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These are the shownotes for Season 7, Ep 16 first published April 17, 2026.
Story (https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/eel-world-problems-dutch-webcam-100640807.html)
Fish Doorbell Webcam: (https://visdeurbel.nl/en/)
(https://studyfinds.com/sauna-immune-system/)
(https://studyfinds.com/blind-cave-tarantula-always-finds-way-home/)
(https://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2026/04/09/Guinness-World-Records-T-shirts-worn-during-half-marathon/2391775743542/)
(https://www.ucalgary.ca/news/celebrating-60-years-ucalgary-smiles-and-dinosaurs-community-day)
(https://abc7.com/post/bioluminescent-fireworms-caught-video-long-beach/18876061/)
(https://www.cleveland.com/community/2026/04/video-game-playing-senior-sparks-concern-then-relief-at-westlake-police-department.html)
1 Watch chocolate videos, lose chocolate craving?
YouTube stream
Hi, uh, you got any worms? What a Weird Week! Hi everybody, it's Weird! This is like crazy weird news. Weeeird! Really weird, damn. Chase will eat out of my trash. Well, I got a great show for you today with some wonderful weeeird stuff! Hi friends, I'm Scott, and this is a show that we call What a Weird Week. It's about weird news and interesting stuff that happened this week. We've got 10 stories in 15 minutes. You can get all our show notes on our show notes page, which is at shownotes.page. Just go to shownotes.page, learn more about our podcast there as well. This is our episode first published April 17th, 2026.
Number 10 is the fish doorbell, alluded to in our cold open. The fish doorbell, we have talked about it before on this program, I think, a long time ago. But I saw it was in the news again, and I thought, well, let's post the link and help the fish. So, this is how the fish doorbell works, is we watch a webcam, you and me, all of us together helping the fish. We watch the webcam, and when we see a fish, that means the fish cannot continue its migration, it's waiting for the lock to open. There's a lock system in the Netherlands, and the lock keeper has to open the lock to let that migrating fish swim on through. And so, when we watch the webcam and we see a fish, we click the button, and that rings the doorbell, and the lock keeper is notified there is a fish waiting to swim through. That's kind of it. I'll put the link in the show notes, and you can watch for fish and ring the fish doorbell if you want to. It's a fun way to pass the time. I feel like it's been years since we reported on this program about the fish doorbell, and I just assumed that by now the fish would learn to ring the doorbell themselves, but I guess they haven't.
Number 9. Number 9 is a study from Finland, or perhaps you pronounce it Finland, about spending time in a sauna, or sauna. I'm just going to say sauna, it rhymes with Donna, and I'm sorry if I'm mispronouncing. So we link to an article about a study that seems to indicate you spend 30 minutes in a sauna, and that is going to boost the amount of immune cells in your bloodstream. I'm not smart about stuff, so read the article if you're a sauna enthusiast or a sauna skeptic. The article gets into a number of different studies indicating that spending time in a sauna can be good for you, it would appear. So sweaty, though. Side note, I don't think I'll ever know the health benefits of spending time in a sauna, because, and no offense, sauna enthusiasts, it sounds like you're onto something. But I am so bad at small talk. First of all, I'd wear all my street clothes. I'm not going in this sauna with a bunch of strangers and stripping down. And secondly, making small talk, making sweaty, sweaty sauna small talk, I would be horrible at that. That is a nightmare to me, so I'm going to have to work through some stuff before I attempt a sauna. Was that too much information? Sorry. Thanks for coming to my therapy session.
Number eight, researchers have observed, oh, trigger warning, if you do not like spiders, we're going to talk about spiders. Spider trigger warning. OK, researchers have observed that tarantulas, including the blind cave dwelling species of tarantula, can consistently find their way back to their homes. I think reading between the lines, when they saw how well the blind cave dwelling tarantula did finding its way back home, I think this is what put the researchers over the top on their conclusion that perhaps tarantulas use spatial learning and have a great memory rather than just relying on instinct to get back home. It could be their memory is fantastic. Someday you won't say you've got a memory like an elephant. You'll say you've got a memory like a tarantula, and that will be a wonderful compliment when you receive that. That'll be wonderful. Congratulations on your tarantula like memory. That's about it. If you click the article, they kind of get into more about it. And there is a horrifying picture of a blind cave dwelling tarantula in the article. So we'll link to that as well. Fantastically horrifying blind cave dwelling tarantula with a wonderful memory. You do not want to cross this tarantula. That tarantula is going to remember you.
