What a Weird Week is a show about the weird stuff from this week's news. Links:
1) Shownotes Page https://www.shownotes.page
2) Audio Podcast https://kite.link/weird
3) Video Podcast https://www.youtube.com/@weirdweekpod
* Scotty
note: Serious News is not my beat, but here's a link if you want to learn more about the war https://www.cfr.org/
Now the countdown... Here's the Weird News Top Ten for Season 4, Episode 56 first published on Friday Oct. 20, 2023... "Mosquitos in the Tubes" ...
- We talked about this potential mission before, now it has begun. NASA launch a billion-dollar space probe the other day... it's six year mission is to get to the 16 Psyche asteroid and double-check that it contains enough precious metals to ruin (or fix?) our global economy.
- Just to recap... It is a scientific space exploration that involves an asteroid that might be so valuable because of the rare metals its made of, that whoever owns this asteroid would become our wealthy overlord...
- there is a lot of talk in the articles about how exciting it will be to learn how planetary cores are formed/ stuff like that... but come on, you guys, it is made of precious metals (they think)
- re 16 Psyche asteroid: it is shaped like a potato... it was discovered in 1852... because of the metal it's made of, the value of 16 Psyche has been estimated to be as high as $10 quintillion!
- Now the experts are walking that money part back... kind of... like, it might still be worth that much money, but the experts are saying they could never bring the asteroid back to earth, and even if they did, it would flood the precious metals market and instantly render all precious metal worthless, essentially destroying the world economy.
- How would we measure our self-worth then? If we can't flaunt how much precious metal we have, what? Are we gonna have to start having talent or something? People skills? Good Lord, what a nightmare dystopia. Thanks NASA, for making this about the science, and not the 10 quintillion dollars!
❾ University Student Wins $40,000 Prize for Letting AI DO All the Work! jk ...
- Headlines about AI get editors excited I think... you see it a lot... the story could be talking about Grammarly© or Autocorrect, or RoboCop... AI can mean almost anything at this point...
- a student named Luke won a contest by deciphering a small (very small) portion of a 2000 year-old scroll...
- Luke is the first person to succeed at the Vesuvius Challenge... that's a competition where people are encouraged to use modern tech to figure out what these ancient scrolls says.
- The scrolls were fossilized after Mount Vesuvius erupted (the year was 79 you guys).
- Late last week the folks at Vesuvius Challenge announced that 21-year-old Luke, a computer-science major, won $40,000 for figuring out 10 characters in a little section of a scroll.
- a student named Luke won a contest by deciphering a small (very small) portion of a 2000 year-old scroll...
- Luke is the first person to succeed at the Vesuvius Challenge... that's a competition where people are encouraged to use modern tech to figure out what these ancient scrolls says.
- The scrolls were fossilized after Mount Vesuvius erupted (the year was 79 you guys).
- Late last week the folks at Vesuvius Challenge announced that 21-year-old Luke, a computer-science major, won $40,000 for figuring out 10 characters in a little section of a scroll.
- in case you can't check out the photo... picture a piece of charcoal that is kind of in the shape of a scroll... a shriveled up charcoal scroll that's all rolled up... that's what it looks like to me... they can unroll the thing or it'll just crumble, so they have to find another way to figure out what it says...
- the article doen't get too detailed about how Luke did it... seems as though he used a program that employed machine learning... that's my guess but I aint had much machine learnin' myself...
- Learn more about these scrolls, their history, and the scroll-related $700,000 in prize money you can win at https://scrollprize.org/ and see this article https://people.com/21-year-old-wins-usd40k-after-using-ai-to-read-first-word-on-2-000-year-old-papyrus-scroll-8358107
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❽ Mosquitos in Our Flying Tubes!
Published late last week in the New York Post, an article about how a bunch of mosquitos delayed a Mexican flight for several hours... the swarm of mosquitoes is described as "biblical".
They couldn't take off from Guadalajara until the swarm of lousy stinkin' squitos was taken care of...
- maybe you saw the videos in your feed of flight crew members spraying the cabin with NoSquito© 2023 Weird Week Enterprises.
Published late last week in the New York Post, an article about how a bunch of mosquitos delayed a Mexican flight for several hours... the swarm of mosquitoes is described as "biblical".
They couldn't take off from Guadalajara until the swarm of lousy stinkin' squitos was taken care of...
