Improbable Research

A sign of recovery in the banking industry: Citibank invites its customers to a gambling event at which “The games will be played with ‘funny money’ provided by the bank.” The cover letter accompanying their invitation [a portion of the invitation is reproduced at right] reads:

As a token of our appreciation to you, our valued client, we are sponsoring a casino night here in our Financial Center on Wednesday evening, 5/12/10. I would really love for you and your colleagues to attend if possible. We will have various casino games such as  3 blackjack tables, roulette wheel, 1 large craps table, 2 (Texas Holdem) poker tables and 3 slot machines. The games will be played with “funny money” provided by the bank. Various wines, cheese and pastries will also be served. There will be prizes for the top winners!! Should be lots of fun and I hope to see you there.

Improbable Research researcher Jessica Girard and her fiance — both biologists — are long shots (because they are scientists) in the Crate & Barrel company’s Ultimate Wedding Contest. Stuff the ballot box for them (and on behalf of scientist love), if you like:

Arthur Ganson’s mechanical fly buzzing around a lightbulb:

Why do governments  — and for that matter, most organizations — resist admitting mistakes, even old ones?  (And why do they keep repeating the same mistakes?) A recently-released British historical document suggests part of the reason. The Guardian reports on a note written by Margaret Thatcher less than a year before she became Prime Minister of the UK:

A letter from July 1978, while she was still leader of the opposition, reveals Thatcher’s legally inspired reluctance to concede that mistakes had ever been made. Opposing plans to publish a history of military intelligence in the second world war, she observed: “I was taught a very good rule by my two Masters at Law, both of whom are now judges: never admit anything unless you have to; and then only for specific reasons and within defined limits.”

Ronald Stuart Cutlip – a New York based Golf Course Architect and Real Estate Agent – has invented a new type of undergarment – and has recently received a US patent for it ( March 16th 2010 ).

“An article of clothing including a pair of underwear for a male adult comprises a waistband, an underwear section comprising buttocks, hips, and male package covering portions, defining a pair of leg holes therebetween, and a pouch, secured to the rear of the front portion of the waistband and suspended above the bottom of the underwear, the pouch having side edges which inwardly overly the leg holes with the bottom of the pouch tacked to the center of the underwear section.”

Dr. Matsumi Suzuki [pictured here], who shared the 2002 Ig Nobel peace prize (for inventing Bow-Lingual, the dog-language-to-human-language translation device) has a new invention he says will treat allergies. Roland Buerk of the BBC reports (with a brief recording of the sound):

For relief, sufferers need only wait for a call on their mobile phone. The sound is supposed to dislodge pollen if the user holds the handset up to their nose.