Cool Weird Awesome With Brady Carlson

We’re on the eve of this year’s biggest event in Fruita, Colorado - the Mike the Headless Chicken Festival, where people all gather to celebrate the miracle chicken who had his head chopped off, and carried on as if nothing had changed. Plus: residents of New York are gearing up for quite a show. Manhattanhenge is (weather permitting) happening today, with the sun perfectly positioned within the city's street grid.  The Mike the Headless Chicken Festival   Manhattanhenge: What It Is, and How to See It (Scientific American) Back Cool Weird Awesome on Patreon today! --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/coolweirdawesome/message

Today’s show is about a series of earthquake aftershocks in the Hebgen Lake area of Yellowstone National Park measured in 2017 and 2018.  That’s not in and of itself unusual, except that the original earthquake happened in August of 1959. Plus: a dude repairs and cleans a vintage synthesizer and accidentally gets dosed with the leftover LSD residue from a half century before.  Aftershocks of 1959 Earthquake Rocked Yellowstone in 2017-18 (University of Utah)   Repair Of Iconic ’60s Era Synthesizer Turns Into Long, Strange Trip For Engineer (CBS San Francisco)   Cool Weird Awesome needs your support! Back the show today on Patreon! --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/coolweirdawesome/message

As much as we all like to consider ourselves straight talkers, we all use certain euphemisms when we’ve done something we wished we hadn’t.  Scientists are particularly good at this because they can envelop a faux pas in layers and layers of academic journal language - the phrase “unplanned rapid disassembly," for example, is a formal way to say “accidentally exploded." Plus: Canadian astronaut David Saint-Jacques made a video where he demonstrates the amazing attributes of honey in microgravity!   Scientists Reveal How They Use Academic Language To Mask Their Mess Ups And It’s Hilarious (Bored Panda) "If you read in a frog paper..." (Blue Electric Angels on Tumblr)  Honey in Space (Canadian Space Agency) Back Cool Weird Awesome on Patreon!  --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/coolweirdawesome/message

Officially, the community that started Memorial Day is Waterloo, New York - in May 1866, the community spent the entire day honoring those killed in the Civil War by placing wreaths and flowers at their graves, then holding a parade, giving speeches and flying flags at half staff.  But Waterloo is definitely not the only place with a Memorial Day origin story. 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)  --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/coolweirdawesome/message

There’s nothing more fashionable than the jumpsuit - right? Right? Anyway, it was a century ago that the Italian artist Thayaht proposed a one-piece garment with buttons down the front as the next big thing in fashion. The jumpsuit hasn't quite become as universal as he hoped, but it _is_ the only outfit that connects  Rosie the Riveter, Evel Knievel, Amelia Earhart, David Bowie and the cast of Mystery Science Theater 3000. Plus: want to wear an Elvis jumpsuit but don't want to pay huge auction prices? Try the new Elvis jumpsuit-style hoodie!  Jumpsuits (Quartz)  Elvis Hoodie (GearHuman)   Back Cool Weird Awesome on Patreon for just $1 a month! --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/coolweirdawesome/message

 May is Asian/Pacific-American Heritage Month, and a great time to talk about two exciting, important and sometimes underappreciated Asian-American performers. The dance team of Jew Wing Dong and Dorothy Takahashi, known professionally in their heyday as Toy and Wing. were often compared to Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers for their electrifying performances on stage and screen. Plus:  The Maryland Deathfest is starting in Baltimore, featuring some of the loudest, most aggressive dark metal bands in the world - according to their website, it's also an all-ages, family friendly event. “Bring the kids!” they say.  The Chinese Fred Astaire (National Archives at Riverside) The Story of a 99-Year Old Living and Dancing Chinatown Icon (AsAm News) Maryland Deathfest Help us make more Cool Weird Awesome as a backer on Patreon! --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/coolweirdawesome/message

 And now, a look at a study that’s the kind of research Batman would do if he were an academic instead of a crimefighter: a scientific study of virtual burglary.  By watching how burglars burgle, we might learn the difference between how most of us think burglars work and how they actually work - and then take steps that will stop more burglaries before they start. Plus: the state of Michigan is dropping an album today! Maybe someday states will turn out diss tracks against each other?  Crime fighting just got easier as burglars reveal all  (University of Portsmouth via EurekAlert!)  Michigan releasing album of sounds from state parks (Crain's Detroit) Cool Weird Awesome is listener powered! Back this show for just $1 a month!    --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/coolweirdawesome/message

