Research and other stuff that makes people LAUGH, then THINK.
SAGE publications today (March 18, 2023) published this “Item of Concern” about “Bust Size and Hitchhiking” and other papers they published that were co-authored by Nicolas Guéguen [pictured here], of whom we have written much over many years (and about whom our friends at Retraction Watch also have written much): Expression of Concern The Journal Editors […]
This week’s Feedback column (that I write) in New Scientist magazine has four segments. Here are bits of each of them: Cola: a swell tale — … If you are a male mouse who drinks lots of Pepsi or Coca-Cola, and if you mainly enjoy reading manly adventure stories, get yourself a copy of the latest write-up from […]
Nuts are prevalent in the Journal of Nuts. Some (perhaps all) of its articles have interesting authors. One, at least, of the authors of the following article is notably, almost nuttily prolific. That article is: “How Did Globalization Boost the Nuts Production in Indonesia?” Eko Hendarto, Sandhir Sharma, Maria Jade Catalan Opulencia, Mohammed Khudair Hasan, […]
Indian filmmaker Satish Kaushik, who in 2003 helped Lal Bihari, founder of the Association of Dead People, accept the Ig Nobel Peace Prize — and who years later produced a feature film about the life and death and life of Lal Bihari — has himself died. This report in Business Standard brings the sad news: […]
This week’s Feedback column (that I write) in New Scientist magazine has four segments. Here are bits of each of them: Fossil or beehive? — … And the snideness? That isn’t unusual, either. Nor is it new. In 1934, the Journal of the Washington Academy of Sciences printed a report called “The supposed fossil ear of maize from Cuzco, Peru”. Quantum […]
This week’s Feedback column (that I write) in New Scientist magazine has four segments. Here are bits of each of them: Moss excitement — “It’s not every day you can watch moss grow!” says a press release from the University of Wollongong (UOW), Australia. Too true. The details in the press release lead to an invitation…. Astronomers and […]
Doug Zongker’s famous talk, delivered at the Improbable Research session at the 2007 Annual Meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), in San Francisco. Video documentation by Yoram Bauman.
This week’s Feedback column (that I write) in New Scientist magazine has four segments. Here are bits of each of them: Caffeine boost — … Though some folk choose to roast, brew and drink coffee, innovative scientists use the bean and its byproducts to make cosmetics. Fernanda Maria Pinto Vilela and her colleagues at Brazil’s Federal University of […]
Mathematician Jim Propp connects the counting numbers — the concept of them, not particular, specific numbers — to the seemingly unconnected Lake Woebegon Effect. Propp’s essay appears in his Mathematical Enchantments blog: Beneath and Beyond … The twentieth century weekly radio show “A Prairie Home Companion” had a recurring feature called “The news from Lake […]
This week’s Feedback column (that I write) in New Scientist magazine has four segments. Here are bits of each of them: A sticky fix — News headlines tell a gripping, simple tale: “Royal Navy probe after claims £88m Trident submarine nuclear reactor fault was fixed with super glue” (Wales Online). “Furious Navy chiefs order investigation after ‘workers on […]