Category: Improbable Investigators

What’s new in Bunnlevel? Something not easily described. As the local newspaper put it: “Sounds ludicrous, but Mr. McLean is dead serious.” A report in the January 8, 2004 issue of the (Dunn, North Carolina) Daily Record includes the following: If Bunnlevel ever becomes a hub for space travel, Tommy McLean will be responsible. Based […]

“What is the record for the maximum number of authors/co-authors on a published paper?” asks investigator Brian G. Williams, Ph.D., P.E., of Idaho State University, in Pocatello, Idaho. He continues: A graduate student of mine found a paper: “STAR Detector Overview,” K.H. Ackermann, et. al., Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research A, vol. 499, […]

His colleagues and friends call him “Maggot Man.” He is one of the world’s foremost forensic entomologists, and even in that darkly cheery profession, he stands out for his sense of humor and encyclopedic curiosity. He is of course an editorial board member of the Annals of Improbable Research. He is a much-published author. He […]

“He was a con artist, but boy, he pulled it off,” Queeney said. “The man was truly a riddle wrapped in a sleeping bag. I don’t know if any of us will ever know who he really was.” So ends an Associated Press (AP) report, published on January 3, 2004, about the man who would […]

The patent application seems to challenge the “one sentence per claim” rule. It reads: What is new in the art of “Glory!” is that there has never been a Christian board game designed or illustrated such as this! From each individually characterized figurine representing the “Armour of God” to the uniquely designed game cards to […]

The new version of Portfolio of a Genius has just arrived. For the better part of a decade, we have been receiving the laboriously crafted, increasingly thick versions of this wondrous work. They arrive in our mailbox at the post office, always unanticipated, always surprising by their very existence. The author, James E. Shepherd, Jr. […]