Cool Weird Awesome With Brady Carlson

Today in 2006, Twttr launched; and in its early days the social media platform gained vowels in its name and fame for a cute whale that would show up during its then-regular outages. Here's the story of Lifting A Dreamer, aka the "Fail Whale." Plus: if you’re a fan of scuba diving or snorkeling, the Geneinno S2 undersea scooter is a new high tech way to do it.  Twitter launches (History.com) Lifting A Dreamer (the Twitter Fail Whale) and Beyond (Yiying Lu) An Underwater Sea Scooter for Exploring the Ocean (UrbanDaddy) Our Patreon backers are the ones who lift this show up every day, join them today! --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/coolweirdawesome/message

This week in 2005, Kyle MacDonald of Montreal had a red paperclip. This week in 2006, MacDonald had traded away the paperclip, and, after a few more trades, ended up with a house. Plus: over in the UK, some small towns have traded out the phones in some of their big red phone boxes for a new use.  Paperclip Cottage Cafe (Tourism Saskatchewan) From paper-clip to house in 14 trades (CBC) How Small English Towns Are Turning Their Iconic Red Telephone Boxes Into Public Heart Defibrillators (Laughing Squid) We wouldn't trade our Patreon backers for anything in the world --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/coolweirdawesome/message

A multi-country research team has found ways to turn polyethylene, a key ingredient in single-use plastic bags, into lightweight fabric. So those bags that we don't want to throw out but can't always easily recycle? We might end up wearing them. Plus: many of us spend a lot of our waking hours typing, but James Cook turns his typing into art. Plastic Bags Could Be Recycled Into Wearable Fabrics, Says New Research (Designboom) This Artist Draws Using Only Letters and Numbers on Old Typewriters (The Sifter) Help make this podcast even more fashionable as a backer on Patreon! --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/coolweirdawesome/message

Today in 2006, the largest photograph ever taken was released to the world. It’s known today as The Great Picture: 31 feet tall, 107 feet wide. Here's how it was taken. Plus: in Tokyo, a giant 3D screen outside a train station is featuring a giant 3D calico cat that stares down at the people several stories below. Big picture thinking! World’s largest photograph measuring 31ft high and 107ft wide goes on display (and it needed the biggest camera ever made to take it) (Daily Mail) World's Largest Pinhole Camera Takes World's Largest Photo (ABC News) A giant cat appears in front of Shinjuku station! (DreamNews) Our Patreon backers help us make pictures with words in every episode of the show, join them!  --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/coolweirdawesome/message

Today in 1929, the then-territory of Alaska flew its flag for the first time. That flag, which is still used today, was designed by a 13 year old of Aleutian descent, Benny Benson. Plus: it was this day in 1872 that John F. Blondel of Maine made pastry history.  Benny Benson: An Alaska Kid Who Made History (Alaska Historical Society) The Hole Truth: Celebrating a Huge Day in Doughnut History (The Fiscal Times) Make history as one of our Patreon backers! --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/coolweirdawesome/message

There was a story recently about how NASA was partnering with Tide laundry detergent to work on a way to do laundry in space. Which means we don’t already do laundry in space, and there are some pretty big reasons why. Plus: the Royal Mail delivers a letter addressed to a woman who’d been on TV, only the writer didn't exactly have the woman's address.  NASA and Tide team up to do laundry in space (CNET) Astronauts' Dirty Laundry (NASA) Royal Mail delivers letter addressed to 'woman in Cornwall shed' (BBC) Help keep this show fresh as a backer on Patreon! --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/coolweirdawesome/message

Today in 1928, the Chillicothe Baking Company in Missouri began publicly selling something new: bread that had been sliced by a multi-bladed machine, and the world gained a new way to measure greatness. Plus: today in 2017, a meteor found a way to use Earth as a “slingshot” so alter its orbit and eventually orbit Jupiter. ‘Home of Sliced Bread’: A small Missouri town champions its greatest thing (Washington Post's Retropolis) One express ticket to Jupiter, please (Phys.org) Our Patreon backers are the greatest thing since, well, sliced bread  --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/coolweirdawesome/message

