Cool Weird Awesome With Brady Carlson

It's What's In A Name Week, where we're telling the stories of some of the most memorable names in the world. Today we look at a town in the Texas Hill Country that wanted a post office but couldn't get the feds to agree to any of their suggested names, until they said, let it be nameless! Plus: the story of how Lizard Lick, NC ended up with its one-of-a-kind name.  Nameless, TX (Hill Country Explorer) What's In A Town Name? Pure Americana (WFMY) Most People Don’t Know The Meaning Behind These 10 North Carolina Towns (Only In Your State) Add your name to the list of Patreon backers that make this show happen! --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/coolweirdawesome/message

A farmer in Barre, NY found a massive old safe in his fields, with a note on the side saying whoever could open it could have what was inside. But he decided maybe it would be better not to spoil the surprise. Plus: scientists studying satellite photos of Antarctica were able to spot new colonies of Emperor penguins! From space!  What's inside this mystery safe? Orleans Co. farmer says it should stay unknown (WHAM-TV) Scientists Just Discovered 11 New Emperor Penguin Colonies. From Space (Popular Mechanics) No mystery here - Patreon backers make every episode of Cool Weird Awesome possible! --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/coolweirdawesome/message

Before there was digital recording, we had cassettes, reel to reels, phonographs, and even wire recordings! That's a little-known system that was invented at the very end of the 19th century. Plus: meet a building in Italy that's been designed to replicate the shape of an orchestra.  Welcoming a new cast of characters into the archives: Wire recordings (Penn Libraries) Solar-powered House of Music mimics the shape of an orchestra (Inhabitat) Keep our recordings coming as a backer on Patreon! --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/coolweirdawesome/message

The mullet may take you back to the 70s or 80s, but it's a timeless hairstyle. No, really: there's evidence that the ancients were wearing business in the front, party in the back thousands of years ago. Plus: another thing that transcends time is the urge to break stuff in a controlled environment, hence an ad for a "frustration room" in the 60s.  Amazing Photos From the Australian Mulletfest 2020 (Laughing Squid) Whence the Mullet? (Slate) Frustration Room (Weird Universe) Party with Cool Weird Awesome as a backer on Patreon --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/coolweirdawesome/message

One hundred years ago today Tennessee became the 36th and deciding state to approve the 19th amendment to the Constitution. That's due to Febb Ensminger Burn, who lobbied her 24 year old in the Tennessee legislature to "be a good boy" and vote for women's suffrage. Plus: scientists in South Korea have developed a super-fast robotic tongue, just in case we might need one.  Their great-grandma helped secure women's suffrage. Now, they're the first female owners of the family business (Knox News) How one Tennessee mother's influence changed history and led to women's suffrage (Tennessean) Scientists develop a lightning fast robot tongue (Yahoo) Treat your mother right and also back Cool Weird Awesome on Patreon --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/coolweirdawesome/message

Researchers at Washington University in St. Louis have found a way to cover bricks with a special coating so they can store electricity, essentially turning bricks into batteries. Good news for the third little pig! Plus: Koji Kasatani is wowing the world with hyperrealistic, playful art made from ceramic bananas. Storing energy in red bricks (Washington University in St. Louis) Plump and Peeled Ceramic Bananas Shape Koji Kasatani’s Evocative Sculptures (Colossal) You have the power to make this show strong! Back us on Patreon today! --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/coolweirdawesome/message

"Ambush predators" like lions go after livestock while those animals aren't looking. So scientists at the University of New South Wales tested a theory in Botswana: what if we painted eyes on the back ends of cattle so the lions thought they were watching? Plus: National Roller Coaster Day is coming up, make your plans to visit Japan's famous pedal-powered SkyCycle.  Painting Eyes on The Butts of Cattle Can Protect Them From Lions, Research Shows  (ScienceAlert) SkyCycle – Japan’s Sluggish Yet Terrifying Pedal-Powered Roller Coaster (Oddity Central) Get an up-close look at the show as a backer on Patreon --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/coolweirdawesome/message

Fabien Cousteau is looking to build PROTEUS, a 4,000 square foot underwater research station that has research facilities, a multimedia production studio and an underwater greenhouse. A much more productive use of underwater space than Dr. No and SPECTRE had. Plus: the Racine Art Museum has brought back the annual Peeps Art Exhibition, and this year's submissions are extremely sweet.  Fabien Cousteau Is Building PROTEUS, an Underwater 'International Space Station' (HowStuffWorks) RAM 11th Annual International PEEPS Art Exhibition (Racine Art Museum) Whether you're on the surface or under the sea, join us as a Cool Weird Awesome backer on Patreon --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/coolweirdawesome/message

Judging by my kids' toy collections I thought fluorescents were already about as bright as possible. But chemists at Indiana University and the University of Copenhagen have found a way to make the brightest fluorescent materials ever made. Plus: for World Elephant Day, meet Lucy, the elephant-shaped hotel on the Jersey Shore.  Chemists create the brightest-ever fluorescent materials (Phys.org) World Elephant Day Stay Overnight in Lucy, an Elephant-Shaped Hotel on the New Jersey Shore (Untapped Cities) Bright idea: join us as a Cool Weird Awesome backer on Patreon --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/coolweirdawesome/message

Today in 1969 was the first day off for the Apollo 11 astronauts in more than a month. Yes, they'd finished their moon landing weeks earlier, but they had to go into quarantine in case they'd picked up some "moon germs" that could lead to a plague on Earth. (Fortunately, they hadn't.) Plus: there's a new augmented reality tour of a church in Florence, Italy that was deconstructed in 1784.  Apollo 11 Astronauts Spent 3 Weeks in Quarantine, Just in Case of Moon Plague (Space.com) Digital resurrection (University of Cambridge) Make Cool Weird Awesome go viral in the good way, as a backer on Patreon --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/coolweirdawesome/message

