Cool Weird Awesome With Brady Carlson

The Lee Maxwell Washing Machine Museum in Eaton, Colorado, is facing an uncertain future. Its namesake wants to pass on his collection of some 1,600 machines to the next generation. Hopefully someone takes him up on that offer, because there’s a lot of history here. Plus: the Lumberjack World Championships begin in Hayward, Wisconsin, and we go for the obvious Monty Python reference in describing the event.  The Secret History of Washing Machines (Popular Mechanics) Lumberjack World Championships    I'm a Cool Weird Awesome backer on Patreon, and I'm ok  --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/coolweirdawesome/message

Someday, smart speakers might be able to sound off if we don’t sound quite ourselves. Researchers at the University of Alberta have been working on a way for AI to detect depression through voice recordings. Plus: Today in 1989 is when Nintendo brought the US the Game Boy, the landmark portable video game system that made black and green displays cool again.   Sound mind: Detecting depression through voice (University of Alberta)  10 Amazing Facts About the Game Boy You Didn't Know (Houston Press) Back Cool Weird Awesome for just $1 a month on Patreon! --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/coolweirdawesome/message

Trailblazing journalist Nellie Bly once feigned severe mental illness to expose abuses at an asylum from the inside. New York City is now putting up a monument in her honor on the site where the asylum once stood. Plus: today is the birthday of the Trans-Canada Highway, which runs from St. John’s Newfoundland to Victoria, British Columbia. If my math is right, you could listen to like 1,600 episodes of this show while driving from one end to the other.  Journalist Nellie Bly Will Receive a Monument on the Grounds of the Asylum She Helped Close (Hyperallergic) Trans-Canada Highway (The Canadian Encyclopedia) Backing Cool Weird Awesome on Patreon would be... monumental!  --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/coolweirdawesome/message

Last week the organizers of the 2020 Olympic Games revealed that 100 percent of the gold, silver and bronze used to create the Olympic medals is recycled - the metal comes from used cell phones. But the ancient Olympians got olive branches as prizes. Why is it that we have Olympic medals in the first place? Plus: today,  Louisville, Kentucky hosts the World Championship Dainty Contest!   The Games: A Global History of the Olympics by David Goldblatt (W.W. Norton & Co)  Tokyo 2020 Olympic medals made from 80,000 tons of recycled mobile phones, electronics (USA Today)  Olympic Medals (Olympic.org) 49th annual Dainty Contest set for Monday, July 29, in Schnitzelburg (Insider Louisville)  Go for the gold as one of Cool Weird Awesome's backers on Patreon! --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/coolweirdawesome/message

The National Postal Museum in Washington, DC, has an exhibit telling the story of Owney, the dog who loved the mail so much that he helped deliver it all over the world.  Plus: Freeman, South Dakota is holding its annual Chislic Festival, a two day celebration of cubed meat on a stick. (Sorry, dogs aren't allowed.)  The National Postal Museum tells the history of America through moon mail, rare stamps, and one taxidermy dog (Roadtrippers)  The History of Owney the Postal Dog, Mascot of the Railway Mail Service (USPS Blog)  South Dakota Chislic Festival  Patreon backers are Cool Weird Awesome's best friends! --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/coolweirdawesome/message

Whenever a new Prime Minister takes office in the UK, the first question many people ask is: what happens to the cat living at the official residence at 10 Downing Street? We'll look at some of the most famous felines to ever hold the title  Chief Mouser to the Cabinet Office. Plus: for reasons only known to mascots, the New Jersey Devil ran out of a game of parachute at a kid's birthday party and ran into a plate glass window. Which broke.   Downing Street Cats (and other British Government felines) (Purr-n-Fur UK)    The new PM's first job: Impress the cat (BBC)   Home Office cat history revealed (BBC)  Cats that left a mark in the corridors of power (Telegraph UK via Internet Archive)  New Jersey Devils Mascot Runs Through Window At Boy’s Birthday Party (Huffington Post)  Even the most passive-aggressive cat in the world knows you should back Cool Weird Awesome on Patreon!  --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/coolweirdawesome/message

