mini-Annals of Improbable Research ("mini-AIR")
June 2023, issue number 2023-06. 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
IN THE MAGAZINE ITSELF: Formulas, Recipes, Recipes, Formulas
03 Armored Mud Balls
04 His Final Recalibration
05 Limerick Challenge: Armored Mud Balls Revisited
06 Stewed Prunes Winner
07 MORE IMPROBABLE: Skink, Misunderstanding, Gusset
08 Giant Convecting Mud 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: Formulas, Recipes, Recipes, Formulas
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/
The special BIRDS 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/
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03 Armored Mud Balls
This month's quasi-haphazardly selected research report of the month (QHSRROTM) is:
"Armored Mud Balls: Their Origin, Properties, and Role in Sedimentation." Hugh Stevens Bell, The Journal of Geology, vol. 48, no. 1 (1940): 1-31. https://doi.org/10.1086/624859
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04 His Final Recalibration
Ig Nobel Prize winner Pat Robertson — who predicted that the world would end in 1982 — died on June 8, 2023, according to numerous news reports.
The 2011 Ig Nobel Mathematics Prize was awarded to: Dorothy Martin of the USA (who predicted the world would end in 1954), Pat Robertson of the USA (who predicted the world would end in 1982), Elizabeth Clare Prophet of the USA (who predicted the world would end in 1990), Lee Jang Rim of KOREA (who predicted the world would end in 1992), Credonia Mwerinde of UGANDA (who predicted the world would end in 1999), and Harold Camping of the USA (who predicted the world would end on September 6, 1994 and later predicted that the world would end on October 21, 2011), for teaching the world to be careful when making mathematical assumptions and calculations.
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05 Limerick Challenge: Armored Mud Balls Revisited
This month's RESEARCH LIMERICK challenge — Devise a pleasing limerick that encapsulates this study:
"Armoured Mud Balls Revisited," L.H. Tanner, Atlantic Geology, 32(2), 1996, pp. 123–125. https://id.erudit.org/iderudit/ageo32_2art03
Submit your perfectly formed, delightfully enlightening limerick to:
ARMORED MUD BALLS LIMERICK COMPETITION
c/o MARC aaattt IMPROBABLE dddooottt COM
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06 Stewed Prunes Winner
The judges have chosen a winner in last month's Competition, which asked for a limerick to explain 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
Winning limerickicist DIANNE O'LEARY writes:
To farm in the Ozarks is tough.
Growing turnips and corn there is rough.
But old-timers know
If you want it to grow,
Make sure that you sow in the buff.
This month's take from our LIMERICK LAUREATE, MARTIN EIGER:
Prudish hillfolk like us have construed
Certain things people do to be rude.
At beaches, it's best
To remain mostly dressed.
But be sure to go nude to grow food.
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07 MORE IMPROBABLE: Skink, Misunderstanding, Gusset
Recent improbable research bits you may have missed...
BLOG: https://www.improbable.com :
* Outstanding Headline About an Extinct Skink
* Understanding Misunderstanding
* Love Your Gusset
*…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 Giant Convecting Mud Balls
This month's Other Haphazardly-Selected Research Report (OQHSRROTM) of the month is:
"Giant Convecting Mud Balls of the Early Solar System," Philip A. Bland and Bryan J. Travis, Science Advances 3, no. 7, 2017, article e1602514.
https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.1602514
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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
Italy — Date TBA, late September
Ig Nobel Face-to-Face, Cambridge, MA, USA — Oct 14, 2023
Ig Nobel EuroTour
— Berlin Science Festival Date TBA
— 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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