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The
mini-Annals of Improbable Research ("mini-AIR")
Issue number
2006-09
September 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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2006-09-01
TABLE OF CONTENTS
2006-09-02
Out, Out, Damn Glitch
2006-09-03
What's New in the Magazine
2006-09-04
Fresh Batch of Professor-Professors
2006-09-05
Song-Lodging Statistics
2006-09-06 Ig
is Imminent
2006-09-07 Ig Yakkers
2006-09-08
Beard Breather Poet
2006-09-09
Sausage Illumination Limerick Competition
2006-09-10
Still More New Hairy Persons
2006-09-11
RESEARCH SPOTLIGHT: Bad Teeth in Academia
2006-09-12
BLOGLIGHTS: Michael Jackson, Frisbees and Beethoven
2006-09-13 MAY
WE RECOMMEND: Math, Smoke & Booze
2006-09-14
Improbable Research Events
2006-09-15 How
to Subscribe to AIR (*)
2006-09-16 Our
Address (*)
2006-09-17
Please Forward/Post This Issue! (*)
2006-09-18 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
----------------------------------------------------------
2006-09-02
Out, Out, Damn Glitch
Did
we have a glitch when we sent out last month's
mini-AIR?
Oh, yes, we did. Thanks to all of you for
bearing
with us as we broke in the
new
list-distribution software.
Special
thanks also to the several individuals who corrected
our
mistaken belief that glitches with new software
are
not uncommon. Very special thanks to the gentleman,
a
programmer with many years of experience, he informed us,
who
wants to report us to the U.S. Federal Trade Commission.
We
think/hope the glitch is fixed,
and
that all goes well with this issue.
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2006-09-03
What's New in the Magazine
The Sept/Oct
issue (vol. 12, no. 5) of the Annals of Improbable Research will be the special
ANATOMY issue. The issue is at the printer's now, and will be arriving on
subscribers' doorsteps some time in October.
We will put
the table of contents will go online soon.
To subscribe
(6 paper issues per year) go to <http://improbable.com/subscribe/>
or see Section
2006-09-18, below.
----------------------------------------------------------
2006-09-04
Fresh Batch of Professor-Professors
The registry
of professor-professors has grown. Here are the new entries:
CHACHAGE
CHACHAGE
Professor and
Head of Sociology
University of
Dar es Salaam
Dar es Salaam,
Tanzania
Professor
Chachage passed away recently.
(Thanks to
investigator Vicki Scholtz for bringing this Professor-Professor to our attention.)
HASSAN HASSAN
Director of
Research
University of
Central Lancashire
(Thanks to
investigator John Walton for bringing this Professor-Professor to our attention.)
YANG YANG
(UCLA)
Professor of
Materials Science and Engineering
UCLA
Los Angeles,
California, USA
(Thanks to
investigator Daniel Price for bringing this Professor-Professor to our attention.)
YANG YANG
(Yale)
Associate
Professor of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering
Yale
University
New Haven,
Connecticut, USA
(Thanks to
investigator Daniel Price for bringing this Professor-Professor to our attention.)
YUAN YUAN
(Memorial University of Newfoundland)
Associate
Professor, Department of Mathematics and Statistics
Memorial
University of Newfoundland
St. John's,
Newfoundland, Canada
(Thanks to
investigator Daniel Price for bringing this Professor-Professor to our attention.)
YAN YAN
(Washington University)
Research
Assistant Professor, Division of Urologic Surgery
Washington
University, St. Louis, Missouri, USA
(Thanks to
investigator Daniel Price for bringing this Professor-Professor to our attention.)
The complete
list (as we have it so far) of professor-professors, with links, is at
<http://improbable.com/2006/02/09/prof-profs/>
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2006-09-05
Song-Lodging Statistics
Thanks to
everyone who participated in the Song-Lodging Psychology Experiment. The data
are in.
The general
question was: How long does it take to lodge a tune in one's mind? The test
material was the Appalachian State University song, which is at:
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pVENWl8uBeg>
The specific
question was: How many times did you have to listen to the song before it
lodged in your memory?
