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ANNALS OF
Special Issue:
74470 88921
The journal of record for inflated research and personalities Annals of 2008 Annals of Improbable Research ISSN 1079-5146 print / 1935-6862 online
Improbable Research
617-491-4437
AIR, P.O. Box 380853, Cambridge, MA 02238, USA Improbable Research and Ig and the tumbled thinker logo are all reg. U.S. Pat. & Tm. Off. FAX: 617-661-0927 www.improbable.com air@improbable.com EDITORIAL: marca@chem2.harvard.edu The journal of record for inated research and personalities
Commutative Editor Stanley Eigen Northeastern U. Associative Editor Mark Dionne Dissociative Editor Rose Fox Contributing Editors Otto Didact, Stephen Drew, Emil Filterbag, Karen Hopkin, Alice Kaswell, Nick Kim, Richard Lederer, Katherine Lee, Bissel Mango, Steve Nadis, Nan Swift, Tenzing Terwilliger, Marina Tsipis, Bertha Vanatian VP, Human Resources Robin Abrahams Research Researchers Kristine Danowski, Martin Gardiner, Jessica Girard, Tom Gill, Mary Kroner, Wendy Mattson, Srinivasan Rajagopalan, Tom Roberts, Naomi Uesaka,Tom Ulrich General Factotum Carrie Gallo Design and Art Geri Sullivan/PROmote Communications Lois Malone/Rich & Famous Graphics Circulation Director Katherine Meusey Circulation (Counter-clockwise) James Mahoney Webmaster Julia Lunetta General Factotum (web) Jesse Eppers Technical Eminence Grise Dave Feldman Art Director emerita Peaco Todd Webmaster emerita Amy Gorin
Co-founders Marc Abrahams Alexander Kohn Editor Marc Abrahams marca@chem2.harvard.edu Admin Lisa Birk European Bureau Kees Moeliker, Bureau Chief Natuurhistorisch Museum Rotterdam improbable@nmr.nl Steve Farrar, Edinburgh Desk Chief Erwin J.O. Kompanje Willem O. de Jongste
When all other contingencies fail, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.Sherlock Holmes Science is the belief in the ignorance of experts.Richard Feynman
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Contents
The features marked with a star (*) are based entirely on material taken straight from standard research (and other Official and Therefore Always Correct) literature. Many of the other articles are genuine, too, but we dont know which ones.
Coming Events
Science Friday (NPR) Ig Nobel radio broadcast November 28, 2008 AAAS Annual Meeting, Chicago, Illinois, USA February 13, 2009 Ig Nobel Tour of the UK March 615, 2009 SciFest Africa, Grahamstown, Eastern Cape, South Africa March 2526, 2009 (see WWW.IMPROBABLE.COM for details of these and other events)
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AIR Vents
Exhalations from our readers
independently, but worse, have published it. If only Id followed my dream of becoming a research scientist, I could have been up on that stage instead of them. Bill Burns ftldesign.com Long Island NY USA
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I wonder if what the sword swallower was chewing was some anesthetic? Shoichi Fukayama, Ph.D. Brookline, MA
Whose Head?
Its appropriate for AIR to display (AIR Vents 14:5) the presumably non-digitally doctored photo of the 1911 gathering in Brussels Metropole Hotel. I first saw a direct print hung in the hotels lobby about thirty years ago, before PhotoShop, and noticed that the Solvay head appears to have been crudely pasted over someones body. The head is far too large (compared with others) and its illumination is different from adjacent heads (did he have his own spot-light?), proving that Mr. Solvay either had a less central seat or wasnt there for the photo-op. (This photo also, I discovered, appears in Solvays annual reports.) The letter writers claim that the defaced face is Mels face is not correct. In fact the body under the pasted head is that of Mel and I believe that this is the earliest and only surviving photo of Mels torso. AIRs staff should now combine the torso and head photos using digital techniques as we continue the search for the rest of Mel. Lester A. Gimpelson Bruxelles, Belgium color red and that these people are not even aware of the change. Perhaps what infuriated the bull in the observations was not the color red but aggressive, bull-infuriating behavior of the person who had just seen red, behavior of which the person was not even conscious. I hope someone will follow up on George Strattons work. Daniel M. Berry University of Waterloo Waterloo, Ontario
Red/Bull Theoretician
I found the discussion (Red: Bull, AIR14:4) of George Strattons research into the folklore that the color red infuriates bulls very illuminating and very much no bull. I offer another explanation of the observation that the color red has indeed infuriated at least some bulls. This observation does not require belief that it is the color red that is directly infuriating the bull. Another article in the same issue, Choose Red, Then Fail, which reviews the study Color and Psychological Functioning: the Effect of Red on Performance Attainment by Elliot et al., points out that at least in some ways, peoples behavior is changed in the presence of the
Annals of
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Jason Browns summary of the components of the mystery chord that begins the Beatles song A Hard Days Night.
