This week's top ten of weird includes birds getting high, the most expensive ice cream in the world, and a scientific life hack to sleep better.
New here? Every Friday we do a Weird-News-of-the-Week Top 10 audio podcast with a full show notes blog and a YouTube video (@weirdweekpod).
New here? Every Friday we do a Weird-News-of-the-Week Top 10 audio podcast with a full show notes blog and a YouTube video (@weirdweekpod).
video podcast...
Here
are the show notes for Fri May 26th 2023 / Season 4 Episode 35 ...
❿People reminded to wear clothes for Driver's License photo in Georgia*
- now in the state of Georgia (USA) you can get a digital driver's license or digital ID.
- part of the apply process is that you send them a photo...
- the Georgia Department of Driver Services posted this note on their Facebook the other day: "👀Attention, lovely people of the digital era! Please take pictures with your clothes on when submitting them for your Digital Driver’s License and IDs. 🫣Let's raise our virtual glasses and toast to the future🥂😄 Cheers to technology and keeping things classy! ðŸ¤#ddscares"
See WFXG post (https://www.wfxg.com/story/48962312/ga-driver-services-please-wear-clothes-for-digital-ids) and Georgia Department of Driver Services Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/GeorgiaDDS/posts/794725632109907)
- now in the state of Georgia (USA) you can get a digital driver's license or digital ID.
- part of the apply process is that you send them a photo...
- the Georgia Department of Driver Services posted this note on their Facebook the other day: "👀Attention, lovely people of the digital era! Please take pictures with your clothes on when submitting them for your Digital Driver’s License and IDs. 🫣Let's raise our virtual glasses and toast to the future🥂😄 Cheers to technology and keeping things classy! ðŸ¤#ddscares"
See WFXG post (https://www.wfxg.com/story/48962312/ga-driver-services-please-wear-clothes-for-digital-ids) and Georgia Department of Driver Services Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/GeorgiaDDS/posts/794725632109907)
❾PG13! The Birds are High af...
- increasing reports out of Britain of seagulls stealing illicit and or recreational drugs from human people...
- essentially, people smoking drugs have their stash stolen by seagulls...
- maybe it was by mistake at first... like, maybe the seagulls thought they were stealing a delicious french fry or something... but now the birds seem to like the drugs... they are getting high...
- one fellow is quoted in the story from Metro UK said "Gulls will go for anything... If we were stoned and completely out of it, the gulls could just take the joint we were smoking and fly off."
- they really paint a picture of gulls, crazy on drugs, basically terrorizing bystanders.
See (https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/other/seagulls-high-on-spice-after-making-off-with-stashes-of-drugs/ar-AA1btBR3)
- increasing reports out of Britain of seagulls stealing illicit and or recreational drugs from human people...
- essentially, people smoking drugs have their stash stolen by seagulls...
- maybe it was by mistake at first... like, maybe the seagulls thought they were stealing a delicious french fry or something... but now the birds seem to like the drugs... they are getting high...
- one fellow is quoted in the story from Metro UK said "Gulls will go for anything... If we were stoned and completely out of it, the gulls could just take the joint we were smoking and fly off."
- they really paint a picture of gulls, crazy on drugs, basically terrorizing bystanders.
See (https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/other/seagulls-high-on-spice-after-making-off-with-stashes-of-drugs/ar-AA1btBR3)
❽Buy Now Pay Later for Pizza? But wait, there's more...
- Hell Pizza is a New Zealand-based pizza chain and they are kind of infamous for publicity stunts that 1)get attention and 2) offend people... (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hell_Pizza)
- Latest publicity stunt from them is a "Buy now, pay when your dead" pizza deal.
- so, if you're picked to participate in this offer, you don’t have to pay for pizza until you're dead...
- you'll amend your last will and testament giving permission for Hell Pizza to collect what you owe them.
- They say it's a legally binding deal.
See (https://hellpizza.nz/wickedpedia/2023/05/25/buy-now-pay-much-later/) and the video from Hell Pizza's YouTube (https://youtu.be/-hhYH2lJQCQ)
❼Surgeon Fired because of who helped with the amputation...
- a surgeon in Germany got someone who cleans the hospital to help with an amputation and now the surgeon has been fired...
- this happened in 2020... it was a toe amputation and there were no complications...
- there was no officially qualified surgical assistant available at the time, so it was either, cancel the surgery, or find a fill-in assistant and the surgeon recruited a hospital cleaner.
- the cleaner's job, btw, was mostly handing surgical tools to the doc.
- that's a firing right there.
- an ice cream company from Japan named Cellato has an ice cream worth close to $7000 per scoop (not sure what the kiddie cone price would be...)
- the GWR folks say that's World Record expensiveness.
