Marc Abrahams's Blog, page 320
July 7, 2015
Pek on Sex in London at The Curious World of Radiology on July 14
On July 14th, 2015, BIR – the British Institute of Radiology – presents a special program, titled ‘The Curious World of Radiology’:
An evening intended to astonish and amaze, this interesting selection of talks will appeal to your curious nature and take you into an undiscovered world of radiology. Encompassing art, history, and scientific research, the evening will feature three high-class speakers who look forward to sharing their in-depth knowledge and experience with you, on topics only they know about.
One of the selected speakers is the 2001 Ig Nobel medicine prizewinner Pek van Andel, who will, in detail, explain – and possibly demonstrate – his Ig winning paper “Magnetic Resonance Imaging of Male and Female Genitals During Coitus and Female Sexual Arousal.” [Published in the British Medical Journal, vol. 319, 1999, pp 1596-1600.]
To attend this curious event in Darwin House, London, UK, register here.
BONUS: 2 million looks at sex in an MRI tube. The count has now risen above four million. Here’s the video of what Pek wrought:

Ig Nobel ceremony tickets will go on sale July 9
Tickets for the 25th First Annual Ig Nobel Prize ceremony will go on sale on THURSDAY, JULY 9, 2015 at NOON (Boston time).
They will be available exclusively from the Harvard Box Office (online, by phone, and at Holyoke Center).
If you want us to notify you the day before they go on sale, add yourself to the Improbable events notification private email list.
The ceremony itself will happen on Thursday evening, September 17, at Sanders Theatre, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA, Planet Earth, Milky Way, etc.
Here’s the ceremony poster (click on the image to see a hi-res version that you can download):

July 6, 2015
Wooden legs as compassion attractors
“Rembrandt’s etching of a beggar with a wooden leg is notable because the two lower limbs of the presumed beggar are present and not deformed.”
– note authors J. ten Kate (MD), F. G. I. Jennekens (MD, PhD, Professor Emeritus, Clinical Neurology) and J. M. E. Vos-Niël (MD, MAPhil, Retired Lecturer in Rehabilitation Medicine) in The Bone & Joint Journal, February 2009, vol. 91-B, no. 2, pp. 278-282. And, furthermore :
“[…] the man depicted by Rembrandt had no begging bowl and was unable to collect money by hand. If the man had attached the artificial leg to his knee to attract compassion, he did not exploit it by begging.”
Such observations prompted the team to perform one of the only in-depth investigations of wooden leg depictions in engravings and etchings (n=28) from the low countries, produced between 1500 -1700. The results of their study revealed that:
“Artificial legs in the period 1500 to 1700 were not only used when part of a lower limb was absent. The etchings and engravings indicate that they were also employed by people with disorders of the knee and lower leg. They may also have been used to attract compassion.“
See: ‘Rembrandt’s ‘Beggar with a wooden leg’ and other comparable prints’

A machine for a Monday morning
This machine symbolizes Monday mornings. This machine also symbolizes almost anything else. This machine fails to symbolize almost nothing.
Claude Shannon, who figured out some things about information, designed the machine, years ago.

July 5, 2015
Web Cleaner Mote Knife Gauge / Neps & Trash

A neps and trash indicator
It’s been a while since we featured a study about neps and trash. Here’s one:
“Effect of Web Cleaner Mote Knife Gauge on Neps and Trash“, Yu Xuezhi Sun Pengzi. Cotton Textile Technology, February 2008. The authors, at Liaoning Liaodong University, China, explain:
“To study the effect of web cleaner mote knife gauge on removing neps and trash in card sliver, USTER AFIS single fibre tester was adopted, neps and trash in card sliver that was produced in condition of two kinds of suction form,two kinds of air capacity and three kinds of mote knife gauge were tested.The result shows that when using unilateral suction and mote knife gauge is 0.53 mm, the effect of removing neps and trash is better.”

July 4, 2015
About you and about notes on a disturbing error
If you are a person of a certain sensibility you will enjoy reading Professor Richard Montgomery‘s “Notes on a disturbing error found in the book Sub-Riemannian Geometry — general theory and examples by Calin and Chang.
And if you aren’t, you won’t.

July 3, 2015
Ig Nobel winner’s damn!’s-good book on bad behavior
Richard Stephens, who was awarded the 2010 Ig Nobel peace prize for demonstrating that swearing helps relieve pain, has written a book about the good sides of bad behavior.
The book, to which I delightedly contributed a cover blurb (‘Richard Stephens demonstrates that the bad (“NEVER DO THAT!”) things in life do have their good, practical side’), is called Black Sheep: The Hidden Benefits of Being Bad. The publisher produced this wicked little video about it:
Caroline Morley wrote an admiring book review, in New Scientist magazine, that begins:
WHETHER it’s skiving, sex, speeding or drinking alcohol, everything fun seems to have a warning attached. So why does behaving badly feel so good?
Richard Stephens, a senior lecturer in psychology at Keele University, UK, may not sound like the obvious person to tackle the science of deviance until you discover that he has won an Ig Nobel prize for his work on swearing. And since swearing is a particular vice of mine, I was keen to read about any advantages fruity language might confer.
In Black Sheep, Stephens ranges far and wide, surveying the psychological and physiological research into our character flaws. He writes with the glee of someone at a theme park, which is fitting since he tells us that a ride on a roller coaster is beneficial for asthma….

Attracting Wildlife – for research (or shooting) [new patent]
Inventor Harrison Forrester, from Greenwood, SC, USA, has just received a patent for a wildlife attractor device which may help scientific researchers (or hunters),
“The present invention is related to a hunting device that is particularly suitable for attracting wildlife and animals, such as deer, antelope, and varmints to a particular location.”
The device, which can be strapped to a tree as shown, has, if required, a remote controlled tail-wagging function.
“Attracting wildlife and animals such as deer to a particular location has many benefits. For example, attracting wildlife to a particular location can aid scientists with their studies on a particular wildlife’s migratory patterns.”
Or, alternatively, it can
“[…] allow a hunter enough time to aim and discharge his weapon.”
See: ‘Wildlife Attractor Device’ (US Pat., May 26, 2015)

Ig Nobel ceremony tickets go on sale July 9
Tickets for the 25th First Annual Ig Nobel Prize ceremony will go on sale THURSDAY, JULY 9, 2015, at NOON (Boston time). Tickets will be available exclusively from the Harvard Box Office.
Tickets alway disappear quickly. This being a big year — our 25th! — we expect them to disappear especially quickly. So prepare!

July 2, 2015
Tonight’s (Friday) Ig Nobel event in Tokyo
Here’s the poster for tonight’s Ig Nobel event — the final Ig Nobel event on the Ig Nobel Japan Tour:
It begins at 6:00 pm, at Chuo-ku: Ginza Blossom Chuo Kaikan Main Hall, 2-15-6 Ginza.

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