We welcome your suggestions for this and other columns. Please enclose the full citation (no abbreviations!) and, if possible, a copy of the paper.
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denture was extracted from the hypo-pharynx under local anaesthesia and was presumably the cause of the respiratory arrest.... We suggest that asking about loose-fitting dentures should form part of comprehensive geriatric assessment.
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Top left: V-Chip Monitor William J. Maloney, a prominent New York attorney, attempted to enforce Sanders Theatres strict rules about the throwing of paper airplanes. Photo: Alexey Eliseev. Bottom left: William Lipscomb, 1976 Nobel Laureate in chemistry, and Benoit Mandelbrot, creator of the mathematical concept of fractals, toast the 2008 Ig Nobel Chemistry Prize winners a team of doctors in America who discovered that Coca-Cola is an effective spermicide and a team of doctors in Taiwan who discovered that it is not. Photo: Kees Moeliker. Top right: The ceremony opened with Dan Meyer, co-winner of the 2007 Ig Nobel Medicine Prize, reprising the brief acceptance speech he gave last year, in which he summed up the study, co-written with colleague Brian Witcombe, called SwordSwallowing and Its Side Effects. This year Dr. Thomas Michel, the Dean of Education at Harvard Medical School, removes the sword from Mr. Meyers throat. Photo: John Bradley. Bottom right: The Ig Nobel performing scientists prepare to perform one of their two Moments of Science. Photo: John Bradley.
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Redundancy
The evening also featured numerous tributes to the evenings theme of Redundancy. Foremost were the 24/7-Lectures, in which famous thinkers explained their field of research, first in twenty-four (24) seconds, and then in seven (7) words. (Transcripts of those lectures are published in this issue.) The night also featured the premiere of a new mini-opera called Redundancy, Again (see the libretto, again, elsewhere in this issue).
William Lipscomb, assisted by Minordomo Peaco Todd, scans the audience trying to see who will win a date with him in the Win-aDate-With-a-Nobel-Laureate Contest. Photo: Kees Moeliker.
continued >
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2006 Ig Nobel Medicine Prize winner Francis Fesmire, author of the study Termination of Intractable Hiccups with Digital Rectal Massage, returned this year to take another bow. Photo: Alexey Eliseev. Kees Moeliker, the 2003 Ig Nobel Biology Prize winner (for writing the worlds first scientific account of homosexual necrophilia in the mallard duck), helped translate portions of the ceremony into Dutch. He teamed with other linguists who simultaneously translated the proceedings into several languages, all of them speaking simultaneously into the same microphone. Their translations were coordinated by Karen Hopkin, creator of the Studmuffins of Science Calendar. Hopkin also narrated the mini-opera. Don Featherstone, the 1996 Ig Nobel Art Prize winner (for creating the now-ubiquitous plastic pink flamingo), and his wife, Nancy, and their little dog returned to Sanders Theatre to take a bow. They were greeted with rapturous applause. Dr. Francis Fesmire, a 2006 Ig Nobel Medicine Prize winner (for his medical report Termination of Intractable Hiccups with Digital Rectal Massage), waved his finger to the crowd. He was greeted with rapturous, if apprehensive, applause.
