With the 20th century winding down, what, in your opinion, ranks at the top of the list of worst inventions?
I vote for Call Waiting. I HATE CALL WAITING!
If I’m on the phone with someone and the call waiting clicks in and the person says “do mind while I take this call?” I say yes and hang up and blame it on their phone. A pox on the inventor of this attrocity.
Those little flaps on coffe lids , If you dont want to spill your coffe you shouldnt be driving with it.
Attack Dialers.
Cell phones in cars. No Doper who has tussled with some yuppie driver on the freeway–too absorbed in a phone conversation to give enough attention to driving–can argue with that!
Silly Putty. Parents complained that their kids were ruining their clothes by staining them with it. (Besides, the little girl on the package looked like she was pregnant! :D)
The headmouse.
This was a pointing device for computers that you wore on your head and pointed by nodding. It’s incredible that anyone considered putting it into production and it died a very quick death.
“What we have here is failure to communicate.” – Strother Martin, anticipating the Internet.
Did it work for computers that sat on your desk 
Sorry RC, couldn’t resist. Made me spew wine when I read it. No charge for the cleanup 
A point in every direction is like no point at all
Is that anything like a Dormouse?
Toss-up between the Sports Utility Vehicle and the cellular telephone. Taken together, symbolic of an Asshole of the highest magnitude.
Uke
I am an asshole of the highest magnitude then…
And whoever says, "Tell me something I didn’t know is gonna get it! See how much more self-deprecating humor you’ll get from me!
I’ll second the call waiting, though, while I’m here!
“I’ve got a DungeonMaster’s guide, I’ve got a twelve-sided die, I’ve got Kitty Pryde and Nightcrawler too, waiting there for me, yes I do.”
Weezer-In the Garage
Uke, I beg to quibble. I have no great difference with you on a general perception of the SUV/cell phone combo. But there are some truly awesome world class assholes out there who far surpass mere SUV/cell phone combos. Let’s not unduly cheapen assholiness.
One word: DIVX.
Examples, beatle, ol’ pal…I’ll want EXAMPLES.
It is my firm belief that a human being hurtling down the freeway in a Ford Explorer, burning up buckets of fossil fuels with each passing mile, and conducting self-important business with a cellphone tucked under his/her chin is…well, not a Donald Trump or a Senator Jesse Helms, but certainly a Mighty Asshole.
Hmmmm…this could be worth a Great Debates thread.
Uke
Well, anyone driving a Ford Explorer is an asshole Ike. Come on, you can do better than that!
“I’ve got a DungeonMaster’s guide, I’ve got a twelve-sided die, I’ve got Kitty Pryde and Nightcrawler too, waiting there for me, yes I do.”
Weezer-In the Garage
“Clap on…clap off…”
That’s actually not a bad invention, but it seems that a white trash stigma is attached to it’s ownership. Same with the Chia pets (which I could never get to grow, damn it!).
How about those dog sweaters? That’s pretty bad.
“Don’t look at me–I’m irrelevant.”
Awk!
The Scylla and Charybdis of Democritus and beatle!
Am I too LENIENT in my defining of assholes, or too TOUGH? My head is bursting!
Lemme just duck, here, and you two can fire over my head at each other for a while.
Uke
Okay, I can’t stand it any longer…call waiting and cell phones are both works of pure evil.
People who use cell phones in cars, restaurants, theaters or in any non-emergency situations are deluded.
And Ukelele Ike, I own a well-rusted Ford Bronco that has gotten me through flooded streets, blizzards and muddy fields. It’s hauled lumber, bags of mortar, canoes and beaten up camping gear. That said, I do not have a car phone and resolutely refuse to get one, but the only time I’ve considered it is for making emergency calls the few times I have gotten stuck.
(whew! okay, the snit’s over now.)
My nomination is more a variation than an invention: condensed books. Oxymoronic at best, like virtual sex.
Grumbling,
Veb
I was going to say Nuclear Weapons, then I thought, nah.
It’s got to be microwaveble lasagna.
Wally, I live on the stuff (Budget Gourmet)… are you sayin’ I’m full of it?
beatle, I love you like a brother, but you’re scaring me.
Budget Gourmet?
The name alone should crank up the sirens.
OK, Uke, you want real assholes.
We are a small business in a big business, Some of the people we do business with think nothing of hanging a contractor with $15,000 of unpaid expenses. Well, I can’t do that. A small job will run at least $50K and a large job (they’ll pay for lunch!) will run, what?, 5 to 7 million?
People come to me as the upfront technology head of a geophysical firm and all I can tell them right now is “We’ll get back to you.”
Oh come on people…cell phones? call waiting? While these are undoubtedly works or pure malevolence, I don’t think they deserve the label of worst invention of the 20th century. For one, they’re pretty recent, and secondly they pale in compare to what is easily the most incredibly evil invention in all of human history. An invention that has sapped the minds and wills of entire generations, one that has created an entire culture based on instant gratification. This invention is nothing less than pure, unadulterated, evil.
Thats right, I’m talking about Television.