Improbable Research

This study explains gambling in a way no other study has managed:

“Souls/Soles of Signs — Tell Totems and the Sphinx Wager,” Darryl A. Smith, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, Center for Gaming Research Occasional Paper Series #13, January 2012. The paper identifies its author in these words: “Darryl A. Smith, M.Div., Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor of Religious Studies at Pomona College and Affiliate of the Intercollegiate Department of Africa.”

The paper begins with this summary of itself:

“ABSTRACT: This paper develops a philosophy of play through an analysis of the foot wager of the Sphinx. Applying a construction of the cosmology of Plato along with a Socratic etymology of her riddle’s answer, it provides a reading of Sphingian contestation consistent with contemporary practices of deception found in modern games like poker. I argue that such deception is constitutive of the excessive illumination of signaling tells in games and that such excess, in turn, is indicative in allied political contexts of a covetous and acquisitive obsession with light. This theory makes use also of Ralph Ellison’s refiguring of Oedipal play as a theory of tyranny and serves as a riposte to the psychoanalytic idea of the Oedipus complex.”

The groundwork for research into the occurrence of laughter at the US Supreme Court was initially provided by Professor Jay D. Wexler (of Buffalo University) in his 2005 article for Green Bag (second series, Volume 9, number 1) entitled : “Laugh Track”. The professor had made the decision to quantify the laughter content because :

“In the 2004–2005 term [...] for the first time, the Court Reporter started revealing the names of the speaking Justices. Because the Court Reporter also indicates, with the notation ‘(Laughter),’ when the courtroom has reached a certain level of mirth, it is now possible to determine how many times during the term any particular Justice’s comments induced a substantial amount of laughter.”

The professor searched the records and kept track of the number of times that each Justice caused ‘hoots and snickers’ to erupt in the courtroom. He then calculated each Justice’s ‘Laughter Episodes Instigated Per Argument Average’ (LEIPAA), representing the total number of laughter episodes instigated over the term divided by the number of oral arguments attended over the course of the term. The data revealed the following results :

“Justice Scalia won the competition by a landslide, instigating 77 laughing episodes, while Justice Thomas instigated zero laughing episodes, putting him all alone in last place among the Justices.”

A year on, the Supreme Court Laughter Research Project was considerably extended by Jason Wojciechowski,

The beginning of a news report on the Wicked Local web site, in Massachusetts:

In Framingham, man caught with crack in buttocks

By Norman Miller/Daily News staff
The MetroWest Daily News
Posted May 16, 2013 @ 12:01 AM

FRAMINGHAM — A Dorchester man who sold drugs hid a plastic bag full of crack cocaine in his buttocks on Tuesday, a prosecutor said Wednesday in Framingham District Court [pictured here].

Police arrested Dekara Anderson, 38, at 8:45 p.m. after a foot chase and being shocked twice with a Taser, prosecutor James Kerr said during Anderson’s arraignment….

(HT Adam K Olsen)

BONUS: Dekara Anderson wants you to be his pen pal

On May 28, 2013, in Raamsteeg2, Leiden, The Netherlands, six prominent Dutch scientists will present their field of research by giving a complete technical description, in Dutch, in twenty-four (24) seconds, followed by a clear summary that anyone can understand, in seven (7) Dutch words. The best of these 24/7 speakers will be invited to present a 24/7 Lecture at the Nederlandse Ig Nobel Night, September 14th, 2013.

The contestants of the Ig Nobel 24/7 Battle (and their topics) are:
Prof. dr. Louise Vet (Nioo), topic: ‘ecologie’
Prof. dr. Menno Schilthuizen (Naturalis): ‘geslachtsorganen’
Prof. dr. Joost Frenken (Universiteit Leiden): ‘wrijving’
Prof. dr. Maurits Berger (Universiteit Leiden): ‘Sharia’
Prof. dr. Frans Willem Korsten (Univ.Leiden): ‘literatuur-wetenschap’
Prof. dr. Henkjan Honing (Universiteit van Amsterdam) [pictured]: ‘maatgevoel’

The time and word limits will be enforced by referee Maarten Keulemans, science editor of De Volkskrant.

This form of communication — the 24/7 Lectures — was invented at the Ig Nobel Prize ceremony, and has long been a featured part of that annual event. At the Leiden event, our European Bureau Chief (and winner of the 2003 Ig Nobel Prize for biology) Kees Moeliker will explain the history of the 24/7 Lectures and of the Ig Nobel Prizes.

Where & when: Raamsteeg2, Raamsteeg 2, 2311 PL Leiden, the Netherlands; May 28, 2013, Tuesday, 8:00 pm (doors and bar open 7:30 pm).
Tickets: Euro 7,50 pay at the door (to reserve seats: mail raamsteeg2@gmail.com, and state ‘Ig Nobel 24/7 Battle’ + number of seats)

A new study — about malaria-causing mosquitos and stinky human feet — builds on the Ig Nobel Prize-winning experiments performed by Bart Knols and Ruurd de Jong. Knols and de Jong also showed that the mosquitoes are attracted to the smell of limburger cheese. [Knols described that research publicly again last week at the Ig Nobel show at the University of Geneva.]

The new study is:

“Malaria Infected Mosquitoes Express Enhanced Attraction to Human Odor,” Renate C. Smallegange, Geert-Jan van Gemert, Marga van de Vegte-Bolmer, Salvador Gezan, Willem Takken, Robert W. Sauerwein, James G. Logan [pictured here], PLoS ONE, 8(5): 2013, e63602.

“There is much evidence that some pathogens manipulate the behaviour of their mosquito hosts to enhance pathogen transmission. However, it is unknown whether this phenomenon exists in the interaction of Anopheles gambiae sensu stricto with the malaria parasite, Plasmodium falciparum – one of the most important interactions in the context of humanity, with malaria causing over 200 million human cases and over 770 thousand deaths each year. Here we demonstrate, for the first time, that infection with P. falciparum causes alterations in behavioural responses to host-derived olfactory stimuli in host-seeking female An. gambiae s.s. mosquitoes. In behavioural experiments we showed that P. falciparum-infected An. gambiae mosquitoes were significantly more attracted to human odors than uninfected mosquitoes…

“Considering the high degree of anthropophily of An. gambiae s.s. females and the practical and effective use of human foot odor in vitro, human foot odor was collected on a nylon matrix as described previously (20 Den panty sock, HEMA, The Netherlands, worn during 20 hours prior to the day on which the bioassay was performed by a male volunteer of whom the relative attractiveness to An. gambiae s.s. compared to 47 other men is known).”

The 2006 Ig Nobel Prize for entomology was awarded to Bart Knols (of Wageningen Agricultural University, in Wageningen, the Netherlands; and of the National Institute for Medical Research, in Ifakara Centre, Tanzania, and of the International Atomic Energy Agency, in Vienna Austria) and Ruurd de Jong (of Wageningen Agricultural University and of Santa Maria degli Angeli, Italy) for showing that the female malaria mosquito Anopheles gambiae is attracted equally to the smell of limburger cheese and to the smell of human feet. That work included: