Cool Weird Awesome with Brady Carlson

A team at King’s College London has found evidence that, with help from a prescription treatment, teeth may be able to repair themselves! Plus: parades are off this St. Patrick's Day, but we've still got Irish Potato Candies. (Don't worry, they only look like potatos.)  Further evidence shows clinical viability of natural tooth repair method (King's College London) Irish Potato Candies Are th...

Staff at a museum in Turin, Italy called Castello di Rivoli have been working marathon days to digitize their entire collection so that art lovers who can't see the pieces in person can still enjoy them online. Plus: a volunteers at a thrift shop in North Carolina spots something unusual in a stack of paintings - a work by none other than Salvador Dali! A World-Famous Curator Is Working 18-Hour Da...

This weekend voting gets underway for one of the most unusual contests you’ll find anywhere in the world: the Takhini Hot Springs Hair Freezing Contest. Plus: Colorado is honoring a dude who's spending his afterlife surrounded by a great deal of dry ice. Introducing Frozen Dead Guys Days! Takhini Hot Springs Hair Freezing Contest   Frozen Dead Guy Days Backing Cool Weird Awesome on Patreon wa...

We’re hearing a lot about how a research project has shown that Earth days used to be about a half-hour shorter than they are now. Why is our planet rotating more slowly now? It's mostly because of the moon. Plus: in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, the National Shag Dance Championships are getting underway. How Long Until The Moon Slows The Earth To A 25 Hour Day? (Forbes) Days on Earth Used to Be 3...

Researchers at the University of Toronto have an idea: maybe the old cooking oil from fast food chains could have new life as resin for 3D printers. Plus: this weekend in Mansfield, Texas, it’s the one and only Pickle Parade! U of T researchers turn McDonald's deep fryer oil into high-end 3D printing resin (University of Toronto) Mansfield, Texas Pickle Parade For just $1 a month you can make Cool...

Researchers at the University of Sydney say they can turn the waste from durian and jackfruit into carbon aerogel, which can help store energy in what are called super-capacitors. And no, they don't smell. Plus: Daniele Barresi is a master of making ornate sculpted art from avocadoes.  Scientists turn stinky durian waste into energy storage (Treehugger) Daniele Barresi's Avocado Sculptures&nb...

Earlier this year NASA got Voyager 2 to restart systems it had shut down through the ultimate in working remotely: sending directions beyond the reach of the sun! The way we send those commands to Voyagers 1 and 2 is pretty basic, but with twists to make up for the extremely long distance. Plus: ISS astronauts have been growing space veggies, and they're pretty good for us.  How are the Voyag...

Dehydration can be a big problem for patients with dementia or Alzheimers. Jelly Drops are colorful, edible treat pods full of water that may be able to help these individuals stay hydrated. Plus: the Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Library and Museum is hosting the new exhibit “Ohio: An Unnatural History," complete with life-size cutouts of mythical Ohio creatures. Man Creates Edible Water To He...

Today is the birthday of Jerrie Cobb, who could have been the first woman in space but ended up flying to great heights nonetheless. Plus: it was on this day in 2011 that a museum in the Netherlands first put on exhibit a work called “Peanut Butter Floor," which was exactly what it sounds like. Jerrie Cobb, America's first female astronaut candidate, dies at 88 (NBC News) Cobb, Geraldyn “Jerrie” M...

Some moths are built to essentially cancel sound - and it's a pretty effective defense mechanism against bats and echolocation. Plus: a heart-shaped work of art made by bees! Deaf moths evolved noise-cancelling scales to evade predators (Phys.org) Bees Create Heart-Shaped Hive When There Aren’t Frames Up to Guide Them (My Modern Met)  Not to bug you, but have you considered backing Cool Weird...

On this day in 1876, a Mrs. Crouch was outside making soap when “suddenly there descended upon her a gentle shower of meat.” What the heck happened to cause meat to fall from the sky over Bath County, Kentucky? Plus: Lincoln, the goat mayor of Fairhaven, Vermont, runs for reelection against his challenger, Sammy the police dog.  Kentucky Meat Shower? Yes, meat fell from the sky more than 140...

Can music help cats relax during their visits to the vet? Apparently so - but would music specifically made for cats be even more helpful than music made for humans? Plus: if you missed Justin Bieber's birthday yesterday, visit a museum in his hometown that features all the stuff from his career that his proud grandparents saved!  This music calms cats the best, study finds (Treehugger) How a...