Today is the birthday of Roger Babson, who once hired stonecutters to carve giant motivational slogans into a series of boulders in Massachusetts during the Great Depression. Plus: a research team from Harvard and MIT has announced a new high-tech face mask with disease-spotting biosensors. It can spot germs more or less in real time!  Babson’s Boulders: A Millionaire’s Odd Dogtown Legacy (New England Historical Society) Face masks that can diagnose COVID-19 (Harvard) Our Patreon backers keep us thinking positive every day! --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/coolweirdawesome/message

When most of us get wrong number phone calls, we get off the line pretty quickly. But new research finds Maasai herders in Tanzania often strike up a conversation, and get to know the person who accidentally called them. Plus: on this day in 1294, the cardinals of the Catholic Church respond to a letter from a hermit monk in a way that may have made the monk wish he hadn't written them at all.  ‘Wrong number? Let’s chat’ Maasai herders in East Africa use misdials to make connections (The Conversation) A History of Papal Resignations (History.com) Saint Celestine V (Britannica) Answer the call of Cool Weird Awesome and back the show on Patreon! --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/coolweirdawesome/message

The new book “Hyphens and Hashtags” looks at where all our punctuation marks have come from. Some of them, like the highly versatile asterisk, have been around for thousands of years. Plus: if you've had a week that made you want to scream, Japan has a Screambulance that may help.  A Star Is Born (Lapham's Quarterly) Japan’s Screambulance, is a haunted house delivery service that scares you anywhere, anytime (Luxury Launches) Our Patreon backers make most* of our episodes *actually, all --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/coolweirdawesome/message

Today in 1963, the US Postal Service officially started using ZIP codes as a way to quickly sort huge amounts of mail and get it to where it needed to go. How did they get Americans to adopt ZIP codes? A mascot named Mr. Zip and a jingle sung by Broadway legend Ethel Merman. Plus: for Canada Day, the story of a runner in Ontario who ran a moose-shaped route through downtown Toronto.  The ZIP Code Turns 50 (TIME) Ethel Merman (National Postal Museum) Toronto cyclist rides 101km to make the most Canadian Strava art (Cycling Magazine) Our Patreon backers got rhythm, they've got music, they've got podcasts, who could ask for anything more?  --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/coolweirdawesome/message

Our high-tech devices are amazing but also kind of fragile. But a team at Virginia Tech has a solution: “soft electronics” that can not only keep working when they’re damaged, they can heal themselves. Plus: NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Caltech have been using high-altitude balloons to measure seismic activity, and they're hoping to send those balloons someday to monitor Venusquakes!  Unbroken: New soft electronics don’t break, even when punctured (Virginia Tech) NASA Balloon Detects California Earthquake – Next Stop, Venus? (NASA) Our Patreon backers keep us working, join them today! --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/coolweirdawesome/message

Today was the birthday of Ray Harryhausen, a pioneer of special effects in movies in the days before computers. And while special effects are more high tech now than in his day, his influence is still all over the world of movies in our time. Plus: a veteran flier from World War II gets to take another flight, some 75 years later.  Ray Harryhausen: The Father of Stop-Motion Animation - The Spread (Cinema Jam) A Fascinating Top Ten Compilation of Creatures by Stop Motion Pioneer Ray Harryhausen (Laughing Squid) WWII bomber pilot experiences B-17 flight for the first time since 1945 (KPRC 2 Houston) Backing us on Patreon makes every episode of the show special --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/coolweirdawesome/message

It's the birthday of the guy who took two sports and fused them into one: Ed Headrick, known today as the Father of Disc Golf. Here's some of his story. Plus: it's Pride Day, part of Pride Month, and there's still time to see the original rainbow Pride Flag at San Francisco’s GLBT Historical Society Museum. The Father of Disc Golf (Disc Golf Association) History of disc golf (part 1): the early days (Murray Ledger) The Original Pride Flag Is Now on Display in a San Francisco Museum (Travel and Leisure) Keep our show flying as a backer on Patreon! --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/coolweirdawesome/message

