PLEASE FORWARD/POST AS APPROPRIATE ================================================================ mini-Annals of Improbable Research ("mini-AIR") Issue Number 2002-08 August, 2002 ISSN 1076-500X Key words: improbable research, science humor, Ig Nobel, AIR, the ---------------------------------------------------------------- A free newsletter of tidbits too tiny to fit in the Annals of Improbable Research (AIR), the journal of inflated research and personalities ================================================================ ----------------------------- 2002-08-01 TABLE OF CONTENTS 2002-08-01 Table of Contents 2002-08-02 What's New in the Magazine 2002-08-03 Medical Check Survey 2002-08-04 Ig Miscellany 2002-08-05 No None 2002-08-06 Science Writing Assignments #206-1 and #206-2 2002-08-07 Outstandingly Obscure: Bee and Beality 2002-08-08 Outstandingly Obscure: More Fish Sausage 2002-08-09 Outstandingly Obscure: "Boring" Man Identified 2002-08-10 Clumping Cat Litters 2002-08-11 Difficult Answer 2002-08-12 Multiplicity of Monikers: 5-Kim 2002-08-13 CAVALCADE OF HotAIR: Sleep Eating, Shatner 2002-08-14 RESEARCH SPOTLIGHT: The Case of the Cheesy Bite 2002-08-15 MAY WE RECOMMEND: Frustration and Betongs 2002-08-16 AIRhead Events 2002-08-17 How to Subscribe to AIR (*) 2002-08-18 Our Address (*) 2002-08-19 Please Forward/Post This Issue! (*) 2002-08-20 How to Receive mini-AIR, etc. (*) Items marked (*) are reprinted in every issue. mini-AIR is a free monthly *e-supplement* to AIR, the print magazine ---------------------------------------------------------- 2002-08-02 What's New in the Magazine AIR 8:4 (July/August 2002) is the special WIENER SAUSAGE ISSUE. In addition to the articles mentioned here last month, highlights include: <> "DOUBLE-BLAND EXPERIMENTS," by Otto Didact. The premiere of a new AIR occasional column. An experiment is double-bland if: 1) It's not at all clear what they could possibly have hoped to learn by doing the experiment; and 2) Looking at their published account of what they actually did, it's not at all clear what, if anything, they did learn from it. This article also appears on-line, at: <> "THE SKULL OF POOR OLD COPE," by Earle Spamer. A look at the curious -- and apparently counter-factual -- tale that was loudly promulgated about the skull and bones of the great scientist Edward Drinker Cope. <> "QUESTIONS FROM THE CHINESE TRANSLATOR" The Chinese translator of the Chinese edition of the book "The Best of Annals of Improbable Research," faced with a difficult task, had some questions. We requested and received permission to publish this letter from him. It also appears on-line, at: <> "PROVERBIAL PREVENTION: A QUANTITATIVE STUDY," by Carmen J. Giunta. A scientific analysis of well-known, heretofore trusted proverbs. ...and much, much more. The entire table of contents is on-line at (What you are reading at this moment is mini-AIR, a small, monthly e-mail supplement to the print magazine.) ---------------------------------------------------------- 2002-08-03 Medical Check Survey This month's Medical Practice Technical Survey is inspired by recent press accounts of a surgeon named Arndt who walked out of his hospital, traveled to a bank, and cashed a check, leaving a patient unconscious on the operating table in the midst of lengthy spinal fusion surgery. This Survey is open ONLY to properly credentialed and accredited surgeons. The question concerns the specific conversion rate of time and money: What is the minimum value of a check that is worth cashing in the midst of an operation? Please send your answer to: Operation Check-Cashing Survey c/o ---------------------------------------------------------- 2002-08-04 Ig Miscellany TICKETS for the October 3 Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony are now on sale. Details are at DELEGATIONS: If you want to bring (and be officially recognized as!) an audience delegation, please get in touch with Louise Sacco . CONCERT: The ceremony will be preceded by a short concert by the DRESDEN DOLLS. The