Posted on 06/16/2013 3:34:47 AM PDT by the scotsman
'After a string of newsworthy errors, a stumble through the annals of time to choose a few favourites from history.
Allow me now, then, to present my Outstanding Mistakes of All Time, not to mock but to sympathise, remembering the words of John Bradford (1510-55): "There but for the grace of God, go I."'
(Excerpt) Read more at bbc.co.uk ...
Had just finished reading this article before popping over here.
Nice closer. “from the late Peter Cook: “...I have learned from my mistakes, and I am sure I can repeat them exactly”.
My favorite is the AT&T engineer who asked: “what would you ever need packet switching for?”
“Outstanding mistakes of all time”
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The election of Barky Obumbo?
That would be on the first time.
His reelection was not a mistake, but proof positive that the American population is now at moron level.
FreeRepublic readers should always be better educated than BBC writer, so....
“9. The popularity of spinach as a health food, which resulted in Popeye the Sailor Man and generations of children staring miserably at a plate bearing the canned product, resulted from a misplaced decimal point in calculations of the amount of iron in it.”
Is refuted here...
“Spinach Iron Decimal Point Error Myth Busted
The popular 32 year old myth that a misplaced decimal point in the published results of the iron content of spinach by Professor von Wolff, or else von Bunge, in the 19th century influenced scientists in the 20th century to fail to check the facts and to simply recommend spinach for its over-inflated iron content is finally busted.”
http://super-myths.blogspot.com/2010/12/spinach-iron-decimal-point-error-myth.html
I have to believe that both Napoleon’s and Hitler’s invasion of Russia rank among the biggest mistakes of all time.
This example is rather obscure.
An embedded engineer who built the electronic door locks used in most hotels (they use a card for access) decided that an easy way to access the processor inside the lock was to use a barrel power jack on the bottom. He decided that nobody would ever figure out that it was really a one-wire communications port. Now thieves everywhere use a simple little gizmo to open the doors :-/
“My favorite is the AT&T engineer who asked: “what would you ever need packet switching for?”
A LOT of years my BIL wanted us to invest in a new idea(maybe called cable at the time) in TV that one had to pay for. We thought he was nuts. Why would anyone ever pay for something they could get for free?
Mesh condoms.
or proof positive that the election process is so flawed that it can manufacture enough votes in a few key precincts to change an entire election result.. .
its been documented that many precincts had well over 100% turn out...and in some cases not 1 vote for Romney...think of it...NOT 1!
Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965
I agree. I truly believe it was fraud.
Yes and you can add water in a bottle to that list,,,duh
Hitting the "send" button on an email to a fellow employee and accidentally sending a copy to my manager.......
I’d have found a place on the list for New Coke.
I like the Decca records executive who passed on signing the Beatles because groups with guitars were over and the Rep who introduced a bill in Congress in 1844 to close the patent office because everything that could be invented already had been.
“or proof positive that the election process is so flawed”
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Oh, I agree that there was plenty of fraud.
It is SOP for the Commie Dimocraps.
Still, there are far too many mind numbed robots in America
that voted for, and still love the Marxist fraud POTUS.
It is very hard to fix stupid.
Xerox developing and then “giving away the store” of technology -email, windows, mouse and networking to Steve Jobs.
http://science.howstuffworks.com/innovation/edible-innovations/spinach-good-source-of-iron1.htm
The controversy surrounding the amount of iron in this leafy green centers on a report made in 1972 by a nutritionist. Professor Arnold Bender asserted that 19th century German researchers made an error when recording spinach’s iron content by placing the decimal point in the wrong position, accidentally multiplying spinach’s iron content by 10. The story, which contended spinach had no more iron than other common vegetables, was perpetuated as fact in medical journals, textbooks and popular culture for more than 30 years until it was proven incorrect in a meticulously researched article by criminologist Mike Sutton. Sutton concluded that these German researchers never existed [source: Kruszelnicki, Sutton].
GMTA. I guess I should have read the comments before I posted #19.
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