Number seven is Meredith Smith, a lady from Arkansas who ran a half marathon while wearing 55 t-shirts. And that's a Guinness World Record. And that's why Meredith was in the news this week, 55 t-shirts and then running the half marathon. I don't know about running. I'm not physically fit. It appears to me, and I'll link to the video. It appears as though wearing 55 t-shirts, number one, impedes your arm swing somewhat. It can't be easy running a half marathon in that many t-shirts. And also, it's a lot of layers. It's very hot. It looks as though Meredith was very hot by the end of her half marathon. Just for a second, imagine putting on 55 t-shirts, just that part. Are you exhausted? I'm exhausted thinking about it. 55 t-shirts. I would need a rest after that. But Meredith, with help from her t-shirt team, put on the 55 t-shirts, struggled through that, and then ran that half marathon. So well done, Meredith.
Number six. Number six is another world record. A whole bunch of people getting together to do something silly and fun. This happened in Calgary the other day, Calgary, Canada, planet Earth. The University of Calgary celebrating their 60th anniversary, and they had a day full of fun, including an attempt to break the world record for the most people in one spot dressed as a dinosaur. And they did it. The official count, 682 people dressed as a dinosaur. I think maybe it has to get officially approved by the Guinness Book of World Records, folks. But that would seem to be just a formality at this point. We'll link to the photo. You can imagine a lot of, like, Halloween store kind of dinosaur costumes, the blow-up dinosaur costumes, a lot of T-Rexes. But a few triceratops and a few mystery dinosaurs are mixed in there as well. So congratulations to everyone who set that world record at University of Calgary.
Number five. Number five, the fireworms that made headlines this week. Here's the report from ABC7. Take a look at this video. Mysterious glowing sea creatures caught on video in Long Beach for only the second time ever. Experts say these bioluminescent fireworms rise from the seabed during certain moon phases to spawn at the surface. That's a bit of the coverage. We'll link to that. That's ABC7. So, bioluminescent fireworms caught on video, a rare sight. It's kind of freaky deaky if you have a chance to click the video. But if you didn't know they were fireworms, you would just think it was some sort of laser effect almost or something. You almost have to know what they are to be impressed by the video. Does that make sense? I'll link to it in the show notes or click show notes dot page.
Number four. Number four is paid time off when your dog or cat or pet is sick. This is in Italy. Italy becomes the first country in the world to offer workers paid leave to care for sick pets. This started back in 2017 when somebody went to court. They had a sick Irish setter and they went to court with their employer and won the case. The person's legal team argued that under the law in Italy, leaving an animal at home to suffer would that's illegal. So the court was like, yes, it is. This person shouldn't face hardship to be at home with an ailing pet. So it started the ball rolling and now it's official in Italy that you can have paid time off to care for a sick pet. This is nice. Nice for the pets. Nice for the pet owners. It's also that thing where, you know, you have to call work and lie. You're not carrying around that burden anymore that you had to call your boss and pretend that you were sick when really it was your pet who was sick. You don't have to do that anymore in Italy.
Number three. Number three, I'll tell you right now, it ends happy. It sounds a bit scary at first. It involves a 91 year old who this is in Ohio. They have this program there. I had never heard of this before. And I have to say, it sounds like a good idea. When you're of a certain age, you can join this program and they will call you and check in on you. Authorities will call and do a welfare check. And so that happened. Nobody answered the phone. The 91 year old did not answer the phone. So then authorities reached out to this lady, the 91 year old's daughter. And the daughter said, Mom should be at home. Mom's not answering. So then authorities showed up, did a welfare check. And upon entering the premises, they found the 91 year old lady playing a video game very intently and missed the welfare call. They described the video game as a bubble pop type game. And the lady, the 91 year old, was trying to beat her record. Sometimes you get in the zone. Right?
Number 2. Number 2 is this parrot. The parrot's name is BB. And BB is, in this video, in a submarine. A parrot sized submarine in the ocean. BB is a white winged parakeet. And was in the headlines this week because BB's owner, Steven, made a submarine for BB. And it's something to see. This is going to be one of those things you watch this week and you're like, I needed to see that. We'll link to the video. Steven made BB a submarine so that when they were on vacation, BB could join in on the splashy fun and go into the ocean.
