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HMO-NO News

Health care advice to pass on to your patients

Self-Allergy Fear Alleviation!

Although seldom mentioned in public, some patients fear that they are or will become allergic to themselves. In some patients, a related condition is seen: these patients fear that they are not and will never become allergic to themselves. In most cases, the condition is purely psychological.

Under our HMO-NO Self De-Fearment TM program, physicians will assess* the degree to which each self-allergy-fearing patient is allergic to herself or himself, and the degree to which the patient is fearful of developing an allergy to herself or himself or to not developing an allergy to herself or himself. Results of the evaluation will be shared with the patient,* or not,* depending on the patient’s fear level and on the degree to which she or he is allergic to herself or himself.

* Fees apply.

HMO-NO The very final word in health care

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Figure 2. A spotted sandpiper. Drawing from Handbook of Birds of Eastern North America by Frank Michler Chapman, D. Appleton and Co., 1900.

Figure 1. Counties in which the spotted sandpiper has been spotted.

Spots Where the Spotted Were Spotted

by Stephen Drew, Improbable Research staff

Here are two maps of the state of Kansas. Each map is filled with spots.

In figure 1, each spot marks a county in which the spotted sandpiper has been spotted.

In figure 4, each spot marks a county in which the spotted towhee has been spotted.

Both maps were prepared by the Kansas County Checklist Project. Their work, they say, “is intended to reflect the current records of bird sightings on file, somewhere, for each county. It is hoped that birders will print out these lists, use them in their birdwatching trips and report bird sightings not on the list to the appropriate individuals/organizations.” Much of project’s data is available on the web at www.ksbirds.org/checklist/maps/County_records.htm.

Figure 3. A spotted towhee. Drawing: Nan Swift, Improbable Research staff.

Figure 4. Counties in which the spotted towhee has been spotted.

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The winners and other ceremony participants prepare to take a bow at the conclusion to the 2004 Ig Nobel Prize ceremony. Photo: Eric Workman / Improbable Research.

You Are Invited to the Ig

The 18th First Annual Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony
Thursday evening, October 2, 2008
Sanders Theatre, Harvard University

Tickets go on sale August 1 at the Harvard Box Office.

Webcast live The 2008 crop of Ig Nobel Prize winners will be revealed.
(And join them, too, for the Ig Informal Lectures, at MIT, on Saturday, October 4.)

Details at www.improbable.com/ig

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A northern short-tailed shrew (Blarina brevicauda). Drawing by Nan Swift, Improbable Research staff.

The Tasting of the Shrew

by Alice Shirrell Kaswell, Improbable Research staff

If you like shrews, especially if you like them parboiled, you’ll want to devour a study published not long ago in the Journal of Archaeological Science. Called “Human Digestive Effects on a Micromammalian Skeleton,” it explains how and why one of its authors—either Brian D. Crandall or Peter W. Stahl; we are not told which—ate and excreted a 90 millimeter long (excluding the tail, which added another 24 millimeters) northern short-tailed shrew (Blarina brevicauda).

This was, in technical terms, “a preliminary study of human digestive effects on a small insectivore skeleton,” with “a brief discussion of the results and their archaeological implications.”

Crandall and Stahl are anthropologists at the State University of New York in Binghamton. The shrew was a local specimen, procured via snap trapping at an unspecified location not far from the school.

Micrographs from the study, showing some of the bone fragments that survived passage through one of the authors.

For the experiment’s input, preparation was exacting. After being skinned and eviscerated, the report says, “the carcass was lightly boiled for approximately 2 minutes and swallowed without mastication in hind and forelimb, head, and body and tail portions.”

Here’s how Crandall and Stahl handled the output: “Faecal matter was collected for the following 3 days. Each faeces was stirred in a pan of warm water until completely disintegrated. This solution was then decanted through a quadruple-layered cheesecloth mesh. Sieved contents were rinsed with a dilute detergent solution and examined with a hand lens for bone remains.” They then examined the most interesting bits with a scanning electron microscope, at magnifications ranging from 10 to 1000 times.

A shrew has lots of bony parts. All of them entered Crandall’s gullet, or maybe Stahl’s, but despite extraordinary efforts to find and account for each bone at journey’s end, many went missing. One of the major jawbones disappeared. So did four of the 12 molar teeth, several of the major leg and foot bones, nearly all of the toe bones, and all but one of the 31 vertebrae. And the skull, reputedly a very hard chunk of bone, emerged with what the report calls “significant damage”.

