Althouse: Using everything you've got.

December 16, 2020

Using everything you've got.

Click here for a phenomenal Rube Goldberg device.

51 comments:

Birkel said...: Another Biden presidency reference?; 12/16/20, 4:18 PM
Oh Yea said...: The film work is the most impressive aspect.; 12/16/20, 4:29 PM
Unknown said...: That was freaking awesome. Such ingenuity.

Also love the yard. Stream and rolling woods.

Laughter at the end.

Nice.

Thanks for finding.; 12/16/20, 4:31 PM
BarrySanders20 said...: Imagination, patience, perseverance. A really nice property with contours and water features helps too! Well done, and Covid-time well spent.; 12/16/20, 4:34 PM
Rick.T. said...: Well done plus extra points for recycled materials. They can probably get the cats back in the garage again.; 12/16/20, 4:36 PM
Rick.T. said...: Cars not cats.; 12/16/20, 4:37 PM
Mike of Snoqualmie said...: It's a [Rube Goldberg device]^100. Rube Goldberg's devices always fitted on a single page. That's about 100 pages worth of mechanical gadgets.; 12/16/20, 4:44 PM
Joe Smith said...: Old but great.

The best part is he uses very ordinary and unusual objects...not just the usual dominos.

And some of the transitions were risky...easy to not work and have to reload.

Big Kudos to the camera operator...; 12/16/20, 5:02 PM
Matthew Heintz said...: Does that qual as a 3-pointer?; 12/16/20, 5:07 PM
Joe Smith said...: It's funny how many of the commenters on Reddit are amazed at the size of the yard and think the people who did this must be 'rich.'

Looked like an average-size piece of land in most of rural America.

Sure as hell didn't look like a 'rich' person's property...; 12/16/20, 5:07 PM
Joe Smith said...: Was Goldberg actually a Rube?

Discuss...; 12/16/20, 5:13 PM
Big Mike said...: To be a true Rube Goldberg machine it ultimately has to accomplish something useful -- swat a fly, catch a mouse, pour a cup of coffee. Intricacy points = maximum allowed, times zero for utility = zero.

Nice koi pond, though.; 12/16/20, 5:15 PM
mockturtle said...: Impressive! I like to build things like that, too, but nothing as elaborate as that. Can't do anything like that outside here, though. Too windy.; 12/16/20, 5:43 PM
mockturtle said...: Looked like an average-size piece of land in most of rural America.

Yep. Or even suburban, in the West. We didn't all grow up in apartments, after all.; 12/16/20, 5:45 PM
JaimeRoberto said...: That took a lot of balls.; 12/16/20, 6:30 PM
Gospace said...: Kis is destined to be a successful engineer- with or without a degree.; 12/16/20, 6:42 PM
BUMBLE BEE said...: That creator has to be Republican. Far too much plastic has been accumulated at that house. Gaia is offended.; 12/16/20, 6:46 PM
Rick said...: Sure as hell didn't look like a 'rich' person's property...

That trench sure would have been easier with a backhoe.; 12/16/20, 6:57 PM
Flat Tire said...: I showed that to my grandsons, 5 and 7, a couple months ago. My backyard is now filled with assorted leftover sections of pvc pipe and fittings, drip irrigation lines, old buckets and saw horses, etc. We haven't built anything very impressive but we've had lots of fun. Our moving object is a 1/2 inch ball bearing. Our creations never accomplish anything other than entertaining us and making as much noise as possible along the way.; 12/16/20, 7:10 PM
Kay said...: That was amazing.; 12/16/20, 7:13 PM
eddie willers said...: Flat Tire ....

That's sounds great. Grandparents and grandkids.

I like what Bill Cosby pointed out. Grandparents and grandkids get along so well because they have a common enemy.; 12/16/20, 7:15 PM
mockturtle said...: I like what Bill Cosby pointed out. Grandparents and grandkids get along so well because they have a common enemy.

Hadn't heard that before but it's a good one. :-); 12/16/20, 7:19 PM
mockturtle said...: Big Mike asserts: To be a true Rube Goldberg machine it ultimately has to accomplish something useful -- swat a fly, catch a mouse, pour a cup of coffee. Intricacy points = maximum allowed, times zero for utility = zero.

Wait just one minute, Mike! Are you saying that making a basket is not useful? Does the NBA know that? ;-); 12/16/20, 7:21 PM
bagoh20 said...: I know it's being a shit, but I'm so pragmatic that such a time consuming exercise drives me crazy. That had to take a lot of time and thought, and my mindset instantly goes to: why the hell would you spend it on that? The same amount of effort and thought could have produced a new product, or even started a company, or any number of other true accomplishments like learning a valuable skill you can build on. I'm just not made that way. If I had that much time, I'd learn to play an instrument or learn machining or woodwork, build a water feature or fancy fire pit, or clean up the yard, which of course, they now have to do.

