Cool Weird Awesome with Brady Carlson

Today in 1987, the community of Gouverneur in northern New York placed on its town green, a giant roll of Pep-O-Mint Life Savers. It was a tribute to a local man, Edward John Noble, who ended up making Life Savers one of the best known candies in the world. Plus: a cat in Tokyo drops by a Buddhist temple garden, walks into the gravel patterns and takes a big old nap. 10 Things You Might Not Know a...

Vox recently asked scientists what they thought Earth life might be like in a million years. And the answers are pretty wild. Plus: today's the first day of a City Climb at Edge, a program in New York City where thrillseekers can climb until they’re close to the top of a skyscraper, over 1,200 feet up. The animals that may exist in a million years, imagined by biologists (Vox) Now You Can Climb Ou...

Today in 1978, the New Jersey Nets lost to the Philadelphia 76ers. But part of the game would be replayed the following March, and when it was, several of the players on each team had been traded to the other, and ended up playing in the game! Plus: two artists have built a "stairway to heaven" in Taiwan. Someone let Robert Plant know please.  In 1978-79 season, deal like no other happened at...

Today in 1781, the first U.S. president, John Hanson, was elected. Of course, being a U.S. president in 1781 was very different from the job George Washington, the first president under the U.S. Constitution, would hold eight years later. Plus: the University of British Columbia has a robot named Robby to paint all the lines on its sports fields.  Forget Washington; it's Hanson or Huntington...

Today in 1879, a bar owner in Ohio received a patent for an invention that changed the way we buy and sell things: the cash register. He did it to thwart his bartenders, who he suspected of putting money meant for him in their own pockets. Plus: a professor in South Korea reveals one place from which you probably shouldn't give an online lecture.  Nov. 4, 1879: Ka-Ching! The World's First Cas...

Today in 1892 a phone system that made automated calls - no switchboard operator - began operating in Laporte, Indiana. The first automatic dial network happened, as the story goes, because of a business dispute between two undertakers. Plus: today in 1882, the birthday of John Baxter Taylor, Jr, the first Black American to win an Olympic gold medal. Almon B. Strowger: The undertaker who revolutio...

Today in 2000 that a post appeared on an online forum for the Time Travel Institute from someone who claimed he was a time traveler from the year 2036. Here's the story of John Titor, whoever he actually was. Plus: Build the Earth is an effort to recreate every single spot on our planet, but in the Minecraft universe.  The Oral History of John Titor, the Man Who Traveled Back in Time to Save...

Today in 1816, the US military awarded to built a contract for a fort next to Lake Champlain, near the border with Canada. For years crews worked to make the fort strong, until one day when they realized there was a big problem. Plus: people on Tumblr say today is the 1000th birthday of a medieval monk's brother named Werner.  Fort Blunder, America’s Most Embarrassing Gun Battery (New England...

This week in 2008, local officials in Swanzey tried to get English-to-Welsh translation for a road sign they wanted to put up. They got a Welsh sentence in response, but it wasn't what they thought. Plus: today in 1969, the first network message on ARPANET goes through, though without a few key letters.  The man responsible for the most infamously bad Welsh road sign translation (Wales Online...

Today in 1886, the U.S. dedicated the Statue of Liberty in New York. It was hard times when Lady Liberty first arrived in the country, but eventually a 19th century-style crowdfunding efforts raised enough money to raise the statue onto a pedestal. Plus: the statue came from France, and if you head to Paris you'll see that city has a Lady Liberty too!  How crowdfunding brought the Statue of L...

The new book "The First Ghosts" looks at how humans have been describing and depicting ghosts for thousands of years, including a Babylonian tablet showing a lonely, bearded ghost dude from 1500 B.C.E. Plus: today in 2013, a merchant naval officer said a great way to deter pirates off the Somali coast was to blast Britney Spears tunes.  Boo Who? The World’s Oldest Ghost Drawing May Have Been...

Today in 1966, the official release of "Incubus," the only Esperanto-language movie starring a pre-Star Trek William Shatner. The movie had such bad fortune some people actually thought it was cursed. Plus: a guy buys an airplane, and though he's never flown before, he taxis it down the runway, takes off and has to figure out how to land.  Eerie Cult Classic ‘Incubus’ Returns After Lengthy Ex...

Humans make a lot of jokes about the seventh planet from the sun. But do scientists who study Uranus think the jokes are funny? The website Futurism found out. Plus: today is the first day of Magic Week, and there's a magic shop in Burnsville, Minnesota that's the oldest in the US.  Here’s What Uranus Scientists Think About Your Disgusting Jokes (Futurism) The Oldest Magic Shop In The U.S. Is...

