Ig Nobel Awards 2003 184
prostoalex writes "The Ig Nobel awards for 2003 were presented at Harvard University. Hold your breath for the winners of this year's awards from Annals of Improbable Research. Engineering: the inventors of the Murphy's law. Physics: authors of 'An Analysis of the Forces Required to Drag Sheep over Various Surfaces' report. Medicine: the scientists, who discovered that London taxi drivers are smarter than average London residents. Psychology: authors of the 'Politicians' Uniquely Simple Personalities' report. Chemistry: a Japanese scientist who studied a bronze statue strangely ignored by pigeon population. Literature: the author of more than 80 scientific reports on amusing statistical information. Economics: the man, who viewed the entire country of Liechtenstein as a large convention center. Interdisciplinary: authors of 'Chickens Prefer Beautiful Humans' study. Biology: first documented case of homosexual necrophilia in the mallard duck species. Links and pictures are available from the official Web site, linked above."
I knew it. (Score:4, Funny)
Biology: first documented case of homosexual necrophilia in the mallard duck species
I always was suspicious of those damn mallards.. Their "Oh, I'm just an innocent duck" quacks and what not..
Re:I knew it. (Score:5, Funny)
Oh goody! Pictures too!
Just try and imagine the conversation that took place when this reasearch was submitted.
Re:I knew it. (Score:2)
Homosexual necrophilia in mallard ducks (Score:5, Funny)
Economics (Score:2)
Well, you know what they say (Score:2)
If it looks like a duck, and quacks like a duck...
Re:I knew it. (Score:2, Informative)
In my experience with homosexual "mallards..." (Score:2, Funny)
Re:I knew it. (Score:3, Informative)
Go Cabbies! (Score:1)
I buy it. (Score:5, Funny)
Makes sense to me. They charge a small fortune to go a small distance, and we still pay it. : )
Re:I buy it. (Score:4, Funny)
One stopped his cab in from of my house and talked to me about his revision of JFK and what he thinks were the reasons behind his assassination.
Lemme tell you this, London cabbies are too smart for their own good. They know more about secret operations, international deals and about subterranean civilisations controlling us thru psychic waves than the entire MOD does.
And whatever they say... don't reply back.
Offtopic - I didn't use my Karma Bonus so be nice (Score:1)
Pictures (Score:3, Informative)
The study was biased as women (and left-handed men) were left out. Similar to the ducks.
Re:Pictures (Score:3, Funny)
Women and left handed men were left out of the duck study? I'm going to write to my MP.
Market study (Score:3, Insightful)
John Trinkaus, of the Zicklin School of Business, New York City, for meticulously collecting data and publishing more than 80 detailed academic reports about specific annoyances and anomalies of daily life, such as: What percentage of young people wear baseball caps with the peak facing to the rear rather than to the front; What percentage of pedestrians wear sport shoes that are white rather than some other color; What percentage of swimmers swim laps in the shallow end of a pool rather than the deep end; What percentage of automobile drivers almost, but not completely, come to a stop at one particular stop-sign; What percentage of commuters carry attache cases; What percentage of shoppers exceed the number of items permitted in a supermarket's express checkout lane; and What percentage of students dislike the taste of Brussels sprouts.
That's what marketing people do when they do a market study!
Chickens Prefer Beautiful Humans (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Chickens Prefer Beautiful Humans (Score:2)
Re:Chickens Prefer Beautiful Humans (Score:2)
If they could climb, would they choose not to shit on the same statue as the japanese pigeons? Could this be because the statue is of a person that's still alive, and thus averts both ducks and other birds?
Questions, questions...
--
*Art
Re:Chickens Prefer Beautiful Humans (Score:4, Funny)
Mercifully, the will just be killed.
Re:Chickens Prefer Beautiful Humans (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Chickens Prefer Beautiful Humans (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Chickens Prefer Beautiful Humans (Score:4, Funny)
Yes, we do.
And I'd appreciate it if you'd wear your paper bag next time you post something. Thanks.
