mini-Annals of Improbable Research (“mini-AIR”)
February 2022, issue number 2022-02. 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: Viruses and Pandemics, Specially
03 Ken Kant on Conflicts in the Brain
04 LiquiCats & LinguistiWugs Online
05 Dramatic Improbable Readings Online
06 Limerick Challenge: Ken Knott on Setting Time Standards
07 Meaning/Idleness Winner
08 MORE IMPROBABLE: Brian, Wombat, Brains
09 Will Knott on Control Technologies
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: Viruses and Pandemics, Specially
What you are reading at the moment (mini-AIR)
is overflow detritus from
the magazine Annals of Improbable Research (AIR).
The special VIRUSES & PANDEMICS issue (vol. 28, no. 2) is out infecting the populace. See the table of contents and selected articles at:
The previous issue, the special ICE CREAM issue (vol. 28, no. 1) of the magazine is of course out there too. See the table of contents and selected articles at <https://improbable.com/publications/magazine/air-vol-28-issue-1/>
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 Ken Kant on Conflicts in the Brain
This month’s somewhat randomly selected research report is:
“Influences of amygdala and medial forebrain bundle on self-stimulation in the septum,” Kenneth J. Kant, Physiology and Behavior, vol. 4, no. 5, 1969, pp. 777-784.
<https://doi.org/10.1016/0031-9384(69)90116-4>
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04 LiquiCats & LinguistiWugs Online
It did happen, and it’s now archived online: the premiere of a new kind of conversation, in a collaborative series by The Conversation and Improbable Research: Two researchers, in different fields, explore each other’s worlds a little bit:
“(Improbable) Conversation: Physics and Psychology of Cats”, with physicist (and Ig Nobel Prize winner, for exploring the question “Can a Cat Be Both a Solid and a Liquid?”) Marc-Antoine Fardin, and psycholinguist (and inventor of the Wug Test) Jean Berko Gleason.
See it at <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2JbYU-IccwM>
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05 Dramatic Improbable Readings Online
Our 2022 Dramatic Improbable Readings session for Arisia also did happen, despite the pandemic that shut down Arisia this year. This one starred Mason Porter, Sonya Taafe, Dean Grodzins, and Gary Dryfoos.
Especially if you have never seen one of our Improbable Dramatic Readings events, savor the recorded video. See it at:
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-opbOTCr_E>
You may be wondering about the name.
Q: Are these events called ‘Dramatic Improbable Readings’ or ‘Improbable Dramatic Readings’?
A: Sometimes the one, sometimes the other. We have trouble consistently remembering which is or should be our official name for these things.
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06 Limerick Challenge: Ken Knott on Setting Time Standards
This month’s RESEARCH LIMERICK challenge — Devise a pleasing limerick that encapsulates this study:
“An Improved Method for Setting Time Standards for Maintenance Work,” Kenneth Knott and Manuel F. Péna, IIE Transactions 17, no. ,1 1985, pp. 17-24.
<https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/07408178508975267>
Submit your perfectly formed, delightfully enlightening limerick to:
KENN KNOTT LIMERICK COMPETITION
c/o <MARC aaattt IMPROBABLE dddooottt COM>
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07 Meaning/Idleness Winner
The judges have chosen a winner in last month’s Competition, which asked for a limerick to explain this study:
“Idleness Aversion and the Need for Justifiable Busyness,” Christopher K. Hsee, Adelle X. Yang and Liangyan Wang, Psychological Science, vol. 21, no. 7, June 2010, pp. 926–930. (Thanks to Jeremy Cook for bringing this to our attention.)
<https://doi.org/10.1177%2F0956797610374738>
Winning limerickicist DAVID WEINBERGER writes:
The Titan with rock uphill goes.
But his pace noticeably slows.
No reason for haste
in a task that’s a waste,
Like towers made out of Legos.
This month’s take from our LIMERICK LAUREATE, MARTIN EIGER:
The conclusions the researchers drew
Are interesting, but are they true?
The work they did might
Have gotten it right,
But it sure gave them something to do.
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08 MORE IMPROBABLE: Brian, Wombat, Corporate Insecthood
Recent improbable research bits you may have missed…
BLOG: <http://www.improbable.com/>:
* Brian, a New Typo of Research
* Southern Hairy-Nosed Wombats: When, Where, How Many, Why
* Corporate Insecthood
*…and much more
LUXURIANT FLOWING HAIR CLUB FOR SCIENTISTS (LFHCfS)
<https://www.improbable.com/category/lfhcfs-hair-club/>
PODCAST:
<https://www.improbable.com/category/the-weekly-improbable-research-podcast/>:
* Episode 1087: Modes of Cat-Human Communication
* Episode 1088: Cursing Babinski
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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09 Will Knott on Control Technologies
This month’s slightly-less-randomly selected research report is:
“Monitoring and control technologies for bioregenerative life support systems/CELSS, William M. Knott and John C. Sager, in Technology 2000: Proceedings of a Conference Held at the Washington Hilton Hotel and Towers, Washington, DC, November 27-28, 1990, vol. 3109, p. 161. National Aeronautics and Space Administration, 1991.
<https://tinyurl.com/3zwtdpcz>
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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
AAAS Annual Meeting Feb 19, 2022
TEDx IIITA, Allahabad, India April 9, 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, see the links at the end of this email.
ARCHIVES: <https://improbable.com/publications/newsletter-mini-air/>
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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 2022, Annals of Improbable Research
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