Continuing what we started last week (in Podcast #6) the happily annoyed works of Professor John Trinkaus — who counts things that annoy him — bubble further forth in this week’s Improbable Research podcast.
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This week, Marc Abrahams tells about:
- A further look at John Trinkaus and his approx 100 studies about things that annoy him. (Professor John Trinkaus / Citations of most of Trinkaus’s articles are in the article “Trinkaus: An Informal Look“, vol. 9, no. 3, [the special Everything issue] of the Annals of Improbable Research. / Ig Nobel Prizes awarded in 2003)
- Exiting: Another Look. (“Exiting: Another Look,” J. Trinkaus, Perceptual and Motor Skills, vol. 71, no. 3, part 2, December 1990, p. 1317-8. / The dramatic reading is performed by Richard Baguley, technology writer)
Defining the Supermarket ‘Item’: An Informal Look. (“Defining the Supermarket ‘Item’: An Informal Look,” J. Trinkaus, Perceptual and Motor Skills, vol. 71, August 1990, p. 350. / The dramatic reading is performed by Jean Berko Gleason, professor emerita of psychology at Boston University, and inventor of the Wug Test)- Stop Sign Compliance: A Final Look. (“Stop Sign Compliance: A Final Look,” J. Trinkaus, Perceptual and Motor Skills, vol. 85, no 1, August 1997, p. 217. / The dramatic reading is performed by Richard Baguley)
- An Informal Look at Use of Bakery Department Tongs and Tissues. (“An Informal Look at Use of Bakery Department Tongs and Tissues,” J. Trinkaus, Perceptual and Motor Skills, vol. 87, no. 3, part 1, December 1998, p. 801-2. / The dramatic reading is performed by Jean Berko Gleason)
- Visiting Santa: An Informal Look. (“Visiting Santa: An Informal Look “, John Trinkaus, Psychological reports 95.2 (2004): 587-588. / The dramatic reading is performed by Richard Baguley)
- Some of our favorite Trinkaus studies. (The dramatic reading is performed by Ross MacFarlane of the Wellcome Trust Library and James Harkin and Stevyn Colgan of QI, The Museum of Curiosity, and No Such Thing As a Fish, and Marc)
- A Grand Old Plan for Vacuum Travel. (N. A. (1825). ‘London and Edinburgh Vacuum Tunnel Company, Capital 90,000 Sterling.’ Mechanics Register 1 (13): 205–7.)
- The mini-opera “The Blonsky Device”, act 3 (of 4). (The opera premiered as part of the 2013 Ig Nobel Prize ceremony. Henry Akona orchestrated and directed. The opera starred Maria Ferrante (as Charlotte Blonsky), Martin Kelly (as George Blonsky), Philip Lima (as the zookeeper), and Miles Rind (as the patent examiner), with an orchestra of biomedical researchers directed by Dr. Thomas Michel. Karen Hopkin narrates. The opera also featured, in non-singing roles: Melissa Franklin, Peaco Todd, Alex Nemiroski, and Nobel laureates Roy Glauber, Dudley Herschbach, Frank Wilczek, and Eric Maskin.)
The mysterious John Schedler did the sound engineering this week.
The podcast is all about research that makes people LAUGH, then THINK — research about anything and everything, from everywhere —research that’s good or bad, important or trivial, valuable or worthless. CBS distributes it, both on the new CBS Play.it web site, and on iTunes.