"Politicians' Uniquely Simple Personalities" (Score:2, Funny)
And what's wrong with studying statues that pigeons ignore? I want
Re:"Politicians' Uniquely Simple Personalities" (Score:2, Insightful)
So it's not a bunch of nerds dissing other nerds, it's a bunch of nerds bringing the attention of the general populace to funny-but-clever things other nerds have done.
So your research winnig an Ig-Nobel doesn't mean it it useless, neccessarily. Just that it is funny.
Re:"Politicians' Uniquely Simple Personalities" (Score:5, Funny)
So, you wanna be a pimp? ;)
best one (Score:5, Interesting)
Lal Bihari, of Uttar Pradesh, India, for a triple accomplishment: First, for leading an active life even though he has been declared legally dead; Second, for waging a lively posthumous campaign against bureaucratic inertia and greedy relatives; and Third, for creating the Association of Dead People.
Re:best one (Score:2)
It's the Indian version of Reg Shoe!
Slashdot-proof copy of article (Score:5, Informative)
The 2003 Ig Nobel Prize winners were announced on Thursday evening, October 2, at the 13th First Annual Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony, at Harvard's Sanders Theatre. The ceremony was telecast live on the Internet. (The winners will give free public talks on Saturday, October 4, at the Ig Informal Lectures, at MIT room 54-100.)
Click here for details.
ENGINEERING
The late John Paul Stapp, the late Edward A. Murphy, Jr., and George Nichols, for jointly giving birth in 1949 to Murphy's Law, the basic engineering principle that "If there are two or more ways to do something, and one of those ways can result in a catastrophe, someone will do it" (or, in other words: "If anything can go wrong, it will").
REFERENCE: "The Fastest Man on Earth," Nick T. Spark, Annals of Improbable Research, vol. 9, no. 5, Sept/Oct 2003.]
WHO ATTENDED THE IG NOBEL CEREMONY: (1) Author Nick T. Spark , on behalf of John Paul Stapp's widow, Lilly. (2) Edward Murphy's Edward A. Murphy III, on behalf of his late father. (3) George Nichols, via audio tape.
PHYSICS
Jack Harvey, John Culvenor, Warren Payne, Steve Cowley, Michael Lawrance, David Stuart, and Robyn Williams of Australia, for their irresistible report "An Analysis of the Forces Required to Drag Sheep over Various Surfaces."
[PUBLISHED IN: Applied Ergonomics, vol. 33, no. 6, November 2002, pp. 523-31. A copy is available at http://www.culvenor.com/]
WHO ATTENDED THE IG NOBEL CEREMONY: John Culvenor.
MEDICINE
Eleanor Maguire, David Gadian, Ingrid Johnsrude, Catriona Good, John Ashburner, Richard Frackowiak, and Christopher Frith of University College London, for presenting evidence that the brains of London taxi drivers are more highly developed than those of their fellow citizens.
[PUBLISHED IN: "Navigation-Related Structural Change In the Hippocampi of Taxi Drivers," Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, vol. 97, no. 8, April 11, 2000, pp. 4398-403. Also see their subsequent publications.]
WHO ATTENDED THE IG NOBEL CEREMONY: Eleanor Maguire.
PSYCHOLOGY
Gian Vittorio Caprara and Claudio Barbaranelli of the University of Rome, and Philip Zimbardo of Stanford University, for their discerning report "Politicians' Uniquely Simple Personalities."
[PUBLISHED IN: Nature, vol. 385, February 1997, p. 493.]
WHO ATTENDED THE IG NOBEL CEREMONY: Philip Zimbardo.
CHEMISTRY
Yukio Hirose of Kanazawa University, for his chemical investigation of a bronze statue, in the city of Kanazawa, that fails to attract pigeons.
WHO ATTENDED THE IG NOBEL CEREMONY: Yukio Hirose.
