Improbable Research

For thirteen years I have surprised, amused, inspired or shocked a wide audience with the story of my necro-duck. This may well be over soon. Why? Well, my classic improbable observation is surpassed. Nico de Bruyn, a zoologist at the Mammal Research Institute of the University Pretoria, witnessed together with Cheryl A. Tosh and Marthan N. Bester how a male Antarctic fur seal tried hard to copulate with a king penguin. Given the amount of media coverage, their paper in Journal of Ethology about this amazing case of ‘interspecific sexual harassment bridging the rank of vertebrate class’ is already a classic and overshadows my ‘first case of homosexual necrophilia in the mallard-duck’. My congratulations to Nico de Bruyn et al!

This is the subject of my most recent blog entry (www.moeliker.com) and a column that was broadcasted May 25th 2008 on Vara’s Vroege Vogels radio-show in the Netherlands. For those of you who have trouble reading Dutch, here is the experimental Google-translated English-language version of it. It may be of help.

PRESS RELEASE
Publication Date: May 7, 2008

New York, NY — May 7, 2008. The American Council on Science and Health today presents the first Henry I. Miller Award for Excellence in Public Health Education to Dr. Henry Miller, research fellow at the Hoover Institution.

So says a press release issued by the American Council on Science and Health.

The unexpected choice of Dr. Henry I. Miller as winner of the first Henry I. Miller award helps the public appreciate the stated mission of the American Council on Science and Health: to “add reason and balance to debates about public health issues and bring common sense views to the public”.

Dr. Miller now becomes the leading candidate for the 2009 competition. If all goes as expected, on May 8, 2009 the American Council on Science and Health will present the second Henry I. Miller Award for Excellence in Public Health Education to Dr. Henry Miller, research fellow at the Hoover Institution. Dr. Miller would thus become the leading candidate for the 2010 competition.

(Thanks to investigator Bert Hirschhorn for bringing this to our attention.)

Richard Buckley’s exploding trousers propelled James Watson to fame. Except for the initial burst of flames, there was nothing quick about the process – 74 years elapsed between Buckley’s wardrobe malfunction and Watson’s gaining an Ig Nobel prize for his careful analysis of the cause and significance of the incident.

Watson is head of Massey University’s school of history, philosophy and politics in Palmerston North, New Zealand. In 2004, he published a study in the journal Agricultural History, entitled: The Significance of Mr Richard Buckley’s Exploding Trousers: Reflections on an Aspect of Technological Change in New Zealand Dairy-Farming Between the World Wars. That significance, explains Watson, is manifold.

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

Passengers With Antlers Will Pay More

Frontier Airlines, which is operating under bankruptcy protection, said on Friday it would increase the charge for taking antlers on its planes to $100, from $75. Frontier, based in Colorado, is the latest airline to announce new fees in an attempt to counter the cost of record oil prices, which have roughly doubled in the past year. ?During hunting season, people do bring antlers back in cargo,? said a spokeswoman for Frontier. Frontier said it also planned to charge a $25 fee for a second checked bag, cancel half-price infant seats and take no more bookings for pets traveling in airplane cabins.

So says a May 24, 2008 Reuters report in the New York Times.

Frontier Airlines publishes a Contract of Carriage, which contains fuller details. The version dated May 15, 2008 contains other information, in addition to pricing, of interest to economics students. Some examples:

ANTLERS ? Antlers or horns must be free of residue; points must be covered and protected.

DISABLING DEVICES ? Pepper spray, bear spray, mace, or any item containing an irritant or incapacitating substance are accepted in limited quantities.

HANG GLIDING EQUIPMENT ? Accepted on Frontier Airbus flights only. One hang glider per ticketed passenger.

PARACHUTES ? Not accepted if parachute has an explosive to deploy the chute.

POLE (POLE VAULT) ? Accepted on Frontier Airbus flights only.

This week we learned that open-access research is serious business.

Recently, our magazine — the Annals of Improbable Research — went “open access”. We now put all our content online free, and are gradually adding the content from past issues, too.

Librarians, ever more squeezed for funds, had been urging us to do this. And then, they said, be sure to tell the Directory of Open Access Journals.

We wrote to the DOAJ, asking to be included on their list. DOAJ’s motto is “free, full text, quality controlled scientific and scholarly journals. We aim to cover all subjects and languages.”

But a DOAJ administrator wrote back, explaining:

“I do not think we will be able to include the Annals of Improbable Research, even if I am sure the magazine does make people both laugh and think.

It is not, however, scientific or scholarly in the way we expect journals in DOAJ to be, meaning making people think, only.”

(This item is adapted from the May issue of mini-AIR.)

The May issue of mini-AIR just went out. Topics include: Questions About Victor Vroom; Dead Duck Day is Coming; Questions About Sam Speed; Most-Plagiarized Paper Project; Questions About Quentin Quick; Seriously Open Access; Old Intestines Poet; Swedish Crisp Bread Salivation Competition; The Power of Debugging; BLOGLIGHTS: Not Even Wrong, Bozo and the Bush; Vacuum Caution, Near Dancers; etc.

(If you would like to have mini-AIR automatically sent to your email box every month, please subscribe to it. It?s free.)