Hot days make for stuffy classrooms, and that can make it hard to learn, but going outside to scorching hot asphalt playgrounds isn’t much better. A school near Atlanta is demonstrating one partial solution, and it’s as simple as getting a fresh coat of paint. Plus: for the upcoming National Bunny Day, a visit to the Bunny Museum in southern California. 

Thanks to an innovative new paint, this school’s playground just got 12 degrees cooler (Fast Company)

LA's Bunny Museum will redline your rabbit-o-meter (Boing Boing)

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It was a hit when it was first released in 1978. Today it’s an anthem. Here's how Earth, Wind & Fire got everybody dancing and remembering each September 21st. Plus: if you’re one of those workers who had to go back to the office and really didn’t want to, this may help register your discontent.

The Song That Never Ends: Why Earth, Wind & Fire's 'September' Sustains (NPR)

Do You Remember? The Message in Earth, Wind & Fire’s ‘September’ (Wall Street Journal)

concept coffin office chair design wants workers to sit there, forever (designboom)

We remember our Patreon backers every September (plus all the other months)

Today in 1932, an unknown photographer took one of the most famous, most astonishing photographs of all time, the one known as “Lunch Atop A Skyscraper.” Here's more about how it happened. Plus: one of the most astonishing barnyard inventions of all time.

Lunch Atop a Skyscraper Photograph: The Story Behind the Famous Shot (Smithsonian)

Chicken Glasses (National Band and Tag Company via YouTube)

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Today in 1986, an audience in Amsterdam saw a play called “Going To The Dogs.” And it lived up to the name: all of the actors were German Shepherds. Plus: at Pomona College in California, there’s a tradition called “fountaining" where students get a birthday trip into a school fountain. 

`Going to the Dogs' just the ticket in Amsterdam (Christian Science Monitor)  

Five Steps to a Fountaining (Voices: The Pomona College Student Blog)

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This week we're replaying some of our favorite undersea episodes. In this one from October 2019, the British Antarctic Survey partners with researchers in  Chile on a way to protect whales via satellite. Plus: the story of a paraglider who manages to land smoothly and carefully on a couch.

Stranded whales detected from space (British Antarctic Survey)

Parachute Landing On Couch (YouTube)

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This week we're replaying some of our favorite undersea episodes. In this one from April 2019, a researcher from Duke University spots female sand tiger sharks returning to the same shipwrecks, sometimes over months or even years. Are they taking rest stops on their migration routes? Are they mating there - like a pirate-themed make-out spot for sharks? Plus: sand sculpture artisans return to Port Aransas, Texas, for the Texas SandFest.

Sand Tiger Sharks Return to Same Shipwrecks Off N.C. Coast (Duke University)

Texas SandFest

This week we're replaying some of our favorite undersea episodes. In this one from June 2021, the story of the robotic fish called Charlie and Charlene, and how they were developed by the Central Intelligence Agency. Plus: one place you might mark National Surfing Day is the Santa Cruz Surfing Museum in California.

Meet Catfish Charlie, the CIA’s Robotic Spy (IEEE Spectrum)

Santa Cruz Surfing Museum (Atlas Obscura)

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This week we're replaying some of our favorite undersea episodes. In this one from December 2020, a team out of New Curtin University in Australia finds that pilot whales appear to imitate one of their predators, tricking them away from the hunt. And in equally clever but much more irritating news, a  neighborhood in Ottawa, Ontario reports squirrels are stealing the LED lights out of their holiday displays.

Pilot whale study reveals copycat calls to outsmart predators (Science Daily)

Red squirrels going nuts for Ottawa couple's Christmas lights, but reason remains a mystery (CBC)

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This week we're replaying some of our favorite undersea episodes. In this one from November 2020, scientists determine that the Greenland shark lives longer than any known invertebrate, up to 400 years. How? We don't know, but it sure does seem chill about it. Plus: UK-based artist Sue Austin developed an underwater wheelchair, making the wide, wide sea a lot more accessible.

A Greenland Shark Living Today Could Have Been Alive in 1620 (HowStuffWorks)

A Specially Adapted Underwater Wheelchair Brings Artist Sue Austin Beneath the Earth’s Surface (Colossal)

Our Patreon backers keep this show from being all washed up

The late Queen Elizabeth II once said being a royal meant your life was full of tradition. And there was a lot to tradition to keep track of - like how her birthday was celebrated more than once each year. Plus: a Super Nintendo game in Japan where tennis players used to drop S-bombs. 

Why Does the Queen Have Two Birthdays? (Mental Floss)

A Game With The Word "Shit" Was Just Re-Released On The Nintendo Switch In Japan (Kotaku)

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