[mini-AIR] mini-AIR: Ig Nobel tickets go on sale Thursday, July 9 / cricket chirps / thigh gaps

Tue Jul 7 02:26:06 EDT 2015

mini-Annals of Improbable Research ("mini-AIR")
July 2015, issue number 2015-07. 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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2015-07-01 TABLE OF CONTENTS

2015-07-02 In the Magazine: Dogs Now, Cats on the Way
2015-07-03 RESEARCH SPOTLIGHT: Sham Cricket Courtship Spermatophylax?
2015-07-04 Ig Nobel TICKETS GO ON SALE July 9 at noon
2015-07-05 Bipolar Tripolar Theological Anthropology
2015-07-06 Goitred Gazelles Vocal Group Training Poets
2015-07-07 MORE IMPROBABLE: Academic Papers Made Musical, Thigh Gaps
2015-07-08 MAY WE RECOMMEND: Cricket Chirp Symmetry
2015-07-09 Improbable Research Events
2015-07-10 — How to Get the Magazine (*)
2015-07-11 — Our Address (*)
2015-07-12 — Please Forward/Post This Issue! (*)
2015-07-13 — How to start or stop receiving this newsletter (*)

	Items marked (*) are reprinted in every issue.

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2015-07-02 In the Magazine: Dogs Now, Cats on the Way

The special CATS (AND DOGS) issue of the magazine is in prep. Its immediate predecessor, the special DOGS (AND CATS) issue, arived recently: <http://goo.gl/NuwrBB>.

Links to every issue: <http://www.improbable.com/magazine>

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2015-07-03 RESEARCH SPOTLIGHT: Sham Cricket Courtship Spermatophylax?

This month's spotlight shines, as do so many things these days, on a sham — or rather, on something that is suggested to be a sham:

"Courtship Feeding in Decorated Crickets: Is the Spermatophylax a Sham?" Michael W. Will and Scott K. Sakaluk, Animal Behaviour, vol. 48, no. 6, December 1994, pp. 1309-15. <http://goo.gl/6WPXl0> the authors, at Illinois State University, report:

"The number of spermatophylaxes consumed by females had no significant effect on the mass of eggs or number of nymphs produced, and there was no significant interaction between the number of spermatophylaxes consumed and food availability. Although there may be other benefits to its consumption, the present study suggests that as a food 'gift', the spermatophylax is a sham."

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2015-07-04 Ig Nobel TICKETS GO ON SALE July 9 at noon

Tickets for the Twenty-Fifth 1st Annual Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony will go on sale THURSDAY, JULY 9, 2015, at noon (US eastern time).We expect (based on experience) the tickets will get snapped up quickly.

TICKETS
The Harvard Box Office handles all ticket sales. The physical ticket office, in Holyoke Center, is open most days noon to 6 pm.
Online: <https://www.boxoffice.harvard.edu>
Phone: (+1) 617-496-2222.
		* * *
Tickets: $75 / $65 / $55 / $35
Student tickets: $70 / $60 / $50 / $30
Ig Glorious tickets: $150. We fund the ceremony (theater rental, and half a zillion other expenses) mainly through ticket revenues. 
This year we are offering a few special "Ig Glorious" tickets, for persons who want to be specially supportive. 

THE CEREMONY
This year's theme: LIFE.
WHERE: Sanders Theatre, Harvard University
WHEN: THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 2015, 6:00 pm.
Ceremony details: <http://www.improbable.com/ig/2015>

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2015-07-05 Bipolar Tripolar Theological Anthropology

Bipolar tripolar theological anthropology is the simple inspriation for this month's limerick competition. To enter, compose an original limerick that clarifies the nature of this study:

"A Scientific Bipolar Anthropology Completed by a Tripolar Theological Anthropology," L. Morren, in the book Origins, Time and Complexity, 1994, pp. 53 ff. <http://goo.gl/24EKvi> The author, at the University of Louvain, Belgium, goes on at length. 

