[mini-AIR] mini-AIR: sneezing, coughing, nose-blowing, and the Ig Nobel EuroTour

[Marc Abrahams]

mini-Annals of Improbable Research ("mini-AIR")
March 2020, issue number 2020-03. ISSN 1076-500X.
	<https://www.improbable.com/airchives/miniair/>
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  Research that makes people LAUGH, then THINK.
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01 TABLE OF CONTENTS

02 Imminent Events
03 IN THE MAGAZINE ITSELF: Imminent Psychology
04 Apisa's Simple Sneeze Catcher
05 Limerick Challenge: The Copelands’ Cough Muffler
06 Felons' Footware Winner
07 MORE IMPROBABLE: Monkeys' Uncanny, McNugget, Cold Nose
08 Microbiological Laboratory Hazard of Bearded Men
09 IMPROBABLE EVENTS
20 — Subscribe to the Actual Magazine! (*)
21 — How to start or stop receiving this little newsletter (*)
22 — Contact Info (*)
23 — Standard Gobbledegook (*)

	Items marked (*) are reprinted in every issue.


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02 Imminent Events

	The 2020 Ig Nobel Euro (and Brexitannia) Tour—March & April
	includes these and other stops:

		Manchester, UK
		Liverpool, UK
		London, UK
		Vienna, Austria
		Graz, Austria
		Lausanne, Switzerland
		Zurich, Switzerland
		Essen, Germany
		Aarhus, Denmark
		Odense, Denmark
		Stockholm, Sweden
		Gothenburg, Sweden

DETAILS AND FULL EVENTS SCHEDULE: <http://www.improbable.com/improbable-research-shows/complete-schedule/>

[Please note: the events that had been scheduled in Italy have been indefinitely postponed, due to travel precautions related to the corona virus.] 

The schedule now has two slots open for additional simple events:
  —in England/Scotland/Wales on March 12, 13, 14, or 15
  —in Germany / The Netherlands / Denmark on April 8, 9, 10, or 11.
If you would like to host an Ig Nobel talk, and have a budget for train travel and some sort of honorarium, please email 
<marc atttt improbable dottttt com>.


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03 IN THE MAGAZINE ITSELF: Imminent Psychology

	WHAT YOU ARE READING AT THIS MOMENT
	is just our monthly newsletter, (mini-AIR).

	This newsletter is overflow detritus from the actual magazine:
	Annals of Improbable Research (AIR). 

The special PSYCHOLOGY issue of the magazine will be going out very soon to subscribers. Meanwhile, the special IG NOBEL issue (vol. 25, no. 6), awaits you:
<https://www.improbable.com/airchives/paperair/volume25/v25i6/v25i6.php> 

SUBSCRIBE to the MAGAZINE, or get BACK ISSUES:
	<https://gumroad.com/improbable>

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


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04 Apisa's Simple Sneeze Catcher

This month's random research item was featured in the special "Sneezing, Coughing, Nose Blowing" issue (vol. 23, no. 1) of the magazine.

"Sneeze Catching Method and Apparatus," US patent application 8910312, by Joseph Apisa, 2012. <https://tinyurl.com/rvglraq>
Apisa specifies: 

"An apparatus for catching bodily fluids ejected during a sneeze or cough, said apparatus comprising: a sleeve having a first open end... a closure being mounted on said sleeve and releasably retaining said frame in said closed position; a pad being removably positioned in said receiving space, said pad having anti-bacterial properties; and wherein said sleeve is configured to be worn on an arm of a person such that the person may sneeze or cough into said pad and that said pad captures and destroys bacteria exhaled by the person."


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05 Limerick Challenge: The Copelands’ Cough Muffler

This month's RESEARCH LIMERICK challenge — Devise a pleasing limerick that encapsulates this patent, which, also, was featured in the special "Sneezing, Coughing, Nose Blowing" issue (vol. 23, no. 1) of the magazine.:

"Cough Muffler," US patent 6085864, issued to Derrick Copeland, Glen Copeland, and Lucian Copeland, July 11, 2000. <https://tinyurl.com/uldk9u3> The three Copelands explain:

"A cough muffler for muffling the vocal sounds of a human. The muffler is especially designed for deadening or silencing vocal sounds, particularly coughing, of hunters and the like to avoid possible frightening away of the game being hunted. The cough muffler generally comprises four components, namely: a mouthpiece, a cup-shaped casing which defines a cavity, a first absorbent material, and a second absorbent material....

"[One] object of the present invention to provide a device of simple construction for muffling or deadening involuntary coughs of outdoor persons to prevent the frightening away of animals."

