Optimizzin Al-gorithm <oa@acm.org> wrote:
1. John Henry --look it up, american folklore/song about man vs. machine, John H. lost to a railroad-nail driving machine. An industrial Kasparov vs. IBM.
Actually, he won (and it was against a steam drill, not a nailer). He just died from the exertion. "And they told the results to captain Tommy. Captain Tommy said, 'I'll be, mmm mmm mmm. Listen here folks. John Henry and the machine. The machine made eleven feet, four inches, the men shoulder's sagged. John Henry made fourteen feet, seven inches. The men whooped and hollered and Captain Tommy went over to congratulate John Henry. But John Henry didn't see his outstretched hand. John Henry fell over in the dust. John Henry had hammered on the mountain, and his hammer was strike and fire but he drove so hard that he broke his poor heart, that he laid down his hammer and he died." -- Riad Wahby rsw@mit.edu MIT VI-2/A 2002