The results:
1 time: 17%
of respondents
2 times: 39%
3 times: 21%
4 times: 15%
5-9 times: 07%
> 10 times: 01%
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2006-09-06 Ig
is Imminent
The 2006 Ig
Nobel Prize ceremony is happens on Thursday, October 5. Details are at
<http://www.improbable.com/ig/2006/2006-details.html>.
The live
webcast begins at 7:20 pm with a special musico-physics performance,
"Inertia versus Franz Liszt."
The ceremony
proper starts at 7:30 pm.
Nine of the
ten new winners will be present.
The prizes
will be handed to them by several Nobel Laureates: Roy Glauber (Physics, 2005);
Dudley Herschbach (Chemistry, 1986); International Atomic Energy Agency (Peace,
2005); William Lipscomb (Chemistry, 1976); Rich Roberts (Physiology or
Medicine, 1993); Frank Wilczek (Physics, 2004); and perhaps one or two others.
The 24/7
Lecturers:
<>
Benoit Mandelbrot. TOPIC: Fractals
<> Missy
Cummings. TOPIC: Automobile Safety
<> Frank
Wilczek. TOPIC: Dark Matter
<> Irene
Pepperberg. TOPIC: Grey Parrots
<>
William Lipscomb. TOPIC: Inertia
The new
mini-opera: "Inertia Makes the World Go Around"
TICKETS: A few
tickets are still available:
Harvard
Box Office ONLINE: <http://tinyurl.com/jem2k>
TELEPHONE:
(+1) 617-496-2222
DELEGATIONS:
To be an official audience delegation, you must register by Friday, September
29. Details:
<http://www.improbable.com/ig/2006/2006-details.html#delegations>
----------------------------------------------------------
2006-09-07 Ig
Yakkers
The Ig
Informal Lectures at MIT happen on Saturday afternoon, October 7, at MIT. It's
free -- but to reserve seats, get tickets in advance from the MIT Press
Bookstore. Details are at <http://www.improbable.com/ig/2006/2006-details.html#informallectures>
----------------------------------------------------------
2006-09-08
Beard Breather Poet
The judges
have chosen a winner for last month's Beard Breather Advisory Limerick
Competition competition, which asked for a limerick to honor the following
study:
"Respirator
Evaluation for Carbon Setters with Beards,"
G.S.
Fergin, American Industrial Hygiene Association
Journal,
vol. 45, no. 8, August 1984, pp. 533-7.
The winner is
investigator Kerry Gubb, who offered this epic:
One might
think facial hair might just pose
Leakage risks
for oneÕs mouth and oneÕs nose.
But researchers all find
C-14 peace of mind,
So itÕs safe
to proceed, I suppose.
Limerick
Laureate Martin Eiger offers this:
It isn't as
bad as we feared.
The potroom
particulate's cleared.
Aluminum's gone
When the filter's turned on,
Even if it's
on over a beard.
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2006-09-09
Sausage Illumination Limerick Competition
Diatoms are/is
the subject of this month's limerick competition. To enter, compose an original
limerick that illuminates the nature of this report:
"The
Relationship of Illumination to the Color
and
Acceptability of Fermented Sausage," S. Barbut,
Journal
of Muscle Foods, vol. 13, no. 1, March 2002,
pp.
13-23. (Thanks to Earle Spamer for bringing this
to
our attention.)
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 possibly carbon-containing, issue of the Annals of Improbable
Research. Send entries (one entry per entrant) to:
Sausage
Illumination LIMERICK COMPETITION
c/o
<marca AT chem2.harvard.edu>
----------------------------------------------------------
2006-09-10
Still More New Hairy Persons
There are new
members in the Luxuriant Flowing Hair Club for Scientists (LFHCfS). Admire them
at <http://improbable.com/category/lfhcfs-hair-club>
----------------------------------------------------------
2006-09-11
RESEARCH SPOTLIGHT: Bad Teeth in Academia
Each month we
select for your special attention a research report
that seems
particularly worth a close read. This month's pick:
"Effects
of Academic Stress on Oral Hygiene -- A Potential Link Between Stress and
Plaque-Associated Disease?" R. Deinzer, D. Hilpert, K. Bach, M. Schawacht,
and A. Herforth, Journal of Clinical Periodontology, vol. 28, no. 5, May. 2001,
pp. 459-64. (Thanks to Paola Perin for bringing this to our attention.) The
authors, who are at the University of Duesseldorf, conclude that:
The
study strongly supports the assumption that
psychosocial
stress may induce neglect of oral hygiene
and
increase of plaque accumulation.
