Mark Ontkush did some calculations about how much power is consumed when a computer screen shows white backgrounds rather than black. He tells the story of how this played out: In January 2007, Mark Ontkush, the owner of the ecoIron blog, suggested that a large amount of energy could be saved if Google switched their […]
Month: March 2008
Everybody’s co-author, Struchkov
For many academic scientists, having a list of published papers is the single most important factor that determines prestige, pay, promotions and job offers. Some scientists are more prolific than others. But one man, Yuri Struchkov, established a record of almost superhuman accomplishment. During a 10-year period he published more – far more – research […]
Ig event in Newcastle Friday night
The sixth annual Ig Nobel Tour of the UK concludes in Newcastle on Friday evening (14 March) at the Centre for Life. For details and/or to reserve tickets, click on the image at right.
Exceptionally simple physics
?An Exceptionally Simple Theory of Everything,? A. Garrett Lisi, arXiv:0711.0770, November 6, 2007. The abstract reads, in full: All fields of the standard model and gravity are unified as an E8 principal bundle connection. A non-compact real form of the E8 Lie algebra has G2 and F4 subalgebras which break down to strong su(3), electroweak […]
Porcupine density?
QUESTION: Does the phrase “porcupine density” usually pertain to the density of an individual porcupine, or to the density of numerous porcupines scattered across an expanse of land? ANSWER: See the report: “Estimating porcupine (Erethizon dorsatum Linnaeus, 1758) density using radiotelemetry and replicated mark-resight techniques.” O. Halem and T. K. Fuller, Zeitschrift fiir Saugetierkunde, 1999, […]
Ig events in London Tuesday & Wednesday
The sixth annual Ig Nobel Tour of the UK (for National Science and Engineering Week) descends on London, with shows Tuesday evening (11 March) at Imperial College and Wednesday evening (12 March) at The Guardian Newsroom & Archive. For details and/or to reserve tickets, click on the image at right.
Signs: Unequal equals
Equality in one place may not be quite equal to equality in another, implies a new study by researchers at Texas A&M University: “Thirty Years of Research: Interpretations of the Equal Sign in China and the USA,” Robert M Capraro, Mary Margaret Capraro, Meixia Ding and Xiaobao Li, Psychological Reports, vol. 101, no. 3, part […]
Gorgun
Need a cure? Dr. S. Seckiner Gorgun may have one. His web site offers Gorgunistic treatments for many diseases, including: Glioblastoma Multiforme Plasmocitoma Bone Metastasis Breast Cancer Breast Cancer With Bone Metastasis Cancer of Lung and Mediastenum Liver Cancer with Bone Metastasis Lung Cancer Nasopharynx Cancer Cancer of Trachea And that’s not all. Dr. Gorgun […]
Glove data
Gloves, gloves, gloves. First, Michael Jackson’s, enlarged: White Glove Tracking Creating a data source together one glove at a time. On May 4th, 2007, we asked internet users to help isolate Michael Jackson’s white glove in all 10,060 frames of his nationally televised landmark performance of Billy Jean. 72 hours later 125,000 gloves had been […]
Mar-Apr Improbable Research is online
The special Writing Research issue of the Annals of Improbable Research (vol 14, no 2, Mar-Apr 2008) is now online.