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

March 2013, issue number 2013-03. 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/mini2013-03.htm>

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

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2013-03-01 TABLE OF CONTENTS

2013-03-02 Imminent Events

2013-03-03 In the Magazine: Sloths & Vampires

2013-03-04 RESEARCH SPOTLIGHT: Music for Underwater Listeners

2013-03-05 Ig Nobel Events in The UK, US, and Switzerland

2013-03-06 Bass-Described Singing Fish Limerick Competition

2013-03-07 Gebrauchsmusterschrift Poet

2013-03-08 MORE IMPROBABLE: Math, Saucy Geese, Coffin Kaboom

2013-03-09 MAY WE RECOMMEND: Musical Bureau Song of a Dried Fish

2013-03-10 Improbable Research Events

2013-03-11 -- How to Get the Magazine (*)

2013-03-12 -- Our Address (*)

2013-03-13 -- Please Forward/Post This Issue! (*)

2013-03-14 -- How to start or stop receiving this newsletter (*)

Items marked (*) are reprinted in every issue.

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2013-03-02 Imminent Events

London, UK April 4, 6, 7

Cambridge, MA, USA April 16

Geneva, Switzerland May 3, 7

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

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2013-03-03 In the Magazine: Sloths & Vampires

Read special Sloths & Vampires issue of the Annals of Improbable Research as an e-book, or 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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2013-03-04 RESEARCH SPOTLIGHT: Music for Underwater Listeners

This month's research spotlights the sending of people undewater to listen to music and the sending of music there for them to listen to:

"Digital Sound Synthesis for Underwater Music Perception," Michel Redolfi and Lee Ray, Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, vol. 74, no. S1, 1983, pp. S18-S18. <http://goo.gl/GCLS7>

The authors explain:

"A piece of original electro‐acoustic music, Sonic Waters II, was created.... Means of transduction of this wide‐band musical work (20 Hz to 16 kHz) for human listeners immersed in water and compensating for changes of such musically significant psychoacoustic cues as depth perception and relative amplitudes of overtones occasioned by the prominence of bone conduction in underwater listening were investigated.... The wavelength of some bass notes exceeded the dimensions of the pool, limiting musically useful propagation of low frequencies due to cancellation and reinforcement of standing waves."

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2013-03-05 Ig Nobel Events in The UK, US, and Switzerland

Lots of Improbable Research events coming up in April and May:

London, Thurs, April 4

Ig Nobel show, Inst of Engineering & Technology

London, Sat, April 6

"101 People To Meet Before You (Or They) Die"

London, Sun, April 7

Neuroscience Festival

Cambridge (MA, USA), Tues, April 16

Storycollider

Geneva, Switzerland

TEDx CERN

Geneva, Switzerland

Ig Nobel show, University of Geneva

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

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2013-03-06 Bass-Described Singing Fish Limerick Competition

Bass and fish, an song, inspire this month's limerick competition. To enter, compose an original limerick that illuminates the nature of this study:

"Seasonal plasticity of auditory hair cell frequency sensitivity correlates with plasma steroid levels in a vocal fish," K.N. Rohmann and Andrew H. Bass, Journal of Experimental Biology, vol. 214, 2011, pp. 1931-1942.

<http://jeb.biologists.org/content/214/11/1931.abstract >

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

BASS FISH SONG LIMERICK COMPETITION

c/o <marca@improbable.com>

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2013-03-07 Gebrauchsmusterschrift Poet

The judges have chosen a winner for last month's Gebrauchsmusterschrift Limerick Competition, which asked for a limerick to honor these invention documents:

"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"]

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

AND

"Two-step biogas reactor for the fermentation of liquid manure and biogas production" <http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6701(04)91518-4>

The winner is RAYMOND RIDENOUR, who write:

The rasp shown on the faded Gebrauchsmusterschrift.

Could help the old horse to trot twice as swift.

And the noise from the tool

Could produce mountains of stool.

Anaerobically-made fuel would be quite the gift.

From LIMERICK LAUREATE MARTIN EIGER:

The rasp grasps the animals' feet.

The reactor treats what they excrete.

Such is the gift

Of Gebrauchsmusterschrift.

It both dents and ferments! Pretty neat!

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2013-03-08 MORE IMPROBABLE: Math, Saucy Geese, Coffin Kaboom

Recent improbable bits you maybe missed:

IMPROBABLE BLOG:

<> A Loving, Applied Mathematical Tribute Across a Generation

<http://goo.gl/j2XsU>

<> Saucy for the Goose, Saucy for the Gander: Fruit Bats

<http://goo.gl/LJTI5>

<> The Coffin Blew Up (and maybe something about why it did)

<http://goo.gl/f2R4v>

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

IMPROBABLE NEWSPAPER COLUMN:

<> Ugly and Pretty Paintings, and Laser Beams, and Swearing

<http://goo.gl/d8ZUl>

twitter: @ImprobResearch, @MarcAbrahams, #IgNobel

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

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

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2013-03-09 MAY WE RECOMMEND: Musical Bureau Song of a Dried Fish

"An Interpretation of Han Musical Bureau Song of a Dried Fish," Songqing Chen, Folklore Studies, vol. 2, 2000.

LINK: < http://d.wanfangdata.com.cn/periodical_minsyj200002013.aspx >

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2013-03-10 Improbable Research Events

For details and additional events, see

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

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

University of Geneva — May 7, 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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2013-03-11 -- 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.

E-BOOKS:

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

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

PAPER EDITION:

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or send in this form:

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2013-03-12 -- 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>

PRINT SUBSCRIPTIONS: <subscriptions@improbable.com>

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

Twitter: @ImprobResearch

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2013-03-13 -- 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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2013-03-14 -- 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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To subscribe or unsubscribe, please visit

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

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