Cool Weird Awesome with Brady Carlson

We're replaying some of our favorite car-themed episodes this week, like this one from July 2020, about a driver in Italy who got a ticket for driving 437 miles per hour. Since that’s  almost three times as fast as the car could legitimately go, it’s  believed to have been a malfunction of a local speed camera. Plus: the  creations of cabinet maker Henk Verhoeff aren’t malfunctionin...

We're replaying some of our favorite car-themed episodes this week, like this one from May 2019, about an exhibit at The Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles called “Hollywood Dream Machines: Vehicles of Science Fiction  and Fantasy.” If you’ve ever wanted to get close to the coolest rides  the big screen ever shared with us – like, say, the DeLorean in “Back to  the Future” –...

We're replaying some of our favorite car-themed episodes this week, like this one from December 2019, in which Cornell researchers find that making intersections more autonomous could  help get self-driving cars where they want to go more efficiently.  Plus: on the anniversary of the last day of the last Apollo mission to  the moon, how about a trip to the Museum of the Moon, now vi...

We're replaying some of our favorite car-themed episodes this week, like this one from January 2020, a car that was to be (at least partly) made from soybeans. And it was  the idea of none other than Henry Ford. Plus: Steven Paul Judd is an  Oklahoma-based artist of Kiowa/Choctaw descent, and last month he made a  portrait of Sitting Bull using just over 20,000 black and white dice....

We're replaying some of our favorite car-themed episodes this week, like this one from November 2019, about a vehicle right out of Richard Scarry’s Busytown: the Big Banana Car,  which is a 15 foot long banana with four seats on the frame of a Ford  F-150. Plus: the Volkspod is a motor scooter made with upcycled parts from old-school Volkswagen Beetles! BigBananaCar.com Michigan trooper...

Scientists have been trying for years to figure out why there's a gap in Earth's geologic record that's about a billion years long, known as the Great Uncomformity. Plus: today in 2001 an artist painted a Wyoming house inside and out with government surplus cheese.  Erasing a Billion Years of Geologic Time Across the Globe (Eos) So, Uh, Where Did a Billion Years of the Geologic Record Go? (Po...

Today is the birthday of Ruth Faison Shaw, an art teacher who spotted a kid smearing iodine on the school walls and saw a way kids could express themselves. Plus: art is alive and well in cats, or at least in a photographer taking portraits of cats going wild for - and sometimes on - catnip. Ruth Faison Shaw (A Woman To Know) A Photographer Takes Pictures of Cats "High" on Catnip, and It'll Be You...

Millions of people have back pain that just plain makes things harder to do. A team at Vanderbilt University has developed an exosuit that may ease all that back strain. Plus: how do you let an economist know he's won the Nobel Prize when you don't have his phone number? Have his fellow winner knock on his door in the middle of the night, of course.  Vanderbilt wearable exosuit that lessens b...

Today in 1947 was the first performance of the Weeki Wachee Mermaids, professional mermaids in Florida who put on choreographed shows for hundreds of thousands of visitors a year, completely underwater. Plus: the Oklahoma Banjo Fest is now underway, completely virtual and still completely banjo-ey.  More mermaids than men (Mashable) Oklahoma Banjo Fest (Travel OK) Want more Cool Weird Awesome...

To mark our 400th episode, we have stories of some of the people who have set world records for screaming! Two of them are educators, though I don't think they practice on their students. Plus: scientists have figured out how to 3D print treats out of milk.  Loudest scream (individual) (Guinness World Records) Belfast teacher still in class of her own for shouting (BBC) Got 3D milk? These ado...

Food banks are seeing growing demand, and feeding hungry people takes money. Amazingly, a study out of Ohio State University finds these nonprofits might be able to boost their donations by paying closer attention to typefaces. Plus: this weekend is the deadline to cast your vote in this year's Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards. Donors more likely to give to COVID causes when font matches message...

Shoes only last for so long, but they're made from materials that last seemingly forever. Designer Shahar Asor has an alternate idea: shoes for kids with an expiration date. Plus: a pizza place in Brooklyn is letting customers order "comforting words" along with their food.  Shahar Asor knits children's shoes with an expiration date using biodegradable thread (designboom) Vinnie’s Pizzeria in...