- maybe you saw the videos in your feed of flight crew members spraying the cabin with NoSquito© 2023 Weird Week Enterprises.
- another description: like it was a scene from the movie Jumanji...
- Let me pass the question off to you: would you rather have a flight that's several hours late departing, or an on-time flight infested with mosquitos??
- Let me pass the question off to you: would you rather have a flight that's several hours late departing, or an on-time flight infested with mosquitos??
❼ Huffpost Headline was "GEORGIA MAN STUNNED BY $1.4 MILLION SPEEDING TICKET" ...
- Who wouldn't be stunned by that much of a fine for speeding? Like, how fast would you need to go before you said, "1.4 million seems fair... I figured somewhere around a 1.4 million dollar fine... you got me, officer." ??
- maybe if you flew a rocket through a construction zone during rush hour... MAYBE then you wouldn't be stunned by a 1.4 million dollar speeding ticket... but then how would they even catch you in your rocket?
- Who wouldn't be stunned by that much of a fine for speeding? Like, how fast would you need to go before you said, "1.4 million seems fair... I figured somewhere around a 1.4 million dollar fine... you got me, officer." ??
- maybe if you flew a rocket through a construction zone during rush hour... MAYBE then you wouldn't be stunned by a 1.4 million dollar speeding ticket... but then how would they even catch you in your rocket?
- this was obviously a typo...
- a fellow in Georgia (USA) got pulled over for doing 90 mph in a 55 zone ... or metric, for doing 145 KMs instead of the speed limit of 89KMs.
- so the speeder got his 1.4 million dollar e-citation, called the court because, as the headline from Huffpost mention, he was stunned... and the speeder was told "either pay the fine or show up to court" *paraphrase.
- It turns out that if you go to court for something like this in Savannah, Georgia, the judge decides what your actual fine will be... and it can't be more than a thousand dollars... which is still a lot of money btw...
- so do you think they automatically issue the million dollar fine so people will be like "Pay a thousand bucks instead of a million?! Yes, please!" Or maybe they're hoping some rich people will just pay the million-four and not even think twice.
- Officials say that the e-citation software just generated the 1.4 million fine as a placeholder, and it was never the actual fine. *paraphrase
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/georgia-speeding-ticket-scare_n_652cd3fde4b03b213b066ef5
- It turns out that if you go to court for something like this in Savannah, Georgia, the judge decides what your actual fine will be... and it can't be more than a thousand dollars... which is still a lot of money btw...
- so do you think they automatically issue the million dollar fine so people will be like "Pay a thousand bucks instead of a million?! Yes, please!" Or maybe they're hoping some rich people will just pay the million-four and not even think twice.
- Officials say that the e-citation software just generated the 1.4 million fine as a placeholder, and it was never the actual fine. *paraphrase
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/georgia-speeding-ticket-scare_n_652cd3fde4b03b213b066ef5
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❻ New World Record for Cereal Box Dominoes... If you wanted to beat the record for knocking over cereal boxes, you'd need to beat ...
- 12952 cereal boxes! ... old record was 6391...
- it was for charity again... usually you hear about cereal box dominoes because food is being collected to help people who don't get enough to eat, and that was the case here... the charity Move for Hunger had their Topple Hunger Challenge at the Henry Ford Detroit Pistons Performance Center in Michigan and they tried for a cool fifteen thousand boxes, but seemingly not every box went over, so the final tally was just under thirteen thousand... but enough to set a new world record...
- More: I can see a LOT of Frosted Flakes in the event photos and also Flakes Spokesmodel, Tony the Tiger. It's nice that he found the time to be there in-between appearing in commercials with people who don't even care that he's a talking tiger. These commercials just have him showing up at the ski hill or whatever to help Bobby and Janie fuel up with a nutritious breakfast before the Junior Ski Jump competition. Bobby and Janie are cool with this tiger-who-has-the-power-of-speech providing ski jump guidance and delicious cereal. I dream of a time when we can all be like Bobby and Janie.
❺ Rubber Ducks: Why and How Much?!!
- The Guinness folks posted an article about Charlotte Lee the other day...
- The Guinness folks posted an article about Charlotte Lee the other day...
- from the article: "Charlotte Lee and her rubber ducks have waddled their way into the record books. With over 5,631 rubber ducks to her name (and counting!), the Seattle, Washington, USA, native has achieved the record title for the largest collection of rubber ducks.
