Improbable Research

A reader writes about an under-reported scientific breakthough:

I was curious about Dr. James Dobson and his Focus on Family organization given his prominent role in American politics.  I learned at his website that it is easier to change one’s sexual orientation than to overcome shyness.

Investigator Wolf Roder complains in reference to the search for the one, true Fledermausmensch:

You wrote that "The word ‘batman’ translates into German as ‘Fledermausmensch.’"

Batman surely is, and always has been, a man (male of the human species). Thus "batman" would translate as "Fledermausmann"  (with two n, please). Now that you have batman translated, how about "batty" asuming this means bat-like? Fledermausisch?

There may be an unreported layer to the Associated Press report that appears in the August 29, 2005 issue of the San Francisco Chronicle:

Ostrich runs loose on Golden Gate Bridge

Commuters are used to traffic backups during the rush-hour commute on the Golden Gate Bridge. But even this had to throw some of them for a loop.

An ostrich got loose from a minivan Monday and started roaming around near the toll plaza on the bridge.

Ron Love, of Healdsburg, was driving away from San Francisco on the bridge, transporting two ostriches in the back of his van. Love was stopped in traffic when he accelerated, jolting one of the ostriches, who smashed through the back window of the van and got loose on the bridge, according to California Highway Patrol Sgt. Wayne Ziese.

"It should never have happened," said Love, the owner of Love Farms…

Perhaps the winners of the 2002 Ig Nobel Biology Prize can shed light on this.  Norma E. Bubier, Charles G.M. Paxton, Phil Bowers, and D. Charles Deeming of the United Kingdom were honored for their report "Courtship Behaviour of Ostriches Towards Humans Under Farming Conditions in Britain."

[Of course, the Ig Nobel Prizes have on more than one occasion honored unexpected behavior by, or simply related to, birds.]

(Thanks to Mark Schreiber for bringing this to our attention.)

Jon Sandridge, of lizard push-up fame, has joined the Luxuriant Flowing Hair Club for Scientists (LFHCfS).

Some types of laboratory equipment are available from only a limited number of suppliers. One example: vibrating soap.