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

May 2023, issue number 2023-05. ISSN 1076-500X.

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

----------

Research that makes people LAUGH, then THINK.

—————————

 

01 TABLE OF CONTENTS

 

02 IN THE MAGAZINE ITSELF: Formulas & Recipes

03 Stewed Prunes

04 Ig Nobel EuroTours Resume

05 Limerick Challenge: Stewed Prudes

06 Scull on Brains Monoid Winner

07 MORE IMPROBABLE: Generalist, Goo, Long-Name

08 Stored Prunes

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).

 

—————————

02 IN THE MAGAZINE ITSELF: Formulas & Recipes

 

The special FORMULAS & RECIPES issue (vol. 29, no. 3) of the magazine is filled with stuff about formulas and recipes. The table of contents and selected articles are at:

https://improbable.com/publications/magazine/annals-of-improbable-research-may-jun-2023-vol-29-number-3/

 

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/

 

 

—————————

03 Stewed Prunes

 

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

 

"Why Were There Stewed Prunes in Shakespearean Brothels?" Jennifer Panek, English Language Notes, vol. 42, no. 3, 2005, pp. 18-21.

https://read.dukeupress.edu/english-language-notes/article-abstract/42/3/18/136785/Why-Were-There-Stewed-Prunes-in-Shakespearean

 

 

—————————

04 Ig Nobel EuroTours Resume

 

After three pandemic years that interrupted the annual mounting of Ig Nobel EuroTours, things are opening back up.

 

We have a definite event planned for:

            — Imperial College London, UK, November 25, 2023

 

We have events tentatively planned for:

            — Italy, late September

            — Germany, early November

 

We hope to do additional events in Europe in:

            — late September / early October

            — mid November

 

If your institution would like to host an event, and has funding available to make that possible, please get in touch with MARC aaattt IMPROBABLE dddooottt COM

 

BACKGROUND, IF YOU ARE NOT ACQUAINTED WITH THIS KIND OF EVENT: You can see bits (where/when/who/links) about many of the past EuroTours by traipsing through our list of past events:

https://improbable.com/past-events/

 

 

—————————

05 Limerick Challenge: Stewed Prudes

 

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

 

"Nakedness in Ozark Folk Belief," Vance Randolph, The Journal of American Folklore, vol.66, no. 262, 1953, pp. 333-339. https://doi.org/10.2307/536729

The author explains:

 

"The Ozark hillfolk are not particularly moral people, but they are inclined to be prudish. Commonplace urban behavior shocks them sometimes, and they are scandalized by tourists in modern bathing suits.... Such people might 'cut up' a little at some drunken party, but I couldn't imagine them running naked out of doors at four o'clock in the morning.... Since that time I have become intimately acquainted with the people who live in the Ozark country, and interviewed hundreds of old-timers. There is no doubt in my mind that many early settlers believed that newly cleared fields were benefited by some kind of nude skylarking. Many of them thought that certain crops grew better if the persons who sowed the seed were naked."

 

Submit your perfectly formed, delightfully enlightening limerick to:

 

            STEWED PRUDES LIMERICK COMPETITION

            c/o MARC aaattt IMPROBABLE dddooottt COM

 

 

—————————

06 Scull on Brains Monoid Winner

 

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

 

"Left Brain, Right Brain: One Brain, Two Brains," Andrew Scull, Brain, vol. 33, no. 10, 2010, pp. 3153-3156.

https://doi.org/10.1093/brain/awq255

 

Winning limerickicist DOROTHY BONDELEVITCH writes:

 

My singular brain feels askew.

My poor mind is all in a stew.

  This paper by Scull

  Forces me to annul

My view of what's one versus two.

 

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

 

Is the left brain or right brain more zen?

Do brains differ from women to men?

  As a human, do you

  Have one brain or two?

Whatever you think, think again.

 

 

—————————

07 MORE IMPROBABLE: Generalist, Goo, Long-Name

 

Recent improbable research bits you may have missed...

 

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

* The Very Mention of a Modern Maybe Generalist

* Religious Devotion, Inspired by Black Goo

* Keywords to Understanding Misunderstanding

*…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

 

 

—————————

08 Stored Prunes

 

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

 

"Prune Maturity and Storage," Lowell Ray Tucker, and Leif Verner, University of Idaho, Agricultural Experiment Station, 1932.

https://agris.fao.org/agris-search/search.do?recordID=US201300602480

 

 

—————————

 

TREAT YOURSELF TO (MUCH) MORE IMPROBABLE STUFF.

 

            SUBCRIBE TO THE (PDF) MAGAZINE!

            https://improbable.com/publications/magazine/

 

 

—————————

20 SOME IMPROBABLE EVENTS

 

 

Dead Duck Day, Rotterdam, The Netherlands           — Jun 5, 2023

 

Bay Area Skeptics, California, USA              — Jun 8, 2023

 

Quark Matter Conference, Houston, TX, USA          — Sep 8, 2023

 

33rd First Annual Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony —Sep 14, 2023

 

Ig Nobel Face-to-Face, Cambridge, MA, USA          — Oct 14, 2023

 

Ig Nobel EuroTour                                                    

 — Imperial College London                         Nov 25, 2023

— OTHER EVENTS TBA

 

[All live events in 2023 are subject to pandemical constraints and adventures.]

 

For details and additional events, see

https://improbable.com/upcoming-events/

 

—————————

—————————

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.)

 

 

—————————

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/

 

 

—————————

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

 

 

—————————

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

 

 

—————————