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The mini-Annals of Improbable Research ("mini-AIR")
Issue number 2006-06
June 2006
ISSN 1076-500X
Key words: improbable research, science humor, Ig Nobel, AIR, the
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A free newsletter of tidbits too tiny to fit in
the bi-monthly paper magazine
Annals of Improbable Research (AIR)
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2006-06-01 TABLE OF CONTENTS
2006-06-02 What's New in the Magazine
2006-06-03 World Cup Research Review
2006-06-04 European Bureau Opens; Hairy Chemists Romp
2006-06-05 Mili, Mili, Mili
2006-06-06 The Complete Professor-Professor Collection
2006-06-07 Geographic Disorientation Poet
2006-06-08 Geographic Disorientation Extras
2006-06-09 Cannibal Crickets Limerick Contest
2006-06-10 Murphy's Law -- New Book
2006-06-11 The Blossoming of LFHCfS
2006-06-12 RESEARCH SPOTLIGHT: All in a Whorl
2006-06-13 Bloglights and Columnlights
2006-06-14 MAY WE RECOMMEND: Bougie A Boule and Dead Reckoning
2006-06-15 Improbable Research Events
2006-06-16 How to Subscribe to AIR (*)
2006-06-17 Our Address (*)
2006-06-18 Please Forward/Post This Issue! (*)
2006-06-19 How to Receive mini-AIR, etc. (*)
Items marked (*) are reprinted in every issue.
mini-AIR is
a free monthly *e-supplement* to the print magazine
Annals of Improbable Research
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2006-06-02 What's New in the Magazine
The Mar/Apr issue (vol. 12, no. 3) of the Annals of Improbable
Research is the annual special FISH & CHIPS issue (and also
contains a special section about Holy Grail research). The table
of contents is online at:
<http://improbable.com/airchives/paperair/volume12/v12i3/v12i3.html>
Four of the articles also appear online:
"Improbable Medical Review," compiled by Bertha Vanatian.
"Hairball Trio," by Noel Raizman.
"Fish, Fish, Fish," by Alice Shirrell Kaswell.
"In Search of Astronomy's Holy Grail," by Steve Nadis.
To subscribe (6 paper issues per year) go to
<http://improbable.com/subscribe/>
or see Section 2006-06-17, below.
*** Thanks to everyone who suggested we make it
easier to subscribe online.
Finally, we have: <http://improbable.com/subscribe/>
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2006-06-03 World Cup Research Review
The World Cup produces heart-pounding scientific news, as well as
a few soccer games. Thanks to numerous investigators -- especially
Reto Schneider of weirdexperiments.com -- for alerting us to many
of the following studies.
WORLD CUP URTICARIA
"World Cup Urticaria," P. Merry, Journal of the Royal Society of
Medicine, vol. 80, no. 12, December 1987, p. 779. Dr. Merry
explains that "This is the first reported case of an urticarial
rash apparently caused by the frustration of watching England play
football."
See further detail about this and related studies at
<http://improbable.com/2006/05/31/guardian-column-17/>
SCORE SCARIFICATION
"Score-Celebration Injuries Among Soccer Players: A Report of 9
Cases," B. Zeren and H.H. Oztekin, American Journal of Sports
Medicine, August 2005, vol. 33, no. 8, pp. 1237-40.
BRAZILIAN PSYCH
"The Psychological Profile of The Brazilian Soccer Players as
Related to Field Position," M.R.F Brand‹o and D.R. Andrade, in the
44th American College of Sports Medicine Annual Meeting, 1997,
Denver. Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise Supplement,
1997. v. 29. p. 120-120. The authors reveal that "...the attacking
player presented higher level of the vigor factor [than the
goalkeeper]."
INNER ULTRA COMPLEXIFICATION
"Inside the Beautiful Game: Towards a Merleau-Pontian
Phenomenology of Soccer Play, John Hughson and David Inglis,
Journal of the Philosophy of Sport, vol. 29, no. 1, April 2002.
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2006-06-04 European Bureau Opens; Hairy Chemists Romp
The opening of the Improbable Research European Bureau did occur,
in a bird-filled gala ceremony May 19 at the Natural History
Museum in Rotterdam. An overflow crowd of scientists, journalists
and children attended, some traveling from distant reaches of the
continent. Our thanks to all who participated.
Luxuriant Flowing Hair Club for Scientists' men-of-the-year Falk
Schuch, Andreas Linsner and Kai Jung -- German chemists all --
made their first appearance, ever, in Holland. The subsequent
fervor was such that the three were invited to appear on a Dutch
national television program the next day. There they made the
admiring acquaintance of a fairly royal personage. Photos can be
seen at
<http://improbable.com/2006/05/22/hairy-scientists-the-toast-of-holland/>
European Bureau Chief Kees Moeliker is preparing a photo-essay of
the Bureau opening gala. It will appear in a future issue of the
magazine.