- Here's why... it has gold shavings in it... it's also got some rare white truffle from Italy in it and some kind of sake paste... and an expensive Italian cheese (Parmigiano Reggiano).
- what does it taste like? People who've tried it say it tastes like white truffle followed by the fruity, old cheese taste from the old cheese that is in it.
- MMMmmmConeCheese.
See (https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/news/2023/5/worlds-most-expensive-ice-cream-will-set-you-back-more-than-a-family-holiday-would)
no refunds https://t.co/Dg4O7E9p7B
— What a Weird Week Podcast (@whataweirdweek) May 25, 2023
❺Planking is back? #WorldRecord
- so yes the real headline here is... planking is a thing again?
- secondary headline is... a guy just set a world record for planking for 9 hours, 38 minutes and change.
- congratulations Jo from Czechia.
❹The Science of selfies... why do we do that?
- the National Post has an article about this study on photos that we take of ourselves...
- study is from the journal "Social Psychology and Personal Science".
- study seems to indicate that when we include ourselves in photos (you know, take selfies...) it helps us capture the deeper significance of what's happening in the moment...
- quote from the article: "“We found that people have a natural intuition about which perspective to take to capture what they want out of the photo,”
- it seems like selfies give us a different feeling than regular photos and sometimes we want to remember things the way the selfie makes us feel... maybe, idk, I'm not a scienceman...
See (https://nationalpost.com/news/why-do-we-like-to-take-selfies-study-uncovers-the-real-reason)
- the National Post has an article about this study on photos that we take of ourselves...
- study is from the journal "Social Psychology and Personal Science".
- study seems to indicate that when we include ourselves in photos (you know, take selfies...) it helps us capture the deeper significance of what's happening in the moment...
- quote from the article: "“We found that people have a natural intuition about which perspective to take to capture what they want out of the photo,”
- it seems like selfies give us a different feeling than regular photos and sometimes we want to remember things the way the selfie makes us feel... maybe, idk, I'm not a scienceman...
See (https://nationalpost.com/news/why-do-we-like-to-take-selfies-study-uncovers-the-real-reason)
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❸Enormous T-shirt breaks world record...
- GWR shared this record the other day... a T-shirt that's over 350 feet long and 240-some feet across is officially the biggest T-shirt ever.
- record set in Romania
- after the record attempt the giant T-shirt was "broken down" to make thousands of pieces of clothing for kids in need.
- T-shirt is taller than the Statue of Liberty btw...
See (https://twitter.com/GWR/status/1661313086685614082?s=20)
- GWR shared this record the other day... a T-shirt that's over 350 feet long and 240-some feet across is officially the biggest T-shirt ever.
- record set in Romania
- after the record attempt the giant T-shirt was "broken down" to make thousands of pieces of clothing for kids in need.
- T-shirt is taller than the Statue of Liberty btw...
See (https://twitter.com/GWR/status/1661313086685614082?s=20)
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❷Headline via Ben Hooper at UPI... "Pet squirrel rescued from tree in Ohio"
- that's the story in a nutshell... *pun.
- it was a squirrel in a tree that needed help because somehow the squirrel forgot how trees work on account of the squirrel being a pet squirrel instead of a tree-loving squirrel I guess?
- it's a little bit more complicated because this squirrel was on a leash and got entangled in the tree about 60 feet up... so the Green, Ohio fire department answered the call and saved Cricket the pet squirrel.
- shoutout to Ben Hooper at UPI who knocked it out of the park once again with the weird squirrel story.
See (https://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2023/05/25/domesticated-squirrel-rescued-Green-Ohio/5431685026270/)
- that's the story in a nutshell... *pun.
- it was a squirrel in a tree that needed help because somehow the squirrel forgot how trees work on account of the squirrel being a pet squirrel instead of a tree-loving squirrel I guess?
- it's a little bit more complicated because this squirrel was on a leash and got entangled in the tree about 60 feet up... so the Green, Ohio fire department answered the call and saved Cricket the pet squirrel.
- shoutout to Ben Hooper at UPI who knocked it out of the park once again with the weird squirrel story.
See (https://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2023/05/25/domesticated-squirrel-rescued-Green-Ohio/5431685026270/)
- A big ol' sleep study from Indiana University seems to indicate that it's harder to fall asleep when you keep looking at the clock...
- I love science and God bless you researchers but we knew this... when you worry that you're not getting enough sleep and you keep checking what time it is, that doesn't help.
- They suggest that you should hide clocks, phones, smart watches, sun dials, or whatever we use to tell time when trying to sleep. That's the hack.
See (https://beta.ctvnews.ca/national/health/2023/5/18/1_6405273.amp.html)
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Here's the Stream because you're my favorite...