Cool Weird Awesome – Brady Carlson

Our Long History Of Crashing Stuff Into The Moon (Cool Weird Awesome 133)

Posted on September 23, 2019
Brady Carlson

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.

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Bah Gawd It’s A Smart Cane (Cool Weird Awesome 132)

Posted on September 20, 2019September 23, 2019
Brady Carlson

The weWALK is a smart cane for blind pedestrians, with ultrasonic sensors to detect obstacles ahead and Google Maps connections to navigate through and describe the surrounding area. Plus: if you like pickles, the Big Dill festival is back this weekend in Baltimore.

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It’s The Birthday Of Fawlty Towers, Don’t Mention The War! (Cool Weird Awesome 131)

Posted on September 19, 2019
Brady Carlson

Today in 1975 the BBC aired the first episode of “Fawlty Towers,” a landmark comedy series that was – amazingly – received about as poorly by TV executive and the public as Basil Fawlty’s appalling attitude was received by guests at his hotel. How did it finally get its due?

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The Race To Keep Day-Glo Paints Glo-ing (Cool Weird Awesome 130)

Posted on September 18, 2019
Brady Carlson

Paintings made with Day Glo paint – some by well-known and influential artists – 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.

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We Can Make Orange Juice Cups From Oranges (Cool Weird Awesome 129)

Posted on September 17, 2019
Brady Carlson

Feel the Peel is a big automated juicing machine that turns discarded orange peels into bioplastic cups. Although if you don’t have the cup until you juice the orange, how do you drink the first cup’s worth of juice?

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We’re Unleashing Drones On Cows And It’s For Their Health (Cool Weird Awesome 128)

Posted on September 16, 2019
Brady Carlson

The so-called quiet life on the farm is actually one of the most high-tech places on earth. As envisioned by the University of Kentucky research team, drones could fly above cow herds as they graze, learn which cow is which, and visually check each cow so see if they’re healthy.

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Scooby-Doo And Those Meddling Kids Started Solving Groovy Mysteries 50 Years Ago (Cool Weird Awesome 127)

Posted on September 13, 2019
Brady Carlson

It’s the 50th anniversary of the premiere of “Scooby Doo, Where Are You?” That’s right, the Fred, Daphne, Velma, Shaggy and Scooby have been setting traps, being danger prone, dropping glasses, making gigantic sandwiches and solving mysteries for a half-century. But originally the show was going to be very different.

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How About We Put Shade Plants Under Solar Panels? (Cool Weird Awesome 126)

Posted on September 12, 2019
Brady Carlson

There’s work out of the University of Arizona that says solar arrays can be even more efficient if you grow food underneath the panels. And no, the panels don’t block the plants from growing by taking all the sun. Plus: Chandler, Arizona is hosting the Rockin’ Taco Street Fest, which finally combines the goodness of tacos with lucha libre pro wrestling.

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How To Analyze DNA After DNA Starts Breaking Down (Cool Weird Awesome 125)

Posted on September 11, 2019
Brady Carlson

Researchers at the University of California, Davis are studying forensic proteomics, which one researcher describes as a way to read DNA when there isn’t DNA to read. Plus: a record shop in Seattle finds a royalty check that belonged to grunge royalty.

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Massachusetts Once Had Like Six John Kennedys On The Same Ballot (Cool Weird Awesome 124)

Posted on September 10, 2019
Brady Carlson

Around the same time John Fitzgerald Kennedy was rising through the ranks of the US Congress, a guy called John Francis Kennedy decided to put his name on the ballot to run for Massachusetts state treasurer. In a few years, there would be other John Kennedys trying to win public office in the state.

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