Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
best "FAIL" pics (caution may cause hysterical laughter)
- Thread starter squeeks
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
- Status
Not images... but here are some FAIL quotes.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Television and Radio
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
While theoretically and technically television may be feasible, commercially and financially I consider it an impossibility, a development of which we need waste little time dreaming.
- Lee DeForest, American radio pioneer, 1926.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Television won't be able to hold on to any market it captures after the first six months. People will soon get tired of staring at a plywood box every night.
- Darryl F. Zanuck, Head of 20th Century-Fox, 1946.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Radio has no future.
- Lord Kelvin, British mathematician and physicist.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Communication
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This `telephone' has too many shortcomings to be seriously considered as a practical form of communication. The device is inherently of no value to us.
- Western Union internal memo, 1878
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Well informed people know it is impossible to transmit the voice over wires and that were it possible to do so, the thing would be of no practical value.
- Editorial in the Boston Post, 1865
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Transport
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
...no possible combination of known substances, known forms of machinery, and known forms of force, can be united in a practical machine by which man shall fly long distances through the air...
- Simon Newcomb (1835-1909), astronomer,
head of the U.S. Naval Observatory
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
What can be more palpably absurd than the prospect held out of locomotives travelling twice as fast as stagecoaches?
- The Quarterly Review, England (March 1825)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Heavier-than-air flying machines are impossible.
- Lord Kelvin (1824-1907)
British mathematician and physicist
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Rail travel at high speed is not possible because passengers, unable to breathe, would die of asphyxia.
- Dr. Dionysus Lardner (1793-1859)
Professor of Natural Philosophy and Astronomy
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Airplanes are interesting toys but of no military value.
- Marshal Ferdinand Foch,
French military strategist and World War I commander.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
It is an idle dream to imagine that automobiles will take the place of railways in the long distance movement of passengers.
- American Railroad Congress, 1913
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Men might as well project a voyage to the Moon as attempt to employ steam navigation against the stormy North Atlantic Ocean.
- Dr. Dionysus Lardner (1793-1859)
Professor of Natural Philosophy and Astronomy
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Computers
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
There is no reason for any individual to have a computer in their home.
- Ken Olson, President of Digital Corporation, 1977
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Internet will catastrophically collapse in 1996.
- Robert Metcalfe, internet inventor
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Computers in the future may weigh no more than 1.5 tons.
- Popular Mechanics, 1949
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
We have reached the limits of what is possible with computers.
- John Von Neumann, 1949
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I think there is a world market for maybe five computers.
- Thomas J. Watson Snr., IBM Chairman, 1943
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Space Exploration
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
There is no hope for the fanciful idea of reaching the Moon because of insurmountable barriers to escaping the Earth's gravity.
- Dr. Forest Ray Moulton, University of
Chicago astronomer, 1932.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
To place a man in a multi-stage rocket and project him into the controlling gravitational field of the moon where the passengers can make scientific observations, perhaps land alive, and then return to earth--all that constitutes a wild dream worthy of Jules Verne. I am bold enough to say that such a man-made voyage will never occur regardless of all future advances.
- Lee DeForest,
American radio pioneer, 1926.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Medicine and Health
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The abdomen, the chest and the brain will forever be shut from the intrusion of the wise and humane surgeon.
- Sir John Eric Ericson, Surgeon to Queen Victoria, 1873
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Louis Pasteurs theory of germs is a ridiculous fiction.
- Pierre Pachet
Professor Physiology, Toulouse, 1872
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The abolishment of pain in surgery is a chimera. It is absurd to go on seeking it... Knife and pain are two words in surgery that must forever be associated in the consciousness of the patient.
- Dr. Alfred Velpeau (1839), French surgeon
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
There is growing evidence that smoking has pharmacological effects that are of real value to smokers.
- President of Philip Morris, Inc., 1962
Your cigarettes will never become popular.
- F. G. Alton, 1870
cigar maker, turning down Mr. John Player
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Nuclear Power
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
...any one who expects a source of power from the transformation of these atoms is talking moonshine...
- Ernest Rutherford (1933)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
There is no likelihood man can ever tap the power of the atom. The glib supposition of utilizing atomic energy when our coal has run out is a completely unscientific Utopian dream, a childish bug-a-boo. Nature has introduced a few fool-proof devices into the great majority of elements that constitute the bulk of the world, and they have no energy to give up in the process of disintegration.
- Robert A. Millikan (1863-1953)
speech to the Chemists' Club (New York)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
There is not the slightest indication that [nuclear energy] will ever be obtainable. It would mean that the atom would have to be shattered at will.
