had clean-up duty. … What clean up duty? Have the guest of honor out in an open grassy field, perhaps the prison baseball diamond. Push the button to fire the charge; make it a hefty one. Release a few pigs. Come back in an hour to round up the pigs. Problem solved. I’m sure the videos would be massively popular and could fund all sorts of useful morale programs for the remaining prisoners. ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2014, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-ideas-killed-by-association/706552/44 "2014-12-10T20:49:25Z")
> [@JohnGalt](#): > > The diet candy named Ayds died shortly after the AIDS crisis started. Now, that’s not true. They ignored AIDS for quite some time. Then they renamed the product Slim-Ayds to differentiate it from the disease. Then someone realized that throughout Africa, the affliction AIDS was known as… Slim. Then it died. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/46a35a/32.png) [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_T-Bonham.net)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2014, 5:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-ideas-killed-by-association/706552/45 "2014-12-11T05:58:48Z")
> [@Ethilrist](#): > > Plus, all the Nazi research in general. Granted, it wasn’t the best research ever, but it was data that is generally reviled and unacceptable because of the methods used to acquire it. Actually, much of that data is not useful because of the poor condition of the research subjects. For example, they did research on hypothermia by immersing gay people in freezing water until they died. Nobody else has done such research\*. But the subjects were in such poor condition due to starvation and other mistreatment in the camps that current researchers don’t believe the results accurately reflect the effects of hypothermia on normal, healthy people. \*Until, according to the Senate report, our own CIA under Bush/Cheney – but they didn’t keep good records like the Germans did. ---
**Author:** ![Sailboat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sailboat/32/461_2.png) [@Sailboat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sailboat)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2014, 12:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-ideas-killed-by-association/706552/46 "2014-12-12T12:08:33Z")
> [@bump](#): > > Yeah, I’m really curious why in the light of the drug shortages, death penalty states haven’t just quietly moved to inert gas asphyxiation. More humane overall, and no gore or anything like that. Plus, it’s absurdly simple to get hold of nitrogen gas, since it’s used for welding, in medicine, etc… > > [Inert gas asphyxiation - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inert_gas_asphyxiation) Well, just imagine the danger to the public if this deadly nitrogen gas somehow got released into the atmosphere! ---
**Author:** ![Waymore](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/919ad9/32.png) [@Waymore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Waymore)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2014, 1:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-ideas-killed-by-association/706552/47 "2014-12-12T13:51:50Z")
> [@Sailboat](#): > > Well, just imagine the danger to the public if this deadly nitrogen gas somehow got released into the atmosphere! The mind fairly boggles. ---
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2014, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-ideas-killed-by-association/706552/48 "2014-12-12T18:07:55Z")
> [@Recusant](#): > > Interestingly, technology can address one of the few real downsides, the concern over pain: there’s no real reason we have to rely on gravity to accelerate the blade; we could use pneumatic acceleration. Still not enough? Magnetic acceleration! Prepare the Gaussotine! The severed head with the brain would still feel pain from the neck wound for a few seconds, no? ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2014, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-ideas-killed-by-association/706552/49 "2014-12-12T21:10:04Z")
> [@Recusant](#): > > ::Sigh:: C4, C4, C4- don’t you people know of any other explosives? Poison with cyanide, blow up with C4. In my day, we showed creativity with our murders, darn it! > > Yes, killing people with explosives is more time-efficient, but not more financially efficient- and that’s always part of the problem. And yes, the other big problem with the guillotine is that it makes a terrible mess, but in my above post, I’m working from the assumption that you’re going ahead with the whole ‘capital punishment’ thing. It’s certainly not more time-efficient if you count the time of the executioner as well as the victims. With explosives you have all kinds of things that take time and can fail: detonators, wires, etc. You could have executions blowing themselves up if they make a mistake or if the convict shakes his head at the wrong moment. I see a BBC series in the future: _Danger: UXH_ (Un-eXploded Head) A guillotine is much simpler and more reliable. ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2014, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-ideas-killed-by-association/706552/50 "2014-12-15T19:02:28Z")
> [@Boyo\_Jim](#): > > It’s certainly not more time-efficient if you count the time of the executioner as well as the victims. With explosives you have all kinds of things that take time and can fail: detonators, wires, etc. You could have executions blowing themselves up if they make a mistake or if the convict shakes his head at the wrong moment. > > I see a BBC series in the future: _Danger: UXH_ (Un-eXploded Head) > > A guillotine is much simpler and more reliable. If we’re looking for gruesome and destructive, what they ought to do is make a shaped-charge hat, and just fire the jet down through the top of the head, and take out the brainstem, spinal cord and everything else on the way down. It’s conceivable that you could get the heart as well. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-ideas-killed-by-association/706552.md?page=2)