10 ancient inventions you think are new

See listverse for the whole article.

10. Plywood (5,000 years ago)
9. Plumbing (4,700 years ago)
8. Ice Skates (5,000 years ago)
7. Perfume (4,000 years ago)
6. Metrology and Calibration (5,000 years ago)
5. Lenses (5,000 years ago)
4. Central Heating (3,000 years ago)
3. Cataract Surgery (2,600 years ago)
2. Dentist Drills (9,000 years ago)
1. Plastic Surgery (4,000 years ago)

We tend to think we're so much smarter than those who lived before.

Comments

  1. confutatiMarch 31, 2009 at 1:31 AM

    I like to call this the stradivarius effect. Violins created in the 1600's are still better than modern instruments. And no one can duplicate them. This also goes for the 1970's Fender Jazz bass guitar (seriously the best) and The Beatles.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Nicholas James WestMarch 31, 2009 at 10:50 AM

    oops! That above comment was me, but I was on my wife's computer and she was signed into her gmail.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

How to overcome hate

One old black man defeats the KKK with kindness and humor. They burned down his church, burned a cross in his yard, and mercilessly taunted him. He always responded in kindness, and turned their hearts to him. We should use this as a blueprint to respond to those who hate us.
Read more

Ron Paul sticks it to the man

Paul makes fun of the Nobel, chastises Reps and Dems from not criticizing their own parties, and encourages dissent: I'm a fan of both Ron Paul and Noam Chomsky, who seem to be on opposite sides of the spectrum. But they are both anti-war, anti-interventionist, and honest thinkers.
Read more

Meet Thomas Paine

"Thomas Paine came to America from Great Britain in 1774 when he was 37 years old. He burned with righteous indignation at the cruel tyranny of kings. Half a million copies of "Common Sense," his plainspoken call for rebellion, flooded this fledgling nation of three million people. His rhetoric so moved and persuaded George Washington that he read Paine's words to the troops at Valley Forge. After America won its independence, Paine found himself in another fight, the French Revolution, and wrote another best-seller, "The Rights of Man." But he got into trouble in France and was thrown into prison, narrowly avoiding execution. He returned to America in 1802, a prophet without honor in the nation he helped to create." Watch this video .
Read more