People Discuss Inventions They Think Did More Harm Than Good

It’s fascinating to think about what inventors might have had in mind when they came up with new ideas.

And it’s also interesting to ponder whether they could really comprehend where their inventions would eventually go and what kind of impact they would have on the world.

Folks on AskReddit shared what inventions they think did more harm than good.

Let’s take a look.

1. That’s a hot take.

“Al**hol as a beverage.

Like it or not, if al**hol as a beverage was discovered today, it would be illegal.”

2. Major problems.

“Lead in paint.

Doctors were telling us it would cause severe neurological problems for about 80 years before the US finally listened and banned it.

There are houses in the US today that still have lead paint.”

3. Going way back.

“The cotton gin.

Yeah it alleviated the work of slaves but it catapulted the demand for slavery and some historians note it as one of the causes of the American Civil War.”

4. Done a lot of damage.

“High Fructose Corn Syrup.

Used to sweeten food, enhance flavor, and add texture and volume, HFCS is a cheap and easily mass-produced ingredient that’s become a prime culprit of the US obesity epidemic. Why? Well from 1970 to 2000, there was a 25% increase in “added sugars” in the US.

After being classified as GRAS, HFCS began to replace sucrose as the main sweetener of soft drinks in the United States. At the same time, rates of obesity rose.”

5. Be careful with that thing!

“It has to be the guillotine.

A French device which appeared during the French Revolution because France still employed gruesome methods of execution which were faulty at times. The guillotine was invented as a means of quick painless execution, but it was so efficient that it led to an increase in its usage during the following years, as the punish rate skyrocketed.

Needless to say, the good intentions of its creation turned bad quite quickly… Talk about having a happy trigger finger.”

6. My teeth hurt.

“Soda/sugary drinks

Drinking sugar drinks contributes to obesity, diabetes and other diseases. Yet it’s available EVERYWHERE you go. And cheap to buy.

It also doesn’t help that soda in aluminum cans are lined with BPA that can cause high blood pressure. And soda is also packaged in plastic bottles that also contain BPA which can enter the blood stream and cause cancer.

If the sugary drinks don’t get you first… The packaging will.”

7. It adds up.

“The keurig cups.

From what I recall the guy that started that whole thing regretted it because of the amount of garbage those little single use keurig cups waste.”

8. A forever chemical.

“Teflon. A cancer causing chemical used in everything from baby bottles to fabrics to cookware and everything else.

Teflon is a “forever chemical” and is detected globally in humans, soil, drinking water, food and animals.”

9. Weapon of war.

“Machine g**s.

The inventor of the AK-47 said something along the lines of, “I would have preferred to have invented a lawn mower.””

10. Seems to be out of control.

“Cable news

It’s nonstop mind control now.

They tell folks what to buy (which they do now by calling it a shortage, results in mass panic.) I’m sure someone holds shares in whatever they tell as it’s just getting odd now.

They tell folks where they should vacation and not vacation.

They tell folks what brands they should and shouldn’t buy.

They tell folks who they should and shouldn’t vote for. This is EXTREMELY DANGEROUS.

Yes, they pass all this off as opinion peices, people just take it as the truth and not an opinion.”

11. Echo chamber.

“Twitter.

Echo chamber, ego inflating, self importance and attention seeking galore.”

12. People have strong feelings about it.

“Airbnb.

Started as an opportunity for people to rent out a spare room and meet travelers. Has morphed into a short-term rental platform where wealthy second home owners let entire homes or apartments at the expense of local communities.

Residents in once peaceful neighborhoods are forced to endure all the impacts that come with living next to makeshift unregulated hotels and group accommodation.

Loud parties any night of the week, a steady stream of strangers in apartment blocks or residential streets, parking congestion, masses of rubbish, security issues, loss of community all become commonplace.

Long-term rentals dry up because Airbnb is more lucrative and local businesses, in some cases even local hospitals, can’t find staff as they have nowhere to live. Long-term locals find themselves kicked out of their rentals to make way for another more lucrative Airbnb.

They are left with nowhere to go as other long-term rentals have gone the same way and it’s pushed prices up so much that buying a property is no longer an option.

