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I've written previously about the surreal nature of Converse's Chuck Taylor All-Stars, the shoes I grew up in, now being owned by Nike and manufactured overseas.

The shoes I wore as a kid were emblazoned with "Made in the U.S.A." -- but then, many things were back then.

Tonight, as I was taking a picture of "some of my favorite things" for an upcoming online project, I realized that NONE of them are made in America.

My Chucks were made in China. My iconic America Levi 501's in Mexico and my Blackberry in...well, it actually isn't branded as coming from anywhere. But parent company Research In Motion is from Canada.

If I'd thought about it for five minutes I guess I would have laid money on all of these products being manufactured elsewhere - but having them all in a pile as things I can't do without and realizing they're all imports...it's a little creepy.

What are your favorite things...and are any of them American?

UPDATE: After reading this entry a co-worker relates the following story:

"I was in Wal-Mart looking for a pair of cargo pants. I picked up two pairs and looked at the labels. One was made in Bangladesh, one in Vietnam. So I'm standing there literally thinking: which one of these countries has worse child labor standards? Which of these pairs of pants makes me a worse person?"

So, it's come to this.

From the ad copy:

"Here's This Season's "Must-Have" iPod Accessory That All The Celebrities in Hollywood Are Clamoring For.

Just fold out the blow wand and exhale into it for at least 5 seconds. 2 seconds later, this amazing tool let's you know if you're within the legal limit to drive. It even houses a timer that can be set from 1 minute up to 8 hours in order to remind you when it's time for the next test."

I'm from the "If you're wondering if you can pass a breathalizer test, don't drive" school myself -- but if potential drunk drivers will listen to their iPods and realize it's a bad idea to get behind the wheel, I guess it's progress.

It looks ugly as sin -- but you could say the same thing about a Volvo.

But who cares? The new car from Zero Pollution Motors can run on compressed air, gasoline (106 miles per gallon), diesel, biodiesel, ethanol or vegetable oil. Also: Indian carmaker Tata is going to market them in the U.S. at $20,000 a pop.

It can go 35 mph running on just compressed air and can go highway speeds for 800 miles at a stretch with the motor running on any of the other fuels it accepts.

We could see them as soon as 2011.

BoingBoing Gadgets has the best review I've read yet of T-Mobile's G1 Android phone.

For those coming late: Android is Google's new, open source operating system for mobile phones. It is being offered first on the G1 model smartphone and has been hyped in some corners of the Net as a possible "iPhone Killer."

Reviewer Joel Johnson says not so fast on that one, but found much to like about the phone.

From the review...

Check out this undeniably wonderful 5-in-1 inflatable sleeper-sofa.

I'm a little old for it now -- and already have two inflatable beds for camping/guests which my girlfriend thinks are "ghetto."

But for $61 shipped, I definitely would have rocked this in a dorm room.

If you haven't seen The Dark Knight yet, you've got a lot coming to you.

Including -- new Bat Gadgets!

Among the coolest -- Batman's new motorcycle, the Bat-Pod.

Popular Mechanics has gone inside the creation of the Bat-Pod.

From the piece:

Enter the Bat-Pod, a motorcycle-ATV hybrid that lands eye-popping stunts sans CGI, a hand-built bike that fires grappling hooks—while shape-shifting.

When he first laid eyes on the Bat-Pod mockup, special effects supervisor Chris Corbould wasn't sure if his director actually knew anything about motorcycles. But that's what makes The Dark Knight at once a throwback superhero movie and a green-screen-light breakthrough in digital Hollywood: It turns fantasy into reality. And building a concept vehicle without a team of automotive engineers was one of its biggest challenges. "The gauntlet had been thrown down," Corbould says.

Also: behind the scenes of the movie's IMAX sequences.

Students at MIT have been tinkering with a 1976 Porsche 914 -- converting it to run on electricity and go 100 mph for 135 miles without a recharge. Plug it in for five hours and it's ready to go again.

Check it out.

Over at the Bargain Blog, Mike Fuchs points to an article in Slate by a writer who bought an HD-DVD player...only to see the format go the way of the Dodo a few months later.

Josh Levine writes:

"If there's any consolation for us HD-DVD-buying losers, it's that disc-shaped physical media won't be around much longer. Once high-definition digital downloads, like those available through Apple TV, hit the mainstream, Blu-ray will be as dead as HD-DVD. Take that, Sony!"

He's right, of course -- and early adopters of all sorts get screwed. I've been through three MP3 players since getting my first one in 2005. The one I have now actually appeals to me because of its simplicity -- and it's actually about the size of my first one and smaller than my second. It takes us a while to wade through the tech that's being constantly spewed at us these days and figure out what we like, what we need and what will serve us best.

I didn't buy an HD-DVD player -- and I don't have a Blu-Ray player either. Hell, I've still got tons of VHS tapes. And I'm going to keep playing them until they go completely fritzy-wobbly on me and I can't make sense of them. My DVDs, too.

Any of you get on that train a little early and end up kicking yourself?

Famous (infamous?) hardware hacker Andrew "bunnie" Huang bought one of the One Laptop Per Child XO Laptop, picked it apart (literally and figuratively) and posted this review.

I've written a bit about the XO Laptop and recommended it as a holiday gadget gift in an N&R Life section centerpiece just before the holidays. It's fascinating to see someone get one and look at it with this kind of scrutiny.

People keep laughing at me when I tell them I may make my next car a Smart car.

But I test drove one a few months back for the paper and actually liked it. GQ gave it a spin this month and came away impressed as well.

The fact that they get an estimated 40/city and 45/highway is a huge draw -- but they're also attractive (and attractively priced -- the convertible model is $16K), comfortable (believe it or not) and fun to drive.

I got mine up to 60 mph on the test drive -- but the GQ writer got on the highway and went up to 80 for over an hour. I don't remember the last time I needed to go faster than 90 mph, which is the Smart's top speed -- so I'm not sure what the downside of owning one of these would be.

I forgot to mention that I did a feature on cool (and most available and affordable) tech gifts for the holidays.

Here's the list, with links.

Joss Whedon fans take note:

Amazon's Gold Box Deal for today is Firefly: The Complete Series for $19.99 (!)

Firefly is the prematurely canceled cult sci-fi show that spawned the film Serenity and retains a fierce cult following. Part Western, part space opera, the show has great characters, terrific production and effects (by which I mean they look as though they could actually be happening -- a bit of gritty reality to the future and to space travel).

It's well worth looking into -- and for the price of the average DVD you can get the whole series plus DVD extras.

Wow. Props to Apple CEO Steve Jobs, who has announced a $100 Apple Store credit to anyone who bought an iPhone when it was released.

This comes in the wake of the announced $200 price drop just two months after the product was released.

Said Jobs in his statement:

"..even though we are making the right decision to lower the price of iPhone, and even though the technology road is bumpy, we need to do a better job taking care of our early iPhone customers as we aggressively go after new ones with a lower price. Our early customers trusted us, and we must live up to that trust with our actions in moments like these."