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.
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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.
Thanks for rating and reviewing and also subscribing!
These are the shownotes for Season 6, Ep 41 *first published Fri Oct 4, 2024* *Yes, it's a beautiful repeat episode*
Thanks for rating and reviewing and also subscribing!
These are the shownotes for Season 6, Ep 41 *first published Fri Oct 4, 2024* *Yes, it's a beautiful repeat episode*
Egg-Drop Smashes World Record, Egg is not smashed though
Man Drinks Pouch of Juice, World Reacts! #MikeJackRecord #CapriSun
https://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2024/10/02/canada-Guinness-World-Records-Capri-Sun/4611727885489/
New record: Fastest time to drink a Capri-Sun (paper straw) - 21.71 seconds by Mike Jack 🇨🇦 pic.twitter.com/qCcjrSbGdv
— Guinness World Records (@GWR) October 2, 2024
Italian lady breaks World Record for tongue circumference (cir-tongue-ference)
David "Record-Breaker" Rush may not know how to stop breaking world records. #LawnmowerChin
breaks world record by walking over 1,100 feet with a running lawn mower on his chin
Tarantula Mating Season Draws Hundreds to Colorado Town
https://apnews.com/article/tarantula-mating-colorado-spider-festival-da14f6d08bd4b325ce34970ec7864c73
Changing how we use defibrillators makes them more lifesaving - study
https://studyfinds.org/new-way-of-using-defibrillators/
https://studyfinds.org/new-way-of-using-defibrillators/
Swallowing might be a thing that makes us happy! #HappinessResearch
https://studyfinds.org/swallowing-makes-people-happy/
https://studyfinds.org/swallowing-makes-people-happy/
Get started on one of these hilarious Halloween costumes! #Shrimp-on-the-Barbie
https://studyfinds.org/best-funny-halloween-costumes/
https://studyfinds.org/best-funny-halloween-costumes/
Mindfulness meditation is more effective than placebo in reducing pain, study finds
https://studyfinds.org/meditation-placebo-effect-pain/
.png)
NASA is developing a new time zone specifically for the Moon #CoordinatedLunarTime
Wait, can AI REALLY pass a law exam? #nope
https://studyfinds.org/can-ai-pass-a-college-law-exam/
https://studyfinds.org/can-ai-pass-a-college-law-exam/
Man discovers $6.6 million Picasso painting hidden in his home for decades
https://nypost.com/2024/10/01/lifestyle/painting-hated-by-owners-wife-turns-out-to-be-6m-picasso/
https://nypost.com/2024/10/01/lifestyle/painting-hated-by-owners-wife-turns-out-to-be-6m-picasso/
Transcript below.
Spotify Stream...
YouTube stream
EPISODE TRANSCRIPT:
00:00
What a Weird Week for Friday, October 3rd, 2025 is a rebroadcast. Hi friends, I'm Scott. This is What a Weird Week. It's a show where we go back through the news of the week. We pick out the odd, the fun, the interesting stories. We count down 10 of them in about 15 minutes. This is a rebroadcast of our show from one year ago. So from October...
00:29
of 2024. How many of these stories do you remember? Spider Love? Bizarre Tongue World Record? Million Dollar Trash Painting? Let's get into it.
00:41
Friday, October 4th, 2024. Number 10 is about the kids, the Pennsylvania high school kids who just broke a world record for dropping an egg 80 some feet. It plummeted to the ground and did not break. It is one of those deals where they climb up, you know, a staircase very high or up on a roof and they have all designed different ways to protect the egg.
01:04
and let's drop these eggs and see what happens. The great thing they do at the school in promotion of STEM education and science, furthering science and having some fun with eggs. And for anyone whose project fails, free scrambled eggs. Number nine is the new record Mike Jack has set. He made headlines. Mike Jack is a Canadian speed eater who has a number of world records, set a new record for drinking a Capri Sun. You know, those pouches full of delicious nectar.