- Albert Einstein, 1932.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
All the waste in a year from a nuclear power plant can be stored under a desk.
- Ronald Reagan, 1980
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
General Science
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
With regard to the electric light, much has been said for and against it, but I think I may say without contradiction that when the Paris Exhibition closes, electric light will close with it, and no more will be heard of it.
- Erasmus Wilson
Oxford University professor, 1878
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I am tired of all this thing called science.... We have spent millions in that sort of thing for the last few years, and it is time it should be stopped.
- Simon Cameron,
U.S. Senator from Pennsylvania, 1861
demanding the funding of the Smithsonian Institution be cut off
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The so-called theories of Einstein are merely the ravings of a mind polluted with liberal, democratic nonsense which is utterly unacceptable to German men of science.
- Dr. Walter Gross, 1940
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
There is a young madman proposing to light the streets of London - with what do you suppose - with smoke!
- Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832)
On a proposal to light cities with gaslight
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Approximately 80% of our air pollution stems from hydrocarbons released by vegetation. So let's not go overboard in setting and enforcing tough emissions standards for man-made sources.
- Ronald Reagan, 1980
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I see no good reasons why the views given in this volume should shock the religious feelings of anyone.
- Darwin (writing in Origin of Species), 1859
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The machine gun is a much overrated weapon; two per battalion is more than sufficient.
- General Douglas Haig, 1915
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
X-rays are a hoax.
- Lord Kelvin, ca. 1900
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Television and Radio
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
While theoretically and technically television may be feasible, commercially and financially I consider it an impossibility, a development of which we need waste little time dreaming.
- Lee DeForest, American radio pioneer, 1926.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Television won't be able to hold on to any market it captures after the first six months. People will soon get tired of staring at a plywood box every night.
- Darryl F. Zanuck, Head of 20th Century-Fox, 1946.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Radio has no future.
- Lord Kelvin, British mathematician and physicist.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Communication
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This `telephone' has too many shortcomings to be seriously considered as a practical form of communication. The device is inherently of no value to us.
- Western Union internal memo, 1878
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Well informed people know it is impossible to transmit the voice over wires and that were it possible to do so, the thing would be of no practical value.
- Editorial in the Boston Post, 1865
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Transport
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
...no possible combination of known substances, known forms of machinery, and known forms of force, can be united in a practical machine by which man shall fly long distances through the air...
- Simon Newcomb (1835-1909), astronomer,
head of the U.S. Naval Observatory
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
What can be more palpably absurd than the prospect held out of locomotives travelling twice as fast as stagecoaches?
- The Quarterly Review, England (March 1825)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Heavier-than-air flying machines are impossible.
- Lord Kelvin (1824-1907)
British mathematician and physicist
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Rail travel at high speed is not possible because passengers, unable to breathe, would die of asphyxia.
- Dr. Dionysus Lardner (1793-1859)
Professor of Natural Philosophy and Astronomy
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Airplanes are interesting toys but of no military value.
- Marshal Ferdinand Foch,
French military strategist and World War I commander.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
It is an idle dream to imagine that automobiles will take the place of railways in the long distance movement of passengers.
- American Railroad Congress, 1913
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Men might as well project a voyage to the Moon as attempt to employ steam navigation against the stormy North Atlantic Ocean.
- Dr. Dionysus Lardner (1793-1859)
Professor of Natural Philosophy and Astronomy
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Computers
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
There is no reason for any individual to have a computer in their home.
- Ken Olson, President of Digital Corporation, 1977
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Internet will catastrophically collapse in 1996.
- Robert Metcalfe, internet inventor
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Computers in the future may weigh no more than 1.5 tons.
- Popular Mechanics, 1949
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
We have reached the limits of what is possible with computers.
- John Von Neumann, 1949
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I think there is a world market for maybe five computers.
- Thomas J. Watson Snr., IBM Chairman, 1943
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Space Exploration
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
There is no hope for the fanciful idea of reaching the Moon because of insurmountable barriers to escaping the Earth's gravity.
- Dr. Forest Ray Moulton, University of
Chicago astronomer, 1932.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
To place a man in a multi-stage rocket and project him into the controlling gravitational field of the moon where the passengers can make scientific observations, perhaps land alive, and then return to earth--all that constitutes a wild dream worthy of Jules Verne. I am bold enough to say that such a man-made voyage will never occur regardless of all future advances.
- Lee DeForest,
American radio pioneer, 1926.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Medicine and Health
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The abdomen, the chest and the brain will forever be shut from the intrusion of the wise and humane surgeon.