This week we're replaying some of our favorite episodes about our favorite TV shows. In this episode from September 2020, we marked 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 About The Flintstones (Mental Floss) Lonely Widower Puts Up a Poster Asking For Friends—And is Flooded With Messages From New Pals (Good News Network) A special thanks to our Patreon backers and listeners! --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/coolweirdawesome/message

This week we're replaying some of our favorite episodes about our favorite TV shows. In this episode from November 2019, we look at an episode of the Twilight Zone that proved the show was a dimension not only of sight and sound but of canned laughter?!? Plus: anybody want to fly in an airplane where the whole interior looks like a giant window? Dimensions Behind the Twilight Zone: A Backstage Tribute to Television’s Groundbreaking Series by Stewart Stanyard The Twilight Zone: A 60th Anniversary Celebration Windowless planes: is this the future of flying? (The Telegraph via YouTube) Back Cool Weird Awesome on Patreon today! --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/coolweirdawesome/message

This week we're replaying some of our favorite episodes about our favorite TV shows. In this episode from September 2019, we marked the day in 1975 that the BBC aired the first episode of “Fawlty Towers,” a landmark comedy series that was - amazingly - received about as poorly  by TV executive and the public as Basil Fawlty’s appalling attitude was received by guests at his hotel. How did it finally get its due? Plus: AC/DC songs can get the bison of Yellowstone National Park moving. For bison about to rock, we salute you? Fawlty Towers: the classic sitcom the BBC didn’t want (Telegraph) I'm afraid I thought this one as dire as its title (Letters of Note) Cops Blast AC/DC to Get the Reluctant Bison Moving Out of the Road and It Works Like a Charm (TIME) Backing Cool Weird Awesome is a much better use of your money than giving it to Lord Melbury --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/coolweirdawesome/message

This week we're replaying some of our favorite episodes about our favorite TV shows. In this episode from January 2021, we marked the anniversary of the premiere of one of the most memorable sitcoms in TV history, “Sanford and Son," by sharing a few facts about the show and its star, Redd Foxx. Plus: photographer Mike Mayou went out with a drone-mounted camera in  Minnesota to catch the sunset but got something even more amazing. 15 Big Facts About Sanford and Son (Mental Floss) Photographer Flies Drone To Discover a Once-in-a-Lifetime Shot of 3 Bobcats Sitting on a Log (My Modern Met) Join Cool Weird Awesome as a backer on Patreon for a price even Fred Sanford wouldn't mind paying --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/coolweirdawesome/message

This week we're replaying some of our favorite episodes about our favorite TV shows. In this episode from September 2019, we mark the 50th anniversary of the premiere of “Scooby Doo, Where Are You?” Originally the show was going to be VERY different. Plus: Lake Lure, NC hosted the Dirty Dancing Festival. If you went, I hope you had the time of your life. “Like, yeah. We’ve been teenagers forever:” The Evolution of Scooby-Doo’s “Meddling Kids” (24 Frames of Silver) Iwao Takamoto: My Life with a Thousand Characters Dirty Dancing Festival I swear it's the truth, we owe Cool Weird Awesome all to you, our Patreon backers --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/coolweirdawesome/message

It's National Go Fishing Day, though the fish in today’s story aren’t exactly the ones you’d expect to catch. They’re robotic fish called Charlie and Charlene, and they were developed by the Central Intelligence Agency. Plus: tomorrow is National Surfing Day, and one place you might mark the occasion is the Santa Cruz Surfing Museum in California. Meet Catfish Charlie, the CIA’s Robotic Spy (IEEE Spectrum) Santa Cruz Surfing Museum (Atlas Obscura) Back our show on Patreon for just $1 a month! --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/coolweirdawesome/message