Category: History

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Worst Salary Disparity

In Japanese corporations, the CEO (Chief Executive Officer) is paid an average of 45 times as much as the common workers. In America, the average CEO gets 300 times as much as the workers.

During difficult financial times, in companies that have to lay off 300 workers, perhaps they should fire the boss instead. I’m sure the 100 workers produce more profit and I think if they pooled their thoughts, they could run things at least 300 times better than the average American CEO. In fact, one good worker from the trenches might do a better job of decision-making, and he might be quite happy with a salary of only two or three times as much as he was getting.

Here are some specifics:

The Japanese Ratio:

For major publicly listed firms on the Tokyo Stock Exchange (TOPIX 100 / Nikkei 225), the median CEO-to-average worker pay ratio generally ranges between 30-to-1 and 60-to-1, depending on executive equity compensation.

Context: Japanese corporate culture historically emphasizes workplace solidarity, salary caps relative to line workers, and limited use of stock option packages. However, Japanese executive pay has risen in recent years as companies introduce more performance-based equity incentives to compete globally.

The American Ratio:

According to annual analyses by organizations like the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) and the AFL-CIO Executive Paywatch, the CEO-to-worker pay ratio for major public companies (such as the S&P 500 or top 350 U.S. firms) typically ranges between 270-to-1 and 320-to-1.

Historical Origins: A 100-to-1 ratio in the U.S. was common around 1990. In 1965, the U.S. ratio was roughly 21-to-1; by 1989, it reached ~60-to-1, and surpassed 100-to-1 during the mid-1990s before climbing to its current levels driven by large stock and option grants.

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Worst Waste of Tax Dollars

The US Navy set out to create an advanced, centralized computer network to automate inventory, supply chain management, and bookkeeping across its global fleet and shore stations.

Originally budgeted in the tens of millions of dollars (initial estimates for software and implementation were around $33 million), the project was plagued by severe technical flaws, poor management, hardware incompatibilities, and massive scope creep.

As costs skyrocketed past $200 million with little usable functionality delivered, Congress stepped in. The project was audited heavily by the General Accounting Office (GAO), and after spending roughly $230 million (the equivalent of over $1 billion today), the program was officially scrapped without ever becoming fully operational.

Defense critics and government oversight committees frequently cited the project as a textbook example of massive waste, concluding the military spent hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars and walked away with nothing useful.

In a similar case, the United States Internal Revenue Service (IRS) spent $180 million just to decide if they should buy a $1.8 billion computerized tax return system. They decided no.

The IRS proposed TAS, a massive, centralized computer network designed to replace its aging computer hardware and give thousands of employees instant access to taxpayer files. The total projected cost to procure, install, and run the complete system was estimated at $1.8 billion.

Over several years of research, preliminary design, systems testing, and feasibility studies, the IRS and the Department of the Treasury spent approximately $180 million planning and preparing for the system.

The project faced intense backlash from Congress, the Office of Technology Assessment (OTA), and privacy advocates over fears of government surveillance, potential misuse of centralized taxpayer data, and astronomical cost overruns. Under heavy Congressional pressure and rising public opposition, the Treasury Department and the IRS officially canceled the project before the full system was ever purchased or deployed.

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Worst Counterfeiting

There was a time when as much as one third of all the money in America was counterfeit.

President Abraham Lincoln authorized the creation of the Secret Service on April 14, 1865 (the day he was assassinated), and the agency officially was sworn in on July 5, 1865. Its original sole purpose was to suppress widespread currency counterfeiting.

Following the Civil War, financial systems were fragmented with thousands of different bank-issued notes in circulation, making forgery easy. Historical estimates from the U.S. Treasury indicate that between one-third and one-half of all paper currency in circulation at the time was counterfeit.
Counterfeiting remains an active crime, though modern digital printing methods and sophisticated security features (like 3D security ribbons and color-shifting ink) have shifted how it occurs.