Residential neighborhoods become a smattering of hotels without the volunteers and local people that once gave the place the sense of community that attracted many visitors to the area in the first place.

Most Airbnb users wouldn’t be aware of the detrimental impacts Airbnb can have for local communities.”

Now we want to hear from you.

Tell us what inventions you think did more harm than good.

Do it in the comments!

The post People Discuss Inventions They Think Did More Harm Than Good appeared first on UberFacts.

People Share Inventions So Perfect They Actually Can’t Be Improved Upon

Has the air conditioner ever been improved upon?

Because I gotta say, that has to be one of the best inventions that humans ever came up with.

What would we do without it?

I guess some people aren’t as impressed with it as I am, but I need it during the warm months or I am a very unpleasant person to be around. Hey, I’m just tellin’ the truth here…

AskReddit users talked about inventions so good they can’t be improved upon. Let’s see what they had to say.

1. Now you know.

“The Schrader Valve used to inflate your bicycle tires, car tires, tractor tires, etc.

It was patented in 1893.

It is still used in virtually every tire on the planet. And now you know its name.”

2. You can’t beat it.

“Fire cooking.

We’ve been trying to improve it for almost 2 million years.”

3. It’s perfect.

“The wheel.

What are you going to do?

Make it rounder?”

4. Boom!

“Crocodiles, or “any apex predator that lived through the K-T extinction.

Physically unchanged for a hundred million years, because it’s the perfect killing machine.

A half ton of cold-blooded fury, the bite force of 20,000 Newtons, and stomach acid so strong it can dissolve bones and hoofs.”

5. Nice try, Swiffer.

“Brooms haven’t changed, no matter how hard Swiffer tries.”

6. Won’t be improved upon.

“Scissors are the perfect tool for cutting and shaping material that will likely never be improved upon.”

7. Works every time!

“Hoodies.

Cold? Hoodie.

Underdressed? Hoodie.

No bra? Hoodie.

Hot? Hoodie.

Rainy? Hoodie.

Dead inside? You know it, hoodie.”

8. The good stuff.

“Gaffing tape.

Leaves no reside when ripped up, extremely heat resistant and strong, but expensive as all hell (used for film projects).”

9. Still the same.

“A hair comb.

Even ones found in ancient Egypt and elsewhere are basically the same design.”

10. What an invention!

“Condoms.

Any thinner, they’d break.

Any thicker, and it’s fake.”

11. A real crowdpleaser.

“Madden NFL.

They perfected it 15 years ago so they haven’t made a single change since.”

12. Just like the old days.

“A scythe

I was at my cottage over the weekend and I had to cut some grass. I forgot my lawnmower but I had an old scythe in the garage that I inherited a long time ago. I was just keeping it as a decoration and momento and never thought of actually using it.

I was bored and I had some time so I sharpened the blade and went to work.

I don’t know the first thing about scythes or even how to properly use them … I just started swinging it.

I couldn’t believe it actually cut grass and weeds. The longer I worked, the more detailed I could get with where I swung it.

Two hours later, I had cut the lawn, cut down some tall grass on the edge of the property and had started cutting down some light brush that I thought I needed a brush cutter for.

This scythe must be decades old but it still works better than my lawnmower, edge clipper and brush cutter … all without a motorized engine.”

13. Gotta love it!

“The hammer.

The absolute tool of perfection for rapid transfer of force within a very short amount of time.

There is nothing to improve upon.”

What do you think?

What inventions are so good that they can’t be improved upon?

Tell us what you think in the comments!

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What Inventions Are So Good They Can’t Be Improved Upon? Here’s How Folks Responded.

I’ve never thought about this before, so I’m excited to see what kinds of responses people came up with!

And I’m curious to see what you think, so please reply in the comments after reading through these!

What invention is so good it can’t be improved upon?

Here’s what AskReddit users had to say.

1. Most likely.

“I’ve heard the Pin setter machine in bowling Alleys has never had a redesign.

It was perfect already.”

2. Good thing we have it.

“P-trap.

A simple and elegant way to prevent odor from coming into your house via sink, toilet, etc.”

3. XLR.

“The XLR cable.

