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.
See https://www.shownotes.page or "What a Weird Week" where you get podcasts.
Stream the episode...
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.
Thanks for rating and reviewing and also subscribing!
These are the shownotes for Season 6, Ep 32 first published Fri Aug 8, 2025
Thanks for rating and reviewing and also subscribing!
These are the shownotes for Season 6, Ep 32 first published Fri Aug 8, 2025
Potatoes are Tomatoes. It's Science.
https://www.livescience.com/planet-earth/evolution/tomatoes-randomly-mated-with-another-plant-9-million-years-ago-the-result-potatoes
https://www.livescience.com/planet-earth/evolution/tomatoes-randomly-mated-with-another-plant-9-million-years-ago-the-result-potatoes
New Addition to Stuff to Worry About: Radioactive Wasps
https://www.popsci.com/environment/radioactive-wasp-nest/ and also https://www.facebook.com/reel/4225602121097433
Video Games Linked to Boost in Kid IQ
https://www.sciencealert.com/playing-video-games-has-an-unexpected-effect-on-kids-iq-study-discovers
Squonkapalooza: A Festival to Cheer Up that sad ol' Squonk
https://nypost.com/2025/08/02/us-news/pas-ugliest-saddest-pig-the-squonk-needs-festival-cheer/
Most Expensive Labubu Doll Fuels Labubu Mania
https://www.ndtv.com/offbeat/worlds-most-expensive-labubu-doll-sold-for-125-times-its-original-price-9010811
Comedian Matt Rife now owns world's most haunted doll
https://www.ndtv.com/offbeat/us-comedian-buys-ed-and-lorraine-warrens-home-and-museum-becomes-legal-guardian-of-demonic-annabelle-doll-9009577
Paddleboarding Pooches Break Records
https://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2025/08/01/UK-Dog-Surfing-Championship-paddleboard-records/1591754070614/
New Tarantula Genus 'Satyrex' Discovered with Record-Long [redacted]
https://www.livescience.com/animals/spiders/it-seems-that-size-really-does-matter-males-of-4-never-before-seen-tarantula-species-have-record-long-genitalia
Asteroid vs Raccoon: who's coming for you first?
https://www.sciencealert.com/youre-more-likely-to-die-from-an-asteroid-than-rabies-scientists-find
Giant, Cat-sized Rat Discovered in England Sparks Calls for Action
https://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2025/08/05/massive-rat-Eston-North-Yorkshire-England/6271754424099/
Denmark Zoo Asks for Pet Donations to Feed Predators
https://abcnews.go.com/International/denmark-zoo-asks-people-donate-pets-feed-predators/story?id=124367988
Keep talking to your Sunflower, Alex!
https://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2025/08/06/Guinness-World-Records-tallest-sunflower/5901754496391/
icymi, to subscribe to the podcast or for social media and more links, you can get everything at https://www.shownotes.page or search "What a Weird Week" where you get podcasts.
Transcript below.
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EPISODE TRANSCRIPT:
00:00
Potatoes are tomatoes? What a weird week! Hi friends, I am Scott and this is the show we call What a Weird Week where we look back at the news of the past week, we pick out the odd, the interesting, the fun stories,
00:24
and we count down 10 of them for you in about 15 minutes. You can get everything we talk about in more detail if you go to shownotes.page. That's where the show notes are. Stuff about the podcast. If you want to get in touch, everything shownotes.page. Here we go. This is the episode for Friday, August the 8th, 2025. Okay, let's jump right into number 10. The controversial story that potatoes are tomatoes. New research indicates
00:52
First, let me say researchers who study potatoes, thank you for what you do. I love that we're still looking into potatoes because we don't know everything we need to know about potatoes. And I love that somebody is on that case. So millions of years ago, according to some research that has been published and making headlines now this past week, millions of years ago, tomatoes commingled with another South American plant. And the result was potatoes.
