From marca at chem2.harvard.edu  Mon Jun 30 05:52:47 2008
From: marca at chem2.harvard.edu (Marc Abrahams)
Date: Mon, 30 Jun 2008 05:52:47 -0400
Subject: [Mini-air] June mini-AIR:  Bald Scientists in Limbo; Improbable TV
Message-ID: <4D8B5893-0EC9-4D6E-BCFE-FF8BFDF92F13@chem2.harvard.edu>

PLEASE FORWARD/POST AS APPROPRIATE
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The mini-Annals of Improbable Research ("mini-AIR")
June 2008, Issue number 2008-06. ISSN 1076-500X.
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A free newsletter of tidbits too tiny to fit in
Annals of Improbable Research (AIR)
      This issue at
      <http://www.improbable.com/airchives/miniair/2008/mini2008-06.htm>
      Archive at <http://www.improbable.com/magazine/>
Key words: improbable research, science humor, Ig Nobel, AIR, the
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2008-06-01 TABLE OF CONTENTS

2008-06-02 Imminent Events
2008-06-03 What's New in the Magazine
2008-06-04 Bald Scientists in Limbo
2008-06-05 Birth of Improbable Research TV
2008-06-06 Swedish Crisp Bread Salivation Poet
2008-06-07 Crisp Bread - Extra Slices
2008-06-08 Extra Crisp Bread, for Specialists
2008-06-09 Paxton's Big Fish Prediction
2008-06-10 Greek Hip Joint Limerick Competition
2008-06-11 RESEARCH SPOTLIGHT: Temperance Test Tempered Answers
2008-06-12 BLOGLIGHTS: Joe Cocker, Fruit Pit, Bull
2008-06-13 MAY WE RECOMMEND: Fournier's Gangrene, Waffle
2008-06-14 Improbable Research Events
2008-06-15 -- How to Subscribe to AIR (*)
2008-06-16 -- Our Address (*)
2008-06-17 -- Please Forward/Post This Issue! (*)
2008-06-18 -- How to Receive mini-AIR, etc. (*)

      Items marked (*) are reprinted in every issue.

      mini-AIR is
      a free monthly *e-supplement* to the print magazine
      Annals of Improbable Research

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2008-06-02 Imminent Events

      "QED," Central Sq. Theatre, Cambridge, MA - JULY 27, 2008
      For details <see http://tinyurl.com/k87xs>

      Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony Tickets Go On Sale - AUGUST 1


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2008-06-03 What's New in the Magazine

The entire magazine -- the Annals of Improbable Research -- is
now online for free for all. Open access, open access, we repeat.

The May/June 2008 issue (vol. 14, no. 2) is a special Terrorism
Research issue. Highlights include:

<> "Bombshell Research Review"
<> "April in Paris: A Striking Analysis"
<> "The Cingulate Cortex Does Everything"

It's all online at
<http://improbable.com/airchives/paperair/volume14/v14i3/v14i3.html>
Many back issues are online, too, at
<http://www.improbable.com/magazine/>


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2008-06-04 Bald Scientists in Limbo

Bald scientist have been clamoring - justifiably in our view -
for their own, un-hairy equivalent of the Luxuriant Flowing Hair
Club for Scientists (LFHCfS). (The LFHCfS web site is at
<http://improbable.com/projects/hair/>.

We will being the new club when - and if and only if - someone
suggests a truly good name for it.

If you have a gleamingly strong opinion about it, please vote for
one of the following:

      1. The Bald Scientists Club (BS Club)

      2. The Luxuriant Head Club (LHC)

      3. Neither. We still need to find a good name.

Send your vote to:

      BALD SCIENTIST CLUB NAME
      c/o <marca AT chem2.harvard.edu>


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2008-06-05 Birth of Improbable Research TV

We have just launched the Improbable Research TV series.

These are three-minute videos about research that makes people
laugh, then makes them think. The live on the web.

Each collection - each episode - is composed of bits and pieces
and people from the magazine Annals of Improbable Research, from
Ig Nobel Prize lectures and ceremonies and other live events, and
from many other sources. We have been collecting this material
for almost twenty years.

These episodes have a Creative Commons license (Attribution Non-
commercial No Derivatives). We encourage you to make and
distribute copies.

      The first episode:
      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=95NETN0jaMw

      Our TV page, with FAQ:
      http://improbable.com/tv/

      Subscribe to the Improbable Research channel on YouTube.
      It's free:
      http://www.youtube.com/user/ImprobableResearch

We will release a new episode every two weeks. The next one will
arrive on July 3.

We are looking for organizations that would like to help sponsor
the production of new episodes. If your org might like to, please
get in touch with us!

Ps. A big thanks to BoingBoing for hosting the world premiere.
See the historic moment at: <http://tinyurl.com/5j6hhc>.


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2008-06-06 Swedish Crisp Bread Salivation Poet

The judges have chosen a winner for last month's Swedish Crisp
Bread Salivation Competition, which asked for a limerick to honor
the study "Salivary Secretion in Response to Mastication of Crisp
Bread," Rose Marie Pangborn and Birgit Lundgren, Journal of
Texture Studies, vol. 8, 1977, pp. 463-72.

