It seems like only a few years ago we learned that modern humans carry around genes we inherited from our ancestors interbreeding with Neanderthals. Now there is evidence that we also have genes that originated with another extinct human species, the Denisovans. Actual fossil evidence of Denisovans is scant, but we have enough genetic material to trace back some of our modern human genes to them.

Denisovans evolved to survive in the mountains of Asia, and certain genes made them more adaptable to those conditions. One genetic variant allowed them to thrive in high altitudes, and that variant now only survives in Tibetans. But another genetic adaptation is now found in all populations outside of Africa. A gene called SLC30A9 regulates how zinc moves within a cell, which can have many effects. A mutation in that gene among Denisovans may have helped them adapt to cold climates. But it also appears to have left the rest of us predisposed to depression and other mental health problems. Read more about this research at Neoscope. -via Damn Interesting

(Image credit: Vincent van Gogh)

We've celebrated the phenomena of pareidolia here at Neatorama for years, so much so that I can spell the word with no problem, which cannot be said for more common words like "license." Still, today is the first time I have ever heard it pronounced. Pareidolia refers to our tendency to see familiar shapes in random objects, like ducks in a cloud formation or the Virgin Mary in a bowl of cereal, and is not limited to faces. But faces are the most common thing we see in random objects because faces are important to us. Seeing a person's facial expression tells us a lot about that person's state of mind and attitude toward us. Recognizing the shape of a leaf is not nearly as important to our survival as distinguishing friend from foe. But facial recognition is a broad subject, and Weird History touches on several aspects of it, as they step away from history for this video to talk about faces in weird places and how our brains interpret them.

The earliest photograph still in existence was taken in 1826 or 1827 by Joseph Niépce in France. Although an astonishing breakthrough, the technique was complicated and not all that useful. Things changed when Niépce's associate Louis Daguerre developed the daguerreotype process, introduced in 1839. After that, the race was on to take pictures of anything and everything. However, the subjects, circumstances, and dates of many of those early photographs are not documented as well as we'd like 184 years later. That's why there is so much ambiguity in identifying the earliest-born person ever photographed.

The earliest existing portrait ever taken is usually attributed to Robert Cornelius, who managed a selfie in 1839 thanks to the long exposure time required. But that title might come down to how you define "portrait." Another contender is Dorothy Catherine Draper, who sat for a portrait taken by her brother in 1839 or 1840. The picture above is lauded as the earliest portrait, the earliest photograph of a woman, or the earliest portrait of a woman. The word "existing" should be appended to those titles, because the photographer, John William Draper, took test pictures of his assistant the day before, but neither her name nor image was preserved. We know about Dorothy Draper, though, and you can read her story and what she went through to get this portrait made at Vintage Everyday.  -via Nag on the Lake   

We've seen a lot of domino falls, marble runs, and chain reactions on the internet. I always have to wonder what happens when a complicated run just stops for no discernible reason. Do you start all over or edit the video? One way to keep things going is to enlist the help of cats. But these aren't just any cats, they are the trained cats of Cat Navi Desk (previously at Neatorama), although you may glean from the video that some are better trained than others. In this domino/marble run/Rube Goldberg contraption, they are ready to help whenever the chain goes awry. This is an expanded and improved version of the domino run they did a few years ago. I'm not convinced that this is one smooth run, but it doesn't really matter because it's so darn entertaining. -via Geeks Are Sexy   

An 18-year old woman died of leukemia in Kramatorsk, Ukraine, in the early 1980s. Then her 16-year-old brother contracted the disease and also died. The heartbroken family wondered if the apartment building they lived in might have had something to do with both their children's illnesses. After all, they had only moved in a year before their daughter became sick. They were the first family to move into new building number 7, which was luxurious by Soviet standards. Officials told them it was just the luck of genetics. Then the mother died, also of leukemia. The remaining family members moved out, and another family took that apartment.

In 1987, the second family in the same apartment had two sons develop leukemia, and one died. That adds up to five cases of leukemia in one unit! It had to be something about the building itself. It took another two years for Soviet officials to open an investigation. Find out what they learned at Amusing Planet.   

