Once upon a time, we had to find the majority of a skeleton to figure out what ancient people were like. Now we can isolate the genes in a small bone fragment or tooth and find out all kinds of things about them. Two studies have just been published about the genes of the oldest modern humans yet found in Europe, those of three people in Bulgaria and another in Czechia, all who lived about 45,000 years ago.  

“Interestingly, these earliest Europeans that we find in the Bacho Kiro Cave did not contribute substantially to later West Eurasians,” says Mateja Hajdinjak, of the Francis Crick Institute (London), co-author of the study published this week in Nature. “These groups got largely replaced in Western Eurasia by subsequent migrations of people. But they are closely related to the human groups that gave rise to later East Eurasians and Americans—including present-day populations.”

“It’s just really cool that fossils of three individuals in Bulgaria left behind DNA, and can trace their descendants to different parts of the world than we’d expect, in ancient and living East Asians and Native peoples of the Americas,” adds Rick Potts, director of the Smithsonian’s Human Origins Program, who wasn’t involved in the genetic research.

The genome study also shows that a thick branch on the Bacho Kiro humans’ family tree belongs to the Neanderthals. The individuals carry 3 to 3.8 percent Neanderthal DNA in their genes, which suggests more than a one-off mating far back in their family history. In fact, the genomes show that these European humans had Neanderthal ancestors just six or fewer generations back.

The skull from Czechia also has a substantial amount of Neanderthal DNA. Read more about the findings at Smithsonian.

(Image credit: Tsenka Tsanova, MPI-EVA Leipzig)

Guldies Konst (previously at Neatorama) made a cute claymation video of a doughboy-type character lifting weights. It doesn't go as planned. The sequence is only 11 seconds long, but then we get a look at how the sound effects for it were created, which is a treat. -via Laughing Squid

DeMoulin Brothers & Co. of Greenville, Illinois, has been in business since 1892. They manufactured military uniforms for both world wars, and today they sell band uniforms. Early in the company's history, they also sold novelties, such as devices for pranks and illusions. These items were designed for and aimed at lodges and fraternities for hazing purposes. All in good fun, of course.

Clothes steeped in cultural meaning as party costumes; imitation guns to terrorise; a goat – wait for the goat; a guillotine; the rhythmic automatic spanking machine; the embarrassingly erotic ‘pillow fight’; the promise of having your facial bones crushed by a large lead weight; the ‘branding and whirling table’; the intimately ravaging ‘pointed affair’; more buttock thrashing with the ‘spanking shovel’; and many more japes to get excited lodge members howling as ‘the candidate’ fears for their life all feature in the DeMoulin Brothers & Company’s cornucopia of earthly delights.

The guillotine pictured above was built to stop a few inches from the victim's head. Surely nothing could ever go wrong with that! While most of the items pictured in the DeMoulin Brothers & Co. 1908 catalog were illusions, some delivered an electric shock to the unsuspecting victim. Take a look at the weird items they had to offer back in the day at Flashbak. -Thanks, WTM!

Even in a pandemic year, the high school hockey players of Minnesota grow their hair in an attempt to make the Minnesota State High School All Hockey Hair Team. This is the 12th annual team. YouTuber Game On! Minnesota goes with the flow and gives us the rundown of the hair situation this season. Hair that was cut, or rather, styled at home ruled this year. Facial hair was rarely seen due to masks. As always, the hair competition supports the Hendrickson Foundation, which runs Special, Sled, Blind, and Military hockey programs. -via Metafilter  

See the All Hockey Hair Teams from previous years.

The Hoosac Tunnel in western Massachusetts is a 4.75-mile railroad tunnel running under the Hoosac Mountain Range, built to connect Boston with the Erie Canal. Digging this tunnel was not an easy project. It began in 1851 and was supposed to have been completed in three years and cost little more than a million dollars. Instead, it took 24 years and $20 million, and 192 men lost their lives building it.

As noted above, the tunnel’s completion took a horrendous death toll.  Men fell down the tunnel’s thousand-foot deep center shaft.  Men were burned alive.  Men were blown to bits by nitroglycerine explosions.  A not-untypical disaster involved three workers, Ned Brinkman, Billy Nash, and Ringo Kelley.  Kelley accidentally set off some explosives, burying the other two men alive.  Instead of running for help, Kelley fled the scene, leaving his coworkers to their fate.  One year later, Kelley’s dead body was found in the tunnel, at the same spot where Brinkman and Nash had died.  It was widely believed that the ghosts of his victims had gotten their revenge.  In 1868, three years after this triple tragedy, a mechanical engineer named Paul Travers wrote to his sister:

“Last night Mr. Dunn and I entered the great tunnel (unfinished) at 9 p.m.  We traveled about two miles into the shaft and then stopped to listen.  As we stood there in the cold silence, we both heard what truly sounded like a man groaning out in pain.  As you know, I have heard that sound many times during the war.  Yet when we turned the wicks up on our lamps, there were no other human beings in the shaft.  I haven’t been this frightened since Shiloh.  Mr. Dunn agreed that it wasn’t the wind we heard.  Perhaps Nash or Brinkman?  I wonder.”

