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These are the shownotes for Season 7, Ep 27.
9 do not tell the evil geniuses of the world about this butterfly!
8 weird mountain mystery
7 Empire State building climbers: love and world peace on top of the world. And arrests.
6 we are terrible at identifying a certain kind of ai photo.
https://talkerresearch.com/how-well-can-americans-spot-ai-travel-photos-when-booking-a-trip/
5 telepathy headsets are a thing.
https://studyfinds.com/telepathic-device-communication-barrier-people-with-impaired-speech/
4 incredible thrift store treasure tale!
https://www.actionnews5.com/2026/07/02/3-goodwill-jacket-now-expected-sell-up-250000/
3 always just let your sunglasses go.
https://nypost.com/2026/06/24/us-news/sunglasses-rescue-goes-horribly-wrong-as-camper-plunges-into-california-vault-toilet-tank/
2 tent-pitching world record.
https://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2026/07/02/Guinness-World-Records-fastest-time-two-man-tent/2021783007088/
Bonus: meet the lunge king.
https://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2026/07/01/Guinness-World-Records-lunges-20-pound-pack/7261782918913/
1 fastest pizza in the world.
https://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2026/06/26/Dominos-fastest-pizza-maker-Manasses-Virginia/3041782489056/
Coming up, 10 weird things from this week's news, including an incredible thrift store treasure find. I love those stories. This is What a Weird Week. What a weird, why did I say it so funny? Hi, everybody, it's Weird. This is like crazy being here. Weird. Really weird, damn. Bigfoot eats out of my trash. Well, I got a great show for you today with some wonderful weird stuff. Hi, friends. I am Scott. It's Friday, July 3rd, 2026. Thanks for checking out What a Weird Week. It's a show where we give you 10 weird news stories, and you can get everything we talk about in more detail on our show notes page, which is shownotes.page. If you've been here from the get-go, thank you. If you're new here and you enjoy weird news or odd news or fun stuff, not the serious news, then we got you covered. And by the end of this program, you will be the king or queen of small talk because you're going to know all this interesting stuff that happened.
Okay, we're kicking things off with a Mysteries of the Mind Brain story because our mind brains are freaky. This is research. We link to an article written up in Science Daily, some research about the placebo effect. This was for older adults. They were testing memory, physical performance, and stress. And they did a placebo test whereby, you know, you take a fake pill. They tell you it's a pill. You take it. You seem to feel better. Then they say, guess what? It wasn't even medicine. You just took, you just had a tic-tac or whatever. So that's a real thing that can happen, the placebo effect. Somehow we still feel better even though we didn't take medicine. But then some of those people, they tell you it's not medicine. That's the nocebo effect. Sometimes it's called the nocebo effect. They give you a thing, but they say this is not medicine. Take it anyway. Let's see what happens. And oftentimes, those people feel better. Even though you knew it wasn't medicine, there were results, measurable improvements in memory and physical performance and stress. So now they're trying to figure out why. It seems to be a real thing, placebo effect, nocebo effect. It's been studied for quite a while. They're trying to figure out why. If we could tap into that, the power of our mind brains, wouldn't that be something? There is a long article in Science Daily. I mean, spoiler alert, they're still not sure why all this occurs, but they're trying to figure it out.
Number nine is the freaky freak town butterfly that was in the news. It's been written up. Another one from Science Daily, research into this butterfly. I would ask you this. Once you learn about this butterfly, please do not tell anyone. Do not tell. I'm scared the evil geniuses of the world will find out about this butterfly and they'll harvest all the butterflies and keep them for themselves. You know how evil geniuses are. This is a butterfly called the Heliconius heliconius butterfly and it seems to have developed a way to slow the aging process. It lives 25 times longer than some other butterflies and science is trying to figure that out. Wouldn't it be great if we also could slow the human aging process? Perhaps these butterflies could unlock that secret. But again, tell no one because if an evil genius or two hear about this, they're going to round up all of the Heliconius butterflies, turn them into some sort of powder and start snorting butterfly powder in hopes of living forever. That is one theory of what might happen. So please tell no one, but know this science is looking into making us live forever through butterflies.
