Cool Stuff Daily

By Cool Stuff Daily

Cool Stuff Daily covers the most interesting and coolest stories in the world of science, progress, life-hacks, memes, exciting art, and hope. This is the antidote to depressing headlines. Smart stuff... more

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FAQs about Cool Stuff Daily:

How many episodes does Cool Stuff Daily have?

The podcast currently has 1,161 episodes available.

Cool Stuff Daily episodes:

December 10, 2021Fri. 12/10 - The Science (& Ethics) of Netflix’s ‘Don’t Look Up’
Insights from the real-life NASA scientist behind Netflix’s new killer-comet movie, Don’t Look Up. Plus, reindeers are the only mammals whose eyes change color with the seasons. And their noses kind of do too––the science behind that, and the history of the most famous red-nosed reindeer of all.

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Links:
Meet the real NASA scientist behind Netflix’s Don’t Look Up (The Verge)
Asteroid scientist Amy Mainzer talks space rock impacts and Netflix's new movie 'Don't Look Up' (Space.com)
Netflix's Most Realistic Apocalypse Movie Reveals A Controversial Scientific Debate (Inverse)
What a Times Journalist Learned From His 'Don't Look Up' Moment (NY Times)
Why Are Reindeer Eyes Golden In Summer But Blue In Winter? (National Geographic)
The Scientific Reason Why Reindeer Have Red Noses (Smithsonian Magazine)
Christmas: A Candid History by Bruce David Forbes
Kottke.Org

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19min
December 09, 2021Thu. 12/09 - Birds Aren't Real (And Neither Is This Gen Z Conspiracy Theory)
Finally we get some truth from bird truthers. Everything you need to know about the Birds Aren’t Real movement. Plus, New Zealand is banning tobacco completely for the upcoming generations. And Instagram is bringing back the chronological feed! Kind of.

Sponsor:

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Links:
Birds Aren’t Real, or Are They? Inside a Gen Z Conspiracy Theory. (NY Times)
Birds Aren't Real

New Zealand to Ban Tobacco Permanently for Anyone Born After 2008 (Gizmodo)
New Zealand to ban cigarettes for future generations (BBC)
Novel New Plan in New Zealand To End Smoking (NPR)
Instagram Is Bringing Back the Chronological Feed (Gizmodo)
Kottke.Org

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18min
December 08, 2021Wed. 12/08 - Cleaning Hacks From Victorians
Cleaning advice from nineteenth century housekeepers. An upcoming feminist retelling of 1984. How to watch the Geminid meteor shower next week. And MST3K is officially coming back next year.

Sponsors:

GiveWell, Have your donation matched up to $250 by entering Kottke Ride Home at check out at GiveWell.org
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Links:
Milk for Floors, Bread for Walls: 19th-Century Cleaning Tips for the Modern Era (NY Times)
Spring Cleaning the Old-Fashioned Way (English Heritage)
The Domestic Revolution by Ruth Goodman
The Difference Between Disinfecting and Sanitizing, According to the CDC (LifeHacker)
Feminist retelling of Nineteen Eighty-Four approved by Orwell’s estate (The Guardian)
Sandra Newman is writing a feminist retelling of Nineteen Eighty-Four. (Literary Hub)
A ‘feminist retelling’ of George Orwell’s 1984 is in the works (Polygon)
Geminids: You need to watch the fiery fragments of an asteroid fall to Earth (Inverse)
In Depth | Geminids – NASA Solar System Exploration (NASA)
What's Up: Skywatching Tips from NASA (NASA)
Kottke.Org

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18min
December 07, 2021Tue. 12/07 - Scientists Want SpaceX's Starship To Go To Infinity & Beyond
How SpaceX’s giant Starship rocket could herald a new generation of space exploration. Plus, all sound recordings from the mid-1800s to 1923 are going to be released to the US Public Domain on January 1st. And Heinz and Terry’s have partnered to create a chocolate orange mayonnaise. Yeah.

Sponsors:

Indeed, Get a free $75 credit at Indeed.com/goodnews
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Links:
Planetary scientists are starting to get stirred up by Starship’s potential (Ars Technica)
How SpaceX’s massive Starship rocket might unlock the solar system—and beyond (MIT Technology Review)
NASA announces 10 new astronaut candidates who could fly to the Moon someday (The Verge)
All Sound Recordings Prior to 1923 Will Enter the US Public Domain in 2022 (Public Domain Review)
Public Domain Audio Release 2022 (Citizen DJ, Library of Congress)
What Will Enter the Public Domain in 2022? (Public Domain Review)
Chocolate Orange Mayonnaise exists, and you can win a jar right now (Boing Boing)
How To Buy The Heinz Terry's Chocolate Orange Mayonnaise In The UK (Bustle)
Kottke.Org

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16min
December 06, 2021Mon. 12/06 - Why Is It So Hard To Hear Movie Dialogue These Days?
Do you feel like the dialogue in movies has gotten harder to understand? It’s not just you. Sound professionals dish on all the reasons why it’s gotten worse in recent years. Plus, a giant steel structure coming soon to Tasmania has already started recording us to provide evidence of our shame to future civilizations. And honeybees that survived for weeks under volcanic ash after the eruption in the Canary Islands.