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2006-06-05 Mili, Mili, Mili
Our Multiplicity of Monikers collection (of studies done by
multiple authors who share a name) now includes a three-Mili item:
"Reusing Software: Issues and Research Directions,"
Afedh Mili, Fatma Mili and Ali Mili,
IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering, vol. 21, no. 6, 1995,
pp. 528-61. (Thanks to investigator Terry Rout for bringing this
to our attention.)
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2006-06-06 The Complete Professor-Professor Collection
The collection of Professor-Professors -- each of whose first name
is ABSOLUTELY identical to her or his last name -- appears to be
complete. Investigators have scoured the databases looking for
more, but to no avail. See the bunch at
<http://improbable.com/2006/02/09/prof-profs/>
However, if you should find others, please do send us the vital
info.
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2006-06-07 Geographic Disorientation Poet
Here is the winner of last month's limerick contest, which asked
for a limerick to honor the following study:
"Geographic Disorientation: Approaching and Landing
at the Wrong Airport," Melchor J. Antu–ano, Stanley R.
Mohler, and John W. Gosbee, Aviation, Space & Environmental
Medicine, vol. 60, no. 10, October 1989, pp. 996-1004.
The winner is investigator Steve Golson, who wrote:
When approaching an airport below,
There is one thing a pilot should know:
"If you land in the wrong,
Your career won't be long!"
Say Mohler, Gosbee, Antu–ano.
Martin Eiger, our Limerick Laureate, offers his take on the
subject:
This plane should be going to Austin.
Instead, we are flying toward Boston.
The pilot's gone bonkers.
We're circling Yonkers,
A place I don't want to get lost in.
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2006-06-08 Geographic Disorientation Extras
Investigator Glenn Knickerbocker submitted a limerick that, though not
the competition-winner, comes with an illuminating tale:
An orientational skew
In approaching an airport like Stew-
Art can cause errors such as
Descending at Dutchess,
Of which I have seen quite a few!
"For a while when I lived in Wappingers Falls, about once a week I would
see a huge airliner -- once even a C5A transport! -- making a steep,
winding ascent after mistakenly approaching the tiny runway at Dutchess
County Airport. Apparently, apart from the scale, the appearance of the
runways is deceptively similar to that at Stewart International Airport
(formerly Stewart Air Force Base), and if you turn the wrong way from
the Hudson it's easy to mistake the Wappingers Creek for the Wallkill
and Lake Oniad for Beaver Dam Lake."
Dutchess County now offers a welcoming photograph for those who might
like to see the airport before they arrive (intentionally or otherwise)
there:
<http://www.co.dutchess.ny.us/CountyGov/Departments/Airport/ARamain.htm>
Additional limericks on the topic are on our blog at
<http://improbable.com/2006/06/12/geographic-disorientation-nearlies/>
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2006-06-09 Cannibal Crickets Limerick Contest
Geographic Disorientation is the subject of this month's limerick
competition. To enter, compose an original limerick that
illuminates the nature of this report (which was brought to our
attention by investigator Tom Gill:
"Cannibal Crickets On A Forced March for Protein and Salt,"
Stephen J. Simpson, Gregory A. Sword, Patrick D. Lorch and Iain D.
Couzin, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, vol. 103,
no. 11, March 14, 2006, pp. 4152-6.
RULES: Please make sure your rhymes actually do, and that your
poem adheres to classic limerick form.
PRIZE: The winning poet will receive a (if we manage to send it to
the correct address) a free, and probably cricket-free, issue of
the Annals of Improbable Research. Send entries (one entry per
entrant) to:
Cannibal Crickets CONTEST
c/o <marca@chem2.harvard.edu>
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2006-06-10 Murphy's Law -- New Book
Nick Spark has expanded his investigative history of Murphy's Law
into a book. To be more accurate: the book is a beautiful,
Rashomonic history of how The Law got its name.
The original version was published in the Annals of Improbable
Research. In addition to new material, the book also incorporates
a nifty flip-book-style movie of John Paul Stapp's famous rocket
sled deceleration.
(Note: Murphy shared a 2003 Ig Nobel Prize with Stapp and with
George Nichols.)
The book, ISNB 0978638891, is available at
<http://tinyurl.com/jt4aw>.