01:22
How? What? And what? And how? Potatoes are tomatoes. That is my non-scientific summation of that story. You can do a deep dive into it. Maybe you're a potato fan or somebody you know would love to read all the details of the scientific discovery that potatoes are tomatoes. Well, we put a link in the show notes. Click shownotes.page. nine. Number nine is the story about the radioactive wasps. So that's
01:49
You know, wasn't on my radar things to worry about and now it is because there are radioactive wasps. I would say by far the best coverage. I'm going to let Seth Meyers take it away from here because his show, they hit some great lines about the radioactive wasps. You know, we have our fun around here. But if you thought I was joking about the radioactive wasps, I'm sorry to say it's time to break out the heavy duty citronella candles. A radioactive wasps nest.
02:15
has been disposed of after being found at a South Carolina location that once made nuclear bomb material. The nest had a radiation level 10 times higher than allowed by regulations. First of all, what do you mean 10 times higher than what's allowed? I wasn't aware there was a certain level of radiation that's allowed for WASPs. Like a sweet spot level, which is low enough not to kill us all, but high enough that if a kid on a field trip gets bitten, he might turn into a superhero. That was from earlier this week on Late Night with Seth Meyers.
02:44
Their extensive coverage of the radioactive wasps are number nine story this week. Number eight. Okay. Number eight isn't a weird one or odd, but it's great news, especially if you're a kid who plays video games and mom and dad are always on your case about it. Because video games, a new study in the news this week seems to fall in line with some other studies we talked about before. It would appear as though video games when you're a kid, it will increase your IQ to play video games.
03:13
This study was 10,000 kids, pretty big study in the United States. They found that kids who played video games more than average had an IQ boost, two and a half points higher IQ on average. And that was over a couple of years of playing video games. So I guess the takeaway here is we need to have video games in schools. Pronto. It's good for the kids IQ. Let's get that going. We'll have to...
03:39
Get rid of geography or something. don't know you administration. You work on where we can fit in video games in our schools, but it has to happen, right? If you want to read the whole study, get the science behind it and stuff. Click show notes dot page. Maybe you're a kid who wants to email that article to mom and dad because they just don't get it. Well, you can click the show notes. Number seven number seven is the squonk a Palooza which made headlines this week. I don't know all the Palooza's.
04:09
I can definitely say I had never heard of Squonka-Palooza before. It is a festival to celebrate Pennsylvania's saddest creature, the Squonk. Which is reportedly very ugly and constantly crying. And it seems like a modern invention but it's from a book I guess, the Squonk. Originally appeared in a book in 1910. And now in Pennsylvania they have a festival to try to cheer up the Squonk. Please Squonk, stop crying.
04:40
One of the things they do is a compliment contest. Who can give the best compliment? And I think that's wonderful. This story has it all. Celebration, uplifting moments of compliment, and also a strange creature that is apparently covered in warts. So there's something in this story for everyone. The Squonka Palooza story. If you'd like to read more, click Show Notes.
05:05
Dot page number six. Number six is the rare Labu bu doll that made headlines this week as the most expensive Labu bu doll of all times. It sold at auction for 10,000 American dollars, something like that. And if you're unfamiliar with the Labu bu doll, it's one of these trends that a lot of times gets compared to beanie babies, except most of the beanie babies weren't terrifying. But the Labu bu dolls, they're unique, they're plush, they are
05:34
Hideous? No, wait. Cute. No, wait, hideous. I can't decide. But people are collecting them. And this Labooboo doll of the Labooboo wearing a ball cap and on a skateboard made headlines after it sold for a lot of money. If you want to see it, we'll put a link in the show notes or go to show notes that page. Number five. I'm not sure how to feel about number five. Is it scary or is it comedy? I'd be interested to know.
06:04
What you think? Number five is the story from this week where comedian Matt Reif and his friend Elton teamed up to purchase the Ed and Lorraine Warren home and museum. So Ed and Lorraine Warren inspired those conjuring movies. They were paranormal investigators and supposedly those scary movies inspired by actual events that occurred in the life of Ed and Lorraine Warren and their haunted museum is where that haunted Annabelle doll is.
