This week’s Feedback column (that I write) in New Scientist magazine has four segments. Here are bits of each of them: Multi-scare the birds — …Their report advises that: “At present, there is no bird control technique that provides maximum protection for crops, so it is recommended to use a combination of scaring methods at the same […]
To the best of our knowledge, no academic has followed Ig Nobel Prize winner John Trinkaus’s lead in carefully, relentlessly documenting things that annoy them, tallying exactly how frequently those things occur. It’s enjoyable to look back, now and then, at the work of John Trinkaus. Trinkaus died in 2017, at which time we gave […]
Earle Spamer wrote us a scathing letter, about some of the 24/7 Lectures. In case you are not familiar with the 24/7 Lectures, which happen every year as part of the Ig Nobel Prize ceremony, here’s what they are: Each year at the Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony, we invite some of the world’s top thinkers […]
A new study says, more or less, that dogs can count. The study bases this on indirect, fMRI data. You may find the evidence persuasive: The study does not mention that there are many studies, done in many classrooms, showing that many people cannot count. This new dog study is: “Canine sense of quantity: evidence […]
John Trinkaus, who was awarded the 2003 Ig Nobel literature prize, for meticulously collecting data and publishing more than 80 detailed academic reports about things that annoyed him, died. His family notified us today. John (who enjoyed jokingly referring to himself as “Trinkaus”) was one of New York’s overlooked treasures. We became friends after he […]
Can one ever count on Satan and be sure that the count is accurate? A new tally has just been announced. Details are in this study: “Diabolical Data: A Critical Inventory of New Testament Satanology,” Thomas J. Farrar [pictured here] and Guy J. Williams, Journal for the Study of the New Testament, vol. 39, no. […]
Amateur scientists in Atlanta Georgia devised their own methods for counting squirrels (thanks to investigator Amy Baxter for bringing this to our attention.) They write: In the spring of 2012, a statistical count was made of the Eastern gray squirrel (Sciurus carolinensis) for the neighborhood of Inman Park in Atlanta, GA. The Inman Park Squirrel Census (IPSC) […]
William Shakespeare reduced the ages of man to a mere seven, in the play “As You Like It“. In this video, actor Benedict Cumberbatch presents that argument: In contrast, the maker of the video below went for a less literarily — but more mathematically — classical approach to age, assigning a different age for each year […]
Readers of a certain temperament, who seek high levels of stimulation, may feel a bit deflated —led on, then let down by the title — upon learning that the monograph called “Exploding Species” is about counting the number of species. The study is: “Exploding Species,” Trevor Price [pictured here], Trends in Ecology & Evolution, Volume 11, Issue […]
This week’s Math Exercise is: Count how many times the word “repetition” appears in the following text. The text is the citation for a published academic study: “Importance and Need of Reconsidering Rhetorical Repetition,” Sabzalipour Jahandust [pictured here], Journal of Faculty of Letters and Humanities (Tabriz), Fall 2009-Winter 2010; 52(211):81-103. The author, at Rasht Azad University, […]