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

February 2013, issue number 2013-02. 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/2013/mini2013-02.htm>

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

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2013-02-01 TABLE OF CONTENTS

2013-02-02 Imminent Events

2013-02-03 In the Magazine: Special Sloths & Vampires Issue

2013-02-04 RESEARCH SPOTLIGHT: Pain, Surgery, Pain, the Feather

2013-02-05 Tivol's Chocolate/Cat Question

2013-02-06 Ig Nobel shows in Scandinavia & UK

2013-02-07 Gebrauchsmusterschrift Limerick Competition

2013-02-08 Fraud Brainstorming Poet

2013-02-09 MORE IMPROBABLE: The Lady's Tongue; He Who Watched Them Eat

2013-02-10 MAY WE RECOMMEND: Sweet Feathers versus Bitter Feathers

2013-02-11 Improbable Research Events

2013-02-12 -- How to Get the Magazine (*)

2013-02-13 -- Our Address (*)

2013-02-14 -- Please Forward/Post This Issue! (*)

2013-02-15 -- How to start or stop receiving this newsletter (*)

Items marked (*) are reprinted in every issue.

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2013-02-02 Imminent Events

Scandinavia tour March 4-7, 2013

UK tour March 15-April 7, 2013

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

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2013-02-03 In the Magazine: Special Sloths & Vampires Issue

The special Sloths & Vampires issue of the Annals of Improbable Research is now out as an e-book, and also in traditional paper-and-ink form:

<http://goo.gl/ltrhM>

All issues of the magazine: <http://www.improbable.com/magazine>

Download a FREE E-BOOK ISSUE, at <http://goo.gl/BMzMw>

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2013-02-04 RESEARCH SPOTLIGHT: Pain, Surgery, Pain, the Feather

This month's research spotlights pain, then surgery, then pain, then the discovery of a feather:

"Duodenal perforation caused by a bird feather," Manash Ranjan Sahoo, Anil Kumar, BMJ Case Reports, 2013. <http://goo.gl/anMPs>

The authors, at S.C.B Medical College, Cuttack, Odisha, India, report:

"Ingestion of gastrointestinal (GI) foreign bodies represents a challenging clinical scenario.... We present a case of duodenal perforation caused by a bird feather. A 64-year-old man was presented with abdominal pain for 4 days.... Exploratory laparotomy showed purulent fluid, but no definite site of perforation could be found. So the abdomen was closed with a drain in Morison's pouch.... He came for a repeat check-up at 4 weeks with dull aching pain in the upper abdomen and was advised for a routine upper GI endoscopy which revealed a feather penetrating the first part of the duodenum, which was removed with a foreign body removing forceps. GI foreign bodies represent a significant problem and an increased level of suspicion is important for timely diagnosis and treatment."

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2013-02-05 Tivol's Chocolate/Cat Question

Investigator Bill Tivol writes:

"These two citations from January's mini-AIR beg the question:

Does cat dissection reduce chocolate craving? I would guess yes."

Those citations, again, are:

"Use of a Clay Modeling Task to Reduce Chocolate Craving," J. Andrade, et al., Appetite, vol. 58, no. 3, June 2012, pp. 955-63. <http://goo.gl/vcLNU>

"Learning Outcomes and Student-Perceived Value of Clay Modeling and Cat Dissection in Undergraduate Human Anatomy and Physiology," M.E. DeHoff, et al., Advances in Physiology Education, March 2011, vol. 35, no. 1, pp. 68-75. <http://goo.gl/2i8hV>

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2013-02-06 Ig Nobel shows in Scandinavia & UK

Lots of Improbable Research shows happening in Europe in March and April. Ig Nobel Prize winners and other improbable researchers are preparing and hyperventilating, and soon will be assembling.

Topics include (in numerous combinations):

Green hair in Swedes, blushing in the dark, scrotal asymmetry in man and ancient sculpture, homosexual necrophiliac ducks, physics of ponytails, the friendliness or friendlessness of hens, genotypes and deodorant use, why a man ate ants repeatedly for science, effect of swearing on pain relief, canine tail-chasing, extremely bad poetry, pasta's role in research on superconductivity, and more — including, possibly, a medical perspective on kilts.

DENMARK AARHUS, ODENSE, COPENHAGEN

March 4-7

Details: <http://goo.gl/CWEOs>

SWEDEN STOCKHOLM, at The Karolinska Institute

March 11

Details: <http://goo.gl/CWEOs>

THE UK LONDON, NOTTINGHAM, SWANSEA and

OTHER CITIES TO BE ANNOUNCED

March 15 - April 7

Details: <http://goo.gl/ShrmK>

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

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2013-02-07 Gebrauchsmusterschrift Limerick Competition

Gebrauchsmusterschrift inspires this month's limerick competition. To enter, compose an original limerick that illuminates the nature of both this patent and this abstract:

"Gebrauchsmusterschrift" ["Rasp for animal hooves and claws is cup-shaped and is mounted on driving tool which rotates it, holes in its sides with raised lips producing rasping effect"] German patent 202006008502, issued to Ralf Bartko and D.E. Dohma, September 21, 2006.

