The Olympics showcases sports that most of us would never see otherwise. Once every four years, we follow speed skating, luge, curling, and slalom and suddenly become experts in our minds. And occasionally we got a glimpse into what goes on behind those sports. Just the other day we found out that how the fit of a ski suit is very important in the sport of ski jumping. There are plenty of other obscure rules for Olympic sports. Did you know that colored nail polish is not allowed in women's gymnastics? Maybe we can assume it's not allowed in men's gymnastics, either. And the authorities of water polo are rightfully concerned about whether athletes have clipped their toenails. Mental Floss goes over these restrictions in a list of ten obscure Olympics rules.

One rule, however, needs an update. Backflips were banned from figure skating after the 1976 games. We were all astounded when Surya Bonaly of France did a backflip on ice in 1998. She was penalized, but is remembered to this day. In 2024, the International Skating Union decided to reverse the rule and make backflips okay. US figure skating star Ilia Malinin is currently taking advantage of the rule change by stealing the show at the Milano-Cortina Winter Games in Italy. 

Benedict Cumberbatch has become a favorite reader for Shaun Usher's Letters Live series because he reads letters with such dramatic flair. In this performance at the Southbank Centre in London last month, he delivers a pitch-perfect reading of a letter written to a bank in 2009. 

The writer has been a customer of the unnamed bank for thirty years, yet they still managed to screw him over with their new automatic systems designed to take every bit of humanity out of the business of banking. No doubt you will feel exactly what this customer is feeling, because we've all experienced the same type of horror. In response, he decides to give them a taste of their own medicine, in excruciating detail. I sure wish we had the rest of the story, meaning how the bank responded. We know they kept the letter because it was so good. I have a sneaking suspicion that every bank employee who read it was nonetheless helpless to provide any kind of relief for the writer. And what he's on about has only gotten worse in the years since. -via Laughing Squid 

The Air Force has plans to upgrade and re-arm existing obsolete nuclear missile sites in the US. Maps Mania alerts us to an interactive map project concerning these missile silos. The locations are common knowledge thanks to satellite technology. Under the Nuclear Sponge theory, these missiles silos are located in relatively low population areas of the country, under the assumption that in a nuclear war, the enemy would attack these silos first, which would then affect fewer people. Small consolation for those who live in these areas. 

However, nuclear fallout following such an attack would cover much larger areas, depending on wind and weather. USA Today posted an interactive map showing which areas would be most affected under different weather models, indicating that highly-populated areas would not be safe even if a nuclear attack was limited to the silos. You can also explore the original map called Under the Nuclear Cloud without all the scrolling context at Columbia University. -via Nag on the Lake 

The premise of the short film Forevergreen is simple: a pine tree adopts a baby bear. Yes, there's a lot more to it, but that synopsis was all I needed to want to watch it. The tree makes a surprisingly good parent, but things go sideways when the bear reaches adolescence and is lured off by the temptations of the outside world. Then you start to see that it's a version of Yogi Bear. No, it's Smokey Bear. No, really, it's The Giving Tree. Or maybe it's the story of Groot. It's a bit of every story about trees or bears, but mainly it's about love. And junk food.

Nathan Engelhardt and Jeremy Spears spent five years making Forevergreen in their free time with no budget, and now it's nominated for an Academy Award. We'll find out who wins on March 15th. Meanwhile you can see a behind-the-scenes video about Forevergreen here.  -via Kuriositas 

Seavey's Island is an island in the mouth of the Pisquataqua River. It is within sight of the city of Portsmouth, New Hampshire. This 0.43-square mile island is the home of a US Navy base and is the focal point of a long-standing border dispute between New Hampshire and Maine.

You see, New Hampshirites see the island as their rightful territory--one occupied unlawfully by Mainer interlopers. In New Hampshire Journal, Ian Huyett says, "Maine stole our land when we weren't looking" and lays out the case for New Hampshire's irredentism.

Two days ago, the New Hampshire State House of Representatives passed a resolution reaffirming that state's claim to Seavey's Island.

