Cool Weird Awesome with Brady Carlson

This is Geography Awareness Week, and on our  fascinating planet Mount Everest is the tallest mountain - but it's not  actually the highest point on earth. That's actually Mount Chimborazo,  in Ecuador. Plus: the community of New Baltimore, NY gets a spooky  purple makeover thanks to Google Maps. Mount Chimborazo is Actually the Highest Point on Earth (CN Traveler) The 20 Scari...

For Veterans Day, we have the story of Claude and Ruth Hensinger, who used the parachute that saved Claude's life during World War II to help build their lives and their 49 year marriage together.  The Wedding Dress That Dropped From The Sky (Patch) Dress, 1-Piece (Smithsonian Museum of American History)

Patti Page, aka the “Singing Rage,” was one of the biggest-selling pop singers of the 1950s. But later, she lived part-time on a farm in New Hampshire where she and her husband sold maple syrup. The bottles didn't just have her name on them; they included her voice! Plus: Skyline Chess turns the buildings in world cities into chess pieces and pits them against each other.  Patti Page: A Singi...

This meringue is just about the lightest dessert ever made. Based on the lightest substance in the world, Aerogel, it's about 96 percent air and a serving weighs about a gram. We guarantee you won’t think it's too filling. Plus: the story of a light-emitting fungus gnat in Brazil, which is maybe not as appetizing as the first story. World’s Lightest Dessert Is 96 Percent Air, Weighs Just One Gram...

Jeremy John Kaplan is the artist behind the Gold Nets Project, which has replaced hundreds of broken or missing nets with shiny golden ones, and encouraged local basketball players to think about stepping up and maintaining the courts too. Plus: the northern Georgia city of Dahlonega says it had a gold rush decades before the '49ers all raced to California.  An Artist Is Installing Hundreds o...

A great painting can turn your world upside down, especially if the painting is also upside down. We take a trip through the website Weird Universe's Gallery of Art Hung Upside Down. Plus: a 9 year old who can't stop doodling, even in class, is now a professional artist. He's paid to doodle.  The Gallery of Art Hung Upside-Down (Weird Universe) 9-Year-Old Kid Who Kept Getting In Trouble For D...

It’s time to celebrate 70 years of Clue, the invention of musician Anthony Pratt, who used to play piano for murder mystery nights at big mansions and thought, this would make a good board game! Plus: the movie "Clue" is well known for the on-camera antics of its amazing cast. But what did the actors do when the cameras weren't rolling?  The Game Clue Was Borne of Boredom During WWII Air-Raid...

Today in 1800 President John Adams moved into the White House, the first chief executive to live in what was then called the President’s Mansion. One of the house's most adorable stories - though possibly an apocryphal one - is the time in 1862 that Abraham Lincoln supposedly helped a couple elope. Plus: the New England WizardFest gets underway this weekend in Massachusetts. Mischief managed! Adam...

This isn’t just Halloween. It’s also the anniversary of the passing of the legendary illusionist and escape artist Harry Houdini, who they say wanted to make the greatest escape of all time... from mortality. Hence why Bess Houdini held seances every Halloween, trying to pick up whatever signals her late husband might be sending out from the hereafter. Plus: the creepiest hike of all time!  T...

it’s National Candy Corn Day, and while no candy gets more hassle around this time of year than candy corn, it also has its fans. I mean, someone's eating those 9 billion pieces produced each year. Plus: a haunted house in Utah with an unforgettably creepy name.  The Saccharine History of Candy Corn (National Geographic) 2019 Strangling Brothers Haunted Circus (Visit Salt Lake) Backing Cool W...

There's still time to get ready for Halloween in most places, but in Anoka, Minnesota, it’s kind of always Halloween. The community north of the Twin Cities bills itself as the Halloween Capital of the World. Plus: Pennsylvania invites you on a Halloween-themed trip it calls the Trail of the Living Dead.  ‘Halloween Capitol Of The World’ Anoka Gears Up For Halloween Season (CBS Minnesota) Ano...

A project in Russia tracks the movements of steppe eagles through trackers that can send text messages back to research HQ about their whereabouts. There's one problem: the eagles have been crossing into other countries and their trackers are using roaming data! Plus: the town of Remer, Minnesota is home to a very large eagle that doesn't get around. Oh, and also, Bigfoot.  Roaming Russian ea...

