BUDDY, CAN YOU SPARE AN ERG? Robot Unemployment in Japan: “Japan’s legions of robots, the world’s largest fleet of mechanized workers, are being idled as the country suffers its deepest recession in more than a generation as consumers worldwide cut spending on cars and gadgets . . . They could be out of work for a long time. Japanese industrial production has plummeted almost 40 percent and with it, the demand for robots.”

UPDATE: Some readers think this should have been “Buddy, can you spare a dyne?” But although that rhymes, a dyne is a unit of force, not energy, so . . . .