# Does anyone agree with me that the greatest invention in human history...



## Gramm838 (Jan 1, 2015)

is a hot water bottle...?

Of course this may be an age-related viewpoint, but I'm sticking to it.


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## chrispenycate (Jan 1, 2015)

It can't be - I don't own one. Still, I don't own a flint hand axe, which might well be. Perhaps I should try knapping one; I haven't done that in fifty years.

I don't know what is the single most significant invention of all time - probably not the printing press that I'd vote for, but the spinning wheel or the infernal combustion engine. However, I am certain it's not the mobile phone.


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## alchemist (Jan 1, 2015)

One of the greatest ratios of usefulness to simplicity must be the toilet plunger.


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## J Riff (Jan 1, 2015)

The paper clip wins easily when it comes to profit margin.


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## Ray McCarthy (Jan 2, 2015)

*Writing ...*
Knowledge can be passed on and accumulated.

Printing presses, then electronic transmission and display  just make it quicker and cheaper to distribute to all.

Everyone here should know that.


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## JunkMonkey (Jan 2, 2015)

The greatest invention in Human history - the one that has had the greatest impact on civilisation and done more to prolong human health and happiness has to be the flushing toilet and mains sewerage.


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## Ray McCarthy (Jan 2, 2015)

That's what's wrong in Ireland.
We have 440,000 septic tanks. We need more of this Mains Sewerage, as you can feed fibre up it and thus cheaply distribute Broadband to the home. Instead we have bog bands.


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## Parson (Jan 2, 2015)

If you are talking about the most important innovation it would have to be writing. If you limit the idea to invention, I'd go with the wheel, or more precisely the the wheel on an axle.

(I'd call writing an innovation because homo sapiens were using representative symbols far longer than anything which we would call actual writing.)


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## willwallace (Jan 2, 2015)

My vote is for language. Long before writing, language allowed knowledge to be passed down from generation to generation.


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## Teresa Edgerton (Jan 2, 2015)

I'm with Parson on writing.  It wasn't invented; it evolved.  The same thing with language.

Maybe something as humble and unassuming as ink is the greatest invention. Chiseling words in stone takes too long, and wax tablets don't last.  Clay is heavy. Papyrus, parchment, and paper are far more practical, but paint is expensive, so ink is the medium that makes writing accessible to so many. What good would the printing press be without it?  I think that my vote goes to ink.


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## farntfar (Jan 2, 2015)

As an example of a concept, the hot water bottle has to be pretty good.

So fire and tools certainly, but the leisure to think after a good sleep was what gave us all the rest. (writing, language, the wheel, bogbands etc.)


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## Gramm838 (Jan 2, 2015)

JunkMonkey said:


> The greatest invention in Human history - the one that has had the greatest impact on civilisation and done more to prolong human health and happiness has to be the flushing toilet and mains sewerage.



I suspect, statistically, there a more people in the world without a flushing toilet, than there are with one...


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## Moonbat (Jan 4, 2015)

Surely cheese is the gratest invention


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## Dennis E. Taylor (Jan 4, 2015)

Moonbat said:


> Surely cheese is the gratest invention



Prepare for a thorough drubbing. 

If by "greatest", you mean "most significant" and not necessarily "best", then the invention of agriculture has to be up there, closely followed by steam power. These are the things that most changed human society in the least time. Whether we're better off...

But from a personal POV, Ima going with writing.


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## dask (Jan 4, 2015)

Sf, especially Gernsback's stf. Then maybe the electric motor.


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## Phyrebrat (Jan 4, 2015)

incidentally, would you say dance evolved rather than was invented? If writing is a form of communication that evolved I assume dance would be the same, although not all dance started as ritualistic.

And for a double house-point, can you complete this; 

The printing press is to writing as _________ is to dance



pH


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## Teresa Edgerton (Jan 4, 2015)

I was going to say agriculture, but it occurred to me that it was one of those things that evolved rather than being invented.


