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The mini-Annals of Improbable Research ("mini-AIR")
April 2009, Issue number 2009-04. ISSN 1076-500X.
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A free online supplement to the Annals of Improbable Research
This issue is at
<http://www.improbable.com/airchives/miniair/2009/mini2009-04.htm>
Archive at <http://improbable.com/airchives/miniair/>
Key words: improbable research, science humor, Ig Nobel, AIR, the
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2009-04-01 TABLE OF CONTENTS
2009-04-02 Imminent Events
2009-04-03 In the Magazine: Zombies & Bagels at Last!
2009-04-04 Needle Lost Outside a Haystack
2009-04-05 Fish farts, Smelly Feet, Sword-Swallowing, and Ducks
2009-04-06 Coca-Cola Contraception, Fingernails, Studmuffins
2009-04-07 Officially Extremely Surprising Report
2009-04-08 Double-Wet Poet
2009-04-09 Bored Piles Competition
2009-04-10 RESEARCH SPOTLIGHT: Meteorites on Automobiles
2009-04-11 OTHER IMPROBABILITIES: Swear Words, Angry Public
2009-04-12 MAY WE RECOMMEND: Sex, Violence & Angry Prosody
2009-04-13 Improbable Research Events
2009-04-14 -- How to Subscribe to AIR (*)
2009-04-15 -- Our Address (*)
2009-04-16 -- Please Forward/Post This Issue! (*)
2009-04-17 -- How to Receive mini-AIR, etc. (*)
Items marked (*) are reprinted in every issue.
mini-AIR is
but a wee monthly *supplement*
to the bi-monthly magazine Annals of Improbable Research
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2009-04-02 Imminent Events
Apr 22-25, Ig Nobel Denmark Tour
May 2, Cambridge Science Festival, Massachusetts
May 4 & 6, Pittsburgh
Full schedule & details at
<http://tinyurl.com/k87xs>
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2009-04-03 In the Magazine: Zombies & Bagels at Last!
After a spooky, bagel-free delay, the special Mummies, Zombies
and Bagels issue (vol. 15, no. 1) of the Annals of Improbable
Research is now online, at
<http://improbable.com/airchives/paperair/volume15/v15i1/v15i1.html>
Download a free low-res PDF, or get a spiffy hi-res PDF, or
subscribe to the traditional comfy paper edition.
The special Navel Lint issue (vol. 15, no. 2) is now at the
printers. It will emerge a few weeks from now, perhaps covered
with lint, perhaps not.
Many back issues are online at
<http://www.improbable.com/magazine/>
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2009-04-04 Needle Lost Outside a Haystack
Investigators Betty and Chuck Heldren alert us to a monograph
about vanished steel:
"Loss of a Sewing Needle in the Tongue During Attempted Tongue
Piercing: Report of a Case," Terrence R. Nedbalski, Daniel M.
Laskin, Journal of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, vol. 64, no.
1, January 2006, pp. 135-7.
In addition to the (presumably) obvious lesson about the
intricacies of self-piercing (for that is the practice that led
to the loss of this particular needle), the study imparts
knowledge from a broad sampling of the medical literature. Drs.
Nedbalski and Laskin, at the Virginia Commonwealth University
School of Dentistry, distill this into 41 words:
"Piercing of the ear in areas other than the traditional earlobe
(e.g., the auricle) has also caused perichondritis as well as
perichondral abscesses. Both nasal and eyebrow piercing have been
reported to produce chronic granulomatous lesions that have
required surgical removal."
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2009-04-05 Fish Farts, Smelly Feet, Sword-Swallowing, and Ducks
The first Ig Nobel tour of Denmark will include shows in Aarhus
(Apr 22), Odense (Apr 23 and also Apr 25), and Copenhagen (Apr
24).
The tour will feature Ig Nobel Prize winners who were honored for
their discoveries that:
(a) herrings communicate by farting
(b) mallard ducks engage in homosexual necrophilia
(c) mosquitoes swoon for limburger cheese and smelly feet
(d) sword-swallowing has medical side effects
INFO in Danish: <http://forsk.dk/search?SearchableText=IG>
INFO in English:
<http://improbable.com/improbable-research-shows/complete-schedule/>
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2009-04-06 Coca-Cola Contraception, Fingernails, Studmuffins
The very first Improbable Research Cabaret will happen on
Saturday afternoon, May 2, at The Cambridge (Massachusetts)
Science Festival.
The afternoon will feature Ig Nobel Prize winners who were
honored for their discoveries that:
(a) Coca-Cola is and is not an effective spermicide
(b) Humans detest the sound of fingernails on a blackboard
There will also be performances by Julia Lunetta of songs from Ig
Nobel mini-operas, and a talk by Studmuffins of Science Calendar
creator Karen Hopkin, and chemical performances by the Performing
Chemists — all to be illuminated by one or more Human Spotlights.
New Scientist magazine is collaborating in this, too.
This event will be doing double duty — It's a festival event, and
also a fundraiser for the Central Square Theater. Tickets include
post-performance reception with Cabaret scientists.
Details: <http://tinyurl.com/clg86m>
To reserve tickets: phone KC Forcier at 617.576.9278 x 208, or
email her at <kcf@centralsquaretheater.org>.
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2009-04-07 Officially Extremely Surprising Report
The Ig Nobel Prizes celebrate quirkiness. One of the quirkiest
reports about the Ig — the report includes giggling actors
playing the roles of Ig Nobel winners and ceremony organizers, in
addition to film clips of the real individuals — was broadcast
recently on the Korean television program 'Extreme Surprise.'
