The Hapsburgs or House of Austria was a royal dynasty in Europe often associated with having a prominent jawline called “Hapsburg Jaw,” as evident in their surviving portraits. Charles II (see photo above), dubbed the most inbred Hapsburg in history, had a slew of physical disabilities, which researchers suggested was a result of inheriting highly recessive, harmful genes from the then-common practice of marrying and having children between close relatives. 

It’s a popular notion that inbreeding results in physical deformity, however one researcher wanted to point out that inbreeding does not necessarily cause, but it exacerbates certain, already existing family traits. So, 100 years of inbreeding down the line, what was once a trait for a perfectly acceptable but still big chin from uncle Philip manifests in the next generation of royalty as an obviously dysmorphic lower face.

The prominent jawline feature is a complex trait, meaning it is a result of many different genes that are either dominant or recessive. 

You can find more historical Hapsburg portraits at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, The Prado (Madrid), or Kunsthistorisches Museum (Vienna). 

For the full story, head over to Inverse.

(Image Credit: Juan de Miranda Carreno / Wikimedia Commons)

Artist Keith Williams shows his craftmanship wonders on leftover pieces of wood.

Sébastien Matos piques our curiosity with a digital exhibit where you can follow nearly four decades of change in the scrollbar design from the classic 1981 Xerox Star to the minimalist Windows 10 in 2015. Matos created it using CSS and Javascript during a course under ECAL, a Swiss university of art and design located in Renens. 

According to his GitHub profile (which is where you can download a copy of the file for free),

Some iconic scrollbars recreated as faithfully as possible.

The interactive aspect has been particularly well looked after.

Which one is your favorite?

Check out the complete Evolution of the Scrollbar here!

(Image Credit: Anna Selezniova and Andy Barnov / Martian Chronicles)

New evidence published in the journal Ecology Letters would suggest so. As temperatures start to rise, more researchers are beginning to discover the previously undocumented effects of climate change on species adapting to changes in their environment.

In 1978, the study’s lead author, Brian Weeks, noticed the staggering number of birds fatally colliding with buildings during spring and fall migration. He decided to start a study on such specimens, and the results were quite consistent across the broad range of migratory bird species involved. Over 40 years, Weeks and his team of volunteers and scientists collected and analyzed 70,716 specimens from 52 North American migratory bird species.

The evidence suggests warming temperatures caused the decrease in body size, which in turn caused the increase in wing length.

He says the birds most likely to survive migration were the ones with longer wingspans that compensated for their smaller bodies.

The scientists aren't exactly sure why warmer temperatures cause birds to shrink. One theory is that smaller animals are better at cooling off, losing body heat more quickly due to their larger surface-area-to-volume ratios.

These findings support the theory that climate change causes shrinking in certain species, as other studies since 2014 have shown similar conclusions. 

-via Kelsey Vlamis / BBC News

(Image Credit: Frank Cone / Pexels)

Soon after the December 7, 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor, the US government began rounding up people of Japanese descent along the West Coast. The first ones incarcerated were the Issei, men who immigrated from Japan before 1907 and by law could not become American citizens. The dragnet expanded over the next year, and thousands of American-born citizens were sent to facilities such as racetracks to live until the inland internment camps were built and ready to receive them. Two-thirds of the population of the camps were American, and the immigrant Issei not only suffered from the disruption of their lives, but also found themselves surrounded by young second-generation Nissei who barely knew the Japanese language. But they got to work, first building all the things the internees needed but couldn't bring with them, then by producing art to restore the soul, decorate the camps, and pass the time. Some of these long-forgotten art objects were eventually sought out and enshrined in the book The Art of Gaman: Arts and Crafts from the Japanese American Internment Camps 1942-1946 by Delphine Hirasuna, who tells us what she learned while researching the art of the camps.    

What’s impressive when you look through The Art of Gaman is not just how beautiful these objects are, but also the ingenious use of found materials, putting todays’ upcyclers to shame. Because the camps were built so hastily, the Corps of Engineers and WRA contractors left piles of scrap wood lying within reach.

“I have pictures of the scrap piles,” Hirasuna says. “There was so much lumber around that people were grabbing it and using it to build chairs and other furniture. Because the Army was still building the camps when the Japanese Americans were moved in, the workmen would discover that their hammers and saws were disappearing. When I’d ask Nisei about it, I’d say, ‘Did your father steal a hammer or saw?’ One woman told me, ‘No. Nobody admits to stealing, but everybody admits to knowing somebody who did.'”

