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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