It's hard to believe we're saying goodbye to guitar great Eddie Van Halen. His band won millions of fans on record and offstage, and won a reputation for offstage excess. But one of their most infamous stories - that they banned brown M&Ms from backstage - wasn't quite what it seemed. Plus: a Gloria Estefan hit gets a heavy metal treatment on YouTube.  Did Van Halen’s Concert Contract Req...

We’ve known for some time that at least a few exoplanets could support liquid water, making them potentially habitable. But a paper from Washington State University suggests some of those planets may be super -habitable - as in, they may be more appropriate for life than Earth is! Plus: a new map fills Mars with water, so we can see what the Red Planet would look like if it wasn't red.  Some...

If you've read the negative reviews about last week's debate, know that there are other stories of candidate face-offs gone wrong in the history books - like the one in Arkansas that left the audience all wet. Plus: for National Fire Prevention Week, we pay a visit to Busted Plug, a four story tall sculpture of a fire hydrant.  Everyone is Entitled to My Opinion by David Brinkley The World’s...

When World War II put many pro athletes into military service, pro sports leagues had to get creative. That's how on this day in 1943, two pro football teams that normally competed against each other joined forces. Plus: for World Smile Day, we check in on the story of the guy who first designed the smiley face.  Steagles legacy: Eagles, Steelers merged in 1943 to form a team of misfits that...

Back in the days when auto workers spray painted new vehicles, excess paint would harden and accumulate into a substance that looked like colorful gemstones. Jewelers have been making works of art out of "fordite" ever since. Plus: ever wanted to make a bread bowl that looks like your own face? Now you can!  Your Earrings Remind Me of Grandma’s Gran Torino (New York Times) How To Make A Bread...

Today's the 60th anniversary of the first broadcast of that landmark cartoon show from the town of Bedrock, which aired in the 1960s, stayed on in reruns for decades, and continues to sell cereal and vitamins to this day. Plus: a man in England gets so lonely he starts putting ads in the paper so someone will email or call him - and fortunately he gets some good responses.  15 Solid Facts Abo...

On National Coffee Day, we bring you the story of Brazilian athletes who, without travel funds from the government, had to earn their way to the Olympics in Los Angeles by selling coffee beans. Plus: in Bedford, Pennsylvania, there's a building shaped like a big metal coffee pot. Brazilian Athletes Perked Up The 1932 Games With Their Coffee Caper (Sports Illustrated) Coffee Pot-Shaped Building (Ro...

A small device created in China could turn anyone of out for a walk (and probably their dogs, too) into small scale power plants, just from the breeze they cause by walking! It's all thanks to what's called triboelectricity. Plus: a Swedish company wants to create OceanBird, a full-size cargo ship that runs on wind power.  This tiny device can scavenge wind energy from the breeze you make whe...

Shaving dates back tens of thousands of years, and it's gone in and out of fashion more times than we can count. And for a time in 1945, there was an idea to replace razors with a series of hair treatments involving X-rays (!) Plus: Hannah Grace is a makeup artist in the UK who has won lots of fans by turning herself into optical illusions.  The History of Shaving and Beards (Old Farmer's Alm...

This week in 1960, Richard Nixon campaigned at a cookout in Sullivan, Illinois, eating some of a Buffalo barbecue sandwich before giving his speech. A young Boy Scout, Steve Jenne, took the rest of Nixon's sandwich home and has kept it in the freezer for the last 60 years! Plus: if you're missing cubicles and conference tables these days, there's a new soundscape, Calm Office, that might help.&nbs...

UCLA scientists have made little thermoelectric coolers that are only 100 nanometers wide, so small the eye can't see them on its own. They're not quite refrigerators yet, but if you have little sodas or bags of grapes, maybe reach out anyway. Plus: on the International Day of Sign Languages, we celebrate the amazing world of sign language interpreters at heavy metal concerts. UCLA scientists crea...

Nobody likes being stuck at a stoplight, but before there were systems in place to make drivers take turns, the roads were not good. Here are a few of the inventions that helped us (mostly) stop crashing into each other. Plus: why did Syracuse, New York set up an upside-down stoplight, with green on top?  A Brief History of the Stoplight (Smithsonian) There’s No Other Traffic Light In America...

The Disgusting Food Museum in southern Sweden has a new exhibit on the strangest alcoholic drinks of all time, proving that people will drink some truly revolting concoctions in pursuit of a buzz. Plus: remember how Asbestos, Quebec was going to choose one of four replacement names for the town? Those plans are on hold, cause apparently the people of Asbestos aren't big fans of the new names.&nbsp...