Thank Goodness for Milk
From New Zealand: a new campaign from dairy brand Anchor to mark World Milk Day.
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Nonsense, but nice
A mechanic from Wales, Dylan Phillips, 38, is in the news for setting a world record by powering his motorised wheelbarrow at a speed of 84 km/h (52 m/h). But it was what he had to say about it that really got my attention.
I’ve always just sort of built mad stuff. I ended up building the wheelbarrow for fun. In a little practice run, messing about, I got 37 mph and then the question got asked if there was a land speed record for it.
So it was just a case of finding out that the record existed and then deciding to actually do something with this idiotic thing that I’d built.
It’s uncomfortable and it’s terrifying. Slowing down is the issue - it's only got brakes at the front.
Touch wood I’ve not come off it or had any mishaps with it, it’s just uncomfortable. It does leave you aching after a couple of runs because it’s got no suspension and it just rattles you to bits.
I feel on top of the world. I mean it’s absolute nonsense really but it’s quite a nice feeling.
Everyone loves it – it’s so stupid. You can’t help but smile when you see it.
Voting is Hot AF
A campaign to encourage young people to get out and vote in the forthcoming general election in the U.K.. To quote one reviewer:
Saatchi & Saatchi commissioned a YouGov poll of 4,200 people to back up its central contention: that politically engaged people make more attractive partners. According to the poll, 40 per cent of Britons aged between 18-24 considered regular voters to be hotter. I double checked the results by commissioning my own poll of employees under 35. Did they think voting was “hot AF”? By a 10-1 margin, they do. However hot voting might be, though, it hasn’t stopped the youth vote plummeting.
ICC-Netanyahu Headline Mix-Up
From India: a headline on the website of leading national daily Hindustan Times that remained uncorrected more than 24 hours after being posted.
Blame it on the menu
From Australia: a series of spots for frozen meals brand On The Menu, intended to encourage Australians “to flip the bird to frozen-meal haters, eating unapologetically”.
Spot 1: Dentist
Spot 2: Dog show
Voice Messages as Voice Memories
From Sweden: Telenor is offering customers the option to download their voice messages as sound files, as a way to preserve voice memories of loved ones who have passed away. And for anyone who wonders about the wisdom of the idea, there’s extensive support material that addresses questions such as how much listening might be too much, and what should one do if listening makes one sad.
‘Brisket Bandit’
A local police department in Wisconsin has posted a video of a theft in progress, along with this message:
Have you seen this brisket bandit? Earlier this week a northside family was smoking a brisket overnight, when an unknown person caught the scent and swindled it while they slept. The suspect entered the victim's back yard, licked their fingers, and made a clean getaway with 12 pounds of smoked deliciousness. If you recognize this meat thief, please contact our non-emergency line or submit a tip to crimestoppers.
Rat-hating mayor ticketed for rat infestation… once again
That’s New York City mayor Eric Adams, who has made rodent mitigation a priority for his administration. For added context, excerpts from the reporting by AP News:
The ticket, first reported by the Daily News, was Adams’ fifth rodent violation since he became mayor in January 2022.
Adams, who now lives in Gracie Mansion, the official mayor’s residence, challenged the previous rat tickets he got at the Brooklyn property.
Three were dismissed, but the mayor paid $300 to settle the fourth. Adams told a hearing officer he had spent $7,000 on rat mitigation at the property.
Adams, a Democrat, frequently proclaims, “I hate rats!” and once tried to prove it by demonstrating a device that drowned them in a vat of caustic liquid.
He appointed the city’s first “rat czar” last year after posting a help-wanted ad seeking applicants who could commit to the “wholesale slaughter” of the pests.
Toilet Blockers Anonymous
From Australia: a new spot for Sydney Water makes great use of humour to compel people to re-think what should and shouldn’t be flushed down the toilet.
McVitie's Holds Biscuit Dunking Contest
McVitie’s UK is on a mission to promote the art of biscuit dunking. A few months back, it appointed a Chief Dunking Officer who then enlightened us with ideal dunk times for its range of biscuits. Its latest step towards its goal has been to hold a ‘National Dunking Championship’. To quote from one report:
Simon Girma, a 35-year-old tea and biscuit enthusiast, has been crowned the winner of the first-ever National Dunking Championship in central London.
The competition, hosted by McVitie's, saw contestants compete in a 'dunk off', where they had to dunk their biscuit in a hot drink for as long as possible without it breaking.
The retrieved biscuit must remain intact or the participant loses the round. The contestant with the most points after three rounds progresses, all under the scrutiny of biscuit experts.
Each round featured a different biscuit, testing the contestants' knowledge of each one's dunking properties. Simon emerged victorious after several intense rounds, including a sudden death tie-breaker. The biscuit that secured his win? The Chocolate Hobnob, a favourite among dunkers worldwide.
Fancy a Bee-r?
Lidl has been marking World Bee Day with a gift for bees. To quote from its website:
As a food retailer, we understand that biodiversity is what allows nature to thrive. Small-but-mighty wild bees play a huge part in this ecosystem – and now more than ever, they need our help! Wild bees are famed for keeping buzz-y pollinating our plants and flowers. This World Bee Day, we want to return the favour! We’re excited to give away six-packs of ‘Bee-rs’ (*cough* inverted sugar syrup), which keen nature-lovers can administer to local bees in need.
