Cool Weird Awesome – Brady Carlson

Cool Weird Awesome 23: Roombas! In! Spaaaaaaace!

Posted on April 22, 2019
Brady Carlson

Being an astronaut is hard work – not only are you floating up in space, away from the rest of the world, you have a lot of cleaning to do. But there are plans for a new system that would disinfect the interiors of spacecrafts and space stations with ultraviolet lights.

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Cool Weird Awesome 22: What A Time To Be A Hologram

Posted on April 19, 2019
Brady Carlson

Frank Zappa is back out on tour, doing nine shows in the US and seven more in Europe. Now if you’re scratching your head here and saying, wait, isn’t Frank Zappa dead? Well, yes, but this is the era of hologram concert tours, there’s no reason a dearly departed musician can’t step out on stage!

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Cool Weird Awesome 21: Break up with your pension, I’m bored

Posted on April 18, 2019
Brady Carlson

Everything is connected to everything else – and there’s no better example of that than this week’s news that a song by Ariana Grande is putting money into the state pension program in Michigan.

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Cool Weird Awesome 20: I’m Going Out For A Scent

Posted on April 17, 2019April 17, 2019
Brady Carlson

Tired? Smoke breaks. Inspired? Scent breaks. Researchers from the University of Pittsburgh and Brown University are looking at whether pleasant smells can help curb cravings for nicotine.

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Cool Weird Awesome 19: The Long Lost Heads of Notre Dame

Posted on April 16, 2019April 17, 2019
Brady Carlson

If you’re mourning Notre Dame cathedral today, well, you’re not the only one. Here’s a story from its long history that might make you feel a little more hopeful.

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Cool Weird Awesome 18: Bess and Taxes

Posted on April 15, 2019
Brady Carlson

Tax Day gives a lot of us the blues – which, as it turns out, actually kind of works. April 15th is the birthday of the Empress of the Blues, Bessie Smith.

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Cool Weird Awesome 17: You Call This Archaeology?

Posted on April 12, 2019April 13, 2019
Brady Carlson

During the Cold War, the CIA flew U2 planes all over the globe, to see what the Soviets were up to. Two researchers just went back through those photos for archaeology’s sake – and found a lot.

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Cool Weird Awesome 16: This One Goes Out To All My Peeps

Posted on April 11, 2019
Brady Carlson

The surest sign of spring is neither the calendar nor the weather. It’s the reappearance of Peeps, which are the stuff of candy and cultural legend now.

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Cool Weird Awesome 15: May The Force Sisters Be With You

Posted on April 10, 2019
Brady Carlson

For National Siblings Day, the story of three sisters who have found an unusual way to spend time together: they’re professional funny car drivers.

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Cool Weird Awesome 14: All I’ve Got Is A Phonautograph, But It’s Not Enough

Posted on April 9, 2019
Brady Carlson

Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville invented a way to document sound more than a decade before Thomas Edison developed his wax cylinders. So why isn’t he remembered as the king of recording?

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