In this episode, Martha and Grant honor winners of the Ig Nobel Prizes, those wacky awards for weird academic research, and they help a caller decipher a puzzling word from a personals ad: what does paratereseomaniac mean?
backscatter n.— «Backscatter occurs when a spammer spoofs a legitimate e-mail address to send an unsolicited message to large distribution lists, causing the e-mail server to flood an unsuspecting e-mail address owner’s mailbox with...
short-and-distort n.— «Investigators have requested emails and text messages from fund managers, looking, Hagstrom said, for evidence of irresponsible rumour-mongering—a practice known as short-and-distort, in which short sellers borrow...
nightstand Buddhist n.— «One in four Americans ages 18 to 29 say they are not affiliated with a religion, according to the survey. Many in this age group—whom Smith teaches at Ripon College—he refers to as “nightstand Buddhists...
fat tail n.— «Finance is about numbers, and some numerical analysis will always be needed to see trends and plan investment strategies. But there are limits to numerical jugglery, and this is the underlying message of the current round of...
black swan n.— Note: Probably related to the theories of philosopher Karl Popper. «Finance is about numbers, and some numerical analysis will always be needed to see trends and plan investment strategies. But there are limits to numerical...