Portions of the ceremony are simultaneously translated into five languages: English, Canadian, Bostonian, British, and Double-Talk. Photo: Alexey Eliseev.
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Two days after the Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony, the new winners and several past winners gave brief public talks at MIT, at the Ig Informal Lectures. Here 2003 Biology Prize winner Kees Moeliker gives new insights on the ramifications of his discovery of homosexual necrophilia in the mallard duck. Photo: Gary Dryfoos.
NEXT YEARS CEREMONY: The 19th First Annual Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony will occur on Thursday night, October 1, 2009, at Sanders Theatre. Tickets will go on sale in August. The Ig Informal Lectures will happen two days later, on Saturday afternoon, October 3, 2008.
Improbable TV
We are pleased to introduce the Improbable Research TV series. What: Three-minute videos about research that makes people laugh, then makes them think. Where: On the web, at www.improbable.com and elsewhere.
www.improbable.com Annals of Improbable Research | November December 2008 | vol. 14, no. 6 | 9
Introducing
Drs. Christel Joubert (left) and Marie-Christine Cadiergues, flea-jump experimenters, relaxing prior to the ceremony. Dan Meyer (with sword in mouth) and David Gross (with sword in hand).
10 | Annals of Improbable Research | November December 2008 | vol. 14, no. 6 www.improbable.com
Above: Professor Massimiliano Zampini, half of the team that electronically modified the sound of a potato chip to make the person chewing the chip believe it to be crisper and fresher than it really is. Top left: Dan Ariely and the three volunteer time-keepers who helped the speakers keep their talks crisply brief. Bottom left: Dr. Brian Witcombe, co-author of the British Medical Journal study Sword-Swallowing and Its Side Effects.
Kids are naturally good scientists. Help them stay that way.
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PEACE PRIZE The Swiss Federal Ethics Committee on Non-Human Biotechnology (ECNH) and the citizens of Switzerland for adopting the legal principle that plants have dignity. REFERENCE: The Dignity of Living Beings With Regard to Plants: Moral Consideration of Plants for Their Own Sake. <http://www.ekah.admin.ch/en/topics/dignity-ofcreation/index.html> WHO ATTENDED THE CEREMONY: Urs Thurnherr, member of the committee.
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ARCHAEOLOGY PRIZE Astolfo G. Mello Araujo and Jos Carlos Marcelino of Universidade de So Paulo, Brazil, for measuring how the course of history, or at least the contents of an archaeological dig site, can be scrambled by the actions of a live armadillo. REFERENCE: The Role of Armadillos in the Movement of Archaeological Materials: An Experimental Approach, Astolfo G. Mello Araujo and Jos Carlos Marcelino, Geoarchaeology, vol. 18, no. 4, April 2003, pp. 43360. BIOLOGY PRIZE Marie-Christine Cadiergues, Christel Joubert, and Michel Franc of Ecole Nationale Veterinaire de Toulouse, France for discovering that the fleas that live on a dog can jump higher than the fleas that live on a cat. REFERENCE: A Comparison of Jump Performances of the Dog Flea, Ctenocephalides canis (Curtis, 1826) and the Cat Flea, Ctenocephalides felis felis (Bouche, 1835), M.C. Cadiergues, C. Joubert, and M. Franc, Veterinary Parasitology, vol. 92, no. 3, October 1, 2000, pp. 23941. ADDITIONAL NOTE: Professor Cadiergues is a former Resident in Dermatology at the Royal Veterinary College, London, U.K.. WHO ATTENDED THE CEREMONY: Marie-Christine Cadiergues and Christel Joubert, unable to attend the ceremony, were presented with the prize at a special ceremony, later in the month, at the Genoa Science Festival.
MEDICINE PRIZE Dan Ariely of Duke University (USA), Rebecca L. Waber of MIT (USA), Baba Shiv of Stanford University (USA), and Ziv Carmon of INSEAD (Singapore) for demonstrating that high-priced fake medicine is more effective than low-priced fake medicine. REFERENCE: Commercial Features of Placebo and Therapeutic Efficacy, Rebecca L. Waber, Baba Shiv, Ziv Carmon, and Dan Ariely, Journal of the American Medical Association, vol. 299, March 5, 2008, pp. 10167. WHO ATTENDED THE CEREMONY: Dan Ariely.
