50 Products That Changed The World

[product]50 Pontiac GTO[/product] [releaseInfo](1964)[/releaseInfo] The memo from Pontiac's top brass to the engineers was clear—no new cars built for speed. In the early 1960s big, slow, "responsible" automobiles were the future. But chief engineer John De Lorean saw a loophole. Instead of designing a new car, he retooled an old one–the Tempest LeMans–fitting it with a 389-cubic-inch Tri-Power engine, bucket seats and a race-car-style floor shifter. The new ride ran low 13s—a quarter mile in 13 seconds. It was the first factory-made muscle car, soon widely known as the Legend or the Great One. De Lorean stole the name from the Ferrari GTO, which had come out in Italy two years earlier, but most folks believed the name stood for "gas, tires and oil," all of which this street bitch burned with considerable ease. Driving wasn't just about style or picking up girls anymore. It was about who had the biggest dick.

[product]49 Puma Clyde[/product] [releaseInfo](1972)[/releaseInfo] In the 1970s Walt "Clyde" Frazier of the New York Knicks was a superstar, a slam-dunking Stagger Lee clad in a full-length mink and a pimp hat. When some genius from Puma hit on the idea of having Frazier endorse the company's new basketball shoes, it spawned a multimillion-dollar phenomenon—and redefined men's footwear forever. Some of the original Puma Clydes had blue suede uppers with a white swirl around the heel, and new colors came out seemingly every minute. They were more than just shoes. They were shoes worth stealing, even if they weren't your size.

[product]48 Buffalo wings[/product] [releaseInfo](1964)[/releaseInfo] Yes, they were just little pieces of chicken. But Teressa Bellissimo's signature fare at the Anchor Bar in Buffalo. New York was the first bar food ever that someone might actually want to eat. (Pickled eggs? Stale nuts?) Tavern regulars are forever indebted, not just for the wings but for yet another reason to stick around for one more.

[product]47 Swisher Sweets cigar[/product] [releaseInfo](1998)[/releaseInfo] Question: "If Monica Lewinsky says that you used a cigar as a sexual aid with her in the Oval Office area, would she be lying?" Bill Clinton, the camera cropped tight, lost his composure for a millisecond, then pulled himself together to give the following answer, broadcast to billions around the world: "I will revert to my former statement." The Swisher Sweets has been around forever, but in 1998 the American-made 45-cent cigar became a smoking gun in the political scandal of the century. The phrase "blowing smoke up our asses" would never be the same.

[product]46 Post-it note[/product] [releaseInfo](1980)[/releaseInfo] Inventor Arthur Fry created "a bookmark that would stick–but not too much," never imagining that the 3M Post-it would become the most ubiquitous stationery product in the world, plain white paper aside. It's now available in 25 shapes and 62 colors in more than 100 countries. So how exactly did it change the world? Hmm. We wrote it down on a Post-it, and it's here somewhere....

[product]45 Nonstick pan[/product] [releaseInfo](1954)[/releaseInfo] Polytetrafluo-roethylene (a.k.a. Teflon), one of the slipperiest substances known to man, was discovered accidentally in 1938 by a DuPont scientist. Long before it became a nickname for a mob boss (Teflon Don) and President Reagan (Teflon Ron), French inventor Marc Gregoire applied it to cooking pans. Since helping out in the kitchen no longer took any effort, men began whipping up omelets that were fluffier and more evenly folded than ever before. Two days later: One quick wipe and just look at that shine!

[product]44 G-string[/product] [releaseInfo](1970s)[/releaseInfo] To rid the earth of evil panty lines, underwear boldly went where no fabric had gone before—straight up the butt. Other fashion-forward trends eventually followed: coiffed pubic regions to accommodate the minimal cover, low-rise jeans to show off those alluring back straps. No one knows for sure who invented the G-string. Sumo wrestlers? Fashionistas? Who the hell cares? In Rio they're making these things out of dental floss.

[product]43 Igloo plastic ice chest[/product] [releaseInfo](1963)[/releaseInfo] Warm beer became a thing of the past. You left the house in the morning with a cooler full of cold ones and returned at night with a cooler full of dead fish. Or crushed cans. Or animal flesh still twitching from a buckshot blast. What more do you want from life?