Sponsors:

GiveWell, Have your donation matched up to $250 by entering Kottke Ride Home at check out at GiveWell.org
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Links:
The Real Reason You Use Closed Captions for Everything Now (Wired, 2018)
Here's Why Movie Dialogue Has Gotten More Difficult To Understand (And Three Ways To Fix It) (Slash Film)
October episode on open captions (Kottke Ride Home)
This Mysterious, Indestructible 'Black Box' Will Tell The Future What Happened to Us (Science Alert)
Earth is getting a black box to record our climate change actions, and it's already started listening (ABC Australia)
Honeybees Survived for Weeks Under Volcano Ash After Canary Islands Eruption (NY Times)
Kottke.Org

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20min
December 03, 2021Fri. 12/04 - Krampus, the Unabomber, & Tickle Me Elmo
Why the FBI thought the inventor of Tickle Me Elmo might have been the Unabomber. A new potential method for freeze-drying vaccines. And it’s Krampusnacht this weekend. Here’s everything you need to know about the sinister anti-Santa.

Sponsors:

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Tentree, Use code KOTTKE to get 15% off at tentree.com
Links:
Tickle Me Kaczynski: How the Inventor of the Ultimate Elmo Toy Became a Unabomber Suspect (MEL)
Study: How to freeze-dry a potential COVID-19 vaccine (University at Buffalo)
Christmas: A Candid History by Bruce David Forbes
The Battle for Christmas: A Social and Cultural History of Our Most Cherished Holiday by Stephen Nissenbaum
The Origin of Krampus, Europe's Evil Twist on Santa (Smithsonian Magazine)
What is Krampus? How the Christmas 'Devil' Became Cool (National Geographic)
Who is Krampus? Explaining Santa Claus's Scary Christmas Counterpart (National Geographic)
Krampus: the demonic Santa Claus you haven't heard about (Vox)
Weird Krampus drive-thru parade puts terrifying twist on Christmas and it's Saturday night (NOLA)
Necromanor Haunted House hosting pictures with Krampus for Christmas (Shreveport Times)
Krampusfest returns to Orlando's Milk District in December to give a little festive punishment to the naughty (Orlando Weekly)
Krampusnacht Celebrates Milwaukee's German Roots (Shepherd Express)
3rd Annual San Francisco Krampus Pageant at El Rio in San Francisco (SF Station)
A Houston Area Brewery Released a Krampus Themed 12-Days of Christmas Beer Box (Texas Is Life)
The R-Rated "Naughty Cut" Of Krampus Will Bring The Christmas Horror Movie To 4K (Slash Film)
Kottke.Org

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21min
December 02, 2021Thu. 12/02 - How a College Student Invented Oregon Trail 50 Years Ago
How a twenty-one-year-old student-teacher and his roommates created Oregon Trail fifty years ago, and never made a cent from their creation. Plus, a letter Catherine the Great wrote in favor of vaccinations just sold for $1.3 million. And, for one night only, you can stay in the original Home Alone house.

Sponsors:

Tentree, Use code KOTTKE to get 15% off at tentree.com
Lendtable, Use code KOTTKE at Lendtable.com to get an extra $50 added to your Lendtable balance

Links:
‘Oregon Trail’ at 50: How Three Teachers Created the Computer Game That Inspired — and Diverted — Generations of Students (The 74 Million)
Oregon Trail game history: An interview with the inventor, Don Rawitsch. (Slate)
Watch the creators of retro gaming classic Oregon Trail reminisce in a now-retro video (A/V Club)
The Oregon Trail emulator (Archive.Org)
Oregon Trail Gets A Makeover With More Accurate Native American Representation (NPR)
Miracle Workers (TBS)
George Washington and the First Mass Military Inoculation (Library of Congress)
Catherine the Great Letter Supporting Inoculations Sells for $1.3 Million (NY Times)
Catherine the Great's Letter Endorsing Vaccines Sold at Auction (Mental Floss)
'Home Alone' house will be on Airbnb for one night only this month (NBC News)
The 'Home Alone' house is on Airbnb. Merry Christmas, ya filthy animal. (Mashable)
In Denmark, a snow storm means people overnight in an IKEA (AP)
Kottke.Org

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17min
December 01, 2021Wed. 12/01 - Duolingo's Bizarre Sentences
Why does Duolingo use such weird and sometimes deeply relatable phrases to teach its users new languages? Plus, the real science behind the much-hyped “first living robots that can now reproduce.” And the origins of the twelve days of Christmas. Like, the actual days. Not the song about turtle doves.

