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Too Harsh to Mention
Feedback encompasses numerous holidaymakers who have breached France’s swimming attire regulations. For those unaware, French law mandates men use tight-fitting swim briefs in public pools, while loose shorts are forbidden. This explains the absence of feedback from French pools.
Feedback refers to these snug garments as “budgie smugglers,” an Australian slang term that has crossed over to Britain. I later discovered that there’s an Aussie swimwear brand named Budgy Smuggler, famous for its swim briefs adorned with vibrant hibiscus patterns, which deterred me from pursuing further.
Now, let’s wander back to the core issues. Associate editor Thomas Leslie came across a research paper on medRxiv titled “Crossover Research Between Male Scholars” discussing the advantages of swim trunks versus shorts. It’s intriguing to ponder what search queries Thomas utilized to find this study.
Diving deeper, the authors clarify that France’s insistence on briefs is due to hygiene concerns, stating “loose clothing could introduce external contaminants into the pool environment.” However, “these claims remain unverified.” To investigate, they recruited 21 male academics, enticing them with free swim briefs, and instructed them to wear shorts or briefs for two hours, followed by soaking them in water. The researchers analyzed the water for bacteria and discovered higher bacterial counts from shorts compared to briefs.
In a follow-up, five participants attempted to swim in “local waters,” leading to quite an eventful experience: one volunteer had his clothes stolen, resulting in an awkward public spectacle. Another phase involved participants drying their briefs on a rock while swimming in their shorts. Canis lupus familis—I momentarily urinated at [them].
Feedback requires, I must admit, I was somewhat perplexed by the experiment. If shorts harbor more germs but you must wring them out to release microbes into the water, does it make a significant difference? The researchers themselves express uncertainty regarding the findings, noting that the pressure the briefs exert might reduce rectal contact with the fabric, possibly influencing the results.
Alternatively, fluid dynamics could play a crucial role in bacteria release from the shorts. The authors write, “Interestingly, the influence of pool hydrodynamic resistance on bacterial shedding remains poorly understood, and to our knowledge, no previous study has evaluated the fluid dynamics of various swimsuit types.” Someone should definitely draft that grant proposal.
Bold Bald Physique
It has finally happened: LEGO reached an agreement with the owners of Star Trek. The first release features a large model of the USS Enterprise-D from The Next Generation.
Kudos to the designer who tackled such a challenging task. The sleek curves and elusive straight lines of the Enterprise-D make it a significant feat to construct from primarily rectangular blocks.
Regrettably, the LEGO team overlooked a minor error in this design process. Hidden within the model is a plate inscribed with: “Be bold and go where no one has gone before.”
Funky Rodent
Concerned that your lab mice are losing interest, you ponder playing music to entertain them. What should be on the playlist?
This query was posed by Johann Maas and his collaborators in a study published in Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience titled “Taylor Swift vs. Mozart: C57BL/6J Mouse’s Music Taste”.
The authors observe that researchers usually select the same pieces for mice, predominantly Sonata for Two Pianos in D Major K.448 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, a composition believed to enhance children’s intelligence, known as the “Mozart effect,” which has been largely discredited over time. This skepticism gained traction in a 2010 study titled “Mozart Effect – Schmozart Effect: Meta-Analysis”.
It seems peculiar that biologists are so fixated on playing this supposedly non-intelligence-boosting Mozart piece. The authors note, “Mice can hear sounds ranging from about 2 kHz to 100 kHz,” while most of the sonata falls below 1 kHz; thus, mice likely hear very little of it.
Consequently, the researchers designed a “mouse disco” testing setup consisting of four soundproof rooms interconnected by a tunnel. Each room played different music: one featured Mozart, another played electronic dance music from The Very Best of Euphoric Dance: Breakdown 2001 – CD1, a third showcased what the team labeled “classic rock” (much to Feedback’s amusement, including tracks by Nazareth, Firehouse, and the dreaded Whitesnake), and the fourth had a Taylor Swift playlist.
The mice exhibited no strong preferences, notably spending the least time in the Mozart room. Take that, Amadeus!
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