Cool Weird Awesome With Brady Carlson

On National Take A Hike Day, we salute Emma "Grandma" Gatewood, who, in her 60s, became the first woman to hike the entire Appalachian Trail. Plus: on National Homemade Bread Day, we salute Pham Thi Bac's enormous bread loaves in Vietnam.  Ohio’s Most Famous Hiker––Emma “Grandma” Gatewood (Ohio History) The Great-Grandma Who Changed the AT Forever (Outside Online) Vietnamese Province Attracts Worldwide Attention for Its Giant Loaves of Bread (Oddity Central) Don't walk away from today's show without joining us as a backer on Patreon! --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/coolweirdawesome/message

The man known as the Father of the Blues, W.C. Handy, was born on this day in 1873, and it's not exaggerating to say rock and popular music wouldn't have played out the same way without him. Plus: if you have the blues because your cat keeps waking you up in the night, you may want to check out this new cat-friendly bedframe.  W.C. Handy (AllMusic) W.C. Handy, Father of the Blues (Library of Congress) Ingenious Bed Frame Has a Place for Cats to Play While Their Humans Rest (My Modern Met) The parents of our show are our backers on Patreon  --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/coolweirdawesome/message

If you're an astronaut, way up there in space, chances are you started the day with a song. Why? It's a NASA tradition. Plus: an artist in California has turned "Star Trek" into a widescreen format, so it fits on modern TVs.  For decades, NASA has woken up its astronauts with music (The World) Paul McCartney Sings To Space Crew (CBS News) The Final Frontier (Futility Closet) Every time I think about our Patreon backers I want to jump up and sing --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/coolweirdawesome/message

Fuel cells need a catalyst for an important reaction, and a team at American University has found that spinach may be the best raw material for a catalyst we've found yet. Plus: ever wanted to smell like old books? A new scent can help make it happen!  Spinach: Good for Popeye and the Planet (American University) Powell's Books creates unisex fragrance that smells like old books (Geekologie) Our Patreon backers power this show, join us for just $1 a month! --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/coolweirdawesome/message

We've dedicated statues, memorial walls, works of art, plaques, flags, bridges, roads and more to those who have served in the military. Here's the story of a living memorial in New York's Central Park to women who gave their lives while serving in World War I, that was almost forgotten over decades and generations, and how it was rediscovered in our time. Women in World War I (TheWorldWar.org) Tribute Ceremony at Newly Rediscovered Women's Overseas Service League Flagstaff and Grove in Central Park Honors Women Serving America in World War I and Beyond (WorldWarICentennial.org) --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/coolweirdawesome/message

An inventor in Florida has invented a robot that can put contact lenses in human eyes safety and effectively. This could be a big help to people with neurological disorders or tremors who might not otherwise be able to put those lenses in themselves. Plus: meet an online fluid simulator that's like watching really trippy ripples in a groovy pond.  This Florida man invented a robot that inserts and removes your contact lenses for you (CNN) A Fun Website That Simulates Fluid (bookofjoe) Keep this show grooving as a backer on Patreon --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/coolweirdawesome/message

Today in 1843, former president John Quincy Adams joined thousands to dedicate a public observatory in Cincinnati, a building known as "the birthplace of American astronomy." Plus: this month would be a good time to get out a telescope, cause there's lots happening in the night sky.   How Cincinnati became the 'Birthplace of American Astronomy' (Cincinnati Enquirer)  See Meteor Showers, a Lunar Eclipse & Bright Planets Throughout November (Thrillist)  Every one of our backers on Patreon is a star, join us!  --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/coolweirdawesome/message

Bats use their own internal radar - echolocation - to figure out where insects are so they can swoop in and catch their meal. But a study out of Johns Hopkins University shows that how bats track their prey is more complicated than we thought. Plus: today in 2008, music fans named a certain pop and internet legend the Best Act Ever. Hearing the Future (Johns Hopkins University) MTV EMAs name Rick Astley ‘Best Act Ever’ (NME) Cool Weird Awesome will never give its Patreon backers up, will never let them down...  --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/coolweirdawesome/message

Earth makes lots of seismic noise, but there's one that's mysterious - a slight pulse every 26 seconds called a microseism off the coast of West Africa. What causes it? We don't know! Plus: NASA has completed its transmitter upgrades and now it can talk with Voyager 2 again!  The Earth Is Pulsating Every 26 Seconds, and Seismologists Don't Agree Why (Discover) After months of silence, Voyager 2 sends a gleeful message back to Earth (Inverse) We'd go all the way to the edge of the solar system and back for our Patreon backers --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/coolweirdawesome/message

It's National Candy Day, and the day after Election Day, so let's visit 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

On this Election Day, here’s a story about an early and not-too-well-known effort to help count votes that came from none other than Thomas Edison. Plus: photographer Ryan Donnell has been documenting some of the most unusual polling places in the country.  Thomas Edison’s First Patented Invention—a Voting Machine for Congress—Was a Total Flop (Mental Floss) Ryan Donnell: Polling Places (Wonderful Machine) Cast a vote for Cool Weird Awesome as a backer on Patreon! --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/coolweirdawesome/message