There is at least one person in the world who's paid to be a wizard. The city of Christchurch, New Zealand, contracts with him to "provide acts of wizardry and other wizard-like-services as part of promotional work for the city of Christchurch." Plus: there's a museum exhibit in Switzerland featuring works of art that showcase imaginary or invented languages.  This New Zealand man gets paid $10,000 a year to be a city's official wizard (CNN) When Writing Has No Meaning (Hyperallergic) Become a Cool Weird Awesome backer on Patreon and together we'll make magic --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/coolweirdawesome/message

We don’t have the Olympic Games right now, but we can still mark a big Olympic moment that happened on this day in 1948: the day Alice Coachman became the first Black woman to win Olympic gold. Plus: a chocolate company and an engineer say they've redesigned the chocolate chip. Is it more efficient? I don't know, but I'll be happy to test it out.  The day Alice Coachman became the first black woman to win Olympic gold (The Undefeated) A Tesla engineer designed the perfect chocolate chip (Fast Company) Go for the gold as a Cool Weird Awesome backer on Patreon! --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/coolweirdawesome/message

There are parts of the world where some of the local spiders are very dangerous to humans. A new app called Critterpedia can scan your spider photos and tell you which spider is which. Plus: on National Root Beer Float Day, a root beer maker in Wisconsin is trying to set a world record for biggest root beer float drive-thru.  Australia just invented Shazam for spiders (CNet) Sprecher Aims To Set Record for World's Largest Root Beer Float Drive-Thru With Free Floats For All (Yahoo) Float on over to our Patreon page and support the show for just $1 a month! --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/coolweirdawesome/message

On this day in 1999 a court rules in a case involving a guy who tried to use a huge number of points in a Pepsi reward program to buy a fighter jet, which the soda maker had jokingly offered in one of its ads. It didn't work, but still, an A for effort. Plus: there's a new uncuttable substance that might make for a great bike lock. When a Man Took a Joke in a Pepsi Ad Seriously, Chaos Ensued (Lit Hub) Proteus – new un-cuttable material promises to make bike thefts a thing of the past (Red Ferret Journal) We don't have jets, but we do have great rewards for our backers on Patreon --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/coolweirdawesome/message

Maybe everyone in junior high was right: the clothes you wear really can make you cool! At least if those clothes are the new fabric developed in China with a kind of cooling system embedded inside. Plus: it's National Chocolate Chip Cookie Day, so let's find out about the largest chocolate chip cookie of all time.  New fabric could help keep you cool in the summer, even without A/C (Science Daily) Largest biscuit / cookie (Guinness World Records) Nobody's cooler than the Cool Weird Awesome backers on Patreon --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/coolweirdawesome/message

Researchers at the University of Washington call it a "GoPro for beetles" - a ultralight, wireless, steerable camera that can ride on the back of a bug. And it's pretty effective at letting us see what these bugs see. Plus: a new online chart tracks the vocal range of famous pop singers, by measuring the highest and lowest notes they ever sung on a recording. A GoPro for beetles: Researchers create a robotic camera backpack for insects (University of Washington) Vocal Ranges of the World's Greatest Singers (Bookofjoe) Hit the high notes as a Cool Weird Awesome backer on Patreon!  --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/coolweirdawesome/message

Change is in the air in the border region between Spain and France. A small island there called Pheasant Island is about to change countries, as it does twice a year. Plus: some enterprising race fans in Poland use construction cranes to help them get a good view of their favorite drivers even while physical distancing.  The island that switches countries every six months (BBC) Fans Rent Cranes to Watch Car Race from Outside Arena During Pandemic (Oddity Central) Start your weekend off right as a Cool Weird Awesome backer on Patreon --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/coolweirdawesome/message

On this day in 1988, the Ostry family of Bruno, Nebraska got 328 people to lift a barn - a real, actual barn - and moved it 110 feet by hand. That's some impressive crowdsourcing. Plus: a guy invents a machine that can spot his face and lob M&Ms at it, which I'm pretty sure can win a guy a lot of friends.  Nebraska family looks back on barn moving event (WOWT) Guy Builds Machine That Shoots Chocolate into His Mouth on Command (Interesting Engineering) Backing Cool Weird Awesome on Patreon is a little bit like a barn raising, every little bit helps  --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/coolweirdawesome/message

A team of engineering students at Harvard is teaming with a startup called Savormetrics to develop a device that can tell us when avocados will be ripe. It's one step on the way to solving the costly problem of food waste. Plus: a project in Belgium called #ArtGenetics is learning about the evolution of fruits and vegetables through classic paintings.  Forestalling food waste (Harvard) Old Paintings Reveal How Fruits and Vegetables Have Evolved Over the Centuries (VICE) Becoming a Cool Weird Awesome backer on Patreon is delicious --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/coolweirdawesome/message

Today is said to be the day in 1858 that a colonial magistrate in India began using fingerprints for identification. But that's just one part of the history of how and why our prints are such a valuable bit of biometric information today. Plus: a guy in Jamaica showed up to collect a big lottery prize in a Darth Vader costume, because why not?  How Fingerprinting Works (How Stuff Works) Jamaican Darth Vader claims $95 million lottery prize (Toronto Sun) Cool Weird Awesome's Patreon backers have their fingerprints all over this show --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/coolweirdawesome/message