As painful as it is, several studies show that screentime before bed can delay sleep by up to two hours. (Anything with a backlight is confusing to the parts of your brain that are trying to keep track of diurnal rhythms. Indirect light from a reading lamp doesn't have nearly as strong an effect as direct light from an LCD screen.)

I realized that I have dinner plans tonight, and will miss Undercovers

I have dinner plans too! And I feel like ass. But I will not cancel. I have not seen this chick in years. If it gets cancelled, it's on her. But my backlog is getting bigger and bigger. Hopefully I can at least clear Criminal Minds off it tonight. I know I can't stay out at dinner too long.

I can't cancel dinner to stay home and watch two of the hottest men on the planet, right? I mean Boris Kodjoe AND Shemar Moore (who will be rocking the manpain tonight)? I don't know if I'll be able to handle it.

several studies show that screentime before bed can delay sleep by up to two hours

What about those of us that fall asleep in front of screens?

Well, it's not like I've gotten any sleep without the aid of drugs in about a year, so I don't count. But I would regularly fall asleep in front of the TV before the insomnia started.

Huh. I just said "sistas before mistas!" to my sister. I feel like I've crossed some sort of invisible crazy person line. But I think she went there first.

Top UK spies revealed as wankers

The UK spy agency MI6 experimented with using semen as invisible ink; presumably because this fluid was readily available to several of their field agents on a few moments' notice. The agent in charge of the project? Mansfield Cumming. This and other revelations appear in MI6: The History of the Secret Intelligence Service 1909-1949, to be published this week.

A member of staff close to "C", Frank Stagg, said that he would never forget his bosses' delight when the Deputy Chief Censor said one day that one of his staff had found out that "semen would not react to iodine vapour".

Stagg noted that "we thought we had solved a great problem".

However, the discovery also led to some further problems, with the agent who had identified the novel use having to be moved from his department after becoming the butt of jokes.

the butt of jokes

Did they really want to go there?

What about those of us that fall asleep in front of screens?

Yeah, I sometimes find myself falling asleep while sitting up in front of the computer, and often while watching TV. And I almost always go to bed with a TV on in the bedroom so the flickering light against my eyelids can lull me.

Total darkness and I aren't good friends, though we occasionally work together when Happy Fun Migraine stops by for a visit.

But TWO HOURS MONITOR FREE BEFORE SLEEP????

Seriously. I would never watch TV again.

I muchly prefer total darkness for sleeping. If I get up in the middle of the night, I don't turn the light on but just feel my way to the bathroom. Once I broke a toe because a roommate had left a chair in the middle of the kitchen and I stubbed my toe on it. You think that'd learn me, but no.

Damn, Vortex, pretty!