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Looks like ol' Rube rigged his web site the way he rigged his machines, but this time it's broken. ;-)

Lovely :)

And may I recommend a set of original sketches by Rube Goldberg: http://www.rubegoldberg.com/

That's Goldberg.

http://www.rubegoldberg.com/

I'm trying to construct a Rube Goldberg device (see http://www.rubegoldberg.com/html/gallery.htm) in Hammer, which is Half-Life's level designer, but I'm running into one major problem. The HL2 physics engine does whatever the heck it wants! I'll load up a map, and the entire device will work fine, but then I'll load up the SAME map again and, for example, all the dominoes will immediately fall over, as though hit by a sudden gust of wind! Even more oddly, objects affected by a trigger will respond variably. A barrel, suspended in midair, that is dropped via a remote trigger, will land with a different orientation each time the trigger is activated! This indeterminateness makes it nearly impossible to create an extensive physics project in Hammer. Garry's Mod, interestingly, seems to be more reliable, but it takes away some of the satisfaction (it's basically like using a wizard).

If anyone has any idea how to fix this problem, or even any more knowledge of the situation, -please- let me know.

I found this contraption very interesting, but not as good as the Honda device.

The thing with the Honda device was that everything was tuned to perfection -- everything just barely triggered the next step. The tires (which, as has been mentioned ad nauseum, were weighted to roll upwards) hit each other delicately, washers and balls rolled exactly the right distance to hit the next step.

Also, for those not in the know, these devices are often called Rube Goldberg devices, after the wacky inventions of Rube Goldberg. I recently did a similar project in Physics, where I needed to light and subsequently put out a candle in at least 10 unique transfers of energy. I have to say, its not easy getting everything to work reliabily.

Rube Goldberg would have been proud of that article.

- Tony

The purpose of giving the federal government the power to regulate interstate trade was to allow them to prevent states from imposing tarif, tarrif, uh, taxes or other barriers, bannings, on things flowing through them to other states.

It has been perverted out of all rationality. Why must a local hotel of one building adhere to federal laws to have a handicap ramp? Because a businessman from another state *might* stay there, and thus it falls under "interstate commerce". It's the same reason the feds get involved in schools. Because the intelligence of the next generation might affect interstate commerce. That was the reason behind the "gun-free zone for schools." Because guns might affect schools which might affect intelligence which might at some future date affect interstate commerce.

> When did we empower the government with this ability?

We never did. Most of the laws' authority derive from a Rube Goldergian argument based on regulating interstate trade (which purpose was to allow Congress to prevent states from passing laws to interfere with things passing through them to other states.)

Courts, wrongly and stupidly, accept these fantastic chains of reasoning that a kindergartener would be embarassed to call his own.

For example, the federal government passes laws that apply to (non-interstate) hotels because someone doing interstate business might stay there.

Distrube: a combination of distribute, rude, rube, and ruse, emphasizing DIS-ing the user and making reference to a Rube Goldberg device.

The creative brainpower astounds.

Or you could describe a riculously impossible to implement Rube Goldberg device for karma whore points!

I think he's confusing laserdisc with the (obsolete) RCA Selectavision disc. There'a a FAQ about this interesting, if Rube Goldbergish, technology at http://www.cedmagic.com/home/cedfaq.html.