DAVID ADAMS looks at the odder side of life…
• A South Korean industrial designer has come up with a solution to help “smartphone zombies”, those people endangering themselves and others when walking while staring at their phone screens. Minwook Paeng has developed a robotic eyeball which straps to the person’d forehead and provides a feed to their phone screen. Dubbed “The Third Eye”, it opens a translucent eyelid when it detects the wearer’s head has been lowered to look at their phone. “By presenting this satirical solution, I hope people would recognise the severity of their gadget addiction and look back at themselves,” the 28-year-old told Reuters. We’ll see.
• Bear, a four-year-old German Shepherd, has been hailed a hero after his barking alerted his owner to a fire at a church in New York state. Kim Lewis said she was asleep when she heard her dog’s loud barking and, after opening her blinds, saw the fire at the nearby Yorktown Assembly of God Church in Somers. “I was awakened by Bear, he had an alarming bark, it was very unusual,” Lewis was reported as saying. The building was saved and the damage bill limited to $US50,000. Good job Bear!
• A car park in Hong Kong sold this week for a record-breaking $US1.3 million ($HK10.2 million). The space is reportedly located in a luxury development in the city’s affluent residential area, The Peak, overlooking Victoria Harbour. The price eclipsed that of the previous record for a carpark space – $US980,000 – which was set in late 2018. Speaking of ridiculous prices, news this week that a McDonald’s chicken nugget – which just happened to be shaped like the player characters in the popular video game, Among Us, recently sold for a price just under $US100,000 on eBay. Delivery was promised with the nugget still in an edible condition.
