Bloody Alarm Clocks

CAN’T get out of bed in the morning? 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. “When the alarm sounds again, simply finding Clocky ought to be strenuous enough to prevent even the doziest owner from going back to sleep,” New Scientist magazine said today.

Don’t you just love it? Reminds me of my early Army days when I was often obliged to play Reveille. Wise counsel from the Pipe Major suggested I move while piping…make yourself a harder target, Kevin. I was an infantry NCO but had made the huge mistake of admitting to bagpiping skills. This foolish statement come to the ears of the Colonel who loved bagipes, thus everytime the band performed I was dragged into the lineup. Once, we decided to do a full-band reveille at the Officer’s Mess at the traditional time of 06:30. more commonly referred to as oh-dark-thirty. Playing, in single file up though the Officer’s quarters, was poorly received to say the least. We knew that they had a Dining-in Night the evening before and few, if any of the Subalterns would have been in bed for more than an hour before the skirl of the pipes woke them from a sherry/beer/white wine/red wine/port and more cleansing ales type troubled slumber. Tee hee hee. Later, in Vietnam, Pipers were called upon to play ‘The Flowers of the Forest’ at the Fire Support Base on any evening that we had lost a soldier. For reasons of prior engagements, ie being on patrol, I never had to do this, but it certainly gave the Piper reason to remember the advise…keep moving Cpl Cameron, Piper, 7RAR, hoping ‘Charlie’ misses…moving target etc Just like ‘Clocky’ above