DAVID ADAMS looks at the odder side of life…
PICTURE: Sharon McCutcheon/Unsplash
• Global music treaming giant Spotify has launched playlists and a podcast for pets to listen to in their owner’s absence. The move comes after a survey found 71 per cent of pet-owners in the US, UK, Australia, Spain and Italy have played music for their pets and that eight in 10 believe pets like music. It also found 69 per cent of owners said they sang to their pet, 57 per cent of owners said they danced with their pet and almost one in five pet owners named their pets after a musician or group (Bob Marley, Elvis and Freddie Mercury were among the most popular names). The algorithmically created playlists will be based on their owner’s listening habits and their pet’s “attributes”, so, according to Spotify, “it’s music you both can enjoy”.
• Officials in the Chinese city of Suzhou in Anhui province have reportedly apologised after shaming people for wearing pajamas in public. Officials reportedly released images of seven people in their nightwear – labelling it “uncivilised behaviour” – along with their name, ID card and other information. The officials, who have since “sincerely apologised”, had initially argued they were entering a national “civilised city” competition and that residents were banned from wearing pajamas in public. Other behaviour shamed by officials onlune included “lying [on a bench] in an uncivilised manner”.
• A 3.7 metre-long Snickers bar weighing more than 2,100 kilograms has set a new world record for the largest chocolate bar. Produced at the Mars Wrigley factory in Waco, Texas, the bar was created for a commercial which will appear in a Super Bowl ad on 2nd February. The bar, which is equivalent to 43,000 regular-sized bars features the same ingredients as a normal sized bars – milk chocolate, nougat, caramel and peanuts. While it may seem massive, the bar has nothing (size wise, at least) on the world’s longest cake recently made in India – it reportedly measured more than 5,300 metres long!
