I didn't want to get into any heavy memory or math techniques or applications for a holiday entry. Instead, I'm going to blatantly steal an idea from the Christmas 2006 episode of Mythbusters, and simply demonstrate a few mind-boggling Rube Goldberg mahcines for you.

A Rube Goldberg machine, for those of you unfamiliar with the term, is a machine that performs a simple task in a needlessly complex and convoluted manner. They're name for Rube Goldberg, a cartoonist who was famous for drawing such machines. It's somewhat appropriate we're doing this in December, as he passed away in December of 1970.

Since I'm blatantly stealing the idea from Mythbusters, I should at least demonstrate the idea by giving their contraption center stage:

Among the most creative Rube Goldberg machines I've found on the web are:
* 3-D animated tribute to Rube Goldberg and Nintendo
* Incredible intros for a Japanese TV show called That's the Way Things Go
* A German beer commercial that features an unusual trap
* Guiness' $20 million Tipping Point Ad

Probably the most incredible Rube Goldberg machine to date, would have to be the one from Honda's now-famous ad, The Cog, which used two complete Honda Accords, and took 606 takes to get right!



Happy Holidays!