The vanishing startled the scientists. They emphasize that this meal was simply gulped down: “The shrew was ingested without chewing; any damage occurred as the remains were processed internally. Mastication undoubtedly damages bone, but the effects of this process are perhaps repeated in the acidic, churning environment of the stomach.”

Chewing is clearly only part of the story. In each little heap of remains from ancient meals, there be mystery aplenty.

Detail from the study about which portions of the shrew were recovered after one of the authors ate and then excreted them.

Prior to this experiment, archaeologists had to, and did, make all kinds of assumptions about the animal bones they dug up—especially as to what those partial skeletons might indicate about the people who presumably consumed them. Crandall and Stall, through their disciplined lack of mastication, have given their colleagues something hard to chew over.

Reference

“Human Digestive Effects on a Micromammalian Skeleton,” Brian D. Crandall and Peter W. Stahl, Journal of Archaeological Science, vol. 22, 1995, pp. 789–97. (Thanks to Michael L. Begeman for bringing this to our attention.)

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PubMed Goes to the Movies!

Why see the film when you can read the article?
by Robert E. Pyatt Ph.D.
Assistant Laboratory Director
Nationwide Children’s Hospital
Columbus, Ohio

This is a comparison of classic films and science articles that share the same name.

The movie facts come from the Internet Movie Database (www.IMDB.com). Information about the science articles comes from the U.S. National Library of Medicine’s PubMed database (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/).

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly (1966)

Starring Clint Eastwood, Eli Wallach, and Lee Van Cleef. Directed by Sergio Leone.

Spaghetti Western set against the backdrop of the Civil War where 3 men, the good (Eastwood), the bad (Van Cleef), and the ugly (Wallach), race to uncover a hidden stash of Confederate gold.

 

“The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly (with Apologies to Sergio Leone)”

M.V. Connelly, Facial Plastic Surgery Clinics of North America, vol. 16, no. 2, May 2008 pp. 179–82.

Tales of a plastic surgery practice set in a small city including the good (well informed patients who follow all pre and post-op instructions and are “thoroughly pleased with the postoperative results”), the bad (patients who “bring you grief and perhaps damage your reputation”), and the ugly (“disparaging remarks from another surgeon in your area”).

 

A Night at the Opera

A Night at the Opera (1935)

Starring the Marx Brothers and Kitty Carlisle. Directed by Sam Wood.

The Marx Brothers take on high society as the boys help two opera singers find fame and true love.

 

“A Night at the Opera”

[no author listed] Mental Health Today,October 2005, pp. 10-1. Touching and comedic tale of “Streetwise Opera,” a company which designs, stages, and performs operas with a combination of professional performers and homeless people.

Bambi Meets Godzilla

Bambi Meets Godzilla (1969)

Written and directed by Marv Newland.

Animated short featuring the first silver screen pairing of two of Hollywood’s most memorable creatures with the expected tragic consequences.

 

“Psychotherapy Research Evidence and Reimbursement Decisions: Bambi Meets Godzilla”

M.B. Parloff, American Journal of Psychiatry, vol. 139, no. 6, June 1986, pp.718–27.

Like a tender doe standing in a sunny forest glen, “policy guiding reimbursement issues for mental health care” faces off against the gargantuan “research evidence of psychotherapy outcome”. Eerily similar ending to its big screen counterpart.

Saturday Night Fever

Saturday Night Fever (1977)

Starring John Travolta and Karen Lynn Gorney. Directed by John Badham.

“The tribal rites of the new Saturday night.” Two New Yorkers, Tony (Travolta) and Stephanie (Gorney), discover passion, maturity, and themselves as they disco dance across Manhattan.

 

“Saturday Night Fever: A Common Source Outbreak of Rubella Among Adults in Hawaii”

J.S. Marks, M.K. Serdula, N.A. Halsey, M.V. Gunaratne, R.B. Craven, K.A. Murphy, G.Y. Kobayashi and N.H. Wiebenga, American Journal of Epidemiology, vol. 114,
no. 4, October 1981, pp. 574–83.

It’s a whole other kind of fever on this Saturday night as a rubella outbreak infects young adults, with the common place of exposure being a discotheque. Evidence suggests that the virus source was a piano player/singer at the club and that transmission was airborne, rather than person to person, and occurred during his singing.

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Medical End Notes

Fun bits from doctors’ obituaries
by Caroline Richmond,
medical obituarist, London, U.K.
drawings by Nan Swift,
Improbable Research staff

Peter Robson

I doubt I will ever see another obit as outspoken as this:

Consultant obstetrician and gynaecologist South Tyneside Hospital 1992-2000 (b Rushden, Northamptonshire, 1946; q Newcastle upon Tyne 1975; MRCOG), d 28 April 2001....

