What a Weird Week gets you caught up on the weird news of the week. https://www.
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Hi friends, I'm Scott and this is What a Weird Week, a show about the weird stuff in the news. See below for a transcript of the podcast episode. To subscribe to the podcast or for social media and more links, you can get everything at www.shownotes.page. These are the shownotes for Season 5, Ep 38 first published on Friday Sept 20, 2024. Here are this week's stories...
Scientists discover Doritos dye can make mice translucent...
• Researchers at Stanford University found that a common food dye, Yellow No. 5, can make mice translucent.
• Tartrazine (Yellow No. 5) is approved for use in the United States and Canada and is found in various foods and beauty products.
• When applied to mice, Tartrazine makes the skin transparent, revealing organs, muscles, and blood vessels.
• The researchers are working to improve the technique for human applications
https://globalnews.ca/news/10739992/doritos-dye-mice-translucent-study-humans/
• Tartrazine (Yellow No. 5) is approved for use in the United States and Canada and is found in various foods and beauty products.
• When applied to mice, Tartrazine makes the skin transparent, revealing organs, muscles, and blood vessels.
• The researchers are working to improve the technique for human applications
https://globalnews.ca/news/10739992/doritos-dye-mice-translucent-study-humans/
Mysterious radio signal travels 8 billion years to reach Earth...
• The origin of fast radio bursts (FRBs) remains a mystery, challenging our understanding of the universe.
• Might be something resulting after a star explodes.
https://www.earth.com/news/deep-space-radio-signal-reaches-earth-after-8-billion-years-frb-20220610a/
• The origin of fast radio bursts (FRBs) remains a mystery, challenging our understanding of the universe.
• Might be something resulting after a star explodes.
https://www.earth.com/news/deep-space-radio-signal-reaches-earth-after-8-billion-years-frb-20220610a/
Tuesday the world didn't get smacked by a giant space rock... hurray!
NASA issued alert for stadium-sized asteroid approaching Earth... Potentially hazardous... passed within 1 million KM of Earth... it posed no risk to Earth on its current trajectory... this asteroid’s 99 per cent larger than any other near-Earth objects.
Ohio Police and the missing 8-year-old... she's OK you guys... they found her shopping at Target... after she took a car and drove there by herself... they don't know the exact route she took to get to Target, but it was at least a 10 mile drive... she told the cops that she “struck a mailbox” en route. No injuries. No charges.
MO/GO Hiking Pants make headlines as the world's first powered pants.
• These pants feature built-in exoskeletons with AI-controlled motors that increase leg strength by 40% and reduce pressure on the knees...
• These pants feature built-in exoskeletons with AI-controlled motors that increase leg strength by 40% and reduce pressure on the knees...
• The rechargeable battery pack lasts about three hours...
• They cost around $5,000
Americans' Coffee Preferences include having it before having... other things...
• Over half of Americans believe a good cup of coffee can improve their day... one outta five prefer coffee to sweet, sweet, loving, lovetimes...
https://studyfinds.org/fresh-coffee-better-than-sex/
https://studyfinds.org/fresh-coffee-better-than-sex/
Grasshoppers: Some day we'll all be HOPPED UP on Grasshoppers...
• Research into the health benefits of eating grasshoppers... right now is in the rat stage but it's doing good things to those rats... improved sleep, healthier hair, and increased libido.
https://studyfinds.org/eating-grasshoppers-libido/
• Research into the health benefits of eating grasshoppers... right now is in the rat stage but it's doing good things to those rats... improved sleep, healthier hair, and increased libido.
https://studyfinds.org/eating-grasshoppers-libido/
New "grumpy" fish species found in the Red Sea...
• A new fish species called the grumpy dwarfgoby has been discovered in the Red Sea.
• It has a resting fish face. (I'll show myself out.)
• A new fish species called the grumpy dwarfgoby has been discovered in the Red Sea.
• It has a resting fish face. (I'll show myself out.)
Ken in California has been paying his neighbor's power bill for 18 Years... he wondered why his bill never decreased, despite trying to cut energy consumption... then the power company investigated and they all found out why... some sort of mix up had Ken paying the neighbor's bill...
Nickelodeon breaks pinata world record to celebrate Dora show...