Until they can beam something directly into your head, we kind of hit a dead end for perceived sound. The simplicity of what a cable can do by allowing both AC and DC power to flow through so you can power and draw signal from a microphone.

Plus the fact it’s so simple to remove the noise you get from outside interference makes it even more genius.”

4. It’s perfect!

“The paper clip.

Last major patent was in the 1880s.”

5. Use the bones!

“Those bones they use for tanning leather.

People have tried using all sorts of different materials but bone always works best apparently.”

6. After all these years…

“The brick.

It has been made of mud, then mud with straw, then mud with clay, then finally with clay alone. That is as far as progress has taken the brick, in the (guess) 8,000 years since it was invented, and it is still in use today.

Someone, lost in the obscurity of ancient history, realized that you couldn’t build really strong stone structures with irregularly-shaped small natural stones, and hewing huge lumps of stone into regular shapes was just ridiculously hard work.

That person also observed that mud that fell into a fire was left hardened when the fire died down. So they figured that if you shaped mud into regular shapes, big enough to carry one in each hand, you would have all the advantages of small irregular stones and large geometrically-carved stones, but with none of the drawbacks of either.

This thought must have taken a second to dawn on the inventor. The practical work to prove the concept must have taken a weekend, at most. Perhaps a week or two to get the shape just right. And here we are, thousands of years later, and the d*mn thing has barely changed at all.”

7. Perfection.

“Pizza.

You can change it up, you can ruin it, and you can fold it half like a crazy calzone munching madman, but you can’t beat perfection.”

8. Can’t beat ’em.

“Most professional classical music instruments are already in their final stage like piano and violin.”

9. That name, though.

“The spoon is a pretty incredible invention.

It can often sub as a fork or a knife, and it has a great name.”

10. Works just fine.

“The basic sewing needle.

It really hasn’t changed in thousands of years.

There is no need for change.”

11. We all need them.

“Windshield wipers.

My engineering professor always lectured us on how perfect the design is and how and new changes made are strictly aesthetic and don’t work any better.”

12. Steam turbine.

“The steam turbine.

It is such a useful way to convert heat into electricity that it would not be surprising to see one strapped to a fusion reactor (if one ever get built).”

13. What would we do without it?

“Gonna have to disagree with the TV remote.

It needs sharp pointy bits so people know when they’re sitting on it.

Also, less of those buttons that serve no purpose but to confuse grandparents.”

What do you think are inventions that are so good they can’t be improved upon?

Talk to us in the comments.

We’d love to hear from you!

The post What Inventions Are So Good They Can’t Be Improved Upon? Here’s How Folks Responded. appeared first on UberFacts.

Here’s a Great Product to Remove Irritants/Venom so Bites/Stings Don’t Itch

Obviously bug bites AND stings are VERY common problems we all share, and when either of those situations arise, the vast majority of us turn to creams and ointments that treat the symptoms, not the cause.

Well, now there’s a product that literally gets to the heart of why you itch and scratch after getting bit or stung.

The Bug Bite Thing was created by Florida mom, Kelley Higney (pictured right), who wanted to find a better, drug-free way to help her kids with the bug bites that always irritated their skin.

The way it works is deceptively simple: by suction.

See, when you get bit the insect’s saliva or venom gets under your skin. This causes a reaction and a red, itchy welt is the result.

That’s where the Bug Bite Thing springs into action. You just place it over your skin, pull up on the plunger and let the natural suction do its work.

The company posted this tutorial to show how easy it is…

It’s just that easy. And it’s honestly one of those ideas that make you think, “Why haven’t I thought of that?”

People are so impressed by the product, that they’ve taken to social media to share their stories…

Because this thing is a life-saver…

And it even helps people who have more serious issues with bug bites lead a normal life…

View this post on Instagram

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A post shared by Bug Bite Thing (@bugbitething) on

The reviews on Amazon speak for themselves…

The results are especially good for kids because it’s pain-free and drug-free!

So where can you get one?

The Bug Bite Thing retails on the company’s website for $9.95, and you can also buy it on Amazon.

By the way, fun fact about the company… they were recently on Shark Tank and got funded by inventor & entrepreneur, Lori Greiner!

