Video: The fine line between stupid and clever — the sequel
posted at 5:59 pm on June 24, 2007 by Allahpundit
Got a nasty case of the blog blahs, which I fear may be terminal. At times like these there’s only one thing that can lift my spirits: ingeniously moronic Rube Goldberg contraptions involving marbles.
Thank goodness they’re not in short supply.
Update: According to one of our readers, the refrain here is pitagora suichi, i.e., “Pythagorean switch.”
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A very fine line.
amerpundit on June 24, 2007 at 6:01 PM
It’s truly amazing we beat these guys in WWII.
billy on June 24, 2007 at 6:15 PM
I had to turn the music off. I’ll be dreaming that stupid tune. That being said, where can I get one of those???
pullingmyhairout on June 24, 2007 at 6:15 PM
I can’t believe I just watched that whole thing. In light of that admission, I would say that, I don’t know about the video, but at least I have crossed that line.
nailinmyeye on June 24, 2007 at 6:17 PM
This one’s pretty good, too, and without the annoying music.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xodq44iWv5Y
Attila (Pillage Idiot) on June 24, 2007 at 6:18 PM
Ok, now who here speaks Japanese?
“Ita Po na Su-i chi!”
I have no idea what that means.
wearyman on June 24, 2007 at 6:21 PM
If I need wacky and Japanese, nothing beats Katamari Damacy. Damn that game is fun.
Bad Candy on June 24, 2007 at 6:34 PM
I cannot believe you’re actually comparing a wooden manifestation of a binary adder with this crap.
Perpetual Student on June 24, 2007 at 6:35 PM
Nah, this is the best ever…and kewl music :)
lsutiger on June 24, 2007 at 6:43 PM
I think it means “Look Al, no carbon footprint”
JetBoy on June 24, 2007 at 6:47 PM
And check out this ( since were on Japanese culture and all)…Japanese IQ test. Took me about 20 minutes, but then again, I ain’t the sharpest tool in the shed, lol
lsutiger on June 24, 2007 at 6:49 PM
Great, now I have to explain it to the 10 year old looking over my shoulder..
CBarker on June 24, 2007 at 7:12 PM
Dear Michelle,
Allah needs an iPhone now! His condition is deteriorating quickly…
Zorro on June 24, 2007 at 7:29 PM
Pitagora su-ichi!
I’m glad you took my advice to search on “Pythagoras Switch”. Now if you can hunt up how I can get legit DVDs of this show, I would be most grateful. I’ve found other crazy stuff from that show beyond the marbles and marches, on YouTube, but I’d like some better quality video of this stuff.
meep on June 24, 2007 at 7:39 PM
It’s truly amazing we beat these guys in WWII.
It’s not so much that we had better weapons than the Germans or Japanese, but we certainly built more of them. While the Spitfire, Mustang, Thunderbolt and B series bombers were formidable, the Germans definitely had better tanks, sidearms and machine guns, and the Mitsubishi Zero was a pretty good fighter as was the M-109.
The difference was that Germany built about 23,000 tanks during the war and the US built about 90,000. Under fascism, the Nazis controlled production and assigned tank production to traditional heavy equipment manufacturers who were used to making small production runs. In the US, entrepreneurs competed for military contracts. Henry Kaiser turned commercial cargo hulls into escort carriers, Ford built B-24 bombers at Willow Run, and Chrysler built tanks.
rokemronnie on June 24, 2007 at 7:58 PM
When I see clips of stuff like this (no matter how ridiculous, superficially), I’m immediately reminded of the many hours of fun I had playing the game Mousetrap as a kid.
The pure genius of that game escaped me until I got older and started exploring “cause and effect” which always seems to boil down to Newton’s 3rd Law of Motion…”For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.”
In my opinion, that’s the Law of Motion that was at the core of putting us in the air on jet engines and even onto the moon and beyond. Burn something fast enough and hot enough to produce extremely rapid exhaust and channel that exhaust in a specific direction, and what do you have? A rocket (or a jet engine).
These clips may seem simplistic to a lot of folks, but keep in mind one thing…the only propulsion is gravity. Doubtless, it’s some type of science fair going on; but the participants have come up with some ingenious ways to put gravity to work no matter how silly they look to the average person. Nobody I know will bitch about the person who figures out how to use the Earth’s natural gravitational force to power automobiles.
