mini-Annals of Improbable Research ("mini-AIR")
January 2023, issue number 2023-01. ISSN 1076-500X.
https://improbable.com/publications/newsletter-mini-air/
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Research that makes people LAUGH, then THINK.
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01 TABLE OF CONTENTS
02 IN THE MAGAZINE ITSELF: Super Advanced Theories
03 Pain of the Accordion Player
04 Looking Ahead: The 2023 Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony
05 Limerick Challenge: Second-Hand Smoke in Accordions
06 Hot Sauce Celebrities Winner
07 MORE IMPROBABLE: Flying Fruits, Auto Flamethrower, Excited
08 Effect of Accordions on Wine
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.
What you are reading at the moment (mini-AIR) is overflow detritus from the magazine Annals of Improbable Research (AIR).
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02 IN THE MAGAZINE ITSELF: Super Advanced Theories
Unstoppably comes the special SUPER ADVANCED THEORIES issue (vol. 29, no. 1) of the magazine, waiting for you to read it and — if you are bold —to subscribe. See the table of contents and selected articles at:
https://improbable.com/publications/magazine/annals-of-improbable-research-jan-feb-2023-vol-29-number-1/
SUBSCRIBE to the MAGAZINE, or get BACK ISSUES (there are more than 150 of them!): https://gumroad.com/improbable
Tables of Contents: https://improbable.com/publications/magazine/
(And looking ahead: a special issue on Super-Advanced Theories is in prep for Jan/Feb.)
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03 Pain of the Accordion Player
This month's Haphazardly-Selected Study [HSS] of the month is:
"Pain and Posture of Children and Adolescents Who Learn the Accordion as Compared with Non-Musician Students," Liliana Aparicio, Filipa M.B Lã, and Anabela G. Silva, Medical Problems of Performing Artists, vol. 31, no. 4, 2016, pp. 187-192.
https://doi.org/10.21091/mppa.2016.4034
The authors explain:
"This study suggests that children and adolescents who play the accordion have an increased forward head posture and lumbar lordosis and a tendency to report more pain than children and adolescents who do not play a musical instrument."
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04 Looking Ahead: The 2023 Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony
The 33rd First Annual Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony will happen on THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 14, 2023.
As in 2020, 2021, 2022, the 2023 ceremony will again happen exclusively online, due to the combined effects and side-effects of the Covid-19 pandemic. [Yes, we yearn and plan to return to doing it in the traditional home, Sanders Theatre, as soon as possible. But that will not be this year, alas!]
In the meantime, you can amuse and instruct yourself by watching the 2022 Ig Informal Lecture videos, in which most of the new Ig Nobel Prize winners tried to explain, if they could, what they did and why they did it: https://improbable.com/ig/2022-ceremony/#lectures
A list of all past Ig Nobel Prize winners is, as always, on the web site at https://improbable.com/ig/winners
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05 Limerick Challenge: Second-Hand Smoke in Accordions
This month's RESEARCH LIMERICK challenge — Devise a pleasing limerick that encapsulates this study:
"Confessions of an Accordion Cleaner" John F. Garvey, Paul McElwaine, Thomas S. Monaghan, and Walter T. McNicholas, BMJ, vol. 335, no. 7621, 2007, pp. 630-630.
https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.39346.507778.3A
(Thanks to Thomas Michel for bringing this to our attention.) The authors report:
"Haw and Gruer document the reduction in exposure to secondhand smoke since the implementation of smoke-free legislation in Scotland. We report further evidence of reduced exposure to secondhand smoke in Irish pubs since the legislation in the Republic of Ireland….
There is anecdotal evidence that the interiors of accordions played regularly in smoke filled environments are dirtied as a result of the trapping of contaminant particles circulating in the air as it filters through the instrument. We conducted a telephone survey of all workers involved in the cleaning, repair, maintenance, and renovation of accordions in the Republic of Ireland."
