The evolutionary family tree of the human species, homo sapiens, is generally regarded to have begun in Africa, where several hominid species evolved and then moved out into the greater world. But not all at the same time. Homo sapiens is the only remaining human species, but our DNA holds evidence of others, whose DNA came back into our lineage in Europe and Asia, namely Neanderthals and Denisovans. We know this because we have found Neanderthals and Denisovans and have their DNA. 

But further study of human DNA reveals that there are traces of other human species, ancestors that we don't have DNA samples for. We have traces of genes of a "super-archaic" hominid that entered our gene pool through interbreeding with Denisovans, and a much-earlier "ghost" hominid whose genes re-entered the line that became homo sapiens before they emerged from Africa. We don't know what kind of hominid species they were, but scientists have some ideas. Read about this research at Smithsonian.     

(Image credit: Yulin Zhang and Priya Moorjani/UC Berkeley) 

Jimothy, a wild raccoon who lives in the Ballard neighborhood of Seattle, but has captured the hearts of people around the world with his cuteness and stubborn insistence on living proudly despite his disability. Many artists take inspiration from him (check out the #jimothy hashtag on Instagram), so Seattle decided to hold a local art competition in his honor.

My Modern Met rounds up images from this event. The winner was the above painting by Kayla Carabes. Depending upon your perspective, it shows Jimothy either watching over the city like a divine guardian or menacing it like a kaiju from the forest.

Cosplayer Lucky Lemon portrays many characters in different science fiction franchises, but is especially fond of Ensign D'Vana Tendi from Star Trek: Lower Decks. I understand, as Tendi's bubbly and light-hearted personality is very appealing and, as a Trekkie, I appreciate how Lower Decks explored the Orion culture in a depth that no other previous show had.

In this cosplay, Lucky Lemon dresses Tendi in Princess Leia's iconic slave outfit from Return of the Jedi.

Monty Python and the Holy Grail remains popular because, in addition to being one of the greatest comedic films of all time, it is perfectly attuned to the Hero's Journey that is written into our collective unconscious.

This great story can be experienced different ways, all of which are meaningful. For modernists, it is fitting to do so in a systematic and orderly fashion: alphabetical by word.

Keith David Brown spliced up the entire film so that every spoken word is presented alphabetically. Even the credits are listed this way. For those of us who grew up watching this film, every bit of it is immediately recognizable.

-via Born in Space

Marcel Clemens made what he calls a mercury wave. Small bottles are suspended on springs, each of them carrying a slightly different amount of mercury. When the springs are released all at the same time, they move up and down at slightly different speeds to create fascinating patterns. This looks like a pendulum wave, but it's different in a few ways. 

At first, I watched and thought the springs were different lengths due to a diagonal line at the top of the frame, but watching in a larger format reveals that's a shadow. The difference between each unit is the weight inside. There's nothing magical here about mercury; Clemens used it because it's heavy and liquid, so each amount can be precisely measured. This video shows the pattern repeating, and Clemens tells us it played through four times over about five minutes before all the bottles came to rest. If you are geeky enough to want the math, a few of his comments at YouTube might interest you.  -via Geeks Are Sexy 

It was on June 29, 1956, that President Eisenhower signed legislation creating the Interstate Highway System. It took more than 30 years to built it across country, and it's still being added to 70 years later. The system was designed to be consistent: even numbered routes go east and west, odd numbers go north and south. Smaller numbers are in the west or the south. Three-digit numbers indicate loops or spurs. Mile markers begin at state lines. Exits are numbered after the mile markers, with a letter added when there's more than one in that mile.

There is an exception. The northeast part of the US had big highways even before the interstate system, and many of them were simply converted. The convention there was to number exits sequentially, and in New York you will find that still applies in places. Mileage based exit numbers were required starting in 2009, but the conversion is slow and has yet to be completed. Read about how exit numbers work and why New York is different at Jalopnik. 

(Image credit: Dougtone) 

Do you remember the cronut, which is a donut-shaped croissant? How about the cube-shaped croissant? Yes, we live in an age of wonders in which innovative food engineers are building new ways to eat croissant dough.

Hop over to the Shan Shan Cafe, a Taiwanese restaurant in Toronto and try its newest invention, the Crogg. It's an egg-shaped container made of croissant dough filled with sweet lime custard. Yummy!

Victoria, British Columbia is a beautiful place where nature and architecture work together to create a visually appealing residence. There are many Little Free Libraries there, including some that unique works of art.

Doug Clement, a professional photographer in the region, snapped pictures of 10 of the best, including this one that resembles the RMS Queen Mary. Two other especially lovely include a LFL that is made to resemble the TARDIS, so presumably it has a lot of interior room for books, and one that appears to be made of stained glass. Tab through the whole slideshow to see them all.