Counterfeiters are still at it. The U.S. Secret Service and Federal Reserve seize tens of millions in counterfeit bills annually. Total global circulation of fake U.S. currency is estimated between $70 million and $100 million.

One of the ways the US Federal Reserve detects counterfeits is to check the iron content of the ink.

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Worst Male Vanity

European men used to be vain about their legs – to the point where they knew which leg was the best looking. These men would place their “best foot forward.”

More On Male Vanity

1. The Louis XIV Heel Revolution

High-heeled shoes were originally invented for male aristocrats in Persia for horseback riding, but King Louis XIV of France popularized them as the ultimate symbol of royal male vanity. He restricted red-heeled shoes strictly to his inner circle of noble men to display elevated status.

2. 18th-Century “Macaronis”

In 1770s England, young wealthy men known as “Macaronis” took male grooming and fashion vanity to extreme heights. They wore towering, oversized powdered wigs, tight colorful silk clothing, and carried delicate perfume bottles, sparking saturated satirical cartoons of the era.

3. The “Brotox” Surge

Cosmetic procedures among men have surged dramatically over the past decade, leading to the coining of terms like “Brotox” (male botulinum toxin injections). According to plastic surgery associations, male Botox treatments have grown by over 400% since 2000.

4. Beard Oil in Ancient Mesopotamia

Male vanity regarding facial hair is thousands of years old. Ancient Assyrian and Babylonian men spent hours daily curling, braiding, and oiling their beards with gold dust, scented oils, and intricate ringlets to signal wealth and high military rank.

5. George “Beau” Brummell’s 5-Hour Routine

Beau Brummell, the 19th-century British dandy who reshaped modern male suits, spent upwards of five hours every single day dressing and grooming. His vanity routine included polishing his leather boots with champagne to achieve a perfect shine.

6. The Symmetrical Face Bias

Evolutionary psychologists note that male vanity often centers heavily on jawlines and facial symmetry. Studies show men with highly symmetrical facial features and pronounced jawlines subconsciously receive higher social perception scores regarding leadership and physical competence.

7. The Roman “Calvities” Panic

Julius Caesar was notoriously insecure about his receding hairline (calvities). To conceal his baldness, he famously used the ancient equivalent of a “comb-over” and pushed hard for the Roman Senate to grant him the privilege of wearing a laurel wreath at all times.

8. Makeup as War Paint in Ancient Egypt

Egyptian men of all social classes wore heavy black eye makeup (kohl) and green copper pigments. While partly functional against harsh desert sun and eye infections, it was equally driven by vanity, as cosmetic aesthetics were linked directly to divine beauty and status.

9. The Rise of “Bigorexia”

Male body image vanity has a documented clinical counterpart known as Muscle Dysmorphia (or “Bigorexia”). Individuals affected by this condition view themselves as small or insufficiently muscular regardless of how massive or lean their physique actually is.

10. Codpiece Fashion Inflation

In 16th-century Europe, male vanity focused on the groin area via the “codpiece.” Originally a functional flap on trousers, men began padding, embroidering, and inflating codpieces to absurd proportions to project virility, social dominance, and power.

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Worst Adoption of Anesthesia

As late as 34 years after the public introduction of anesthesia, there were doctors who refused to use it. Some said that the shock of pain is a necessary ingredient to recovery. Others were afraid, because some preachers said that anesthesia was the work of the devil.

Following William T.G. Morton’s 1846 public demonstration of ether anesthesia, resistance persisted among certain surgeons and religious leaders:

The “Vital Stimulus” of Pain: Many 19th-century surgeons believed pain was a necessary physiological stimulant. Prominent figures, including French surgeon François Magendie and U.S. Civil War military doctors, argued that surgical pain triggered a beneficial shock reaction required to jumpstart the body’s natural healing and clotting mechanisms.

Religious Resistance: Clergy members—particularly opposition directed at obstetrician James Young Simpson’s use of chloroform in childbirth starting in 1847—argued that pain was a divine decree. They cited Genesis 3:16 (“In sorrow thou shalt bring forth children”) to claim that relieving labor pain interfered with God’s will or was the work of the devil.