I have so much I still want to learn and do, and time is running out. This just pisses me off.; 12/16/20, 7:27 PM
Tomcc said...: Thanks for the link, I enjoyed watching it! Does one do a "test drive" before filming the entire sequence? It would drive me crazy to be filming and have it fail.; 12/16/20, 7:40 PM
iowan2 said...: Thanks!; 12/16/20, 7:41 PM
Howard said...: Your not being a shit, bagoh20, quit beating yourself up. You are expressing a stereotypical traditional female attitude. Men do useless shit for fun much to the chagrin of their spouses. Men invent things all the time from noodling around or by creating art from whats handy.

I congratulate you on a nice pivot to the double-reverse backdoor virtue signal. Slick. That's why you rake the big bucks.; 12/16/20, 7:42 PM
Flat Tire said...: Thanks eddie willers. I like that.; 12/16/20, 7:44 PM
madAsHell said...: Man, I spent WAY TOO MUCH time examining Rube Goldberg comics, and then I went to engineering school.

I think this guy spent WAY TOO MUCH time examining Rube Goldberg comics........; 12/16/20, 7:54 PM
madAsHell said...: My backyard is now filled with assorted leftover sections of pvc pipe and fittings, drip irrigation lines, old buckets and saw horses, etc.

I hope you build yourself some Engineers!!; 12/16/20, 7:57 PM
lb said...: This was awesome! I want to do this now - wow - nice to smile at something; 12/16/20, 7:59 PM
lb said...: and fortunately my son's a mechanical engineer :); 12/16/20, 8:00 PM
mockturtle said...: Yes, bagoh20, you are being a shit. ;-); 12/16/20, 8:04 PM
Narr said...: I have more respect for Jeffrey Toobin.

Narr
Could have cleaned the whole place up in the time it took to set up, but noooo; 12/16/20, 8:18 PM
Breezy said...: I love these creations... amazing to see what human minds can conjure and construct...; 12/16/20, 8:20 PM
Narr said...: Since Prof won't open a Cafe, I'll just put it here.

Tucker was hot tonight about Doctor Jill and her educational research dissertation; his humor is bluff and crude, but it's funny.

One of my jobs at the U was to maintain the archival set of theses and dissertations. I couldn't judge the STEM ones (hell, I couldn't understand the titles of most of them) but among those that I could judge the quality was often abysmal.

Worse were the undergrad "special projects" of the University College. This allowed working people to write a paper, make a video, prepare a handbook or resource book related to their work . . . devise an educational puzzle for a certain age group . . .

I don't begrudge the firefighter who analyzed the comms system at work, or the nurse who wrote up a protocol for handling certain problems at the clinic, getting some academic credit, a raise, and eventually a BA or BS, but those were exceptions. Most of the projects were childishly unambitious--one poor soul submitted her house closing papers (complete with financial and personal info!) and a two page description of the closing process . . . for credit!

About 2010 we made the switch to all-digital theses and dissertations. I was on the committee with a lot of smart and young people from the library and grad school to figure out how it would work, and they did a great job!

Narr
I was already busy; 12/16/20, 8:42 PM
The Godfather said...: I gather that none of the commenters here ever worked for Big Law. This thing looked almost exactly like the process of writing a brief in a major (Big $$$) case.; 12/16/20, 9:07 PM
Big Mike said...: Wait just one minute, Mike! Are you saying that making a basket is not useful? Does the NBA know that?

@mockturtle, why ask me? Why not ask the people who used to watch NBA games but don’t anymore?; 12/16/20, 9:24 PM
john burger said...: That is wonderfully pointless. Rube would approve.

jvb; 12/16/20, 9:41 PM
wildswan said...: Maybe we could do a "Rube Goldberg pictionary" this Xmas where there's a pile of toys and each person has to add one more step to a Rube Goldberg. God knows, there's enough toys down in the basement.; 12/16/20, 9:45 PM
Chest Rockwell said...: Yeah, that's a good one!

This one is better I think.; 12/16/20, 10:06 PM
BUMBLE BEE said...: Kinetic jigsaw puzzle?; 12/16/20, 11:10 PM
Flat Tire said...: madAsHell, That's my plan.; 12/16/20, 11:49 PM
AZ Bob said...: That took a lot of balls.

I counted 35 but I probably missed some.; 12/17/20, 12:02 AM
Readering said...: Thank you Chest Rockwell. That must have taken more than one take and some training!!!; 12/17/20, 1:41 AM
Dan in Philly said...: Hard to believe there wasn't a cheat somewhere. How did the camera follow all of that so smoothly?; 12/17/20, 3:14 AM
Jeff Gee said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 12/17/20, 7:03 AM
Jeff Gee said...: Camera guy was MVP. This was a delight, and took no more time & effort than writing & recording a three minute hit single. (First try I left out the "no."); 12/17/20, 7:05 AM
boatbuilder said...: Bagoh20 is obviously not a golfer...; 12/17/20, 7:14 AM
Godot said...: *Sigh*

Was this the first road I could have taken?; 12/17/20, 11:31 AM
Kevin said...: That was really impressive and cheered me about the human condition until I saw all the Reddit comments and they were all about envy of wealth and race, and now I'm more depressed than ever; 12/17/20, 3:33 PM