What a Weird Week gets you caught up on the weird news of the week. https://www.
See www.shownotes.page for all the podcast stuff. These are the shownotes for Season 5, Ep 20 first published on Friday May 24th, 2024.
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❿ The fire breathing street performer who had a brawl with a mariachi band in Mexico City, a turf war and breathed fire on them. There's security camera footage of this. It happened on a busy street. It's believed they were fighting over turf location. You know, who gets to perform on the hot corner to do the street performances and get all the best tips. So the fire breather breathes fire on some of the mariachi band. Some of them have their clothes catch fire. This is all in the security cam footage. Some reports have it that the mariachi started it and the fire breather is the only one, according to the report, the only one who sought medical treatment. He said he was attacked first and that's when he started breathing fire on his foes. Nobody got arrested in this one, kind of amazing. We'll link to the security camera footage in today's show notes. Viewer discretion.
Video is age-restricted so you have to watch on YouTube, so go to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=be60gx8naL0
❾ Cards on the table, you guys. I don't know too much about too much. I don't know art. I don't know politics. I don't know Australia. And I'm sorry, Australia. I do know Santa's sleigh is pulled by six white boomers. That must count for something. Anyway, the National Gallery in Australia has this exhibit. That's a bit controversial. It's portraits of people. It's meant to be a little bit different, I think. It's a bit unusual. A different take on portraits. These paintings. The portrait, they have a billionaire, Gina Rinehart. Again, art is very subjective and I don't understand art, but it would appear as though maybe the subject of the portrait, like if it were a portrait of you, you might not appreciate how you're depicted. It would seem as though Gina Rinehart isn't too happy with the final product. In the portrait, billionaire Gina Rinehart has an unusual look on her face how I would describe it. Maybe not the best angle Here's if you don't have a chance to click the show notes and look at the thing. Here's maybe what I would say You know when you open your phone's camera to take a photo and it's in selfie mode and you're you didn't know you're surprised By that and you're looking down and you're like whoa my face That's a little bit maybe how I would describe this portrait this painting of billionaire Gina Rinehart. Well, this is making news because there's a growing movement supporting Gina Rinehart expressing the opinion that the portrait should be removed from the exhibit. This past week, an Olympic swimmer from Australia is in the news supporting the removal of the portrait. That's kind of the story. Imagine if you are like famous or rich or powerful and there's a portrait and you don't have any say in what the portrait looks like. I mean, even if you're not rich, powerful or whatever, if your portrait was on display and it looked like maybe it was taken from the angle of your selfie camera by surprise. If you want to look at the portrait, you can see today's show notes.
Hang on up next, an update from Kyle, Texas and the gathering of Kyles. Also, Skinny House in Florida makes headlines.
Thanks for checking out this program. It is a catch up on the weird news of the week. It's called What a Weird Week.
❽ Kyle Texas has to deal with another heartbreak. Let's just get right into it. The Gathering of Kyles, an attempt to set a world record for the most people with the same name in one place. Every year, Kyle Texas gives it a whirl, the Gathering of Kyles. So far it's been heartbreak after heartbreak. They got 700 and something Kyles gathered together this year at the festival and that is not record breaking. The Ivans still own it, you guys. The Ivans in Bosnia, who currently hold the world record for the most people with the same name in one spot. Over 2,300 Ivans got together in Bosnia and they continue to dominate the same name world record space. Next year, Kyles, next year.
❼ The Skinny House in Florida making headlines. This is in Jacksonville Beach, a house that's 10 feet wide. They call it the Skinny House. I would say that's truth in advertising. What you're getting there is listed for 600 and something thousand dollars, 10 feet wide, a very skinny house with bay windows and three bathrooms, a couple of bedrooms, 1500 square feet. Somebody saw the listing of the very skinny house, and then it got some traction online for social media. And now it's getting reported on by some news orgs. If you are someone who paces, you're going to have to go lengthwise. You cannot go widthwise in this skinny house. You're just not going to get enough pacing in. You take a couple of steps, you're already at the other wall. Just an interesting house, you guys, and it made headlines.
Next, Killer Bee Beer and Delicious Chocolate Lawsuit.
Thanks for listening to this program. It's about weird news, you guys. It's called What a Weird Week.
❻ Killer bee beer was in the news this past week. Scientists from Cardiff University extracted yeast from killer bees, killer bees from Namibia. And it's all part of a larger effort to look at plants and pollination and develop better drugs. That's what they're going for, but this was sort of maybe proof of concept is how I would describe it. Not knowing very much about science. They were just trying a thing as they endeavored to do other stuff. They made beer, Killer Bee Beer, and now they're looking for a partner, somebody who could actually scale this up and produce this beer, sell it, and have some of those profits go back to research, bee research, and pollination research. It took science to give us the absolutely fantastic name of Killer Bee Beer. It already sounds like it should have been, somebody should have had that name already, I feel. So well done, science.
❺ Hershey, the makers of delicious chocolate cards on the table. I love chocolate. They're facing a lawsuit Actually now it's expanded or it's become a larger lawsuit. I am NOT a lawyer. I believe it's Expanded is the legal term. It's been embiggened. It has to do with okay. I don't know you guys I mean sometimes you got to stand up to big companies if there's some injustice in the world I am not sure this is that but you tell me if I'm wrong... Let me know in the comments below. Smash that like button, you guys. You tell me if I'm wrong. This class action concerns people who bought, we've all been there, you buy the peanut butter cup for Halloween. It's supposed to be a pumpkin. The package shows a pumpkin shape. You unwrap the thing and it's just a blob. Does that impact your enjoyment of the peanut butter cup? I'm gonna say no, your honor. The defense rests. No, those things are delicious. Perhaps I'm biased on this. But anyway, that's kind of the lawsuit. Like, I bought the Santa Claus-shaped peanut butter cup, the picture made it look like it was going to be Santa, and I opened it up and it wasn't Santa Claus, it was Blob Claus. And anyway, that's kind of the gist of the lawsuit. Deceptive packaging or something like that. I don't know, you guys, I guess if I thought there was a chance to win peanut butter cups for life, I might sign on to the class action lawsuit.
https://www.gpb.org/news/2024/05/22/lawsuit-accuses-hersheys-of-using-deceptive-packaging-on-reeses-products
https://www.gpb.org/news/2024/05/22/lawsuit-accuses-hersheys-of-using-deceptive-packaging-on-reeses-products
This is What a Weird Week, thanks for listening, it's about weird news you guys. Weird news.
