Improbable Research

If you haven’t come across the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster (CFSM), and wish to read an academic overview, may we recommend a recent paper in the journal Le religieux sur Internet / Religion on the Web, Vol 8 (2015) ‘When Virtuality Shapes Social Reality. Fake Cults and the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster.‘ by professor Lionel Obadia (University of Lyon, France)

“ ‘A two-eyed ‘monster’ made of meatballs and noodles performs as godhead, with supernatural powers. It is represented floating in the air, overlooking its creation, humanity, on which it is all powerful: it can elicit faith, or destroy it. The revelation was received by a certain ‘Captain Mosey’, chief pirate, who was the first prophet of the Church.

The CFSM then grew towards institutionalization, through a series of faith articles and normative rules which prove the monster’s existence, and eight commandments, that are almost indistinguishable from the Old Testament’s prescriptions. A revelation creed is uttered by those who have been ‘touched’ by the monster’s ‘noodly appendage’. CFSM members also celebrate religious festivals, simply named ‘holidays’, which take place around Christmas time, and which call upon no other obligation than celebrating.”

BONUS 

Is this the Flying Spaghetti Monster? Siphonophore filmed on seabed off the coast of Angola (The Independent, Aug. 2015)

Comes a further investigation into the ways of love:

“Characteristics and Personality Styles of Women Who Seek Incarcerated Men as Romantic Partners: Survey Results and Directions for Future Research, ” Marcela Slavikova and Nancy Ryba Panza [pictured below], Deviant Research, Volume 35, Issue 11, 2014, pages 885-90. The authors, at CUNY, New York, and California State University, Fullerton, explain:

“Results are presented from a survey of 89 women who sought and entered into a relationship with a man who was incarcerated…. Results from the Jesness Inventory-Revised, a measure of personality functioning, revealed two predominant personality subtypes among the women: the Manipulator/Pragmatist (31%) and the Neurotic, Anxious/Introspective (25%).”

Barnkanalen, the Swedish childrens’ TV channel, adds this item, called “Hurra for Mens!” [English translation: “Hurrah for Monthlies!”] to the emerging category of menstruation music videos for children. Savor the dancing tampon:

(Thanks to Geri Sullivan for bringing this to our attention.)

BONUS: Here’s a earlier video —this one made by students — about dancing tampons, with music by Tchaikovsky:

BONUS: Ben Shattuck’s historical epic “There Once Was a Dildo in Nantucket”

Prof. Dr. Dr. Dr. Hanns Hatt (actually, Prof. Dr. Dr. Dr. Med. Habil. Hanns Hatt) of the Department of Cell Physiology at Ruhr University Bochum, Germany, is in hot pursuit of understanding — understanding, especially, the many and varied roles played by olfaction. In a word: smell.

Prof. Dr. Dr. Dr. Hatt’s home page lists a few of Prof. Dr. Dr. Dr. Hatt’s many olfaction research activities and discoveries. Among these:

• “SCIENCE-Publication: Sperm follow their nose — Human sperm are attracted by the smell of ‘lily of the valley’ flowers. Researchers from the University of Bochum prove this for the first time. They found a blocking odor, who switch off the smell-orientation of sperm.” For details of that, see his (and colleagues’) paper “Identification of a Testicular Odorant Receptor Mediating Human Sperm Chemotaxis“.
• “Scent of a Woman – and much else besides — Apart from the effect that the length and shape of Cleopatra’s may or may not have had on history, what’s in a nose?” Dr. Dr. Dr. H’s book Das Maiglöckchen-Phänomen (The Lily-of-the-Valley Phenomenon), written with Regine Dee, pursues this theme in splendiferous detail.

(Thanks to Lisa Oberzaucher for bringing Prof. Dr. Dr. Dr. Hatt and his work to our attention.)

CAUTION: One must not confuse Hanns Hatt with Hans Hat. The former is a model modern biology researcher. The latter is a model in the fashion industry. Here is (non-Prof., non-Dr., non-Dr., non-Dr.) Hans Hat’s modeling marketing photo:

When boxing or fencing, players are unlikely to miss the sensation of being hit by an opponent. That’s not usually the case, of course, for VR gamers. But change might be on the horizon thanks to “impacto, a device designed to render the haptic sensation of hitting and being hit in virtual reality”. Researchers Lopes, P., Ion, A., and Baudisch, P. will present their paper: ‘Impacto: Simulating Physical Impact by Combining Tactile Stimulation with Electrical Muscle Stimulation.’ at the ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology (UIST), Nov. 8-11, 2015, Charlotte, North Carolina, US.

Bonus question (optional): Are there any other (non-gaming) spheres where such tech. might find applications?