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Episode 82: More Russians Die Falling Out Of Windows, Pennsylvania Home Bleeds Honey, Science Reveals Just How Many Hots Dogs You Can Eat

Episode 82: More Russians Die Falling Out Of Windows, Pennsylvania Home Bleeds Honey, Science Reveals Just How Many Hots Dogs You Can Eat

Released Thursday, 16th July 2020
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Episode 82: More Russians Die Falling Out Of Windows, Pennsylvania Home Bleeds Honey, Science Reveals Just How Many Hots Dogs You Can Eat

Episode 82: More Russians Die Falling Out Of Windows, Pennsylvania Home Bleeds Honey, Science Reveals Just How Many Hots Dogs You Can Eat

Episode 82: More Russians Die Falling Out Of Windows, Pennsylvania Home Bleeds Honey, Science Reveals Just How Many Hots Dogs You Can Eat

Episode 82: More Russians Die Falling Out Of Windows, Pennsylvania Home Bleeds Honey, Science Reveals Just How Many Hots Dogs You Can Eat

Thursday, 16th July 2020
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0:00

Strange News Daily. It's a production of I heart

0:02

Media.

0:15

In a world full of bizarre events, unsolved

0:18

mysteries, and a billion stories from all

0:20

corners of the globe, some news

0:22

gets lost in the shuffle. This

0:25

is your gateway to the stories on the fringe

0:27

of the mainstream map. These are

0:29

your dispatches in the dark. I'm

0:32

Ben Bolan, and this is the Strange

0:34

News Daily, our

0:42

first story today. Hearkens

0:44

back to an earlier report about

0:47

a strange series of deaths

0:50

and injuries in Russia, when

0:52

multiple medical professionals

0:55

died due to falling

0:58

out of windows. Uh In

1:00

many cases these were ruled accidents

1:03

or suicides, but just

1:05

this week, a police major in far

1:08

eastern Russia fell to her

1:10

death from a window after testifying

1:13

against her boss in a criminal extortion

1:15

case. Security cameras

1:18

captured the body of criminal

1:20

investigation officer Yeka Tarina

1:22

Mishkina, who was thirty seven, near

1:25

a nine floor apartment building in

1:27

the city of Kabarovsk, more

1:29

than eight thousand kilometers

1:31

east of Moscow. At this point,

1:34

it was unclear what mis

1:36

Kinna, who was dressed in plain clothes

1:39

at the time, had been doing,

1:41

and she'd been pursuing someone. What

1:44

were her activities before she plunged

1:46

to her death from what appears to be

1:48

a window on the fifth floor. Various

1:52

domestic news websites reported

1:54

that security cameras showed Miskena

1:57

unsuccessfully trying to get access

1:59

to the building's rooftop and

2:01

then descending a few further

2:04

flights. There

2:06

are also anonymous sources

2:08

in local law enforcement agencies

2:11

who say that Maschino was a witness

2:13

in a criminal case against her one

2:15

time boss. This boss

2:18

was suspected of extorting

2:20

subordinates. Miskina

2:22

was reported to have testified against

2:25

him at some point before her

2:27

death. Authorities opened

2:29

that criminal extortion case after Miskena's

2:32

former boss retired. The

2:34

regional police have launched an internal

2:37

inspection into Michkena's

2:39

death, and there's an interesting

2:41

line here. The spokesperson

2:43

for the police, Yaka Tarina Tarasova,

2:46

told local news that the investigator

2:49

assigned to the case was on quote

2:52

yet another vacation at the

2:54

time. Another unnamed

2:56

source close to the investigation claims

2:59

that a shoals found a note in Miskin's

3:02

purse listing a set of key tasks

3:04

she had to complete until a certain

3:07

point This note

3:09

leads this anonymous source to believe there

3:12

was pre meditation involved

3:14

here, saying quote this indicates

3:16

that what happened was not spontaneous.

3:19

Mosquito was divorced and she leaves

3:21

behind a fourteen year old daughter.

