Even the extreme angle isn't a problem, partly because of perceptual constancy the brain's tendency to see familiar objects as having a standard shape and size, despite changes in perspective.

WSJ: A Front-Row Seat at the Movies

The Standard Model (see table) includes familiar particles such as electrons and photons, and esoteric ones like the W and Z bosons, which carry something called the weak nuclear force.

ECONOMIST: The Higgs boson

As the device presents the standard touch experience you're already familiar with, it also broadcasts data that can be read by any camera, but flashes too quickly to be distracting or even noticeable to the naked eye.

ENGADGET: NewsFlash uses high-frequency light to transmit data from iPad to smartphone, we go hands-on (video)

In the how-strangely-familiar vein was a game that featured movable pieces shaped like the standard ones used in myriad board games of today, i.e.

FORBES: The New Tutmania: Considering The Half-Life Of An Afterlife

I'm a finicky listener with high-end speakers, and found that RadioWave's audio quality is considerably better than standard RealAudio, and lacks the trademark "jittery" sound that's become familiar to Internet listeners.

CNN: Free player adds vision to Internet radio

According to people familiar with Google's thinking, they felt the company was being held to a higher standard than less well-known firms, and preferred to let more aggressive rivals test the boundaries.

WSJ: Google Agonizes on Privacy as Advertising World Vaults Ahead

The boom has all the standard features of an oil-price shock, except that, compared with the more familiar cases of 1973-74 and 1979-80, and the not-so-noticed case of 1990-91, this one happened in reverse.

ECONOMIST: Oil and the new economy