It's Friday, July 31st, 2026 and here is your weird news update featuring some of the odd and fun things from the news. This is What a Weird Week (show notes: shownotes.page).
10 How big is the largest jellyfish in the world? I mean, scary but not terrifying.
Link: https://www.popsci.com/environment/worlds-largest-jellyfish-cape-cod/
Video: https://www.instagram.com/reel/Da-4F7iO_Y5/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=NTc4MTIwNjQ2YQ==
Video: https://youtu.be/T7jN1KrSC50?si=HT9EmLCwEuKj6-z-
TRANSCRIPT for Season 7, Episode 31:
Groundhog OnlyFans. What a weird week. Hi friends, I am Scott. Here is your weird news update: 10 weird things from this week's news. It's Friday, July 31st. This is the program we call What a Weird Week, and you can get all our show notes and everything we talked about in more detail if you go to the show notes page, which is shownotes.page. Also, all our podcast info is there.
Number 10: The Giant Jellyfish Okay, kicking things off this week. How big is the largest jellyfish in the world? I would say scary big, but not terrifying big—but I'm not a researcher. The headline from Popular Science is "World's Largest Jellyfish Spotted Near Cape Cod," and I was like, "Oh, invasion of giant jellyfish! It's time to flee, let's all go to the desert." But the actual article, the alarming part of that headline isn't "world's largest jellyfish." They're more concerned about "spotted near Cape Cod." They're talking about the lion's mane jellyfish, which can get three feet across, oftentimes smaller. I think I've read before about a lion's mane jelly that was eight feet across. It's a substantial-sized jelly, and it will sting you if you encounter those stingers. Tentacles can be a hundred feet long. They'll sting you, and it'll hurt.
Just as a side note, I grew up here on the east coast of Canada going to the beach often, and I have been stung by a jellyfish. In the modern era—in case you don't have the ocean where you're at—if you or anyone in your party gets stung by a jellyfish, somebody will always say, "Well, you know what you have to do. Somebody's gonna have to pee on that sting. That's the only way to alleviate the pain. It's science." And so this is my public service announcement: That's not true. And please, I mean, do whatever you want, let your freak flag fly. But that is not a good way to treat a jellyfish sting. All right, end of public service announcement.
Basically, researchers are not exactly sure—they're trying to figure out, they have some theories—why the jellies are off the coast of Massachusetts. I'm gonna link to this video in the show notes. This is an Instagram channel called Sophistication, it's pretty great. There are huge numbers of jellyfish in New England waters right now, and scientists aren't exactly sure why. I will link to all of that in the show notes, or you can click shownotes.page.
Number 9: Regrowing Tooth Enamel Just before we get to number nine, I'll tell you what happened to me the other day. I was minding my own beeswax and my filling came out. I lost the filling. I have to go get it fixed at the dentist, right? And I'm nervous going to the dentist. Maybe you don't pick up on that as you listen to this program because I seem like a pretty cool guy, but I'm nervous doing many things, including going to the dentist. Then I saw this article. Here's your number nine story from Science Daily: "Goodbye cavities? New gel could regrow tooth enamel." Well, that got my attention. They think this could go to market next year. It could have a product on store shelves, some sort of gel that could regrow tooth enamel. That is not something our bodies can do, regrowing tooth enamel. So this gel might help with thin tooth enamel if you got a situation that someday that's gonna be a cavity or some sort of tooth problem. It could help in that regard. It also could help with sensitive teeth, that kind of stuff. So to be continued, watch the store shelves next year. Also, gel form... I mean, can we just take a moment and say thanks for making it gel form instead of, I don't know, powder? Like grandma used to brush your teeth with powder tooth polishing stuff. Thanks for not doing that, science, and thank you for making it gel.
Number 8: Katy Perry's Giant Bottle Number eight is the Katy Perry trapped in a giant bottle story. Katy Perry, the celebrity, the pop music performer who is currently dating a former Prime Minister of Canada—I feel like I have to disclose that as a Canadian. Katy Perry is performing at the—if you haven't seen this, I will link to the video. I don't know how much I can play because of copyright music—Katy Perry at the Isle of MTV Malta festival, and it looks like a pretty major production, and it's a good crowd on hand. And so Katy Perry gets inside this plastic bottle. If you don't have a chance to click, I will describe it. Like one of these blow-up props, and it looks like a giant plastic bottle. Katy Perry gets inside there because this is going to aid in Katy Perry doing some crowd surfing, where this giant plastic bottle prop can get pushed out into the crowd and the crowd can push Katy Perry onto the stage, you know, a little crowd surfing stunt. And I don't know what happened. Like, I don't know how... I watched this and I'm fascinated by the video and what happens because how did they not plan for this? Katy Perry gets into the crowd and the crowd is pushing her along in a giant plastic water bottle, but instead of pushing her towards the stage, she gets way out there into the crowd. And I'm nervous for her. Are they... what's happening right now? Are they going to just keep pushing her until she leaves the concert venue? They push her over the fence and then she starts rolling down the hill. I mean, all these thoughts are coming to me as I'm watching this in real time. Eventually, I don't want to spoil it, Katy Perry is okay. But if you want to see what happens in the video, that is kind of a summation of the Katy Perry trapped in a giant plastic bottle story. You can click the show notes for more or go to shownotes.page.