Honorable mention. This bonus item involves public washrooms. I don't know if that's triggering to you. I'm a germaphobe, so it's triggering to me. I'm not going to be li... This bonus item involves public washrooms. I don't know if that's triggering to you. I'm a germaphobe, so it's triggering to me. I'm not going to be listening to this one. A write-up this week from Science Daily about research into public washrooms. The headline is the dirtiest thing in public bathrooms isn't the toilet seat. Instead, it's everything we've always been taught. Not the toilet seat, but we've been taught the lever on the flush. Germy. The faucet handle. Germy. The door handle. Germy. So no big surprises there, but I'm glad that science continues to look into germs. I feel like we were all taught about the flush with your foot. Don't touch the handle in the public washroom. And for those of us who aren't that flexible, I can't be the only one who's pulled a muscle trying to foot flush in a public washroom. Am I? Oh, I am. I'm the only one.
Honorable mention. Another bonus item. This one is promising. Especially if you're like me, constantly trying to lose weight. This write-up from Science Daily about some research. The headline is two simple eating habits linked to lower weight according to a study. And they get into it. Essentially, it's eat your supper or maybe you call it dinner. Eat that meal earlier and then have an early breakfast. So try to have a long period of time between supper or dinner and breakfast, but don't eat breakfast too late. So that means back up your dinner time or supper time. Does that make sense? Long period of time between supper and breakfast, but have an early breakfast. So make sure you have also an early supper. That's my takeaway from it. I will link to the whole thing. Do a deep dive. It may be wonderful news for you. I would love to have supper at like 2.30 in the afternoon and then go to bed at six.
Number one is about chocolate and how to maybe not crave it so much. I have a bit of a problem with chocolate. The problem being I can't get enough of it. So this caught my eye. We link to the article. It's written up by Study Finds this week. They're talking about a study where people who were craving chocolate or other, you know, not healthy, not considered healthy treats. Sorry, chocolate. I'm not talking about the healthy chocolate here. I'm talking about solid chocolate Easter rabbit. In this study, people who were craving a treat like that watched a video featuring delicious chocolate and it helped with their craving. It seems as though it reduced their desire to eat the treat. A couple of things they say this only worked for what they call indulgent, unhealthy food content. Doesn't work for healthy food. If you're craving delicious kale and you watch a video, that's not going to be enough for you. This is early stages research. So to be continued, I'm going to remain guarded about this research. It seems a bit too good to be true. You just watch a video and then you don't want to eat a chocolate bar anymore. But I'm hopeful. By the way, if you're a content creator and this research does pan out and it turns out that if you watch chocolate videos, you don't want to eat chocolate anymore. There's a market there. You need to start your nothing but chocolate videos channel. Get that going now.
All right. That's it for this week's What a Weird Week show. We're back next Friday with more weird stuff from the news, weird news, odd news, fun news. Remember, you can get everything about our podcast and get all the show notes and leave a review, all of that stuff. The links are at shownotes.page. Catch you next Friday on What a Weird Week.
(https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/eel-world-problems-dutch-webcam-100640807.html)
9 Sauna Session Science: seems like it's good.
(https://studyfinds.com/sauna-immune-system/)
8 Tarantulas have a good memory?!
(https://studyfinds.com/blind-cave-tarantula-always-finds-way-home/)
7 Meredith Smith broke a Guinness Record running a half marathon in 55 T-shirts.
(https://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2026/04/09/Guinness-World-Records-T-shirts-worn-during-half-marathon/2391775743542/)
6 Largest gathering of people dressed as dinosaurs is now 682.
(https://www.ucalgary.ca/news/celebrating-60-years-ucalgary-smiles-and-dinosaurs-community-day)
5 Rare images of Fire Worms!
(https://abc7.com/post/bioluminescent-fireworms-caught-video-long-beach/18876061/)
4 Paid time off for humans when their pets get sick (Italy)
(https://techfixated.com/italy-becomes-the-first-country-in-the-world-to-give-workers-paid-leave-to-care-for-sick-pets/)
3 The 91 year-old was playing video games, missed the welfare check.
(https://www.cleveland.com/community/2026/04/video-game-playing-senior-sparks-concern-then-relief-at-westlake-police-department.html)
2 Bebe the parrot in their submarine is the clip you need to see this week.
(https://people.com/parrots-underwater-submarine-expedition-goes-viral-11948668)
Extra: Public washroom science.
(https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2026/04/260413043138.htm)
Extra: Eat supper and breakfast early, lose weight?!!
(https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2026/04/260411090018.htm)
1 Watch chocolate videos, lose chocolate craving?
(https://studyfinds.com/videos-of-food-helps-curb-appetite/)