MarcAbrahams

MarcAbrahams, 2 days ago (edited 1 hour ago) to random

MIT is very important to Donald Trump, as Trump explains here. Or something like that. Maybe sharks. Or something. Maybe. https://www.threads.net/@aaron.rupar/post/C8AjYirAE-q

MarcAbrahams, 5 days ago to random

A tornado-prone area is an exciting place to do this. Zowie! "Oklahoma Stakes Its Claim to the Tallest Building in the U.S.
— The Oklahoma City Council voted this week to clear the way for a 1,907-foot tower, surpassing One World Trade Center in New York." https://www.nytimes.com/2024/06/06/realestate/oklahoma-tallest-building.html

MarcAbrahams, 6 days ago to random

Luca Perri will talk about the Ig Nobel Prizes and his book about the prizes, at the Synthesis Festival in Lucca, Italy, Friday night, June 21. https://www.lagazzettadilucca.it/cultura/le-ricerche-che-hanno-vinto-lignobel-al-festival-della-sintesi

MarcAbrahams, 8 days ago to random

Performance at the Ig Nobel Prize: "Keromin," a puppet-type electronic musical instrument developed in Yokohama https://www.hamakei.com/photoflash/10100/

MarcAbrahams, 9 days ago to random

What’s new in sewing? Lots. Here are two newly-published gobs of research info, starting with parameters of the bobbin. https://improbable.com/2024/06/03/whats-new-in-sewing/

MarcAbrahams, 12 days ago to random

Hey, pretty good! It took the New York Times only about nine years to allow this simple factual info into a headline: "Trump Lashes Out With Misleading Speech"

MarcAbrahams, 13 days ago to random

Ostrich love dangers for farmers, and other items in this week's col in New Scientist https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg26234933-300-the-dangers-of-amorous-ostriches-when-starting-an-ostrich-farm/

MarcAbrahams, 15 days ago to random

"many large retailers have relied on overlapping networks of manufacturers, distributors and third-party sellers — creating a baffling (and frankly, shady) shopping environment where many sites sell identical or near-identical items under different names and at wildly different prices" https://linksiwouldgchatyou.substack.com/p/a-glitch-in-the-matrix-of-online

MarcAbrahams, 18 days ago to random

Onions and or in milk. The May 2024 issue of mini-AIR (the monthly teeny tiny supplement to the magazine Annals of Improbable Research) has just gone out. You can add yourself to the email distribution list, if you like, or read it online. https://improbable.com/2024/05/24/may-mini-air-onion-and-or-in-milk/

MarcAbrahams, 20 days ago to random

"ProPublica found that Trump’s campaign used similar bullying tactics against its own workers. These fights have been waged out of the public eye against women with few resources to stand up against the campaign’s battery of lawyers, paid from a seemingly bottomless trove of campaign money." https://www.propublica.org/article/trump-campaign-harassment-bullying-lawsuits

MarcAbrahams, 20 days ago to random

Reuters video news report about the electrified spoon that is now available to consumers in Japan. The technology (also used in electrified chopsticks) was honored by the 2023 Ig Nobel Nutrition Prize. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EOqN_BRbSWU

MarcAbrahams, 20 days ago to random

There are lawyers and corporate execs who dreamed up and approved these 'plans'. And maybe were proud of what they'd done. — "American Airlines has abandoned plans to blame a 9-year-old girl for being secretly videotaped while using an airplane bathroom, a legal tactic the company raised after federal authorities said a flight attendant taped the girl and four other children on American flights." https://www.bostonglobe.com/2024/05/22/metro/nine-year-old-girl-videotaped-american-airlines

MarcAbrahams, 20 days ago to random

How do you tell apart seemingly identical fanged frogs from Thailand? Melting, that's how. (My col this week, in New Scientist, about that and other stuff) https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg26234924-100-how-do-you-tell-apart-seemingly-identical-fanged-frogs-from-thailand/

MarcAbrahams, 22 days ago to random

"It won the Ig Nobel prize for the most amazing inventions, but it will be mass-produced. What does the electric spoon do" https://stirileprotv.ro/stiri/international/a-luat-premiul-ig-nobel-pentru-cele-mai-trasnite-inventii-dar-va-fi-produsa-in-serie-ce-face-lingura-electrica.html

MarcAbrahams, 22 days ago to random

How to Purge the AI From Your Google Searches ht [@JenLucPiquant ] https://gizmodo.com/how-to-purge-the-ai-from-your-google-searches-1851483027

MarcAbrahams, 27 days ago (edited 27 days ago) to random

CHALLENGE FOR ASPIRING NOVELISTS — Try, if you can (I bet you can't!) to imagine a fairy tale: The most famous, most swaggering criminal in the land goes on trial for one (well, several) of his many crimes that is also very embarrassing. Then a whole bunch of bigshot politicians from throughout the land flock to the trial to tell reporters that the famous criminal is just a humble saint.

MarcAbrahams, 27 days ago to random

Whistling nearly died out in China "from the Song dynasty (960–1279 AD) to the Jin dynasty (1115–1234 AD)", says new research. https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg26234912-300-beans-beans-do-they-really-make-you-fart-scientists-investigate/

MarcAbrahams, 27 days ago to random

Mourning dead slogans — A very few slogans stand as fading testimony to the good intent of the people who ran a particular organisation. Two of the most outstanding are IBM’s “THINK” and Google’s “Don’t be evil”. Those have both been retired... https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg26234912-300-beans-beans-do-they-really-make-you-fart-scientists-investigate/

MarcAbrahams, 29 days ago to random

"Thinking through the rationale for the customs we follow is more work than thoughtlessly obeying rules taught in childhood. But it is indeed worth it, assuming you want to actually be a good person rather than have someone assure you that you already are." https://www.bostonglobe.com/2024/05/14/magazine/when-the-generational-divide-comes-to-the-restaurant-table/

MarcAbrahams, 29 days ago to random

It's surprising how few people are hailed as being a "celebrity pathologist", isn't it? https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/pennsylvania/articles/2024-05-13/dr-cyril-wecht-celebrity-pathologist-who-argued-more-than-1-shooter-killed-jfk-dies-at-93

MarcAbrahams, 30 days ago to random

the Dunning of the Dunning-Kruger Effect recently discussed the Dunning-Kruger Effect, (interviewed by Corey Powell, in the Open Mind Podcast) https://improbable.com/2024/05/13/dunning-discusses-dunning-and-kruger/

MarcAbrahams, 1 month ago to random

How the discovery of a nest in a Roman museum caused a kerfuffle https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg26234901-700-how-the-discovery-of-a-nest-in-a-roman-museum-caused-a-kerfuffle/

MarcAbrahams, 1 month ago to random

"This is consistent with an observation by Charles Spence, a psychologist who heads the Crossmodal Research Laboratory at Oxford and has won an Ig-Nobel Prize for research on the links between sound and taste when potato chips are consumed." https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/09/science/hot-water-sound-cold.html

MarcAbrahams, 1 month ago to random

Howard Zaharoff tells what happened when he (long ago) got to interview one of his heroes. https://www.humortimes.com/119402/my-interview-with-isaac-asimov/

MarcAbrahams, 1 month ago to random

Another headline that — metaphorically or factually — could and maybe should replace a long-running series of attention-robbing "important news" articles: "R.F.K. Jr. Says Doctors Found a Dead Worm in His Brain" https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/08/us/rfk-jr-brain-health-memory-loss.html