Number 7: TV and the Brain Number seven is personally terrible news if this pans out. The headline from Science Daily: "Watching too much TV in midlife may shrink the brain." We're talking about watching TV, which I love to do. I love my stories. May shrink the old noggin, and I don't like the idea of that. I mean, to be continued, more research needed. This is an article written up about some research at University of Southern California. Around 1700 adults were studied. Some watched a lot of TV, some did not. And amongst the people who watched a lot of TV, they tended to have smaller brain regions. The regions that are associated with memory and decision-making seemed to be smaller. And if this pans out, that ain't great. So I don't know how you feel about that. I already kind of expressed how I feel. Perhaps you are like, "TV, what even is that? I don't need no stinking TV." And if that's you, congratulations, you're winning at life. If you want to read the article, you could go to the show notes or our show notes page, which is shownotes.page.
Number 6: The Office Bear Number six is more evidence that the bears are organizing. I have a theory that the bears are organizing and one day will rise up and enslave us all. Every week they're doing practice runs. They're in the news doing weird stuff. This week, it is the bear that walked into the office in California. There's surveillance footage of this. The bear pushes on a glass door, walks into a lobby, and mills around a little bit. And surprisingly, no one freaks out. I don't think anyone was in the lobby. You can't tell from the camera angle, but if you listen to the footage that is from when the bear is in the lobby of this office in California, so people farther away, normal conversation, talking about their weekend, maybe sharing trade secrets. Nobody freaks out. I don't think anyone saw that bear. And then the bear turns around and leaves. The other thing, and this is really legit kind of a miracle, I think that the door technology at this office may have saved somebody from a very bad day at work. Because yes, the bear was able to get into the office easily, push the door. But then when the bear was like, "Man, no honey here, I'm leaving," the bear was able to push the door again to leave. It was like a two-way door or something. Normally, you're gonna have a push on one direction and a pull on the other direction, right? And that bear would have been trapped in the lobby behind a pull door. You know what I mean? If it were a normal door, that bear is trapped in the lobby, and when Bob goes out to get some paper clips from the supply closet... well, that's a bad day for Bob, probably. So shout out to the two-way door system at this office in California. If you want to see the video footage, you can click the show notes.
Number 5: Breaking Wind News Number five is breaking wind news. Have you ever wondered if you're normal in that department? Have you secretly worried you were a crazy freak when it comes to passing gas? Well, there's an article we link to in the New York Post based on some research out of Australia, and they get into this. So 6,400 people studied their passing gas habits, and I'm talking about... I'm not talking about burping here. You know what I mean when I say passing gas, breaking wind, so we're all on the same page. What is normal? On average, around five times a day. Men a little bit more than women. I don't know if this is statistically significant. Men break wind 5.2 times a day on average, and women 4.8 times. What age group breaks wind more often? Ages 26 to 45. But it's close, the 46 to 65-year-olds are next. And then the 65 and up, there wasn't enough data. We still don't know. You're a mystery, senior citizen. You're a mystery as far as passing gas goes. There's a bit more in the article. I'll link to this in the show notes. One of the surprises from the researchers was how infrequently the people studied passed gas. Other research has shown we pass gas maybe 20-some times a day, one study had us 50-something times a day. And this has us on average five times a day. It's fascinating.
Number 4: OnlyMarmots Number four is OnlyFans for marmots, groundhogs, gophers, marmots. And if you're unfamiliar with OnlyFans, it is mostly grown-up type things happening on this website. Images that people pay to look at. You don't get a lot of marmots on there. This is about marmot researchers who were looking for a way to raise funding. What do you do? Car wash, sure. Silent auction, you bet. Then somebody was like, "What about an OnlyFans page?" They did it, and their page is called OnlyMarms, and you get exclusive images of gophers, groundhogs, marmots. And when you subscribe, you're helping the researchers. I guess that's kind of the whole story. It got picked up a lot. Maybe it was a kicker on your favorite newscast or you saw it on the late-night shows. If you want to read more about it or help out the researchers—this is all in the United States of America, researchers by the way—all of that, we'll link to it in the show notes, go to shownotes.page.
Number 3: Space Needle Parachuters Number three is the Space Needle parachute jumpers, which I am quietly celebrating that I finally said it right. I kept saying Space Noodle because doesn't it sound like they should be a thing? Space Noodles. Something you get from Chef Boyardee. Delicious and a source of iron. I don't know. Anyway, the Space Needle is a very tall structure in Seattle, United States of America. Just in case you're unfamiliar, our program does go out over the internet. Some people climbed out onto the edge and parachuted off the thing. Now police are looking to identify them. Police in Seattle searching for two men they say parachuted off the observation deck of the Space Needle Friday. They were seen climbing over a glass wall, flipping over the edge, parachuting down the 605-foot tall structure. Security were unsure where the men landed. Police could not locate them. Police say if they do find them, they will be charged with trespassing. That clip is from KTLA 5, and it shows some cell phone footage of a couple of people doing exactly what they say, parachuting off the Space Needle. And they don't know where they landed, how they made a clean getaway. So far, at time of recording, the authorities are still looking for these people. To be continued.
