“In subsequent years, as consumer confidence soared, so, too, did the purchasing of goods that would find their way into people’s rectums.” Hidden objects — of many kinds — turn up in this week’s Improbable Research podcast.
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This week, Marc Abrahams tells about:
- Objects hidden in people’s rectums. (“Rectal Foreign Bodies: Case Reports and a Comprehensive Review of the World’s Literature,” David B. Busch and James R. Starling, Surgery, vol. 100, no. 3, September 1986, pp. 512-19. Featuring dramatic readings by Sue Wellington.) The March/April 2002 issue of the Annals of Improbable Research featured, on its back cover, this photo of some of the kinds of objects that doctors report finding in people’s rectums:
- The impact of cold, wet underwear. (“Impact of Wet Underwear on Thermoregulatory Responses and Thermal Comfort in the Cold,” Martha Kold Bakkevig and Ruth Nielson, Ergonomics, vol. 37, no. 8, Aug. 1994 , pp. 1375-89. / “The impact of activity level on sweat accumulation and thermal comfort using different underwear,” Martha Kold Bakkevig and Ruth Nielson, Ergonomics 38, no. 5, 1995, pp. 926-939.. Featuring dramatic readings by Jean Berko Gleason.)
- The watch on the loo. (Watson, T. Steuart (1996). ‘A Prompt Plus Delayed Contingency Procedure for Reducing Bathroom Graffiti.’ Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis 29 (1): 121–24. Featuring dramatic readings by Jean Berko Gleason.)
The mysterious John Schedler perhaps did the sound engineering this week.
The Improbable Research podcast is all about research that makes people LAUGH, then THINK — real research, about anything and everything, from everywhere —research that may be good or bad, important or trivial, valuable or worthless. CBS distributes it, both on the new CBS Play.it web site, and on iTunes and Spotify).