The Timeline Context: While resistance was widespread immediately following 1846, mainstream medical adoption happened rapidly. By 1880 (34 years later), anesthesia was the standard of care in Western medicine, though a small minority of conservative traditionalists and religious objectors still refused its application.

The public acceptance of anesthesia shifted dramatically after 1853, when Queen Victoria accepted chloroform during the birth of Prince Leopold, effectively silencing religious opposition.

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From the Worst Bumps
to the Smoothest Ride

From Belfast Cobblestones to the Modern Road: The Surprising Veterinary Origins of the Inflatable Tire

When we picture the foundation of the modern automotive industry, we usually think of industrial assembly lines, steel foundries, and visionary mechanical engineers. Yet one of the most critical breakthroughs in transport history came from an entirely different source: a Scottish veterinarian trying to make his young son’s tricycle ride a little less bumpy.

In 1887, Dr. John Boyd Dunlop was practicing veterinary medicine in Belfast, Ireland. Navigating the city’s rough, uneven cobblestone streets on horse-drawn carriages and solid-rubber-wheeled bicycles made for a harsh, jarring ride. The problem was especially severe for his nine-year-old son, Johnny, who suffered from frequent headaches while riding his tricycle.

At the time, tires were made of solid, unyielding rubber. Drawing on his medical background—where flexible sheet rubber, rubber aprons, and surgical tubing were common clinical tools—Dunlop set out to invent a dampening system that could absorb shocks from the road.

His solution was as simple as it was revolutionary. Dunlop constructed a flexible tube out of thin, sheet rubber, wrapped it around a wooden disk, and protected it with a outer casing of heavy canvas cloth. He then inflated the tube using a football pump and glued the entire assembly directly onto the wooden wheels of his son’s tricycle. The air-filled cushion—or “pneumatic” tire—proved to be an immediate success, offering an effortlessly smooth ride and remarkably lower rolling resistance.

Dunlop patented his pneumatic tire design in 1888 and soon founded the Dunlop Pneumatic Tyre Company. While initial skeptics dismissed the air-filled tires as fragile “pudding wheels,” the technology quickly proved its superiority on the bicycle racing track, where riders using Dunlop’s tires routinely dominated competitors riding on solid rubber.

As the automobile emerged at the turn of the 20th century, Dunlop’s invention was rapidly adapted for motor cars, transforming global transportation forever. Today, every passenger vehicle on the road relies on the fundamental concept pioneered in a veterinarian’s workshop to keep his son comfortable: trapping a cushion of compressed air inside a ring of flexible rubber.

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The Worst Plot Twist in Human Evolution

In 1995 your author stated,

“Professor Julian Jaynes has written a controversial book called The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind. In the book he hypothesizes that consciousness as we know it did not develop in man until about 2000 BC. Until then, we did not think introspectively, he says. In fact, people were probably more like modern-day schizophrenics, in whom there appear to be two minds. One, controlled by the left hemisphere of the brain takes actions, and the other, controlled by the right side, dreams and hears voices. For proof, Mr. Jaynes (he walked away from the title of Ph.D. although fully qualified) looks at ancient books including the Bible. In the Old Testament he says there is no mention of the subjective I, no introspective thinking, no sense of self. But in the later New Testament, the features of modern consciousness take shape.

“How could the pyramids and other construction take place then? Introspective thinking was not necessary, he asserts, just as you can drive a car without theorizing about how the car’s engine works.”

AI research has clarified the original statement about bicameral thinking

Yes, that summary is mostly true, accurately capturing the core premise and unique details of Julian Jaynes’s 1976 book, with a few subtle nuances:

Core Claims (Accurate to the Book)

The Thesis: Jaynes argued that human consciousness (defined specifically as subjective introspective self-awareness) evolved surprisingly late, around 1000–2000 BCE, driven by the collapse of ancient societies and the invention of writing.

