What a Weird Week Feb 7, 2025: Big Laser News and terrific thrift store finds! #podcast #shownotes

What a Weird Week gets you caught up on the odd and weird stories in the news this week.
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Hi friends, I'm Scott and this is What a Weird Week, a lighthearted look at the odd, interesting, and weird stories in the news. See bottom of shownotes page for a transcript of the podcast episode. To subscribe, get in touch, and more links, see www.shownotes.page. These are the shownotes for Season 6, Ep 6 first published on Friday Feb 7, 2025.
 
The lovely nachos* plate that turned out to be antique. (*citation: my stomach is growling)
 
Is China building a giant laser facility and is it to become a Nuclear Fusion Superpower?


Man Sets New World Record for Farthest Axe Throw. (about as far as Cinderella's Castle is tall.) 

Painting found at garage sale is a Van Gogh - experts.
https://www.cnn.com/2025/01/30/style/garage-sale-van-gogh-elimar-scli-intl/index.html 

 
Possible New Life Form found in the Human Gut.  
https://www.vice.com/en/article/scientists-discovered-virus-viroid-like-obelisks-human-mouth-gut-bacteria/


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Men are Secretly the Biggest Romance Novel Fans - study.
Australian Bodybuilder Defends Risky Airplane Engine Push-up Stunt

 
Toco, a Japanese man who spent over £11,000 on a realistic collie dog costume, has opened Tocotoco Zoo, a unique establishment where people can pay to wear animal costumes and interact as their chosen animal.

 
Blind Box Toothpaste: A Novel Approach to Oral Care
 
Scotland Denies Plans to Ban Cats
 
Giant Snow Butt Constructed outside Museum

 
Boy arrested at hospital for 'impersonating a doctor'  

 
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Transcript: 
00:00
The one with giant lasers. What a weird week. Hi, everybody, it's Weird. This is like Crazy Boom Hill. Weird. Really weird. Bigfoot eats out of my trash. Well, I got a great joke for you today. It was so wonderful. Weird stuff. Hi, friends, I'm Scott. This is What a Weird Week. If you're new here, we catch you up on all the weird stuff from this week's news, the odd stories and the interesting stuff.

00:26
and you can get everything we talk about in more detail if you go to our show notes at show notes dot page, show notes dot page. All right, what a weird week for Friday, February 7th, 2025. Number 10. All right, we're kicking things off. I love stories like this. Somebody goes to the Goodwill, you know, you go to a thrift shop, you see something you like and it's in good shape. It's a plate. It's a fancy plate. It's in good shape. And perhaps,

00:54
If you're me, you're imagining, wow, I could put a lot of nachos on there to watch the big game this weekend. And so we pay the $4.99 in my scenario and we take it home and we enjoy nachos. Let me back up. This all happened in Illinois, but it could happen anywhere, any thrift shop, right? This is why I love these stories. You believe that it could happen to you that perhaps you will walk into a thrift store and pay a couple of bucks and become a millionaire. Well, this happened in Illinois.

01:24
does the research, gets the plate home. It's in good shape, kind of looks fancy. Turns out the $4.99, well spent, because a similar plate sold online for like $4,400. It turns out it's an 18th century Chinese armorial export plate. Do I know what an armorial export plate is? No. Looks fancy, and it looks like it would hold a lot of nachos. If you want to see photos and stuff.

01:51
You can click show notes dot page. Number nine. This one is fairly late breaking as we record this week's episode. The headlines are that China is perhaps building a giant laser facility. Lasers. If the experts are right on this and again, subject to change, not a lot of detail yet. The experts are basing what they're saying on surveillance images from outer space.

02:17
If it's true that China is building a giant laser facility, the experts believe it could be one of two things. They are investing in nuclear fusion research, which would mean clean energy and solve a lot of our energy issues as a planet. Or it could mean that they're amping up their nuclear weapons development, which not as pleasant if it's that one. I guess we'll stop there. I mean, to be continued.

02:47
Nuclear weapons or other perhaps other somewhere in the middle of maybe is where the truth is We'll keep an eye on that one like we've had stories before about nuclear fusion We're getting closer to it becoming a reality. It does involve lasers. Sorry lasers right now I think we're still at a place where we're putting more energy in than we're getting out But I'm trying to remain impartial on this but I gotta tell you I'm team fusion if I have to choose between nuclear weapons or nuclear fusion

03:17
I'm just gonna say it you guys, I'm Team Fusion. Number 8 While we're on the topic of harnessing superpowers to dominate the world, how about this fellow, this Turkish fellow Osman who made headlines by throwing an axe 183 feet and something. That's a world record. Osman has thrown other things very far, a basketball, a cornhole shot, he has that world record. He also has the farthest rubber chicken throw.

