Mini-AIR

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

May 2020, issue number 2021-05. 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 IN THE MAGAZINE ITSELF: A Criminal Haul of Forensics

03 Wrong Holy Ghost Discernment

04 Limerick Challenge: Tattoo Toughening

05 [Imaginary]

06 Boredom Boredom Winner

07 MORE IMPROBABLE: Pickles, Faces, Rupzóiyat

08 Cortisol on Worship and Other Days

20 SOME IMPROBABLE EVENTS

30 — Subscribe to the Actual Magazine! (*)

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

32 — Contact Info (*)

33 — Standard Gobbledegook (*)

Items marked (*) are reprinted in every issue.

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02 IN THE MAGAZINE ITSELF: A Criminal Haul of Forensics

WHAT YOU ARE READING AT THIS MOMENT

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

This is overflow bits-and-pieces overflow detritus from

the magazine Annals of Improbable Research (AIR).

The special Forensics issue (vol. 27, no. 2) of the magazine is available:

<https://www.improbable.com/airchives/paperair/volume27/v27i2/v27i2.php>

SUBSCRIBE to the MAGAZINE,

or get BACK ISSUES (there are more than 150 of them!):

<https://gumroad.com/improbable>

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

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03 Wrong Holy Ghost Discernment

This month's maybe-random research item:

" 'The Wrong Holy Ghost': Discerning the Apostolic Gift of Discernment Using a Signaling and Systems Theoretical Approach," Christopher Dana Lynn, Ethos, vol. 41, no. 2, June 2013, pp. 223-247. <https://doi.org/10.1111/etho.12016>

The authors explain:

I utilize signaling theory in a broader systems approach to make sense of an incident of speaking in tongues that a congregation decries as demonic. To facilitate this interpretation, forms and motivations of glossolalia—the sine qua non that one has accepted Jesus as personal savior—are described and examined, including examples of calm and excited “Holy Ghost” and “backslider” and “mistaken demonic” glossolalia. To an outsider, some of the differences among these signaling modes may be difficult to distinguish."

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04 Limerick Challenge: Tattoo Toughening

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

"Tattooing to 'Toughen up': Tattoo experience and secretory immunoglobulin A," Christopher D Lynn, Johnna T Dominguez, and Jason A DeCaro, American Journal of Human Biology, vol. 28, no. 5, 2016, pp. 603-609. <https://doi.org/10.1002/ajhb.22847>

The authors report:

"A costly signaling model suggests tattooing inoculates the immune system to heightened vigilance against stressors associated with soft tissue damage. We sought to investigate this “inoculation hypothesis” of tattooing as a costly honest signal of fitness. We hypothesized that the immune system habituates to the tattooing stressor in repeatedly tattooed individuals and that immune response to the stress of the tattooing process would correlate with lifetime tattoo experience."

Submit your perfectly formed, delightfully enlightening limerick to:

TATTOO TOUGHENING LIMERICK COMPETITION

c/o <MARC aaattt IMPROBABLE dddooottt COM>

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06 Boredom Boredom Winner

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

"Is Profound Boredom Boredom?" Andreas Elpidorou and Lauren Freeman, in Heidegger on Affect, Palgrave Macmillan, Cham., 2019, pp. 177-203.

<https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-030-24639-6_8>

Winning LIMERICIST ZEB ROBIN writes:

Phenomenological boredom.

"Not this again!" they had implored him.

Thoughts about thoughts,

And verbal square knots,

He really knew best how to snore them.

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

There are three types of boredom around.

Are this Nazi's philosophies sound?

As I read and peruse,

As I ponder and muse,

The boredom I feel is profound.

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07 MORE IMPROBABLE: Pickles, Faces, Rupzóiyat

Recent improbable research bits you may have missed...

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

* On Light from Pickles, and Pickle on Light

* Shakespeare and the Whole-Mouse Homogenizer

* Advocating Adding Laterality to Chernoff Faces

*…and much more

LUXURIANT FLOWING HAIR CLUB FOR SCIENTISTS (LFHCfS)

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

Newest member: Meic Goodyear

PODCAST:

<https://www.improbable.com/category/the-weekly-improbable-research-podcast/>:

* Episode #1066: " Arachnophobia in Bug Scientists"

* Episode #1067: "Using Voodoo Dolls to Measure Aggression in Married Couples"

* Episode #1068: "Eyebrows of Narcissists"

* Episode #1069: "What Sort of Person is Named Rupzóiyat"

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

TWITTER: @ImprobResearch, @MarcAbrahams, #IgNobel

INSTAGRAM: <https://www.instagram.com/improbable_research/>

PATREON: <www.patreon.com/ImprobableResearch>

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08 Cortisol on Worship and Other Days

"Salivary Alpha‐Amylase and Cortisol Among Pentecostals on a Worship and Nonworship Day," Christopher Dana Lynn, Jason Paris, Cheryl Anne Frye, and Lawrence M Schell, American Journal of Human Biology, vol. 22, no. 6, 2010, pp. 819-822. <https://doi.org/10.1002/ajhb.21088>

The authors explain:

"There was a significant decrease in cortisol and an increase in α‐amylase on a non‐worship day compared with a service day. Models including engagement in Pentecostal worship behavior explained 62% of the change in non‐service day cortisol and 73% of the change in non‐service day α‐amylase."

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TREAT YOURSELF TO (MUCH) MORE IMPROBABLE STUFF.

SUBCRIBE TO THE (PDF) MAGAZINE!

<www.improbable.com/magazine/>

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20 SOME IMPROBABLE EVENTS

DNB, Amsterdam —Jun 7, 2021

Readercon —August, 2021

2021 Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony —Sep 9, 2021

2021 Ig Informal Lectures —TBA 2021

Japan —TBA 2021

Ig Nobel EuroTour (we hope) —TBA 2021

[All live events in 2021 are subject to pandemical constraints and adventures.]

For details and additional events, see

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

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30 — Subscribe to the Actual Magazine! (*)

The Annals of Improbable Research is a 6-issues-per-year magazine,

in PDF form.

It's packed with research that makes people laugh, then think.

<www.improbable.com/magazine/>

SUBSCRIPTIONS ($25, for six issues)

BACK ISSUES ($5 each)

(mini-AIR, the thing you are reading at this moment, is but a tiny, free-floating appendix to the actual magazine.)

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31 — 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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32 — CONTACT INFO (*)

Annals of Improbable Research (AIR)

<www.improbable.com>

EDITORIAL: <MARC aaattt IMPROBABLE dddooottt COM>

SUBSCRIPTION QUESTIONS: <subscriptions AT improbable.com>

Cambridge, MA, USA

Twitter: @ImprobResearch

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33 — Standard Gobbledegook (*)

EDITOR: Marc Abrahams

CO-CONSPIRATORS: Kees Moeliker, Alice Shirrell Kaswell, Gary Dryfoos, Nan Swift, 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

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