The * have gone away (HN is treating it as markdown for italics). You can put spaces around it to prevent this (e.g. the first * in the first comment is treated

The * have gone away (HN is treating it as markdown for italics). You can put spaces around it to prevent this (e.g. the first * in the first comment is treated literally; the last * in that comment isn't). The easiest solution is to indent the code by two spaces (HN renders it literally then).