Improbable Research

The Virginia opossum (Didelphis virginiana) is North America’s only marsupial. Should you ever come across one that is homeless, orphaned or otherwise in need of help and could not be taken care of by a professional wildlife rehabilitation center, ME Pearl presents ‘The Practical Opossum Series’. Here is part 4, titled ‘Proper opossum gourmet cooking’.

This month’s Blob of the Month is Professor Richard W. Blob of Clemson University, author of:

“Evaluation of Vent Position from Lizard Skeletons for Estimation of Snout-Vent Length and Body Mass,” R.W. Blob, Copeia, no. 3, August 3, 1998, pp. 792-801.

The Virginia opossum (Didelphis virginiana) is North America’s only marsupial. Should you ever come across one that is homeless, orphaned or otherwise in need of help and could not be taken care of by a professional wildlife rehabilitation center, ME Pearl presents ‘The Practical Opossum Series’. Here is part 3, titled ‘Proper opossum dental hygiene’.

Tomorrow: Proper opossum gourmet cooking. Stay tuned.

Are you a business manager? New research suggests that it may be best to avoid staff who are too clever. Dr. Robert Akerlof, Lecturer and Postdoctoral Associate in Applied Economics at MIT’s Sloan School of Management, has recently developed his theory of Authority Maintenance (AM) – and the AM rationale might have implications for business mangers who are in the process of hiring new workers. For, according to the theory, if the employees are over-smart it could well spell trouble for the firm.

“Managers looking to strengthen their authority are wise not to hire overqualified workers … An overqualified person may be difficult to maintain authority over. They can have a bad attitude that’s infectious.”

The special Mathematics issue (vol. 16, no. 4) of the magazine (the Annals of Improbable Research) is now online. The pleasing-paper version was mailed to subscribers a while ago. Click on the magazine cover (below) to download a free PDF, or buy a high-quality PDF. Or subscribe to the paper version. Mel (right) says it’s swell.

Some business signs in London (of which more can be found in part 1), these from Ballou’s Monthly Magazine, June 1861:

A stranger is surprised in London by some of the signs, which have been handed down for generations, which are used to distinguish particular places of business. Many of them are perfectly unmeaning, but are corruptions of the original signs. A public house was called ‘The Bag of Nails,’ which was derived from the old name, ‘The Bacchanals.’ ‘The Bull and Goat’ was corrupted from ‘The Bologne Gate,’ as the place was called in compliment to Henry VIII, who took the place in 1642. There is another public house called ‘The Goat and Compasses.’