•1800 pinatas at the 78th Annual East Los Angeles Mexican Independence Day Parade set a new Guinness World Record... and hopefully got lots of attention for the Dora show.
https://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2024/09/17/Guinness-World-Records-Dora-pinatas/2761726585918/
https://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2024/09/17/Guinness-World-Records-Dora-pinatas/2761726585918/
For New York Fashion Week, the folks at Hellmann’s collabbed with Chopova Lowena to create a designer bag that features mayonnaise-carrying technology... a mayonnaise compartment?! idk about fashion you guys but this thing is fire!!
Episode Transcript:
Scott [00:00:00 - 00:15:43]
Will eating chips turn you translucent? And will eating this certain bug give
you superpowers? What a Weird Week. Hi, everybody, it's Weird. This is like
crazy. Really? Weird, weird tale. Well, I got a great show for you today with
some wonderful weird stuff. Hi, friends, I'm Scott, and this is What a Weird
Week. It's a show. If you're new here, thank you for checking out the program.
We do 10 weird news stories every Friday. This is all from the news. Maybe it
slipped under the radar in your favorite newscast. We dig deep into the
weirdness of it. And we have a website where you can get all the show notes,
you can get links, you can subscribe to our podcast and stuff all through show
notes dot page show notes dot page. OK, here we go. This is What a Weird Week.
Season five episode can't remember for Friday, September 20th, twenty twenty
four. Ten. Number ten is about the research they're doing at Stanford
University. It was in the headlines this past week. Scientists discovered
Doritos dye can make mice translucent. Now, it's not just Doritos dye. It is
yellow number five, which is approved in the United States and in Canada for
food use and for beauty products. Yellow number five. Yellow number five gives
Doritos that delicious hue, but it's used in a lot of things. And now at
Stanford University, they're experimenting with yellow number five when they
give it to mice in certain doses. It will make mice's skin transparent. They
can look through the mouse and see organs and blood vessels and stuff. And
they're excited at the medical applications. This potentially has where you
could get diagnosed. Maybe you go to the doctor. Let's just paint this
wonderful scenario. There's something ailing you. And instead of a huge series
of tests, the doctor says, eat this bag of Doritos. And then the doctor looks
through your skin and says, oh, you swallowed a pocket watch. You know, that's
just one scenario, but very exciting medical breakthrough. If you want to do a
deep dive on the actual science of it and stuff, we have a link in the show
notes or visit show notes dot page nine. Number nine. Mysterious radio signal
travels eight billion years to reach planet Earth. That's our planet, you
guys. Astronomers have detected a powerful radio burst. They call them fast
radio bursts, FRBs. And at time of recording, the origin of this FRB remains a
mystery. I'm not a scientist, you guys, but the FRBs, these intense radio
waves, they're not exactly sure what causes them or where they come from
exactly. And the article does say I'm trying not to make it too let's all
panic. But the article says it this way. We still don't know what or who sends
these energy bursts. Right now, one of the theories, though, is an exploding
star will give off this burst of energy. And eight billion years later, we
detect it. So the mystery continues. But there, you know, right now,
astronomers continue to update their blogs and put out press releases. That's
always a good sign. You guys, if we get one of these headlines and it's like
mysterious space signal and now all the astronomers have gone on vacation,
that means they got the alien message and they've all gone down into their
bunkers. That's when we need to panic. Just keep an eye on the astronomers as
they update their blogs. And it's all good. All right. Off to a wonderful
start. Hang on. Number eight next. Great news. We did not get smacked by a
giant space rock on Tuesday. So. This is what a weird week. Catching you up on
all the weird news that happened. Eight. Number eight is Tuesday. The world
did not get smacked by a giant space rock. We did have an alert issued by NASA
for a stadium sized asteroid approaching Earth. A potentially hazardous
asteroid came within one million kilometers of Earth or 600 some thousand
miles. And NASA gave us a heads up about it. I don't know. They said no need
to panic in their alert. They said that there wasn't any risk to Earth on its
current trajectory. But if the potentially hazardous stadium sized asteroid
changed its course a little bit, we would have been like a small deviation
would have been bad news for us. Would have been a weird day on Tuesday was
the rare lunar eclipse, partial lunar eclipse lining up with the super moon,
full harvest moon. Imagine if you're out getting photos of the delightful
harvest moon and then. Wait a second, is that is that an asteroid coming for
us, Martha? It is. Is it Martha? Oh, oh, you're leaving me. Well, it's not the
way I wanted to find out, Martha. Sorry, I kind of launched into a whole thing
there, but. Feel bad for Hank and Martha. Maybe they'll be able to work things
out now that the asteroid missed us. Seven. Number seven out of Ohio, United
States of America, a police report. They found an eight year old girl shopping
at a Target store after she took a car and drove there on her own on Sunday
morning. This one started out scary. The police get a call about a missing
child. Then they also get a call about a youngster driving east on Rockside
Road. Eventually that car is found in the Target parking lot. The eight year
old, the missing eight year old was shopping at Target on their own. This had
a scary start, but it ends happy. The girl wasn't hurt. She did tell officers
she struck a mailbox on the way over. No charges. She's, you know, too young
to be charged anyway, and everyone was grateful the youngster was not injured.
