Annals of Improbable Research
JANUARY | FEBRUARY 2009 (volume 15, number 1)
Special Mummies, Zombies, & Bagels Issue
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Mummy Medicaments
Zombie Movie Statistics
New York Bagel Specs...
Contents
The features marked with a star (*) are based entirely on material taken straight from standard research (and other Official and Therefore Always Correct) literature. Many of the other articles are genuine, too, but we don’t know which ones.
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Special Section: Mummies, Zombies and Bagels
6 “What, Not How?”: The Case of Specifications of the New York Bagel*—11 Bagel Research Review*—13 Yummy Mummies for Good Health*—16 War and Social Upheaval Cause Spikes in Zombie Movie Production*—20 Zombies and Inverse Zombies*—
Improbable Research Reviews*
IFC May We Recommend*—4 Improbable Research Review*5 Improbable Medical Review*22 More Scientists Join Gangs*—24 Boys Will Be Boys*—26 Peer Review: Bits of Bat in the Sky*— 28 Soft Is Hard*—
News & Notes
2 AIR Vents (letters from our readers)
8 Improbable Research Editorial Board
15 Teachers’ Guide
27 Puzzling Solutions—
Coming Events
Ig Nobel Tour of the UK — March 6–15, 2009
SciFest Africa, Grahamstown, Eastern Cape, South Africa — March 25–26, 2009
Ig Nobel Tour of Denmark — April 23–25, 2009
Cambridge — May 2, 2009
Pittsburgh — May 4 & 6, 2009
(see WWW.IMPROBABLE.COM for details of these and other events)
May We Recommend
Items that merit a trip to the library
compiled by Stephen Drew, Improbable Research staff
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Glasses and Personality: A New View
“Myopia and Personality: The Genes in Myopia (GEM) Personality Study” Robert van de Berg, Mohamed Dirani, Christine Y. Chen, Nicholas Haslam, and Paul N. Baird, Investigative Ophthalmology and Visual Science, vol. 49, March 2008, pp. 882–6. (Thanks to Kristine Danowski for bringing this to our attention.) The authors report:
A long-held view among the medical and broader community is that people who are short-sighted (myopic persons) have distinctive personality characteristics such as introversion and conscientiousness. However, existing research on this question is flawed, and its findings are inconsistent. The authors therefore aimed to determine whether myopia and personality are associated. The authors examined twins recruited through the Australian Twin Registry and a clinical-based family sample through a proband from a Melbourne Excimer Laser Clinic....
The long-held view that myopic persons are introverted and conscientious may reflect intelligence-related stereotypes rather than real correlations.
AIR Vents
Exhalations from our readers
NOTE: The opinions expressed here represent the opinions of the authors and do not necessarily represent the opinions of those who hold other opinions.
Coca-Cola Contraceptive: Another View
Regarding Dr. Deborah Anderson and the other doctors who did the research that won the 2008 Ig Nobel prize in chemistry: I heard Dr. Anderson interviewed on the radio. She mentioned that one of many reasons people should not use Coca-Cola as a contraceptive is that that “misplaced bottle caps can cause serious medical problems.” Yikes. It made me realize that Coca-Cola doesn’t provide just a douche, they also give you a diaphragm. Which likely works about as well as the Coke douche.
Julia Robins
Menarchie, LA
More About the Suit Nut
I am outraged by your publication of D.R. Lange’s diatribe (AIR Vents 14:7) against my book “Sued By a Nut.” Lange says he is the subject not just of one of the stories in the book, but of all of them. As the book itself explains, I changed the names and circumstantial details in every story, for obvious reasons. Having been sued by a nut, I have no desire to be again sued by that nut or by any other. I make it an ironclad rule not to discuss the identity of the nuts in the book. Therefore I will not comment on Mr. Lange’s wild, untruthful, entirely-concocted, vile, illogical, irrational allegations nor will I in any other way address the ridiculous assertion that he is the nut or a nut in my book.
L.I. Balaboramin
Eastwont, NY
A Man of His Words
There was a typographical error in the sixth paragraph, ninth word in your version of my informative letter (AIR Vents 14:7) about the book “Sued By a Nut.” Please correct it or I shall be forced to take action that is appropriate.
D.R. Lange
Porphyry, Wales
Of Shrews
Thank you for publishing the article “The Tasting of the Shrew” (AIR 14:5). We who love shrews salute you.
G. Mortenson Acloque, N. Benson-Framm, and T. Drake
Milt, UK
Mouthblown in China, Further Considered
When I wrote my letter (AIR Vents 14:6) about finding another example of glassware produced in China and marked “Mouthblown in China.” I was sorry I had not included it as part of my study (“Mouthblown in China,” AIR 13:7). In the letter and in the study, I discussed how such objects are ambiguous in their meaning insofar as having the phrase “Mouthblown in China” stamped on them. I have made further investigation into the intended use of the objects, andas to whether they are (a) sacred or (b) strikingly profane. The investigations have led to certain adventures that are both scientific and personal, and, may I say, exhilarating. If I were to write them up, would you be willing to consider them for publication?
Sarah Junovsky
Research Analyst
Kyoto History of Science and Society Society
Kyoto, Japan
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Maybe Mel, Pointedly
The famous Mel misidentification problem rears its head again. Thank you for publishing my letter (AIR Vents 14:6) and reproducing one of our new photographic treasures. The arrow stamped on the original image, which I implied might be pointing to Mel, in fact is not. If, as we believe, Mel is in the crowd visible in the photograph, he is more likely to be at the position indicated in this corrected (by hand, by my assistant Vasillia) here. You may publish this revised version, please.
Lheal Chormnast
TRPNOF Archives
Moldavia
Maybe Mel, Echoed
I report something strange. Like Lheal Chormnast of the TRPNOF Archives in Moldavia (AIR Vents 14:6), our museum also recently did purchase a large quantity of photographs at auction that included several boxes marked “Mel.” And like the Moldavians we have no information other than was in the very boxes. Our guess is that: Yes! They do probably pertain to the Mel who so often appears, or appears to appear, in your letters column. We would be grateful for any clarifying information anyone (except the Moldavians) could provide. Our charter prevents us from making direct contact with the Moldavians, a fact that saddens us.
Flenn Gresch, D.T.rW.
Drebner Museum of History
Blarverton, Wronsk
More About Solvay’s Head
I am writing on behalf of all the members of the Solvay Conference of 1911 Appreciators Club. We have just finished our annual gathering in the Metropole Hotel in Brussels, site of that historic conference. We find the photograph of Solvay’s head, defaced as it is and ever the subject of speculation as to whether the head and/or the body are indeed Solvay’s, to be historically distressing. Gimpelson’s rash letter (AIR Vents 14:6) suggesting you Photoshop the head is more disturbing than you can probably imagine unless you are an historian who specializes in the period.
Normand Vresse
Bruxelles, Belgium
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Isaac Newton Stamp, Stamp, Stamp, Stamp
Are you aware that the following countries/entities have issued stamps honoring Isaac Newton for his many achievements? Ajman, Ascension Islands, Benin , Britain, Bulgaria, Burundi, Central African Republic, Guinea, Chad, Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea (North Korea), Djibouti Dubai, France, Germany, Ghana, Grenada, Guinea, Hungary, Laos, Malawi Maldive Islands, Mali, Mongolia, Mozambique, Nevis, Nicaragua, Niger Paraguay, People’s Republic of the Congo, Poland, Redonda, Republic of the Congo, San Marino, Sierra Leone, Soviet Union, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Togo, Uganda, Uruguay, Viet Nam, Yemen. Here is my favorite, from the Congo. I don’t know what achievement this one honors.