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COGNITIVE SCIENCE PRIZE Toshiyuki Nakagaki of Hokkaido University, Japan, Hiroyasu Yamada of Nagoya, Japan, Ryo Kobayashi of Hiroshima University, Atsushi Tero of Presto JST, Akio Ishiguro of Tohoku University, and got Tth of the University of Szeged, Hungary, for discovering that slime molds can solve puzzles. REFERENCE: Intelligence: Maze-Solving by an Amoeboid Organism, Toshiyuki Nakagaki, Hiroyasu Yamada, and gota Tth, Nature, vol. 407, September 2000, p. 470. WHO ATTENDED THE CEREMONY: Toshiyuki Nakagaki, Ryo Kobayashi, and Atsushi Tero.
ECONOMICS PRIZE Geoffrey Miller, Joshua Tybur, and Brent Jordan of the University of New Mexico, USA, for discovering that professional lap dancers earn higher tips when they are ovulating. REFERENCE: Ovulatory Cycle Effects on Tip Earnings by Lap Dancers: Economic Evidence for Human Estrus?, Geoffrey Miller, Joshua M. Tybur, and Brent D. Jordan, Evolution and Human Behavior, vol. 28, 2007, pp. 37581. WHO ATTENDED THE CEREMONY: Geoffrey Miller and Brent Jordan.
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PHYSICS PRIZE Dorian Raymer of the Ocean Observatories Initiative at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, USA, and Douglas Smith of the University of California, San Diego, USA, for proving mathematically that heaps of string or hair or almost anything else will inevitably tangle themselves up in knots. REFERENCE: Spontaneous Knotting of an Agitated String, Dorian M. Raymer and Douglas E. Smith, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, vol. 104, no. 42, October 16, 2007, pp. 164327. WHO ATTENDED THE CEREMONY: Dorian Raymer. CHEMISTRY PRIZE Sharee A. Umpierre of the University of Puerto Rico, Joseph A. Hill of The Fertility Centers of New England (USA), Deborah J. Anderson of Boston University School of Medicine and Harvard Medical School (USA), for discovering that Coca-Cola is an effective spermicide, and Chuang-Ye Hong of Taipei Medical University (Taiwan), C.C. Shieh, P. Wu, and B.N. Chiang (all of Taiwan) for discovering that it is not. REFERENCE: Effect of Coke on Sperm Motility, Sharee A. Umpierre, Joseph A. Hill, and Deborah J. Anderson, New England Journal of Medicine, 1985, vol. 313, no. 21, p. 1351. REFERENCE: The Spermicidal Potency of Coca-Cola and PepsiCola, C.Y. Hong, C.C. Shieh, P. Wu, and B.N. Chiang, Human Toxicology, vol. 6, no. 5, September 1987, pp. 3956. [NOTE: The journal is now called Human and Experimental Toxicology.] WHO ATTENDED THE CEREMONY: Deborah Anderson, and C.Y. Hongs daughter Wan Hong.
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LITERATURE PRIZE David Sims of Cass Business School, London, U.K., for his lovingly written study You Bastard: A Narrative Exploration of the Experience of Indignation within Organizations. REFERENCE: You Bastard: A Narrative Exploration of the Experience of Indignation within Organizations, David Sims, Organization Studies, vol. 26, no. 11, 2005, pp. 162540. WHO ATTENDED THE CEREMONY: David Sims.
