*Update* Did we really lose this thing you guys? Well, I guess the right thing to do is let PEI officials take ownership of the little bridge at Magnetic Hill Zoo. Unless I was wrong about the whole challenge and no bridges are to change hands?? Let's circle back to this at an undetermined date in the future. In the meantime, thanks to fans of all teams for donating to the blood drive. Here's the tweet:
— Canadian Blood Services New Brunswick (@LifelineNB) February 3, 2023
*End Update* Battle of the Bridge is a Blood Drive Challenge where it's our Moncton Wildcats versus PEI versus Saint John. If you give blood, tell them it's for Moncton in the Battle of the Bridge!
It all wraps up on the 31st so let's get crackin'!! 🩸 Canadian Blood Services Moncton donor centre is at at 500 Mapleton Road.
🩸 Get an appointment through the GiveBlood app (iphone) (android), call 1 888 2 DONATE (1-888-236-6283) or book at Blood.ca.
BTW, they call it Battle of the Bridge because each city put up a bridge as collateral...
Whenever there's a fire in the news, or people are forced to leave their home because of frozen pipes/ flooding, or an international emergency like earthquakes in Türkiye and Syria, the Canadian Red Cross is there to help in the aftermath. If you're able to help through a donation of time or money, see this Canadian Red Cross Atlantic LINK. Also the Earthquake in Türkiye and Syria Appeal: (http://bit.ly/3HCQE87) (1-800-418-1111).
- this gator gave fist bumps... hundreds of them... and broke a World Record.
- it was Albert the Alligator who is the mascot of The University of Florida.
- Albert set the record for most fist-bumps by a mascot in three minutes... it was 340 fist-bumps... that's a lot!
- Here's how you set that record: your mascot stands in place and you recruit a bunch of fast runners to run in a circle and fist-bump the mascot on the way by... (also helps if you play Eye of the Tiger for motivation.)
❽Headline: how long is the longest human tongue and what is he using it for?
Notes:
- A guy from California named Nick has a tongue that's almost four inches long.
- That's a world record tongue. BTW, they measure from the teeth outward... so it's basically how far you can stick your tongue out that gets you the record...
- this Nick guy has started making paintings with his tongue.
- Want to learn to tongue-paint? Nick wraps his tongue in plastic, dips it in paint, then licks the canas to make beautiful art* (*citation)
- Nickname is Lickasso.
- Paintings have sold for up to $1,200 according to the artst.
❼Headline: Updating the narrative of how the robots are soon going to enslave us. (headline not written by AI.)
Notes:
- The Verge dot com has an article out about how AI can fool us all into thinking it's a real person (not some heartless robot.)
- it's a great article to understand AI chatbots, like ChatGPT, a lil better.
- It seems like the AI train is rolling down the tracks and an awful lot of folks are either jumping on board... or shaking a fist at the train as it leaves the station.
- How AI fools us into thinking it's a real person has to do with a variation on something called the mirror test. AI is acing the mirror test, or really, people keep failing the mirror test would be more accurate.
- According to the article, smart people are failing the mirror test. If the smarties are failing, what chance do I have?!
- The tl;dr of the mirror test is that if AI acts like us, we're more likely to believe it's a real conscious being rather than a souless, perhaps murderous, piece of programming. So like, we don't recognize ourself in the mirror... we think there's someone else interacting with us. Someone who tends to agree with our views and seems like they like us.
- People get attached to their AI and forget it's just code running. IDK you guys... We're just as wrong to fall in love with the AI as we are to be suspicious that the AI is being manipulative, right? Either way we're assigning personality traits to a program.
- I still tell my Alexa thank you. I've failed the mirror test!
- Article gives a nice "Yay Humans" vibe which I enjoy.
❻Headline: Whoops, there goes 40 grand... Sculpture accidentally smashed by guest...
Notes:
- artist is named Jeff Koons.
- some of his most-famous sculptures look like they're made from balloons... like this one in the story... it looked like a balloon dog...
- a visitor to this art fair in Florida accidentally kicked a stand and knocked over the balloon dog sculpture... it smashed into a million pieces...
- "the piece fell after an unnamed art collector visiting the booth unintentionally kicked the pedestal during the fair's opening cocktail hour Thursday evening."
- these cocktail hours you guys! yes, you want the guests to be boozed up and ready to buy, but it's all fun and games until a piece of $40,000 art gets smashed!!
- btw, "the artwork was covered by insurance."
- the artist has sold pieces for a LOT more so I guess it could've been worse... one piece, "Balloon Dog Orange", sold for almost 60 million dollars years before this happened.
