Cool Weird Awesome With Brady Carlson

Mary Fields was the first Black woman to receive a Post Office contract to deliver the mail, and in the Wild West, no less. Here's a little more about a pioneer who definitely made some history. Plus: the story of a sibling who found a practical use for her identical twin.  The Life and Legend of Mary Fields (Montana Women's History) Stagecoach Mary Fields (National Postal Museum) Fields, Mary – aka Stagecoach Mary (Amazing Black History) More women’s history on Cool Weird Awesome I’m not a twin but... (Reddit) --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/coolweirdawesome/message

Welcome to the world of electroceuticals! That's the word for treatments that involve electricity, and a new study finds steady current applied to wounds can actually get healing agents to the site more quickly. Speaking of quick: the "tossed rice art" of Maria Lynn may only last an instant, but what an instant it is.  Electricity could help speed wound healing, new study shows (Ohio State University) Artist Tosses Colorful Rice To Create 3D Portraits of Pop Culture Characters in Mid-Air (My Modern Met) Our backers are the most electrifying backers in all of Patreon --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/coolweirdawesome/message

Blueswarm is a school of autonomous robot fish who scan their surroundings and calculate how they can swim together without colliding, like a school of actual fish. And the technology modeled on "implicit coordination" may be useful for lots of other high-tech devices in the future. Plus: GLYPHS is a project to develop new perfumes based on typology. No, there isn't a Comic Sans scent just yet.   Meet Blueswarm, a Smart School of Robotic Fish (IEEE Spectrum)  Love typography? Now you can smell like it! (Creative Boom)  Our Patreon backers make this show run swimmingly --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/coolweirdawesome/message

Scientists have spotted three species of sharks near New Zealand that give off a faint blue light while in darkness. Yes, our world is home to glowing sharks. Plus: artist Calvin Nicholls is making extremely detailed sculptures of animals out of paper. Glowing sharks found near New Zealand (Inhabitat) Intricate Paper Animals Spring from Textured Sculptures by Artist Calvin Nicholls (Colossal) Our Patreon backers are a bright light all over the internet --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/coolweirdawesome/message

The internet and social media don't do a great job making the very visual world of meme culture accessible to blind users. The new podcast "Say My Meme" describes those memes so everyone can enjoy them. Plus: Madagascar is home to the "nano-chameleon," believed to be the smallest lizard in the world.  This delightful new podcast describes memes for people who are blind or visually impaired (Fast Company) 'Smallest reptile on earth' discovered in Madagascar (BBC) Keep our podcast growing for just $1 a month as a backer on Patreon! --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/coolweirdawesome/message

A team of German developers may have just made the pool safer, by developing a water-based lifeguard robot that can rescue swimmers in distress. Plus: today in 1969, musical history, as "Happy Birthday To You" becomes the first song ever performed in outer space.  New Robot Lifeguard Will Save People from Drowning (Interesting Engineering) 50 Years Ago: Apollo 9 Completes its Mission (NASA) Together with our Patreon backers we can make beautiful music --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/coolweirdawesome/message

Today in 1963 the Hula Hoop was patented, although by that point it had already become a worldwide phenomenon. And toy hoops go way, way back even before the toys we know today first became popular. Plus: how a very unusual photographer won the Ocean Art Underwater Photo Competition.  How Hula Hoops Work (HowStuffWorks) Octopus steals camera and wins underwater photography competition (SCUBA News) Join our Patreon backers and keep this show spinning round and round --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/coolweirdawesome/message

On this day in 1928, the start of the Trans-America Foot Race, aka the "Bunion Derby," in which about 200 runners in Los Angeles set out to run all the way to New York City. Only 55 of them made it through the entire grueling route, which could be called a spectacle, boondoggle and landmark all at once. Plus: in honor of Vermont becoming a state today in 1791, a look at the state's famous Long Trail hike from one end to the other.  Endurance Racing: First Leg, the Bunion Derby (New York Public Library) The 1928 Bunion Derby: America’s Brush with Integrated Sports (BlackPast) The Long Trail (Green Mountain Club) We've got some big plans with our Patreon backers this month (but don't worry, none of them are cross-country foot races) --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/coolweirdawesome/message

A study out of Rutgers University-Camden finds people who order cold sandwiches instead of hot ones also pick up chips, cookies and other sides much more often. Why? Plus: today in 1912, an unusual performance of a classic opera outside one of the great wonders of the world.  Consumers Buy More Food When They Order Cold Meals and Drinks, Reports Rutgers‒Camden Researcher (Rutgers-Camden) Today in 1912 ‘Aida’ opens in open-air production beneath the Great Pyramid (Victorian Masculinity) It would be fun to go out for a hot sandwich, chips and a drink with our Patreon backers --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/coolweirdawesome/message

You know about the Echo and the Google Home, but do you know about the Butler In A Box? It was a voice-controlled smart home device in the 1980s, and could do many of the same things our smart speakers do today. Plus: it's the birthday of Dr. Mark Dean, a computing pioneer who helped create some of the most important technology we have, and also saw the future of technology quite a few times.  Butler In A Box (Popular Mechanics via Google Books) Magician's Versatile Box Gives New Meaning To "Butler Did It" (Deseret News) Mark Dean designed the first IBM PC while breaking racial barriers (Engadget) Maybe with help from our Patreon backers, we can stream this show on a Butler in a Box --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/coolweirdawesome/message

