It's Friday, July 24th, 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: https://www.shownotes.page/what-a-weird-week).
Loch Ness Monster back in the news. What a weird week. Hi friends, I'm Scott. It is Friday, July 24th, 2026. Here is your update on the weird news and the fun things and the odd ones from this past week. A show we call What a Weird Week. You can get our show notes if you go to the show notes page, which is shownotes.page.
Number 10 is the Loch Ness Monster caught on camera? A snap taken by tourist Sharon Herbert from Kent. The cruise company has come back and confirmed that yes, there's a green mass and that the wave formations are nothing to do with their boat. So this leaves us with something green just under the water and also strange waves beside the boat. So it could well be Nessie. Nessie hunter Steve Feltham's not convinced it's the monster, but says there's definitely something out there. There is definitely something to be explained here. Something bigger than the biggest fish, which is a salmon or a seal if a seal comes in. Something far bigger than that. Okay, so we'll link to that video. If you don't have a chance to click, I will describe it. Save you a click. The black, black water of Loch Ness. And then in the right hand corner of the photo, triangular thing under the surface of the water. It's green. That's it. Green triangular thing is all we know for sure. Maybe this is the, I hate it when we don't have a solution to the mystery. Maybe this is the year we finally capture the Loch Ness Monster. To be continued.
Number nine. Number nine is the Dog ATM, which is now available at a few locations of a famous bank in Canada. And I believe also there's a dog ATM in Philadelphia, United States of America, planet earth. The dog ATM is like a regular ATM, except it stands for automated treat machine. And if you don't have a chance to click the photo, it looks like a bank machine, only smaller dog size. And when a dog goes up to the machine and uses it, instead of getting cash, the dog gets treats, which makes sense to me because hardly any dogs carry cash anymore and dogs want to be paid in treats. That is the currency of dogs, treats. So why are they doing it? I won't say the name of the bank, but I mean, it's a big bank, big name in banking. It would seem to me, perhaps it's a little bit to get attention, to spread the goodwill amongst clients who own a pooch and want to bring their pooch to the bank. Maybe in some cases you would switch your account over to this bank because your dog is like, I want to go to the treat bank. Let's go to there. So I guess that's a possibility. And by the way, somebody write down treat bank. That sounds like either a wonderful store for human beings to frequent or maybe a something with pets. I don't know. Anyway, seeking investors. Back to the dog ATM, it does make a wonderful photo op. Look at that pooch using it. I mean, you can't help but smile when you see a pooch using a bank machine, a teeny tiny bank machine. Maybe they could have an artist paint some portraits of dogs using like dogs playing poker. Now the new dogs playing poker. Maybe it's dogs using the ATM. If you want to see the thing, you can click the show notes or go to the show notes page, shownotes.page.
Number eight. Number eight is the air conditioned mouse, which when you say it out loud, it does sound like a children's book. The Air Conditioned Mouse by Richard Scarry. Little mouse in a hot mouse house shopping for an air conditioner. Sounds like a winner. This is not that. This is about a high end computer mouse, which is air conditioned. I didn't know any of this existed. And I saw an article talking about a new one that is out, a new high end gaming mouse. I didn't know sometimes you gamers game so ferociously that your mouse heats up. You have to wear asbestos gloves sometimes during extended gaming sessions. I didn't know that. So this is a mouse with an active cooling system designed to reduce heat buildup. I'm sure it's less about comfort, more about performance, but still it's nice to have a cool hand, isn't it? That's kind of the whole thing. If you want to see what it looks like, we'll link to that in the show notes. I mentioned last week how I'm a gamer. I do the wordle. And sometimes my phone gets pretty hot. So I'm going to look into this. Not so much to use during gaming, but just to cool my hands off.