01:32
Capri Sun juice. So there's a world record right now for drinking that really quickly with the standard plastic straw It's around eight seconds Mike Jack drank a Capri Sun with a paper straw instead of the standard plastic straw It took a lot longer, but the record is 21 seconds and something 21.71 we'll link to the video if you click the show notes or go to show notes dot page But also you could just imagine somebody wearing a red headband looking
02:02
intently down at a pouch of juice and then drinking it.
02:12
Bye.
02:21
Congratulations, Mike Jack on the new record. All right, hang on. Number eight is another, should we keep going with the world records? A lot of world records made news this week. This next one, this tongue world record, it will make you consider your own tongue. Our number eight story as we continue with world records is the Italian lady named Ambra, 37 year old woman who was recently recognized by the Guinness world records as having the largest tongue circumference.
02:51
5.44 inches. So if you can form your tongue into a ball, ball your tongue right now and imagine, I don't know how popular is squash these days. When I was a younger fellow, I played squash. And if you ball your tongue and it's the size of a squash ball, well, that's a world record. I don't know if you do tongue exercises or if it's just natural, you know, a natural gift, but Amber had to have her tongue measured by a doctor three times just to be sure.
03:20
The Guinness Book of World Records, they don't mess around. The other thing is, why have I been saying the circumference? It should be, Sir Tongue Prince. One of us has got to step in and talk to David Rush. Record breaker Rush is the fellow who now has the most concurrent world records. That was the goal. David Rush doesn't know how to stop breaking records now. Maybe we need to show him it's okay to relax once in a while, David Rush.
03:50
because he keeps going. He's got the world record for the most world records and he just made news for, oh my gosh, and this one's so dangerous. He walked over a thousand feet, 1,100 and some feet with a running lawnmower balanced on his chin. We do link to the video if you click the show notes or go to shownotes.page. Hang on, number six is next. It involves spiders, full disclosure.
04:16
Let's be careful here with number six. It might be triggering to you if you don't like spiders. It involves spiders and love, love and spiders. Maybe you don't like love. The Tarantula Fest of La Junta, Colorado made headlines this week. It is currently tarantula mating season in La Junta, Colorado, and people do come from all over to spot spiders as the gentlemen spiders are out looking for love. There are a lot of spiders to be seen, a lot of tarantulas in La Junta, Colorado. And so
04:45
People armed with flashlights do spider watching. Also, La Junta features a parade and a hairy legs contest. So if you or someone you know has ever been called spider legs in a taunting way, maybe you could win this contest. Number five is that scientific study about the defibrillator devices. First, let me say if you are in the unfortunate situation where you have to use a defibrillator, follow the instructions on the defibrillator. They've looked into them though and they think
05:14
there's a way to make them even more effective. Defibrillators are those things, you know, that you've seen them at the community center, the rec center, the arena, or public places. If someone's had a heart attack, you can hook them up to the defibrillator and those machines have saved lives. And if you ever have the opportunity to donate to the Heart and Stroke Foundation or to a charity that is about getting defibrillators in more places, I mean, those things save lives. Anyway, sorry, back on track. They've looked into how we...
05:42
could use them better. And one of the things that they've discovered is that it's more than twice as likely to have a good outcome if you put one of the pads from the defibrillator on the front of the chest and one of the pads on the back of the chest. But again, they haven't changed current guidelines with the defibrillator. So heaven forbid you're in a situation where you need to use one. Follow the instructions on the defibrillator. If you wanna do a deep dive on the results and stuff, click the show notes or go to shownotes.page.
06:09
We've got another scientific study next. It's something simple that can make us happy.
