Improbable Research

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….

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

So says the company called DeLaf?e International, which is based in Neuch?tel, 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."