What a Weird Week Podcast for Fri Dec 9, 2022: Cocaine Bear! Mystery at the Beach! and, Did you just eat a National Treasure??



 
Hi friends! If you like weird stuff and/or countdowns, it's like this podcast was MADE FOR YOU!! This is the show notes blog for the What a Weird Week Podcast: a countdown of the top 10 weird stories from the news.
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Now, the show notes for Fri Dec 9, 2022, Season 4 Episode 10 ...
 
❿Headline: New York City needs a Rat King or Rat Queen to Rule the Rats!

Notes:
- Good money.
- Weird that they wouldn't just contract out the Rat Situation, right? Instead they need someone to head up an entire Rat Dept.??

Link/media: (https://apnews.com/article/new-york-city-rats-rodents-climate-and-environment-2391acc1f42b5da272ecba59903a3aa3)

 
 
❾Headline: Ripley’s Believe It Or Not! museum in Atlantic City will close down on New Year's Eve.

Notes:
- basically the inspiration for podcasts like this.
- what will happen to the giant Lint Balls and Shrunken Heads?
- specific to this location is a spider made out of knives, and a roulette table made of 14,000 jelly beans.
- I hope when they decomission a RBION location that the get a priest in there to hose the whole place down with Holy water or something...

Link/media: (https://apnews.com/article/oddities-atlantic-city-da9f772759261c5d5a84da1b9ae6ab78)


❽Headline: Your Lunch Might have World Heritage status?!

Notes:
- The United Nations has awarded the baguette with World Heritage Status... that's weird, right?
- the culture minister of France says that bakeries in France are in a “continuous decline” so the people who decide on special food awards added the baguette to the list of culturally important foods.
- What does it mean? As near as I can tell, it means that France can brag about baguettes... maybe call them Braguettes©? There will probably be a Baguette Day or Baguette Festival in France.
- couple neat things from the article... baguettes are long and skinny because of a law in France where bakers couldn't start work before 4am... so they made baguettes skinny so that they would bake faster... also a French supermarket has shaken things up with a 29 cent baguette? what a bargain!

Link/media: (https://apnews.com/article/europe-business-france-paris-cultures-af99d89f1aa2bf57a45c1fb96067928d)



❼Headline: Hospital Patient Arrested for allegedly shutting off their neighbors life support because: those life support deals can be noisy you guys.

Notes:
- happened in Germany.
- a lady in her seventies allegedly turned off the life support machinery of her hospital room neighbor TWICE because... noisy equipment.
- so she did it once ALLEGEDLY, then they told the lady "your neighbor needs that machine on" *paraphrase ... then about an hour lady the accused is said to have turned off the machine again!?!

Link/media: (https://www.cnn.com/2022/12/02/europe/woman-arrest-neighbor-oxygen-machine-scli-intl/index.html)


❻Headline: Reckless Driver turns out to be Dog Behind the Wheel!

Notes:
- from the article "According to police, the steering column had prior damage that apparently allowed the pooch to accidentally place the truck in drive. The leash the dog was wearing is also believed to have gotten caught on the emergency brake, releasing it."
- I'm not buying it... I think the dog had driving rage and targeted those people in that Texas Walmart parking lot but whatever... ALLEGEDELY the dog didn't mean to do it.
- no one was hurt.

Link/media: (https://wreg.com/news/nation-and-world/reckless-driver-turns-out-to-be-dog-behind-wheel-in-texas-crash/)




❺Headline: "‘Not sure what it is:’ Hurricanes unearth large mystery object on Florida beach"

Notes:
- this is in Daytona Beach.
- something became exposed after after hurricanes Ian and Nicole.
- It's some kind of wooden structure but what the heck is it??
- "The long wooden object was found poking out of the sand during low tide after the storms caused large amounts of erosion."
- they're gonna bring in a state archaeologist team.
- comments say it's not a boat, maybe a old boardwalk?