[product]42 Regency TR-1 transistor radio[/product] [releaseInfo](1954)[/releaseInfo] It was the first-ever portable electronic radio, a $50 12-ounce pocket-size number that came in four different colors. Setting a trend that continues to this day, the Regency was marketed to teenagers who were desperate for some kind of distraction. It's no coincidence that simultaneously a new kind of radio-friendly music called rock and roll was emerging, led by a guy named Elvis.

[product]41 Western Electric Model 1500 Touch-Tone phone[/product] [releaseInfo](1964)[/releaseInfo] Dialing a number took about 12 seconds with a rotary phone, and if you messed up you had to start from scratch. It takes two seconds with a touch-tone phone. If you make 10 calls a day, a touch-tone phone will save you 10 hours a year. The average sex session, including fore-play, lasts 25 minutes. Do the math.

[product]40 Metal halide grow light[/product] [releaseInfo](early 1980s)[/releaseInfo] Years ago, when the NFL decided to schedule night games, the league needed a way to re-create midday conditions in stadiums for the cameras. Huge systems of giant lights resulted, with bulbs that mimicked the spectrum of the sun. "Somebody figured out that with one of those huge lights they could grow 20 pot plants indoors," says High Times editor in chief Steve Hager. "Around the same time, the feds were putting the kibosh on cultivation, patrolling rural areas with helicopters. The new lighting technology allowed people to produce good-quality marijuana indoors." Instead of brown Mexican schwag, you had brain-scrambling hothouse flowers growing in your hometown, worth more by the ounce than gold.

[product]39 Mr. Coffee[/product] [releaseInfo](1972)[/releaseInfo] If you're old enough, you'll remember what a pain in the ass the old percolators were. No wonder the first automatic drip coffeemaker became the best-selling java brewer in the nation the very year it was introduced. Having Joe DiMaggio as its TV pitchman didn't hurt sales. But the real coup came in 1979, when Mr. Coffee added a timer. You woke up in the morning and the shit was already made.

[product]38 Specialized Stumpjumper mountain bike[/product] [releaseInfo](1981)[/releaseInfo] It could tackle curbs, stairs, mud and gravel. Suddenly a bike became a viable bank-heist getaway vehicle. Legendary trail rider Joe Breeze invented the mountain bike after a decade of modifications. His testing ground: the Cascade Canyon fire road, a steep two-mile suicide run in Marin County, California. He finally came up with the Breezer, the granddaddy of all mountain bikes. Specialized came out with the first mass-produced model soon after. For $800 you got two fat, knobby wheels, a steel frame, 18 gears and an ass-numbing saddle. Replacement skull not included.

[product]37 Xerox Magnafax Telecopier fax machine[/product] [releaseInfo](1966)[/releaseInfo] Before this gizmo, there was no way to get a document immediately from one location to another. Think about it. How did businesses function? The 47-pound machine also provided a new frontier for the skilled crank caller: "Yeah, Mr. Shvlitzenkoffer? I'm faxing over the diagrams of me fucking your wife right now. Enjoy."

[product]36 Jacuzzi[/product] [releaseInfo](1968)[/releaseInfo] You're Roy Jacuzzi, third-generation member of the Italian American Jacuzzi family that made great advancements in the agricultural pump industry. You're sitting around with all the family patents for water pumps, thinking of a way to use them that, unlike irrigating farmland to grow food, would truly benefit society. You're thinking moonlight, champagne, nudity. Then it hits you....

[product]35 Frank Motor Home[/product] [releaseInfo](1961)[/releaseInfo] Ah, the open road. Grandpa's goiter quivers as he motors down the highway, with wife, pets and fiveton house following every step of the way. What could be more American? Michigan engineer Ray Frank teamed up with Dodge to market the first mass-produced RV–a wood-and-aluminum home perched on a truck chassis, in your choice of 20- ($6,500), 23- ($6,900) and 26-foot ($7,300) models. As if a new religion had been founded, the RV spawned parks, entire towns and a whole new subculture.

[product]34 Evian[/product] [releaseInfo](late 1980s)[/releaseInfo] The capitalist feud over the world's most basic and precious resource had begun. Evian marketed its water as a pristine refreshment that Mother Nature poured in France, perfect for everyday drinking. Translation: In a world driven by paranoia and ruled by corporations, you could no longer trust your own faucet. Barely in existence before the early 1980s (except for bubbly stuff like Perrier), bottled water has become America's second favorite beverage, outselling beer, coffee and milk, respectively. Now that's a mouthful.

