Improbable Research

The story of Man is a simple, yet complex tale. An anthropological web site gathers new info daily. Here are a few recent tidbits:

Man made appointment, then robbed tanning salon, police say

Man Sues Club After Being Hit in the Nose by Stripper’s Shoe

Man arrested for 190th time in Florida

Man gets shaggy eyebrows shaved for charity

Man’s alcohol-fueled attack on his door leads to arrest for pot possession

(Thanks to investigator Stefanie Friedhoff for bringing this to our
attention.)

The Second Annual Clerihew Contest has just begun, run, for fun, by Robin Abrahams, the Improbable Research’s psychology editor and more notably, author of the Miss Conduct advice column. Last year’s winning entry was (and still is:

Tim Berners-Lee
Invented HTTP
Thus the World Wide Web was born
For Nigerian Diplomats and porn.

The 2009 winning clerihew will be announced on July 10.

Investigator Laura W. Deland says she collects links to photographs of “penguin poo depressurizing penguins” (the physics of which was honored with an Ig Nobel Prize in 2005). She recommends this one:

A gamester who wishes to remain unnamed writes: “I don’t recommend this game. Here is a quote from the page.”

In the game of Quantum Soccer, the aim is to shape the wave function of a quantum-mechanical “ball” so that the probability of it being inside one of the goals rises above a set threshold. This is achieved by using the motion of the players to alter the energy spectrum of the wave function: when a player moves across the field, the energy that this action provides (or absorbs) enables transitions between certain modes of the wave function. The pairs of modes involved depend on the player’s velocity; the exact rules are spelt out in the mathematical details, but it’s easy to experiment using trial and error.

The June issue of mini-AIR just went out. Topics include: Accounting, Accounting, Accounting; Pop-Eye Magnitude Detection; Pop-Eye Phenomenon; Namely, Oculodigital; Where to Buy Plutonium; Bands for Biomedical Researchers: Saliva; Ig Nobel Delegations – advance word; Apple Brain Poet; Spent Mushroom Compost Odorous Component Competition; Armed Birds, Dangling Doofus; Yippee (two types); etc.

Mel [pictured here] says, “It’s swell.”

(mini-AIR is the simplest way to keep informed about Improbable and Ig Nobel news and events. To have it emailed to you every month, just fill in the wee form.)

Investigator Jim Cowdery writes:

As far as I can tell, the Big Ugly Community Center is neither big nor ugly. The history, they say is that “In 1993, the Big Ugly Elementary School was shut down and left empty. The community gained access to the vandalized building, they hauled water, scrubbed out the mold and mildew, turning the school into the current Big Ugly Community Center (BUCC).”