Improbable Research

Investigator Kim Dill writes:

I have recently joined the Luxuriant Flowing Hair Club for Scientists (LFHCfS), and have just seen that  offer for a cruise for club members.  What a neat idea!  However, I think their drains would be clogged w/ hair for weeks afterwards.

The Christmas season is a time to pause and ponder. Here are some ponderous Christmas-related research reports to give you pause, perhaps….

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

Investigator Sharon DeLisle sent us this inquiry:

I am struck by the resemblance between the two newest members of the Luxuriant Flowing Hair Club for Scientists (LFHCfS). Dr. Peter Jorgensen and Dr. Catherine Fiorello appear to be a matched pair. Are they in some way mutual admirers?

Congratulations are due to Jerry Crook. New Scientist magazine’s "Feedback" column, in the December 4, 2004 issue, presents this item:

EARLIER this year, we noted the headline "Crook named CEO" of the year and wondered "So what’s new?" (20 March, 2004). Now we find that the person the headline referred to, Jerry Crook, is in the news again.

The online news agency Nextgenerationservices recently had this to say: "Jerry Crook has stepped down as CEO of up-and-coming OSS firm Cramer Systems Ltd after being charged with conspiracy to defraud investors while he was an executive at software firm Peregrine Systems Inc. Crook is just one of a number of former Peregrine executives charged with conspiracy to commit a multibillion-dollar securities fraud between 1997 and 2002."

As a former executive of Peregrine Systems, Jerry Crook is a co-winner of the 2002 Ig Nobel Prize in the field of Economics. That Prize was awarded to:

The executives, corporate directors, and auditors of Enron, Lernaut & Hauspie [Belgium], Adelphia, Bank of Commerce and Credit International [Pakistan], Cendant, CMS Energy, Duke Energy, Dynegy, Gazprom [Russia], Global Crossing, HIH Insurance [Australia], Informix, Kmart, Maxwell Communications [UK], McKessonHBOC, Merrill Lynch, Merck, Peregrine Systems, Qwest Communications, Reliant Resources, Rent-Way, Rite Aid, Sunbeam, Tyco, Waste Management, WorldCom, Xerox, and Arthur Andersen, for adapting the mathematical concept of imaginary numbers for use in the business world.

[NOTE: Video of the entire 2002 Ig Nobel Ceremony can be viewed the Ig Nobel web site. The Economics Prize was awarded towards the end of the event. The audience, 1200 strong, was especially appreciative of the Economics Prize winners.]

Investigators Bob Frenay and Hanya Brayman, who traveled 250 miles to attend the recent Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony, write:

On the way out of Cambridge, Hanya and I stopped for breakfast at a place on Massachusetts Ave. at State St. called ?Miracle of Science Bar + Grill.?  A friendly, somewhat funky little place with a menu in the form of a periodic table. I don?t know who runs it but something tells me that he or she may be one of your people.  It was across the street from a place called — significantly, we thought — the All Asia karaoke bar.