PLEASE FORWARD/POST AS APPROPRIATE ================================================================ The mini-Annals of Improbable Research ("mini-AIR") Issue number 2004-03 March 2004 ISSN 1076-500X Key words: improbable research, science humor, Ig Nobel, AIR, the ---------------------------------------------------------------- A free newsletter of tidbits too tiny to fit in the Annals of Improbable Research (AIR), the journal of inflated research and personalities ================================================================ ----------------------------- 2004-03-01 TABLE OF CONTENTS 2004-03-01 Table of Contents 2004-03-02 Soon... 2004-03-03 What's New in the Magazine 2004-03-04 Teaching: A New Spin 2004-03-05 Further Mysterious Doings about "The Yellow Cake" 2004-03-06 Hotheads, Buckets, and a Book 2004-03-07 Non-Cosy Sticky Poet 2004-03-08 Beauty and Truth: The Correction 2004-02-09 Zweibeck's Death Challenge 2004-03-10 Survey Results: Astronomers vs. Moons 2004-03-11 On the Blog 2004-03-12 Watch What You Eat Limerick Contest 2004-03-13 RESEARCH SPOTLIGHT: Does Money Matter? 2004-03-14 MAY WE RECOMMEND: Together/Apart, Fundulus 2004-03-15 AIRhead Events 2004-03-16 How to Subscribe to AIR (*) 2004-03-17 Our Address (*) 2004-03-18 Please Forward/Post This Issue! (*) 2004-03-19 How to Receive mini-AIR, etc. (*) Items marked (*) are reprinted in every issue. mini-AIR is a free monthly *e-supplement* to AIR, the print magazine ---------------------------------------------------------- 2004-03-02 Soon... The Ig Nobel Tour of the UK and Ireland happens March 11-22: Ten cities in England, Scotland, Ireland, N. Ireland For a list, see section 2004-03-15 below for a list For details, see ---------------------------------------------------------- 2004-03-03 What's New in the Magazine The Jan./Feb. issue (vol. 10, no. 1) is the special Beauty Issue. The table of contents is at As a public service, we have put one of the articles on the web: "How to Get Girls Interested in Science," by Felicia Schmutzgarten ---------------------------------------------------------- 2004-03-04 Teaching: A New Spin A mathematics professor of our acquaintance writes: "For no intelligent reason I told my class that older people who run are being told to run with a CD player because the gyroscopic effects of the spinning CD helps to keep them from falling." We offer this to any science teacher who is in need of new teaching materials. ---------------------------------------------------------- 2004-03-05 Further Mysterious Doings about "The Yellow Cake" If you read our recent column "The Mystery of the Yellow Cake" (in The Guardian) about a mathematics paper called "The Yellow Cake," perhaps you were bemused or confused. If so, read the five-page letter we've received from Andrzej Roslanowsk, the co-author of "The Yellow Cake," who appears to be bemusedly hopping mad. Read it, and pretty much all you might want to know, at ---------------------------------------------------------- 2004-03-06 Hotheads, Buckets, and a Book Investigator Martyn Berry was struck by last month's report from investigator Doug Peterson. Peterson said that his students declined to absorb the poet W.B. Yeat's notion about education: 'Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire.' Peterson's students instead decided that education is "the emptying of a bucket." Inspired or deflated, investigator Berry writes: "W.B. Yeats was no doubt in debt to Plutarch, who stated (after translation!): A child's mind is not a vessel to be filled, but a fire to be kindled "My old chemistry teacher, Gordon Van Praagh, used 'A Fire to be Kindled' (ISBN 0-9507843-6-2) as the title of his last book, which was published in September last year just before his death at the age of 94. Could you please disseminate this knowledge, especially to Investigator Peterson?" ---------------------------------------------------------- 2004-03-07 Non-Cosy Sticky Poet The judges in the first and last annual NON-COSINESS OF STICKY BROWNIAN MOTION LIMERICK COMPETITION have chosen the winner, who in some sense explored the research report: "On the Joining of Sticky Brownian Motion," Jonathan Warren, Seminaire de Probabilites, vol. 33, pp. 257-66, in Lecture Notes in Mathematics, no. 