The Weirdest Thing I Learned This Week - The Bone Collector, Threads of God, Cloacal Chamber

Episode Date: July 16, 2025

Scientific illustrator and Twitch streamer Liz Clayton Fuller (ipaintbirbs) joins the show once more to talk all things cloaca -- and why some birds lack them. Plus, Jess hops behind the mic to talk about the world's rarest pasta, and Rachel dives into carnivorous caterpillars that sound like WWE wrestlers. The Weirdest Thing I Learned This Week is a podcast by Popular Science. Share your weirdest facts and stories with us in our ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Facebook group⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ or ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠tweet at us⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠! ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Click here to learn more about all of our stories! ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Links to Rachel's TikTok, Newsletter, Merch Store and More: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://linktr.ee/RachelFeltman⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠  Rachel now has a Patreon, too! Follow her for exclusive bonus content: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.patreon.com/RachelFeltman⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Link to Jess' Twitch: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.twitch.tv/jesscapricorn⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ -- Follow our team on Twitter Rachel Feltman: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠www.twitter.com/RachelFeltman⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Produced by Jess Boddy: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠www.twitter.com/JessicaBoddy⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Popular Science: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠www.twitter.com/PopSci⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Theme music by Billy Cadden: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://open.spotify.com/artist/6LqT4DCuAXlBzX8XlNy4Wq?si=5VF2r2XiQoGepRsMTBsDAQ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Did you know that there's an online cannabis company that ships federally legal THC right to your door? I'm talking about mood.com. They have an incredible line of cannabis dummies and a lot more. And you can get 20% off your first order at mood.com with promo code Weirdest. It's third party lab tested and ships directly to you in a discreet box. Best of all, everything's backed by Mood's 100 day satisfaction guarantee. And like I said, you can get 20% off with code Weirdest. So if you're looking to try some new cannabis products, head on over to mood.com. Get 20% off your first order now with code Weirdest.

That's code Weirdest for 20% off. Ambition comes in all shapes and sizes. At First Citizens Bank, we roll with your goals because we're built for what you're building. Fit for your ambition for Citizens Bank. It's peak pollination season, and my business is scaling fast. To keep the nectar flowing, I need a phone plan with top priority data speeds. That's why I chose Google Fi Wireless. My connection stays strong even when the hive is buzzing. Plus, unlimited plans started $35 a month. Now that's a deal

that doesn't stay. Explore Google Fi Wireless plans today. Plus taxes and government fees. Google Fi Wireless is not subject to data traffic deprioritization during times of high network usage. At Popular Science, we report and write dozens of science and tech stories every week. And while Most of the stuff we stumble across makes it into our articles, we also find plenty of weird facts that we just keep around the office. So we figured, why not share those with you? Welcome to the weirdest thing I learned this week from the editors of popular science. I'm Rachel Feldman.

I'm Jess, Jess, I'm Liz Clayton Fuller. Yes, welcome back to the show. I'm so glad you had me back on. You know that I'm going to talk about birds again. I suspect. It would be great if you just came on in your show. were like a hard pivot, not talking about birds at all. That would be a shock to all of us, including me.

Speaking of birds, would you remind our listeners who you are and what you get up to on the internet? Yes, I am a Twitch streamer, scientific illustrator, and painter, and I stream my art on Twitch, and I have a little shop where I paint birds and I sell them to the masses. It's really, really good art. I love it. I have purchased many times. It is great art. And also just the phrase, I have a little shop where I paint birds and sell them to the masses,

really sounds like you are a character in a very comfy, cozy video game. Yes. No, that is sort of the way that I dream about my life. Just in my little cottage painting birds, having them shipped off in little bird packages carried by birds. Yes, that's my life. The dream. I love that. Well, let's get right into it.

So on the weirdest thing I learned this week, we start by each offering up a little tease about some kind of fact or story that we found in the course of reading, writing, or communing with the birds. And then we decide which one we just absolutely have to hear more about first. Then once we've all had time to spin our little science yarns, we reconvene and decide what the weirdest thing we learned this week actually was in a weird way where we don't actually do that in either. more. Jess, what's your tease? Yeah, I'm going to talk about a rare, secret, legendary, fabled, very special noodle. Forbidden noodle. I have an idea that I really, really strongly believe is a good idea, and I'm going to share

it here because... That's a really great preface, by the way. I really stand behind this idea. Sharks, thank you for your time. And I'm going to share it here because I'm pretty confident. I don't ever actually want to get into the restaurant business. So anyway, here's the concept. Either a multi-country, multicultural fusion noodle shop,

or just an Italian restaurant called Tasteful Nudes. Wait, that's so genius. Right? Yeah, that's really good. I've kept this in the inner circle for like a year, but I'm willing to admit, like, Rachel, you don't want to own a restaurant ever in any version of your life. So if you're listening to this, a restaurateur, all I ask is that you invite me to tasteful nudes and maybe be a dish after me. Any sharks out there?

