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The mini-Annals of Improbable Research
("mini-AIR")
January 2009, Issue number 2009-01. ISSN 1076-500X.
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A free newsletter of tidbits too tiny to fit in
Annals of Improbable Research (AIR)
This
issue at
<http://www.improbable.com/airchives/miniair/2009/mini2009-01.htm>
Archive
at <http://improbable.com/airchives/miniair/>
Key words: improbable research, science humor, Ig Nobel,
AIR, the
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2009-01-01 TABLE OF CONTENTS
2009-01-02 Imminent Events
2009-01-03 What's New in the Magazine: The Ig Issue
2009-01-04 Eagerly Awaiting Dr. Simon-Castellvi
2009-01-05 Random Mystery Solved, Sort Of
2009-01-06 Improbable is an Improbable Finalist (Please
Vote)
2009-01-07 Orange Proton Spin Relaxation Poet
2009-01-08 Termite Species Feces Competition
2009-01-09 RESEARCH SPOTLIGHT: Liking Lots of Parts
2009-01-10 OTHER RECENT IMPROBABILITIES: Cola, Hair,
Birds
2009-01-11 MAY WE RECOMMEND: Termite Banging, Bush &
Cinderella
2009-01-12 Improbable Research Events
2009-01-13 -- How to Subscribe to AIR (*)
2009-01-14 -- Our Address (*)
2009-01-15 -- Please Forward/Post This Issue! (*)
2009-01-16 -- 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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2009-01-02 Imminent Events
Feb
13 — CHICAGO
AAAS
meeting annual Improbable Research session
Fri
night, Feb 13. Free to all.
Mar
6-15 — UNITED KINGDOM
The
2009 Ig Nobel Tour of the UK
Details:
<http://tinyurl.com/k87xs>
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2009-01-03 What's New in the Magazine: The Ig Issue
The special Ig Nobel issue (vol. 14, no. 6) of the Annals
of
Improbable Research is now online at
<http://tinyurl.com/8tavv3>,
with copious reports and photos of the new winners, the
ceremony,
etc.
Download a free low-res PDF, or subscribe to traditional
comfy
paper edition, or buy a bargain hi-res PDF. Many back
issues are
online at <http://www.improbable.com/magazine/>
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2009-01-04 Eagerly Awaiting Dr. Simon-Castellvi
A new kind of scientific detective work has, reportedly,
paid off
bigtime in the field of environmental science.
Dr. Pedro Jose-Maria Simon-Castellvi, president of the
Vatican-
based World Federation of Catholic Medical Associations,
announced (in the newspaper L'Osservatore Romano) his
discovery
that the birth pill has created "devastating
ecological effects
from tons of hormones being released into the environment
for
years."
Details have not yet been made public. Environmental
scientists
can now giddily await the day when Dr. Simon-Castelvi
publishes a
formal study, in a good science journal, giving details
of how he
achieved his breakthrough discovery.
For details and a handsome photo of Dr. Simon-Castellvi,
see <http://tinyurl.com/9eterj>
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2009-01-05 Random Mystery Solved, Sort Of
The Stochastic mystery (see last month's mini-AIR) is
solved,
more or less.
We had stumbled across two book reviews attributed to the
"Journal of the American Stochastic
Association." But despite
some digging, we unearthed neither the journal itself nor
the
American Stochastic Association.
Investigators Grace Baysinger, Les Bell, et al. did some
better
spadework.
One of those reviews originated in the Journal of the
American
Statistical Association (Vol. 96, No. 456, Dec. 2001, p.
1526).
Someone, in writing a rah-rah-buy-this-book blurb, made
reference
to that review — but made a simple typo
(STATISTICAL transformed,
perhaps randomly, into STOCHASTIC). Other people later
copied the
typo-infected blurb, then still others copied the
infected
copies.
Thus does info-garbage propagate in Today's Knowledge
Economy,
usually unchecked (in more than one sense of that word).
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2009-01-06 Improbable is an Improbable Finalist (Please
Vote)
We are proud (and surprised) that we've been named a
finalist —
for Best Science Blog — in the 2008 Weblog Awards
("The world's
largest blog competition"). Thanks to you, the many
investigators
who send us tips and detritus, and special thanks to
whoever
nominated us.
Please vote (for us, or for a less improbable blog), and
please
spread the word. Voting ends on January 12, 2009 at 5:00
p.m.
Eastern.
Vote at:
<http://2008.weblogawards.org/polls/best-science-blog/>
[PS: The award organizers apparently encourage sedate
ballot-
stuffing. The voting page encourages people to vote
"once every
24 hours in each category." We urge you to take part
in this
experiment.]
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2009-01-07 Orange Proton Spin Relaxation Poet
The judges have chosen a winner in the
That-Which-Lurketh-Between
Competition, which asked for a limerick to honor the
study
"Proton Spin–Spin Relaxation Time of Peel and
Flesh of Navel
Orange Varieties Exposed to Freezing Temperature"
<http://tinyurl.com/18r>.
The winner is INVESTIGATOR TONY HARKER, who receives a
free hi-re
PDF issue of the Annals of Improbable Research, and whose
slightly ungrammatical creation reads:
When
you're sucking an orange for pleasure
Past
chilling is easy to measure.
The mode of attack
Is to watch spins relax:
Do
they do so in haste or at leisure?
A quasi-commendation for poetical license goes to
INVESTIGATOR
JULIAN ORBACH for his contrarian interpretation:
Bad
news for the fresh produce lover:
The
scientists cannot discover
(With protons that spin,
Through oranges' skin)
How
to judge fruit by its cover.