Medicine Dan Ariely (high-priced fake medicine is more effective than low-priced fake medicine)
Twelve years ago, I sat around that corner and I was in my last year of graduate studies, and I was inspired by the people who were getting awards on this stage. And I knew that one day I wanted to be like them too. So I took a job at MIT, and I worked very hard. I produced a lot of studies that I thought would win me the IgNobel awardin fact, I wrote a whole book (brandishes book) that I thought should have won me this prize. One year in particular, I wrote a paper on how men, when they masturbate and get aroused, make different decisions, and I thought that would surely get me the award. But no. So I am extremely pleased to get the award today for this prize. My only problem is that I dont know once I reach this peak, what else could I strive for? So thank you very much. I also want to thank some other people, of course. First of all, I want to thank my wife. Its very hard to be married to me, Im realizing that after awhile. [At this point Miss Sweetie Poo interrupted, saying Please stop, Im bored.] I want to thank Bronwyn. [Please stop, Im bored.] My third grade teacher was always very supportive of me, [Please stop, Im bored.] and I want to appreciate her. Are you really bored? Are you really bored? [Please stop, Im bored.] Thank you very much.
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Peace Urs Thurnherr, member of the Swiss Federal Ethics Committee on Non-Human Biotechnology [ECNH] (adopting the legal principle that plants have dignity)
Ladies and gentlemen, on behalf of the ECNH, I would like to thank you sincerely for awarding us an Ig Nobel Prize for our study on the dignity of living beings with regards to plants, and thereby throwing attention to the topic of plant life. Our study is a product of the Committees mandate and is to be understood against a background of the Swiss Federal Constitution. Its certainly understandable that an enterprise concerned with the question of the dignity of plants should first make you laugh, but, have you ever forgotten to water one of your house plants and then had to throw it away? Did that make you feel uneasy in any way? If so, when you can already relate to this subject, and you might even be tempted to read our study of todays event. Once again, many thanks.
Urs Thurnherr accepts the Peace Prize on behalf of his committee, which was charged with making sense of the legal principle that plants have dignity, and also of all the (approximately) seven million citizens of Switzerland, who as a nation have adopted the principle . Photo: David Holzman.
Miss Sweetie Poo helps Medicine Prize co-winner. Dan Ariely finish his acceptance speech in a. timely manner. Photo: Alexey Eliseev.
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Economics Geoffrey Miller and Brent Jordan (lap dancers earn higher tips when they are ovulating)
Three of the six co-winners of the Cognitive Science Prize traveled to the ceremony. Here Atsushi Tero displays his certificate, Toshiyuki Nakagaki holds the teams prize and Ryo Kobayashi smiles gently for the camera. Photo: Kees Moeliker.
JORDAN: When I first mentioned to my colleagues in the Gentlemans Club that I was going to turn it into science, they laughed at me. And when I went to the University and said the same thing, a lot of people laughed at me. But when I showed them the results, they quit laughing. Oh, and gentlemen, I am not taking any applications for research assistants. And now my colleague. MILLER: Scientists can learn a lot from lap dancers. Not just how to extract more money from students, politicians, and university administrators, but also about human nature. I make about $70,000 a year teaching basic human sexuality to the earnest but often stoned youth of New Mexico. A good lap dancer makes about $140,000 a year giving remedial sex education to married but often tipsy middle-aged males. Yet we know one technique the lap dancers dont: hierarchical linear modeling of time-series data. Where they saw random fluctuations in day-to-day earnings, we could see that their income peaked just before ovulation, at the point of maximum fertility. So lap dancers now can schedule their work shifts to match their fertility and now make about $200,000 a year. [At this point Miss Sweetie Poo interrupted, saying Please stop, Im bored.] And we get the Ig Nobel, which is beyond all price. [Please stop, Im bored.] Thank you.
Economics Prize winners Geoffrey Miller and Brent Jordan emerge from the sacred curtain to shake hands with William Lipscomb. Photo: Kees Moeliker.
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Literature David Sims (You Bastard: A Narrative Exploration of the Experience of Indignation within Organizations.)
Of course, I understand were all different. But I cant work out where youre coming from. You probably have your reason for doing what youre doing, and in some parallel universe you might be right. Im a very liberal person, accustomed to seeing other peoples viewpoints, and that makes it all the more strange that I cant see yours. What sort of character are you? I just cant make any sense of what youre doing. I cant imagine what sort of story you think youre living out. Dont get me wrong, I realize you might just be very stupidbut that stupid? As it happens, Im one of the good guys. We defeat the bad guys; thats how we know were the good guys. If that hurts, then so be it; youve brought it on yourself. Youve forced me into seeing you in a way that I dont really approve of, and that makes me even more angry. You Bastard!
