What a Weird Week gets you caught up on the odd/ interesting/ strange/ fun and weird news that happened this week. Ten stories in 15 minutes!
See https://www.shownotes.page or search "What a Weird Week" where you get podcasts.
See https://www.shownotes.page or search "What a Weird Week" where you get podcasts.
Hi friends, I'm Scott and this is What a Weird Week, a look at the odd, interesting, strange, fun and weird stories that made news this week. See bottom of shownotes page for a transcript of the podcast episode. To Subscribe, get in touch, and more see www.shownotes.page.
Thanks for rating and reviewing it means the world, baby!
These are the shownotes for Season 6, Ep 9 first published on Friday Feb 28, 2025.
Thanks for rating and reviewing it means the world, baby!
These are the shownotes for Season 6, Ep 9 first published on Friday Feb 28, 2025.
🎵Spider Goat, Spider Goat, Does Whatever a Spider Goat can🎵
https://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2025/02/21/spain-window-goat-apartment-building/3901740171768/ and watch video at https://www.facebook.com/BomberosMad/videos/1021071826609510
Really REALLY tiny Lego world record
https://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2025/02/20/Guinness-World-Records-tiny-Lego/5391740080162/
^slows his hear to make art^
^very small lego brick^
What is Cheetozard and why are people freakin' out?
https://www.dexerto.com/pokemon/pokemon-fans-are-bidding-thousands-on-a-charizard-shaped-flamin-hot-cheeto-3140859/
^Cheetozard^
Science changing it's mind about Mars?
https://www.sciencealert.com/we-may-have-been-wrong-about-why-mars-is-red
Solved! Why tomatoes aren't more deadly.
https://www.popsci.com/health/why-tomatoes-arent-poisonous/
^tomatoes IRL?^
🎵
City-destroyer keeps popping up in the news.
https://studyfinds.org/asteroid-2024-yr4-earth-collision-odds/
Does AI eventually lose its marbles?
https://www.sciencealert.com/scientists-tested-ai-for-cognitive-decline-the-results-were-a-shock
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Enormous Fondue breaks records, and the hearts of people who don't eat dairy.
https://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2025/02/24/france-Guinness-World-Records-largest-cheese-fondue/6981740418744/
Golden Toilet back in the headlines.
https://apnews.com/article/golden-toilet-stolen-blenheim-palace-trial-bb3cd346713923d59304880ca209dcd4
^golden toilet - so weird^
Mortuusequusphobia/ Fear of Ketchup. What's that like?
https://nypost.com/2025/02/20/lifestyle/fear-of-ketchup-or-mortuusequusphobia-is-real-sufferers-say/
Thieves can't claim lotto jackpot without outing themselves as thieves.
https://apnews.com/article/france-lottery-ticket-stolen-card-thieves-50a0fa5a3fb22baac08899e5100dc1db
🎵
Transcript below...
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Transcript:
00:00Do do do do do do do do do do do do do spider goat What a weird week Hi friends, I'm Scott and this is what a weird week we are a show that gets you caught up on the odd interesting strange fun
00:24
weird news that happened this week. We do 10 stories in 15 minutes and you can get everything in more detail or find out how to get in touch. All the links to like and subscribe. Everything is at show notes dot page show notes dot page. This is episode nine from season six. First published Friday, February 28th, 2025. Number 10 number 10 is Spider Goat. Spider Goat does whatever a spider goat can.
00:52
I don't know if it's really a spider goat you guys, but in Madrid this goat made headlines and shout out to firefighters who came to the rescue of a goat stranded on the fifth floor of an apartment building. It was a vacant apartment and the door, the goat was on the balcony. The door behind the goat was closed. Like what? How? At time of recording, it's still a mystery how the goat got onto the fifth floor. I mean, obviously it's either a spider goat.
01:21
Perhaps it can fly or maybe it was squatting in the apartment and locked itself out. If you want to see some video of this spider goat, see shownotes.page. If you ever find yourself in a situation staring down a spider goat, what got this goat down was carrots and lettuce. Delicious carrots, delicious lettuce and the goat was like, I'll go wherever you want me to.
01:46
Number nine is the very very small teeny teeny tiny tiny tiny small small small Miniature smaller than that lego brick which was made by a british micro artist It was in the headlines this week david the british micro artist Made a lego brick the size of a human blood cell. It's pretty small you guys what I learned from the article When you're a micro artist you've got to do your art in between heartbeats because you need such a steady hand so david
02:15
will let his heart beat, then he does some art, then the heart beats again, then he does some more art, so it goes heart, then art, then heart, then art. That's how you do it when you're a micro artist. I'm not sure, like I don't understand art. I do think that if you dabble in art and your masterpieces, like you could have your life's work in a shoe box, that certainly cuts down on studio space.