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2006-09-12
BLOGLIGHTS: Michael Jackson, Frisbees and Beethoven
Here are some
recent topics in our blog:
<> An
all-natural Michael Jackson
<>
Professor Drews clarifies the matter
<> U.S.
anti-drug ads have strong effect
<> A
look back at Betty and Barney
<>
Lethal frisbees and the US Air Force
<>
BeethovenÕs 9th and astronomy
and some from
the newspaper column in The Guardian:
<> The
real-world Mycroft Holmes
<>
Breath-taking: Cigars
<> Pretty
/ smart
...
and many others
Read the blog
(and the columns) at <http://www.improbable.com>
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2006-09-13 MAY
WE RECOMMEND: Math, Smoke & Booze
MATH TEST:
PERFORMANCE ANXIETY
"Effect
of Arousal on Mathematics Scores," W.F. Lawless, Perceptual and Motor
Skills, vol. 67, no. 1, August 1988, p. 318.
DRAGGING ON
THE DANCE FLOOR
"Why Do
Dancers Smoke? Time Preference, Occupational Choice, and Wage Growth,"
Lalith Munasinghe and Nachum Sicherman, <http://papers.nber.org/papers/W7542>,
(Thanks to Patrick Stein and Stefanie Friedhoff for bringing this to our
attention.)
FAIRLY NEW
LABORATORY TECHNIQUE
"The
Effects of a Cumulative Alcohol Dosing Procedure on Laboratory Aggression in
Women and Men," D.M. Dougherty, J.M. Bjork, R.H. Bennett, and F.G.
Moeller, Journal of Studies on Alcohol,
vol. 60, no. 3, May 1999, pp. 322-9.
------------------------------------------------------------
2006-09-14
Improbable Research Events
For details
and updates see
<http://improbable.com/improbable-research-shows/complete-schedule/
EMBEDDED
SYSTEMS CONF., BOSTON, MA --
TUE, SEP 26, 2006
2006 IG NOBEL
PRIZE CEREMONY --
THU, OCT 5, 2006
Sanders
Theatre, Harvard University. Webast live
IG INFORMAL
LECTURES --
SAT, OCT 7, 2006
MIT, 1:00 pm.
UNIV. OF
ILLINOIS, BECKMAN INSTITUTE --
WED, OCT. 25
ASSOC OF
COLLEGE AND UNIVERSITY BIOLOGICAL EDUCATORS (ACUBE),
MILLIKIN
UNIVERSITY, DECATUR, ILLINOIS --
THU, OCT 26, 2006
BIOCAP CANADA
CONFERENCE, OTTAWA --
TUE, OCT 31, 2006
AAAS ANNUAL
MEETING, SAN FRANCISCO --
FEB, 2007
SIEMENS
"GET INSIDE" EVENT, LONDON --
FRI, MAR 2, 2007
2007 IG NOBEL
TOUR OF THE UK --
MAR, 2007
2007
IMPROBABLE RESEARCH EUROPEAN TOUR --
MAY/JUNE 2007
--------------------------------------------------------------
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--------------------------------------------------------------
2006-09-15 How
to Subscribe to AIR (*)
The Annals of
Improbable Research is a paper magazine. (It's not just the little bits of
overflow material you've been reading in this newsletter). Subscribe at
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FAX:617-661-0927 <air AT improbable.com>
-----------------------------------------------------
2006-09-16 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>
-----------------------------------------------------
2006-09-17
Please Forward/Post This Issue! (*)
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AND PICKER OF NITS (before we introduce the last
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(c) copyright
2006, Annals of Improbable Research
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2006-09-18 How
to Receive mini-AIR, etc. (*)
What you are
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