LITERATURE
John Trinkaus, of the Zicklin School of Business, New York City, for meticulously collecting data and publishing more than 80 detailed academic reports about specific annoyances and anomalies of daily life, such as: What percentage of young people wear baseball caps with the peak facing to the rear rather than to the front; What percentage of pedestrians wear sport shoes that are white rather than some other color; What percentage of swimmers swim laps in the shallow end of a pool rather than the deep end; What percentage of automobile drivers almost, but not completely, come to a stop at one particular stop-sign; What percentage of commuters carry attache cases; What percentage of shoppers exceed the number of items permitted in a supermarket's express checkout lane; and What percentage of students dislike the taste of Brussels sprouts.
REFERENCE: 86 of Professor Trinkaus's publications are listed in "Trinkaus -- An Informal Look," Annals of Improbable Research, vol. 9, no. 3, May/Jun 2003.
WHO ATTENDED THE IG NOBEL CEREMONY: John Trinkaus.
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.
REFERENCE: and
WHO ATTENDED THE IG NOBEL CEREMONY: Karl Schwarzler.
INTERDISCIPLINARY RESEARCH
Stefano Ghirlanda, Liselotte Jansson, and Magnus Enquist
That's the Internet for you (Score:5, Funny)
Believe it or not, they actually have pictures of the act as well. That's the Internet for you, nothing but pr0n.
Re:That's the Internet for you (Score:2)
Nothing distracted them...there was about 50 people crowded around them just outside my school residence.
Frisky little fellas...
Re:That's the Internet for you (Score:2)
The banned the live demonstation at the awards (Score:2)
The Knowledge (Score:5, Interesting)
I think memorizing every single street in the city of London does make you pretty darn smart.
Though, London cabbies are certainly not short on opinions. Maybe memorizing every street also makes one think they know everything about anything.
Re:The Knowledge (Score:5, Funny)
I always thought it was just due to the buildup of misanthropic rage from the job they do, but this research raises the disturbing possibility is that maybe their opinions only seem offensive to me because I'm not smart enough to understand them, and that they're actually right.
Genuine quote from when I took a cab last winter:
Me: Cold out tonight, eh?
Cabbie: Yeah. Still, if it kills off a few of these homeless people it's not a bad thing, eh?
Re:The Knowledge (Score:2)
Re:The Knowledge (Score:2)
Re:The Knowledge (Score:2)
Yeah. Still, if it kills off a few of these homeless people it's not a bad thing, eh?
That's the difference between a London cabbie and a New Yorker cabbie. The London cabbie will comment on the danger of the weather. The New Yorker will just say "screw the weather" and take the homeless removal into his own hands.
See, being civil is so much more advanced than not.
Re:The Knowledge (Score:2)
This, of course, is not the same thing as being "smart," although it might score you higher on IQ tests.
Proof of lame ... (Score:2)
I can just imagine the real decision discussion. "They funded that 'who cares' investigation on spatial learning and its effects on neurological development, and they used London cabbies of all things for subjects. But they wouldn't even glance at my proposal to inve
Juxtaposition (Score:2, Funny)
Biology: first documented case of homosexual necrophilia in the mallard duck species. Links and pictures are available from the official Web site, linked above.
Maybe not quite the juxtaposition that was intended.
Oh damn... (Score:2)
Mallards! Dirty dirty mallards!
Sean: Whats the difference between a mallard with a cold and your mother?
Alex: I dont know
Sean: One is a sick duck...I dont remember the rest but your mother is a whore.
(apparently they are BOTH sick f@#$s
Dead man walking (Score:5, Funny)
Wonder if he can refuse to pay bills, citing death as the reason.
Informative? (Score:2)
Re:Dead man walking (Score:2)
But seriously, the only bills he can possibly escape are his utility bills; he obviously has to pay his monthly grocery bills to the shopkeeper. It'll be interesting if he's one of them tax-paying ones though; as many people know, less than 1% of all adult Indians actually pay (or are required to pay) taxes.
Re:Dead man walking (Score:5, Informative)
In an effort to prove that he was alive (it took something like 15 years) he did all sorts of funny things, like demanding a widow pension for his wife, invading government gatherings (to get arrested), racking up an insane number of contempt of court charges, etc...
All under that same principle.. he wanted to force the government to recognize his existence by forcing them to do things that you can only do to a live person.
