mini-Annals of Improbable Research ("mini-AIR")
May 2023, issue number 2023-05. 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: 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).
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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/
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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
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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/
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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
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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.
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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
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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
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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
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/
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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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