The busiest part of the year for travelers is coming, meaning that at airports, there will be a lot of people around to clonk into each other. Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University may have a solution: a collision-detecting suitcase.  Plus: a brewery offered a keg party to anyone who could find their missing and/or stolen van. Didn't take long for someone to find it. Collision-Detecting Suitcase, Wayfinding App Help Blind People Navigate Airports (Carnegie Mellon University) Brewery offered free beer as reward for finding stolen van. It was back in 42 minutes (Charlotte Observer)   Backers make this show possible! Join us with a contribution on Patreon! --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/coolweirdawesome/message

Two weeks ago, the staff at the Humane Society of San Diego had to figure out how to help a tortoise with a hole in its shell.  Veterinarians Daniel Barbour came up with a plan involving a trip to the hardware store. Plus: meet Ron Minis, a musician who figured out how to play the classic guitar solo from Guns 'N' Roses' "Sweet Child O'Mine" despite the fact that he doesn't play guitar,.   Vet invents new procedure to save injured tortoise (FOX 5 San Diego)   Dude Mics A Piano Like A Guitar, Plays GUNS N' ROSES' "Sweet Child O' Mine" Solo (MetalInjection.net)  Cool Weird Awesome is powered by listener support. Join us on Patreon and keep new episodes coming! --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/coolweirdawesome/message

A group of researchers has been looking at the science behind digital pettiness - that’s like if you go out to eat with somebody and then use Paypal or Venmo to send them the exact amount of money to cover your order, down to the penny. Maybe this isn’t a surprise, but the research suggests that if you’re too particular about paying back the exact amount, it can take a toll on your friendships. Maybe you'd be better off taking your friends to the Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, Rhubarb Festival, which is kicking off today. They've even got what they say is the only rhubarb race car derby!    Is the Digital Age Making Us Petty? (Harvard Business School)   Lancaster County Rhubarb Festival    Help keep this podcast cool, weird and awesome by backing us on Patreon! --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/coolweirdawesome/message

Today's the 50th anniversary of an overlooked but important visit to a fairly nasty place… the planet Venus.  The Venera 5 craft isn't well remembered, partly because it only got to do its atmospheric testing for an hour before the hellscape that is the second planet basically wrecked it, but it did teach us some important new things about Venus. In short: a nice planet, but you wouldn't want to live there. You might, though, want to live in McMinnville, Oregon, which is kicking off its annual UFO Festival today, complete with fun run called the Alien Abduction Dash.  Venera 5 (NASA)  Yes, We've Seen the Surface of Venus (Popular Science)  McMinnville OR UFO Festival  This show is listener powered! Back Cool Weird Awesome on Patreon for just $1 a month! --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/coolweirdawesome/message

What’s in a name? That which we call a corpse flower by any other name would smell as bad. The Chicago Botanic Garden has issued a bloom watch for one of its corpse flowers - not humans' favorite scent ever, but still a special occasion, because a corpse flower in the wild only blooms every two to five years. Plus: a college library in Australia evacuates over a suspected gas leak, only to find someone had brought in something that smells even stronger than a corpse flower.  Java 2.0 (Chicago Botanic Garden)  Corpse Flower Timelapse Video (Chicago Botanic Garden)   College library evacuated for gas leak. Turns out it was just the stench of durian — a horrendously smelly fruit (CBS News)  Support this podcast! Back Cool Weird Awesome on Patreon!  --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/coolweirdawesome/message

For this Taco Tuesday we salute the Washington State University researchers behind the latest in electric tongue technology. The virtual tongue system can better distinguish spiciness than human tongues - and for longer periods of time, too. Plus: a visit to Tio’s Tacos in Riverside, California, where the food is memorable, and the decor is unforgettable.  An electric tongue can handle more spicy foods than you can (Science Daily)   Tio's Tacos In Riverside Hides A Vast Outdoor Sculpture Museum (LAist) You can support Cool Weird Awesome for just $1 a month on Patreon! --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/coolweirdawesome/message

Australians have been laughing, cursing, sighing and facepalming over a misspelled word on the newest printing of the Australian $50 dollar note. They left out an I in the word “responsibility,” and no one in the country is apparently missing the irony of misspelling that particular word and not catching it until 46 million of them had been sent out into the financial world.  Creating currency is a complex process, so it’s only natural that there are flaws. Most of the errors get caught before being sent into circulation. But not always. Plus: the best kind of money is found money - unless you're in Grand Haven, Michigan, where a guy who dropped $30,000 in cash is expecting that you return it.  Huge typo spotted on new $50 note (News.com.au) Bank alerted to Joyce coin risk (The Herald of Dublin)  Error Is Human, Pt. 1: Certifiable U.S. Paper Money Errors (Coin Week) "Bugs Bunny"  (Franklin Lover)  People rush to grab whirling cash after $30,000 falls off back of truck (MLive)  Ba