Butter knives from the kitchen, with the help of the furnaces, were turned into scissors, pliers, carving knives, and chisels. To me, a Gen Xer, it’s amazing to see all these things that were made from hand with very little resources. But I have to remind myself that in the time between the Civil War and World War II, Americans were still making many things by hand, building furniture and barns, sewing their own clothes, some even doing their own blacksmithing. Issei men who were born in Japan were likely trained in the art of joinery, which is helpful when you need to make furniture and can’t buy nails.

“Certainly, the first generation of Japanese men came to America as itinerant workers around the turn of the century,” says Hirasuna, who is a Baby Boomer. “They learned to make-do and be ingenious in solving problems. At camp, probably some of them said, ‘Hey, I helped build the railroads, so I know how they use those furnaces to throw coal and forge railroad ties.’ I don’t think our generation could do that. Those were the times when housewives were canning and men repaired their own farm equipment. Everybody knew how to sew their own clothes. If my generation were incarcerated today, I’d be completely lost. I’d have to order from Amazon.”

The story of the art created in the Japanese internment camps follows the story of the mass internment itself. Read the experiences of some of those artists at Collectors Weekly.

I discovered Centered Riding by Sally Swift through Twitter user Alexandria Nenakis. This 1985 equestrian guide uses bizarre illustrations to convey metaphors for the physical activities involved in riding a horse successfully.

Swift had a way with words and her illustrator, Jean MacFarland, could convey those unusual metaphors with an imaginative spirit.

The Cannonball Run is an unsanctioned race route from New York City to Los Angeles. It is unofficial and unsanctioned because beating previous records means breaking the law all across the United States. But people keep trying, and occasionally they set a new record.

You may or may not be aware of its existence, but there's a robust subculture within the automotive enthusiast community that obsesses over the New York-to-L.A. land speed record. Many of them even go so far as to race beater cars coast to coast every year (also against the law) in most-holds-barred Cannonball-style races called the 2904 and the C2C Express. Two members of the informal "fraternity of lunatics," as it calls itself, are Arne Toman and Doug Tabbutt, who—along with a new-to-the-mania young spotter named Berkeley Chadwick—are the latest Cannonball champions. At least two dozen attempts are known to have been made by others since the last record was set in 2013, but only one managed to break 30 hours. Toman, Tabbutt and Chadwick succeeded not just in breaking a record many people thought would be difficult or impossible to break. They utterly destroyed it, making the trip in less than 27 and a half hours.

In that 27 hours and 25 minutes, they covered 2825 miles. They had to average 103 miles an hour to make it, but since they had to stop for gas, you know they were going faster most of the time. The team drove a 2015 Mercedes-Benz E63 AMG sedan that they highly customized and outfitted with extra equipment. Read about their run and see a video at Road and Track. -via Jalopnik

(Image credit: Arne Toman)

Scientists tracked the movement of this adolescent tiger through two states in India as he hunted for food and, the scientists assume, a mate. This is the longest-ever recorded journey of a tiger. BBC News describes the journey of the male known as C1:

The tiger hid during the day and travelled in the night time, killing wild pigs and cattle for food.

Dr Habib confirmed the one accidental injury to a man who entered the thicket where the tiger was resting, but said there had been no serious conflict with humans.

"People don't even know that this tiger is travelling in the backyard," he said.

With some difficulty, the tiger was able to find food. Tigers need to live in a area with at least 500 prey animals to have a sufficient food bank. But it is unknown whether C1 was successful in his quest.

-via Dave Barry | Photo: Tippeshwar Wildlife Sanctuary

You know how you see painted portraits from 400 years ago, and the subject is wearing clothing with a fancy print? That wasn't printed fabric, but more likely hand-stitched embroidery, an art form available only to the wealthy. The needlework artists developed ever-fancier techniques, such as 3D relief stitching, that incorporated not only thread, but pearls, precious gems, and metal sequins.  

The “Jacobean” style of needlework isn’t so much a kind of sewing technique as it is a vibe (and a reference to the Latin translation of King James I). It refers to a kind of mood board wherein highly stylised mythical creatures, plants, and maidens reign supreme. The Tree of Life was a popular motif. So too were cherubs, chivalrous scenes, or imagery inspired by England’s most recent trade partner: India.

