What a Weird Week Podcast for Friday Feb 3rd 2023: Weirdness at the Zoo, in the Earth's Core, and amongst unicycle enthusiasts!

 
Weird Stuff Happens. That's just science.
This week we have extraordinary claims of Wingbezzlement, Robot Lawyers, and evidence that the earth's core is spinning in reverse.
icymi, every Friday we run down the Weird-News-of-the-Week Top 10. We put all the links/ videos/ photos 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!

New: see the enhanced episodes with video on YouTube (@weirdweekpod)

Here are the show notes for Fri Feb 3rd 2023, Season 4 Episode 18 ...

❿Headline: Robocop 7: Robolawyer! (Coming sOON TO dISNEY pLUS!)

Notes:
Danger! Danger! The Chatbot from the Open AI company just got a C+ in law school. A professor at Minnesota University Law School gave the same exam that all the law students have to pass, and the artificial intelligence... is now a lawyer?? It wrote twelve essays and did the 95 multiple choice questions.
So it'll be a great resource for students who want to cheat at law school!! Yay?
A LOT of money is getting pumped into AI, so investors must think it's gonna make a lot of cash for them... What does all this mean for us? I'm no futurist but luckily there's already a documentary that predicted how all this will end... Robocop. We're gonna be living the movie Robocop... they're gonna keep investing in AI until Robocop comes true... and also there'll be Robolawyers.

Link/media: (https://www.cbsnews.com/news/chatgpt-bot-passes-law-school-exam/)
Thanks to Chatbot Lawyers Unlimited for sponsoring today's show. 
 

❾Headline: New Core Workout is so great you guys!

Notes:
The Earth's core stopped spinning and changed directions.
(According to researchers) this happened in 2009.
So what does that mean to us?
Maybe nothing! It seemed like terrible news to me but it turns out it "may have no impact on us surface dwellers."
Which is good, because it's kind of late notice... if we had to be prepared for cataclysm, we need to know BEFORE it happens, not 13 years after the fact. No offense, researchers, just sayin'.

Link/media: (https://www.cbsnews.com/news/earth-inner-core-started-spinning-other-direction-study/)

❽Headline: Update on the "Robots Taking Over" Narrative

Notes:
The singularity is close. If you're not sure what the Singularity is, that's when we live like the movie Blade Runner... I think... I haven't watched it...
the singularity is when you can't tell what is human and what is robot... robots and technology slip into society and perhaps take over... that's one way to look at what the singularity is...
The newest report on this is from a company that specializes in translation. They have a calculation involving how fast and accurate an AI can do translations compared to a human. So the AI/ translating robots are getting better and better...
According to their calculations we're maybe 7 years away from coexisting with, or being enslaved by the robots. (paraphrase)

Link/media: (https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/humanity-may-reach-singularity-within-222900100.html)
RoboSpeller 3000

❼Headline: Would your relationship survive putting together IKEA furniture as a couple?

- "Finance Buzz" is a financial advice website and they are doing this contest? Story? Publicity Stunt??
- For some of you it would be no prob, just give me the Allen wrench
- But some of you should not even consider it. Is your happy marriage or relationship worth $1000 IKEA gift card? (No. No it is not.)

Link/media: (https://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2023/01/26/IKEA-furniture-couple-building-dream-job/8441674766733/) and *18+ and US-based apply here: (https://financebuzz.com/best-side-hustles#side-hustle-form)
a couple admires some IKEA furniture (file photo)

❻Headline: The just found the oldest mouse in the world and it's how old?

Notes:
- 9 you guys. It's 9 years old and they think it is the oldest mouse known to exist.
- Who's been keeping track of this mouse's birthdays? The San Diego Zoo. He's a San Diego Zoo mouse.
- Pat (named after Patrick Stewart) was born at the San Diego Zoo. Pat is a Pacific pocket mouse.
- The zoo folks are confident that they have the oldest mouse in the world and they've applied to the Guinness World Record people to make it official.
- the mouse's birthday is July, Pat is actually 9 years and 5 months old... but I asked the software what to get a mouse for it's birthday and the first thing that it drew was a mouse portrait... so fine art I guess... I would've thought cheesecake...

Link/media: (https://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2023/01/27/Guinness-World-Records-San-Diego-Zoo-oldest-mouse/4031674849900/)

❺Headline: The Tallest Unicycle in the World is...

Notes:
- 31 feet ten inches tall.
- That's it. That's the story... a very very tall unicycle just got a Guinness World Record.
- Wes Williams built it and rode it... that part is pretty cool... see video...
- Wes also had the old record for the world's tallest rideable unicycle... so he beat his own record... he's his only competition?
Link/media: (https://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2023/01/27/Guinness-World-Records-tallest-rideable-unicycle/2011674835368/)
and video embed...
@guinnessworldrecords

Tallest ridable unicycle: 9.71 m (31 ft 10 in) by Wesley Williams - The One Wheel Wonder 🇺🇸

♬ original sound - Guinness World Records

❹Headline: If you can't drive the world's tallest unicycle but you really want a world record... how are you at putting on clothes?
 
Notes:
- Jim and Jan are producers at the "Live with Kelly and Ryan" show and the story just came out how they broke the Guinness World Record for putting on sweaters.
- it's the record for Team of Two Speed Sweater Wearing (my terminology not the official description)...
- Jim helped Jan put on 9 sweaters in thirty seconds.
- Kelly and Ryan (hosts of Live) have tried to beat this record a number of times and they couldn't do it... so then Jim and Jan tried a couple weeks ago after the latest failed attempt by the hosts... and achieved sweater greatness.
- thought: this was probably dangerous... there's enough static electricity in nine sweaters to set off a medium size explosion. *citation

Link/media: (https://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2023/01/27/Guinness-World-Records-sweaters-Live-with-Kelly-and-Ryan/5741674855321/) and video of one of Kelly and Ryan's failed attempts... 

