New URMA issue on my desk

Volume XXXII, No. 2: The Fall 2009 issue of Research & Creative Activity (Indiana University)

Wednesday coffee break: The order by which people are admitted to heaven

Note: magazine editors only to be admitted if hell freezes over; proofreaders admitted without review by committee. (Notre Dame magazine)

New URMA issue on my desk

The fall 2009 issue of (ahem) Endeavors (UNC-Chapel Hill)

New URMA issue on my desk

The 2009 issue of Texas A&M Engineer

Thursday coffee break: Wimps

Modern man 'a wimp', says anthropologist:

"Many prehistoric Australian aboriginals could have outrun world 100 and 200 metres record holder Usain Bolt in modern conditions.

"Some Tutsi men in Rwanda exceeded the current world high jump record of 2.45 meters during initiation ceremonies in which they had to jump at least their own height to progress to manhood.

"Any Neanderthal woman could have beaten former bodybuilder and current California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger in an arm wrestle...." (The Independent)

Wednesday coffee break: Wellcome Image Awards 2009

"The Wellcome Image Awards recognise the creators of the most informative, striking and technically excellent images among recent acquisitions to the Wellcome Images collection of medical and historical images..."

New URMA issue on my desk

The Fall 2009 issue of Research Frontiers (Univ. of Arkansas)

Duck and cover: Weimar Berlin

Blickfang: the eye-catching covers of Weimar Berlin (A Journey Round My Skull)

New URMA issue on my desk

Volume 1, Number 1: University of Delaware Research

Friday coffee break: Ig Nobel Prizes 2009

VIA NEAT-O-RAMA: The 19th annual Ig Nobel Prizes were awarded Thursday night at Sander’s Theater on the Harvard campus. The awards are given to "honor achievements that make people laugh, and then make them think." A few of the winners:

PEACE PRIZE: Stephan Bolliger, Steffen Ross, Lars Oesterhelweg, Michael Thali and Beat Kneubuehl of the University of Bern, Switzerland, for determining — by experiment — whether it is better to be smashed over the head with a full bottle of beer or with an empty bottle.

VETERINARY MEDICINE PRIZE: Catherine Douglas and Peter Rowlinson of Newcastle University, Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, UK, for showing that cows who have names give more milk than cows that are nameless.

LITERATURE PRIZE: Ireland’s police service (An Garda Siochana), for writing and presenting more than fifty traffic tickets to the most frequent driving offender in the country — Prawo Jazdy — whose name in Polish means “Driving License”.

See the entire list of winners at Improbable Research.