Yeah, please. Invest, okay? Anyway, Liz, what's your tease? Now that I've gotten that off my chest. My tease is cloaca, a hole that does it all, but do all birds have one? Oh. Oh, my God. Wait, what?

If not, if not, then... If not. Then what? If not, you're going to learn about it and you're not going to like it. Oh, boy. I thought I might not, so. Glad I'm on the right track. My tease is just the bone collector.

Uh-huh. Oh, ominous. I like to imagine it as like a WWE, you know, a good heel. Coming in. I was going to say your son's the most video gamey between the three of us. Two of us are Twitch streamers and you're the odd one out with the video game tease. Very true. Like that's that's a boss in a video game, the bone collector, 1,000%.

It really is. It truly is. And I can get into it first. So scientists recently announced the discovery of a new species of carnivorous caterpillar. And many people might be surprised that there are carnivorous caterpillars. I'm people. If you could see our faces, you would know we were surprised by that sentence. Shock and awe.

Yeah. Well, if you assumed the caterpillars were all vegetarians and you're now freaked out, don't worry, less than 0.13% of all documented moth and butterfly species eat meat. And, of course, caterpillars are the larval stage of moths and butterflies. Though I kind of, I'm not going to say I forget that because like if you asked me what a caterpillar was, I would be like, it's a pre-moth or pre-butterfly. But when I look at caterpillars, I'm like, you're your own creature, you know? Yeah. They don't connect in my head to a future thing with wings.

Oh, that can get really deep. Like past versions of yourself, truly. Are they separate humans or are they just pre-you? Yeah, yeah. Well, anyway, very few of them eat me. It's a weird thing for butterflies and moth. to do, but some of them do do it. There's actually, gosh, now I'm forgetting what, I think this is in the UK, there's a

species of butterfly that will eat rotting meat if you put it out. So these butterfly hunters will like take like an old fish or some stinky cheese and feel like, we're here to catch butterflies. But again, very uncommon behavior. And most, most of the butterflies and whilst that are carnivorous, and that are carnivorous, and at all. It's like there are several ways they can be carnivorous. It can be like purely circumstantial. They might eat each other, which is kind of like the lowest bar into carnivism. Sure.

And then it's like, well, they mostly eat plants, but they might occasionally eat something if it's around. And then they're ones who it's like, no, they're like eating meat. They they want to eat the meat. And most moths and butterflies that are carnivorous of the very small number that are, if they primarily eat meat, generally what we mean is that they like eat aphids. So it's not quite as like horrifying as it sounds, but still, counterintuitive. And this particular carnivorous caterpillar, which lives apparently only in a six miles square area in the Waini Mountain Rainey, on Oahu in Hawaii is pretty freaky, even in the world of carnivorous caterpillars. For starters, it lives directly within spider webs, which as far as I can tell is not something

that any other caterpillar has been seen to do. It's basically like moving into a serial killer's tarp-covered basement. Absolutely, that seems really brave and ill-advised. Yeah. It's like not just brave, but like seems actively pretty stupid. Yes. And they're also super territorial about those spider webs. If another member of their species shows up, they will kill it and eat it.

Or they'll get killed and eaten. I guess sometimes the interloper caterpillar prevails. But the point is they're like, no, this is my serial killer basement. And this serial killer is my roommate. So get out. And speaking of eating, they live with spiders. You might ask why. This is a big question.

Why? they can feed on the dead and dying insects already caught within the web. So in the serial killer basement analogy, it's like you're like less good, less ambitious serial killer and you just kind of pick off their, some of their scraps. Sometimes that means they literally eat leftover scraps from the spiders. They'll also sometimes snag uneaten carcasses if they get lucky. And they'll even chase down some of the prey, but they're only able to do that because the prey are weak, immobilized, and covered in spider web.

Because these caterpillars are like tiny, awkward little grubs. They're like a quarter of an inch long. So they're really getting these other bugs while they're down. And otherwise they would have no chance. So you might be wondering how they manage to not get caught and eaten by the spiders they live with, given that they are. are not very fast or agile or good at hunting. And that's where the bone collecting comes in.

There are no actual bones because we're talking about insects, which have exoskeletons. So don't well actually me. But if this was a person in a serial killer's basement, we'd be talking about bones. And the scientists have called it the bone collector. The scientist did it, not me. So it's fine. So it starts out when. These little caterpillars wrap themselves up in their silk.

They make these little cases. In fact, caterpillars in their genus are actually known as Hawaiian fancy case caterpillars for this very reason. And then they basically act like they're in a project runway challenge. This is true of the genus in general. In other species, this will mean like finding little pieces of shells or like wood chips or algae that they stick to their silk cases as camouflage. But for the bone collectors, that means covering themselves in legs, wings, heads, really any body parts from dead spider prey that they can find.

That's metal. Big time, dude. It really is. And apparently, so the researchers first saw them a couple decades ago, and this is the first paper describing them. And the reason they really took their time keeping tabs on them before they announced this to the world is that when they first saw them, I mean, first of all, when apparently when they first saw them, they had no idea what they were. They were like, we've never seen anything that looks like this. It's just this, like, squirmy little thing that's covered in bits of other bugs. So it took them a while to even be like, oh, a caterpillar.