Concert will be included in the evening's LIVE INTERNET TELECAST. RELATED EVENTS: There will be two: <> the IG MEDICAL LECTURES, Fri, Oct 4, (at the Harvard School of Public Health) <> the IG INFORMAL LECTURES, Sat., Oct 5 (at MIT) VOLUNTEERS: As always, we could use volunteer help. If you are in the Cambridge area and would like to: <> help post posters in appropriate places, OR <> host an exciting new Ig Nobel Prize winner in your home for 3 or 4 nights, OR <> help photograph the ceremony (if you are an experienced and accomplished photographer) please get in touch with us at: IG NOBEL VOLUNTEERS c/o ---------------------------------------------------------- 2002-08-05 No None Investigator Tim Churches points out that the web site for the Journal of Negative Results in Biomedicine currently presents the following informative negative result: There are currently no articles published in Journal of Negative Results in Biomedicine. ---------------------------------------------------------- 2002-08-06 Science Writing Assignments #206-1 and #206-2 Here are two more of our Suggested Assignments for Science Writing Classes. ASSIGNMENT #1: Write a 100-word story that begins: "They forced me out without having any other liver transplant surgeon on staff," Katz said in an interview. "That's irresponsible to the patients. And if I'm a professional surgeon doing my job well, is it really appropriate to remove me? And to do it by isolating, manipulating, backstabbing, cheating and lying?" (The quotation in Assignment #1 is from an article in the August 23, 2002 issue of the Boston Globe.) ASSIGNMENT #2: Devise a suitable title for the complete short short story that was told by four headlines that were listed one- after-the-other that same day, August 23, 2002, on the CNN web site : * Shock Jocks' Sex Stunt Prompts Investigation * Microsoft Discloses 'Critical' Security Flaws * Scientists: Giant METEORITE SLAMMED YOUNG EARTH * Report: Third Child for Michael Jackson ---------------------------------------------------------- 2002-08-07 Outstandingly Obscure: Bee and Beality The OUTSTANDINGLY OBSCURE ACADEMIC JOURNALS project is moving into high(er) gear. Here are some recent finds: FROM INVESTIGATOR DOUG LINDHOLM: Here at the National Center for Atmospheric Research, there is a list of journals which are "Candidates for Cancellation due to Low Use." I would propose that such a list qualifies as "outstandingly obscure." FROM INVESTIGATOR BOB GULIEN: I submit three journals: 1. The JOURNAL OF MEMETICS, which has gems such as: "The Six Essentials? Minimal Requirements for the Darwinian Bootstrapping of Quality," by William H. Calvin The web site is 2. The BEE VENOM THERAPY JOURNAL 3. The BEALITY JOURNAL, which has articles such as "Bodily Rebirth;" "No Peanut Butter" (with a subheader: "Man-made carcinogens are no more harmful to the American public than a peanut-butter sandwich") It advertises itself as "A Different Way of Looking at Things". The web site is Please send news of your discoveries to either of these repositories: OUTST. OBSCURE JOURNALS c/o or OUTST. OBSCURE JOURNALS c/o ---------------------------------------------------------- 2002-08-08 Outstandingly Obscure: More Fish Sausage Many and unvaried have been the responses to last month's choice for an Outstandingly Obscure Journal: the JOURNAL OF FISH SAUSAGE. Although the JOURNAL OF FISH SAUSAGE has ceased publishing, we detect a widespread yearning for its resurrection. Perhaps the publishers will take heed. If someone can dig up contact info for the publisher, we would be happy to head up a letter-writing campaign. ---------------------------------------------------------- 2002-08-09 Outstandingly Obscure: "Boring" Man Identified The mystery man, the man who unearthed DIRECTIONAL BORING magazine, but whose name we had lost and so could not mention last month, turns out to be investigator John Bell. Investigator Bell writes: I sent the reference to DIRECTIONAL BORING magazine. I had been inspired to search for Boring because the UK