[mini-AIR] mini-AIR: artificial that and this / RED research / why kids are taught to say "Trick or Treat"

Sat Oct 29 16:32:44 EDT 2016

mini-Annals of Improbable Research ("mini-AIR") <>
October 2016, issue number 2016-10. ISSN 1076-500X.
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      Research that makes people LAUGH, then THINK.
      A tiny supplement to the magazine Annals of Improbable Research.
      Archive at <http://improbable.com/airchives/miniair <http://improbable.com/airchives/miniair>>
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01 TABLE OF CONTENTS

02 Impending Events: Portland, and SciFri
03 The Magazine Itself: Red Research
03 SPOTLIGHT: Impact of Artificial Fragances
04 The Bureaucracy Club Endures
05 Artificial Gummy Fingers Limerick Contest
06 Cinnamon Reading Brain Poet
07 MORE IMPROBABLE: Trick or Treat Research, World Standards Day(s)
08 MAY WE RECOMMEND: Impact of Artificial Vehicle Sounds
09 Improbable Research Events
10 — The Magazine (AIR) — How to Subscribe or Get Single Issues (*)
11 — Contact Info (*)
12 — Please Forward/Post This Issue! (*)
13 — How to start or stop receiving mini-AIR (*)

      Items marked (*) are reprinted in every issue.

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02 Impending Events: Portland, and SciFri

      APS Annual Meeting, Portland, OR, USA     — Nov 22
      Science Friday — Ig Nobel broadcast       — Nov 25

For details see http://www.improbable.com/improbable-research-shows/complete-schedule/ <http://www.improbable.com/improbable-research-shows/complete-schedule/>

(Also: We are putting together the March 2017 Ig Nobel EuroTour.
If your institution would like to host an Ig Nobel show,
please get in touch with us!)

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03 The Magazine Itself: Red Research

The special RED issue (vol. 22, no. 5) of the magazine is available. The table of contents is here:
http://www.improbable.com/airchives/paperair/volume22/v22i5/v22i5.html <http://www.improbable.com/airchives/paperair/volume22/v22i5/v22i5.html>
as are these three free articles:

<> Guéguen on Red
<> Sometimes When Women Wear Red
<> Coffee & Tea Research: Lotsa Tea, Coffee Tiny Life

      SUBSCRIPTIONS & SINGLE ISSUES: <https://gumroad.com/improbable <https://gumroad.com/improbable>>

      Tables of Contents: <http://www.improbable.com/magazine/ <http://www.improbable.com/magazine/>>

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03 SPOTLIGHT: Impact of Artificial Fragances

This month's research spotlight shines the romantic attraction of artificially smelly people:

"The impact of artificial fragrances on the assessment of mate quality cues in body odor," Caroline Allen, Kelly D. Cobey, Jan Havlíček, S. Craig Roberts, Evolution and Human Behavior, epub 2016. <https://is.gd/En4CDJ <https://is.gd/En4CDJ>> Havlíček is a 2014 Ig Nobel Prize winner. The authors report:

"Our findings suggest that women may be more attentive to these odor cues, and therefore also to disruption of this information through fragrance use. Our results show that cultural practices might both enhance and interfere with evolved preferences."

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04 The Bureaucracy Club Endures

The Bureaucracy Club is an organization of bureaucrats, by bureaucrats, for bureaucrats.

The Bureaucracy Club is dedicated to the propagation, study, maintenance, enhancement, documentation, and optimization of bureaucracies and bureaucrats.

After many years of bureaucratic quietude, the Bureaucracy Club is rousing itself to accept new applications for membership.

LACK OF DETAILS is available at the the Bureaucracy Club's web site:
<http://www.improbable.com/projects/bureaucracy/bureaucracy-club-top.html>

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05 Artificial Gummy Fingers Limerick Contest

This month's challenge: Devise a limerick elucidating this study:

"Impact of artificial gummy fingers on fingerprint systems," Tsutomu Matsumoto, Hiroyuki Matsumoto, Koji Yamada, and Satoshi Hoshino, Electronic Imaging 2002, pp. 275-289. <https://is.gd/M8C9nr <https://is.gd/M8C9nr>>

Submit your perfectly formed, delightfully enlightening limerick to:

      ARTIFICIAL GUMMY FINGERS LIMERICK COMPETITION
      c/o <MARC aaattt IMPROBABLE dddooottt COM>

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06 Cinnamon Reading Brain Poet

The judges have chosen a winner in last month's Cinnamon Reading Brain Limerick Competition, which asked for a limerick to honor this study:

"Reading Cinnamon Activates Olfactory Brain Regions," Julio González, Alfonso Barros-Loscertales, Friedemann Pulvermüller, Vanessa Meseguer, Ana Sanjuán, Vicente Belloch, and César Ávila, Neuroimage 32, no. 2, 2006, pp. 906-912. <https://is.gd/WTjupY>

The winner is INVESTIGATOR TONY HARKER, who wrote:

Just to read of a smell is enough
To trigger response to the stuff.
  Some sort of a vortex
  Is stirred in your cortex:
D'you sneeze if you read about snuff?

