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What a Weird Week
[00:00:00] Here's something fun. This is What a Weird Week, a look at the weird news of the week. This is a rebroadcast, a repeat from a year ago. Sometimes it's fun to look back and see how many of these stories you remember. Do you remember the mood sticker? Do you remember the brand new color they discovered? I'm sure you remember the Australian twins. I'll be back at the end of the program, but right now, please enjoy me from the past.
Hi everybody, it's Weird. This is like crazy, really weird out of my trash. Well, I got a great show for you. It was so wonderful. Hi friends, I'm Scott and this is What a Weird Week. It's a show about the odd, the interesting, the unusual from this week's news. If you're new here, we're going to be wrapped up in about 15 minutes and you will be caught up on some of the weirder things that happened in the news this week. You can get everything we talk about in more detail and find out more about our podcast on that if you go to shownotes.page.
[00:01:05]Number 10 is the mood sticker. It's a sticker, you stick it on sort of like a bandage, and it gives feedback. Researchers have been able to predict someone's mood almost 90% accurate based on the data collected by the mood sticker bandage thing. So you wear the thing, it registers your perspiration rate, other things—I can only think of perspiration right now, but I'm sure there are other things that it measures. It'll help in situations where maybe somebody is non-verbal. That will help caregivers, perhaps like in the mental health field where there's a stigma and you don't want to say how you feel. Researchers can use the data from the mood sticker. Sadly, it doesn't change color like a mood ring, like a classy, classy mood ring, but still, it will be valuable. I'm pretty sure it'll be used for evil purposes too. Cheating at poker, maybe? Also, it might be used in marriage counseling, those times where one spouse just can't tell the other spouse how they really feel. So that could be good, and perhaps a disaster. That's a cursory overview of the mood sticker, but if you want to do a deep dive, click the show notes. What is going on with me today?
[00:02:18]Number 9. All right, number nine, I'm excited for it, but it also involves a color and you know we're doing a report. Here's our report on the new color that they have invented. Well, it's not so much they invented a new color as they made a device that can help our eyes to see a color we couldn't see before. So bionic eyes, I'm going to say. Basically, it's bionic eyes that have been invented. The color is described as sort of a greenish-blue-green. Now, the researchers at UC Berkeley and University of Washington are very excited and made headlines, but other researchers are saying, "Yeah, not so fast bionic eye research," because there's a possibility that it's not a new color so much as just an enhanced view of an existing color, and all the bionic eye technology has done has helped us to see a little better in that color spectrum.
[00:03:09]Number 8. This one is a bit odd. You tell me, has this ever happened to you or somebody you know? Man accidentally buys back his own stolen car. This is a fellow named Ewan who had his car stolen. He goes to the police, he files the insurance claim, some time passes, and then he sees a vehicle for sale and it's—why, it's the one he likes! It's his kind of car, you know, it's the same model as the car that was stolen. So he buys it for about 22,000 pounds and then some clues start to click for Ewan. Like, there's stuff in the trunk that's his stuff. And also, matching the Bluetooth was no problem. He didn't have to go through any of the menu, the Bluetooth menu, you know it's such a drag. It automatically paired with his device. So two plus two equals: that's my car. He accidentally bought back his stolen car. Right now it's in the hands of the insurance company. The article kind of trails off at Ewan is trying to get his money back that he paid for his own stolen car. To be continued.
[00:04:12]Number 7. All right, number seven. This one got picked up by a lot of news orgs, so maybe you heard this sound bite, but let me just play this. Here's some of what they had to say: "And one guy, he was up there with our mom and he went up there and he was coming back down towards us and he goes, 'Run!'" So those are the twins who made headlines. They were talking to the news about a serious news story, a carjacking. And I don't want to take away from the seriousness of what they were commenting on, but they then became the story as people started to notice how they finished each other's sentences. No, they—it wasn't even that they were talking at the same time. It's like they knew what the other one was saying before they said it, and people noticed and it was just fascinating. "And oh, our hearts started to pound and I said, 'Oh mom, where's mom?'" I'm gonna stop there. If you want to see the whole clip, I'll put a link in the show notes, and if you want to read the background of what they were talking about, shownotes.page.
[00:05:19]Number 6. The lady making headlines for putting cooking oil on to tan. Lady on TikTok started making headlines. She was using a specific brand of cooking oil and said, "This really helps me tan." Health experts weighed in, and many people in the comments weighed in and said, "No, that's... you could actually, you know, it's cooking oil and you might actually be cooking. So please don't." It doesn't have any SPF qualities. As a matter of fact, it can do the opposite of what an SPF sunscreen can do. The cooking oil can make it so that you would burn faster, deeper, worser, more worser. Wait, I'm content with that. Editing team, leave that in. One of those words was right. We'll link to the TikTok if you click shownotes.page.
[00:06:05]Number 5. I'm quite excited about. I want to invest in a line of fitness centers called "Sounds and Pounds" because there seems to be some research indicating that sounds can help you to lose pounds. Sounds and pounds. Let's get this one off the ground, you guys. Sounds and pounds off the ground. So number five is about the Japanese researchers who have discovered that certain sound frequencies—they were testing on mice, different frequencies testing the impact on mouse muscle cells—and they discovered that there was a reduction of fat storage in the mice. So it's at the mice stage right now. Eventually, hopefully, human testing. And then we'll go to fitness centers where I guess all we'll do is what? Listen to music? We'll just stand around and listen to music and the fat will melt off. Now, I'm not a scientist. If you want to actually read the research, click the show notes.