This is how they are to be administered:
If you see a bee in need, either not flying or looking tired and slow; on a windowsill or on the floor, please take a Lidl Bee-r to them – but only if there are no flowers around, as nectar is the best option. Our bee-rs provide a temporary energy boost, however, it’s important that bees find a longer-lasting, nutritious source of energy in the form of real flower nectar and pollen!
• Pour a small amount of syrup out of the bottle and onto the ground in front of the bee. This will help to revive them so they can travel to a flower and find a natural food source. The bottles shouldn’t be left unattended for other bees to find, as this causes robbing behaviour and can spread disease.
• You can refill our Bee-r bottles with your own homemade syrup. Simply mix equal parts of white granulated sugar and warm (not boiling) water.
Impressions vs. Reality
A terrific new spot for the Paralympic Games that one reviewer summed up thus:
It's ridiculously adorable. Until it's not, when the film jolts us into the gritty reality of Paralympian life with its live-action second half. It's certainly got us psyched up for the occasion.
Perfume That Smells of Cherry Blossom and Tyre Remnants
I’ll let this report explain:
With the inaugural Shanghai E-Prix this weekend, the Nissan Formula E Team is set to introduce a new gift to its rivals. This unique move sees the introduction of their exclusive fragrance “Smell My Dust”, blending the essence of cherry blossoms with the distinct scent of race-worn tires.
Drivers Oliver Rowland and Sacha Fenestraz are focused on securing maximum points in their final six races of the season. However, off the track, the team is launching a fragrance, “Smell My Dust”, for the race weekend in China. This fragrance combines the allure of Sakura cherry blossoms and the gritty aroma of tire remnants from their Nissan e-4ORCE 04 race cars.
According to a Top Gear report:
Apparently a Shanghai perfumer created the fragrance using real remnants of Formula E-spec tyres, and Nissan tells us the Chinese perfume market is currently booming thanks to “Gen Z’s obsession with niche fragrances”. There’s niche, and then there’s wanting-to-smell-like-a-floral-burnout niche.
Adding to the intrigue, the promotional videos range from straight to satirical.
The ‘glue’ that binds AI
A few months ago, we had the news that Google had struck a US$60 million deal with Reddit to access the latter’s user posts, to train its AI engine. Last week, we had the news that OpenAI had also struck a deal with Reddit, without any mention of the financial terms. Well, this week, social media users have been sharing an example of how Google AI may have found itself in a sticky situation, so to speak, by relying on the ‘wisdom’ of Reddit users. As NY Post reported:
One widely circulated screenshot showed Google’s AI-generated response to a search for the query “cheese not sticking to pizza.”
Google responded by listing “some things you can try” to prevent the issue.
“Mixing cheese into the sauce helps add moisture to the cheese and dry out the sauce,” Google’s AI Overview said. “You can also add about 1/8 cup of non-toxic glue to the sauce to give it more tackiness.”
Some users traced the bizarre response to an 11-year-old post on Reddit by a user named “F—ksmith,” who gave a nearly verbatim answer to the same question about cheese sliding off pizza.
Baguette-scented Stamp
From France: the French postal service La Poste has issued a stamp that gives off the scent of a baguette when rubbed. As reported on the Fast Company website:
Leave it to the French to find a way to pack the aroma of a freshly baked baguette into a postage stamp. La Poste, the French postal service, is out with scratch-and-sniff stamps of their best-known bread with art from Paris-based artist Stéphane Humbert-Basset. The stamps depict a baguette wrapped in a blue, white, and red ribbon and the text “La baguette, de pain française,” for “The baguette, the French bread.”
The “bakery” scent is made using microcapsules, according to the Le Carré d’encre, a Paris stationary shop. “The difficulty for us is to apply this ink without breaking the capsules, so that the smell can then be released by the customer rubbing on the stamp,” printer Damien Lavaud told the BBC.
Notably, the product description on the La Poste website (machine translated) reads like a paean to the baguette. To quote:
It is the promise of a delectable sensory experience. At sight, she seduces by her golden crust and her scoring, signatures of the baker. Exit from the oven, its grilled scents appreciably. To the touch, it is a transition from the resistance of its crust to the lightness of its cellular crumb. The act of breaking it offers a delicious symphony due to its so characteristic cracking. With every bite, its authentic taste is revealed. As a sharing food, the baguette accompanies us from breakfast to dinner, lying at the heart of meals and remaining a constant invitation to conviviality.
Drunk Monkey goes on Jealous Rampage
Excerpts from a news report:
A scorned, drunk money reportedly went on a wild revenge spree and bit five people after becoming jealous of his owner's partner.
Garik, a monkey from the village of Myliki, Komsomolsk-on-Amur, Russia, escaped from his owner, Anna, on Friday after her husband let him out of his cage, Russian outlet Knife Media reported.
The monkey reportedly grabbed an open bottle of whiskey, which he sipped from, and then ran outside and started his wild rampage.
The escaped monkey sunk his teeth into five people, including a pregnant woman and a local journalist who was bit on the lip and had stitches, according to the local Telegram channel, Amur Mash.
Garik's bad behavior reportedly started two years ago when his owner, Anna, got married. He became jealous and exhibited aggressive behavior.
Something spreading in Scotland
A GP’s office is the unlikely setting in this new spot for Irn-Bru that celebrates Scotland’s qualifying for the Euros.