Most people who knew Peter described him as hotheaded and ruthless. They were not far wrong. He always spoke his mind; furthermore, he did it first and he did it loudly. He leaves a wife, Sharon, and three children.

[From the obituary by Dr. Raj Naik and Sharon Robson, published in BMJ, vol. 323, 2001, p. 811.]

Gunther Stent

Also of note is Dr. Gunther Stent, described as “an early researcher in molecular biology.” He changed his name from Stensch, and who can blame him?

[Dr. Stent’s obituary appeared in The New York Times, June 16, 2008.]

Oscar Ratnoff

Oscar Ratnoff, who identified clotting factor 12 and unraveled the sequence of reactions that take place when blood clots, was a prolific punster. He wrote thus to the editor of a learned journal:

“Dear Sir, I read with pleasure Scott F Gilbert’s paean to punning in the autumn issue of Perspectives in Biology and Medicine (vol. 28, p. 148). But, alas, one of his examples was misspoken. The reluctant person who would not join the surfers really said, ‘He also surfs who only stands and wades.’”

[Quoted in an obituary in Transactions of the Association of American Physicians, vol. 101, 1988, pp. cxxxiv-cliv.]

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Boys Will Be Boys

Research by and for adolescent males of all ages and sexes
compiled by Katherine Lee, Improbable Research staff

Who Looks Where How Often

“Gender Differences for Specific Body Regions When Looking at Men and Women,” Johannes Hewig, Ralf H. Trippe, Holger Hecht, Thomas Straube and Wolfgang H.R. Miltner, Journal of Nonverbal Behavior, vol. 32, no. 2, June 2008, pp. 67–78, DOI:10.1007/s10919-007-0043-5. 
 (Thanks to Nicole Bordes for bringing this to our attention.) The authors, at Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena, Germany, report:

A snippet from the study “Gender Differences for Specific Body Regions When Looking at Men and Women.”

The goal of the present study was to provide first evidence for gender differences in gaze patterns while looking at the body of men and women. For this purpose participants were exposed to 30 pictures of 15 male and 15 female models in casual clothing. The individual scan paths were recorded using an eye-tracker. The results show that both male and female observers primarily gaze at people’s face. Only after this initial face-scan, men look significantly earlier and longer at women’s breasts, while women look earlier at men’s legs. These observations uncover important aspects of the pattern of the human gaze at others and particularly reveal important gender differences.

Better Never Than Late

“An Extreme Case of Necrophilia,” E. Ehrlich, M.A. Rothschild, F. Pluisch and V. Schneider, Legal Medicine, vol. 2, no. 4, December 2000, pp. 224–6. (Thanks to D.V. Klimpt for bringing this to our attention.) The authors, at Freie Universität Berlin, Germany, explain:

This report presents the case of a young man legally convicted twice on a charge of defiling the dead. All necrophilic acts were committed over a period of around 15 years.... In three cases, the perpetrator skinned the trunk of the corpses, placed the skin on his naked body and stimulated himself sexually. In several cases, he also used burial clothes that he had removed from the coffins and kept at home.

Octoberfest Surprise

A snippet from the study “Intestinal Obstruction After Ingestion of a Beer-Filled Condom at the Munich Octoberfest.”

“Intestinal Obstruction After Ingestion of a Beer-Filled Condom at the Munich Octoberfest,” Stephan J. Ott, Thomas Helmberger and Ulrich Beuers, American Journal of Gastroenterology, vol. 98, no. 2, February 2003, pp.512–3. (Thanks to Hein Wass for bringing this to our attention.)

Girls Will Beguile Girls

“Social Chemosignals from Breastfeeding Women Increase Sexual Motivation,” Natasha A. Spencer, Martha K. McClintock, Sarah A. Sellergren, Susan Bullivant, Suma Jacob and Julie A. Mennella, Hormones and Behavior, vol. 46, no. 3, September 2004, pp. 362–70. The authors, variously at The University of Chicago, Chicago and at Monell Chemical Senses Center in Philadelphia, report:

There is no extant evidence that humans produce social chemosignals that affect human sexual motivation or reproductive behavior as occurs in other mammals. Here, we demonstrate that natural compounds collected from lactating women and their breastfeeding infants increased the sexual motivation of other women, measured as sexual desire and fantasies. Moreover, the manifestation of increased sexual motivation was different in women with a regular sexual partner. Those with a partner experienced enhanced sexual desire, whereas those without one had more sexual fantasies.

Word of the Day: Klismaphilia

“Klismaphilia—A Physiological Perspective,” Jeremy Agnew, American Journal of Psychotherapy, vol. 36, no. 4, October 1982, pp. 554–66.

