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

November 2024, issue number 2024-11. 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: The Special IG NOBEL Issue

03 Saying Nothing with Words

04 Science Friday Ig Broadcast

05 Video of Face-to-Face Session 1 (of 3)

06 LIMERICK CHALLENGE: Weasel Word Watch

07 Shoes Concealed in Old Buildings Winner

08 MORE IMPROBABLE: Floor-Licker, Careering, Mice Coffee

09 How to Say Nothing in 500 Words

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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: The Special IG NOBEL Issue

 

The special IG NOBEL issue (vol. 30, no. 6) of the magazine contains copious details about the new Ig Nobel Prize winners and the ceremony at which they were awarded their prizes.

The table of contents and selected articles (and a fine selection of typographical erros) are at:

https://improbable.com/annals-of-improbable-research-november-december-2024-vol-30-number-6/

 

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 Saying Nothing with Words

 

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

 

Saying Nothing with Words," Anthony J. Duggan, Journal of Consumer Policy, vol. 20, no. 1, 1997, pp. 69-88.

doi.org/10.1023/A:1006828711696

 

The author explains:

 

"Three major Australian law reform initiatives are examined: the Contracts Review Act 1980 (New South Wales); new uniform truth in lending laws; and product liability legislation. In each case, effective policy choices were left unresolved, either because the choice was politically too difficult or simply because of a failure by the policy makers to perceive that there was a choice needing to be made. In each case, the problem has been disguised by resort to drafting at a high level of abstraction, and this serves to make rhetorical claims in support of the legislation seem plausible."

 

 

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04 Science Friday Ig Broadcast

 

SCIENCE FRIDAY

The "Science Friday" radio program, now celebrating its 33rd(!) anniversary, will for the 33rd time broadcast specially edited highlights from the year's (this year it's the 34th First Annual) Ig Nobel Prize ceremony.

 

That will happen on Friday, November 29, the day after Thanksgiving. It's always a treat for us (the Ig Nobel organizers to see how the SciFri editors manage to edit the ceremony down to a radio hour in length.  Listen to it on your local public radio station (if you have one), or on the Science Friday web site www.sciencefriday.com

 

 

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05 Video of Face-to-Face Session 1 (of 3)

 

At this year's Ig Nobel Face-to-Face event, two days after the ceremony, the new winners asked each other questions about their work. That happened at the MIT Museum in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in three short sessions.

 

Video of the first of those sessions is now online at

improbable.com/ig/archive/2024-ceremony/#ig-nobel-face-to-face-2024-saturday-september-14-2024-in-the-mit-museum

 

In the coming weeks we will post video of the other two sessions, and also of the Face-to-Face event that happened a few days ago at the Miraikan science museum in Tokyo.

 

 

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06 LIMERICK CHALLENGE: Weasel Word Watch

 

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

 

"Weasel Word Watch: Weasel Words Say Nothing But Imply Everything," Hill Cox, Quality, vol. 44, no. 6, 2005, pp. 16-17.

go.gale.com/ps/anonymous?id=GALE%7CA133642516

 

The author explains:

 

'Weasel words' come to us from the advertising industry--the lower echelons of it, that is, if you prefer, the bottom feeders. These are words that say nothing but imply everything. They are used extensively during election campaigns and in the promotion of 'health' foods and a lot of 'alternative' medicines."

 

Send your perfictly formed, perfectly pleasing limerick to:

 

            WEASEL WORD LIMERICK COMPETITION

            c/o MARC aaattt IMPROBABLE dddooottt COM

 

 

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07 Shoes Concealed in Old Buildings Winner

 

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

Winning limerickicist ROLAND GIERSIG writes:

 

They hid one shoe in a wall,

Why they did it, we cannot recall.

  But its mate we can't find,

  Was it left far behind?

It's a puzzle that puzzles us all.

 

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

 

You found a shoe. What should you do?

It was left there, but why? And by who?

  Maintain a conviction

  In some random fiction.

Deny that you don't have a clue.

 

 

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08 MORE IMPROBABLE: Floor-Licker, Careering, Mice Coffee

 

Recent improbable research bits you may have missed...

 

BLOG (improbable.com):

• Psycho-Forensic Mystery: The Man Who Licks Floors

• [Nature magazine] How Winning an Ig Nobel Prize Affected Their Careers

• Coffee and the Wellbeing of Mice

• …and much more

 

 

LUXURIANT FLOWING HAIR CLUB FOR SCIENTISTS (LFHCfS):

improbable.com/category/lfhcfs-hair-club/

NEW MEMBER: Angelica Ørregaard Lindholm: improbable.com/2024/10/24/angelica-orregaard-lindholm-joins-the-the-luxuriant-flowing-hair-club-for-scientists-lfhcfs/

 

 

PODCAST ARCHIVE:

improbable.com/category/the-weekly-improbable-research-podcast/

 

COLUMNS IN NEW SCIENTIST MAGAZINE:

newscientist.com/author/marc-abrahams/

 

COLUMNS IN THE GUARDIAN:

https://www.theguardian.com/education/series/improbableresearch

 

FACEBOOK: facebook.com/improbableresearch

MASTODON: @MarcAbrahams@mstdn.science

INSTAGRAM: instagram.com/improbable_research/

PATREON: patreon.com/ImprobableResearch

 

 

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09 How to Say Nothing in 500 Words

 

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

 

"How to Say Nothing in 500 Words," Paul McHenry Roberts, The Freshman Reader: Essays and Casebook, 1958, pp. 5-16.

literarycudas.com/uploads/1/9/3/3/19332773/howtosaynothingin500words.doc.pdf

 

The author begins by saying:

 

"It's Friday afternoon, and you have almost survived another week of classes. You are just looking forward dreamily to the weekend when the English instructor says: “For Monday you will turn in a five hundred­word composition..."

 

 

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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

·      "Science Friday" annual Ig Nobel broadcast — Nov 29, 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)

 

            NOTE: Beginning with the next issue,

            the magazine price will increase,

            the first change in almost a decade.

 

 

(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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