Simon Montoya Testile
Collections Director
Philatelist Society of South America
Chiclayo, Peru
Improbable Research Review
Improbable theories, experiments, and conclusions
compiled by Dirk Manley, Improbable Research staff
Physics of Flying Tigers
“Tiger Tales: A Critical Examination of the Tiger’s Enclosure at the San Francisco Zoo,” Erica Walker and Raza M. Syed, arXiv:0801.4407, 2008. The authors, who are respectively at Boston Architectural College and at Northeastern University, Boston, Massachusetts, explain:
Given the recent tragedy involving a 350 pound Siberian Tiger and the death of teenager Carlos Souza Jr., one must ask a fundamental question: Can a tiger overcome an obstacle that is thirty-three feet away and twelve and a half feet tall? Are these dimensions sufficient enough to protect the zoo-visitors from a potential escape and/or attack? To answer these questions we use simple two-dimensional projectile motion to find the minimum velocity a tiger needs in order to clear the obstacle. With our results we conclude that it is highly likely that the tiger was able to leap over the obstacle with ease!
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| Technical drawing from Edwin M. Wayland’s 1953 fruit-grading device patent. |
Physics of Spinning Apples (1953)
“Fruit Grading Device,” U.S. patent 2630222, issued March 3, 1953 to Edwin M. Wayland of Coversville Virginia. The document includes this passage:
There is some tendency of the fruit to pile up at the entrance end of the trough. Such piling up, particularly when the machine is being heavily fed, is apt to jam two or three apples together so that they cannot spin, with the result that certain apples, particularly in the case of relatively flat apples short in their axial dimensions, travel down the trough riding flat against the spinner-belt. Under such circumstances, the non-spinning apples tend to travel at a rate approaching that of the spinner-belt and to collide with spinning fruit, and knock down such spinning fruit...
Physics of Spinning Apples (2008)
“Theoretical Analysis of Stability of Axially Symmetric Rotating Objects with Regard to Orienting Apples,” P. Narayanan, A.M. Lefcourt, U. Tasch, R. Rostamian, A. Grinblat, and M.S. Kim, Transactions of the ASABE, vol. 51, no. 4, 2008, pp. 1353–64. (Thanks to Adrian Smith for bringing this to our attention.) The authors report:
This study introduces the novel use of action integrals to examine stability, and the results provide testable predictions that round apples as compared to elongated or squat apples and larger elongated apples will need to travel farther before orientation is favored.
Improbable Medical Review
Improbable diagnoses, techniques, and research
compiled by Bertha Vanatian, Improbable Research staff
Plastic Surgeons (1): Bear?
“The Culprit: Grizzly Bear or Plastic Surgeon?”, T.G. Evans and S.J. Burgert, Clinical Infectious Diseases, vol. 17, no. 6, December 1993, pp. 1067–8.
Acne or Apnea
“Dermatology as She Is Spoke: Sleep Acne,” Hobart W. Walling, Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology, vol. 58, no. 6, June 2008, p. 1050. The author reports:
After completing a routine skin check on a gentleman in his 60s, I asked if there was anything else I could do for him. He paused a moment and said, “What do you know about sleep acne?” I replied that I was unfamiliar with that particular variant of acne. “My lung doctor says I got it, wants me to wear a breathing mask at night. I haven’t had any problems with acne since I was a teenager.” I suggested that he let me know if he had any inflammatory papules arise where the CPAP mask contacted his skin.
Plastic Surgeons (2): Napoleon on Patients’ Personalities
“The Presentation of Personalities in Plastic Surgery,” Anthony Napoleon, Annals of Plastic Surgery, vol. 31, no. 3, 1993, pp. 193–208. The author explains:
This research was of 133 plastic surgery patients over a 1.5-year period.... Patients were categorized according to their similarity to the personality disorder descriptions found within the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders... This research identified those personality types most likely to be dissatisfied, along with those personalities who tended to withhold their approval of an excellent surgical result.
Tenderizing the Phytobezoar
“Resolution of a Phytobezoar with Aldoph’s Meat Tenderizer,” Erica L. Baker, William L. Baker, and David J. Cloney, Pharmacotherapy, vol. 27, no. 2, February 1, 2007, pp. 299–302. (Thanks to Kristine Danowski for bringing this to our attention.) The authors, at Hartford Hospital in Hartford, Connecticut, report:
A 58-year-old man went to his physician with complaints of midepigastric pain, flatulence, belching, and shortness of breath. During a physical examination, the patient was in no acute distress. The patient underwent an ultrasound examination, which revealed cholelithiasis, a laparoscopic cholecystectomy, which revealed chronic gallbladder disease, and esophagogastroduodenoscopy, which revealed gastritis, a hiatal hernia, and a phytobezoar. To treat the bezoar, the patient was given Adolph’s Meat Tenderizer 1 teaspoonful in 8 oz of water before each meal for 7 days.... Although a few other agents are used to treat phytobezoars, little clinical data exist on their safety and effectiveness. Adolph’s Meat Tenderizer appears to be a safe and effective treatment for patients with a phytobezoar.
We welcome your suggestions for this and other columns. Please enclose the full citation (no abbreviations!) and, if possible, a copy of the paper.
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| Figure 3. Detail 1A-A from blueprint in Figure 2. |
“What, Not How”: The Case of Specifications of the New York Bagel
In software engineering, we are told that a software requirements specification should specify what the desired software should do, not how the software should do it. This is often summarized as “What, not how.” This paper explores the validity of the advice to specify “What, not how” for requirements, including quality requirements. In the domain of the New York bagel, it may be necessary to explain how in order to make the what precise enough.
In general, there are two ways to specify any system, software or otherwise:
1. a “what” specification describing what the system does, or
2. a “how” specification describing how the system does what it does.
A system may also be described by tests that are satisfied by the desired system.
A “what” specification and a test share the property that each leaves the question of how to implement the system up to the implementer. The freedom accorded to the implementer allows him or her to find the best technology to achieve the desired “what” or testing success.
Note that there can be no test specification for any but the most trivial systems, because no finite set of test cases can thoroughly test a non-trivial system for compliance to its requirements. Edsger Dijkstra once said, “Program testing can be used to show the presence of bugs, but never to show their absence!”1
While the “what, not how” mantra seems clear enough, in practice it may be very difficult to separate the hows from the whats. Indeed, for some requirements, it may be impossible to specify “what” without saying something about “how.” There are also requirements, usually called quality requirements, for which the “what” specification is simply not very useful, e.g., “The output shall look good,” “The user interface shall be easy to use,” or “The response time shall be fast.” In some of these cases, the only way to make the requirement precise enough to be tested is to say something about how it will be met.
A prime example of a product requiring a detailed “how” specification is none other than the New York bagel, examples of which are shown in figure 1.2
New York Bagels
How many readers have ever really had one? A New York bagel, such as what you get at Zabar’s, H&H, or Rise & Shine, is not just a baked good with a hole in it, despite the widespread proliferation of places that make a bread with a hole and call it a bagel in order to profit from the current bagelmania.3 A donut is another baked good with a hole in it, and we all know that a bagel and donut have little in common except the hole; indeed, a bagel and a donut have literally nothing in common.4
“What” Specification of a Bagel
A “what” specification of any object consists of a textual description of the object, often accompanied by diagrams. If, unlike software, the object has physical dimensions, the diagrams may include what are commonly called blueprints.