- Sir John Eric Ericson, Surgeon to Queen Victoria, 1873
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Louis Pasteurs theory of germs is a ridiculous fiction.
- Pierre Pachet
Professor Physiology, Toulouse, 1872
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The abolishment of pain in surgery is a chimera. It is absurd to go on seeking it... Knife and pain are two words in surgery that must forever be associated in the consciousness of the patient.
- Dr. Alfred Velpeau (1839), French surgeon
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
There is growing evidence that smoking has pharmacological effects that are of real value to smokers.
- President of Philip Morris, Inc., 1962
Your cigarettes will never become popular.
- F. G. Alton, 1870
cigar maker, turning down Mr. John Player
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Nuclear Power
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
...any one who expects a source of power from the transformation of these atoms is talking moonshine...
- Ernest Rutherford (1933)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
There is no likelihood man can ever tap the power of the atom. The glib supposition of utilizing atomic energy when our coal has run out is a completely unscientific Utopian dream, a childish bug-a-boo. Nature has introduced a few fool-proof devices into the great majority of elements that constitute the bulk of the world, and they have no energy to give up in the process of disintegration.
- Robert A. Millikan (1863-1953)
speech to the Chemists' Club (New York)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
There is not the slightest indication that [nuclear energy] will ever be obtainable. It would mean that the atom would have to be shattered at will.
- Albert Einstein, 1932.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
All the waste in a year from a nuclear power plant can be stored under a desk.
- Ronald Reagan, 1980
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
General Science
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
With regard to the electric light, much has been said for and against it, but I think I may say without contradiction that when the Paris Exhibition closes, electric light will close with it, and no more will be heard of it.
- Erasmus Wilson
Oxford University professor, 1878
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I am tired of all this thing called science.... We have spent millions in that sort of thing for the last few years, and it is time it should be stopped.
- Simon Cameron,
U.S. Senator from Pennsylvania, 1861
demanding the funding of the Smithsonian Institution be cut off
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The so-called theories of Einstein are merely the ravings of a mind polluted with liberal, democratic nonsense which is utterly unacceptable to German men of science.
- Dr. Walter Gross, 1940
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
There is a young madman proposing to light the streets of London - with what do you suppose - with smoke!
- Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832)
On a proposal to light cities with gaslight
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Approximately 80% of our air pollution stems from hydrocarbons released by vegetation. So let's not go overboard in setting and enforcing tough emissions standards for man-made sources.
- Ronald Reagan, 1980
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I see no good reasons why the views given in this volume should shock the religious feelings of anyone.
- Darwin (writing in Origin of Species), 1859
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The machine gun is a much overrated weapon; two per battalion is more than sufficient.
- General Douglas Haig, 1915
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
X-rays are a hoax.
- Lord Kelvin, ca. 1900
Big time failure.
The first one, I have no idea.
Mr Darwin *hope's he on the right tracks* was a genius, enlightened many people to ways other than fanciful religion.
Let's not start a religion flame war, I'm entitled to an opinion
The first one, I have no idea.
Mr Darwin *hope's he on the right tracks* was a genius, enlightened many people to ways other than fanciful religion.
Let's not start a religion flame war, I'm entitled to an opinion
The first one is Columbus. Sailed for India, found the soon-to-be America. FAIL on his part (or is it FAIL for the ship's navigator...?).
I say both. What makes it a super fail is that he knew he didn't find India but still decided to call the native peoples indians.
Religion aside, Darwin failed because he created a theory he in no way tested or could affirm outside of his speculation and observations. People accepted it because of their blind desire to accept bad scientific theory over sound argument. The biggest problem with Charles's hollow theory is that it doesn't even have a beginning.
Geneticists don't even agree with him.
Digital Skunk, the one thing that always amazes me about most Americans is their ability to have an informed opinion on topics about which they know nothing. What is your scientific training, how many years of chemistry, biology, or any of the other life sciences have you studied? Or, have you simply read articles and websites aimed at the layperson, ones most likely written with an anti-evolution theory agenda? If you fall into the former category, your ideas are of a certain amount of interest (a trained scientist who doesn't believe in evolution is inherently interesting, just as priests who don't believe in God, astronomers who believe in UFO, etc.). If you fall into the latter category, your placement of religion over science is duly noted and you need not repeat it, or any of its derivatives, again.
A certain degree of repetition isn't too bad, but once it goes political it's time to call it quits...
Thanks for more than a few laughs, but let's wait a while before any similar threads show up, right...?
Thanks for more than a few laughs, but let's wait a while before any similar threads show up, right...?
- Status