Disaster Area Economics, Anyone? (Score:2)
--grendel drago
Re:Dead man walking (Score:2)
I wonder if he's just doing this for a year for tax purposes.
This is how I deal with junk mail (Score:2)
in large block letters all over the front. Works rather efficiently.
Interesting. (Score:1)
" WERE linked above" that should read...
AHA! (Score:1, Insightful)
Pictures?? (Score:1)
And just why did you think we'd like to see actual pictures of said necrophilia?
Re:Pictures?? (Score:1)
(I, however, am merely skipping class
touching (Score:1, Funny)
Great! Now, when people say the internet is too foul I can just point them to a love story about two fowls.
Sheep? (Score:5, Funny)
Let me guess, these were Scottish researchers, right?
Re:Sheep? (Score:3, Funny)
What is it with Canada, the Scots and sheep?
Every self respecting Englishman knows it's the WELSH that have sheep fetishes..
Re:Sheep? (Score:3, Informative)
Jon
Re:Oldie but a goodie... (Score:4, Funny)
A: Sheep can hear a zipper a mile away.
Q: Why do the English wear pants?
A: Goats are deaf
-Ab
Re:Oldie but a goodie... (Score:2)
we have geneticaly bread sheep with handlebars.
Re:Sheep? (Score:2)
Abuse? (Score:2, Interesting)
Well... (Score:4, Interesting)
I think you need to see if people prefer beautiful chickens before you can jump to that conclusion.
Re:Well... (Score:2)
No, that's not what the researcher is saying. The research is this: There are two opposing views.
1) Human sexual/aesthetic preferences for other humans arise from biological grounds.
2) These sexual/aesthetic preferences arise from social norms and a lifetime of training.
This research assumes that if chickens prefer "attractive" human faces, for which they have no social training, this must necessarily
Re:Well... (Score:2)
No one is suggesting that chickens have specifically "human" standards of beauty hardwired into their brains.
The suggestion is that there exist hardwired standards of beauty that are the same for many species, because these brain functions were first developed in a very distant common ancestor, such as reptiles, amphibians, or fish.
There is also the possibility that many species share standards of beauty, because the standard of beauty that we share is somehow a
April 1st? (Score:1)
-N
Minivan driving soccer moms... (Score:4, Funny)
Hey, I consider it useful that Trinkaus discovered that woman in vans don't stop for stopsigns. I've never liked those minivan driving soccer moms.
Observations were made at the same 4 T-junction intersections in a residential community in the suburbs of a large northeastern city. Two characteristics were selected for viewing: type of vehicle and sex of driver. Data for 8 90-min observations suggest an overall compliance rate of about 6% with stop signs in a residential community. Women driving vans were the least compliant--approximately 1%.Link [improbable.com]
duck? (Score:1)
So much for sex being the most natural thing in the world. That sounds like a definition of "unnatural practices".
Only on the internet ! (Score:2)
worst choice of words... EVER!
more! more! more!
The Demise of 'Yes' (Score:2)
The guy who won literature prize is quite interesting. Check this out
(71) "The Demise of 'Yes': An Informal Look," J. Trinkaus, Perceptual and Motor Skills, vol. 84, no. 3, part 1, June 1997, p. 866. For affirmative responses to simple interrogatories, the use of "absolutely" and "exactly" may be becoming more socially frequent than "yes." A counting of positive replies to 419 questions on several TV networks showed 249 answers of "absolutely," 117 "exactly,"
Re:The Demise of 'Yes' (Score:3, Insightful)
Did anyone else read... (Score:1)
and think "Oh great, a whole new series of trolls.
SCO missing? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:SCO missing? (Score:2)
Re:SCO missing? (Score:2)
anyway, the study isn't yet complete, nor the paper written (although the peer review will probably be the most entertaining part of the show)..
Re:SCO missing? (Score:2)
Chutzpah! (Score:2)
recursive report (Score:3, Funny)
80 reports? That should be enough to write an 81st scientific report on amusing statistical information about these 80 reports.
new FOX special: When Biology Goes Bad... (Score:2)
Just in case there are any human necrophiliacs with a case of the 'featheries'.