02:45
So that's, I would say that's a plus, right? If you want to have a look at the art, we put a link in the show notes or go to shownotes.page. Number 8 Number 8 involves Pokemon and Flamin' Hot Cheetos. Couple of popular things, right? And when you combine the two, well good night Irene. So this is the Cheetosard. A Cheetosard is a Cheeto that looks like a Charizard. If I mispronounce that, I'm sorry, I really don't do the Pokemon. Please.
03:15
Let me know, send me a note or better yet, just send me a signal with a five star review, Apple or Spotify. The Cheetos art has a bit of a history. It was discovered at a collectibles place and anyway, changed hands a few times. It's in the headlines this week because it's on auction and at time of recording, the bid is a thousand dollars. So by the time we release this program, maybe the bidding will be as high as.
03:44
a thousand and one dollars or other. If you want to see photos of the thing, I don't, I'm not convinced 100% that it's just a random, you know, Cheeto that came out of a bag. It looks that good, you guys. Anyway, have a look at the photos and also do a deep dive. The article does talk about some other famous Cheetos that went on auction. One Cheeto sold for a hundred thousand dollars, you guys. Some good reading. You can check the show notes. Go to show notes dot page.
04:11
Number seven quick science story about the planet Mars. A new study is challenging the long held belief that Mars, the red planet, was red because of dry oxidation. So that's what we were all taught. You know, it's rust, basically, but it was not the result of water. Now they are saying maybe it was the result of water. The end. Hey, I said a brief science story. Made a lot of headlines, a little bit weird, a little bit odd and interesting.
04:41
But the end. Number 6. Number 6, here's a fun one, especially if you enjoy a delicious tomato, perhaps you grow them or you know someone who grows tomatoes and then they have too many tomatoes and they give you a bunch of tomatoes. Well, if that's you, take note, science may have finally figured out why tomatoes don't kill us, you guys. So that's interesting, right? Apparently researchers were baffled. Why aren't these things killing us? I may have.
05:10
hyperbolize there a little bit, but tomatoes belong to the nightshade family, which, you know, some of those plants are deadly. And why can we eat tomatoes? Well, science has been working on that, I guess, and they think they know why. The science of it is, I can't explain it, it's way over my head. It's, you know, at the genetic level, there is some mechanism or trigger, and they've been able to identify it. They're quite confident they know now. First of all,
05:39
They're quite confident that tomatoes are safe to eat now, finally, and that's good. And then secondly, they think they know why tomatoes are safe to eat. If you would like to do a deep dive on the story, we'll put a link in the show notes.
05:56
Everyone's favorite asteroid was back in the headlines this week. We'll get into that story next.
06:28
Hello friends, I am Scott and this is What a Weird Week, a show where we cover the odd, the interesting, the weird stories of the week. Number five is that asteroid, that YR4 asteroid, which is in the headlines every week now because they keep adjusting the math and it gets closer to Earth, I guess maybe, or they have more data and they're able to say, still probably not going to hit us. That's kind of, you know what, let's stop there. That's the whole story, really.
06:57
Unlikely to hit Earth, all of this is supposed to take place in 2032. I'm just happy someone's keeping an eye on things up there. Number 4 Number 4 is an AI story. We've had a lot of the AI stories about how the AI will rise up and conquer us all. This one's not that. This is a study on AI, especially older AI. It has essentially, it develops cognitive decline as it gets older.
07:27
The AI. The large language models were given the Montreal Cognitive Assessment. So you know, pretty legit, you guys. So a couple of things happened when this study came out. People were like, why is that occurring to the AI? And also, wait, are we trusting the AI to do surgery and stuff? Did we sign off on that already? Can we have another look at that before we sign off? That's me paraphrasing, but…
07:55
I'm glad someone's keeping an eye on that stuff also. To the people keeping an eye out for us. Hear hear. Who even says hear hear? I instantly heard that coming out of my mouth and I regretted it. Number three. Number three is a story about cheese and a lot of cheese. So if you're lactose intolerant, I apologize. We got a lot of cheese coming at you.
