Investigator Gary Dryfoos writes: Question: Is it correct that Canadian Sociologist Steve Penfold wrote a column in Canadian Donut Monthly, praising Boston Globe columnist Jeff Jacoby for his insightful piece about the cultural differences between Americans and Europeans? Answer: In principle, yes. But first of all, it wasn’t sociologist Penfold in CD Monthly, but linguist […]
Month: August 2008
Ludwig Boltzmann joins LFHCfS
Ludwig Boltzmann (February 20, 1844 – September 5, 1906) has joined as a historical member of the Luxuriant Flowing Hair Club for Scientists. Dr. Siegfried Peer, who nominated him, says: He is famous for his contributions to statistical thermodynamics and the Boltzmann equation, describing the dynamics of an ideal gas. Besides bearer of an almost […]
April in Paris?: A Striking Analysis
Seasoned visitors to the City of Light always factor in their travel plans the two most prevalent facts of life in France: vacations and strikes. Fortunately, school vacation periods are scheduled in advance with clockwork regularity. Strikes may be nearly as predictable. This preliminary study suggests a strong correlation between occurrences of the two. (That’s […]
Improbable Research TV episode 105
Here’s episode 105 (“Tea, a resume, chairs”) of the Improbable Research TV series. To see it, click on the image at right, and you will be whisked to YouTube (where you can subscribe, if you like, to the Improbable Research channel). Improbable TV can also be seen on MySpace and elsewhere. These are three-minute videos […]
Is your breakfast a sad and soggy affair?
Many people, of a morning, wonder why their breakfast cereal becomes soggy. Thanks to a study published in 1994, the answer can be read over morning coffee. A Study of the Effects of Water Content on the Compaction Behaviour of Breakfast Cereal Flakes, by DMR Georget, Roger Parker and Andrew Smith of the Institute of […]
Other Einsteins (Part 1)
Einstein’s Pork Carcass Composition Equations Albert Einstein has a signature equation, e=mc2, which predicts how energy relates to mass. M.E. Einstein of Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana, has a whole set of equations, which predict pork carcass composition. M.E. and several collaborators published a series of studies — seven of them so far — […]
The Cox-Zucker machine
“A Mordell-Weil Group of Rank 8, and a Subgroup of Finite Index,” Charles F. Schwartz, Nagoya Math Journal, vol. 93, 1984, pp. 17-26. (Thanks to Rodrigo Trevino and Don Troop for bringing this to our attention.) The author, who is at Rider College in Lawrenceville, New Jersey, makes reference to the following paper, which was […]
Cider in Situ #2
Apple cider warmed on a stove ad infinitum. This specimen of Cider-in-Situ is a companion piece to the famous “Free-Standing Hot Apple Cider”—the original seed which grew to become the Museum of Burnt Food. Donated by Gary Dryfoos, circa 2000. (That’s an excerpt from the article “Improbable Research Review,” Published in AIR 14:4.) NOTE: A […]
Amy Sansone joins LFHCfS
Amy Sansone has joined the Luxuriant Flowing Hair Club for Scientists. Se says: My hair started to turn “silver” when I was 17 and I like to keep the front that way, but have fun with the back (in this case, black). Right now the roots are light purple since my last role-playing game convention. […]
Fresh Pond Gas
Fresh pond gas is more popular than ever in the scientific community. Here are three of the most compelling research reports about pond gas — fresh and otherwise — published during the past decade. Bubbly Gas “Evaluation of Concentration Field Formation in Bubbly Purification Pond Exhaust Gas,” I.R. Shreiber, International Communications in Heat and Mass […]