Improbable Research

Principles of accounting — the song from act 2 of the mini-opera “The Count of Infinity”, which premiered at the 2005 Ig Nobel Prize ceremony.

Principles of accounting — the song-and-dance from the US Department of Defense, which “is unable to account for the use of $8.7 billion of the $9.1 billion it spent on reconstruction in Iraq”. The quote, and this graphic, are from GoodBlog.

Does running downhill affect maximum speed? A team from the Structure and Motion Laboratory at the Royal Veterinary College in the UK have been investigating the relationship between running-speed and slope. The rapidity of thoroughbred racehorses (Equus caballus), greyhounds (Canis familiaris) and human subjects (Homo sapiens) was logged under a number of different uphill and downhill running scenarios.

“We hypothesise that, if speed is limited by power, subjects’ maximum speed will increase on a decline and decrease on an incline.”

Readers can find out if the hypothesis was supported or not by paying US $31.50 and accessing the report  Does running downhill affect maximum speed?, which is published in Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology – Part A: Molecular & Integrative Physiology Volume 153, Issue 2, Supplement 1, Page S132

The Virginia opossum (Didelphis virginiana) is North America’s only marsupial. Should you ever come across one that is homeless, orphaned or otherwise in need of help and could not be taken care of by a professional wildlife rehabilitation center, ME Pearl presents ‘The Practical Opossum Series’. Here is part 1, titled ‘Proper opossum massage’.

Tomorrow: Proper opossum pedicure. Stay tuned.

Some business signs in London, from Western Druggist magazine, March 1887:

I must give you a few selections from my note book of some of the business signs in London that struck me as curious. Several signs of artists draping the real figure, otherwise tailors, were noticed; then again another was ;’A professed trousers maker”; “Haberdashers,” “Publicans,” “Cheese-mongers” and “Iron-mongers” abounded. “Dealer in Job Horses,” “Dealer in Cat’s Meat,” and again “Purveyor of Asses Milk to Her Majesty.” … in another large store “Immovable Toothbrushes” were advertised.

Although boredom very rarely escapes the notice of those suffering from it, constructing a purely technical instrument for reliably recognising boredom in humans is currently rated as a non-trivial task. But recently, a team from George Mason University, the University of North Carolina, the Georgia Institute of Technology and the Naval Research Lab, Washington, DC have between them devised a provisional system for doing just that.