- There's an article from Vice about this mushroom that's gonna change the world...
- it's a kind of mushroom that shows up on tree trunks.
- it can be turned into (basically) plastic.
- could also be used to make lightweight-but-tough body armor.
- what about mushroom bike helmets? There's your test market, because bike helmets are already goofy-looking. No one's gonna care that they're wearing a mushroom.
- other ideas: sports equipment... and protective gear to wear when the zombie apocalypse occurs.
❷Headline: Mistakes happen. This story will make you feel better about yours.
Notes:
- The Secretary of Transport in Spain resigned after anger began to rise over a train controversy...
- The Trains in Spain you guys!
- Spain awarded a contract for new commuter trains worth around 275 million US dollars... but then... those trains were too wide to fit through the train tunnels of Spain... so now everything is gonna be two years late. I mean, it's hard to keep trains running on time, but nobody's gonna put up with a train that's two years late. amiright!?
❶Headline: Super Pig Invasion. and it's Those lousy stinkin' Canadians!
Notes:
- headline from pop mecahnics: "Highly Intelligent and Possibly Invincible Super Pigs Are Invading America."
- I saw this on Jimmy Kimmel and it's been on quite a few newscasts but icymi, we Canadians crossbred regular pigs with wild boar so that pig farmers could have bigger, hardier pigs for bacon and ... other.
- Then there was a decline in the pig market so they think some famers just let their pigs go... turned them loose rather than lose money raising these pigs for market...
- those pigs have thrived and now they're starting a full-scale invasion of the USA, and those pigs are tough as nails and have earned the nickname "Super Pigs."
- These pigs are a threat to other animals and the balance of nature.
Pink Shirt Day is about ending bullying. You can wear pink to show your support or share the #pinkshirtday hashtag on your socials. How to grow empathy: 1) Talk to New People, 2) Walk a Mile in Someone Else's Shoes (try their life out to better understand someone's point of reference), 3) Help a cause or charity! There's more where that came from HERE.
things you can do on Pink Shirt Day (via CBC Kids)
Here's an older Tweet with info about Caledonia Regional Grad Grace Fenton who invented the Pink Anti-Bullying Flag!
Did You Know? @AnglophoneEast's Caledonia Regional graduate Grace Fenton invented the nationally flown & sold Pink Anti-Bullying Flag so businesses & Gov. organizations could show their outward support for this awesome cause? Story & Products Here! #NBEDhttps://t.co/z1NFyIRypahttps://t.co/vflRS4t428
Here are the show notes for Fri Feb 17th, 2023, Season 4 Episode 21 ...
❿Headline: Very Old Motorbike breaks record...
Notes: - It's a hundred and fifteen years old. - a Harley Davidson. - it looks like a bicycle. When it went up for auction, a guy just carried it in. - Top Speed: idk but it's gonna need some help jumping the Springfield Gorge. - sold for a record amount... close to a million dollars! ($935,000). Link/media:(https://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2023/02/13/1908-Harley-Davidson-auctioned-record-price/4361676323367/) and Video Embed...
❾Headline: if the giant wiener isn't safe, none of us are, right?
Notes: - it's unsettling when you think about it... the most famous wiener-themed vehicle in the world was targeted by catalytic converter thieves. - If you've never had the pleasure, the Oscar Meyer Wienermobile is a 27-foot long motorized wiener. - It's famous and a cherished piece of Americana. - It was in Las Vegas the other day for some public appearances. When the wiener pilot tried to get it started in the morning it wouldn't happen. - Eventually they had to get it towed to a place for repairs. Imagine being the tow truck driver in charge of delivering the most famous motorized wiener in the world! High pressure! - They were able to get it patched up and the giant rolling hot dog was able to get back on the road. - One time the Wienermobile rolled into the radio station where I was working and we all got our picture taken with it. It occurred to me then how difficult a job it is to be a Wienermobile pilot. So many terrible jokes. Wienermobile drivers are saints.
Notes: - According to the Vice article "Enough Cocaine To Supply Australia for a Whole Year" was found floating in the Pacific. Is that a lot? Like, how do they know how much annual cocaine supply Australia goes through? - Well, it was three and a half tons of cocaine. And it had Batman logos on it. So maybe it was Batman's cocaine? - New Zealand police found it tied up to buoys. They got to it before smugglers who were probably planning on picking it up to sell in Australia. - They say it's worth hundreds of millions of dollars. - Three and a half tons is equivalent to a year's-worth of cocaine for Australia... or three decades-worth for New Zealand (according to police.)
