If 'xylitol' is hard for English speakers, it should be doubly so in Finland. We did extensive clinical research on its use against dental caries in the 1970s, and now everyone and, well, not their dog, has been using it in forms like chewing gum for a couple of decades.

However, we are notoriously bad at pronouncing foreign words. For instance, initial 'str' in words like 'strategy' ('strategia' in Finnish) is often reduced to just 'r', at least when spoken by older people with less foreign exposure. This just reflects the lack of such combinations in our native language.

I remember seeing those misc recycling bins in 2005 in the NY state, so I wondered if anything has changed since, though I guess these things don't move too fast.

Wait, you Americans still have these weird recycling bins which might as well be labeled "miscellaneous", as they still need someone to do the actual sorting? Here in the old world (.fi) we have different bins for stuff like glass and metal. There is some regional variety depending on the local market, though I've heard some of this still ends up in landfill.

Well of course I'm familiar with the back wall bounce. It probably won't work across too many reflections in weird angles. In fact, it seems that newer remotes have narrower working angles to avoid conflicts with the bazillion other receivers. The point is that light works for remotes for obvious reasons, it's really the bug that turns out a feature. It's also well known physics that higher frequencies are more easily restricted by obstacles.

It's revolutionary if

1. (a) the current generation of 20-somethings has never seen it in action, or
2. (b) Apple makes it

It sure is a funny coincidence that television viewers generally have line of sight to the set. OTOH, you also have these computer users that store every file on their "desktop", because it doesn't exist if you can't see it, so that demographic might also benefit from the existing line of sight to teh internets.

I see what you did there. In fact, I'm having a hard time removing that thought from under my desk.

The summary says it has Marvel's latest controller, so at least the superhero angle is covered.

Also, Stanislaw Lem featured a kind of smart dust in his 1980s novel.

The fifty shades are of grey, not gray.

I remain vulnerable to serious 18 year olds, if you catch my drift.

The orbit. It's the only way to be sure.

And that's why everyone in Finland (where the use of xylitol for dental care was pioneered) has chronic diarrhea. No, wait, we don't, not with the recommended small amounts.

I wonder if you're trying to be sarcastic -- spelling out letters like B as 'be' is not exactly phonetic. I once tried explaining to a Briton how Finnish is a phonetic language, and you just read anything by pronouncing each letter as they are, which she mistook as spelling out.

Of course, while I'm being pedantic, you'd also need a thorn/theta for the 'th' sound...

This. I've never understood why IT people in particular would be easily enticed by such pre-selected perks. They're supposedly smart individuals who know what they like. If anything, try not to get in the way.