Despite everyone’s carefree joy in singing Happy Birthday to You, this simple song puts you in legal jeopardy every time it exits your mouth. A considerable amount of money flows to the corporation that owns the copyright. But … maybe that company doesn’t own the copyright, and maybe you are in no legal peril. Professor […]
Tag: Improbable Research Review
Talking About Talking
“Are Women Really More Talkative Than Men?”, Matthias R. Mehl, Simine Vazire, Nairán RamÃrez-Esparza, Richard B. Slatcher and James W. Pennebaker, Science, vol. 317, no. 5834, 2007, p. 82 (http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.1139940). The authors, who are variously at the University of Arizona, at Washington University and at the University of Texas, report that: Women are generally assumed […]
Roasting Faith Popcorn
“Burned Popcorn and Broken Crystal Balls: Beware of False Prophets Bearing Food,” Ed Chung, Hiroshi Nakamura and Amy Spielbauer, in Proceedings: Marketing Management Association Spring Conference 1999. R. Green, D.Varble and G. Wunder, eds.. Chicago, 1999 . The authors, at St. Norbert College, Wisconsin, report: “In the late 1980’s, Faith Popcorn forecasted the trends of […]
Forensic Adventures: Birthday Boy
The accidental death at home, by hanging, whilst wearing a tutu, of the 13th Earl of Gurney, strikes some people as being both absurd and, if you’ll pardon the expression, a one-off. True, that particular death is fictional (it occurred near the beginning of the 1972 film The Ruling Class). True, absurdity can be difficult […]