[product]33 Ford Explorer[/product] [releaseInfo](1991)[/releaseInfo] The Explorer wasn't the first SUV (the Jeep Cherokee had been around for ages), but this runaway best-seller started a chain reaction. Suddenly every putz was trading in his Civic for a car-truck he could use for "utilities"–namely, colliding with other vehicles without rattling Junior's car seat–while boasting about "off-road capabilities" despite never leaving the pavement. And the gas mileage? So much for the environment.

[product]32 Cosmopolitan[/product] [releaseInfo](1965)[/releaseInfo] You say you want a revolution? How's this: a whole magazine based on the philosophy that women should use flattery, sex, diet, lipstick and exercise to keep their men happy. And they should go out and make some money, too! Piggy-backing on the success of her book Sex and the Single Girl, radical editor Helen Gurley Brown forever proved that self-empowerment and sluttiness could coexist. "All the suggestions about pleasing men are as viable as ever," Brown, now 81, has said. "Whatever age you are, [a woman] should be flattering to a man about the way he looks...and you should be very flattering to his penis. You should tell him how beautiful it is, how attractive, how irresistible...."

[product]31 Advil[/product] [releaseInfo](1984)[/releaseInfo] Warning: This product may cause a distinct lack of pain of any kind. Side effects include the absence of hangovers, back pain, headaches and fever, not to mention the liver problems sometimes associated with acetaminophen. And it tastes like candy! Advil, the most common brand of ibuprofen, which was first tested clinically in 1966, is the most noteworthy over-the-counter drug to hit shelves in the past half century. That old headache routine doesn't cut it anymore in the sack, eh, sweetheart?

[product]30 Haloid Xerox Model 914 photocopier[/product] [releaseInfo](1959)[/releaseInfo] By the end of your life, the hours the copier machine will have saved you will be exactly equivalent to the time you spent standing in front of the thing, scratching your head and wondering why it never fucking works. Still, it's better than messing with carbon paper. Patent attorney Chester Carlson invented xerography (Greek for "dry writing") in 1938. When he tried to peddle his invention, more than 20 companies, including IBM and GE, passed on it. Two decades later the Haloid Xerox made its debut in offices across the country. Ass copies made their debut six months later.

[product]29 Big Mac[/product] [releaseInfo](1968)[/releaseInfo] Jim Delligatti, the Big Mac's daddy, whipped up the first one at his Uniontown, Pennsylvania McDonald's franchise, calling it the Big Mac Super Sandwich. The following year, company founder Ray Kroc introduced it systemwide. The modern fast food branding phenomenon had begun. Suddenly every joint was hawking a sandwich you had to try immediately. The lesson was clear: If they see them on TV, people will line up to eat thumbtacks.

[product]28 The Centerfold[/product] [releaseInfo](1956)[/releaseInfo] Playboy debuted its first triple-page Centerfold in the March 1956 issue with Playmate Marian Stafford. The iconic gatefold took off both figuratively and literally (one ventured into space aboard Apollo XVII). The ritual experience has since become a rite of passage (though some use their left) for men worldwide: (1) the unfolding, (2) the 90-degree turn and (3) the look of shock and awe. For practice, turn to page 175.

[product]27 Modern Home Products' Perfect Host gas barbecue grill[/product] [releaseInfo](1960)[/releaseInfo] A man could now control the flame beneath a grill with the simple turn of a knob. High. Low. Front. Back. Standing before his grill, he is Prometheus. The bottled gas makes him beholden to no noxious fluids, the lack of charcoal makes for little cleanup, and he suffers no performance anxiety when the coals don't light or go out prematurely. Who wants another burger?

[product]26 Zenith Space Command remote control TV[/product] [releaseInfo](1956)[/releaseInfo] The TV was nice, but the real innovation was Zenith's Space Command wireless remote. Soon the zapper was de rigueur, prompting America to become lazier, fatter and more gluttonous than ever before. Dad used to brag about walking to school uphill both ways without shoes. Now he was too lazy to get up to change the channel. Inventor Robert Adler's handheld remote didn't require batteries. By pressing a button, you struck one of four lightweight aluminum rods, each emitting a different pitch. A receptor in the TV interpreted these tones–channel up, channel down, sound on/off or power on/off. Now if someone could just invent a remote for women.

