Cool Weird Awesome With Brady Carlson

The U.S. had flagpole sitting a century ago, but the Netherlands has Paalzitten, a sport in which people try to outlast each other sitting on poles. It can get competitive, though finding a crowd to watch people sitting on poles can be tricky. Plus: on National Bird Day, we pay tribute to the shoebill, a large bird that looks a bit like a pelican crossed with a dragon.  St. Simeon Stylites (Britannica) In the Netherlands Sitting on a Pole for Hours on End Is a Competitive Sport (Oddity Central) The Shoebill: Or, the Most Terrifying Bird in the World (Audubon) We would sit on a pole for our Patreon backers! --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/coolweirdawesome/message

Today is (we think) the birthday of Victor Lustig, perhaps the most notorious scammer of all time. He swindled Al Capone once and "sold" the Eiffel Tower twice! Plus: if you need help relaxing these days, try the ambient soundscapes of Swiss artist Zimoun. The Man Who Sold the Eiffel Tower. Twice. (Smithsonian) Smooth Operator: How Victor Lustig Sold The Eiffel Tower (Mental Floss) Sound Sculptures (Nag on the Lake) Join our listener-powered podcast as a backer on Patreon!  --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/coolweirdawesome/message

On this day in 1993, two new countries were born out of the dissolution of Czechoslovakia. The Czech Republic and Slovakia spent months negotiating all of the old country's assets, even which side got which verses of the national anthem. Plus: many of us have tried to learn new skills during our extra time at home. Anna Chojnicka was one of them, and the skill she chose was to make art out of bananas. Czechs consider national anthem update (BBC) Amazing Banana Art Made by Poking and Bruising the Skin, No Ink is Used (The Sifter) Our Patreon backers are set to get an exclusive bonus episode on Saturday, join them!  --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/coolweirdawesome/message

A paleoanthrological study in the caves of Atapuerca, Spain, finds that hundreds of thousands of years ago, human ancestors tried something along the lines of hibernation, holing up in the caves for months during winter. It didn't go all that well, though. Plus: you've heard of the ball drop on New Year's Eve in Times Square. But have you heard of the new year's pickle drop in Mt. Olive, North Carolina?  Humans Used to Be Able to Hibernate, Evidence Suggests (Popular Mechanics) This Town Celebrates New Year's Eve With A Pickle Drop (Delish) Happy new year to all, but especially to our backers on Patreon! --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/coolweirdawesome/message

If one of your new year’s resolutions is to see if you can cut down on your energy use, this might be a way to do it: a tabletop laundry dryer that can finish a cycle in just 15 minutes. Plus: ever tried listening to a record made of chocolate? You can.  This Tabletop Clothes Dryer Uses Vacuum Dehydration Technology To Dry Clothes In 15 Minutes (Yanko Design) Playing a Chocolate Record (Techmoan on YouTube) The warmest people in the world are our Patreon backers --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/coolweirdawesome/message

A new study from researchers at Aoyama Gakuin University and Osaka University finds that something interesting happens when we’re trying not to reveal something: our perception of time slows down. Plus: MIT physicists have designed a model for a super-accurate atomic clock that even accounts for quantum physics.  New psychology research confirms that time slows down when you are concealing something (PsyPost) New type of atomic clock keeps time even more precisely (MIT News) It's time for you to join our amazing backers on Patreon! --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/coolweirdawesome/message

On this day in 1973, something happened aboard the Skylab space station. Depending on who you talk to, it was somewhere between a "sensitivity session" between astronauts and ground crew, and a full-on space mutiny. Plus: Japanese Lego artist Jumpei Mitsui just created an all-brick version of Hokusai's famous print "The Great Wave off Kanagawa." The Real Story of the Skylab 4 “Strike” in Space (NASA) Did Skylab 4's Astronauts Really Go On Strike? (Atlas Obscura) Column: The day when three NASA astronauts staged a strike in space (Los Angeles Times) Japanese LEGO Artist Reimagines Hokusai's 'The Great Wave off Kanagawa' (Interesting Engineering) It's all for one and one for all with our backers on Patreon, join us! --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/coolweirdawesome/message

Ever tried to re-gift a present you didn't need? Two brothers-in-law kept giving each other the same pair of pants for decades - and in increasingly complicated wrappings. Plus: ever hear about the time Alex Trebek walked onto the Jeopardy! set without pants?  Brothers Traded Moleskin Pants as an Annual Christmas Gift (Snopes) Jeopardy! Flashback: Alex Trebek Without Pants (Jeopardy!) --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/coolweirdawesome/message

Why does NORAD watch Santa Claus on Christmas Eve, while watching for missiles and bombers the rest of the time? It all started when an ad for a Santa Claus hotline accidentally published a military hotline number during the Cold War. Plus: a gag gift known as the "Nothing Box" was maybe one present that wasn't supposed to travel through the skies at Christmastime.  NORAD Santa Tracker: 64-year-old tradition started with wrong number (KKTV) The Nothing Box (Weird Universe) Hope you have a Christmas Eve that's as great as our Patreon backers!  --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/coolweirdawesome/message

In 1843, British civil servant Henry Cole wanted a way to send holiday greetings to friends, colleagues and loved ones without having to write letter after letter. And that's where commercial Christmas cards began. Plus: did you know that chili pepper plants were once considered just as festive as poinsettias? Dear (Whoever You Are), Here’s the First Christmas Card (Library of Congress) Intriguing stories served fresh daily When the Christmas Plant Was a Pepper, Not a Poinsettia (Atlas Obscura) Our Patreon backers are definitely holiday card-worthy --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/coolweirdawesome/message