Dr. Joanne Denko coined the work [sic] klismaphilia to describe the practices of some of her patients who enjoyed the use of enemas as a sexual stimulant. Since then questions occasionally appear in the professional literature asking about the relationship between enemas and sexual pleasure. This paper considers some of the physiological aspects... The paper concludes with a brief discussion of masked anal masturbation among the population at large. A comprehensive list of references from the literature is given to support these findings.

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Ig Nobel & Improbable Research BOOKS!

The world’s most untranslatable books have (some of them) been translated into CHINESE, GERMAN, ITALIAN, SPANISH, JAPANESE, DUTCH, POLISH, FRENCH, and other languages including, to some extent, the original ENGLISH.

The newest: “The Man Who Tried to Clone Himself.”

Get them in bookstores—or online via www.improbable.com or at other fine and even not-so-fine e-bookstores.

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Puzzling Solutions

Solution to Last Month’s Puzzler
by Emil Filterbag, Improbable Research staff

Simply sew the head back on.

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37 Therapists

by Jeremy Gorman
Moncton, New Brunswick, Canada
Drawings by Nan Swift, Improbable Research staff

One day when I was wondering just what was wrong with me,
I thought to ask some experts in what’s called psychology.

Beginning with the founders of the psychologic arts,
I went to Wundt and Titchener, who broke me into parts.

John Dewey proved more functional, and Peirce was quite pragmatic,
but Ebbinghaus’s learning curve was steep as stairs-to-attic.

I asked Will James, “How much to tell me what is best for me?”
He told me, “You must give yourself.” Wow. Quite the session fee.

John Watson soon got wind of this, and, not to be outdone,
said “Give to me a dozen kids.” I had not even one!

And so I went to Festinger, who told me my cognition
was dissonant, though Erikson did not take that position.

A crisis of identity was what he said I had.
And so I asked, “What therapy will make my mind less mad?”

Carl Rogers spoke. “Why, client-centered! Best thing ever tried!”
I then asked Perls. “Gestalt,” he said. “Gesundheit,” I replied.

Said Ernest Jones, “No, talk it out! That’s how to be relieved!”
Said Allport, “No, you just need love! Both given and received.”

It seemed that there was no consensus on just what was good,
and so I tracked down every damn psychologist I could.

 

Al Adler said I compensate by doing silly deeds.
Piaget and I then played with toys while Maslow ranked my needs.

Carl Jung said it’s my archetype that likes to play the fool.
Bandura made me play the bully. Pavlov made me drool.

Binet said my I.Q. explains how others have outfoxed me,
while Loftus showed me crashing cars, and B.F. Skinner boxed me.

I didn’t take too well to that, and pouted, kind of sooked, like.
Then Eysenck spilled his PEN, and Rorschach asked me what it looked like.

Joe Wolpe cured my phobia, and now I fear no snake.
Moniz said, “May I pick your brain?” “Okay,” I said. Mistake!

Though I was not lobotomized, I barely got away
to track down all the others, and to see what they would say.

 

McClelland said my high n-Ach is why I’m such a wonk.
Cattell then told me who I’d like, and Kinsey, who I’d bonk.

Ed Thorndike said we’re much like beasts that graze upon savannahs,
while Kohler made me pile some crates and gave me some bananas.

I learned of joy from Rollo May, and love from Erich Fromm.
I learned that Harlow’s terry cloth was really not my mom.

Zimbardo gave me charge of all the students in his cells.
With Milgram, though, I had to give the charge to someone else.

 

And so I find the question of what’s wrong is no less muddy.
The DSM, well, seems to be describing everybody.

So since I don’t know what to do from what I’ve learned so far,
I guess it’s back to Freud. Hey, I could use a good cigar.

Citations

Wundt: Outlines of Psychology, W.M. Wundt (C.H. Judd, trans.), Wilhelm Engelmann, 1897 Wundt/Outlines.

Titchener: “The Postulates of a Structural Psychology,” E.B. Titchener, Philosophical Review, vol. 7, 1898, pp. 449–65.

Dewey: “The New Psychology,” J. Dewey, Andover Review, vol. 2, 1884, pp. 278–89.

Peirce: “How to Make Our Ideas Clear,” C.S. Peirce, Popular Science Monthly, vol. 12, January 1878, pp. 286–302.

Ebbinghaus: Memory: A Contribution To Experimental Psychology, H. Ebbinghaus (H.A. Ruger and C.E. Bussenius, trans.), Teachers College Columbia University, 1913.

