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!

Eight years ago Samoa skipped a day on the calendar, owing to the International Date Line and some business involving its key trading partners. There just wasn't a December 30th, 2011 there! Plus: why break your back shoveling snow when you can design a radio-controlled snowplow to do the work for you? 

Samoa to skip Friday, lose December 30th 2011 forever (Christian Science Monitor) 

Guy Creates The Ultimate Alternative To Shoveling Your Own Snow (Digg)

Every day is a special anniversary when you're a Cool Weird Awesome backer on Patreon!

There’s a Facebook group/Instagram account called UPS Dogs, and it collects and shares photos of the pups that delivery drivers meet (and usually befriend) on their routes, especially the ones they see regularly. Which is completely and utterly adorable. Plus: meet the world’s smallest inhabited island, with an appropos name of Just Room Enough Island.

How a UPS driver used dogs on his route to make an Instagram account go viral (The Hour)

Just Room Enough Island – The World’s Smallest Inhabited Island (Oddity Central)

Cool Weird Awesome's backers on Patreon are very, very good backers 

Remember the beer fridge from our first episode, that two men found after a long weekend of cleaning up flood damage? The Lincoln Journal-Star has checked back in with the owner and the finders to get the latest chapter in the beer fridge story. Plus: Prince Charles owns a car that runs on wine - and, he says, "it smells delicious as you’re driving along." 

Viral and vital: The Nebraska beer fridge that survived a fire, flood and found worldwide fame (Lincoln Journal-Star)

How Charles forced Aston Martin to make his car run on wine, and the Royal Train on cooking oil (Telegraph)

Cool Weird Awesome raises a glass to our backers on Patreon! Thanks! 

People can celebrate Christmas the way any way they like, no matter how far it strays from those common paths. We share a few unusual but enjoyable places with their own special traditions for December 25th. 

Tiny town of Christmas, Fla., is home to Swampy, World's Largest Alligator  (Southern Thing)

The Magical Place Near Cleveland Where It’s Christmas Year-Round (Only In Your State)

Washington Crossing the Delaware Reenactment (Washington Crossing Park)

Merry Christmas to all our Patreon backers, listeners and well-wishers! 

Santa Claus stuffing a terrified kid into his bag of presents? Creepy monsters chasing people? A Christmas dinner come to life, with utensils as legs? Meet some of the many terrifying designs for Christmas cards back in the Victorian era. Plus: today is the anniversary of Earthrise, the iconic photo taken by the Apollo 8 crew as they orbited the moon. 

Have a Creepy Little Christmas with These Unsettling Victorian Cards (Hyperallergic)

Earthrise: Celebrating the Photograph that Changed (How We View) the World (Library of Congress)

Thanks to our Patreon backers for making Cool Weird Awesome possible! 

Take the Hanukkah favorite, dreidel, and turn the intensity way, way up. Now you've got Major League Dreidel, a growing new sport in New York City. Plus: an agency in Nova Scotia decided people needed a break from ads this season, and released some ad-free ads. 

Competitive Dreidel-Spinning Is a Thing. Here's How Major League Dreidel Got Started. (Civilized)

Creative agency buys $10k of blank ad space to give everyone a break from ads (It's Nice That)

Cool Weird Awesome is listener supported. Thanks to our Patreon backers!

As we get ready for the official start of winter, it's worth noting that some of us deal with this time of year in unusual ways. Like the people of Winnipeg, Manitoba, who spend their cold, cold winters drinking Slurpees. Plus: on this Star Wars premiere day, a visit to a German observatory painted to look like R2-D2. 

How One of Canada's Coldest Cities Became the Slurpee Capital of the World (Thrillist)

Giant R2-D2 Structure is an Overhauled German Observatory  (Interesting Engineering)

Back Cool Weird Awesome on Patreon for less than the cost of a Slurpee a month!

You’ve heard about making cars smarter, but what about smarter intersections? 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

An increasing number of museums are offering EnChroma corrective glasses to visitors with color blindness, to bring more color to the world of art and those who enjoy it. Plus: a museum in London is exhibiting a disposable cup from 3,500 years ago, proving that from our earliest times, we’ve been trying to avoid doing the dishes.

When Colorblind Visitors Put On These Glasses, The Art At The MCA Looks A Lot Brighter (Colorado Public Radio)

How EnChroma’s Glasses Correct Color-Blindness (Technology Review)

A museum’s 3,500-year-old disposable cup shows the desire to avoid dishwashing is ancient (Washington Post)