BrainBank: Alas, Poor Pinball! I Knew Him Edition

An article on Gizmodo just caught my eye. It's not really a commentary on anything in particular; basically, the author just enthuses about his passion for a pinball iPhone app. Well, he does get into the interesting Japanese concept of "michi," which is the belief that everyone should have at least one thing that they're constantly striving at.

It caught my eye just because I love regular old pinball machines, and it makes me sad that they've almost completely disappeared from the American landscape. Granted, we have a pinball machine at my home and I haven't played it in some time; but I do like the concept of an all-mechanical form of entertainment.

Video pinball, really, is as far removed from real pinball as it's possible to be. All-digital, completely portable, and with absolutely no tactile feedback (you can't even control how hard the flippers strike the ball on most digital conversions), I could never really get into videogame pinbal. Still, it was an interesting article, and at least I know that pinball machines and the rest of the arcade genre are still quite alive in Japan.

BrainBank: This Insectobot Is Actually Kind of Cute Edition

Phasma is a tiny robot built for the express purpose of running around. Specifically, its design allows to run in the same fashion as an insect, always having at least three of its legs on the ground in order to keep stable, and obviously employing an insectoid gait.

While it might walk like a cockroach, though, I think they actually managed to make the little Kinex-looking guy look cute. Certainly a far-cry from his robotic descendants that will burrow into peoples' brains and take them over during the inevitable robot uprising.