Mini-AIR

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

March 2019, issue number 2019-03. 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: Tasty?

04 Fraud on Foot Control

05 Ig Nobel EuroTour Begins March 9

06 Iffy Aging of the Ovum

07 Backpack Toes Winner

08 MORE IMPROBABLE: Speech Balloons, Nudge, Bungee Brain

09 Honest Survey of Big Data Analytics

10 IMPROBABLE EVENTS

11 — Subscribe to the Actual Magazine! (*)

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

13 — Contact Info (*)

14 — Standard Gobbledegook (*)

Items marked (*) are reprinted in every issue.

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02 Imminent Events

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: Tasty?

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 SURPRISING TASTES issue (vol. 25, no. 1) of the magazine has been sent to subscribers. If you subscribe now, you will get this issue right away!

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 Fraud on Foot Control

This month's research spotlight reflects on Fraud, and on control of the foot or feet:

"Adding Body Load Modifies the Vibratory Sensation of the Foot Sole and Affects the Postural Control," Yves Jammes, Eva Ferrand, Corentin Fraud, Alain Boussuges and Jean Paul Weber, Military Medical Research, vol. 5, no. 28, 2018. <https://bit.ly/2TkbbrS> (Thanks to Ivan Oransky for bringing this to our attention.) The authors, at the School of Podiatry, and at Aix Marseille University, both in Marseille, France, explain::

"Heavy backpacks are often used by soldiers and firefighters. Weight carrying could reduce the speed and efficiency in task completion by altering the foot sole sensitivity and postural control."

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05 Ig Nobel EuroTour Begins March 9

The 2019 Ig Nobel EuroTour will span most of March

and much of April, visiting, more or less in this order:

SCOTLAND

ENGLAND

AUSTRIA

THE CZECH REPUBLIC

SWITZERLAND

THE NETHERLANDS

POLAND

ITALY

SWEDEN

NORWAY

GERMANY

Various living Ig Nobel Prize winners will be part of many of the events, as will various other living persons, possibly including you.

Details are at

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

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06 Iffy Aging of the Ovum

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

"Aging of the Ovum," K. Mikamo and L. Iffy, Obstetrics and Gynecology Annual, vol. 3, January 1974, pp. 47-99.

<https://europepmc.org/abstract/med/4608157>

Submit your perfectly formed, delightfully enlightening limerick to:

IFFY AGING OVUM LIMERICK COMPETITION

c/o <MARC aaattt IMPROBABLE dddooottt COM>

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07 Backpack Toes Winner

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

"Effects of Carrying a Backpack in a Symmetrical Manner on the Shape of the Feet," Justyna Drzał-Grabiec, Sławomir Snela, Maciej Rachwal, Justyna Rykała and Justyna Podgórska, Ergonomics, vol. 56, no. 10, 2013, pp. 1577-1583. <https://bit.ly/2ElbGJj>

INVESTIGATOR JODY GLIDER writes:

Oh my Lord, this news comes too late.

To alter my young daughter's fate.

Her knapsack she shlepped

'Til she laid down and wept,

And I watched her poor arches deflate.

INVESTIGATOR VICTOR DORFF writes:

A backpack for kids is just great,

If the child is ten times its weight.

Else the child may grow

With a misshapen toe

And flat feet that may alter his gait.

INVESTIGATOR BARRY CLARK writes:

The scholar's young back always bows,

'Neath a backpack of books as he goes

From home to his seat,

Which flattens his feet

And grossly distorts his great toes.

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

There's no backpacker hacker who lacks

A rackful or sackful he packs.

But I beg, I entreat,

For the sake of their feet,

Do not put packed packs on kids' backs.

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08 MORE IMPROBABLE: Speech Balloons, Nudge, Bungee Brain

Recent improbable research bits you may have missed...

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

* Automatic Speech Balloon Detection and Segmentation for Comic Books

* Dr. Nudge

* The Brain, Before the Bungee Jump

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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09 Honest Survey of Big Data Analytics

"Survey of Big Data Analytics," Nirali Honest and A. Atul Patel, International Journal of Information Sciences and Techniques (IJIST), vol. 6, 2016.

< http://aircconline.com/ijist/V6N2/6216ijist04.pdf>

The authors are at Smt. Chandaben Mohanbhai Patel Institute of Computer Applications, India.

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10 IMPROBABLE EVENTS

Ig Nobel EuroTour —Mar/Apr 2019

Worcester, MA —May 14, 2019

Ig Nobel TICKETS go on sale —Jul 2019

Readercon, Quincy, MA, USA —Jul 2019

Mount Sinai Hospital, NYC, USA —date TBA

Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony —Sep 12, 2019

Ig Informal Lectures —Sep 14, 2019

Ottawa, Canada —Sep 23, 2019

Lubbock, TX —Oct 25, 2019

For details and additional events, see

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

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11 — 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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12 — 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.

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13 — CONTACT INFO (*)

Annals of Improbable Research (AIR)