Again, you don't expect them to be in spider webs and not be dead. you don't expect this thing covered in like a mishmash of exoskeletons. Just strange. And then they were like, maybe this is just one really weird caterpillar because they know that this genus decorates its silken case with like random stuff. So they were like, maybe this one stupid caterpillar ended up in a spider web somehow didn't get eaten and then was like, oh, these are the ornaments of my new environment. But then they were continuing to do insect surveys over years, apparently two decades in total.

And they kept finding them. They didn't find that many. They found 62 in total. And again, only within this six mile radius. But they would show up in spider webs in like tree holes and inside rotting logs and under rocks. And every time they found one of these caterpillars, they found it covered in bones, by which I mean insect exoskeletons. I'm really hung up on the thought that at first scientists were like, this is probably just one weird guy. Yeah.

I mean, the thing is that, like, that's what scientists should do. I mean, I was talking about, on a recent episode, I was talking about the capuchin monkeys that started kidnapping howler monkeys. And how it really does seem like it's probably just a weird thing. One of them did for no good reason once. and then others just started doing it. It's like, an important part of science is being like, maybe this is just a freak. Yeah. Absolutely.

I'm a freak. Freaks are everywhere. Sure. So they started observing them, including in the lab. And they were able to, first of all, confirm that this is like a deliberate behavior. The caterpillars want to be covered in exoskeletons. But they also learned sort of how it works. They would be really picky about what they put on their silk cases.

Apparently, sometimes the scientists would give them other construction materials, like little bits of leaves and dirt, and the caterpillars would completely ignore them. They were like, that's not fashion. But they would go around and inspect different insect parts, and sometimes they would actually chew them into the size they wanted before, like, placing them on their silk case. They really had a vision, you know, that they had to pursue.

Make it work. And you can see how this would serve as camouflage. I'll link to some pictures on pop-eye.com slash weird, but if you look at the pictures, it's not that they look like any other bug in particular, but they kind of, you can imagine a spider mistaking them for like a trash heap of dead bugs. It's just they certainly don't look like a normal living edible bug.

bug, so it succeeds in that regard. Also, it probably sort of masks their odor. A scientist was like they probably smell like last week's lunch, so it's just sort of unappealing and easy to ignore. Apparently, in all of their observations, they've never seen any sign that one of these caterpillars was eaten by spiders or even wrapped up in their silk. So it seems like it's a very effective strategy. Be stinky. Yeah. Be stinky. We covered in bones.

And in the new study, they did some genetic analysis of these moths, these caterpillars. And they put them in that genus of case builders, like I said. But they think that the lineage of the actual bone collector diverged from the rest of the genus at least five million years ago, which means it's actually older than the island of Oahu where it lives. So, yeah. And you know, Hawaii is like a really interesting spot evolutionarily because, you know, it's all of these little islands and then they're so far from anything else.

And it's like really unique predator prey interactions and that sort of thing. But they think they probably evolved either on Kauai or on another volcanic island nearby that's actually gone now that like eroded sometime during the last five million years. And then probably just got very lucky, like, got carried over on some waves or on the wind. That reminds me of those spiders that, like, migrate on the wind. They, like, hold their silk. And they, like, have little, like, they're holding a little, like, balloon or something. Yeah, the little balloons.

Yeah, exactly. So, yeah, now they're on this island that didn't even exist when they first started to evolve, which is very cool. And the one thing I'll say, just to wrap this fact up, is that, well, of course, there's no reason. to be afraid of carnivorous moths and butterflies. Right. You know, besides being very uncommon, they have tiny, tiny little mouths, even if they wanted to bite you.

They're not built for that. They simply are not. I mean, I'm not going to promise you there's not a caterpillar somewhere in the world that could take a little nibble of you, but the tiny guys. But one of the researchers did tell live science, I have no doubt that if we were their size, they would eat us. Oh my God. And he was like, this is just their fighting class, like they're tiny, but they are cold-blooded

killers. That part is not a quote. That's me. But yeah, I love how like strategic and sneaky and stinky and covered in bones these catapillars are. Totally. And I love them. I love them.

That's the whole story. I'm obsessed with them. Yeah. I love that they're just little dudes who are just the most metal tiny creature I've ever heard of. Yeah. And then they become moths and they like live a whole of their life. Dude, right. I wonder if they're ever like, remember that time that I uncovered myself in dead spiders and shit?

Now I fly. I've been, this is honestly inspiring, you know? Yeah, right? Like go through a weird phase. You're not even weird. Just a phase you needed to go through. and then you learn to fly. Yeah.

It was an important time. Yes. And then you move on, you know? Yeah. Yeah. When it doesn't serve you, you wrap yourself up in a cocoon and liquefy yourself.