2008 Ig Nobel Literature Prize winner David (You Bastard) Sims accepts congratulations from 2007 Medicine Prize co-winner Dan (Sword-Swallowing and Its Side Effects) Meyer. Photo: Kees Moeliker.
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Wan Hong, on behalf of her father, Chuang-Ye Hong (no, its not)
Hi. My dad would like to say thank you from Taipei, Taiwan. He cant be here today, but he says thanks for giving me an award that makes me look really, really cool in my daughters eyes. And I would like to say thanks Mom and Dad for firmly believing it wont work and didnt try it so Im here today. Its precisely in 1984 that they tried. Thank you very much and congratulations to everybody. Thank you.
Wan Hong delivers the Chemistry Prize acceptance speech on behalf of her father, Dr. Chuang-Ye Hong, whose team found experimentally that Coca-Cola is not an effective spermicide. (Dr. Deborah Anderson, leader of the team that shared the prize, spoke on behalf of herself and her colleagues. Her photo appears on the front cover of this issue.) Photo: Kees Moeliker.
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LECTURER: Anna Lysyanskaya, Associate Professor of Computer Science at Brown University. TOPIC: Cryptography.
Complete technical description in TWENTY-FOUR (24) SECONDS: A cryptographic system is secure if no matter what probabilistic polynomial-time algorithm the bad guys are using, they still cant hurt the good guys. To prove security, we typically relate the computational complexity of launching an attack to that of a computational task known or believed to be impossible. Although for certain scenarios, unconditionally secure solutions exist, security of others relies on established complexity-theoretic assumptions. Clear summary that anyone can understand, in SEVEN (7) WORDS: It aint secure till you prove it. Anna Lysyanskaya. Photo: Alexey Eliseev.
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LECTURER: Dany Adams, Biologist at The Forsyth Center for Regenerative and Developmental Biology. TOPIC: Biology.
Complete technical description in TWENTY-FOUR (24) SECONDS: At the molecular level, proteins can act as surrogates. For example, two wingless receptors, Frizzled and Dfrizzled2, can function redundantly upstream of the Armadillo gene,1 while regulation of the ARMADILLO protein is by the redundantly acting Src64 and Src 42A.2 At the organismal level, the reproductive strategy of the nine-banded armadillo also exploits redundancy: females invariably give birth to identical quadruplets.3 Clear summary that anyone can understand, in SEVEN (7) WORDS: The armadillos lesson: have a plan B. NOTE: Dr. Adams later sent us references for her lecture: 1. Frizzled and Dfrizzled-2 Function as Redundant Receptors for Wingless During Drosophila Embryonic Development, P. Bhanot, M. Fish, J.A. Jemison, R. Nusse, J. Nathans and K.M. Cadigan, Development, vol. 126, no. 18, 1999, pp. 417586. 2. Requirements of Genetic Interactions Between Src42A, armadillo and shotgun, a Gene Encoding E-cadherin, for Normal Development in Drosophila, Mayuko Takahashi, Fumitaka Takahashi, Kumiko Ui-Tei, Tetsuya Kojima, and Kaoru Saigo, Development, vol. 132, no. 11, 2005, pp. 254759. 3. Heredity and Organic Symmetry in Armadillo Quadruplets, H.H. Newman, Biology Bulletin, vol. 24, no. 1, 1915, p. 1. Dany Adams. Photo: Kees Moeliker.
LECTURER: William
TOPIC: Redundancy.
Complete technical description in TWENTY-FOUR (24) SECONDS: Redundancy. Exceeding what is unnecessary. Superfluous, verbose. You find this throughout, and yet the content is not there, but the content is always there. Clear summary that anyone can understand, in SEVEN (7) WORDS: The source of real original thought is not present in the definition of redundancy. William Lipscomb. Photo: Kees Moeliker.