06:35
That thing is just chock full of haunted. And now a comedian owns that. Is it comedy? Is it? How should we feel about this? I don't see the humor in it. I'm scared. Maybe I'll change my view. Maybe this is the perfect thing for me. Maybe the comedian Matt Reif will change my view about scary haunted things and I will laugh in the face of terror.
07:01
Ears open. Number four. Number four will put a smile on your face. Probably it involves paddle boarding pooches. Who can resist paddle boarding pooches? They had the 2025 UK dog surfing championships in Dorset, England, and they set a few different Guinness world records. One of them was the most dog human pairs paddle boarding at the same time. That's always a nice one. The more the merrier. And then they had a 50 meter dash, the fastest ever paddle boarding pooch and human.
07:31
50 meter dash. And that one was a tie between Matt Jenkins and his Shih Tzu, Gigi and Ben Gray with his border collie, Boo. They both finished in 32 seconds. That is the fastest pooch paddle boarding 50 meter dash. Very exciting. If you want to have a look at some of the photos and go to show notes dot page number three.
07:55
Okay, I don't know how I'm going to navigate number three. There are some things I really don't want to get into about it. First of all, let me say it involves spiders. So maybe that's a trigger for you and you're out already. These spiders, these are some new tarantulas that have been discovered. In the headlines this week, scientists have identified four new tarantula species. And the thing that sets them apart is the male tarantulas. Well, a certain part sets them apart, I guess. And maybe that's all I have to say.
08:24
something about the spiders and romance that scientists were like, wow, well, what do you know? And I'll just stop there on that. I know some other programs maybe would have a field day with this story, but I'm going to stop. And if you want to read more about the new tarantulas and their special feature, you can click the show notes. two, kind of interesting, kind of morbid, good news, bad news, maybe.
08:52
So scientists crunching some data on different ways we might perish. Just to see the statistics and that and they determined, well, do you think it would be more likely for you to perish because of an asteroid or because of rabies? It turns out the asteroid wins that based on the research and the statistics, the data. So maybe you take that as good news because, you know, you have raccoons in your garbage can.
09:21
You're not as worried anymore that they're going to give you rabies. But asteroids still a concern. It's a low, you know, the odds of us perishing from an asteroid still pretty low, but not zero. If you want to read the whole thing, they get into some other things. If you're, you know, want to do a deep dive on different ways you could perish and what the odds are, we'll put a link in the show notes, show notes that page. Honorable mention. So this one.
09:50
Unsettling. A giant rat discovered in England. This is in North Yorkshire, England, where after the rat was discovered, there was an outcry. We need to do something about the rats. Officials in North Yorkshire got a rat that was 22 inches long, the size of a cat. And that's all I have to say about that. If you want to read more, maybe see a photo, I caution you, you can't unsee it, but
10:20
If you want to look, check the show notes. Honorable mention. One more honorable mention before we get to the number one weird story of the week. This one, highly controversial, I would imagine. The Denmark Zoo that made headlines this week asking for donations to help feed their predators. And what they asked for was not like money donations or I don't know, something like that to help the animals. It was if you have a pet you don't want anymore.
10:49
If you have a guinea pig, as an example, that's one of the things I mentioned. We'll take that off your hands. We can help you with that. And I can't imagine any scenario where somebody who owns pets would receive that story in a good way. Like I can't imagine how many complaints they are receiving as we speak because they were like, Hey, are you done with your pets?
11:16
That one, not a nice story. A weird story, yes, but not nice. Number one is a tale of triumph, a happy story, uplifting. It's about Alex, the gardener in Indiana, United States of America. He's going for the world record for the world's tallest sunflower. He's not there yet, but he's getting close. The world record is 30 feet, one inch. That's like a school bus. Imagine a school bus, how long that is. That's Alex's sunflower, almost.