Today is the anniversary of the day the first consumer microwave oven went on sale, back in 1955. But the microwave has roots that go back well before that, and it's at least in part a byproduct of radar technology from World War II. Plus: Los Alamos, New Mexico is trying to break a world record for simultaneous pumpkin carving. Oct 25, 1955: Time to Nuke Dinner (Wired) A Brief History of the Micr...

A startup called Beetl is developing an autonomous device that’s ready to clean up after our dogs on demand, thanks to a large scooper on its underside. If they’re willing to do this job, maybe robots aren’t trying to conquer us after all. Plus: "dogfishing" is a problem for online dating. People are using other people's dogs in their profile pics in the hopes it will land them more dates. The int...

Languages change over time; Merriam-Webster said it added over 500 new words to the dictionary last month. But you can also see those new additions over time through the Time Traveler feature on Merriam-Webster's website. Plus: a piece on Mental Floss explains how some of the most beloved Halloween candies got their names. We Added New Words to the Dictionary for September 2019 (Merriam-Webster) F...

It’s the end of an era in Durham, North Carolina. The 11 Foot 8 Bridge, known as the Can Opener or the Gregson Street Guillotine for its propensity for shearing the tops off rental trucks and other large vehicles, is at last being raised. Probably good for safety, but fans of fail videos are bummed. Plus: artist Reuben Wu uses drones to create light paintings in the sky he calls “aeroglyphs."&nbsp...

Science has brought whales and outer space together for the first time since the fourth Star Trek movie. The British Antarctic Survey has been partnering with researchers in Chile on a way to protect whales via satellite. Plus: the story of a paraglider who manages to land smoothly and carefully on a couch. Stranded whales detected from space (British Antarctic Survey) Parachute Landing On Couch (...

The Saharan silver ant can ran up to 108 of its own body lengths per second, making it the fastest ant in the world. But it lives in the desert, and running in sand usually slows us down. How the heck do they do it? Plus: in Banner Elk, North Carolina, the 42nd annual Woolly Worm Festival gets underway this weekend.  The world’s fastest ant clocks record speed of 108 times its own body length...

Indonesian performance artist Melati Suryodarmo has created a new work called “If We Were XYZ,” and it’s based on her dreams, which she documented with the help of an electroencephalogram machine. Plus: The World Food Championships are now underway in Dallas, with some 1,500 award-winning chefs and cooks putting it all on the line and/or plates. A Performer Uses Brain-Mapping Technology to Scan He...

Salem, Massachusetts is now home to the world’s largest Ouija board. These boards are a product of the Spiritualist movement of the 19th century, which emphasized communicating with the “other side.” They happened to be the most practical way to connect! Plus: the name Ouija has been misspelled and mispronounced just about every way possible. Just ask the guy who made a legendary YouTube video abo...

Every era has its forms of entertainment. In the old days, promoters would stage actual train wrecks, using trains that were on their way to the scrap heap. Others would stage massive recreations of disasters and tragedies from the news and history. And thousands of people would pay to see them! Plus: a slightly smaller-scale spectacle in Goshen, Kentucky features massive characters out of hay bal...

Almost everything we do can be measured, and in lots of ways beyond the inches, yards and seconds we normally use. We take a trip through some lesser known measurements, like siriometer, cow's grass, and jiffy (yes, it's an actual term!) Plus: meet the dad who built a full-size claw machine for his daughter's 7th birthday party.  Enough Measurement Systems to Fill a Rhode Island the Size of J...

When the residents of Pichuclaco, Chiapas, Mexico took part in a public health event, they didn't get to meet Mayor Moisés Aguilar Torres - at least not the real him. But they did get to see, and take pictures with, a cardboard cutout of the mayor. Plus: remember that time the people of New England went bonkers and stole hundreds of cardboard David Hasselhoffs?  Constituents furious as Mexica...

Sports tech company Motus Global has developed a high-tech compression sleeve for pitchers. It senses the movement of each pitch and determines how much strain the throws put on the arm, to help avoid injuries. Plus: the story of old-timey pitcher "Phenomenal" Smith, who, it's said, could have used a different kind of smarts in dealing with his teammates.  Smart Sleeve Tells Baseball Pitchers...

Today we pay a visit to Athens, Georgia - specifically, the intersection of South Finley and Dearing Street. That’s where you’ll find something unusual: The Tree That Owns Itself. Plus: a Japanese design company has created a 3D-printed bonsai, which you can prune once and looks the way you want forever... as long as you don't mind that it's not an actual tree.  A Tree That Owns Itself? (Farm...