[mini-AIR] mini-AIR December 2015: Pats (and de Snoo)
Marc Abrahams
marc at improbable.com
Mon Dec 15 17:33:29 EST 2014
mini-Annals of Improbable Research ("mini-AIR")
December 2014, issue number 2014-12. ISSN 1076-500X.
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The monthly wee little tiny mini update/alert from Improbable Research
Archive at <http://improbable.com/airchives/miniair>
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2014-12-01 TABLE OF CONTENTS
2014-12-02 Imminent Events
2014-12-03 In the Magazine: The Ig Nobel Issue Cometh
2014-12-04 RESEARCH SPOTLIGHT: Kleptoparasitism Strategies at Dung Pats
2014-12-05 Impressing the Improbable on Someone You Love
2014-12-06 de Snoo's in-Pat Abundance Analysis Limerick Competition
2014-12-07 Phytophagous Scarab Chafers Morphospace Poet
2014-12-08 MORE IMPROBABLE: Boredom, Laughter, What's Going On
2014-12-09 MAY WE RECOMMEND: When to Enter and When to Leave a Dung Pat
2014-12-10 Improbable Research Events
2014-12-11 — How to Get the Magazine (*)
2014-12-12 — Our Address (*)
2014-12-13 — Please Forward/Post This Issue! (*)
2014-12-14 — How to start or stop receiving this newsletter (*)
Items marked (*) are reprinted in every issue.
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2014-12-02 Imminent Events
· 1st Annual Vienna Ball of Sciences, Austria — Jan 31, 2015
Marc Abrahams will be a guest of honor.
DETAILS: <http://www.wissenschaftsball.at/ball/programm>
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2014-12-03 In the Magazine: The Ig Nobel Issue Cometh
The next issue of the magazine — the special IG NOBEL issue, will soon be on its way to the printer, and from there to subscribers.
Read three articles, online, from the current issue — the special FEATHERS issue <http://goo.gl/eYbYkU>:
Download a FREE E-BOOK ISSUE <http://goo.gl/BMzMw>
Links to all issues: <http://www.improbable.com/magazine>
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2014-12-04 RESEARCH SPOTLIGHT: Kleptoparasitism Strategies at Dung Pats
This month's spotlight focuses on strategic theft:
"A Game Theoretic Model of Kleptoparasitism with Strategic Arrivals and Departures of Beetles at Dung Pats," Heather A. Barker, Mark Broom, and Jan Rychtář, Journal of Theoretical Biology, vol. 300, 2012, pp. 292-298. <http://goo.gl/LwMU8W>
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2014-12-05 Impressing the Improbable on Someone You Love
Give yourself or, if you love someone else, them, a gift subscription to the Annals of Improbable Research. The magazine has six new issues (six improbable gifts!) every year.
How to get/give a subscription:
<http://www.improbable.com/magazine/>
<http://www.improbable.com/subscribe>
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2014-12-06 de Snoo's in-Pat Abundance Analysis Limerick Competition
de Snoo inspires this month's limerick competition. To enter, compose an original limerick that clarifies the nature of this study:
"Insect Abundance in Cow Dung Pats of Different Farming Systems," Flavia Geiger, Sophie CTM van der Lubbe, Arend MH Brunsting and Geert R. de Snoo, Entomologische Berichten, vol. 70, no. 4, 2010, pp. 106-110. <http://goo.gl/06KrFh> (Thanks to Benjamin Mayer for bringing this to our attention.) The authors, at Wageningen University, report:
"We investigated the differences in insect abundance in cowpats between three different farming systems... Furthermore, we compared the different grazing and mowing regimes of the farming systems to examine the availability and longevity of cowpats on the pastures. Cowpats in nature areas and at organic farms supported 50% more insects than those at conventional farms."
