The weekly weird

Published February 11, 2023

Company offers $1,000 to eat cheese before bed

A mattress-reviewing website is seeking study participants willing to get paid $1,000 to eat cheese snacks before going to sleep.

Sleep Junkie is seeking five “dairy dreamers” for a study that seeks to address the commonly held belief that consuming cheese or other dairy products before bed leads to nightmares.

The dairy dreamers will be asked to track their sleep and provide written evaluations of their sleep quality, energy level throughout the day, and reports on dreams and nightmares after consuming various cheese products before going to sleep.

“We’re also aware that it isn’t just nightmares that can play havoc on a good night’s sleep, so we wanted to see if there was a link between the different types of cheese and other symptoms that can leave you feeling unrested,” Sleep Junkie spokeswoman said in the announcement.

15-million-year-old megalodon tooth found

Molly Sam­pson, a Maryland nine-year-old searching for shark teeth on a beach, discovered a 15-million-year-old megalodon tooth.

“I couldn’t believe it! I usually find little ones, I never thought I would find a big one like that,” said Sampson, hopes to become a palaeontologist when she grows up.

Sampson took her discovery to the Calvert Marine Museum in Solomon’s Island, where experts confirmed it was an ancient megalodon tooth.

“Based on where she found it on Calvert cliff, we estimate that it’s about 15 million years old,” said Stephen Godfrey, the museum’s curator of palaeontology.

GWR for most dogs in a conga line

Wolfgang Lauenburger, a German national, earned the record for most dogs in a conga line when his 14 trained canines arranged themselves into the party dance formation under his instruction.

What is interesting to note is that Wolfgang Lauenburger, an accomplished trainer with multiple Guinness World Records, took the record from his own daughter, Alexa Lauenbruger, who managed to get 9 dogs into a conga line in February 2020.

The dogs who formed the conga line for Lauenbruger’s record attempt are named Emma, Filou, Fin, Simon, Susy, Maya, Ulf, Speck, Bibi, Katie, Jennifer, Elvis, Charly and Cathy.

Wolfgang seems to have taught his pack of dogs how to do the conga dance after rigorous training.

World’s largest spice painting

A British Columbia artist earned a Guinness World Record when she used spices to paint a butterfly measuring 908.39 square feet.

Preethi Vijay used turmeric, paprika and clove in her painting, which Guinness World Records confirmed to be the world’s largest spice painting.

Vijay, a former software engineer, is a self-taught artist who now sells her works on social media. She became interested in working with natural materials.

“I love to work with coffee,” Vijay told. “Then I suddenly had this idea to work with spices like turmeric, paprika — vibrant colours.”

The giant cloth for her record-breaking spice painting was sourced from her hometown of Chennai, India, and her paint was made from a mixture of 11 pounds of spices.

Published in Dawn, Young World, February 11th, 2023

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