Number seven. Number seven is another product I didn't know existed. Kevlar boots. I saw a write up describing Kevlar boots this week, which, you know, that's the same. The Kevlar is what you would associate with bulletproof vests, only now in boots. If you don't have a chance to click the photo and you're like, what do these boots look like? Imagine a black hiking boot. OK, but then also. No, that's it, they just look like boots, but there's Kevlar in there. I honestly I think the Kevlar is in there for durability, but let's face it, you're going to step more confidently in your Kevlar boots, aren't you? I would. I'm out of shape, non hiking, but I'm going to step lively in my Kevlar boots. Heaven forbid somebody start shooting at your feet and you're wearing your normal boots. No, no way. I want the Kevlar boots. Do you want to read the write up or see the boots? You can click the show notes.
Number six. Number six is a mystery possibly solved. I love it when they solve the mysteries. So satisfying. And this one may be solved. Here's the headline from Science Daily. The mysterious hum heard around the world may finally have an explanation. Perhaps you are one of the two to four percent of the population in the world who reports hearing the hum or the buzz, that mysterious sound. This has been around for decades. First reported, I think, in the 1970s in Great Britain. And researchers have been trying for decades to determine what is making that sound, the mysterious hum. Where is it coming from? And it's been all over the world. It's been reported all over planet Earth, the mysterious hum two to four percent of the population report hearing it. Well, the latest research, there are different theories on what's causing the hum. The latest research seems to point towards tinnitus, which you know what that is. That is essentially, it sounds like it's an external noise coming from the world, but it is actually coming from inside your head or your ears. That is the latest theory on the mysterious noise heard around the world. So as always, more research is needed. That's where they've landed in this write-up. And we'll link to the whole thing. Perhaps you are someone in the two to four percent of the population. Perhaps you're someone who hears that hum. Maybe you would like to read more. You can click shownotes.page.
Number five. Number five is coffee research. More good coffee news, it seems. This is from Science Daily. The write-up, the headline is coffee may help the body fight stress and aging. It would appear as though there is something in coffee. When you drink coffee, it triggers something in our cells and we get health benefits. I don't I always say I'm not smart, like I'm dumb, is I think how I put it. But if you want to read the thing, what I take from this, drinking coffee, it would seem, based on the research that they're talking about, would seem as though the coffee is linked to limiting inflammation and repairing damage. Different things that cause age-related disease are helped or prevented or made better by drinking coffee. And maybe you are like, I don't drink the coffee, Scott. I don't. Don't ask. If that's you, I won't ask. But this research, they're trying to dig deeper and find out what is in the coffee, what is going on that causes these seemingly health benefits. And so someday you would imagine there will be a medicine perhaps developed from whatever is going on in the coffee. The chemical compound in the coffee will someday become medicine, perhaps. So even if you don't drink the coffee, you hang in there.
Number four, earmuffs for the kids. This is a PG-13 story. It's not the craziest story we've ever had, but it does involve dangerous behavior while naked. So PG-13. Number four, the allegation is nude train surfing. This happened in Colorado, United States of America, planet Earth, where a fellow allegedly broke into a train, moving train, broke a window, climbed on top of the train and surfed on top of the train while naked. Again, allegations right now. Innocent until proven guilty. Everybody deserves their day in court. One of the quotes from the article is, according to the sheriff's office, the suspect told deputies he loved vodka, beer and playing the banjo. So that's kind of the whole story. We're not going to link to a photo in this case, so we will link to the article, but no photo. If you click the show notes, just on a related note, what is the deal with doing dangerous things while naked, like doing dangerous things? It's already dangerous. But then when you're naked, you have so much more to worry about. Just a thought.
Number three. Number three is the journalist and the cockroach. This happened to Rachel Minatov, our sister station KTLA in L.A. Tuesday night. Look at watch on her person. And then it hops up on the little windscreen. And then it goes on about it. She doesn't flinch. No reaction. Now watch. Now, this is after she was off camera. She's like, it's on me, I know it's on me! Oh, Rachel's a pro man, she is a pro. So maybe you saw that, it got shared a lot, but if you didn't I will catch you up. They are talking about a reporter named Rachel who made headlines and the video got shared a lot because of her demeanor when a large cockroach landed on her. She was doing a live report, you know reporter on the street kind of deal, and a cockroach landed on her, walked around on her for a while, then hopped onto her microphone, and then eventually flew away. And Rachel was calm and cool the whole time until the report was filed, and then she kind of freaked out a little bit. She was so professional, calm, cool, collected, professional, and also the fact that the cockroach was enormous. Those two things I think factored into why the video got shared a lot. Quite impressive reporting. If you want to see the thing, we'll link to it in the show notes.
