Mini-AIR

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

August 2017, issue number 2017-08. ISSN 1076-500X.

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Research that makes people LAUGH, then THINK.

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01 TABLE OF CONTENTS

02 The Magazine Itself: Fears, Tears, then Cigarette Butts

03 Professional Uncertainty/Certainty

04 Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony & Webcast — September 14

05 Decisive Regret Under Uncertainty [LIMERICK CONTEST]

06 High-Amplitude Sucking

07 MORE IMPROBABLE: Interruptions, Dinopoop, Soap

08 Measuring Uncertainty Up To a Point (in Time)

09 IMPROBABLE EVENTS

10 — Subscribe to the Actual Magazine! (*)

11 — How to start or stop receiving this newsletter (*)

12 — Contact Info (*)

13 — Standard Gobbledegook (*)

Items marked (*) are reprinted in every issue.

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02 The Magazine Itself: Fears, Tears, then Cigarette Butts

The special Cigarette Butts, Vegemite, and Marmite issue of the magazine (vol 23, no. 4) will be available any day now.

FEARS AND TEARS issue (vol. 23, no. 3) is downloadable.

It and most other previous issues await you:

MAGAZINE SUBSCRIPTIONS & SINGLE ISSUES:

<https://gumroad.com/improbable>

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

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03 Professional Uncertainty/Certainty

This month's research spotlight may shine on uncertainty:

"Professional Uncertainty/Certainty: How (Un) Certain Are Teachers, What Are They (Un) Certain About, and How Is (Un) Certainty Related to Age, Experience, Gender, Qualifications and School Type?" Elaine Munthe, European Journal of Teacher Education, vol. 24, no. 3, 2001, pp. 355-368. <https://is.gd/1OpE7m> The author, at the University of Oslo, reports:

"This article examines questions of lack of assurance / assurance in terms of didactics, practice or relationship, based on responses from 1153 Norwegian teachers and teachers.... Statistically significant differences are found for all variables except gender..."

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04 Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony & Webcast — September 14

The 27th First Annual Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony will happen on Thursday, September 14, 2017, at Harvard University. It will be webcast.

Ten new Ig Nobel Prizes will be awarded for achievements that make people LAUGH, then THINK.

This year's theme: UNCERTAINTY.

The ceremony will include other wonders. Among them:

"THE INCOMPETENCE OPERA" — a new mini-opera

that celebrates (1) the Peter Principle and

(2) the Dunning-Kruger Effect.

24/7 Lectures on several topics:

Uncertainty; Bots; Medical Research; Sponges;

The Forces Required to Drag Sheep Across

Various Surfaces.

A special pre-ceremony concert by

The Boston Typewriter Orchestra.

All speeches will be delightfully brief,

thanks to the presence of

eight-year-old Miss Sweetie Poo.

CEREMONY DETAILS: <http://www.improbable.com/ig/2017/>

TICKETS: <https://is.gd/FgfmO4>

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Two days later, the new winners will give free brief public talks — and answer questions — in the Ig Informal Lectures. That happens at MIT, on Saturday afternoon, Sept. 16.

The new winners will be joined by two past winners:

Thomas Thwaites (2016 Biology Prize):

Creating prosthetic extensions of his limbs

that allowed him to move in the manner of,

and spend time roaming hills in the company of,

goats.

John Culvenor (2003 Physics Prize):

"Analysis of the forces required to

drag sheep across various surfaces"

IG INFORMAL LECTURES (Saturday, Sept 16): <http://www.improbable.com/ig/2017/#informallectures>

The Saturday lecture event is free. Arrive early to ensure a seat.

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05 Decisive Regret Under Uncertainty [LIMERICK CONTEST]

This month's challenge —

Devise a pleasing limerick that encapsulates this study:

"Regret in Decision Making Under Uncertainty," David E. Bell, Operations Research, vol. 30, no. 5, 1982, pp. 961-981. <https://is.gd/0jmbVG> The author, at Harvard University, reports:

"After making a decision under uncertainty, a person may discover, on learning the relevant outcomes, that another alternative would have been preferable. This knowledge may impart a sense of loss, or regret."

Submit your perfectly formed, delightfully enlightening limerick to:

UNCERTAINTY LIMERICK COMPETITION

c/o <MARC aaattt IMPROBABLE dddooottt COM>

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06 High-Amplitude Sucking

The judges have chosen a winner in last month's Competition, which asked for a limerick to explain this study:

"High-Amplitude Sucking and Newborns: The Quest for Underlying Mechanisms," Caroline Floccia, Anne Christophe, and Josiane Bertoncini, Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, vol. 64, no. 2, 1997, pp. 175-198. <https://is.gd/EPFwou>

The winner is INVESTIGATOR BOB DILLON, who wrote:

In order to move it along

Synchronize sucking and song

The kid really zips

With a song on his lips

But not if the timing is wrong

The word from our LIMERICK LAUREATE, MARTIN EIGER:

As an infant, my mother would cluck

When she fed me. What wonderful luck!

Now I'm older, of course,

But whatever the source,

When there's clucking, I still tend to suck.

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07 MORE IMPROBABLE: Interruptions, Dinopoop, Soap

Recent improbable research bits you may have missed...

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

<> Interrupting People: The Pros and Cons

<> Why Use Dinosaur Poop to Repair Sheep Bones?

<> Soap Film Opera, Fluid Dynamically, in France

New Member of the Luxuriant Flowing Hair Club for Scientists (LFHCfS) and its sibling clubs:

<> Ksenia Romanenko

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

TWITTER: @ImprobResearch, @MarcAbrahams, #IgNobel

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08 Measuring Uncertainty Up To a Point (in Time)

The History of Statistics: The Measurement of Uncertainty Before 1900, Stephen M. Stigler, 1986, Harvard University Press. <https://is.gd/ChF7Cb>

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09 IMPROBABLE EVENTS

For details and additional events, see

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

2017 Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony & Webcast — Sep 14, 2017

Ig Informal Lectures — Sep 16, 2017

Ig Nobel Fall EuroTour

U Manchester, UK — Nov 29, 2017

EMBL, Heidelberg, Germany — Dec 4, 2017

SLAS Conference, San Diego — Feb 7, 2018

AAAS Annual Meeting, Austin, TX — Feb 2018

Ig Nobel Spring EuroTour — Mar 2018

Northwest Rheumatism Society,

Portland, OR — Apr 26, 2018

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10 — Subscribe to the Actual Magazine! (*)

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 the actual magazine.)

<www.improbable.com/magazine/>

SUBSCRIPTIONS ($25, for six issues)

SINGLE ISSUES ($5 each)

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11 — How to start or stop receiving this newsletter (*)

This newsletter, Mini-AIR, is just a (free!) tiny monthly *supplement* to the big, bold six-times-a-year magazine Annals of Improbable Research.

To SUBSCRIBE or UNSUBSCRIBE to mini-AIR:

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

ARCHIVES: <http://improbable.com/airchives/miniair>

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12— CONTACT INFO (*)

Annals of Improbable Research (AIR)