From the people who brought you the gay necrophiliac duck story...
When I posted that diary the other day, I did not yet realize that the Guardian had a regular section devoted to improbable research. What a find! Something shiny to distract myself from the dreadful news stories of the day--even for just a few minutes. I can read these articles and say, "How 'bout that!" or "Yer kiddin' me, right?" But the nice thing is that none of them (so far) oblige me to fire off a letter to the editor or take part in a protest of some sort.
A sampling of this weird science can be seen below the fold.
Ancient Greeks balls it up
Another example of somebody's "seminal" research. Narf! Does that joke ever get old? Ancient Greek sculptors, otherwise known for their meticulous attention to detail, apparently got the testicles wrong.
Dr McManus' interest, however, is really in why the ancient Greek sculptors, so meticulous and observant when is came to depicting the human body, so often got it wrong when it came to the male organ. From observations of 187 sculptures, he notes that in the largest single group the right testicle is placed higher (correct), but the left is larger (wrong) and the second most frequent group depicts the left as higher and the right larger. Why?
Wow. That's some attention to detail, Dr. McManus.
Reefer madness
Experimental evidence that smoking marijuana does not make people more aggressive, but may make them more sarcastic. As the subhead of the article says, "Yeah, right!"
Randy rock doves join party with the dead
Apparently necrophiliac ducks are not alone in their perversion. Pigeons do it too.
For more weird science, see the web site of the Annals of Improbable Research.