And why? There have been so many---car, plane, spacecraft, DNA code- breaking, atomic energy, computers, the Pill, Polio cure, etc, etc, etc.

What will be next? What SHOULD be next?

-- Lars (lars@indy.net), August 16, 2000

Answers

FROZEN-MOMENTS??

-- al-d. (dogs@zianet.com), August 16, 2000.

FROZEN-MOMENTS are OK. It's "precious moments" that gag me.

-- Lars (lars@indy.net), August 16, 2000.

The vegamatic. Yeah, Ron.

DB

-- DB (Debunker@nomore.xxx), August 16, 2000.

Velcro.

-- (nemesis@awol.com), August 16, 2000.

The greatest labor saving device ever invented by mankind- the vibrator.

-- Uncle Deedah (unkeed@yahoo.com), August 16, 2000.

I was waiting for someone to say "Salad Shooter", but DB came quite close with vegematic.

My answer is "I don't know", Lars. The question is VERY subjective. For instance, I wouldn't think that the folks in Japan would think much of the atomic bomb, I wouldn't think folks against contraception would think much of the pill, and even the Concord has fallen from grace of late.

I love all of it, save the vegematic and the salad-shooter. Does that mean it was all important? I doubt it.

-- Anita (Anita_S3@hotmail.com), August 16, 2000.

No contest, the hands down winner is................the Transistor.

-- Ra (tion@l.1), August 16, 2000.

The george foreman grill master?

Unkle D! That's labor?!

-- cin (cin@cinn.cin), August 16, 2000.

i like my power=pack-screwdriver!

-- al-d. (dogs@zianet.com), August 16, 2000.

Duh, the Internet...

<:)=

-- Sysman (y2kboard@yahoo.com), August 16, 2000.

Mountain Dew - it'll rot your teeth, rot your gut - but it will taste so good in the process.

-- Butt Nugget (who loves Mt. Dew) (catsbutt@umailme.com), August 16, 2000.

The silicon chip. But we didn't create it it, we copied it from technology found in crashed alien spacecraft at Roswell. Humans don't know how to create anything constructive, only destructive.

-- art bell (retired@getting.fat), August 16, 2000.

i know i know....microwave popcorn

i mean...who woulda thunk

-- cin (cin@cinn.cin), August 16, 2000.

Space mining.

-- Oxy (Oxsys@aol.com), August 17, 2000.

Oxy--

Everyone has given serious answers except you. I'm sorry, but you are disqualified and are not eligible for my neato prize.

-- Lars (lars@indy.net), August 17, 2000.

Unks right.

The female body does wonders with machanics.

Or a bunch of care....

-- happy (whatsinaname@?.com), August 17, 2000.

Bombs.

Things that blow up people.

Reasons to hurt.

I think people only take away from each other when they are afraid of loss..

The question I would like to see disscused is how have WE helped each other?

-- happy/sad (whatsinaname@idon'tremember.com), August 17, 2000.

Chia Pet!!!!!

-- cin (cin@cinn.cin), August 17, 2000.

Dr. Pepper. Mmm, mmm, love that aftertaste!

-- Joe Cellphone (here@alphapage.net), August 17, 2000.

My vote is for antibiotics. I've been sick with the flu twice before and without antibiotics, I think I would have died.

-- (Netsc@pe 6.0), August 17, 2000.

Cin invented the chia cunt!

Cin's chia pet; rated PG 18

oops forgot, that was one of the worst inventions

-- Hairy (teeth@no.thanks), August 17, 2000.

The elevator... w/o it, no highrises.

Mar.

PS: Hairy, why don't you shut the *bleep* up, you yellow-bellied- chicken.

-- Not now, not like this (AgentSmith0110@aol.com), August 17, 2000.

Wow, I use to date that girl! Took one of those bags of 10 Bic Lady Shavers every time I paid her a visit, but by the time I finished the shaving I was too tired to have sex. Decided it was more worthwhile for me to just stay home and mow the lawn.

-- (too pooped@to.pop), August 17, 2000.

happy/sad--

So start a thread.

-- Lars (lars@indy.net), August 17, 2000.

Aerosol cheese.

-- (hmm@hmm.hmm), August 17, 2000.

In general, I agree with Anita's evaluation. This is a more serious answer than vegematic. Without food, we are dead. I think that the development of hybrid crop plants is one of the defining creations of this century. They really started on line in the 1930's. They define what we are [ie, alive].

-- DB (Debunker@nomore.xxx), August 17, 2000.

"Oxy: (regarding space mining) Everyone has given serious answers except you. I'm sorry but you are disqualified and are not eligible for my neato prize. -- Lars."

Lars,

Listen, cupcake. I came up with the concept of space mining after a three week sabbatical contemplating the answer to the world's problems. Not to mention my navel.