Sponsors:

Lendtable, Use code KOTTKE at Lendtable.com to get an extra $50 added to your Lendtable balance

Tentree, Use code KOTTKE to get 15% off at tentree.com
Links:
Why are Duolingo sentences so weird? (Slate)
‘Amazing science’: researchers find xenobots can give rise to offspring (The Guardian)
Interesting research, but no, we don’t have living, reproducing robots (Ars Technica)
Bizarre Creatures Are World's First Self-Replicating 'Living Robots', Scientists Say (Science Alert)
Christmas: A Candid History by Bruce David Forbes
Jack's Countdown to Christmas (Instagram)
Kottke.Org

Jackson Bird on Twitter

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19min
November 30, 2021Tue. 11/30 - How Mark Twain Invented the Bra Clasp
How Mark Twain invented the bra clasp. Kinda. Plus, beavers doing the work of million dollar machines to restore land and prevent wildfires––in a fraction of the time and for a fraction of the cost. And a new twist has emerged in the McDonald’s milkshake machine lawsuit saga.

Sponsors:

Tentree, Use code KOTTKE to get 15% off at tentree.com
Lendtable, Use code KOTTKE at Lendtable.com to get an extra $50 added to your Lendtable balance

Links:
Mark Twain disliked suspenders so much that he invented the bra clasp. (That’s right.) (Literary Hub)
Mark Twain, Scrapbook Innovator (West Virginia University Libraries)
Celebrity Invention: Mark Twain's Elastic-Clasp Brassiere Strap (The Atlantic)
How Mark Twain’s Hatred of Suspenders Drove Him to Invent (Smithsonian Magazine)
The Facts in the Case of Mark Twain's Vest Strap (Journal of the Patent Office Society, 1939)
Curious Questions: Did Mark Twain really invent the bra strap? (Country Life)
A dry California creek bed looked like a wildfire risk. Then the beavers went to work (Sacramento Bee)
The McDonald’s Ice Cream Machine Hacking Saga Has a New Twist (Wired)
New details in the McDonald's ice cream machine hacking lawsuit (The Takeout)
McDonald's Ice Cream Machine Drama Gets Messier as Restraining Order Issued | Food & Wine (Food and Wine)
Fri. 04/23 - A McShake Up: The Battle Over McDonald's Ice Cream Machines (Kottke Ride Home)
Thu. 09/02 - What Is Grimace & Why Are Hyperlinks Blue? (Kottke Ride Home)
Kottke.Org

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19min
November 29, 2021Mon. 11/29 - Canada's Emergency Maple Syrup Reserves
Are influencers’ aesthetic choices for their kids threatening their brain development? Probably not, but the science behind it is kind of interesting. Plus, pub-goers in England got stranded for three days with an Oasis tribute band. And there’s a maple syrup shortage, but don’t worry, Canada was ready for it with their emergency maple syrup reserves.

Sponsors:

Lendtable, Use code KOTTKE at Lendtable.com to get an extra $50 added to your Lendtable balance

Tentree, Use code KOTTKE to get 15% off at tentree.com
Links:
Are Instagram’s Aesthetic Moms Hindering Kids’ Development? (Wired UK)
Snowstorm Leaves Dozens Stranded for Days in a Remote UK Pub (NY Times)
"Snowasis": Blizzard Traps Dozens of People with Oasis Cover Band for Three Nights (Consequence of Sound)
Storm Arwen: Repairs begin after worst storm damage in 20 years (BBC)
Minus 10C Arctic blast predicted as Storm Arwen rages on (The Guardian)
Facing shortages, Canada taps its strategic reserves of maple syrup (CNN)
Amid massive shortage, Canada taps strategic reserves — of maple syrup (Washington Post)
'Vaccine' Is Merriam-Webster's Word of the Year (Gizmodo)
Word of the Year 2021 (Merriam-Webster)
Kottke.Org

Jackson Bird on Twitter

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17min

FAQs about Cool Stuff Daily:

How many episodes does Cool Stuff Daily have?

The podcast currently has 1,161 episodes available.

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