Annals of Improbable Research

MAY | JUNE 2009 (volume 15, number 3)

Special ACCOUNTING Issue

Buy a high-quality PDF of this issue

Financiers’ Fingers,
Financiers’ Genes,
Adventures in Accounting...

Contents

The features marked with a star (*) are based entirely on material taken straight from standard research (and other Official and Therefore Always Correct) literature. Many of the other articles are genuine, too, but we don’t know which ones.

Special Section: Financial Meltdown

IFC Boys Will Be Boys: Financial Trading*—Nan Swift
6 Blood, Fingers, and Genes of Fabulous Financial Traders*—Alice Shirrell Kaswell
11 Great Adventures in Accounting*—Stephen Hardy

Improbable Research

14 A Crusade Against the Quest for the Holy Grail*—Steve Nadis and Bethany Halford
20 A Golden Mean in Your Mouth*—Alice Shirell Kaswell
24 A Tribute to the Edible Dormouse*— Alice Shirell Kaswell
26 The Public Erection of G.S. Brindley*—Stephen Drew

Improbable Research Reviews*

4 Improbable Research Review*—Dirk Manley
5 Improbable Medical Review*—Bertha Vanatian
13 Icky Cutesy Research Review*—Alice Shirrell Kaswell
18 Boys Will Be Boys*—Katherine Lee
25 May We Recommend*—Stephen Drew
28 Soft Is Hard*—Alice Shirrell Kaswell and Bissell Mango

News & Notes

2 AIR Vents (letters from our readers)
12 AIR books
19 Teachers’ Guide
22 Puzzling Solutions—Emil Filterbag
31 HMO-NO News: Dentistry—The Final Solution!
32 CARTOON: “The Galileo of the Lemmings”—Nick Kim
31 Back Issues
IBC Unclassified Ads

On the Front Cover

In 2008 and 2009 the nation of Zimbabwe boasted high inflation rates, and issued bank notes in denominations seldom seen in any nation’s paper currency. This is the front of a twenty-billion ($20,000,000,000 — or, in scientific notation 2 x 10¹⁰ dollars) Zimbabwe bank note.

On the Back Cover

The back of the twenty-billion Zimbabwe dollar note pictured on the front cover.