Don't ya know? There are too many people. Even if every person is precious. (We can debate that on an al-d thread.) Partial birth is more than partial insanity. Besides, do we have enough natural resources here to make 6 billion veggiematics?

What better way to blend God and satisfaction in a Cuisinart than to ship tons of well-paid, adventurous folks to other planets and star systems, let em colonize and cavort, and mine materials to be used in interplanetary projects?

The world benefits, (well, make that worlds...) people have more wiggle room, there is no need for population control, and everyone can have their own chia-Lexus.

Space mining. Between your ears, babe. It pays dividends.

You know where to send the prize.

-- Oxy (Oxsys@aol.com), August 17, 2000.

Oxy--

Sorry, space mining is not an acceptable answer to the Blue Ribbon committee that I have commissioned to judge responses. They say that this answer is tongue-in-chic. BTW, how did you know that my neato prize was a cupcake?

"contemplating your navel"? Are we talking innie or or outtie?

-- Lars (lars@indy.net), August 17, 2000.

Another one of those inscrutable questions.

-- Oxy (Oxsys@aol.com), August 17, 2000.

Oxy, if you havent already rent the movie Outland.

-- Ra (tion@l.1), August 17, 2000.

Howdy DB:

Just got back from your home. I agree with you. Development of hybrid plants define this century. Without that, we would be dead. Al Gore wouldn't have lived to invent the internet. :^)< /FONT>

So it goes.

Best wishes,,,,

Z

-- Z1X4Y7 (Z1X4Y7@aol.com), August 17, 2000.

-- (hmm@hmm.hmm), August 17, 2000.

The greatest breakthrough was clearly the "ABC machine", the first computer, developed in the very early 1940s at Iowa State College (now Iowa State University) in Ames, Iowa.

(Apparently some crucial insights were provided by an extraordinarily precocious four-year old child who was living in Ames at the time.)

-- Peter Errington (petere@ricochet.net), August 17, 2000.

Oh is *that* what they told you?

-- cin (=oP@cin.cin), August 18, 2000.

DR. Bob is in the house, Whoop Whoop. The greatest inovation would have to be the t.v guide.

-- Docta Bob (docta@bob.slob), August 18, 2000.

I personally think that space flight is a good accomplishment for the 20th century. Call me funny, but I would love to go out there someday.

-- (Sheeple@Greener.Pastures), August 18, 2000.

The Survivor tv show is contemplating a stint on the Mir space station, Sheep. Mebbe you and CapnFun can audition...

-- Oxy (Oxsys@aol.com), August 18, 2000.

But then getting "booted off" would take on a whole new meaning.

-- Patricia (PatriciaS@lasvegas.com), August 18, 2000.

Peter--

The computer is not a 20th century invention according to Charles Babbage.

-- Lars (lars@indy.net), August 18, 2000.

Lars:

Interesting that you should mention Charles Babbage, a true genius. My understanding, though, is that mechanical friction set a limit on what he could do with his invention.

-- Peter Errington (petere@ricochet.net), August 18, 2000.

I agree Peter; I'm just being a crank. The Babbage machine was mechanical, not electronic. What I don't know is if it was more than a calculator. Do you know if it was in any way programmable? If so, I assume it was analog.

-- Lars (lars@indy.net), August 19, 2000.

Lars, the Babbage machine was programmable. Ada Lovelace, Babbage's great friend (and Lord Byron's daughter) was the world's first programmer. The "Ada" programming language of today is named after her.

His device was digital, but I don't know how it was controlled - holes in cards, perhaps, something like that.

-- Peter Errington (petere@ricochet.net), August 19, 2000.

Ah...Ada Lovelace - inventor of the loop-concept.

-- cin (=oP@cin.cin), August 20, 2000.

The Thermos Bottle. It keeps hot things hot and cold things cold. How do it know?

-- Chief (bmc@sealret.com), August 20, 2000.

Cin,

Tell us more.

-- (nemesis@awol.com), August 21, 2000.

Sticky-backs.....er, post-it-notes. Try, just try living without them!

-- LunaC (IWannaWin@Prize.com), August 21, 2000.

A lot depends on how you interpret "greatest". The one with the biggest impact on daily human existance? That has relieved the most pain and suffering or brought the greatest good? That has changed the economy or the military balance of power the most? The one that has become the most indispensible to the most people?

I usually answer: penicillin. Bacterial infections such as pneumonia used to be among the world's great killers. Penicillin has saved countless millions of lives and billions of days of suffering. Nowadays it is almost as cheap as dirt and is administered worldwide.

Silicon chips and atomic bombs cast big shadows, but having a death sentence removed from millions of innocent people and restoring them to health is pretty darned "great" no matter how you slice it.

-- Brian McLaughlin (brianm@ims.com), August 21, 2000.

Brian,

Removing a death sentence from millions of people is great, but this aim only works in the long run if there is enough space and resources to support both robust birth rates and low death rates.

