Orange cats, also called ginger cats, have a reputation as being male, large, very food-motivated, and kind of goofy. Scientists at Kyushu University in Japan and Stanford University, working on a crowdfunded project, have located the gene that causes a cat to be orange. The culprit is a mutation on the ARHGAP36 gene. A missing inhibitor section in that gene causes more activity, and the result is that the cat's melanocytes -cells that control color- are ordered to produce a lighter pigment, meaning orange.

The reason that orange cats are overwhelmingly male is because the ARHGAP36 gene is carried on the X chromosome. Male cats only have one X chromosome, so if a male cat inherits the mutation, it will be orange. Female cats have two X chromosomes, so they must inherit both X chromosomes with the orange mutation to appear orange, as only one such chromosome will likely produce mixed colors, like tortoiseshell or calico. The kicker is that the ARHGAP36 gene also controls other parts of a cat's anatomy, such as the brain and hormone production. The missing inhibitor DNA in a mutated ARHGAP36 gene may explain why orange cats have other similarities that give them the stereotype. Read more about this research at BBC.  -via Damn Interesting 

(Image credit: Mike Lehmann)

Great Big Story introduces us to the NYO Games. Young people across Alaska's native communities come together to compete in twelve sports. These events are developed from the practical needs of natives engaging in hunting and fishing activities.

For example, the two foot kick, which requires kicking a ball suspended from a cord was originally a visual signal sent across the tundra. The two-person stick pull reflects a need to hold on to a spear after impaling a seal.

This video shows a state-level competition for teenagers in these games. They demonstrate extraordinary athletic skills and describe how these sports help them connect with their heritages.

Warning: gory animation. Lee Hardcastle (previously at Neatorama) is a claymation animator with a penchant for violence. Where can he go for the inspiration to outdo his previous videos? Video games, of course, since they are the most violent media we come across in our everyday lives. This video recreates scenes from the new game DOOM: The Dark Ages, in which his character Claycat goes all HAM on his demon opponents. But this is claymation, where the mayhem is both scary and silly. You know how it is with clay- give a little kid a Play-Doh figure you've just spent an hour perfecting, and their first instinct is to tear and smash it. If you can handle DOOM, you can handle the stop-motion clay version. If you really like it, see Claycat in previous versions of DOOMhere and here.

You really have to admire Hardcastle's work ethis. Doom: The Dark Ages was only released one day before this video was posted. -via Geeks Are Sexy

The space probe Voyager 1 was launched in 1977 and is currently 25 billion kilometers (15.6 billion miles) away from earth. The fact that it's still sending signals to earth after 48 years is amazing enough, but a recent communications exchange hints that the probe may be functional for a long time to come.

Voyager 1's backup thrusters have not been used since 2004, when a malfunction occurred and NASA considered them defunct. They were okay with that at the time, since the probe had already long outlasted its life expectancy. But lately Voyager's primary thrusters have been degrading due to a buildup of residue. Without thrusters, the probe wouldn't be able to orient its antenna toward earth, and communication would be lost. Could NASA engineers activate the long-unused backup thrusters? They also had to activate the thruster's heaters that had been deactivated to save energy. The mission was frustrating, as each message to Voyager takes 23 hours to get there, and another 23 hours to hear back. But once again, Voyage 1 surprised us. They don't build them like they used to.  -via Slashdot

(Image credit: NASA/JPL)

Bitsy the cat was born with nine lives, six legs and one loving heart. Now, Christine Koltun says the one-year-old cat is well on her way to having a new lease on life.

A fun story from me today: https://t.co/8L32lpmKJq

Furget Me Not, a rescue organization in Edmonton, Alberta, got a report of a stray cat that had six legs. They picked up Bitsy and saw that indeed, the cat had two front legs and four back legs. Veterinarians determined that Bitsy had absorbed a littermate as a fetus, and had two extra legs plus an extra pelvis. One of the cat's original main legs was non-functional as well. They decided that Bitsy would have a better quality of life without the non-functional legs. Surgeons at the Windermere Veterinary Hospital removed three of the cat's legs in a two-hour surgical procedure. She is now recovering at the home of one of the vet techs. Read about Bitsy and her extra legs at CBC. -via Metafilter

You have to wonder if there's something about Edmonton, since this is the second time a six-legged cat has been helped in that city.

