Improbable Research

A report in the February 13, 2005 issue of India Daily brings startling news:

Invisible tiny UFO caught on chemical-imaging camera

Staff Reporter
Feb. 13, 2005

In India’s one of the premiere research and development laboratories… According to sources, while analyzing data the scientists came across something very strange and bizarre. A set of photos showed a tiny miniature Unidentified Flying Object. The IR camera failed to capture the same because apparently the UFO was using frictionless traction with anti-gravity lifting mechanisms. But the chemical-imaging camera picked it up.

According to some of these scientists, the group is now investigating if invisible UFOs are all around us.

The news is startling because it carries the modern hallmark of authenticity. The premiere research and development lab is not identified and neither is the reporter.

In recent years, this has become a way in which certain government officials (in several countries) disseminate information that they decide is of great public importance. The reasoning behind this is quite solidified. Releasing such details might (1) put key government personnel at risk in some way; and (2) confuse the public understanding by introducing more facts than people are able to digest in an appropriate way.

(Thanks to Tim Spellman for bringing this to our attention.)

Beaver snails can be delightful.

Today, Valentine’s Day, is as good a time as any to consider the merits of William Cane, the self-confessed kissing expert, and his multimedia presentation on ocsculation.

Here is another student essay suggestion from our Improbable Social Science Project. The short film "Queen of the House" encapsulates, one way and another, everything a student needs to begin understanding the world’s most proudly peculiar country, the United States of America. A teacher would do well to ask students virtually any question about how this film elucidates American culture, politics, and history then (the year 1965, when it was made) and now.

(We are grateful to the Scopitones web site for making this film available for study. Students may also want to read the words to "Queen of the House." They were written by Roger Miller and Mary Taylor. The main performer is Jody Miller.)

A report in the February 11, 2005 issue of The Guardian tells of the agonizing delemma of smart trash:

Residents of Croydon, south London, have been told that the microchips being inserted into their new wheely bins may well be adapted so that the council can judge whether they are producing too much rubbish.

If the technology suggests that they are, errant residents may be visited by officials bearing advice on how they might "manage their rubbish more effectively".

For those who enjoy mathematics as a spectator pastime, there is the Complexity Zoo.

At least one person is  excited at the prospect of a  cruise  for  members of the Luxuriant Flowing Hair Club for Scientists (LFHCfS). A few months ago the LFHCfS received an invitation to plan an exciting group cruise. Today a message arrived in response to the sending of that first message. Here it is:

Hi,

I wanted to make sure you got this email I previously sent and to see if you are interested in putting together a group cruise for your organization as I explained below [in the message I sent on October 29, 2004]. I hope to hear from you,

regards,

Todd Satterlee
Business Development Manager
Carnival Cruise Lines
Western, Central, & Northern Massachusetts
Albany Capital Region
tsatterlee@carnival.com
800-327-7276  cclsales@carnival.com

Melissa Towler, the noted biolochemist/engineer, competitive ballroom dancer, and Scottish Fold fancier, has
joined the Luxuriant Flowing Hair
Club for Scientists. And so has Chris Keeler, the noted chemist and orchid fancier.

Towler is at Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Massachusetts. Keeler is at the University of British Columbia. These institution are (or soon will be) renowned for their
abundance of luxuriantly-flowing-haired researchers.

The February issue of mini-AIR just went out.

What is the proper way to
make a cup of tea? The question has many answers, but only one of them
is the official British standard…

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

A report in The Art Newspaper explains that:

Damien Hirst’s shark floating in a tank of formaldehyde, recently sold
for $12 million to US billionaire hedge fund manager Steve Cohen, is
disintegrating and will need extensive conservation work to prevent it
from further deterioration. This is the view of conservation scientists
and natural history specialists who say that the bigger a specimen, the
more difficult it is to preserve long-term in formaldehyde…

Investigator Judith Price raises a further small point: "They think it’s complicated trying to keep it?  Iconic status, indeed!  Just wait till they try to dispose of the mess."

(Thanks to Judith Price and Sally Shelton for bringing this to our attention.)

“Promiscuity in the Cattle Egret (Bubulcus ibis),” is one of the featured citations in the most recent "Boys Will be Boys" column. N.G. McKilligan’s egret-filled research report was published in the journal The Auk, vol. 107, no. 2, April 1990, pp. 334-41.

Video of 2003 Ig Nobel Peace Prize winner Lal Bihari, the founder of the Association of Dead People, is now online, thanks to an organization called Snoop Video News.

Microsoft has just acquired the entire European science community. So it appears, anyway.

Here is Microsoft’s announcement:

[FEB 2, 2005]
At the Government Leaders Forum today, Microsoft Chairman and Chief
Software Architect Bill Gates announced the EuroScience Initiative in
his keynote to over 500 government leaders and public officials.

And here is a surprised reaction from the Euroscience organization:

[FEB 4, 2005]
The already existing Euroscience Association was created in 1997 and has more than 2100 individual and 31 institutional members. … A number of very prominent European scientists and people interested in science are member of Euroscience. Among others is the former European Commissioner for Research, Philippe Busquin a number of Nobel laureates and former research ministers.

Euroscience president Jean Patrick Connerade says:
"If Mr Gates wants to help us by injecting millions of dollars into Euroscience, then that is wonderful, but I am surprised: as the elected President of Euroscience, I was not consulted before Mr Gates made his speech to the Government Leaders’ Forum in Prague. I would like to understand better what his plans really are. I am sure Microsoft would never steal the name of an European Association of scientists to further its activities…"

Little research has been published on the subject of goat dressing [click on the link, then scroll down].

(Thanks to Genevieve Reynolds for bringing this to our attention.)