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 24 first published on Friday June 14, 2024.
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skateboarding cats and speeding wheelbarrows. What a weird week!
Hi friends, I'm Scott and this is What a Weird Week, a show about the weird stuff from this week's news. If you want a transcript or stuff to subscribe to our podcast, all the links that we talk about, you can get everything at shownotes.page. Shownotes.page. This is season five, episode 24, first published Friday, June 14th, 2024.
Hi friends, I'm Scott and this is What a Weird Week, a show about the weird stuff from this week's news. If you want a transcript or stuff to subscribe to our podcast, all the links that we talk about, you can get everything at shownotes.page. Shownotes.page. This is season five, episode 24, first published Friday, June 14th, 2024.
❿ I'm calling this one Fast Times in Barrowville. When they make the movie.
Dylan Phillips, a British mechanic, broke the Guinness World Record for the fastest wheelbarrow. Record speed was over 52 miles per hour. He built the wheelbarrow just for fun at first and then found out there was actually a world record. If he could make his wheelbarrow go really fast, he set the record in Yorkshire, United Kingdom. Apparently, one of the worst forms of transportation is a fast wheelbarrow because according to Dylan, no suspension. It's a rough ride. and also a little bit terrifying. But imagine how fast you could get all your yard work done if your wheelbarrow went 50 miles per hour. So far not available commercially.
Dylan Phillips, a British mechanic, broke the Guinness World Record for the fastest wheelbarrow. Record speed was over 52 miles per hour. He built the wheelbarrow just for fun at first and then found out there was actually a world record. If he could make his wheelbarrow go really fast, he set the record in Yorkshire, United Kingdom. Apparently, one of the worst forms of transportation is a fast wheelbarrow because according to Dylan, no suspension. It's a rough ride. and also a little bit terrifying. But imagine how fast you could get all your yard work done if your wheelbarrow went 50 miles per hour. So far not available commercially.
❾ elephant names are in the news. Researchers think that elephants in the wild have names and call each other by their names. Not a lot of animals do that. How do they know elephants are actually doing it? Short answer is they're experts.
That would be me paraphrasing the short answer on that one. Longer answer is they studied hundreds of sounds made by mom elephants and their elephant children over the decades. And it seems as though mom was using a certain sound to talk to each elephant kid. That's me paraphrasing a scientific article. It also seems like those elephant children recognize their unique sound or name because they could record some of these sounds and the kid would be like, what?
Who said my name when they played the sound back? Again, that's me paraphrasing. That wasn't an actual... In case you thought I was playing the actual audio from the field. No, that was it was me saying who's calling my name. It was me portraying the elephant, you guys. All right, we're off to a hot start.
That would be me paraphrasing the short answer on that one. Longer answer is they studied hundreds of sounds made by mom elephants and their elephant children over the decades. And it seems as though mom was using a certain sound to talk to each elephant kid. That's me paraphrasing a scientific article. It also seems like those elephant children recognize their unique sound or name because they could record some of these sounds and the kid would be like, what?
Who said my name when they played the sound back? Again, that's me paraphrasing. That wasn't an actual... In case you thought I was playing the actual audio from the field. No, that was it was me saying who's calling my name. It was me portraying the elephant, you guys. All right, we're off to a hot start.
Up next is a dinosaur discovery. A big old hailstone, maybe a record breaking hailstone. It's a biggie.
This is What a Weird Week where we catch you up on the weird news of the week.
❽ A driver... No, he wasn't driving. He was diving. Sorry. We'll keep that in. Let's just- We're on a deadline here, you guys. A diver discovered a rare mastodon tusk off the coast of Florida. The diver's name is Alex. First, he thought it was wood, just a big old chunk of wood. But upon closer inspection, a much rarer find than a chunk of wood.
A mastodon tusk measuring four feet long, 70 pounds. Now Alex is a fossil hunter. He goes diving and looking for fossils. He's found some before, but this is rare and big and becomes now this tusk becomes the property of the state of Florida. I believe we'll go to the Florida Museum of Natural History is where this tusk will end up. Well done, Alex, rare find and so much better than a chunk of wood.
A mastodon tusk measuring four feet long, 70 pounds. Now Alex is a fossil hunter. He goes diving and looking for fossils. He's found some before, but this is rare and big and becomes now this tusk becomes the property of the state of Florida. I believe we'll go to the Florida Museum of Natural History is where this tusk will end up. Well done, Alex, rare find and so much better than a chunk of wood.
