Mini-AIR

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

March 2016, issue number 2016-03. ISSN 1076-500X.

----------

Research that makes people LAUGH, then THINK.

A tiny supplement to the magazine Annals of Improbable Research.

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

—————————

01 TABLE OF CONTENTS

02 Imminent Events: EuroTour, Tallahassee, Boston

03 In the Magazine Itself: Human Heads and Garlic Juice

04 RESEARCH SPOTLIGHT: Oh — Stuffed Anatomical Members

05 Ig Nobel Eurotour Happens This Month

06 Stuffed Cabbage Cafeteria Limerick Contest

07 Snakes-on-an-Inclined-Plane Poet

08 MORE IMPROBABLE: Pörn Research, Transport Map Overload, Like Like

09 MAY WE RECOMMEND: Stuffed Cabbage Reflections

10— Improbable Research Events

11 — The Magazine (AIR) — How to Subscribe; How to Get Back Issues (*)

12 — Our Address (*)

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

14 — How to start or stop receiving mini-AIR (*)

Items marked (*) are reprinted in every issue.

—————————

02 Imminent Events: EuroTour, Tallahassee, Boston

Ig Nobel EuroTour — March 4-23, 2016

Florida State U — March 29, 2016

Planon, Boston — April 6, 2016

Details: <http://goo.gl/fh81lh>

—————————

03 In the Magazine Itself: Human Heads and Garlic Juice

The special Human Heads and Garlic Juice issue of the magazine exists!

This is the very first issue

of our new era — all PDFs, no more paper!

Our designer, Geri Sullivan, created a layout that

is comfy to read on both tiny smartphones and big screens.

If you're a subscriber, you should have received email notifying how to download your copy.

The table of contents and several articles are up for everybody to read, at <http://goo.gl/n8hDZp>.

SUBSCRIPTIONS & BACK ISSUES: <https://gumroad.com/improbable>

Tables of Contents: <http://www.improbable.com/magazine/>

—————————

04 RESEARCH SPOTLIGHT: Oh — Stuffed Anatomical Members

This month's spotlight shines on inventively manufactured body parts:

"Stuffed Anatomical Members," U.S. Patent 5,072,998, issued to Bobby Y. Oh, December 17, 1991. <https://goo.gl/mzn529> The patent explains:

"The stuffed anatomical members may include a head member, two arm members, and two feet members. Each member is detachably secured to the object using hook and loop fasteners."

—————————

05 Ig Nobel Eurotour Happens This Month

The 2016 Ig Nobel Eurotour spans March 4-23, with Ig Nobel Prize winners assembling do public shows in

· Norway (Oslo)

· Denmark (Aarhus, Copenhagem Lyngby, and elsewhere)

· Sweden (Stockholm)

· UK (London, Uxbridge)

· Switzerland (Lausanne)

· And possible some things elsewhere

Some of the shows are booked full — but despair not!

Generally, a few tickets become available at the last minute, and if you arrive 15 minutes before show time, you might be able to get in.

Details (where, when, who, what — but not why!) are at <http://goo.gl/fh81lh>

—————————

06 Stuffed Cabbage Cafeteria Limerick Contest

This month's challenge: Devise an enlightening limerick that celebrates this study:

"Stuffed Cabbage in the Old New School Cafeteria," Fred Kersten, Human Studies, Vol. 20, No. 4, October 1997, pp. 391-412. <http://goo.gl/uxl0v8> The author, at the University of Wisconsin, explains:

"The purpose of this lecture is to celebrate the memory of Aron Gurwitsch by examining and enlarging the domain of phenomenological clarification of some elements of what Gurwitsch called the 'logic of reality.' Chief among those elements are the nature of the taken-for-grantedness of our existential belief, the difference between presentive and non-presentive indices of reality and the ground for the self-illumination of the 'world of working.' "

Submit your perfectly formed, delightful limerick to:

STUFFED CABBAGE CAFETERIA LIMERICK COMPETITION

c/o <MARC aaattt IMPROBABLE dddooottt COM>

—————————

07 Snakes-on-an-Inclined-Plane Poet

The judges have chosen a winner in last month's Snakes-on-an-Inclined-Plane Limerick Competition, which asked for a limerick to honor this study:

"Optimizing snake locomotion on an inclined plane," Xiaolin Wang, Matthew T. Osborne, and Silas Alben, Physical Review E 89.1, 2014: 012717. <http://goo.gl/uKsyhh>

The winner is INVESTIGATOR WALTER BERRY, who wrote:

There was a young snake who found,

He could make great speed on the ground,

But he came to a slant,

And he said, “I can’t,

so I guess I must go around.”

Here's an offering from our LIMERICK LAUREATE, MARTIN EIGER:

The normal, familiar, quotidian

Movement of creatures ophidian

Is now understood

On planes. This is good.

But what about space non-Euclidean?

—————————

08 MORE IMPROBABLE: Pörn Research, Transport Map Overload, Like Like

Recent improbable research bits:

The podcast:

LISTEN / DOWNLOAD: <http://goo.gl/sxh7DX>

#50 How now, warm cow

#51 Pörn research

#52 Social dilemmas from the not-so-distant past

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

· When is a Transport Map Too Complex for Your Brain?

· "Rejoice? Run? Hide? The Dawn of Experimental Econophysics

· A linguistics study of the word "Like"

...and lots more

More, at

[twitter] @ImprobResearch, @MarcAbrahams, #IgNobel

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

—————————

09 MAY WE RECOMMEND: Stuffed Cabbage Reflections

"Reflections on the Stuffed Cabbage," Allen S. Weiss, Gastronomica, vol. 7, no. 1, Winter 2007, pp. 70-75. <http://goo.gl/GrJ74h>

—————————

10 — Improbable Research Events

For details and additional events, see

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

Ig Nobel EuroTour — Mar 4-23, 2016

Florida State U — Mar 29, 2016

Planon, Boston — Apr 6, 2016

IG NOBEL TICKETS GO ON SALE — Jul TBA, 2016

ESOF, Manchester, UK — Jul 25, 2016

Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony — Sep 22, 2016

Ig Informal Lectures — Sep 24, 2016

—————————

11 — The Magazine (AIR) — How to Subscribe; How to Get Back Issues (*)

The Annals of Improbable Research is a 6-issues-per-year magazine, published in PDF form. It's packed with research that makes people laugh, then think. (mini-AIR, the thing you are reading at this moment, is but a tiny, free-floating appendix to AIR.)

SUBSCRIPTIONS (just $25)

BACK-ISSUES (just $5 each)

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

—————————

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>

SUBSCRIPTIONS: <subscriptions AT improbable.com>

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

Twitter: @ImprobResearch

—————————

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

—————————

14 — How to start or stop receiving mini-AIR (*)

Mini-AIR is a (free!) tiny monthly *supplement*

to the big, bold six-times-a-year magazine AIR.

...................................................

To subscribe or unsubscribe to mini-AIR, please visit

<http://five.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/mini-air>

...................................................

—————————