The lines blur between creation/discovery for some of these. Additionally, the historic nature makes it impossible to determine if these were all the work of a single individual, but I'll go with:
Joseph Shivers - Lycra/Spandex
Albert Hoffman - LSD
Anton Köllisch - MDMA (was killed in WW1)
John Pemberton - Coca Cola (significantly different to the modern drink)
This is an interesting list because it gestures toward the fact that basically any first synthesis of a compound not found in nature appears to meet the poster's criterion.
It's vanishingly uncommon for a first synthesis to have been undertaken by a true team, although this can get murky recently with drug discovery software narrowing search space. Nevertheless there is always a moment when (barring alien civilization) the compound never existed, then it does: it is nearly always one person doing the chemistry, with (at most) assistants who are fully supervised extensions of his or her will.
Aspirin, for only one example, is the creation of Charles Frédéric Gerhardt.
A story about the value of synthetic polymers. When I visited the North Korean border circa 2004 the reverence with which the North Koreans treated plastic opened my eyes to its utility. Because they have no plumbing, the North Koreans at the border are considered "wealthy" because they can obtain discarded plastic containers that float across the river from China and allow them to easily haul water. The alternative is pottery, which is highly inefficient. It goes without saying that they had no metal. Another great thing: plastic lenses. Much lighter and cheaper than glass. Good enough for many uses. An Australian invention, like wifi. We are moving away from single-use plastics: someone needs sanction the consumer packaged goods industry.
Given we can make certain plastics from renewable resources, recycle them, or even compost them, I'd lean better, but I also think we're on a trajectory to people preferring 'micro-plastic free' diets.
Modern Coca-Cola is still flavored with coca leaves. Coca-Cola still imports the leaves and they are processed by a pharmaceutical company to extract the cocaine.
I much prefer original hardware, but not necessarily in the original state. My consoles are RGB modded, and I make use of flashcarts and things like PS-IO.
This is exactly why I miss IMDB's "I need to know" board. You could post a partially correct memory snippet from decades ago and someone would chime in with the answer. I had memories of movies I'd watched on TV as a young child. I had no name or context, but simply little moments stuck in my brain, and someone was able to resolve those to a title.
The closing of the IMDB message boards was a terrible loss IMO. You could visit an obscure actors message board, and you might run into someone who knew them. You could discuss a movie's intricacies with someone, and share theories, etc, on the specific board for that movie. It was a goldmine for movie fans, and I still miss it.
I remember reading a book in my youth about a kid that lived in a shielded city with an AI controlling it with the assignment to keep everyone ‘happy’ (= docile). He/she breaks protocol and gets ejected through a trash chute. Meets an old man. Crossed a wasteland and finds old ruins, learns something and then blows up the shielding of the city to make it free again.
In the Dutch translation either the old man or the main character was called ‘gull’ or ‘sea gull’. I’ve posted on a few subreddits and forums with people pretty much ignoring, and I have scoured Google without much results neither.
Haha, I have a memory of a movie I saw in the 1960s where there's a dream sequence with the guy in a stylized prison cell with pink mist and giant keys dangling in the air. I've never been able to figure out what this was.
Ye it is impressive how good those type of forums work. Pointing out a movie from details.
I wrote in a similair local forum about a movie I was not allowed to watch as a kid, where people at a plane disappeared and their fake teeth was still there (only thing I remember) and someone could immediately point me to the correct kinda crappy Stephen King movie ...
I've had the same with some music and even from pretty vague descriptions about tempo and content some people were able to find a couple of pieces that I thought I'd never hear again.
This isn't really the same thing, but in art form, a company called "American Multiple Industries" published pornographic Atari 2600 games in the early 80's. The most infamous of which was Custer's Revenge: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Custer%27s_Revenge (Possibly NSFW)
100% agree with this. The FIRE movement (or the equivalent before it gained this name) was about average people using frugality, investing, sensible leverage, and luck to get ahead and (semi) retire much earlier than usual. It has since suffered an influx (at least in popular online circles) of high earners scoffing at the idea that anyone could achieve financial independence with a frugal lifestyle. This despite the trivial mathematics proving it is indeed very possible for average earners, perhaps even more so recently given the bull markets.
I've worked with some very intelligent, brilliant people, who simply cannot comprehend how their own financial spending is foolish, or more likely, know this and choose to play ignorance. I've always found it fairly bizarre, almost like an addiction. It's fascinating how some people can be so skilled in one domain, but so lacking in self-control, especially when obtaining said skill requires enormous self-control in the first place.
It is quite fascinating. I've known incredibly high income earners and brilliant engineers who have hundreds of thousands of dollars sitting in cash earning near 0 percent. It blows my mind how absurdly financially illiterate so many people are.
And beyond that, so many of my peers hit the ground running on the hedonic treadmill right out of college, quickly filling up their consumption habits to meet their newly high income, while I continued to live low and plow huge amounts of my paycheck into my investments. Well, they're all still slaving away with no end in sight and I'm financially independent after many lucky breaks in my early investments that wouldn't have happened if I didn't have such a frugal mindset early on.
It seemed so obvious to me that this would be the outcome. I still don't understand how so many people can't seem to grok how much early sacrifice can yield outsized reward down the line.
One of them here, although I'm working on it. There is a lot of things here going on, and I don't think you can just stamp this with "lol how reckless these people are"
- Separate investing and frugality/budgeting. I guess a lot of those people do actually one of those, but not the other.
- You talk about high earners/engineers. In most of they earning life they never knew the need to ration, or lacking funds - so with the trajectory they see in early adulthood, especially if they like what they do, and they're successful, there simply isn't any recognizeable need to save for later (or even retire early)
- Maybe you like dealing with money, watching stock news early in the morning - I hate it. I hate the thought of dealing with this. It's an active aversion. Of course, the majority of investments should be "set and forget", but it's not always apparent how (especially outside US) and you need quite some research beforehand.
- Coupled with this, you put your life savings in a thing that you don't understand, won't follow. There may be a not entirely unfounded fear of South Park's "aaaand it's gone"
- There is something absolutely tempting about money sitting directly available on an account. Especially when you're young and single, you have no idea what happens with you next year, or what you will probably spend on. Walling away your funds is a critical and worrysome thought.
Sure, you can sum this all up as "financial illiteracy", but they are still cemented in valid concerns or life experiences, instead of mere negligence.
> Of course, the majority of investments should be "set and forget", but it's not always apparent how (especially outside US) and you need quite some research beforehand.
I really wish things like annuities or pensions were available for the 21st century economy. So many people don't want to deal with investing and understanding markets (which change!) and avoid making smart decisions.
There should be a way to just put money in a magic box that pays a little bit back each year, and every time you put money in it grows a bit more.
Surely it's intended as a more deliberate (not technical) device - seeing his 'reflection' we're seeing him as he sees himself, his self-image. (I haven't seen the film though.)
Oh, I understand the cinematic effect, what I'm asking is why they used a trick instead of an actual mirror. I suppose because the actual mirror would have shown the camera behind, right?
Very cool! I didn't know that. It's amazing all the kinds of shots that are done in movies that one would assume are trivial to accomplish, but that actually require tricks.
Airplane! might be the greatest movie of all time. It's funny, but it is also suspenseful, has great acting, and is full of serious subtlety and commentary. Even with the humor removed it is a terrific film.
Joseph Shivers - Lycra/Spandex
Albert Hoffman - LSD
Anton Köllisch - MDMA (was killed in WW1)
John Pemberton - Coca Cola (significantly different to the modern drink)
John Baird Glen - Propofol
Percy Spencer - Microwave Oven