Stumbled: Rube Goldberg Machines

Found: "Best Rube Goldberg Ever"


Coincidentally, my father was speaking to me just today of Rube Goldberg, and finding this video by chance encouraged me to do a bit of digging. Rube Goldberg was famous for his machines, which used overly complicated means to perform simple actions, later parodied by the shorts of Wallace & Gromit (case in point).

See more Rube Goldberg machines here, and the entries to a Rube Goldberg machine contest here.

Another article of interest may be the wild machines of cartoonist and illustrator Heath Robinson.

Apparently Not.

Well, Steorn has pulled their demo from the scene, claiming that technical difficulties are to blame, specifically damage done by the heat of camera lights (more).

I must say that I am quite disappointed in the way that this turned out. I had actually been believing what Steorn was claiming, despite its unbelievability. I guess this proves my gullibility. Now, our "best bet" for free energy would probably be merely "free" research organizations (though, after this disappointment, I'll be slow to put much stock in any of this sort of thing).

Watch Steorn's Sean make an ass of himself, trying to explain the failure.



Read more.

Was Physics Denied?

Normally, I do updates in the form of an UPDATE notice at the end of a supporting article, but since this is kind of "breaking" news, I felt that it deserved its own post.

As mentioned in a previous article, Steon has claimed to have created a perpetual motion device that allows them to create "free" energy using permanent magnets, without ever requiring fuel. However, there were some technical difficulties setting up their demonstration at the reported time, and, as of the writing of this article, it appears, at least from camera 1, that the device is stopped, though, according to this quickly-made website, it was apparently running at one point. I must wonder; why, if it runs on its own and creates energy indefinitely, would it ever be turned off (and how would they accomplish that)? In any case, I will monitor it when I get the chance, to hopefully see the thing in action. It is, after all, long past the bedtime of the London scientists at the time I am writing this.

Star Trek Tribute

For no particular reason, I feel like posting the intros of all the Star Trek series from YouTube. I don't care what anyone says; I love every Star Trek, EXCEPT the original (looking back now, it's just too cheesy and humor-oriented). But, I have adored every later series, including The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Voyager (my favorite), and Enterprise, and every episode has been a treat (aside from episodes where they seem determined to shove Native American culture in your face and put them in the limelight as superior humans, and no, I'm not racist, but I know better than to see them for their politically correct side, having lived on the reservation most of my life). It is a shame that Enterprise never got to finish, I say. The Star Trek shows knew how to have great intros, with fantastic music, alluring visuals, and simply an awesome design, just like the episodes themselves.

The Original Series


The Next Generation


Deep Space Nine


Voyager


Enterprise


On the other hand, in comparison to the television series, I have hated the films, since, as many films do, they seem unable to stick with the source material, opening up plot holes and flashing various discrepancies, which simply bugs me to no end.

Physics Denied: Tonight!

Steorn, the Irish company that has made a claim to have found a way to create free, unending energy with an efficiency exceeding 100% (something that some of the basic laws of physics tells us is impossible) will be displaying their creation starting at 6 PM EST tonight (July 4th) on streaming video from their website. If you miss it, be sure to look around for some kind of recorded copy; I know that I will be recording it, if I can.

The technology itself uses momentum and magnets in some combination not yet fully explained (a panel of 22 scientists are doing experiments on Steorn's technology in a challenge to validate their claims) and, according to Steorn, can be scaled to power something as large as a car to something as small as a cell phone. Hopefully after tonight, they will be releasing more detailed answers to fight back the onslaught of questions that are sure to arise. See the below video for more information on the project.



Why is it such a difficulty? Well, the basic idea is that, through using a series of permanent magnets, one is able to create an "energy spike" that seems to come from nowhere when turning a magnet in this assembly, stopping and starting at the same point. The problem with this is that it violates on of the most fundamental scientific principles; the Law of Conservation of Energy, which states that energy can be neither created, nor destroyed, also known as the First Law of Thermodynamics.

Therefore, in essence, Steorn is claiming something as seemingly preposterous as suggesting that humans can flap their arms and fly, or that running at a certain speed can send you back in time. However, science is just the accumulation of data from experimentation, and it only takes a single experiment to prove something false, so we will see. Perhaps we had it wrong all long, or perhaps Steorn is just a big hoax (or simply a very expensive mistake).