A bagel is a baked good in the approximate shape of a symmetric, regular torus. The torus has approximately a 4 inch (≈ 10 cm) outer diameter, a 1 inch (≈ 2.5 cm) inner diameter, and a 1.5 inch (≈ 3.8 cm) ring diameter. The interior of the bagel has air holes. Most of the outside surface of the bagel is a golden brown crust that is approximately .0625 inch (≈ 1.6 mm) thick. The part of the outside surface that comes in contact with the baking surface is dark brown and pockmarked.
Figure 2 shows a blueprint5 formed out of 5 photographs of various views of genuine New York bagels. Considering a bagel as it lies flat on a plate viewed from above the plate, the plan view is in the upper left-hand corner of the blueprint, and the elevation view is in the upper right-hand corner of the blueprint. The Line A-A in the plan view defines Section A-A shown in the lower left-hand corner of the blueprint, and the Line B-B in the elevation view defines Section B-B shown in the lower right-hand corner of the blueprint. The middle left-hand side of the blueprint shows Detail 1A-A, a blowup of the part of Section A-A that is delimited by a dashed-line rectangle in the section’s left-hand side.
A donut satisfies the physical dimensions given in the blueprint, but a donut is not a bagel. To distinguish a New York bagel from any other baked good with a hole, Detail 1A-A of the blueprint, shown in Figure 3, has specifications of the elasticity of the surface and the moisture content of the interior. The surface should withstand 45 pounds per square inch (≈3.17 kg per square cm), and the interior should have 20 to 25 percent moisture content. The surface elasticity and inner moisture content specifications together specify the chewiness of a New York bagel. A donut does not satisfy this chewiness specification. A piece of ordinary bread shaped into a ring of the right size also does not satisfy this chewiness specification.
Is this chewiness an essential, functional requirement of a New York bagel? Some think so, because without the chewiness, the baked good with a hole
in it is not a New York bagel. It is a bread with a hole, a donut, or perhaps another kind of bagel entirely, such as the Montréal bagel.
“How” Specification of a Bagel
A “how” specification of a bagel is a recipe for making bagels:
1. Use high-gluten flour dough that has risen.
2. Make a ring with outer diameter 4 inches (≈ 10 cm) and inner diameter 1 inch (≈ 2.5 cm) and with a cross section of 1.5 inches (≈ 3.8 cm) in diameter.
3. Put the ring into boiling water for 30 seconds.6
4. Bake the ring on a corn-meal covered surface in a 400°F (≈ 200°C) oven until golden brown, usually for about 10 minutes.
The step that is left out or changed by the making of most poor imitations of New York bagels and of other kinds of bagels is Step 3.
This “how” specification, a recipe, is clearly an algorithm.7
Testing Properties of a Bagel
A test gives one way to determine whether a candidate system has the tested property. A standard test for New York bagelhood is that a proper genuine New York bagel can be used by a baby for teething for at least 10 minutes without disintegrating into a ball of mush.8 A donut clearly fails this test. In fact, all baked goods with holes that fail to meet the surface yield and interior moisture content specification fail this test. All the so-called bagels, including the steamed ones, described below, made without boiling fail this test.
Another test is that chewing a genuine New York bagel burns almost as many calories as are ingested by eating the bagel, particularly if the bagel is taken from someone else’s plate.8
Still another test is that only a genuine New York bagel stands up to and does not get squished by the Bagel Biter™ bagel cutting guillotine depicted in Figure 4. A steamed bagel gets crushed into a wad before the blade begins to cut.
Still another test is that if you bite down on a sandwich made with a genuine New York bagel, the filling squishes out. With a steamed bagel, the sandwich filling does not squish out; thus, a steamed bagel makes a great bun.
As mentioned, a test is similar to a “what” specification in the sense that it allows any implementation that achieves the test. Therefore, from here on, this paper compares only “what” and “how” specifications.
What, Not How
As mentioned above, a “what” specification is normally preferred to a “how” specification because the “what” specification says only what is desired and allows the implementer the freedom to achieve the requirements in any way he or she can. It spurs competition to find more efficient ways to achieve what is specified than originally conceived.
Some of the companies that fail to make genuine New York bagels do so because they have decided to make different kind of bagels. These companies include the makers of Montréal bagels, a different kind of bagel with its own fans.
Others that fail to make genuine New York bagels do so because they have decided that the high-gluten flour and the boiling are unnecessary. These bakers do not get the proper surface yield or interior moisture content. They make bread with a hole. Many supermarket-made bagels are in this category.
Some who do use high-gluten flour, e.g. McDonald’s, have tried steaming in place of boiling. It almost works, but the surface yield is not high enough and the interior moisture content is too high. These steamed so-called bagels are clearly examples of trying to find a cheaper way to achieve the “what” specification than can be done by following the standard “how” method, or recipe. However, to date no recipe other than the standard recipe has succeeded in achieving the desired “what” specification. Saekel et al. 199510 quote Gary Goldstein, co-owner of the Bay Area’s Holey Bagel, as insisting, “Steaming is for dry cleaning, not bagels.” Even on the other side of the globe, the slogan of the Bagel House in Sydney, NSW, Australia, says it all: “If it’s not boiled, it’s not a bagel.”
Others who boil their bagels before baking still fail to achieve the required chewiness because their flour does not have enough gluten. While the resulting bagels have the required surface strength, the interior is noticeably less moist. Thus, the chewiness is limited to the initial, surface-piercing bite, and does not extend to the interior. This author believes that most of the bagel houses in Israel make this kind of low-gluten bagels. Note that gluten cannot be eliminated entirely, because without some gluten, a ring of dough would simply disintegrate during its boiling.11
Finally, there are at least two companies whose bagels taste to this author like they have been steamed, namely Tim Hortons’s and Noah’s Bagels. A search for reviews confirms that others have come to the same conclusion regarding Noah’s Bagels’s bagels.12,13,14 Nevertheless, e-mail from an official of each company says that the company’s bagels are boiled.11,15 Further investigation shows that Tim Hortons practices par-baking. At a central factory, high-gluten flour rings are boiled, baked to 85–90% of completion, and then frozen for delivery to individual stores. Each store then finishes off the baking locally. These bagels do have a freshly baked aroma, flavor, and feel, but they taste to this author like steamed bagels, with too soft a surface and too moist an interior. Perhaps the time lag between the two baking steps, during which the bagels are sent frozen from the central factory to the stores, accounts for the surface tension decrease and the interior moisture increase from those characteristic of boiled bagels to those characteristic of steamed bagels.
Thus, a bagel is an example of a project for which a “how” specification may be better than a “what” specification. A “how” specification is certainly simpler in the sense that it is easier to tell what needs to be done. In opting for this “how” specification, one is discouraging innovation. However, in the case of the New York bagel, perhaps innovation should be discouraged.
