Improbable Research

Layla Gordon has joined the Luxuriant Flowing Hair Club for Scientists. She says:

I hold a BSc in Computer Science with Artificial Intelligence from University of Southampton. I currently work as a research scientist in Ordnance Survey Research Labs in UK. And studying PHD in Computer science in the field of Multi-Agent technology. I previously was researching Human Gait as a Biemottric as part of a Human-ID DARPA-funded project at Southampton University.

My latest innovation is an application called MapSnapper which has recently been featured in many scientific journals including New Scientist.

Layla is also a member of RazorBladeKisses, described as “UK’s only EGL Toybox Goth band.”
Layla Gordon, LFHCfS
Research Scientist
Ordnance Survey Research Labs, Ordnance Survey
C530, Romsey Road, Southampton, United Kingdom

(Click on the photo to see more detail.)

Regarding the risk of pilot incapacitation, at least a few factors distinguish this risk from manned aircraft….

The first topic discussed was whether the agency should create a new medical certification category for UA pilots or use an existing certification. The rapid consensus by the group was that the creation of a new certification would be prohibitive for a number of reasons related to the difficulty, expense, and time of initiating any new rulemaking activity.

So says the report called “Unmanned Aircraft Pilot Medical Certification Requirements”, [DOT/FAA/AM-07/3], published by the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration’s Office of Aerospace Medicine in February 2007.

(Thanks to investigator Steven Aftergood for bringing this to our attention.)

Schoolgirls celebrities after exposing Ribena

Two Kiwi schoolgirls are worldwide celebrities after their school experiment forced an international pharmaceutical and food giant to admit it made false claims about vitamin C levels in Ribena.

GlaxoSmithKline, the second-largest food and drug company in the world, was yesterday fined $217,500 in the Auckland District Court after it admitted 15 breaches of the Fair Trading Act.

The case was brought by the Commerce Commission after a science experiment in 2004 by 14-year-old Pakuranga College schoolgirls Jenny Suo and Anna Devathasan raised questions about the vitamin C content in Ribena….

So begins a March 28, 2007 report in The Press. The report includes a video interview with the girls.

Older, seen-it-all Ribena scholars fondly, if confusedly, recall the puzzlingly-titled editorial “Ribena Tooth Kind,” published in the British Dental Journal, vol. 185, no. 3, 1998, p. 107.

(Thanks to investigator Jenny Bailor for bringing the new research to our attention.)

Instrumented scissors, used to cut fingernails in different directions, show that fingernails are twice as difficult to cut towards the base of the nail as across it. Consequently cracks are deflected around the end of the nail, protecting the nail bed from damage.

So writes Dr. Roland Ennos of the University of Manchester, in describing one of his many discoveries about the mechanics of human fingernails.

Marilee Jones, MIT’s dean of admissions who has spoken out nationally against the craze over beefing up teens’ resumes, has resigned after 28 years at the school for misrepresenting her academic degrees, university officials said today.

Jones listed on her resume that she had degrees from Albany Medical College, Union College, and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, but she had no degrees from any of those schools, said MIT chancellor Phillip Clay.

So says an April 26, 2007 Boston Globe report. The Bureaucracy Club takes note.

Ps. Some Bureaucracy Club members recommend “The Secret Life of Marilee Jones.”