Sisyphean box

July 31, 2010 9:25 AM

Sisyphean box [SLYT]
posted by 0xdeadc0de (59 comments total)

I want to reach through my screen and push the damn thing up the belt! Aaaaaaagh!
posted by mdonley at 9:39 AM on July 31, 2010 [2 favorites]

If we all bought what that customer bought, would that technically be a denial of service attack?
And, that box was better at keeping time than some drummers I've played with.
posted by hanoixan at 9:39 AM on July 31, 2010 [4 favorites]

We've got beats and glowsticks - is somebody organizing a Saturday SLYT rave?
posted by EvaDestruction at 9:44 AM on July 31, 2010 [4 favorites]

I empathize strongly with that box.
posted by everichon at 9:47 AM on July 31, 2010 [6 favorites]

Hey that's a pretty steady beat. How long until someone samples it for an "Amazon track?"
posted by salishsea at 9:47 AM on July 31, 2010 [1 favorite]

Well, now I know why my hard drive took so long to show up.
posted by lore at 9:47 AM on July 31, 2010 [3 favorites]

I have no idea how these people got their cat wedged into this box, or why.
posted by weapons-grade pandemonium at 9:48 AM on July 31, 2010

pat. patpat. pat. pat. pat. patpat. pat. pat. pat. patpat. pat. pat. pat. patpat. pat. pat. pat. patpat. pat. pat. pat. patpat. pat. pat. pat. patpat. pat. pat. pat. patpat. pat. pat.
posted by Think_Long at 9:52 AM on July 31, 2010 [5 favorites]

If you're reading the comments first, watch exactly pat pat pat pat.pat , waiting for ANYTHING else to happen is a fruitless endeavor.
posted by HuronBob at 9:58 AM on July 31, 2010

I hope it's not my hard drive in there.
posted by schwa at 10:05 AM on July 31, 2010 [1 favorite]

And that's why you shouldn't order kittens via Amazon.
posted by Harry at 10:10 AM on July 31, 2010 [7 favorites]

That's the case of Slinkys I ordered.
posted by ColdChef at 10:10 AM on July 31, 2010 [19 favorites]

Well, now I know why my hard drive took so long to show up.

And why it showed up in pieces.
posted by Durin's Bane at 10:11 AM on July 31, 2010

That rave idea went down the toliet
posted by wheelieman at 10:13 AM on July 31, 2010

Sorry about that, guys. I should have gotten that book of Camus essays on a Kindle.
posted by adipocere at 10:13 AM on July 31, 2010 [4 favorites]

The little box that couldn't.
posted by Decani at 10:13 AM on July 31, 2010

I'm not seeing the Amazon smile swoosh on that box.
posted by longsleeves at 10:15 AM on July 31, 2010

We must believe this box to be happy.
posted by Beardman at 10:16 AM on July 31, 2010 [6 favorites]

Yokkety Box.
posted by SteelyDuran at 10:23 AM on July 31, 2010

It's a bowling ball.
posted by mr_crash_davis mark II: Jazz Odyssey at 10:27 AM on July 31, 2010

I've seen videos from these fulfillment centers before; I'm kind of surprised there weren't more boxes on the belt. I spent the whole 3 minutes expecting another box to eventually come up behind it and either push it on through or cause a backlog.
posted by phunniemee at 10:27 AM on July 31, 2010

That was MY ORDER. I was wondering why my Izze was taking so long to get here.

Finally I can try this stuff out.

'click...shshk....SPLSHSHSHSHSHSHSHshshsh'

AAAAAAAAHHHHHH!
posted by eye of newt at 10:29 AM on July 31, 2010 [1 favorite]

Where is Maru?
posted by TwelveTwo at 10:32 AM on July 31, 2010 [1 favorite]

1. Suffering exists
2. Suffering arises from attachment to desires
3. Suffering ceases when attachment to desire ceases
4. Freedom from suffering is at the top of the belt drive.
posted by Babblesort at 10:48 AM on July 31, 2010 [9 favorites]

Right. You know, this brings out my inner old lady. As "stop filming that stupid fucking box and put a hand on it to stop the pat pat patpatpat." Or pick it up. Or something.
posted by angrycat at 10:49 AM on July 31, 2010

You guys all have too many pats; the box only has four edges.
posted by Dr. Send at 10:58 AM on July 31, 2010

This has been quite the SLYTerday.
posted by TwelveTwo at 11:07 AM on July 31, 2010 [1 favorite]

Yes, it's pat pat patpat.
posted by zippy at 11:08 AM on July 31, 2010

This has been quite the SLYTerday.

And a meme was born.
posted by ColdChef at 11:09 AM on July 31, 2010 [2 favorites]

It's like watching Saturday morning cartoons.
posted by marlys at 11:17 AM on July 31, 2010

My super-deluxe bouncy juggling balls have STILL not arrived!
posted by JtJ at 11:18 AM on July 31, 2010

I believe we've found a worthy successor to The Yule Log.
posted by Smart Dalek at 11:40 AM on July 31, 2010 [3 favorites]

I want to reach through my screen and push the damn thing up the belt! Aaaaaaagh!

