Pictured above is a pair of Great Tits.

Last year, researchers Els Atema, Arie van Noordwijk, and Simon Verhulst published the results of their study of Great Tits (Parus Major) in the journal Molecular Ecology. I bring it to your attention because I know that Neatorama readers take a great interest in this topic.

The scientists wanted to know if adding weight to a Great Tit, and thus increasing the physical workload it must endure while moving, would alter the telomere regions of its DNA sequence. They added a backpack weighing 0.9 grams to these birds and tracked their locomotion. At the end of their study, they found no significant changes to the attrition of the birds' telomeres. Perhaps the birds were physically stressed by the added weight, but they seemed to bounce back just fine.

Photo: Highway 45

As a father, I can see how this gets started. Rental bounce houses are popular at kids' birthday parties and other festive events. I've certainly thought about joining in on the fun. But is it okay to bounce along with the kids? Maybe not. It might look weird.

So, the Wall Street Journal (sorry, paywalled article) reports, companies that offer bounce house events are increasingly marketing their services to adult-oriented events, such as weddings, as well as offer bounce house events just for adults. Thus us grown ups can jump around without feeling socially awkward or worrying about accidentally falling on and injuring a child.

That said, we geezers aren't as flexible and nimble as we used to be. The Wall Street Journal reports that injuries occur, so it's necessary to know one's limits and get medical attention if you're a wuss you get hurt while bouncing around like the kid you are at heart.

-via Dave Barry | Photo: Big Bounce America

King Charles III will likely be too busy to resume one of his former hobbies: painting. Since the 1970s, he's dabbled in watercolors, mostly creating landscapes. He actually held an exhibition in 1977, but has since given less attention to the arts in favor of his royal duties.

CNN reports that some of the King's earlier works will go up for auction with Hansons Auctioneers. The house will broker the sale of several drawings that Charles made as a little boy, including portraits of his mother and father. Hansons anticipates final sale prices between $6,500 and $12,700. These include the above portrait of Queen Elizabeth II rendered when Charles was five or six years old.

-via Nag on the Lake

Have you ever wanted to be in the Guinness Book of World Records? Canistus Coonghe of Sri Lanka is. He's secured fame by growing the largest (by volume and weight) kidney stone in the world.

Are you jealous of Mr. Coonghe?

Doctors in Colombo sugically removed the kidney stone, which was larger than the actual kidney in which it previously resided.* It measures over 5 by 4 inches across and weighs 1.76 pounds.

Mr. Coonghe's doctors reported that the rather stretched kidney had been working well prior to the operation. He's now recovering and, let us hope, taking joy in his fame.

Photos: Guinness World Records

*In a way, a kidney is like a TARDIS.

The Midland Daily News shares a heartwarming story from Saginaw, Michigan. Back in March, homeowner Tom Dexter was about to pull into his driveway when he noticed that an Amazon delivery driver was dropping off a package.

The driver had noticed that the American flag on display had become tangled. Despite his demanding schedule, the driver paused, fixed the flag, then delivered a precise salute. After giving Old Glory a loving caress, he returned to his duties.

Dexter and his wife confirmed this scene on their Ring doorbell camera and then tracked down the driver on social media.

His name is Delawrence Jones. As you might predict, this patriot is a veteran, having served as in the field artillery of the US Army, including a deployment in Afghanistan. In a video interview with Mid-Michigan NOW, Jones explained that he hadn't thought much of the incident at the time. This simple act caught on camera is just who he is and what he does.

One of the Library's missions is to preserve audio-visual materials. Much of this work happens at the National Audio-Visual Conservation Center in Virginia. Here's a quick look at the process of digitizing a 78 RPM disc, making it more accessible for Library patrons like you! pic.twitter.com/hhzBq6MDH7

— Library of Congress (@librarycongress) June 13, 2023

One of the missions of the Library of Congress of the United States is to digitize information sources to preserve them from loss and make them more broadly available. In this video, a professional conservationist takes a 78 RPM record from 1908 and prepares it for recording. He cleans the record, mounts it precisely on a turntable, and chooses the right stylus for this recording.

The song is "Don't Take Me Home" by Eddie Morton. It's a novelty song about a man who prefers incarceration to living with his shrewish wife.

The Daily Nous, a website about philosophy, shares the story of Garret Merriam, a professor of philosophy at Sacramento State University. He caught many of his ethics students cheating on a final exam.

Students sometimes use the website Quizlet to cheat by uploading and sharing stolen copies of exams. Merriam shared with Quizlet a copy of his final exam for the Introduction to Ethics course, which consisted of multiple choice questions. But the copy that he uploaded had several wrong answers.

When Merriam graded the exams, he found that 40 of the 96 students turned in answers reflecting the often "obviously wrong" answers that he provided in the faulty answer key on Quizlet. He ran a statistical analysis and determined that the likelihood that these students had coincidentally marked their answer sheets according to his faulty key to be profoundly unlikely.