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Original Cast
Opera Conductor: David Stockton Pianist: Branden Grimmett Tweedle: Maria Ferrante Dee: Ben Sears Guards: Roberta Gilbert and Robert Canterbury Employees: the other scientists and other Ig Nobel Prize winners Consultants: Nobel Laureate William Lipscomb, Benoit Mandelbrot (creator of the concept of fractals) Flutist: Laura Hamel Accordianist: Thomas Michel The Ig Fife and Drum and Drum and Bugle and Bugle and Bugle and Accordion Corps Costumes by Robert Canterbury.
NARRATOR [SPOKEN]: Tonights opera is about two business partnersidentical twins named Tweedle and Dee. Not that it matters, but Tweedle and Dee sell trimming equipment to hedge funds. To survive in the global economy, Tweedle and Dee want to be as efficient as possible. So to be as efficient as possibleto maximize efficiency, and do it efficientlythey decide to... eliminate redundancy! They are going to fire everyone whose job in anyway overlaps anyone elses job. Lets join Tweedle and Dee as they celebrate this by announcing it to everybody in their company: [MUSIC: I Dream of Jeannie with the Light Brown Hair, Stephen Foster] [TWEEDLE and DEE sing this, alternating verses] Just keep it simple. Simply take our advice. No duplication. Never do things twice. Yes, keep it simple. Simply take our advice. Do not duplicate. No, do not do things twice. Two times is too many, and three is even worse. Fortune favors those who dont needlessly rehearse. Just once. Just once is all that youll ever need. Once you understand that, youre at-least-twice-as-likely-to-succeed.
[NOTE THE INTENTIONAL AWKWARD-EXTRA-SYLLABLES-AT-THE-END!]
But wait!!! Do nothing if its not just-in-time. Wait[BE SILENT FOR A BEAT]then hurry! Thats our paradigm! Yes, wait!!! Do nothing if its not just-in-time. Wait[BE SILENT FOR A BEAT]then hurry! Yes, thats our paradigm!
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When you do things early, you then have time to waste. Thats why you should wait[BE SILENT FOR A BEAT]then do those things in haste. Please be efficient. That is what you must be. If you are efficient, you have efficiency. Become efficient: Dont waste time watching clocks. Old ways are wasteful. Dont be orthodox. Consult a clock, but never just on a hunch. [LOOKS AT WATCH, AND PERKS UP] Oh now, look at that!!! Hey, its time now for lunch!!! So much of the time, any clock is just a frill. Simply voyeurism, a momentary thrill. The time one spends in staring down at ones watch Is no more productive than the-time-spent-looking-at-ones-crotch.
[NOTE THE INTENTIONAL AWKWARD-EXTRA-SYLLABLES-AT-THE-END!]
Avoid redundancy. No need to repeat. Say what needs saying. Keep it short and sweet. Avoid redundancy. No need to repeat. Just say what you must. Keep it short. Keep it sweet. Never be redundant. Do not redundant be! No, dont be redundant! No! No redundancy! Dont be redundant. Promise me!!! Promise me!!! No, dont be redundant! No! Never be redundant!
[NOTE THE INTENTIONAL AWKWARD-EXTRA-SYLLABLE-AND INTENTIONAL-LACK-OF-RHYME-AT-THE-END!]
ACT 2Redundancy
NARRATOR [SPOKEN]: When last we saw Tweedle and Dee, they
fired everyone who was redundant. (Please note that to anyone who speaks British English, that statement is itself redundant. If youre not British, you may disagree. Whatever...) Now its a month later. A minor problem keeps cropping up. Now whenever even one employee quits, the entire operation grinds to a haltbecause no one knows anyone elses job. Lets join Tweedle and Dee as try to solve this vexatious problem. [MUSIC: The Band Played On, by Charles B. Ward] [TWEEDLE and DEE sing this, alternating verses] On Monday our receptionist Resigned. He lives alone. Now nobody knows how to work the phone. On Tuesday our top techie Took a trip to watch a whale. Now none of us can access our email. The next day Dave the doorman Drove down to see the shore. Now no one knows how to unlock the door. Whenever someone quits, or just stays home to weep and sob, Were stuck cause no one knows each others job. Soooo, mayyyyy-beeee...