You let it go. Yeah. Do you think they, as moths talk about it, like post transformation? There's like kind of gauche to bring it up. What kind of legs did you used to put on you? They talk about it like the way. way me and other millennials talk about like low-rise skinny gene.

It was a mistake. We all did it. Okay. We're going to take a quick break and then we'll be back with some more facts. Did you know that there's an online cannabis company that ships federally legal THC right to your door? I'm talking about mood.com. They have an incredible line of cannabis dummies and a lot more. And you can get 20% off your first order at mood.com with promo code weird.

I'm not a smoker myself, but I do love the occasional weed gummy to, you know, help me go off to Dreamland. And I can't have one right now because I have a new kit. And, you know, I definitely miss it a little bit. But maybe you can have a weed gummy, and you can get one at mood.com. So the reason that different cannabis grains can make you feel different ways isn't just about the THC. It seems like it's also based on other components called terpenes. Turpines influence how a product tastes and smells, and it seems like they can also impact the way you feel. Mood partnered with dozens of small American farms to custom cultivate flour with specific terpen

profiles designed for specific moods. So you can choose your cannabis gummy, edible flour, or pre-roll based on how you want to feel. Just go to mood.com and click shop by mood. And yes, it is now 100% federally legal to have really great bud shipped right to your door. It's third party lab tested and ships directly to you in a discreet box. Best of all, everything's backed by Mood's 100-day satisfaction guarantee. and like I said, you can get 20% off with code Weirdest. I'm eyeing Mood.com's Delta 9-9 THC buttercream caramels because in addition to not being able to have THC, I also can't have dairy right now.

So the idea of having a caramel that also me mellows me out and sends you to Dreamland sounds very nice. And speaking of fun edibles, Mood.com has Delta 9 THC freezer pops. So if you're looking to try some new cannabis products, head on over to Mood.com. Get 20% off your first order now with code Weirdest. That's code weirdest for 20% off. No one goes to Hank's for his spreadsheets. They go for a darn good pizza. Lately, though, the shop's been quiet.

So Hank decides to bring back the $1 slice. He asks co-pilot in Microsoft Excel to look at his sales and costs. Help him see if he can afford it. Co-pilot shows Hank where the money's going and which little extras make the dollar slice work. Now, Hanks has a line out the door. Hank makes the pizza. Co-Pilot handles the spreadsheets.

Learn more at M365 copilot.com slash work. When you need to build up your team to handle the growing chaos at work, use Indeed sponsored jobs. It gives your job post the boost it needs to be seen and helps reach people with the right skills, certifications, and more. Spend less time searching and more time actually interviewing candidates who check all your boxes. Listeners of this show will get a $75 sponsor job credit at Indeed.com slash podcast. That's Indeed.com slash podcast.

Terms and conditions apply. Need a hiring hero? This is a job for Indeed sponsored jobs. And Jess, why do you tell us about the forbidden pastas? I will. And maybe not so forbidden anymore. Whoa, twist. Stop gatekeeping the pasta. Yeah, it's a whole thing. But yeah, so I've been playing a bunch of video games lately. Like, what? Eldon Ring Night Rain. I know. I've been playing so much Eldon Ring Night Rain. It's the new multiplayer Eldon Ring. It's so good.

And, you know, I've been playing Metaphor Re Fantasia, which I've been playing Metaphor, Reefantazia, which I still haven't beat after like a year because I've been busy playing Expedition 33 and and Chrono Trigger. I've been playing so many things. But somehow I haven't come across a weirdest thing fact, tendril and any of that. So I have a fact from way out of left field today and it's about pasta. And where did I find this? You know, old, old faithful in Atlas Obscura podcast episode.

Thank you, Alice Obscura. We love Atlas Obscura. And also there was a magazine piece about it in Sever. I, it's funny, I, when you said like the rare secret pasta, I like saw in my mind a magazine spread and I, it must be. Yes, for vintage listeners, I don't even know how much you talked about it before, but that used to be one of the magazines that was like our sister brand basically. Yeah, we were owned by Bonior together back in the day.

And we, wasn't our old podcast closet in the suburb office? Yeah, it was. We were in the like, it wasn't quite a boiler room, but it was like a steam pipe room. Yeah, we would have to sit and wait for like 10 or 15 minutes for the steam pipe to stop wailing. And one time I walked in and the whole, first of all, all of our sound equipment had been put away in drawers that I didn't know which doors it was in. And then the whole room was full of vases and bases. Like easily like five dozen. Yes, glass. So a wonderful recording setup. I forgot about that. That's so funny.