I had the other possible reaction. I was waiting so long for the box to stop and shoot right up the conveyor, that when the video just ended, I was sad.
posted by explosion at 11:42 AM on July 31, 2010

Surely if it had little cardboard wings and an engine, it would be able to reach the bottom.
posted by Rhaomi at 11:43 AM on July 31, 2010 [1 favorite]

This isn't an Amazon fulfillment center. It's a cardboard mailing tube factory.
posted by aubilenon at 12:04 PM on July 31, 2010

In talking with a engineer-type collaborator last year, I compared a given line of experiments to a Sisyphisean task.
"A what?"
"Sisyphisean, you know, like the myth where Sisyphus is condemned to push a rock up a hill eternally, never quite getting there."
"Oh, yeah, I did that once."
posted by Cold Lurkey at 12:07 PM on July 31, 2010 [4 favorites]

You guys all have too many pats; the box only has four edges.

Yes, it's pat pat patpat.

You've been educated STUPID! TimeBox is 5 simultaneous days rotating in an infinite earthBOX! 5 days, 5 times, 5 in earth 1 TimeBox! Infinite times! Your 4pat creation is a false 4god from education evil!

Also, one of the side hits is followed immediately by what seems to be a shifting of the box contents that creates a secondary pat, yielding pat pat pat patpat.

Wake up, sheeple!
posted by whatnotever at 12:08 PM on July 31, 2010 [1 favorite]

Each cycle is three beats for the first three edges and then a double-beat for the fourth where the box (or possibly the contents) bounces.

Four edges, five beats.
posted by Lorc at 12:16 PM on July 31, 2010

This is the best video I have ever watched in my entire life.
posted by Captain Cardanthian! at 12:23 PM on July 31, 2010 [4 favorites]

Since everyone seems a little underwhelmed by the video, here's something tangentially related to Sisyphus: It's a method of cooling atomic clouds to extremely low temperatures via optical lattices. (Way-too-short) Wikipedia article. Better explanation with illustrations.
posted by Anderson_Localized at 12:32 PM on July 31, 2010

The box is trying to escape its inevitable doom: death by puppy.
posted by homunculus at 12:43 PM on July 31, 2010

I'm pretty sure this is just an unreleased alternate ending to Se7en.
posted by darth_tedious at 12:49 PM on July 31, 2010 [5 favorites]

Think_Long: "pat. patpat. pat. pat. pat. patpat. pat. pat. pat. patpat. pat. pat. pat. patpat. pat. pat. pat. patpat. pat. pat. pat. patpat. pat. pat. pat. patpat. pat. pat. pat. patpat. pat. pat."

Just keep doing that...
posted by PontifexPrimus at 1:21 PM on July 31, 2010

I'd love to see what that thing looks like inside a self-destructing washing machine.
posted by gwint at 1:37 PM on July 31, 2010 [1 favorite]

You guys are over thinking a box of beans!
posted by cjorgensen at 2:59 PM on July 31, 2010 [1 favorite]

No, man, it's a metaphor for how abysmal television is. It's like every TV series ever aired all compressed into 3 minutes of hypnotic dystopian misery.

"Hey, did you see the episode where the box almost got to the top of the conveyor?"

AND YOU WATCHED IT.
YOU WATCHED THE WHOLE THING.
EVERY THUMP AND TUMBLE.
posted by seanmpuckett at 4:17 PM on July 31, 2010 [1 favorite]

I watched it twice.
posted by seanmpuckett at 4:24 PM on July 31, 2010 [1 favorite]

So I'm the only one who was mentally drawing force diagrams and thinking about momentum impulses?
posted by DU at 5:41 PM on July 31, 2010

My brain had the opposite reaction - it just shut down. so patpatpat mesmerizing patpatpat
posted by Think_Long at 6:00 PM on July 31, 2010

Isn't it a Sisyphean conveyor belt rather than a Sisyphean box?
posted by snofoam at 6:18 PM on July 31, 2010

I wanted the box to make it. I had that same uncomfortable feeling I get when I am watching nature shows and you know that the cute and cuddly thing is going to get eaten by something not cute and cuddly and you know the cameraman could save it but that bastard won't because that doesn't make good television. Damn you cameramen everywhere!
posted by cjorgensen at 6:27 PM on July 31, 2010

I believe the box made it in the end.
posted by TwelveTwo at 6:42 PM on July 31, 2010

I was thinking of a bit from an old TV show where Linus Pauling (I think, I hope) was trying to discern the contents of a box without looking inside. He would just tip it one way and another until he had an idea of what the object was. It was a metaphor for science, and it was neat to watch his mind work.

spoiler: it was a flat sided piece of chalk, kind of like an extruded stop sign.
posted by Trochanter at 7:01 PM on July 31, 2010

you know the cameraman could save it but that bastard won't because that doesn't make good television

I was thinking that

1) Maybe the employees are expressly forbidden with mucking with stuff on the conveyors for insurance / potential injury reasons
2) Maybe he is the guy responsible for monitoring that belt, and he would be in huge shit for not pushing that box but instead just filming it
3) It is probably totally against the rules to be filming here
posted by Meatbomb at 7:20 PM on July 31, 2010

Everybody loves hypno-box. The dramatic reboot of the awesome Hypno-toad Franchise!
posted by hot_monster at 7:31 PM on July 31, 2010

My new rock tumbler will never get here now.
posted by chairface at 9:00 PM on July 31, 2010

I believe the box made it in the end.

So do I. And this proves that atheists can be optimists, too. All boxes go to heaven...or, to their intended recipient, anyway.
posted by kozad at 4:59 AM on August 1, 2010

You are walking through the package shipping department and see a box pat-patting up a treadmill. It is struggling. You do not stop to help it up... why is that?
posted by codacorolla at 5:48 PM on August 1, 2010 [3 favorites]

The machine uprising began innocently enough, when a packaging machine filled a cardboard box so precisely that it wouldn't make it up a conveyor belt...
posted by ob at 10:19 AM on August 2, 2010