Actually... (Score:3, Interesting)
I'd like to see the result if the site wasn;t /.ed.
Re:Actually... (Score:2)
Loose "Seinfeld" Reference... (Score:2, Funny)
...not that there's anything wrong with that!
Let me be the first to say... (Score:4, Funny)
On 5 June 1995 an adult male mallard (Anas platyrhynchos) collided with the glass facade of the Natuurmuseum Rotterdam and died. An other drake mallard raped the corpse almost continuously for 75 minutes. Then the author disturbed the scene and secured the dead duck. Dissection showed that the rape-victim indeed was of the male sex. It is concluded that the mallards were engaged in an 'Attempted Rape Flight' that resulted in the first described case of homosexual necrophilia in the mallard.
75 MINUTES! Talk about not knowing when to quit! Not even a, "Honey, are you awake?"... sheeesh.
BTW, the pictures of the ducks are quite tasteful, while the beautiful chicken photos border on hard-core pornography.
Re:Let me be the first to say... (Score:3, Funny)
Yeah, I've got to stop doing that too!
I should give up after 3/4 of an hour at the most.
more Nobel than Ig (Score:5, Informative)
It'a an active field of reasearch. A similar study found that the hippocampus of the chickadee increases by 30% in the fall when it needs to memorize the locations of all the food stores it is busily hiding,
Re:more Nobel than Ig (Score:2)
Re:more Nobel than Ig (Score:2)
Read the organization's explanation of the qualifications for the prize.
Their criteria is "cannot or should not be repeated." They go to some lengths to explain that they don't mean "bad research."
Re:more Nobel than Ig (Score:2)
But it should be repeated. The young cab drivers should have the measurements repeated periodically to see if individual hippocampi can be caught in the act of growing.
Darn! (Score:2)
Penicillin (Score:2)
CHEMISTRY Yukio Hirose of Kanazawa University, for his chemical investigation of a bronze statue, in the city of Kanazawa, that fails to attract pigeons. WHO ATTENDED THE IG NOBEL CEREMONY: Yukio Hirose.
Isn't this precisely the way Penicillin [wikipedia.org]was discovered by Fleming.
Had to say it. (Score:2, Funny)
Next on Jerry Springer: (Score:2)
Not quite... (Score:2)
Pfft - too bad I hold the record for first documented case of homosexual necrophilia with the mallard duck species.
Really Quacked Me Up (Score:5, Interesting)
Having a platonic fondness for ducks, I was intrigued by Dr. Moeliker's report. Reading the paper [www.nmr.nl] left me pondering the nature of a universe in which:
Perhaps Dr. Moeliker's work stands as a monument to the curiosity of the human mind, and the need to laugh even as we ponder insane questions. At least he didn't duck the issues...
Spam Alert! (Score:3, Funny)
homosexual necrophilia in the mallard duck species. Links and pictures are available...
I got spam with that same line in the header yesterday.
...and no, the links didn't work.
Philip Zimbardo (Score:2)
Philip Zimbardo made an earlier contribution to ignoble research with his notorious 1971 Stanford Prison Experiment [prisonexp.org]. From the page: "Our planned two-week investigation into the psychology of pris
My favorite Swiftie (Score:3, Funny)
> Biology: first documented case of homosexual necrophilia in the mallard duck species.
"I am not a homosexual necrophiliac!" said Tom in dead earnest.
Stapp Videos Wanted!! (Score:2)
What I really want to see are the test films from J. Stapp's rocket sled rides.
The Pigeons (Score:2, Interesting)
Sure enough, in addition to copper, lead and tin, the statue was found to contain gallium -- not enough gallium to be dangerously toxic, as it turned out, but enough to repel birds. This has led Hirose to work on experiments to develop a metal that will keep birds away from bronze statues for good.
Re:Ig Nobel? (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Homosexual mallards (Score:2)
An opinion can only be characterized as reasonable if its formation required some use of reason, not mere blind faith, and unquestioning acceptance of doctrine.
If one holds the position of religious tradition regarding gays, then one has to accept that ones opinion has been