5 things we learned this week

1

The length of popular music tracks has changed a lot over the past few decades. In the early 1960s, the average length was two minutes and 45 seconds, increasing to four-and-a-half minutes in the 1990s, before dipping to around three minutes and five seconds last year. Music has become ‘more danceable’, while the days of the extended guitar solos – think Led Zeppelin’s Stairway To Heaven – appear to be over.

2

Whereas Boris Johnson is reported to have pocketed a £500,000 advance for his memoir, which is anticipated might make him £6million when it is published, his successor as PM, Liz Truss, has just set up a formal vehicle for her extraparliamentary earnings. Her takings so far? Book royalties from 2012 totalling £229.

3

Lebanon’s inflation woes make ours look trifling. Entrepreneur Christian Mischler says he ordered two coffees just under three hours apart in a Beirut cafe. The second cost nearly nine per cent more than the first.

4

Picky singles on dating apps are sending out questionnaires to screen matches before agreeing to

meet. Questions range from the straightforward (are you married?), the more invasive

(are you in therapy?) and the downright bizarre (which way round do you position the loo roll on its holder?). Pop-quiz proponents say that by checking compatibility on these key issues, they can avoid wasting ‘money and good outfits’ on futile first dates. Kennedy, a 26-yearold from Vancouver, tells The Guardian she always asked potential suitors for their take on Taylor Swift. If they responded with anything rude, she would ‘immediately delete them’.

5

A firm is hiring people to eat cheese every night before bed for three months in a bid to debunk the theory that doing so makes people have nightmares. The US company Sleep Junkie says it’ll pay each ‘dairy dreamer’ $1,000 to record how eating pre-slumber cheese might impact their dreams, sleep quality and energy levels.