A lot of us kind of amble through museums, taking a few steps, looking at art, and then moving again. And one posture specialist says that "museum walk" is actually hurting our backs. Plus: a guy in Ontario proves that the best time to play the flute with both hands is not when you're behind the wheel.  Suffering From Lower Back Pain While Visiting a Museum? You’re Not Alone (Hyperallergic) D...

Today in 1975, game 6 of the World Series between the Cincinnati Reds and the Boston Red Sox. The iconic clip of Carlton Fisk waving his game-winning home run fair was caught by the camera kind of by accident. Plus: a couple in the UK gets a ticket because a traffic camera caught their car driving in the bus-only lane, except that they weren't in the bus-only lane. Or in a car. Or in that city.&nb...

Today in 1968, a high jumper from Oregon, Dick Fosbury, changed his sport forever by winning gold with an unusual jumping motion now known as the Fosbury Flop. Plus: today in 2018, passengers on a bus in Paris refused to make room for a rider using a wheelchair. So the bus driver made room.  Dick Fosbury flops to an Olympic high jump record (History.com) Paris bus driver hailed a hero for kic...

Today in 2001, a scientific journal published a study with an interesting name, which read in part: “Van Gogh, Chagall and pigeons." There's been a lot of research into how pigeons take in and process visual information, like art, and apparently it's pretty complex. Plus: in Detroit, a local news reporter does a story about a local skateboard park, and flawlessly rides a skateboard in the middle o...

Today in 1963, a black and white cat from the streets of France became the first cat to go into space. She didn't choose to go, of course, but she's a pioneer just the same - and until a few years ago, a greatly underappreciated one. Plus: today in 1922, a girl in Illinois made it to school after being run over by a train?!?  Félicette, the First Feline in Space, Finally Got Her Due (How Stuf...

Today in 1860, an 11 year old wrote to not-yet-president Abraham Lincoln, suggesting he grow some whiskers because "your face is so thin." Later, a bearded Abe visited the letter writer, Grace Bedell of Westfield, New York, and showed off his new look. Plus: today in 1957, an unusual demonstration in Port Washington, Wisconsin: the “Power Mower of the Future”! Letter to Grace Bedell (Abraham Linco...

This week in 1930, a phone utility in Indianapolis started moving its headquarters and rotating the building 90 degrees, all while keeping service going for customers and workers in the building. Plus: a state with no sharks brags that it has the fewest shark attacks of any state.  An Incredible Move: The Indiana Bell Telephone Building (Amusing Planet) Colorado tied for state with fewest sha...

We’re in the final week of National Hispanic Heritage Month, so we wanted to tell the story of the first Hispanic woman in space, Ellen Ochoa, talented and versatile even by astronaut standards. Plus: an art student in China breaks stuff for art's sake, through a very peculiar vending machine.  Ellen Ochoa: A Pioneer on Land and in Space (National Archives)  Broken Plate Vending Machine...

A startup in the UK has found a way to use mushrooms to create a new, greener kind of home insulation. But don't worry, it isn't just growing mushrooms inside the walls of your house. Plus: an Australian company that delivers coffee by drone is reworking its business model because nesting ravens are attacking their aircraft.  Your next house could be insulated by mushrooms (Fast Company) 'The...

On Indigenous Peoples Day, here's the story of sculptor Edmonia Lewis. She was born in the 1840s to a Black father and a Chippewa mother, and became the first Native American and Black woman to become an acclaimed sculptor. Plus: Happy Thanksgiving to our listeners in Canada. It’s a big country, except for the exhibit known as Little Canada, which features miniature versions of some of the country...

Glass is versatile stuff, but fragile. A new project out of McGill University is modeled after the material in mollusk shells and could make glass a lot more durable. Plus: in Brazil, Fabio Gomes Trindade makes outdoor art that incorporates the shapes and colors of the nearby trees and bushes.  Unbreakable glass inspired by seashells (McGill University) Street Artist Incorporates Flowering Pl...

Today in 1959, a write-in candidate for city council in São Paulo, Brazil, won a huge victory. The catch: that candidate was a rhinoceros from the São Paulo Zoo. Plus: today in 1935, a man in Houston, Missouri finds a hat he'd lost three years earlier.  Rhino Horns In On A Brazilian Election (Life Magazine) Hat Lost 3 Years Returns (Bend Bulletin) Vote for our show as a backer on Patreon!