Could an expert baker deduce from the blueprint or an actual bagel that using high-gluten flour and boiling before baking is necessary? That is, can a domain expert deduce what is not explicit in a “what” specification so that it is not necessary to give “how” information? The answer to this question is probably “yes.” This author is a sufficiently expert eater that he can tell from feeling or biting on a candidate bagel whether it has been boiled, and can tell by chewing it whether it has enough gluten. Moreover, he can tell when another kind of bread, e.g., the German Laugenbrot or Pletzl, has a lot of gluten and has been boiled before baking. Additionally, it is hard to imagine a baking expert who has not learned about the use of gluten and boiling before baking as a technique for achieving certain effects, namely those exhibited by New York bagels. More generally, the recipient of a specification must be considered when deciding what to leave implicit.
An algorithmic description is the clearest, simplest specification for a New York bagel. While it does prescribe how to make it, in principle anything that tastes and feels the same will be accepted as a bagel. Unfortunately for those who wish to optimize on the time to produce a bagel and to eliminate the need for high-gluten flour, for a boiling vat, or both, all other ways tried so far have yet to produce exactly the desired taste and feel.
Conclusion
This paper has considered one situation in which design and implementation details are necessary to resolve issues that should be resolved during specification. Space does not permit the exploration of other examples such as text formatters; robust, safe, secure, and survivable systems; and varying telephonic systems. The conclusion after consideration of these examples is that sometimes, a “how” specification is significantly more clear or brief than a “what” specification, and that sometimes, a “how” specification is needed for information that is not available in a “what” specification. Also, sometimes, a “how” specification is needed to make a quality requirement precise enough to be tested. Therefore, when it is appropriate to use a “how” specification, do so without guilt and in good health.
Acknowledgments
I thank Martin Feather for pointing out that the Bruegger’s Bagel Bakery blueprint on my T-shirt, on which the blueprint of Figure 2 is based, constituted a “what” specification of bagels and that sometimes a “how” specification is better. I thank Michael Jackson for an interesting e-mail discussion on “what” vs. “how.” I thank Brian Burechails and Reneé deHerrera-Brooks for teaching me some things about bagel making. I thank Vic DiCiccio for the mouth-watering photograph of the bagels. Finally, I thank Jo Atlee, Gunnar Begersen, Brian Berenbach, Nancy Day, Merlin Dorfman, Martin Feather, Mike Godfrey, and Leah Goldin for valuable comments on earlier drafts of this paper or during lecture presentations of the material in this paper.
References and notes
1 “Notes on Structured Programming,” E.W. Dijkstra, in Structured Programming, O.-J. Dahl, E. W. Dijkstra, and C. A. R. Hoare, eds., Academic Press, London, 1972, ISBN 0122005503.
2 The subject bagels of the photograph of Figure 1 were so mouth-watering that the author and the photographer ended up eating the subjects immediately after the photograph was taken.
3 Bagelmania: The Hole Story, C. Berman and S. Munshower, HP Books, Tucson, 1987, ISBN 0895866242.
4 When the Israeli branches of Dunkin Donuts began to sell bagels as well as their traditional donuts, the author remarked that Dunkin Donuts was diversifying into other holey products in the Holy Land, even though its business was not wholly holey products.
5 This blueprint is modeled after a document entitled “Building a Better Bagel,” produced by Bruegger’s Bagel Bakery and, until a few years ago, used in their promotional activities. Breugger’s Enterprises, Inc. declined a request for permission to publish a copy of that blueprint in this scholarly article.
6 The duration may have to be altered if atmospheric pressure differs substantially from that at sea level. In Denver, Colorado, USA, which is a mile (≈ 1.6 km) high, the ring must be boiled for 90 seconds.
7 There are a (w)hole host of details ignored in one or both of these specifications:
a) boiling time as a function of the altitude of the place of baking,
b) possible toppings, e.g., garlic, onion, poppy seed, salt, and sesame seed, and when and how to apply them, and
c) emotional issues9; after all, this paper does get a bit emotional about how a bagel is made.
8 Not really!
9 “Is Emotion Relevant to Requirements Engineering?” I. Ramos and D. M. Berry, Requirements Engineering Journal, vol. 10, no. 3, 2005, pp. 238–242.
10 “What’s New,” K. Saekel, M. Cianci, and M. A. Mariner, San Francisco Chronicle, April 19, 1995, http://www.sfgate.info/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/1995/04/19/FD52141.DTL.
11 R. deHerrera-Brooks, Einstein Noah Restaurant Group, Inc., private communication by e-mail, August 2008.
12 “Noah’s Bagels — Redwood City, CA,” Yelp.com, http://www.yelp.com/biz/noahs-bagels-redwood-city.
13 “Restaurant Review: Bagels: blurring the line between tradition and innovation,” M. C. Peterson, Palo Alto Online, May 23, 1997, http://www.paloaltoonline.com/weekly/morgue/restaurants/1997_May_23.EATOUT23.html.
14 “Noah’s Bagels”, Davis Wiki, http://daviswiki.org/Noah%27s_Bagels.
15 A. Ziemski, Tim Hortons (TDL Group Corp.), private communication by e-mail, August 2008.
Bagel Research Review
Research studies about or on bagels
by Stephen Drew, Improbable Research staff
The Philosopher’s Bagel Question
“How Many New Yorkers Need to Like Bagels Before You Can Say ‘New Yorkers Like Bagels?’ Understanding Collective Ascription,” Todd Jones, Philosophical Forum, vol. 36, no. 3, Fall 2005, pp. 279–306, DOI:10.1111/j.1467-9191.2005.00204.x. The author, at University of Nevada at Las Vegas, explains:
Using this phrase tells people that it is the case that large numbers of New York City dwellers eat bagels regularly. The context of the conversation often lets a listener know that the speaker is telling her which group compared to others, we’ll find large numbers of Y-doers in. Now this context doesn’t explain what the percentage of Y-doers in this X group is. So such a phrase does run some risk of misleading listeners, if it is interpreted as meaning that most New Yorkers eat lots of bagels. To avoid potential misleadingness a speaker could say “New Yorkers eat a higher percentage of bagels than people in other cities—though it’s not clear that people who eat a lot of bagels are really a majority in New York.” But it is difficult and time-consuming to sift through ones knowledge and come up with this idea. And it’s awkward and time-consuming to speak this way. “New Yorkers really like to eat bagels,” is quicker and easier.
Bagel-Aided Intoxication
“Niacin Intoxication from Pumpernickel Bagels—New York,” Centers for Disease Control (CDC), MMWR Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, vol. 32, no. 23, June 17, 1983, p. 305. The report explains:
On April 27, 1983, 14 (20%) of 69 persons attending a brunch had acute onset of rash, pruritis, and sensation of warmth.... Of 25 persons who ate the bagels, 14 (56%) became ill, whereas none of the 44 persons who did not eat pumpernickel bagels became ill. The bagels had been produced at a local bagel factory from a batch of dough originally prepared on April 23.
Because the pumpernickel bagels were very light in color, the ingredients were suspected. Investigation revealed that, in an attempt to enrich the pumpernickel flour, a large quantity of niacin had been added, apparently from an improperly labeled container. Laboratory studies revealed 60 times the normal level of niacin in the pumpernickel flour. On the basis of these data, each bagel contained approximately 190 mg of niacin; the recommended dietary allowance for niacin is 6.6 mg/1000 calories or about 13 mg/day for the average adult.
Poppy Seed Bagel–Aided Drug-Testing Risk (1996)
“False-Positive Urine Drug Screen: Beware the Poppy Seed Bagel,” E.J. Narcessian and H.J. Yoon, Journal of Pain and Symptom Management, vol. 14, no. 5, November 1997, pp. 261–3. The authors report:
The patient denied any use of illicit substances and denied obtaining medication from any other sources. Her pharmacy confirmed that I was the only doctor prescribing Schedule II medications. The patient was then questioned about her diet. She reported that her diet consisted predominantly of oatmeal cereal and bagels....