- idk if it's like this where you live but around here, you'll see rubber ducks everyday on the dashboard of cars, or in the back window of a car, or in the office kitchen... it was a slow invasion that I didn't really notice... but the rubber duck invasion has happened...
- Charlotte is 54 now... she got her first duck in 1996 to decorate the bathroom a little bit... then it was a slow invasion... get a couple here, get a couple there... I imagine Charlotte's friends saw what was happening and - you know how it goes- the rubber duck becomes the easy gift to get Charlotte for every occasion... and now, kablammy, 5 thousand six hunder and something rubber ducks and Charlotte is the duck queen.
- No time to click photos? Charlotte has a room that is full of ducks in display cases or on shelves. She also poses with a bunch of ducks in the bathroom. It's great. It's ducks. Saved you a click.
https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/news/2023/10/rubber-duck-collector-waddles-her-way-into-the-record-books-759321
https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/news/2023/10/rubber-duck-collector-waddles-her-way-into-the-record-books-759321
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❹ Bungee Jumping World Record has its Ups and Downs (thanks dad, for that headline)
- a fella named Mike, who is from New Zealand, has set the unofficial world record for most bungee jumps in a day.
- how many is the record? 941 times. and he did it for charity.
- a fella named Mike, who is from New Zealand, has set the unofficial world record for most bungee jumps in a day.
- how many is the record? 941 times. and he did it for charity.
- still has to be stamped by the Guinness World Records folks but that seems like a formality...
- he set the record earlier this month on the Auckland Harbour Bridge and live-streamed it...
- If you ever wondered what 940-something bungee jumps in a day does to you, Mike told reporters that he felt kind of seasick for awhile but nothing too wild.
- He raised thousands for the Mental Health Foundation of New Zealand. If you'd like to help the charity see https://donate.mentalhealth.org.nz/ and here's the story link https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-10-11/new-zealand-mike-heard-bungee-jump-world-record-single-day/102961722
- He raised thousands for the Mental Health Foundation of New Zealand. If you'd like to help the charity see https://donate.mentalhealth.org.nz/ and here's the story link https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-10-11/new-zealand-mike-heard-bungee-jump-world-record-single-day/102961722
❸ New World Record for solving the Rubik's Cube before crashing into the earth at terminal velocity...
- a fella broke a skydiving/ Rubik's Cube world record...
- a fella broke a skydiving/ Rubik's Cube world record...
- if they rigged it up so that your chute only opened if you solved the Rubik's Cube, that would really up the drama/ incentivize the process... also would be a pretty good plot device for the next SAW movie maybe...
- A 17-year-old named Sam, who's from Australia, set the Guinness record for "fastest time solving a rotating puzzle cube in freefall."
- how fast? 28.25 seconds to solve that thing... while falling at around 200 KMs per hour according to the article...
- A 17-year-old named Sam, who's from Australia, set the Guinness record for "fastest time solving a rotating puzzle cube in freefall."
- how fast? 28.25 seconds to solve that thing... while falling at around 200 KMs per hour according to the article...
- Sam says it's hard to focus on solving the Cube while you're plummeting to the earth...
- cool photo and more about the World Record at https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-10-10/wa-teen-breaks-world-record-for-solving-rubiks-cube-skydiving/102958656 ... I couldn't find anywhere if Sam jumped with more than one Cube just in case he dropped one... also... dropping a Rubik's Cube at 14000 feet - would that put a hole in the barn roof or what? ?
BTW, there was another speed cubing record set recently for fastest solve while blindfolded... which is pretty great also, but the guy falling to earth with a cube story kind of won out this episode...
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❷ from LiveScience: "Horrifying parasitic wasp with a giant head is one of more than 100 newfound species discovered in the Amazon" ...
- discovered in the rainforest of Peru...
- how giant is the head of this horrifying wasp? idk, I mean I have to trust the scientists on this but we've all seen those murder hornets... so maybe I'm desensitized? This new big-head wasp can get to 0.7 of an inch (1.7 centimeters) long.
- they are still horrifying because they do what parasites do... they kill the heck out of the the bugs they eat... and the details are like a horror movie for sure... the photo in the story looks to me like this new wasp has a head that is in proportion to its body... I just don't see the giant head aspect...
