The rectum of the Bishop of Durham is on display in this week’s Improbable Research podcast.
The podcast is all about research that makes people LAUGH, then THINK — research about anything and everything, from everywhere —research that’s good or bad, important or trivial, valuable or worthless. CBS distributes it, both on the new CBS Play.it web site, and on iTunes.
Podcast #4: The Rectum of the Bishop of Durham
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This week, Marc Abrahams tells about:
- The rectum of the Bishop of Durham. (The rectum of the Bishop of Durham, on display at the Hunterian Museum / Simon Chaplin)
- Imperial boredom. (Jeffrey Auerbach / Auerbach, Jeffrey (2005). ‘Imperial Boredom.’ Common Knowledge 11 (2): 283–305.)
- Norman, the punk or accountant. (Louise Pendry / Pendry, Louise, and Rachael Carrick (2001). ‘Doing What the Mob Do: Priming Effects on Conformity.’ European Journal of Social Psychology 31: 83–92. / Bargh, John, Mark Chen, and Lara Burrows (1996). ‘Automaticity of Social Behavior: Direct Effects of Trait Construct and Stereotype Activation on Action.’ Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 71 (2): 230–44. / “The federal attack on organized crime“, Edwyn Silberling, Crime and Delinquency, vol. 8, 1962, pp. 365-370.)
- Measured attitudes to chocolate. (Benton, David, Karen Greenfield, and Michael Morgan (1998). ‘The Development of the Attitudes to Chocolate Questionnaire.’ Personality and Individual Differences 24 (4): 513–20. / Cramer, Kenneth M., and Mindy Hartleib (2001). ‘The Attitudes to Chocolate Questionnaire: A Psychometric Evaluation.’ Personality and Individual Differences 31 (6): 931–42. / “Improving mail survey response rates using chocolate and replacement questionnaires,” Mike Brennan, and Jan Charbonneau, Public Opinion Quarterly, vol. 73, no. 2, 2009, pp. 368-378.)
- Truth on the side. (Franco Fabbro / Fabbro, F. B., B. Gran, and A. Bava (1993). ‘Hemispheric Asymmetry for the Auditory Recognition of True and False Statements.’ Neuropsychologia (31) 8: 865–70. / Surwillo, Walter W. (1981). ‘Ear Asymmetry in Telephone-Listening Behavior.’ Cortex 17 (4): 625–32. / Jackson, Chris J., Adrian Furnham, and Tony Miller (2001). ‘Moderating Effect of Ear Preference on Personality in the Prediction of Sales Performance.’ Laterality: Asymmetries of Body, Brain, and Cognition 6 (2): 133–40.)
- 28 hours of vexations. (Kohlmetz, Christine, Reinhard Kopiez, and Eckart Altenmüller (2003). ‘Stability of Motor Programs during a State of Meditation: Electrocortical Activity in a Pianist Playing “Vexations” by Erik Satie Continuously for 28 Hours.’ Psychology of Music 31 (2): 173–86. / Kopiez, Reinhard, Marc Bangert, Werner Goebl, and Eckart Altenmüller (2003). ‘Tempo and Loudness Analysis of a Continuous 28-Hour Performance of Erik Satie’s Composition “Vexations”.’ Journal of New Music Research 32 (3): 243–58. / Recording of a complete nonstop performance of the music)
- The mini-opera “What’s Eating You”, thrilling conclusion. (The opera premiered as part of the 2014 Ig Nobel Prize ceremony. It starred Maria Ferrante and Scott Taylor, with Patrick Yacono on piano and Thomas Michel on accordion. Karen Hopkin narrates. Also starring the Microbe Chorus: Kelsey Calhoun, Nicholas Carstoiu, Delphine Gabbay, Paul Goodwin, Clia Goodwin, Erika Hutchinson, Andrew B. Jones, Julia Lunetta, Sylvia Rosenberg, Daniel Rosenberg, Abby Schiff, Ted Sharp, and Nobel laureates Carol Greider, Rich Roberts, Frank Wilczek, and Eric Maskin.)
- The mysterious John Schedler did the sound engineering.