Submit your perfectly formed, delightfully enlightening limerick to:
SECOND-HAND SMOKE LIMERICK COMPETITION
c/o MARC aaattt IMPROBABLE dddooottt COM
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06 Hot Sauce Celebrities Winner
The judges have chosen a winner in last month's Competition, which asked for a limerick to explain this study:
"The Spicy Spectacular: Food, Gender, and Celebrity on Hot Ones," Emily J.H. Contois, Feminist Media Studies, vol. 18, no. 4, 2018, pp. 769-773.
https://doi.org/10.1080/14680777.2018.1478690
Winning limerickicist RICHARD RAE writes:
Celebrities talk about things
While ingesting a decade of wings.
They’re progressively hot
Putting them on the spot
‘Til at some point, the fat lady sings.
This month's take from our LIMERICK LAUREATE, MARTIN EIGER:
YouTube's a feast for the eyes.
Each page packs a wondrous surprise.
My heart starts to quicken
With each spicy chicken,
So often devoured by guys.
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07 MORE IMPROBABLE: Flying Fruits, Auto Flamethrower, Excited
Recent improbable research bits you may have missed...
BLOG: https://www.improbable.com :
* Optimal Wings for Flying Fruits
* A Look Back at the Prize-Winning Anti-Car-Jacking Flamethrower
* Too Much Excitement Under Highway 87
*…and much more
WEEKLY COLUMN IN NEW SCIENTIST MAGAZINE:
https://www.newscientist.com/author/marc-abrahams/
LUXURIANT FLOWING HAIR CLUB FOR SCIENTISTS (LFHCfS):
https://www.improbable.com/category/lfhcfs-hair-club/
* Charles DeLorey
PODCAST:
https://www.improbable.com/category/the-weekly-improbable-research-podcast/
FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/improbableresearch
MASTODON: @MarcAbrahams@mstdn.science
TWITTER: @ImprobResearch, @MarcAbrahams, #IgNobel
INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/improbable_research/
PATREON: https://www.patreon.com/ImprobableResearch
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08 Effect of Accordions on Wine
This month's Other Haphazardly-Selected Study [OHSS] of the month is:
"Situational Awareness: How Accordion Music Boosts Sales of Burgundy—Using Counterintuition to Overcome Social Pressure in Decision Making," Michael J. Mauboussin, Harvard Business Press Chapters, Nov 04, 2009, Prod. #: 5885BC-PDF-ENG
https://www.google.com/books/edition/Think_Twice/yGw3_S-5100C?hl=en&gbpv=1&bsq=accordion
(Thanks to Thomas Michel for bringing this to our attention.) The author explains:
"Chances are, you think of yourself as an objective decision maker: you weigh the facts, consider the alternatives, and select the best course of action. You see yourself as being mostly immune to the influence of others; the facts and your own experience will carry the day. Not true, argues behavioral finance expert Michael Mauboussin. In this chapter, he stresses the crucial role of context in decision making and illustrates, using compelling real-life examples, how the behavior of those around us exerts extraordinary influence on our decisions. The chapter concludes with a list of ideas to help you improve your situational awareness and become a more thoughtful and effective decision maker, especially when the stakes are high. This chapter was originally published as chapter 4 of 'Think Twice: Harnessing the Power of Counterintuition.' "
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TREAT YOURSELF TO (MUCH) MORE IMPROBABLE STUFF.
SUBCRIBE TO THE (PDF) MAGAZINE!
https://improbable.com/publications/magazine/
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20 SOME IMPROBABLE EVENTS
AAAS Annual Meeting, Washington, DC, USA Feb 2023
Stanford U, California, USA March [TBA], 2023
Ig Nobel Euro (and Brexitannia) Tour [MAYBE] Spring, 2023
American Chemical Society, San Francisco, USA Aug 15, 2023
33rd First Annual Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony September 14, 2023
[All live events in 2023 are subject to pandemical constraints and adventures.]
For details and additional events, see
https://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.
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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
(c) copyright 2023, Annals of Improbable Research
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