Double Take

HAIR APPARENT: Darryn Lyons with his new Mohawk and its Mossman creators.(Facebook)

Coffee lovers who thought the soy latte was taking things too far will spit their brew over the latest concoction.

Broccoli lattes are “on the horizon” with a new powder made from the vegetable tormenter of childhood dinners, the CSIRO announced this week.

Apparently researchers are making the ghastly powder form the “imperfect-looking” broccoli that shoppers reject, so it’s a lose-win outcome for everyone.

Fortunately there’s light at the bottom of the coffee cup, with the CSIRO admitting to “mixed reviews” during testing at a Melbourne café.

“Mixed” with barf, that would be.

While the broccoli latte might have found few friends, a certain Geelong identity is certainly winning a few in his new home away from home.

In fact, ex-mayor Darryn Lyons is becoming something of a civic figure around tropical Port Douglas. He was up there again recently, with the locals this time appointing him to a handful of official duties, like judging costumes, at the annual Port Douglas Carnivale.

The recognition must literally have gone to his head because a few days later he dropped into a salon at nearby Mossman where hairdressers restored his famous Mohawk to its brightest of hues.

Given the former Mr Paparazzi’s love affair with Far North Queensland, it looks like Geelong’s now a case of ‘Hair today, gone tomorrow’!

After passing judgement on carnival participants, the mayor-in-exile might have inadvertently handed down an insightful verdict on himself this week.

The ruling came when the social media fanatic retweeted a post about Twitter users typically having a higher IQ but worse rates of insomnia than Facebook fanciers.

“Me on the insomnia,” he commented.

What, not the IQ as well, Daz?

Meanwhile anyone scared of sharks will be terrified to learn of the latest threat at local beaches.

Nurdles! Hundreds, maybe thousands of nurdles!

Nurdles? Well, the name might sound innocent enough but 500 of the tiny building blocks for plastic products were discovered washed up on the high-tide line during a recent Surfrider Foundation clean-up day at 13th Beach.

The foundation’s John Foss was horrified, warning of the “terrible consequences” for animals that mistook the bead-like material as food.

Fair enough, too – our marine life has a hard enough time navigating the usual plastic litter than also having to deal with something that looks like an all-you-can quinoa buffet.

During the Cold War it was all ‘Ban the bomb’ – maybe it’s time for ‘Ban the nurdle’.