The “Holy Plane” of Rectal Surgery

“The ‘Holy Plane’ of Rectal Surgery,” R.J. Heald, Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine, vol. 81, September 1988, pp. 503–8. The author, at Basingstoke District Hospital, Basingstoke, U.K., explains [AIR 16:1]: this is the story of a simple artisan’s pleasure in the actual style of performing an operation—in essence the way to use a […]

A bit of Ig Nobel at w00tstock

Marc Abrahams will insert a highly compressed Ig Nobel Prizes talk/demo into the Halloween night show of w00tstock, at the Wilbur Theater in Boston. What, you may ask, is w00tstock? Officially, this: a special event for geeks of every stripe. Television host/special-effects artist Adam Savage (“MythBusters”), actor/author/blogger Wil Wheaton (“Star Trek: The Next Generation”, “Stand […]

Grow your mind (with dolls)

“We have been unable to find literature which specifically examines doll-making within an organizational context, or as a form of leadership development.” – explain Dr. Patricia Gayá Wicks and Dr. Ann Rippin from the Department of Management at the University of Bristol, UK. To address this gap in the literature, 20 participants on an MSc. […]

Improbable Research