Mini-AIR

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

August 2018, issue number 2018-08. ISSN 1076-500X.

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Research that makes people LAUGH, then THINK.

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01 TABLE OF CONTENTS

02 Imminent Events

03 IN THE MAGAZINE ITSELF: Noise Now, Med Surprises Soon

04 Routing of Obnoxious Activities

05 Locating a Semi-Obnoxious Facility Contest

06 Sandwich Plate Winner

07 MORE IMPROBABLE: Music in White Noise and Embryos

08 Coming to Like Obnoxious, Unavoidable People

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 Imminent Events

Table Talk Webcast — Fri, Aug 31

Science Cafe, Concord, NH — Tues, Sep 4

Knight Journalism, Cambridge, MA — Tues, Sep 11

IG NOBEL PRIZE CEREMONY and webcast — Thu, Sep 13

Details: <https://www.improbable.com/ig/2018/>

TICKETS: A few are available <https://is.gd/FgfmO4>

Ig Lectures, and webcast — Sat, Sep 15

Tokyo Ig Nobel Exhibition Opening — Sat, Sep 22

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

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03 IN THE MAGAZINE ITSELF: Noise Now, Med Surprises Soon

The special NOISE issue of the magazine (vol. 24, no. 3) is available: <https://is.gd/pPkZae>. (The next issue, a special issue on Medical Surprises, is in prep.)

Many back issues are available, too.

Feast on improbable Research magazines:

MAGAZINE SINGLE ISSUES & SUBSCRIPTIONS:

<https://gumroad.com/improbable>

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

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04 Routing of Obnoxious Activities

This month's research spotlight shines on obnoxious activities:

"Discrete Facility Location and Routing of Obnoxious Activities," Paola Cappanera, Giorgio Gallo, and Francesco Maffioli, Discrete Applied Mathematics, vol. 133, no. 1-3, 2003, pp. 3-28. <https://is.gd/qZqm2a> The authors, at the Universita di Pisa, and Politecnico di Milano, Italy, report:

"The problem of simultaneously locating obnoxious facilities and routing obnoxious materials between a set of built-up areas and the facilities is addressed."

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05 Locating a Semi-Obnoxious Facility Contest

This month's RESEARCH LIMERICK challenge — Devise a pleasing limerick that encapsulates this study:

"Efficient Location for a Semi-Obnoxious Facility," Y. Ohsawa and K. Tamura, Annals of Operations Research, vol. 123, no. 1, 2003, pp. 173–188. <https://is.gd/1vHwuP> (Thanks to Tom Gill for bringing this to our attention.) The authors, at the University of Tsukuba, and at the Railway Technical Research Institute, Kokubunji, Japan, report:

"This paper deals with a location model for the placement of a semi-obnoxious facility in a continuous plane with the twin objectives of maximizing the distance to the nearest inhabitant and minimizing the sum of distances to all the users (or the distance to the farthest user) in a unified manner."

Submit your perfectly formed, delightfully enlightening limerick to:

SEMI-OBNOXIOUS FACILITY LIMERICK COMPETITION

c/o <MARC aaattt IMPROBABLE dddooottt COM>

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06 Sandwich Plate Winner

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

"Bending Behavior of Low-Cost Sandwich Plates," Christopher E. Glenn and Michael W. Hyer, Composites Part A: Applied Science and Manufacturing, vol. 36, no. 10, October 2005, pp. 1449-1465. <https://is.gd/c4XOew>

The winner is INVESTIGATOR ALLISON BROWN, who writes:

If a Dagwood is what you have built,

And you fear that your lunch will be spilt,

Read Hyer and Glenn,

Who really do ken

Which structural specs stop the tilt.

This month's take from our LIMERICK LAUREATE, MARTIN EIGER:

As a sandwich plate, just how elastic

Are nylon and glass mixed with plastic?

Observations are eerie.

They don't match the theory.

The discrepancy, though, isn't drastic.

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07 MORE IMPROBABLE: Music in White Noise and Embryos

Recent improbable research bits you may have missed...

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

<> Christmas Carol in White Noise [researach study]

<> The Barcelona concert for embryos

<> Why Is This Painting Not More Famous?

Luxuriant Flowing Hair Club for Scientists (LFHCfS) and its sibling clubs:

<https://www.improbable.com/category/lfhcfs-hair-club/>

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

TWITTER: @ImprobResearch, @MarcAbrahams, #IgNobel

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08 Coming to Like Obnoxious, Unavoidable People

"Coming to Like Obnoxious People When We Must Live With Them," T. Tyler and D. Sears, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, vol. 35, 1977, pp. 200-211. <https://is.gd/AizevY> The authors, at the University of California, Los Angeles, explain:

"Anticipated interaction increased liking for initially dislikable or ambiguous people, but not for those who were initially likable."

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09 IMPROBABLE EVENTS

For details and additional events, see

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

Table Talk Webcast — Aug 31, 2018

Science Cafe, Concord, NH — Sep 4, 2018

Knight Journalism, Cambridge, MA — Sep 11, 2018

28th First Annual Ig Nobel Ceremony — Sep 13, 2018

Ig Informal Lectures — Sep 15, 2018

Ig Nobel Exhibition, Tokyo, Japan — Sep 22, 2018

(Exhibition is Sep 22-Nov 4, 2018)

Other events in Japan — TBA

FSTech, Orlando, FL — Oct 3, 2018

Harvard University — Oct 4, 2018

Hartford County Medical Assn, CT — Oct 10, 2018

Ig Nobel Autumn EuroTour — Nov, 2018

"Science Friday" Ig Nobel Broadcast — Nov 22, 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)