I'm half-Chinese, half-English, and I don't have an epicanthic fold. (Nor does my Chinese Dad.) I'm heartily glad not to have one *not* because it makes me look Caucasian (nothing could do that given the shape of my face, nose and eyes - and I like that), but because it means I can wear eye make-up that a lot of my friends with epicanthic folds can't wear without smudging and smearing. There's no imperialist white-man envy going on here. Just a wish to wear kohl eyeliner and not have it come off on the lower brow.

Another heavy typist with fingernails, and I love my Model M. Given the abuse this thing has had, it might as well be made out of gorgeously clickety granite.

I believe the keys on the Model M have lettering which is actually embedded into the plastic so it's part of the key itself. Other keyboards seem to use some sort of transfer thing that wears or peels eventually.

Best opening sentence *ever*. I can die happy now.

That has to be the Platonic Boing Boing headline.

Brilliant! It's interesting to notice that Leonard Nimoy emerges to be far and away the best at 'doing shitfaced' in this.

Aw crap. I'm actually a bit disappointed - I've been using their excellent memory foam eyemasks for years. (That said, I've never bought anything *else* there.)

http://www.maxitmag.com/images/stories/reviews/asus/asus-x1900-box.jpg

Ari - SFO (the international terminal) was fine on Sunday. Better than fine, in fact - while they're still demanding that laptops be removed from cases, there was no cabling nonsense; and when they found a bottle of water my dear but incredibly forgetful husband had put in my carry-on earlier on, they were as nice as pie about it. The TSA guy was actually *apologetic* about confiscating it and offered to let me drink it behind a screen if I wanted to.

Compare and contrast with LAX last month, where they had signs up asking that the inside of your carry-on be packaged neatly and carefully compartmentalised so they could differentiate between any different sets of cables you might have in there. Mine were snarled up, so I was asked to unpack the lot from one bag, and separate my headphone cables, phone charger and laptop cables. They did, however, forget to ask me to remove my shoes - and both they and I missed the bottle of Tabasco sauce that was in my other carry-on bag (which I found, to my absolute horror, on returning home).

Indeed. I'm amazed we're all still alive.

I'm not sure they'd notice it. I accidentally got on a plane at LAX a couple of weeks ago with a bottle of Tabasco sauce in my handbag. (Don't ask.) The TSA conspicuously failed to detect it (as did I until I was in my seat) - imagine the spicy chaos I could have wrought!

It might be environmentally friendly, but it's massively overpriced and looks like crap.

*Contemplates motorcycling Village People on horses and sighs.*

I have a question, Dug: are you wearing chaps?

That was meant to say 'in Chinese', not 'in [[closing bracket]]'. Oops.

Ooh - I have one of those (mine's from Hong Kong and chants in ) and isn't quite as pretty. I find it very relaxing, but my husband has threatened to throw it out of the window.

Shining Path Buddhists (and other groups) use these chanting machines for general meditation, but especially at times of sickness and death. An elderly Chinese friend of mine died of cancer last year, and had a chanting machine running constantly for her last days - it was kept going alongside the body after she had died, apparently to help her spirit on its journey, and was also used at the cremation ceremony. I'm not a Buddhist, but I found the repetition very comforting (then again, I like Steve Reich) - other people in my family found it quite disturbing.

I'm hypnotised by the gif too. Ka-ching!

My mind is also inexorably drawn to what horrible accidents might occur if a clumsy man were wearing chaps and nothing else when drawing the knife, but this probably says more about me than it does the product.

I've seen Derren Brown live a couple of times now - he's a fantastic showman, and I get a real kick out of rational magicians. There's something far more impressive about someone who can outfox you while he's telling you he's doing it, than there is about someone who simply owns a big mirror and pretends he doesn't.

Penn and Teller's live show is also fantastic, but I heard several people on the way out of the theatre in Las Vegas complaining that it wasn't the sort of show they'd been expecting. I suppose there's still a large market for 'traditional' magic - I doubt we'll ever get to a point when people stop wanting to believe that David Copperfield is really flying.

I am stuck between laughing and howling with outrage. It's very uncomfortable.

What about using gloves and a lovely Audrey-esque cigarette holder? It's what I used to do when I smoked. (May suit women better, but I'm sure that those of you who are man enough can pull it off.)

Unless I'm mistaken, that is the Chinese writing for General Tso's chicken, fried rice and egg roll.

I'm half-Chinese. My Dad left China when he was seven, before he had the chance to learn how to read (he learned how to read English like a pro, though, and became a doctor in England in the 1960s); after what he saw in China, before part of the family escaped to Malaysia, he was adamant that his kids shouldn't learn the language, and became very Anglicised himself.

As a result, I speak a only a very little Fuzhao. I only know about ten ideograms, none of which are represented above. I also know that you, sir, are a prick.

Aw! Consider my heart warmed.

I'd love an analogue timer to sit cutely in the kitchen. Unfortunately, a single hour is not a practical upper limit for a timer, so unless you're not planning on lots of resetting during the cooking time, a digital one is the way to go. I use the timer on my mobile phone, but when someone gets round to designing an affordable, beautiful and functional digital timer that I can find in the UK, I'm buying it.

This seems like a spectacularly bad idea for a city full of schizophrenic tramps. And also like a spectacularly bad idea in general.

That's unspeakably shitty news. I hope that the early diagnosis is a positive thing.

