Archive for November, 2008

Rube Goldberg Machine

Tuesday, November 18th, 2008

Do you know what a Rube Goldberg machine is?
Wikipedia says, “A Rube Goldberg machine is a deliberately
overengineered apparatus that performs a very simple task
in a very indirect and convoluted fashion.”
They sure are fun, aren’t they? Honda constructed one for a
commercial and it’s posted on Youtube. It’s 2 minutes long
and a joy to watch:

Isn’t that incredible?  [...]

Multitasking is Bad for You

Monday, November 17th, 2008

Multitasking Backlash
You may pride yourself on the ability to
juggle multiple tasks, said Jon Hamilton
in NPR.com But MIT researchers say
your multitasking is a myth.
You might think you’re doing two things at once,
but in fact you’re just switching attention
from one thing to the next very quickly,
says Earl Miller, a professor of neuroscience
at MIT.
Because similiar tasks compete for [...]