Merriam confronted the cheaters and about 2/3 of them admitted to the deed. Those who cheated will face a zero on the exam and possibly a F grade for the course.

Some people on Twitter are accusing Merriam of entrapment, but the professor is standing by his decision. The students knew that the university regards looking at copies of exams without a professor's permission is cheating. They will now face the consequences of their decisions.

-via Kottke | Photo: Pexels

Port Revel is an artificial 13-acre lake in southeastern France that is the center of a ship handling school. The owners have designed this lake to simulate a variety of common ship handling challenges. Since 1966, the Port Revel Shiphandling Training Centre has offered courses to mariners who pilot 1/25 scale versions of cruise ships, containers ships, and supertankers.

U.S. States Ranked By How Easy They Are To Form By Nibbling A Graham

1. Wyoming
2. Colorado
3. Ohio
4. Idaho
…
…
49. Maryland
50. Alaska pic.twitter.com/AlYmE5kwMK

— Nathan W. Pyle (@nathanwpyle) June 11, 2023

When I was growing up in Alabama, we used to commonly say, "Thank God for Mississippi." This was usually preceded by the statement, "Our state ranks 49th in X." X represented a variety of socioeconomic indicators.

Nathan W. Pyle has yet to get around to either Mississippi or Alabama, but I'll bet the the curve of the Mississippi River will bring Alabama on top. It would be hard to shape with just human teeth into the crunchy and fragile form of a graham cracker.

Whilst taking care of an infant, Pyle, who is famous for his cartoon Strange Planet, has been chewing over which state outlines are the hardest to bite into graham crackers. You can view his ongoing work on Twitter.

Love Hultén, an artist in Gothenburg, Sweden made this goovy audio and visual experience that combines retro styling with new technologies. It’s a Delton8 drum and sampler synthesizer in a case fit for the 70s and combined with ferrofluid display. A ferrofluid that is attracted to magnetic pull. This combination uses either BurnSlap FAV ferrofluid sound-reactive system or something very similar. Either way, the ferrofluid acts like a living lava lamp that dances to the controls on the synthesizer panel.

This seems like a project that could be scaled up far beyond this portable unit to a grand audio and visual symphonic ecstasy.

-via David Thompson

The rocking theme song for the 80s action show The A-Team is really energizing. This creation by composers Mike Post and Pete Carpenter is arguably the greatest television theme song every written. Media personality Al Roker likes to play it when he wakes up in the morning to boost his energy for the day.

The show was dubbed into French. Producers changed the theme song a bit to make it upbeat and added lyrics about the organization called "L'Agence Tous Risques" -- "The All Risks Team." You can read the complete lyrics at Digital Spy. They sync well with the music.

-via Super Punch

Rain Noe of Core77 shows us an unusual tool. Can you guess what it's for? The answer is below the fold.

Tumblr user mousemilf shares an endearing story of a holiday invented by her father. She grew up celebrating "Big Sandwich Night" -- a day when the entire family made a huge sandwich and ate it together:

I can see how this event could become popular. We need community, especially in-person community.

For a few years, my daughters and I celebrated Derpy Day, which is a brony holiday in which people bake muffins together in honor of Derpy, a minor character on My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic. The girls eventually figured out that no one else at their school celebrated this particular holiday.

Does your family celebrate any unique holidays?

-via Glenn Reynolds

Atlas Obscura introduces us to a unique drive-through restaurant in the Netherlands. It began when Jan and Birgitte van den Elzen built up a successful strawberry greenhouse facility in the town of Uden. They looked for innovative ways to sell their fruit, including vending machines. Those vending machines are still present, but during peak strawberry season, which is from March to September, visitors to the Aardeien Drive-In can also purchase strawberry foods at the drive-through window.

These dishes include strawberry waffles, chocolate-dipped strawberries, strawberry shakes, strawberry smoothies, strawberry jam, and strawberries with whipped cream. Who's up for a yummy roadtrip to the Netherlands?

Photo: Aardeien Drive-In

pic.twitter.com/md9trSGpLe

— summer 🖕 (@salesforcechild) May 29, 2023

Summer Emerald, who goes by the online pseudonym of salesforcechild, is preparing to be a mother to children who are mentally and emotionally healthy and prepared for the challenges of the future. This means looking back to before our children were distracted by non-stop screentime and processed artificial foods. In this video, with the help of AI-generated art, Emerald describes how she will cultivate her children into confident adults.

Emerald is an artist with a surreal and symbolist bent, as you can see from her paintings and videos, which include depictions of various parasites that she has successfully expelled from her body. This is what happens when the human psyche is ready for the next stage of evolutionary development.

-via David Burge