Scary stories piled up around the tunnel, from the voice that kept laughing as a tree fell on workers, to a blue headless ghost, to a man who walked in and was never seen again, to the woman who scoffed at a tunnel superstition -right before she died. Read a sampling of why the Hoosac Tunnel is considered one of the most haunted tunnels in the world at Strange Company.

(Image credit: Doug Kerr)

Godzilla vs. Kong has been available in theaters and on HBO Max for about a week, and we've already got an Honest Trailer. It certainly has spoilers, but that that really matter? Will knowing how little sense the plot makes cause you to change your mind about watching the film? Will knowing who wins the battle change your mind? Honestly, the surprises revealed in this Honest Trailer will only reinforce your previous decision to watch Godzilla vs. Kong or not.

Marmosets are adorable, and they are all over Brazil's southeastern seaboard. The most common are of the species called the common marmoset (Callithrix jacchus), which you've seen plenty of pictures of. But strangely, they are not native to southeastern Brazil- in fact, they are an invasive species in that area. The native species is the buffy-tufted-ear marmoset (Callithrix aurita), which is one of one of the world’s 25 most endangered primates. Wildlife counts can be deceiving, as common marmosets will mate with buffy-tufted-ear marmosets, leading to hybridization.

This is a good time to mention that there’s one more thing working against the buffy-tufted-ear marmoset: Unlike the common marmoset, it isn’t cute, at least not by most standards. With a perma-sneer and menacingly orange eyes, the tiny primate looks like it woke up wearing yesterday’s makeup. Because of its haggard countenance and standoffish nature, staff at Carvalho’s organization lovingly call it “the little goth monkey.” (The Portuguese moniker is a tad kinder: sagui-vaverinha, or, “little skull monkey.”)

This leads to a situation in which the public loves an invasive species more than the natural species in an environment, and makes conservation of the buffy-tufted-ear marmoset rather difficult. Read about the plight of the "skull monkey" at Atlas Obscura.

(Image credit: Jack Hynes)

In 1776, 23-year-old Jemima Wilkinson contracted a deadly disease, most likely typhus. Upon recovery, Wilkinson declared that she had died, and was now a new person. This new person identified as neither male nor female, and took the name "The Public Universal Friend." Wilkinson was a Quaker, which is formally named the Society of Friends, so the name made some sense, however generic it was. The Friend began to preach and drew plenty of followers.

For now, though, enthusiastic followers grew in number. Help the poor, said the Friend, and followers said, "Yeah, that sounds right." Oppose slavery, said the Friend, and followers said, "Right on." Stay celibate, said the Friend, and followers said, "Hold on, let's not go crazy," and most ignored this advice and married. An exception: 50 women stayed single and formed a group within the movement known as the Faithful Sisterhood. If that name make them sound like militants willing to respond with violence when necessary, good instincts. Keep that thought in mind.

The Quakers were not happy with the breakaway sect, and The Friend's followers eventually formed a commune in the wilderness of New York. Read the story of The Public Universal Friend and their followers at Cracked.

(Image credit: David Hudson)

Who Was the Most Evil Scientist in History? https://t.co/AW2MmWYHkZ pic.twitter.com/0gQAx8VWhJ

— Gizmodo (@Gizmodo) April 5, 2021

We are quite familiar with the idea of an evil mad scientist in fiction, but the real world has seen plenty of unethical experiments: the Tuskegee Syphilis Study, Japan's Unit 731, and the Russian guy who sewed a dog's head onto another dog, not to mention scientists who pushed an agenda of one sort or another, and plenty of lesser-known yet evil things done in the name of science. Gizmodo asked six accomplished scientists to name the most evil scientist they had heard of, and four of them named the same man. You can probably guess who that is, but there are two others named as well, plus more in the comments in the latest Giz Asks column.

Tom Scott took a trip to The Deep, an aquarium in Hull, UK, to see what goes on behind the scenes. He found out that taking care of sharks in captivity is a lot more complicated than setting up a big saltwater tank. It requires a sophisticated life support system. You might think, "Wouldn't it be better to leave sharks in the sea?" And I would say, "Yeah." But what they do is pretty interesting.

via GIPHY

Can you believe it's been ten years since the birth of Nyan Cat? It was the perfect meme: a cat, a pop tart, pixelated animation, and a rainbow. Once the song was added, it took over the internet. I mean, really: Neatorama has six pages of posts in the search result. On its tenth anniversary, we may as well find out how Nyan Cat came about and what's happened since then. Input magazine talked to artist Chris Torres about April of 2011, when he had just started a new job that had nothing to do with memes.

At the time, Torres was also a digital artist with a small following on his website LOL Comics. A few weeks earlier, after a disastrous magnitude-9.0 earthquake hit Japan, unleashing a massive tsunami, he set up an impromptu charity livestream, doodling viewers’ requests while taking in donations earmarked for the American Red Cross. One fan requested a cat, while another requested a Pop-Tart. Torres decided to combine the two ideas into one doodle: a grey cat that looked like his own pet, Marty, but with a pink Pop-Tart body.

