Cool Weird Awesome with Brady Carlson

We use a lot of energy to ship goods, but it's not always very efficient. With pasta, for example, most of what we're shipping is the air in the box. So a team at Carnegie Mellon University found a way to make flat-packed pasta that changes shape as it cooks. Plus: the New York Times briefly published a story that claimed "Fields of Watermelon Found on Mars, Police Say." It was almost certainly a...

Today would have been the 93rd birthday of the great actor and comedian Jerry Stiller. He was perhaps best known for playing the overbearing and incomprehensible loudmouth dad Frank Costanza on "Seinfeld," but according to his real-life kids, he was a pretty nice dad. Plus: a new textile exhibit in New York uses fragrances to evoke the artist's childhood in Bangalore, India.  How Ben Stiller...

The 1934 US Open was a prestigious but kind of strange golf tournament. The guy who won it, Olin Dutra, was sick as a dog the whole time. And another top player reportedly knocked himself out of contention after accidentally hitting himself in the head with a club.  Bobby Cruickshank - the war hero who became one of Scottish golf's nearly men in United States (The Scotsman) Olin Dutra overcom...

In the old days, tennis balls were white, but when documentary film legend David Attenborough pushed the BBC to carry the Wimbledon tournament in color, the tennis world realized those balls weren't showing up very well for home viewers. Plus: the community of Fitzgerald, Georgia is hoping to attract tourists with - what else - a giant steel topiary chicken.  The reason tennis balls are yello...

Today in 1769 Captain James Cook and his crew observed the transit of Venus from Tahiti, a big deal for astronomers then; only his French colleague Guillaume Le Gentil had spent years preparing to do the exact same thing, and had much worse luck on his expedition. Plus: for World Bicycle Day, a visit to a giant bicycle sculpture in South Dakota.  Transit of Venus: a tale of two expeditions (T...

Sometimes it’s not just what you’re communicating, it’s how you communicate it. Pausing for effect can help get your point across. Humans know this, but according to researchers, so do some kinds of fish. Plus: a sculpture made only of "air and spirit" sells for 15,000 Euros. That's definitely not nothing.  Electric fish -- and humans -- pause before communicating key points (Washington Unive...

If you know the story of the Loch Ness Monster, the story of the Ogopogo in Canada's British Columbia might sound familiar. But there's a whole other side to this story that comes from the Okanagan/syilx people, who first lived in the area. Plus: a town in Lithuania built a real-time video "portal" to a town in Poland, so they could see each other even when they couldn't travel.  Canada's mys...

In our Memorial Day episode from 2019, we look at the many places with Memorial Day origin stories. Officially, the community that started Memorial Day is Waterloo, New York, but it's not the only one.  How Waterloo, NY, became the birthplace of Memorial Day (New York Upstate) Birthplace of Memorial Day? That Depends Where You’re From (New York Times) Memorial Day History (VA.gov)

DARPA’s Information Innovation Office and researchers at the University of Central Florida taught a deep learning algorithm to spot sarcasm by feeding it back articles of The Onion and snarky threads from Twitter and Reddit. I'm so excited. Plus: it's National Road Trip Day, how about a visit to a town with a very road trip friendly name?  Big Whoop: DARPA Makes Oh-So-Clever Online Sarcasm De...

On the anniversary of the opening of San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge, here's the story of another one of the city's icons: Norton I, a man who proclaimed himself emperor of the United States and people went along with it. Plus: a Chinese millionaire has bought a soccer team and has added himself to the roster, and people are going along with it.  Emperor Norton I (American Heritage) The tr...

Today in 1977, Marvel Comics publishes a KISS Super Special - and what was really unusual was that the band members had each added a little of their blood into the ink. Plus: a fire-breathing pipe organ that wouldn't be at all out of place at a KISS concert.  Did KISS Mix Their Blood in the Ink of Their Comic Book? (Snopes) Flamethrower Pipe Organ (The Awesomer) We wanted the best, we got the...

Today in 1977, "Star Wars" premiered in movie theaters, and became a movie, pop culture and merchandising phenomenon. But how is it that, in one scene, an Imperial Stormtrooper walks helmet-first into an overhead door? Plus: in Kent, Ohio, there's a restaurant with a large-scale replica of an X-wing fighter out front. If you visit, stay on target!  ‘Star Wars’ Head-Banging Stormtrooper Explai...

