Today, Slate's Explainer feature asserts that humans began wearing clothing about 100,000 years ago. Here's how anthropologists came up with the answer:

Human raiment is not typically preserved in the fossil record, so researchers have turned to lice genetics for hints. Body lice diverged genetically from other louse species about 100,000 years ago. Because body lice live primarily in our clothing, scientists use that moment of differentiation as the likely era when humans started dressing themselves.

It's possible, however, that humans started wearing clothes even earlier. We know that pubic lice jumped over to humans from gorillas—our genetically distinct head lice migrated from chimpanzees—about 2 million years ago. And since pubic and head lice probably couldn't have coexisted on the same body if there was a hairy highway connecting their favorite anatomical spaces (one would have beaten out the other for all the available resources), it's likely that we had lost our body hair by then. Some claim that humans donned clothing shortly after that, but others argue that there's no reason our ancestors would have needed clothing in steamy Africa.

Link | Photo: US Department of Energy

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We've previously featured Cristóbal Vila's animated depiction of Frank Lloyd Wright's home Falling Water. Vila's latest project, "Nature By Numbers", illustrates how mathematical properties, such as the Fibonacci Sequence, pervade the natural world. The math of each part of the film is explained in detail at the link.

Link via io9

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Researchers at the École Polytechnique de Montréal used bacteria that follow magnetic pull to build a tiny pyramid:

By using a computer-controlled magnetic field, the researchers turned the bacteria into fully-compliant biological nanorobots.

The trick was using a type of microbe known as magnetotactic bacteria. These critters have little internal compasses, and will follow the pull of a magnetic field. By manipulating a magnetic field, the researchers tricked the bacteria into forming a giant, computer-controlled swarm. In one experiment, the researchers had the bacterial swarm assemble a small pyramid.

The researchers hope to use this development to perform microscopic tasks normally thought to be the future of nanotechnology, such as organ repair.

via Popular Science

Bank robbers Albert Bailey and an unidentified sixteen-year-old accomplice were arrested by police in Fairfield, Connecticut as soon as they arrived at the bank that they planned to rob. Perhaps it was calling ahead and telling the bank employees to have the money waiting for them that undermined their cunning plan:

Police arrested 27-year-old Albert Bailey and an unidentified 16-year-old boy on robbery charges on Tuesday afternoon.

Sgt James Perez said the two Bridgeport residents turned up at the bank about 10 minutes after making the call and were met by police in the bank's car park.

Sgt Perez told the Connecticut Post that, in his opinion, the suspects were "not too bright".

Link | Photo: flickr user gcfairch, used under Creative Commons license

Poet Christian Bök plans to alter the DNA of a particular species of bacteria so that it reflects an encoded version of his poetry:

Canadian poet Christian Bök wants his work to live on after he’s gone. Like, billions of years after. He’s going to encode it directly into the DNA of the hardy bacteria Deinococcus radiodurans. If it works, his poem could outlast the human race. But it’s a tricky procedure, and Bök is doing what he can to make it even trickier. He wants to inject the DNA with a string of nucleotides that form a comprehensible poem, and he also wants the protein that the cell produces in response to form a second comprehensible poem.[...]

Bök will create a code that links letters of the alphabet with genetic nucleotides (adenine, cytosine, guanine, and thymine, aka ACGT). Each triplet of nucleotides will correspond to a letter so that, say, ACT represents the letter a, AGT represents the letter b, and so on.

Link via Marginal Revolution | Image: US Department of Energy

How long has it been since you ran an anti-virus scan? You'd better do it now because a recent study found that areas of Britain that show a heavy use of Facebook also show a great increase in the incidence of syphilis infection:

The virus has increased fourfold in Sunderland, Durham and Teesside, the areas of Britain where Facebook is most popular, because it has given people a new way to meet multiple partners for casual sexual encounters.

Professor Peter Kelly, director of public health in Teesside, said staff had found a link between social networking sites and the rise in cases, especially among young women.

Just to be careful, we did bloodwork on the Neatorama Facebook page, and it's completely clean and safe.

Link via Geekologie | Photo: CDC

Organizing pop culture data into something resembling a periodic table or making crafts that resemble the actual periodic table of elements is a popular web meme that we've covered in some breadth here at Neatorama. Bill Keaggy took the meme one step further by organizing these periodic tables into a periodic table.  Pictured above is a part of that table.

Link via Nerdcore

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Theo Watson developed a program called Auto Smiley. Whenever your computer's webcam determines that you're smiling, the program will insert a smiley emoticon into whatever computer application you're using, such as email or chat. Watson writes "Auto Smiley has many uses from just straight up convenience to enforcing honesty in your online communication [...]"

Link via Make

Intelligent Systems Informatics Lab at Tokyo University has developed a robot that performs basic journalistic functions:

The robot detects changes in its surroundings, decides if they are relevant, and then takes pictures with its on board camera. It can query nearby people for information, and it uses internet searches to further round out its understanding. If something appears newsworthy, the robot will even write a short article and publish it to the web.