03:44
Can you imagine you're throwing rubber chickens very, very far? People are finding it hilarious or confusing, perhaps, whatever. That was all just a distraction, so they wouldn't pay attention when you finally throw an axe. I'm just saying, if it came down to some sort of turf war with Osmond. I want Osmond on our side, you guys. That guy can throw stuff. Anyway, 183 feet, that is like if he threw that straight up, that's...

04:12
as tall as the Leaning Tower of Pisa, as tall as Cinderella's Castle at Walt Disney World. If Osmond were standing on the pedestal and he threw that axe straight up, that would be higher than the Statue of Liberty. That's an impressive axe throw. And if Osmond does not get some kind of a contract with axe body spray, now's the time to sign Osmond. Number 7. Okay, another story that I love from the Scott Loves These Stories department.

04:40
This is a painting discovered at a garage sale. Turns out to be worth a fortune. This journey began a few years ago, but the painting is making headlines this week because it's official. It's worth a lot of money. It all started at a garage sale in Minnesota where somebody spotted a painting and negotiated a $50 price tag, which to me seems like a lot.

05:07
If you're going to a garage sale and spending 50 bucks on a painting, they must have had a feeling this was worth something. Anyway, the person tries to get it verified, thinks maybe this is famous or whatever, gets it looked at. And initially the experts are like, no, this is not a famous painting at all. And then the original owner sells it to a research and art research firm. They begin the journey again to try to get this verified. And they are confident it's a Vincent van Gogh.

05:37
It's a portrait of a fisherman smoking a pipe, repairing his net. It was something they didn't know existed. And my sources tell me it's worth at least $52. That's right, worth more than the original $50. The newly discovered Vincent van Gogh. What's that? Maybe as high as $55. I'm not good with math, you guys, but definitely it's worth more than the $50. Something else too. They found a hair.

06:07
in the paint stuck to the painting and it looked like it was from the original time of when it was painted and then they tried to match DNA with Vincent van Gogh's descendants but that didn't go anywhere the DNA it was too degraded whatever CSI they couldn't put it through run it through

06:31
Number six. Okay, this one is kind of sciencey and a lot of times the sciencey stories don't do so well on the program Because I think because i'm dumb and I don't explain them very well, but this one is weird and perhaps a bit frightening Scientists discover mysterious microscopic organism in the human gut that appears to be an entirely new class of life scientists have found something in our human gut that may be a life form they

07:00
didn't know existed. Something brand new to science, it has the unique ability to create proteins. Scientists had to come up with a name for these proteins. Like, it's all brand new territory. So now scientists are excited. Imagine being the gut guy, you know, they're handing out the science assignments. Somebody's gotta, you know, come up with a jet pack. Somebody's gotta figure out how to cure whatever disease. Somebody else is like,

07:29
make these moon shoes better. You know, science. You know how science works. And then somebody got the gut research and they were like, oh, gut research, come on. And then they hit the jackpot with something brand new, a brand new life form in the human gut. So I feel happy for that team of researchers who now have some mystery to solve. I don't know. That's all I really I linked to the thing. And if you want to read more about it, but it's a to be continued situation. I love it when we find new things.

07:59
It's a little unsettling when it's inside of me that they find a new thing, but still, that's our science story. Up next, the surprising results of a survey concerning romance novels.

08:40
This is what a weird week, a show about the weird news, the odd news, the interesting news of the week. Number five. A study about reading habits and romance made headlines this week. It was revealed this study is two thousand people. So, you know, a fair size study. American adults were surveyed and it was revealed that men are secretly the biggest romance novel fans. Men spend more time reading romance novels than women do. Another thing from the study is that.

09:08
A vast majority of people report that romance tropes have occurred to them in real life. So you're reading a romance novel and whatever moves that plot forward into romance-y time in the novel, you've had that happen to you in your real life? I don't want to be like nosy or super creepy, but I need more details on that you guys. Like really that real life? What?

09:35
This is one of those stories, you know, social media influencers do stuff sometimes, fake things or dangerous things or zany things to get clicks and views on their social media. This is one of those stories, but it touched a nerve for me because it involves push-ups. So, Australian bodybuilder defends risky airplane engine push-up stunt. That's the headline. It's about an Australian bodybuilder and fitness influencer named

10:05
inside of an airplane engine at Sydney Airport, Sydney, Australia, not Sydney, Nova Scotia. So this was a TikTok. The airport, the officials there were like, oh, super dangerous. Don't like strongly condemn doing this. And then Presley was like, no, no, I was fine. The engine wasn't even turned on. Unlike all my followers, they were totally turned on. That part, not really, that wasn't really part of the quote.