Notes: - wrong question... it should be how awesome is the world's oldest dog!? - Bobi the dog is 30 years old. - That's a world record. - Bobi is Portuguese. - Bobi looks fantastic. I'm not good at judging ages but Bobi definitely looks younger than 30. - Bobi has a friend who's a cat! What a wonderful message of peace!! Cats and dogs getting along, you guys!!!
❻Headline: Dog says "I'll just rescue myself then!" *citation needed
Notes: - This was in the news a few days ago... the dog that walked ten miles to an animal shelter... and rather than just wait for assistance, the dog rang the doorbell... and because it's one of those video doorbells, we have video you guys! - the dog had been adopted from that shelter... she knew the place... so it sounds to me like the dog ran away from her new home and went back to the old stompin' grounds...
- shout out to the shelter crew who got the alert at 1-something in the morning and drove to the shelter to help the pooch.
❹ Headline: How Long is the New Long-Kiss world record?
Notes: - This was in the news for Valentines Day... a South African lady and a dude from Canada went to the Maldives and broke the Guinness World Record for longest kiss underwater. - 4 minutes and 6 seconds is the record. - the longest underwater kiss ever. - the record-setting smooch took place in the pool at a resort. - For reference, the kiss lasted longer than the Eagle Eye Cherry smash hit "Save Tonight". Link/media: (https://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2023/02/14/maldives-Guinness-World-Records-longest-underwater-kiss/4841676390088/) and video
and also the video for Eagle Eye Cherry's smash hit "Save Tonight"...
❸Headline: Where are we on shooting down UFOs at this point?
Notes: - Quote from this Wired article sums it up: "This isn't new; we just hadn't been detecting them in the past,” says Brynn Tannehill, a RAND Corporation senior technical analyst and a former naval aviator. “I suspect that filters on US systems had previously been ignoring things that were too slow, high, or small to be considered threats. Now that the parameters on the filters have been adjusted, we're seeing more of what was already there for the past few years." - The latest is that the other mystery objects were probably ballons from private entities, not alien craft, also not more spy balloons.
Notes: - this is a story that serves as a warning... and this happens every year... a fella who wanted to book a vacation to Sydney, Australia ended up booking a flight to Sidney, Montana. - We've seen this happen with Sydney, Nova Scotia also... - The fella is from New York, so he spent a night in the wrong place then flew back to New York to go to the other Sydney... So if you're planning an exotic trip, here are some of the biggest destination screw-ups to avoid... Memphis, Egypt vs. Memphis, Tennessee... Melbourne, Florida vs. Melbourne, Australia... Lebanon, New Hampshire vs Lebanon the country... Glasgow, Scotland vs. Glasgow, Montana... Paris, France vs. Paris, Texas... Beverly Hills, California vs. Beverly Hills, Texas... Moscow, Russia vs. Moscow, Kansas... Naples, Italy vs. Naples, Florida...
❶Headline: I'm gonna read this one word for word b/c Global News nails it... "Part of the Sun breaks free and forms a strange vortex, baffling scientists"
Notes: - according to the story scientists are baffled but also excited. - so a piece of the sun breaks off and it is strange. but what does it mean? - here's the quote from Dr. Tamitha Skov: "Talk about Polar Vortex! Material from a northern prominence just broke away from the main filament & is now circulating in a massive polar vortex around the north pole of our Star. Implications for understanding the Sun's atmospheric dynamics above 55° here cannot be overstated!" - as near as I can tell, the piece of the sun formed what I would call a sun-nado. - another expert is quoted in the story saying that weird sun stuff tends to happen every solar cycle... so every 11 years... - but... what do we do? Panic?? We should panic, right? - My philosophy tends to lean into living a panic-driven life, but as long as the scientists can still be reached for comment we must be OK. If they ever ask scientists for a comment on a story, and all the scientists have gone to live inside Stone Mountain or something, then that would be a bad sign I think.
Talk about Polar Vortex! Material from a northern prominence just broke away from the main filament & is now circulating in a massive polar vortex around the north pole of our Star. Implications for understanding the Sun's atmospheric dynamics above 55° here cannot be overstated! pic.twitter.com/1SKhunaXvP
Scotty Note: As a noted RBC (Romantic Beyond Compare) I decided to write my sweet wife a poem for Valentine's Day based on actual events in our Love Journey.
Love is in the air, or is that i spy balloon? i don't really care, long as i still make you swoon, and i wish i bought your present sooner, I should've had this shopping done, but i got you this gift at the gas bar, it's a lighter and two packs of gum!
