On the boat
This kid's got an eye for detail.
In The 19th Century, Steamboat Racing Was An Extreme Sport (Cool Weird Awesome 1057)
Today in 1811, the first known steamboat race takes place on the Hudson River. Yes, a couple centuries ago, racing steamboats was a thing.
The “Vantafish” Is A Fish That Absorbs Light (Cool Weird Awesome 344)
Vantablack is a color that's so black it absorbs almost all of the light nearby. There's new research out about a "vantafish" that does almost the same thing to avoid its hungry bioluminescent neighbors. Plus: you've heard of drive-in theaters; Paris is going to have a "float-in" theater featuring "socially distanced boats" on the Seine.
Will Kryptos, The Unsolvable CIA Puzzle Sculpture, Finally Be Solved? (Cool Weird Awesome 230)
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.
On The Lake
You can take pontoon boat rides on Madison's Lake Mendota, and we picked one of the nicest nights to try it out.
Row, Row, Row Your Bot (Cool Weird Awesome 60)
Autonomous robot boats are a thing! Over time, researchers have taught them to row themselves gently down the stream and to connect to each other autonomously - soon they could help clean the water or even turn themselves into temporary footbridges.