Submit your perfectly formed limerick to:
DE SNOO'S IN-PAT ABUNDANCE ANALYSIS LIMERICK COMPETITION
c/o <MARC aaattt IMPROBABLE dddooottt COM>
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2014-12-07 Phytophagous Scarab Chafers Morphospace Poet
The judges have chosen a winner in last month's Phytophagous Scarab Chafers Morphospace Limerick Competition, which asked for a limerick to honor this study:
"The Evolution of Morphospace in Phytophagous Scarab Chafers: No Competition - No Divergence?" Jonas Eberle, Renier Myburgh, Dirk Ahrens, PLoS ONE, vol. 9, no. 5, epub May 29, 2014, e98536. <http://goo.gl/ScguH1>
The winner is INVESTIGATOR SHEILA BLUME, who wrote:
This beetle, whatever his mood,
Dines on plants, as does all of his brood,
But their diet adherence
Won't change their appearance,
'Cause shape's not contingent on food.
Here's the offering from our LIMERICK LAUREATE, MARTIN EIGER:
What happened, they're hoping to show,
As chafers evolved, long ago?
Do the plants that they ate
And their size correlate?
Available data say no.
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2014-12-08 MORE IMPROBABLE: Boredom, Laughter, What's Going On
Recent improbable bits you maybe missed:
IMPROBABLE BLOG:
· "A Theoretically Interesting Opinion About Boredom" <http://goo.gl/PBVsj8>
· "Study: Top (male) comedians die earlier?" <http://goo.gl/a5uryJ>
· "Feynman on the difference between names and what’s going on" <http://goo.gl/5aKqiL>
...and MORE, MORe, MOre, More, more at <http://improbable.com>
twitter: @ImprobResearch, @MarcAbrahams, #IgNobel
facebook: <http://www.facebook.com/improbableresearch>
books: <http://goo.gl/rHMb3t>
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2014-12-09 MAY WE RECOMMEND: When to Enter and When to Leave a Dung Pat
"Model of Kleptoparasitism in the Onthophagus taurus: When to Enter and Leave a Dung Pat," Heather Ann Allmond, PhD dissertation, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, 2010. <http://goo.gl/4zqg2B>
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2014-12-10 Improbable Research Events
For details and additional events, see
<http://improbable.com/improbable-research-shows/complete-schedule>
Vienna Ball of Sciences, Austria — Jan 31, 2015
AAAS Annual Meeting, San Jose, CA, USA — Feb 14, 2015
Ig Nobel Tour of the UK — Mar, 2015
Ig Nobel Tour of Scandinavia — Mar, 2015
Ig Nobel Events in Japan — Jun, 2015
25th First Annual Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony — Sep 17, 2015
Ig Informal Lectures — Sep 19, 2015
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2014-12-11 — How to Get the Magazine (*)
The Annals of Improbable Research is a 6-issues-per-year magazine. (It's much bigger and better than the little bits in this newsletter.)
We produce each issue as an e-book, as well as on traditional paper.
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2014-12-12 — Our Address (*)
Annals of Improbable Research (AIR)
PO Box 380853, Cambridge, MA 02238 USA
(+1) 617-491-4437, FAX: (+1) 617-661-0927
EDITORIAL: <MARC aaattt IMPROBABLE dddooottt COM>
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Twitter: @ImprobResearch
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2014-12-13 — Please Forward/Post This Issue! (*)
Please distribute copies of mini-AIR (or excerpts!) wherever appropriate. The only limitations are: A) Please indicate that the material comes from mini-AIR. B) You may NOT distribute mini-AIR for commercial purposes.
------------- mini-AIRheads -------------
EDITOR: Marc Abrahams
CO-CONSPIRATORS: Kees Moeliker, Alice Shirrell Kaswell, Gary Dryfoos, Ernest Ersatz, Stephen Drew
PROOFREADER: Ambient Happenstance
AUTHORITY FIGURES: Nobel Laureates Dudley Herschbach, Sheldon Glashow, Richard Roberts
Key words: improbable research, science humor, Ig Nobel, AIR, the
(c) copyright 2014, Annals of Improbable Research
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2014-12-14 — How to start or stop receiving this newsletter (*)
Mini-AIR is a (free!) teeny-tiny monthly *supplement* to the actual six-times-a-year magazine AIR.
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