In northwestern Russia, on the Kola Peninsula, there's a metal cap covering a hole that scientists dug 7.5 miles down. Here's the story of the Kola Superdeep Borehole project. Plus, a classic rock band finds out what it's like to be in the financial hole, on a resource-intensive US tour.  Beneath this Metal Cap is the World's Deepest Hole (Slate) Greg Lake (The Times) Our Patreon backers are...

Next week many of us will be watching for the Super Blood Moon, which is actually three moon phenomena all happening at the same time, thus earning its memorable and maybe kind of terrifying nickname. Plus: this month marks 20 years since the world’s first pizza delivery in space. The Largest and Brightest Supermoon of the Year Is Happening This Month (Travel + Leisure) Pizza sets new delivery rec...

Time is a funny thing, and measuring time can get pretty wild too. The proof is a study out of the UK that finds clocks that use more energy, and give off more heat, are also more accurate. Plus: a book of photos by Rumi Ando showcases Tokyo, but with its signs, cables, doors and windows removed.  Clocks that tell time more accurately use more energy – new research (The Conversation) Yes, Thi...

We don’t know for sure why dreaming is a thing at all - but a neuroscience researcher at Tufts University has an idea that might help explain them. It’s called the overfitted brain hypothesis - and it’s based on something that happens with artificial intelligence. Plus: a new book showcases scenic photos of certain small buildings in the Alps that everybody has to use once in a while.  Our dr...

Researchers at Washington State University have found a way to convert plastic waste into jet fuel that takes only an hour. And it's also less energy-intensive, which could make recycling plastic more cost-effective and more common. Plus: today in 2017, a high school in Virginia made sure to include a beloved service dog in its yearbook photos!  New technology converts waste plastics to jet f...

Today in 1977, Chuck E. Cheese's Pizza Time Theatre opened in California, co-founded by Atari's Nolan Bushnell as a kid-friendly way to promote video gaming and bring the world closer to animatronic mice. Plus: this week in 1905, a film camera documents the funeral procession of the last known surviving veteran of the War of 1812.  An Oral History Of Those Creepy-Ass Chuck E. Cheese Robots (M...

Today in 2005, an 11 year old pitcher in upstate New York, Katie Brownell, brought her A-game to the Little League field. She not only pitched a perfect game, she struck out all 18 batters she faced! Plus: Houston's famous Art Car Parade is back this weekend.  Meet Katie Brownell, the girl who once struck out 18 batters in a perfect Little League game (MLB.com) Houston Art Car Parade Our Patr...

Way out there beyond the edge of the solar system, Voyager 1 is measuring the density of the stuff out there. And because that stuff is vibrating, it comes out as sound. In other words, there are sounds in interstellar space and we have now recorded them. Plus: a look at a very chill hobby some bartenders have taken up in Japan.  In the emptiness of space, Voyager 1 detects plasma 'hum' (Phys...

UCLA did the research: at least 65 different animal species apart from humans exhibit vocal play sounds that are similar to laughter. So what kind of jokes should we be telling them? Plus: how an acclaimed 1972 movie might have been lost forever, if the man hunting for the original copy had shown up a week later.   Animals laugh too, UCLA analysis suggests (UCLA) The Recovery and Re-Release o...

Today in 1875, aviation pioneer Harriet Quimby was born. She isn't as well known as Amelia Earhart or Bessie Coleman but, as the first woman to fly across the English Channel, she definitely made an impact. Plus: on Minnesota's birthday, a look at a fact you might not know about its famous state fair.  Harriet Quimby (National Aviation Hall of Fame) Queen of the Channel Crossing (NOVA) Sept....

It's the day in 1899 that dancing, acting and singing legend Fred Astaire was born. He's best known for his iconic dancing with Ginger Rogers, but before that, he danced on stages all over the world with his sister, Adele - and she was the one who got most of the attention. Plus: a music rental company teams up with a metal drummer to create a drum kit so big it's more like a drum fortress. ...

It was this week in 1965 that Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards got up in his sleep, started up a portable tape recorder, and recorded a guitar riff and an opening line that would soon be iconic: "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction." Here's more of how the song came together. Plus: if this year has left you stressed out, there's a new game that might help you find some calm. It's Literally Just M...

A research team at the University of Rochester and the Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands has found a way to bioprint a strong, flexible and eco-friendly material that could one day serve as fabric for t-shirts, energy storage for space missions and much more. Plus: there's a world record for longest golf drive into a moving car... you knew that was a record, right?  Will your...