What a Weird Week for January 8, 2022: Secret Moon Base is a Rock, Famous Stolen Car Found!

 
 
 


Welcome back to What a Weird Week, the countdown of weird stories from the news. 
See (Shownotes.page) for shownotes and podcast links. 
Here are your Episode 3.16 stories:

10 Secret Moon Base Turns Out to be a Rock:
China's Lunar Rover is on the moon and taking names, y'all. There was a photo from far away that looked like a cube structure on the moon and the rover started heading towards it to confirm whether it was a secret moon base or other... it takes so darn long for the rover to get anywhere - if you were holding your breath you would've passed out for sure. Rover finally gets to the strange cube shape and it is just a moon rock. Are you disappointed or relieved? Or still suspicious!?

9 Goldfish passes driving test!
If you were picturing a fish with a tiny racing helmet and goggles... this story is a huge disappointment... the goldfish is in a fishbowl, the fishbowl is on a small electric platform with wheels... they aimed cameras at the fish and the little platform moved according to how the fish was swimming. Underwhelmed compared to to my fish-in-a-tiny-racecar scenario. 
Anyway, the takeaway is that goldfish can learn to drive.
(study funded by Uber* ... *jk)

8 Skateboard your way to Happiness!
Oldsters like myself should consider skateboarding if we are sad according to a new study... 
- it's great that they are always looking for ways to improve our mental health
- here's a quote from the researcher: "Skateboarding provides a serious emotional outlet for people who have experienced personal trials in the collapse of long-term relationships, career challenges, parenthood and substance abuse,"
- seems like some serious issues - so check with your mental health professional before self-diagnosing and prescribing yourself a skateboard...
7 FBI arrest a guy accused of serious book thievery!
*serious thievery, not thievery of serious books...
Here's the quote: "the Federal Bureau of Investigation arrested Filippo Bernardini, a 29-year-old rights coordinator for Simon & Schuster UK, saying that he “impersonated, defrauded, and attempted to defraud, hundreds of individuals"
- what has been happening is somebody has been emailing authors... that somebody would pose as a legit publishing industry exec... and end up getting manuscripts from authors!
- Learn from this: one of the tricks was sending emails from fake domains... like instead of "RANDOMHOUSE" the email would come from "randornhouse" which looks legit if you don't have your glasses on.
- Ethan Hawke and Margaret Atwood are named in the story as authors who've been targeted.
- Ethan Hawke, yes, that Ethan Hawke.
6 the Fifa World Cup Stadium is portable?
- it's called Stadium 974 and is made from 974 shipping containers 
- 974 is also the long-distance area code for Qatar who is hosting
- they can take the stadium apart and send it anywhere in the world... I think they're leaning into the Reduce/Reuse/Recycle aspect of a shipping container stadium
- i don't know how to feel about World Cup Soccer/ Football... I don't follow the sport, I can't remember where we are as far as 'the whole thing is corrupt', and also is this stadium a good thing or publicity stunt? 
 
5 That Lady who got Married to Pink!
(not the singer named Pink, the actual colour named pink.)
- Lady's name is Kitten Kay Sera (que sera?)
- may have been some kind of publicity stunt
- if it was a publicity stunt, it worked... a lot of people picked up the story
- lady claims she's loved the color for 40 years, so decided to get married to the color in Las Vegas
Congratulations to the happy couple! BTW, this lady has a blue checkmark on her Insta and is listed as a public figure... she knows whatsup (https://linktr.ee/kittenkaysera)
4 The Question on Everyone's Mind this week:
"Do You Have What It Takes To Be A PLANTERS® Brand Peanutter?"
The folks at Planters have a Nutmobile, which is a giant motorized peanut. They need peanut pilots, which they call Peanutters (peanut pilot seems better to me).
It sounds like a pretty great gig... they're looking for recent college grads, preferably with an interest in marketing... do you think there'll be psychological testing to make sure you're not prone to driving rage? because driving a giant motorized peanut angrily would be bad publicity... also, show of hands, how many of us secretly want to see the Peanutmobile involved in a bank robbery getaway/ high speed chase situation? (puts both hands up)
Click "BeAPeanutter.com" for job details.
3 The new BMW that changes colours...
At the Consumer Electronics Show last week one of the things that got reported on was a BMW that can change colours... here's the quote from Tech Radar: "The customized, fully electric BMW iX has body panels made from E Ink displays - the same technology you find in the screen of a Kindle ereader - in a system it's calling 'iX Flow'.
The modified BMW iX can switch from white to black and back at the press of a button. Sign us up, we're sold."
This is a huge breakthrough for bank robbers and getaway drivers who have to change the appearance of their vehicle quickly. 
2 They are working on a smart retainer you guys...
Someone who worked on those Google glasses (Google Glass, remember?) is now working on an E-retainer (not the real name... also... a terrible and hilarious name)... a retainer that you can send text messages with! Text-with-your-tongue technology is so close you guys! SO CLOSE!! 
1 They've recovered a stolen car that's worth 25 million dollars!
It was stolen in 1997 from an airport hangar. It's a James Bond Aston Martin from the movie Goldfinger. This is pretty cool... the car was tracked down by Art Recovery International... they recover stolen luxury items... there's a whole organisation that tracks down stolen luxury items! They're not saying exactly where the car is yet, somebody has it and it sounds like the Art Recovery International folks are hoping this person who has the stolen car will just do the right thing and give it back... to be continued... 
Side note: I hope they make a movie about Art Recovery International because it sounds fantastic... if you listen to the Scriptnotes podcast... sometimes they get into how to turn a news item into a screenplay... let's get on this one! (https://johnaugust.com/) 

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