Submit your perfectly formed, delightfully enlightening limerick to:

	COUGH MUFFLER LIMERICK COMPETITION
	c/o <MARC aaattt IMPROBABLE dddooottt COM>


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06 Felons' Footware Winner

The judges have chosen a winner in last month's Competition, which asked for a limerick to explain this study:

"Fashion Conscious Burglars? Testing the Principles of Offender Profiling with Footwear Impressions Recovered at Domestic Burglaries," Matthew Tonkin, John W. Bond and Jessica Woodhams, Psychology, Crime and Law, vol. 15, no. 4, May 2009, pp. 327-345. 
<http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10683160802244108>

INVESTIGATOR TONY HARKER writes:

If you’re going to spend the night thievin'
Be aware that the tracks you’ll be leavin'
Can tell us a lot
About how much you’ve got
By showing what brands you believe in.

This month's take from our LIMERICK LAUREATE, MARTIN EIGER:

I always dress fashionably.
Bruno Magli suits me to a tee.
  Now detectives have found
  Prints of blood on the ground.  
So who killed Nicole Brown?  Wasn't me!


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07 MORE IMPROBABLE: Monkeys' Uncanny, McNugget, Cold Nose

Recent improbable research bits you may have missed...

BLOG: <http://www.improbable.com/>:
* Monkeys and the Uncanny Valley
* Factorizations in the Chicken McNugget Monoid
* Dog Nose-Tip Temperature Dynamics and Distant-Heat Sensing Ability

LUXURIANT FLOWING HAIR CLUB FOR SCIENTISTS (LFHCfS) 
<https://www.improbable.com/category/lfhcfs-hair-club/>

PODCAST: 
<https://www.improbable.com/category/the-weekly-improbable-research-podcast/>:

* Podcast Episode #204: "The Longest Oath"—
The Longest Oath, The Okajima/Fujinami Navel Lint Removal Invention, The Effect of Country Music on Suicide, Garlic in Men and Women, Artificial Fruit Processing, Improbable Medical Review, Clever Contraptions to Capture Crooks, and On What I Do Not Understand and Have Something to Say.

FACEBOOK: <http://www.facebook.com/improbableresearch>

TWITTER: @ImprobResearch, @MarcAbrahams, #IgNobel

PATREON: <www.patreon.com/ImprobableResearch>


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08 Microbiological Laboratory Hazard of Bearded Men

"Microbiological Laboratory Hazard of Bearded Men," Manuel S. Barbeito, Charles T. Mathews, and Larry A. Taylor, Applied Microbiology, vol. 15, no. 4, July 1967, pp. 899–906.
<https://tinyurl.com/rxlzwhb>

The authors were awarded the 2010 Ig Nobel Prize for public health.


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	THAT WAS JUST A TASTE.

	DEVOUR MUCH, MUCH MORE
	IMPROBABLE STUFF.

	SUBCRIBE TO THE MAGAZINE ITSELF!
	<www.improbable.com/magazine/>


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09 SOME IMPROBABLE EVENTS

Ig Nobel Euro (and Brexitannia) Tour	—Mar/Apr 2020
Sochi, Russia						—May 22, 2020
Ig Nobel ceremony TICKETS go on sale	—Jul, 2020
Readercon, Quincy, MA, USA			—Jul, 2020
30th First Annual Ig Nobel ceremony	—Sep 17, 2020
Ig Informal Lectures				—Sep 19, 2020
Osaka, Japan						—Fall, 2020

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


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20 — Subscribe to the Actual Magazine! (*)

The Annals of Improbable Research is a 6-issues-per-year magazine, 
in PDF form. 
It's packed with research that makes people laugh, then think.

	<www.improbable.com/magazine/>
	SUBSCRIPTIONS	($25, for six issues) 
	BACK ISSUES 	($5 each)

(mini-AIR, the thing you are reading at this moment, is but a tiny, free-floating appendix to the actual magazine.)


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21 — How to start or stop receiving this newsletter (*)

This newsletter, Mini-AIR, is just a (free!) tiny monthly *supplement* to the big, bold six-times-a-year magazine Annals of Improbable Research.

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22 — CONTACT INFO (*)

Annals of Improbable Research (AIR)
<www.improbable.com>
EDITORIAL: <MARC aaattt IMPROBABLE dddooottt COM>
SUBSCRIPTION QUESTIONS: <subscriptions AT improbable.com>
Cambridge, MA, USA
Twitter: @ImprobResearch


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23 — Standard Gobbledegook (*)

EDITOR: Marc Abrahams
CO-CONSPIRATORS: Kees Moeliker, Alice Shirrell Kaswell, Gary Dryfoos, Nan Swift, 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 2020, Annals of Improbable Research


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