And only later still, in the quiet car retrieved from valet parking and en route back to the Laventura, Constance carefully blinking away her own drunkenness at the wheel, did the equally tipsy Fanny Mann squint at her flashing little screen, recover the message, and then phone the hospital to receive the news.

NEWYORKER: Shauntrelle

So last year Lipscomb added a little reality-TV pizzazz to a Vegas poker match, wiring the tournament with 17 cameras and flashing on-screen personal factoids about players.

FORBES: Poker TV gets some high stakes.

Some have trouble sticking to the 30 and 60-second time limits, but otherwise the amateur ads feature the usual mix of speeches, smiling babies and words like strength and leadership flashing on the screen.

NPR: Mitt Romney Involves Supporters in Campaign Ads

When you turn on the TV in Sudan, you're bombarded with adverts for weight-loss products, with images of svelte Lebanese and Egyptian women flashing across the screen, and this undoubtedly has an effect, says Bedri.

BBC: Slim in Sudan: Female fleshiness loses its allure

That all-too-familiar computer screen gaze at flashing photographs of friends in exotic places around the world is apparently enough for daydreamers to start packing.

FORBES: How Facebook Is Shaping Your 2012 Travel Decisions

Anyone with a stock trading screen is seeing red bars flashing everywhere.

FORBES: US, EU Break Down Global Markets, But For How Long?

Those whose files come on screen to the accompaniment of flashing red lights will not find it easy to obtain cover for much less than the cost of paying for their treatment themselves.

ECONOMIST: Genetics, medicine and insurance

Flashing positive and negative images on a computer screen so fast that they duck beneath the radar of consciousness gives us a momentary glimpse of what captivates the unconscious mind.

CNN: Make your 'rainy brain' sunnier

The Companion Cube printed without a hitch in under 20 minutes, so we continued our pop culture bent, printing out an MST3K silhouette for the corner of a computer screen and a 3D statue of Mario flashing the "V" for victory.

ENGADGET: MakerBot Replicator impressions: the dawning of 3D printers in every home?