As the meme took off, Torres found himself in a battle to reclaim his creation that was running wild, making money for other people. It eventually came to the point he had to choose between Nyan Cat and his "real job." Read the story of Torres' viral kitty here. -via Digg

We’ve seen many examples of unnecessarily gendered products and the “pink tax,” which is when a product designed to appeal to women costs more, even if there is no difference besides the color. Here are a couple of examples from history that played to the stereotype and backfired. The Dodge La Femme was a full-size sedan designed just for women. That mainly meant color and accessories. The 1955 La Femme was two-toned pink, inside and out.

The interior of the car also received attention and features. 1955 La Femme interiors were upholstered in a special tapestry material featuring pink rosebuds on a pale silver-pink background and pale pink vinyl trim. The La Femme came with a keystone-shaped, pink calfskin purse that coordinated with the interior of the car. The purse could be stowed in a compartment in the back of the passenger seat,[3] and its gold-plated medallion faced outward. This brushed-metal medallion was large enough to have the owner's name engraved on it.

Each purse was outfitted with a coordinated set of accessories inside, which included a face-powder compact, lipstick case, cigarette case, comb, cigarette lighter, and change purse, all made of either faux-tortoiseshell plastic and gold-tone metal, or pink calfskin and gold-tone metal, and all were designed and made by “Evans”, a maker of women's fine garments and accessories in Chicago.

On the back of the driver's seat was a compartment that contained a raincoat, rain bonnet, and umbrella,[4] all made from a vinyl patterned to match the rosebud interior fabric. Marketing brochures stated that the car was made "By Special Appointment to Her Majesty... the American Woman."

The Dodge La Femme reappeared in 1956 in lavender and purple tints. However, neither model sold all that well, and only about 2500 cars were produced in total. All these years later, that small run means that the Dodge La Femme is a rare, sought-after vehicle. There’s even a registry for them. -via Weird Universe

Almost exactly the same thing happened with Lionel trains. Alan Polinsky wrote in response the Pink Tool Set post and told me about the Lionel Girls’ Train Set of 1957. The pink engine and pastel cars were supposed to appeal to little girls, but did not sell well. It turns out little girls wanted their trains to look as realistic as boys do. While the product itself was a bust and went out of production, that very rarity caused those pink engines to become collector items fifty years later. If you have one, you can get a pretty penny for it on eBay. -Thanks, Alan!
 
(Image credit: Greg Gjerdingen)

In 1944, 36 men participated in an experiment in starvation, in order to study the challenges confronting the many people who were starving due to World War II. We learned a lot about how the body reacts to a dangerously restricted diet, including the aftereffects when the subjects' eating returned to normal. A followup article looks at what happened when the experiment was over.

Recall that during the starvation period the men became obsessed with food. Food haunted their thoughts and dreams and took over their conversations.

But many of them remained preoccupied with food even after they gained back the weight. Some said that their perspectives and perceptions of food were forever changed. They faced more intense hunger more frequently than they did before the study. One described himself as, “being hungry and eating almost continuously for years after.”

What we learned: Our brain remembers “famine,” whether from a diet or a real famine. Once we’ve lost weight — and even if we’ve regained it — the brain puts more focus on food so we’re more likely to eat and be better prepared for the next famine.

That's just one of the effects that severe weight loss can have, some of which last years after the deprivation diet. Read about others at Medium. -via Digg

One of the criteria for "habitable" islands is the presence of fresh water. Bermuda has none: no springs, no lakes, no mountains streams. Yet it was so beautiful that those who wanted to live there were determined to find a way. Now the island is home to 65,000 people. Where do they get their drinking water?   

Bermudians are some of the most water-conscious people in the Western world, and this consciousness is built into their homes. The blindingly white, limestone Bermuda Roof—an architectural rain-catch concept with roots dating back to the 17th century—is singularly responsible for making human life possible in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. The roof of each home is mandated, by law, to catch and redirect rain into underground cisterns that serve as islanders’ primary source of freshwater. While initially conceived as a means of survival, the elegant roofs have become an aesthetic landmark. “Architecturally, Bermuda really hasn’t changed,” says Guilden Gilbert, a born-and-raised Bermudian. “It’s unlikely that you’d see any modern design in island architecture, which I think is actually a good thing.”

The roofs are not only handy for water collection, they are tough. Some of them have been there for hundreds of years! Read about Bermuda roofs and their crucial functions at Atlas Obscura.

(Image credit: (WT-en) Legrospaumé)

Turn the crank on this automata and see a panda working out, an octopus treating a sick fish, babies rocking in their bunks, and a monkey on the toilet. Toymaker Chi-Chun Yin of AnadouMuZuo Studio in Taiwan spent six months making this lovely submarine. -via The Kid Should See This