Here's the outpouring by our LIMERICK LAUREATE, MARTIN EIGER:

No cortical action will be
Due to words so far written by me.
  But words of olfaction
  Will get a reaction.
Jasmine, garlic, and cinnamon. See?

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07 MORE IMPROBABLE: Trick or Treat Research, World Standards Day(s)

Recent improbable research bits you may have missed...

The podcast:

      LISTEN / DOWNLOAD: <http://goo.gl/sxh7DX <http://goo.gl/sxh7DX>>

      #84 What sort of person is named Rupzóiyat?
      #85 Jean Berko Gleason’s disgusting word list
      #86 Walking on feet in the city (accompanied by a bongo drum)
      #87 How Kids Learn to Say "Trick or Treat!"

Podcast episode #87 is a special interview with psychologist Jean Berko Gleason about her research on how (and why!) American kids are taught to say "Trick or Treat!'

The blog <http://www.improbable.com/ <http://www.improbable.com/>>:

<> When are World Standards Day in 2016?
<> A feisty embuggerance
<> "Nuts!" (of/and goats, and dogs, etc., and people), the film
      ...and lots more

Luxuriant Flowing Hair Club for Scientists, etc (LFHCfS) new members:
<http://www.improbable.com/category/lfhcfs-hair-club/ <http://www.improbable.com/category/lfhcfs-hair-club/>>:

<> Keith Wampler
<> Sally Applin
<> Jason Rasgon
<> Eleni Pinnow
<> Charles Hoffman

More, at
      [twitter]   @ImprobResearch, @MarcAbrahams, #IgNobel
      [facebook]  <http://www.facebook.com/improbableresearch <http://www.facebook.com/improbableresearch>>

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08 MAY WE RECOMMEND: Impact of Artificial Vehicle Sounds

"The impact of artificial vehicle sounds for pedestrians on driver stress," Nicholas D. Cottrell and Benjamin K. Barton. Ergonomics 55, no. 12, 2012, pp. 1476-1486. <https://is.gd/qnjxo3 <https://is.gd/qnjxo3>> The authors report:

"Driver stress was significantly higher in the manually activated warning condition, compared to both no artificial sounds and automatically engaged sounds.... Driver stress was lower when noises were automated."

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09 Improbable Research Events

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

APS Annual Meeting, Portland, OR    — Nov 22, 2016
Science Friday Ig Nobel broadcast   — Nov 25, 2016
ARISIA, Boston                      — Jan 2017
AAAS Annual Meeting, Boston, MA     — Feb 18, 2017
Ig Nobel EuroTour                   — Mar 2017
Sarnoff Cardiovascular Research Annual Meeting
                                    — Apr 27, 2017

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10 — The Magazine (AIR) — How to Subscribe or Get Single Issues (*)

The Annals of Improbable Research is a 6-issues-per-year magazine, published in PDF form. It's packed with research that makes people laugh, then think. (mini-AIR, the thing you are reading at this moment, is but a tiny, free-floating appendix to the actual magazine.)

      <http://www.improbable.com/magazine/ <http://www.improbable.com/magazine/>>
      SUBSCRIPTIONS     (just $25)
      SINGLE ISSUES     (just $5 each)

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11 — CONTACT INFO (*)

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

Web Site & blog & subscriptions: <http://www.improbable.com <http://www.improbable.com/>>
Twitter: @ImprobResearch
EDITORIAL: <MARC aaattt IMPROBABLE dddooottt COM>
SUBSCRIPTION QUESTIONS: <subscriptions AT improbable.com>

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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 2016, Annals of Improbable Research

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13 — How to start or stop receiving mini-AIR (*)

Mini-AIR is a (free!) tiny monthly *supplement*
to the big, bold six-times-a-year magazine AIR.
   ...................................................
   To subscribe or unsubscribe to mini-AIR, please visit
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