Here are the winner and his limerick.

Investigator Glenn Knickerbocker:
In response to complete mastication
Of crackers from this Nordic nation
    Numbered one less than five, a
     Half of the saliva
Secreted yields to quantitation.

Special mention, if not the top honor, goes to poet SVEN KULL,
who dwells, writes, and chews crisp bread in Falkenberg, Sweden.
(And thanks to investigator Sara R?rbecker for conveying it to
us):
En klurig konditor i Br?cke
Vars dygnsrytm i stort sett helt v?ck-e
    Vill inte l?ngre ha t?rta
    N?r p? fest han ?r borta
Och forskar ignobelt om Viagra och kn?cke

And here's the take from LIMERICK LAUREATE MARTIN EIGER:
Mastication effects salivation.
What's eaten displays a relation
    With just how much spit
    And the content of it.
Quantitation provides confirmation.


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2008-06-07 Crisp Bread - Extra Slices

Many and, to some degree varied were the other crisp bread
submissions. Some were mere (except for their length) rants about
Swedish crisp bread. Here are two of the limericks, neither of
which is mere.

Investigator CANDY TAYLOR TUTT:
Sweden's pancakes are light, thin and sweet
But their crispbread is hard as concrete.
    Said Sven, "We're not fooling,
    That chomping and drooling
Makes lutefisk seem like a treat!"

Investigator MIKE TICE:
When subjects were fed kn?ckebr?d,
Saliva welled up as they ch?d.
    With littler pieces,
    The volume increases,
As Pangborn and Lundgren concl?d.


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2008-06-08 Extra Crisp Bread, for Specialists

We try to bear in mind, always that Swedish crispbread has a
place in the SNI Swedish Standard Industrial Classification; see
<http://tinyurl.com/6l6vsw>. Officially, it's listed as:

      15821 Manufacture of crispbread

We were inundated (in comparison to the number of citations on
this subject that we receive in other months) with citations
about the science and technology of Swedish crisp bread. If
forced to recommend two of them, we might choose these:

CRISP BREAD: LIGHT FILTH
"Improved Method for Extraction of Light Filth From 90% Rye Brain Crisp
Bread," R.R. Haynos, Journal of the Association of Official Analytical
Chemists, vol. 68, no. 1, January-February 1985, pp. 17-9. (Thanks to
Wanda Takayashi for bringing this to our attention.)

CRISP BREAD: REGRESSION ANALYSIS
"Fracture Force, Hardness And Brittleness In Crisp Bread, With a
Generalized Regression Analysis Approach to Instrumental-Sensory
Comparisons," Yngve Andersson, Birger Drake, Arne Granquist, Lars
Halldin, Birgit Johansson, Rose Marie Pangborn and Caj?ke
?kesson, Journal of Texture Studies, vol. 4, no. 1, April 1973,
pp. 119-144. Doi:10.1111/j.1745-4603.1973.tb00658.x. (Thanks to
Letta and Boris Elliott for bringing this to our attention.) The
authors, at the Swedish Institute for Food Preservation Research
in G?teborg, report that:

"The results showed that there was no 'best solution' but rather
a whole set of equally well or almost equally well fitting
equations."


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2008-06-09 Paxton's Big Fish Prediction

Charles Paxton has just completed the first scientific estimate
of how many species of large sea creatures (sea monsters among
them, perhaps) still await discovery.

Dr. Paxton, based at St. Andrews University in Scotland, co-won
the 2002 Ig Nobel Bioolgy Prize for the study "Courtship
Behaviour of Ostriches Under Farming Conditions in Britain."

He unveiled his sea monster discovery (so to speak) publicly at
the Improbable Research Cabaret that was part of the Cheltenham
Science Festival early this month.

See a press account in the June 19, 2008 Sydney Morning Herald,
called "Monsters of the deep still undiscovered."
<http://tinyurl.com/5e6byn>


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2008-06-10 Greek Hip Joint Limerick Competition

Greek hip joints is/are the subject of this month's limerick
competition. To enter, compose an original limerick that
illuminates the nature of this report:

                * * *
"Sexual Dimorphism of the Hip Joint in Greeks," Christos
Papaloucas, Aliki Fiska and Thespis Demetriou,
Forensic Science International, Volume 179, Issue 1, 18 July
2008, Pages 83.e1-83.e3. (Thanks to  Tom Gill for bringing this
to our attention.) <http://tinyurl.com/6zwd5a> The authors report
that:

"It was found that in males, in comparison to the females, the
distance from the pubic tubercle to the anterior rim of the
acetabulum was smaller while the acetabulum diameter and its
depth, the diameter of the femoral head and the ratio between
femoral head and the acetabulum diameter were larger."
                * * *

RULES: Please make sure your rhymes actually do, and that your
poem is in classic, trips-off-the-tongue limerick form.