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## Alex The G and T (Jan 4, 2015)

Beer.  Some say that agriculture was developed in order to support beer making.


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## mosaix (Jan 5, 2015)

The inventor of the electric blanket should have got a Nobel prize.


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## Boneman (Jan 5, 2015)

Marmite - they took a waste product that was created from brewing beer, (which is pretty cool) and recycled it, making into the savoury delight that's been around since 1902. The best source of Vitamin B12 for vegetarians!


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## Kerrybuchanan (Jan 5, 2015)

I second Marmite and refer you to the Terry Pratchett novel (I think it was The Last Continent) in which Rincewind invents Marmite by accident.


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## Dinosaur (Jan 5, 2015)

Underfloor heating, the sheer pleasure of walking around in bare feet on a stone floor when it's snowing out...well the Romans at least got one thing right.


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## Ray McCarthy (Jan 5, 2015)

Boneman said:


> The best source of Vitamin B12 for vegetarians


When they realised how good Marmite is (about 1912) they fortified it with more vitamins. They are produced by bacteria, not from animals. As far as I can figure, Vegans have to have some artificially produced (via bacteria) B12 vitamins.
Marmite yeast source doesn't naturally have B12, it's an additive.
Marmite (and yeast) does naturally have most or all other B vitamins.
It's interesting that different species don't all need same vitamins and some we do synthesise ourselves from suitable food but we are one of few species that need external vitamin C (fortunately easily obtained from things as diverse as potato and most fruit, especially if sharp tasting).
I love Marmite
Invented 1902, fortified after 1912.

I did a lot of research on Amino Acids (we need some as external, some we make), vitamins and trace elements needed in Diets to see the problem of human on alien worlds. Edible alien food (with sugars/carbohydrates, fats, protein and fibre) seems probable if any advanced life at all based on carbon. But ANY of the vitamins or Amino acids we need being there would seem close to zero as there are very many things that grow here that are no use for essential vitamins and amino acid, or if in particular locations even lacking vital things like iodine or zinc.

This is why changing from a varied diet to a narrow one, or *becoming a vegan or especially a "raw food" vegan has to be properly researched*. You certainly can't decide to simply switch tomorrow to only buying fresh fruit and veg only in the supermarket and based on purely buying what you like. You'll be ill.


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## Mouse (Jan 5, 2015)

The Internet. But it'd be even better without the idiots.


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## Parson (Jan 6, 2015)

Phyrebrat said:


> incidentally, would you say dance evolved rather than was invented? If writing is a form of communication that evolved I assume dance would be the same, although not all dance started as ritualistic.
> 
> And for a double house-point, can you complete this;
> 
> ...



The printing press is to writing as ballet is to dance.



Mouse said:


> The Internet. But it'd be even better without the idiots.



Mouse your posts often make me smile. Strait forward with a hint of balderdash. I'd imagine that an angry mouse is a force of nature.


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## Mouse (Jan 7, 2015)

Parson said:


> Mouse your posts often make me smile. Strait forward with a hint of balderdash. I'd imagine that an angry mouse is a force of nature.



 Ta very much!


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## J Riff (Jan 8, 2015)

The mousetrap! The humane kind, not the poison gas or nasty snapping type. Without it, we would have a very hard time catching the cute little beggars.


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## Ray McCarthy (Jan 8, 2015)

While you're catching rat/mouse, its cousin's children are building families


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## Teresa Edgerton (Jan 8, 2015)

J Riff said:


> The mousetrap! The humane kind, not the poison gas or nasty snapping type. Without it, we would have a very hard time catching the cute little beggars.



We use that kind of trap at my house, too, then repatriate the mice at the park.


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## Stephen Palmer (Jan 8, 2015)

The lens.


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## Ray McCarthy (Jan 8, 2015)

Teresa Edgerton said:


> then repatriate the mice at the park


Have you tagged to see how many are the same ones?


