MachinePix Weekly: Top Posts of 2021

A look back at the Top Ten posts of 2021—some expected, many not 🛀🍁

Now that it’s 2022 for everyone in the world (looking at you, American Samoa (SST) and Niue (NUT) UTC-11:00), it’s time to look back at the most popular @machinepix posts of 2021 based on analytics.twitter.com.

I realize this is unfair to later posts which have had less time to steep in the broth of the Internet, so take the following with a grain of salt.

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#10: Bold Bathtub on a Buggy

MachinePix @MachinePix

Roll-out bathtub at the Auberge aux 4 Vents hotel

Absurdity always seems to perform well, and this is no exception. For you superfans, go forth and live your best life.

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#9: Soothing Seascape Sculpture by Sylvain

MachinePix @MachinePix

Wooden Migaloo 06 kinetic sculpture by Sylvain Gautier.

Sylvain’s seascapes were much appreciated this year. Poor guy makes amazing sculptures only to be out-SEO’d by a Fire Emblem character 🥲

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#8: Terrifying Tree-trimming Technology

MachinePix @MachinePix

Trimming trees near power lines with an aerial saw mounted on a helicopter.

I have a confession: every few months I post a version of this when I’m in a pinch for new material. It’s such a wild piece of machinery that people love it every time 😅

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#7: Alarming Atlas Android Accidents

MachinePix @MachinePix

Boston Dynamics Atlas parkour failures.

Poor Atlas, destined to be scapegoated as a harbinger of a robot uprising when it succeeds, and laughed at when it fails. It’s tough being a robot.

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#6: Radical Ring Receptacle

MachinePix @MachinePix

Ring box with a Möbius kaleidocycle mechanism by enjoydof.com

I got to interview Brian Ignaut about his creations in 2020!

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#5: Adorable Automaton

MachinePix @MachinePix

Baby Groot robot by Disney Research, designed to be a free-roaming character around Disney theme parks.

Disney Research publishes some incredible technical work and has a fascinating YouTube channel.

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#4: Humongous Hydraulic Hole

MachinePix @MachinePix

Open spillway gate at the Funil Hydroelectric Power Plant in Rio de Janeiro.

Dams are a technology that keeps on giving gifs.

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#3: Macaque Masters Mind-over-Matter

MachinePix @MachinePix

A macaque plays pong with a @neuralink wireless brain-machine interface while drinking a banana smoothie.

Brain-machine interfaces are fraught with ethical and philosophical considerations (and rightfully so), but damn this is pretty cool.

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#2: Robotic Rack Rovers

MachinePix @MachinePix

SqUID warehouse logistics robot by Bionic Hive.

I think the reason this made #2 is because Elon Musk commented on it. For the sake of accuracy I should have mentioned the video is sped up.

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#1: Mass Manufactured Marijuana

MachinePix @MachinePix

Cannabis pre-roll joint filler by lbs. Distribution.

Congrats to drugs for winning the War on Drugs! Honestly didn’t expect this one to be the winner this year but here we are.

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If you enjoyed this newsletter, forward it to friends (or interesting enemies). I am always looking to connect with interesting people and learn about interesting machines—reach out!

—Kane