Too many people are seduced by the cult of the new. If it’s new, they believe, then it must be better than something older.
Well, and this might seem like a trivial example, in my opinion the person who invented blister-pack packaging was a moron and so are the companies that use it. I can’t tell you how many pills I have destroyed, how many capsules have been punctured and how much medicine has WOUND UP ON THE FLOOR with the stupid design.
I try to avoid buying medicine packaged in blister-packs, but for some of the things I take such packaging is unavoidable. By the way, does anyone besides me think the very name “blister-pack” is an awful choice of words?
Since all human beings are flawed it only stands to reason that all institutions and inventions of people are also flawed, although, of course, not all to the same degree.
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The mind-numbing homogeneity of car design is another “new” thing that is worse than what it replaced, in my opinion. I know regulation severely hampers what car companies can do, but surely they can show more originality. From a comment by David Banner (not his real name):
“I was at Panera this morning. Looked out the window at my Malibu. Saw nearby car and thought it was also a Malibu. Too many cars look the same. Hyundai just stretches its car body style: Elantra begets Sonata begets Azera.”
To me, all modern pickup trucks look the same. Some variation in styling does exist among SUVs, but many SUVs are indistinguishable by sight.
From Top Speed a picture of a modern, regulation-compliant car that didn’t look like everything else:
Of course this is a picture of a Saturn Sky, a car that has been shown and discussed before in this blog. Before one remarks that it’s a clone of its corporate cousin, the Pontiac Solstice, be aware that while the two cars shared the same Kappa platform, they shared no sheet metal nor any part of their interiors.
As my favorite TV character, Dr. Gregory House, once shouted, “Climb out of your holes, people!” You don’t have to buy the indistinguishable and the mundane. (By the way, next Saturday will mark the 15th anniversary [!!] of the airing of the first episode of House.)
#SayNoToTheCultOfTheNew
#SayNoToBlisterPacks
#SaturnSky
#HouseMD
#somanycarsjustonelife
#disaffectedmusings
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Disaffected Musings 
Like you, I HATE “blister packs” … grrr …
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The Solstice and Sky were in many ways the progeny of Robert Lutz when he was at GM – but given that you know which platform those cars were built on, I’m sure you know that as well. Lutz arrived too late and departed too soon at GM. In his all-too-brief time there, he managed to scrape a surprising number of barnacles off the General’s hull.
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Lutz is definitely not a wishy-washy person. Would love to see more people like him running automobile companies.
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I blame modern technology and computer aided design tools that eke out the most efficiency from a vehicle’s frontal profile. All egg-shaped, all well designed to provide as many MPGs as they can. Truly they all look alike. One could argue that in this time, we need to eschew style for efficiency. I don’t disagree, but it sure makes for boring automobilia.
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Many thanks for the comment. Whatever happened to a happy medium, where many factors were considered in design?
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