Mail Goggles

This is brilliant. Gmail has announced a new feature: Mail Goggles. Remember the old "beer goggles" terminology that people dropped when they realized the guy or girl they'd found so attractive last night at the bar turned out to be less than a stunner in the (sober) light of day? Remember late night "drunk dialing," which could happen just as easily sober as intoxicated, when you'd call and say things you didn't mean or promise things you didn't even want?

Well technology is catching up in good ways and in bad.

Bad: Instead of drunk dialing, you can now drunk text, IM, email, gchat, or even facebook chat. You can instantly offend, court, woo, or embarrass any of the friends lucky enough to be in your call log or friend list. T9 to the rescue!

Good: Gmail has launched "Mail Goggles," a feature that you can enable on your account between specific hours (say, 1am-6am, because you're never up emailing then for any good reason) and the feature will prompt you to answer a serious of (relatively) simple math problems before allowing your email to send. Quick--what's 11x2? 69-38? 37+19? Answer all five of gmail's math problems (which only cover up to third grade math, by the way) in the time allotted (60 seconds) without forgetting to carry a one or submitting a finger slip as a response, and your message will roll on through.

Bottom line? If you're as smart as a third grader, you're in, which means that most intoxicated mail mergers are not. What's not to love?