Chinese worry balls were a reputed form of stress-relief, originating from the region of China on Earth. They were small, tangerine-sized brass balls that, when grinded in the palm of the hand, were supposed to create feelings of relaxation. When explain to Rimmer that the escape pod he was fleeing in was going through a wormhole, and would take Starbug six hundred years to reach him, Kryten told Rimmer to have the "balls on standby".