3:25

As we noted at the top of this story, this

3:27

death follows at least five other separate

3:30

incidents of Russian healthcare

3:32

workers falling from windows at

3:34

the height of the coronavirus pandemic this

3:36

spring, as well as two

3:39

young journalists back in two thousand

3:41

eighteen to two thousand nineteen, before

3:44

the pandemic began. Our

3:56

second story today is a bit

3:58

surreal, or some people

4:00

it may be the stuff of

4:03

nightmares. Imagine

4:05

you're like any other homeowner, and

4:08

one day your walls start

4:10

leaking. They're not leaking

4:13

water, They're not leaking

4:15

some kind of coolant from the air

4:17

conditioning system. No,

4:20

your walls are leaking honey.

4:24

This is what happened to Andrea and Justin

4:26

Isabelle, a Pennsylvania couple who did

4:28

not know that unexpected house guest until

4:31

they saw fresh honey dripping

4:34

down the walls of their home.

4:38

The isabel family has lived in their

4:40

one year old home in Pennsylvania

4:42

for five years, and so

4:44

far they haven't had any major issues,

4:47

apart from the regular wear and tear

4:50

that comes with owning an older

4:52

home. Andrea reported

4:54

that her neighborhood had received heavy

4:56

rain from tropical Storm Fade,

4:59

so at first she and her husband thought

5:02

these streams coming down the wall of their

5:04

mud room were from water storage.

5:08

That weekend, the couple took a closer

5:10

look and realized the liquid

5:12

was actually fresh honey.

5:15

We've never heard any buzzing or anything, says

5:17

Andrea, when we saw this stream

5:19

coming down the wall, we just kind of

5:21

worked our way up. Isabel

5:25

has made it to their bedroom window

5:27

and looked outside, and that's where they found

5:29

honeybees entering and exiting

5:31

and opening along the roof of

5:33

the house. In a video posted

5:36

on social media, Justin Isabel

5:38

offered a sketch comedy like homeowner

5:41

tutorial called how to Tell if

5:43

you have a b issue. The honey

5:45

streams have traveled from the attic,

5:48

through the second story, the main floor,

5:50

and now down to the basement. Alan

5:53

Lazani, who was a general contractor

5:55

and has been an apiarist for eight

5:58

years, looked at the home on weekend

6:00

and estimated the bee colony was

6:02

anywhere from twenty thousand to

6:04

thirty thousand strong. He

6:07

continued saying, I think water got into

6:09

the colony and washed the nectar out of the

6:11

comb and made it more liquefied, and

6:13

that's what was running down the wall. The

6:16

isabel say their children think the stream

6:18

is crazy, and the family dog

6:20

certainly seems to be into the idea

6:23

of fresh, free honey literally

6:25

oozing from the walls. Zanni

6:28

plans to extract the colony from the

6:30

home and take it to a b yard

6:32

on his own property. The

6:34

Isabel's say, we know bees are endangered.

6:37

We want to be able to save the colony and re

6:39

home them appropriately and carefully. But

6:41

the damage done to the house to extract it

6:44

was concerning. The

6:46

repairs will cost an estimated three

6:48

thousand dollars, and homeowners

6:51

insurance, which is famously

6:53

terrible at covering stuff like this, is

6:55

probably not going to cover the

6:58

unwanted b squads.

7:01

The Isabels are quick to add, by the way

7:03

that no one has been

7:05

stung, and when

7:07

you consider the damage that insects

7:10

living in the home could do to the structure,

7:12

it's understandable why people would

7:14

want them to leave. But still,

7:17

a beehive is pretty cool. Maybe

7:20

just move it to the backyard. Our

7:32

third story today is inspiring.

7:36

Maybe it's about

7:38

humanities, constant

7:40

exploration of our own

7:43

limits. How far can we

7:45

push ourselves? Well, it's

7:48

sort of about that. You see.