❸Headline: Asteroid might be worth more than all the money in the world... so NASA is sending a spaceship to it...

Notes:
- They believe this rare asteroid could be worth 70 thousand times more than the Global Economy... so 70,000 X 100 Trillion Dollars... that works out to a 7 with eighteen zeroes.
- The comet is named 16 Psyche (which sounds like a store in the mall that sells earrings and cute tops.)
- Why is it so valuable? It's made of farm fresh eggs and diesel obviously. No wait, it's made of iron and nickel... enough iron and nickel to be worth quintillions of dollars.
- Not every expert agrees on that price tag... NASA hopes to arrive at the comet in the Summer of 2029.
- we'll find out then whether it was worth the gamble... er, I mean scientifically worthwhile.

Link/media: (https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/rare-asteroid-may-worth-70-140000062.html)

🏆Honorable Mention Headline: Lady arrested after enrolling in high school.

Notes:
- On the Weirdometer this doesn't score too highly... It used to be weirder but now you hear of this kind of thing more and more. This was picked up by the news orgs and the late night hosts... a 29 year old woman pretending to be a teenager enrolled in high school in New Jersey.
- She was arrested for allegedly using a forged document to get into school.
- How this could happen is a bit tricky... in defense of the school, their policy is to enroll a student right away, even if they don't have all the paperwork immediately available. I think this is to remove any barriers to education for kids. So if this lady looked youngish at all, and the policy is that you get new students enrolled right away, then you could see how it might happen.
- The lady went to classes for four days before she was found out.
- btw, everyone wants to know how young she looked... one student is quoted in the story "She didn't look like a freshman"... see the photo tweet...
- why did she do it though? Unknown!

Link/media: (https://www.cbsnews.com/news/hyejeong-shin-29-arrested-fake-birth-certificate-high-school-freshman-new-brunswick-new-jersey/)
and photo tweet 
❷Headline: Dallas Zoo Mystery!

Notes:
- First of all, the latest thing... the missing monkeys have been found!
- On Monday morning zoo employees noticed that their emperor Tamarin monkeys were missing. It was obvious to me that someone had given the monkeys some wire cutters and showed them how to escape their enclosure... it turned out I was mistaken. Somebody took those monkeys!
- the good news was, because of all the other shenanigans that happened at the Dallas Zoo, they had extra surveillance equipment set up... See, a leopard went missing there in January... hours later that beast was found. Then they lost a vulture named Pin. So when the monkeys went missing, they went right to the camera footage and had a suspect's photo online in no time.
- at time of recording, no arrests made but the monkeys were found in the closet of an abandoned home in Lancaster, which I Google Mapped to be maybe a half an hour away? If you're in Texas let me know how wrong I was... and just to be sure I see your comment, maybe make it while giving us a 5 star review on Apple Podcasts?  ... "Dallas Police, with the help of the Lancaster Police Department, located the two missing tamarin monkeys from the Dallas Zoo at an abandoned home in Lancaster. Pictured is one of the animals still inside the closet of the house. The monkeys have been returned to the zoo." (see photo tweet)

Link/media: (https://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2023/01/31/dallas-zoo-monkeys-missing/4401675175212/)
and photo tweet...

❶(A) We have a tie for the weirdest story... between the assistant coach who I guess tried to pose as a 13 year old to help her Junior Varsity Basketball Team... and the lady who Allegedly masterminded a WingBezzlement...

Headline Number 1A: Coach suits up for game pretending to be 13 year old, season is over for basketball program...

Notes:
- The 22 year old assistant coach joined the team of 13 year olds for a game (this according to USA Today.)
- Happened in Virginia.
- idk what precipitated the coach's decision to suit up as though she were a teenager... but nothing good came of it...
- the Jr and Sr ladies basketball season is over
- media are reporting that the assistant coach is no longer employed by the school... the head coaches for JV and Senior BBall have been fired...
- There's video of the game...

Link: (https://sports.yahoo.com/hs-girls-basketball-teams-season-over-after-22-year-old-coach-impersonates-13-year-old-player-195851785.html) and video embed 
❶(B) Headline Number 1B:
The School Cafeteria Wingbezzlement!

Notes:
- A former official at a Chicago area school district has been accused of this wingbezzlement (I feel like I should maybe add a © because wingbezzlement rolls off the tongue.)
- This involves a staggering amount of chicken wings... over a million dollars worth! (according to media reports)
- My understanding of these media reports are that someone involved in school district food purchasing or receiving ordered 11,000 cases of chicken wings over the span of a couple years.
- Eventually there was an audit and they discovered that the district food budget was way over-budget. They narrowed it down to unauthorized chicken wing purchases.
- Then they checked the surveillance video and found a suspect who took receipt of many many boxes of chicken wings.
- Why? Where did the chicken wings go? It's a mystery rn.
- This part is kind of beautiful: that school district doesn't even serve chicken wings! Chicken wings are not on any school cafeteria menu!!
- To be continued!!!!!

Link: (https://www.cbsnews.com/amp/news/vera-liddell-former-school-official-harvey-illinois-embezzlement-chicken-wing-orders/)
Wings and Tiny Pirate by Norman Rockwell (watercolor)


If you scrolled this far, you're my favourite! Here's the Stream... 


on