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

January 2010, issue number 2010-01. 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/2010/mini2010-01.htm>

Archive at <http://improbable.com/airchives/miniair/>

Key words: improbable research, science humor, Ig Nobel, AIR, the

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2010-01-01 TABLE OF CONTENTS

2010-01-02 Imminent Events

2010-01-03 The Magazine: Delayed Issue, Imminent Planes

2010-01-04 The Club for Bald Scientists

2010-01-05 Nature Loves a Mystery

2010-01-06 Ig in San Diego Feb 19

2010-01-07 Blog Burgeoning

2010-01-08 RESEARCH SPOTLIGHT: Mediocrity in the Hedges

2010-01-09 Mad Honey Sex Poet

2010-01-10 Four-Horodecki Entanglement Competition

2010-01-11 Big Bank Theory and the Big Bank Opera

2010-01-12 MORE IMPROBABLE: Potheads, Gaga, Combs, & Epithets

2010-01-13 MAY WE RECOMMEND: Do Dogs Do Calculus?

2010-01-14 Improbable Research Events

2010-01-15 -- How to Subscribe to AIR (*)

2010-01-16 -- Our Address (*)

2010-01-17 -- Please Forward/Post This Issue! (*)

2010-01-18 -- 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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2010-01-02 Imminent Events

AAAS, San Diego Feb 19, 2010

UK Tour Mar 12-21, 2010

Newcastle, Dundee, Portsmouth, London

DETAILS: <http://bit.ly/8lKeHd>

If your institution, too, would like to host a show,

please get in touch with us ASAP!

Complete events schedule: <http://bit.ly/6SGDcA>

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2010-01-03 The Magazine: Delayed Issue, Imminent Planes

The special Ig Nobel issue of the magazine got stuck at the

printer. Something went very wrong there. We've been told the

magazine finally did go into the mail yesterday. US subscribers

should be receiving it over the next few days, subscribers

elsewhere after a lilting snail-mail delay.

We apologize for this delay. We and the printer will work hard to

keep such a thing from happening again. The Jan/Feb issue, the

special Beards & Bagels & Paper Airplanes issue, should be making

its way into the world, more timely-ly a few weeks from now.

Read many back issues online at:

<http://www.improbable.com/magazine/>.

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2010-01-04 The Club for Bald Scientists

Bald scientists now have a place of their own.

The Luxuriant Former Hair Club for Scientists (LFHCfS) is a club

for scientists who have a luxuriant head of former hair.

LFHCfS is a conjoined-twin organization to the Luxuriant Flowing

Hair Club for Scientists (LFHCfS). The two clubs share their

acronym, in heady exhilaration.

Henceforth, scientists who have lots of hair and scientists who

had lots of hair can rejoice together, and bask in universal

admiration.

Mitch Dushay become the first member of the Luxuriant Former Hair

Club for Scientists. See Mitch and his head at

<http://improbable.com/2010/01/10/mitch-dushay-joins-lfhcfs>

And see new Luxuriant Flowing Hair Club for Scientists member

Joanne Manaster and her hair at

<http://improbable.com/2010/01/13/joanne-manaster-joins-jfhcfs>

Want to join LFHCfS? Here's how:

<http://improbable.com/projects/hair/#HowToJoin>

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2010-01-05 Nature Loves a Mystery

Nature magazine (in the person of Katharine Sanderson) has joined

us (and gone beyond us) in trying to solve the mystery of

Scientific Research Publishing, a journals publisher that

presents old studies as if they are new. Here's Nature's report

(which requires a subscription):

<http://www.nature.com/news/2010/100113/full/463148a.html>

For background, see

<http://improbable.com/2010/01/07/strange-journals-scam-update-2>

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2010-01-06 Ig in San Diego Feb 19

Two new Ig Nobel Prize winners and two past Ig winners will

headline the show at the AAAS Annual Meeting next month.

Topics include: invention of the emergency bra/facemask; 60 years

of knuckle-cracking; string inevitably tangling itself into

knots; romantic love being biochemically indistinguishable from

obsessive-compulsive disorder; a Ph.D dancing her dissertation;

the history of how Murphy's Law got its name; and a physician's

appreciation of objects found in her patients' rectums.

The show is at the San Diego Marriott Hotel and Marina, in the

Seaview Room, Friday night, Feb 19, starting at 8:00. This event

(unlike most of the AAAS meeting) will be open to the public,

free. Bring friends, and get there early. It always overflows.

See the lineup at <http://improbable.com/improbable-research-shows/complete-schedule/>

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2010-01-07 Blog Burgeoning

You can now write comments on the Improbable blog

<http://improbable.com>. Thanks to the many of you who patiently

(and in a few cases not so patiently) suggested it.

And we're posting more items every day.

And some impressively new Improbable bloggers are joining the

mix, beginning with Martin Gardiner. Martin is the founder of

Really Magazine; he is also our Buenos Aires Desk Chief. Other

Improbable bloggers will be leaping in soon.

