Now you can own your own ‘carpool karaoke’ unit

And other stories from the stranger side of life

James Corden and Tim Cook
(Image credit: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Good news for those who simply cannot get enough of James Corden’s carpool karaoke: the first fully integrated karaoke car system has been unveiled. Passengers will be able to “sing into a microphone that is linked to a car’s audio system as lyrics are played on the dashboard screen”, noted The Times. The technology is a venture between Singing Machine, a US karaoke company, and Stingray, the Canadian music technology venture that provided Corden’s microphone for his viral singalongs with celebrities such as Adele.

Vaccine for bees approved in US

The US government has approved use of the first vaccine for honey bees, reported the BBC. The vaccine, designed to prevent fatalities from American foulbrood disease, could serve as a “breakthrough in protecting honey bees”, said Dalan Animal Health. As pollinators, bees play a critical role in many aspects of the ecosystem but the US has seen annual reductions in honey bee colonies since 2006, according to the US Department of Agriculture.

Huge gingerbread man left behind at hotel

The hotel chain Travelodge has revealed that a pair of Japanese chin puppies and a football-themed wedding cake were among the items left behind at its sites during 2022. Other unusual items included a pair of donkeys named Daisy and Duke, keys to a power boat, an oil painting of Queen Elizabeth II, a matching pair of Segway scooters and a four-foot-tall model gingerbread man, reported UPI.

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Chas Newkey-Burden has been part of The Week Digital team for more than a decade and a journalist for 25 years, starting out on the irreverent football weekly 90 Minutes, before moving to lifestyle magazines Loaded and Attitude. He was a columnist for The Big Issue and landed a world exclusive with David Beckham that became the weekly magazine’s bestselling issue. He now writes regularly for The Guardian, The Telegraph, The Independent, Metro, FourFourTwo and the i new site. He is also the author of a number of non-fiction books.