Here's the offering from LIMERICK LAUREATE MARTIN EIGER:
From
oranges, data is mined.
And
what do the researchers find?
How the proton spins ease
When you thaw and you freeze
Shows
that fruit pulp is different from rind.
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2009-01-08 Termite Species Feces Competition
Termite end product analysis is the subject of this
month's
limerick competition. To enter, compose an original
limerick that
illuminates the nature of this report:
"Identification
of Termite Species by the Hydrocarbons
in
their Feces," Michael I. Haverty, R. Joseph Woodrow,
Lori
J. Nelson and J. Kenneth Grace, Journal of
Chemical
Ecology, vol. 31, no 9, 2005, pp. 2119-51.
<http://tinyurl.com/9y4b6h>
The authors report:
"Blends
of abundant cuticular hydrocarbons are species-
specific
for termites (Isoptera) and can be used to
identify
a given taxon without the diagnostic castes,
soldiers
or adults. We demonstrate that hydrocarbon
extracts
of termite fecal pellets from damaged wood
can
also be characterized and used."
RULES: Please make sure your rhymes actually do, and that
your
poem is in classic, trips-off-the-tongue limerick form.
PRIZE: The winning poet will receive (if we manage to
send it to
the correct address) a free, fully identified high-res
PDF issue
of the Annals of Improbable Research. Send entries (one
entry per
entrant) to:
TERMITE
SPECIES FECES LIMERICK COMPETITION
c/o
<marca AT chem2.harvard.edu>
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2009-01-09 RESEARCH SPOTLIGHT: Liking Lots of Parts
This month's specially selected study explores
likability. It's:
"Hermaphroditism: What's Not to Like?" Lena
Edlund and Evelyn
Korn, Journal of Theoretical Biology, published online
2006 Nov
9. The authors are economists, Edlund based at Columbia
University, USA, Korn at Philipps-UniversitŠt Marburg,
Germany.
<http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jtbi.2006.10.031>
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2009-01-10 OTHER RECENT IMPROBABILITIES: Cola, Hair,
Birds
Improbable TV Collections
<http://improbable.com/tv/>
Collections #113 and #114, with extracts from Dr. Deborah
J.
Anderson's Ig Informal lecture about how she tested
whether Coca-
Cola is an effective spermicide. Also features three
members of
the Luxuriant Flowing Hair Club for Scientists (LFHCfS).
Blog Items:
<http://improbable.com/>
<> Happy New Year to EneMan and Dr. Eneman and Dr.
Eneman
<> US Military solicitation to build AI virtual
parents
<> Economics Lesson: How to get a job
<> "Our grip on reality is slim," says
UCL scientist
And many more...
Newspaper Columns:
<http://tinyurl.com/6o348d>
<> Birdwatching without innocence
<> Medical mummy powder
New Luxuriant Flowing Hair Club for Scientists Members:
<http://tinyurl.com/25lmfb>
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2009-01-11 MAY WE RECOMMEND: Termite Banging, Bush &
Cinderella
ALARMING TERMITE HEAD-BANGING
"Termite Head-Banging: Sounding the Alarm," Tom
Fink, Lichuan
Gui, Yong Wang, Zhonghua Cao, Adarsh Jaiswal, Orwa
Tahaineh,
Vijay Ramalingam, Roger Hasse, Alan Lax and John Seiner,
popular
version of poster paper 5aAB7, presented December 2, 2006
at the
152nd ASA Meeting, Honolulu, Hawaii.
<http://www.acoustics.org/press/152nd/fink.html>
GEORGE BUSH AND CINDERELLA IN THE BRAIN
"Meeting George Bush versus Meeting Cinderella: The
Neural
Response When Telling Apart What Is Real From What Is
Fictional
in the Context of Our Reality," A. Abraham, D.Y. von
Cramon and
R.I. Schubotz, Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, vol.
20, no. 6,
June 2008, pp. 965-76.. The authors are at the Max Planck
Institute for Human Brain and Cognitive Sciences,
Leipzig,
Germany. <http://tinyurl.com/7k2zr6>
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2009-01-12 Improbable Research Events
For details and additional events, see
<http://improbable.com/improbable-research-shows/complete-schedule>
AAAS Meeting, Chicago —
Feb 13, 2009
Ig Nobel Tour of the UK —
Mar 6-15, 2009
SciFest Africa, Grahamstown, South Africa — Mar 25-26 2009
CSE, Pittsburgh, PA —
May 4, 2009
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2009-01-13 -- How to Subscribe to AIR (*)
The Annals of Improbable Research is a 6-issues-per-year
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overflow material you've been reading in this
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<http://www.improbable.com/magazine/>.
To subscribe to the paper-and-ink version, go to
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FAX:617-661-0927 <air AT improbable.com>
-----------------------------------------------------
2009-01-14 -- 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: subscriptions AT improbable.com
WEB SITE: <http://www.improbable.com>
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2009-01-15 -- Please Forward/Post This Issue! (*)
Please distribute copies of mini-AIR (or excerpts!)
wherever
appropriate. The only limitations are: A) Please indicate
that
the material comes from mini-AIR. B) You may NOT
distribute mini-
AIR for commercial purposes.
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mini-AIRheads -------------
EDITOR: Marc Abrahams
MINI-PROOFREADER AND PICKER OF NITS (before we introduce
the last
few at the last moment): Wendy Mattson
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
(c) copyright 2009, Annals of Improbable Research
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2009-01-16 -- How to Receive mini-AIR, etc. (*)
What you are reading right now is mini-AIR. Mini-AIR is a
(free!)
tiny monthly *supplement* to the bi-monthly print magazine.
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