Improbable Research

If you like to read about self-esteem, if self-esteem is a subject of interest to you, if self-esteem is central to your you-ness, Brad J. Bushman [pictured here] and colleagues have a study perhaps worth some moments of your time:

“Sweets, Sex, or Self-Esteem? Comparing the Value of Self-Esteem Boosts with Other Pleasant Rewards,” Brad J. Bushman, Scott J. Moeller, Jennifer Crocker. Journal of Personality, epub 2010. The authors, at The Ohio State University and VU University, Amsterdam, the Netherland, explain:

“Many people ascribe great value to self-esteem, but how much value? Do people value self-esteem more than other pleasant activities, such as eating sweets and having sex? Two studies of college students showed that people valued boosts to their self-esteem more than they valued eating a favorite food and engaging in a favorite sexual activity. Study 2 also showed that people valued self-esteem more than they valued drinking alcohol, receiving a paycheck, and seeing a best friend. Both studies found that people who highly valued self-esteem engaged in laboratory tasks to boost their self-esteem.”

BONUS (possibly unrelated, possibly not): The International Council for Self-Esteem

Businesses need a way to detect nervousness on the telephone, says a recent patent, which offers a computerised means of accomplishing this.

Inventor Valery Petrushin obtained his doctorate in computer science from the Glushkov Institute for Cybernetics, Kiev, and now works in Illinois in the US. His patent, granted last year, is for “detecting emotion in voice signals in a call centre“.

A simple flow chart illustrates “a method for detecting nervousness in a voice in a business enviroument to prevent fraud”. We see the following three statements, each enclosed in its own box: “Receiving voice signals from a person during a business event”; “Analysing the voice signals for determining a level of nervousness of the person during the business event”; “Outputting the level of nervousness of the person prior to completion of the business event”….

So begins this week’s Improbable Research column in The Guardian.

BONUS: Video of the inventor talking about his research:

Much technology and much thought went into the making of an edible chocolate brain. The meaning, import, and worth of the effort have yet to be determined. This video explains to a limited degree:

Further details are on the Instructables web site:

Edible Chocolate Brain from MRI Scan

This instructable will show you how to create an edible chocolate brain from sliced data sourced from an MRI scan….  Andy Millns had his brain MRI scanned as part of a research project…. The main steps involved are:
- Converting sliced DICOM data into the STL file format (a 3D geometry format widely used for 3D printing)
- Editing that model to clean up
- 3D printing a solid model
- Producing a latex mould
- Finally casting the chocolate and eating
We’ve made the original DICOM files and the STL file available for download.

(Thanks to investigators Geri Sullivan, Neil Rest, and Dermot Dobson for bringing this to our attention.)

The May issue of mini-AIR just went out. Topics include:

• Bang-Bang Control
• Dead Duck day is Coming
• and more

Mel [pictured here] says, “It’s swell.” (mini-AIR is the simplest way to keep informed about Improbable and Ig Nobel news and events. Just add yourself to the mini-AIR list, and mini-AIR will be emailed to you every month)

This video shows measured evidence from a nasty spat between two manufacturers of tiny amusement magnets (thanks to Cliff Pickover for bringing it to our attention):

The companies are Zen Magnets and Buckeyballs. The video shows a man from Zen responding to a ear-poppingly aggressive message sent to him by Jake Bronstein of the Buckyball company.

Mr. Bronstein is a serial entrepreneur. Felix Salmon, in his Reuters business blog, writes about Mr. Bronstein:

If you want an example of Kickstarter-as-QVC which is extremely likely to fail, look no further than Flint and Tinder. The brainchild of one Jake Bronstein, the idea is to create a new company making boxer shorts in the USA. “It’s about more than underwear,” he says in the video. “It’s about redefining what it means to be Made in America.” … I’m not saying that Bronstein is a fraud, but I am saying that he seems to have little if any manufacturing or retailing experience*, and is going to face an enormous number of unforeseen obstacles before he ever starts selling this product online….

*Update: Jake Bronstein replies in the comments, saying that he does too have manufacturing and retailing experience, as the founder of Buckyballs. (He also says that I could easily have discovered this fact by looking at his profile on Kickstarter; it’s true I missed that link.) His mention of Buckyballs, however, did remind me of this video, where Bronstein left an extremely aggressive and intimidating nastygram message for Zen Magnets, a smaller competitor.

BONUS: Gothamist wrote, in 2009, about some of Mr. Bronstein’s other colorful entrepreneurial activities.

BONUS: Mr. Bronstein’s Wikipedia entry shows further evidence of his broad range of interests.