[product]25 Miniskirt[/product] [releaseInfo](1966)[/releaseInfo] When English designer Mary Quant popularized the miniskirt, the world suddenly seemed to go from black and white to color. A world of possibilities now existed with every cross of legs in a restaurant or sashay down a crowded street. With the birth of what is now a fashion staple, women were encouraged to be proud of their sex appeal–manipulative even.

[product]24 Casio Phone-Mate Model 400 answering machine[/product] [releaseInfo](1971)[/releaseInfo] The first answering machine was a three-foot-tall, 300-pound monstrosity invented in 1935 for Orthodox Jews, who are forbidden to answer the phone on the Sabbath. Casio took the invention mainstream with the reel-to-reel Phone-Mate Model 400, which weighed as much as a Thanksgiving turkey (10 pounds). Before long the telephone became the tool you always wanted it to be: an anti-communication device. You could conduct business and tend to your personal life without ever actually talking to anyone (as in, "I don't think we should see each other anymore...").

[product]23 Pop-Tarts[/product] [releaseInfo](1964)[/releaseInfo] It was more than the first toaster-ready pastry; it was the first toaster-ready anything, besides bread. As the Vietnam war raged and the Cold War simmered, domestic scientists helped the U.S. maintain its leadership in the snack-food wars–making the world safe for stoned college students and slumming housewives everywhere. The original flavors were strawberry, blueberry, cinnamon and apple currant–soon to be replaced by chocolate. The Stay-Shur Sprinkles, which didn't move or melt during toasting, were introduced a few years later. The treat suffered a setback in the 1990s when people realized that Pop-Tarts produce 18-inch flames when ignited. Now that's some serious cooking.

[product]22 DVD porn[/product] [releaseInfo](1997)[/releaseInfo] Has there ever been a greater marriage between medium and technology? Suddenly, watching adult films on VHS seemed akin to getting off on cave drawings. No more endless fast-forwarding or badly timed tape breakages. From your couch you could jump-cut from scene to scene, choose from a library of depraved sex acts and toy with slow-mo and digital freeze-frame that actually worked. Can you say "instant access"? Stay tuned for hologram technology that'll blast the action from a DVD into three-dimensional space in your living room.

[product]21 DVD player[/product] [releaseInfo](1997)[/releaseInfo] In 1997 the world was eager for a new and improved video format, and electronics suppliers were eager to avoid a replay of the bruising VHS-Beta battle. So in an unprecedented display of détente, five manufacturers simultaneously ushered in the DVD player, with its high-resolution images and digital stereo sound; since its introduction, 51 million units have been sold, one of the fastest rollouts ever. If the VCR created a generation of film renters, the DVD ushered in the age of the schmo cinephile. The new discs were priced to be bought, not rented, and they came with widescreen images, commentary, deleted scenes and making-of documentaries. Suddenly your postman was babbling about the mise-en-scène in Happy Gilmore. Progress is a funny thing.

[product]20 Pampers[/product] [releaseInfo](1961)[/releaseInfo] Procter & Gamble inventor Victor Mills perfected Ivory soap, kept the oil from separating in Jif peanut butter and dreamed up Pringles. And because he didn't want to deal with his granddaughter's fetid diapers (shit happens), we have Mills to thank for the disposable kind–roughly 20 billion of which hit landfills in this country annually. Their ease of use became a double-edged sword: Now every guy is expected to get his hands funky, even if the game is on, it's the fourth quarter, you're in the middle of a fine cigar and your team has the ball.

[product]19 TiVo digital video recorder[/product] [releaseInfo](1999)[/releaseInfo] It finally fulfilled the original promise of the VCR: Watch what you want when you want. Recording onto a massive hard drive, TiVo took the guesswork out of the process–even if you needed a PhD in physics to understand how to set up the thing in the first place. You could rewind live broadcasts, skip commercials, automatically record anything with Angelina Jolie in it. Instead of the networks calling the shots, you did. The latest model, the Series2 80-hour (above, $299), lets you program your home machine online from anywhere.

[product]18 Barbie[/product] [releaseInfo](1959)[/releaseInfo] She's the most popular doll ever, but Barbie has always had to deal with her share of would-be spoilsports. Some complain that her devotion to accessories promotes wanton materialism; others say her job choices are too stereotypical (nurse, flight attendant–hey, at least she has a job). Still others carp about how her 39-21-33 measurements promote unrealistic ideas of body image in young girls. Now the Saudi religious police are attacking her: "Jewish Barbie dolls, with their revealing clothes and shameful postures, accessories and tools, are a symbol of decadence to the perverted West." Eh, fellas, I'chaim. Bottom line: Barbie's hot. Leave her alone! Don't worry, baby–we got your back.

