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The mini-Annals of Improbable Research ("mini-AIR")
December 2009, issue number 2009-12. ISSN 1076-500X.
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Monthly mini update/alert from the Annals of Improbable Research
This issue is at
<http://www.improbable.com/airchives/miniair/2009/mini2009-12.htm>
Archive at <http://improbable.com/airchives/miniair/>
Key words: improbable research, science humor, Ig Nobel, AIR, the
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2009-12-01 TABLE OF CONTENTS
2009-11-02 Imminent Events
2009-12-03 The Magazine: Ig
2009-12-04 Horrors Over Trinkaus Sanitizer Discovery
2009-12-05 Challenge: Memorize the Human Genome
2009-12-06 Ig Video, at Last
2009-12-08 Please Stop. I'm Bored. In a Cup.
2009-12-08 RESEARCH SPOTLIGHT: Santa Disappoints, Again
2009-12-09 Plasma Blobs Poet
2009-12-10 Mad Honey Sex Competition
2009-12-11 AIRhead Project 2000 — Ten Years Later
2009-12-12 MORE IMPROBABLE: Dances, Whistles, Rat-Catchers
2009-12-13 MAY WE RECOMMEND: Buttons, Fear, and Love
2009-12-14 Improbable Research Events
2009-12-15 -- How to Subscribe to AIR (*)
2009-12-16 -- Our Address (*)
2009-12-17 -- Please Forward/Post This Issue! (*)
2009-12-18 -- 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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2009-11-02 Imminent Events
AAAS, San Diego Feb 2010
UK Tour Mar 2010
If your institution would like to host a UK show,
please get in touch with us ASAP!
DETAILS: <http://bit.ly/8lKeHd>
Complete events schedule: <http://bit.ly/6SGDcA>
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2009-12-03 The Magazine: Ig
The next issue (vol. 15, no. 6) of the Annals of Improbable
Research is the special Ig Nobel issue, chock full o' photos and
info. It will emerge late this month.
Many back issues are online at
<http://www.improbable.com/magazine/>.
GIVE THE GIFT OF IMPROBABLE RESEARCH:
a subscription to the magazine (six issues a year!) creates
a moving experience for anyone who like to read in the loo.
<http://improbable.com/subscribe>
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2009-12-04 Horrors Over Trinkaus Sanitizer Discovery
An outfit called GOJO, which says it is the inventor of Purell
hand sanitizer, rings alarm bells with its announcement that
"hand hygiene compliance is a critical safety issue that's vital
for accreditation, reputation and financial health."
<http://bit.ly/7HVCSq>
That warning renders John Trinkaus's discovery all the more
disturbing. As reported here last month, Professor Trinkaus, an
Ig Nobel Prize winner who is easily annoyed, examined the hand-
sanitizing behavior of patients and medical professionals who
entered a New York-area medical building.
His study is about to appear in AIR 16:6.
See a preprint (PDF) at <http://bit.ly/51IHNl>
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2009-12-05 Challenge: Memorize the Human Genome
Biologists, rise to the challenge! You count, too!
The publication of the human genome makes it possible for
biologists to breast-beatingly compete with mathematicians.
Loads of people vie to memorize the most digits of the number pi
(the ratio of a circle's circumference to its diameter). Several
people boast of reciting, from memory, in the correct order, tens
upon thousands of digits. For a list of record-claimers, see
<http://bit.ly/74GUgK>.
Biologists, arise! Pi is of infinite length, true, but the human
genome has about three billion base pairs. It will be a while
before the pi spouters reach that neighborhood.
And true, one person's genome is a little different from
another's, but that's just a technicality.
(One way to the problem: Specify that genome pioneer Craig
Ventor's genome is the only one that counts. No one else's genome
is the subject of a tribute song. See <http://bit.ly/6HMuA5>.)
This wonderfully pointless exercise — reciting the human base
pairs, from memory — can delight persons of a certain personality
type. Acclaim is something they count on.
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2009-12-06 Ig Video, at Last
After several exciting false starts, video of the 2009 Ig Nobel
Prize ceremony is now online, in four parts:
Part 1: Pre-show Risk Cabaret Concert by The Penny-wise Guys, and
the very, very beginning of the ceremony.
Part 2: Lots of introductions. Several past winners return.
Benoit Mandelbrot's keynote address.
Part 3: Awarding of several prizes. First two acts of the mini-
opera. The 24/7 Lectures.
Part 4: [which will appear after we solve one last glitch]:
Awarding of the rest of the prizes. Win-a-Date contest. Thrilling
conclusion of the mini-opera.
See part 1 (and links to the others) at
<http://vimeo.com/7911519/>
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2009-12-07 Please Stop. I'm Bored. In a Cup.
By popular request, in honor of Miss Sweety Poo, we have created
a "Please stop / I'm bored" mug: <http://bit.ly/6HitLl>
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2009-12-08 RESEARCH SPOTLIGHT: Santa Disappoints, Again
This month's specially selected study is:
"Visiting Santa: A Supplemental View," John Trinkaus,
Psychological Reports, vol. 103, no. 3, December 2008, pp. 691-4.
<http://bit.ly/4Cwl9X> The 2003 Ig Nobel literature Prize winner
gives yet another in his series of studies on this topic:
"Four recent informal successive yearly enquiries of the emotions
of 1,050 children (total) immediately before their visit with
Santa Claus at a shopping mall suggested that about 80% displayed
facial expressions, judged by an observer, as indicating
indifference. To investigate possible change in emotions of
children immediately after their visit with Santa, this study was
conducted in 2007. Of the 280 exiting children observed, about
60% appeared to be indifferent."
