QUIRKY WORLD ... Still in nappies, toddler DJ leaves fans in a spin
DJ AJ has won sponsorship deals on the back of his performances, most recently at a shopping centre in Johannesburg where a crowd gathered around the toddler as he bopped his head to the beat, his large headphones slipping off.
Oratilwe Hlongwane is still learning to put together words, but the boy is already able to select and play music from a laptop and has become a viral phenomenon on South Africa’s social media.
His mother, Refiloe Marumo, credits his father’s decision to buy an iPad for his then unborn son. Glen Hlongwane planned to download educational apps to speed up his child’s education. Hlongwane, a gymnastics coach and aspiring DJ, also downloaded a disc jockeying app for himself.
At about a year old, DJ AJ learned how to manipulate the gadget. Not satisfied with number recognition games, he began to fiddle with his father’s DJ app.
The parents were amazed when their son, still in nappies, repeated what he had learned on the app on actual DJ equipment, playing with sound effects and bouncing between songs. A mobile phone video of him playing went viral and now DJ AJ has nearly 25,000 Facebook fans.
His new-found fame has brought special appearances and sponsorship deals many older DJs dream of. But celebrity has also brought some criticism as some accused his parents of abuse and profiting from their child’s precocious ability.
“I’m not going to exploit my kid,” said his father. DJ AJ’s parents will not allow him to play in clubs or at parties.
Hlongwane and Marumo are adamant they will not force their son to be a DJ when he grows up, but say they believe his affinity for electronic equipment will probably decide his future.
Hlongwane said: “I can see a future Bill Gates here.”
New arrival for safari park
Keepers at a Scottish safari park are celebrating the arrival of its first Humboldt penguin chick in two years.
The two-week-old chick is doing well after hatching on March 29 at Blair Drummond Safari Park near Stirling.
The chick is being looked after by foster parents Freckles and Sheldon who took on the job of incubating and rearing the youngster after its biological parents abandoned the egg.
Penguin keeper Coni McEwan said the chick, which has not yet been named as keepers are still to determine its sex, is putting on weight at a good rate.
She said: “It only weighed 85 grams after hatching and after today’s weighing in is just shy of 280 grams or 14 penguin biscuits.
“The chick is starting to become very vocal and is moving around a lot more.”
Park manager Gary Gilmour said: “We can’t name the chick just now until we know the sex, as both sexes look the same it is very difficult to know. The only way to find out is to take a blood sample for DNA which will be in 10 weeks’ time when the chick fledges and leaves the nest.
“Until then it will remain in its nesting box behind the scenes until it’s fully fledged, as its feathers have to be totally waterproof before using the main pool area.”
Humboldt penguins are named after the Humboldt current which runs from the Antarctic to the equator along the west coast of South America.
A taste of the east
Two of Russia’s best-known movie directors are aiming to create a chain of fast-food restaurants that would be an alternative to Western-style operations such as McDonald’s.
The move by brothers Nikita Mikhalkov and Andrei Konchalovsky comes amid growing animosity toward the West, especially the US, over the conflict in Ukraine. But even before those tensions, many Russians watched uneasily as Western fast-food outlets spread.
Mikhalkov and Konchalovsky proposed the project, called Eat at Home, in a letter to President Vladimir Putin last month that said the goal was “the creation of an alternative to Western fast-food chains”.
The business news agency RBC reported that the government will back a bank loan of 680m rubles (€12m) for the project.
Long journey
A 25ft chunk of fibreglass boat spotted drifting off the central Oregon coast is believed to be debris from the 2011 Japanese tsunami.
Chris Havel, of the Oregon Parks and Recreation Department, said the debris was spotted a few miles offshore. A team of Oregon state agencies is working to retrieve the vessel chunk before it reaches land.
The plan is to tow the boat segment to the port of Newport for temporary storage. Mr Havel said it will be removed from the water, studied, dismantled and taken to a landfill site. Several live yellowtail jack fish on board will be delivered to the Oregon Coast Aquarium.
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