“Crewel” and “stump” work sewing techniques created complex layers of metal, silk and wool threads, adding a richness and dimension to the designs that made them, quite literally, rise from the surface. This included not just clothing and accessories, but precious boxes called “caskets” and hand-sewn “paintings,” frames, and wall panels.

See a selection of this incredible embroidery style from the 17th century at Messy Messy Chic. And don't miss the gloves.

(Image credit: Flickr user Kotomi_)

The adorable Baby Yoda has taken over the internet, and his/her fandom is not limited to Disney+ subscribers. I haven't seen The Mandolorian, and I feel like I know Baby Yoda as well as anyone. Ice2Ice adapted the Lin-Manuel Miranda song "Dear Theodosia" from Hamilton and made it a lullaby/love song about Baby Yoda. It's clever and they perform it well, but best of all, we get clips of the baby in the video. -via Geeks Are Sexy

The British Ecological Society has finally announced the winners of its photography competition titled “Capturing Ecology”. The photographs, all of which were taken by either ecologists or students, show the magnificent beauty, as well as the frailty, of the natural world.

The overall award was won by Roberto García Roa, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Valencia. His entry was that of a Malagasy tree boa.

The other entries are also worth marveling at. Check them out over at New Atlas.

(Image Credit: Roberto García Roa and the British Ecological Society)

Adi Robertson recounts a time when she got furious over a Twitter post, which showed a photo of a paper sign in an apartment building, which told tenants that they would soon be paying $35 monthly for using the elevator. While the photo is surprising, it is the kind of behavior that can be expected from a greedy landlord. The post is also the type that’s easy to furiously retweet without thinking.

But a little digging showed that the photo was uploaded to Reddit back in 2013, and the post’s author said the signs were quickly taken down. The building manager denied writing them to both the author and a reporter, suggesting that this was either a prank or an immediately abandoned plan. Retweeting the photo would have just outraged people about something that had seemingly never happened.

This kind of viral half-truth is part of the fabric of today’s internet, and the kind of anger it inspired has been turned into a dangerous commodity. It’s cynically exploited by businesses for ad-supported “fake news,” by scammers raising money online, and by authoritarian governments to spread hate and fear.

How do you discern against these half-truths? How can you confirm if the news is true, false, or something in between? Robertson provides us some tips on how to examine the information we see online. See her post over at The Verge.

What are your thoughts about this one?

(Image Credit: 200degrees/ Pixabay)

HipDict is a crowdsourced dictionary that anyone can submit to. Your suggestion will have to go through some sort of review, but if it's clever, profound, or at least funny, it will eventually show up as an entry at Instagram. The point is to define words and phrases in the manner that people actually use them.



But portmanteaus and brand-new words are welcome as well, if they meet the criteria.



See the dictionary as it is so far at Instagram.  -via Laughing Squid

Now present in clinics around the world is deep learning, a type of artificial intelligence which is beginning to replace humans in common tasks such as on analyzing medical images. For example, Constance Lehman, the chief of the hospital’s breast imaging division at the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, states that all of the 50,000 screening mammograms that the hospital processes every year is processed through their deep learning model, and that information is provided to the radiologist.

In deep learning, a subset of a type of artificial intelligence called machine learning, computer models essentially teach themselves to make predictions from large sets of data. The raw power of the technology has improved dramatically in recent years, and it’s now used in everything from medical diagnostics to online shopping to autonomous vehicles.

However, deep learning tools solve problems in ways that we humans can’t follow. This is worrisome, especially in the field of medicine, where lives are at stake.

Find out more about this story over at Undark.

What are your thoughts about this one?

(Image Credit: GDJ/ Pixabay)

Advertising hype tells us that a person can enjoy astounding neural and psychological benefits in the comfort of his own home through the use of a simple electrical device which offers transcranial direct current stimulation, or tDCS. For example, there are three tDCS devices that can be bought online which claim that it can “improve mood, increase creativity, enhance memory, accelerate learning, and combat pain and depression.” That’s a lot of claims for just one simple product!

For the low, low price of between $99 and $189.95, you get a compact handheld device with easy-to-use controls and two electrical leads that end in small sponges. These sponges are dipped into saline solution to make them current-carrying electrodes, then placed against your head. The websites typically show the sponges located on either side of the forehead, but point out that they need to be placed elsewhere on the skull to activate different parts of the brain, depending on the desired outcome.

The question is, does it really work?

Find out more about this story over at JSTOR Daily.

(Image Credit: TheDigitalArtist/ Pixabay)