Will anyone be held accountable though?
Betteridge's law here
Leaded gas was a known poison the day it was invented (2016)
121–130 of 147 posts
Re: Leaded gas was a known poison the day it was invented (2016)
#122Re: Leaded gas was a known poison the day it was invented (2016)
#123Re: Leaded gas was a known poison the day it was invented (2016)
#124The major proponent was also known as Thomas Midgley Jr.: Accidentally The Most Dangerous Man Who Ever Lived[0] Leaded gas, CFCs, and accidentally created a machine that ended his own existence.[1] [0] https://allthatsinteresting.com/thomas-midgley-jr [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Midgley_Jr .
I was in Dayton Ohio to see the Wright brothers stuff. There were sidewalk plaques for inventors and celebrities who lived in the city, and they had one for Thomas Midgley Jr. I was shocked! Fun fact: during their time Dayton had the most patents per capita of anywhere in the US.
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Re: Leaded gas was a known poison the day it was invented (2016)
#125Earlier quoted context omitted.
Maybe you can enlighten me. My question that once you mined the materials for the car + battery, shipped that somewhere to be built, then shipped that to be sold. Then you have the added waste battery once it not longer hold enough charge. Is it actually better for the environment? If we add all this extra pull on the grid we need to generate the power for that too.
Batteries fortunately do not destroy the raw materials they are made from. So eventually we can stop mining new raw materials once we have built enough batteries. In addition, batteries for cars live a surprising long time - and can be used to stabilize the grid once they diminish in oomf (technical term).
Sodium-ion batteries are now also finally coming to market (CATL Naxtra) [1]. This gives me a lot of hope for the future.
[1]: https://www.electrive.com/2026/06/26/catl-targets-up-to-2000...
Re: Leaded gas was a known poison the day it was invented (2016)
#126Earlier quoted context omitted.
I believe liability is an issue too. In aviation (as compared with autos) the manufacturer is often found partially liable for an accident, so they can be on the hook even if it was mostly the fault of the operator.
It's worse now, people are doing "51% Build Assists" (most famously Vans and Sling aircraft) to save money where the factory would give you an IKEA plane kit and you will maybe put in a few screws and decals and install the avionics panel and you will sit in the room and watch them assemble the rest of the plane "under your supervision". Then the whole thing will get penciled whipped as an Experimental Owner-Built ai…
Isn’t it better?
Some people dont want to pay the extra overhead and cost burden of the manufacturer taking partial liablity. They’re willing to take a risk.
Re: Leaded gas was a known poison the day it was invented (2016)
#127The major proponent was also known as Thomas Midgley Jr.: Accidentally The Most Dangerous Man Who Ever Lived[0] Leaded gas, CFCs, and accidentally created a machine that ended his own existence.[1] [0] https://allthatsinteresting.com/thomas-midgley-jr [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Midgley_Jr .
> The Most Dangerous Man Who Ever Lived The titles like annoy me to no end. Because Thomas Midgley was an engineer. Not overlord of General Motors. Not director. Not even a large shaholder. GM Leadership knew effects of TEL. And for decades traded everyone's health for their profits. Midgley is complicit, but he's just a small piece.
people like him exist today. people who will do things the scientific community knows is dangerous for pay. Due to a lack of morals or intellect required to understand rammifications is unknown.
Midgley didnt invent most if any of what was packaged up and commodified, he just appropriated research at the time into products without a care in the world. its for that reason that me and many other scientists simply dont publish some results anymore.
The mind it takes to discover and formalize a thing, will understand its problems. The mind it takes to commodify something once formalized, can be many steps down, and so, is unlikely to be capable of seeing the problem.
Therefore, anything which can cause serious issues wont be released. why? because even if we as the inventors go against the profit narrative, we'll be destroyed. people only listen when there's money to be made, but when we say "ok, that's eboygh fossil fuels, we need to slow down" funding gets cut, reputation and character gets attacked, and you largly get deplatformed.
Re: Leaded gas was a known poison the day it was invented (2016)
#128Re: Leaded gas was a known poison the day it was invented (2016)
#129Discussed at the time (of the article): Leaded gas was a known poison the day it was invented (2016) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28500508 - Sept 2021 (399 comments)
`Discussed at the time` and here I expected a link to a HN thread from the 1920s! But yes, `(of the article)`, guess my reaction was anticipated :)
Yep we've been around the block a few times with that pre-emptive trick: https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que...
Re: Leaded gas was a known poison the day it was invented (2016)
#130The major proponent was also known as Thomas Midgley Jr.: Accidentally The Most Dangerous Man Who Ever Lived[0] Leaded gas, CFCs, and accidentally created a machine that ended his own existence.[1] [0] https://allthatsinteresting.com/thomas-midgley-jr [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Midgley_Jr .
I liked the comment someone made some months back when Thomas Midgley Jr. came up on HN: best to ban everything the guy ever invented just to be safe.