The patient was requested to not eat any poppy seed bagels or poppy seed-containing food for a period of 2 weeks. She was requested to come to my office on April 22, 1997, with a poppy seed bagel. A urine sample was obtained from the patient at 9:00 AM on April 22, 1997, before her ingesting the poppy seed bagel. The patient was then observed eating one half of a poppy seed bagel and was observed during the intervals between testing the urine....
[The] results confirmed that ingestion of poppy seeds can result in a positive urine toxicology for morphine. The urines may remain positive from 24 to 48 hours after ingestion.
Poppy Seed Bagel–Aided Drug-Testing Risk (1997)
“Poppy Seeds: Differences in Morphine and Codeine Content and Variation in Inter- and Intra-individual Excretion,” M.G. Pelders and J.J. Ros. Journal of Forensic Sciences, vol. 41, no. 2, March 1996, pp. 209–12. The authors, at the Dutch Laboratory for Drugs and Doping, Hospital Pharmacy Midden-Brabant, the Netherlands, report:
Poppy seeds from seven different origins (Dutch, Australian, Hungarian, Spanish, Czech, and two Turkish) were analyzed for the amount of opiates present. Four grams of each kind of seeds, equivalent to the amount of seeds on two bagels, were ingested by volunteers.... After ingestion a large interindividual variation of excretion of opiates exists.... Several kinds of poppy seeds can give positive testing results (Australian, Hungarian, Spanish and one kind of Turkish seeds).
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| The popular movie The Mummy did not fully explore the medical and pharmacological uses of mummy powder. |
Yummy Mummies for Good Health
The medicinal uses of powdered mummy
by A.S. Kaswell, Improbable Research staff
Nowadays, powdered mummy may not be everyone’s cup of tea, but for many years it was just what the doctor ordered. That’s one of the takeaway messages of Richard Sugg’s study “’Good Physic but Bad Food’: Early Modern Attitudes to Medicinal Cannibalism and its Suppliers.”
Dr. Sugg is a Research Fellow in Literature and Medicine at Durham University. He begins his monograph with an astute observation: “The subject of medicinal cannibalism in mainstream western medicine has received surprisingly little historical attention.”
Sugg tells us that mummy, generally in powdered form, “having originally been a natural mixture of pitch and asphalt, came in the twelfth century to be associated with preserved Egyptian corpses.” It then “emerged as a mainstream western medicine” and remained a standard-issue drug until “opinion began to turn against it in the eighteenth century.”
Physicians pre-scribed powdered mummy for diverse ailments. An English pharmacopeia published in 1721 specifies two ounces of mummy as the proper amount to make a “plaster against ruptures.” Ambroise Paré, royal surgeon to sixteenth century French kings, proclaimed mummy to be “the very first and last medicine of almost all our practitioners” against bruising.
Dr. Paré harbored doubts about the drug’s efficacy, lamenting that “wee are ... compelled both foolishly and cruelly to devoure the mangled and putride particles of the carcasses of the basest people of Egypt, or such as are hanged.” But Dr. Paré was an unusually driven doubting Thomas — he lamented having “tried mummy ‘an hundred times’ without success.”
The Sugg study explains that “mummy was an important commodity. It is often seen in long lists of merchants’ wares and prices.” The marketplace attracted counterfeiters. Sugg supplies an anecdote: “Tellingly, when Samuel Pepys saw a mummy it was in a merchant’s warehouse; while ‘the abuses of mummy dealers in selling inferior wares’ were especially widespread and notorious by the end of the seventeenth century.”
The best suppliers maintained high standards. The presumably admirable recipe used by 17th century German pharmacologist Johann Schroeder included: “the cadaver of a reddish man (because in such a man the blood is believed lighter and so the flesh is better), whole, fresh without blemish, of around twenty-four years of age, dead of a violent death (not of illness), exposed to the moon’s rays for one day and night, but with a clear sky. Cut the muscular flesh of this man and sprinkle it with powder of myrrh and at least a little bit of aloe, then soak it.” And so forth.
This study removes some, if not all, of the horror from the Stephen Sondheim musical “Sweeney Todd,” in which a London barber of yesteryear murders his customers and recycles them as stuffing for yummy meat pies. Thanks to Dr. Sugg’s research, the play’s main love song gains a soupçon of innocence, especially in its cheerful refrain: “The history of the world, my sweet, is who gets eaten and who gets to eat.”
Mummy Powder and Shakespeare
Louise Noble of the University of New England looked at how Shakespeare looked at mummy medicine. Her 2003 study “‘And Make Two Pasties of Your Shameful Heads’: Medicinal Cannibalism and Healing the Body Politic in Titus Andronicus” presents copious details and analysis.
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| Noble’s 2003 study about Shakespeare’s take on mummy powder. |
Noble introduces her subject by reprinting this “astonishingly explicit” recipe from Oswald Croll’s 1609 book Bazilica Chymica and Praxis Chymiatricae or Royal and Practical Chymistry (translated by John Hartman in 1670), which no doubt inspired Dr. Schroeder:
Chuse the Carcase of a red Man (because in them the blood is more sincere, and gentle and therefore more excellent) whole (not maimed) clear without blemishes, of the age of twenty four years, that hath been Hanged, Broke upon a Wheel, or Thrust-through, having been for one day and night exposed to the open Air, in a serene time. This Mumy (that is, Musculous flesh, of the Thighs, Breasts, Armes, and other parts) from the two Luminaries, once illuminate and constellate, cut into small pieces or slices and sprinkle on them Powder of Myrrh, and of Aloes, but a very little (otherwise it will be too bitter) afterward by Macerating, Imbibe them for certain days in Spirit of Wine, hang them up a little, and again imbibe them, then hang them up to dry in the Air, this so dryed will be like Flesh hardned in Smoak, and be without stink.
At the end of her study—which after all centers on the play Titus Andronicus—Noble concludes that
The elaborate rhetorical juggling of medicine and cannibalism in the play is an inevitable consequence of a cultural behavior, wherein the socially accepted medical consumption of human bodies and the foreign, abjected, and forbidden act of eating human flesh are profoundly implicated in one another.
Acknowledgment
Thanks to the Chemical Heritage Foundation for bringing mummy powder to our attention.
References
“’Good Physic but Bad Food’: Early Modern Attitudes to Medicinal Cannibalism and its Suppliers,” Richard Sugg, Social History of Medicine, vol. 19, no. 2, 2006, pp. 225–40.
“’And Make Two Pasties of Your Shameful Heads’: Medicinal Cannibalism and Healing the Body Politic in Titus Andronicus,” Louise Noble, English Literary History, vol. 70, no. 3, Fall 2003, pp. 677–708.
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War and Social Upheaval Cause Spikes in Zombie Movie Production
There’s been a huge spike in the production of zombie movies lately, and many of them seem to be inspired by war. Everything from 28 Days Later... to Zombie Strippers makes explicit reference to wartime, as did seminal 1968 zombie flick Night of the Living Dead. Is there really a connection between zombie movies and social unrest? We decided to do some research and find out. The result is a line graph showing the number of zombie movies coming out in the West each year since 1910, and there are definite spikes during certain years, which always seem to happen eerily close to historical events involving war or social upheaval.
