Company Creates a Self-Making Bed 159
MarkWhittington writes "A Spanish company has created a bed that will make itself. Ordinarily I am excited about just about any technological advance, but this one leaves me wondering what it's good for. It might be that as a rather slovenly housekeeper, I do not see the purpose of making a bed. The idea of being able to bounce a coin off of a sheet that has been stretched tight seems to have been an invention of moms and drill sergeants to torment people. Why make up a bed in the morning when it's just going to be unmade that evening (or sooner if one likes an afternoon nap?) When I was a lad, dreaming of the wonders that awaited in the 21st century, among the flying cars, colonies on the moon and jet packs, self-making beds somehow escaped by imagination, even as my sainted mom forced me to make mine before heading out to school."
Making the bed always frustrated me. (Score:5, Interesting)
You see, I grew up in rural South India and we usually slept on a mat (of reeds) unrolled on cement floors with a pillow and a sheet. In the morning we would roll our mats with the pillow inside and stack these rolls one on top of another in one corner of the room which doubled as living area during the day. All was well till I started reading the Perry Mason novels by Erle Stanley Gardener, which were very popular. In more than one novel the clue that unraveled the whole mystery was, "But the housekeeper said the bed was not made". I had no idea how one would make a bed. I had seen pictures of cots and mattresses and I knew most Americans slept on elevated platforms. I imagined most of them would buy it somewhere. How does one "make" it? Very frustrating.
In another novel the key was, "But the food was delivered by the dumb waiter!". I could understand if it was a blind waiter he would not have seen the dead body in the middle of the floor. But the waiter was just dumb, he could still see right? Then how delivering the dinner by dumb waiter made the difference? By the time I actually saw a dumb waiter, I had forgotten the story. All I remembered was, "why the dumb waiter did not see the dead body?".
Similarly in our first year in Chemistry, the book said some thing called an orbital was shaped like a doughnut. (yes, the Brit spelling). No one in our entire class had seen a doughnut. Then one student found an American book, that called it a donut but had a picture of it. Almost every one shouted, "donut is a torus!". We knew the mathematical name of that shape!