It was on a Leap Day in 1968 that the President of the United States got stuck in an elevator. We'll explain how it happened. Plus: this weekend at Graceland in Memphis, Tennessee, it's the third annual Ultimate Elvis Tribute Artist Weekend. LBJ Stuck In An Elevator (Atlas Obscura) Ultimate Elvis Tribute Artist Weekend at Graceland (Memphis Travel) Take care of business as a Cool Weird Awesome bac...

A new technology out of the University of Massachusetts-Amherst actually pulls electricity out of the air! But don't worry, it's not like when Sith lords shoot lightning at people. Plus: Steamboat Springs, Colorado sets the world record for the largest single firework explosion.  New Green Technology from UMass Amherst Generates Electricity ‘Out of Thin Air’ (University of Massachusetts) The...

Disappearing People is a computer program that can make us invisible on our computer’s cameras! Plus: the story of something that cannot be unseen, the world record longest salami.  This Program Will Make You Invisible (to Your Webcam) (Motherboard) Salami larger than the Statue of Liberty has broken a world record in Argentina (Mirror UK) See something amazing happen when you back Cool Weird...

A project run by researchers at the University of Sheffield, is using foam taken from discarded mattresses to help Syrian refugees start hydroponic gardens in Jordan. Plus: why were there two Miss Sasquatch Queens in Saskatchewan back in 1969?  Scientists using old mattresses to grow food for Syrian refugees in Jordan (iNews) Miss Sasquatch Queen (Weird Universe) No title better than the titl...

The technology I like best is the technology that helps people do what they couldn’t do before, like a new brain implant that can put images from a camera in front of blind people. Plus: Rita Ebel is making the German town of Hanau more accessible for wheelchair uses, by using LEGO. A new implant for blind people jacks directly into the brain (MIT Technology Review) One Woman and Thousands of Lego...

Washington State University has a Sensory Science Lab that tests all the ways we encounter what we eat and how that can affect how we think it tastes. Now they’re testing whether different kinds of music can affect how we think about chocolate. Plus: this weekend in Charlotte, North Carolina, there’s a chance to go out on a bar crawl that’s like none other. Exploring links between music and our pe...

If you’ve ever driven past a building and seen a faded advertisement on the side of the brick, or spotted a neon sign for a restaurant where a real estate office now sits, those are ghost signs. A new book called The Ghost Signs of NYC tours these signs and advertisements and tells the stories of how they got where they are. Plus: meet the world's largest paint ball, two tons of paint hanging out...

It was on this day in 1914 a family in Grangeville, Idaho sent a four year old through the mail to her grandmother in Lewiston, 73 miles away. And she wasn’t the only kid to travel this way after the US Postal Service began the parcel post. Plus: the group Electronicos Fantasticos is making some fascinating music with bar code scanners! A Brief History of Children Sent Through the Mail (Smithsonia...

Toss an item into TrashBot and the system’s internal sensors figure out what the item is, and whether to recycle it or toss it out. No more recycleables in the trash, no more trash in the recycleables. Plus: officials in Prichard, Alabama missed a typo when sending out their new trash bins for residents.  This robot trash bin automatically sorts your recyclables for you (Fast Company) Embarra...

Since 1800, presidents have made the White House their home base. But there have been a few times when new presidents took office unexpectedly and the world's most powerful address wasn’t yet available to them. For Gerald Ford in 1974, that meant he spent the first 10 days of his presidency living at his family home in Alexandria, Virginia.  Gerald R. Ford House (BradyCarlson.com) Thanks to C...

For Valentine's Day, the story of the olm salamander, who will basically sit around and do nothing… unless it’s time for love. Plus: people in Rangeley, Maine gear up for the annual World Record Snowmobile Ride. A salamander didn't move for seven years – and that's not that unusual (USA Today) Rangeley World Record Snowmobile Ride (Visit Maine) Cool Weird Awesome's Patreon backers will do anything...

Some sounds are pleasing, others not so much. And a few can actually be destructive, like the sound ZME Science identified is probably the loudest sound humans have ever heard. Plus: how about some loud applause for an octopus who managed to escape four octopus escape rooms?  The loudest sound in mankind’s history (ZME Science) Octopus Escape Room Challenge (Octolab TV via YouTube) Cool Weird...

Orchards in the US and elsewhere have been trying to head off a disease called citrus greening. Research shows that dogs can sniff out this disease better and more quickly than any other method we have. Plus: if you're out riding a horse in Australia, and you get a call, put the phone in hands-free mode.  Dog sleuths sniff out crop disease hitting citrus trees (KCRA) Man riding horse stopped...