06:17
Number four is that study where the researchers are looking into overeating and they know when we eat something delicious that serotonin gets released into our brains and so maybe you have one piece of pizza and your brain is like I want more serotonin and you go for another piece of pizza and perhaps you eat an entire pizza show of hands
06:40
Anyway, the researchers are looking into this and they're like, what is happening? And they think now they're onto a new angle with the overeating and the serotonin release. They believe it is in the swallowing process that some message gets sent to the brain and sweet serotonin. So the swallowing makes us happy and also can lead to overeating. This could be a new realm for helping people who struggle with overeating, but also
07:08
Swallowing makes us happy. There has got to be something there. They've got to branch off now and say, alright, well, most all of us can swallow. So how can we turn this into making the world happier? I think this was all fruit fly research. So hopefully this will become something to help humans. You know, let's get the fruit flies happy. Sure. But also humans. Three.
07:29
Number three, another AI story. Every week we have an AI story because every minute of every hour there is a headline somewhere about AI. It's taking over. The robots will be our overlords or it's the greatest thing ever or it's caused the stock market to go through the roof. We had this story once before about how AI
07:48
Passed the bar exam. Everybody heard that AI is so smart. It passed the bar exam. We're going to have robot lawyers, robot lawyers. We even did a thing about how, what a great show that would be. I would watch that show combination of Robo cop and law and order. But anyway, there's another study out a newer study involving AI and university level assessments. This particular case was an undergraduate criminal law final exam.
08:15
When you got into complex questions like do a legal analysis, AI was not as good as a person. This study seems to indicate that AI should be a tool. It would seem that you do not want to hire AI as your lawyer to represent you in court. Number two is that study about the Sunday scaries. Now this is from the United States of America. So depending where you're hearing this might be different for you.
08:41
but a recent survey about how you feel on Sundays, the results are that the average American gets the Sunday scaries 36 times a year. So you get anxious, you get dread, you think about work or school starting and it's not a nice thing. They even crunched when this kicks in. Usually it's around 3.54 PM on Sunday afternoon.
09:06
So if you make it till after supper before this feeling of dread or like, I gotta go to work, I gotta go to school tomorrow. If you make it till after supper before that kicks in, you're actually doing better than a lot of people. So then the article gets into, you know, why it is, you know, we're all stressed out. We're all burned out. We haven't gotten enough rest. All of the things you would know, like sometimes you need a weekend to recover from your weekend. This study was conducted by like a research
09:36
A real research organization did this study, but it was for Pacific foods because one of the things they say that can make the Sunday scaries a little better or your stressful week a little better is delicious food. Honorable mention. We're on the way to the number one weird story of the week. Before that, some honorable mentions. Our friends at study finds they have a list of the top five hilarious Halloween costumes to make you the life of the party. I mean, it's Halloween month.
10:06
Bob Ross is one they mentioned. One of my kids went as Bob Ross one year. Her friend went as the painting. It is pretty good. It is quite hilarious. So I think this list checks out. You can view the whole thing if you click show notes dot page. Also mindfulness meditation. There's a new study that says if you practice meditation, it's proven now to be effective in relieving or reducing pain. It beats the placebo effect.
10:33
Also, we link to a story about NASA's lunar time. We talked about this before. want moon time. The moon needs its own time. Isn't it true that when they figured out time zones and stuff before, it was because trains were running and they had to know what time the train would be? I think it was because trains were arriving. So this to me would indicate that the space trains will be pulling into the lunar station any day. Don't quote me on that.
11:01
All right, hang on. Number one is next. And it is one of these great stories about you find something that everyone thought was junk and it makes you a millionaire. That's next.
11:13
Number one is about a fellow named Luigi. In the 1960s, Luigi in Italy found a painting that he liked. He worked as a junk dealer and so he was cleaning out a cellar and there was a painting in there and he was like, not bad. You know what? I'm going to keep this. I think I like this. His wife did not like it. Luigi, Mrs. Luigi did not like it.
11:36
But it went up in the living room for a number of years, a cheap frame. And here is this painting up on the wall, Luigi and Mrs. Luigi's wall. If you would like to see what the painting looks like, you can click show notes that page. It certainly is not everyone's cup of tea. looks like a lady who maybe the painting got sliced into and then put back together. I don't know art. Anyway, Luigi's son, decades later, sees the signature on this painting.