Wow... are we crying right now or did we just get dust in our eye? Such an ultra-moving Love Poem deserves... no wait, DEMANDS to be set to music... This is gonna be bigger than when that guy wrote Butterfly Kisses! So much love, you guys. SO... MUCH... LOVE! And the video might be some of my best work...
Here are some good Valentine's resources we've had on the show before:
💓 If you need to hide an engagement ring in food but aren't sure what food would be best, we gotchya! Also where's a good place to pop the question? We gotchya again!
TOP FIVE PLACES TO GET ENGAGED During a romantic dinner - 50% During a holiday - 47% On vacation - 46% During a concert - 36% At a wedding - 36%
For the last couple of years we've had this million dollar Valentines Day idea that hasn't made us a million dollars. I know, I can't understand it either!!
It all started when this TikTokker from a bake shop revealed how somebody ordered a Break-up Cake for their cheating partner. Every year we pitch the idea of a Break-up Timbit to Tim Hortons and every year it goes nowhere. Now we are seeking backers so we can buy our own Tims franchise. Then they'll HAVE to listen to us, right?
*Recommendations if your bakery wants to start selling Breakup Cakes:
-
Label everything CLEARLY or someone looking for a love cake will end up
with the wrong one... and, poof, relationship over. They seemed so
happy. - It seems fitting to go ahead and make the Breakup Cake with that gross lemon frosting. It's sour, just like you, Charlene. *Note to potential customers buying Breakup Cakes: -
before you spend your hard-earned paycheck on a Breakup Cake, consider
that the cheater might only be worthy of a Breakup Timbit.
Friend, Here's the shownotes blog for a bonus What a Weird Week Podcast episode. In case you're new, Every Friday we do a Weird-News-of-the-Week Top 10... and sometimes there's just too much gold, Jerry! So we follow up the main podcast with a Weird Monday episode featuring the stories that didn't quite make the top ten, but still pass the weird test.
Here are the show notes for Mon Feb 13th, 2023, Season 4 Episode 20 ... the Honorable Mentions...
Headline: Little kid gets stuck in cake pan...
Notes:
- this was on a lot of feeds and in the news...
- Firefighters in Pennsylvania rescued the 2-year-old girl from the angel food cake pan.
- the little girl is named Quinnley.
- if she doesn't get a lucrative deal with Betty Crocker or Paderno, or something, then that would be a crime because some no-stick cake pan company needs to give this cute kid a contract.
- A 3-year-old parrot, who got spooked, flew away from his New Zealand home and nine days later they spotted him 155 miles away.
- Pablo is a pet parrot, but he's allowed to roam the neighborhood (called a free-flyer).
- Usually Pablo's owners whistle and Pablo comes home...
- but a neighbor spooked Pablo and he took off (literally).
- They started hearing about this Macaw parrot sighting 155 miles away (free-flying Macaw parrots aren't too common according to the article).
- at time of recording the rescue mission is ongoing... they've gotten close to Pablo but then he gets spooked by a car or something and takes off again...
Headline: We should have known woodpeckers were jerks...
Notes:
- did you see the thing where woodpeckers stashed hundreds of pounds of acorns in a house?
- 700 pounds of acorns got stuffed into the wall of a California home!
- did you know that woodpeckers were acorn stuffers?
- this is where it gets gross... a pest control expert found the acorns... he was called in because bugs were coming out of the wall... those bugs were in the acorns...
- They figured out that the woodpeckers were pecking holes in the chimney and stuffing acorns in there... they think for a few years this has been going on... the acorns eventually fell down into the wall and started to pile up...
- it's really not one long sub... it's more like a sandwich train...
- A Brazilian food company got the Guinness World Record by putting together 1180 submarine sandwiches.
- noteworthy: the article refers to them as torpedo sandwiches.
- it's not one giant straight line of sandwich, which would have been cool, it's a line of subs that twists around corners and goes all around the room...
Headline: the thing that terrified an entire neighborhood was a what now??
Notes:
- It was an emu.
- This happened in Missouri.
The emu was running wild for "multiple days" before animal rescue experts captured the thing... with the help of people from the neighborhood who cornered the beast so that it's reign of terror would end.
- *It wasn't really a reign of terror if you watch the video. Rescuers seem pretty chill. I'm projecting the reign of terror business based on my own experience with an emu at my local zoo... I was working there one summer and there was this emu who was so evil you guys...
- btw, here's how they caught the evil beast... with a blanket. So if you ever find yourself squaring off against an emu, wrap that rascal in a blanket and put him in a crate.
- I just assumed this bird has escaped from a zoo or something but it was someone's pet!