1709, Springer, Berlin, 1999. The author, who is at Warwick University, includes a three-page proof of the "non-cosiness of sticky Brownian motion." The winner will receive a free, non-cozy (and non-sticky, postal service willing), issue of the Annals of Improbable Research. Here is the triumphant poet and his limerick: INVESTIGATOR MARTIN EIGER: Though only three pages -- a quickie -- The Warren proof really is tricky. It puts forth the notion That Brownian motion Is cosy, except when it's sticky. ----------------------------------------------------------- 2004-03-08 Beauty and Truth: The Correction There was much lamentation and rending in response to the sloppy way we described, last month, the Truth/Beauty voting. This concerned the survey asking whether people agree or disagree with the poet Keats's assertion that "Beauty is truth, truth beauty." The final voting results were: AGREE: 31% / DISAGREE 65% / CONFUSED: 04%. This is how we SHOULD have summed it all up: And so the revised conclusion is: Beauty is not truth, and/or truth is not beauty. [NOTE: The beautiful truth of the matter is that nothing will put a stop to this argument.] ----------------------------------------------------------- 2004-02-09 Zweibeck's Death Challenge Investigator Jason Zweiback poses a question: I was driving to Calgary with my fiancee when I told her a joke. She started laughing and as I kept going with it she said, "Stop, you're killing me". This made we wonder, are there any documented cases of people dying from laughing? I figured AIR would be the best source. We would like to hear from anyone can cite any documented medical cases that illuminate this matter. ----------------------------------------------------------- 2004-03-10 Survey Results: Astronomers vs. Moons Last month's SCIENTIFIC CORRECTNESS SURVEY (#302) explored the fact that astronomers keep finding more and more moons orbiting planet Jupiter. The survey asked: When the final, correct count is finished will there be a) More moons than astronomers; or b) Fewer moons than astronomers; or c) An endless argument The vote is in. Here it is: a) 08% b) 11% c) 81% This vote total is now official and final. Unless more votes turn up. ----------------------------------------------------------- 2004-03-11 On the Blog Here are some recent topics (a new one appears every weekday) in our blog: Finger Tips Chocolate Bunny Protection Complaint Shake or Bow? Photos of an Atom and a Gal Maggot Man Love's Problem Getting Carded in Philadelphia Missiles and Bears It's Dangerous to Think Reach the blog via ---------------------------------------------------------- 2004-03-12 Watch What You Eat Limerick Contest We invite you to enter the first and last annual WATCH WHAT YOU EAT LIMERICK COMPETITION, for the best (NEWLY composed!) limerick that elucidates this research report, which was brought to our attention by investigator Larry Camilli: "A Scanning Electron Microscopy Study of Japanese Noodles," J. E. Dexter, R. R. Matsuo, and B. L. Dronzek, Cereal Chemistry, vol. 56, 1979, p. 202. RULES: Please make sure your rhymes actually do, and that your limerick at least pretends to adhere to classic limerick form. PRIZE: The winning poet will receive a free electron-microscope- scannable issue of the Annals of Improbable Research. Send entries (one entry per entrant) to: WATCH WHAT YOU EAT LIMERICK CONTEST c/o ----------------------------------------------------------- 2004-03-13 RESEARCH SPOTLIGHT: Does Money Matter? Each month we select for your special attention a research report that seems especially worth a close read. Your librarian will enjoy being asked (loudly, so other library patrons can hear it) for a copy. Here is this month's Pick-of-the-Month: "Does Money Matter?" Glenda Cook, Jan Reed, Susan Childs and Amanda Hall, published by the Joseph Roundtree Foundation, York, UK, 2004. (Thanks to Jonathan Lowenstein for bringing this to our attention.) The authors summarize their findings plainly and simply: "The overriding conclusion that was reached following review of the literature was that money is valued,. not as an end, but as a means to an end. The value of money rests in what it enables you to do and in the sense of control over personal circumstances that it gives." The report is available online at ----------------------------------------------------------- 2004-03-14 MAY WE RECOMMEND: Together/Apart, Fundulus THE TOGETHERNESS OF APARTNESS "Association by Dissociation by Football Fans," C. E. Kimble and B. P. Cooper, Perceptual and Motor Skills, vol. 75, 1992, pp. 303- 9. FUNDULUS FACTS "Ingression During Early Gastrulation of Fundulus," J.P. Trinkaus, Developmental Biology, vol. 177, no. 1, July 10, 1996, pp. 356-70. ------------------------------------------------------------ 2004-03-15 AIRhead Events ==> For details and updates see ==> Want to host an event? 