I'm guessing you'd go right to the Halloween candy is out now. You'd go right
to that aisle. Probably eight year old me would be in there. Doesn't this seem
like a great publicity opportunity for an auto insurance company to provide
some free insurance or hire that youngster as a spokesperson? Maybe a car
dealership gives that eight year old a quality used vehicle. I don't know.
There's got to be something there, you guys. Up next, whether you're an avid
hiker or you absolutely hate walking places, have we got the pants for you.
This is what a weird week. We do weird news, weird news, weird news of the
week. Six. Number six is the new Mogo hiking pants that were unveiled this
week. They are the world's first powered pants built in exoskeleton pants with
A.I. controlled motors, and they increase your according to the manufacturer,
they increase your leg strength by 40 percent and reduce pressure on the
knees. They look similar to normal pants with some sort of structure built on
the you can see on the outside. There is some sort of cool looking
contraption. Does that make me sound old? Well, I am old, but some sort of
contraption attached to these pants you can see in the publicity photos, and
they are aiding the hiker to hike. They run on a battery. You get about three
hours on a full charge, so you'd need a couple of pair of pants for any major,
you know, if you're going to Everest with the pants. And by the way, if you've
got all this investor capital going on, I don't know the situation with this
company, but launch those pants on Mount Fuji or Mount Everest, you know,
that's where you want to launch. That's where you want your pants launch, you
guys, don't you? If these are walking pants that walk you up the mountain, it
doesn't take a marketing genius to point out our powered pants need to be on
Mount Fuji. Maybe it just wasn't in the budget or something. Anyway, powered
pants, number six. If you want to check out the photo, you can click the show
notes or go show notes dot page. Oh, wait, I forgot to mention they cost five
thousand dollars a pair, or I think the business model also allows for renting
the pants on certain hiking trails. I hope these pants go on to inspire people
who couldn't make those long hikes. Maybe they'll make the long hikes, but I
have questions. What if your pants fail on you and you're halfway up the
mountain or something? What if the pants go into moon mode and they start
auto-mooning other hikers? There are some questions, I'm just saying.
Someone's going to ask these tough questions. Five. All right, number five.
Maybe earmuffs if youngsters are listening. This, I mean, it's nothing too
crazy, but earmuffs kids. Number five is the survey that came out this past
week. The results of the coffee preferences. The reason for the earmuffs is
maybe you don't want your children to learn how much we love coffee. According
to the survey, we love coffee more than shimmy shammy. Sweet, sweet coffee
versus sweet, sweet shimmy shammy. United States of America survey. Over half
of Americans think a good cup of coffee can improve your day. With that one,
yes, but then one in five prefer coffee to shimmy shammy. That's either a
really, really good cup of coffee, right? No judgment here, but I just don't
know. Is it because your coffee is so good? If you answered that your love for
a cup of coffee is more than your love for togetherness, is it because your
cup of coffee is so good or the shimmy shammy doesn't stack up? It's
disappointing. They need to do more on this study. I need to know more. How
good is that cup of coffee or how terrible is the night of passion? It's one
of these studies where you have your, you end up with more questions. We link
to the whole thing in the show notes. Hang on. Up next is another superfood
story. We had one last week. It was about the healthiest vegetable to eat, but
this superfood, if it has any choice in the matter, is going to hop away from
you before consumption. This is what a weird week, a show about the weird
news. Four. Number four is grasshoppers are a surprising superfood for better
sleep, for better hair health, and for libido. Researchers in Cameroon are
looking into the health benefits of a grasshopper based diet. And right now,
this is in laboratory rats, but it's helping the rats to sleep better, to have
healthier hair. Rats have hair. Hang on for hair. What is wait? Are they
growing? Does it grow the hair of the rats? No. Okay. Sorry. They have a
healthier coat and rat love. There's a certain grasshopper species that's very
rich in amino acids, vitamins, minerals, and could save us all you guys.