But because Seferr would do these photo shoots, so they had tons of random home goods, like, you know, cutlery and plates and, you know, decor so that they could put together these beautiful photo shoots to showcase the food. And I guess they've been doing something involving a lot of floral arrangements. Yeah. And just it was so surreal opening the door and have there be like a hundred different vases where our most. microphones are supposed to be. Yes. Yes, we should have just recorded the audio of like clinking the vases around as we like set things back up. Oh boy. But I'm sure we saw the cover or the spread. Yeah, probably the art. So yeah. So, you know, Sabur talked about it. Alice Obscira talked about it. There's some stuff on YouTube about this, but they all kind of call it the rarest

pasta on earth. And it comes in this fabled shape known only to a select few. for hundreds of years, obviously until now, until everybody's learned about it. So we'll start at the beginning. So out in a part of Italy called Sardinia, which is like its own island out in the Mediterranean, but it's part of Italy. Today this still happens.

Around like 200 people, sometimes more, will make a religious Christian pilgrimage. So they walk between this small city of Nuoro to the tiny village of Lula, and they do it in the dark at night. Italian Christian pilgrimage at night. And it's not just like a cute little stroll. It's like, it's 20 miles long.

Okay. So it is a trek. And, you know, when you like hear about this, it sounds like it should be like old-timey folks, like in tattered robes, like the Sephiroth clones from Final Fantasy 7, if you know, you know. But in Sever, they like went on this pilgrimage with these pilgrims,

And they said that it was just like regular old people like hikers with gear. And they called them extras out of an LLB in catalog, which I thought was funny. Yeah, I've heard that there are a bunch of on-foot pilgrimage routes in Spain. And I know a few people who like know people who've gone on trips that are just like walking those paths. Usually not for religious reasons just because like there's a lot of infrastructure for people walking for days at a time because of those pilgrimages. And yeah, it seems like it's a lot of people in LLB. Yeah. That's the modern pilgrim attire, not sponsored by LLBin unless.

Hello. Hit us a hello. So when these folks arrive at their destination, usually, presumably in the daylight, they get two things. A warm foot bath, which sounds truly delightful after a long walk, and a bowl of something called Sue Filindeu, which is the Threads of God. which is like such an important name for for pasta. It's the rarest pasta in the world. And why?

Why is it so rare? So only a select few of people in Lula actually know the intricate process that it takes to make it. So it's passed down through generations of women in the community. So it's like this really cool matriarchal line of pasta knowledge, which I love. And so when a pilgrimage is coming up, the women spend like, you know, five hours a day, depending on how many pilgrims it's going to be. Like back when it was like closer to like a thousand pilgrims, they would spend like five hours a day for a month,

prepping meals, which is wild. And so yeah, I said back in the day, but this started like 300 years ago-ish, and it's been alluded to in Italian literature. So the Sardinian writer, Grazie de Leda, included it in her 1903 novel. It's called Elias Portolu. And the protagonist in that book eats it

after their pilgrimage. And she actually won the Nobel, prize for literature for that book, which is kind of cool. But yeah, so the story's fiction, but it does like nod to reality. And she talks about like the quote, wild nocturnal solitude of the scrubland and that the climb was hard and dry. So, you know. But at the end of that dry hard climb, it's noodles.

Yeah. I love noodles at the end of a dry hard climb. I did too. Like what better nourishment? So, okay, what exactly is the threads of God? God's threads. It's these like super, super thin noodles in a mutton broth with a little melted sheep's milk cheese. When I say they're thin, they're like, they're like so thin. They apparently make angel hair look thick, which is a wild concept. But they make it just by taking semolina flour,

water, and sea salt. Like that's it. No eggs, no special like ingredients. It's all in the process that makes it special. So they need it into a very elastic dough and then they use their hands to stretch and loop it a bunch of times essentially. To be exact, it's 256 times. Wow. So, and for whatever reason,

like after that, that is like the hard limit. Like they, nobody can get it past 256 loops. And nobody knows exactly why. But like I'm thinking like there's got to be some mathematical physics. Sure. Something or other. play like how you can only fold a piece of paper like seven times allegedly there must be like

exponential threading yes I think so too and I'm reminded have you guys seen that myth busters episode where they test that yeah yeah and they I think actually do get it to eight times but they have like special paper and it's like giant like in a warehouse and they like have a team of people to like fold it so they can get it to eight so usually it's like seven times you can fold a piece of paper listeners you can try this at home and then if you're if you have access to special resources maybe eight but interestingly paper folded seven times as 128 layers of paper and paper folded eight times has 256 layers which i was like researching this and i was like i need a phd student somewhere to do a thesis on this the noodles and the layers of paper it's like i need some 3d modeling like i just i need the golden ratio like this

Yeah. The noodle ratio. Yeah. So in their process of making this, it is like too delicate and fragile to boil once it's been stretched so thin. So what they do is they lay it on these big wooden discs called a fondo. And then they take another batch of the 256 threads and they lay it like over top kind of criss-crossed. So it looks kind of like a fancy giant checks mix thing. And then they allow that to like dry in the sun and it kind of like, you know, dries together. And then they break it into these like big shards.

I saw Atlas Obscure call it. They're like big chunks. And then yeah, once they like accumulate enough of those, they put it into like this vat of hot sheep's broth. And then they toss in that hunk of cheese. And then it's basically ready to serve. And the noodle is apparently so delicate you don't even chew it. It like just melts in your mouth. Wow.

