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Hey you guys, This is the What a Weird Week show: a weekly look at weird stuff from the news.
Links: Podcast, Shownotes.page, YouTube.
This is Season 4, Episode 48 first published on Friday Aug 25, 2023:Ten Tens! Revisiting a bunch of number 10 entries from earlier this year to see how they hold up.
view latest video episodes ...
Links: Podcast, Shownotes.page, YouTube.
This is Season 4, Episode 48 first published on Friday Aug 25, 2023:Ten Tens! Revisiting a bunch of number 10 entries from earlier this year to see how they hold up.
view latest video episodes ...
Headline: Another Weird World Record... Elon Musk's newest world record is for losing more money than anyone ever has.
Notes:
- this a legit record from the folks at Guiness World Records...
- Forbes magazine says that Elon Musk has lost around $182 billion since November 2021... it could be more...
- this shatters the old world record of most money lost by a person which was ~58 billion and something.
- According to Forbes, Elon's net worth dropped from $320 billionish in November 2021 to around $137 billion last week.
- This happened for the most part after Elon announced that he was buying Twitter.
- the Guinness World Records people say Elon will bounce back.
- btw, Elon Musk is still the second-richest person on the planet. Right now the richest person in the world is Bernard Arnault of France. He's associated with companies/brands like Louis Vuitton.and has around $190 billion net worth.
Link/media: (https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/news/2023/1/elon-musk-suffers-worst-loss-of-fortune-in-history-amid-market-madness-731988)
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/)
Fri 27 Jan 2023, Season 4 Episode 17
❿Ghost Train on Fire!
Notes:
- Last Friday first responders in southern Germany responded to a 'train-on-fire' call.
- Before they got to the scene, the burning train started rolling down the track!
- "With firefighters in hot pursuit, railway officials managed to switch the “ghost train” onto a side track..." (great line from the article!)
- They got the train stopped and the fire put out with no injuries.
Link/media: (https://apnews.com/article/oddities-berlin-austria-fires-87f494a0fde8750ef861dae4fe03c5ab)
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.
Thanks to Chatbot Lawyers Unlimited for sponsoring today's show.
Fri Feb 10th, 2023, Season 4 Episode 19 ...
❿Headline: Record-Breaking Cereal Box Dominoes... Weird but Good!
Notes:
- Teachers and kids at Red Apple Elementary in Wisconsin set up 7000 and something cereal boxes and knocked 'em down.
- that's a Guinness World Record for the most cereal boxes given the domino treatment.
- and it worked, they all fell down so now they're waiting for official confirmation from GWR.
- and the collected cereal is going to feed hungry people!
Link/media: (https://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2023/02/06/Guinness-World--cereal-box-dominoes/2691675697470/)
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...
Fri Feb 24th, 2023, Season 4 Episode 22
❿Headline: I thought New York alligators were just a legend you guys... they just caught a gator at a park in Brooklyn?
Notes:
- four foot alligator was swimming in a lake at Prospect Park in Brooklyn.
- gator now at the Bronx Zoo.
- police are looking into how a gator ended up at a park in Brooklyn.
- they are not going with the theory that the gator was living in the sewer though.
Link/media: (https://abc7ny.com/prospect-park-alligator-brooklyn-lake/12847527/)
This article mentions that it's illegal to own a gator in New York State.
Here's video...
This article mentions that it's illegal to own a gator in New York State.
Here's video...
Fri Mar 3rd, 2023/ Season 4 Episode 23
❿Headline: I mean, there are worse things to find in the crawl space... but ...
Notes:
- a teacher from a school in Massachusetts has been charged after a crypto mining op was uncovered in the school crawl space...
- he allegedly set up crypto-mining PCs in the school crawl space... an inspector found the setup...
- OK, I'm naive but I had no idea this was illegal... I didn't even think a teach er would get fired over this... let alone be arrested ...
- I thought the teach would more likely be given some award for ingenuity...
- it was an illegal operation going on and also was stealing electricity from the hard-working tax payers of Massachusetts... so now I know.
- BTW, the Police, the U.S. Coast Guard Investigative Service, and the Department of Homeland Security were all involved in the investigation.
#BigTimeStuff
❿ Also in March we had a special episode for pi day (3.14) which featured Pie Memories with noted raconteur, Gib Gibberson. *not an official number ten story, but it's number 10 in my heart..
Fri Mar 17th, 2023 / Season 4 Episode 25 ...
❿Headline: Would You Regret Calling in the Animal Rescue Experts if this was your House?
Notes:
- People heard weird noises coming from their wall... OMG there's an owl in there... some kind of bird?!! (calls the animal rescue experts)
- wait... the sound isn't coming from the wall... it's coming from ... UNDER THE SOFA!!!!
- it was a Harry Potter plush owl making magical owl noises under the sofa.
- shoutout to Cleethorpes Wildlife Rescue in the UK.
Link/media
and Facebook video (https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=725388389134631)
If you scrolled this far, you're my favorite. Here's the Stream...
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