617-491-4437. ==> ENGLAND, SCOTLAND, IRELAND NATIONAL SCIENCE WEEK IG NOBEL TOUR -- MARCH 11-21, 2004 List of events: Thursday 11th March: Oxford University Friday 12th March: Nottingham Trent University Saturday 13th March: W5@Odyssey, Belfast Sunday 14th March: Royal Dublin Society, Dublin Monday 15th March: Royal Col. of Phys. and Surg., Glasgow Tuesday 16th: Exeter University Wednesday 17th March: University of Manchester Thursday 18th March: Institute of Electrical Engineers, London Saturday 20th March: Millennium Point, Birmingham Monday 22nd March: CCLRC Daresbury Lab, Warrington, Cheshire INFO: COUNCIL OF SCIENTIFIC SOCIETY PRESIDENTS -- MAY 1 or 2 or 3, 2004 WASHINGTON, DC ASSOCIATION FOR INSTITUTIONAL RESEARCH -- WED, JUNE 2, 2004 ANNUAL MEETING, BOSTON, MA AUSTRALIA, NATIONAL SCIENCE WEEK TOUR -- AUG 2004 [Tentatively scheduled]. ALPBACH TECHNOLOGY FORUM, AUSTRIA -- AUG 26-28, 2004 ANNUAL IG NOBEL PRIZE CEREMONY -- THURS, SEP. 30, 2004 HARVARD UNIVERSITY IG INFORMAL LECTURES 2004 -- SAT, OCTOBER 2, 2004 MIT -------------------------------------------------------------- 2004-03-16 How to Subscribe to AIR (*) Here's how to subscribe to the magnificent bi-monthly print journal The Annals of Improbable Research (the real thing, not just the little bits of overflow material you've been reading in this newsletter). ................................................................ Name: Address: Address: City and State: Zip or postal code: Country Phone: FAX: E-mail: ................................................................ SUBSCRIPTIONS (6 issues per year): USA 1 yr/$29 2 yrs/$53 Canada/Mexico 1 yr/$33 US 2 yrs/$57 US Overseas 1 yr/$45 US 2 yrs/$82 US ................................................................ BACK ISSUES are available, too: First issue: $8 USA, $11 Canada/Mex, $16 overseas Add'l issues purchased at same time: $6 each ................................................................ Send payment (US bank check, or international money order, or Visa, Mastercard or Discover info) to: Annals of Improbable Research (AIR) PO Box 380853, Cambridge, MA 02238 USA 617-491-4437 FAX:617-661-0927 ----------------------------------------------------- 2004-03-17 Our Address (*) Annals of Improbable Research (AIR) PO Box 380853, Cambridge, MA 02238 USA 617-491-4437 FAX:617-661-0927 EDITORIAL: marca@chem2.harvard.edu SUBSCRIPTIONS: air@improbable.com WEB SITE: --------------------------- 2004-03-18 Please Forward/Post This Issue! (*) Please distribute copies of mini-AIR (or excerpts!) wherever appropriate. The only limitations are: A) Please indicate that the material comes from mini-AIR. B) You may NOT distribute mini-AIR for commercial purposes. ------------- mini-AIRheads ------------- EDITOR: Marc Abrahams (marca@chem2.harvard.edu) MINI-PROOFREADER AND PICKER OF NITS (before we introduce the last few at the last moment): Wendy Mattson WWW EDITOR/GLOBAL VILLAGE IDIOT: Amy Gorin (airmaster@improbable.com) COMMUTATIVE EDITOR: Stanley Eigen (eigen@neu.edu) ASSOCIATIVE EDITOR: Mark Dionne PSYCHOLOGY EDITOR: Robin Abrahams CO-CONSPIRATORS: Alice Shirrell Kaswell, Gary Dryfoos, Ernest Ersatz, S. Drew MAITRE DE COMPUTATION: Jerry Lotto AUTHORITY FIGURES: Nobel Laureates Dudley Herschbach, Sheldon Glashow, William Lipscomb, Richard Roberts (c) copyright 2004, Annals of Improbable Research ----------------------------------------------------- 2004-03-19 How to Receive mini-AIR, etc. (*) What you are reading right now is mini-AIR. Mini-AIR is a (free!) tiny monthly *supplement* to the bi-monthly print magazine. 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