Sometimes, to gadget fans like us, it seems there are more crazy stress-relieving toys than there are stars in the night sky, but – apart from Windows Mobile – we had no idea some companies were making a buck off selling stress-inducing products.
Although not technically a gadget, there is a fair bit of electronic noise in a new CD that Japanese record label Avex Classics simple entitles 'Stress.'
Science to blame
The ¥1,890 (£8.80) disk is aimed at people who are so uncomfortable with the modern world and its technological bugbears they just want even more extraneous input to push them to the edge. Huh?
Apparently, the 60-minute CD is packed with music so discordant it rapidly increases discomfort and raises the heart rate. We're told such masochism increases blood flow to the brain's frontal lobes, which ultimately makes us all relax.
Masochists only
The disk's compilers suggest this is no different than other extreme ways to bust stress, such as bungy jumping, roller-coaster riding or even eating a flaming-hot Chicken Madras after eight pints of fizzy and a terrible week at work.
So, instead of relaxing at home to Beethoven or even the mellifluous tones of whale song, Japanese salarymen fed up with their computers and mobile phones making demands at all hours are assaulting their eardrums en masse in a bid to stay sane.
We are not making this up, by the way.
