Improbable Research

The Facial Flex device is inserted into the mouth, where one flexes it. The manufacturer explains that it is “Made with surgical stainless steel and space age material for years of durability.” Admirers
published a study about its use:

“A Mechanically Aided Resistance Exercise Program for Sagging Facial Muscles,” Gary L. Grove, PhD, Stan W. Rimdzius, BS, Charles R. Zerweck, PhD, Journal of Geriatric Dermatology 1994;2(5):152-158. The authors report: “We found that biomechanical extensibility had decreased which was quite consistent with the primary perception of the panelist that their facial skin had become firmer and more elastic.”

The Looseleaf Beauty Report gives one of the best video demonstrations:

(Thanks to investigator Margo Bellini for bringing this to our
attention.)

Jason Brown of Dalhousie University published a study called “Mathematics, Physics and A Hard Day’s Night.” The abstract reads, in whole: “In this article we shall use mathematics and the physics of sound to unravel one of the mysteries of rock ’n’ roll – how did the Beatles play the opening chord of A Hard Day’s Night? The song may never sound the same to you again.”

(Thanks to investigator David Holzman for bringing this to our attention.)

Every half decade or so, the library at a large university files complaints with us about missing issues of the Annals of Improbable Research.  A few weeks ago, they sent us a new complaint.

Our circulation director, Katherine Meusey, by persistently writing and phoning the library, made contact with an official there. She reports:

Finally spoke with someone at the Univ. of ———-, after calling and writing to them. They admit that they haven’t paid for a subscription since “late 2002, or maybe 2003″, and I explained to them that this is why they don’t have any issues beyond that date.

They also complained about a few missing issues from earlier years (from 2001, for example, for which they filed a “missing issues” claim a few years later, whereupon my predecessor in this job sent them duplicate copies and told them that we would be happy to send them third or fourth copies, too, but that they would have to pay for those.).

I reiterated that due to the eons that had passed for the earlier years they were claiming, we couldn’t honor their claim. They got all whiny about it, saying that they wouldn’t have claimed them if they had received them. I replied, in the most loving way imaginable, that they’d sent me a list claiming issues they hadn’t even paid for. After that, there was silence on the line.

By the way: The magazine is now open access (except in the view of one official, who thinks not), as well as available in pleasing paper form.

The paper clip plays a variety of roles, all small, in legal history. That smallness looms large in Jay W Stein’s gripping study Something Little and Shiny on the Judicial Stage: The Paper Clip. The study, published in 1994 in the Law Library Journal, established Stein as the first and finest scholar of the effect of paper clips on the law.

Stein, a research librarian at John Marshall Law School library in Chicago, says he “attended a hearing where the judge used the paper clip to illustrate a legal point”. Finding himself suddenly, deeply fascinated by the fastener, Stein pored through legal trial records, fastidiously noting every explicit, on-the-record mention by judges, lawyers or witnesses, of paper clips. These proved more numerous than one might expect, though less than one might imagine.

“The paper clip serves impartially in all areas of the law,” he writes, “but the record shows that it appears especially often in some….

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

Tokyo ward to install sonic ‘Mosquito’ device at park to drive away loitering youths

Tokyo’s Adachi Ward is poised to install a sonic device that emits an annoying high-frequency sound in a bid to discourage youths from loitering in a park late at night.

The ward plans to install the British-made “Mosquito” device at Kitashikahama Park on Thursday. Officials at Melc Co., the Japanese agency for the apparatus, said that just over 20 of the devices had been sold over a period of one year, mainly to convenience stores. It is reportedly the first time for a local body in Japan to install one….

Depending on the success of the device and residents’ opinions, officials will consider installing more devices at other parks. The ward has already reportedly received repeated installation requests from other areas, along with inquiries from other local bodies and police.

The “Mosquito,” which was developed by a British researcher in 2005, was awarded an Ig Nobel prize the following year. The Ig Nobel prizes are awarded for humorous, creative research.

So reports the Mainichi Daily News, on May 20, 2009