PRIZE: The winning poet will receive (if we manage to send it to
the correct address) a free, possibly weight-bearing issue of the
Annals of Improbable Research. Send entries (one entry per
entrant) to:

      GREEK HIP JOINT LIMERICK COMPETITION
      c/o <marca AT chem2.harvard.edu>


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2008-06-11 RESEARCH SPOTLIGHT: Temperance Test Tempered Answers

This month's specially selected study is:

"Paradoxical Increase of Positive Answers to the Cut-down,
Annoyed, Guilt, Eye-opener (CAGE) Questionnaire During a Period
of Decreasing Alcohol Consumption: Results from Two Population-
Based Surveys in ?le-de-France, 1991 and 2005."

Here are citation details: Antoine Messiah, Ga?lle Encrenaz,
David Sapinho, Fabien Gilbert, Elodie Carmona, Viviane Kovess-
Masf?ty, Addiction, vol. 103, no. 4, 2008, pp. 598-603.
doi:10.1111/j.1360-0443.2007.02120.x. (Thanks to Michael J.
McBain_for bringing this to our attention.)

The authors, at Universit? Bordeaux, surveyed adult residents of
Ile-de-France.


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2008-06-12 BLOGLIGHTS: Joe Cocker, Fruit Pit, Bull

Here are some recent topics in our blog:

<> Speech Recognition Challenge: Joe Cocker
<> The birth of a new branch of science
<> Study Finds U.S. Athiests Don't Not Believe in God
<> Math Lesson: 569,000,000,000,000
<> Valiant Fruit Pit
<> Super Security: A Salute to Agent CSA80

and some from the newspaper column in The Guardian:

<> Dr. Katz and the blue of insanity
<> Psychoanalyzing grandma
<> Why seeing red may be a load of bull

... and more

      Read the blog
      every day at <http://www.improbable.com>


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2008-06-13 MAY WE RECOMMEND: Fournier's Gangrene, Waffle

ICKY: POST-PIERCE PUBIC PROBLEM
"Fournier's Gangrene After Genital Piercing," L. Ekelius, H.
Bj?rkman, M. Kalin and J. Fohlman, Scandinavian Journal of
Infectious Diseases, vol. 36, no. 8, 2008, pp, 610-2. (Thanks to
Lee Xun for bringing this to our attention.) The authors are at
Central Hospital, V?xj?, Sweden.

SENSING WAFFLE (IN THE FRIED GEOMETRY)
"Sensing Waffle in the Fried Geometry," Michael D. Oliker,
Proceedings- SPIE the International Society for Optical
Engineering, vol. 3353, 1998, pp. 964-71.
doi:10.1117/12.321704.(Thanks to Skip Mendler for bringing this
to our attention.)


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2008-06-14 Improbable Research Events

For details and additional events, see
<http://improbable.com/improbable-research-shows/complete-schedule>

"QED," CENTRAL SQ. THEATRE, CAMBRIDGE, MA  -- JUL 27, 2008

ALPBACH TECHNOLOGY FORUM, AUSTRIA   -- AUG 21-23, 2008

IG NOBEL PRIZE CEREMONY             -- OCT 2, 2008

IG INFORMAL LECTURES           -- OCT 4, 2008

AMERICAN PHYSICAL SOCIETY, DAYTON, OHIO  OCT 10, 2008

GENOA SCIENCE FESTIVAL, ITALY       -- OCT 24, 2008


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2008-06-15 -- How to Subscribe to AIR (*)

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2008-06-16 -- Our Address (*)

Annals of Improbable Research (AIR)
PO Box 380853, Cambridge, MA 02238 USA
617-491-4437 FAX:617-661-0927

EDITORIAL: marca AT chem2.harvard.edu
SUBSCRIPTIONS: subscriptions AT improbable.com
WEB SITE: <http://www.improbable.com>


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2008-06-17 -- Please Forward/Post This Issue! (*)

Please distribute copies of mini-AIR (or excerpts!) wherever
appropriate. The only limitations are: A) Please indicate that
the material comes from mini-AIR. B) You may NOT distribute mini-
AIR for commercial purposes.

      ------------- mini-AIRheads -------------
EDITOR: Marc Abrahams
MINI-PROOFREADER AND PICKER OF NITS (before we introduce the last
few at the last moment): Wendy Mattson
COMMUTATIVE EDITOR: Stanley Eigen
ASSOCIATIVE EDITOR: Mark Dionne
PSYCHOLOGY EDITOR: Robin Abrahams
CO-CONSPIRATORS: Alice Shirrell Kaswell, Gary Dryfoos, Ernest
Ersatz, S. Drew
MAITRE DE COMPUTATION: Jerry Lotto
AUTHORITY FIGURES: Nobel Laureates Dudley Herschbach, Sheldon
Glashow, William Lipscomb, Richard Roberts

(c) copyright 2008, Annals of Improbable Research


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2008-06-18 -- How to Receive mini-AIR, etc. (*)

What you are reading right now is mini-AIR. Mini-AIR is a (free!)
tiny monthly *supplement* to the bi-monthly print magazine.
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