[product]17 Apple QuickTake 100 digital camera[/product] [releaseInfo](1994)[/releaseInfo] The digital revolution gave average couples who shouldn't be seen having sex the ability to photograph themselves fucking. You could enjoy the filthy fruits of your labor without having to endure the snicker of the Fotomat guy. Apple developed the first digital camera with Kodak (the company that brought you the first snapshot camera, back in 1898), and unlike the digital camcorder–primarily a tool for parents to record images of their newborns pooping themselves–this new camera format is now ubiquitous. How far has the medium come? Canon's new EOS Digital Rebel (above, $899) combines all the benefits of digital with all the SLR options. Shoot 6.3 megapixel photos with detachable SLR wide-angle or zoom lenses. Shoot manually or fully automatically. And there's a continuous shooting mode for hot action shots.

[product]16 Hitachi Magic Wand[/product] [releaseInfo](1970s)[/releaseInfo] Hitachi marketed the $45 Wand as a body massager. Any lady could wander into a major chain store and pick one up. But these legendary 12 inches, with enough vibrating power "to shake the enamel off your teeth," as one fan puts it, have done more for female sexual dys-function since the 1970s than all men combined. "Thousands of women have used this tool to learn how to orgasm," says Kim Airs, proprietor of the Boston and West Hollywood sex shop Grand Opening and one of any number of sex pros who have used the Wand to teach frigid women how to orgasm in sex workshops. "The thing could replace the penis permanently if men aren't careful."

[product]15 Sony CDP-101 CD player[/product] [releaseInfo](1982)[/releaseInfo] The 101 in the product name refers to both the binary code (digital music is encoded in a pattern of ones and zeros) and 10/1–October 1, 1982—the day the first CD was introduced to the world. The place: Tokyo. The CD: Billy Joel's 52nd Street. Sony and Philips developed the new format together. "We knew that everyone who experienced the sound of the CD for the first time would understand the impact it would have on music and lifestyle," says Marc Finer, who led the marketing team for the launch. "But we had no idea how quickly it would dominate the market." Nearly 35 percent of households had a CD player within five years, the fastest penetration rate of any new format until the DVD showed up in 1997.

[product]14 Fender Stra-tocaster electric guitar[/product] [releaseInfo](1954)[/releaseInfo] The sculptured body, like the hourglass shape of a woman. The signals from the pickups mixing, the sound amplifying like a ragged snarl, a searing wail. Fender released the first Strat around the time the first issue of Playboy hit newsstands. Fifty years later no ax can compare to its iconic status in the rock-history pantheon. John and George played identical ones. Townshend smashed any number of 'em. Hendrix set his on fire. Music would never be the same. Turn it down, Son! No way, Dad. No fuckin' way.

[product]13 Amana Radarange microwave oven[/product] [releaseInfo](1967)[/releaseInfo] While fiddling around with invisible microwaves–originally used in WWII radar systems–scientist Percy LeBaron Spencer discovered that the candy bar in his pocket had melted and his testicles had fallen off. Eureka! The first microwave (1954) was five and a half feet tall and weighed more than 750 pounds. (It now plays guard for the Redskins.) Amana, a division of Raytheon, introduced the conveniently poodle-size countertop range in 1967 to much fanfare. Suddenly anyone could "cook" a meal, during a commercial break, no less.

[product]12 Apple iPod MP3 player[/product] [releaseInfo](2001)[/releaseInfo] Don't you miss those massive piles of plastic CD cases, all of them busted, none of them containing the right disc? Don't you miss carrying a single CD around at a time, then realizing how sick to death you are of every tune? MP3 players hit stores in 1998, but the iPod was the first iconic model, a slick-looking gadget the size of a urinal puck that could hold your entire music library. Finally, the new format had gone main-stream. The latest iPod, with 40 gigabytes of memory ($499), can hold, oh, 10,000 songs. Instead of a disc or a cassette, music is now just a sequence of ones and zeros written in the ether. No wonder the record industry is in a tizzy over file sharing. Soon enough the CD will go the way of the piano tie.