The Bicameral Mind: He hypothesized that prior to this, human minds were split. When faced with stress or novel decisions, the brain’s right hemisphere generated auditory hallucinations, which the left hemisphere experienced as the literal “voice of the gods” directing their actions. He directly compared this state to modern auditory hallucinations in schizophrenia.

Textual Evidence: Jaynes analyzed ancient texts to track this shift. For example, he pointed out that the Iliad lacks words for internal mental states, with characters acting purely on impulse or divine command, whereas the Odyssey (written later) shows clear introspective thought and deceit. He drew a similar contrast between older and newer books of the Hebrew Bible.

Non-Conscious Complex Actions: Jaynes argued that complex routines—including architectural engineering, trade, and driving—do not require introspective consciousness, but rather learned habit, visual-spatial skill, and direct execution.

Clarifications & Nuances

Academic Title: Julian Jaynes never formally completed a Ph.D., though he completed the requirements at Yale (he delayed submitting his dissertation). He spent most of his academic career lecturing and researching as a Senior Research Psychologist at Princeton University.

Scientific Status: Jaynes’s theory remains highly controversial and is widely considered speculative within modern neuroscience, cognitive science, and evolutionary psychology, as mainstream science views consciousness as having evolved much earlier.

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Worst Name for a Woman

Socrates was married to a woman named Xanthippe (pronounced zan-THIP-ee).

Her name comes from the Ancient Greek words xanthos (“yellow” or “blonde”) and hippos (“horse”), translating roughly to “yellow horse.”

In ancient literary tradition, most notably in writings by Xenophon and later Roman observers, Xanthippe was portrayed as notoriously sharp-tongued, quick-tempered, and argumentative. Her name eventually became a famous literary archetype (an eponym) in Western culture for a nagging, shrewish spouse.

However, modern historians generally view this reputation as exaggerated or unfair. Managing a household, raising three sons, and running a domestic life alongside a famous philosopher who famously took no payment for his work and spent all day debating in the market likely required immense patience!

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Worst Teacher

At one time Henry David Thoreau, who according to a Wikipedia article, was an American essayist, poet, philosopher, abolitionist, naturalist, tax resister, development critic, surveyor, yogi, and historian, was also at one point a school teacher. When he was accused by his principal of leniency, he immediately grabbed six random kids and spanked them.

In September 1837, a 20-year-old Henry David Thoreau took a job as a schoolmaster at the Center School in his hometown of Concord, Massachusetts. He had strong personal objections to corporal punishment and refused to whip or strike the children, opting instead to maintain order through dialogue and mutual respect.

After about two weeks, a member of the local school committee (Deacon Nehemiah Ball) visited the classroom, accused Thoreau of being too lenient, and insisted that he use corporal punishment to keep the students in line.

To make a point about the absurdity of mandatory whipping, Thoreau selected six students at random after school and struck them with a ruler (a practice known as feruling). One of the students he feruled happened to be a maid-servant who worked in his family’s own household.

Troubled by his actions and refusing to work under a system that demanded physical punishment, Thoreau tendered his resignation that very evening.

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Worst Ban on Coffee

Four hundred years ago in Turkey drinking coffee was illegal. The sentence: death.

In 1633—nearly four centuries ago—Ottoman Sultan Murad IV placed a strict ban on coffee, tobacco, and alcohol across the Ottoman Empire (modern-day Turkey), making public consumption of coffee a capital offense punishable by death.

The ban was political rather than health-related. Coffeehouses in Istanbul had become popular public gathering places where citizens met to socialize, share news, and discuss politics. Fearing that these sober, unmonitored gatherings would foster sedition and political uprisings against his rule, Murad IV ordered the coffeehouses demolished and outlawed the brew.

According to historical accounts, the sultan was so intent on enforcing the law that he regularly roamed the streets of Istanbul disguised as a commoner, personally executing anyone caught drinking or selling coffee. While later Ottoman rulers softened the law to a system of penalties (such as corporal punishment for a first offense), Murad IV’s reign was infamous for enforcing the death penalty for coffee drinkers.