❼ A giant hailstone is in the news. This is in Texas. A couple of storm chasers, Val and Amy, were chasing a storm and they found a hailstone nearly 18 cm in diameter. That's about 7 inches. That's well, they describe it as the size of a pineapple. Hailstone the size of a pineapple. Imagine if you're caught in a storm and it is hailing pineapples down on you. A couple of things. The article doesn't mention if it tasted like pineapple, which...
Come on, it's called reporting. Do it. And the it has to be confirmed or made official by a climatologist in Texas before they can actually say they got the biggest hailstone in Texas history or whatever. So to be continued.
Come on, it's called reporting. Do it. And the it has to be confirmed or made official by a climatologist in Texas before they can actually say they got the biggest hailstone in Texas history or whatever. So to be continued.
Up next, we have the skateboarding cat who made news this week and a couple of buddies who made a very strange bicycle.
This is What A Weird Week, the weird news of the week.
❻ A skateboarding cat was in the news this week, setting a new world record for the 10-meter cat dash. That's not the official name of the record, but basically that describes it. This happened in China. The cat's name is Baozi. I think I am pronouncing it... Well, no, I don't think I'm pronouncing it right, but I really tried to get it right. Baozi the cat, a young cat who covered 10 meters in 12 seconds and change to set a world skateboarding record for cats. Bowser's owner worked for a year to get Bowser up to speed on the skateboard. The article says that cats forget things more than dogs do. It's hard to teach them stuff. I found that informing, enlightening. And also, um, I learned that Bowser, I think the the cat is named after a type of bun. We have a video in the show notes if you want to see Bowser doing the skateboarding. You can go to shownotes.page
https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/news/2024/5/meet-baozi-the-skateboarding-cat-who-slid-into-the-record-books-in-mere-seconds-769632
https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/news/2024/5/meet-baozi-the-skateboarding-cat-who-slid-into-the-record-books-in-mere-seconds-769632
@guinnessworldrecords Fastest 10 m on a skateboard by a cat 🛹😺 12.85 seconds by Bao Zi 🇨🇳 #cat #catsoftiktok #guinnessworldrecords ♬ original sound - Guinness World Records
❺ Couple of buddies from France are in the news this week for making a world record bicycle that's very, very tall. They say it took a couple of years to build. They first thought of this idea while they were out at the pub having a couple of wobbly pops. That's what the article says. It doesn't say like the inspiration perhaps wasn't the drinks. Perhaps it was, you know, they saw a tall person in the pub. We don't know all the details is what I'm saying. Maybe it was like, wow, this is a very tall drink.
you know what we should do make something very tall and get in the Guinness Book of World Records. That is a dramatization. We're not exactly sure the intricacies of how they got to here, but after a couple of years they have the official record for tallest rideable bicycle in the world, 25 feet 5 inches, a very tall bicycle. If you want to see what it looks like, you can click the show notes, show notes dot page, or I'll describe it.
To me, it doesn't look like a traditional bicycle. It looks like some piece of construction equipment. It almost looks like it was made from parts of a crane. I don't wanna diminish the world record, but if you're winded by the time you get on the bicycle, you've gotta climb up the 25 feet to get onto the bicycle, and then you've got a bicycle? That's not for everyone. You know, you've gotta want to ride that thing. I feel like I would get halfway up.
climbing towards the bicycle seat and I'd be winded and done. That's a good workout for today. We'll try again tomorrow. Something like that.
you know what we should do make something very tall and get in the Guinness Book of World Records. That is a dramatization. We're not exactly sure the intricacies of how they got to here, but after a couple of years they have the official record for tallest rideable bicycle in the world, 25 feet 5 inches, a very tall bicycle. If you want to see what it looks like, you can click the show notes, show notes dot page, or I'll describe it.
To me, it doesn't look like a traditional bicycle. It looks like some piece of construction equipment. It almost looks like it was made from parts of a crane. I don't wanna diminish the world record, but if you're winded by the time you get on the bicycle, you've gotta climb up the 25 feet to get onto the bicycle, and then you've got a bicycle? That's not for everyone. You know, you've gotta want to ride that thing. I feel like I would get halfway up.
climbing towards the bicycle seat and I'd be winded and done. That's a good workout for today. We'll try again tomorrow. Something like that.
Up next, we have watermelon carnage in Utah and a zoo evacuation in the news. Scary and exciting, and everyone's OK.