So I want to get some. And I know that's probably what you guys are thinking too. And where might we get some if we don't want to do the pilgrimage? It's really, there's maybe one place because it's really hard to make it. Barilla, the pasta company, like probably the biggest pasta company, tried to make a machine that would make it and no machine could make it. I would be actually upset if Borilla did that. Me too. Me too.

I want to be able to eat this pasta, but it feels insulting to the, tradition of this extremely fussy craft of making this pasta. A hundred percent agree. Absolutely. Apparently there's also a video on YouTube of Jamie Oliver going to Sardinia and trying to learn from the women and just failing miserably. Which sounds awesome. Skill issue. Yeah, skill issue truly.

Yeah. So, yeah, it's like this recipe isn't like per se a secret. It's just really, really hard. Yeah. You need like a lot of practice and repetition to learn to make it. So it is cool that it's rare and like this knowledge that's passed down. But it's also kind of scary because the women who know how to make it, there's a select few of them and they're getting older.

So like what if the recipe dies out with them, which is why the current pasta master, like the matriarch of the pasta knowledge, her name is Paola. She started making an effort to talk to outsiders and like spread the knowledge. And so one chef named David Marcelli, went to go see and learn from her. He was from LA. And she was like all for it.

She laid out the welcome wagon like, you know, I did a little ceremony, got him like Biscotti and coffee and then they spent like hours learning how to make the threads of God. He was able to do it there with her. He brought it back to LA, tried to make it. He couldn't do it. He just apparently like kept breaking the threads.

Like it was just like too delicate. But apparently after. After enough practice, like after many, many, many months, he got it down and he worked with his boss who owns Stella in West Hollywood. And you can apparently go there. I just looked at the menu. It's on the menu right now.

Wow. And this is what it says. It says the world's rarest pasta served traditionally in roasted bone brodo with pecorino Primo Sale Salehale, sale, sale, and lamb neck. So I guess you can go get it. And I guess, you know, it is like they have the blessing of Paola, But at the same time, apparently there are mixed feelings within Pallas family.

Sure. The Abrani, I think is her last name family, about like commercializing it. And there is kind of like, you know, a little bit of a rift. And like, I get it. Like, I feel both ways about it. Because I want the recipe to like persist and I want some PhD student to study it for me. But at the same time, like, it is this kind of specialized process. And I want the.

respect to be retained, which I think it sounds like David and the chefs at Stella are doing that. Like, they have a lot of respect for this, but I don't know. And then my final note on this is just that in researching, I was looking at other pastas that are more widely available. And I didn't know that a lot of pastas are named after like body parts. Oh, yeah, yeah. Like tortellini is supposed to look like Venus's belly button. Yeah, that's true. Which is hilarious. And then Orchiette. are little ears, which makes sense now hearing the name. So that's my story.

I think next time I'm in LA, I kind of want to try it. Who knows how expensive it is? It's probably pretty expensive. Also, it's like, I don't really like lamb, so I'm going to be like, can I have mine with just a little bit of butter? Yeah, butter and cheese and butter, threads of God, please. Yeah, can I just have some shards just by themselves? I feel like if I went to Paola and asked, she'd probably.

Yeah. She's probably done that for grandkids. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Just have a couple shards when they come over to visit. It's no big deal. There used to be my grandma used to make this special recipe of communion bread. There was only for special occasions even at her church. And she was, she grew up Catholic, but I think at this time she was at a Presbyterian church. But anyway, for like special occasions, they would be like, we're not doing the little storebot wafers or like pieces of matzah. We're going to make this communion bread. And I'll have to look and see if this is like a real recipe that people use. But it was this most buttery, delicious bread. And she would always let us have the ends because like they didn't want the ends.

They wanted it cut into nice little lines. And I always, I was young enough that I remember feeling like we were doing something really illicit because this was like this was this was this was. church bread. Right. Yeah, the butt pieces of the church bread. Yeah, the butt pieces of the church bread. Those were good days. Wow. What a great fact, Jess. Thank you. Thank you. Yeah, that was good. I also want to say bone collector and threads of God. Like, there is some theme like really, I don't know if I am going to have a phrase to contribute, but I hope so. We'll get one by the end. I have faith. All right. We're going to take one more quick break and then we'll be back with one more fact. Have you ever rearranged your furniture and discovered the carpet underneath looks brand new,

while the rest of it looks, well, not so new? It's time for a carpet upgrade. At the Home Depot, we have stylish choices at simple prices from all the top brands. Best of all, we can install it for you, starting at only 49 cents per square foot. So all you have to do is pick your perfect floor. Start your carpet project today at the Home Depot, how doers get more done. Exclusions apply for licenses, see Home Depot.com slash license numbers. You said this place was steps from the water.

We just haven't found the steps yet. How much did we save? Enough. Enough to get lost. Or you could book a stay with Hilton. Welcome to your ocean front room. Just steps from the water. The Hilton sale is on now.