7:50

Scientists may have just figured out how

7:53

many hot dogs people can eat in

7:55

ten minutes. This is a

7:57

huge deal for part

7:59

of the population, competitive eaters

8:01

and fans of competitions

8:04

like Nathan's famous Coney Island hot

8:06

dog eating contest. Before

8:08

we give you the answer, let's let's tell you

8:10

a little bit about how we

8:13

arrived at it. Our story

8:15

starts with a physiologist named James

8:18

Smoliga. James works at

8:20

the High Point University in North Carolina,

8:23

and last year he was watching the Nathan's

8:25

hot dog eating contests when an idea

8:28

struck him like a bolt of competitive

8:31

eating lightning. Could we,

8:33

he thought, apply the mathematical

8:35

equations used to estimate the limits

8:37

of athletic performance to feats

8:41

of competitive eating. This

8:44

set him off on his journey.

8:46

He analyzed nearly forty

8:48

years of the hot dog eating

8:51

contests. The current

8:53

record of seventy five hot dogs

8:55

is an improvement over the competition's early

8:58

days, where winners were crowned after

9:00

eating as few as a dozen hot

9:02

dogs. So, based on this data

9:05

from a hundred and fifty two competitors

9:07

over thirty nine years, Smolega

9:09

calculated what he calls an upper

9:11

hot dog limit of about eighty

9:14

three dogs in ten minutes.

9:16

That translates to a consumption rate

9:18

of about eight hundred and thirty two grams

9:21

per minute and more than whenty

9:24

three thousand calories total, at

9:26

least according to his report published

9:29

just yesterday in Biology Letters.

9:32

Hey quick, note, this is producer Dylan fig

9:35

In here. We just felt it was important to

9:37

point out that this breaks down to almost nine packages

9:39

of hot dogs and eleven packages of buns.

9:42

Eating anything above that would be, according

9:45

to this superhuman otherworldly

9:48

or perhaps a t rex in a human suit.

9:51

But let us know if you break the record, dinosaurs

9:54

will be disqualified. He

9:56

goes on to write that whether or not

9:58

competitive eat or has ever reached that

10:01

limit, the scale of improvement completely

10:04

dwarfs other athletic achievements.

10:07

It sounds unbelievable, but keep

10:09

in mind that record performances in sports

10:11

like track and field have improved

10:13

approximately since

10:15

record keeping began. In contrast,

10:18

hot dog eating prowess

10:21

has improved approximately seven

10:24

hundred percent. In

10:26

fact, human beings even hold

10:28

our own pound for pound against

10:31

other meat eating mammals

10:33

when normalized for body mass.

10:35

Competitive hot dog eaters have a consumption

10:38

rate that's higher than that of grizzly

10:40

bears and coyote, although

10:42

to be fair, wolves still

10:45

have a higher consumption rate. And

10:48

it makes sense when you think about it, eating

10:50

large quantities of food very quickly

10:52

can be a tremendously helpful strategy

10:55

for carnivores when food is scarce,

10:58

and Smiliga says human me's capacity

11:01

for a relatively high consumption rate

11:03

may have been crucial at some point

11:05

in our evolutionary past. However,

11:09

nowadays, inhaling six

11:11

or seven hot dogs a minute for ten

11:13

minutes mostly is

11:16

just going to lead to pretty

11:18

hilarious digestive problems. And

11:21

then maybe, of course, if you're

11:23

lucky first prize in the Nathan's

11:25

Hot Dog Eating contest. But

11:28

there you have it something to think about, especially

11:31

if you're one of those people we mentioned

11:33

earlier, the fans of both

11:35

sports and gambling who

11:38

can't wait to bet on competitive

11:40

eating contest that's

11:45

all for now. We've been asking you to chime

11:47

in with suggestions for stories you think your

11:49

fellow listeners should learn more about.

11:52

To hit us with your best or worst dad

11:54

jokes, as well as your personal experience

11:56

with strange stories going on in your

11:58

neck of the global woods. Let

12:00

us know by tagging hashtag Strange Daily

12:03

on Twitter, or reach out to me directly. I'm

12:05

at Ben Bullin hs W on Twitter or

12:07

at Ben Bollin on Instagram.

12:10

Thanks as always to our super producer

12:12

Dylan Fagan, our research associate

12:15

Sam T. Garden. Most importantly,

12:17

thanks to you. I'm Ben Bollin.

12:20

We'll see you tomorrow. Until then, stay

12:23

strange

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