If you're taking part in National Novel Writing Month, then here's a tip: don't forget the dedication page. They can be full of surprises, as we discovered in quite a few books. Plus: meet the prehistoric pelagornithid, probably the largest flying bird ever, with a 20 foot wingspan and teeth.  Brilliant Book Dedications (Sad and Useless) Scientists Reveal What May Be the Largest Flying Bird Ever (Smithsonian) We dedicate today's show to our Patreon backers. So if you join us, today's show is especially for you!  --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/coolweirdawesome/message

In some areas, Halloween festivities actually start the night before October 31, on a night that goes by a few very unusual names. Plus: how about an unusual lollipop that's far off the beaten trick-or-treating path?  Mischief Night? Cabbage Night? Goosey Night? What does it all mean? (NJ.com) Blue Cheese Lollipops (Lolliphile) Joining us as a Patreon backer is all treats, no tricks --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/coolweirdawesome/message

Composting can turn some of our food waste back into useful stuff, but it can take a while. A new device out of Germany aims to cut the time it takes to go from food waste to compost to just 48 hours. Plus: on this National Cat Day, we salute the very tiny but impressive Cat Museum in Krakow, Poland.  Kitchen gadget converts food scraps to compost in a claimed 48 hours (New Atlas) Poland Is Home to a Very Tiny Cat Museum (Mental Floss) With help from our Patreon backers, we can cover every Internet cat ever --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/coolweirdawesome/message

We’re not the only species that knows the difference between a face-to-face chat and a remote one. Research out of Vienna shows cows prefer live human voices to recorded ones. Plus: on National Chocolate Day, we pay a visit to the world's largest chocolate moose, in Scarborough, Maine.  Cows prefer to co-moo-nicate in person, research suggests (CNN) Lenny the Moose - The World's Only Life-Size Chocolate Moose (LenLibby.com) We always want to communicate with our backers on Patreon, get in touch today! --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/coolweirdawesome/message

A project out of MIT is using artificial intelligence to scan lost languages and find rules and conventions that may help us figure out what all those words from years ago might mean. Plus: historic signs in South Nyack, New York are using QR codes to tell us something timeless - a message that's never gonna give us up. MIT CSAIL’s AI revives dead languages it hasn’t seen before (VentureBeat) Rickrolled: South Nyack historical sign on Esposito trail delivers pop music prank (lohud) Backer is a beautiful word in any language. Support our show on Patreon today! --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/coolweirdawesome/message

Scientists at Purdue University have a way to help keep us cool to the point that we might not even need air conditioning, and all it takes is a fresh coat of a special paint. Plus: the town of Asbestos, Quebec has finally chosen a new name! New 'Super-White' Paint Can Cool Down Buildings and Cars (Interesting Engineering)  Goodbye Asbestos, hello Val-des-Sources: Que. town changing infamous name (CBC) Our backers on Patreon are really, really bright --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/coolweirdawesome/message

We're replaying some of our favorite car-themed episodes this week, like this one from July 2020, about a driver in Italy who got a ticket for driving 437 miles per hour. Since that’s  almost three times as fast as the car could legitimately go, it’s  believed to have been a malfunction of a local speed camera. Plus: the  creations of cabinet maker Henk Verhoeff aren’t malfunctioning, they’re  meant to be, as the artist put it, “broken and weird.” Ancona: a Ford Focus caught at 703 km / h (due to the speed camera) (Autoappassionati) How do speed cameras work? (The Guardian) This Retired Cabinet Maker Goes Viral For Making Broken And Weird Furniture That Belongs In Disney Movies (Bored Panda) Speed on over to our Patreon site and join us as a backer! --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/coolweirdawesome/message

We're replaying some of our favorite car-themed episodes this week, like this one from May 2019, about an exhibit at The Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles called “Hollywood Dream Machines: Vehicles of Science Fiction  and Fantasy.” If you’ve ever wanted to get close to the coolest rides  the big screen ever shared with us – like, say, the DeLorean in “Back to  the Future” – this is your chance.  Plus:  a guy in Arizona tries to  skirt the carpool lane rules with a scheme that could have come straight  out of one of the “Mannequin” movie franchise. Check out Batman’s and Marty McFly’s rides at the Petersen Museum (Ars Technica) Man busted driving with mannequin in carpool lane (WJBF) Cool Weird Awesome is listener powered. Back this show on Patreon! --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/coolweirdawesome/message

We're replaying some of our favorite car-themed episodes this week, like this one from December 2019, in which Cornell researchers find that making intersections more autonomous could  help get self-driving cars where they want to go more efficiently.  Plus: on the anniversary of the last day of the last Apollo mission to  the moon, how about a trip to the Museum of the Moon, now visiting  Philadelphia?  Smart intersections could cut autonomous car congestion (Science Daily) Last lunar-landing mission ends (History.com) Museum of the Moon (Franklin Institute) Backing Cool Weird Awesome on Patreon is extremely smart --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/coolweirdawesome/message