[00:06:58]Number 4. Okay, number four. Before we get into it, I'm going to say that it's about smart pills and it is research done by the University of Michigan, a study that's been published in the journal Psychedelics. Do I subscribe to that journal? No, I do not. The University of Michigan study seems to indicate that a certain psychedelic, when given to mice, improved cognitive abilities. I'm gonna stop there. You know, it has implications. It's not like, um, we're gonna make a smart pill and become billionaires. This really does have serious implications, you know, in the field of Alzheimer's disease, PTSD. They're looking to improve people's lives and then I go ahead and I'm like, "Hey, they made a smart pill!" That's my headline. They're making a smart pill, you guys. You'll never guess what the smart pill is. So sorry to take away from the actual good work of the researchers. If you want to read the study, click shownotes.page. Number three... wait, the previous story, did I say "to be continued and more research needed"? To be continued and more research needed on the psychedelic smart pill.
[00:08:08]Number 3. Okay, number three. The race with robots. And I think we can all agree, the one thing that we all have in common—you may have your different political views, philosophies—but the one thing that brings us all together is running robots are terrifying. So this is a race in Beijing, China. It's a half marathon where people and robots race. And those robots look... I mean, some of the humans are also, I would say, terrifying. Just, how do you do it? A half marathon? How do you even do that? You don't even look tired. That's terrifying. But then also the robots are terrifying. This race had a couple of special features, like robots could get their batteries changed, that was built into the rules of the race. And the winning robot was Sky Project Ultra Robot. Two hours, 40 minutes, 42 seconds for the half marathon. Well done, Sky Project Ultra Robot. Well done. Bloop bloop.
[00:09:05]Number 2 is a world record involving Minions. A lady in Australia has a world record for the most Minion items in her collection. 1,035 items. This journey began 15 years ago. If you were as old as I am, you're like, "Wait, the Minions have been out 15 years? I'm so depressed." But if that's not you, congratulations. Our record holder has a particular fondness for Stuart, according to the article. Even has a Stuart tattoo. We'll put a link to the story and you can look at the photos if you click shownotes.page. If you don't have a chance to click, I'll describe it for you. A modest-sized room, shelving, and Minion stuff. Pictures, plush toys, action figures, maybe a Halloween costume in there, a Monopoly... a Minion Monopoly game. It's that kind of stuff.
[00:09:55]Honorable Mention. Our honorable mention harkens back to Easter in Belgium where 1,000 participants did the world's biggest beer hunt. 12,000 hidden beers and one golden bottle where if you found the golden bottle of beer, you won your weight in beer. So this is something where it's an Easter egg hunt for the kids. They're doing the treasure hunt looking for the chocolate Easter eggs. Then they have a barbecue and then there's a little something for the grown-ups. The hidden beer. It's an amazing idea. If you go, please enjoy responsibly. That sounds like a fun treasure hunt for someone. Again, please enjoy responsibly.
[00:10:39] All right, Number 1 is an amazing quicksand love story. A Michigan man who escaped quicksand and gained a girlfriend or better half, partner, whatever the right term is, because I don't think the article got into... I think the article says, "Michigan man escapes quicksand, gains girlfriend." So this is about Mitchell and Brianna, colleagues, co-workers, and friends, and they were walking on the beach. I think they were, you know, friends and perhaps seeing where it went, right? They're walking on the beach. This is Reynolds Street Beach. Mitchell started to get stuck in the quicksand of the beach. Couldn't move his left leg. He whips out his phone, calls 911. So does Brianna. And here's where it gets romantic. First of all, sorry, everything's fine. Mitchell's fine. Firefighters, God bless first responders. Thanks for always running towards the danger to help others. So Mitchell was rescued by firefighters, but as he's calling 911 and as she's also at the same time calling 911, he says something like, you know, "Uh, I think my girlfriend is also calling you at the same time." And she's like, "My boyfriend needs your help." That was the first time he called her a girlfriend. That was also the first time she called him a boyfriend. That's how they found out how they both felt about one another. I wish every relationship had a 911 call where you found out where you stood. I know it's not possible. Thank you, Mitchell and Brianna, for helping me believe in love again. Oh no, wait, I'm... I'm married. I'm happily married. Sorry. I believe in love, but thank you, Mitchell and Brianna. Stay tuned at the end of the show for the quicksand love song.
[00:12:18] And that is that. Thank you for listening to What a Weird Week. If you want to get our show notes, or if you want to learn more about the podcast or get in touch or go to our social media, which we don't update enough, all of the things are at shownotes.page. shownotes.page. We'll catch you next Friday with more weird stuff, odd, interesting things, all of it on What a Weird Week.
[00:12:43] Hi friends, it's Scott from the future, or not as far in the past, almost present-day Scott. I want to thank you for listening to our rebroadcast from a year ago of What a Weird Week. We have a new episode this coming Friday with more weird news of the week. I've been working on a new song inspired by last year's quicksand love. If it gets produced in time, we're going to tack it on here. If not, you can check out shownotes.page. That's where we put all the stuff about the What a Weird Week show. And we'll put a link to the new song there because I'm pretty sure it's going to be one of the top two or three songs about being in love and also being stuck in...
(Song begins) And I'm stuck in quicksand This ain't how I planned If I ever escape this catastrophe I'll buy a diamond ring and get down on one knee I'm stuck in love and I'm stuck in quicksand Stuck in love This ain't how I planned Stuck in love Love and quicksand