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Rube Goldberg Day

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Today is Rube Goldberg Day. On July 4, 1883, Reuben Garrett Lucius “Rube” Goldberg was born in San Francisco, CA. In his 87 years on the planet, he was a cartoonist, engineer, inventor, author, sculptor, and scriptwriter.

He is best known for his cartoons depicting absurdly complex contraptions used to perform simple tasks. One such device was an intricate system, triggered by the movement of a spoon, that would automatically mop one’s upper lip after taking a sip of soup, as seen in the following commemorative stamp.

rube goldberg day

“Self-Operating Napkin” US Stamp, 1995

As an engineer and inventor, Goldberg often brought these cartoons to life. In 1930, he wrote and made a cameo appearance in the film Soup to Nuts, which featured some of his innovative machines and starred the men who would later become known as the Three Stooges.

In 1948, Goldberg was awarded a Pulitzer Prize for his political cartoons. Few knew his work had aroused such anti-Semitic hatred during the war that he had insisted his sons change their surnames. They chose the last name George, and it has remained the family name ever since. Their children run a company called RGI (Rube Goldberg Incorporated) to honor their grandfather’s last name.

rube goldberg day

Goldberg was a founding member and the first president of the National Cartoonists Society, the namesake of its Reuben Award, given to the Cartoonist of the Year. He is the inspiration for various international competitions, known as Rube Goldberg Machine Contests, many of which are sponsored by his descendants through RGI.

He is also immortalized in the Merriam-Webster Dictionary:

Rube Goldberg
adjective Rube Gold·berg \ˈrüb-ˈgōl(d)-ˌbərg\
: accomplishing by complex means what seemingly could be done simply ; also : characterized by such complex means

Happy Rube Goldberg Day!

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July 3 is Disobedience Day

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Today is Disobedience Day.

We don’t know who invented the holiday, but we can surmise why it falls on July 3rd each year.  Without disobedience, there could be no independence.

 

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International Joke Day

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international joke dayToday is International Joke Day. In 2001, Richard Wiseman enlisted the aid of the British Association for the Advancement of Science (BAAS), founded in 1831 and now known as the British Science Association (BSA), in conducting a yearlong study designed to discover the world’s funniest joke and learn about the psychology of humor.

They created the LaughLab website to enlist the participation of people around the world. Its survey asked each test subject to share their favorite joke, then collected demographic information such as age, sex, and country of residence, and finally asked them to rate a random selection of jokes submitted by others.

To elicit quantifiable results, the survey required all participants to rate the jokes’ funniness using a special “giggleometer” invented specifically for the study.

By the end of the experiment, LaughLab had received more than 40,000 jokes and 1.5 million ratings. After collating the results and taking into account which jokes made men laugh versus women, kids versus adults, and countries versus other countries, Wiseman and the BAAS determined the world’s funniest joke. It was submitted by Gurpal Gosall, a 31-year-old psychiatrist from Manchester, England.

Here it is:

Two hunters are out in the woods when one of them collapses. He doesn’t seem to be breathing and his eyes are glazed. The other guy whips out his phone and calls the emergency services. He gasps, “My friend is dead! What can I do?”. The operator says “Calm down. I can help. First, let’s make sure he’s dead.” There is a silence, then a shot is heard. Back on the phone, the guy says “OK, now what?”

You can read the full report and download 1,000 (clean) LaughLab jokes. Have a happy International Joke Day! What’s your favorite?

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Time Capsule: Social Media Day 2016

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June 30, 2025: Although this holiday still exists, we have decided to preserve this post as is to show how many things have changed in nine years and how some (we’re looking at you, Kanye) have remained the same.

social media day

June 30, 2016: Today is Social Media Day, created in 2010 by Mashable “to recognize and celebrate social media’s impact on global communication.” (In related news, we just found out Mashable still exists!)

You might be thinking, “Wait just a goldarned minute! Isn’t every day Social Media Day?” The answer is yes, but rein in the potty-brained self-talk, please.

Today is momentous because it pays tribute to social media outlets such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, Tumblr, YouTube, Pinterest, LinkedIn, Quora, Vine, and WhatsApp, some of which did not yet exist seven years ago.

We would be foolish not to mention Google+. Google is everywhere and knows everything: It’s like SkyNet met the Matrix and learned it’s better to keep us all alive in a continuous biofeedback loop of consumption than to crush our bones into dust.

One of today’s festivities is the “tweetup,” where people who follow each other on Twitter get to meet IRL. That stands for ‘In Real Life,’ which we figure can’t be cool anymore since we know what it means. How awkward might it be to have a conversation that hasn’t been condensed into 140 characters?

From 2016’s #SMDay page:

From Kanye’s Twitter rants to DJ Khaled’s Snap Stories, you can say social media has us feeling #blessed. Join Mashable, Splash and feedfeed as we celebrate the seventh-annual Social Media Day in NYC! We’ll have food, drinks, music and other surprises. Don’t get #FOMO, and RSVP now!

Hashtag, pound sign, whatever: count us in! Happy Social Media Day!

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