And now . . . this - Mar. 22/05

Reminds me of an old practical joke

Scientists at MIT's Media Lab in the United States have invented an alarm clock called Clocky to make even the doziest sleepers, who repeatedly hit the snooze button, leap out of bed.

After the snooze button is pressed, the clock, which is equipped with a set of wheels, rolls off the table to another part of the room.

[Full Story]

Yeah right. I used to have a clock radio that sounded like a school fire alarm going off. It didn't stop me from hitting the snooze bar about 50 times.

Dubious honour

A Scottish factory worker has been crowned the world's fastest text-messager after punching out a complicated message in record time.

Craig Crosbie, 24, took just 48 seconds to type out the 160-character message: "The razor-toothed piranhas of the genera Serrasalmus and Pygocentrus are the most ferocious freshwater fish in the world. In reality they seldom attack a human."

Must be a Scottish thing. Two years ago, a 13-year-old girl submitted an entire essay in text-messagese.