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	<title>Improbable Research</title>
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	<description>Research that makes people LAUGH, then THINK</description>
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		<title>Beyond Understanding: We Will Live Much Longer [?]</title>
		<link>https://improbable.com/2026/05/05/beyond-understanding-we-will-live-much-longer/</link>
		
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Marc Abrahams]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Tue, 05 May 2026 07:56:54 +0000</pubDate>
				<category><![CDATA[Arts and Science]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[abstruse]]></category>
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					<description><![CDATA[Every day people send us research reports that intrigue them. A few of these reports may be beyond the understanding of anyone in addition to the people who wrote them. S.G. Bershadsky send us a copy of a report that may be in that category. Bershadsky attemped to understand or interpret or describe that report. [&#8230;]]]></description>
		
		
		
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		<title>Video of the Ig Nobel shows at Lund University and at EPFL</title>
		<link>https://improbable.com/2026/04/30/video-of-the-ig-nobel-shows-at-lund-university-and-at-epfl/</link>
		
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Marc Abrahams]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Thu, 30 Apr 2026 13:04:08 +0000</pubDate>
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		<category><![CDATA[Ig Nobel]]></category>
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					<description><![CDATA[Video of two shows on the 2026 Ig Nobel EuroTour: Lund University Lund University, in Lund, Sweden, with Minna Lyons (2014 Ig Nobel Prize winner, for amassing evidence that people who habitually stay up late are, on average, more self-admiring, more manipulative, and more psychopathic than people who habitually arise early in the morning.) Marie [&#8230;]]]></description>
		
		
		
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		<title>Really? Really? Really?</title>
		<link>https://improbable.com/2026/04/28/really-really-really/</link>
		
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Marc Abrahams]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Tue, 28 Apr 2026 07:40:39 +0000</pubDate>
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		<category><![CDATA[really]]></category>
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					<description><![CDATA[The word “really”, expressed forcefully, was the crux of a long-running comedy routine more than a decade ago, on the American TV program Saturday Night Live. A recent study takes a really good look at the equivalent word in the Mandarin Chinese language. The study is: &#8220;Stance-taking and (inter)subjective roles of Mandarin zhende (ma/a),&#8221; Shuang [&#8230;]]]></description>
		
		
		
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		<title>Too-Easily-Misinterpreted Name: A Beetle Named Fukuui</title>
		<link>https://improbable.com/2026/04/21/too-easily-misinterpreted-name-an-ant-named-fukuui/</link>
		
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Marc Abrahams]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Tue, 21 Apr 2026 08:15:37 +0000</pubDate>
				<category><![CDATA[Arts and Science]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[ant]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[name]]></category>
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					<description><![CDATA[Some children especially, and some adults especially especially, love to find a way to pronounce names so that those names sound “naughty” (vulgar) — which makes those children and adults (and their friends) laugh and laugh and laugh. The beetle whose official scientific name is Ceratoderus fukuii is an example of this. The second word [&#8230;]]]></description>
		
		
		
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