mini-Annals of Improbable Research ("mini-AIR")
October 2024, issue number 2024-10. ISSN 1076-500X.
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: Morbid Now, Ig Imminent
03 Concealed Footwear
04 LIMERICK CHALLENGE: Shoes Concealed in Old Buildings
05 Python Farming Flexibility Winner
06 MORE IMPROBABLE: Coffee, Sad News, No Answers
07 The Other Shoe
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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: Morbid Now, Ig Imminent
The special MORBID issue (vol. 30, no. 5) of the magazine continues to enchant every ant and nearly every aunt who reads it. The table of contents and selected articles are at:
improbable.com/annals-of-improbable-research-september-october-2024-vol-30-number-5/
The special IG NOBEL issue, copiously documenting this year's Ig Nobel Prize ceremony and winners, is in prep.
SUBSCRIBE to the MAGAZINE, or get BACK ISSUES (there are more than 150 of them!): gumroad.com/improbable
Tables of Contents: improbable.com/magazine-2/
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03 Concealed Footwear
This month's quasi-haphazardly selected research report of the month (QHSRROTM) is:
"Tracing the Footsteps of Ritual: Concealed Footwear in America," Jessica Costello, Historical Archaeology, vol. 48, no. 3, 2014, pp. 35-51. <doi.org/10.1007/BF03376936> The author reveals:
"Research concluded by the author in 2003 documented 106 cases of concealed footwear in the United States."
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04 LIMERICK CHALLENGE: Shoes Concealed in Old Buildings
This month's RESEARCH LIMERICK challenge — Devise a pleasing limerick that encapsulates this study:
"Revealing the Ritually Concealed: Custodians, Conservators, and the Concealed Shoe," Ceri Houlbrook and Rebecca Shawcross, Material Religion: The Journal of Objects, Art and Belief, vol. 14, no. 2, 2018. <doi.org/10.1080/17432200.2018.1443892>
The authors explain:
"Concealed shoes are footwear purposely concealed within domestic buildings. The motivations behind their concealments are unknown to us, but the prominent theory suggests that shoes were employed as apotropaic (evil-averting) devices.... Drawing on a sample of 100 examples, this paper questions why such shoes were deposited as singles (the present parts), what became of the 'other shoe' (the absent part), and how such consideration aids our understanding of this enigmatic custom."
Send your perfictly formed, perfectly pleasing limerick to:
SHOES-IN-OLD-BUILDINGS LIMERICK COMPETITION
c/o MARC aaattt IMPROBABLE dddooottt COM
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05 Python Farming Flexibility Winner
The judges have chosen a winner in last month's Competition, which asked for a limerick to explain this study:
"Python Farming as a Flexible and Efficient Form of Agricultural Food Security," D. Natusch, P. W. Aust, C. Caraguel, P. L. Taggart, V. T. Ngo, G. J. Alexander, R. Shine, and T. Coulson, Scientific Reports, vol. 14, 2024, article 5419.
doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-54874-4
Winning limerickicist LYNN BURPEE BOHAKER writes:
As breakfast-time cereal flakes,
As smoothies when whipped up as shakes,
As cultured on farms,
As famed for their charms,
Yes, pythons are marvelous snakes!
This month's take from our LIMERICK LAUREATE, MARTIN EIGER:
Will beef and pork, chicken and fish
Be around in the future? You wish!
McDonald's foresees
That McPython with cheese
Will someday be their best-selling dish.
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06 MORE IMPROBABLE: Coffee, Sad News, No Answers
Recent improbable research bits you may have missed...
BLOG (improbable.com):
• On Balance, A Cup of Coffee Does Nothing
• Sad News: Ig Nobel Prize Winner Phil Zimbardo Has Died
• “A lot of questions and absolutely no answers: … a resounding success!”
• …and much more
COLUMNS IN NEW SCIENTIST MAGAZINE:
newscientist.com/author/marc-abrahams/
COLUMNS IN THE GUARDIAN:
https://www.theguardian.com/education/series/improbableresearch
LUXURIANT FLOWING HAIR CLUB FOR SCIENTISTS (LFHCfS):
improbable.com/category/lfhcfs-hair-club/
PODCAST ARCHIVE:
improbable.com/category/the-weekly-improbable-research-podcast/
FACEBOOK: facebook.com/improbableresearch
MASTODON: @MarcAbrahams@mstdn.science
INSTAGRAM: instagram.com/improbable_research/
PATREON: patreon.com/ImprobableResearch
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07 The Other Shoe
This month's Other Haphazardly-Selected Research Report (OQHSRROTM) of the month is:
"The Other Shoe: Fragmentation in the PostMedieval Home," Ceri Houlbrook, Cambridge Archaeological Journal, vol. 27, no. 2, December 2016, pp. 261-274. <doi.org/10.1017/S0959774316000548>
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TREAT YOURSELF TO (MUCH) MORE IMPROBABLE STUFF.
SUBCRIBE TO THE (PDF) MAGAZINE!
improbable.com/magazine-2/
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20 SOME IMPROBABLE EVENTS
· Ig Nobel Face-to-Face, Miraikan, Tokyo, Japan — Nov 17, 2024
· Arisia, Boston, MA, USA — Jan 2025
· AAAS Annual Meeting, Boston, MA, USA — Feb 14, 2025
· 2025 Ig Nobel EuroTour — Spring 2025
· Balticon, Baltimore, USA — May 23-26, 2025
· 35th First Annual Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony — Sep 2025
For details and additional events, see: improbable.com/upcoming-events/
If your institution would like to host an event,
please get in touch with us at:
MARC aaattt IMPROBABLE dddooottt COM
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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.
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: improbable.com/publications/newsletter-mini-air/
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32 — CONTACT INFO (*)
Annals of Improbable Research (AIR)
improbable.com
EDITORIAL: MARC aaattt IMPROBABLE dddooottt COM
SUBSCRIPTION QUESTIONS: subscriptions AT improbable.com
Cambridge, MA, USA
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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 2024, Improbable Research
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