mini-Annals of Improbable Research ("mini-AIR")
June 2015, issue number 2015-06. 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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2015-06-01 TABLE OF CONTENTS
2015-06-02 Imminent Events: Tokyo, Ig Nobel Tix
2015-06-03 In the Magazine: Dogs, Dogs, Dogs
2015-06-04 RESEARCH SPOTLIGHT: Little Kids' Vocal Group Training
2015-06-05 Ig Nobel TICKETS GO ON SALE July 9
2015-06-06 Goitred Gazelles Vocal Group Training Limerick
Competition
2015-06-07 Phrap Overlap Rat Assembly Poets
2015-06-08 MORE IMPROBABLE: Bastard, Messes, Effects of Cat Videos
2015-06-09 MAY WE RECOMMEND: Fitness Instructor Vocal Group Training
2015-06-10 — Improbable Research Events
2015-06-11 — How to Get the Magazine (*)
2015-06-12 — Our Address (*)
2015-06-13 — Please Forward/Post This Issue! (*)
2015-06-14 — How to start or stop receiving this newsletter (*)
Items marked (*) are reprinted in every issue.
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2015-06-02 Imminent Events: Tokyo, Ig Nobel Tix
á Dr. Nakamats Final Birthday, Tokyo, Japan — June 26-July 5
á Ig Nobel Ceremony TICKETS GO ON SALE — July 9
DETAILS: <http://goo.gl/SEMgnw>
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2015-06-03 In the Magazine: Dogs, Dogs, Dogs
The special DOGS (AND CATS) issue of the magazine is out. The table of contents is online at <http://goo.gl/NuwrBB>, as are three of its articles:
á Cats and Dogs Research Review
á Is This Article Consistent With HinchliffeÕs Rule?
á Soft Is Hard
Links to every issue: <http://www.improbable.com/magazine>
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2015-06-04 RESEARCH SPOTLIGHT: Little Kids' Vocal Group Training
This month's spotlight shines on vocal group training in, on, with, or for non-trained nursery school kids:
"The effect of group vocal training on the singing ability of nursery school children," Robert B. Smith, Journal of Research in Music Education, vol. 11, no. 2, Autumn, 1963, pp. 137-141. <http://goo.gl/r66eUW>
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2015-06-05 Ig Nobel TICKETS GO ON SALE July 9
Tickets for the
Twenty-Fifth 1st Annual Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony will go on sale THURSDAY, JULY
9, 2015, at noon (US eastern time).bWe 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.
*
* *
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.
THE CEREMONY
This year's theme:
LIFE.
WHERE: Sanders
Theatre, Harvard University
WHEN: THURSDAY,
SEPTEMBER 17, 2015, 6:00 pm.
Ceremony details: <http://www.improbable.com/ig/2015>
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2015-06-06 Goitred Gazelles Vocal Group Training Limerick Competition
Vocal group training in goitred gazelles inspires this month's limerick competition. To enter, compose an original limerick that clarifies the nature of this study:
"Vocal group signatures in the goitred gazelle Gazella subgutturosa," Ilya A. Volodin, Elena V. Volodina, Ekaterina N. Lapshina, Kseniya O. Efremova, Natalia V. Soldatova, Animal Cognition, March 2014, vol. 17, no. 2, pp 349-357. <http://goo.gl/qJqX9g>
Submit your perfectly formed limerick to:
GOITRED GAZELLES LIMERICK COMPETITION
c/o <MARC aaattt IMPROBABLE dddooottt COM>
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2015-06-07 Phrap Overlap Rat Assembly Poets
The judges have chosen co-winners in last month's Phrap Overlap Rat Assembly Limerick Competition, which asked for a limerick to honor this study:
"Improving Phrap-Based Assembly of the Rat Using 'Reliable' Overlaps." Michael Roberts, Aleksey V. Zimin, Wayne Hayes, Brian R. Hunt, Cevat Ustun, James R. White, Paul Havlak, and James Yorke. PloS One, vol. 3, no. 3, 2008, e1836. <http://goo.gl/jZ4T4s>
The winner is INVESTIGATOR SHEILA BLUME, who wrote:
Have you tried building genomes, perhaps,
With "reliable" (true) overlaps?
When you work with the rat
Is it possible that
You'll fall flat using frappes, so use phraps.
Here's the offering from our LIMERICK LAUREATE, MARTIN EIGER:
A modified version of Phrap
Finds where DNA strands overlap.
The upshot is that
The genome of a rat
Now has a more accurate map.
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2015-06-08 MORE IMPROBABLE: Bastard, Messes, Effects of Cat Videos
Recent improbable bits you maybe missed.
The weekly podcast:
LISTEN / DOWNLOAD: <http://goo.gl/sxh7DX>
(It's also on Play.it, iTunes, and soon on Spotify)
#16 "You bastard!"
#15 "Where do messes come from?"
#14 "Chickens prefer beautiful humans"
Newspaper column (in The Guardian): <http://goo.gl/uaZH9Q>
The blog:
á "The Effect of Cat Videos on Human Beings"
á "A frog in the throat of a frog"
á Of Zimbabwe bank accounts larger than $175 quadrillion
...and lots more
New member of the Luxuriant Flowing Hair Clubs for Scientists (LFHCfS) and the LFFFHfSS:
<http://www.improbable.com/category/lfhcfs-hair-club/>
á Jennifer Verdolin
AND LOTS MORE, at
[blog] <www.IMPROBABLE.com>
[twitter] @ImprobResearch, @MarcAbrahams, #IgNobel
[facebook] <http://www.facebook.com/improbableresearch>
[podcast] <http://goo.gl/GqUW6i>
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2015-06-09 MAY WE RECOMMEND: Fitness Instructor Vocal Group Training
"Vocal Performance of Group Fitness Instructors Before and After Instruction: Changes in Acoustic Measures and Self-Ratings," Katherine Dallaston and Anna F. Rumbach, Journal of Voice, epub March 17, 2015. <http://goo.gl/8tIWJu> The authors, at the Unviersity of Queensland, Australia, report:
"Participants were six female GFIs... No significant changes... found before and after instruction."
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2015-06-10 — Improbable Research Events
For details and additional events, see
<http://improbable.com/improbable-research-shows/complete-schedule>
Dr. Nakamats / Ig Nobel Events in Japan — Jun 26-Jul 5, 2015
Ig Nobel TICKETS go on sale — July 9, 2015
25th First Annual Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony — Sep 17, 2015
Ig Informal Lectures, MIT — Sep 19, 2015
Vienna, Austria — Oct 8, 2015
U Rhode Island — Dec 8, 2015
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2015-06-11 — 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.)
PAPER EDITION:
To subscribe, go to <http://improbable.com/subscribe>
NOTE: In the near future we will be converting from paper to PDFs.
Details of that will appear on the web site, and here on mini-AIR.
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2015-06-12 — Our Address (*)
Annals of Improbable Research (AIR)
PO Box 380853, Cambridge, MA 02238 USA
(+1) 617-491-4437
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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2015-06-13 — 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 2015, Annals of Improbable Research
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2015-06-14 — How to start or stop receiving this newsletter (*)
Mini-AIR is a (free!) teeny-tiny monthly *supplement*
to the big, bold six-times-a-year magazine AIR.
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