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My scientific specialty is chronobiology (circadian rhythms and photoperiodism), with additional interests in comparative physiology, animal behavior and evolution. I am not an MD so I cannot diagnose and treat your sleep problems. As well as writing this blog, I am also the Online Discussion Expert for PLoS. This is a personal blog and opinions within it in no way reflect the policies of PLoS. You can contact me at: Coturnix@gmail.com


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« Today's carnivals | Main | Journalism at ScienceOnline2010 »

The Most Useless Machine EVER! (video)

Category: FunTechnology
Posted on: January 2, 2010 6:38 PM, by Coturnix

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Comments

1

Ebay is made for things like this.

Posted by: Romeo Vitelli | January 2, 2010 9:56 PM

2

Very nice implementation of that one.

Box with big red button and LCD display.

Display reads "Press to Start"

You press it.

As soon as the button is down, display changes to read "Release button to detonate".

Up until TSA I had thought seriously about building one of these (without the advertised ending natch). I don't think they would get the joke these days.

Posted by: GrayGaffer | January 3, 2010 5:53 AM

3

As soon as I pressed the Post button I realized this could be a very simple purely mechanical box. I guess I just detonated my own comment.

Posted by: GrayGaffer | January 3, 2010 5:54 AM

4

geee, I don't know, I can picture George Bush finding this endlessly fascinating in his retirement!

Posted by: ARJ | January 3, 2010 6:13 PM

5

Then there is the "Little Jiffy Fuse-Blower"; a box so labeled in big bold letters with a heavy-duty cord and plug for the nearest wall socket and containing a high current capacity switch that puts a dead short across the line when thrown. I'm told that engineers are particularly vulnerable to this one.

Posted by: XRDGUY | January 4, 2010 12:07 PM

6

The Ultimate Machine, going back to at least Claude Shannon.

Posted by: maz | January 4, 2010 7:02 PM

7

I'm still partial to the Buna-b. Simplicity is a virtue.

http://www.samueljohnson.com/bunab/index.html

Posted by: Opus | January 5, 2010 12:13 AM

8

It's a Feynman time machine! It ends up in a stuck superimposed state.

Posted by: Marion Delgado | January 5, 2010 10:02 PM

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