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## Boneman (Jan 8, 2015)

I only just found out recently that you can buy Soreen, pre-sliced!!! Gotta be up there on the list.


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## Parson (Jan 8, 2015)

This place never ceases to be an education: Soreen=malt loaf=British fruit cake=rotating Christmas gift like the States?


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## Mouse (Jan 8, 2015)

Boneman said:


> I only just found out recently that you can buy Soreen, pre-sliced!!! Gotta be up there on the list.



Oh ah, and where did you hear this bit of excellent information?


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## Abernovo (Jan 8, 2015)

It's not really a proper cake, Parson.  Half loaf - half cake consistency, very moist and sticky, all yummy! And eaten any time of the year.
It does indeed come pre-sliced, but the slices are awful thin.

Suddenly in the mood for a tea loaf (loaf-cake with the fruit soaked for 12 hours in tea, resulting in lovely sticky, tea-coloured, fruit bread kind of thing). Oh well, another day.


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## Mouse (Jan 8, 2015)

The slices are thin, _but_ they stick together so you can't help but take two.


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## Abernovo (Jan 8, 2015)

I see. These things are sent to try us, Mouse, but what can you do? Except eat the slices...


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## Ray McCarthy (Jan 9, 2015)

Boneman said:


> that you can buy Soreen


Must be a Manchunian  thing never heard of it. I miss Veda though, I like that it ISN'T sliced. I can decide what thickness of doorstep. But I've not had it for years.  Briefly Tesco imported it and Soda Farls.


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## Boneman (Jan 9, 2015)

Mouse said:


> Oh ah, and where did you hear this bit of excellent information?



Someone's brother, or something...


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## Boneman (Jan 9, 2015)

Ray McCarthy said:


> Must be a Manchunian  thing never heard of it. I miss Veda though, I like that it ISN'T sliced. I can decide what thickness of doorstep. But I've not had it for years.  Briefly Tesco imported it and Soda Farls.



Just a second - Harvo? T'wife (a mancunian) introduced me to Soreen, said it were just like Harvo...


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## Venusian Broon (Jan 9, 2015)

Soreen? 

Tea cake king (of at least the Edinburgh area around about my house) was the Lyle Golden Syrup cake. Sticky, sweet and up to you how to slice. Spread with butter to get that wonderful flutter of your heart begging for you to stop eating it.


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## Boneman (Jan 10, 2015)

Venusian Broon said:


> Soreen?
> 
> Tea cake king (of at least the Edinburgh area around about my house) was the Lyle Golden Syrup cake. Sticky, sweet and up to you how to slice. Spread with butter to get that wonderful flutter of your heart begging for you to stop eating it.



Yeah, that was coronary artery occlusion in the early stages, wasn't it? Along those lines, I'd bring in bread and dripping with loads of salt...


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## Venusian Broon (Jan 10, 2015)

Of course that was the healthy way to eat it - if we had guests round we would cover the buttered slices in batter then fry them.



Boneman said:


> I'd bring in bread and dripping with loads of salt...



Do you know, I don't think I've ever had bread and dripping in my life. We obviously fried our chips in some sort of similar animal fat - before we discovered the convenience of oven chips - so I can't claim to be totally ignorant of its charms.


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## Parson (Jan 10, 2015)

Bread and dripping?  --- As a child we had what we called "bread & fat & syrup" (from my Dutch forebears I think) --- You would fry side pork (possibly bacon) and then you fry bread in the remaining fat and pour Karol syrup (thick black syrup a cousin to molasses) on it. --- Of course that was back in the days when a well marbled steak was considered preferable for it's taste and not questionable for its cholesterol. (sigh!)


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## althea (Jan 10, 2015)

Parson said:


> If you are talking about the most important innovation it would have to be writing. If you limit the idea to invention, I'd go with the wheel, or more precisely the the wheel on an axle.
> 
> (I'd call writing an innovation because homo sapiens were using representative symbols far longer than anything which we would call actual writing.)



Surely it was the inventor of the second wheel.


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## Mouse (Jan 10, 2015)

Venusian Broon said:


> Soreen?
> 
> Tea cake king (of at least the Edinburgh area around about my house) was the Lyle Golden Syrup cake. Sticky, sweet and up to you how to slice. Spread with butter to get that wonderful flutter of your heart begging for you to stop eating it.



I love golden syrup cake too! Yum. Although, I wouldn't ruin it with butter, you loon! I don't put butter on Soreen either.


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## Venusian Broon (Jan 10, 2015)

Mouse said:


> I love golden syrup cake too! Yum. Although, I wouldn't ruin it with butter, you loon! I don't put butter on Soreen either.



I did that during my 'food experimental phase' (when I played about with food that my parents bought with their hard earned money.) 

Other notable experiments were: bread dipped in coffee, ice cream sandwiches (with chocolate 'magic' topping), Baked beans with <_everything_> and various charcoal curiosities invented when I'd left things too long under the grill.


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## Mouse (Jan 10, 2015)

Now I really some some ice cream with that magic chocolate stuff! I used to love that.


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## Venusian Broon (Jan 10, 2015)

Mouse said:


> Now I really some some ice cream with that magic chocolate stuff! I used to love that.


Actually bringing it back OT, yes that chocolate stuff that hardened when you poured it on ice cream was indeed _magic. _I'd argue it beats the wheel in terms greatest invention 

EDIT 

Crivens, I knew it had magic in the product title:


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## JunkMonkey (Jan 10, 2015)

J Riff said:


> The mousetrap! The humane kind, not the poison gas or nasty snapping type. Without it, we would have a very hard time catching the cute little beggars.



I have never seen the point of humane mouse traps.  Ideally a mouse trap should decapitate the little buggers and then post the heads round to their relatives' houses as a warning.


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## Ray McCarthy (Jan 10, 2015)

I've used a 'humane' rat trap as it's the only thing that worked. Of course it catches birds too, who usually scold a lot. Doesn't do them any harm. I've wondered what I might catch with a larger size. Probably cats.


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## Mouse (Jan 10, 2015)

I don't see why (some) humans think they're more important than any other animal on the planet. 

I'm quite shocked that Parson "likes" something so barbaric too. But then, I detest _all_ animal cruelty.


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## Ray McCarthy (Jan 11, 2015)

Mouse said:


> (some) humans think they're more important than any other animal


But you're a mouse, of course you'd say that 
Actually it's not simple.
Rats or dogs that want to eat your animal friends.
The plates, pots and work surfaces getting piddled on.
Spoiling and eating of food, clothes.
Disease.

I'm against _all_ animal cruelty. And_ all_ Human Cruelty and pointless death and destruction of anything.


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## JunkMonkey (Jan 11, 2015)

Don't get me wrong I like mice.  I'm not a cruel or sadistic person.  Mice are fine in their place - when they're out there (points out of window) doing all that Beatrix Potter, _Brambley Hedge_ stuff they're fine.  When they come in the house and start chewing the wiring and peeing in my food however....


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## Alex The G and T (Jan 11, 2015)

I'm with ya, Junk Monkey.

When the dog or the cat hear a rat trap snap; they come looking for a yummy, fresh snack.  Thus the corpse is not wasted.

Circle of Life.


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## Parson (Jan 11, 2015)

Mouse said:


> I don't see why (some) humans think they're more important than any other animal on the planet.
> 
> I'm quite shocked that Parson "likes" something so barbaric too. But then, I detest _all_ animal cruelty.



I liked the post. I thought it was humorous. But I also do not like mice and rats, they are vermin in my book. I've killed more than my share of them. We had a farm once that was overrun with rats. It was almost literally, them or us. It was an easy choice.


