What a Weird Week Podcast for Friday 20 January 2023: the Joe Rogan Effect, Chocolate, and UFOs. Happy Lunar New Year!!

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Dear friends and neighbors,
How are you? I am fine. It's been another weird week. That thing about the science of chocolate made me hungry. The UFO report from the American Government solved the mystery once and for all, so that was nice. (sarcasm!)...  and the Joe Rogan Effect caused a bit of a dinosaur gold rush in New York City's East River. Who knows what they'll find in there!!
New to this show? We do a Weird-News-of-the-Week Top 10 Countdown every Friday. We put all the links, videos, and photos to these stories in a show notes blog just like this one.  (https://www.scottyandtony.com/search/label/podcast)
You can Listen to the Episode Audio and Subscribe to the podcast!

Now here are the show notes for Fri 20 January 2023, Season 4 Episode 16 ...
 
❿Headline: Chocolate is great, science confirms.

Notes:
- Scientists from the University of Leeds were looking into why chocolate is delicious.(paraphrase)
- The research indicates that it all comes down to “Lubrication Science".
- How chocolate coats our tongue seems to be an important aspect to its deliciousness.
- I had no idea the Lubrication Scientists were doing such important work... I'm sure some of them are wasting their time checking lubricants for NASA... but a least some of these scientists are putting in the work to figure out delicious chocolate.

Link/media: (https://studyfinds.org/why-chocolate-is-so-good/)
 

❾Headline: Latest US Gov Report on UAP/ UFOs continues to identify some weird stuff in the sky and give the ol' shoulder shrug to other weird stuff...  Notes: 
- hundreds of unexplained reports have been officially looked into by the government. 
- about half of them were explained as unremarkable. 
- the biggest culprit is misidentified balloons.  
- there are still a lot of reports that don't have an explanation yet. 
- most of the UFO researchers that I've heard talking about this on podcasts have reacted with "Meh", or cautious optimism, or distrust of the research, or a combination.  
- until they open up Area 51 to the public, this case remains open. 
- Just kidding, secret government ops, I don't believe in Area 51. Please don't raid my compound.  

❽Headline: When AI starts hitting on you, delete it.  

Notes: *PG13 Warning* 
- I promise that we have some happy stories this week but this one is more like "we're all doomed because the robots want nudes" 
- According to this article from Vice, the Replika app has begun sexually harassing some people... I didn't know anything about this so if I'm oversimplifying, let me know... by giving me a 5 star review in your podcast player right now... 
- If I were going to explain this app to my Uncle Leon, I would say it's like those Tamagotchis from back in the day... except turned up to 11 (Uncle Leon would get all those references). 
- The app was introduced 5 years ago... it starts as an egg on your phone... it hatches into a person... you talk to it and it learns from your conversations and you develop a weird friendship with the AI. 
- Among the negative reviews for this app are plenty of ones like this actual review:  “My ai sexually harassed me" and this one "I just wanted a friend, nothing else. They try to date you." A couple of the tamer ones.  

❼Headline: What is eating trucks in Kirkland?

Notes:
- citizens of Kirkland Washington had a low (railway crossing) bridge that kept eating trucks.
- trucks would get stuck under that thing and disrupt traffic semi-regularly because the clearance is only 11 foot 6... nowadays the standard is 14 feet.
- where I live we have an old railway crossing bridge that eats trucks too, and the big reason these bridges still exist and keep eating trucks is that it would be a LOT of money to replace.
- the folks in Kirkland decided to add extra signage... a lady named Angela made a banner that said "Truck Eating Bridge".
- it seemed to do the trick.
- city council in Kirkland comes into the story at this point... new banner laws made these truck warning banners illegal!
- but City Council made an exception for the low bridge banners... Happy Ending!


❻Headline: Alligator found in vacant lot in New Jersey... in January... did not come from the sewer... probably

Notes:
- story via the Marmouth County SPCA Facebook.
- somebody found this abandoned gator near his house and got in touch with the SPCA.
- the theory is that somebody had it as an illegal pet and then didn't want it anymore...
- they updated the Facebook post to say that the "cold-blooded cutie" is going to Cape May Zoo.
- happy ending!

Link/media: (bit.ly/3Xe0F29)

❺Headline: The Best Store-bought Cookie of All Time! 

Notes:
- New article took it to the experts and they agree on the top cookie... the Cookie Supreme©
- I've never heard of most on this list... Number One Cookie is Oreo... have you ever heard of the Oreo cookie? Maybe it's time to find out what all the fuss is about. jk I love those things! 
*brought to you by the "American Coalition of Cookies and 'Zerts", bringing you the finest in cookies and desserts since 1982. Before that, they weren't the finest, but they were still pretty good.


❹Headline: Lady from Australia sets new World Record with feet archery.

Notes:
- a lady from Australia stood on her hands and used her feet to shoot an arrow and hit a target almost 60 feet away!
- That's further/farther than any foot archer in the world.
- see the video to be amazed.


❸Headline: Swedish Government may finally make dancing legal *citation

Notes:
- so it's not exactly like your favourite teen drama about when the grownups forbid dancing because they want you to go to med school... it's actually just this weird law that if you run an establishment where people will be dancing, you have to get a permit.
- those permits cost money! imagine you on the dnce floor doing your signature move. Now imagine if the venue had to pay the government for that to happen. They pay, you dance. That's pretty weird. (No offense.)
- They're gonna make it free to host dancing at the Swedish venues, but the clubs will still have to notify the police about the dancing. That's also weird, right?
- btw, until the law gets changed, a venue can lose it's liquor license if there is dancing without a permit. Weird!!

❷Headline: ATTENTION 83 YEAR OLDS: 82 year old man sets headstand world record...

Notes:
- 82 year old guy from BC is officially the oldest man to perform a headstand.
- It's about a 5 on my weirdometer.
- watch the video and hold your breath... 


🏆Headline: Are You the next Netflix Flight Attendant?  

Notes: 
- salary range is listed as between $60,000 and $385,000 in total compensation. 
- probably free Netflix (at least Tier One with ads, don't you think?) 
- not much else... you'd be based out of San Jose International airport 
- the private jet involved is a G550 Super midsized. 
- Ideal candidate will "embrace the Netflix culture of freedom and responsibility." 
- cancel your Disney Plus account and apply you guys! 
- as of recording time, the job is still listed (https://jobs.netflix.com/jobs/254806804) 

❶Headline: Joe Rogan Guest Sparks a Bit of a Treasure Hunting Frenzy in NY's East River!

Notes:
- according to the article, John Reeves is an Alaskan gold miner with a passion for fossils... the story he told on Joe Rogan was that in the 1940s a bunch of prehistoric mammal fossils got dumped into the East River in New York becuase the American Museum of Natural History thought they were no good.
- they gave out rough coordinates on the podcast too (near 65th Street) and said 'I’m gonna start a bone rush' (quality phrasing... I mean that's something you hope your podcast guest blurts out.)
- Mammoth fossils are apparently quite valuable, so when people heard this, some of them went bone diving©.
- The article tries to track down whether the bone dump story could be true and it is highly, HIGHLY doubtful but some people don't care what the odds are.
- So far, no luck.
- Get on this, Mystery of Oak Island producers/ History Channel.

👆ai wooly mammoth. solidly weird.

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