There’s a quadcopter drone that uses spring-loaded arms and a process called "rapid aerial morphing" to fold itself up as it flies. So we’re a step closer to real-life Transformers. Plus: the story of the all-robot band Compressorhead, whose members twist and turn their mechanical parts so they can ROCK! Spring-Loaded Drone Collapses Mid-Flight to Zip Through Windows (IEEE Spectrum)  Compressorhead (Weirdest Band In The World)  Support Cool Weird Awesome for just $1 a month as a backer on Patreon!  --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/coolweirdawesome/message

Lots of parents multitask but Cynthia Arnold is completely off the charts, having just run the Missoula Marathon while pushing a triple stroller containing her three kids. Meanwhile, Tony Fisher bought some salami and did the only logical thing with it: construct a 2x2x2 Rubik’s Cube out of it. Hooray for marathon and/or meat-based puzzle achievers! Mom Runs 3:11 Marathon With a Triple Stroller While Pushing 185 Pounds (Runners World) Real Salami Sausage 2x2x2 Rubik’s Cube (Tony Fisher on YouTube)  Go the extra mile with Cool Weird Awesome as a backer on Patreon! --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/coolweirdawesome/message

The website and book Sad Topographies teaches us that our planet is home to some unusually-named places, like Gloomy Lake in Ontario, Divorce Beach in Mexico, New Jersey’s Shades of Death Road (!) and a spot in Washington state known as Point No Point. Plus:  the annual World Santa Claus Congress is getting underway in Denmark. Watch for some serious Santa-to-Santa networking. 21 Of The Saddest Places On Earth From Instagram’s sadtopographies (Brilliant Maps)  Shades of Death Road (Weird NJ)  Washington State’s bummer place names, mapped (Curbed Seattle)  World Santa Claus Congress  Feeling bummed out by sad place names? Backing Cool Weird Awesome on Patreon could help you feel better. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/coolweirdawesome/message

50 years ago, the BBC brought in the band known for playing space rock to improvise on-air for its coverage of the Apollo 11 mission. Pink Floyd guitarist David Gilmour said, accurately, that  “the programming was a little looser in those days.” Plus: it's been 25 years since the time that Pizza Hut produced an ad for UK television in which all the dialogue was in Klingon.   My moon-landing jam session (The Guardian) 13 Minutes To The Moon (BBC) Watch this fantastic 1994 Pizza Hut TV commercial that's entirely in Klingon (Boing Boing) And if the band you're in starts playing different tunes, see you on the Cool Weird Awesome Patreon page! --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/coolweirdawesome/message

On this day in 1912, the birth of the greatest athlete you might never have heard of - Olympic silver medalist and community advocate Mack Robinson. His brother, Jackie, is better known, but there's a reason their hometown of Pasadena, California installed bronze busts of both brothers outside City Hall. Plus, a new study out of Harvard asks the important question: do runners actually go faster by bending their arms as they race? Two Lives After Losing to Jesse Owens (New York TImes) Matthew MacKenzie “Mack” Robinson (1912-2000) (BlackPast.org) Running with your arms bent does not make you go any faster than with straight arms, Harvard study finds (Yahoo! News) Run on over to Patreon and back Cool Weird Awesome!  --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/coolweirdawesome/message

Veggies are good for us - but some households can’t buy them, and others don’t want to. What is it that will get eaters more interested in buying and eating their vegetables? One answer may be: the color black. Plus: the Vent Haven International Ventriloquist Convention is getting underway today in Erlanger, Kentucky.  Backed in Black: How to get people to buy more produce (Brigham Young University) Vent Haven International Ventriloquist Convention Back Cool Weird Awesome on Patreon, it's good for you! --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/coolweirdawesome/message

A growing number of people are heading to the airport not to catch flights, but just to hang out at the airport itself. And why not, given how many cool amenities airports have added over the years? Plus: a top destination for Instagram travelers is maybe not quite what it appears to be.  Airports Open Up to Terminal Tourists Who Just Want to Hang Out (Bloomberg Quint)  Nine weird and wonderful airport amenities (The Independent) Instagrammers Are Swarming This Turquoise Lake. It's Actually A Toxic Dump. (Buzzfeed) Back this show on Patreon, it'll look great on your Instagram.  --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/coolweirdawesome/message