[product]11 Swanson TV Dinner[/product][releaseInfo](1954)[/releaseInfo] It was a complete dinner for one–Salisbury steak, meat loaf or fried chicken–served with potatoes and freakishly green peas or something even stranger. Each food group was impeccably divided on a space-age aluminum tray, just as our lives were supposed to be. Ten million dinners were sold in the first year alone. We sat not at the table but facing the tube, like zombies. Where did this food come from? Mom had nothing to do with it. Nature had nothing to do with it. God had nothing to do with it. Is it any wonder the 1960s happened?

[product]10 Crack cocaine[/product] [releaseInfo](early 1980s)[/releaseInfo] Crack babies, crackheads, crack dens, crack hos. The high came on like a freight train speeding through your veins, your heart beating out a Keith Moon drum solo in your ears. Then 15 minutes later you'd kill for more. For the record, crack is cocaine processed with ammonia or baking soda into a cheap, smokable, rocklike form. According to some conspiracy theorists, the craze is believed to have taken hold in South Central Los Angeles, the work of a single ambitious dealer. Ricky Donnell Ross, a.k.a. Freeway Rick, was getting the stuff from Central America. It was called crack because when heated it crackled like Rice Krispies in milk.

[product]9 Sony Walkman[/product] [releaseInfo](1979)[/releaseInfo] When you were immersed in your own music, blasting so loud it eclipsed all other sound, reality became a movie, complete with soundtrack. And you were the star. Jogging, riding public transit, having a tooth filled, getting hit by a car because you couldn't hear the screeching horn–what experience couldn't be enhanced by Wagner or "Baba O'Riley"?

[product]8 Viagra[/product] [releaseInfo](1998)[/releaseInfo] A man's best friend is no longer a dog but sildenafil citrate–Viagra. It's hard to believe the world first heard the word Viagra just six years ago. Two British scientists–Peter Dunn and Albert Wood (now known as Peter "Not" Dunn and A. Woody)–concocted the stuff. Overnight, things were looking up for a lot of men. The "little blue pill" is now an indelible part of millions of lives. Its impact can be felt in many places, though hopefully not on a crowded bus. This despite reports of shocking Viagra-related fatalities. Apparently a man took seven pills one night. His wife died.

[product]7 Magnavox Odyssey game console[/product] [releaseInfo](1972)[/releaseInfo] It cost a whopping $100 and enabled you to maneuver a white dot on a black TV screen. By using different overlays that fit right onto the tube, you turned the maneuvering of this white dot into Ping-Pong. Or tennis. Or hockey. Why communicate with others? Why sleep? Why go outside? Americans bought 80,000 Odysseys the year they went on sale, sparking a video game craze that has yet to die down. The first generation of emasculated computer geeks had been born.

[product]6 Silicone breast implants[/product] [releaseInfo](1962)[/releaseInfo] Timmie Jean Lindsey of Houston was the first. Thirty years old, divorced, with six kids and a dead-end job, she was at the charity hospital getting some tattoos removed when Drs. Frank Gerow and Thomas Cronin made her an offer. She left the hospital a few days later with firm, round, glorious C cups. By the end of the year she was married and happy, and damn it, so was her husband. She admits that her new tits had much to do with it.

[product]5 Motorola DynaTAC 8000X cell phone[/product] [releaseInfo](1985)[/releaseInfo] The "brick phone," the world's first commercial hand-held celly, weighed in at roughly two pounds and cost consumers a measly $3,995. Seemingly overnight the world became exponentially more annoying. Your mother, your boss, your stalker–anybody could reach you at any time. The downside: Try living without it.

[product]4 AK-47[/product] [releaseInfo](1960s)[/releaseInfo] Russian soldier Mikhail Kalashnikov invented this 600-rounds-a-minute killing machine in 1947; it worked so well that the Avtomat Kalashnikova 1947 quickly became the Soviet army's standard issue. But not until Vietnam did this gun become recognized as the weapon of choice for terrorists and guerrillas around the world. Cheap, mass-produced, tough to break and readily available, it became, as the Los Angeles Times recently put it, "history's most widely distributed piece of killing machinery." According to a July 1999 State Department report, the AK-47 can be purchased from arms dealers in Africa for $6 a pop. In some countries "it is easier and cheaper to buy an AK-47 than to attend a movie or provide a decent meal," the report says. When asked a few years ago how he felt about the many lives his creation had taken, a decrepit Kalashnikov responded, "I built it to protect my country."