11:46
And so now he's getting close. already has the United States record going for the world record. And every day, the community rallying the city of Fort Wayne, Indiana, rallying behind Alex. I imagine people are constantly like checking, go down to the post office and people are like, Alex, what's the number now? How close are we? And I'm sure Alex goes out every morning and talks to his son, Flower. Come on, you can do it, Sally. You got this. And
12:15
It's just an uplifting story. So best of luck, Alex. I guess the city of Fort Wayne loaned Alex a cherry picker to protect the sunflower. You got to be concerned about squirrels. You to be concerned. I imagine wind, things like that crows. I would hire around the clock protection for my sunflower at this point. Anyway, when we circle back to this one, hopefully it'll be a tale of triumph with Alex setting the new Guinness World Record for the tallest sunflower in the world.
12:45
And I don't know if his sunflower is really named Sally, but it seemed like a pretty good name for a sunflower. Okay, we're going to stop there. I appreciate you are checking out the program. This is what a weird week and every Friday we drop a new episode about 15 minutes long where we cover 10 of the weird stories that were in the news. And you can get all the stories if you want. If you go to show notes dot page, that's where we put all the show notes, show notes dot page. Catch you next Friday with some more weird stuff.
13:15
What a weird week.
Potatoes are tomatoes? What a weird week! Hi friends, I am Scott and this is the show we call What a Weird Week where we look back at the news of the past week, we pick out the odd, the interesting, the fun stories,
00:24
and we count down 10 of them for you in about 15 minutes. You can get everything we talk about in more detail if you go to shownotes.page. That's where the show notes are. Stuff about the podcast. If you want to get in touch, everything shownotes.page. Here we go. This is the episode for Friday, August the 8th, 2025. Okay, let's jump right into number 10. The controversial story that potatoes are tomatoes. New research indicates
00:52
First, let me say researchers who study potatoes, thank you for what you do. I love that we're still looking into potatoes because we don't know everything we need to know about potatoes. And I love that somebody is on that case. So millions of years ago, according to some research that has been published and making headlines now this past week, millions of years ago, tomatoes commingled with another South American plant. And the result was potatoes.
01:22
How? What? And what? And how? Potatoes are tomatoes. That is my non-scientific summation of that story. You can do a deep dive into it. Maybe you're a potato fan or somebody you know would love to read all the details of the scientific discovery that potatoes are tomatoes. Well, we put a link in the show notes. Click shownotes.page. nine. Number nine is the story about the radioactive wasps. So that's
01:49
You know, wasn't on my radar things to worry about and now it is because there are radioactive wasps. I would say by far the best coverage. I'm going to let Seth Meyers take it away from here because his show, they hit some great lines about the radioactive wasps. You know, we have our fun around here. But if you thought I was joking about the radioactive wasps, I'm sorry to say it's time to break out the heavy duty citronella candles. A radioactive wasps nest.
02:15
has been disposed of after being found at a South Carolina location that once made nuclear bomb material. The nest had a radiation level 10 times higher than allowed by regulations. First of all, what do you mean 10 times higher than what's allowed? I wasn't aware there was a certain level of radiation that's allowed for WASPs. Like a sweet spot level, which is low enough not to kill us all, but high enough that if a kid on a field trip gets bitten, he might turn into a superhero. That was from earlier this week on Late Night with Seth Meyers.
02:44
Their extensive coverage of the radioactive wasps are number nine story this week. Number eight. Okay. Number eight isn't a weird one or odd, but it's great news, especially if you're a kid who plays video games and mom and dad are always on your case about it. Because video games, a new study in the news this week seems to fall in line with some other studies we talked about before. It would appear as though video games when you're a kid, it will increase your IQ to play video games.
03:13
This study was 10,000 kids, pretty big study in the United States. They found that kids who played video games more than average had an IQ boost, two and a half points higher IQ on average. And that was over a couple of years of playing video games. So I guess the takeaway here is we need to have video games in schools. Pronto. It's good for the kids IQ. Let's get that going. We'll have to...