Watch it at: <http://tinyurl.com/dx628o>
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2009-04-08 Double-Wet Poet
The judges have chosen a winner in the Doubly-Labeled Water
Limerick Competition, which asked for a limerick to honor the
book Doubly Labelled Water: Theory and Practice, John R.
Speakman, Springer (publisher), 1997, ISBN 0412637804.
<http://tinyurl.com/ak9r28>
The winner is INVESTIGATOR NAN SWIFT, who wrote:
In case they should ask in a quiz:
It's water. It's water. It is.
To label it twice
Is two times as nice
(And nicer still, if it's got fizz!)
Here's the offering from LIMERICK LAUREATE MARTIN EIGER:
Labeling water is nice.
This device, though, won't always suffice.
We therefore suggest,
For results that are best,
Use water, but label it twice.
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2009-04-09 Bored Piles Competition
Bored piles is/are the subject of this month's limerick
competition. To enter, compose an original limerick that
illuminates the nature of this report, which was unearthed by
investigator Tom Gill:
"Test Study on the Characteristics of Mudcakes and in Situ Soils
Around Bored Piles," _Zhong-Miao Zhang, Jun Yu, Guang-Xing Zhang,
and Xin-Min Zhou, Canadian Geotechnical Journal, vol. 46, no. 3,
March 2009, pp. 241-255. <http://tinyurl.com/c76nmf>
RULES: Please make sure that: (1) your rhymes actually do; and
(2) your poem is in classic, trills-off-the-tongue limerick form.
PRIZE: The winning poet will receive (if we manage to send it to
the correct address) a free, possibly mud-caked, high-res PDF
issue of the Annals of Improbable Research. Send entries (one
entry per entrant) to:
BORED PILES LIMERICK COMPETITION
c/o <marca AT chem2.harvard.edu>
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2009-04-10 RESEARCH SPOTLIGHT: Meteorites on Automobiles
This month's specially selected study describes the likelihood of
meetups. The paper is:
"The Expected Frequency of Collisions of Small Meteorites with
Cars and Aircraft," A. Poveda, Planetary and Space Science, vol.
47, no. 5, May 11th, 1999, pp. 715-9. <http://tinyurl.com/c8t7dg>
(Thanks to Rocio Ortiz-Espitia for bringing this to our
attention.) The authors, at Ciudad Universitaria, Mˇxico, report:
"The expected frequency of collisions of a car with a meteorite
larger than 10 cm in diameter turns out to be one impact every 16
years."
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2009-04-11 OTHER IMPROBABILITIES: Swear Words, Angry Public
Improbable TV Collections
<http://improbable.com/tv/>
Collection #117, "Swear Words," looks at the lengthiest — and
most adventure-packed — spoken oath commonly required of
witnesses in a formal legal trial
Blog Items:
<http://improbable.com/>
<> Dealing With an Angry Public
<> Troy on the march
<> Ingesting — Knowledge
<> Damm for (or against) the defense
<> Sweden, shoes, floors, and the brain
And many more...
Newspaper Columns:
<http://tinyurl.com/6o348d>
<> The Limerick laureate
<> Beware: studying can make you ill
<> A stiff test for the history books
<> Pirates and other economists
<> Smelly chemicals in your mouth
<> Going to great lengths for swear words
New Luxuriant Flowing Hair Club for Scientists Members:
<http://tinyurl.com/25lmfb>
<> Kris Coward
<> Michael A. Cohn
<> Adina Welander
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2009-04-12 MAY WE RECOMMEND: Sex, Violence & Angry Prosody
SEX AND VIOLENCE IN HERMAPHRODITES
"Sex and Violence in Hermaphrodites," N.K. Michiels and L.J.
Newman, Nature, vol. 391, no. 6668, 1998, p. 647.
<http://tinyurl.com/dmvera> (Thanks to Joni Johnson for bringing
this to our attention.)
ANGRY PROSODY IN MEANINGLESS SPEECH
"The Voices of Wrath: Brain Responses to Angry Prosody in
Meaningless Speech," D. Grandjean, et al., Nature Neuroscience,
vol. 8, no. 2, 2005, pp. 145-6.
<http://labnic.unige.ch/nic/papers/EmoAttVoices_NN2005.pdf>
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2009-04-13 Improbable Research Events
For details and additional events, see
<http://improbable.com/improbable-research-shows/complete-schedule>
Ig Nobel Tour of Denmark — Apr 22-25, 2009
Cambridge (MA) Science Festival — May 2, 2009
CSE, Pittsburgh, PA — May 4, 2009
Carnegie Mellon U, Pittsburgh — May 6, 2009
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2009-04-14 -- How to Subscribe to AIR (*)
The Annals of Improbable Research is a 6-issues-per-year
magazine. (It's bigger and better than the little bits of
overflow material you've been reading in this newsletter). The
online version is at <http://www.improbable.com/magazine/>.
To subscribe to the paper-and-ink version, go to
<http://improbable.com/subscribe/> or send in this form:
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Send payment (US bank check, or international money order, or
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2009-04-15 -- 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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2009-04-16 -- 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.
------------- 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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2009-04-17 -- 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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To subscribe or unsubscribe, please visit
<http://chem.harvard.edu/mailman/listinfo/mini-air>
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