Cool Weird Awesome With Brady Carlson

Earlier this month a prototype mower in Germany set a new world record by going from zero to 100 miles an hour in 6.29 seconds… while still cutting grass! Not bad for an invention that's not even 200 years old. Plus: this weekend is the grand finale of the annual Toilet Paper Wedding Dress Contest in New York City, which is... exactly what its name suggests. Lawnmower sets acceleration speed record in Germany (UPI)  The History Of The American Lawnmower (CBS News) A Brief History of the Lawnmower (Popular Mechanics) British Lawnmower Museum   The 2019 Toilet Paper Wedding Dress Contest   We will let you on our lawn if you back Cool Weird Awesome on Patreon!  --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/coolweirdawesome/message

Bycatch is what fishing boats catch that they're not trying to catch. It's bad for them, their nets and the bycatch - especially for turtles, which are difficult to disentangle from gillnets. But new research suggests illuminating nets with LED lights may warn turtles away and reduce bycatch. Plus:  the floating ball challenge is a sight to behold: a boxer keeping a 20 pound medicine ball floating on the power of his punches. Illuminated Nets Could Provide A Brighter Future For Sea Turtles (NOAA)  Floating Medicine Ball (The Awesomer)  Back Cool Weird Awesome on Patreon today!  --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/coolweirdawesome/message

Juneteenth is the annual celebration of the end of the institution of slavery. Today we give some props to the African-Americans who have built the holiday over the year, including the Texan-turned-San Franciscan who used to don his ten-gallon hat and ride his horse through town as part of the festivities. Plus: if you like celebrations, why not try the Midnight Sun Festival in Nome, Alaska? It's the kind of party that would go on all night... if they had night this time of year.  What Is Juneteenth? (PBS)   Late to Freedom's Party, Texans Spread Word of Black Holiday (New York Times) Emancipation Park (City of Houston, Texas) Nome Midnight Sun Festival (Alaska.org) Celebrate Cool Weird Awesome as a backer on Patreon! --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/coolweirdawesome/message

Guitar great Peter Frampton starts his farewell concert tour, which means if you want to hear him use that famous voice box in “Do You Feel Like We Do," now's the time to do it. How does that talk box work, anyway? Plus: meet Ahmed Ali, a graduation speaker in Minneapolis with a very unique voice.  How Talk Boxes Work (HowStuffWorks) Retro Guitar Effects: Meet the Sonovox, Grandfather of the Talk Box (Guitar World) A first for MPS as 21-year-old gives unique graduation speech (KARE11) If you want to tell us you love our way, back Cool Weird Awesome on Patreon! --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/coolweirdawesome/message

The  University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology - known better as the Penn Museum - needed to move its most famous object, a 3,000 year old Egyptian sphinx, from a gallery to the main hall as part of a renovation project. The move was only 300 feet - but the sphinx happens to weigh 12.5 tons - so it took three days to get from point A to point B. Plus: a regional minister in Pakistan livestreamed his news conference on social media... with the cat filter accidentally turned on.  A monumental move for the Penn Museum’s iconic sphinx (University of Pennsylvania)   Pakistani politician livestreams press conference with 'cat filter' on by mistake (Telegraph UK)   Our backers are monumental! Support this show on Patreon! --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/coolweirdawesome/message

Sorry, Simpsons fans: the world's greatest burper is neither "The Critic" Jay Sherman nor Eudora Welty, but an Italian guy in a wrestling mask who calls himself Rutt Mysterio. Plus: for Father's Day weekend, the story of the only time in big league history when father and son hit back-to-back home runs. Longest burp (Guinness World Records)  This undisputed burping master will blow your mind away (YouTube)  Sept. 14, 1990: When the Griffeys made history with back-to-back homers (The Sporting News) Be as cool as a cool dad when you back Cool Weird Awesome on Patreon!  --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/coolweirdawesome/message

The Songwriters Hall of Fame is inducting Yusuf Cat Stevens for his classic, mostly acoustic songs like "Moonshadow," "Peace Train" and "Wild World." But did you also know that Yusuf Cat Stevens was a pioneer in electronic music with his 1977 song "Was Dog A Doughnut?" Plus: Avon, Ohio, the Duct Tape Capital of the World, is kicking off this year's Avon Heritage Duct Tape Festival today.  Key Tracks: Cat Stevens’ “Was Dog a Doughnut?” (Red Bull Music Academy)   Avon Heritage Duck Tape Festival Cool Weird Awesome is being followed by a moonshadow - and it's backed by listeners like you on Patreon! --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/coolweirdawesome/message

Autonomous robot boats are a thing! Over time, researchers have taught them to row themselves gently down the stream and to connect to each other autonomously - soon they could help clean the water or even turn themselves into temporary footbridges. Plus: a band in Mexico knew just what to do when the mall they were playing in started to flood. Celine would have been proud.  Autonomous boats can target and latch onto each other (MIT)  As heavy rain floods shopping center, musicians play Titanic theme (Mexico News Daily) Keep Cool Weird Awesome exciting and new as a backer on Patreon! --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/coolweirdawesome/message

