mini-Annals of Improbable Research (“mini-AIR”)
March 2022, issue number 2022-03. ISSN 1076-500X.
<https://www.improbable.com/ai
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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 Improbably
03 Three Elbows
04 Limerick Challenge: Three Knees?
05 Kenn Knott Winner
06 MORE IMPROBABLE: Sleep, Park, Replace
07 Four Elbows and Six Elbows
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 Improbably
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, continuing to infect the populace. See the table of contents and selected articles at:
<https://improbable.com/public
The next issue, the special WOMEN (and MEN) issue, is in prep.
SUBSCRIBE to the MAGAZINE,
or get BACK ISSUES (there are more than 150 of them!):
<https://gumroad.com/improbabl
Tables of Contents: <http://www.improbable.com/mag
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03 Three Elbows
This month’s somewhat randomly selected research report is:
“Osteochondritis Dissecans Involving the Trochlea: Report of Two Patients (Three Elbows) and Review of the Literature,” Nilesh Patel and Scott D. Weiner, Journal of Pediatric Orthopaedics, vol. 22, no. 1, 2002, pp. 48-51.
<https://journals.lww.com/pedo
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04 Limerick Challenge: Three Knees?
This month’s RESEARCH LIMERICK challenge — Devise a pleasing limerick that encapsulates this study:
“A Man with Three Knees? False “Hot Spot” with Dual Isotope Imaging,” K.A. Miles and R.W. Barber, The British Journal of Radiology, vol. 63, no. 754, 1990, pp. 798-800.
<https://www.birpublications.o
Submit your perfectly formed, delightfully enlightening limerick to:
THREE KNEES LIMERICK COMPETITION
c/o <MARC aaattt IMPROBABLE dddooottt COM>
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05 Kenn Knott Winner
The judges have chosen a winner in last month’s Competition, which asked for a limerick to explain 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/d
Winning limerickicist NAN SWIFT writes:
Oh, don’t tie your thoughts in a knot!
These newish time standards are not
as bad as the old,
or so I am told —
these standards that come from Ken Knott.
This month’s take from our LIMERICK LAUREATE, MARTIN EIGER:
There’s a standard that’s tested and true
For something that some people do.
But now two guys say
There’s some other way.
Let’s do it because it is new.
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06 MORE IMPROBABLE: Sleep, Park, Replace
Recent improbable research bits you may have missed…
BLOG: <http://www.improbable.com/>:
* Sleeping Next to the Cat Wherever the Cat Chooses to Sleep
* Comparing Formulas for Parallel Parking
* Ig Nobel Prize winner Berdimuhamedow replaced as Turkmenistan President by Berdimuhamedow
*…and much more
LUXURIANT FLOWING HAIR CLUB FOR SCIENTISTS (LFHCfS)
<https://www.improbable.com/ca
PODCAST:
<https://www.improbable.com/ca
* Episode 1089: Inverted Rhino Translocation
* Episode 1090: Obesity of Politicians, Corruption in Countries
FACEBOOK: <http://www.facebook.com/impro
TWITTER: @ImprobResearch, @MarcAbrahams, #IgNobel
INSTAGRAM: <https://www.instagram.com/imp
PATREON: <www.patreon.com/ImprobableRes
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07 Four Elbows and Six Elbows
This month’s slightly-less-randomly selected research report is:
“Application of a Novel Osteintegration Screw for Treatment of Incomplete Ossification of the Humeral Condyle in Four Dogs (Six Elbows) and Humeral Unicondylar Fracture in Addition to a Locking Plate in Four Elbows,” N. Fitzpatrick and M. Solano, Proceedings of the 39th Annual Veterinary Orthopedic Society Conference, 2012.
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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
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/imp
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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/public
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32 — CONTACT INFO (*)
Annals of Improbable Research (AIR)
<www.improbable.com>
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
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