The plot device of a villain tying his victim to a railroad track is quite familiar to us, even though it doesn't make much sense. This murder method doesn't work because the hero will arrive just in time to unbind the victim, yet it creates suspense in that it takes an excruciating amount of time. You've also seen modern variations, like Goldfinger initiating a very slow industrial laser that will cut James Bond in half. It would be so much more efficient to just shoot the victim (a la Indiana Jones), but where's the drama in that? 

Still, the trope gave us an easy way to illustrate the ethical dilemma of the Trolley Problem. But has it ever happened in real life? Sadly, yes, and not always with a hero coming to the rescue. Simon Whistler (previously at Neatorama) gives us the history of the railroad track drama, which predates cinema, and its fallout.

A barbecue restaurant near me stocks every table with a roll of paper towels, but when they were new, the cutlery came with a moist towelette packet. Since they were a thoughtful addition, the packets were a great branding opportunity. They weren't always just for cleaning- some were alcohol wipes for first aid, some held mosquito repellent, and at least one was food grade, made for cleaning your dentures in your mouth or out. You don't see them as much anymore, as they've given way to big packages of "wipes." But you can see plenty of them at the Moist Towelette Museum in East Lansing, Michigan. One of the smallest museums you've ever seen, it's located in an office at the Abrams Planetarium at Michigan State University, available to visit during office hours. 

If you can't make it to East Lansing, the museum has an online exhibit. There you can see individual packet donated by fans from around the world. They range from "finger pinkies" targeted at secretaries to the Star Trek branded towelettes show here, in case you have Klingons. -via Messy Nessy Chic 

Is that bush following you? If you live in Dunellen, New Jersey, it might.

ABC 7 News reports that police in this town southwest of Newark are disguising themselves to catch people driving while fooling around on their cellphones. They set up on one street which has heavy pedestrian traffic and cited 74 drivers in a 6 hour period for distracted driving.

-via Super Punch | Photo: Dunellen NJ Police on Facebook

Tomosteen is the stop motion artist who brought us videos of Mr. Bones in his small businesses, dancing cat pen rests, and LEGO cooking, although I can't find any of them right now. In his latest video, he is making us Belgian waffles for breakfast. Don't worry about the calories, because it's made of LEGO pieces. 

He has all the steps down. First, mix the wet ingredients, then separately mix the dry ingredients, and then mix them together with... your hands? What is going on? I've never seen a waffle made with dough instead of batter. So I looked up Belgian waffles and found that it was the Brussels style that was brought to the US, made with batter, and there's also the Liège waffle which is increasingly popular in Belgium, and is made with dough. Who would have thought you could learn so much about cooking from a LEGO animation? -via Laughing Squid 
   

ScotRail, the state-owned passenger railroad network in Scotland, likes to amuse travelers by marking areas that are off-limits with amusing names that suggest that are used for traditional Scottish purposes. Well, that's proper. "If it's not Scottish, it's crap!"

The Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant was established in Kentucky in 1952 to enrich uranium during the Cold War. The plant brought 1700 well-paying jobs to the area, and although it was owned by the government, the plant was operated by defense contractors such as Union Carbide, Martin-Marietta, and Lockheed Martin. 

In the early 1990s, three new safety officers began working at the plant. They were shocked and concerned about the high radiation levels they found all over, including the cafeteria and the perimeter grounds. Workers were going into contaminated areas without safety gear and going home without changing clothes. Nuclear waste was transported unlabeled and sometimes just washed off into the lawn to eventually mix with nearby streams. Workers laughed and said that's the way they'd been doing it for decades. Samples that were sent to labs never returned results. And eventually, there was evidence that elements much more dangerous than uranium, such as plutonium, neptunium, and americium, had been at the plant. 

The three safety officers teamed up to expose the conditions at the plant, leading to a lawsuit that lasted for years. Read what happened at the Paducah plant in detail at Atavist magazine.  -via Damn Interesting 

(Image credit: US Department of Energy) 

Although Star Wars is best experienced in the original Klingon, it's possible to experience the grandeur of the original 1977 film in many languages, including Navajo. Everyone should have the opportunity to watch it. Yes, even the Welsh.

The Guardian reports that actors who speak that vowel-deprived language are dubbing it. Rhys Ifans will voice Obi-Wan Kenobi, Matthew Rhys will be Han Solo, and Aimee-Ffion Edwards will star was Princess Leia. Mark Lewis Jones, who performed in the English-language The Last Jedi, will voice Darth Vader.

On Christmas Day, the Welsh television channel S4C will air this production of Gobaith Newydd.

-via Discussing Film | Image: Disney