1. The plastic brick gets a brain transplant.

For decades, the "pew-pew" sounds of a Lego Star Wars dogfight were provided exclusively by the spit-flecked vocal chords of imaginative children. Starting this March, the Lego Group is officially outsourcing that labor to the brick itself. The newly unveiled Smart Brick is a technical miniature: a classic 2x4 block packed with a custom computer, light sensors, and a Bluetooth mesh network. Using NFC-equipped tiles and minifigures, the brick actually senses its surroundings. This means lightsabers hum when drawn and the Imperial March triggers the moment Emperor Palpatine hits his throne.

Lego is calling this the most significant evolution of their system since the 1978 debut of the minifigure. In a tech landscape currently obsessed with shoving generative AI into every toaster, Lego’s approach is notably refreshing. There are no cameras, no screens, and no "smart" algorithms. It is a bet on invisible magic that enhances the physical world rather than distracting from it. It is a sophisticated upgrade for the world’s most famous toy, though I suspect that even with a computer brain, the brick still hasn't learned how to avoid the bottom of your foot in the middle of the night.

2. Accessibility is not remarkable.

Most tech commercials about disability lean heavily on tear-jerking piano ballads, but Apple’s latest spot prefers a frat party and a bassline. Directed by Kim Gehrig, the film follows a group of students as they navigate the messy, high-energy reality of university life to the defiant anthem "I’m Not Remarkable." We see science labs, art studios, and dorm room hangs where accessibility tools aren't presented as miracles, but as standard equipment for getting through the day. It’s a vibrant musical that highlights how features like the Accessibility Reader allow students to focus on the actual work of being a student rather than the logistics of their environment.

By framing these high-tech features as everyday utilities, Apple is making a subtle point about the ubiquity of assistance. Whether it’s a student using VoiceOver to read a textbook or a classmate using a coffee caffeine-kick to survive a lecture, the ad argues that everyone needs "stuff" to function. It’s a refreshing pivot from corporate sentimentality to genuine cultural representation. Apple isn't trying to make you cry; they’re just showing you that being "unremarkable" is actually the ultimate goal of inclusive design.

3. The ping pong hustler who inspired Marty Supreme.

Long before table tennis was a basement pastime for suburban teenagers, it was a gritty, high-stakes subculture in 1940s New York. At the center of this world was Marty Reisman, a slender, bespectacled Jewish teenager known as "The Needle" who could hit a ball like a bullet and break a cigarette in half with a single slam. Reisman was the ultimate "money player," a sharp-dressed showman who treated the game as a blend of physics and high-wire theater. He would crash hotel weddings in his best suit just to score a free meal before heading to midtown parlors to hustle gamblers out of their cash. His life is the inspiration for the new A24 film Marty Supreme, starring Timothée Chalamet, which captures a time when ping pong was as much about ego and elegance as it was about athletics.

Reisman’s reign eventually hit a wall, but it wasn't a rival player that took him down. It was technology. In 1952, the introduction of the foam rubber "sponge" paddle changed the game's physics, replacing the crisp pock of the traditional hardbat with eerie, spinning knuckleballs. For a purist like Marty, this was a betrayal of the sport’s soul. He spent decades analyzing how that bit of rubber ruined his life, yet he never quite lost his flair. Even in his late sixties, he was still winning championships and holding court at his own legendary Manhattan club. It is a classic story of a man who mastered a world that no one respected, only to be outmoded by a piece of foam.