03:39
Get rid of geography or something. don't know you administration. You work on where we can fit in video games in our schools, but it has to happen, right? If you want to read the whole study, get the science behind it and stuff. Click show notes dot page. Maybe you're a kid who wants to email that article to mom and dad because they just don't get it. Well, you can click the show notes. Number seven number seven is the squonk a Palooza which made headlines this week. I don't know all the Palooza's.
04:09
I can definitely say I had never heard of Squonka-Palooza before. It is a festival to celebrate Pennsylvania's saddest creature, the Squonk. Which is reportedly very ugly and constantly crying. And it seems like a modern invention but it's from a book I guess, the Squonk. Originally appeared in a book in 1910. And now in Pennsylvania they have a festival to try to cheer up the Squonk. Please Squonk, stop crying.
04:40
One of the things they do is a compliment contest. Who can give the best compliment? And I think that's wonderful. This story has it all. Celebration, uplifting moments of compliment, and also a strange creature that is apparently covered in warts. So there's something in this story for everyone. The Squonka Palooza story. If you'd like to read more, click Show Notes.
05:05
Dot page number six. Number six is the rare Labu bu doll that made headlines this week as the most expensive Labu bu doll of all times. It sold at auction for 10,000 American dollars, something like that. And if you're unfamiliar with the Labu bu doll, it's one of these trends that a lot of times gets compared to beanie babies, except most of the beanie babies weren't terrifying. But the Labu bu dolls, they're unique, they're plush, they are
05:34
Hideous? No, wait. Cute. No, wait, hideous. I can't decide. But people are collecting them. And this Labooboo doll of the Labooboo wearing a ball cap and on a skateboard made headlines after it sold for a lot of money. If you want to see it, we'll put a link in the show notes or go to show notes that page. Number five. I'm not sure how to feel about number five. Is it scary or is it comedy? I'd be interested to know.
06:04
What you think? Number five is the story from this week where comedian Matt Reif and his friend Elton teamed up to purchase the Ed and Lorraine Warren home and museum. So Ed and Lorraine Warren inspired those conjuring movies. They were paranormal investigators and supposedly those scary movies inspired by actual events that occurred in the life of Ed and Lorraine Warren and their haunted museum is where that haunted Annabelle doll is.
06:35
That thing is just chock full of haunted. And now a comedian owns that. Is it comedy? Is it? How should we feel about this? I don't see the humor in it. I'm scared. Maybe I'll change my view. Maybe this is the perfect thing for me. Maybe the comedian Matt Reif will change my view about scary haunted things and I will laugh in the face of terror.
07:01
Ears open. Number four. Number four will put a smile on your face. Probably it involves paddle boarding pooches. Who can resist paddle boarding pooches? They had the 2025 UK dog surfing championships in Dorset, England, and they set a few different Guinness world records. One of them was the most dog human pairs paddle boarding at the same time. That's always a nice one. The more the merrier. And then they had a 50 meter dash, the fastest ever paddle boarding pooch and human.
07:31
50 meter dash. And that one was a tie between Matt Jenkins and his Shih Tzu, Gigi and Ben Gray with his border collie, Boo. They both finished in 32 seconds. That is the fastest pooch paddle boarding 50 meter dash. Very exciting. If you want to have a look at some of the photos and go to show notes dot page number three.
07:55
Okay, I don't know how I'm going to navigate number three. There are some things I really don't want to get into about it. First of all, let me say it involves spiders. So maybe that's a trigger for you and you're out already. These spiders, these are some new tarantulas that have been discovered. In the headlines this week, scientists have identified four new tarantula species. And the thing that sets them apart is the male tarantulas. Well, a certain part sets them apart, I guess. And maybe that's all I have to say.
08:24
something about the spiders and romance that scientists were like, wow, well, what do you know? And I'll just stop there on that. I know some other programs maybe would have a field day with this story, but I'm going to stop. And if you want to read more about the new tarantulas and their special feature, you can click the show notes. two, kind of interesting, kind of morbid, good news, bad news, maybe.