Mostly we’ve focused on movies from the U.S. and Europe, and we’ve included mummies but not vampires and ghosts. It’s necessary to correct somewhat for the fact that more movies are being made as we get closer to the present, and (more importantly) there are better records of those movies with better tagging. So it’s easier to research movies with zombies in them if you’re looking at productions from the 1980s onward. In addition, there’s been a huge boom in indie and low-budget horror movies over the past ten years, and that undoubtedly accounts somewhat for the giant spike you see during the last 8 years or so.
If you’re going to look at these historical correlations, you have to consider that movies inspired by a real-life event aren’t going to show up in theaters for at least six months to a year, so we’ve accounted for that. Still, even correcting for these factors, there are distinctive spikes in zombie popularity, and they always seem to fall slightly after a huge political or social event has caused mass fear, chaos, or suffering. World War II, Vietnam, and the current Iraq War are all followed by a zombie rush at theaters, as are other periods of trauma such as the AIDS epidemic. Is there a causal connection, or is it just coincidence? You be the judge.
Appendix: Zombie Movies We Included in This Study
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|
1911: 1 |
|
1919: 1 |
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1931: 1 |
|
1932: 1 |
|
1933: 1 |
|
1935: 2 |
|
1936: 4 |
|
1938: 1 |
|
1939: 1 |
|
1940: 1 |
|
1941: 1 |
|
1942: 1 |
|
1943: 5 |
|
1944: 1 |
|
1945: 1 |
|
1946: 1 |
|
1952: 1 |
|
1953: 1 |
|
1955: 1 |
|
1957: 3 |
|
1958: 4 |
|
1959: 6 |
|
1960: 1 |
1961: 3 |
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1962: 2 |
|
1963: 1 |
1964: 8 |
1965: 3 |
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1966: 2 |
|
1967: 2 |
1968: 3 |
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1969: 1 |
1970: 4 |
1971: 4 |
1972: 7 |
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1973: 15 |
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1974: 13 |
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1975: 7 |
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1976: 1 |
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1977: 3 |
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1978: 4 |
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1979: 4 |
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1980: 10 |
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1981: 13 |
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1982: 9 |
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1983: 5 |
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1984: 6 |
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1985: 12 |
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1986: 12 |
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1987: 14 |
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1988: 11 |
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1989: 17 |
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1990: 5 |
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1991: 9 |
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1992: 11 |
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1993: 7 |
|
1994: 7 |
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1995: 6 |
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1996: 4 |
|
1997: 10 |
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1998: 9 |
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1999: 5 |
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2000: 12 |
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2001: 15 |
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2002: 10 |
|
2003: 21 |
|
2004: 29 |
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2005: 29 |
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2006: 34 |
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2007: 33 |
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2008: 9 |
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Zombies and Inverse Zombies
Classics from the zombie and inverse zombie research literature
Compiled by Alice S. Kaswell, Improbable Research staff
Zombi(e)s (1)
“The Ethnobiology of the Haitian Zombi,” E. Wade Davis, Journal of Ethnopharmacology, vol. 9, no. 1, November 1983, pp. 85–104. The author, at Harvard University, reports:
For many years students of Haitian society have suggested that there is an ethnopharmacological basis for the notorious zombies, the living dead of folklore. The recent surfacing of three zombies, one of whom may represent the first verifiable case, has focused scientific attention on the reported zombie drug.
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| A snippet of Davis’s study “The Ethnobiology of the Haitian Zombi” shows how the zombie poison is prepared. |
Zombi(e)s (2)
“Preparation of the Haitian Zombi Poison,” E. Wade Davis, Botanical Museum Leaflets, Harvard University, 1983.
Zombies (3)
Passage of Darkness: The Ethnobiology of the Haitian Zombie, E. Wade Davis, University of North Carolina Press, 1988, ISBN 0807817767. The author explains:
Evidence suggests that zombification is a form of social sanction imposed by recognized corporate bodies--the poorly known and clandestine secret Bizango societies—as one means of maintaining order and control in local communities....
“Critically, absence of evidence is not evidence of absence. Of greater interest is the empirical observation that the bokor [the people who are doing the zombification] recognize the toxicity of these fish [puffer fish] and include them in the powders, and that at certain times of the year these fish contain a toxin known to have induced apparent death.”
Inverse Zombies
“Inverse Zombies, Anesthesia Awareness, and the Hard Problem of Unconsciousness,” George A. Mashour, and Eric LaRock, Consciousness and Cognition, vol. 17, no. 4, December 2008, pp. 1163–68, DOI:10.1016/j.concog.2008.06.004. (Thanks to Lee Odkent for bringing this to our attention.) The authors, who are respectively at University of Michigan Medical School and at Oakland University in Rochester, Michigan, explain:
Philosophical (p-) zombies are constructs that possess all of the behavioral features and responses of a sentient human being, yet are not conscious.... But what if we were to invert the characteristics of p-zombies? Such an inverse (i-) zombie would possess all of the behavioral features and responses of an insensate being, yet would nonetheless be conscious.
While p-zombies are logically possible but naturally improbable, an approximation of i-zombies actually exists: individuals experiencing what is referred to as “anesthesia awareness.” Patients under general anesthesia may be intubated (preventing speech), paralyzed (preventing movement), and narcotized (minimizing response to nociceptive stimuli). Thus, they appear—and typically are—unconscious....
The current investigation compares p-zombies to i-zombies and explores the “hard problem” of unconsciousness with a focus on anesthesia awareness.
AIR Teachers’ Guide
Three out of five teachers agree: curiosity is a dangerous thing, especially in students. If you are one of the other two teachers, AIR and mini-AIR can be powerful tools. Choose your favorite hAIR-raising article and give copies to your students. The approach is simple. The scientist thinks that he (or she, or whatever), of all people, has discovered something about how the universe behaves. So:
• Is this scientist right—and what does “right” mean, anyway?
• Can you think of even one different explanation that works as well or better?
• Did the test really, really, truly, unquestionably, completely test what the author thought he was testing?
• Is the scientist ruthlessly honest with himself about how well his idea explains everything, or could he be suffering from wishful thinking?
• Some people might say this is foolish. Should you take their word for it?
• Other people might say this is absolutely correct and important. Should you take their word for it?
Kids are naturally good scientists. Help them stay that way.
More Scientists Join Gangs
More and more, more and more scientists are ganging up to write research studies. It’s no longer unusual to see a paper that lists more than 500 co-authors.
The journal Science Watch tracks statistics about which scientists publish where, when, and how often. Every few years Science Watch makes a brave plunge into the sea of so-called “multi-author papers.”1,2 Their most recent look shows increasing numbers of papers that have more than 50, 100, 200, and 500 authors.
The most gaudy, of course, are the papers credited to more than 500 co-authors. During the year 2003, only (only!) 40 of these giganti-group efforts were published. Then came a growth spurt. The year 2005 saw the publication of 131 of them, and subsequent years have seen production hold about steady.
