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

November 2012, issue number 2012-11. 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/2012/mini2012-11.htm>

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

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2012-11-01 TABLE OF CONTENTS

2012-11-02 Imminent Events

2012-11-03 Ig Nobel Issue Aborning (magazine)

2012-11-04 RESEARCH SPOTLIGHT: Bohr, Bohm, Born Before Born

2012-11-05 Digested Domestic Sludge Limerick Competition

2012-11-06 Brain-in-Wrestlers Poet

2012-11-07 MORE IMPROBABLE: Doctor Kool, Bat, Cereal, Rubbish

2012-11-08 MAY WE RECOMMEND: Grimm's Device for Upsetting and Crimping

2012-11-09 Improbable Research Events

2012-11-10 -- How to Subscribe to the Magazine (*)

2012-11-11 -- Our Address (*)

2012-11-12 -- Please Forward/Post This Issue! (*)

2012-11-13 -- How to Receive mini-AIR, etc. (*)

Items marked (*) are reprinted in every issue.

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2012-11-02 Imminent Events

Ig Nobel on Science Friday (NPR) — Nov 23, 2012

Infinite Monkey Cage (BBC) — Nov 26, 2012

Congress of Science & Factual Producers — Nov 28, 2012

Harvard School of Engineering & Appl Sci — Dec 7, 2012

Full schedule at <http://goo.gl/tzwJt>

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2012-11-03 Ig Nobel Issue Aborning (magazine)

This year's special Ig Nobel issue of the magazine is in prep, and will be emerging soon.

Read back issues online, and/or subscribe to the fully tangible paper version, at: <http://www.improbable.com/magazine/>.

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2012-11-04 RESEARCH SPOTLIGHT: Bohr, Bohm, Born Before Born

This month's research spotlight aims at Bohm, Born, and all the buzz about quantum mechanics:

"Would Bohr Be Born If Bohm Were Born Before Born?" Hrvoje Nikolić, American Journal of Physics, vol. 76, no. 2, February 2008, pp. 143-6. <http://arxiv.org/abs/physics/0702069> (Thanks to investigator Tom Roberts for bringing this to our attention.) The author, at Rudjer Bošković Institute, Zagreb, Croatia, explains:

"The Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics was the first interpretation of quantum mechanics that achieved significant recognition among physicists. It was proposed very early by the developers of quantum mechanics, especially Bohr and Heisenberg. Later, many other interpretations of quantum mechanics were proposed...

I argue... that if some historical circumstances had been slightly different, it would have been very likely that the Bohm deterministic interpretation would have been proposed and accepted first. Consequently, this interpretation would be dominant today."

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2012-11-05 Digested Domestic Sludge Limerick Competition

Digested Domestic Sludge inspires this month's limerick competition. To enter, compose an original limerick that illuminates the nature of this report:

"Experimental Program For Unwatering Digested Domestic Sewage Sludge Under Plant Conditions," M. Tamas, Hidrologiai Kozlony, vol. 52, no. 11, November 1972, pp. 489-95. <http://goo.gl/jfLKS> Tamas reports:

"Plans for an experimental sludge dewatering installation serving at domestic waste water treatment plants in Hungary are described."

PRIZE: The winning poet will receive (if we manage to send it to the correct address) a free (and conceivably digested), hi-res PDF issue of the Annals of Improbable Research. Send your limerick to:

DIGESTED DOMESTIC SLUDGE LIMERICK COMPETITION

c/o <marca@improbable.com>

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2012-11-06 Brain-in-Wrestlers Poet

The judges have chosen a winner in last month's Brain-in-Wrestlers Limerick Competition, which asked for a limerick to honor the study "Changes in the Functional Asymmetry of the Brain in Wrestlers" <http://goo.gl/KyeEc>.

The winner is (again) INVESTIGATOR PATRICK McKEON, who writes:

If you wrestle, your brain symmetry

Is not what it really should be.

