/. roundup
Some fun geek news from the weekend:
Sleep at 10,000 $/minYahoo! News - Room Designed That Puts Customers to SleepThe 30-minute session in the sleep room--about the size of a small hotel room and programmed with a control panel in the wall--starts with the bed upright like a recliner. A huge TV screen is positioned high above the dresser to meet perfectly with your line of vision, showing verdant scenes of a river ambling through a forest.
Gentle guitar and piano music plays against a backdrop of trickling water and birdsong.
After a few minutes relaxing like that, the sleep machine takes over: the lights slowly dim, the TV screen goes blank, the music dies down � but the stream still babbles--and the bed lowers into sleeping position.
Hold onto the sheets for what comes next: a mechanical massage. The mattress vibrates and bulges strategically under your upper and lower back, stretching your spine to its limits.
Eventually, the lights turn off completely, the massage peters out and air is released from the mattress, allowing your body to settle gently into place � and into the first dream of the night.
The sleep machine eases you out of your dreams as well. The lights come on slowly and the TV turns on with a crystal lake on the screen. The curtains open automatically to morning, and the bed lifts you into sitting position.
At Matsushita, a night of rest isn't cheap. Rieko Saitoh, a company publicist, says the whole system is expected to go on sale in June 2005 � to the tune of $30,000.
Still, company officials say that even if the price is high, customers won't lose much sleep over it.
'Nobody who's come in here for 30 minutes hasn't fallen asleep,' said Heiuchi.
Shields UpTelegraph | 'Electric armour' vaporises anti-tank grenades and shellsWhen the warhead fires its jet of molten copper, it penetrates both the outer plate and the insulation of the inner plate. This makes a connection and thousands of amps of electricity vaporises most of the molten copper. The rest of the copper is dispersed harmlessly against the vehicle's hull.
But despite the high charge, the electrical load on the battery is no more than that caused by starting the engine on a cold morning.
In a recent demonstration of the electric armour for senior Army officers, an APC protected by the new British system survived repeated attacks by rocket-propelled grenades that would normally have destroyed it several times over.
Many of the grenades were fired from point-blank range but the only damage to the APC was cosmetic. The vehicle was driven away under its own power.
Some People Want Spam, and They're Not Even HawaiianSpam My Gmail Account (prattboy@gmail.com)How long does it take to fill up 1 Gig of storage with spam? How well do Gmail's junk filters work? Let's find out! Spam my shiny new G-mail account at prattboy@gmail.com Give my address to spammers, newsletters, annoying people, whatever, and let's see how long it takes!
(He's currently rating Gmail at 50% accurate for spam, but only 25% if you include mail bombs.)
...now you may go dream of geeks emailing each other about how they launched RPG's into tanks.
* Ray, 6/14/2004 01:43:53 PM