08:52
So scientists crunching some data on different ways we might perish. Just to see the statistics and that and they determined, well, do you think it would be more likely for you to perish because of an asteroid or because of rabies? It turns out the asteroid wins that based on the research and the statistics, the data. So maybe you take that as good news because, you know, you have raccoons in your garbage can.
09:21
You're not as worried anymore that they're going to give you rabies. But asteroids still a concern. It's a low, you know, the odds of us perishing from an asteroid still pretty low, but not zero. If you want to read the whole thing, they get into some other things. If you're, you know, want to do a deep dive on different ways you could perish and what the odds are, we'll put a link in the show notes, show notes that page. Honorable mention. So this one.
09:50
Unsettling. A giant rat discovered in England. This is in North Yorkshire, England, where after the rat was discovered, there was an outcry. We need to do something about the rats. Officials in North Yorkshire got a rat that was 22 inches long, the size of a cat. And that's all I have to say about that. If you want to read more, maybe see a photo, I caution you, you can't unsee it, but
10:20
If you want to look, check the show notes. Honorable mention. One more honorable mention before we get to the number one weird story of the week. This one, highly controversial, I would imagine. The Denmark Zoo that made headlines this week asking for donations to help feed their predators. And what they asked for was not like money donations or I don't know, something like that to help the animals. It was if you have a pet you don't want anymore.
10:49
If you have a guinea pig, as an example, that's one of the things I mentioned. We'll take that off your hands. We can help you with that. And I can't imagine any scenario where somebody who owns pets would receive that story in a good way. Like I can't imagine how many complaints they are receiving as we speak because they were like, Hey, are you done with your pets?
11:16
That one, not a nice story. A weird story, yes, but not nice. Number one is a tale of triumph, a happy story, uplifting. It's about Alex, the gardener in Indiana, United States of America. He's going for the world record for the world's tallest sunflower. He's not there yet, but he's getting close. The world record is 30 feet, one inch. That's like a school bus. Imagine a school bus, how long that is. That's Alex's sunflower, almost.
11:46
And so now he's getting close. already has the United States record going for the world record. And every day, the community rallying the city of Fort Wayne, Indiana, rallying behind Alex. I imagine people are constantly like checking, go down to the post office and people are like, Alex, what's the number now? How close are we? And I'm sure Alex goes out every morning and talks to his son, Flower. Come on, you can do it, Sally. You got this. And
12:15
It's just an uplifting story. So best of luck, Alex. I guess the city of Fort Wayne loaned Alex a cherry picker to protect the sunflower. You got to be concerned about squirrels. You to be concerned. I imagine wind, things like that crows. I would hire around the clock protection for my sunflower at this point. Anyway, when we circle back to this one, hopefully it'll be a tale of triumph with Alex setting the new Guinness World Record for the tallest sunflower in the world.
12:45
And I don't know if his sunflower is really named Sally, but it seemed like a pretty good name for a sunflower. Okay, we're going to stop there. I appreciate you are checking out the program. This is what a weird week and every Friday we drop a new episode about 15 minutes long where we cover 10 of the weird stories that were in the news. And you can get all the stories if you want. If you go to show notes dot page, that's where we put all the show notes, show notes dot page. Catch you next Friday with some more weird stuff.
13:15
What a weird week.