So far, Governor Kelly Ayotte has not said that she would call up the New Hampshire National Guard to forcibly return Seavey's Island to New Hampshirite control. But she hasn't also said that she wouldn't.

-via Commander Salamander

The Olympics are underway in Italy, with venues scattered across a wide area of the Alps whether there is snow cover or not. The magic of artificial snow generation makes sure that what you see on TV appears perfect for skiing, snowboarding, and cross-country racing. In fact, many of the races at the Beijing Olympics in 2022 were run completely on machine-generated snow. Yet the lack of reliable snow over the past few deacdes affects the ability of athletes to train for the competitions in their home countries. 

Any Olympic course that doesn't have adequate natural snow will be groomed with manmade snow, which is real snow made from real water, but it's not the same. Flakes of natural snow are varied due to temperature, humidity, and other factors. Manmade snow is more uniform, and tends to compact faster. This leaves the courses slicker and often more dangerous. Read about the effects of using manmade snow at the Olympics at the Conversation. 

See also: The Science of the Winter Olympics. 

(Image credit: Jon Wick) 

Etsy seller Retrotic in Turkey takes old rotary phones and upcycles them into stylish and retrocool lamps. This 1960s classic looks like it has been thrown out of the screen from a set of Mad Men. Other rotary phone lamps, such as this one, have LEDs on the base, too, adding to the mystique.

-via Toxel

Is there a general consensus among historians as to which US President would have been best at handling extraterrestrial first contact?

— Ben Crew (@BenjaminCrew1) February 5, 2026

X user Ben Crew poses an interesting question.

My immediate thought was John Kennedy because of how he handled the Cuban Missile Crisis, which I think might be similar to first contact with aliens. It was necessary for Kennedy to be firm and project strength to deter the USSR and thereby avoid a nuclear war, but also restrain the hotheads within his administration who wished to invade Cuba and instigate a nuclear war. Kennedy's brinksmanship could be optimal for showing strength until the nature of the aliens could be determined.

For somewhat similar reasons, I'd also suggest Abraham Lincoln. His political coalition was profoundly fragile and fragmented. He had to keep to his goal to subdue the rebellion while not leading to a split within his side that could have led to a Southern victory. Lincoln knew how to listen to his advisors while not being enthralled by them.

Yes, Lincoln predated what we could call science fiction and thus would not have a mental map for alien life, but that itself could be useful because science fiction norms might lead us astray in the event of actual first contact.

Of course, Crew's question assumes that a President or even Presidents have not already experienced first contact with aliens.

-via Aelfred the Great

Only Nixon could go to Omicron Persei-8.

— Fr. Ryan Hilderbrand (@FrHilderbrand) February 6, 2026

Previously on Neatorama: In a Mass Knife Fight to the Death Between Every American President, Who Would Win and Why?

Warning: This POV footage may induce vertigo. 

Ride along with freestyle motocross star Colby Raha as he breaks a world record. But that's only half the ride, and he does it twice. The frightening course was set up at the Record Breakers event in Mesa, Arizona on January 31st. First, he has to get up to speed. Then he jumps 275 feet over a pool with no margin for error. Then he zips up a quarter pipe, straight up, and lands in one piece. I'm impressed, but it's not quite a world record, so he tries it a second time.

The part where Raha has to go quite some distance to get back where he started is kind of cute, with fans waving him on. So he does the whole run again, this time reaching 90 feet above ground on the quarter pipe for a big air world record. I would recommend watching this GoPro video in full screen mode for maximum terror. -via Born in Space 

In 1926, Abe Saperstein organized a basketball team consisting of five elite athletes who had played for Wendell Phillips High School in Chicago. They were called the Savoy Big Five, and played at the Savoy Ballroom. The team grew, drew attention, and changed their name to the Globe Trotters in 1928. In 1930, they were rebranded as the New York Harlem Globetrotters. Despite the fact that they were based in Chicago, Saperstein wanted to indicate that the players were Black. The team won the World Professional Basketball Tournament in 1940. They also became widely known for their trick ball handling and showmanship. 