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## Teresa Edgerton (Jan 11, 2015)

I'm the kind of person who, when she sees a spider in the house, gets a cup and a piece of paper to urge the spider into the cup, and escorts the arachnid outside.  But, though I feel horribly guilty, I do spray ants whenever a large party of them invades the kitchen, because it's just too much trouble to carry them out of the house one-by-one.


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## Venusian Broon (Jan 11, 2015)

Teresa Edgerton said:


> I'm the kind of person who, when she sees a spider in the house, gets a cup and a piece of paper to urge the spider into the cup, and escorts the arachnid outside.  But, though I feel horribly guilty, I do spray ants whenever a large party of them invades the kitchen, because it's just too much trouble to carry them out of the house one-by-one.



Ants of course, because before you know it you have a massive party in your kitchen, millions of little feet everywhere (parties always end up in the kitchen don't they?), so you have to get rid the invitations and destroy the chemical trails, unfortunately that means a few ant deaths, but they come from a colony where the queen will make up the difference soon enough and if they were out in the natural world their life span would probably be similar as they get predated on by lots of different things (I tell myself)...

but spiders - I like them. They eat some flies and things that I don't like buzzing around the house - those pests putting their feet and mouth parts into dirty places and spreading it about. So as long as they don't clog my flat up with too many cobwebs spiders are welcome guests!


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## Ray McCarthy (Jan 11, 2015)

Spiders poo over everything in my workshop. Looks like white to dark brown speckles from roller painting a wall. No solution. I have to cover anything valuable. I get dead woodlice in component drawers, 100s of them. Strange.


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## Mouse (Jan 11, 2015)

Erm... aren't Christians supposed to believe that "God" created all living creatures? Do you think "God" is happy for you to murder one of "His" creatures, Parson? (I am genuinely interested in the answer, btw, so maybe PM me, please? Cos I don't want an argument!)

I won't even kill the snails in the garden that eat all my plants, because what gives me the right to do that? The snails are just doing what snails do, they don't know they're trespassing and shouldn't eat those particular plants because they belong to an Almighty Human.

I'm very much of the eco not ego stance.


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## Teresa Edgerton (Jan 11, 2015)

I do poison the snails because I figure they have a perfectly good opportunity to eat the plants I don't care about, and if they go for my pansies instead, on their little horned heads be it.

However, if I see a snail minding it's own business on the side walk, I'll gently pick it up and move it to a safer location. (Not near my flower boxes.)

So, gosh, we've strayed from the topic, but since it wasn't a serious one that's all right.

Returning to the invention of our favorite foods:  Pie!


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## Ray McCarthy (Jan 11, 2015)

Mouse said:


> Christians supposed to believe that "God" created all living creatures? Do you think "God" is happy for you to murder one of "His" creatures, Parson?


Actually Jewish scholars believe it was only with Noah that humans allowed meat and it had to be humanely killed.
In the OT you had  to feed and water your animals before taking care of own needs and fence holes etc to avoid animals falling in.


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## JunkMonkey (Jan 11, 2015)

Mouse said:


> Erm... aren't Christians supposed to believe that "God" created all living creatures?



I'm not a Christian.


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## Mouse (Jan 11, 2015)

And where did I say you were? I was talking to Parson. I used his name and everything.


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## JunkMonkey (Jan 11, 2015)

Mouse said:


> And where did I say you were? I was talking to Parson. I used his name and everything.


Sorry; so you did.  My mistake.


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## jastius (Feb 8, 2015)

i have caught and released mice at this horrid apartment i was in.. then i got a kitten and the kitten did it for me..  the kitten invited another kitten and they used to play mouse hockey.. mouse would dive for one end or the other of the bureau and the kittens would cover the exits.. the mouse always got away .. but then i would stick steel wool down the hole entrance and caulk over the entry... after the mice had a conference we had no more visitors.. 

the kittens were quite miffed and i ended up supplying them with oodles of cat toys.

as for inventions, my favorites are foodwise and otherwise, chocolate chip cookies.
and a nail clipper.

