Falling for enough cons is the mark of a casual connoisseur in books of confidence. One of my favorites is The Book of Swindles by Zhang Yingyu. How could one not read a book that inspires such a beautifully scandalous contra introduction?

This is an age of deception. Con men ply the roadways. Bogus alchemists pretend to turn one piece of silver into three. Devious nuns entice young women into adultery. Sorcerers use charmed talismans for mind control and murder…

The first lesson against swindles is ‘obtaining passage through the state of Yu to attack the state of Guo’, which in faraway modern times translates to keeping the tin foil hats demarcated at a safe arm’s length of distance.

The Internet is such a chaotic mindscape and must be an epistemologist’s dream. The world adjusted disambiguation should be (rather tongue in cheek);

The Bahamas, not to be confused with Hamas, Barbados, or Bermuda, neither Bahamians with Bohemians in Bohemia of The Czech Republic, nor the plurality of Bohemian Rhapsodies, or Bahamas (the musician), or Bahamo (that town in Central Africa) or even Bahamut, the invisible fish that carries this planet on its back through the cosmic sea.

Bahamoj works though, it’s Esperanto or something.

I’m late on the uptake. Is Hamas in The Bahamas? No. But surely, hamas is inside The Bahamas. Yes, and rhymes internally too!

That made its rounds, but after coming across the source — it’s not funny anymore.

The fashion clock for large phones (phablets) is at its mid point. I was still curious though, and spent a bit of time researching the smallest, and most repairable Android phones on the market today. The results? Two devices that clock in at 7.5 cm (3 inches).

• Palm Phone (2018)
• Jelly Star (2023)