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Posted: 04-10-2002 03:12 Post subject: Ig Nobel Awards 2002

The Ig Nobel 2002 Award ceremony was held yesterday (Thurs 03.10.02). Their site is here. Newsweek reported on the ceremony:

'The definitive study on bellybutton lint, a dog-to-person translation device and an inquiry into what arouses ostriches were recognized Thursday with Ig Nobel prizes for dubious contributions to science and cocktail-party conversations everywhere...

...British scientists were honored for research that found that ostriches become more amorous with each other when a human is around. In fact, ostriches eventually start putting the moves on humans.

In economics, the executives and auditors at Enron, WorldCom, Arthur Andersen and a host of other companies were commended by the Ig Nobel committee “for adapting the mathematical concept of imaginary numbers for use in the business world.” '

Posted: 04-10-2002 09:23 Post subject: Re: Ig Nobel Awards 2002

Posted: 04-10-2002 10:55 Post subject:

Could cruise this site for hours, sheer brilliance

Posted: 04-10-2002 17:09 Post subject: IgNobel prizes and the Periodic Table

This years IgNobel prizes contain a couple of corkers, my particular favourite being a guy who built a Periodic Table. Yes that's right a table contaning samples of 207 (and counting) elements - with different wooden tiles to indicate whether something is an earth metal or a noble gas. This guy is nuts - in the full on obsessive kind of way, but I can't help but admire his tenacity.

Other marvels: A dog-japanese dictionary and a pet washing machine.

Details of the prizes are on our very own home page (in the news section) or here.

Posted: 04-10-2002 17:58 Post subject: Re: Ig Nobel Awards 2002

Posted: 04-10-2002 18:45 Post subject:

I'm not sure I'd want to know what dogs think. Every one that gets near me either wants to bite me or lick me to death. Dead / drunk

There was an episode of Eerie Indiana where a boy had a "retainer" which helped him to hear dogs thoughts. lol Very Happy

That thing about the lint in the belly button reminds me of something they said on the radio this morning about hoew fluff always ends up in there. Now, I have an "inny" so if fluff was going to get in there, it could quite easily, but I've never had any. Anyone else?
Can't believe I asked that question... Surprised

Posted: 04-10-2002 19:40 Post subject:

I could havesworn there were only 109 elements on my table at school...
Anywho; where did he get the plutonium from?

Posted: 04-10-2002 20:23 Post subject:

wel i found it intersting...more interesting than the peeling brown chart the chemistry teacher pointed at anyway.

Posted: 04-10-2002 21:38 Post subject:

Posted: 04-10-2002 21:50 Post subject:

He is now the proud owner of a radioactive, poisonous and explosive coffee table.

Posted: 04-10-2002 22:02 Post subject:

He says there are 25 elements he still needs samples of, plutonium is one of them. Most of the radioactive ones (or all) he does not have, nor does he have arsenic, etc.

Posted: 06-10-2002 04:44 Post subject:

The best nominee has to be the flash clock which shows a guy writing the time with a pencil. im sure i have a link to it somewhere.

Posted: 06-10-2002 07:28 Post subject: Back to the wooden PTE

My fave section is this one: seriously! Make your own heavy water, burn some lithium: this bloke's great value all round.

Perhaps we should introduce him to the Time Cube chap Smile

. Never know, may bring about armageddon after all....

Posted: 11-10-2002 12:22 Post subject:

I was particularly impressed with the paper on exponential decay of beer froth. The calculus seems to check out, but I note that the experimental data was only taken from lagers. What about real ale? Surely further work is called for here - where can I apply for a grant? Very Happy

Posted: 03-10-2003 19:29 Post subject:

This year's Igs:

The complete list of winners:

Engineering: To John Paul Stapp, Edward A. Murphy, Jr (both posthumous) and George Nichols giving birth in 1949 to Murphy's Law, the basic engineering principle that "If anything can go wrong, it will".

Physics: The Australian team that produced a report on An Analysis Of The Forces Required To Drag Sheep Over Various Surfaces.

Psychology: The Italian and US researchers for their report: Politicians' Uniquely Simple Personalities.

Chemistry: A Japanese researcher who investigated why a bronze statue in the city of Kanazawa did not attract pigeons.

Literature: John Trinkaus for a collection of studies including one that contained data on the percentage of young people who wore baseball caps with the peak facing to the rear rather than to the front.

Economics: Karl Schwarzler and the nation of Liechtenstein for making it possible to rent the entire country for corporate conventions, weddings, bar mitzvahs, and other gatherings.

Interdisciplinary research: A Stockholm University team for its report: Chickens Prefer Beautiful Humans.

Biology: CW Moeliker from the Netherlands for documenting the first scientifically recorded case of homosexual necrophilia in the mallard duck.

Peace: Lal Bihari, of Uttar Pradesh, India, for his campaign to prove he is alive.

Medicine: The University College London team for showing the hippocampus of taxi drivers is bigger than in the general population.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/3161694.stm