Cool Weird Awesome with Brady Carlson

The technology I like best is the technology that helps people do what they couldn’t do before, like a new brain implant that can put images from a camera in front of blind people. Plus: Rita Ebel is making the German town of Hanau more accessible for wheelchair uses, by using LEGO. A new implant for blind people jacks directly into the brain (MIT Technology Review) One Woman and Thousands of Lego...

Washington State University has a Sensory Science Lab that tests all the ways we encounter what we eat and how that can affect how we think it tastes. Now they’re testing whether different kinds of music can affect how we think about chocolate. Plus: this weekend in Charlotte, North Carolina, there’s a chance to go out on a bar crawl that’s like none other. Exploring links between music and our pe...

If you’ve ever driven past a building and seen a faded advertisement on the side of the brick, or spotted a neon sign for a restaurant where a real estate office now sits, those are ghost signs. A new book called The Ghost Signs of NYC tours these signs and advertisements and tells the stories of how they got where they are. Plus: meet the world's largest paint ball, two tons of paint hanging out...

It was on this day in 1914 a family in Grangeville, Idaho sent a four year old through the mail to her grandmother in Lewiston, 73 miles away. And she wasn’t the only kid to travel this way after the US Postal Service began the parcel post. Plus: the group Electronicos Fantasticos is making some fascinating music with bar code scanners! A Brief History of Children Sent Through the Mail (Smithsonia...

Toss an item into TrashBot and the system’s internal sensors figure out what the item is, and whether to recycle it or toss it out. No more recycleables in the trash, no more trash in the recycleables. Plus: officials in Prichard, Alabama missed a typo when sending out their new trash bins for residents.  This robot trash bin automatically sorts your recyclables for you (Fast Company) Embarra...

Since 1800, presidents have made the White House their home base. But there have been a few times when new presidents took office unexpectedly and the world's most powerful address wasn’t yet available to them. For Gerald Ford in 1974, that meant he spent the first 10 days of his presidency living at his family home in Alexandria, Virginia.  Gerald R. Ford House (BradyCarlson.com) Thanks to C...

For Valentine's Day, the story of the olm salamander, who will basically sit around and do nothing… unless it’s time for love. Plus: people in Rangeley, Maine gear up for the annual World Record Snowmobile Ride. A salamander didn't move for seven years – and that's not that unusual (USA Today) Rangeley World Record Snowmobile Ride (Visit Maine) Cool Weird Awesome's Patreon backers will do anything...

Some sounds are pleasing, others not so much. And a few can actually be destructive, like the sound ZME Science identified is probably the loudest sound humans have ever heard. Plus: how about some loud applause for an octopus who managed to escape four octopus escape rooms?  The loudest sound in mankind’s history (ZME Science) Octopus Escape Room Challenge (Octolab TV via YouTube) Cool Weird...

Orchards in the US and elsewhere have been trying to head off a disease called citrus greening. Research shows that dogs can sniff out this disease better and more quickly than any other method we have. Plus: if you're out riding a horse in Australia, and you get a call, put the phone in hands-free mode.  Dog sleuths sniff out crop disease hitting citrus trees (KCRA) Man riding horse stopped...

There's a whole world of sustainable materials for clothing that will have less of an impact should they end up in landfills - some don't just have low carbon footprints, they have negative carbon footprints! Plus: an art student in Japan puts on a fashion show in which the lead materials in the clothes are rubber bands.  Do you have it in green? The living fabrics that can help clean the air...

Here’s one instance where the doctor really CAN say “this won’t hurt a bit.” 4D-printed microneedles could perform of the medical functions of hypodermic needles - giving us vaccines and medicines, taking blood samples - except no shots. Plus: the story of a cat and her 3D-printed titanium paws.  High-Tech Printing May Help Eliminate Painful Shots (Rutgers) Surgeons Gave This Adorable Can Fou...

There's a project out of the University of Maine that's found that wild blueberries can help us heal cuts and other wounds. Plus: this weekend the 3rd annual Hawaii Island Steel Guitar Festival gets underway. Wound-healing treatment using wild blueberries receives MTI grant (University of Maine) The 3rd Annual Hawaii Island Steel Guitar Festival (This Week Hawaii) Backing Cool Weird Awesome on Pat...

Sounds like good news for the millions affected by heart disease: a nanoparticle that can target the plaque inside those blood vessels and actually reduce it! Plus: an animal rescue in Leesville, SC, needs piggy cuddlers!  Nanoparticle chomps away plaques that cause heart attacks (Science Daily) Sanctuary seeks 'piggy cuddlers' to socialize rescued swine (UPI) Full heart, can't lose as a Cool...