(Image credit: Artemka)

When was the last time you thought about Steak-umm? Let's see what the company has been up to. While they still sell frozen sandwich meat, for the last couple of years they've also been on a campaign to educate the public on media literacy, and to fight against misinformation, disinformation, and outright fraud. Their Deepsteaks ad warns that artificial intelligence and deepfake technology can manipulate anyone against their will, to the point of making dedicated vegans say they love steak. This is the ultimate in identity theft, when someone with a computer can put you in a video saying things and doing things you would never do.

The focus group in the video by ad agency Tombras isn't made up of actors, but real vegans, and while parts of this video are deepfaked, their responses to the shenanigans are real. They didn't have to be called back in, because creating the deepfakes of the vegans only took about 20 minutes. It left them feeling eerily violated. The point is that this kind of manipulation isn't limited to celebrities and politicians, but could happen to anyone. -via Boing Boing  

The 1940 film The Great Dictator was Charlie Chaplin's 78th movie and his first full talkie. As such, it was bound to be different from his tightly-edited slapstick silent films. The movie was shocking to audiences for many reasons, and early criticism of the film was cutting. Devout Chaplin fans had a hard time seeing him intersperse the slapstick with serious acting and all that talking. Many were upset that Chaplin injected political references of any kind into a comedy. Some were disappointed that he was obviously making fun of Adolf Hitler, and others labeled the final speech as downright communist. Remember, this was in 1940, when America was leaning toward isolationism, and had a small but active Nazi party. And some moviegoers were just put off by its length- 125 minutes, which was unheard of for movies at the time.

But Chaplin had something to say, and the power and creativity to say it. The Great Dictator was ultimately a hit, and became a classic. Read of those early critiques and Chaplin's thinking behind making the movie the way he did at Lithub. -via Damn Interesting

Read more about the making of The Great Dictator in a Neatorama feature article.

(Image source: Wikimedia Commons)

This guy tries to tell us he doesn't know anything about music, but don't let that fool you. This is El Estepario Siberiano, also known as The Groovefather, a professional percussionist. He built himself a tubulum, which is a musical instrument made of PVC pipes of different lengths. It might remind you of a pipe organ, but you play it by whacking the ends of the pipes. Blue Man Group plays one in their stage shows. Anyway, enjoy his performance of AC/DC's "Thunderstruck" played on pipes with spatulas. This video contains NSFW language. -via Born in Space

The British Empire had a way of killing two birds with one stone. Instead of building penitentiaries, they sent shiploads of convicted criminals to far-flung colonies, first America and then Australia, thus relieving Britain of their unwelcome presence and providing cheap labor for their colonies. They also reused large ships that were no longer capable of long voyages as prisons. These were called prison hulks, and convicts could be held on them for up to seven years awaiting transport. This became a particular problem between 1776, when transports to America stopped, and the first prison transport to Australia in 1787. Serious overcrowding continued long after as convicts were gradually sent elsewhere.

In 1801, London police magistrate Aaron Graham was charged with reporting on conditions in the prison hulks. He found that private contractors had been running them, with deplorable results. There were no standards for the treatment of prisoners, even for the amount of food they were given. The death rate was high, the hospitalization rate was higher, and the staff turned over often due to inadequate pay. Graham instituted reforms, including a government takeover of the ships' management, and posted daily food rations. The prisoners were to be given oatmeal and barley for breakfast and supper, and bread, meat, cheese, and beer for midday dinner. That sounds like a recipe for scurvy and other deficiencies, but it was a lot better than they had before the reform, and these were men who worked loading and unloading ships all day. Read about the conditions aboard prison hulks at the British National Archives. -via Strange Company
  

If you are still avoiding spoilers for the movie Killers of the Flower Moon, you might want to skip this video, which is the historical account behind the film, but at this point there are few people going to see the film without knowing what it's about. We linked to information on the Osage Indian Murders back in the spring, but Weird History tells the true story with plenty of details that may or may not be in the film. For this video, the narrator has dropped the usual jokes and snark, as is appropriate. The visuals are a bit jarring, though, as we get a combination of historical photographs, characters illustrated by the actors who play them in the movie, and anachronistic stock video footage. They still aren't as jarring as the huge numbers of murders that no one talked about, because talking about them could endanger your own life. History can be brutal.

