DAVID ADAMS looks at the odder side of life…
• Two American men have just smashed what has to be one of the weirdest of the Guinness World Records. David Rush and Jonathan Hannon set a new record – 29 – for the most table tennis balls caught in shaving foam worn on someone’s head in 30 seconds. Rush, who has broken more than 100 Guinness records in promoting STEM education, and Hannon – both from the US state of Idaho – beat the previous record of 22 which had been held by a pair of Swiss men. The balls had to be tossed from at least two metres away.
• A new term has emerged in South Korea as shoppers hit the malls recently following the easing of coronavirus lockdowns – “revenge shopping”. The term, in Korean ‘bobok sobi’ – has been trending on social media but there’s no need for alarm. It simply refers to the bounce-back in spending as people rush to make purchases which have been delayed thanks to social distancing rules. The ‘revenge shopping’ idea is also being seen in China, apparently sparked by comments from Chinese economist Wu Xiaobo who discussed the emergence of “revenge consumption” as far back as February.
• Tanzania has pulled from circulation coronavirus test kits that have returned positive results on samples taken from…a goat and a pawpaw. The discovery came after local security forces were asked to check the quality of the kits. They randomly obtained several non-human samples, including from a pawpaw, a goat and a sheep. The kits themselves were imported from abroad – where exactly has yet to be disclosed.
– with Reuters