It's unfortunate that it looks a bit like something the police have slapped on you to make sure you stay under curfew - but a nice idea.

They're probably just frightened that you'll steal their souls by taking pictures of them.

Mmm. Aerosolised arthropod.

I don't know - they could be useful for winter sports practitioners who want to avoid bruised bums. Or who want to give everyone else on the slopes a good laugh.

Do you think the cockroach is thinking "It's so delicious and moist!"?

There's a similar product touted by detox quacks here in the UK - a magic tea-bag sort of pad which is worn on the feet at night. In the morning, they're damp, squishy, strange-smelling and brown.

Toxins, apparently. Not the sweat from the soles of your feet dissolving the stinky, treacly-brown wood vinegar (pyroligneous acid)) that's listed in the ingredients on the packaging.

There's a thing - can we have a new urinal cake picture every time the comments break? It'd be a nice change from unicorns.

The Times here in the UK is reporting that oddly, the 'dead' guy's wife very suddenly upped sticks about five weeks ago, removing her person, much of her furniture and all of her money (much from her husband's life insurance) to Panama, of all places. Panama, notably, doesn't have an extradition treaty with the UK. I suspect there's more to this than meets the eye.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article2994946.ece

Well - aesthetically it's not really to my taste either, but more importantly, it's almost certainly too heavy for my needs. My camera and any accessories I might want to take with me adds up to quite a hefty weight, so a light bag is a must. Leather and metal buckles do not fit the bill.

Patrick Smith is absolutely my favourite thing about Salon. Happily, an analogue of this ad has not yet made its way to this side of the Atlantic (our Apple ads are similar to yours but are recorded with English actors) - here's hoping it never does.

How big is the chunk of hardware inside the thing? As a longstanding princess-and-pea-type, I suspect I'd find this unusable. :(

Fantastic! I love my Sonicare (I never thought I'd find myself saying this about a toothbrush), but the gunge that can build up at the top of the handle bit, especially if you live in a hard water area, is a real pest - I've have to soak it in vinegar to get rid of the yuck-encrusted limescale. Still - weekly deep-cleaning of the top of the handle is a small price to pay for Britain's cleanest teeth. (But I think I'll still be upgrading to one that's easier to keep clean.)

Eliah - Firefox and Adblock are your friends.

Why, how...useful.

Ok, I'll bite - what are concentric retrograde minutes? And when (presumably some time after I've got through counting my $59,000) might I need to use them?

Are they aware that falafel are also a favourite Jewish snack? (The packet of falafel mix in my cupboard at the moment is covered with Hebrew text.)

I eat a hell of a lot of falafel. The very best falafel stores I've been to have been at a Lebanese restaurant in London's St John's Wood, and at an Egyptian store in Florence. Neither place has shown any signs of chickpea-induced explosion recently (although it should be noted that too many falafel may result in intestinal upset).

Flying Squid - there were some Road Runner backgrounds further back in the blog (and they were just gorgeous).

JTollert - I guess there's a fairly obvious experiment you can run to find out whether your daughter's beads have any psychotropic effects...

Brilliant - I've spent the last 45 minutes poring through this and making noises of awe and nostalgia at my husband. For my tastes, this is one of the loveliest things you guys have blogged in months.

*Gurgle* - there goes the whole of next week. Thanks Wingo!

Given that I can think of about fifteen euphemisms for 'vagina' off the top of my head, I doubt we need more - especially cutesy ones. There is nothing cutesy about mine.

Man - I hope they re-engineer these to be GHB-free and start selling them again soon, because I am seeing fantastic opportunities for pixel-art earrings.

Harlanh - that was my thought too, but then I'm not at all familiar with Swedish law. Apparently it's 'aggravated libel', an offence which I don't think exists here in the UK.

Aren't those the things Dog the Bounty Hunter wears? Says it all, really.

>Just what was so important that he left his family, while sick, to go to FLA?

Er...the Haunted Mansion?

The article says the idiotic father-in-law is being charged with libel - the fact that there are serious consequences for making this sort of baseless accusation should, you might have hoped, have stopped him from doing it in the first place.

Apparently he "said he did not think the US authorities would stupid enough to believe him". He's obviously not flown to America in the last six years - I got put in a small room and shouted at for half an hour two years ago merely for being non-Caucasian and in charge of a poster tube. ("People might think you have a weapon in that." What I actually had was a poster.)

It's *obviously* troll poo.

Lovely - and it's great to be able to use the same account to post on Boing Boing Gadgets too. Houpla!

Mumbai's airport code is still BOM, from back when the city was still called Bombay. Few things are more uncomfortable-making than hauling luggage with great big "BOM" tags all over it through unsympathetic airports.

That's *obscene*! Where is my unicorn?

One of my friends electrocuted himself early on this year. I found myself compelled to read the article and then really, really wished I hadn't. Unicorn chaser please!

I can't wait for this. I am combing my hair into a pompadour especially for the occasion.

I am cheered to find I'm not the only reader whose nose-brain boundary is currently tingling.

I have a friend who contracted an e-coli infection of the urethra (lengthy things in men, urethras) after swimming in Lake Travis in Austin, then sitting around in wet shorts; and another who contracted Weil's from a river here in England. Fresh water swimming is not for me.

I will not be filling out these forms in case there's someone at the TSA making a special list of people requesting their data for later airport tazing.