Here she is talking about how much she loves the product!

LUV Bug Bite Thing sooooo much!! Here's why! www.bugbitething.com #SharkTank #mosquitobites #bugbites #itreallyworks

Posted by Lori Greiner on Sunday, October 20, 2019

They even moved into new offices!

Definitely keep your eye on this company for more amazing ideas to help you lead a healthier, happier life!

The post Here’s a Great Product to Remove Irritants/Venom so Bites/Stings Don’t Itch appeared first on UberFacts.

After Almost Losing His Mother, This Teen Invented a Bra That Can Detect Breast Cancer Early

I bet we’ll be hearing from this young man for many years.

After Julián Ríos Cantú watched his mother endure two bouts with breast cancer, the 18-year-old from Mexico decided he wanted to help out other women who might not have access to affordable healthcare.

Posted by Julián Ríos Cantú on Monday, November 20, 2017

Cantú’s mother ended up having a mastectomy. Standard screenings missed the lumps in his mother’s breasts because her high breast density obscured the growths. Cantú said, “At that moment, I realized that if that was the case for a woman with private insurance and a prevention mindset, then for most women in developing countries, like Mexico where we’re from, the outcome could’ve not been a mastectomy but death.”

Cantú took matters into his own hands, inventing Eva, a “bio-sensing bra insert” that uses thermal sensing and artificial intelligence to create a thermal map of women’s breasts. Abnormal temperatures and tumor growth are related, and an Eva insert can help women detect cancerous growths. It also helps with the self-examination process.

As things stand today, patients don’t have a lot of options for early detection of breast cancer. If you’re under 45, you can’t receive mammograms due to concerns about exposure to radiation. Even if you’re over that age, mammograms can be very expensive.

The Eva technology does not emit any radiation, and women of all ages can wear the insert.

The company has performed clinical trials on more than 2,000 women in Mexico. Eva’s website says,

“Eva’s technology is approved by the FDA as an adjunct method for breast cancer detection in section 884.2980 Teletermographic Systems. Similarly, Eva Clinic operates under the highest ethical standards, strictly following the Official Mexican Standard NOM-041-SSA2-2011, for the prevention, diagnosis, treatment, control, and surveillance of breast cancer.”

The product is now available for use at certified Eva clinics, but who knows? Maybe someday it’ll be in our houses, helping women detect breast cancer even earlier.

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This Guy Made a “Glitter Bomb” that Blows Up in Amazon Thieves’ Faces

YouTuber Mark Rober has a pretty impressive engineering background, having worked on the Mars Rover for NASA. Needless to say, when you steal a package from a guy like that, he’s going to start finding creative solutions to the problem. Guys like Mark aren’t content with just calling the cops and getting just regular old revenge against them. Nope, he spent six months building a glitter bomb that would self-detonate when the thieves opened the package.

To be fair, Mark had no choice! The local police told him they didn’t have time to investigate the robberies, even though Mark had captured the whole thing on his home surveillance camera.

Photo Credit: YouTube, Mark Rober

“I just felt like something needs to be done to take a stand against dishonest punks like this,” Mark explained.

“If anyone was going to make a revenge bait package and over-engineer the crap out of it, it was going to be me.”

The glitter bomb also included four cameras to capture the thieves’ reactions, which took a good deal of ingenuity. There was also fart spray!

As a hint to any would-be thieves, Mark wrote a fake return address using the names and location of Home Alone. Luckily for viewers at home, it didn’t deter the thieves.

The glitter bomb package completely worked, as you can see in the video below.

Thankfully, the same bait package can be retrieved and used more than once. Genius.

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90 years before the invention…

90 years before the invention of the modern wireless telephone, Alexander Graham Bell invented a device that could transmit speech using sunlight. Bell was immensely proud of the achievement, to the point that he wanted to name his new second daughter “Photophone”, which was subtly discouraged by his wife Mabel Bell (they instead chose “Marian”, […]

The instant noodle was…

The instant noodle was invented during a period of food shortages in Japan following WWII. After the Japanese health ministry supplied the population with wheat flour and asked them to make bread, Momofuku Ando instead decided on making noodles (which were more familiar) that would last. 10