Read more.

UPDATE: Due to technical difficulties, the stream will be shown at the start of July 5th in London. One can stream the live video, once it is up, from one of the following four cameras:

Microwave It (Please)

This is a simply amazing website, consisting of a graphics project/experiment in which various items were microwaved. There are 21 different microwaved items, each with a flash-embedded video showing their eventual meltdown. I recommend the eggs, christmas lights, and ketchup packets most highly.

Duke Nukem

Next, I began playing Duke Nukem, a fun game whose story I never really understood during childhood, due primarily to my limited ability to read the words on the screen. For a game of its time, it is pretty impressive, with certain items being affected by laser gun blasts, ceilings one can cling to, walls that can be shattered, etc. Although I never truly played any of the later games (save for in passing), I know that I loved Duke Nukem, the original. Particularly, I had a fondness for the machines, liking how they would smoke when near destruction, and how the choppers would come crashing down when fully damaged. From what I recall, it was a relatively easy game, but still one that I can enjoy even today.

System requirements:

• XT Computer (286Khz or higher recommended)
• 520k of conventional memory
• 1.2 meg of Hard Drive Space (for shareware)
• 3.6 meg of Hard Drive Space (for registered)

If you think your computer can run it (unless you've been hibernating for the past twenty years, it can) can download it (306Kb) for free here (more).

Goodbye Galaxy: Secret of the Oracle

As far as I recall, Commander Keen's Goodbye Galaxy: Secret of the Oracle was the second game that I ever played, though I would later play others of the same series.

The game itself was loads of fun, and I am sure that I have beaten it at least a dozen times during my childhood. At its core, the game is a typical side-scrolling shooter; you see something move, you shoot it (though not everything is dangerous). The goal is to find and save the oracles (that is, old guys with long beards and red robes) so that they may join together and set you off on the second part of your quest. I actually found a bug in the game that allows one to beat a level without actually finding the oracle if one dies far enough to the edge of the level that Commander Keen bounces off the right side of the screen, though this means that one cannot collect the oracle and thus is unable to beat the game, thereafter.

Secret of the Oracle (the fourth Commander Keen game) also introduced the Dopefish, which has become a bit of a video game in-joke. Personally, I despised him, because he made for many, many hours of frustrations as a child as I tried to outrun his insatiably hungering jaws.

System requirements are as follows:

• XT Computer (286Khz or higher recommended)
• 565k of conventional memory
• 1 meg of Hard Drive Space (for shareware)
• 3 meg of Hard Drive Space (for registered)

The game is freeware and is only 593 kb. Go get it here.

Download other Commander Keen games here, and learn more from this website.

Midnight Rescue!

Ah, yes; the first game I ever recall playing. Midnight Rescue! was a fun game (at the time), though I had a tendency to become frustrated with its gameplay, seeing as I was too young to read at the time (about three to four years old). The game itself consists of matching up "clues" read in various rooms to pictures taken by using film on the robots that try to attack one within the Shady Glen school. It's relatively simple, and I would sometimes get lucky enough to actually beat it simply buy guessing. The game itself was made by The Learning Company, and I later played some other games of the Super Solvers series.

It's amusing to recall that, at the time, I was playing the game on an old Windows 3.1 computer, and I cannot help but grin upon going over the system requirements of this game:

• Windows® 3.1
  
• 486DX/66 MHz processor (or faster)
  
• 2 MB free hard disk space
  
• 4 MB RAM
  
• 2x CD-ROM drive or faster
  
• SVGA display and 256 colors
  
• Windows®-compatible sound card

Note, though, that the above are the system requirements for the CD version (released later). The floppy version, which is what I played, only requires a maximum of 512 Kb of RAM (640 Kb on a Tandy 1000).

Plans for the Future

I have been lacking any content for this blog as of late, so I have decided to try a few new things. First of all, I will daily try to find a few interesting things via StumbleUpon (official website), definitely the greatest Mozilla Firefox add-on ever created, and a so-called "walk through memory lane", where I will recall various events to the best of my ability, from childhood leading up to the present in as close to chronological order as I can muster. On top of that, I'll make comments about various thoughts that I have, as has been mostly what the content of this blog has consisted of thus far.