Number 2: Pet Tarot Readings Number two is people taking their pet to the fortune-teller. There's an article from Reuters that indicates this is a trend in South Korea where people will pay around $14 American and take, like in one instance it's a pooch, and the pooch actually picks a tarot card. And these are special tarot cards, not your traditional tarot cards. So in this case, the pooch picked a "dog chasing its owner" card. And that indicated, the fortune-teller says, that indicates there's some anxiety going on. And also, the article says the fortune-teller... it's not just dogs. The fortune-teller has done tarot readings for turtles, I guess. Whatever pet you have, they can make it work. So this is not a space I am familiar with. I do not have pets, and also I, you know, I'm a bit terrified of having my fortune told, but I find this fascinating. We'll link to the Reuters article in the show notes.
Honorable Mention 1: PowerPoint Trick Honorable mention. So this honorable mention is a little bit weird. I thought maybe just weird enough to make it onto a show called What a Weird Week. It involves PowerPoint and how to use PowerPoint effectively. There's some research into it. We link to a write-up in Study Finds where the headline is "The simple PowerPoint trick that improved student test scores." So if you're in education or if you're somebody who has to do PowerPoint, get your point across in a powerful way with the PowerPoint, here's the trick. Spoiler alert: The trick is loading a slide gradually. Instead of "Boom, here's a whole slide with all the information," put a little bit of information, read through that, then a little bit more, and there's your whole slide. So if you load the slide gradually, according to this article, there's some research that seems to indicate test scores are better. People will take that information in, retain it better if you load your slide gradually. That's kind of the whole deal. We'll link to that write-up in the show notes.
Honorable Mention 2: Birdsong for Stress Honorable mention number two. We have a second honorable mention. It involves some research into listening to birds singing. Birdsong. Ten minutes of birdsong seems to relieve stress. Maybe that's not news to you. Maybe it is important news to you, or maybe you're cool, you got this, but somebody you know needs to learn about this. Ten minutes of birdsong, it would seem—this is not a huge study. We link to the write-up. There's like 106 people involved in the study, but more research needed. It would seem as though listening to birds for around ten minutes has some positive impact on your stress level.
Number 1 (Tie): The Highway Pickle Spill We have a tie for number one this week. The first number one story is the highway pickle spill. Hundreds of pickles, jars of pickles, smashed along the side of the highway. Ohio's DOT says it took hours to clean it all up. Drivers just had to "dill" with it. Sorry. See, now, the reporter apologized for that last pun. First of all, I don't think you have to apologize. We all get it. It is a tough racket for reporters, and when you get a good kicker, just throw everything at it. I think that's fine. So, I'll tell you about this. We linked to the video, and if you want to check it out... I'll try to paint the picture, though, because when I read the headline about the pickle spill in Ohio, I imagined that, for some reason, the truck was, first of all, a tanker truck that looked like a giant pickle, and the pickles were all loose. The tanker truck was just hauling loose pickles in brine, and that's what spilled on the highway. I don't know why. My brain just wanted that to be the thing, but it's not. It's jars of pickles, and most of them are boxed up or packaged up, so it just kind of looks like garbage on the highway, really. I would say, go with your mental image on this one. Usually, I say, click the show notes, watch the video, but today, I say, just go with your mental image of the giant pickle truck, shaped like a pickle, with loose pickles spilled all over the highway. That's just a better image.
Number 1 (Tie): 106 Shark Tattoos Our second number one this week is about the shark tattoos world record. The most shark tattoos in the world is... how many do you think? 60, 61, 62, 63? The correct answer is 106 shark tattoos. A shark biologist named Emily from Maine, United States of America, has 106 shark tattoos and made headlines this week. I think partly because it's Shark Week, they went with the theme of Emily's tattoo record. Double check me on that, but anyway, congratulations, Emily, on your 106 shark tattoos, your world record. Wonderful tattoos of big sharks, little sharks, different kinds of sharks. If you are a shark enthusiast or a tattoo enthusiast, we got you covered this week if you click the show notes.
Okay, that's all she wrote. Thanks for checking out our program. I don't know how you listen—if it's through the streaming, through the smart speaker, through the podcast, through the YouTubes, through our feed on Funhaus Radio every weekend. However you tune in, I appreciate it. If "tuning in" is still a thing, maybe I said that wrong, but thanks for checking out our program. You can get all our show notes on the show notes page, which is shownotes.page. We will catch you next Friday with 10 more weird things and fun things from the news on What a Weird Week.