Work for Idle Hands

Apr 20, 2006 22 Replies

For those of us who remember who Rube Goldberg was:



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(Would someone please tell me what the Asian looking letters at the end of each segment mean?)



Jeff



(Could someone please tell me what the Japanese letters at the end of each one mean?)


It says: "We don't have the balls to do this again"

Each segment says: "Much ado about nothing"

I really don't know but am afraid that I need a life and will have nightmares over this.

73

No idea, but that's a fun way to use up thirteen minutes! :)

Another group I read (Yahoo group on Rolling Ball Machines) pointed to these, and said that they were the opening sequences for a Japanese kid's show, the title of which is being displayed...

The nature of the background music would tend to confirm this. I'll ask Hedeshi, my next door neighbor at work next time I see him.

Ok, Hedeshi says it's a science show for kids from Kao University by a Mr. Sato.

Science show for kids? How stupid and totally useless to prepare them for the future.

Now, our kids are getting a good education on how to pierce their body and parts thereof. This practice just has to prepare them for the pain that is to be endured in every life. Then, to enhance the side of the brain for expressing themselves, they festoon their bodies with murals, tattoos, chains, loops, links, daggers, snakes and foreign phrases.

Yep, the good ole U.S.A. is right on top of educating its kids.

What's your point? That the US doesn't have science shows for kids? What about these:

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--Yeah, but I still miss Beakman, heh.

--More info please! Do you have the direct link?

Here's the text that was in the email my friend sent to me:

And you thought those people that set up roomfulls of dominos to knock over were amazing...

There are no computer graphics or digital tricks in the film.

Everything you see really happened in real time exactly as you see it.

The film took 606 takes. On the first 605 takes, something, usually very minor, didn't work.

They would then have to set the whole thing up again. The crew spent weeks shooting night and day. By the time it was over, they were ready to change professions. The film cost six million dollars and took three months to complete including full engineering of the sequence.

In addition, it's two minutes long so every time Honda airs the film on British television, they're shelling out enough dough to keep any one of us in clover for a lifetime.

However, it is fast becoming the most downloaded advertisement in Internet history.

Honda executives figure the ad will soon pay for itself simply in "free viewings" (Honda isn't paying a dime to have you watch this commercial!). When the ad was pitched to senior executives, they signed off on it immediately without any hesitation - including the costs.

There are six and only six hand-made Honda Accords in the world. To the horror of Honda engineers, the filmmakers disassembled two of them to make the film.

Everything you see in the film (aside from the walls, floor, ramp, and complete Honda Accord) is parts from those two cars. The voiceover is Garrison Keillor. When the ad was shown to Ho nda executives, they liked it and commented on how amazing computer graphics have gotten.

They fell off their chairs when they found out it was for real.

Oh. And about those funky windshield wipers. On the new Accords, the windshield wipers have water sensors and are designed to start doing their thing automatically as soon as they become wet. It looks a bit weird in the commercial.

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Me too. My daughter and I saw him live at UC Davis and I've corresponded with him via email. Great guy.

I'm not so sure about the preparation this show is actually providing...

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Don't know but the show is called Pythagorean Itch(y)

THat wasnt outtakes it was a fully produced segment

At the end it mentions NHK thats the main japanee TV network

and for the matter those 12 m>Sure looks like out takes from a potential TV comercial!

at one point in my life i tried to learn japanese katakana and hiragana. the characters in the video are katakana. i couldn't remember them so googled it and there was a good link to wikipedia.

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jeez, even with the characters right there in front of me i had a hard time recognizing them, and the voice in the video didn't help me at all. finally found it says "pi ta go ra" "su i ch-chi" pitagora.... i'd think they're saying "switch" not "itch(y)". i'm not saying you're wrong but where did you find it says "itch(y)"? (or do you know japanese and are you reading it directly yourself?) i imagine "pitagora" is how "pythagoras" is pronounced (contracted, common usage) japanese.

"pythagorean switch". it comes up in google.

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Reader William Buchman in comments says "The phrase you keep seeing is "pitagora suichi," or Pythagorean switch, which is what the Japanese call Rube Goldberg machines." Reader J.J. Hantsch says, " The Japanese translation on the Rube Goldberg devices is "better go switch" It's phonetic and means either 'a better way to switch things on' or 'a better Goldberg switch.'"

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