DAVID ADAMS reports on the odder side of life…
• A British teenager has designed a watch that aims to help people to avoid coronavirus by warning them when they are about to touch their face. Fifteen-year-old Max Melia told CNN he and his mother first came with the idea of a watch which vibrates when people are about to touch their face in 2018 when the family was discussing ways to prevent the spread of colds and flus. But it took on a new urgency when he saw the spread of the coronavirus around the world, particularly after both his parents contracted it. Called VybPro, Melia worked with a product designer to produce a prototype and has now launched a crowd-funding campaign to advance the idea.
In praise of wheat. PICTURE: Melissa Askew/Unsplash
• Turkmenistan’s President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov has used his literary skills to pen a poem praising wheat and the farmers that grow it. Published in a state newspaper, the poem reportedly hails wheat as a “wonderful cereal, miracle seed” and has Berdymukhamedov wishing “success” to the farmers that grow it. Berdymukhamedov told state TV he had been inspired to write the poem by “fields of waving wheat” when travelling around the country.
• The chance to buy an intact town from the hey day of the ‘Wild West’ has come up – in New Zealand. The town of Mellonsfolly Ranch was built in 2006 in the North Island with buildings including a licensed saloon, a courthouse that features a cinema, a sheriff’s office and a billiards lounge as well as residences. All were designed to resemble an 1860s frontier town in the US state of Wyoming. The 364 hectare property, which is being marketed by Sotherbys, currently operates as a boutique hotel and also features a Manuka honey business. It’s listed for $US7.5 million.