Number two is Jimothy the raccoon, which I'm sure you've seen images of Jimothy the raccoon, but if not, they had to include Jimothy in this week's episode. Jimothy—oh, and you might pronounce it raccoon, where I live most people pronounce it raccoon, so I'm gonna go with raccoon if that's all right. Jimothy is from Seattle, Washington, United States of America, planet Earth. It all started with a viral video, or one that got shared all over the place, millions of views. Somebody in Seattle got some footage of what they at first thought was a cat, but it was an unusually shaped raccoon after all, and became a meme popular all over the world. People painting murals, people getting tattoos. Jimothy got a shout out on the jumbotron at a Seattle Mariners ball game. Jimothy is kind of a sphere shaped raccoon, kind of how I would sum that up. And if you want to see some photos, we will link to images if you click the show notes. Experts are weighing in on why Jimothy is that shape, there are some theories. The important thing I think is that Jimothy was a nice distraction from the everyday stresses of the world for a while, and seems to be still riding that wave of fame, that cute raccoon fame.
Honorable mention this week, an honorable mention courtesy Popular Science. Does summer actually make your hair grow faster? There's a big article about it. Do you want the gist of it? The long story short, too long didn't read: does summer actually make your hair grow faster? Probably not, but maybe your beard. If you're one who grows a beard, there is some evidence that perhaps in the summertime you get more beard going on. The end. I'll link to that in the show notes.
Honorable mention number two. So I on purpose called it honorable mention number two because it's about a drug that may help lift brain fog, but it is a drug that is meant for something way different. The headline from Science Daily: common constipation drug may help clear depression brain fog. Too soon to tell for sure, more research needed, but it looks like there's a link between clearing depression brain fog and clearing something else. Taking this pill clears a couple of different things, maybe another way to put it. Perhaps does that. I'll stop there on that one, but you can read the whole thing if you'd like, click shownotes.page.
Number one this week is a tie. First number one story, a world record for the longest foosball table in the world. Brooklyn, New York, United States of America, planet Earth. A tequila company made a foosball table 525 feet long. That's longer than 33 cars, about the same maybe as 33 cars parked bumper to bumper. And if you were to walk from one end of the foosball table to the other, that might take you a couple of minutes, just to give you an idea. Very long foosball table. The tequila company wanted to do this to commemorate the FIFA World Cup, the soccer or football, everybody had the football fever or soccer fever, and so they made headlines this past week. It's an official world record, a very long foosball table. I think we all know foosball right? Just in case, it's like tabletop soccer or tabletop football where you spin your player and try to kick the ball in the other person's goal. Number one.
Our second number one is David Record Breaker Rush. He is a fellow who cannot stop himself from setting world records. He has the most concurrent world records, and he just set a world record for balancing toilet paper rolls on his head. That's what it sounded like when they all fell. So it is 195 toilet paper rolls. These are not just the cardboard, this is like a brand new roll of toilet paper, okay? So 195 of those, they're kind of stacked there on some sort of cardboard platform, and 195 toilet paper rolls later, David Record Breaker Rush has another record. Maybe now David, you could take a break. Just maybe take a couple of days off, you deserve it. If you want to see what that world record looked like, we will link to that in the show notes.
That is all she wrote for this week's What a Weird Week episode. Thanks for listening. We're coming back on Friday with 10 more weird things from the news. Get everything we talked about in more detail if you go to the show notes page, which is shownotes.page. I appreciate you. Thanks for checking out What a Weird Week.