Link/media: (https://www.clickorlando.com/news/local/2022/11/29/not-sure-what-it-is-hurricanes-unearth-large-wooden-object-on-florida-beach/) and Weather Network video: (https://www.theweathernetwork.com/ca/news/article/hurricanes-ian-and-nicole-unearth-mystery-object-in-florida-possibly)



❹Headline: "Alberta researchers discover 2 minerals never before seen on Earth"

Notes:
- meteorite experts from the University of Alberta got a call to help classify this big ol' meteorite from Somalia.
- it's the ninth-largest meteorite ever found... like 15 tonnes!
- the team discovered at least two new minerals.
- this is how it all ends you guys... they discover these new minerals... eventually they discover too late that the minerals somehow enslave us to the alien overlords... classic.
- Think you found a meteorite? Some things to consider...
- Meteorites are usually quite heavy for their size.
- a magnet will stick to most meteorites.
- a lot of meteorites have an irregular shape/ are not round.
- The new minerals have been named elaliite and elkinstantonite.
- that meteorite was a famous big rock for a long time... camel herders used to stop at the rock and sharpen tools on it... for years and years! Finally somebody figured out it was a giant meteorite.
 
Link/media:  story here (https://globalnews.ca/news/9309682/alberta-2-new-minerals-meteorite-somalia/)
how to identify a meteorite here (https://www.usgs.gov/faqs/i-think-i-found-meteorite-how-can-i-tell-sure)



 
❸Headline: Generating Electricity from snow in Japan!

Notes:
- they are conducting a test in Japan until March where they harness the power of snow!
- actually it's the heat differential between snow and its surroundings... they can use the energy potential that is waiting there in the temperature difference and use that to generate electricity!
- they say it'll be cheap and clean energy!! Fingers Crossed!
- imagine if the cost of energy actually got lower in the Winter! ! !
(* if you're our one listener in Australia's Gold Coast, I am sorry.)




 
❷Headline: Cocaine Bear is inspired by real events!!
 
Notes:
- "Nearly 40 years after a 175-pound black bear found and ingested cocaine in a Georgia forest, the drug binge has inspired a movie."
- the trailer for the movie came out and people were like "this can't be true." Mostly those people were right, but there really was a cocaine bear.
 
- the Cocaine Bear movie comes out in February... was directed by Elizabeth Banks... and stars Keri Russell and the late Ray Liotta.
- this movie got made because 40 years ago a ear in Georgia ate a bunch of cocaine. (the bear didn't write the film, just inspired it.)
- the cocaine is believed to have been air-dropped by a drug dealer...
- according to the story in the New York Times Cocaine Bear died from drugs, was stuffed and may have been famously owned by country singer Waylon Jennings before being put on display at a mall in Kentucky.
- So weird you guys!   

 

 
🏆 Honorable Mention Headline: Giant Bee not seen in 40 years has been re-discovered!

Notes:
- it's called Wallace’s giant bee (named after the Naturalist Alfred Wallace).
- it's a very big bee.
- they thought it was extinct.
- an expedition to Indonesia went looking for the giant bee and it's a great read: "The small team searched locations based on local information and accounts of previous discoverers. “It didn’t seem we’d get a result, but on the way home one day, I saw a nest by chance and studied it with my binoculars,” recalls one of the team, local guide Iswan Majuud. “I climbed the tree, and used the torch on my phone to see what was in the hole. I saw something move and jumped down, afraid it was a snake. After catching my breath, I climbed again, and told the team the hole looked wet and sticky. I also saw a black and white creature move inside. They concluded this was a giant bee... Bolt was able to photograph Wallace’s giant bee alive in the wild for the first time."
- This story has everything! Large Bees. Snake Scares. Sticky Holes. Everything!

Link/media: (https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/nov/10/lost-and-found-indonesian-giant-bee-feared-extinct-ebay-aoe)




❶Headline: (Gross Alert!) Man gets parasites after taking revenge on a crab!

Notes:
- a dad and daughter were walking near the water when the daughter got pinched by a crab.
- the dad got so angry that to take revenge on the crab he ate it... right there... he ate a live crab... it was a revenge-eating.
- later he developed back pain and some other issues and doctors figured out that he was infested with at least three different parasites.
- revenge dad is on the mend now.

Link/media: (https://7news.com.au/lifestyle/health-wellbeing/dad-infected-with-parasites-after-wreaking-revenge-on-crab-for-pinching-his-daughter--c-8719887)




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