A City In Japan Is Trying To Make Electricity From Snow (Cool Weird Awesome 925)
When the snow and ice comes, it makes me think of getting out the snowblower. But a snowy city in Japan thinks, we could power our lights with this.
The Birth Of The Blinking Cursor (Cool Weird Awesome 905)
Today in 1930, the inventor of the computer cursor was born. It’s one of those creations that’s so small and common that it’s easy to forget what a big deal it really is.
A Quick Look At Superfast Bullet Trains (Cool Weird Awesome 866)
This month in 1964 that the country first began using its world-famous bullet trains, so we've got a few, well, fast facts about them.
In One Game, Jason McElwain Became A High School Basketball Legend (Cool Weird Awesome 717)
Today in 2006, a high school basketball team put its manager into the game. Jason McElwain not only played, he stole the show.
Félicette, The First Cat In Space (Cool Weird Awesome 636)
Today in 1963, a black and white cat from the streets of France became the first cat to go into space. She didn't choose to go, of course, but she's a pioneer just the same - and until a few years ago, a greatly underappreciated one. Plus: today in 1922, a girl in Illinois made it to school after being run over by a train?!?
McDonald’s Once Ran A “McTrain” Car In Germany (Cool Weird Awesome 520)
On any given day McDonald's serves huge numbers of people, either in restaurants or via drive-thru windows. But once, in the 1990s, the company also tried to operate restaurant cars on a long-distance German train line. Plus: since April 15 is traditionally tax day, so did you know that ancient Rome once taxed bachelors?
When Entertainment Is Literally A Train Wreck (Cool Weird Awesome 149)
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!
The Train Station With No Entrances Or Exits (Cool Weird Awesome 115)
There's an unusual train station in southwest Japan to which you can take a train, but you can’t enter the platform from outside; nor can you leave.
Change The (English) Channel (Cool Weird Awesome 33)
The commemoration ceremony for the Channel Tunnel was a diplomatic coup but an engineer's nightmare: they had to run a train carrying Queen Elizabeth II and a train with French President Francois Mitterand toward each other... on the same track.
Train Carrying Human Waste Emptied
Ok, but emptied WHERE?