i realize a nail clipper seems prosaic... but if you have ever tried to keep your nails in order with what they used previous to a good fingernail clipper and toenail clipper, you would soon realize the superiority of this innovation. with one small portable item you can quickly and easily rid yourself of a hangnail, once a surgeons job.
trim and clean and file... save your socks from  reckless savaging by unruly toes run amock. allow your shoes to once again fit ..
no more stealing the kitchen shears and risk amputating a digit in full or part.
clean nails and clean hands mean less transfer of bacteria, less spread of disease, and disorders.
good grooming in our society is equated with respect and civilized behaviors.
so my vote goes for that mini manicure in a hand, the nail clipper..
(and they're invaluable for snipping off those plastic loopy things on clothes that stay behind and scratch your skin after you've brought your new apparel home and ripped off the price tag..)


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## Kerrybuchanan (Feb 9, 2015)

Ray McCarthy said:


> In the OT you had to feed and water your animals before taking care of own needs and fence holes etc to avoid animals falling in.



Not just in the Old Testament - I had that hammered into me from an early age. I would be making my horse a warm bran mash and lukewarm salty water to drink while my own hands were blue and I had lost touch with my feet hours before. I instilled the same ethics into my kids.

Best invention? Food=black pudding, non-food would be a toaster. OK, that's to do with food too, but I'm hungry right now and food is all I can think of.


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## Dan Jones (Mar 26, 2015)

Surely the roof has to be up there...


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## JunkMonkey (Mar 26, 2015)

DG Jones said:


> Surely the roof has to be up there...



well, it's no good on the floor...


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## Dennis E. Taylor (Mar 27, 2015)

JunkMonkey said:


> well, it's no good on the floor...



Thank you, I'm here 'til Thursday. Try the veal.


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## Dan Jones (Mar 27, 2015)

I was hoping that the gag was kinda implicit...


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## JunkMonkey (Mar 28, 2015)

DG Jones said:


> I was hoping that the gag was kinda implicit...



There's no point in trying to be subtle anywhere near me.  I have a real knack for spoiling other people's jokes.  I mean I actually joined the Richard Driscoll Apreciation Society:

http://buy-richard-driscoll-dvds.blogspot.co.uk/


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## Dennis E. Taylor (Mar 28, 2015)

It's not funny if it's not accompanied by wagging eyebrows and ehhh? ehhhhh??


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## Dan Jones (Mar 28, 2015)

And a comedy wig and glasses. Which also must rank quite highly on the list.


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## HanaBi (Mar 28, 2015)

sliced bread, I would wager.

Although what people said before "the best thing since sliced bread" is moot


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## Dan Jones (Mar 28, 2015)

HanaBi said:


> Although what people said before "the best thing since sliced bread" is moot



Surely they would they would have said "this is the best thing until sliced bread." Ehhh? Ehhh? *_waggles eyebrows*_


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## Anne Spackman (Mar 29, 2015)

I like a lot of these responses.  I'd have to say writing is likely the greatest invention, as we couldn't communicate to others as well without it.  The toilet is another good invention.  The personal computer and the internet, another two inventions we use every day in the modern world.  Also, stoves and ovens.  How would we get by without these?


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## goldhawk (Mar 29, 2015)

The pointed stick. Between 6 and 2 million years ago, our ancestors wandered around in the open woodlands of Africa. They were small and couldn't run fast. And being open woodlands, there wasn't always a tree handy when a large predator showed up. The pointed stick gave our ancestors enough reach to fend off the predators. Without the pointed stick, you wouldn't be here today.


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## althea (Mar 29, 2015)

I have really enjoyed this thread so far.Thanks for making me laugh,Guys and Gals.


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## HanaBi (Mar 29, 2015)

Special mention should go to the humble calendar .... oh and clocks as well.... or better still, the measurement of time.

Without such things no one would know when other brilliant inventions were made; or when they'd be available in the shops

Having said that, you would always know when it was a Sunday, because Sundays always draaaagggggggggggg..............