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2009-12-09 Plasma Blobs Poet
The judges have chosen a winner in the Colliding Plasma Blobs
Limerick Competition, which asked for a limerick to honor the
study "Cusp Compression of Colliding Plasma Blobs," T. K. Allen,
K. Doble, T. J. L. Jones, R. M. Payne, and I. J. Spalding,
Physics of Fluids, vol. 9, July 1966, pp. 1394-.
<http://bit.ly/5MXKRT>
The winner is INVESTIGATOR DANIEL STERMAN, who wrote:
"Two plasmas do one plasma yield
When compressed by a rising cusp field.
But the hole they contain
We cannot yet explain,"
Messrs Allen and Doble revealed.
Commendation goes to INVESTIGATOR STEVEN HALL, who says:
That Spalding, Payne, Jones, Allen, Doble
Discovered a squeezed plasma blob 'll
Give quite a surprise,
Because the hole size
Is fixed by the charge or shield wobble.
Here's the offering from LIMERICK LAUREATE MARTIN EIGER:
What happens when plasmas collide?
A new plasma blob is espied.
The data suggest
It's hot and compressed.
This paper explains what's inside.
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2009-12-10 Mad Honey Sex Competition
Mad honey sex inspires this month's limerick competition. To
enter, compose an original limerick that illuminates the nature
of this report (suggested by investigator Sally Shelton):
"Mad Honey Sex: Therapeutic Misadventures From an Ancient
Biological Weapon," Ahmet Demircan, Ayfer Kele_, Fikret Bildik,
GŸlbin Aygencel, N.…zgŸr Do_an, Hern‡n F. G—mez, Annals of
Emergency Medicine, 2009. <http://bit.ly/7OgfWn> The authors,
some in Turkey, some in the US, report:
"'Mad honey' poisoning occurs from ingestion of honey produced
from grayanotoxin-containing nectar, often in the setting of use
as an alternative medicine. This study is designed to assess the
clinical effects, demographics, and rationale behind self-induced
mad honey poisoning.... We identified 21 cases. Patients were
overwhelmingly men. Local beekeepers ranked sexual performance
enhancement as the most common reason for therapeutic mad honey
consumption in men aged 41 through 60 years. Symptoms began 1.0
hour after ingestion and included dizziness, nausea, vomiting,
and syncope."
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, honey-free, high-res PDF issue of
the Annals of Improbable Research. Send entries (one entry per
entrant) to:
MAD HONEY SEX LIMERICK COMPETITION
c/o <marca AT chem2.harvard.edu>
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2009-12-11 AIRhead Project 2000 — Ten Years Later
Ten years ago, people quivered as the year 2000 approached. Let's
look back, perhaps fondly, at Project AIRhead 2000. Announced in
the June 1994 issue of mini-AIR, the project celebrated every
item, project or concept that had the number 2000 tacked onto its
name in giddy anticipation of the coming millennium
See the first of these tributes, celebrating the "Biomek 2000
Laboratory Automation Workstation", and "Lever 2000 soap", and
"2000 Flushes automatic toilet bowl cleaner", at
<http://bit.ly/6YSXzK>
If you have a special, special favorite, sent it in and we will,
maybe, commemorate it.
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2009-12-12 MORE IMPROBABLE: Dances, Whistles, Rat-Catchers
BLOG <http://improbable.com/>
<> Lap dance research officer sought
<> Lamentable deer-whistle findings
<> Uranium on the cheap
And many more...
NEWSPAPER <http://improbable.com/category/newspaper-column>
<> Early strokes of genius
<> The rat-catcher's art
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2009-12-13 MAY WE RECOMMEND: Buttons, Fear, and Love
FASCINATING FASTENER FEAR
"Case Study: Disgust and a Specific Phobia of Buttons," Lissette
M. Saavedra and Wendy K. Silverman, Journal of the American
Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, vol. 41, no .11,
2002, pp. 1376-9 . <http://bit.ly/6Ls6Px> (Thanks to Susanne
Elvidge for bringing this to our attention.)
BIG LOVE WAVES
"Large-Amplitude Love Waves," E. Rodrigues Ferreira, Ph.
Boulanger and M. Destrade, Quarterly Journal of Mechanics and
Applied Mathematics, vol. 61, no. 3, 2008, pp. 353-71.
<http://bit.ly/5QldQV> (Thanks to Stig Wedel for bringing this to
our attention.) The authors are at UniversitŽ Libre de Bruxelles,
Belgium and at UniversitŽ Pierre et Marie Curie, Paris, France.
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2009-12-14 Improbable Research Events
For details and additional events, see
<http://improbable.com/improbable-research-shows/complete-schedule>
AAAS, San Diego — Feb 2010
UK Tour — Mar 2010
UKSG, Edinburgh — Apr 14, 2010
Edinburgh Science Festival — Apr 17, 2010
Ig Nobel European Tour — Apr 2010
Ig Nobel Prize ceremony — Sep 30, 2010
Ig Informal Lectures — Oct 2, 2010
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2009-12-15 -- 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).
To subscribe to the paper-and-ink version, go to
<http://improbable.com/subscribe/> or send in this form:
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SUBSCRIPTIONS (6 issues per year):
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Send payment (US bank check, or international money order, or
Visa, Mastercard or Discover info) to:
Annals of Improbable Research (AIR)
PO Box 380853, Cambridge, MA 02238 USA
617-491-4437 FAX:617-661-0927 <air AT improbable.com>
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2009-12-16 -- 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: subscriptions AT improbable.com
WEB SITE: <http://www.improbable.com>
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2009-12-17 -- Please Forward/Post This Issue! (*)
Please distribute copies of mini-AIR (or excerpts!) wherever
appropriate. The only limitations are: A) Please indicate that
the 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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2009-12-18 -- 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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<http://chem.harvard.edu/mailman/listinfo/mini-air>
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