Mini-AIR

mini-Annals of Improbable Research ("mini-AIR")

October 2018, issue number 2018-10. ISSN 1076-500X.

<https://www.improbable.com/airchives/miniair/>

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Research that makes people LAUGH, then THINK.

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01 TABLE OF CONTENTS

02 Imminent Events

03 IN THE MAGAZINE ITSELF: Medical Surprises, After Numbers

04 Rotton on Violence (2000)

05 European Ig Nobel Adventures Springing Up

06 Rotton on Violence (2004) Contest

07 Roll on Shrunken Heads Winner

08 MORE IMPROBABLE: Dog, Man, Ear, Dead Salmon

09 Pretty, Sweet on Violence and Bitemarks

10 IMPROBABLE EVENTS

11 — Subscribe to the Actual Magazine! (*)

11 — How to start or stop receiving this newsletter (*)

12 — Contact Info (*)

14 — Standard Gobbledegook (*)

Items marked (*) are reprinted in every issue.

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02 Imminent Events

"Science Friday" Ig Nobel Broadcast — Nov 22, 2018.

Specially edited radio/webcast presentation of

the 28th First Annual Ig Nobel Prize ceremony. <https://www.sciencefriday.com/>

DETAILS, and full schedule: <http://www.improbable.com/improbable-research-shows/complete-schedule/>

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03 IN THE MAGAZINE ITSELF: Medical Surprises, After Numbers

WHAT YOU ARE READING AT THIS MOMENT

is just our tiny, little

monthly newsletter, called "mini-AIR."

Our best stuff goes in the actual magazine,

"Annals of Improbable Research" (AIR).

Please subscribe to the magazine!

The special NUMBERS issue of the magazine (vol. 24, no. 4) is available: <https://is.gd/PXISjn>.

The next issue — a specially surprising issue on MEDICAL SURPRISES — will be out any day now.

Many back issues are available, too.

Feast on improbable Research magazines:

MAGAZINE SINGLE ISSUES & SUBSCRIPTIONS:

<https://gumroad.com/improbable>

Tables of Contents: <http://www.improbable.com/magazine/>

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04 Rotton on Violence (2000)

This month's research spotlight shines on something from Rotton:

"Violence is a Curvilinear Function of Temperature in Dallas: A Replication," James Rotton and Ellen G. Cohn, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, vol. 78, 2000, pp. 1074–81. The authors are at Florida International University. <https://is.gd/QLK1Dv>

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05 European Ig Nobel Adventures Springing Up

The 2019 Ig Nobel EuroTour is taking shape,

for March and early April 2019.

A very partial schedule is at <https://is.gd/fGOYzz>.

There will be events in Spain, France, the UK, The Netherlands, Switzerland, Germany, Austria, Scandinavia, and perhaps elsewhere.

Some events will feature Marc Abrahams and three Ig Nobel Prize winners (and perhaps one or two other people who are doing improbable research).

Some events will be simpler: Marc doing a talk about the Ig Nobel Prizes.

If your institution, department, or group would like to host an event, please get in touch with us!

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06 Rotton on Violence (2004) Contest

This month's RESEARCH LIMERICK challenge — Devise a pleasing limerick that encapsulates this study:

"Outdoor Temperature, Climate Control, and Criminal Assault: The Spatial and Temporal Ecology of Violence," James Rotton and Ellen G. Cohn, Environment and Behavior, vol. 36, no. 2, 2004, pp. 276-306. <https://is.gd/L53xzy>

Submit your perfectly formed, delightfully enlightening limerick to:

ROTTON ON VIOLENCE (2004) LIMERICK COMPETITION

c/o <MARC aaattt IMPROBABLE dddooottt COM>

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07 Roll on Shrunken Heads Winner

The judges have chosen co-winners in last month's Competition, which asked for a limerick to explain this study:

"The Mystery of Shrinking Heads," B. Reichenpfader, W. Buzina, and P. Roll, Forensic Science International Supplement Series, vol. 1, no. 1, December 2009, pp. 22-23. <https://is.gd/DkPNAr>

Co-winner INVESTIGATOR ROBERT VEAZEY writes:

The roots of the bean were concealed;

The secret was finally unsealed.

With the DNA sequence,

And lice larvae frequence,

A small human head was revealed.

Co-winner INVESTIGATOR FRED BETHKE writes:

Once, she was one of the cuties —

loomed large amidst ravishing beauties.

But we shrink from the news

that creeps out from the clues:

In her locks, a nesting of cooties.

This month's take from our LIMERICK LAUREATE, MARTIN EIGER:

Lots of data is there to be read

When you study an old, shrunken head.

But whatever you ask,

A prerequisite task

Is ensuring the subject is dead.

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08 MORE IMPROBABLE: Dog, Man, Ear, Dead Salmon

Recent improbable research bits you may have missed...

The blog <http://www.improbable.com/>:

<> "Inertial Properties of the German Shepherd Dog"

<> "The Man in the Ear" (a fresh look)

<> Dead Salmon, Again in the Service of Science

Luxuriant Flowing Hair Club for Scientists (LFHCfS) and its sibling clubs:

<https://www.improbable.com/category/lfhcfs-hair-club/>

FACEBOOK: <http://www.facebook.com/improbableresearch>

TWITTER: @ImprobResearch, @MarcAbrahams, #IgNobel

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09 Pretty, Sweet on Violence and Bitemarks

"A Look at Forensic Dentistry — Part 2: Teeth as Weapons of Violence — Identification of Bitemark Perpetrators," D. Sweet and I.A. Pretty, British Dental Journal, vol. 190, no. 8, 2001, pp. 415–8. <https://is.gd/410NJR>

The authors, at the University of Liverpool and the University of British Columbia, report:

"The teeth are a significant component of our natural arsenal. It is suspected that many dentists have seldom considered their patients' teeth as such effective weapons!"

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10 IMPROBABLE EVENTS

Improbable Research Table Talks — TBA

"Science Friday" Ig Nobel Broadcast — Nov 22, 2018

Arisia, Boston — Jan 2019

AAAS meeting, Washington, DC — Feb 16, 2019

Ig Nobel EuroTour — Mar/Apr 2019

Ig Nobel TICKETS go on sale — Jul 2019

Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony — Sep 2019

For details and additional events, see

<http://www.improbable.com/improbable-research-shows/complete-schedule/>

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11 — Subscribe to the Actual Magazine! (*)

The Annals of Improbable Research is a 6-issues-per-year magazine, published in PDF form. It's packed with research that makes people laugh, then think. (mini-AIR, the thing you are reading at this moment, is but a tiny, free-floating appendix to the actual magazine.)

<www.improbable.com/magazine/>

SUBSCRIPTIONS ($25, for six issues)

SINGLE ISSUES ($5 each)

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12 — How to start or stop receiving this newsletter (*)

This newsletter, Mini-AIR, is just a (free!) tiny monthly *supplement* to the big, bold six-times-a-year magazine Annals of Improbable Research.

To SUBSCRIBE or UNSUBSCRIBE to mini-AIR:

<http://five.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/mini-air>

ARCHIVES: <http://improbable.com/airchives/miniair>

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13 — CONTACT INFO (*)

Annals of Improbable Research (AIR)