2010 Ig Nobel Winners Announced 111
Velcroman1 writes "Having trouble breathing? Try riding a roller-coaster. Really. A pair of Dutch researchers who discovered that the symptoms of asthma can be treated with a roller-coaster ride are among this year's winners of the Ig Nobel awards, the infamous annual tribute to scientific research that seems wacky — but also has real world applications. FoxNews.com has interviews with several award winners, who are all ecstatic to win, despite the fact that they're all gently being poked fun at."
Last prize really Ig Nobel? (Score:5, Insightful)
And finally, a project at the University of Catania in Italy was awarded the management prize for demonstrating mathematically that organizations can improve efficiency by promoting people randomly.
This research deserves a far better prize than the Ig Nobel. Just look at the management in companies! An algorithm far worse than random is being used to select the worst of the worst to run companies.
I believe most institutions run in spite of management.
And don't mod this funny.
Re:Fox News! Burn it! Burn it with fire! (Score:1, Insightful)
Wrong! Only if it has been spun like a roller coaster.
Re:Last prize really Ig Nobel? (Score:5, Insightful)
From their site: "The Ig Nobel Prizes honor achievements that first make people laugh, and then make them think. The prizes are intended to celebrate the unusual, honor the imaginative -- and spur people's interest in science, medicine, and technology." Certainly fits; contrary to what many people think it's not about "stupid" research. After all, the prizes "are physically handed out by genuinely bemused Nobel laureates" - would perceiving the whole thing only as harmless fun be enough to get them so easily aboard?
PS. Also, you jump too quickly to conclusions - the effect might as well be, for example, that when people know the promotions will be random, they don't care too much / there's no infighting / the random ones aren't worse enough (but with other positive effects it pays off) / etc.
Re:Last prize really Ig Nobel? (Score:4, Insightful)
Ig Nobels are not really an insult. They CAN be, but they aren't necessarily.
Re:Fox News! Burn it! Burn it with fire! (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Woah missread (Score:1, Insightful)
Why would the name of a company that is universally written as LG (note the CAPITAL letters) suddenly show up as lg (lowercase)? Even slashdot isn't that sloppy. Don't be an idiot.
Re:Fox News! Burn it! Burn it with fire! (Score:3, Insightful)
That's a tautology. All truth is liberal.
Unless free from prejudice and narrow-mindedness, i.e. liberal, it can't progress from an opinion or a belief to the independent verification that truth survives.
Re:Fox News! Burn it! Burn it with fire! (Score:4, Insightful)
Indeed -- no group has monopoly on narrow-mindedness; there is just a higher proportion of liberals among progressives than many other groups, but each individual progressive can be as close minded and prejudiced as a trailer park reverend.
Re:Nobel prize going downhill... (Score:1, Insightful)
Don't ignore that "or for a portion thereof." at the end. They certainly did manage to maximize gain and minimize financial risk for certain members of the economy. It's actually a simple equation. The way it works is, you take money from someone who trusts you to invest it and make a return for them, then you use various kinds of complex accounting tricks to give that money to yourself. Voila, financial gain for you at no risk, because you gave all the risk to some sucker. True genius.
Re:Socks (Score:1, Insightful)
The role of science has always been either to experiment on what everybody knows or on what nobody ever guessed.
And hey, now your common knowledge is backed up by a scientific study meaning people can't call it anecdotal anymore.
Re:Fox News! Burn it! Burn it with fire! (Score:2, Insightful)