(>|<) and (<|>) are universally accepted and totally horrible.

Mentioned in the show:

• Imaginary Worlds Podcast
• Photos of Ben’s coffee table, with the sanding dust photo included
• The Physics Girl’s presentation of the boat-rock problem
• XKCD 1867, an oddly on-topic comic that came out two days after we recorded this.
• Priming is the effect that can keep you from seeing ambiguous situations as anything but your original impression.
• The Underwave off Kanagawa
• Paternoster elevators on Wikipedia
• Frank Drake’s AMA