- still, it's always interesting when they find new stuff in the Amazon, and a horrifying wasp is a great addition to lexicon of things to have nightmares about...
- they are still horrifying because they do what parasites do... they kill the heck out of the the bugs they eat... and the details are like a horror movie for sure... the photo in the story looks to me like this new wasp has a head that is in proportion to its body... I just don't see the giant head aspect...
- still, it's always interesting when they find new stuff in the Amazon, and a horrifying wasp is a great addition to lexicon of things to have nightmares about...
- btw, it's named Capitojoppa Amazonica
LWR/ ICYMI Here's the Top Ten from last week. Episode is still online at https://www.shownotes.page/podcast ...
10 If that chair could talk! (It's probably seen a lot of rear ends.)
10 If that chair could talk! (It's probably seen a lot of rear ends.)
9 Teenager makes news, success is built on a house of cards... but how big is the biggest house of cards in the world?
8 Mushy Chestnuts linked to scandal in world championship Conkers...
7 I'm just gonna muscle through this one like it's a news story and nothing else... Harry Dick Road is not a road you want to go down...
6 a great day for salted meats and cheese! #WorldRecord
5 Grade 4 kids shown "Winnie the Pooh, Blood and Honey" movie by mistake. School offers counseling.
4 *Warning: PG 13. Earmuffs for the kids! OK, here's the story ... Crocodiles doin' it has made headlines...
3 Guy who worked at museum decides to act out some kind of heist movie plot, buy Rolls Royce...
2 Chucky Doll placed in handcuffs, arrested for... robbery?- If you go by those terrifying movies, Chucky is evil and can't be trusted.
1 Big Pumpkin Makes News Ahead of Halloween... how big is the biggest pumpkin in the world? 2749 pounds!
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Honorable Mention! The headline from the New York Post is "Woman ate 48 oysters on a date - what happened next was shocking..."
- Not that shocking though... I mean if you had to guess what happened next you'd probably think of a few possibilities... like, stomach trouble... some sort of aphrodisiac-related experience, or maybe bad date?
- it was bad date you guys... she met a guy for drinks at this oyster bar... she decided to try the oysters... they were so good that she ordered more... she ended up having 48 oysters because they were so darn good... her date got up to go to the washroom and when he came back... just kidding, he didn't come back. He took off because as far as he was concerned, they were going out for drinks... not a hundred-and-something dollars worth of oysters.
- lady posted the whole thing on TikTok, Oyster restaurant confirms the story... the guy eventually did eventually offer to pay for the drinks...
- lady posted the whole thing on TikTok, Oyster restaurant confirms the story... the guy eventually did eventually offer to pay for the drinks...
❶ Lady accused of stealing car from Dealership to get to her Exotic Dancing Job Interview according to police...
- the lady allegedly stole a Kia from a dealership in Indiana and drove that stolen car to a job interview... it was an exotic dancer job interview that she needed to get to...
- it seems like it was the ol' take it for a test drive/ and just don't bring it back situation...
- interesting twist... when she was done with the car, allegedly, she left it in a mall parking lot with the keys inside... and it was stolen by somebody else... a double steal!
- arrest has been made but no court stuff yet so, to be continued... I can't find anything in the article about whether she got the dance gig!? That might make a difference to the judge... if you're chasing your dream of being a dancer and you're so passionate that you "borrow" a car and get there just in time for the audition... and you dance so exotically that the entire dance company gives you a standing ovation and you're hired as the lead dancer for some kind of exotic Guys and Dolls revival!! That's a story that might get you probation, don't you think?
The alternative... that you stole a Kia to get to Pole Daddy's Cabaret Club to work the Free Soup Thursday rush... I mean, still an interesting story I guess... anyway... no info on whether the dancer got the job...
The alternative... that you stole a Kia to get to Pole Daddy's Cabaret Club to work the Free Soup Thursday rush... I mean, still an interesting story I guess... anyway... no info on whether the dancer got the job...
That's the What a Weird Week Show! For Shownotes and more go to ShowNotes Dot Page. A big thanks to you friends on the stream... every weekend we are one of the things you can hear on FunHouse Radio. Ask your smart speaker to play FunHouse Radio or see the link on our Shownotes Page. See you next Friday for another countdown of weird news on What a Weird Week!
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