business telephone directory I was using has a listing which read "Boring -- see Civil Engineers". The pointer has now been removed because the Civil Engineers complained. ---------------------------------------------------------- 2002-08-10 Clumping Cat Litters We would be interested in hearing a first-hand report about the clumping cat litter poster that will be presented at the upcoming Annual Meeting of the Association of Analytical Communities. (And yes -- this IS the organization which was once known as the Association of Official Agricultural Chemists). The meeting will take place September 22-26 at the Millennium Biltmore Hotel in Los Angeles, California. The poster is titled: METHOD DEVELOPMENT TO EVALUATE CLUMPING CAT LITTERS by Irlanda Garcia, Lourdes Guevera, and Javier Lara, Nutek S.A. De C.V., Tehuacan, Mexico It will be the centerpiece of the session on "General Analytical Methods." Details are at (Thanks to Adam Eyring for bringing this to our attention.) ---------------------------------------------------------- 2002-08-11 Difficult Answer The vote is in. We now know the answer to last month's Philosophy Research Question, which was: Why is this question difficult to answer? ---------------------------------------------------------- 2002-08-12 Multiplicity of Monikers: 5-Kim Here is another item (this one submitted by investigator Carol Myers) in our Multiplicity of Monikers Program, which began, long ago, by asking what is the most number of co-authors (of a single research paper) with the same family name: "Alcohol and Nicotine Administration Inhibits Serotonin Synthesis and Tryptophan Hydroxylase Expression in Dorsal and Median Raphe of Young Rats," M. Jang, M. Shin, T. Lee, Y. Kim, S. Jung, D. Shin, H. Kim, S. Kim, E. Kim, and C. Kim, Neuroscience Letters, vol. 329, no. 2, August 20, 2002, p. 141. This paper has a Kim Count of 5. If you know of one with a higher Kim Count, please send the citation to: Multiple Kim Authorship c/o ---------------------------------------------------------- 2002-08-13 CAVALCADE OF HotAIR: Sleep Eating, Shatner Here are concise, incomplete, flighty mentions of some of the features we've posted on HotAIR since last month's mini-AIR came out. See them by clicking "WHAT'S NEW" at the web site, or go to: ==> More Fingerprint Art ==> Sleep Eating ==> The Virtual Colon ==> Military Cookies ==> Shatner's Tambourine ==> Lightning on Demand ==> Icky Cutesy Research Review ==> Jelly Molecule ==> Quartzkopf ==> A Call for Acronyms THESE, AND MORE, ARE ON HOTAIR AT ----------------------------------------------------------- 2002-08-14 RESEARCH SPOTLIGHT: The Case of the Cheesy Bite Each month we select for your special attention a research report that seems especially worth a close read. Your librarian will enjoy being asked for a copy. Here is this month's Pick of the Month: "Comparison Microscope Identification of a Cheese Bitemark: A Case Report," H. Bernitz and B.A. Kloppers, Journal of Forensic Odonto- Stomatology, vol. 20, no. 1, June 2002, pp. 13-6. (Thanks to F. Lenya for bringing this to our attention.) The authors, who are at the University of Pretoria, report that: "Police investigating the murder of a farmer recovered a piece of cheese containing bite-marks. The local dental practitioner used white plaster to make casts of the bitemarks in the cheese and also of the teeth of three suspects. The cheese specimen was retained by the police and seven months later the case was referred to the Forensic Odontology Unit at the University of Pretoria where a silicone rubber cast of the bitemarks in the cheese was made. A lack of concordant features present in a conventional pattern-associated comparison was overcome with the aid of a Leica DMC comparison microscope. Individual features observed under 6.3x magnification aided in the positive identification of the suspect, who when confronted with the evidence, admitted guilt at his first court appearance." ----------------------------------------------------------- 2002-08-15 MAY WE RECOMMEND: Frustration and Betongs SOLID STATE SOAP OPERA "Emergent Excitations in a Geometrically Frustrated Magnet," S.H. Lee, et al., Nature, vol. 418, August 22, 2002, pp. 856-8. (Thanks to M.J. Adams for bringing this to our attention.) BETTONGS: BITTEN "A Case of Bitten Bettongs," H. James, et al., Journal of Forensic Odonto-Stomatology, vol. 20, no. 1, June 2002, pp. 10-2. (Thanks to T. Louis for bringing this to our attention.) ESSENTIALS OF GROOVY PHYSICS "Properties of Groove Chambers," I. Reichwein, U. Werthenbach, G. Zech, Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment, vol. 487, no. 3, July 21, 2002, pp. 308-13. (Thanks to T. Gill for bringing this to our attention.) ------------------------------------------------------------ 2002-08-16 AIRhead Events ==> For details and updates see ==> Want to host an event? 617-491-4437 12TH 1ST ANNUAL IG NOBEL PRIZE CEREMONY -- THUR, OCT 3, 2002 Sanders Theatre, Harvard University INFO: IG MEDICAL LECTURES -- SAT, OCT 4, 2002 3:00 pm. Harvard School of Public Health, Snyder Auditorium FREE. INFO: IG INFORMAL LECTURES -- SAT, OCT 5, 2002 Massachusetts Institute of Technology Afternoon Details to be announced. AAAS ANNUAL MEETING, DENVER -- FEBRUARY, 2003 Special Annals of Improbable Research session at the Annual Meeting of the American Assn for the Advancement of Science. Featuring: * AIR Editor MARC ABRAHAMS * 2001 Ig Nobel Biology Prize winner BUCK WEIMER * 1994 Ig Nobel Medicine Prize co-winner RICHARD DART and others TBA MICHIGAN TECH, HOUGHTON, MI -- APRIL 8, 2003 8:00 PM, Rozsa Center for the Performing Arts INFO: Valerie Pegg, vepegg@mtu.edu, 906-487-2844 http://www.greatevents.mtu.edu/main.html -------------------------------------------------------------- 2002-08-17 How to Subscribe to AIR (*) Here's how to subscribe to the magnificent bi-monthly print journal The Annals of Improbable Research (the real thing, not just the little bits of overflow material you've been reading in this newsletter). ................................................................ Name: Address: Address: City and State: Zip or postal code: Country Phone: FAX: E-mail: ................................................................ SUBSCRIPTIONS (6 issues per year): USA 1 yr/$29 2 yrs/$53 Canada/Mexico 1 yr/$33 US 2 yrs/$57 US Overseas 1 yr/$45 US 2 yrs/$82 US ................................................................ BACK ISSUES are available, too: First issue: $8 USA, $11 Canada/Mex, $16 overseas Add'l issues purchased at same time: $6 each ................................................................ Send payment (US bank check, or international money order, or Visa, Mastercard or Discover info) to: Annals of Improbable Research (AIR) PO Box 380853, Cambridge, MA 02238 USA 617-491-4437 FAX:617-661-0927 ----------------------------------------------------- 2002-08-18 Our Address (*) Annals of Improbable Research (AIR) PO Box 380853, Cambridge, MA 02238 USA 617-491-4437 FAX:617-661-0927 EDITORIAL: marca@chem2.harvard.edu SUBSCRIPTIONS: air@improbable.com WEB SITE: --------------------------- 2002-08-19 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 (marca@chem2.harvard.edu) MINI-PROOFREADER AND PICKER OF NITS (before we introduce the last few at the last moment): Wendy Mattson WWW EDITOR/GLOBAL VILLAGE IDIOT: Amy Gorin (airmaster@improbable.com) COMMUTATIVE EDITOR: Stanley Eigen (eigen@neu.edu) ASSOCIATIVE EDITOR: Mark Dionne DISTRIBUTIVE EDITOR: Robin Pearce 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 2002, Annals of Improbable Research ----------------------------------------------------- 2002-08-20 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. To subscribe, send a brief E-mail message to: LISTPROC@AIR.HARVARD.EDU The body of your message should contain ONLY the words SUBSCRIBE MINI-AIR MARIE CURIE (You may substitute your own name for that of Madame Curie.) ---------------------------- To stop subscribing, send the following message: SIGNOFF MINI-AIR ============================================================