Warning: this video contains spoilers for a 42-year-old movie. Yoda's final scene in Return of the Jedi was quite emotional for Star Wars fans. You  might look at it a bit differently now that the scene has been given the Bad Lip Reading treatment and has been turned into a musical number. Yoda is merely getting ready for bedtime, and he sings a song, completely against Luke's preference. This is totally nonsensical, but its goofiness is the entire point. How hard can it be to put words into a Muppet's mouth? You may be reminded of a toddler doing everything he can to avoid going to sleep.

Lest the memories of the original scene make you sad, the editing has been changed a bit here, leaving Yoda just fine at the end, although there's obviously a screw loose. The reference at the end reminds us of this Bad Lip Reading song from nine years ago. -via Laughing Squid

Eighty years after the end of World War II, we are still learning its stories. In the summer of 1941, Germany invaded the USSR, until then its ally. The Soviets reached out to the Allies for help. They needed supplies, which Britain agreed to ship, and even the US, still uninvolved in the war, lent support. These supplies were deployed in convoys of ships traveling through the Arctic Ocean to Murmansk and Archangel. The route was extremely dangerous, not only because of the Arctic cold, but because the Germans were keeping an eye out for them from occupied Norway.

In December of 1942, the A-class destroyer HMS Achates was assigned as one of six escort ships for a convoy of 14 merchant ships bound for Murmansk. They were attacked by a German flotilla, and the Achates began blowing smoke on the water to mask the convoy. The German ship Admiral Hipper unloaded its guns on the Achates, the only ship visible. Despite staggering damage, the Achates continued blowing smoke, while two other escort ships emerged from the mist and beat back the German ships.

In what would become known as the Battle of the Barents Sea, the Achates lost 111 of her crew of 193, and the ship sank. But the convoy they were protecting made it to Murmansk, thanks to the smokescreen and the other escort ships. Read about that battle, and about the convoys of  "the worst journey in the world" at Military History Now. -via Strange Company

(Image credit: National Maritime Museum)

A month ago, we brought you the The Daily Life of a Shrimp, a very full day featuring automata by Italian artist Amedeo Capelli. Now we get to see another slice of crustacean life as the shrimp gets an invitation to a picnic! Of course, he has to prepare something delicious to take first. I don't think it's going to be shrimp cocktail.

Capelli explains that he's in his "shrimp's era" right now because he enjoys making them, and his followers like them as well. In an interview at Instagram, he explains what makes his hard-working and hard-playing shrimp so charming (in Italian with English subtitles). They are industrious and frenetic, which is cute in itself, but their popularity mainly comes down to the fact that any human activity is funny when a shrimp does it. There are quite a few of his shrimp automata available at Etsy. -via Boing Boing

Pigeon whistles, called geling 鴿鈴 or geshao 鴿哨, are lightweight (8 grams or less) whistles tied to the backs of pigeons so that they produce a musical sound when the birds fly. This has been going on in China for a thousand years, first by the military as a means of communication, then by people who kept and trained pigeons as a hobby. Pigeon whistles are made from bamboo or dried gourds, and these can be combined to produce multiple sounds. They are attached to the bird's four main tail feathers, and do not hinder or injure the pigeon. There are strict traditions for making the whistles, so that multiple birds will sound harmonious when flying.

The sight and sounds of pigeons carrying whistles are likened to "old Beijing," because the art is dying out. Keeping pigeons declined when China's architecture turned to skyscrapers and modern-looking homes, which left little room for nests. There are still a few experts in the craft of making the whistles, but they are entering the realm of collectibles. -via Present & Correct

YouTuber The Usual Suspect recreated Eminem's #1, Oscar-winning song "Lose Yourself" from the 2002 movie 8 Mile using movie clips that deliver the lyrics. We've seen supercuts like this before, but this one stands out for its artfulness. None of the movie scenes nor the movies themselves are duplicated, even in the chorus. Plus they were selected for their rhythmic pace and edited accordingly, leaving us with the illusion that the actors are really singing this song. Even if you aren't a fan of "Lose Yourself" or previous supercuts of movie clips, you'll want to try this one out.

