@MarcAbrahams@mstdn.science
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MarcAbrahams

@MarcAbrahams@mstdn.science

editor of Annals of Improbable Research, organizer of the Ig Nobel Prize ceremony, columnist at New Scientist. I write about research that makes people LAUGH then THINK. https://improbable.com/whatis/about-marc-abrahams/

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MarcAbrahams, to random
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"For his thesis, Gens built a life-sized moose dummy—crafted from 116 bright red rubber disks—to test on Saabs and Volvos. The dummy mimicked lethal moose accidents, which are especially dangerous when the mammal’s body mass rolls directly into (and through) the car’s windshield." https://arstechnica.com/cars/2024/04/hazard-identification-software-cant-make-sense-of-kangaroos/

MarcAbrahams, to random
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Hooking the Scientific Community on Thorny-Headed Worms https://improbable.com/2024/04/01/hooking-the-scientific-community-on-thorny-headed-worms/

MarcAbrahams, to random
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We live in a golden age of con men: "Despite a decade of dreaming, Elon Musk has only built one tiny Hyperloop tunnel in Las Vegas — and the people who built it say it's filled with dangerous chemical sludge." https://futurism.com/the-byte/elon-musk-boring-company-tunnel-sludge

MarcAbrahams, to random
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True. Happens next week. "Founder of the Prize for Curious Science visits Berlin" https://www.tagesspiegel.de/wissen/gar-nicht-so-nobel-grunder-des-preises-fur-kuriose-wissenschaft-besucht-berlin-11430266.html

MarcAbrahams, to random
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"The dictator needs those cheering crowds more than they need him" https://open.substack.com/pub/lucid/p/crowds-and-power-29e?r=2y7i1&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email

MarcAbrahams, to random
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We live in a golden age of con men: "GOP official who claimed 2020 election was stolen voted illegally 9 times, judge rules" https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/03/28/georgia-republican-illegal-voting/

MarcAbrahams, to random
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"Ig Nobel and my cosmicomics", by Katia Regina: "Starting from bizarre scientific discoveries to try to broaden their use and better understand certain political-social dynamics. It all starts from the scientific journal Annals of Improbable Research (AIR)..." https://www.tp24.it/2024/03/27/libri-e-fuffa/nbsp-ig-nobel-e-le-mie-cosmicomiche/201996

MarcAbrahams, to random
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Questions arise when things start growing on your nozzle – questions that grow less pressing if you diligently clean the nozzle after you use it to dispense a serving of ice cream. Because if you don’t clean a food machine’s nozzle and other parts, things get a healthy (from the things’ point of view) chance to grow on them…. https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg26134843-600-why-you-should-always-yell-at-the-ref-according-to-science/

MarcAbrahams, to random
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Pillow loudmouth gets boot for not paying his bills. https://www.cbsnews.com/minnesota/news/lawsuit-mypillow-eviction-mike-lindell-minnesota/

MarcAbrahams, to random
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We live in a golden age of con men: "Phil Lyman, a Utah Republican lawmaker and candidate for governor, quickly used Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse to boost his gubernatorial campaign by blaming the accident on efforts to make workplaces more diverse." https://www.sltrib.com/news/politics/2024/03/26/baltimore-bridge-collapse-caused/

MarcAbrahams, to random
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"Mathematicians are using topological abstractions to find places where it’s hard to vote." https://www.quantamagazine.org/topologists-tackle-the-trouble-with-poll-placement-20240326/

MarcAbrahams, to random
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Every successful con man has a run of these — until the inevitable day he, Wile E Coyote-like, falls off a cliff: "The ruling by a five-judge panel of appellate court judges was a crucial and unexpected victory for the former president, potentially staving off a looming financial disaster." https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/25/nyregion/trump-bond-reduced.html

MarcAbrahams, to random
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News of the Paris waiters race "La Course des Cafes" reminds us that the 2012 Ig Nobel Prize for fluid dynamics was awarded to Rouslan Krechetnikov and Hans Mayer for studying the dynamics of liquid-sloshing, to learn what happens when a person walks while carrying a cup of coffee. [They published the research study “Walking With Coffee: Why Does It Spill?” in Physical Review E, vol. 85, 2012.] https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/24/world/europe/paris-waiters-race.html

