Gyroscopic Investing

In a similar but opposite vein to the "AK-47 version of everything" thread, how about the "Yugo of everything." We're talking things that don't work properly, break during normal operation, become a money sink, pose a danger to the safety of the operator, you name it--stuff you should never buy.

I'll start: actively-managed mutual funds! 

McDonald's hamburgers (versus the original form brought over by German immigrants).
By the same token, iceberg lettuce and those big ass tomatoes that are bred for shelf life and cold resistance as well as Yugo pricing, rather than for nutrition or flavor.

Spam (the food product)

Plastic-hair shaving brushes (like mine). Pretty much everything made of plastic instead of wood or metal. (but not the stuff you print, PS).

Pretty much everything made in China. (Things merely assembled in China do not count).

Modern buildings vs old stone cathedrals. (debatable).

The future iPhone, the budget version.

Reality television.

every nose hair trimmer ever made....  or every one i have ever seen or tried at least.. 

Amtrak.

(with the notable exception of the northeast corridor, although Amtrak's idiotic customer service & policies still apply).

Even more irony for you, I'm typing this from the Acela train, on my way back from a grant review panel in DC.  The wireless is nice and luckily it's working today.  And interestingly, both trains (on the way down and this one) were 100% sold out, as was the one departing 4pm.  I'm sure upping the the train frequency won't occur to those guys for at least several more years.

TSA (Transportation Security Administration).  Knives are safe to carry on a plane, but not shampoo? (Among other issues.)

The DMV
Public Schools
All Dodge cars made between 1985-2005'ish
Pretty much anything Wal-Mart has ever sold

MediumTex wrote:

+ 17 Trillion or so but the picture needs to include a massive closeup of the White House.

MangoMan wrote:

l82start wrote: every nose hair trimmer ever made....  or every one i have ever seen or tried at least..

You must have some fierce nostrils. I bought a cheap battery operated nose-hair trimmer about 5 years ago at Walgreens and it still works great.

lucky you...  i have ones that the plastic they are made with fell apart  immediately, every one of them rattles and clacks like an engine with a thrown rod after the first use, and none of them are as thorough or efficient as manning up and yanking them out by the roots..

Have you thought about burning them out? Ive seen it done in turkey with ear hair...

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=B59Sg_KKYmk

doodle wrote: Have you thought about burning them out? Ive seen it done in turkey with ear hair...

No need to go to Turkey, just walk unsuspectingly into a Turk / Cypriot staffed barber shop. First time it happened I left gripmarks on the arm rests of the chair, but it's very effective. 

Lipton tea

@l82start: I have a Conair trimmer that's plastic, but works great.

@smurff: I heard Chuck Schumer saying that, too, but there's a kind of logic to it. A more dangerous weapon won't be disguised as a small knife. Besides, all that shampoo was weighing the planes down. ;-)

Drunks and other PUIs (passengers under the influence) with knives over time can harm more people on planes than a terrorist with a non-metallic bomb.

It seems that every month TSA officers at airports screening sites are evaluated via random tests, with testers taking banned and dangerous items through security to see if anyone will catch them.  And the TSA seems to repeatedly fail these tests, often in spectacular ways.  Their solution to this incompetence is to classify those dangerous items as okay to take on planes; if they're now legal to take onboard, TSA will no longer fail tests related to finding them.  Their competency increases, by decree. 

That's the kind of thinking we get from TSA.  (Instead of thinking and acting radically, like evaluating the behavior of each passenger and looking for anomalies that should keep them off planes.)  TSA  "thinking" means irradiating the flying public and airport employees.  It means making x-ray porn a condition of flying, with the option of being publicly assaulted sexually for those who don't want to take part in porn or be irradiated. 

For thoughtful design and common sense, TSA is a no go.

Ergo, Yugo.

Carnival Cruises.

We need a TSA thread (or is there one?). For now, I'll just say I love your "No go, ergo Yugo".

Yugo:

Memorex audiotape and video tape.
No longer an issue as of 1996, but I still need to point out how much they suck. :-)

dualstow wrote: Memorex audiotape and video tape.
No longer an issue as of 1996, but I still need to point out how much they suck. :-)

Hey, I preferrd my 5.25" floppies to be Memorex!

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MachineGhost wrote:

dualstow wrote: Memorex audiotape and video tape.
No longer an issue as of 1996, but I still need to point out how much they suck. :-)

Hey, I preferrd my 5.25" floppies to be Memorex!
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I think I used BASF but also some Elephant like in your picture. Are they part of Memorex?

dualstow wrote:

MachineGhost wrote:

dualstow wrote: Memorex audiotape and video tape.
No longer an issue as of 1996, but I still need to point out how much they suck. :-)

Hey, I preferrd my 5.25" floppies to be Memorex!
[/center]

I think I used BASF but also some Elephant like in your picture. Are they part of Memorex?

Yep, but I preferred the redesign:

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