08:18
Guts of heavy wind and constant rain couldn't keep the French at home. Not when a world title was at stake. In the heart of Dura, eastern France, more than 5,000 people gathered to try what has become mankind's largest cheese fondue. Weighing a whopping 2,177.5 kilos. That's from France 24, a bit of their report about the largest.
08:46
Fondue in the world a 4800 pound cheese fondue the world record set in France made headlines this week They poured all the ingredients. So like 4800 pounds. That's a rhinoceros as heavy as a rhinoceros That is more heavy than most vehicles and they get all the ingredients in a giant cauldron They get that cheese fondue going and I imagined, you know They would have one large fondue stick or fondue fork or whatever. It's called
09:15
Fondue prong. So, you know, imagine a giant one, the size of a telephone pole, with a giant piece of bread on the end. And that is how I assumed they would set that world record. But no, they just made a giant fondue and then they shared it normal portion size to a bunch of people at tables. If you want to see a video, we'll link to the thing.
09:37
Go to shownotes.page. Number two. Number two is the golden toilet. Back in the news, we've talked about the golden toilet before. I think first when it was discovered that someone had made a golden toilet. It was a work of art. 18 karat gold, a fully functioning toilet, but you know, gold. So very valuable. And it was installed as a working toilet. But also it was art. It was making some sort of statement.
10:05
Now I don't understand art, I don't want to weigh in on all of that, but anyway, a very valuable toilet installed. And then it made news when it got stolen. And now it's back in the news because three men are on trial accused of stealing the golden toilet in what is described in the article as an audacious pre-dawn raid. So we'll see how the court case shakes out. And this part, I don't know if I should share this because you could write this down and you...
10:34
could become a criminal mastermind. But I'm going to tell you, and you may want to write this down if you are determined to become a criminal mastermind, this is how authorities believe the golden toilet was stolen. Burglars smashed a window, removed the toilet, and that's it. That was the whole, that was the plan, and I guess it went according to plan. Couple of issues though, because it was a working toilet, they caused water damage when they removed the toilet.
11:03
And then I imagine the employee who first discovered the missing golden toilet. Do you call maintenance first? Do you call the authorities? Do you call a plumber and the local authorities at the same time? I don't know. That would be honestly, if you're standing there looking at the place where the toilet used to be, you probably have a couple of viable options. One last thing I'd like to point out that our golden toilet story was number two. It was number two, you guys.
11:32
Honorable mention, mention, mention, mention. Honorable mention this week to the New York Post article about phobias, including Leigh Woodman, a British woman, her phobia of I can't pronounce the phobia, but it's a fear of ketchup and intense and debilitating fear of ketchup. So I'm not making light of this or anything because, you know, anxiety, it ain't fun having anxiety no matter what triggers it. Once you're in that state, we all been there. It ain't fun. So for Leigh, it's.
12:02
The smell of ketchup, the texture of ketchup, seeing ketchup touch a dish. Well, that dish has to go. That is no longer a viable option in Lee's kitchen. Ketchup can trigger panic attacks for Lee, which has got to be difficult because ketchup is everywhere. And also when you see ketchup and other people eating it, they're almost always having a good time. So you're feeling this panic setting in. And meanwhile, people are laughing.
12:30
And carrying on. That can't be easy. Someone else in the article has the same phobia and is a waitress. Like how, how hard would that be to do your job every day when you have an intense fear of ketchup? Not easy. Do you want to read the thing? We put the link in the show notes. Number one story this week. And I saw this a lot on mainstream news programs and all over my feeds in France.
12:58
Thieves stole a credit card, they used it to buy some lotto tickets, and one of the lotto tickets actually won 500,000 euros. And the thieves can't come forward to claim the prize because we're on to them. We know whoever comes forward stole a credit card. So what do you do? That's got to be such a conundrum. The victim of the crime is saying, hey, just come forward, let's split the money and move on with our lives.
13:26
kind of the deal and so far that has not happened. It's a story that has legs as they say in the news racket. So to be continued, I hope this works out for the person who had their backpack stolen mostly but I guess what if you're a criminal who goes straight when you someone extends the olive branch and 250,000 euros and you're able to turn your life around. Could be a life-turning around situation I guess.
13:57
OK, that's 10 stories and a bonus. So we're going to stop there this week. If you want the show notes, you can go to show notes that page. That's also where you can find out more about subscribing to our podcast and a whole bunch of other stuff there. Show notes that page. Thank you for tuning in this week, and we'll catch you next week with more weird stuff on What a Weird Week.