Book on Hilton.com or the Hilton app and save up to 20% to get the stay you expected. When you want savings, not surprises. It matters where you stay. Hilton for this day. Okay, we're back and Liz. Yep. Talk to us about cloacas. Or lack thereof.

Right. Yeah. Wait, did we just change? We just did. It was really good. Yep. I'm going to talk to you about both. Okay.

Great. So I do a lot of bird watching, as you might imagine from that that is my whole thing. And sometimes during mating season, like, birds are just out there, like, absolutely flashing close. Like in a really obvious way and you're like that's a weird thing like and I feel like I know that it exists But I want to know more about it. So I did like a cloaca deep dive hated that sentence that I just said I learned some things so let's first talk about what a cloaca is so a cloaca is a one-stop shop that is the exit point for the digestive urinary and reproductive systems so we're talking peeing pooping mating mating egg

laying. There are three internal cloacal chambers. Maybe that's my phrase actually. Yeah. The cloacal chamber. Yeah. The threat to God, the cloacal chamber and the bone. Literally. Exactly. We found it. So yeah, there are three cloacal chambers that house these different excretions. So most birds don't have external reproductive organs and remember the most for later, but bird mating occurs when a male and a female boop their cloacas together. So if you've never seen a bird cloaca, it's kind of just like a donut. And it's like usually mostly like hidden by their feathers, but they have like skin level control of their feathers and they can kind of like flare them out to like expose their

chlorophy. It's not it's not great. Yeah. Surprise. Yeah, surprise cloaca. So they boop their cloacas together in a quick touch that is referred to as the cloacal kiss, which is where the sperm transfers from the male to the female. I've heard of that because salamanders do it too.

Yes, right. So yeah, cloacas aren't just for birds. They're present in amphibians, reptiles, some fishes and monotrems as well. So I know. And I think monotrim literally means like one hole, actually. And I think cloaca is from like a Latin origin of the word like sewer. So there's that as well. And monotremes are like platypus echidna.

Exactly. Yeah. The weirdos, the weirdo mammals. Yeah, the little freaks affectionate. So despite the quick nature of the cloical kiss itself, y'all have probably seen that birds often engage in really complex and lengthy courtship rituals leading up to the kiss. You know, that can involve like very elaborate dancing, displays, songs, gift giving house building, offering food, other behaviors.

And like, all of that culminates in them just being like, boop. A little kiss. That's really funny, actually. It is, yeah. So most birds have a cloaca, which obviously begs the question, which birds don't? Yes. And also did dinosaurs have cloacas? So these are two questions that came up when I was thinking about cloacas.

I've never thought about that. Exactly. So if birds don't have cloacas, unfortunately, they have bird penises instead. Yes. The duck penis, et cetera. No. Exactly. Yeah, I won't I won't go too deep into that, but most birds don't have external sex organs.

97% of birds do not, in fact. So that means only 3% of species do have penises, which is not ideal because bird penises are pretty weird. Don't Google that if you're a faint of heart, you know, like it'd be better if we just were up to 100% cloaca, you know? Let's just get that. Let's get that number up, right? Yeah. So our penis birds are ducks, geese, swans, ostriches, emus, and tinamus, which was a new bird species for me. And ornithologists, please feel free to correct me.

I'm not sure. I've never had to say tinamu out loud, so it might be tinamu, but they're most closely related to the extinct Moa, if you're familiar with that bird. All big birds with faces. Yeah. All big birds. With the reputation for being real assholes. Absolutely. Yes.

Yeah. Honestly, literally the birds you wouldn't want to have. Right. This is the very ones. So in researching this sort of subset of birds, it turns out that possibly other bird species would grow a penis if it were not for a gene called BMP4. So researchers from the University of Florida and elsewhere determine that most of the most. types of landfowl, so we'll use like a chicken for example, do have penises while in a very early embryonic state. And then as they develop a gene called BMP4 triggers a cascade of

chemical signals that cause the cell in the developing penis to die off and wither away. So interestingly, they like tested with BMP4 like if they gave like embryonic ducks BMP4, they didn't grow a penis. And if they took it away from chickens, they did grow a penis. So interestingly, holy moly. BMP4 is just sort of in control of which birds do and do not have penises. And so that sort of leads to the question,

why do some birds have penises and others not? So I honestly really love when scientists answer is like, we're really not sure. Right. But we have a couple of ideas. So they're still kind of theorizing on this one. For ducks, it's possible that it might aid in water copulation. Another idea is that it ensures that these creatures mate within members of their same species.

So it's referred to as like the lock and key theory. So ducks have like corkscrew penises. I was just like trying to pull that fact out of my deep memory. I know that it's something weird. It's a corkscrew. Okay. Yeah. Ducks have penises that are shaped.

like a corkscrew and female ducks have vaginas that are also corkscrew shaped as well. Is indeed. Yes. Truly. Really wild. Can you imagine? You know, I really can't. Dude.

