Mini-AIR

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

July 2023, issue number 2023-07. 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: Birds

03 "Shut Up", in Japan (1973)

04 Throw Paper Airplanes in the 2023 Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony

05 Limerick Challenge: "Shut Up", in Japan (1968)

06 Armored Mud Balls Winners

07 MORE IMPROBABLE: Turkey, Beetles, Cutting Remarks

08 "Shut Up": An Indiana Perspective on Indian Proverbs

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: Birds

The special BIRDS issue (vol. 29, no. 4) of the magazine is filled with stuff about formulas and recipes. The table of contents and selected articles are at:

https://improbable.com/annals-of-improbable-research-july-august-2023-vol-29-number-4/

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/magazine-2/

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03 "Shut Up", in Japan (1973)

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

"Aspects of Nonverbal Communication in Japan," Helmut Morsbach, Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, vol. 157, no. 4, 1973, pp. 262–277. (Thanks to Corky White for bringing this to our attention.)

https://journals.lww.com/jonmd/Abstract/1973/10000/Aspects_of_Nonverbal_Communication_in_Japan.6.aspx

Morsbach writes:

'Fischer and Yoshida investigated Japanese values about speaking and language by analyzing proverbs. They concluded, "Basically, the most ubiquitous lesson about speech in Japanese proverbs is 'shut up' ". This is shown in the following examples, "One treats one's mouth like a guarded jar;" "A mouth is to eat with, not to speak with;" or, " To say nothing is a flower" (i.e., it is а good idea to leave many things unsaid).'

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04 Throw Paper Airplanes in the 2023 Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony

We invite you to throw paper planes in this year’s Ig Nobel Prize ceremony.

This video tells what and how:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4bTp3bouOGk

The ceremony — the 33rd First Annual — will happen entirely online, on Thursday evening, September 14, 2023, beginning at 6:0 pm (US eastern time). Here's the ceremony webpage:

https://improbable.com/ig/2023-ceremony/

DEADLINE for submitting a paper plane video is August 18, 2023. We will select the best videos and include them (or portions of them) in the ceremony. Send your video to <marc ATTTTTTT improbable DOTTTTTT com>.

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05 Limerick Challenge: "Shut Up", in Japan (1968)

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

"The Nature of Speech According to Japanese Proverbs," J.L. Fischer and Teigo Yoshida, Journal of American Folklore, vol. 81, 1968, pp. 34-43. https://doi.org/10.2307/537436

The authors write:

"Basically, the most ubiquitous lesson about speech in Japanese proverbs is 'shut up' ".

Submit your perfectly formed, delightfully enlightening limerick to:

SHUT UP IN JAPAN LIMERICK COMPETITION

c/o MARC aaattt IMPROBABLE dddooottt COM

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06 Armored Mud Balls Winners

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

"Armoured Mud Balls Revisited," L.H. Tanner, Atlantic Geology, 32(2), 1996, pp. 123–125. https://id.erudit.org/iderudit/ageo32_2art03

Co-winning limerickicist WILLIAM PECK writes:

It starts with some soft glacial clay,

That rolls down the beach of some bay.

These clasts, they are rebels–

They’re armored with pebbles!

We don’t see such things every day.

And co-winning limerickicist Allison Browne writes:

Waters that try dorodango

Find natural mud is too rando

Sand and gravel adhere

Coating the sphere

Driving the smooth look ajango.

NOTES FROM ALLISON BROWNE:

1. For a description of dorodango see See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dorodango

2. For some guidance in using dorodango see:

"Development of 'SDGs Shiny Mudball (dorodango)' for teaching 'Sustainable and contribution' and achievement of SDGs 4.7," Kiyoshi Omine, Katsumi Mizuno, Toru Inui, Yasutaka Watanabe, Yoshinori Iwasaki, and Masashi Kamon, Reports of Graduate School of Engineering, Nagasaki University, vol. 50, no. 94, 2020.

https://cir.nii.ac.jp/crid/1050287297264004992

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

Some are platy, some oblong, some round,

After tidal extremes stir up ground.

Nova Scotia is where

You should go if you care

To go where armoured mud balls are found.

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07 MORE IMPROBABLE: Turkey, Beetles, Cutting Remarks

Recent improbable research bits you may have missed...

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

* Ambiguity: Broilers in Turkey

* Coleopterists review of the surprising bark beetles book

* Cutting remarks: The power of few words

*…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 "Shut Up": An Indiana Perspective on Indian Proverbs

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

"The Nature of Speech According to Indian Proverbs," W.K. McNeil, 1971.

https://scholarworks.iu.edu/dspace/bitstream/handle/2022/2292/4(1-2)%202-14.pdf?sequence=1

The author at Indiana University, writes:

"[I had good] reason for choosing India as a test case for the Fischer-Yoshida thesis... For this study twenty-one collections were consulted. An attempt was made to find in these sources every proverb dealing with speech in any way — Undoubtedly, some were missed... [One proverb makes clear that] Even when thought goes beforehand one should keep his talk to a minimum because too much talk is as bad as too much silence: Zaban ke age lagam zarur chahiye. [Always keep a curb on your tongue.]"

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TREAT YOURSELF TO (MUCH) MORE IMPROBABLE STUFF.

SUBCRIBE TO THE (PDF) MAGAZINE!

https://improbable.com/magazine-2/

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20 SOME IMPROBABLE EVENTS

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

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