Marc Abrahams's Blog, page 604

Bubbles, balloons and maths clowns—oh my! (she says)

Investigator Patricia Jonas sent us this note:

I was directed to a web site that says: "Imagine making maths fun using soap bubbles, balloons and a Maths Clown."

I do not want to imagine making maths fun using soap bubbles, balloons and a Maths Clown.

I enjoy maths. But I find clowns disturbing. Very disturbing. My children find clowns disturbing. There is research that says that many people, especially children, find clowns disturbing. I now fear for the future of mathematics.

Here is a picture from that web site. Need I say that this picture disturbs me?

Thank you for letting me get that off my chest.

BONUS: Other opinions about clowns

BONUS: Video of the aforementioned maths clowns:

BONUS: The documentary, of sorts, called "Lady is scared to death of Clowns — Coulrophobia":

Thought process of an outstanding psychiatrist & life coach, Dr. K. Ablow, in assessing the patient, Gingrich

One of the world's outstanding psychiatrists—who is also a professional life coach—candidly reveals his thought process, in an essay for Fox News. Dr. Keith Ablow [pictured here, legs akimbo] applies his brain to a particular question of national (in the USA) and international significance—a question that others have found perplexing. Dr. Ablow also daringly reveals the name of the patient. Dr. Ablow writes, about that patient:

Newt Gingrich's three marriages mean he might make a strong president — really

… I want to be coldly analytical, not moralize, here. I want to tell you what Mr. Gingrich's behavior could mean for the country, not for the future of his current marriage. So, here's what one interested in making America stronger can reasonably conclude—psychologically—from Mr. Gingrich's behavior during his three marriages:

1) Three women have met Mr. Gingrich [pictured here with one of his wives] and been so moved by his emotional energy and intellect that they decided they wanted to spend the rest of their lives with him.
2) Two of these women felt this way even though Mr. Gingrich was already married.
3 ) One of them felt this way even though Mr. Gingrich was already married for the second time, was not exactly her equal in the looks department and had a wife (Marianne) who wanted to make his life without her as painful as possible….
4) Two women—Mr. Gingrich's first two wives—have sat down with him while he delivered to them incredibly painful truths: that he no longer loved them as he did before, that he had fallen in love with other women and that he needed to follow his heart, despite the great price he would pay financially and the risk he would be taking with his reputation….

[As] far as I can tell, judging from the psychological data, we have only one real risk to America from his marital history if Newt Gingrich were to become president: We would need to worry that another nation, perhaps a little younger than ours, would be so taken by Mr. Gingrich that it would seduce him into marrying it and becoming its president. And I think that is exceedingly unlikely.

Dr. Ablow also presents his credentials: "Dr. Keith Ablow is a psychiatrist and member of the Fox News Medical A-Team. Dr. Ablow [also presides over a] team of Life Coaches."

(Thanks to Steve Mirsky for bringing Dr. Ablow and his wisdom to our attention.)

Lingo Overload: meme, meme, meme

Today's Lingo Overload Example is a lushly lingo-laden meme paper:

"The misunderstanding of memes: Biography of an unscientific object, 1976–1999," Jeremy Trevelyan Burman [pictured here], Perspectives on Science, Spring 2012, Vol. 20, No. 1, Pages 75-104. The author is at York University. The publisher says: "Burman was named an 'international emerging scholar' by the Jacobs Foundation and the Jean Piaget Society." The abstract contains the following passage, which may be best appreciated if you read it aloud in a crowded room:

"The meme became a virus of the mind. (In the UK, this occurred slightly later.) It is also now clear that this becoming involved complex sustained interactions between scholars, journalists, and the letter-writing public. We must therefore read the 'meme' through lenses provided by its popularization. The results are in turn suggestive of the processes of meaning-construction in scholarly communication more generally."

(HT Danielle Venton)

How to goose a goose

The seldom-prim, always pleasingly provocative science blogger known as @SciCurious alerts us to this video in which genetic material is collected from a goose.

We warn you to not watch this video if you do not or should not watch any video in which genetic material is collected from a goose.

BONUS (unrelated): A video called "All about Vodka: How It's Made and How to Drink It", an interview with "François Thibault, the maitre de chai who originated the recipe for Grey Goose vodka and serves as its brand's ambassador."

Interview with a frog-levitating graphene tinkerer

Sean O'Neill, in New Scientist, interviews Andre Geim, who has shared (with different collaborators) both an Ig Nobel Prize in physics (for his work on teh substance graphene) and a Nobel Prize in physics. Here's the final portion of that interview:

From tinkering on the fringes to Nobel glory

… You have worked in many countries. How does the UK compare?

