Mini-AIR

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

January 2019, issue number 2019-01. ISSN 1076-500X.

<https://www.improbable.com/airchives/miniair/>

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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: Special Ig Issue

04 Paisley on Ties

05 Web Site Woes

06 Improbable Research show at AAAS in Washington

07 Tight Necktie/Restricted Blood Flow Contest

08 Pepper on Tables Winner

09 MORE IMPROBABLE: Brains, Little Thingies, and Unclad Students

10 Tai Dai on Dust

11 IMPROBABLE EVENTS

12 — Subscribe to the Actual Magazine! (*)

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

14 — Contact Info (*)

15 — Standard Gobbledegook (*)

Items marked (*) are reprinted in every issue.

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02 Imminent Events

NIST, Gaithersburg, MD Feb 14, 2019

AAAS Annual Meeting, Washington, DC Feb 16, 2019

Ig Nobel EuroTour Mar/Apr 2019

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

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03 IN THE MAGAZINE ITSELF: Special Ig Issue

WHAT YOU ARE READING AT THIS MOMENT

is just our monthly newsletter, (mini-AIR).

Our best stuff goes into the actual magazine:

Annals of Improbable Research (AIR).

The special IG NOBEL issue of the magazine

has been sent to subscribers:

<https://gumroad.com/improbable>

The special SUPRISING TASTES issue is in prep.

SUBSCRIBE to the MAGAZINE

or get SINGLE ISSUES:

<https://gumroad.com/improbable>

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

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04 Paisley on Ties

This month's research spotlight reflects on Paisley's ties:

"Ties That Bind," E. Paisley, Institutional Investor, vol. 31, no. 9, 1997, pp. 127-135. < https://elibrary.ru/item.asp?id=3014138>

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05 Web Site Woes

If you have visited our web site the past few days, you noticed (did you not?) that big chunks are not working, or are missing.

<https://www.improbable.com>

That's because we moved the site to a bigger, faster, better server... but lots of bric-a-brac got broken during the move. Our ace artisans are pouring glue, spit, elbow grease, knee grease, gunk, and quinoa dust, making repairs and improvements.

We hope and trust everything will be back working soon.

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06 Improbable Research at AAAS in Washington

Here's the lineup for this year's Improbable Research show at the

Annual Meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). The meeting this year is in Washington, DC:

* Ig Nobel Prize winner David Wartinger (using roller coaster

rides to try to hasten the passage of kidney stones)

* Ig Nobel Prize winner Abigail Baird (fMRI discovery of

brain activity in a dead salmon)

* Ig Nobel Prize winner Nathaniel Barr (“On the Reception and

Detection of Pseudo-Profound Bullshit“)

* Ig Nobel Prize winner Jiwon (“Jesse”) Han (the physics of

walking backwards with a cup of hot coffee)

* Marguerite E. Matherne (how effective is tail-swishing

in large animals?)

* Eric Schulman (History of the universe in 100 words)

* Olga Shishkov (the biomechanics of maggots)

This session (unlike most of the AAAS Annual Meeting sessions) is open FREE to the public. Friends and family are most welcome!

WHEN: Saturday, February 16, 2019, 8:00 pm.

WHERE: Omni Shoreham Hotel, 2500 Calvert Street NW, Washington, DC, in the Diplomat Ballroom.

DETAILS: <https://aaas.confex.com/aaas/2019/meetingapp.cgi/Session/22257>

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07 Tight Necktie/Restricted Blood Flow Contest

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

"Should You Stop Wearing Neckties?—Wearing a Tight Necktie Reduces Cerebral Blood Flow," Robin Lüddecke, Thomas Lindner, Julia Forstenpointner, Ralf Baron, Olav Jansen, and Janne Gierthmühlen, Neuroradiology, vol. 60, no. 8, 2018, pp. 861-864. <https://bit.ly/2RxM1o3> The authors, at Universitätsklinikum Schleswig-Holstein, Kiel, Germany, explain:

"Negative cerebrovascular effects can be expected by compressing jugular veins and carotids by a necktie. It was already demonstrated that a necktie increases intraocular pressure. In many professions, a special dress code including a necktie and a collared shirt is mandatory although little is known about the effect of this “socially desirable strangulation"...."

"Methods—In this study, the effect of wearing a necktie concerning cerebral blood flow [CBF] and jugular venous flow by magnetic resonance imaging. Thirty volunteers were divided in two groups. One underwent MRI with necktie, the other without."

"Results—The examination resulted in a statistically significant decrease of CBF after tightening the necktie while the venous flow did not show any significant changes."

Submit your perfectly formed, delightfully enlightening limerick to:

NECKTIE-BLOOD-FLOW LIMERICK COMPETITION

c/o <MARC aaattt IMPROBABLE dddooottt COM>

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08 Pepper on Tables Winner

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

"Realizing Sets by Hash Tables," Peter Pepper, Ralph Betschko, Sabine Dick, and Klaus Didrich, in KORSO: Methods, Languages, and Tools for the Construction of Correct Software, pp. 58-73. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg, 1995. <ttps://bit.ly/2A1gAIN>

INVESTIGATOR FRED BETHKE writes:

"Set the table!" we eagerly cried.

"Serve the hash, be it flambeed or fried."

But Pepper was shaken.

"You fools -- you're mistaken.

They're math terms." Were we mortified!

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

You've got an abstraction for set,

But an implementation? Not yet.

Use a function to hash,

And in case hashes clash,

Put lists in a table. No sweat!

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09 MORE IMPROBABLE: Brains, Little Thingies, and Unclad Students

Recent improbable research bits you may have missed...

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

* A Look in the Brains of Publication-Hungry Brain Scientists

* A Taxonomy of Ubiquitous Little Plastic Thingies

* Nude Photos of College Students, for Research or Other Purposes

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

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

* Brittany Fair

* Gallery of members who joined LFHCfS (etc.) in 2018:

<https://www.improbable.com/hair/2018/>

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

TWITTER: @ImprobResearch, @MarcAbrahams, #IgNobel

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10 Tai Dai on Dust

"Impacts of meteorological nudging on the global dust cycle simulated by NICAM coupled with an aerosol model," Tie Dai, Yueming Cheng, Peng Zhang, Guangyu Shi, Miho Sekiguchi, Kentaroh Suzuki, Daisuke Goto, and Teruyuki Nakajima, Atmospheric Environment, vol. 190, 2018, pp. 99-115. (Thanks to Tom Gill for bringing this to our attention.) <https://bit.ly/2Cbj7QC>

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11 IMPROBABLE EVENTS

NIST, Gaithersburg, MD — Feb 14, 2019

AAAS meeting, Washington, DC — Feb 16, 2019

Ig Nobel EuroTour — Mar/Apr 2019

Worcester, MA — May 14, 2019

Ig Nobel TICKETS go on sale — Jul 2019

Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony — Sep 12, 2019

Ig Informal Lectures — Sep 14, 2019

For details and additional events, see

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

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12 — 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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13 — 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:

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14 — CONTACT INFO (*)

Annals of Improbable Research (AIR)