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[CHORUS]
Heres what we need If we are to succeed Its redundancy! Things would work out swell If all our personnel Had redundancy. Duplication feels clannish, But when someone vanish-es, just that ONE persons not there! Thats betterNOT worsen An absence of person. Redundancy! Soooo... youuuu... meeeean...
[CHORUS]
Each of us blows Through a two-sided nose. Thats redundancy. Most medical probes Prove our brains have two lobes. Thats redundancy. And if I should propose that *I KNOW* what *YOU KNOW*, And if you made me *SHOW* that I know... Well, then wed *BOTH* know that *I* know what *YOU* know. Thats redundancy. Thaaaats... suuuu-btllllle...
[REPEAT THE CHORUS TOGETHER, AND FASTER]
company be very sure to have, yes, redundancy again. The second set of consultants recommended the same thing. Lets join Tweedle and Dee and all the consultantsplayed here by the Nobel Laureatesas they celebrate their brilliant work, again and again. Yes, lets join Tweedle and Dee and all the consultantsplayed here by the Nobel Laureatesas they celebrate their brilliant work, again and again. [MUSIC: America the Beautiful by Samuel A. Ward] [TWEEDLE and DEE sing this, alternating verses] Contingencies! Contingencies! I planned out each detail. Anticipate-ed, calculateed so it could not fail.
[CHORUS]
Efficiency! Efficiency! I always would demand That evry day In evry way Things always go as planned.
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Inexplicably! Inexplicably! We had some little hitch. Some bottleneck Some iperfec-shun. Oh, some tiny glitch...
[CHORUS]
Some little ding Doomed everything. The whole thing fell apart. Capriciousness! Capriciousness! Thats how the whole world works! You cant coerce The universe. Its got its little quirks.
[CHORUS]
Redundancy! Redundancy! This word you may perchance Have learned in school, Or cause youre cool, Or just by happenstance. Redundancy! Redundancy! Redundancys our friend. Those extra bits Have benefits Upon which we depend.
[CHORUS]
Redundancy! Redundancy! Redundancy again! Dont count on luck, Or youll get stuck! Redundancy again!
TWEEDLE or DEE: [SPOKEN] One more time! [CHORUS]
Redundancy! Redundancy! Redundancy again! Dont count on luck, Or youll get stuck! Redundancy again!
TWEEDLE or DEE: [SPOKEN] No more times! DEE or TWEEDLE: [SPOKEN] No more times!
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Rectal Salami
Rectal Salami, J. Shah, A. Majed, and D. Rosin, International Journal of Clinical Practice, vol. 56, no. 7, September 2002, pp. 5589. (Thanks to Prentiss Lang for bringing this to our attention.) The authors, at St Marys Hospital, London, U.K., explain: We present the case of a 63-year-old man who had inserted a salami into his anal canal for sexual stimulationthe commonest reason for inserting foreign bodiesand who subsequently required a laparotomy for its removal.
Boink in Bloom
Orchid Sexual Deceit Provokes Ejaculation, A.C. Gaskett, C.G. Winnick and M.E. Herberstein, American Nauralist, vol. 171, 2008, pp. E206E212, DOI:10.1086/587532. (Thanks to Scott Langill for bringing this to our attention.) The authors, at Macquarie University and at the University of Sydney, Australia, report: Sexually deceptive orchids lure pollinators by mimicking female insects. Male insects fooled into gripping or copulating with orchids unwittingly transfer the pollinia. The effect of deception on pollinators has been considered negligible, but we show that pollinators may suffer considerable costs. Insects pollinating Australian tongue orchids (Cryptostylis species) frequently ejaculate and waste copious sperm. The costs of sperm wastage could select for pollinator avoidance of orchids, thereby driving and maintaining sexual deception
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ISSN 1079-5146 print / 1935-6862 online Volume 14, Number 6 NovemberDecember 2008
34 | Annals of Improbable Research | November December 2008 | vol. 14, no. 6
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