You're listening to the skeptics guide to the universe. Your escape to reality.

Hello and welcome to the skeptics guide to the universe. Today is Wednesday, December 4th, 2013, and this is your host, Steven Novella. Joining me this week are Bob Novella.

Hey everybody, Rebecca Watson. Hello everyone. Jane Novella. She's still dead. And Evan Bernstein. Good evening, folks. I'm still celebrating.

I can tell. So, yes, I am. proudly. But we're not supposed to be celebrating today. It's sad from beginning to end. Well, speaking of people's passing.

Today is December 7th on December 7th, 1970, the world-flaws, Ruben Goldberg. Who died at the age of 87. Ruben Goldberg.

We died at the hands of a very complicated machine. Is he joke there? I know. Someone had to say it. Just trying to warm up here. Beat me to it.

Yes. Ruben Goldberg was best known as the cartoonist who would satirize an increasingly technological world using cartoons with people using very complex machines in order to solve otherwise simple tasks.

And you see influences his, his, the people he influenced everywhere. There's a popular video by OK. Go within the last couple of years. That's an awesome video.

The new commercial for Goldie Blocks that was just traveling around the inner parts.

Wallace of Wallace and Grimmit. Did he do Ruben Goldberg?

He was at the nerdy scientists who came up with these elaborate Ruben Goldberg inventions in order to accomplish something very simple, like eating breakfast or getting dressed.

I'll remember to say like cheese. I'm not sure if Ruben was a great day. There was the beginning of back to the future in Doc's lab.

And the popular game when I was a kid, Mastrap. Mastrap. I have no idea how the game was actually played. All we ever did was just set up.

Build it. Yeah. Yeah. The trap. And you do it like a few times and then that was it. You're done. Yeah. Yeah. Then we were done with it.

Did you guys know that rule by one, the Pulitzer Prize for political cartooning in 48? Well, Pulitzer. Pretty impressive.

I spent a Saturday, all about a year ago, just looking at a couple of videos on YouTube. People in their own Ruben Goldberg machines that they've come up with.

I think I spent about four hours before I was in the clock and realized, oh my gosh, I've been watching these forever. They are mesmerizing.

Did you ever play the incredible machine? It was a computer game back in, I guess in the 80s or the 90s.

And it was addictive. It was building Ruben Goldberg machines in order to solve problems. But it was very open. I guess it was in the 90s. It was a lot of fun.

Sounds like fun.

The other notable thing for today was I didn't want to just do a death day. So happy birthday to psychologist Eleanor Gibson, who was born on 7th, 7th, 19, 10.

Gibson is best known as being the person who came up with the study. She studied primarily perception and infants. That's what she was most famous for.

...