Submit your perfectly formed limerick to:

	BIPOLAR TRIPOLAR THEOLOGICAL ANTHROPOLOGY LIMERICK COMPETITION
	c/o <MARC aaattt IMPROBABLE dddooottt COM>

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2015-07-06 Goitred Gazelles Vocal Group Training Poets

The judges have chosen co-winners in last month's Goitred Gazelles Vocal Group Training Limerick Competition, which asked for a limerick to honor this study:

"Vocal group signatures in the goitred gazelle Gazella subgutturosa," Ilya A. Volodin, Elena V. Volodina, Ekaterina N. Lapshina, Kseniya O. Efremova, Natalia V. Soldatova, Animal Cognition, March 2014, vol. 17, no. 2, pp 349-357. <http://goo.gl/qJqX9g>

The winner is INVESTIGATOR SHEILA BLUME, who wrote:

Seems the calls of gazelles can be plastic--
As they grow, vocalization's elastic.
  Volodin reconnoitered
  Gazelles who were goitered,
Though the changes he found weren't drastic. 

Here's the offering from our LIMERICK LAUREATE, MARTIN EIGER:

They researched gazelles, and they found
When an animal's making a sound,
  Sometimes it's a lot
  Like its peers. Sometimes not.
They found when their sound gets around.

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2015-07-07 MORE IMPROBABLE: Academic Papers Made Musical, Thigh Gaps

Recent improbable bits you maybe missed.

The weekly podcast:

	LISTEN / DOWNLOAD: <http://goo.gl/sxh7DX>
		(It's also on Play.it, iTunes, and soon on Spotify)

	#18 "Personal space at the beach"
	#17 "The Real-life Wizard of Oz"

Newspaper column (in The Guardian): <http://goo.gl/uaZH9Q>

	· "Be still my beating heart … smashed fingers, battered shins and fake murder"

The blog:

	· "A generator of lyrics and music from academic papers"
			 <http://goo.gl/ULHPb1>
	· "Leadership and Gardening – an update"
			 <http://goo.gl/Q6T3Lm>
	· "Thigh gaps"
			 <http://goo.gl/pfv5Ix>
...and lots more

New member of the Luxuriant Flowing Hair Clubs for Scientists (LFHCfS) and the LFFFHfSS: 
<http://www.improbable.com/category/lfhcfs-hair-club/>

AND LOTS MORE, at 
	[blog]	<www.IMPROBABLE.com>
	[twitter]	@ImprobResearch, @MarcAbrahams, #IgNobel
	[facebook]	<http://www.facebook.com/improbableresearch>
	[podcast]	<http://goo.gl/GqUW6i>

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2015-07-08 MAY WE RECOMMEND: Cricket Chirp Symmetry

"Symmetry in the Songs of Crickets," L.W. Simmonds and M.G. Ritchie, Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B, vol 263, 1996, pp. 305–311. <http://goo.gl/RDasPx>

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2015-07-09 — Improbable Research Events

For details and additional events, see
<http://improbable.com/improbable-research-shows/complete-schedule>

Ig Nobel TICKETS go on sale				— July 9, 2015
Homosexual Necrophiliac Duck Opera, London, UK	— August 8,9
25th First Annual Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony		— Sep 17, 2015
Ig Informal Lectures, MIT				— Sep 19, 2015
Vienna, Austria						— Oct 8, 2015
U Rhode Island						— Dec 8, 2015

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2015-07-10 — 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.)

PAPER EDITION: 
	To subscribe, go to <http://improbable.com/subscribe>

NOTE: In the near future we will be converting from paper to PDFs.
Details of that will appear on the web site, and here on mini-AIR.

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2015-07-11 — Our Address (*)

Annals of Improbable Research (AIR)
PO Box 380853, Cambridge, MA 02238 USA
(+1) 617-491-4437

EDITORIAL: <MARC aaattt IMPROBABLE dddooottt COM>
PRINT SUBSCRIPTIONS: <subscriptions AT improbable.com>
Web Site and blog: <http://www.improbable.com>
Twitter: @ImprobResearch

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2015-07-12 — 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 2015, Annals of Improbable Research

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2015-07-13 — How to start or stop receiving this newsletter (*)

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