Dr Martin Voracek is a shoes-and-ships-and-sealing-wax sort of specialist. His expertise ranges from romance and jealousy to the “accuracy of volume measurement in human cadaver kidneys”, plus the effects of solar eclipses on suicide, and also politics, intelligence, and much else. This man of many degrees (DSc, PhD, MSc and MPh) is a research resident […]
Month: May 2007
There’s orange, and then there’s orange
The purpose of this investigation was to determine if there is a difference in the delectability and visibility, by human observers, of clothing made from solid orange vs. camouflage orange cloth. Results: For detectability, 79% found solid orange more detectable that camouflage orange…. It remains to be determined if this finding is true over a […]
Statistical push and shove: UK smoke ban
Like most things in life, when the smoking ban comes in force in England on July 1, it will have unintended consequences. So who and what are the unexpected winners and losers? … More smokers choose to stay at home and have a puff, exposing their children to second-hand fumes, says a report from the […]
May mini-AIR
The May issue of mini-AIR just went out. Topics include: Whether Fish is Foul; Nix on the Double-Dons; the Triumphant Return of Theoharis Theoharis; The Non-Returnable James James; A Pasta Prep Standard; The Russian Ig Book; Orienteer-Trampling Poets; Rhomboid Intramembrane Protease Competition; New Hair Club Member Profusion; Opera — Encore from the Stomach; Boring, Chicken, […]
Bart Knols – Ig winner garners further honor
“It is a nice prize, the highest form of recognition you can get in tropical medicine in the Netherlands.” Medical entomologist Bart Knols sounded excited, and he had good reason. Yesterday, he and his colleague Willem Takken of Wageningen University were awarded the Eijkman Medal 2007 for their combined 20 years of research into insects […]
Girth not so large as rumored
So I decided to check out what was going on this date 100 years ago. I selected The Washington Times because it was a newspaper name I recognized, even though it is different from the current Washington Times, which was founded in 1982. I had been expecting some weighty discourse on, I don?t know, maybe […]
Can You Rank Crotchetiness?
If departments really wanted to help would-be graduate students find a good place to earn a Ph.D., they would publish a new set of rankings: on the crotchetiness of each faculty member. So said Timothy Burke, an associate professor of history at Swarthmore College, in a discussion of how departments could be more transparent about […]
Calculate pi by throwing frozen hot dogs
An essay by an unnamed person explains how to calculate the value of pi by throwing frozen hot dogs. (Thanks to investigator Krisme Cosh and several others for bringing this to our attention.)
Ding Ding
My name is Ding Ding and I am a PhD candidate in economics at the Department of Economics, Cornell University. So says Ding Ding, who, should he continue on the path of academic high achievement and one day become a professor, will join the ranks of the professor-professors.
Death of a birdman
Many of man’s early attempts to conquer the sky ended in tragedy. So did the experiment of the Austrian tailor Franz Reichelt, one of the the last of the birdmen. He combined his urge to fly and his workmanship in a garment to serve as both an overcoat and a parachute. In 1911 he decided […]