Three. They found a new species of fish in the red sea and they're calling it
the grumpy fish. It got its name for its grumpy and rather unhappy appearance.
It could be a happy fish. They need to do more research. It just has a resting
fish face. You guys seriously, that's how it got its name. I like it. That
scientists gave it a nickname that we can all relate to. It's not too sciency.
And we all know somebody who reminds us of the grumpy dwarf Gobi fish. Oh, if
you don't, then you're the grumpy dwarf Gobi fish. Wait a second. I'm the
grumpy dwarf Gobi fish. Up next, number two, a cautionary tale about reading
your bills carefully. This fellow didn't read his bill carefully enough, I
guess. And for 18 years, what? That story is next. This is what a weird week.
We do weird news. We recap 10 weird news stories of the week. Two. California
man discovers he's been paying neighbor's bill for 18 years. Fellow named Ken
in California, United States of America recently discovered he's been
mistakenly paying his neighbor's bill for almost two decades. This Ken fellow
lived in the same apartment since 2006, and he is endeavoring to lower his
power bill and conserve energy. And he tried a bunch of stuff and his power
bill didn't change. So finally he got in touch with the power company and they
looked into it. When the company came and looked at the meter, they realized,
oh, we've been charging you for the place next door for 18 years. Power
company says they're looking into it. They're going to make this right. To be
continued. Honorable mention. Honorable mention this week. I always say the
promotions teams that have to cut through the noise and get our attention were
inundated with publicity stunts and advertising. And how do you cut through
the noise while Nickelodeon is celebrating the launch of their beginning to
show the new cartoon Dora, not Dora the Explorer that my kids grew up with.
But now there's the new cartoon Dora and they're just getting on Nickelodeon.
They're getting a Nick Jr. I think they're getting the first season of Dora.
There is another season coming out or available on another service. But
anyway, Nickelodeon the other day during the 78th annual East Los Angeles
Mexican Independence Day parade, they broke a Guinness World Record for
pinatas, 1800 pinatas in the parade. And they were hoping that we would lean
in and think pinatas. That's pleasant. What's going on here? And then now
we're all aware of the Dora program on Nickelodeon. Well done, Nickelodeon
promotions team and whoever supplied the pinatas. I guess it was a that's got
to be a lot of pinatas, which is also a pretty good name for your pinata
business. Hey, a lot of pinatas, you guys. Hang on. Our number one story next
is from the world of high fashion and it's weird. This is what a weird week we
do 10 weird news stories from the past week. Our number one story this week,
and I have to admit, I'm not a fashion maven here, whatever you call it. I
don't know my fashion so much. But for a New York fashion week, which is a big
deal in fashion, Hellman's Mayonnaise teamed up with a creator to make a bag,
a designer bag, especially designed to carry a jar of mayonnaise. And I think
that's all I have to say about it. We do link to some photos. It looks like a
designer bag and it also has a little pouch for your Hellman's Mayonnaise. New
York Fashion Week, you guys and Hellman's. Who would have thought? So we'll
stop there. You can click for photos and links and stuff. Go to show notes
that page. I appreciate your listening. Appreciate when you smash the like
button or whatever you do to like buttons these days or subscribing in that
you can get all the podcast information if you want. Go to show notes that
page and you can also click a button there. We link back to Funhaus Radio. We
are part of the weekend programming over at Funhaus Radio. So thanks to the
crew over there. Get all that at show notes dot page. We'll catch you next
week for more weirdness on what a weird week.
