Improbable Research

PeaceBang’s Beauty Tips for Ministers is the name of a blog. The blog is all about beauty tips for ministers. Here is one of them:

While we’re on the subject of clean cutting, fellas, I’m seeing FOOD IN BEARDS at collegial gatherings. I am seeing UNTRIMMED GOATEES. I am seeing SIDES OF ‘STACHES THAT DRIP INTO MOUTHS.

But is it possible to create an interactive impossible object, that is, an impossible object that can be viewed from any angle? This paper explores the creation of such objects on the computer.

So say Chih W. Khoh and Peter Kovesi in their paper “Animating Impossible Objects.”

(Thanks to investigator Mark Dionne for bringing this to our attention.)

At many universities, the departments keep a certain distance from each other. At one university this has always, and exactly been true. At the University of the Aegean, different departments are on different islands.

The sociology department is on Lesvos, 90 nautical miles distant from the maths department, which is on Samos….

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

Research into research can be improved

That’s the headline on a November 17, 2006 press release issued by the Karolinska Institute. The press release goes on to say:

The methods used to evaluate the quality of research can be far more accurate and far-reaching, according to a new doctoral thesis on bibliometrics from Karolinska Institutet in Sweden. “A common pitfall is that bibliometricians assess the average quality of journals instead of the individual scientific articles,” says PhD Jonas Lundberg.

Bibliometrics is used to describe and assess the quality of research, and to give an idea of the influence a research group or university has on a particular field. As research becomes all the more international and competition between researchers stiffens, more exacting systems are needed to assess the quality of research.

“I usually say that I research into research,” says Jonas Lundberg.

A woman who spent ten days in hospital after suffering from severe migraines had to extend her stay by 36 hours after a television set fell on her head.

Sharron Blake, 36, a mature student from Somerset was preparing to leave hospital when the TV, on an adjustable arm above her bed, crashed down. She suffered from mild concussion and was advised to stay in hospital for extra observation.

She said, ? I was in for severe migraines in the first place. I?m worried about who else it?ll happen to.?

So says a January 12, 2007 report in the Glasgow Daily Record.

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