Dave Johnson built this mysterious box, as shown in the YouTube video above.  From the video’s description:

Here’s our old pal Sisyphus again, this time trying to avoid his responsibilities by hiding in a box.
My core inspirations were these:
1) Claude Shannon’s Ultimate Machine.
2) The availability of a nice old microscope box.
3) The astonishing human capacity for denial.

This is an entirely mechanical machine, driven by gravity.  I really like the articulated head, it swivels to the side giving you a look that says:  “Close de door, it’s cold out there!”

Photos can be seen at http://www.flickr.com/photos/dogrocke…

From The Automata/Automaton Blog via Google Alerts