I spent four years in the UK from 1990, before returning in 2000. I like it because it's a very natural environment. I found the US, the Netherlands and practically everywhere else I have worked a bit artificial and occasionally even hypocritical. There's an expectation that you have to smile and behave in a certain manner. Despite the differences between Russia, where I was born, and the UK, there is some common sense of humour. British humour – natural and self-deprecating – is very appealing to me.

You won an Ig Nobel award in 2000 for demonstrating an unusual magnetic effect using a levitating frog. Did you know it would generate such a buzz?

It was always the intention. We wanted to get the message across that everything around us is magnetic and needed to find an image with general appeal. We considered putting spiders, lizards, cockroaches and hamsters into the field. A hamster would have done nicely, but the hole into the apparatus was too small, so we ended up with a tiny frog we found in the biology department.

Exciting video: Marketing Research

It's time for another visit with Nigel Bradley (our previous visit was all about sample size).

This is the most exciting video you will have seen during the minute and 24 seconds you were watching it. It's specially made for market researchers. It's called "Career Opportunities in Marketing Research". It's from Oxford University Press. It's right here:

BONUS: All about the star: Nigel Bradley

Cotton Buds (Dangers of)

"Cotton buds are commonly used to clean the ears, remove wax, in case of itching in the ear, aural toilet in discharging ears and some time as a habit." – explain Suresh Kumar and  Shamim Ahmed  of the Department of ENT, at Liaquat University of Health Sciences, Jamshoro, Pakistan. They go on to warn that :

They supposedly represent a safe means of cleaning the ear and nose. Insertion of cotton tips is not only unnecessary but also potentially dangerous.

The conclusion of their study, which tracked cotton bud usage in 100 patients at the ENT Department, of Sir Syed Medical College & Hospital Karachi, (July 2005 to January 2007) is that

Use of cotton buds tip and match sick [sic] can lead to lot of complications including trauma to external auditory canal and tympanic membrane which can lead to perforation resulting in deafness. It should be avoided for the purpose of cleaning ears.

See USE OF COTTON BUDS AND ITS COMPLICATIONS, Journal of Surgery Pakistan (International), 13, (3), July – September 2008.

The findings echo a broadly similar conclusion which was reached by Jonathan C Hobson, MA MRCS and Jeremy A Lavy, FRCS, who co-authored  'Use and abuse of cotton buds' for the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine, August 2005 vol. 98 no. 8,pp. 360-361. Their inquiries into ear-cleanings by 171 cotton bud users revealed that

"…most cotton bud users, when asked why they did it, merely said 'it seems like a good idea' or family and friends use them." Though the authors do add: "We have to admit that a large number of people use cotton buds without coming to harm and the actual risk remains to be elucidated." Here is a figure from the study:

Quiztime . . .

If insertion into the ear or nose is potentially dangerous, then what are these extra-long cotton buds for?

The sender of the most amusing (publishable) answer will receive a perfectly formed high resolution electronic copy of the current magazine. Answers please to :

404, out of context

The number 404 pops up in many contexts. This spectacular, hypnotic 404 web site [pictured here in miniature] is one. This study, below, is another. We think the one is not related to the other.

"Tension-Free Vaginal Tape: Analysis of Outcomes and Complications in 404 Stress Incontinent Women", M. Meschia, P. Pifarotti, F. Bernasconi, E. Guercio, M. Maffiolini, F. Magatti and L. Spreafico, International Urogynecology Journal, Volume 12, Number 8, S24-S27,

[404 web site via BoingBoing]

Dog-flighting: Bulldog on a zipline

The maker of this brief video says:

I filmed this in June 2010 during our honeymoon stay at Finca Bellavista; a tree-house community located in the southern zone of Costa Rica. Kimbo Slice is the resident bulldog and loves to zipline around the skytrail, a network of zipline trails around the property.

[via Jerry James Stone]

Dropping in on the Australian Pitch Drop Experiment

Dan Nancarrow, reporting for the Brisbane Times, drops in on

World's longest lab experiment a lesson in persistence

No less than twice a week, Professor John Mainstone fields an inquiry from someone around the world about his pet project. Provocatively, you could say that he has gained worldwide interest over an experiment that in some respects resembles watching grass grow. But that would be selling the University of Queensland's Pitch Drop Experiment very short.

The experiment, which features tar pitch slowly dripping through a funnel, began in 1930 as a way for the late Professor Thomas Parnell to prove the liquid nature of the material at room temperature.

Having dripped just nine drops in 81 years, it is recognised by the Guinness Book of World Records as the longest running experiment in the world.

Having won Professors Mainstone and Parnell a Ig Nobel Prize in 2005, it currently sits proudly in the lobby of the Physics Department, needing no special attention apart from being kept at room temperature….

BONUS: Watch the live web-cam that's trained on the experiment