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2006-06-11 The Blossoming of LFHCfS
The Luxuriant Flowing Hair Club for Scientists (LFHCfS) has
acquired many magnificent new members. Admire their hair at
<http://improbable.com/category/lfhcfs-hair-club>
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2006-06-12 RESEARCH SPOTLIGHT: All in a Whorl
Each month we select for your special attention a research report
that seems particularly worth a close read. This month's pick may,
in a sense, make your head spin:
"Association Between Scalp Hair-Whorl Direction and Hemispheric
Language Dominance," Bernd Weber, Christian Hoppe, Jennifer Faber,
Nikolai Axmacher, Klaus Fliessbach, Florian Mormann, Susanne Weis,
Jźrgen Ruhlmann, Christian E. Elger and GuillŽn Fern‡ndez,
Neuroimage, vol. 30, no. 2, April 2006, pp. 539-43. The authors
explain that:
"The scalp hair-whorl direction [is] either clockwise or anti-
clockwise. ... Here, we use an established fMRI [functional
Magnetic Resonance Imaging] paradigm to examine the association of
a solely biological marker of asymmetry, hair-whorl direction and
language lateralization."
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2006-06-13 Bloglights and Columnlights
Here are some recent topics in our blog:
<> The Chester Binge Drinking Conference
<> The monkey and: (a) the chimp; (b) the man
<> Journal of Spurious Correlations
<> What is reality (in the case of Barney)?
<> Chicken/egg: theory vs. experiment
and some from the newspaper column in The Guardian:
<> Crisp sounds
<> Band of Brooders
<> Aleyev, women and dolphins
... and many others
Read the blog at <http://www.improbable.com>
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2006-06-14 MAY WE RECOMMEND: Bougie A Boule and Dead Reckoning
DEAD RECKONING
"Increased Risk of Death in Patients With Do-Not-Resuscitate
Orders," L.B. Shepardson, S.J. Youngner, T. Speroff and G.E.
Rosenthal, Medical Care, vol. 37, no. 8, August 1999, pp. 727-37.
(Thanks to Nicole and V. Paul Doria-Rose for bringing this to our
attention.)
NO LONGER ON THE TIP OF ONE'S TONGUE
"A Comparison of the Effects of Added Saliva, Alpha-Amylase and
Water on Texture Perception in Semi-Solids," L. Engelen, R.A. De
Wijk, J.F. Prinz, A.M. Janssen, H. Weenen and F. Bosman,
Physiology and Behavior, vol. 78, 2003, pp. 805-11. The authors
point out that, in doing the tests: "saliva had previously been
collected from the subjects and each subject received his/her own
saliva."
BOUGIE A BOULE QUESTION
"What Does the Bougie a Boule Calibrate?" D.M. Gleason, M.R.
Bottaccini, and J.K. Lattimerr, Journal of Urology, vol. 101, no.
1, January 1969, pp. 114-6.
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2006-06-15 Improbable Research Events
For details and updates see
<http://improbable.com/improbable-research-shows/complete-schedule>
ALPBACH TECH FORUM, ALPBACH, AUSTRIA -- AUG 24-26, 2006
Performance of the mini-Opera "Atom & Eve"
MASSACHUSETTS MEDICAL SOC (BERKSHIRES) -- TUE, SEP 17, 2006
EMBEDDED SYSTEMS CONF., BOSTON, MA -- TUE, SEP 26, 2006
2006 IG NOBEL PRIZE CEREMONY -- THU, OCT 5, 2006
Sanders Theatre, Harvard University
Tickets go on sale in August
IG INFORMAL LECTURES -- SAT, OCT 7, 2006
MIT
UNIV. OF ILLINOIS, BECKMAN INSTITUTE -- WED, OCT. 25
ASSOC OF COLLEGE AND UNIVERSITY BIOLOGICAL EDUCATORS (ACUBE),
MILLIKIN UNIVERSITY, DECATUR, ILLINOIS -- THU, OCT 26, 2006
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2006-06-16 How to Subscribe to AIR (*)
The Annals of Improbable Research is a paper magazine. (It's not
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2006-06-17 Our Address (*)
Annals of Improbable Research (AIR)
PO Box 380853, Cambridge, MA 02238 USA
617-491-4437 FAX:617-661-0927
EDITORIAL: marca AT chem2.harvard.edu
SUBSCRIPTIONS: air AT improbable.com
WEB SITE: <http://www.improbable.com>
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2006-06-18 Please Forward/Post This Issue! (*)
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Glashow, William Lipscomb, Richard Roberts
(c) copyright 2006, Annals of Improbable Research
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2006-06-19 How to Receive mini-AIR, etc. (*)
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