It’s 150 years to the day that the presidents of the Union Pacific and Central Pacific Railroads drove a ceremonial golden spike into the first railroad line to cross North America. That's the big event of the weekend - oh, there's also a thing called Mother's Day? Okay, well for you all let's pay tribute to the Mom For A Minute Subreddit, which provides a virtual Reddit mom for you when your own maternal relationship is unresolved. Plus: the story of writer Dave Wain, who's paying tribute to his recently departed mum by live-tweeting her amazing collection of raunchy e-books using the hashtag #MumsKindleOdyssey.  The golden spike turns 150 (Visit Salt Lake)    Visit This Subreddit When You Need a Mom but Don't Have a Supportive One (Lifehacker)   Mum’s Kindle Odyssey (Dave Wain on Twitter)  Help make Cool Weird Awesome as a backer on Patreon!  --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/coolweirdawesome/message

Ralph Baer invented home video games from his workshop in Manchester, New Hampshire - and now the city is honoring this gaming pioneer with a "Baer Square," complete with a statue, in a city park. Plus: this weekend, a place called the Maritime Republic of Eastport in Annapolis is holding "the least challenging athletic event ever conceived." It's a race that's one-twentieth of a kilometer long.  The Father of the Video Game: The Ralph Baer Prototypes and Electronic Games (Smithsonian Museum of American History)  Tomorrow Ralph Baer gets his own park in Manchester NH (GraniteGeek)  World’s Least Challenging Athletic Event Ever (The Travel 100)  Cool Weird Awesome is listener powered. Back us today on Patreon!  --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/coolweirdawesome/message

The story of the whale wearing a GoPro that might be some kind of Russian surveillance agent is pretty wild, but it's not even close to the first time governments have turned to animals for surveillance purposes. In the Cold War, the CIA tried to train a cat to infiltrate the Soviet Embassy in DC - sadly, they did not name it Felis Leiter. Plus: the audio phenomenon known as the "cocktail party effect" is not just for humans. Dogs have it too! Which means dogs should come to cocktail parties way more often.  That Time the CIA Bugged a Cat to Spy on the Soviets (The Atlantic)  The ‘Russian spy whale’ has plenty of historical company (Financial Times) Dogs can tune out noise, just like people at cocktail parties (National Geographic) You can support Cool Weird Awesome on Patreon!  --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/coolweirdawesome/message

The new film “Recorder: The Marion Stokes Project" tells the story of a Philadelphia librarian and activist who spent decades recording every TV program she possibly could. She left 70,000 videocassettes in all, which is now being digitized to help us fill in some fascinating gaps in mass media history. Plus: the story of a man whose windshield was smashed by a flying turtle. And no, it wasn't a real-life game of Mario Kart.  Tribeca Film Review: ‘Recorder: The Marion Stokes Project’ (Variety)  'It just flung into my windshield': Turtle smashes into car in South Carolina (WAVY) Support Cool Weird Awesome with $1 a month on Patreon! --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/coolweirdawesome/message

Today is the 25th anniversary of the formal opening of the Channel Tunnel, a 31.4 mile long, mostly undersea rail tunnel connecting the city of Calais in northern France with the English town of Folkestone, Kent. The commemoration ceremony was a diplomatic coup but an engineer's nightmare: they had to run a train carrying Queen Elizabeth II and a train with French President Francois Mitterand toward each other... on the same track. Plus: a look at how the designers of the world's longest road tunnel -  the Laerdal Tunnel in Norway - made sure drivers wouldn't get bored and nod off on their 15 mile journey underground.  The Channel Tunnel: 20 fascinating facts (Telegraph UK)  10 Strange Structural Engineering Marvels: Laerdal Tunnel (HowStuffWorks)  Back Cool Weird Awesome for $1 a month on Patreon! --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/coolweirdawesome/message

The Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles is about to open a new exhibit 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" - this is your chance.  Plus:  a guy in Arizona tries to skirt the carpool lane rules with a scheme that could have come straight out of one of the "Mannequin" movie franchise.  Check out Batman’s and Marty McFly’s rides at the Petersen Museum (Ars Technica)  Man busted driving with mannequin in carpool lane (WJBF) Cool Weird Awesome is listener powered. Back this show on Patreon! --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/coolweirdawesome/message