James: The Principles of Psychology, W. James, Harvard University Press, 1890.

Watson: Behaviourism, J.B. Watson, University of Chicago Press, 1930.

Festinger: A Theory of Cognitive Dissonance, L. Festinger, Stanford University Press, 1957.

Erikson: Identity: Youth and Crisis, E.H. Erikson, W.W. Norton, 1968.

Rogers: On Becoming a Person: A Therapist’s View of Psychotherapy, C.R. Rogers, Houghton, 1961.

Perls: Gestalt Therapy: Excitement and Growth in the Human Personality, F. Perls, R.F. Hefferline and P. Goodman, Delta Book, 1951.

Jones: Papers on Psycho-Analysis, E. Jones, Balliere Tindall & Cox, 1912.

Allport: The Nature Of Prejudice, G.W. Allport, Addison-Wesley, 1954.

Adler: The Neurotic Constitution: Outlines Of A Comparative Individualistic Psychology And Psychotherapy, A. Adler (Bernard Glueck, J.E. Lind, Trans.), Moffat
Yard & Co., 1916.

Piaget: The Construction of Reality in the Child, J. Piaget (M. Cook, Trans.), Basic Books, 1954.

Maslow: “A Theory of Human Motivation,” A.H. Maslow, Psychological Review, vol. 50, 1943, pp. 370–96.

Jung: Psychological Types, C. Jung (H.G. Bayes, Trans.), 1923.

Bandura: “Transmission of Aggressions Through Imitation of Aggressive Models”, A. Bandura, D. Ross and S.A. Ross, Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, vol. 63, no. 3, 1961, pp. 575–82.

Pavlov: Conditioned Reflexes: An Investigation of the Physiological Activity of the Cerebral Cortex, I.P. Pavlov (G.V. Anrep, trans.), Oxford University Press, 1927.

Binet: “New Methods for the Diagnosis of the Intellectual Level of Subnormals”, A. Binet (E.S. Kite, Trans.), The Development of Intelligence in Children, Publications of the Training School at Vineland, 1916 (originally published in L’Année Psychologique, vol. 12, 1905, pp. 191–244).

Loftus: “Reconstruction of Automobile Destruction: An Example of the Interaction between Language and Memory,” E.F. Loftus and J.C. Palmer, Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior, vol. 13, no. 5, 1974, pp. 585–9.

Skinner: Schedules of Reinforcement, C.B. Ferster and B.F. Skinner, Appleton-Century-Crofts, 1957.

Eysenck: Psychoticism as a Dimension of Personality, H.J. Eysenck and S.B.G. Eysenck, Hodder & Stoughton, 1976.

Rorschach: The Rorschach Technique: A Manual for a Projective Method of Personality Diagnosis, B. Klopfer, World Book Co., 1946.

Wolpe: The Practice of Behavior Therapy, J. Wolpe, Pergamon Press, 1969.

Moniz: “Biography of Egas Moniz,” Nobel Lectures, Physiology or Medicine 1942–1962, The Nobel Foundation, Elsevier Publishing Co., 1964.

McClelland: The Achieving Society, D.C. McClelland, Van Nostrand, 1961.

Cattell: The 16Pf: Personality in Depth, H.B. Cattell, Institute for Personality & Ability Testing, 1989.

Kinsey: Sexual Behavior in the Human Male, A.C. Kinsey, W.B. Pomeroy and C.E. Martin, W.B. Saunders Co., 1948.

Thorndike: “The Mental Life of the Monkeys,” E.L. Thorndike, Psychological Review, Monograph Supplements, no. 15, Macmillan, 1901.

Köhler: The Mentality of Apes, W. Köhler (Ella Winter, trans.), Harcourt Brace & Co., 1927.

May: The Courage to Create, R. May, W.W. Norton & Co., 1975.

Fromm: The Art of Loving, E. Fromm, Harper & Row, 1956.

Harlow: “Affectional Responses in the Infant Monkey,” H.F. Harlow and R.R. Zimmerman, Science, vol. 130, 1959, pp. 421–32.

Zimbardo: “Study of Prisoners and Guards in a Simulated Prison,” C. Haney, W.C. Banks and P.G. Zimbardo, Naval Research Reviews, vol. 9, 1973, pp. 1–17.

Milgram: “Behavioral Study of Obedience”, S. Milgram, Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, vol. 67, 1963, pp. 371–8.

DSM: Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders: DSM-IV-TR, American Psychiatric Association, 2000.

Freud: “More Than a Cigar,” E.J. Elkin, Cigar Aficionado, 1994.

