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The mini-Annals of Improbable Research ("mini-AIR")

Issue number 2006-10

October 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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2006-10-01 TABLE OF CONTENTS

2006-10-02 Imminent Events

2006-10-03 What's New in the Magazine

2006-10-04 The 2006 Ig Nobel Prize Winners

2006-10-05 Swamped

2006-10-06 Sad Times for Smiley Face

2006-10-07 Two More Professor-Professors

2006-10-08 Sausage Illumination Poet

2006-10-09 "Image Management: Image Management" Competition

2006-10-10 More, More, More New Hairy Persons

2006-10-11 RESEARCH SPOTLIGHT: What Bugs You Bugs You

2006-10-12 BLOGLIGHTS: Shirley, Barbie, Ken and the Truth

2006-10-13 MAY WE RECOMMEND: Monks Are Not Woodpeckers

2006-10-14 Improbable Research Events

2006-10-15 How to Subscribe to AIR (*)

2006-10-16 Our Address (*)

2006-10-17 Please Forward/Post This Issue! (*)

2006-10-18 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

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2006-10-02 Imminent Events

Wed, Oct 25, 2006. 3:00 PM

University of Illinois (Champaign), Beckman Institute

(Featuring several Ig Nobel Prize winners)

Thu, Oct 26, 8:30 PM

ACUBE, Millikin University, Decatur, Illinois

DETAILS: <http://tinyurl.com/k87xs>

Both events are free. Everyone welcome!

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2006-10-03 What's New in the Magazine

The Sept/Oct issue (vol. 12, no. 5) of the Annals of Improbable

Research is the special ANATOMY issue. The issue is at the

printer's now, and will be arriving on subscribers' doorsteps

soon. Highlights include tow articles that we have also placed

online:

<> "Anatomy of the Centaur," by Univ.-Prof. Dr. Dr. H.C. Reinhard

V. Putz.

<http://tinyurl.com/jwa5t>

<> "Chicken Chicken Chicken," by Doug Zongker.

<http://tinyurl.com/jlc38>

The table of contents is online at <http://tinyurl.com/gzknz>.

To subscribe (6 paper issues per year) go to

<http://improbable.com/subscribe/>

or see Section 2006-10-18, below.

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2006-10-04 The 2006 Ig Nobel Prize Winners

Here are the new Ig Nobel Prize winners. Nearly all the winners

came to the ceremony. Seven Nobel Laureates handed out the Ig

Nobel Prizes.

For details, see:

<> The winners (and references): <http://tinyurl.com/dfw7q>

<> The ceremony: <http://tinyurl.com/zd3wt>

<> Video of same: <http://tinyurl.com/fkuwu>

ORNITHOLOGY-------------

Ivan R. Schwab, of University of California Davis, and the late

Philip R.A. May of the University of California Los Angeles, for

exploring and explaining why woodpeckers don't get headaches.

NUTRITION-------------

Wasmia Al-Houty of Kuwait University and Faten Al-Mussalam of the

Kuwait Environment Public Authority, for showing that dung beetles

are finicky eaters.

PEACE-------------

Howard Stapleton of Merthyr Tydfil, Wales, for inventing an

electromechanical teenager repellant -- a device that makes

annoying noise designed to be audible to teenagers but not to

adults; and for later using that same technology to make telephone

ringtones that are audible to teenagers but not to their teachers.

ACOUSTICS-------------

D. Lynn Halpern (of Harvard Vanguard Medical Associates, and

Brandeis University, and Northwestern University), Randolph Blake

(of Vanderbilt University and Northwestern University) and James

Hillenbrand (of Western Michigan University and Northwestern

University) for conducting experiments to learn why people dislike

the sound of fingernails scraping on a blackboard.

MATHEMATICS-------------

Nic Svenson and Piers Barnes of the Australian Commonwealth

Scientific and Research Organization, for calculating the number

of photographs you must take to (almost) ensure that nobody in a

group photo will have their eyes closed.

LITERATURE-------------

Daniel Oppenheimer of Princeton University for his report

"Consequences of Erudite Vernacular Utilized Irrespective of

Necessity: Problems with Using Long Words Needlessly."

MEDICINE-------------

Francis M. Fesmire of the University of Tennessee College of

Medicine, for his medical case report "Termination of Intractable

Hiccups with Digital Rectal Massage"; and Majed Odeh, Harry

Bassan, and Arie Oliven of Bnai Zion Medical Center, Haifa,

Israel, for their subsequent medical case report also titled

"Termination of Intractable Hiccups with Digital Rectal Massage."

PHYSICS-------------

Basile Audoly and Sebastien Neukirch of the Université Pierre et

Marie Curie, in Paris, for their insights into why, when you bend

dry spaghetti, it often breaks into more than two pieces.

CHEMISTRY-------------

Antonio Mulet, José Javier Benedito and José Bon of the University

of Valencia, Spain, and Carmen Rosselló of the University of Illes

Balears, in Palma de Mallorca, Spain, for their study "Ultrasonic

Velocity in Cheddar Cheese as Affected by Temperature."

BIOLOGY-------------

Bart Knols (of Wageningen Agricultural University, in Wageningen,

the Netherlands; and of the National Institute for Medical

Research, in Ifakara Centre, Tanzania, and of the International

Atomic Energy Agency, in Vienna Austria) and Ruurd de Jong (of

Wageningen Agricultural University and of Santa Maria degli

Angeli, Italy) for showing that the female malaria mosquito

Anopheles gambiae is attracted equally to the smell of limburger

cheese and to the smell of human feet.