The Usual Suspect used this video as a resurrection of his CinemaSings series, which hasn't had a new video in three years. There's a list of all 331 movies in order under the pinned comment at the YouTube page. The list does not include the movie 8 Mile. Contains NSFW language.

Lon Chaney wasn't the first cinematic werewolf, even though The Wolf Man established the folkloric monster as a box office star in 1941. Six years earlier, Universal Pictures introduced lycanthropy to movie audiences in Werewolf of London. It starred Henry Hull as a botanist who goes to Tibet to find the world's rarest flower, which only blooms under moonlight. It is also supposedly a cure for "lycanthrophobia," a condition that causes a man to turn into a wolf -with the urge to destroy that which he loves most. He comes back with three buds, but also with a case of lycanthrophobia himself. Warner Oland stars as the werewolf that bit him.

Werewolf of London was a box office disappointment, for reasons that are spelled out at Inverse. But Universal learned some lessons from Werewolf of London and brought the werewolf to greater things in The Wolf Man a few years later.

You can watch the entire movie here. -Thanks, Andrew Dalke!

For a long time, I thought the only difference between Miracle Whip and mayonnaise is that Miracle Whip has sugar in it. But that's far from the whole story. I was never a fan of mayonnaise, but I learned in chemistry class that it's an emulsion of eggs and oil with a little lemon juice or vinegar added for tang. That was a fun day in class. Meanwhile, Miracle Whip is a brand name for "salad dressing." I've never known anyone to use it on a regular salad, but it comes in handy for potato salad or tuna salad, if you don't just use mayonnaise.

Miracle Whip was unveiled in 1933 as a cheaper alternative to mayo. When oil was expensive, people came up with a recipe for "boiled dressing" that used a lot more ingredients but got the job done. Kraft combined this alternative recipe with mayonnaise to make a lighter, sweeter dressing they called Miracle Whip. Read about boiled dressing and how it led to Miracle Whip at Mental Floss.

Artist Kamber Carroll makes furniture that satiate your hunger for novel and eye-catching style. He's built up a portfolio of home furnishings that look like food. Carroll's latest collection titled The Sandwich Series presents popular sandwiches as tables.

Grilled cheese sandwiches served with tomato soup are a classic comfort food. So this classic meal presents well on a table and rug matched for the occasion.

One facet of Carroll's work in this series that I especially appreciate is how every part of the sculpture looks like the food itself. The functional legs on this s'more table, for example, look like melted chocolate.

The series includes more than just tables. This meatball sub is a couch. So Carroll can create a complete living room set from just sandwiches alone.

Grik and Carl are from a civilization that has been keeping on eye on earth for thousands of years. Aside from an occasional abduction and that unfortunate incident in Roswell, they've kept their profiles really low. But in recent years, they've decided to reveal themselves to humans and help earthlings become advanced enough to join the Interdimensional Federation. There's a problem, though- no one believes them. This requires more research. They continue to study us and try to make sense of the humans who inhabit this planet. It's not easy. In this video, they visit Los Angeles to take in the vibes and learn about yogurt, Peloton bikes, and pickleball. No one is the least bit surprised to see them.

Grik and Carl are comedians Brent Pella and Blake Webber. While a lot of comedy relies on pointing out the weird parts of our society, it works well for them because they pull off the alien impersonations to a T. The aliens have a fairly new YouTube channel in case you want to catch up on their saga. -via reddit

Where do babies have the lowest risk of dying? In wealthier nations, the infant mortality rates are small, but never small enough. Japan, Finland, and Sweden have the lowest mortality rate, but that needs some explanation. The comparisons are between 19 OECD countries, meaning the most developed nations, that have at least 20,000 babies born every year. And, as in everything else, it depends on your definition of infant mortality. Some countries count infant deaths as any infant born alive who dies afterward, while other countries only include births that occur after 22 weeks of gestation.

A series of charts at Our World in Data shows the difference in the way statistics are determined, and then adjusts infant mortality rates to compare them for only babies born after 22 weeks of gestation. They also compare the rates of mortality in the first month after birth and the first year after birth. That's when South Korea slides from the third lowest mortality rate to the sixth lowest mortality rate. The good news is that in all these countries, the mortality rate is less than 1%. If only the entire world could boast such low rates. -via Real Clear Science

(Image credit: Hannah Ritchie)