10:32
Anyway, the internet reacted there. I mean, what if the plane, I don't know, what could have happened? Can those things do you have auto start for planes? I don't understand any of it. At the core is push ups, how they can't lead to anything good, you guys. And that's why we shouldn't do them. Right. That's why I'm not going to do push ups, you guys. Number three, that fellow who dressed like a dog and lived like a dog. And it was quite realistic costume. That fellow is back in the headlines this week.

11:01
His name is Tako, the Japanese man. He spent 11,000 British pounds, something like that, on a very fancy collie dog costume. Looked like a collie dog. Looked like a lassie or laddie. Looked like a real pooch to me. But you could tell when Tako dresses a dog and was walked to the dog park, those dogs at the dog park, they knew something was up.

11:27
Anyway, now Taco is opening the Taco Taco Zoo. That is what is making headlines. You can go to the zoo and live like a dog. You can spend up to three hours living as a dog for about 250 British pounds. You get to put on the costume and live like a dog. That's the Taco Taco Zoo experience, you guys. I don't know. I have my doubts about this as a business venture because

11:56
I mean, if you want to live as a dog, whatever flies your freak boat. Is that a phrase? You know, you're not hurting anybody, I don't care. But some people will go to the zoo and plunk down their 250 British pounds and they'll squeeze into that dog costume and then it is so hot and you're down on the ground trying to walk around like a dog and you're going to get cramped up, you're going to get overheated and cramped up is what I would worry about. But

12:23
I'm a worrier. Honorable mention. Mention. Honorable mention this week to the toothpaste brand His Smile. Has a blind box toothpaste, you guys. Some sort of publicity stunt or a way to cut through the noise and best your competitors in the attention getting racket that is marketing. His Smile toothpaste.

12:49
You get toothpaste and you don't know what flavor it is. Maybe it's wonderful mint, but probably not. It could be strawberry matcha or vanilla cola. Purple mango. You just don't know. And it's the not knowing that is both exciting and terrifying, but it's always good to brush your teeth, you guys. So I guess maybe some good would come out of it. Brush your teeth with custard. That's one of the flavors.

13:15
We'll link to that story. Click show notes dot page. Number two, a cat man in Scotland made headlines this week. It's not true, but here's what happened. A report came out. The Scottish Animal Welfare Commission had a report, a bunch of different ideas and proposals because a lot of birds meet their untimely demise after an encounter with cats. So one of the things was like, you know, we have bird. We're worried about birds. Maybe we should limit.

13:44
the amount of cats allowed in areas. And so that took off online and people were like, they're gonna ban cats. Cat people were concerned about that. So then government officials had to come out and say, there is no plan to ban cats. I think I would believe it too, if I heard they're gonna ban cats or you know, there are some zany headlines that prove to be true at the end of the day. And you just don't know anymore on social media what is true and what is not. And also when I mentioned cats in Scotland,

14:14
Were you thinking there's gotta be a joke in there somewhere about cats sounding like bagpipes? No, me neither. Me neither you guys. I was not thinking of that joke. Honorable Mention You've got another honorable mention. It involves something, I don't know, is this an earmuffs warning? It's not a bad word, but it might make your kids giggle, I'm not sure. It's the story of the giant snow butt.

14:43
An eight foot tall snow sculpture of a butt showed up on the south lawn of the Museum of Art in Kansas City. It was meant to be a little cheeky. Let's just call it what it was, cheeky. So how do you think this one ended? Everybody was arrested and they brought in a giant snow moving machine to take down the snow butt. No, I'm just kidding. Actually the museum was lighthearted about the whole thing.

15:10
Good natured. Number one. Number one story this week is from the Manchester Evening News. A 13-year-old boy arrested at hospital for impersonating a doctor after turning up wearing scrubs and a fake ID. The headline kind of says it all. The 13-year-old boy shows up in scrubs, ID, and apparently strutting around like some sort of doctor. The headline says the boy was arrested but no charges were laid.

15:40
Words of advice were given and that was it. What do you think was going on here? Some kind of dare? Some kind of social media stunt? Was the young person trying to get a job, make a, save enough money to get an iPhone? What was happening? We'll stop there. Thank you for listening to What a Weird Week, where we catch you up on all the weird news of the week, the odd stuff.

16:04
The interesting stories you can get everything we talk about and find more ways to listen to our program. If you go to our show notes page show notes dot page once again that's show notes dot page. We'll catch you next week with more weird stuff on what a weird week.







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