Improbable Research

We at the Annals of Improbable Research are always happy to help scientists interact with the real world, and vice versa. The producers of a new television series have asked us to spread the word about an improbable research opportunity. Here’s their story:

?GILLIGAN?S ISAND? ? The Reality Series

AHOY PROFESSORS!
Have you ever dreamed of being stranded on a deserted island with a movie star? Can you make a telephone out of a coconut? Does the idea of being on a cool new reality series excite you out of your proverbial lab coat? If so?then please read on!

TBS and top reality producer Mike Fleiss (The Bachelor, The Bachelorette, High School Reunion) are bringing the classic sitcom ?GILLIGAN?S ISLAND? back to life! The reality adaptation will feature real life versions of the show?s original characters; A real-life skipper, first mate, millionaire couple, Kansas farm girl, movie star and A PROFESSOR! Characters will work together to get off the island and a big reward will be up for grabs!

Next Entertainment is looking for enthusiastic male professors (full, associate, adjunct or assistant) aged 21 to 40 to be cast as THE PROFESSOR. Any and all academic backgrounds considered.

For immediate consideration please contact Craig Bland at 818?972 -0997. Go to www.gilligancasting.com for details

[HISTORICAL NOTE: Russell Johnson, the actor who played the part of the Professor on the original television series “Gilligan’s Island,” later took part in one of the Ig Nobel Prize ceremonies. Mr. Johnson, through his unlikely-yet-gallantly-inspiring early television exploits, influenced an enormous number of children to grow up wanting to become scientists — years later, some of those former children, now grown up and having become scientists, were thrilled to see and meet Mr. Johnson when he took part in the Ig Nobel ceremony (that year, he and several Nobel Laureates physically presented the Prizes to that year’s new Ig Nobel Prize winners). We are pleased to help,in this small way, to honor him!

A true scholar is tenacious in pursuing the truth. Here’s an example.

Doron Witzum, co-discoverer of the famous codes that he believes are hidden in the Bible (a discovery for which he shared the 1997 Ig Nobel Literature Prize), has written many papers in response to critics. Some of these papers have lengthy titles, such as the one that begins “A Response to McKay’s Response to My Response to His Response Concerning My Article…” Read that paper here. See a list of it and other papers here.

The Luxuriant Flowing Hair Club for Scientists (LFHCfS) has four splendid new members: Martha Farah, Lara Chepenik, Andrea Heberlein, Lars Penke and the not overly shy Felicitas Bidlack. See them and their hair at the LFHCfS home page, here.

Lal Bihari has triumphed in India’s parliamentary election.

A we reported recently, the founder and head of the Association of Dead People — and winner of the 2003 Ig Nobel Peace Prize — was standing for elective office. See that report here.

The election results are now in. Lal Bahari did not come in dead last.

He finished next-to-last, with 3400 votes, edging out Dhruv Kant, who garnered only 3053 votes. For the complete list of candidates and their vote totals, see the list here.

(Also: see Lal Bihari’s official election affidavits here.)

In 1988, Robert W Faid solved one of the oldest and most famous problems in mathematics. Yet almost no one noticed. Cracking the nut that was nearly two millennia old, Faid calculated the identity of the Antichrist….

So begins this week’s Improbable Research column in The Guardian. Read it here.