mini-Annals of Improbable Research ("mini-AIR")
April 2025, issue number 2025-04. 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: Paradoxes, Then Questions
03 Jellinek and All That
04 Ig Nobel Events in Southern California
05 LIMERICK CHALLENGE: Tribute to Bunky Jellinek
06 Bump Appendicitis Winner
07 MORE IMPROBABLE: Vulnerable Artificially, String Cheese, Cats
08 E.M. Jellinek —"Free Floating" Alcohologist
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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: Paradoxes, Then Questions
The special PARA issue (vol. 31, no. 2) of the magazine is full of paradoxes. Among those are a new twist on Zeno's Paradox (see the front cover of the issue) and a look at Zenos's paradox. The TOC and several articles are online at
https://improbable.com/annals-of-improbable-research-march-april-2025-vol-31-number-2/
The special QUESTIONS issue (vol. 31, no. 3) will be out any day now.
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 Jellinek and All That
This month's quasi-haphazardly selected research report of the month (QHSRROTM) is:
"E.M. Jellinek and All That! A Brief Look Back at the Origins of Post-Repeal Alcohol Science in the United States," Ron Roizen, [English text of an essay translated into Swedish by Christoffer Tigerstedt. The original is: "E.M. Jellinek etc.! Den amerikanska alkoholforskningens framväxt efter förbudslagstiden," Nordisk Alkohol- & Narkotikatidskrift, vol. 17, 2000, pp. 355-366.]
roizen.com/ron/jellinek-pres.htm
The author explains:
"Let's begin with the grand old man himself, Elvin Morton Jellinek (1890-1963) -- better known simply as 'E.M.' or, among his family and closest associates, 'Bunky' -- Hungarian for 'little radish.' There was no more colorful nor important figure in the story of the new alcohol science movement, though he more properly belongs to the story's middle rather than its beginning....
"By some accounts Jellinek was also a bit of a charlatan. Among other endearing frauds, for instance, he appears to have fabricated his doctorate and in fact may have held no college degree at all.... I hasten to add that one of Jellinek's distinguished colleagues at Yale, Edith Lisansky Gomberg, once commented to me that if Jellinek was a fraud then '...the field needs more frauds like him -- at least he was interesting!' "
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04 Ig Nobel Events in Southern California
The Ig Nobel Southern Cal Tour begins a few days from now, with events in Los Angeles, Santa Barbara, and Irvine. Here's the schedule:
May 2, 2025, 4:30 pm, Friday — UCLA, Los Angeles, in the Mathematical Sciences building, room 5200
May 3, 2025, 1:30 pm, Saturday — CALPACS (California Los Padres Section of the American Chemical Society), in the Faulkner Gallery of the Santa Barbara Public Library (Central library),40 East Anapamu Street, Santa Barbara
May 5, 2025, 3:30 pm, Monday — University of California Irvine, Irvine, in Natural Sciences 1, room 4112.
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Details and links on our events page: improbable.com/upcoming-events/
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05 LIMERICK CHALLENGE: Tribute to Bunky Jellinek
This month's RESEARCH LIMERICK challenge — Devise a pleasing limerick that encapsulates this study:
"A Tribute to Bunky at 125: A Comprehensive Bibliography of EM Jellinek's Publications," Judit H. Ward and William Bejarano, Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs, vol. 77, no. 3, 2016, pp. 371-374.
doi.org/10.15288/jsad.2016.77.371
The authors explain:
"E.M. Jellinek is considered one of the founders of alcohol science. On the 125th anniversary of his birth, the authors wish to contribute to existing, incomplete bibliographies of his work by offering a more comprehensive bibliography that includes his non– alcohol-studies publications as well as newly discovered alcohol-related items."
Send your perfictly formed, perfectly pleasing limerick to:
TRIBUTE TO BUNKY LIMERICK COMPETITION
c/o MARC aaattt IMPROBABLE dddooottt COM
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06 Bump Appendicitis Winner
The judges have chosen a winner in last month's Competition, which asked for a limerick to explain this study:
"Pain Over Speed Bumps in Diagnosis of Acute Appendicitis: Diagnostic Accuracy Study," Helen F Ashdown, Nigel D'Souza, Diallah Karim, Richard J Stevens, Andrew Huang, and Anthony Harnden, BMJ, vol. 345, 2012. doi.org/10.1136/bmj.e8012
Winning limerickicist ROLAND GIERSIG writes:
Oh, please consider this submission,
a limerick built with precision.
It captures with cheer,
a study quite clear:
Appendix pain’s bumpy admission.
A patient in pain on the ride,
over speed bumps could hardly abide.
With appendicitis,
the bumps would incite this:
A clue docs can use to decide.
This month's take from our LIMERICK LAUREATE, MARTIN EIGER:
Doctors claim the appendix arcane,
A mystery they can't explain.
So if you hope to know
Whether yours will soon blow,
Drive on speed bumps and measure your pain.
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07 MORE IMPROBABLE: Vulnerable Artificially, String Cheese, Cats
Recent improbable research bits you may have missed...
BLOG (improbable.com):
• Kind Thoughts for the Vulnerable Artificially Intelligent
• Ig Nobel Prizes — Two New NHK TV Documentaries
• A Transactional Effect of String Cheese on Internet Commerce
• …and much more
SUBSTACK: (improbablestuff.substack.com)
• Cats Prefer Species-Appropriate Music
• Effects of Musical Genres on Twelve Anaesthetized Cats
• "Where There Are Girls, There Are Cats"
• …and much more
MASTODON: @MarcAbrahams@mstdn.science
FACEBOOK: facebook.com/improbableresearch
PATREON: patreon.com/ImprobableResearch
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08 E.M. Jellinek —"Free Floating" Alcohologist
This month's Other Haphazardly-Selected Research Report (OQHSRROTM) of the month is:
"E.M. Jellinek — A 'Free Floating' Alcohologist," [article in Hungarian], Gábor Kelemen and Mónika Márk, Psychiatria Hungaria, vol. 27, no. 5, 2012 pp. 304-19. (Thanks to Ivan Oransky for bringing this to our attention.)
europepmc.org/article/med/23180730
The authors explain:
"A good half of Jellinek's life has been uncharted and still contains terrain unbeknown to us. Following some infamous activity he fled from Hungary on the very same day (June 4, 1920) when the country lost two-thirds of its territory. After a ten-year roaming Jellinek's private Odyssey came to an end. He has started living his personal 'American dream' in the country of his mother through the impersonal dream of alcohology".
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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
· UCLA, Los angeles — May 2, 2025
· CALPACS, Santa Barbara — May 3, 2025
· Balticon, Baltimore, MD, USA — May 23-26, 2025
· Cosmos Club, Washington DC, USA — May 28, 2025
· 35th First Annual Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony — Sep 18, 2025
· Ig Nobel Face-to-Face — Sep 20, 2025
· Falling Walls, Berlin, Germany — Nov 2025
· Monell Center, Philadelphia, PA, USA — Nov 12, 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 ($40 for six issues)
BACK ISSUES ($8 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 2025, Improbable Research
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