What a Weird Week Fri July 25, 2025: Dinosaurs, Meteors, Paving Stone Flip Flops

Scotty

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 "What a Weird Week" where you get podcasts.

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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/ other/ see www.shownotes.page.
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These are the shownotes for Season 6, Ep 30 first published Fri July 25, 2025 
 

Dinosaur Museum finds actual Dinosaur Fossil Under Parking Lot 
https://apnews.com/article/denver-museum-dinosaur-bone-fossil-parking-lot-a035df2d4c9b1cbcaa32137ebb4bfa2a 


Biggest Claw Game in the World
https://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2025/07/22/philippines-Guinness-World-Records-largest-claw-machine/9421753198834/ 

 

Snail Races 
https://kyma.com/news/national-world/2025/07/21/village-in-england-hosts-annual-world-snail-racing-championships/ 

 

The Argument is Strong for a Four Day Work Week 
https://www.popsci.com/science/four-day-work-week-study/ 


 

Meteor Shower Headsup 
https://www.livescience.com/space/meteoroids/see-up-to-25-shooting-stars-an-hour-as-southern-delta-aquariid-and-alpha-capricornid-meteor-showers-peak


 

Where to report a UFO/ UAP sighting:
- https://www.aaro.mil/Submit-A-Report/
- https://nuforc.org/report-a-ufo/
- https://uforum.blogspot.com/search?q=report+a+sighting and also here is a link to report directly to the Canadian UFO survey https://www.canadianuforeport.com/survey/reportfrontpage.html

Is it a Comet? Or is it Alien Technology?? (It's a Comet) 
https://www.livescience.com/space/extraterrestrial-life/here-we-go-again-controversial-paper-questions-whether-interstellar-visitor-3i-atlas-is-possibly-hostile-alien-tech-in-disguise 


 

Sea Spiders! 
https://www.sciencealert.com/this-common-blood-pressure-drug-extends-lifespan-slows-aging-in-animals 


 

Blood Pressure Drug Might Fight Aging 
https://www.sciencealert.com/this-common-blood-pressure-drug-extends-lifespan-slows-aging-in-animals 


 

Paving Stone Flip Flops 
https://www.trendhunter.com/trends/unipaver 

 

Art Admirer Eats Banana, World Reacts
https://nypost.com/2025/07/21/lifestyle/maurizio-cattelans-6m-banana-artwork-has-been-eaten-again/ 

 

How Much Difference Does 7000 Steps-a-Day Make? A Lot. 
https://studyfinds.org/7000-daily-steps-lower-death-risk/


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EPISODE TRANSCRIPT:  

00:00
parking lot dinosaurs. What a weird week. Hi friends. I'm Scott. And this show is called What a Weird Week. We cover some of the stuff that was in the news this past week that was odd, fun, interesting, unusual. You will  those kinds of things. Try to keep it  less serious  and more of the fun stories. And we do 10 stories in 15 minutes. You can get everything we talk about. If you go to show notes dot page, if you need our show notes,

00:28
or anything about the podcast again, it's shownotes.page. This is the episode for Friday, July 25, 2025. Number 10 is the Denver Museum of Nature and Science and the dinosaur fossil they found under their own parking lot. You could imagine visiting the Denver Museum of Nature and Science and perhaps seeing a dinosaur fossil display, right? Well, they're doing some work in their parking lot.

00:56
They're drilling a hole. It's just a small hole. It's two inches across because they want to see if they can have a geothermal heating unit installed. So what to get one of those, you have to do a core sample. You have to drill down quite deep, but it's a small hole, two inches across five centimeters across. And while they're doing this under their parking lot, they hit a dinosaur. They hit, they found a dinosaur fossil, 60 something million year old dinosaur, a plant eating dinosaur. And that is very rare.

01:26
The  end. Imagine that would be like taking a milkshake straw putting it in a bucket of delicious milkshake. In that bucket is  one  bug, let's say, and your straw hits that bug and you end up sucking up that one bug. That's a terrible analogy. Never mind about the bug stuff. Anyway, it was rare way to go Denver Museum of Nature and Science. Number nine is the world's largest

01:55
claw game, the claw king in the Philippines made headlines. It is a giant claw game. You know, those games where you drop the claw and you try to pick up the plush banana or the Rolex watch. Sometimes it's a Rolex watch. It's almost impossible to get. So the size of it, we shared a photo. It's really hard to get a gauge of how big it is based on the photo, the perspective, but we'll run down some of the dimensions for you. It's about 17 feet long.

02:24
8 feet across and 12 feet tall. It looks like the claw could pick up if you don't have a chance to click the photo. It looks like the claw could pick up an average size human being. That's actually what it's going to be used for. They're going to stock it with human beings,  bachelors. And then the bachelorette, you know that show the bachelorette is going to try to pluck out the bachelor that she wants to marry and they'll get married. The next season. That's what I listen.