<http://www.patent-de.com/pdf/DE202006008502U1.pdf>

AND

"Two-step biogas reactor for the fermentation of liquid manure and biogas production," B. Brachthaeuser, Gebrauchsmusterschrift DE 20,219,144 (Cl. C12M1/107), 15 May 2003, Appl. 20,219,144. (In German), Fuel and Energy Abstracts, Volume 45, Issue 1, January 2004, Page 37.

LINK: <http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6701(04)91518-4>

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

GEBRAUCHSMUSTERSCHRIFT LIMERICK COMPETITION

c/o <marca@improbable.com>

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2013-02-08 Fraud Brainstorming Poet

The judges have chosen a winner for last month's Fraud Brainstorming Limerick Competition, which asked for a limerick to honor the study "Auditors' Use of Brainstorming in the Consideration of Fraud: Reports from the Field," J Brazel, et al., The Accounting Review, vol. 85, no. 4, 2010, pp. 1273-1301. <http://goo.gl/ApUh2>

The winner is the team of INVESTIGATORS PAUL BARNETT and JOHN GRANT, who write:

I say, don't you think it quite aud

They use brainstorming now to find fraud?

One obvious terror:

The margin of error

Is huge if the data are flaud.

From LIMERICK LAUREATE MARTIN EIGER (weighing in twice):

Auditors audit for fraud.

Their methods are varied and broad.

Academics enlist

To research and assist,

But the methods the use may be flawed.

Noble auditor, you, we applaud,

Though sometimes your methods are flawed.

When questions you ask

Aren't up to the task,

Your brainstorming ferrets out fraud.

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2013-02-09 MORE IMPROBABLE: The Lady's Tongue; He Who Watched Them Eat

Recent improbable bits you maybe missed:

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

<> Nadia Anastasia Saif <http://www.improbable.com/2013/02/15/nadia-anastasia-saif-joins-lfhcfs/>

<> Katriona (Tiger) Bradley <http://goo.gl/CUqfk>

<> Lindsay Porter <http://goo.gl/JvpW7>

IMPROBABLE BLOG:

<> Report of a lady who used her tongue to good medical effect

<http://goo.gl/I9GjC>

<> Involuntary Hippophagia (multiple reports thereof)

<http://goo.gl/Ofi3u>

<> Behind the left-leaning Eiffel Tower experiment

<http://goo.gl/h5noO>

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

IMPROBABLE NEWSPAPER COLUMN:

<> The lodger who watched them eat <http://goo.gl/UtLJt>

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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2013-02-10 MAY WE RECOMMEND: Sweet Feathers versus Bitter Feathers

"Responses to Sweet and Bitter Tasting Feathers in Laying Hens,"

A. Harlander-Matauschek, F. Wassermann and W. Bessei, Proceedings of the 42th International Congress of the ISAE, 2008, p. 22. <http://goo.gl/uW7eU>

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2013-02-10 Improbable Research Events

For details and additional events, see

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

Ig Nobel Tour of Denmark — Mar 4-7 2013

Karolinska Institute, Stockholm - Mar 11, 2013

Ig Nobel Tour of the UK — Mar 15 - Apr 7

British Festival of Neuroscience, London — Apr 7, 2013

Story Collider, Cambridge, Massachusetts — Apr 24, 2013

TEDx CERN, Geneva, Switzerland — May 3 2013

*** Ig Nobel Tickets will go on sale in mid-summer ***

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

Ig Informal Lectures, MIT — Sep 14, 2013

Science Friday (NPR) — almost every month

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2013-02-11 -- How to Get the Magazine (*)

The Annals of Improbable Research is a 6-issues-per-year magazine. (It's much bigger and better than the little bits in this newsletter.)

We produce each issue as an e-book, as well as on traditional paper.

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

DOWNLOAD A FREE E-BOOK ISSUE: <http://goo.gl/BMzMw>

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2013-02-12 -- Our Address (*)

Annals of Improbable Research (AIR)

PO Box 380853, Cambridge, MA 02238 USA

(+1) 617-491-4437, FAX: (+1) 617-661-0927

EDITORIAL: <marca@improbable.com>

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

Twitter: @ImprobResearch

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2013-02-13 -- 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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2013-02-13 -- How to start or stop receiving this newsletter (*)

Mini-AIR is a (free!) teeny-tiny monthly *supplement* to the actual six-times-a-year magazine AIR.

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