Cool Weird Awesome With Brady Carlson

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 (Ars Technica) 42nd Annual Woolly Worm Festival  Not to bug you, but your support on Patreon would very quickly make a difference for the show! --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/coolweirdawesome/message

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 Her Dreams (Hyperallergic) Melati Suryodarmo: Performance Art as Trigger (Ocula) World Food Championships Backers on Patreon make Cool Weird Awesome's dreams come true! --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/coolweirdawesome/message

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 about it.  World’s Largest Ouija Board Unveiled in Salem, Ma. (Geek.com) History of the Talking Board (Museum of Talking Boards) Curse of the Weggy Board (YouTube) Break on through by backing Cool Weird Awesome on Patreon --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/coolweirdawesome/message

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 bales, from Frankenstein’s monster to Dora the Explorer to Baby Shark.  4 Bizarre Spectacles From History That People Couldn’t Get Enough of (Fodors) Iconic Characters Sculpted Into Halloween Hay Bales (Laughing Squid) Back Cool Weird Awesome on Patreon and I promise not to make a spectacle of myself --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/coolweirdawesome/message

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 Jupiter (Metafilter)   Science Fun Fact (ESA Science) 10 Of The Most Absurd Units Of Measurement On Earth (io9) How long is a jiffy? (Science Focus) Dad Builds Human Claw Machine For Daughter's Birthday (Geekologie) Backing Cool Weird Awesome only takes a jiffy! --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/coolweirdawesome/message

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 Mexican mayor sends life-sized cardboard cutout of himself to an official event he couldn't attend (Daily Mail) ‘David Hasselhoff to go, please’: 550 cardboard cutouts stolen (Los Angeles Times) Back Cool Weird Awesome on Patreon and a cardboard cutout of our host will thank you  --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/coolweirdawesome/message

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 When to Get Off the Mound (IEEE.org) How Smith became "Phenomenal"  (Bob Lemke) Back Cool Weird Awesome on Patreon and together we'll always throw strikes! --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/coolweirdawesome/message

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? (Farmers Almanac) Nendo's 3D-printed bonsai tree does away with need for meticulous maintenance (Dezeen) Don't leaf us without backing the show on Patreon  --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/coolweirdawesome/message

Egyptian fruit bats are known to make a lot of noise while they’re roosting. Scientists at Tel Aviv University have determined that a lot of that noise is bats getting annoyed at other bats. Plus: scientists studying endangered bats in Cuba tag them in a very fancy way, with little bat-manicures! Study of bat vocalizations shows they are communicating with one another (Phys.org) Scientists Gave One of the World’s Rarest Bats a Manicure to Help Save It (Earther) When the bats aren't bickering, they're urging you to back Cool Weird Awesome on Patreon! --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/coolweirdawesome/message

The Soundshirt from high-tech fashion company Cute Circuit has embedded sensors that can sense sound and turn it into vibrations. In other words, it helps deaf people feel music.  And since we're talking about sounds, have you heard the Tiptree Sneeze, where a trombonist let loose in the middle of a concert?  The Soundshirt lets deaf people feel music on their skin (designboom) Man sneezes into his trombone during concert - Tiptree sneeze (YouTube) Tiptree trombone sneeze man tells of 'freak event' (BBC) --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/coolweirdawesome/message

For decades fans of the band KISS have called themselves the KISS Army. But now that they're set to play a concert off the coast of Australia for human and sharks fans, maybe there’s also a KISS Navy? Plus: in Oklahoma, the annual Honobia Bigfoot Festival is getting underway. Kiss to Jump the Shark for Underwater Concert With Great Whites in South Australia (The Wrap) Honobia Bigfoot Festival You were made for backing Cool Weird Awesome on Patreon --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/coolweirdawesome/message

The Smart Can is a motorized, automated trash bin that will drive itself to the curb every week. Which means it's already more motivated about garbage day than I've ever been. Plus: the pinball festival known as PinBaltimore is getting underway in Maryland.  New Automated Trash Can Drives Itself to the Curb on Trash Day (Interesting Engineering)  PinBaltimore It's smart to back Cool Weird Awesome on Patreon. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/coolweirdawesome/message