It's what a weird week where we count down the weird news of the week. Thank you for listening!
❹This is what a weird week. A show about weird news. Four. There was watermelon carnage on a Utah highway this week when a watermelon truck lost its load on Interstate 80 in Summit County, Utah. There were watermelons smashed all over the highway. It's quite a, the picture is quite impactful. Maybe is how I would say it. No, maybe that's not a good way to say it. Smashed watermelons, you guys. Interesting picture. A lot of them. Shout out to the crew who got all the lanes open again. It was a driving hazard, you know, slipping and sliding on watermelons. That ain't great on the interstate. Wait, write this down. That ain't great on the interstate. Country song maybe? Imagine being a plow driver or, you know, the heavy equipment operator and you're like, I what? I'm cleaning up what now? Good one, Bob. I'm going back to sleep. But it was true. Bob was telling the truth.
❸ Three. In Independence, Kansas, they had to evacuate the zoo because they could tell a bear was trying to get out. I say, well done. How many of us would just stand there fascinated? Hey, look at that bear. The bear was trying to dig its way out of bear jail, essentially. How many of us would just watch and be like, what is that bear doing? And then, you know, oh, he's digging. And then he dug his way out. The zoo saw what was going on and zoo authorities evacuated to be on the safe side and the bear was not able to dig out after all. Was trying to, but did not make a complete escape. This happened at Ralph Mitchell's zoo. The whole thing was over in like 10 minutes they say. But you know bears, we've featured bears on this program many many times because they're smart. I think they're up to something and exhibit F, your honor. The bear who tried to escape the zoo.
Up next we have a rare hoodwinker. In the news, also follow up, there are things called hoodwinkers.
This is a show about weird news. What a weird week.
❷ Here's the headline. A rare hoodwinker sunfish washes ashore on an Oregon beach. Over seven feet tall, long, big. Over seven feet to hoodwinker sunfish. It's very rare in the Southern hemisphere for a hoodwinker sunfish to show up at all. And then somebody saw this, some expert saw this story about, look at this, a rare, we got a hoodwinker, you guys. and word got around and somebody, an expert in New Zealand said that could be the biggest one ever. So a couple of things to follow up on there. Not sure what happened to the hoodwinker sunfish and now they're starting to re-examine well maybe hoodwinker sunfish, maybe they've changed where they live or maybe we were always wrong about where they live. Quite a bit going on with this story that you know is to be continued.
🍅 Honorable Mention. Harvard researchers suggest hidden alien civilizations are living on Earth. They published a paper, the Journal of Philosophy and Cosmology, and they get into it, you guys, with like, what about this and what about this? And then look at stuff. This is a legit published paper by Harvard researchers. They think perhaps or they want people to consider that there are alien civilizations here on Earth and then they get into it. Consider this. Consider that. The Crypto-Terrestrial Hypothesis.
Are aliens living among us. So the secret bases could be somewhere deep in the ground or perhaps in the ocean. You guys, I consider myself a true believer, you know, but also not the sharpest tack in the tack package. So not bright enough to follow everything in this paper for sure. But we'll put a link in the show notes. They get into anthropology, history, geology, biology, and mythology and gaps in our fossil record. They get into how folklore and legend has been passed down from generations. There's a lot in this paper. It's interesting.
Are aliens living among us. So the secret bases could be somewhere deep in the ground or perhaps in the ocean. You guys, I consider myself a true believer, you know, but also not the sharpest tack in the tack package. So not bright enough to follow everything in this paper for sure. But we'll put a link in the show notes. They get into anthropology, history, geology, biology, and mythology and gaps in our fossil record. They get into how folklore and legend has been passed down from generations. There's a lot in this paper. It's interesting.
Up next, our number one story. It's going to be controversial you guys and it's a weird one about Goldenrod.
This is What a Weird Week, a show where we get into the weird news of the week
❶ A study from Cornell University, so you know, it seems legit. Are plants intelligent? That's the question. The answer is it depends on what you mean by intelligent. This is a study about goldenrod. Goldenrod can perceive other plants and can communicate with other plants. One of the things they've documented is if a goldenrod plant is eaten by an herbivore and there's another plant nearby, it communicates with that plant. If there's not another plant nearby, it doesn't bother trying to communicate. So it can perceive when plants are nearby. That's weird, right? You guys, that's weird. Science is weird.
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What a weird week.
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