DAVID ADAMS reports on the odder side of life…
• An Australian White’s treefrog from Florida has been selected as the Cadbury Bunny for this Easter in the US. The company announced this week that Betty the frog had received the popular vote to represent the company this year following an online competition, the ‘Cadbury Bunny Tryouts’, in which she beat more than 12,000 entries (and the 10 finalists which included a donkey, a goat and a miniature horse). Betty, who makes history as the first female, smallest creature and first amphibian to win the honour, receives a $US5,000 cash prize and will now star in a TV commercial for Cadbury (the company is also donating . It is the third time Cadbury have run the competition in the US. The nocturnal Betty, who is not yet a year old, apparently “enjoys snacking, bathing in her favorite bowl, jumping around and hanging out with her fellow frog friends”.
• Winning second prize in a beauty contest and receiving a bank error in your favour are out. Being rewarded for shopping locally and or organising a family reunion may well be in. Monopoly, which turns 86 this year, is undergoing a makeover and updating its 16 Community Chest cards, replacing the traditional cards with those that “help reflect what community means in their real lives”. Hasbro, the company behind the game, is asking for the help of players in deciding the new cards by casting their votes on the website MonopolyCommunityChest.com.
• The first ever tweet – made by Twitter founder Jack Dorsey – has sold for more than $US2.9 million. Published on 21st March, 2006, the tweet has been sold as a digital asset known as a non-fungible token or NFT which runs on blockchain, a digital ledger that verifies authenticity. The tweet, which Dorsey had digitally autographed, read “just setting up my twttr”. The tweet, which was bought by Sina Estavi, the CEO of Bridge Oracle. “This is not just a tweet! I think years later people will realize the true value of this tweet, like the Mona Lisa painting,” Estavi said later on Twitter.