MarcAbrahams, to random
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"The word 'trumpery' has gained prominence, says this study: “Autolycus’ Trumpery,” David Kaula, Studies in English Literature, 1500-1900," [Elizabethan and Jacobean Drama, Spring 1976, pp. 287-303]. The author explains: “writers seem to be especially addicted to the word 'trumpery,' probably because, through its derivation from tromperie, it suggests deception or trickery… " https://improbable.com/2024/03/25/autolycus-trumpery/

MarcAbrahams, to random
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New detail on the continuing self-destruction of the Republican party — and its continuing damaging or destruction of much else. https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/march-22-2024

MarcAbrahams, to random
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The now-decades-long question grows and grows: will the Republican party destroy itself before it destroys the country? — "Republicans livid as chaos threatens to cannibalize House majority" https://www.axios.com/2024/03/23/house-republicans-chaos-majority-motion-vacate

MarcAbrahams, to random
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"He was the recipient of numerous high-profile awards from the prestigious E.O. Wilson Literary Science Award to the Ig Nobel Prize—a satirical honor for research that makes people laugh and think. De Waal won the latter, with equal pride, for co-authoring a paper on chimpanzees’ tendency to recognize bums better than faces." https://nautil.us/he-closed-the-gap-between-humans-and-apes-537469/

MarcAbrahams, to random
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"Trump is now fundraising off threats to 'seize Trump Tower' [but] Trump doesn’t own Trump Tower.... Trump actually owns very few of his buildings.... The stuff he actually owns is the stuff [New York Attorney General] James is going after — golf courses, big houses, stuff like that. He has a few days before his 30 day grace period ends and she can start taking stuff." https://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/we-have-met-the-enemy-and-he-owns-the-valet-booth-at-trump-tower/sharetoken/lSzXTmG4mS3G

MarcAbrahams, to random
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"Ig Nobel Prize: IgNobel Prize: of identical twins and dead ducks"
Rome Science Festival — Sunday 21 April 2024. Tickets are now on sale for this — and for two other Ig Nobel events at the festival. https://www.auditorium.com/it/event/ignobel-prize-di-gemelli-identici-e-anatre-morte/

MarcAbrahams, to random
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Ig Nobel Prize: of success, luck, talent and love"
Rome Science Festival — Saturday 20 April 2024. Tickets are now on sale for this — and for two other Ig Nobel events at the festival. https://www.auditorium.com/it/event/ignobel-prize-di-successo-fortuna-talento-e-amore/

MarcAbrahams, to random
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"Ig Nobel Prize: of science, pizza and inaccurate sculptures"
Rome Science Festival — Friday 19 April 2024. Tickets are now on sale for this — and for two other Ig Nobel events at the festival. https://www.auditorium.com/it/event/ignobel-prize-di-scienza-pizza-e-sculture-poco-accurate/

MarcAbrahams, to random
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We live in a golden age of con men: "Former president Donald Trump said he has ‘almost $500 million’ in cash, days after his lawyers stated that it would be nearly impossible to post the judgment of nearly half a billion dollars in his New York civil fraud case." https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/03/22/trump-500-million-civil-fraud/

MarcAbrahams, to random
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Siri, please give an example of an ambiguous statement: https://www.axios.com/2024/03/21/elon-musk-neuralink-first-implant-patient

MarcAbrahams, to random
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The March issue of mini-AIR (teeny tiny supplement to the magazine Annals of Improbable Research) has just gone out. https://improbable.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/mini2024-03.html

MarcAbrahams, to random
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This week the Ig Nobel Prizes made another appearance on the Jeopardy! TV game show, this time as an answer. It refers to the 2011 Ig Nobel Chemistry Prize, which honored the inventor who tried to determine the ideal density of airborne wasabi (pungent horseradish) to awaken sleeping people in case of a fire or other emergency, and who applyied this knowledge to invent the wasabi alarm. https://improbable.com/2024/03/21/ig-nobel-prizes-on-jeopardy-again-with-wasabi/

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