Improbable Research

"A Case of Spring Fever" is a short film, made in 1940, that will appeal to some or all of the people who are obsessed with springs.

We can conclude that Koreans practice their romance in the way Russians do. Thus, it will be quite natural for Koreans to share the same romantic world as Russians. I invented this theory and am conducting experiments. So far, my theory has been quite consistent with the experiments which I performed. If you wish to disprove my theory, do some experiments and tell me why your results are not consistent with my theory. In the meantime, you are invited to appreciate the images of Russian ladies in this file.

So says Y.S. Kim, the noted romantic of a physics professor at the University of Maryland.

The British Cheese Board dreams that everyone will (a) dream about cheese and then (b) eat, or at at least buy, more cheese. The Cheese Board conducted a study of sorts about cheese and dreams. Then they issued a press release that says:

The age old myth that cheese gives you nightmares has finally been laid to rest this week following the release of a new study carried out by the British Cheese Board…

Stephen Pratt has pretty much established the state of the art for individually marked ants.

(Thanks to Tom Roberts for bringing this to our attention.)

Rambling Into Romantic Candy Antiquity is an odd book written (and self-published) by Gus Pulakos, the somewhat-noted chocolatier.

A Sky News report on October 18, quoting a Daily Mail report, says:

Stinky underwear could soon be consigned to the dustbin of history…. Tiny fragments of silver woven into the North Face briefs help stop bacteria multiplying….

DeLafée is prepared in Switzerland from the finest cocoa beans available. Precious flakes of 24 karat gold leaf are applied by hand to each praliné in order to create the sublime experience that is the signature of DeLafée.

So says the company called DeLafée International, which is based in Neuchâtel, Switzerland. They take pains to point out that "gold is totally safe when ingested."

(Thanks to Adiyasa Dwitama for bringing this to our attention.)

The Dutch Ig Nobel book has just been published. "ISBN 9077721525" is the the nickname given it by numerocentrics.

It’s got a special foreward written by two of Holland’s most prominent Ig Nobel Prize winners — Kees Moeliker (homosexual necrophilia in the mallard duck; and also a protagonist in the recent adventure of the dominoes-shooting-victim sparrow) and Pek (first MRI images of a couple’s sexual organs while those organs were in use) Van Andel.

Investigator Jim Cowdery writes:

People who found their lives enriched by Jay Easton’s gallery of big instruments are doubtless yearning for more. They will be relieved to learn of the Contrabass Mania website, which provides links to such enlightening materials as “The Encyclopedia of Really Big Wind Instruments,” “Warning Signs That You Might Be a Contrabass Maniac,” and “How To Score For Instruments That May Cause Seismic Disturbances.”

We recommend, in particular, the contrabassophone, of which it is said: "The resulting instrument was considered too powerful to play with an orchestra."

The scholarly world of socio-historical theory can seem baffling to people who are not socio-historical theoreticians. Here’s a choice example.

Certain American socio-historical theoreticians, who may be associated with the much-discussed Theory of Intelligent Design, have come up with a theory they call "The War on Christmas." One has even written a book. They need only look eastward to find for a solution to their problem.

Catalonia has long had its own Christmas bombardment tradition. Called "Caganer," it consists of displaying little statues of men taking a poop. In Barcelona, this is a deeper, more beloved part of Christmas than the relatively constipated tradition known as "Santa Claus."

The Japanese edition of Why Chickens Prefer Beautiful Humans has just come out. "ISBN 4270000910" is the way the numerocentric prefer to call it. by whatever name, it is the second in the series of books about Ig Nobel Prize winners.

The Tring tiles add spice, and maybe a little sugar, to the question "What would Jesus do?" These adventure-packed ceramic cartoons depict scenes, unmentioned in the Bible, from Jesus’s boyhood. Apparently created in the 14th century, they once enlivened a wall of the parish church in the town of Tring. Several of the tiles now reside under glass, in case number eight of Room 42 of the British Museum….

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

Someone has created a rapid look at anatomy from the inside out.

(Thanks to Rebecca German for bringing this to our attention.)

Kees Moeliker wrote an extensive article — with beautiful photos — about the famous domino-murder-victim sparrow. It appears in the December 20, 2005 issue of NRC Handelsblad.

Someone has carefully crafted a collection of good quality cutesy, noisy little videos of turtles.

(Thanks to Leslie Procter for bringing this to our attention.)