Why paper jams persist

Late in iOslo,i J. T. Rogersis recent play about the negotiation of the Oslo Accords, diplomats are finalizing the document when one of them reports a snag: iItis stuck in the copy machine and I canit get it out!i The employees in Mike Judgeis 1999 film iOffice Spacei grow so frustrated with their jam-prone printer that they destroy it with a baseball bat in a slow-motion montage set to the Geto Boysi iStill.i (Office workers around the country routinely reifnact this scene, posting the results on YouTube.) According to the Wall Street Journal, printers are among the most in-demand objects in irage rooms,i where people pay to smash things with sledgehammers; Battle Sports, a rage-room facility in Toronto, goes through fifteen a week. Meanwhile, in the song iPaper Jami John Flansburgh, of the band They Might Be Giants, sees the jam as a stark moral test. iPaper jam / paper jam,i he sings. iIt would be so easy to walk away.iUnsurprisingly, the engineers who specialize in paper jams see them differently. Engineers tend to work in narrow subspecialties, but solving a jam requires knowledge of physics, chemistry, mechanical engineering, computer programming, and interface design. iItis the ultimate challenge,i Ruiz said.This is such a great read.