If there were a prize for largest number of co-authors, it would have gone to the 2512 people credited with writing a paper called “Precision Electroweak Measurements on the Z Resonance,” which appeared in the journal Physics Reports in the year 2006.3 That’s a mild elevation from the previous record of 2458 co-authors, attained just two years earlier when the Circulation Journal published a paper called “Design and Baseline Characteristic of a Study of Primary Prevention of Coronary Events with Pravastatin Among Japanese with Mildly Elevated Cholesterol Levels.”4
In fact, at least one prize has been awarded for highest number of co-authors. In the year 2003, the Ig Nobel Prize for literature went to the approximately 976 co-authors of a medical study published in the New England Journal of Medicine.5
In the new record-holder, the list of 2512 authors stretches over 14 pages. These hard-writing individuals come from more than 100 different institutions in the UK, Germany, Canada, Italy, Hungary, France, Switzerland, Canada, Israel, Japan, Poland, China, Belgium, Australia, the Netherlands, the Czech Republic, and Sweden, among others.
They appear to be a sociable bunch. The very first word in their paper is “we”, and the paper’s final section elaborates on that same theme: “We would like to thank the CERN accelerator divisions... The SLD collaboration would like to thank the SLAC accelerator department... We would also like to thank members of the CDF, D], NuTeV and E-158 Collaborations...” And so on.
The paper’s “references” section lists 264 papers that in some way influenced the new research. Nearly all of those referenced papers have author lists too long to be, well, listed in the new paper. Each list is credited only in abbreviated fashion: “F.J. Hasert, et al.” “G. Arnison, et al.” “M. Banner, et al.” And so forth.
It seems cold to discuss a group of 2512 authors without mentioning any of their names, but space here is limited. Space there is limited, too—no first names are given, only initials. So suffice it to say that the final author in the group is J. Zhou.
References
1. “Multiauthor Papers Redux: A New Peek at New Peaks,” Christopher King, Science Watch, November–December 2007.
2. “Crowd Control? Multiauthor Papers Appear to Level Off in Recent Years,” Science Watch, July–August 2004.
3. “Precision Electroweak Measurements on the Z Resonance,” Aleph Collaboration et al., Physics Reports, vol. 427, 2006, pp. 257–454.
4. “Design and Baseline Characteristic of a Study of Primary Prevention of Coronary Events with Pravastatin Among Japanese with Mildly Elevated Cholesterol Levels,” MEGA Study Group, Circulation Journal, vol. 68, no. 9, 2004, pp. 860–7.
5. “An International Randomized Trial Comparing Four Thrombolytic Strategies for Acute Myocardial Infarction,” E. Topol et al., New England Journal of Medicine, vol. 329, no. 10, September 2, 1993, pp. 673–82.
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| A snippet from Udelson’s study “Biomechanics of Male Erectile Function.” |
Boys Will Be Boys
Research by and for adolescent males of all ages and sexes
Failure Engineering: How Columns Collapse
“Biomechanics of Male Erectile Function,” Daniel Udelson, Journal of The Royal Society Interface, vol. 4, no. 17, December 22, 2007, pp. 1031–48. (Thanks to investigator Betsy Devine for bringing this to our attention.) The author, at Boston University, reports:
Two major branches of engineering mechanics are fluid mechanics and structural mechanics, with many practical problems involving the effect of the first on the second. An example is the design of an aircraft’s wings to bend within reasonable limits without breaking under the action of lift forces exerted by the air flowing over them; another is the maintenance of the structural integrity of a dam designed to hold back a water reservoir which would exert very large forces on it. Similarly, fluid and structural mechanics are involved in the engineering analysis of erectile function: it is the hydraulic action of increased blood flow into the corpora cavernosa that creates the structural rigidity necessary to prevent collapse of the penile column.
Long Time Coming
“Male Sexual Dysfunction in Unconsummated Marriage: Long-Term Outcome in 417 Patients,” Javaad Zargooshi, Journal of Sexual Medicine, vol. 5, no. 12, September 25, 2008, pp. 2895–903. (Thanks to Ig Nobel Prize winner Richard Wassersug for bringing this to our attention.) The author, at Kermanshah University of Medical Sciences, Iran, reports:
Introduction. Little research has been conducted about unconsummated marriage (UCM).
Methods. From 1997 to 2008, 417 couples presented to the author with UCM. The mean UCM duration ranged from 1 hour to 8 years. The median follow-up was 78.5 months.
Results. In 177 cases, UCM was due to erectile dysfunction (ED) (86), premature ejaculation (PE) (89), performance anxiety (25), vaginismus (34), hypodesire disorder (6), not knowing the coital technique (8).... In the remaining 240 cases, UCM was due to being under social pressure to have a quick intercourse while relatives waited behind the door to confirm and celebrate coitus by checking a handkerchief that was placed beneath the bride to become bloody by hymen perforation.... Fourteen grooms who did not respond to treatments later consummated spontaneously.
Managing the Stigma of Topless Dancing (Again)
“Managing the Stigma of Topless Dancing: A Decade Later,” W.E. Thompson, J.L. Harred, and B.E. Burks, Deviant Behavior, vol. 24, no. 6, November–December 2003, pp. 551–70. (Thanks to Kristine Danowski for bringing this to our attention.) The authors, who are at Texas A&M University-Commerce, explain that:
A decade ago we (Thompson and Harred 1992) conducted ethnographic interviews with over 40 topless dancers in seven Gentlemen’s Clubs in a major metropolitan city in the Southwest with a population of approximately one million people.... This study replicates that study a decade later. The research for this current study was conducted at five gentlemen’s clubs, three of which were included in the earlier study, and two additional clubs that were currently considered the most exclusive gentlemen’s clubs in the city. Our findings, while different in specifics, were generally quite consistent with those a decade earlier.
Ins and Outs in the Elephant (1972)
“Defaecation by African Elephants (Loxodonta africana africana (Blumenbach)).” Malcolm Coe, African Journal of Ecology, vol. 10, no. 3, 1972, pp. 165–74. (Thanks to Sylvie Coyaud for bringing this and the next item to our attention.) The author, at Animal Ecology Research Group, Oxford, UK, reports:
A study of defaecation in the African elephant was carried out at the Voi headquarters of the Tsavo (East) National Park... Analysis has shown that the amount of dung produced with each defaecation bears a similar characteristic to that of the growth curve of these animals. The rate of defaecation does not vary significantly with age.... Records of defaecation arranged by time demonstrate an apparent periodicity with a low peak mid-morning and a high peak mid-afternoon.
Ins and Outs in the Elephant (2003)
“Investigations on the Use of Chromium Oxide as an Inert, External Marker in Captive Asian Elephants (Elephas maximus): Passage and recovery rates,” W. Loehlein, E. Kienzle, H. Wiesner, and M. Clauss, in Zoo Animal Nutrition Vol. II, A. Fidgett, M. Clauss, U. Ganslosser, J.M. Hatt, and J. Nijboer, eds., Fürth, Filander Verlag, 2003, ISBN 3930831511, pp. 223–32.
Peer Review: Bits of Bat in the Sky
Research selected and reviewed by a truly hereditary Peer
by Siegfried Peer, MD, LFHCfS
Professor of Radiology
Innsbruck Medical University
Innsbruck, Austria
“Indirect Flight of an African Bat to Israel: An Example of the Potential for Zoonotic Pathogens to Move between Continents,” Noam Leader, Ofer Mokady, and Yoram Yom-Tov, Vector-Borne and Zoonotic Diseases, vol. 6, no. 4, 2006, pp. 347–50.
The transmission of harmful pathogens during commercial air flights is an increasing health concern. A potential, yet relatively overlooked source of zoonotic infectious diseases involves collisions of birds and bats with aircraft and long distance transport of their carcasses. We report a case of aerial transportation of the remains of an African fruit bat over three continents, following a collision with an aircraft...
