Marc Abrahams's Blog, page 57

Effects of the Covid-19 Pandemic on Consumption of Ice-Cream

“The Effects of the Covid-19 Pandemic on the Behavioral Consumption of Ice-Cream” [by Caterina Boaro, thesis for Master’s Degree Programme in Management, Università Ca’Foscari Venezia, 2021] is a featured study in “Pandemic Dining: Gelato, Candy, Lettuce, Frozen Meat“, which is a featured article in the special Viruses and Pandemics issue of the magazine—Annals of Improbable Research.

Improbable Research on Viruses & Pandemics

The special Viruses and Pandemics issue of the magazine—Annals of Improbable Research—has been released into the populace.

Among its delights you will find:

Pandemic Dining: Gelato, Candy, Lettuce, Frozen MeatVirus ToiletometryPandemic-Fingering: Manning and His DigitsAnti-Pandemic Drinking and DruggingPandemic-Handling: Toilet Paper, Horror, and the WealthyBeauty and Masks in Pandemic TimeEyeglasses Against COVID-19Viruses Research Review: Group Sex, Singer, Saint, Count

We infectiously urge you to subscribe to the magazine, and thereby—maybe, maybe, improve your life (or a portion thereof).

Psych journal’s turmoil over masturbation and gay sex

The Retraction Watch web site has the story behind, or beneath, its headline that says “Psych journal in revolt as it publishes paper saying masturbation and gay sex are harmful“.

Podcast Episode #1089: “Inverted Rhino Translocation”

The Ig Nobel Prizes honor achievements that make people LAUGH, then THINK.

In the Ig Informal Lectures, some days after the ceremony, the new Ig Nobel Prize winners attempt to explain what they did, and why they did it.

In Podcast Episode #1089, Marc Abrahams presents the 2021 Ig Nobel Prize for Transportation winners Robin Radcliffe, Mark Jago, Peter Morkel, Estelle Morkel, Pierre du Preez, Piet Beytell, Birgit Kotting, Bakker Manuel, Jan Hendrik du Preez, Michele Miller, Julia Felippe, Stephen Parry, and Robin Gleed. They received the prize for determining by experiment whether it is safer to transport an airborne rhinoceros upside-down.

REFERENCE: “The Pulmonary and Metabolic Effects of Suspension by the Feet Compared with Lateral Recumbency in Immobilized Black Rhinoceroses (Diceros bicornis) Captured by Aerial Darting,” Robin W. Radcliffe, Mark Jago, Peter vdB Morkel, Estelle Morkel, Pierre du Preez, Piet Beytell, Birgit Kotting, Bakker Manuel, Jan Hendrik du Preez, Michele A. Miller, Julia Felippe, Stephen A Parry; R.D. Gleed, Journal of Wildlife Diseases, vol. 57, no. 2, 2021, 357–367.

The video for this lecture—graphs, charts, and all—can be found online at www.IMPROBABLE.com.

Seth Gliksman, Production Assistant

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

Specialized Looking: “How Eating Shapes Antarctic Tourists’ Perceptions of Climate Change”

‘Meals as Micro-rituals: How Eating Shapes Antarctic Tourists’ Perceptions of Climate Change’ is the title of a seminar that happened on January 14, 2022, online, organized by The SOAS Food Studies Centre in London, UK. Professor Clare Sammells of Bucknell University led the micro-exploration.

This was one of the few scholarly gatherings to address in a coherent way the questions that are, or might, be raised as to how eating shapes antarctic tourists’ perceptions of climate change.

Ig Nobellian Innovation Blossoming in South Korea

The essence of the Ig Nobel Prizes—bringing attention to things so surprising that they make people laugh, then think—continues to spread and grow. Institutions and countries are using it as a way to celebrate and encourage innovation.

KAIST, the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, has created a competition inspired by the Igs. The news site CORE reports:

Lee Kwang-hyung, president of KAIST, said, “The ‘Annals of Improbable Research’, a humor science magazine at Harvard University, awards the ‘Ig Nobel Prize’ every year for absurd and bizarre research. Judging from numerous examples, scientific and technological innovation starts from breaking away from the frame of stereotypes and common sense. We will continue the challenging and experimental spirit of KAIST by putting into practice the groundbreaking and innovative ideas proposed by the people.” …

KAIST is making a Korean version of the Ig Nobel Prize. The Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST, KAIST) announced on the 11th that it would hold the ‘KAIST Crazy Day Idea Contest’, which discovers challenging tasks that can be implemented with the suggestions of the people.

This extends a happy trend. In China, the Pineapple Prize was created some years ago in homage to the Ig Nobel Prizes, and has been honoring crazily innovative ideas every year.

More Info about KAIST Crazy Day

Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology has info on its web site, and a place to apply to participate in their contest.

Should Ice Cream Melt, Legally?

How hard is it to determine whether ice cream should melt, in the context of international law? Edwin Vermulst attempts to lick that problem, in this lengthy exposition:

“EC Customs Classification Rules: Should Ice Cream Melt?” Edwin A. Vermulst [pictured here], Michigan Journal of International Law, vol. 15, 1993, pp. 1241-1327.

 

Please send to scientist friends in Russia, Ukraine, and China

Some of the signers asked us to help spread the word about the Nobel Laureates appeal for peace in Ukraine. And we are, here, asking you, too, to help.

The signers say (and so do we): “Please circulate as you see fit, but especially to scientists in Russia, Ukraine, and China.”

The appeal, and its current list of signees (171 at the moment this blog post is published) can be found at https://nlcampaigns.org/ukraine.html

What Can You Count On, That Annoys You? Trinkaus.

To the best of our knowledge, no academic has followed Ig Nobel Prize winner John Trinkaus’s lead in carefully, relentlessly documenting things that annoy them, tallying exactly how frequently those things occur.

It’s enjoyable to look back, now and then, at the work of John Trinkaus. Trinkaus died in 2017, at which time we gave him some appreciation.

Nit-Picking Confidence, Algorithmically in Parallel

For people who like to find faults, good  news appeared in 1989, in this study:

“Locating Faults in a Constant Number of Parallel Testing Rounds,” Richard Beigel, S. Rao Kosaraju [pictured here], and  Gregory F. Sullivan, Proceedings of the First Annual ACM Symposium on Parallel Algorithms and Architectures, March 1989, pp. 189–198. The authors, at Johns Hopkins University, explain:

We show, surprisingly, that a constant number of rounds of parallel testing are sufficient to identify all faults (in all cases where fault identification is possible).