Link via Gizmodo | Photo: Charlie Catlett

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This video shows what happens inside a four-stroke engine. That's:
1. the intake stroke of the piston, reducing pressure in the cylinder and forcing gas and air inside
2. intake and exhaust valves close and the piston compresses the fuel-air mix
3. the compression and a spark result in combustion, and therefore a power stroke
4. the piston compresses, pushing out the expended fuel-air mix

Link

Colin Fruze was tired of drivers following his scooter too closely, so he developed a flamethrower to ward them off:

'The flames are pretty big and up to 15ft long so you could definitely set fire to someone's car if you wanted to.'

'The only problem is it can get rather hot if you are riding the moped and blast the flames when the wind is in the wrong direction.'[...]

'It was quite tricky to make and the first version wouldn't fire the flames when the moped was moving,' he said.

'My second attempt kept setting fire to itself, but my third version works really well and I'm very pleased with it.'

But sadly Colin, who built the moped in his spare time in his back garden, will not legally be allowed to use it on the road.

Link via DVICE | Photo: Goeff Robinson Photography

India's bhut jolokia is acknowledged by the Guinness Book of World Records as the world's spiciest chili. That nation's military has responded by developing a grenade that carries small quantities of it:

It has more than 1,000,000 Scoville units, the scientific measurement of a chili's spiciness. Classic Tabasco sauce ranges from 2,500 to 5,000 Scoville units, while jalapeno peppers measure anywhere from 2,500 to 8,000.

"The chili grenade has been found fit for use after trials in Indian defense laboratories, a fact confirmed by scientists at the Defense Research and Development Organization," Col. R. Kalia, a defense spokesman in the northeastern state of Assam, told The Associated Press.

"This is definitely going to be an effective nontoxic weapon because its pungent smell can choke terrorists and force them out of their hide-outs," R. B. Srivastava, the director of the Life Sciences Department at the New Delhi headquarters of the DRDO said.

Link via Say Uncle | Photo: (unrelated) US Department of Homeland Security

We've previously featured Phil Elkins' homemade travel trailer that was light enough be hauled by a bicycle. Now he's turned his attention to creating a portable shelter for the homeless. The result weighs 225 pounds and has a tiny bed, kitchen, and bathroom:

elkins wanted his design construction to be a simple, light weight, water tight insulated box on wheels, built with an area for displaying and selling handmade wares.[...]

the roof acts as a rain catcher. when it starts raining, a valve is turned to stop the flow of water to the collection tank to allow debris to be flushed from the roof. after a minute of this cleaning process, the valve can be turned back on and collect free water. when the tank is full, it has an overflow feature which allows excess water to drain to the ground.

You can view more pictures at the link.

Link via Fast Company | Photo: Design Boom

Matthew and Nora Eaton had a clever scheme: shoplifting popular toys and resell them on online. It was such a smart idea that they decided to go on the Dr. Phil show and brag about it. This decision brought them to the attention of prosecutors:

District Judge Irma Gonzalez sentenced Matthew Eaton, 34, to 27 months in prison — one year more than prosecutors with the U.S. Attorney’s Office thought was sufficient punishment.

Nora Eaton, 27, was sentenced to one year and one day in custody.

Gonzalez had little sympathy for Matthew Eaton, calling his conduct in running the scheme over two years “despicable.”[...]

Matthew Eaton’s lawyer said the couple went on the show seeking help for their chronic shoplifting problem. On the program, however, they came across as bragging about their exploits and not appearing particularly troubled.

Instead of helping them, producers egged them on to exaggerate their cases, said defense lawyer Leila Morgan. And the only help they got was free copies of McGraw’s books, she said.

The judge also had harsh words for Dr. Phil.

Link via Ace of Spades HQ | Photo: Consumerist

Here at Neatorama, we've previously covered the eerie world of abandoned amusement parks. Joel W. Styer is assembling a comprehensive list of defunct US amusement parks, sorted by state, including pictures and video where available. Pictured above is a roller coaster from Chippewa Lake Park, Ohio, which closed in 1978. Photographer Dave Sandborg writes of his exploration of the park in 1997:

As for the condition of the coaster, it actually didn't look that bad from a distance. Most of the structure seems intact, except for a few missing handrails. The wood seemed in surprisingly good condition, given how long it's been neglected. I'm not a good person to judge how easy it would be to move or reconstruct this coaster, but I could clearly see several major problems. First, the ground near the back end of the coaster is pretty waterlogged. Second, there is one spot where a tree has completely fallen over the track and wrecked it. Third, the undergrowth around the coaster would be a major problem. There were trees growing straight through the brake run tracks. Finally, the cars themselves were in terrible shape.

Link via Hell in a Handbasket | Photo: Dave Sandborg