[Cthulhu_]

Reminds me of that famous anecdote where NASA invested a million in developing a pen that could write in zero G, while the Russians used a pencil.

[jcl]

A fictional anecdote, FWIW:

http://www.snopes.com/business/genius/spacepen.asp

[andrewflnr]

Apparently, graphite shavings in air filters are bad news. One has to wonder if nice mechanical pencils would be too bad, though.