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Soft Is Hard

Further evidence why the “soft” sciences are the hardest to do well
compiled by Alice Shirrell Kaswell and Bissell Mango, Improbable Research staff

Irony, Examined Without

“Effects of Humorous Distortions on Children’s Learning from Educational Television,” Dolf Zillmann, Jonathan L. Masland, James B. Weaver, Lloyd A. Lacey, Nancy E. Jacobs, Julianne H. Dow, Craig A. Klein and Stephen R. Banker, Journal of Educational Psychology, vol. 76, no. 5, October 1984, pp. 802–12. (Thanks to Nick Wills-Johnson for bringing this to our attention.) The author, at Indiana University, explains:

A table from the study “Effects of Humorous Distortions on Children’s Learning from Educational Television.”

Both irony and exaggeration were found to produce perceptual distortions of the associated educational information. Compared with distortion-free humor, irony resulted in underestimates and exaggeration resulted in overestimates of properties of novel objects that the program introduced. Correction after irony largely failed to remove the perceptual distortion resulting from irony.

Hand Behaviors of Women During Childbirth

“Hand Behaviors of Women During Childbirth,” J. VanMuiswinkel, Maternal-Child Nursing Journal, vol. 13, no. 4, Winter 1984, pp. 205–88. (Thanks to Paulette Caswell for bringing this to our attention.) The author explains:

An exploratory study was conducted to determine what could be inferred from the hand behaviors of women during childbirth.... Nine discrete hand actions were defined according to the inter-relationship of the posture, characteristic motion, and the mode of contact of the hand upon the object: grasping, pressing, rubbing, non-moving, gesticulating, holding, playing, palpating, and striking.... Findings related to the hand actions demonstrated a predominance of grasping (28%) and pressing (25%) actions.

Celebrity and Deviance

“Fame and Strain: The Contributions of Mertonian Deviance Theory to an Understanding of the Relationship Between Celebrity and Deviant Behavior,” P.F. Parnaby and V.F. Sacco, Deviant Behavior, vol. 25, 2004, pp. 1–26. The authors, who are respectively at McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada and at Queen’s University, Kingston, Ontario, explain:

This paper argues that Merton’s original means/goals gap theory can be used to understand the emerging relationship between deviant behavior and the acquisition of celebrity status. The intent is to illuminate how forms of deviant behavior have become adaptive responses to the structurally anomic conditions that have resulted from popular culture’s incessant emphasis on the desirability of fame and celebrity status, and the structurally limited means by which it can be legitimately achieved.

The Funny Side of Alcoholism

“Theory of Mind, Humour Processing and Executive Functioning in Alcoholism,” J. Uekermann, S. Channon, K. Winkel, P. Schlebusch and I. Daum, Addiction, vol. 102, no. 2, 2007, pp. 232–40. (Thanks to Peter Meisel for bringing this to our attention.)

Celebrity Burnout, Analyzed

“Durable Good Celebrities,” Todd D. Kendall, Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, vol. 66, 2008, pp. 312–21. (Thanks to Martin Gardiner for bringing this to our attention.) The author, at Clemson University, Clemson, South Carolina, explains:

A snippet from the study “Durable Good Celebrities.”

Celebrity musicians and other famous touring performers face problems similar to those of a durable good seller with market power, since the number of tickets sold (or expected to be sold) at a given time has intertemporal demand effects. I show that the durability of celebrity output leads to “excessively” long tours and that there is a strong incentive to take actions early in one’s career that will increase costs later in one’s career. These effects may help explain high rates of drug abuse and other anomalous self-destructive behavior observed among celebrities.

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Footnoted in Passing

Incisive info found in footnotes
compiled by Stephen Drew, Improbable Research staff

Early Digital Preservation in New Zealand

An elderly farmer from northern Taranaki described how sodium chlorate was used to shatter tree stumps—a major obstacle to cultivation in the region, which had been largely covered with rainforest prior to European settlement. Despite its cheapness in relation to gelignite, he had resisted using the unstable chlorate in this way. It could be too hard on the fingers, he remarked laconically.... In 1933 a quarryman lost two fingers while using chlorate as an explosive.

—footnote #3 in “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,” James Watson, Agricultural History, vol. 78, no. 3, Summer 2004, pp. 346–60. The study’s author won the 2003 Ig Nobel Prize in the field of Agricultural History.

Of the Reticence of Rats

The sixteenth-century French lawyer Bartholomew Chassannée made his name defending rats accused of eating grain. When the rats were summoned to appear in court but never showed up, he invoked the right exercised by human beings to refuse to obey a summons to a place where they are in danger. The rats could justifiably fear for their lives when were they to make the trip to court, since all along the way lurked cats wanting to pounce.