The 7-10 split is the hardest show in bowling, right? Well, an analysis from 2015 put that to the test - and the results were pretty surprising. Plus: an exhibit at New York's Hall of Science includes more than 100 classic works of art recreated with Legos.  What's the Hardest Shot in Bowling? It's Complicated (Wired) See Lego Versions of the World’s Most Famous Art at New York Hall of Science (Untapped Cities) Backing Cool Weird Awesome on Patreon really ties the room together --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/coolweirdawesome/message

Gavin and Alice Munro run a furniture farm in England. That's right, rather than turning trees into lumber and using that to make chairs, tables and sofas, they shape living trees into furniture, to be more sustainable. Plus: today marks 15 years since the city of Melbourne dedicated a street in honor of the band AC/DC.  UK Couple Growing Furniture On Farm (Huffington Post) Bon Scott sculpture cranks up the rock in Melbourne's AC/DC Lane (Sydney Morning Herald) Backing Cool Weird Awesome on Patreon is something you can do dirt cheap --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/coolweirdawesome/message

A mission to Mars would take years of travel - but today's space food doesn't last long enough. Scientists at Washington State University are working on a way to sterilize and pack food that can last 3-5 years, which is good for astronauts and for any of us who want to survive the zombie apocalypse. Plus: why a man in Vermont just put up a large wooden statue of a raised middle finger.  Getting mac and cheese to Mars (Washington State University) Westford resident gives town the middle finger—and there's nothing anyone can do about it (Burlington Free Press) Give Cool Weird Awesome a thumbs-up as a backer on Patreon! --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/coolweirdawesome/message

The small community of Casey, Illinois is home to the Big Things In A Small Town project - and this weekend someone will win a chance to sit in the world's largest rocking chair. Plus: tomorrow in Boulder City, Nevada, it’s the Wurst Festival. I’m not mocking the event, that's its name.  Here’s your chance to sit on the World’s Largest Rocking Chair, one of many giant attractions in a tiny Illinois town (Roadtrippers) Our Annual Würst Festival Fundraiser  It's the best when you back Cool Weird Awesome on Patreon! --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/coolweirdawesome/message

Richard "Dixie" Blandy called himself the greatest flagpole sitter of all time - they say he spent more time atop flagpoles than most flags. Plus: the Great Basin Astronomy Festival today gets underway, with unusually dark skies and, to our knowledge, no flagpole sitters to obstruct the view. Among Dayton’s colorful characters, he stood above rest (Dayton Daily News) A 1971 pole-sitting champ on the great loneliness of sitting on a pole for 8 months (Splinter News) Great Basin Astronomy Festival (Travel Nevada) Would we sit on a flagpole for your support on Patreon? Yeah, probably. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/coolweirdawesome/message

UCLA is testing a brain implant that takes the images captured by a tiny camera and converts them into electrical impulses that stimulate the part of the brain responsible for sight. It helps blind people detect darkness and lightness, as well as sensing motion. Plus: tomorrow in London, Kentucky, the 30th annual World Chicken Festival gets underway, and it includes the World’s Largest Stainless Steel Skillet.  Brain implant restores visual perception to the blind (UCLA) The origin of the iconic World's Largest Stainless Steel Skillet (Sentinel-Echo) Back Cool Weird Awesome for just $1 a month on Patreon! --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/coolweirdawesome/message

The Straw Vinyl project has lined up some high-profile bands to release limited-edition vinyl records that are made out of plastic harvested from old straws. Then your hipster friends can say they were into keeping straws out of landfills before it was cool. Plus: in London, there's a commemorative manhole cover on the site where sewer authorities vanquished the infamous Whitechapel fatberg.,  Bacardi just found the best use for plastic straws ever—turn them into vinyl records (Fast Company) 'Monster' Whitechapel fatberg unveiled at London museum (BBC) The Whitechapel Fatberg Has Its Own Hidden Memorial (Londonist) You can turn your support on Patreon into new episodes of this show!  --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/coolweirdawesome/message

We always celebrate great space achievements, why not also commemorate some great space screwups? This month marks 60 years since the first time a spacecraft tried to land on the moon but crashed instead. Plus: Mount Airy, NC, where Andy Griffith grew up, is hosting the 30th annual Mayberry Days this week.  India’s Chandrayaan-2 Marks 60 Years of Moon Crashes and Hard Landings (New York Times) Mayberry Days Keep Cool Weird Awesome climbing as a backer on Patreon! --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/coolweirdawesome/message