This week’s Feedback column (that I write) in New Scientist magazine has four segments. Here are bits of each of them: Berate the refs — There is new evidence that it can pay to scream at referees in sports stadiums. That evidence appears in the study ‘Verbal aggressions against Major League Baseball umpires affect their decision making”… Your ice […]
The word “trumpery” has gained prominence, says this study: “Autolycus’ Trumpery,” David Kaula, Studies in English Literature, 1500-1900, vol. 16, no. 2, published in the journal Elizabethan and Jacobean Drama, Spring 1976, pp. 287-303. The author explains: “writers seem to be especially addicted to the word “trumpery,” probably because, through its derivation from tromperie, it […]
The March 2024 issue of mini-AIR (the monthly teeny tiny supplement to the magazine Annals of Improbable Research) has just gone out. You can add yourself to the email distribution list, if you like, or read it online.
This week the Ig Nobel Prizes made another appearance on the Jeopardy! TV game show, this time as an answer. It refers to the 2011 Ig Nobel Chemistry Prize, which honored the inventor who tried to determine the ideal density of airborne wasabi (pungent horseradish) to awaken sleeping people in case of a fire or other […]