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

July 2014, issue number 2014-07. ISSN 1076-500X.

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The monthly wee little tiny mini update/alert from Improbable Research

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

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2014-07-01 TABLE OF CONTENTS

 

2014-07-02 Imminent Events

2014-07-03 In the Magazine: Centrifugal Research is Going Round

2014-07-04 RESEARCH SPOTLIGHT: Continuous Explosion‐Puffing of Potatoes

2014-07-05 Ig Nobel Ceremony Tickets

2014-07-06 The Puffable Half Product Process Limerick Competition

2014-07-07 Sloth Moth Poet

2014-07-08 MORE IMPROBABLE: Cadavers, Codpieces, and McDoom, and McDoom

2014-07-09 MAY WE RECOMMEND: Puffability Promotes Public Health

2014-07-10 Improbable Research Events

2014-07-11 — How to Get the Magazine (*)

2014-07-12 — Our Address (*)

2014-07-13 — Please Forward/Post This Issue! (*)

2014-07-14 — How to start or stop receiving this newsletter (*)

 

      Items marked (*) are reprinted in every issue.

 

 

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2014-07-02 Imminent Events

 

á Ig Nobel Ceremony TICKETS GO ON SALE          — Jul 8

 

á Readercon, Burlington, MA, USA                — Jul 10-13

 

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

 

 

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2014-07-03 In the Magazine: Centrifugal Research is Going Round

 

The special Centrifugal Research issue (vol. 20, no. 3) of the Annals of Improbable Research has flown forth from the printer. The table of contents and a few articles will soon be (or, depending on when you read this, already are) online at <http://www.improbable.com/magazine>.

 

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

      Links to all issues: <http://www.improbable.com/magazine>

 

 

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2014-07-04 RESEARCH SPOTLIGHT: Continuous Explosion‐Puffing of Potatoes

 

This month the focus arrives at:

 

"Continuous Explosion‐Puffing of Potatoes," J.F. Sullivan, R.P. Konstance, N.C. Aceto, W.K. Heiland, and J.C. Craig, Journal of Food Science, vol. 42, no. 6, 1977, pp. 1462-1463. <http://goo.gl/J2wDqh>

 

 

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2014-07-05 Ig Nobel Ceremony Tickets

 

Tickets for the Twenty-Fourth 1st Annual Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony will go on sale TUESDAY, JULY 8, 2014, at noon (US eastern time).  We expect (based on experience) the tickets will get snapped up quickly.

 

TICKETS

The Harvard Box Office handles all ticket sales. The physical ticket office, in Holyoke Center, is open most days noon to 6 pm.

Online: <https://www.boxoffice.harvard.edu>

Phone: (+1) 617-496-2222.

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Tickets: $75 / $65 / $55 / $35

Student tickets: $70 / $60 / $50 / $30

Ig Glorious tickets: $150. We fund the ceremony (theater rental, and half a zillion other expenses) mainly through ticket revenues. This year we are offering a few special "Ig Glorious" tickets, for persons who want to be specially supportive. Details at <http://www.improbable.com/2014/07/03/ig-nobel-tickets-go-on-sale-tuesday-july-8/>

 

THE CEREMONY

This year's theme: FOOD.

WHERE: Sanders Theatre, Harvard University

WHEN: THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 2014, 6:00 pm.

Ceremony details: <http://improbable.com/ig/2014/>

 

 

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2014-07-06 The Puffable Half Product Process Limerick Competition

 

Puffable half products inspire this month's limerick competition. To enter, compose an original limerick that clarifies the nature of this invention:

 

"Process for Making a Puffable Half Product," US patent #3150978, granted to Wayne W. Campfield on September 29, 1964.

LINK: <http://goo.gl/2cS7ou>

 

Submit your perfectly formed limerick to:

 

      PUFFABLE HALF PRODUCT PROCESS LIMERICK COMPETITION

      c/o <MARC aaattt IMPROBABLE dddooottt COM>

 

 

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2014-07-07 Sloth Moth Poet

 

The judges have chosen a winner for last month's Sloth Moth Limerick Competition, which asked for a limerick to honor this study:

 

"Cryptoses choloepi: a coprophagous moth that lives on a sloth," Jeffrey K. Waage and G. Gene Montgomery, Science, vol. 193, no. 4248, 1976, pp. 157-158. <http://goo.gl/J6ABeQ> The authors report:

 

The winner is INVESTIGATOR MIKE McKINLAY, who wrote this listhpy rhyme:

 

The larvae of a thertain moth

   Livth in the dung of the thloth.

   The animal detheendth,

To its nature attendth,

And the hatchthlingth return alofth.

 

Runner-up is INVESTIGATOR GAILE OARE, who writes:

 

A slothenly home unshaven,

Claims the three-toed creature maven,

   Hosts moths in its halls

   Until nature calls

For lower rent district haven

 

And here is the offering from LIMERICK LAUREATE MARTIN EIGER:

 

Human struggle and conflict are rife.

Sloth moths larvae, though, bear no such strife.

   When environments meet

   All your needs, life is sweet.

They enjoy the coprophagous life.

 

 

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2014-07-08 MORE IMPROBABLE: Cadavers, Codpieces, and McDoom, and McDoom

 

Recent improbable bits you maybe missed:

 

IMPROBABLE BLOG:

 

á "Jiggling and scanning the brains of cadavers" <http://goo.gl/oVxFI9>

 

á "Dr. Reed's medical codpiece theory" <http://goo.gl/rUhHzd>

 

á "O.S. McDoom the prophet; and McDoom's shoe deodorant insert" <http://goo.gl/GU4oxO>

 

...and MORE, MORe, MOre, More, more at <http://improbable.com>

 

twitter:    @ImprobResearch, @MarcAbrahams, #IgNobel

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

books:      <http://goo.gl/rHMb3t>

 

 

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2014-07-09 MAY WE RECOMMEND: Puffability Promotes Public Health

 

"Puffability People: A New Way To Promote Health," Andrew G. Dunn and Pauline Dunn, British Medical Journal (Clinical Research Edition), vol. 287, no. 6397, October 1, 1983, pp. 960-962. <http://goo.gl/7x7Si2>

 

 

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2014-07-10 Improbable Research Events

 

For details and additional events, see

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

 

Ig Nobel TICKETS go on sale               — Jul 8, 2014

Readercon, Burlington, MA, USA            — Jul 10-13

NEW BOOK — Publication day USA            — Aug 12

Harvard Book Store, Cambridge, MA, USA    — Sep 5

TEDMED, Washington, DC, USA               — Sep 10-12

Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony                   — Sep 18

Ig Informal Lectures                      — Sep 20

Book Tour (NY, DC, elsewhere)             — Late Sept/Oct

Chile                                     — Oct 20-22, 2014

 

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2014-07-11 — 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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2014-07-12 — Our Address (*)

 

Annals of Improbable Research (AIR)

PO Box 380853, Cambridge, MA 02238 USA

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

 

EDITORIAL: <MARC aaattt IMPROBABLE dddooottt COM>

PRINT SUBSCRIPTIONS: <subscriptions AT improbable.com>

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

Twitter: @ImprobResearch

 

 

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2014-07-13 — 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

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

PROOFREADER: Ambient Happenstance

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

 

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

(c) copyright 2014, Annals of Improbable Research

 

 

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2014-07-14 — 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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