Mock if you will, but these folks are the future engineers that will build better, stronger, faster, safer products for the world. When I think back, I wish I’d had their understanding of physics when I was their age.
American_Jihadist on June 24, 2007 at 8:05 PM
More true of the war in Europe than Japan, though. At the beginning of the war the A6M was a successful plane, as much due to its surprising qualities as its sheer performance (the plane’s vast range was often difficult for adversaries to comprehend). Their ships were good, but not world-beating, with the exceptions of Yamato and Musashi–which were obviously impressive, but by virtue of historical progression, ultimately nigh-irrelevant.
But even at the start of the war with the US, the A6M wasn’t untouchable. It certainly outperformed the USN’s F4F, but the speed and firepower of the Army’s P-38 dominated the Zero from the get-go, to the extent that it was able to tangle with them (not being carrier based and only possessed by the Army, it was never a decisive player). And while adequate, a number of the most critical Japanese ships, the carriers, were conversions from cruiser and battleship hulls and never were quite laid out to facilitate damage management as well as their American contemporaries (compare the performance of IJNS Akagi at Midway to that of USS Yorktown at both Coral Sea and Midway).
By the time the F6F Hellcat started showing up on carrier decks, the A6M’s weren’t only outnumbered, but outclassed utterly. Not only were there too many Hellcats, they were too fast, climbed too well, bore too much armor, and packed too much firepower. Meanwhile below, the Essex class carriers being pumped out by the US were, arguably, simply the best warships ever designed. Not only did each ship bring a massive amount of aerial firepower to bear, but despite bearing the brunt of many a late-war Kamikaze attack, not a single Essex was ever sunk in combat (the story of the USS Franklin stands out as testament to the design’s battleworthiness).
None of that has any bearing on modern Japanese consumer and industrial technology, of course, which is obviously quite good. :)
Blacklake on June 24, 2007 at 8:47 PM
I never would have thought it, but that is the most fun, most addictive game I have played in a long time.
nailinmyeye on June 24, 2007 at 8:50 PM
All these Goldberg contraptions don’t compare to this Honda Commercial made from all the parts of a real Honda.
Egfrow on June 24, 2007 at 10:14 PM
This actually would be a great commercial for intelligent design. Think about it. To believe in pure evolution as its being taught, you would have to believe the equivalent of one of these contraptions coming together by accident. Countless biological systems in your body are much more intricate and advanced than one of these things – like your immune system, for instance. One modification or missing piece along the way and the entire thing is worthless, or in the case of biology – even self destructive. Yeah, I know. Seriously off topic.
warriorlawyer on June 24, 2007 at 10:51 PM
These clips have a soothing and hypnotic effect. There’s something about the complexity of simplicity. By the way, does anybody remember Pinwheel from the early 80′s?
Joshua P. Allem on June 25, 2007 at 1:02 AM
Can you top this for sheer waste of time?
Shy Guy on June 25, 2007 at 3:20 AM
The Lightning, used with proper tactics, could also force the Zeros to turn LEFT, something they couldn’t do well. The relative prop torque to craft weight was amazing in the A6M’s, which made right-banking turns a snap, but banking left, against the prop torque was much slower and more energy-draining, nullifying their primary advantage. Being a twin-engine aircraft, the P-38′s turned just as well left or right, and with the guns in the nose pod they didn’t have to be synchronized with the props. Always loved those birds.
Freelancer on June 25, 2007 at 3:25 AM
The problem with the Honda commerical is that it is not a Rube Goldberg. It is a CGI simulation of a Rube Goldberg. Several things happen in that chain of events that are physically impossible.
jihadwatcher on June 25, 2007 at 8:34 AM
You do realize this is so old that Ace is almost about to post it.
John on June 25, 2007 at 12:20 PM
My kids love this video. This is actually the short version. There is a part in the middle of one where the cast does the “algorythm dance” here
and the algorythm march here
In a wired way its kind of fun.
DrM2B on June 25, 2007 at 12:33 PM
people mix irish flutes with japan?
aclark on June 25, 2007 at 12:48 PM
Rube Goldberg machines are a fine example of why Occam’s razor is not a first class citizen in aesthetics, logic or argumentation.
spmat on June 25, 2007 at 12:56 PM
jihadwatcher,
Actually, that’s incorrect. It took over 606 take to film this. The only CGI used was in the final scene of the car to get the lighting on the windows correct.
Egfrow on June 25, 2007 at 1:12 PM