Simona Kossak came from a Polish family of artists, but she went in another direction and studied science- biology, zoology, and forest ecology. Her research is invaluable, but her private life was like many movies, not just Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Kossak went to work for the Mammal Research Institute in Białowieża National Park, and they lodged her in a decrepit hunter's lodge called Dziedzinka with no plumbing or electricity where she spent the rest of her life. Kossak was surrounded by forest creatures of all kinds, from owls to aurochs, and she shared her home with any that wanted to come inside.

But she didn't own the lodge, and the forest service moved wildlife photographer Lech Wilczek into another part of the house. Kossak didn't like the invasion of her privacy and solitude one bit, but Wilczek was just as welcoming to sharing his life with wildlife as Kossak was, and over time they bonded over their mutual love of a wild boar piglet named Zabka, who lived at Dziedzinka for 17 years. Kossak and Wilczek became life partners in a true story that reads like a rom-com with a huge boar as a matchmaker. Read about Kossak and meet some of the many animals she loved at Messy Nessy Chic. 

(Image credit: Lech Wilczek)

Buena persona consigue sacar del apuro a esta linda Madre en apuros, y 🔊......................☺️☺️☺️☺️☺️ pic.twitter.com/3x2T3Msty1

— Eduardo (@Eduardo38Garcia) October 24, 2023

Sloth babies fall out of trees more than we like to think, and they are usually okay. The mother will come to get the infant, but it will take a while. In this video, an unnamed photographer speaking Portuguese hands the baby back to the sloth mother, saving her the last few steps -and probably quite a bit of time. 

The video with the original audio is at Instagram. You notice how the mother reaches her arm out to the photographer, which has been interpreted as a sign of gratitude. However, as the video went viral, some folks with sloth experience tell us that the gesture is really a warning. One even said, "This is exactly what they do when they want to bite you." The photographer was never in any real danger, because anyone can outrun a sloth. But the story should serve as a cautionary tale against ascribing human motives to the actions of wildlife. -via Nag on the Lake

The new movie Rustin opens in theaters tomorrow. It's the story of how Civil Rights activist Bayard Rustin organized the March on Washington, while staying mostly behind the scenes. The 1963 march was the highlight of Rustin's career, but it was one event in a full life of activism. He worked to promote equal rights beginning in the 1930s, advocated for pacifism during World War II, and introduced Martin Luther King, Jr. to the concept of nonviolent resistance.

But Rustin never sought the limelight. He mostly stayed in the background because he was openly gay, and while imprisoned for resisting the draft, concluded that the Civil Rights movement was more important than his personal life. So even though he spent more than twenty years bringing the March on Washington to reality, and covered every detail down to picking up trash afterward, he was not included in the photograph of the event's organizers. Even today, his role in the Civil Rights movement is lesser-known than his efforts deserve. Read about Bayard Rustin at Smithsonian before you see the movie, which begins streaming on Netflix November 17.  

(Image source: Library of Congress)

Barbie is shaping up to be the biggest movie of 2023. How could you improve on that? That's a silly question -just add a cat! Owlkitty doesn't just show up in the movie, she replaces Barbie as Ken's new girlfriend! Barbie's not all that happy about it, but Ken is ecstatic, and obviously head over heels in love. Can you blame him?  

Tibo Charroppin and his cat Lizzy (stage name Owlkitty) have remade many of Hollywood's biggest films to show us how casting makes all the difference. Lizzy isn't much on dialogue, but she puts her heart into every appearance.  

Black Plague swept through Europe in the 14th century and killed between 75 million and 200 million people. There have been assertions on the internet that this was caused by a widespread culling of cats for religious reasons, which led to the continent being overrun by rats. Considering how much the average person knows about medieval Europe, this makes sense. The problem is that it's not true. Oh, for sure there were some sporadic cat killings, but they were few and highly localized, and made no difference in the overall cat population.

Medieval people loved their cats, even if they didn't pamper them quite as much as we do today. Cats were exceedingly useful, usually in pest control but sometimes in doing the chores like spinning wool, as shown above. They asked for little in return, and provided gossip-free companionship, which is why in at least one convent, nuns were allowed to have one cat even when they were prohibited from talking to other nuns. Read about the way medieval folk regarded their cats, and indeed enshrined them in plenty of art, at Going Medieval. -via Metafilter