Number eight is the spooky mystery on Mount Shasta. We linked to the article in the New York Post, but it was picked up a lot of places. Maybe you saw this, but if not, this one kind of spooky. The lady from California, she was hiking Mount Shasta or horseback riding actually Mount Shasta, and she heard these noises according to the write-up and found all these Bluetooth speakers, solar powered Bluetooth speakers, some of them playing noise, some of them playing like what was described in the article as maybe a sermon, a snippet of a sermon, or perhaps it was a mantra repeating over and over. Imagine you're hiking. First of all, that to me is scary because I'm not physically fit. So even just hiking, I can't quite get my brain there without freaking out. But imagine you're hiking and you hear all these weird noises and then you come across this thing, this installment of Bluetooth speakers. The theory is maybe it's some sort of religious affiliated experience or I think also could be an art installment of some sort, but they don't really know. The article, we have some photos on that of what it looks like and the description is freaky enough. You can get a real picture for what this lady discovered, but what does it mean? Where did it come from? Unknown at this juncture, to be continued. Where is that coming from? It's like it's way over there, but it's also right here. Oh my God.
Number seven is the story. It was picked up a lot of places. Perhaps you saw the headline of the daredevil couple or stunt performing couple who climbed to the tippy top of the Empire State Building in New York City, United States of America, planet Earth. Then they unfurled a large banner with a message of peace and then they got engaged. This was not a first time climb for the couple. They know their way around climbing things and how they got to the very tippy top of the Empire State Building. Well, obviously there had to be some sneakery going on. Somehow they were able to access the very tippy top. Have I been saying tippy top too much? The couple, Angelina and Ivan now face several charges. They've been charged with burglary, reckless endangerment, criminal mischief, criminal tampering, criminal trespass and disorderly conduct, which I don't understand the law and stuff. It just seems like that one is not Angelina and Ivan style. I'm not, I don't know. What am I? I don't know. If you want to see photos, we have links in the show notes.
Number six. Number six is oddly specific. It's about how terrible we are at identifying a certain kind of AI photo. When we want to go traveling, when we're interested in vacation spots, destinations, and we look at photos of places, we can't tell AI photos from real photos. This is based on a study of 2000 American adults. Only 5% of American travelers can correctly identify real destination photos in a side-by-side test with AI photos. So the AI is just as good as actual photos to our brain, most of our brains. First, it's going to be destination photos, but then it's going to be all of the photos. I mean, that's not, I'm not some futurist. We all think that, right? And next is the robot uprising.
Number five. Number five is how close we are to having the technology to read other people's minds or broadcast your own thoughts. There's a company, we linked to an article, a company developing what they call a low-risk brain computer interface that will help. I mean, the motivation behind this is wonderful for people who are non-verbal to be able to communicate. And it's going to be a device that you can wear. I think the hairpiece companies will jump on board. Imagine wearing a, getting a wonderful hairpiece, looking so incredible in your new hairpiece. And also it helps you to broadcast your thoughts and read other people's thoughts. I worry that if the technology falls into the wrong hands, I mean, a professional poker player with this technology would win everything. Just one example. So to be continued, I, you know what, I'll stop there on it, but there's a great write-up in Study Finds about the technology, and it looks like it could help a lot of people.
Number four. Number four is the teenager in Oregon who went to a thrift store, saw something, thought, this could be valuable. And it turns out they were right. 19-year-old Quinn Brown was at the Goodwill in Oregon. I'm sorry, I know it's a big state and I don't know my geography, maybe Hillsborough, Oregon, United States of America. Anyway, they're in the thrift store and they see this Los Angeles Lakers warmup jacket, three bucks. They thought, well, that might be something. And it turns out it was, it was something. It has since been authenticated. It was the warmup jacket for NBA legend, Wilt Chamberlain. Oh, the drama in this one too. So Quinn saw it, somebody else had picked up the jacket and was looking at it. And Quinn was like, hello, what's this? Then that person put the jacket. So somebody else almost maybe bought that jacket. And then Quinn swoops in when the person's done looking. They don't want it. Quinn's like, I'll take it. Three bucks. It's going to be auctioned off. It could get a quarter of a million dollars. Every time we have a story like this, I go to the thrift store. I go to my local thrift store. I hit the garage sales and I'm like, I'm going to find a treasure. I'm going to be just like Quinn. I'm going to find a treasure. So far, no, but the hope is still alive.
Number three. Number three is another story, a genre that we get, we've covered before. And every time we do, I'm like, note to self, if you drop your sunglasses in a campground toilet, just leave them there. They are no longer your glasses. They belong to the campground toilet now. So this is another situation where somebody had to be rescued from in California. Someone had to be rescued from a campground toilet. The person dropped their, it was one of these flushless, you know, like eco-friendly situations. I always picture an outhouse but the photo it's nicer than an outhouse. This person dropped their sunglasses in there and then in reaching to try to get the sunglasses which at this point I'm a nope I'm walking away from those glasses but maybe they had sentimental value the person ended up becoming trapped inside with the glasses and had to be rescued. That's all I'm gonna say about that one I don't like the gross ones it was weird and odd and we included it this week we do have more details and photos of the place if you want to click the show notes or go to shownotes.page. I know that when I listen to podcasts and they say hey I switched microphones can you tell I can never tell but I have switched rooms switch microphones and I've been warned do not turn off the air conditioning I'm going to get hurt so it is very hot here on the east coast of Canada so anyway new room new vibes let's go.
