Ernest Hemingway used to maintain that you should always do sober what you said you do while drunk. Even though the scar on his forehead was a permanent reminder of the effect of alcohol on judgement, he was usually good to his word. He believed the practice would teach him a lesson.
The author of The Sun Also Rises would therefore presumably be outraged by the latest application from Google – Mail Goggles. It is designed to hinder the sending of the type of message you regret the next day. The user sets it to operate at a specified time – usually evenings and weekends – and should he or she try to send an email during that period, the Mail Goggles will descend and ask a series of small mathematical puzzles. It is thought that the realisation that simple multiplication is surprisingly tricky will send the emailer to bed and prevent his or her mouse from roaring.
Assuming the application becomes popular, it probably won't be long until we hear either the sound of an assassin's bullet or the slapping of palms, as a lot of firms, already brutalised by the credit crunch, will not want the Goggles to become too fashionable. A head nodding with alcohol can boost their bottom line.
Like them, I'm with Hemingway. The loss of rational thought can benefit self knowledge. Sometimes you have to learn the hard-way. The Goggles will just keep you blinkered.
If you are a childless person who finds himself ordering a wet-suit for a three year old, we know (or, for the love of God, we PRAY) that you'd like to have kids.
Similarly, although discovering you have been accepted at the local wife swapping club might suggest obvious lifestyle changes, imagine the insight granted to the boozed up browser who, a week later, learned he had been ordained as a reverend.
Keep the Goggles off.
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