We may be taking a big step forward in the effort to stop food waste!  A research team at Imperial College London has developed food freshness sensors that can be embedded in the packaging of meat and fish and detect the gases that show up when food spoils. Plus: if you like sensors, check out the  2019 Sensors Expo and Conference later this month in San Jose, California. It's even got an awards show! Food freshness sensors could replace ‘use-by’ dates to cut food waste (Imperial College London)  Sensors Expo and Conference 2019   I sense you want to back Cool Weird Awesome on Patreon! --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/coolweirdawesome/message

Last week Southern California saw a bloom of ladybugs so big it showed up on radar! As it turns out, there's a whole field of science called aeroecology that's using our increasingly accurate radar to track insects, birds and bats. Plus: ladybugs have had a lot of names over the years, including - for whatever reason - bishops!  High-flying ladybug swarm shows up on National Weather Service radar (Los Angeles Times)   'Aeroecology' uses radar to track flying animals (BBC)  Meteorologist reveals cause of colorful 100-mile-wide "cloud" over Denver (CBS News) Why Birds Make Weird Circles on Weather Radars (Vice)  Ladybirds, ladybugs, and… cows? (Oxford Dictionaries) Let's make a swarm of support for Cool Weird Awesome on Patreon!    --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/coolweirdawesome/message

Today is the start of the Banana Split Festival in Wilmington, Ohio, where the banana split was born. Of course, if you were in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, locals would point out their town had banana splits three years before Wilmington. Plus: the mind-melting TV show known as the Banana Splits Adventure Hour was actually supposed to have an entirely different name! Wilmington Banana Split Festival   Birthplace of the Banana Split (Ohio Magazine) The Banana Split: A Rich History (Pennsylvania Center for the Book)  10 tra la la true facts about the Banana Splits (MeTV)   Backing Cool Weird Awesome on Patreon is sweet! --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/coolweirdawesome/message

Researchers at Washington State University say they’ve found a way to make jet fuel out of something the world throws out in great quantities every day: household plastic. Plus:  something you might want to fly overseas and check out is the new Easy-E memorial bench that for some reason is in Newhaven, in southern England.  Plastic water bottles may one day fly people cross-country (Washington State University)  Eazy-E seaside memorial bench in Newhaven (UK) unveiled (BBC)   It's easy to back Cool Weird Awesome on Patreon! --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/coolweirdawesome/message

Storm damage isn't cool, weird or awesome, but the ways we spot storms and warn people about them are pretty great. And they've come a long way from the time when the US Army Signal Corps banned anyone from using the word “tornado” in forecasts so as not to scare the public! Plus: the story of an engagement between two storm chasers that will literally blow you away. Illinois Tornadoes Prior to 1916 (Illinois State Water Survey)  History of Tornado Forecasting (NOAA)  Storm chaser proposes to boyfriend as Kansas tornado looms (NBC News)   Part the clouds of modern media by backing Cool Weird Awesome on Patreon! --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/coolweirdawesome/message

Attractions - especially weird ones - are a time-honored way to drum up business from people who are at best casual baseball fans, and lately that's extended to team names, including the Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp, the Vermont Lake Monsters, the Binghamton Rumble Ponies and the Rocket City Trash Pandas.  Plus: the tale of Peter Williams, who in 1972 won the Wisconsin state long jump championship "by accident."  Minor League Baseball is swinging big and going weird with new team names (Mashable)  Let's break down all 160 Minor League team names (MLB.com)  Timber Rattlers to Play as Udder Tuggers June 20 (Ballpark Digest) How an Oakfield farm boy won the 1972 state long jump title by accident, wearing a Mickey Mouse T-shirt (Fond du Lac Reporter)  Join the Cool Weird Awesome team as a backer on Patreon! --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/coolweirdawesome/message

A project to build a clock that will run for 10,000 years got us thinking about how we measure time - and amazingly, 10,000 years is more time than has passed since the invention of hours, minutes and seconds. Plus: a quick look at the shortest official measurement in science,  which is so short that, ironically, there isn't enough time to try to explain it on our show.  Objects of Despair: The 10,000-Year Clock (The Paris Review)  Why is a minute divided into 60 seconds, an hour into 60 minutes, yet there are only 24 hours in a day? (Scientific American)  Planck Time (The SAO Encyclopedia of Astronomy) Take some time to back Cool Weird Awesome on Patreon! --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/coolweirdawesome/message

It's the 200th birthday of Walt Whitman, the poet best known for his landmark work Leaves of Grass... and the guy who anonymously wrote glowing reviews of his own writing in the newspapers of the day.  Plus: Plymouth, North Carolina is hosting the North Carolina Black Bear Festival, which makes sense because the city bills itself as the originator of National Black Bear Day.  "Walt Whitman and His Poems" by Walt Whitman (Whitman Archive) “Promoting Himself” (Library of Congress)  North Carolina Black Bear Festival  Cool Weird Awesome is listener-supported! Back this show on Patreon today! --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/coolweirdawesome/message

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