02:54
I haven't confirmed my sources on that, don't go to press with that part of this  story, the rest of it, the dimensions, it's a very large claw game. All of that part was 100 % verifiable. Number eight is this one, the snail races. If your Monday feels like it's moving at a snail's pace, folks across the pond can also relate.

03:16
Some noise for your snail.  An English village turned slow motion into a sport over the weekend, inviting snails from around the world to slug it out in the annual World Snail Racing Championships.  This year's superstar was Bilbo Sluggins  inching his way to victory.  That's a little bit of the Yuma 13 news report on the and I  listen, they were thrown every pun you could at this story, and that's what you're meant to do. I have no notes.

03:46
10 out of 10 would recommend Yuma 13, your CBS affiliate. And you heard Bilbo Sluggins was the winning snail, the world snail races. So it's not just Yuma 13 getting in on the puns. The people naming the snails also. Congratulations Bilbo Sluggins, winner of the World Snail Racing Championships.  Number seven is the four day work week and how great it is for everybody. There's science. They've studied it.

04:16
So this was written up in Popular Science making headlines the study that involved 140 companies from the United States of America, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and Ireland. Employees were switched to a four day work week. So every week was a long weekend coming up situation. Four day work week, same pay, same benefits.  And it was wonderful for the workers. Employees had reduced stress, reduced burnout.

04:45
better mental and physical well-being, better productivity when you're on a four-day work week. Okay, that maybe you'd think, yeah, that checks out. I'd be happier if I didn't have to work as much, but I got the same amount of money, but it also worked out great for the companies. Revenue growth.  Going to a four-day work week made the employees happy and it made more money for the companies. So perhaps if you have a job and

05:14
The four day work week appeals to you. You may want to read this article, send it on to human resources, your manager. don't know. Proceed with caution. You know your manager better than I do. Number six is a friendly heads up about some meteor showers. It's not every day that two different meteor showers overlap and peak on the same night. And that is what is going to happen for many areas  on July 29 into July 30. So that's going to be before our next show drops.

05:44
early next week. Wanted to give you a heads up about it. The Southern Delta Aquarids and the Alpha Capricornids meteor showers will peak on July 29 into July 30. And so you might see some shooting stars, some good old fashioned shooting stars, which I know that's not the official name of what is happening, but shooting stars.  And you can make a wish, but I know you have to consult your local listings as far as the meteor showers go, because our program goes out over the worldwide super highway of information and

06:14
That means perhaps where you are, got a different situation. As far as where to look for the meteor showers, I would say the sky. I would generalize it and say, look up. And if you're taking in those meteor showers, you see something strange. I'm going to put a link to where you can report strange things in the sky. I don't know how I feel about all of that. Yes, I do. I know I'm a true believer that there's something weird going on in the sky.

06:41
If you want to report, are some  scientific and data gathering organizations that would like to hear from you if you see weird stuff in the sky. So meteor showers, you're looking up anyway, you see something weird. You may want to report that. I'll put a link in the show notes or click show notes that page. Here's another weird thing in the sky story. This is about the interstellar object named three eye Atlas, which might be alien technology, but it's probably not alien technology.

07:10
So this is something that it's so rare for something to enter into our solar system from away, you know, an interstellar object to come into our solar system. That is so rare. It hardly ever happens. So the object is getting written up a lot. Scientists who study, you know, if that's your field and this is so rare to happen and you're able to observe and study this interstellar object. I mean, you're jacked up. If that's you, you're jacked up about this three eye Atlas.  And

07:38
Everyone says it's a comet. All the scientists. I'm generalizing, but everyone says it's a comet except  one Harvard astronomer. His name's Avi Loeb. And maybe you've heard of Avi Loeb before I first heard of Avi Loeb listening to a UFO podcast.  I, he was a guest and he was saying the same thing he's saying now and he's making headlines now. He's saying this is not a comet. It just looks like a comet, but it's actually extraterrestrial technology.

08:06
The rest of the scientific community, I think I'm generalizing, but  also it's true. The rest of the scientific community says, no, incorrect, sir. False. It's not alien technology. It's a comet. And Avi Loeb published a paper,  non-peer reviewed paper, and made headlines this week, kind of laying out his  reasoning. Characteristics of a comet are unusual and this is an alien vehicle or something. That's kind of it.