Yeah. Like having recently had a kid. Yeah. Cannot imagine a corkscrew vaj situation, honestly. Oh my God. But yeah. So ducks like during copulation, often engage in forced copulation, like that is their way.

And so female ducks have false vaginas as well, so they can send the corkscrew penis to a different one if they do not want to have their egg fertilized, which is honestly really badass. That is. So a theory for the disappearance of the bird penis is that the absence of it allows for female birds to be more choosy. So in our like previous example of the cloacal kiss,

cooperation from both sides is required. So it allows females to be like, not into that. No thanks. Someone else posited that like maybe it's to keep bird anatomy light, like to not have a penis would make it easier to fly. But ducks are some of the most prolific migrators of the bird world. So that kind of like doesn't really kind of falls a little flat as an idea. Maybe they'd be even more prolific flyers. True. If they didn't have a penis. Go farther. Wow. Yeah. Let's just let's get rid of that 3% you know let's just let's work on it I'm picturing like protest signs like you know stop the 3% The 3% exactly so this gets to our next question which was did dinosaurs have cloacas

And the answer that I have written down is kind of maybe yeah some of them so that's like similar to birds right We don't you know they don't all have cloacas but But some of them do and some of them don't. So a fossil that they found in China of a citicosaurus that's spelled P-S-I-T-A-C-O-Saurus. So Cidicosaurus, that's my best guess at that, was so well preserved that the opening that the dinosaur used to pee-p poop and reproduce is actually visible allowing paleontologists to study it for the first time. Oh.

And so just want to say, shout out to paleontological illustrators. Like I'm a bird illustrator. The fossil itself is like it basically just looks like nothing to me. And to be able to look at that and do an illustration of what a dinosaur would have looked like. I'm very impressed with y'all. I just want to say you're doing an amazing job up there. It's so interesting too because like I imagine you would have to like take some like guesswork, right? More so than like existing species.

Oh yeah. That's why I could never do it. I'm like, I'm going to look at that bird and I'm going to paint it. You know, like, I've got your reference. Yeah, I don't have like the creativity to be like, this is what it could have looked like. So paleontologist Jacob Vintr describes the fossil this way. It's very unique. Most cloacas form a kind of slit.

Sometimes it's a vertical split. Sometimes it's a smiley face. Sometimes it's a sour face. This thing has a V-shaped structure with a pair of nice flaring lips. and there's not a living group of animals that have morphology like that, Vinter said. It is somewhat similar to crocodiles, but still unique. Uh-huh. Yep.

I know. I was like, well, I've got to read that quote because it's really painting a cloaca, if you will. Oh, my God. He also noted, what's more, the outer margins of the cloaca are highly pigmented with melanin. So while they don't know for sure what color it was, it likely would have contrasted very sharply with the dinosaurs pale underbelly, Venter said. So not only did dinosaurs, some of them have cloaca, but were fancy and colorful. Mad respect, honestly.

Yeah. Yeah. So, you know, kind of wrapping it all up, most birds have cloacas. Some of them have penises. And dinosaurs had, like, really cool, fancy cloaca. I love that so much. I love that we just keep learning more and more crazy stuff about dinosaurs, like the whole feathers of it all and the fancy cloacas of it all. Yes, the colorful cloacas. What will we learn next? I know. It's really, really cool. And you have to assume, you know,

there's a lot of disagreement, I think, among paleontologists about dinosaur genitalia. So let's keep, Let's keep finding those fossils so that we can learn more. Please. That's so great. I love that. Thank you. I mean, I hate thinking about dark penises.

I try not to most of the time. But, you know, this was, if I have to think about dark penises, this was a good context. Right. At least I followed it with dinosaurs. Exactly.

Kind of was a good palate cleanser. Yeah. What a great app. Wonderful facts today. We had glauicas. We had pasta. We had the bones. collector. Thank you both so much. And Liz, would you remind folks where they can find you?

Yes. Thanks for having me again. Love coming back. We love having you. I'll talk about something less gross next time. No, we like gross. We like gross. Yeah, we do like gross. Okay, that's fair. You can find me around the internet as I paint burbs. That's BIRBS. That's BIRBS. And I stream on Twitch. I post my art on Instagram. I've got a website. I paintburbs.com. So look for burbs. And you will find me. Yay. And Jess, would you remind our listeners where you stream? I would love to. I stream at Jess Capricorn, like the astrological sign. And I do, you know, all kinds of stuff. Eldon Ring Night Rain, for instance, which has consumed me entirely. The weirdest thing I learned this week is produced by all of our hosts, including me, Rachel Fultman, along with Jess Bode,

who also serves as our audio engineer and editor extraordinaire. Our theme music is by Billy Cadden. Our logo is by Katie Belloff. If you have questions, suggestions, or weird stories to share, tweet us at Weirdest underscore Thing. Thanks for listening, Weirdos. Some follow the noise. Bloomberg follows the money, whether it's the funds fueling AI or crypto's trillion-dollar swings. There's a money side to every story. Get the money side of the story. Subscribe now at Bloomberg.com.