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Ig Nobel Prizes in The New Yorker Crossword Puzzle

April 9th, 2021

The Ig Nobel Prizes have again wandered into a crossword puzzle, this time as a clue in the April 5, 2021 puzzle in The New Yorker. The clue for one of the across words is:

17 Item whose slipperiness was the subject of a 2014 Ig Nobel Prize-winning study

By our lazy count, this is the fourth time the Ig Nobel Prizes have appeared in a major crossword puzzle (if there is such a thing as a major crossword puzzle) in an English-language publication. The Week used it in their puzzle on October 19, 2015. The New York Times used it in their puzzle on December 20, 2020. The Wall Street Journal used it in their puzzle January 23, 2021

The Igs have also been an answer on the Jeopardy! TV program eight times or so.

(Thanks to Miriam Bloom for bringing this to our attention.)

New Look at Some Old Bearded Mathematicians

April 8th, 2021

Maxime Bôcher [pictured here], with his square beard and squarer shoes, was presiding. In the back of the room, with a different beard but equal dignity, William Fogg Osgood was counseling a student.”

—from George David Birkhoff and His Mathematical Work, by Marston Morse, Bulletin of the American Mathematical Society, May 1946, page 357.

Here is a photograph of William Fogg Osgood’s beard, with William Fogg Osgood:

We have not managed to find a photograph of Maxime Bôcher’s shoes.

Usefulness, for Teachers, of Ig Nobel Prizes

April 6th, 2021

Here’s yet another use of the Ig Nobel Prizes as a teaching tool:

Podcast Episode #1062: “Happiness from Painful Insect Stings”

April 5th, 2021

In Podcast Episode #1062, Marc Abrahams shows a poetical research paper — about insect-sting pain — to QI Elves James Harkin, Dan Schreiber, Anne Miller, Steve Colgan, and Alex Bell. Dramatic readings and reactions ensue.

Remember, our Patreon donors, on most levels, get access to each podcast episode before it is made public.

The QI Elves encounter:

The Sting of the Wild‘ by Justin O. Schmidt, Johns Hopkins Press, 2016. ISBN: 9781421419282.

Seth GliksmanProduction Assistant

Available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Google Podcasts, AntennaPod, BeyondPod and elsewhere!

The consequences of inconsequentialities [study]

April 5th, 2021

People occasionally misplace seemingly inconsequential things – gloves, trainers, scarfs etc etc. But perhaps the sociological implications of misplaced objects may not have received as much scholarly attention as they deserve? Bearing in mind that :

“Especially for the purposes of grant applications, researchers must demonstrate how these objects have impacts that go beyond their immediate spatialities to affect a significant proportion of the population “

Despite the difficulties, there are, nevertheless, academic papers examining just such inconsequentialities. One author was inspired to write one for the journal Space and Culture after finding a lost mitten in Salford, UK.. The paper :

“ . . . explores the ephemeral, delicate, and often superficial materiality of these objects of rupture relative to a flow-optimized urban landscape. “

With the observation that :

“ The consequences of inconsequentialities may be more profound than we might think.“

See: Inconsequential Materialities: The Movements of Lost Effects Space and Culture ,Volume: 12 issue: 1, page(s): 95-115

Improbable Research