Since the plane took-off and landed during daytime, it is unlikely that it collided with a nocturnal bat during daytime. The finding of this particular bat is therefore puzzling under these circumstances. After inquiring with the IAA as to the whereabouts of the aircraft prior to its departure from the United Kingdom, it was discovered that the aircraft had departed the night before from Kotoka International Airport in Accra, Ghana on the West Coast of Africa (05°35'04 N 00°10'12" W). After 6 h 45 min of flying time, the plane arrived at Heathrow and, following a 2-h stop, continued to Israel (4 h 45 min of flying time). Ghana is home to 13 of Africa’s 17 megachiropteran bat species (Mickleburgh 2002), and E. helvum is among the most abundant species.
Puzzling Solutions
Solution to Last Month’s Puzzler
by Emil Filterbag, Improbable Research staff
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| The rector in the foreground had plastic surgery. The little rector in the rear did not, nor did the dog. |
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
The Shoelace Experiments
“The Shoe-lace Breaching Experiment,” Ingo Moerth, Figurations: Newsletter of the Norbert Elias Foundation, issue 2, no. 27, June 2007, pp. 4–6. (Thanks to Bella Plouffe for bringing this to our attention.) The author reports:
Norbert Elias started a series of breaching experiments, beginning ad hoc, and ending in various situations in Spain, France, England, Germany, and Switzerland. He strolled around in all these contexts with intentionally untied and trailing shoe-laces. The results of these purposefully conducted breaching experiments are reported.
Do Textbooks Cause Anorexia?
“Societal Influences on a Thinner Body Size in Children,” J. Davis and R. Oswalt, Perceptual and Motor Skills, vol. 74, no. 3, part 1, June 1992, pp. 697–8. (Thanks to Thomas E. Rayleigh for bringing this to our attention.) The authors, who are at Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs, NY, report that:
This study was designed to examine whether educational textbook illustrations portray children thinner since the turn of the century. 50 undergraduates each rated 54 third-grade text pictures (3 of boys and 3 of girls in each decade since 1900) on a thinness scale. Analysis indicated a significant trend in thinness for girls but not for boys. Concerns are raised about a connection between educational illustrations of children and eating disorders.
Men Like Women Who Say They Like Them
“Integrating Cues of Social Interest and Voice Pitch in Men’s Preferences for Women’s Voices,” Benedict C. Jones, David R. Feinberg, Lisa M. DeBruine, Anthony C. Little, and Jovana Vukovic, Biology Letters, DOI 10.1098/rsbl.2007.0626. The authors, at McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada and at the University of Stirling, Scotland, report:
We examine the content of vocalizations in interaction with such physical traits, finding that vocal cues of social interest modulate the strength of men’s preferences for raised pitch in women’s voices. Men showed stronger preferences for raised pitch when judging the voices of women who appeared interested in the listener than when judging the voices of women who appeared relatively disinterested in the listener....
Men’s preferences for raised pitch were stronger in the interested condition (‘I really like you’) than in the disinterested condition (‘I don’t really like you’).
Strangers Are Unfamiliar with Strange Lands
“Cognitive Maps of Nature-Based Tourists,” Martin Young, Annals of Tourism Research, vol. 26, no. 4, October 1999, pp. 817–39. The author, who is at James Cook University, Australia, explains that:
[T]his study explored sketch-maps drawn by a sample of 403 nature-based tourists visiting the Daintree and Cape Tribulation area, Australia. Multivariate comparisons of the style and content of sketch-maps revealed that visitors possessed a relatively limited spatial knowledge of the area, and that this knowledge varied according to the mode of travel, previous visitation, length of stay in the area, and the origin, age and gender of visitors.
Sarcasm, Carefully Listened to
“On the Perception of Sarcasm in Dichotic Listening,” D. Voyer, A. Bowes, and C. Techentin, Neuropsychology, vol. 22, no. 3, May 2008, pp. 390–9. The authors, at the University of New Brunswick, Canada, explain:
The purpose of the present study was to investigate the processing of sincere and sarcastic statements by the cerebral hemispheres. Forty right-handed students were asked to localize sincere and sarcastic statements presented dichotically. Participants either indicated the ear that perceived the sarcastic statement or the ear that perceived the sincere statement in counterbalanced blocks of trials. As expected, results revealed a left ear advantage for sarcastic statements and a right ear advantage for sincere statements. In addition, participants showed faster response time when localizing targets (both sarcastic and sincere) to the left ear compared to the right. Finally, a significant negative correlation between laterality effects in the two tasks provided support for causal hemispheric complementarity. Results are discussed with reference to the contribution of the right and left hemispheres to language processing. Their implications for models of sarcasm perception are also discussed.
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| Some of the 2008 winner celebrate as the ceremony concludes. Photo: Kees Moeliker. |
Save the Date: October 1, 2009
The 19th First Annual Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony
Thursday evening, October 1, 2009
Sanders Theatre, Harvard University
Tickets go on sale in August • Webcast live
The 2009 crop of Ig NobelPrize winners will be revealed. (And join them, too, for the Ig Informal Lectures, at MIT, on Saturday, October 3.)
Details at www.improbable.com/ig
 |
HMO-NO
The very final word in health care
Therapeutic Humming!
Physiologically speaking, the human body needs a good shaking now and then. The most efficient and medically least invasive method: humming.
Under our HMO-NO Therapeutic HummingTM program,* we offer you medically-supervised humming lessons, and a follow-up monitoring program. Sinus problems, joint and bone problems, and arterial hardening can all be treated** with vibrations.
Enroll in the program now. You’ll be humming its praises!***
* Fees apply.
** With varying degrees of success, depending on the ailment and your response to treatment.
*** Royalty fees apply for all songs that are under copyright.
Health care advice to pass on to your patients
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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, Ernest Ersatz, 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, Katherine Meusey, Srinivasan Rajagopalan, Tom Roberts, Naomi Uesaka, Tom Ulrich
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Geri Sullivan/PROmote Communications
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Katherine Meusey
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
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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
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, Tufts U.
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
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Thomas Michel*****, Harvard Med. School
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Dudley Herschbach*, Harvard U.
William Lipscomb*, Harvard U.
Computer Science
Dennis Frailey, Texas Instruments, Plano, TX
Robert T. Morris***, MIT
Margo Seltzer, Harvard U.
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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
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Falk Fish, Orgenics, Ltd., Yavne, Israel
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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
Medical Ethics
Erwin J.O. Kompanje, Erasmus MC University, Rotterdam
Methodology
Rod Levine, National Insts of Health
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.
Nutrition
Brian Wansink*******, Cornell U.
Ornithology
Kees Moeliker*******, Natuurhistorisch Museum Rotterdam
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Pek van Andel*******, Medical Faculty Groningen, The Netherlands
Eberhard W. Lisse, Swakopmund State Hospital, Namibia
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Glenn R. Johnson, Bemidji, MN
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Sally Shelton, Museum of Geology, South Dakota School of Mines and Technology
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
Dan Ariely*******, Duke U
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
Science Policy
Al Teich, American Assn for the Advancement of Science
Stochastic Processes
(selected at random from amongst our subscribers)
Georgios Ouzounis, Alexandroupoli, Greece
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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EDITORIAL: marca@chem2.harvard.edu</p>
© 2009 Annals of Improbable Research
ISSN 1079-5146 print / 1935-6862 online
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