12:06
And he's like, I'm getting this thing checked out. It was a Picasso worth more than six million dollars. After I love stories like this, after I hear a story like this, I go to my Salvation Army or, you know, a junk store or a yard sale, whatever. For the next little while, I'm going to buy every ugly painting they have at these yard sales and junk stores, because how great would that be to find something that was everyone thought was junk? And then now you're a millionaire.
12:35
because you're a genius. All right, that is the end of our rebroadcast from one year ago. Thanks for checking out the program. If you want to get the show notes for today's episode, everything is updated. If you go to show notes dot page, our show notes and more at show notes dot page. We're back next Friday with new material. Hope you can check it out Friday on what a weird week.
13:02
If you listen this long, now we have a bonus song about all of the stories that made this week's
13:11
This is the song from the What a Weird Week show That mentions all the headlines that we cover If you listen to the What a Weird Week show You'll be revered like trusted actor Danny Glover Some students dropped an egg that didn't break A fella drank some fruit juice for the win A lady has a tongue that's really big around
13:39
Bye-bye, l'instalonmore on his chin Spider love and saving lives And why that pizza makes us smile It's Halloween already, doing yoga is worthwhile I'm running late, I'll miss my train My train that's on the moon The AI lawyer might
14:04
in cases someday but not real soon Sundays get us
14:17
What a way to
14:22
This has been the song from the What A Weird Week Show But now it's time to go!
What a Weird Week for Friday, October 3rd, 2025 is a rebroadcast. Hi friends, I'm Scott. This is What a Weird Week. It's a show where we go back through the news of the week. We pick out the odd, the fun, the interesting stories. We count down 10 of them in about 15 minutes. This is a rebroadcast of our show from one year ago. So from October...
00:29
of 2024. How many of these stories do you remember? Spider Love? Bizarre Tongue World Record? Million Dollar Trash Painting? Let's get into it.
00:41
Friday, October 4th, 2024. Number 10 is about the kids, the Pennsylvania high school kids who just broke a world record for dropping an egg 80 some feet. It plummeted to the ground and did not break. It is one of those deals where they climb up, you know, a staircase very high or up on a roof and they have all designed different ways to protect the egg.
01:04
and let's drop these eggs and see what happens. The great thing they do at the school in promotion of STEM education and science, furthering science and having some fun with eggs. And for anyone whose project fails, free scrambled eggs. Number nine is the new record Mike Jack has set. He made headlines. Mike Jack is a Canadian speed eater who has a number of world records, set a new record for drinking a Capri Sun. You know, those pouches full of delicious nectar.
01:32
Capri Sun juice. So there's a world record right now for drinking that really quickly with the standard plastic straw It's around eight seconds Mike Jack drank a Capri Sun with a paper straw instead of the standard plastic straw It took a lot longer, but the record is 21 seconds and something 21.71 we'll link to the video if you click the show notes or go to show notes dot page But also you could just imagine somebody wearing a red headband looking
02:02
intently down at a pouch of juice and then drinking it.
02:12
Bye.
02:21
Congratulations, Mike Jack on the new record. All right, hang on. Number eight is another, should we keep going with the world records? A lot of world records made news this week. This next one, this tongue world record, it will make you consider your own tongue. Our number eight story as we continue with world records is the Italian lady named Ambra, 37 year old woman who was recently recognized by the Guinness world records as having the largest tongue circumference.
02:51
5.44 inches. So if you can form your tongue into a ball, ball your tongue right now and imagine, I don't know how popular is squash these days. When I was a younger fellow, I played squash. And if you ball your tongue and it's the size of a squash ball, well, that's a world record. I don't know if you do tongue exercises or if it's just natural, you know, a natural gift, but Amber had to have her tongue measured by a doctor three times just to be sure.
03:20
The Guinness Book of World Records, they don't mess around. The other thing is, why have I been saying the circumference? It should be, Sir Tongue Prince. One of us has got to step in and talk to David Rush. Record breaker Rush is the fellow who now has the most concurrent world records. That was the goal. David Rush doesn't know how to stop breaking records now. Maybe we need to show him it's okay to relax once in a while, David Rush.