[product]3 Sony Betamax SL-7200 VCR[/product] [releaseInfo](1976)[/releaseInfo] Although Beta would soon make way for VHS, Sony's VCR was the first (and, many believe, the superior technology). When the machine hit stores, film studio execs whined that it would destroy the movie industry, that folks wouldn't show up at the theater. Fact is, the VCR brought Hollywood, not to mention Porn Valley, into America's living rooms. The multibillion-dollar rental industry was born. And an entire generation grew up not realizing that you're supposed to be fucking quiet while watching a movie in theaters.

[product]2 The pill[/product] [releaseInfo](1960)[/releaseInfo] This one little pharmaceutical innovation—a tiny pill that manipulates hormone levels in women to prevent unwanted pregnancy—changed a system of sexual politics that had been in place since the Stone Age. (Curiously, it took five more years for the Supreme Court to strike down the Comstock laws that banned contraception.) For women, the pill was a public acknowledgment of female libido. Not only did it prevent pregnancy, it created a generation gap the size of the Grand Canyon overnight. Women were now liberated to make the choice to have sex whenever (how about now?) and wherever (right here would be fine), just for the joy of it. For us, it was one more reason for a woman to say yes.

[product]1 Apple Macintosh desktop computer[/product] [releaseInfo](1984)[/releaseInfo] According to anyone who knew anything about computers in the early 1980s, Apple was doomed; the company seemed destined for history's dustbin. Apple had marketed one of the first personal computers back in 1977 and had run the first-ever full-page color ad for one (in Playboy) a year later. But by 1983 Big Blue IBM was taking the reins of the exploding market and pulling away. Apple needed a late-inning home run. "Think really, really big" was the mantra of new CEO John Sculley.

A year later millions of Americans caught their first glimpse of the Apple Macintosh in a commercial that aired during Super Bowl XVIII (Raiders 38, Redskins 9). The Ridley Scott–directed spot, which evoked images from George Orwell's 1984, cost $1.5 million to produce and air, a record at the time. It was never broadcast again, but the Mac had made its mark.

Unlike the Apple II, the new $2,500 Mac was the first WIMP computer for consumers–windows, icons, mouse and pointer, the modern desktop as we know it today. It was the first truly usable personal computer, so easy to handle you didn't even need to read the manual. With a 128-kilobyte hard drive, it had one 312,500th of the memory that Apple's latest MP3 player now possesses. But for most folks at the time, it had power to spare. Six years later Bill Gates brought WIMP technology to the masses with his knockoff Windows 3.0 system, and there was no turning back. The meek had inherited the earth, the ultimate revenge of the nerds.

50 years of...

Women who changed the world:

•Marilyn Monroe

•Rosa Parks

•Roe

•Jenna Jameson

•Julia Child

•Elton John

Scandals that changed the world:

•Dylan goes electric

•Watergate

•Enron

•Sexual-Predator Catholic priests

•Gore vs. Florida

•kid catches Jeter's home run

•Monicagate

•Iraq: WMD?

People who are inexplicably still alive:

•Keith Richards

•Osama bin Laden

•Hunter S. Thompson

•Elvis

•50 Cent

•Strom Thurmond

Services that changed the world:

•ATMs

•FedEx

•Internet

•Cable TV

•lap dances

•Bikini waxing

•Drive-through anything

•happy endings

50 years of...

Enthusiasms that now seem inexplicable:

•glam bands

•boy bands

•marching bands

•shag (carpets, vests, haircuts, -adelic)

•IUDs

•MTV

•plots in pornographic films

•arming Saddam Hussein to fight the Iranians

•arming the Afghans to fight the Soviets

•body piercing (except the clitoris)

Things that changed the world for the worse:

•AIDS

•helmets on hockey players

•Rosie magazine

•political correctness

•the whole throwing-the-newborn-into-a-Dumpster fad

•Geraldo

•telemarketing

•Star Wars prequels

•Michael Jackson surgeries numbers three to 22

Cool things that had no impact whatsoever:

•the yellow line that marks the first down

•cryogenic freezing

•moon landing

•Blackberry

•golf carts

•wet T-shirt contests

•the De Lorean

•Twinkies

•plasma TVs

•Hot Wheels

•Department of Homeland Security

Innovations yet to come:

•sexicatessens

•designer babies

•air connoisseurs

•cats that fuck dogs

•kidney piercing

•diet marijuana

•Reason to Get Out of Bed brand vodka

•cure for genital warts and general ugliness

•kosher pork

•wearable airbags

•eternal life for those who can afford it