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2010-01-08 RESEARCH SPOTLIGHT: Mediocrity in the Hedges

This month's specially selected study is:

"How Smart Are the Smart Guys? A Unique View from Hedge Fund

Stock Holdings," John M. Griffin and Jin Xu, SSRN research

924242, March 2007. <http://bit.ly/74Isy2> The authors, at the

University of Texas at Austin, report:

"We provide the first comprehensive examination of hedge funds'

long-equity positions and the performance of these stock

holdings.... Overall, our study raises serious questions about

the proficiency of hedge fund managers."

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2010-01-09 Mad Honey Sex Poet

The judges have chosen a winner in the Mad Honey Sex Limerick

Competition, which asked for a limerick to honor the study "Mad

Honey Sex: Therapeutic Misadventures From an Ancient Biological

Weapon," Ahmet Demircan, et al., Annals of Emergency Medicine,

2009. <http://bit.ly/7OgfWn>

The winner is INVESTIGATOR LESLIE ROSENBLOOD, who wrote:

Alternative "doctors" use honey

To part middle aged men from their money.

"It's not poison," they say,

"You'll have sex every day!"

As though fainting and barfing were funny.

Here's the offering from LIMERICK LAUREATE MARTIN EIGER:

It wasn't for love or for money,

I had me some badass mad honey.

The sex was fantastic,

Orgasmic and spastic.

The symptoms thereafter? Not funny.

The judges note that the honey/money/funny troika figured in more

than half the submitted entries. See some of the runners-up at

<http://improbable.com/2010/01/21/mad-honey-runners-up>

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2010-01-10 Four-Horodecki Entanglement Competition

Quantum entanglement and four Horodeckis inspire this month's

limerick competition. To enter, compose an original limerick that

illuminates the nature of this report (suggested by investigators

David F. Austin and David Pendlebury):

"Quantum Entanglement," Ryszard Horodecki, Pawel Horodecki,

Michal Horodecki and Karol Horodecki, Reviews of Modern Physics,

vol. 81, no. 2, 2009, pp. 865-942. <http://bit.ly/4ENWEo> The

authors, at the University of Gdansk, Poland, report:

"All our former experience with application of quantum theory

seems to say that what is predicted by quantum formalism must

occur in the laboratory.... However, it appears that this new

resource is complex and difficult to detect.... The basic role of

entanglement witnesses in detection of entanglement is

emphasized."

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, perhaps entangled, high-res PDF

issue of the Annals of Improbable Research. Send entries (one

entry per entrant) to:

FOUR-HORODECKI ENTANGLEMENT LIMERICK COMPETITION

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

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2010-01-11 Big Bank Theory and the Big Bank Opera

We've made a nicely edited (and captioned) video version of "The

Big Bank Opera." The 4-act mini-opera premiered at the recent Ig

Nobel Prize ceremony. (Act 3 is the epic song "The Big Bank

Theory.")

The opera stars Maria Ferrante, Ben Sears, and Branden Grimmett.

Supporting cast, in non-singing roles, includes: Benoit

Mandelbrot, Stephen Wolfram, John Barrett, Wade Adams; Nobel

laureates Rich Roberts, Wolfgang Ketterle, Dudley Herschbach,

Paul Krugman, Roy Glauber, Frank Wilczek, Martin Chalfie, Orhan

Pamuk, and William Lipscomb; and many Ig Nobel Prize winners.

Watch it at <http://improbable.com/2010/01/08/the-big-bank-opera-video>

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2010-01-12 MORE IMPROBABLE: Potheads, Gaga, Combs & Epithets

BLOG <http://improbable.com/>

<> Teapots of human heads

<> Downside of coffee enemas

<> Thanotourism

<> 2 equations: GA GA & Lady Gaga

And many more...

NEWSPAPER <http://improbable.com/category/newspaper-column>

<> Expletives of lower working-class women

<> Ministry of clowns

<> Forceful hair-combing measured

<> He watches hands not being washed

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2010-01-13 MAY WE RECOMMEND: Do Dogs Do Calculus?

"Do Dogs Know Calculus?" Timothy J. Pennings, College Mathematics

Journal, vol. 34, no. 3, May 2003, pp. 178-82.

<http://bit.ly/8oA0e9>

"Dogs Don't Need Calculus," Michael Bolt and Daniel C. Isaksen,

College Mathematics Journal, Volume 41, Number 1, January 2010,

pp. 10-16. <http://bit.ly/6ORX8o>

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2010-01-14 Improbable Research Events

For details and additional events, see

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

AAAS, San Diego — Feb 19, 2010

UK Tour — Mar 2010

UKSG, Edinburgh — Apr 14, 2010

Edinburgh Science Festival — Apr 17, 2010

Ig Nobel Sweden/Denmark Tour — Apr 2010

Cambridge (MA) Science Festival — date TBA

Ig Nobel Prize ceremony — Sep 30, 2010

Ig Informal Lectures — Oct 2, 2010

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2010-01-15 -- 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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Name:

Address:

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Phone: FAX: E-mail:

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SUBSCRIPTIONS (6 issues per year):

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Overseas 1 yr/$59 US 2 yrs/$109 US

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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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2010-01-16 -- 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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2010-01-17 -- 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

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2010-01-18 -- 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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To subscribe or unsubscribe, please visit

<http://chem.harvard.edu/mailman/listinfo/mini-air>

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