But consider the worst:

The imbalance came first,

And the wrestling's the symptom you see.

From LIMERICK LAUREATE MARTIN EIGER:

Professional wrestlers pound

Their bodies and heads to the ground.

In the short term, there's pain.

In the longer term, brain

Asymmetries often are found.

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2012-11-07 MORE IMPROBABLE: Doctor Kool, Bat, Cereal, Rubbish

Recent improbable bits you may or may not have missed:

NEW MEMBERS of the Luxuriant Flowing Hair Club for Scientists (LFHCfS):

<> Doctor Kool (Anneleen Kool) <http://goo.gl/4kExT>

<> Kurt Verkest <http://goo.gl/Cr8Cf>

IMPROBABLE BLOG:

<> Die Fledermaus in the breakfast cereal

<http://goo.gl/r1Qd6>

<> Wild house mouse music

<http://goo.gl/dFjOI>

<> It's not just chocolate

<http://goo.gl/UrtNH>

... and more at <http://improbable.com>

IMPROBABLE NEWSPAPER COLUMN:

<> Experiments show we quickly adjust to seeing everything upside-down

<http://goo.gl/zro8H>

<> When an economist talks rubbish

<http://goo.gl/e5sa4>

<> Medico-legal disagreement about nipples

<http://goo.gl/xnlg3>

... and more at <http://improbable.com/category/newspaper-column>

NEW BOOK: "This Is Improbable" <http://goo.gl/brcd8>

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

twitter: @ImprobResearch, @IgNobel

facebook: <http://www.facebook.com/improbableresearch>

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2012-11-08 MAY WE RECOMMEND: Grimm's Device for Upsetting and Crimping

"Grimm's Device for Upsetting and Crimping," Arnd Grimm et al., international patent application PCT/EP2005/012902, February 5, 2005.

LINK: <http://goo.gl/9Avh2>

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2012-11-09 Improbable Research Events

For details and additional events, see

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

Ig Nobel on Science Friday (NPR) — Nov 23, 2012

Infinite Monkey Cage (BBC) — Nov 26, 2012

Congress of Science & Factual Producers — Nov 28, 2012

Harvard SEAS — Dec 7, 2012

ARISIA, Boston — Jan 19, 2013

AAAS Annual Meeting, Boston, USA — Feb 16, 2013

Ig Nobel Tour of the UK — Mar 2013

Ig Nobel Tour of Scandinavia — Mar 2013

Events in France — Apr 2013

British Festival of Neuroscience, London — Apr 7, 2013

2013 Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony, Harvard — Sep 12, 2013

Ig Informal Lectures, MIT — Sep 14, 2013

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2012-11-10 -- How to Subscribe to the Magazine (*)

The Annals of Improbable Research is a 6-issues-per-year magazine. (It's much bigger, and maybe 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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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 <subscriptions@improbable.com>

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2012-11-11 -- Our Address (*)

Annals of Improbable Research (AIR)

PO Box 380853, Cambridge, MA 02238 USA

617-491-4437 FAX:617-661-0927

EDITORIAL: marca@improbable.com

SUBSCRIPTIONS: subscriptions@improbable.com

Web Site and blog: <http://www.improbable.com>

Twitter: @ImprobResearch

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2012-11-12 -- 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

CO-CONSPIRATORS: Kees Moeliker, Alice Shirrell Kaswell, Gary Dryfoos, Ernest Ersatz, Stephen Drew

MAITRE DE COMPUTATION: Jerry Lotto

AUTHORITY FIGURES: Nobel Laureates Dudley Herschbach, Sheldon Glashow, Richard Roberts

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

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2012-11-13 -- How to Receive mini-AIR, etc. (*)

Mini-AIR is a (free!) tiny monthly *supplement* to the bi-monthly print magazine AIR.

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To subscribe or unsubscribe, please visit <http://chem.harvard.edu/mailman/listinfo/mini-air>

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