03:50
because he keeps going. He's got the world record for the most world records and he just made news for, oh my gosh, and this one's so dangerous. He walked over a thousand feet, 1,100 and some feet with a running lawnmower balanced on his chin. We do link to the video if you click the show notes or go to shownotes.page. Hang on, number six is next. It involves spiders, full disclosure.
04:16
Let's be careful here with number six. It might be triggering to you if you don't like spiders. It involves spiders and love, love and spiders. Maybe you don't like love. The Tarantula Fest of La Junta, Colorado made headlines this week. It is currently tarantula mating season in La Junta, Colorado, and people do come from all over to spot spiders as the gentlemen spiders are out looking for love. There are a lot of spiders to be seen, a lot of tarantulas in La Junta, Colorado. And so
04:45
People armed with flashlights do spider watching. Also, La Junta features a parade and a hairy legs contest. So if you or someone you know has ever been called spider legs in a taunting way, maybe you could win this contest. Number five is that scientific study about the defibrillator devices. First, let me say if you are in the unfortunate situation where you have to use a defibrillator, follow the instructions on the defibrillator. They've looked into them though and they think
05:14
there's a way to make them even more effective. Defibrillators are those things, you know, that you've seen them at the community center, the rec center, the arena, or public places. If someone's had a heart attack, you can hook them up to the defibrillator and those machines have saved lives. And if you ever have the opportunity to donate to the Heart and Stroke Foundation or to a charity that is about getting defibrillators in more places, I mean, those things save lives. Anyway, sorry, back on track. They've looked into how we...
05:42
could use them better. And one of the things that they've discovered is that it's more than twice as likely to have a good outcome if you put one of the pads from the defibrillator on the front of the chest and one of the pads on the back of the chest. But again, they haven't changed current guidelines with the defibrillator. So heaven forbid you're in a situation where you need to use one. Follow the instructions on the defibrillator. If you wanna do a deep dive on the results and stuff, click the show notes or go to shownotes.page.
06:09
We've got another scientific study next. It's something simple that can make us happy.
06:17
Number four is that study where the researchers are looking into overeating and they know when we eat something delicious that serotonin gets released into our brains and so maybe you have one piece of pizza and your brain is like I want more serotonin and you go for another piece of pizza and perhaps you eat an entire pizza show of hands
06:40
Anyway, the researchers are looking into this and they're like, what is happening? And they think now they're onto a new angle with the overeating and the serotonin release. They believe it is in the swallowing process that some message gets sent to the brain and sweet serotonin. So the swallowing makes us happy and also can lead to overeating. This could be a new realm for helping people who struggle with overeating, but also
07:08
Swallowing makes us happy. There has got to be something there. They've got to branch off now and say, alright, well, most all of us can swallow. So how can we turn this into making the world happier? I think this was all fruit fly research. So hopefully this will become something to help humans. You know, let's get the fruit flies happy. Sure. But also humans. Three.
07:29
Number three, another AI story. Every week we have an AI story because every minute of every hour there is a headline somewhere about AI. It's taking over. The robots will be our overlords or it's the greatest thing ever or it's caused the stock market to go through the roof. We had this story once before about how AI
07:48
Passed the bar exam. Everybody heard that AI is so smart. It passed the bar exam. We're going to have robot lawyers, robot lawyers. We even did a thing about how, what a great show that would be. I would watch that show combination of Robo cop and law and order. But anyway, there's another study out a newer study involving AI and university level assessments. This particular case was an undergraduate criminal law final exam.
08:15
When you got into complex questions like do a legal analysis, AI was not as good as a person. This study seems to indicate that AI should be a tool. It would seem that you do not want to hire AI as your lawyer to represent you in court. Number two is that study about the Sunday scaries. Now this is from the United States of America. So depending where you're hearing this might be different for you.
