Gadgets, Gizmos, and Games for Geeks

With reboots of The Lion King, Aladdin, and Mulan, Disney seems to be on quite the live-action remake kick of late. While some of these movies have been okay, I prefer to leave these Disney classics in the animated world where they belong.

Back in the 1970s, the idea of “pyramid power” was about as popular among crackpots as today’s flat earth theories. While the Egyptian pyramids and other pyramid-shaped structures possess no magical qualities, they are cool to look at and architecturally significant.

Do you love retro arcade games? I certainly do. While the pixel art character sprites get a whole lot of love, the fonts used to display your score and life status deserve much more appreciation. Typeface designer Toshi Omagari’s book catalogs dozens of the chunky pixelated fonts used in arcade games from the 1970s through the 1990s.

The original Rubik’s Cube is one of the most iconic and popular toys of all time. From its deceptively simple design to its frustrating complexity for noobs, to the amazing way that some people can solve them in seconds, they’re a mechanical masterpiece of puzzle goodness.

Ever since I was a little kid, I’ve had a tendency to play with my food. I remember cobbling together all kinds of gross concoctions at the table whenever we went out to eat, and occasionally stacking food items like Lincoln Logs to create edible towers.

It takes a whole lot of work to create stop-motion animation. After all, the characters and scenery in each and every frame need to be precisely positioned before snapping each still image. At the traditional film rate of 24 frames per second, you need to shoot 1440 individual photos for one minute of footage.

Usually, when you think of Godzilla, you imagine the giant reptilian breathing fire from his mouth as he stomps on Tokyo. But it turns out that the monster can also dispense tissues between his mighty jaws.

Artificial intelligence keeps getting better and better, especially with the advent of technologies like machine learning artificial neural networks. Such tech is being used for everything from improving vehicle safety to searching for cures to diseases.

Despite getting its start back in 1966, Star Trek continues to entertain, with new series like Star Trek: Discovery, Picard, and Lower Decks, all actively in production. Over the years, the franchise has certainly evolved, though in general, sticking to a formula that blends social commentary, science fiction, adventure, and humor.

I’d prefer that companies let people continue to work from home until we have an effective COVID-19 vaccine, but some people are having to go into their offices already. While I hope that people are following social distancing and mask rules, some people will always be scofflaws.

Of all of the characters in the Super Mario games, I think the Goombas are some of the most innocuous and easy to deal with. But in the hands of toy customizer KodyKoala, one particular Goomba is a serious badass.

Something is appealing to me about the aesthetics of old personal computers from the ’80s and ’90s. I know they’re not streamlined or sleek like the stuff that Apple is churning out these days, but I liked that those old machines felt more purposeful in their design.

Out of all of the power-ups in video game history, the mushrooms in the Super Mario Bros. series are among the most iconic. I always liked to think that they taste more like marshmallow fluff than mushrooms, but that’s just because that’s what the mushrooms in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory looked like they were made from when Mike Teavee’s mom takes a bite of one.

For those of us growing a veggie garden or feeding birds in our yards, we typically think of squirrels as pests. But they’re living creatures too, and would simply prefer that we fed them nuts if we could.

While I prefer my ramen noodles to be made fresh these days, there were many times back in college when instant ramen was as staple food, due to its incredible ease of cooking and budget pricing.

These days, it’s impossible to look back at the movies of the great Mel Brooks without somebody getting their panties in a bunch about their lack of political correctness. To that, I say, “lighten up.” Comedy is supposed to push boundaries, and poke fun at people’s sensitivities and societal norms.