Former Apple and NASA engineer turned YouTube sensation Mark Rober (previously) decided to spend his quarantine birdwatching until his neighbourhood squirrels defeated his supposedly squirrel-proof birdfeeders. Read the rest
But will it make breakfast? The fun starts at the 1:47 mark.
screenshot via YouTube Read the rest
I was **this** many years old when I learned that Pee-wee Herman isn't the only on-screen character with a breakfast-making contraption. My sweetie Andy just re-watched the 1968 film Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and told me it also has a Rube Goldberg machine that makes breakfast! I didn't know about that one, so I looked it up. And there it was. Then I wondered if there were more... and there are!
First, let's start with Pee-wee's, which might be the best known one in pop culture (it even gets ripped off in an episode of Family Guy). To get his machine moving, he lights a candle (which in turn burns through a string). Just don't expect him to eat more than two bites of his elaborately made brekkie:
Pee-wee's Big Adventure (1985)
Same year. Doc Brown had a neglected one that burnt toast and served up Einstein's dog food in Back to the Future:
Back to the Future (1985)
Doc had a much better version for the third Back to the Future:
Back to the Future III (1990)
Casper the CGI ghost morphs his fist into an egg-scrambler and then a spatula as this film's mini breakfast machine is doing its thing:
Casper (1995)
Then there's this one. Robin Williams, playing Professor Philip Brainard in the late '90s flick Flubber, kicks his off by slamming a giant button found on his bedside table:
https://youtu.be/mEnoaD4BLhE?t=60 Flubber (1997)
Ok, now to Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. Dick Van Dyke plays Caractacus Potts, an inventor, widower, and father of two. Read the rest
"Humans have massage chairs so why shouldn’t our pets have petting machines. I gave it a Rube Goldberg style flare to make it interesting to watch."
There are Rube Goldberg machines and then there's Sprice Machines' Lemonade Machine, an elaborate, nine-minute-long exercise in dispensing cold lemonade. It impressively winds through an entire house (even the toilet has a role) and out through the backyard before reaching its refreshing conclusion.
Our first ever house wide machine project - The Lemonade Machine. This complex chain reaction travels through the kitchen, kid's room, bathroom, office, parent's room, living room, patio & backyard using everyday objects to automatically pour lemonade for the entire team of builders.
Move over Flowbee, inventor Joseph Herscher of Joseph's Machines has figured out a fresh new way to cut one's hair at home using a swinging chandelier and a large kitchen knife. He calls it the "Terrifying Automatic Hair Cutter."
Wouldn't it be nice to get a haircut in the comfort of your own home, for free? I've made a machine for that. Don’t try this at home folks, it may not look like it but I am a professional!
Previously: A complex Rube Goldberg machine that serves cake and A useless machine that wraps gifts in 10 seconds Read the rest
Joseph Herscher of Joseph's Machines has outdone himself with his latest machine. It's an incredibly complex Rube Goldberg machine that took him three months to make called "The Cake Server" and it does just that... serve cake. The "cherry on top" is literally a cherry on top. Watch!
Now watch the behind-the-scenes video:
Previously: A useless machine that wraps gifts in 10 seconds Read the rest
Yep, the Harlem Globetrotters are still doing their thing and as evidenced by their YouTube channel (don't miss their "one take" video from last year), these basketball-spinning darlings are doing it better than ever.
These courtside jesters recently teamed up students from Georgia Tech's colleges of Industrial Design and Music to make this Rube Goldberg 'trick shot' machine. Watch as their starred, red, white, and blue basketball makes its way through a complicated path from a Globetrotter to an impressive hole-in-one.
It's a fun watch (despite all those editing cuts).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5YiiuhrCZK4&feature=youtu.be
Directed by Allen Cordell: "The Aristocrats!" Read the rest
Diguo's Luxury Royal Family Balance Syphon Coffee Maker is an amazingly elaborate coffee siphon, a brewing method dating to the 1830s which is said to produce "a delicate, tea-like cup of coffee," albeit with the caveat that it is "quite persnickety." Read the rest
German sculptor Daniel Kühn created the "Light & Cigarette Machine," which plays Candide while lighting and extending a cigarette; it was later owned by Leonard Bernstein, and was auctioned off to a German collector after his death. Read the rest
Kaplamino made this delightful Rube Goldberg-esque demo using magnets and steel balls.
Sebastian Ly Serena's website consists solely of a bizarre HTML contraption that animates form elements until all of them have expanded and the author's email address is exposed. It's built entirely from standard web forms and javascript, ugly as sin, and completely wonderful. [via Hacker News, whose commenters are unimpressed because the underlying code doesn't really model a chain reaction.] Read the rest
Mechanical engineering students from The Technion – Israel Institute of Technology built this fantastic Rube Goldberg machine last year to tell the story of Passover, the Jewish holiday starting the evening of April 22 that celebrates the biblical story of the Israelites' exodus from slavery in Egypt. Of course my favorite part of the story, and this video, is the Ten Plagues.
(Thanks, Candy Mabry!)
And here's a behind-the-scenes video:
Wintergatan is Martin Molin's musical alterego, who runs 2,000 steel ball-bearings through its many channels and troughs to strike out a musical composition, turning handles, throwing switches and making other adjustments as needed to play his composition, which is rather catchy. Read the rest
Inventor, director and tinkerer Bob Partington made what he claims is the world's slowest Rube Goldberg Machine. Read the rest
Chain reaction artists and domino builders have collaborated to create what they hope will go on record as the largest chain reaction in history. Read the rest
