mini-Annals of Improbable Research ("mini-AIR")
December 2021, issue number 2021-12. 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: The Special IG NOBEL Issue
03 A. Few, Young, and Strong: Strange Bedfellows
04 Cheap Thrills
05 Limerick Challenge: Few, on All Things Circular
06 Salami on Cannabis Winner
07 MORE IMPROBABLE: Salt, Oil, and Dandelions
08 Few: All of Humanity
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: The Special IG NOBEL Issue
What you are reading at the moment (mini-AIR)
is overflow detritus from
the magazine Annals of Improbable Research (AIR).
The special IG NOBEL issue (vol. 27, no. 6) of the magazine is out and about. See the table of contents and selected articles at:
<https://www.improbable.com/airchives/paperair/volume27/v27i6/v27i6.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 A. Few, Young, and Strong: Strange Bedfellows
This month's somewhat randomly selected research report is:
"When Strange Bedfellows Go All In: A Template for Implementing Non-Lethal Strategies Aimed at Reducing Carnivore Predation of Livestock," Julie K. Young, John Steuber, Alexandra Few, Adam Baca, and Zack Strong, Animal Conservation, 2018.
<https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3699&context=wild_facpub> The authors, at Utah State University, USDA-Wildlife Services Montana, and the Natural Resources Defense Council, Bozeman, Montana, report:
"One non-lethal tool available to reduce depredation of livestock by wolves is fladry. Fladry consists of strands of flags, measuring approximately 50-cm long by 10-cm wide, sewn onto nylon rope at 45-cm intervals. Fladry acts as a primary repellent by taking advantage of the fact that wolves are neophobic and relies on producing a flight response to deter them."
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04 Cheap Thrills
While waiting for the pandemic to end, you may be permitted (local laws vary) to treat yourself to regular infusions of cheap thrills.
One way to do that:
Subscribe to the magazine, Annals of Improbable Research.
You'll get six new PDF issues a year, each issue containing a plentitude of artisanally selected and prepared amuse-cerveaux so surprising that each of them (the amuse-cerveaux) is suspected (by detectives, some of them skilled) of being likely to make you laugh, then think.
If you are feeling especially indulgent, also scoop up some back issues — every issue is a special issue on some randomly compelling topic.
The past year's special issue topics:
Chocolate, Forensics, Haphazard,
Ducks, Children, Ig Nobel
The previous year's special issue topics:
Psychology, Big Animals, Small Animals,
Coffee & Tea, Con Men, Ig Nobel
The previous previous year's special issue topics:
Surprising Tastes, Habit & Tricks, Animals
Disgusting Research, Surprising Research, Ig Nobel
You get the idea.
Now get the cheap thrills.
Do it here:
<https://www.improbable.com/publications/magazine/>
And pass the word to friends that they, too, may be permitted (local laws vary) to treat themselves to regular infusions of cheap thrills.
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05 Limerick Challenge: Few, on All Things Circular
This month's RESEARCH LIMERICK challenge — Devise a pleasing limerick that encapsulates this study:
"Our Irresistible Fascination with All Things Circular," Stephen Few, Perceptual Edge Visual Business Intelligence Newsletter, 2010, pp. 1-9
The author, few, explains:
"I’ve written at length in the past about the failures of pie charts and circular dashboard gauges, so I’ll keep my comments brief about them here. Although the evidence of a pie chart’s dysfunction is hard to ignore when you actually take a moment to inspect it, nothing that I teach is met with such fierce opposition as my low opinion of them."
Submit your perfectly formed, delightfully enlightening limerick to:
FEW CIRCULAR LIMERICK COMPETITION
c/o <MARC aaattt IMPROBABLE dddooottt COM>
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06 Salami on Cannabis Winner
The judges have chosen a winner in last month's Competition, which asked for a limerick to explain this study:
"It is Our Turn to get Cannabis High: Put Cannabinoids in Food and Health Baskets," Federico Martinelli Salami, Antonio Giovino, Ava Bachari, Neda Arad, and Nitin Mantri, Molecules, vol. 25, no. 18, 2020, 4036. <https://www.mdpi.com/1420-3049/25/18/4036/pdf>
Winning limericist TOM STEWART writes:
When you suffer from angst--or a hemorrhoid—
There’s nothing that outcures a cannabinoid.
Both antiemetic
And antipyretic
These meds make M.D.s become unemployed
This month's take from our LIMERICK LAUREATE, MARTIN EIGER:
When I first read this, try as I might,
The argument didn't seem right.
But now, I can see,
It makes sense. I agree.
What's different? I'm high as a kite.
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07 MORE IMPROBABLE: Salt, Oil, and Dandelions
Recent improbable research bits you may have missed...
BLOG: <http://www.improbable.com/>:
* The Table Salt Bacteriome: Abundant Life in Your Salt Shaker
* Prize-Winning Oil Spill Helps Individual Save Money
* Robot that Picks Dandelions
*…and much more
LUXURIANT FLOWING HAIR CLUB FOR SCIENTISTS (LFHCfS)
<https://www.improbable.com/category/lfhcfs-hair-club/>
New Member:
* Mauricio-José Schwarz
PODCAST:
<https://www.improbable.com/category/the-weekly-improbable-research-podcast/>:
* Episode 1085: Mindful Dishwashing
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 Few: All of Humanity
For All of Humanity, Martha Few, University of Arizona Press, 2015.
<https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt183pc8z>
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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
Arisia, Boston, MA, USA Jan 14, 2022
PREMIERE: Improbable Conversations (online) Jan 20, 2022
Ig Nobel Euro (& Brexitannia) Tour Mar/Apr 2022
32nd First Annual Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony Sep 2022
[All live events in 2021 and 2022 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)
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
(c) copyright 2021, Annals of Improbable Research
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