What a Weird Week Top Stories of 2024: What a Weird Year!

Hi friends, I'm Scott and this is What a Weird Week, a show about the weird stuff in the news. See below for a transcript of the podcast episode. To subscribe to the podcast or for social media and more links, you can get everything at www.shownotes.page. These are the shownotes for Season 5, Ep 52 first published on Friday Dec 27 2024. Our "Top Stories of the Year" episode! Here are this week's stories... January The 10 year old girl behind the movement to bring back Haggis flavored chips (crisps)...10 year old Grace is in Scotland. She loved Haggis chips and when she heard that Haggis flavored chips were being made a seasonal flavor instead of year round, Grace wrote a polite letter to the company saying it would make her sad. They're giving her a year's supply of chips, a tour of the chip factory,  and the Haggis chips are back! Victory!!https://news.sky.com/story/girl-10-wins-years-supply-of-crisps-after-campaigning-to-get-niche-flavour-back-on-shelves-13041322  February  Gizmodo headline "Japan zoo recaptures escaped man in costume in adorable emergency drill." So at the zoo, they have this thing where they practice what to do if a bear got away... they do it every year. I think we even talked about it on this program before But it made news again because, you know, it's kinda gaining popularity... they hire someone or an employee gets dressed up as a bear and then the zoo workers initiate a take-down. They get one of those bear traps and that's it! Just kidding.  https://gizmodo.com/zoo-simulated-bear-escape-japan-1851209277  March Couple of things I didn't know... first of all, hello to our friends in Missouri... the area code in St. Louis is 314 and so that's become a bit of a local holiday in St. Louis... 314 Day/ March 14th. And so I didn't know that... I also didn't know the world record for most people in one place with underwear on their head is 270 participants... Well on March 14th/ 314 Day in St. Louis they're going to try to get 314 participants wearing underwear on their head. This is at a museum in St. Louis. They will supply the underpants. You just got to be there. All we need is your presence and a good attitude. So good luck and shout out to the City Museum in St. Louis, Missouri. https://www.ndtv.com/offbeat/us-museum-attempts-underwear-on-head-world-record-for-local-holiday-5193222 April When to exercise for maximum staying alive capabilities!? This is from our friends at Study Finds. Here's a headline. "Why exercising at night  may be best for health. 61% lower risk of death from any cause!" They start out by talking about how, and we've all learned this... if you just exercise, It's good for you. Just do it. Any exercise is good. But... now there's a study about... if you're gonna exercise for maximum health potential, what time of day?? It's a pretty big study from the University of Sydney. 30,000 participants... they did moderate to vigorous physical activity. The 30,000 people were studied over an eight year time-frame... the exercising at different times of the day... and there was a pattern to the healthier outcomes. There was a certain time of day when people with the healthiest outcomes did their exercise. Evening. Evening people seem to get the most out of their exercise. 61% lower risk of death from any cause! That's pretty great. If you're an exerciser and you're able to exercise in the evening, you're going to get more out of it according to this study. Now, if you're exercising in the morning or afternoon, it's not like it's bad for you. And please consult your physician. So why is exercising at night or in the evening better? They think because our bodies handle blood sugar better in the day. At night, our bodies can use a bit more help. Blood sugar tends to (character limit) full shownotes at www.shownotes.page