❹ Chimpanzee in the News for Giving Back a Shoe. This is at a Chinese zoo, chimpanzee named Dong Dong, which come on. Dong Dong wins the week just on name alone. Dong Dong apparently is very polite and sometimes people drop things into Dong Dong's enclosure. A visitor to the zoo dropped a shoe in there and Dong Dong went viral this week or got in the news for returning the shoe. After the recent Planet of the Apes movie painted a future where we are to fear the apes and chimps of the world You turn around and do something like this Dong Dong? well done! note to the editing team Let's edit in a dong dong dong dong song here.
❸ extinct Huia bird feather breaks world record. A feather from an extinct bird just broke the record for most expensive feather in the world. It sold for more than $28,000. One feather from an extinct bird, the extinct Huia bird. This auction was in New Zealand. This is a bird considered sacred to many in New Zealand. Now the bird's extinct. Those feathers are considered very valuable. Almost $30,000 bid for a single feather, and that is a world record. https://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/national-international/extinct-huia-bird-feather-breaks-auction-record-most-expensive/3520215/
Hang on, up next a world record you may want to try this weekend. It just involves oranges and stick-to-it-iveness. And one of the most incredible wig stories you'll hear all week.
Thanks for listening to the program. This is what a weird week. Counting down the weird stories of the week.
❷ Mandarin oranges peeling record in the news. A Guinness World Record. A new record for a young fellow, 11 years old from England. His name is Taylor. He peeled four Mandarin oranges in a minute. That's the record. Four oranges. How many could you peel in a minute? I think it's one of those things. It'd be fun to try this weekend, get some friends together and just see how you do. It would seem like maybe on paper, Easy, let's go, let's do it. We're in the Guinness Book of World Records. Easy peasy, orangey squeezy. Perhaps though, this is one that is harder than it seems. We link to the video, have a look. If you're able to click the show notes or go shownotes.page. Congratulations, Taylor.
🏆🍅 Honorable mention. Mention. Mention. We've had big wigs on this program before. This time around, it's a lady named Helen from Nigeria. She has set a Guinness World Record for the widest wig in the world. It's almost 12 feet wide. This is a very, very wide wig. It's not your everyday wig. It's not something you're gonna chase down the bus and hop on the bus with this wig. You're not gonna get a bicycle helmet on over this wig if you wanted to just wear it for a bike ride. That's not this wig. This wig is for a formal affair where you have lots of space to take up. You know, perhaps you're being featured in some sort of dance recital or walking a very, very wide red carpet. I would imagine that is the use for this giant wig somewhere where you've got a wide berth. This wig 11 feet 11 inches wide. It's glorious photos in the show notes. https://needtoknow.co.uk/2024/05/22/woman-sets-guinness-world-record-with-nearly-12ft-wide-wig/
Next is our number one story. It's a good news story. Something about how we're all going to be saved. They always say the algorithm promotes the bad news stories but I like to end on a good news one. It's coming up next. It's about steel.
Thanks for checking out this program. It is a catch up on the weird news of the week. It's called What a Weird Week.
❶ Number one story this week, we're gonna end on some good news. It's kind of a dry story, but it's gonna save the world. I thought it should be number one. MIT has a new way to make steel using electricity and it might just save the world. It's a kind of electrolysis. I'm not smart, but I would describe it as a kind of electrolysis. Here's why it's so great. We love steel, right? That's a fact.
And we need steel, but producing steel is a dirty, dirty business. It contributes a lot to greenhouse gases. This new process produces oxygen. That's it. The new process that MIT has developed for producing steel. You get steel and you get oxygen. Delicious, necessary, non-polluting oxygen. And also the process doesn't need water. So if this catches on, it can be good for greenhouse gas emissions and good overall... could make the world a better place. We may never run out of places to put our fridge magnets, you guys. Thanks to this steel breakthrough. https://news.mit.edu/2024/mit-spinout-boston-metal-makes-steel-with-electricity-0522
And we need steel, but producing steel is a dirty, dirty business. It contributes a lot to greenhouse gases. This new process produces oxygen. That's it. The new process that MIT has developed for producing steel. You get steel and you get oxygen. Delicious, necessary, non-polluting oxygen. And also the process doesn't need water. So if this catches on, it can be good for greenhouse gas emissions and good overall... could make the world a better place. We may never run out of places to put our fridge magnets, you guys. Thanks to this steel breakthrough. https://news.mit.edu/2024/mit-spinout-boston-metal-makes-steel-with-electricity-0522
And that's it. We'll stop there on that good news note. Thank you for checking out What a Weird Week, our weekly countdown of the weirdness from the past week's news. If you want show notes, a transcript or podcast stuff, please click show notes dot page and you can stream us on Funhouse radio every weekend as part of Funhouse radio's programming you can hear What a Weird Week, so ask your smart speaker to play Funhouse Radio, and thanks to the crew at Funhouse Radio for having us on. We'll catch you next week for more weirdness on What a Weird Week.
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