Number two is the new world record for setting up a tent very quickly. I want you to imagine you had to put up a tent a two-man tent or do we say is that how we say it nowadays two-person tent a small tent how fast could you put that tent up for me it's most of the afternoon perhaps for you're really good at it how long would it take twenty minutes fifteen minutes could you get it done in ten minutes okay five minutes could you do it in five these two fellas put up the tent in one minute and four seconds in something almost one minute five seconds that's the world record that's bonkers we'll link to the story if you want to see the photo they look so happy just a couple of fellas who put up a tent and now they're just happy it's over one minute five seconds world record.
Honorable mention, mention this week the honorable mention goes to a fellow named Austin his friends maybe call him Austin but most of the world calls him the lunge king he's known as the king of the lunge he is a New York fitness instructor and set a Guinness World Record first he puts on a 20-pound vest and then they start the clock and he starts to lunge in right and he is lunging like crazy and he gets 71 lunges in a minute so more than a lunge a second he really is the lunge king thank y'all so much for being here this much support is ridiculous Austin Head aka the lunge king already a two-time Guinness World Records holder we're gonna see if you Austin can set two more Guinness World Records are you guys ready? an amazing feat of lunging from the lunge king so we've had a couple of world records already that were pretty good the lunging really quickly doing a lot of lunges fast I mean that's something to brag about putting up a tent really fast that one I think you could hire yourself out as professional tent putter uppers putting up a tent in a minute and five seconds I still can't get past that what a skill to have when the sun is going down you don't have a lot of time to put your tent up maybe the creatures of the night are waiting to bounce and you have to get your tent put up pronto and you do it in a minute and five seconds that's a great skill.
Now number one is even better I think this is about the fellow named Richard he broke the record for making pizza very fast he's the world's fastest pizza maker he manages a well-known pizza chain uh manages a location and made three large pizzas in 31 seconds that's the world record 31 seconds 31.22 imagine if you could you got a hungry crew coming over and you could just whip up pizzas three pizzas in 31 seconds that I'm hungry I don't what we'll be talking about I'm hungry now just watch in the amount of time it takes to tie your shoes record time right here Richard can make three hand-tossed large pizzas okay okay okay congratulations Richard on your fast pizza world record.
All right and that is a wrap on this week's what a weird week to you friends in the United States of America celebrating a holiday this weekend be safe have fun that includes our buddy Wacky Alex at Funhaus Radio we're back next Friday with 10 more weird things from the news it's great if you're bad at small talk because you listen to our show you've got at least 10 different topics you can talk about when you're amongst friends family colleagues so really I feel like our show is making the world a better place all the show notes at shownotes.page we'll catch you next Friday with 10 more weird things from the news on what a weird week.
9 do not tell the evil geniuses of thw world about this butterfly! https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2026/06/260622014302.htm
8 weird mountain mystery https://nypost.com/2026/06/26/lifestyle/mount-shasta-horseback-riders-find-eerie-source-of-apocalyptic-soundtrack/
7 Empire State building climbers: love and world peace on top of the world. And arrests.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/two-people-unfurl-peace-banner-163849487.html
6 we are terrible at identifying a certain kind of ai photo.
https://talkerresearch.com/how-well-can-americans-spot-ai-travel-photos-when-booking-a-trip/
5 telepathy headsets are a thing.
https://studyfinds.com/telepathic-device-communication-barrier-people-with-impaired-speech/
4 incredible thrift store treasure tale!
https://www.actionnews5.com/2026/07/02/3-goodwill-jacket-now-expected-sell-up-250000/
3 always just let your sunglasses go.
https://nypost.com/2026/06/24/us-news/sunglasses-rescue-goes-horribly-wrong-as-camper-plunges-into-california-vault-toilet-tank/
2 tent-pitching world record.
https://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2026/07/02/Guinness-World-Records-fastest-time-two-man-tent/2021783007088/
Bonus: meet the lunge king.
https://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2026/07/01/Guinness-World-Records-lunges-20-pound-pack/7261782918913/
1 fastest pizza in the world.
https://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2026/06/26/Dominos-fastest-pizza-maker-Manasses-Virginia/3041782489056/