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## BAYLOR (Mar 29, 2015)

The second most important invention of all time. without it, there would be no fast food as we know it . John Montagu the Earl of Sandwich  inventor  of the Sandwich.

What is the The most important invention of all time ? Duct tape of course.


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## Kerrybuchanan (Mar 29, 2015)

BAYLOR said:


> What is the The most important invention of all time ? Duct tape of course



Silence is golden; duct tape is silver.


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## Glen (Mar 31, 2015)

Black Bush.
Springs will probably get this.


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## JunkMonkey (Mar 31, 2015)

BAYLOR said:


> The second most important invention of all time. without it, there would be no fast food as we know it . John Montagu the Earl of Sandwich  inventor  of the Sandwich.



John Montagu the Earl of Sandwich_ did not invent _the sandwich. In the entire history of the human race it is inconceivable that no one thought of using two bits of bread to hold something in between them that was a bit messier (but tasty).   He just got the credit for it.   Bloody aristocrats.


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## Ray McCarthy (Mar 31, 2015)

Wellington Boot
Cardigan
Macintosh

Bah!


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## JunkMonkey (Mar 31, 2015)

Let's storm the Bastille!


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## Remedy (Mar 31, 2015)

My dad would say the toothpick - but that probably just speaks volumes about his diet.

I would say that one in the top 10 has to be the telescope (or lens as someone put earlier)

Best food invention? Pasta - so many shapes and combinations


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## althea (Mar 31, 2015)

JunkMonkey said:


> Let's storm the Bastille!



I'll stand right behind you!


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## BAYLOR (Mar 31, 2015)

JunkMonkey said:


> John Montagu the Earl of Sandwich_ did not invent _the sandwich. In the entire history of the human race it is inconceivable that no one thought of using two bits of bread to hold something in between them that was a bit messier (but tasty).   He just got the credit for it.   Bloody aristocrats.



I think read somewhere that his descendants have a sandwich making business.


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## althea (Apr 1, 2015)

I heard that the Earl of sandwich was a fanatical gambler and didn't want to leave the tables to eat a meal.
So he had someone put some meat and bread on a plate and ate them together(as a sandwich) at the card tables.
Maybe it was his idea.


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## JunkMonkey (Apr 2, 2015)

Desilu said:


> I heard that the Earl of sandwich was a fanatical gambler and didn't want to leave the tables to eat a meal.
> So he had someone put some meat and bread on a plate and ate them together(as a sandwich) at the card tables.
> Maybe it was his idea.



Yeah.  That's the story.  But it beggars the imagination that no one in the history of everything though of doing this before the 18th Century:


			
				http://www.pbs.org/food/the-history-kitchen/history-sandwich/ said:
			
		

> Farm laborers in rural France had been eating meat between sliced bread long before it had a name, though the sandwich likely started even earlier than that. The earliest recognizable form of a sandwich may be the Korech or “Hillel sandwich” that is eaten during Jewish Passover. Hillel the Elder, a Jewish leader and rabbi who lived in Jerusalem during the time of King Herod (circa 110 BC), first suggested eating bitter herbs inside unleavened matzo bread. The herbs symbolized the bitterness of slavery, and the bread resembled the flatbreads made in haste by the ancient Israelites as they fled Egypt. Hillel’s simple recommendation of sandwiching the two foods together may indicate that this was already a popular way of serving food in the Middle East.



What the Earl of Sandwich did was be the first person to eat such a plebeian food in a literate polite society (he was slumming it) and get his name attached to it.


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## althea (Apr 2, 2015)

That's much more likely.


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## Faisal Shamas (Apr 7, 2015)

A Condom, to keep populations down. We are yet to realize how important it could be


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## JunkMonkey (Apr 7, 2015)

Faisal Shamas said:


> A Condom, to keep populations down. We are yet to realize how important it could be



The female contraceptive pill was much more important.


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