One of the lessons I learned in anthropology class: a cure of one particular Third World disease led to increased population and resultant other serious health threats as survival rates climbed.

Unless you have a way to disperse excess healthy people from a planet with limited resources, (space mining diaspora -- ha!!) the obvious goal of increasing life expectancy on Earth will remain a frustrating conundrum.

-- Oxy (Oxsys@aol.com), August 21, 2000.

Of course, the availability and distribution of unlimited free contraceptive measures for all would be a start.

-- Oxy (Oxsys@aol.com), August 21, 2000.

Um, Oxy, do you know when/if they are taking applications for the um space place? Oh and um, does it cost alot? :-)

I wanna go.

xoxo,sumer

-- consumer (shh@aol.com), August 21, 2000.

Hey sumer,

The last I read, the Survivor folks were at the contract consideration stage with the Mir folks. 'Course they still have to get through the Australia Survivor version first.

Best bet is to get with CapnFun -- I believe he is the one with the most info on this forum about Survivor auditions, interest, etc.

No, you don't pay for being on the Mir space station, if it's part of the tv series. The key to Survivor is to last long enough so they pay YOU.

Good luck, sumer. You will make us proud. ;) (Don't forget your suit.)

-- Oxy (Oxsys@aol.com), August 21, 2000.

HEE Heee, yeah right.

No jetpools on the other planets, but I'm sure I could moon restle..

LOL, thanks ox, your a crack-up..

xoxo,sumer

-- consumer (shh@aol.com), August 21, 2000.

your spacesuit, sumer, your spacesuit.

-- Oxy (Oxsys@aol.com), August 21, 2000.

shoot, I knew I'd 4get sumethin. :-(

xoxo,sumer

-- consuemr (shh@aol.com), August 21, 2000.

>> Removing a death sentence from millions of people is great, but this aim only works in the long run if there is enough space and resources to support both robust birth rates and low death rates. <<

Granted. Penicillan disrupted an ages-old pattern of birth and death by increasing average life-expectancy pretty drastically. I'd like to think that people are capable of responding to that disruption rationally, by lowering birth rates. I did. Got snipped.

-- Brian McLaughlin (brianm@ims.com), August 21, 2000.

Going back to the original question...I agree with what's been said, and let me add: THE CROCK POT

If you've never used one and work outside of the house all day, yet get tired of eating out, this handy, dandy device will produce some wonderful meals. I load mine with tomato sauce, city chicken, onions, carrots, and occasionally potatoes before I leave for work, and when I return, the house is fulled with the heady aroma of cooked food.

Not to mention that using a Crock Pot requires absolutely no special skills, which is more than I can say for other methods of cooking, especially those involving woks and sharp knives (ouch!!)

-- (kb8um8@yahoo.com), August 21, 2000.

Plastic

-- Flint (flintc@mindspring.com), August 21, 2000.

Plastic, Benjamin

-- (nemesis@awol.com), August 21, 2000.

Plastic

Too late. I already said aerosol cheese.

-- (hmm@hmm.hmm), August 21, 2000.

Plastic sucks. Billions of tons of air pollution are created when it is produced, it kills animals, and it has a half-life of 10 million years, so we'll be living in it for quite a while.

There is GOOD technology BAD technology, and plastic is BAD TECHNOLOGY!

-- (yuckie@poo.crap), August 21, 2000.

Toilet Paper

-- (link@link.link), August 21, 2000.

Hi everyone, I suffer from explosive bowel gas. When I experience an attack of flatulence somtimes not only gas is expelled. I often find that I may expel solids/liquids. I'm not always close to a roll of toilet paper. However, through expermentation, I have resolved the problem. I now insert a slice of good french or sour dough bread between my cheeks in the morning. The bread soaks up the sauce until I can get to a restroom and wipe my behind. Don't try raisen bread, it leaves small lumps behind, and never use toast because it scratches like the dickens. That's it for now. Herbert Schnitzer Stanker, Iowa USA - Saturday, January 01, 2000 at 20:08:18 (EST)

Um, excuuuuuusssseeeee me, i didnt write it, ^^^^, um nope, it was found at the link above.... I am innocent.

And to think someone jumped all over ME yes, lil ol me for the rotten.com addy. For shame.

Um, check out that link, it is pretty weird and very funny.

-- sumer (shhIdidnt@doit.nope), August 21, 2000.

Uh, guys, the plastic reference is a joke.

Like in The Graduate, Benjamin.

Duh.

-- Oxy (Oxsys@aol.com), August 21, 2000.

Did Flint really just post a one word answer on this thread?? Now I know it's true! Repent! The end is nigh!

-- Holy Cow (This is@the.end), August 22, 2000.

I;m telling ya, Flint is a 'changed' man...LOL..

xoxo,sumer

-- consumer (shh@aol.com), August 22, 2000.