mini-Annals of Improbable Research ("mini-AIR")

February 2023, issue number 2023-02. 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: Quelle Idée: Super Advanced Theories

03 Seaward Puff Balls from British Archaeological Sites

04 Limerick Challenge: Large Puff Balls

05 Second Hand Smoke Winner

06 MORE IMPROBABLE: Pipe Smokers, Crows, Lake Woebegon

07 Moss on Puff Balls

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: Quelle Idée: Super Advanced Theories

 

If your idea of a good time is ideas, read the special SUPER ADVANCED THEORIES issue (vol. 29, no. 1) of the magazine. The table of contents and selected articles are at:

https://improbable.com/publications/magazine/annals-of-improbable-research-jan-feb-2023-vol-29-number-1/

 

The subsequent issue — the special WATER issue — is in prep.

 

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 Seaward Puff Balls from British Archaeological Sites

 

This month's quasi-haphazardly selected research report of the month (QHSRROTM) is:

 

"Some Observations on Puff-Balls from British Archaeological Sites," R. Watling and M.R.D. Seaward, Journal of Archaeological Science, vol. 3, no. 2, June 1976, pp. 93-192.

https://doi.org/10.1016/0305-4403(76)90083-2

 

The authors explain: "The puff-balls are considered to have been used as haemostatic agents and/or as tinder."

 

 

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04 Limerick Challenge: Large Puff Balls

 

This month's RESEARCH LIMERICK challenge — Devise a pleasing limerick that encapsulates this study:

 

"Large Puff Balls," W.A. Sanford, Nature, vol. 62, no. 1612, 1900, p. 496. https://doi.org/10.1038/062496b0

 

The author, in Wellington, Somerset, UK, reports: "Having seen in some papers lately notices of large puff balls, it may probably be of interest to record the measurements of one far exceeding in size any I ever heard of.... It was found by my daughter, Mrs. Pole-Carew, in a small park belonging to me near this place, where she is residing."

 

Submit your perfectly formed, delightfully enlightening limerick to:

 

            LARGE PUFF BALLS LIMERICK COMPETITION

            c/o MARC aaattt IMPROBABLE dddooottt COM

 

 

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05 Second Hand Smoke Winner

 

The judges have chosen a winner in last month's Competition, which asked for a limerick to explain 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

 

Winning limerickicist IAN DAVIS writes:

 

Stuff that will cause you a wheeze blocks

The innermost bits of a squeeze box.

  The air from the pub

  Needs a rub-a-dub-dub.

Try filtering carefully through these socks?

 

This month's take from our LIMERICK LAUREATE, MARTIN EIGER:

 

At last, I am able to glean,

When me mum said it, what did she mean.

  She said, "Don't ever smoke.

  It can cause you to choke.

And make sure your accordion's clean."

 

 

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06 MORE IMPROBABLE: Pipe Smokers, Crows, Lake Woebegon

 

Recent improbable research bits you may have missed...

 

BLOG: https://www.improbable.com :

* Why Pipe Smokers’ Personalities Are Resistant to Cancer, Philosophically

* How to Befriend Crows

* The Lake Woebegon Effect and Counting Numbers

*…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/

 

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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07 Moss on Puff Balls

 

This month's Other Haphazardly-Selected Research Report (OQHSRROTM) of the month is:

 

"Overwintered Giant Puff-Balls in Alberta," E.H. Moss, Mycologia, vol. 32, no. 2, 1940, pp. 271-273. https://doi.org/10.2307/3754506

 

 

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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       Mar 5, 2023

 

Stanford U, California, USA              March [TBA], 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.

 

            https://improbable.com/publications/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/publications/newsletter-mini-air/

 

 

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32 — CONTACT INFO (*)

 

Annals of Improbable Research (AIR)

https://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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