Going over Niagara Falls with or without a barrel is a bad idea and you shouldn't do it. It’s safer, easier and a lot more fun to cross over the bridge between Niagara Falls, New York and Niagara Falls, Ontario - or, if you’re a daredevil, to cross the falls themselves on a tightrope, as Nik Wallenda did in 2012. Plus: the story of the time 50 years ago that Niagara Falls stopped falling. Man who went over Niagara Falls may have been saved by high water levels (Buffalo News)   Daredevil completes walk across Niagara Falls (CNN) The Year The Army Stopped Niagara Falls (Gizmodo) Keep Cool Weird Awesome running as long as NIagara Falls as a backer on Patreon!  --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/coolweirdawesome/message

Coffee grounds can be recycled in all kinds of ways, including lots of products. And the most meta product of all is from KaffeeForm, which uses coffee grounds to make coffee cups. Plus: if you can't wait a couple years for the Little Mermaid remake, why not head to Sacramento for the California Mermaid Festival?  6 Amazing products made (almost) entirely from recycled coffee grounds (Inhabitat) California Mermaid Festival Make Cool Weird Awesome a part of your world as a backer on Patreon!  --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/coolweirdawesome/message

Wisconsin’s most fearsome folk monster been in Harry Potter and tangled with the Scooby Gang, but the Hodag is beloved in the community of Rhinelander, where it's the high school team mascot and there are many Hodags to find around town. Plus: it's  a big day in the community of Joensuu, Finland: the first-ever World Heavy Metal Knitting Championships!   The Legend Of The Hodag (Wisconsin Life)  World Heavy Metal Knitting Championships  Back Cool Weird Awesome on Patreon! --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/coolweirdawesome/message

Patrouille Swiss is the official aerial acrobatics team for Switzerland. Last weekend they were in fine form as they flew over the community of Langenbruck for a festival honoring a local aviation hero... except for one thing: they weren’t actually over Langenbruck. Plus: New York City is now home to  Poster House, the first American museum that’s fully about posters and their history.   Swiss aerial display team flies over yodeling festival by mistake (Deutsche Welle) WoodyFest in Okemah, OK   Poster House Is the First Museum in the United States Dedicated Exclusively to Posters   Help Cool Weird Awesome soar to new heights as a backer on Patreon! --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/coolweirdawesome/message

In Japan, there's a little white robot swimming through rice fields, imitating a duck! It's actually helping to grow the rice by aerating the water and stopping weeds from growing. Plus: if you prefer non-robotic ducks, then you’ve got some options with the World’s Largest Rubber Duck, which is on tour this summer. Nissan Builds Robot Duck To Help Rice Farmers Keep Weeds Out Of Their Paddies (Designboom) World’s Largest Rubber Duck Quack - er, back - this show on Patreon! --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/coolweirdawesome/message

 Taco Bell says it’s been dealing with a tortilla shortage. Those craving inexpensive tacos and burritos at odd hours are bearing the brunt of this crisis, but it’s affecting all of us - after all, tortillas have been a part of our culinary lives for thousands of years. Plus: the story of a man who brought a great deal of change to Phoenix, Arizona - literally. Taco Bell restaurants hit by tortilla shortage that is affecting burritos and quesadillas (USA Today) Testin’ Tortillas in San Antonio: From Moctezuma to Mass Production (San Antonio Current) Food For Space Flight (NASA)  Arizona man builds pyramid out of 1 million pennies in world record attempt (New York Post)  You can back Cool Weird Awesome on Patreon for less than the cost of a taco a month!  --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/coolweirdawesome/message

It’s day one of the Roswell UFO Festival in New Mexico. Whatever happened there in 1947, the incident put Roswell on the map - and other towns that have their own UFO stories have been increasingly playing up those stories, including through historic markers. Plus: this weekend, Sheboygan, Wisconsin will race thousands of rubber ducks down the Sheboygan River in the Ducktona 500.  Roswell UFO Festival   Historical marker commemorates reported alien abduction (Tuscaloosa News) Betty And Barney Hill UFO Abduction Story Commemorated On Official N.H. Highway Plaque (Huffington Post) Reward offered for return of stolen UFO alien grave marker in Texas (Fort Worth Star-Telegram)  Ducktona 500    Back Cool Weird Awesome on Patreon and we'll protect you from UFOs! Or something.  --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/coolweirdawesome/message