Researchers at UCLA have developed a coating that can take care of persistent ice in winter, and amazingly, it’s all due to fish. Plus: Kendall Diwisch of Edmonton, Alberta. who helped three kittens get unstuck from an icy situation.  Hydrogel coating is first to prevent ice formation in 3 different ways (UCLA) WATCH: Man Rescues Kittens Stuck In Ice By Pouring Warm Coffee On Them (CBS Seattl...

Kryptos is a puzzle sculpture that’s been on the grounds of CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia since 1990. Three of its four coded messages have been solved - and now we have a clue that might reveal the fourth. Plus: the story of the J.W. Westcott II, the only ship that has its own ZIP code.  Kryptos (CIA.gov) This Sculpture Holds A Decades-Old C.I.A. Mystery. And Now, Another Clue. (New...

On this day in 1862, President Abraham Lincoln wrote to the king of Siam, now Thailand, to say thanks, but no thanks, to the king's offer of a herd of elephants. It was a gracious letter, which was appropriate because elephants themselves have lovely manners.  Lincoln Rejects the King of Siam's Offer of Elephants (American Battlefield Trust) Elephant Emotions (PBS Nature) We graciously invite...

A growing number of hockey fans are paying attention to blind hockey, where players have either full blindness or 10 percent vision or less. That puts the emphasis on sound. Plus: introducing the Telecaster guitar that's been signed by 16 Navajo code talkers!  ‘It’s Freeing’: Hockey League Gives Visually Impaired Players An Opportunity To Hit The Ice (CBS New York) They can’t see, but blind h...

Of all the great breakthroughs we’ve made in outer space, there are none sweeter than this: last month, astronauts on the International Space Station baked chocolate chip cookies. But baking cookies in space is a little different than baking them on Earth. Plus: a new device called the Exolung can keep air flowing for virtually as long as a diver likes.  Space-baked cookies not chips off old...

The Rubik's Cube first came to a toy fair in London 40 years ago today. I have never finished one, but the enthusiasts known as speedcubers can now solve an entire cube in seconds. Plus: did you know that Horshack from "Welcome Back Kotter" did the voice on the Rubik's Cube cartoon show?  9 fun facts about the Rubik’s Cube on its 40th birthday (New York Post) How the Inventor of the Rubik’s C...

Researchers at Purdue University have managed to spin a very tiny object at the ungodly rate of 300 billion revolutions per minute - and it's powered only by light. Plus: Google Maps allows users to rate and review rivers, lakes and anywhere else that people want to go. So what's the best-reviewed river Earth has to offer?  Light powers world's fastest-spinning object (Purdue) What is the wor...

A PhD student at the University of Sydney, Alexandra Green, studied a herd of cows for more than five months to study what she called cattle vocal individuality. Cows, it turns out, have a lot to say to each other! Plus: the story of Manuela, a tortoise in Brazil who probably should've spoken up at some point.  Cowmoonication: Research finds cows 'talk' to each other (New Zealand Herald) Fami...

On National Peanut Butter Day, a reminder that peanut butter is so versatile it can be turned into diamonds. It actually takes more time to explain why you can turn peanut butter into diamonds than to explain how. Plus: this weekend in McCall, Idaho, the Idaho State Snow Sculpting Championships are taking place.  How to make a diamond from scratch - with peanut butter (BBC) Peanut butter diam...

Today's the birthday of one of the great toys of our time: the Frisbee. Though if the man who put that toy into millions of hands had his way, it would’ve been called the Pluto Platter. Plus: on this National Pie Day, head to Rockland, Maine for the 16th Annual Pies on Parade Gala.  Fred Morrison, Creator of a Popular Flying Plate, Dies at 90 (New York Times) 16th Annual Pies on Parade Gala F...

On this day in 1948 of the mayor of Boston, James Curley, wrote to the president of MIT, asking that the school's top engineers find a way to get rid of the huge amounts of snow, maybe with flamethrowers. Seriously. Plus: in Chico, California, a much more calm event is getting underway, the the Snow Goose Festival of the Pacific Flyway.  1948 mayor to MIT: use flamethrowers to melt snow? (MIT...

April 1st is officially Census Day in 2020, but today is the first day of counting, and the first town to be counted is Toksook Bay, Alaska, near the Bering Sea. Plus: meet Aleia Murawski and Samuel Copeland, who build little environments for snails and then film and photograph the results. Getting to Hard-to-Reach Villages Before Spring Thaw and Start of Hunting Season (Census.gov) Toksook Bay pr...