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2006-10-05 Swamped

In the aftermath of the Ig Nobel Prize ceremony, our web servers

were swamped. They have almost recovered now (though a few of the

pages are now temporarily jury-rigged -- you'll have to click a

link or two to see the most recent blog items), and soon it will

undergo up-beefing. If you want to see part of the reason, glance

at <http://improbable.com/airchives/press/press-top.html>

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2006-10-06 Sad Times for Smiley Face

"Smiley Face loses out to Ig Nobel Prize on CBS" read a headline

in the October 10, 2006 Worcester Telegram & Gazette. The article

is at <http://tinyurl.com/gwqwl>. It concerns CBS Evening News's

plan to broadcast a report, on Friday night, October 13, about the

Igs.

This is sad news for museum-lovers who study the history of the

symbol known as the Smiley Face -- a symbol that will, if the

newspaper report is correct, be absent from the CBS broadcast.

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2006-10-07 Two More Professor-Professors

The registry of professor-professors has two new entries. One of

them -- Dorothy Swain Thomas Thomas -- represents a new and

somewhat puzzling (her first name clearly was not Thomas -- yet a

double-Thomas clearly she is) variant of the professor-professor

concept.

JOSEPH JOSEPH

Associate Professor of International Relations and European

Affairs

University of Cyprus

<http://tinyurl.com/pbl6w>

(Thanks to INVESTIGATOR SHELLY GLASHOW for bringing this

professor-professor to our attention.)

DOROTHY SWAIN THOMAS THOMAS

Professor

Wharton School

University of Pennsylvania

Professor Thomas Thomas passed away in 1977.

<http://tinyurl.com/nmuqq>

(Thanks to INVESTIGATOR SHELLY GLASHOW 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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2006-10-08 Sausage Illumination Poet

The judges have chosen a winner for last month's Sausage

Illumination Limerick Competition, which asked for a limerick to

honor the following study:

"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.

The winner is investigator LORNE A. WALD, who produced this:

"I'll be late at the lab learning who

"Likes salami -- what brightness and hue."

Said his wife, "You're a fool

"There's but one simple rule;

"In the dark any sausage will do."

[NOTE: Limerick Laureate Martin Eiger has the month off.]

* * *

Some of the runner-up limericks may pop up in our blog in the next

few days.

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2006-10-09 "Image Management: Image Management" Competition

Images/ing are/is the subject of this month's limerick

competition. To enter, compose an original limerick that

illuminates the nature of this report:

"Rumors and Gossip in Radiology," S.B. Dowd and

R. Davidhizar, Radiology Management, vol. 19,

no. 6, November-December 1997, pp. 46-9.

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 radioluminescent, issue

of the Annals of Improbable Research. Send entries (one entry per

entrant) to:

IMAGE MANAGEMENT LIMERICK COMPETITION

c/o <marca AT chem2.harvard.edu>

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2006-10-10 More, More, More New Hairy Persons

There are quite a few new members in the Luxuriant Flowing Hair

Club for Scientists (LFHCfS). Admire them at

<http://improbable.com/category/lfhcfs-hair-club>

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2006-10-11 RESEARCH SPOTLIGHT: What Bugs You Bugs You

Each month we select for your special attention a research report

that seems particularly worth a close read. This month's pick:

"Imaginary Parasites and Their Role in Medicine," R. Hoeppli,

Proceedings of the Alumni Association Malaya, vol. 8, no. 4, 1955,

pp. 287-300. (Thanks to Wendy Cooper for bringing this to our

attention.)

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2006-10-12 BLOGLIGHTS: Shirley, Barbie, Ken and the Truth

Here are some recent topics in our blog:

<> What came out of his ear

<> Adventures with incompetence

<> Shirley says sterilize

<> The Inertia of Barbie and Ken

<> Vermont teen gets a head

and some from the newspaper column in The Guardian:

<> I fell for my dog straight away

<> Left/Right: On which side lies the truth?

<> A catalogue of errors

... and many others

Read the blog (and the columns) at <http://www.improbable.com>

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2006-10-13 MAY WE RECOMMEND: Monks Are Not Woodpeckers

HEADACHES FOR MONKS

"An Epidemiological Study of Headache Among the Monks of Athos

(Greece)," D.D. Mitsikostas, et al., Headache, vol. 34, no. 9,

October 1994, pp. 539-41.

MINI-MENTAL FILS

"Mini-Mental and Son," Marshal Folstein, International Journal of

Geriatric Psychiatry, vol. 13, no. 5, 1998, pp. 290-294.

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2006-10-14 Improbable Research Events

For details and updates see

<http://improbable.com/improbable-research-shows/complete-schedule>

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/JUN 2007

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2006-10-15 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 <http://improbable.com/subscribe/>

or send in this form:

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617-491-4437 FAX:617-661-0927 <air AT improbable.com>

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2006-10-16 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>

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2006-10-17 Please Forward/Post This Issue! (*)

Please distribute copies of mini-AIR (or excerpts!) wherever

appropriate. The only limitations are: A) Please indicate that the

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EDITOR: Marc Abrahams

MINI-PROOFREADER AND PICKER OF NITS (before we introduce the last

few at the last moment): Wendy Mattson

WWW EDITOR/GLOBAL VILLAGE IDIOT: Amy Gorin

COMMUTATIVE EDITOR: Stanley Eigen

ASSOCIATIVE EDITOR: Mark Dionne

PSYCHOLOGY EDITOR: Robin Abrahams

CO-CONSPIRATORS: Alice Shirrell Kaswell, Gary Dryfoos, Ernest

Ersatz, S. Drew

MAITRE DE COMPUTATION: Jerry Lotto

AUTHORITY FIGURES: Nobel Laureates Dudley Herschbach, Sheldon

Glashow, William Lipscomb, Richard Roberts

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2006-10-18 How to Receive mini-AIR, etc. (*)

What you are reading right now is mini-AIR. Mini-AIR is a (free!)

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