Cool Weird Awesome with Brady Carlson

Research from 2018 at Princeton University found that male fruit flies use their wings to improvise musical sounds to win the attention of females. I just wish they didn't try to do all of it in my house. Plus: a teen in the UK makes friends with a bee!  How Fruit Flies Woo a Mate (Simons Foundation) Teenager keeps bumble bee as pet after it followed her home (Cornwall Live) Keep building the...

Web developer/creator/artist Lynn Fisher's new project is NestFlix, a website that looks like a streaming service but features the fictional shows and movies that are within real world ones. Plus: the Potato Photographer of the Year gives us some unforgettable images. No small fries in this group.  Nestflix – movies and TV shows that exist solely inside real movies and TV shows (Boing Boing)...

Stott Hall Farm is an unusual place; on either side of the place, there's the UK's M62 highway. We'll explain how it happened. Plus: a couple in Texas bought a plot of land, spent years building a house there, and then got a knock on the door from the actual landowners, explaining that there'd been a mix-up.  Mystery of the M62 farm is solved: Newly rediscovered footage reveals the REAL reaso...

Paralympic athletes are in Tokyo to compete and maybe to win a gold medal, if they can. The benchmark for Paralympic gold, by the way: 55 medals by a single athlete, swimmer Trischa Zorn. Plus: today in 1936, a newspaper ran a short piece about inventor Isabella Gilbert and her dimple-making machine.  Swimmer Trischa Zorn’s Paralympic Legacy Goes Beyond Her Staggering 55-Medal Haul (Team USA)...

It's National Cherry Popsicle Day, so obviously, we have to tell the story of the popsicle, and Frank Epperson, the 11 year old you invented it. Plus: today in 1969, Elvis Presley sees a bald guy in the audience while onstage in Las Vegas and sings the best version of "Are You Lonesome Tonight" ever.  The Surprisingly Fun Story of How the Popsicle Was Invented by an 11-Year-Old Boy (My Modern...

Darwin, Minnesota is where you find a 17,400 pound ball of twine that one guy made over the course of 30 years. Here's the twine ball's story. Plus: to no one's surprise, researchers find that cats prefer to get food for free instead of having to work for it.  Biggest Ball of Twine in Minnesota (Roadside America) Darwin, Minnesota names ‘Weird Alley’ in honor of twine ball troubadour ‘Weird A...

On this anniversary of the release of Windows 95, we look at the origin story of the Comic Sans typeface, which has more haters than most fonts ever get (and a few lovers, too). Plus: engineering students help a dad who uses a wheelchair take his new baby for walks in a stroller.  How we made the typeface Comic Sans (The Guardian) The Story Behind Comic Sans (Fonts.com) Students adapt wheelch...

It's a complicated story, but part of what is now eastern Tennessee was once part of western North Carolina - and today in 1784, they tried to break away and form their own state, called Franklin. Plus: a visit to a unique art museum off the coast of Cyprus. State of Franklin (Tennessee Encyclopedia) On this day, the state of Franklin starts its brief existence (National Constitution Center) This...

Today is National Radio Day, so it's a good day to talk about one of the legends of old-time radio: sound effects virtuoso Ora Nichols. Plus: researchers at The Ohio State University say they’ve found a weed commonly grown on farms that could help make a greener, more sustainable jet fuel, only its name isn't the most inspiring.  Female Pioneer Credited With Bringing Sound Effects To Radio (K...

It’s National Aviation Day and National Potato Day, and amazingly, there's a story that brings them both together. Boeing used sacks of potatoes in place of humans when it began testing in-flight WiFi. Plus: in 1994, American Airlines released an 18 page book of its in-flight recipes, for anyone looking to recreate airline food at home.  Boeing uses potatoes to improve Wi-Fi signals (USA Toda...

It's not a direct route, but two researchers have figured out a way to take waste plastic, feed it to special bacteria, and then end up with nutritious protein powder. We'll explain. Plus: a guy has been growing plants inside a big glass bottle for decades - and because the bottle is sealed, they basically water themselves over and over! €1 Million Prize for Plastics-to-Protein Research Awarded to...

Today in 1947, two men who had climbed Oregon's Mount Hood and stayed overnight woke up to find a surprise: a quart of milk and the morning newspaper. Who would climb a mountain just to leave those items? Plus: a study out of the University of Greenwich finds that bees get an actual buzz out of naturally-occurring caffeine. A quirky little mystery from 1947 on the summit of Mount Hood is finally s...