—footnote on page 92 of the book For the Love of Animals: The Rise of the Animal Protection Movement, Kathryn Shevelow, Henry Holt, 2008, ISBN 978-0-8050-8090-2.

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May We Recommend

Items that merit a trip to the library
compiled by Stephen Drew, Improbable Research staff

To Know Soap

“Analytical Methods Used for the Discrimination of Substances Suspected to be Bar Soap: A Preliminary Study,” Marlo Arredondo, Gerald M. LaPorte, Jeffrey D. Wilson, Tyra McConnell, Douglas K. Shaffer and Marianne Stam, Journal of Forensic Sciences, vol. 51, no. 6, November 2006, pp. 1334–43. (Thanks to Will Stefanov—the only man ever to be married as part of an Ig Nobel Prize ceremony—for bringing this to our attention.) The authors, who are variously affiliated with the United States Secret Service and with the California Department of Justice’s Riverside Criminalistics Laboratory, report:

A snippet from the soap study.

The submission to forensic laboratories of unknown specimens suspected of being biological or chemical warfare agents has increased tremendously with the threat of terrorism.... Two separate studies were conducted using different analytical protocols for bar soaps.
In the first set, the forensic laboratory at the United States Secret Service conducted tests on 68 bars of soap using solid-phase microextraction and gas chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry. The 68 different soaps displayed unique total ion chromatogram profiles. Energy-dispersive X-ray analysis in conjunction with scanning electron microscopy was also used to characterize 46 of the 68 soaps as a preliminary study. In a second set of studies, as part of a homicide investigation, the laboratory at the California Department of Justice, Riverside, conducted examinations on 13 bars of soap by utilizing Fourier transform-infrared spectroscopy. The case study demonstrated that it is possible to distinguish some bar soaps using infrared analysis.

We welcome your suggestions for this column. Please enclose the full citation (no abbreviations!) and, if possible, a copy of the paper.

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See it. Read it.
Graphic design for communication and business success

PROmote Communications

Geri Sullivan
PROmote@toad-hall.com
413.245.0325
fax 413.521.7597

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cartoon by Nick Kim

“Okay…is there anybody ELSE whose homework ate their dog?”

 

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Annals of Improbable Research

Co-founders
Marc Abrahams
Alexander Kohn

Editor
Marc Abrahams
marca@chem2.harvard.edu

Admin
Lisa Birk

European Bureau
Kees Moeliker, Bureau Chief
Natuurhistorisch Museum Rotterdam
improbable@nmr.nl

Steve Farrar, Edinburgh Desk Chief

Erwin J.O. Kompanje
Willem O. de Jongste

Commutative Editor
Stanley Eigen
Northeastern U.

Associative Editor
Mark Dionne

Dissociative Editor
Rose Fox

Contributing Editors
Otto Didact, Stephen Drew, Emil Filterbag, Karen Hopkin, Alice Kaswell, Nick Kim, Richard Lederer, Katherine Lee, Bissel Mango, Steve Nadis, Nan Swift, Tenzing Terwilliger, Marina Tsipis, Bertha Vanatian

VP, Human Resources
Robin Abrahams

Research Researchers
Kristine Danowski, Martin Gardiner, Jessica Girard, Tom Gill, Mary Kroner, Wendy Mattson, Srinivasan Rajagopalan, Tom Roberts, Naomi Uesaka,Tom Ulrich

General Factotum
Carrie Gallo

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Geri Sullivan/PROmote Communications
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Barbara Andersson

Circulation (Counter-clockwise)
James Mahoney

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Julia Lunetta

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Jesse Eppers

Technical Eminence Grise
Dave Feldman

Art Director emerita
Peaco Todd

Webmaster emerita
Amy Gorin

“When all other contingencies fail, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.”—Sherlock Holmes

“Science is the belief in the ignorance of experts.”—Richard Feynman

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Annals of Improbable Research Editorial Board

Anthropology
Jonathan Marks, U. North Carolina

Archaeology
Angela E. Close, U. Washington

Astrochemistry
Scott Sandford, NASA/Ames

Astronomy
Robert Kirshner, Harvard U.
Jay M. Pasachoff, Williams Coll.
Eric Schulman, Alexandria, Virginia
David Slavsky. Loyola U., Chicago

Biochemistry
Edwin Krebs*, U. Washington

Biology
Dany Adams, Forsyth Center
Lawrence Dill*******, Simon Fraser U.

Biomaterials
Alan S. Litsky, Ohio State U.

Biophysics
Leonard X. Finegold, Drexel U.