For centuries, mistletoe has been a symbol of holiday love, renewal and fertility. Even though it's actually a parasite that steals nutrients from trees. Plus: a poinsettia in the suburbs of Montreal has gone from half-dead to entirely huge!  This Is Why We Kiss Under the Mistletoe (Readers Digest) 'Crappy half-dead' poinsettia from grocery store just won't stop growing (CBC) Our backers on Patreon are the ones who make this show grow! --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/coolweirdawesome/message

It was today in 1913 that the first modern crossword puzzle was published in the New York World newspaper, eventually leading to a craze that cruciverbalists all over the world have been enjoying ever since. Plus: an invention that didn’t last as long as the crossword - though it was designed to.  100 years of crosswords: the first appeared in New York on 21.12.1913 (The Guardian) Crossword Puzzles (Quartz Obsession) The Doomsday Diet (Eater) The seven-letter word that makes this show possible: Backers --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/coolweirdawesome/message

It's Full Color Week, where we’re replaying some of our favorite episodes about color. In this episode from October 2020, scientists at Purdue University have a way to help keep us cool to the point that  we might not even need air conditioning, and all it takes is a fresh coat of a special paint. Plus: the town of Asbestos, Quebec has finally chosen a new name! New 'Super-White' Paint Can Cool Down Buildings and Cars (Interesting Engineering) Goodbye Asbestos, hello Val-des-Sources: Que. town changing infamous name (CBC) Our backers on Patreon are really, really bright --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/coolweirdawesome/message

It's Full Color Week, where we’re replaying some of our favorite episodes about color. In this episode from October 2020, we look at the days when auto workers spray painted new vehicles, and 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 Mold Of Your Own Face (Make) Together, Cool Weird Awesome and our backers on Patreon can make great art - join us! --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/coolweirdawesome/message

It's Full Color Week, where we’re replaying some of our favorite episodes about color. In this episode from August 2020, chemists at Indiana University and the University of Copenhagen have found a way to make the brightest fluorescent materials ever made. Plus: for World Elephant Day, meet Lucy, the elephant-shaped hotel on the Jersey Shore. Chemists create the brightest-ever fluorescent materials (Phys.org) World Elephant Day Stay Overnight in Lucy, an Elephant-Shaped Hotel on the New Jersey Shore (Untapped Cities) Bright idea: join us as a Cool Weird Awesome backer on Patreon --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/coolweirdawesome/message

It's Full Color Week, where we’re replaying some of our favorite episodes about color. In this episode from July 2020, we're talking about Vantablack, a color that’s so black it absorbs almost all of the  light nearby. There’s new research out about a “vantafish” that does  almost the same thing to avoid its hungry bioluminescent neighbors.  Plus: you’ve heard of drive-in theaters; Paris is going to have a  “float-in” theater featuring “socially distanced boats” on the Seine. Vantablack? Meh. Meet the Ultra-Black Vantafish (Wired) Floating Movie Theater With Socially Distant Boats Set for Paris (Interesting Engineering) Back the only podcast that can make a Spinal Tap reference AND a Rebecca Black reference in its first 30 seconds! --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/coolweirdawesome/message

It's Full Color Week, where we’re replaying some of our favorite episodes about color. In this episode from September 2019, we look at how paintings made with Day Glo paint are losing their glow over time. Conservationists don’t yet  know how to solve this puzzle, but we do at least know how Day Glo got started. Plus: meet a color that absorbs 99.995 percent of incoming  light. Even Nigel Tufnel would say that’s pretty black. Day-Glo masterpieces are fading. A conservator and her team are racing to save them (Los Angeles Times) How DayGlo Went From Utility Pigment to Design World Darling (AIGA Eye on Design) Engineers Just Unveiled a New Blackest-Ever Material, Even Darker Than Vantablack (Science Alert) Make life more colorful when you back Cool Weird Awesome on Patreon --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/coolweirdawesome/message

A Spanish tech startup called Bioo has built an installation in which plants serve as the keys of a kind of "green piano." Plus: for International Mountain Day, a look at some of the peaks with more down-to-earth names.  Ethereal Sounds Are Emanating From the World’s First ‘Piano’ Made From Plants (GoodNewsNetwork) 11 Summits with Outrageous Names (Backpacker) Climb every mountain, ford every stream as a Cool Weird Awesome backer on Patreon! --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/coolweirdawesome/message

Today's the birthday of Ada Lovelace, known as the first computer programmer. She also dreamed up the idea of generating music through a computer program, so if you've ever made music with a synthesizer, you're following in her footsteps. Plus: today's the anniversary of the day Wyoming passed its first-of-a-kind law guaranteeing women could vote and hold office.  Remembering Ada Lovelace, computer-music prognosticator (Boston Globe) Wyoming marks 150 years since first US law empowering women to vote (Travel Wyoming) Back our show on Patreon for just $1 a month!  --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/coolweirdawesome/message

Today in 1953, two NHL teams racked up a then-record 204 penalty minutes, in a game that’s officially 60 minutes long. Hockey is a rough sport. Plus a guitarist in Japan can play blues riffs with a cheerful little parakeet on his hand!  This Day in Hockey History – December 9, 1953 – Canadiens Rhubarb Leafs (The Pink Puck) Guitarist Plays a Rockabilly Riff With Bird on His Hand (Laughing Squid) An exclusive bonus episode is coming soon for our Patreon backers, join today! --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/coolweirdawesome/message