Summer is beach season, and for those times when people leave litter and other waste behind, there are two separate projects to develop robots to clean up after them. Plus: Sunny, the radiated tortoise at the Dallas Zoo, gets a personalized, hand-built scratching station for those hard-to-get itches.  This beach-cleaning robot sifts sand for the tiny plastics that humans miss (Fast Company) B...

We're revisiting some of our favorite stops on the roads and highways this week. In this episode from August 2019, we visit a giant potato in Idaho that you can rent. Or, technically, a 28 foot long, 12 foot wide structure built in the shape of a potato. Plus: a man from the UK traveling through Amsterdam learns that an Airbnb listing for a "clean room with a private bathroom" can technically refe...

We're revisiting some of our favorite stops on the roads and highways this week. In this episode from December 2019, we head to Enterprise, Alabama, a community where you'll find in the middle of town a statue of a Greek woman holding a boll weevil. Plus: meet the most destructive holiday force ever, Treezilla! Boll Weevil Honored (Library of Congress) Treezilla! The Godzilla Christmas Tree (Steve...

We're revisiting some of our favorite stops on the roads and highways this week. In this episode from August 2020, we have the story of a water tower in northern Kentucky that was supposed to be an advertisement, but ended up becoming a local landmark. Plus: we'll explain one version of how Chicken Dinner Road in  Idaho got its name. Why does the Florence water tower say 'Florence Y'all,' any...

We're revisiting some of our favorite stops on the roads and highways this week. In this episode from May 2020, we visit a rock in Newbury, New Hampshire, with the words "CHICKEN FARMER I  STILL LOVE YOU" painted on it, and try to figure out why. Plus: why is there a giant statue of a  chicken eating burgers on top of a restaurant in Wisconsin? Lots of chicken mysteries out there, I gues...

We're revisiting some of our favorite stops on the roads and highways this week. In this episode from April 2021, we look at Route 66, the interstate highway with the most memorable roadside attractions - including the giant fiberglass sculptures known as Muffler Men and Uniroyal Gals. Plus: a sculpture contest at Baltimore’s American Visionary Art Museum: the Honey, I Shrunk The Kinetic Sculpture...

Today in 2016, Celeron, New York unveiled and dedicated a statue of its most famous resident, TV legend Lucille Ball. It took the place of a different statue from 2009 that had been nicknamed "Scary Lucy." Plus: this day in 1928 was the birthday of artist Andy Warhol, who, among many other accomplishments, helped make Pop Tarts popular. New Lucille Ball statue replaces ‘Scary Lucy’ (CNN) 13 Things...

The Olympic Games are supposed to bring the countries of the world together, but that isn't always what happens. Several times the Games have been canceled, and at other times, boycotts have led some countries to hold their own alternative competitions. Plus: we mark the birthday of the great Black scientist and inventor Dr. Shirley Ann Jackson. ...And Meanwhile In Philadelphia (Sports Illustrated...

Today in 1911, a very strange thing happened in a baseball game: a guy on second base ran backwards and stole first base, the base he'd just been on. Here's his very unusual story. Plus: today in 1901 music legend Louis Armstrong was born in New Orleans, but if you want to take part in events to commemorate his birthday, you’re a month late. Germany Schaefer (Society for American Baseball Research...

Sometimes the Olympic athletes who don’t win are the ones who make big impressions. That includes swimmer Eric Moussambani of Equatorial Guinea, who was a hit at the 2000 Summer Games despite finishing well behind the rest of the competitors in his event. Plus: Canadian high jumper Derek Drouin won a gold medal in 2016 when his doctors might have preferred that he rest at home!  African novic...

Competitive juggling is a sport that requires skill, concentration, technical mastery and creativity. And there's a push to bring it to the Summer Games someday. Plus: the Sun and Earth are now in an alignment with Saturn, which means our most famous ringed planet is at its brightest in the night sky.  A circus act turned extraordinary sport is making its case for the Olympics (Inverse) You n...

The Summer and Winter Games are typically held once every four years, but for decades the rest of us have been getting into the Olympic spirit through video games. Here are a few of the most unusual ones. Plus: the story of a fencing match that definitely could've only happened in the real world.  15 of the most notable Olympic video games ever made (Yardbarker) France win fencing gold (BBC)...

In ancient Greece, the Olympics were for men only. But from what we can tell, women representing 16 city-states would come together every four years to weave a robe for Hera, the queen of the gods, and hold a footrace for single women. Plus: the 1960 Summer Games were the first to be telecast in the US. In the days before satellites, it took a lot of work to get tapes from the Rome Games to the US...