Biotechnology
A. Stephen Dahms, Alfred E. Mann Foundation

Bureaucracy
Miriam Bloom, SciWrite, Jackson, MS

Cardiology
Thomas Michel*****, Harvard Med. School

Chemistry
Dudley Herschbach*, Harvard U.
William Lipscomb*, Harvard U.

Computer Science
Dennis Frailey, Texas Instruments, Plano, TX
Robert T. Morris***, MIT
Margo Seltzer, Harvard U.

Economics
Ernst W. Stromsdorfer, Washington St. U.

Engineering
Dean Kamen, DEKA Research

Food Research
Massimo Marcone, U. of Guelph

Forensic Biology & Criminalistics
Mark Benecke, Int’l Forensic Res., Köln

Functional Biology & Morphology
Frank Fish, West Chester U.
Rebecca German, Johns Hopkins U.
Richard Wassersug*******, Dalhousie U.

Genetics
Michael Hengartner, U. of Zürich

Geology
John C. Holden, Omak, WA
John Splettstoesser, Waconia, MN

History of Science & Medicine
Tim Healey, Barnsley, England

Immunology
Falk Fish, Orgenics, Ltd., Yavne, Israel

Infectious Diseases
James Michel*****, Harvard U.

Intelligence
Marilyn Vos Savant**, New York, NY

Law
William J. Maloney, New York, NY
Ronald A. May, Little Rock, AR

Library & Info Sciences
Regina Reynolds, Library of Congress
George Valas, Budapest, Hungary
Norman D. Stevens, U. of Connecticut

Materials Science
Robert M. Rose, MIT

Mathematics
Lee Segel, Weizmann Inst.

Medical Ethics
Erwin J.O. Kompanje, Erasmus MC University, Rotterdam

Methodology
Rod Levine, National Insts of Health

Microbiology
Roland G. Vela, U. North Texas

Molecular Biology
Walter Gilbert*, Harvard U.
Richard Roberts*, New England Biolabs
Molecular Pharmacology
Lloyd Fricker, Einstein Coll. of Medicine

Neuroengineering
Jerome Lettvin, MIT

Neurology
Thomas D. Sabin, Tufts U.

Ornithology
Kees Moeliker*******, Natuurhistorisch Museum Rotterdam

Obstetrics & Gynecology
Pek van Andel*******, Medical Faculty Groningen, The Netherlands
Eberhard W. Lisse, Swakopmund State Hospital, Namibia

Orthopedic Surgery
Glenn R. Johnson, Bemidji, MN

Paleontology
Sally Shelton, South Dakota Museum of Geology
Earle Spamer, American Philosophical Society, Philadelphia, PA

Parasitology
Wendy Cooper, Australian Pest & Vet. Med. Auth.

Pediatrics
Ronald M. Mack, Bowman Gray School of Med.

Pharmacology
Stanton G. Kimmel, Normal, OK

Philosophy
George Englebretson, Bishop’s U., Quebec

Physics
Len Fisher*******, Bristol U., UK
Jerome Friedman*, MIT
Sheldon Glashow*, Boston U.
Karl Kruszelnicki*******, U. Sydney
Harry Lipkin, Weizmann Inst.
Douglas Osheroff*, Stanford U.
Frank Wilczek*, MIT

Political Science
Richard G. Neimi****, Rochester, NY

Psychiatry and Neurology
Robert Hoffman, Daly City, CA

Psychology
Louis G. Lippman, Western Wash. U.
G. Neil Martin, Middlesex U., UK
Chris McManus*******, University Coll. London
Neil J. Salkind, U. of Kansas

Pulmonary Medicine
Traian Mihaescu, Iasi, Romania

Radiology
David Rabin, Highland Park Hosp., IL

Science Policy
Al Teich, American Assn for the Advancement of Science

Stochastic Processes
(selected at random from amongst our subscribers)
Junkan Song, Arnhem, the Netherlands

Women's Health
Andrea Dunaif, Northwestern U.
JoAnn Manson, Brigham & Women's Hosp.

A Guide to the Stars
* Nobel Laureate
** world’s highest IQ
*** convicted felon
**** misspelled
***** sibling rivalry
****** six stars
******* Ig Nobel Winner

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What is this picture? (see page 1)

ISSN 1079-5146 print / 1935-6862 online
Volume 14, Number 4
July–August 2008

PERIODICALS
Annals of Improbable Research
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© 2008 Annals of Improbable Research

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617-491-4437 FAX: 617-661-0927 www.improbable.com air@improbable.com EDITORIAL: marca@chem2.harvard.edu

 

 

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