People like to collect all kinds of things, but Mark Davis had a collection that even he thought was a little unusual: cassettes containing the music and announcements that Kmart stores used to play over their speaker systems, complete with announcements from "KMRT - Kmart Radio." Plus: on National Pig Day, a story about a pig in the 70s who had an unusual job.  Hear that? It's the sound of Kmart's glory days, saved from the trashcan (Detroit Free Press) Attention K-Mart Shoppers (Internet Archive) Guard Pig (Weird Universe) Attention Cool Weird Awesome shoppers, say thanks to our Patreon backers, who make the whole show possible --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/coolweirdawesome/message

In warm months, we can open the window and let in fresh air - only that can also let in a lot of outdoor noise, too. A special sound-absorbing window design from a team at the National University of Singapore might let the air in without all the extra noise. Plus: firefighters in Medina, Ohio, rescue turtles and tortoises with some special equipment.  Novel window design reduces outdoor noise and improves ventilation (National University of Singapore) Medina Ohio Shed Fire (Medina Fire Dept.) Our backers on Patreon keep all the good episodes coming without any extra noise --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/coolweirdawesome/message

Physarum polycephalum is pretty smart for a slime mold. It can find its way back to the places where food had previously been even though it doesn't have a nervous system. Researchers in Germany have just figured out how this organism does it. Plus: American Beatlemania may have begun in February 1964, but George Harrison made a nice, quiet trip to southern Illinois the previous fall.  A memory without a brain (Science Daily) The Charming Story of George Harrison's Vacation In Small Town America (Smithsonian) We know you're smart, so join our smart backers on Patreon to keep this show strong! --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/coolweirdawesome/message

Lasso is a prototype for an in-home recycling system. Instead of dropping your recyclables on the curb, you'd put them in the machine, to be scanned, cleaned and broken down into the raw materials that companies buy to make new cans and bottles. Plus: meet AI Art House, a site selling wall art designed by software trying to emulate some of the all time great (human) painters.  Lasso Is A Robot That Will Recycle Your Recycling At Home (designboom) Adorn Your Walls With AI-Generated Art (UrbanDaddy) Our backers on Patreon are some of the best humans there are! --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/coolweirdawesome/message

Today in 1861, President-elect Abraham Lincoln arrived in Washington, having been snuck into the city to avoid a plot against his life in Baltimore. Kate Warne, the first women detective in America, was key to getting him there safely. Plus: Alex Trebek's family has donated some of the late Jeopardy! host's suits for a very fitting cause.  Pinkerton Spy, Feminist Icon (Crimereads) The woman who helped protect Lincoln from the men who tried to kill him in 1861 (Washington Post) How Alex Trebek’s Suits Are Making A Difference (Inside Wink) Help this show make new episodes as a backer on Patreon! --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/coolweirdawesome/message

It's true, a researcher at Purdue University and her team trained four pigs on how to use a joystick and play a video game. Pigs are pretty smart, after all. Plus: if you're in need of hugs these days but aren't able to get them safely from other humans, the robot named HuggieBot 2.0 might be able to help.  Pigs show potential for ‘remarkable’ level of behavioral, mental flexibility in new study (Frontiers Science News) Soft, Human-Sized Robot Gives Excellent Hugs (Interesting Engineering) We're sending virtual hugs to all our backers on Patreon --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/coolweirdawesome/message

This week we're replaying some of our sweetest episodes of all time. In this episode from November 2020, we marked National Candy Day, and the day after Election Day, with a visit to the back row of the U.S. Senate chamber, where, for over half a century,  senators have kept a desk drawer filled with candy to share with colleagues. Plus: in Japan, candy is also fine art, thanks to the practice of amezaiku, or sculpting molten sugar syrup. The History Of The Senate’s Sweet Candy Desk (DCist) Reviving a Centuries-Old Japanese Confectionery Art (New York Times) Backing our show on Patreon is so sweet  --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/coolweirdawesome/message

This week we're replaying some of our sweetest episodes of all time. In this episode from December 2019, researchers in Switzerland say they’ve found a way to change the color of  chocolate, and without adding any colors or dyes to it. Instead, they  use a special imprint to give it a glowing, rainbow-y patina. Plus: the annual PeepsFest is getting underway, and they're going to do a ball  drop for New Year's with a giant Peep! Making chocolate colourful (ETH Zurich) PeepsFest Happy New Year to everyone, especially our backers on Patreon! --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/coolweirdawesome/message

This week we're replaying some of our sweetest episodes of all time. In this episode from October 2019 we marked National Candy Corn Day. While no candy gets more hassle around Halloween time than candy corn, it also has its fans. I mean, someone's eating those 9 billion pieces produced each year. Plus: a haunted house in Utah with an unforgettably creepy name. The Saccharine History of Candy Corn (National Geographic) 2019 Strangling Brothers Haunted Circus (Visit Salt Lake) Backing Cool Weird Awesome on Patreon is so, so sweet --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/coolweirdawesome/message

This week we're replaying some of our sweetest episodes of all time. In this episode from June 2019, when I was traveling to Buffalo, New York for a book event, I decided to celebrate one of the city's beloved foods: sponge candy. Meanwhile, an ice cream shop in Buffalo has done what you might expect an ice cream shop in Buffalo to do: add Buffalo sauce to the ice cream. Buffalo sponge candy (Atlas Obscura) A treat with heat: Lake Effect Ice Cream unveils wing-sauce flavor (Buffalo News) Make more Cool Weird Awesome as a backer on Patreon! --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/coolweirdawesome/message