Caterpillar, a big company that manufactures big construction machines (and lots of other stuff), released this intentionally peculiar safety video in 1980:
Tag: machines
Boring machines [podcast 71]
Boring machines, boring machines, boring machines, and more boring machines enliven this week’s Improbable Research podcast. SUBSCRIBE on Play.it, iTunes, or Spotify to get a new episode every week, free. This week, Marc Abrahams — with dramatic readings by Chris Cotsapas — tells about: Boring Machines— Most, maybe all, of the boring machines featured in this week’s thrilling podcast are profiled, or at least […]
Taking the MIQ to new levels
There’s a famous un-PC rock&roll musician’s gag from the 1980’s . . . Q. “Which is more intelligent, a drum-machine or a drummer?” A. “A drum-machine. You only have to punch in the information once.” Jokes aside, the heated scholarly debate rolls on (and on) about whether a machine can ever be truly ‘intelligent’. Perhaps […]
A miscellany of marble-manipulation machines
A movie of many machines that make marbles move: (Thanks to investigator Torgen Norden for bringing this to our attention.) BONUS: A machine that makes marbles:
Magazine: the special Boring Machines issue
The special Boring Machines issue (vol. 19, no. 3) of the magazine (the Annals of Improbable Research) is now out! Articles include “Boring Machines“, “A Simple and Convenient Synthesis of Pseudoephedrine From N-Methylamphetamine“, and more, more, more, including new helpings of “Improbable Research Review”, “Boys Will Be Boys”, “Soft Is Hard”, and other outstandingly improbable research snippets from […]
Some vexed machines
Donald Simanek compiled a long, yet undoubtedly very, very partial list of patents for machines that do not and, by their nature, cannot work as described. (Thanks to investigator Timmy Barton for bringing it to our attention.) Here’s one item: 1857 [No. 1330] Peter Armand le Comte de Fontainemoreau of London, Agent. Hydraulic motor. The “bucket […]
Machines vs. Professionals: Recognizing Suicide Notes
Even machines are better than mental health professionals at spotting fake suicide notes, is one possible interpretation of a study by researchers at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, and Windsor, Canada. Other interpretations are possible, too. The study is: “Suicide Note Classification Using Natural Language Processing: A Content Analysis,” John Pestian [pictured here], Henry Nasrallah, […]
More machines for flat clothing
Some of you asked for more, more, more about flat clothing machines, because yesterday we glanced at a wrapping-flat-clothing machine: Here is a grinding-flat-clothing machine: And here is a flat-clothing-demolition machine: