Philosophy
At 6:30 weight (A) automatically drops on head of dwarf (B), causing him to yell and drop cigar (C), which sets fire to paper (D). Heat from fire angers dwarf's wife (E). She sharpens potato knife (F) on grindstone (G) which turns wheel (H) causing olive spoon (I) to dip repeatedly into olives. If spoon does not lift an olive in 15 minutes, clock (J) automatically pushes glass-cutter (K) against bottle and takes out a chunk of glass big enough for you to stick your finger in and pull out an olive.
Poignant imitator
Rube Goldberg
July 4th, 1883 to December 7th, 1970
American cartoonist who satirized the American preoccupation with technology. His name became synonymous with any simple process made outlandishly complicated because of his series of "Invention" cartoons which use a string of outlandish tools, people, plants and steps to accomplish everyday simple tasks in the most complicated way. Goldberg applied his training as a graduate engineer and used his engineering, story-telling, and drawing skills to make sure that the "Inventions" could work, even though dozens of arms, wheels, gears, handles, cups, and rods were put in motion by balls, canary cages, pails, boots, bathtubs, paddles, and even live animals for simple tasks like squeezing an orange for juice or closing a window in case it should start to rain.
Rube Goldberg [Wikipedia]
Rube Goldberg: Inventions!
by
Maynard Frank Wolfe
ISBN-10: 0684867249
ISBN-13: 978-0684867243
Scientific American...
Rube Goldberg is so renowned for his zany and splendidly overcomplicated "inventions" that his name has made it into dictionaries as an adjective. "Used for describing Any very complicated invention, machine, scheme, etc., laboriously contrived to perform a seemingly simple operation" is the entry in Webster's New World Dictionary. According to Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, the adjective means "accomplishing by complex means what seemingly could be done simply." The inventions appeared in newspapers every day from 1914 to 1964 as a single panel of drawings with an elaborate caption. Wolfe, a photojournalist who also holds patents for product design, presents a collection of Goldberg's inventions, comic strips, editorial cartoons, and sketches and provides a biography of Goldberg.
- Modern Mencken
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- Funny Funnies
My Fellow Comedists, This weekend the Reubens are announced. Named for Rube Goldberg, the Reubens are the awards of the National Cartoonists Society. Awards are given in thirteen categories from feature length animation to greeting cards. You can see...
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You pick up a jar of olives off of the shelf at the store and it says "pitted." Would you assume that "pitted" is an adjective describing the olives, that is, that the olives have pits in them, or would you interpret it as the simple past tense of the...
- Auto Mechanics To Quantum Mechanics
Some former students have been asking for this, so here goes... I have a schtick that I do whenever I teach. I start each class by inviting questions, any question, auto mechanics to quantum mechanics, ask me anything. I get an incredibly wide range of...
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"GoldiBlox: The girls' toy commercial sweeping the Internet" by Susan Rohwer November 21st, 2013 latimes.com If you haven’t seen it, check out the commercial for GoldiBlox that’s sweeping the Internet. It’s an ad for a set of interactive...
Philosophy
Rube Goldberg
At 6:30 weight (A) automatically drops on head of dwarf (B), causing him to yell and drop cigar (C), which sets fire to paper (D). Heat from fire angers dwarf's wife (E). She sharpens potato knife (F) on grindstone (G) which turns wheel (H) causing olive spoon (I) to dip repeatedly into olives. If spoon does not lift an olive in 15 minutes, clock (J) automatically pushes glass-cutter (K) against bottle and takes out a chunk of glass big enough for you to stick your finger in and pull out an olive.
Poignant imitatorRube Goldberg July 4th, 1883 to December 7th, 1970
American cartoonist who satirized the American preoccupation with technology. His name became synonymous with any simple process made outlandishly complicated because of his series of "Invention" cartoons which use a string of outlandish tools, people, plants and steps to accomplish everyday simple tasks in the most complicated way. Goldberg applied his training as a graduate engineer and used his engineering, story-telling, and drawing skills to make sure that the "Inventions" could work, even though dozens of arms, wheels, gears, handles, cups, and rods were put in motion by balls, canary cages, pails, boots, bathtubs, paddles, and even live animals for simple tasks like squeezing an orange for juice or closing a window in case it should start to rain.
Honda Commercial
Rube Goldberg [Wikipedia]
Rube Goldberg: Inventions!by
Maynard Frank Wolfe
ISBN-10: 0684867249
ISBN-13: 978-0684867243
Scientific American...
Rube Goldberg is so renowned for his zany and splendidly overcomplicated "inventions" that his name has made it into dictionaries as an adjective. "Used for describing Any very complicated invention, machine, scheme, etc., laboriously contrived to perform a seemingly simple operation" is the entry in Webster's New World Dictionary. According to Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, the adjective means "accomplishing by complex means what seemingly could be done simply." The inventions appeared in newspapers every day from 1914 to 1964 as a single panel of drawings with an elaborate caption. Wolfe, a photojournalist who also holds patents for product design, presents a collection of Goldberg's inventions, comic strips, editorial cartoons, and sketches and provides a biography of Goldberg.
- Modern Mencken
Tomorrow is Mencken day at the Enoch Pratt Library, honoring one of the great intellects of Baltimore. Who would be the modern day version of H.L. Mencken? Is there a writer who is smart, ascerbic, conservative, and wry? P.J. O'Rourke? ...
- Funny Funnies
My Fellow Comedists, This weekend the Reubens are announced. Named for Rube Goldberg, the Reubens are the awards of the National Cartoonists Society. Awards are given in thirteen categories from feature length animation to greeting cards. You can see...
- Ambiguity Is The Pits
You pick up a jar of olives off of the shelf at the store and it says "pitted." Would you assume that "pitted" is an adjective describing the olives, that is, that the olives have pits in them, or would you interpret it as the simple past tense of the...
- Auto Mechanics To Quantum Mechanics
Some former students have been asking for this, so here goes... I have a schtick that I do whenever I teach. I start each class by inviting questions, any question, auto mechanics to quantum mechanics, ask me anything. I get an incredibly wide range of...
- Goldiblox Recruiting Girls As Engineers
"GoldiBlox: The girls' toy commercial sweeping the Internet" by Susan Rohwer November 21st, 2013 latimes.com If you haven’t seen it, check out the commercial for GoldiBlox that’s sweeping the Internet. It’s an ad for a set of interactive...