"5 COOL THINGS" - weekly emails

47 Fun Facts About the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade (Mental Floss)

Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York City celebrates its 97th anniversary this year. As with many traditions that have lasted so long, there are a lot of details about the celebration that have changed over the years. For example, starting in 1928, the parade’s helium-filled balloons were simply released into the air at the end of the show. These so-called “balloon races”, conducted with the expectation that members of the public would identify and return the downed balloons, were stopped in 1932 — after the rising popularity of aviation led to two incidents where aviators tried to interact with the balloons in midair. These stories and more are featured in this article, which also delves into the particulars of the modern-day parade and its “balloon handlers”. Read more…

These Cells Spark Electricity in the Brain. They’re Not Neurons (Nautilus)

The average person probably knows that neurons are the cells in the brain that propagate electrical signals. Until 1990, scientists believed that they did so alone, with the brain’s other cells performing support functions. Then a different kind of cell, called an astrocyte, was observed to be responding to neurotransmitters. Astrocyte signaling has been heavily studied and debated ever since, with the most recent study showing that only certain types of astrocytes have this capability. Why does this matter? Because it upends our current understanding of how the brain works. Developing a model that encompasses all of the brain’s functions could help us to understand diseases, psychology, and even to design better machines.  Read more…

Blue Whales: Ocean Giants Return to ‘Safe' Tropical Haven (BBC)

Seychelles is an archipelago nation in the Indian Ocean north of Madagascar. In the 1960s, a fleet of whaling vessels operated by the Soviet Union decimated blue whale populations in the area, which was a breeding ground for these massive creatures. Decades later, in 2020 and 2021, filmmakers finally captured images of whales in the region again. Thanks to underwater microphones, we now know that the whales spend months in the region, making calls louder than the sound of jet engines on land. The successful return of blue whales to Seychelles is due in part to a “debt for nature” program wherein $2.2 billion of national debt was written off in exchange for natural preservation. Read more… 

40 Words and Phrases That Are Their Own Opposites (Mental Floss)

SAT tests might quiz you on synonyms and antonyms, but there are some words in the English language that count as “contranyms”, or words that can be used for totally opposite purposes. For example, “left”: you can leave, which means you have left and gone away. But others may also leave you, meaning you have been left and stayed put. Likewise, “fast” could mean something moves with speed, but it could also describe an object stuck in place. Contranyms have gone by many other names in the past, including “auto-antonym, antagonym, enantiodrome, self-antonym, antilogy, and Janus word” — after the Roman god with two faces. Read more…
 

Why Collectors Fall Head Over Heels for the ‘Inverted Jenny’ Stamp (Smithsonian Magazine)

This week, an “inverted Jenny” stamp, first printed in 1918, reached $2 million at auction as the most expensive US stamp ever sold. Why are these stamps so valuable to collectors? Because they’re ultra rare: the original misprint, featuring the image of a popular World War I “Jenny” biplane printed upside-down, was reproduced for nine sheets of 100 stamps each. Of these, the Bureau of Engraving and Printing was able to recover and destroy eight sheets, meaning that only 100 stamps escaped into circulation. How many of these now multi-million dollar stamps might have been thrown away, or otherwise misplaced over the past century? According to experts, Number 78 (identified based on its place on the original sheet) even spent some time inside a vacuum cleaner. Read more…