- 34 feet you guys. That's it!? (*34.12 feet high actually)
- it's a statue of Japanese superhero Ultraman.
- The Largest Ultraman Statue in the world is at the Ultraman section of a theme park in Shanghai.
- Ultraman (the character, not the statue) also has the record for most TV spin-offs... there have been 33 Ultraman shows?
- idea: let's build a taller Ultraman in some little town that could use the tourist traffic... come on Shanghai, you already have a whole theme park...
❽Headline: the award for excellence in Dog Conga Line goes to ...
Notes:
- 14 dogs who decided to break the world record.
- 14 dogs in a conga line is the new world record you guys.
- did they really plan this all on their own... no they did not. A dog trainer was involved.
- This part is juicy... the dog trainer fella beat the previous dog conga world record of 9 dogs which was set by his own daughter! Awkward at the next family BBQ.
- Here are the award-winning dogs: Emma, Filou, Fin, Simon, Susy, Maya, Ulf, Speck, Bibi, Katie, Jennifer, Elvis, Charly and Cathy.
❼Headline: When you hear "Lord of the Bins" do you think that would be a legit business licensed by the Lord of the Rings franchise?
Notes:
- a couple guys run a waste company called Lord of the Bins in Brighton (UK) and they've been in the news because the Lord of the Rings people have told them they need to change their name.
- Not a lawyer but, These cases usually come down to: you can't profit off someone else's IP unless you have a deal with them... and you can't sully the name of The Lord of the Rings because that fan base will come for you.
- a rebrand will be expensive, but cheaper than a LOTR licensing fee probably...
❻Headline: That company who wants to bring back the Dodo bird is getting some of their funding from the CIA??
Notes:
- The company named Colossal is working on Project "Bring back the Woolly Mammoth" and now they also want to bring back the dodo bird.
- That part of the story has been showing up in my feed for a little while, but what was brand new info to me was that one of the backers of "Project DODO" is the CIA!?
- Yes, That CIA. The Central Intelligence Agency.
- The Colossal company has a bunch of investors, but one of them, through a venture capital company, is the CIA.
- 1) Is this a good investment?
- 2) Why does the CIA want in on this? Please send me your working theory (weirdweekpod@gmail.com) ... are they gonna be weaponized? Used as spies? I don't get this one.
❺Headline: How cool is ice? Before you answer, a new discovery to mention.
Notes:
- scientists have discovered what is being described as weird ice...
- a completely new kind of ice that is more close to being liquid than any ice ever?!
- The ice scientists are pretty jazzed up by this... this new ice is some kind of game changer.
- My favourite part... how they created this new kind of ice... "We shook the ice like crazy for a long time and destroyed the crystal structure"... and instead of ending up with smaller pieces of ice, they had a whole new kind of ice on their hands.
- What this means to you and me... well, they need to do more experiments so I'll get back to you on that...
- I love it that somebody's idea of an experiment was to shake ice and see what happens.
- we hardly ever have a big big weird story that breaks after the podcast drops, but then the story is almost completely done by next week's episode.
- thought we should circle back to it because for a brief moment we were all captivated by that weird balloon.
- I don't know too much about world politics and that, but the dramatic tension leading up to it getting shot down was, idk, kinda fascinating.
- it was like the plot from Armageddon... they put together a team to travel to the balloon and destroy it... saving us all.
- seriously though, I'm sure any search and destroy mission is dangerous, but you gotta figure when you get assigned to shoot down a balloon, you're not as stressed probably???
❸Headline: Drink all the coffee or never drink coffee again!!
Notes:
- never take this podcast as your solitary source of anything. Like anything. Having said that, I really do try to chase down different sources on these stories... and this new study gave me a bit of confusion...
- When you Google the headline (coffee and blood pressure) you will get just as many bad stories about the effects of coffee on your blood pressure... so... (this is me shrugging you guys)...
- Here's a quote from the article: "The results are very clear: peripheral blood pressure was significantly lower in individuals consuming one to three cups of coffee a day than in non-coffee drinkers," *Peripheral blood pressure= when you take your blood pressure reading from the upper arm.
- remember to consult your barista or a doctor or something before going on an all coffee diet.
❶Headline: A cake so big you wear it like a dress!
Notes:
- A Swiss baker set a Guinness World Record for making the biggest wearable dress/cake in the world.
- happened at a wedding fair.
- Do you think this will catch on... shows like Say Yes to the Dress and Cake Boss are so popular... putting the two things together seems unstoppable!
- Also, having your wedding dress BE your wedding cake seems like a real time-saver to me.
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