Improbable Research

Phil Weidinger, publicist and organizer of Operation Sierra Storm, the educational conference for TV weather forecasters, is excited that we wrote about his event. Mr. Weidinger is disappointed, though, that we underplayed the educational value of the event’s keynote speaker, Michael D. Brown (we had not elaborated much beyond saying that “Television weather forecasters have much to learn from him”). Mr. Weidinger writes:

Do you have any responsibility to find out why Michael D. Brown was invited to be a speaker at Operation Sierra Storm? Or what topics his presentation was covering. Or that he’d be facing the media during a Q&A re: Katrina for the first time since he left FEMA.

Or is it OK that as a blogger, you can just you ignorantly pop-off. Any ass can do that. How about making some effort, demonstrate some professionalism and take some time to know what you’re writing about. It sure would make for a better read.

Before you run down everyone associated with the event in one fell swoop, get the facts. It would certainly help your credibility. But then, why would you care?

Phil Weidinger
Weidinger PR
Conference Organizer

Investigator Ian Davis of The Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research writes:

One of our scientists, Juliet Quirk, found this rather alarming method requiring ant sperm.  It begs the question of how to obtain 1 millilitre of ant sperm. I initially thought about teeny tiny centerfolds, with great care in placement of the staple, but apparently the optimal source is the ant queen who stores away as much stock as she needs.

Who is:

(A.) Venus Williams?
B. Venus Williams?

Is Venus Williams:

(A.) a top-rank tennis player?
(B.) a Dartmouth College mathematician?
(C.) the author of "The Mathematics Of The Coordinated And Precise Dance That Keeps Us Alive"?

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

The artist Jim Opasik for some reason, or in the absence of any, assembled cheese graters into the form of a seahorse.

This anti-cheesy creature is on exhibit at COPIA: The American Center for Wine, Food & the Arts in Napa, California.

Investigator Robert Webb

wrote, on May 3, 2005 (though it took us a while to post it here):

"I made 16 sandwiches which covered the variables discussed in the November 23, 2004 Slate magazine article, which said:

With a winning bid of $28,000, the online casino GoldenPalace.com won the auction for one of eBay’s most coveted oddities: a 10-year-old grilled cheese sandwich, one side of which bears the Virgin Mary’s image. The seller, Diana Duyser of Hollywood, Fla., claims that the sandwich never sprouted a single spore of mold, despite having been stored in a less-than-airtight plastic box. Is it possible for a decade-old sandwich to remain mold-free without divine intervention?

"The variables were: cheese vs. no cheese, margarine vs. no margarine, store-bought vs. bakery bread, and grilling vs. no grilling. The results were that if the sandwich had been grilled then it would, on average, mold 47 days later, if store-bought bread would have been used it would mold 27 days later and margarine added 15 days to the time to mold.  Adding cheese, however, took 15 days off the time to mold. The last 3 sandwiches did not mold and are not likely to mold ever because they are rock hard."