My guess is that it's a ticket puncher/marker of some sort.

Or a Mega-Trangoshan Trans-dimensional, Hyperspatial Planetary Tattoo Gun - widely used in the galactic advertising trade.

I'm going to say it's a fid or marlinspike as used in "marlinspike seamanship."

For more info, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marlinspike

It's a "corn grinder." It's used to remove the kernels from the corn cob. When my Mum was in 2nd grade, she got her hand caught in this exact model. Didn't do much damage but there was blood everywhere, according to her. She used the resulting scars to tell her left hand from her right for the next few years. The chickens, who were fed the bloody corn, didn't seem to mind the extra flavoring.

Beyond the "wow" factor, all I could think of whilst watching this was epidemiology. Still "wow" but with a very different twist.