Say What!?

Ok, two (little) articles in the Dutch Metro (18 November 2005, respectively page 7 and 17) which shocked the living daylights out of me. Yep, this is somewhat exaggerated, but still 2 articles which attracted my attention.

First of all, it seems that 8 hours of sleep per night is not that healthy. People who sleep 8 hours per night have a 12% higher change on a premature death than people who sleep 6.7 - 7.5 hours. Researchers of the University of San Diego, the little article says, have studied over a million people on their conduct of sleep, in the ages 30 till 102. If you sleep over 8.5 hours or less than 4, the change of a premature death is even more than 15%. That sucks, if it’s true, for I’m a big fan of sleeping and spending my day in or on bed.

Secondly, I never knew being a professional gamer could be that good for your bank account!! Starting from Sunday, the top 32 players of ‘Painkiller’ will gather in New York for the unofficial World Championship. Here they compete for the largest sum of prize money ever divided on a gaming tournament. The big favourite is the Dutch Sander Kaasjager (20) from Huizen. And if everything goes according to plan, he will cash in $150000 on Tuesday! So far he has already won a total of $118000 on prize money. He may be called the best earning gamer in the world. So just shoot me now… if I had any idea what was at stake when I was young, I would have been into gaming from the start, in stead of watching my brothers play a game…. I want that kind of money…. And then spend it on books :D