Potatoes are Tomatoes. It's Science.
https://www.livescience.com/planet-earth/evolution/tomatoes-randomly-mated-with-another-plant-9-million-years-ago-the-result-potatoes
New Addition to Stuff to Worry About: Radioactive Wasps
https://www.popsci.com/environment/radioactive-wasp-nest/ and also https://www.facebook.com/reel/4225602121097433
Video Games Linked to Boost in Kid IQ
https://www.sciencealert.com/playing-video-games-has-an-unexpected-effect-on-kids-iq-study-discovers
Squonkapalooza: A Festival to Cheer Up that sad ol' Squonk
https://nypost.com/2025/08/02/us-news/pas-ugliest-saddest-pig-the-squonk-needs-festival-cheer/
Most Expensive Labubu Doll Fuels Labubu Mania
https://www.ndtv.com/offbeat/worlds-most-expensive-labubu-doll-sold-for-125-times-its-original-price-9010811
Comedian Matt Rife now owns world's most haunted doll
https://www.ndtv.com/offbeat/us-comedian-buys-ed-and-lorraine-warrens-home-and-museum-becomes-legal-guardian-of-demonic-annabelle-doll-9009577
Paddleboarding Pooches Break Records
https://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2025/08/01/UK-Dog-Surfing-Championship-paddleboard-records/1591754070614/
New Tarantula Genus 'Satyrex' Discovered with Record-Long [redacted]
https://www.livescience.com/animals/spiders/it-seems-that-size-really-does-matter-males-of-4-never-before-seen-tarantula-species-have-record-long-genitalia
Scientists Find Asteroid Impact More Likely to Kill Than Rabies
https://www.sciencealert.com/youre-more-likely-to-die-from-an-asteroid-than-rabies-scientists-find
Giant, Cat-sized Rat Discovered in England Sparks Calls for Action
https://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2025/08/05/massive-rat-Eston-North-Yorkshire-England/6271754424099/
Denmark Zoo Asks for Pet Donations to Feed Predators
https://abcnews.go.com/International/denmark-zoo-asks-people-donate-pets-feed-predators/story?id=124367988
Keep talking to your Sunflower, Alex!
https://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2025/08/06/Guinness-World-Records-tallest-sunflower/5901754496391/
https://www.livescience.com/planet-earth/evolution/tomatoes-randomly-mated-with-another-plant-9-million-years-ago-the-result-potatoes
New Addition to Stuff to Worry About: Radioactive Wasps
https://www.popsci.com/environment/radioactive-wasp-nest/ and also https://www.facebook.com/reel/4225602121097433
Video Games Linked to Boost in Kid IQ
https://www.sciencealert.com/playing-video-games-has-an-unexpected-effect-on-kids-iq-study-discovers
Squonkapalooza: A Festival to Cheer Up that sad ol' Squonk
https://nypost.com/2025/08/02/us-news/pas-ugliest-saddest-pig-the-squonk-needs-festival-cheer/
Most Expensive Labubu Doll Fuels Labubu Mania
https://www.ndtv.com/offbeat/worlds-most-expensive-labubu-doll-sold-for-125-times-its-original-price-9010811
Comedian Matt Rife now owns world's most haunted doll
https://www.ndtv.com/offbeat/us-comedian-buys-ed-and-lorraine-warrens-home-and-museum-becomes-legal-guardian-of-demonic-annabelle-doll-9009577
Paddleboarding Pooches Break Records
https://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2025/08/01/UK-Dog-Surfing-Championship-paddleboard-records/1591754070614/
New Tarantula Genus 'Satyrex' Discovered with Record-Long [redacted]
https://www.livescience.com/animals/spiders/it-seems-that-size-really-does-matter-males-of-4-never-before-seen-tarantula-species-have-record-long-genitalia
Scientists Find Asteroid Impact More Likely to Kill Than Rabies
https://www.sciencealert.com/youre-more-likely-to-die-from-an-asteroid-than-rabies-scientists-find
Giant, Cat-sized Rat Discovered in England Sparks Calls for Action
https://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2025/08/05/massive-rat-Eston-North-Yorkshire-England/6271754424099/
Denmark Zoo Asks for Pet Donations to Feed Predators
https://abcnews.go.com/International/denmark-zoo-asks-people-donate-pets-feed-predators/story?id=124367988
Keep talking to your Sunflower, Alex!
https://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2025/08/06/Guinness-World-Records-tallest-sunflower/5901754496391/
