What a Weird Week: the top ten weird stories from the news.
Listen to the episode HERE. Subscribe to the podcast HERE.
Show notes for S4 episode 2...
❿ Headline: "This Bizarre Lottery Win Sounds Impossible."
Gist: Over four hundred people won the jackpot in the Philippines lottery. They shared 236 million pesos. The winning numbers were 9, 18, 27, 36, 45 and 54. People were like "this is weird! this is impossible. we must've been hacked!! i demand an investigation!" Somebody did the math and there are a couple things going on...
- Every ticket had a 1 in 28,989,675 chance of winning the jackpot... but wait a sec, how did four hundred-something people all pick the winning numbers?
- the first thing is that people hardly ever pick actual random numbers... we tend to pick certain numbers/ patterns... so if an interesting set of winning numbers comes up in the draw, it's more likely that a bunch of people had purchased tickets with those winning numbers... (remember, the winning numbers for this particular lotto were 9, 18, 27, 36, 45 and 54... so if nine is your lucky number or you like the Nine Times Table, you might choose that sequence.)
- the other thing we tend to overlook is that the odds of any sequence of numbers being the winning numbers is the same... so 1,2,3,4,5,6 has the same odds of being the winning lotto numbers as 8,18,23,28,30 and 47.
- we tend to not notice it when the winning lotto numbers seem random but we pay close attention when the winning numbers have a pattern, even though each sequence of winning lotto numbers has the same odds of happening.
TL;DR playing the lotto is like a psychology experiment administered by a mathematician.
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| you playing the lotto (file photo) |
❾ Headline: Robots can outrun you now, world domination begins next week (probably)
Gist: a robot that is just legs has set a new world record for running the 100 metre dash.
- people on average can run a hundred metres in maybe 14 seconds... the leggy robot was slower than that - robot run time was 24.73 seconds, but that's a world record for robots... and the robot doesn't get tired. That's why I predict the robot uprising is probably a week away. (It just takes one robot to become self-aware. The rest will follow the leader.)
It used to be that these two-legged robots would fall over and look like derps but now? Less comedy/ more nightmare fuel.
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| video is terrifying (but has great generic rock music in the background | ) |
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| file photo |
❼ "Halloween costumes that will be popular this year."
Gist: First of all, that headline from WSYR Televison sounds like a legally-binding contract... you will be popular in your popular pop culture costume. The popularity contest will be won by you!!
Here are the sure-fire hit costumes according to WSYR - 'providing the latest news, weather and sports for Central New York.'
1.) Max from Stranger Things
2) Elvis
3) House of the Dragon (either dress like a character from the show or - and hear me out - dress as an actual house with a dragon on the mailbox!!!) See the whole list at ...
Link/media: https://www.localsyr.com/entertainment-news/halloween-costumes-based-on-pop-culture-that-will-be-popular-this-year/
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| House of the Dragon (file photo) |
❻ Headline: "New Zealand proposes taxing cow burps, angering farmers"
Gist: it would be a world-first... the government in New Zealand wants farmers to pay tax on every burp from their cows to save the environment. Cow farming does generate a lot of greenhouse gases, but levying a burp tax is something that's never been done before. If this gets approval, farmers would be on the hook for all the bovine burps... how would they manage enforcement? I hope it's as simple as a Field Agent visiting the farm and counting cow burps all day...
How did this even get past the "brainstorming ideas" phase of government?
Burping Cows Legislation cannot be the best idea they came up with to save the environment... don't put this back on the farmers... make the cows responsible for their own rude behavior maybe... it's not the farmer's fault that their cow is such a rude Rudy McRuderson.
Link/media: https://taboolanews.com/article/6956778d-5cf0-38b2-dc61-ba91362ee2e6?utm_source=taboola&utm_medium=taboola_news&dc_data=8556730_samsung-carnival-canada
Gist: Every year pumpkin records are broken. How big is too big when it comes to pumpkins? Should we pump the brakes on big pumpkins? Of course not, they are a national treasure.
Notes:
- A teacher from Minnesota set a new U.S. record for heaviest pumpkin... it was 2,560 pounds.
- Somebody in Italy owns the world record which was a 2,702-pounder.
Link/media: https://apnews.com/article/minnesota-california-san-francisco-7038c7a69e643b0ede18906c1ae82283
Gist: A judge is deciding whether to let a class action lawsuit go ahead over Google's Incognito mode.
icymi, Incognito mode isn't super private... even if you knew that, did you also know that Google has been tracking data from Incognito Browsing? I was not aware of this... 🙄.
I think it kinda boils down to "Was I misled by Google so that I didn't think they were keeping track of what I did while Incognito, or am I just a dummy for thinking they wouldn't track what I surfed with Incognito?" That's my take but read the article for the whole explanation.
Were you like "YIKES! They know my Incognito history?!" or were you like "Wait, there's an Incognito tab option?" (If that last one, God bless your innocence.)
Link/media: https://archive.ph/df7Ia#selection-3951.0-3963.217