The National Basketball Association formed in 1946, but did not invite the Globetrotters to join because the players were Black. Then in 1948, the Globetrotters defeated the purported best professional team in the country, the Minneapolis Lakers. In 1950, the NBA began drafting Black players by recruiting three of the Harlem Globetrotters. The team itself was still not part of the NBA, so they became an exhibition team. Why bother following the rules when you aren't part of the club? Learn about the early history of the Harlem Globetrotters at Newspapers.com. -via Strange Company 

(Image credit: MelanieWarner) 

Ze Frank made a True Facts video asking for input on a species name for a new chiton mollusk identified by Juila Sigwart of the Senkenberg Ocean Species Alliance. A panel of expert judges which fortunately excluded Ze Frank came to a consensus and selected a name. This morning, a new paper was published in the Biodiversity Data Journal announcing the naming of Ferreiraella populi, the "chiton of the people." 

More than 8,000 comments came in under the original video, so Ze Frank figured that some of the more humorous suggestions should be highlighted here since they did not make it into the science journal. Points for creativity, so to speak. Strangely, Ferreiraella chitonmcchitonface did not appear to gain any ground, but you might not be surprised that the most popular name in all those suggestions was Jerry. That one was disqualified from the competition by Jerry himself, if you can believe that story. 

Black Pearl is a tiny horse who is one of nine mares owned by Nodiff Netanel's Mini Therapy Horses in the Los Angeles area. According to an article published last year in USA Today, Black Pearl is especially popular among the patients at children's hospitals due to her musical talents. As you can see in the above video, she's a talented pianist.

Here is Black Pearl performing for a child as she wakes up from anesthesia. Prank idea: don't explain the piano-playing horse to the patient. If she asks about it later, the hospital staff should claim ignorance and suggest that the patient was hallucinating.

-via David Thompson

The  World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) has been asked to look into allegations of possible cheating by some ski jump competitors ahead of the Winter Olympics in Milan and Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy. How does one cheat in ski jumping? The claim is that some male athletes are injecting their penises with hyaluronic acid- but not during competition. So how could this possibly enhance their performance? 

It has to do with the uniform fit. A looser ski suit has been scientifically proven to increase lift and reduce drag, allowing a ski jumper to fly further. An injection to make one's penis temporarily larger during a uniform fitting (done with 3D scanners) may gain some fabric, and an athletic edge. Hyaluronic acid, which is naturally found in our bodies, is used to treat arthritis by cushioning joints, and as a filler in cosmetic surgery. It is not considered a performance-enhancing drug. So far, no athletes have been named and there is no evidence of the scheme yet, but the claims are being investigated. -via Metafilter 

The average ten-year-old boy knows more about Vikings than I do, but what he knows probably came from either Looney Tunes or Hagar the Horrible. Or that History Channel series he's not really allowed to watch. The Vikings were a Scandinavian people who raided and traded all over the world from the 8th to the 11th centuries. They did not have a written language, so whatever was documented about them was written by people who were terrified of them, or else was written long afterward. They didn't even call themselves Vikings; that was a word that referred to their raids. We actually know very little about them, but we do know that a lot of the things everyone knows about Vikings came from dubious sources or were just made up for dramatic effect. This TED-Ed lesson busts five myths that have grown up around the Vikings. -via Geeks Are Sexy

In 1949, Ray Bradbury wrote a story called "Dark They Were, and Golden-Eyed" that has stayed with me since childhood. It concerns a colony of pioneers from Earth who settled on Mars, but without communication or ships from Earth, they turned into Martians. 

Most of a century later, people are seriously talking about sending people to Mars to live. If  a colony of humans were isolated on the red planet, how would they change over time? Would it require many generations for any differences to evolve, or would the very different environment on Mars cause changes? And how long would it take until they became a different species from the humans left on earth? We won't really know until it happens, but scientists have some idea about how the human body might adapt to an environment with different gravity, sunshine, and atmosphere. Read what those potential changes might be at Real Clear Science.

(Image credit: D Mitriy)