08:36
I mean, that's me summarizing a longer article that you may want to get into. And maybe this is something that you're jacked up about. We'll link to it in the show notes. Number four, oh, trigger warning. If you do not like spiders, we're going to talk about spiders. My wife hates spiders. Now, this is not some creepy story about a fellow who checks into a hotel and puts his head down on the pillow and the pillow is filled with spiders. That's not this. And maybe I shouldn't have even brought that up if

09:04
trying to avoid triggering you and you don't like spiders, why am I talking about the spider infested hotel pillows? No, it's not that. It's about a fossil that's 500 million years old  and researchers are in the headlines. They studied this fossil and they've determined they believe that spiders came from the ocean. The ancestors of the spiders we have today once lived in the ocean. And when you think about some of those strange things that we currently have in our oceans,

09:34
That seems to check out. Imagine though, going for a nice swim, going for a day at the beach  and you spread your towel out and you're just relaxing and the gulls are off in the distance doing the noise that gulls do and the waves are laughing and there's a gentle breeze buffeting and then out of the ocean comes millions of spiders. That would be, that would be terrifying. I guess I shouldn't have brought that one up.

10:03
I'm trying to avoid triggering you and you don't like spiders. Why am I talking about the ocean  infestation of spiders? Anyway, spiders came from the ocean. End of story. Number three is about this blood pressure drug where it's in the news. It's called rilmenodyne maybe or rilmenodyne or one of maybe none of those.  It's  a blood pressure drug, a hypertension drug, but they're testing right now  on mice and they're testing it on worms, which I didn't know worms got a lot of the testing action.

10:32
Anyway, what they're finding is that it is slowing down the aging process. Increased lifespan, better health for the mice and the worms. It's not reversing the aging process yet, but I'm sure they'll get there. Right, science? You'll get there for us, won't you? But in the meantime, extending the lifespan, not too shabby. Right now, just testing on the mice and the worms, like we said, so it's going to be a while before human testing, but to be continued and showing promise.

11:01
Honorable mention. This honorable mention is a flip flop called the Unipaver flip flop. It's just one of these things that's popping up now. It's trending online. Some of the trending websites are like, have you seen these flip flops? So the Unipaver flip flop looks like you're wearing a couple of paver stones on your feet. They look like concrete and they're in a design that they fit together just like, you know, your friend's pool deck or the crosswalk in my downtown has very similar.

11:31
Paving stones.  So it looks like a paving stone. It's just a foam flip-flop and it's just a wonderful conversation piece. Hey, where'd you, what are you doing walking around? Where'd you get those paver stones? Don't they hurt your feet?  Oh, wait, it's just flip-flops. The Unipaver Flip-Flop. If you want to see a photo, you can click the show notes or go to shownotes.page. Number two is the duct tape banana story. Duct tape banana back in the news. We've reported on this a lot.

12:01
Because if you're unfamiliar, here's a quick catch up. An artist created a work of art called Comedian. And that work of art was a real banana duct tape to a museum wall. And then somebody ate that banana.  And it happened more than once.  Every time, you know, if somebody viciously eats your  art and you're the artist, what are you supposed to do? The art has to go on, right? The art must live on. Your art deserves a new lease on life. So

12:30
Every time somebody eats the banana, they come out with a fresh banana. I mean, they keep a stock of fresh bananas because bananas don't last very long and people are coming through your museum. They do not want to deal with fruit flies and gross, mushy,  yucky bananas. So they always have bananas ready to go. One time the art installment was famously purchased for like $6 million by a rich person who then ate it.  And anyway, this happened again in France.

12:58
The duct tape banana is on a wall in the museum. Somebody eats it. Security and staff were very calm and  a few minutes later there was a new banana duct tape to the wall. That's art. I've said before, I don't understand art and I guess I don't understand fruit either. There's some overlap there. So I find them both confusing now. Okay, number one is not weird or wacky or funny, but it is interesting and it might save your life. So

13:26
Why don't we end on that happy note of a good news story about some research that's come out. If you're able to get out and do some walking, the, link to the article and study finds according to the research that is making headlines, it would seem as though walking 7,000 steps a day correlates to a 47 % lower risk of death as opposed to walking fewer steps  overall, 47 % lower risk of death, great outcomes concerning heart disease.

13:56
cancer, dementia, depression, a lot of health benefits. One thing I love about this, you know, I, maybe you're in the same boat, maybe you're not, but I'm always asking of science, Hey, make it simple for me to understand. Am I supposed to do cardio? Am I supposed to do strength training? Am I supposed to eat beans or am I supposed to eat  margarine? I don't know, whatever. I'm always like, keep it. It's too complicated. Keep it simple. What do I need to do? And this is pretty simple.

14:25
Sit walk 7,000 steps and it's good for you and it's less than the 10,000 steps. I mean they say if you walk 10,000 steps, that might be better, but 7,000 is pretty good. If 10,000 seems like a lot to you, which it does to me, 7,000 it's doable. So we're going to stop there on that happy note. If you want to get any of the stuff we talked about in more detail or if you want to learn more about our podcasts or reach out. Also, if you have a moment to  leave a review.

14:55
That helps.  No pressure. Anyway, all of the links  on our website where the show notes are everything is there. Show notes dot page  show notes dot page. We'll catch you next Friday with some more weird stuff and interesting things from the headlines on what a weird week.