08:41
but a recent survey about how you feel on Sundays, the results are that the average American gets the Sunday scaries 36 times a year. So you get anxious, you get dread, you think about work or school starting and it's not a nice thing. They even crunched when this kicks in. Usually it's around 3.54 PM on Sunday afternoon.
09:06
So if you make it till after supper before this feeling of dread or like, I gotta go to work, I gotta go to school tomorrow. If you make it till after supper before that kicks in, you're actually doing better than a lot of people. So then the article gets into, you know, why it is, you know, we're all stressed out. We're all burned out. We haven't gotten enough rest. All of the things you would know, like sometimes you need a weekend to recover from your weekend. This study was conducted by like a research
09:36
A real research organization did this study, but it was for Pacific foods because one of the things they say that can make the Sunday scaries a little better or your stressful week a little better is delicious food. Honorable mention. We're on the way to the number one weird story of the week. Before that, some honorable mentions. Our friends at study finds they have a list of the top five hilarious Halloween costumes to make you the life of the party. I mean, it's Halloween month.
10:06
Bob Ross is one they mentioned. One of my kids went as Bob Ross one year. Her friend went as the painting. It is pretty good. It is quite hilarious. So I think this list checks out. You can view the whole thing if you click show notes dot page. Also mindfulness meditation. There's a new study that says if you practice meditation, it's proven now to be effective in relieving or reducing pain. It beats the placebo effect.
10:33
Also, we link to a story about NASA's lunar time. We talked about this before. want moon time. The moon needs its own time. Isn't it true that when they figured out time zones and stuff before, it was because trains were running and they had to know what time the train would be? I think it was because trains were arriving. So this to me would indicate that the space trains will be pulling into the lunar station any day. Don't quote me on that.
11:01
All right, hang on. Number one is next. And it is one of these great stories about you find something that everyone thought was junk and it makes you a millionaire. That's next.
11:13
Number one is about a fellow named Luigi. In the 1960s, Luigi in Italy found a painting that he liked. He worked as a junk dealer and so he was cleaning out a cellar and there was a painting in there and he was like, not bad. You know what? I'm going to keep this. I think I like this. His wife did not like it. Luigi, Mrs. Luigi did not like it.
11:36
But it went up in the living room for a number of years, a cheap frame. And here is this painting up on the wall, Luigi and Mrs. Luigi's wall. If you would like to see what the painting looks like, you can click show notes that page. It certainly is not everyone's cup of tea. looks like a lady who maybe the painting got sliced into and then put back together. I don't know art. Anyway, Luigi's son, decades later, sees the signature on this painting.
12:06
And he's like, I'm getting this thing checked out. It was a Picasso worth more than six million dollars. After I love stories like this, after I hear a story like this, I go to my Salvation Army or, you know, a junk store or a yard sale, whatever. For the next little while, I'm going to buy every ugly painting they have at these yard sales and junk stores, because how great would that be to find something that was everyone thought was junk? And then now you're a millionaire.
12:35
because you're a genius. All right, that is the end of our rebroadcast from one year ago. Thanks for checking out the program. If you want to get the show notes for today's episode, everything is updated. If you go to show notes dot page, our show notes and more at show notes dot page. We're back next Friday with new material. Hope you can check it out Friday on what a weird week.
13:02
If you listen this long, now we have a bonus song about all of the stories that made this week's
13:11
This is the song from the What a Weird Week show That mentions all the headlines that we cover If you listen to the What a Weird Week show You'll be revered like trusted actor Danny Glover Some students dropped an egg that didn't break A fella drank some fruit juice for the win A lady has a tongue that's really big around
13:39
Bye-bye, l'instalonmore on his chin Spider love and saving lives And why that pizza makes us smile It's Halloween already, doing yoga is worthwhile I'm running late, I'll miss my train My train that's on the moon The AI lawyer might
14:04
in cases someday but not real soon Sundays get us
14:17
What a way to
14:22
This has been the song from the What A Weird Week Show But now it's time to go!
