More info about the levitation device
by
nekid_singularity
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· Score: 2
This is a popmech story about the device. Also in their latest issue is a larger story about a machine that can cancle the gravity vector completely all the way to space. Now, I am as skeptacle as next guy, but if this is true, it will REVOLUTIONIZE the space program. You could get into space with a cylinder of compressed gas!
-- Numbers 31:17,18 Now kill all the boys. And kill every woman who has slept with a man,but save for yourselves every virg
Re:More info about the levitation device
by
Forgotten
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· Score: 2
That story pertains to a different device and a different process - the NASA experiment is attempting to partially cancel gravity (uncurve space?) by rotating a superconductor in a magnetic field. The Dutch study used diamagnetic resistance to a static magnetic field to merely counteract the force of gravity. You've confused the issue.
However, I'd be interested in reading any followups to that 1997 Popular Mechanics article, like say the results of the NASA experiment. It looks like they were being fearfully closemouthed about it and may never have reported their results, which is really bad science (but probably not unusual for funding-driven agencies like NASA, sad to say). Science itself is weak enough without compromising it by breaking its own principles.
Re:More info about the levitation device
by
mindstrm
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· Score: 2
not 'uncurve space', but exert a force opposite to gravity, hence cancelling it's effects (partially, of course). Uncurving space would be analogous to nullifying gravity itself, which I believe the math says cannot be done.
Essentially, I think it requires setting up some kind of heavy ions to a very high rate of spin (rotation, I mean, not that quantum 'spin' property). To the order of quadrillions of rotations a second. Some wierd branch of physics says that this should create some kind of wierd gravitational effects.
watch, one day while they're in the middle of the war, instead of actually firing a shell, the sailor is just going to scream "BANG!", and wonder why nothing happened....
-
-- -
*Normality Is The Root of All Evil*
Re:How Come I don't get TV like this?
by
G-Man
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· Score: 2
Yeah, those wacky Brits. I remember seeing a documentary from the U.K. where they took infrared video of a man and woman in a state of arousal -- shades of blue to indicate cool, yellow/orange to indicate mildly warm, and reds to indicate hot.
The woman was a wonderful palette of yellows and oranges, with a few patches of red (the locations are an exercise left to the reader).
The man was dark blue all over with a single spot fiery red (again, you can guess where). Go figure...
A:
PawSense is sufficiently useful, novel, and unobvious
that we can patent it.
We have already filed some of the paperwork to get a patent,
and will keep this page updated as the situation develops.
We must boycott the evil PawSense writers today. They should feel the wrath of 31337 hax0rs like ourselves!
Seriously, if this gets a patent, I think we can stick this in the "ludicrous patent" basket too! Might be a handy one to point at in an argument.
--
Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from a rigged demo --Andy Finkel (J. Klass?)
Re:What the levitating frog needs
by
cra
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· Score: 3
Or how about that tune from Hampsterdance.
---
-- This message has been ROT-13 encrypted twice for higher security.
The Medicine prize is a shame
by
K8Fan
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· Score: 5
I agree with most of the prizes, but awarding the IgNoble for Medicine to the researchers who observed intercourse in an MRI machine just smacks of the same blue-nosed attitude that has been impeding sex research for years. It was serious work about questions that need to be answered. It's not as if the functioning of the sex organs is any less important than the functioning of any other human organ.
But they had to struggle with the fact that nobody would give them funds to use the MRI machine, pay researchers, compensate volunteers and have more freedom. Seriously, this is an activity that (nearly) everyone engages in, yet we have little hard data (no snickering) on how it actually works...just a bunch of conjecture. Even the great Di Vinci was wrong about this.
It's not as if sex researchers like the Kinsey Institute or Masters and Johnson can afford their own MRI machine. For serious research like this to be lumped in with the nutcase who believes that people don't need to eat is shameful, and indicitive of how screwed up our society is.
-- "How perfectly Goddamn delightful it all is, to be sure"
Charles Crumb
Re:The Medicine prize is a shame
by
nweaver
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· Score: 3
Sometimes the Ig Nobel prizes are for actual serious research, albeit with a silly bent. This is one of them.
I don't think there is anything wrong with this winning the Ig Nobel for medicine, it is FUNNY gosh-darnet, even if it is serious research. About 1/4 or so of the winners in any given year are such research.
Similarly, the psych one is another serious paper, albeit with a silly result (a corrolation in chemical effect between romantic love and OCD). If anything, winning the Ig Nobel is good for these indeavors, because they give publicity for research which might otherwise go unnoticed or forgotten.
Me, I'd love to write a serious paper which would win an Ig Nobel. I'd definatly show up to pick it up.
Re:The Medicine prize is a shame
by
magic
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· Score: 2
The relevant passage is:
Say you have done something that you - and some other people - believe to be very, very good and maybe even very, very important. But most people don't recognize its importance. Worse, most people don't even recognize its existence. It's different from what they expect or what they have ever run across. What you have, you believe, is a breakthrough. The classic sequence of events for any breakthrough is:
(1) Most people don't recognize its existence.
(2) When they do recognize it, their immediate reaction is to laugh or scoff at it.
(3) Some of those people become curious about this thing that they are laughing at, and then think about it, and so come to appreciate its true worth.
This is a very good point. I had always thought they were about mocking pseudo science. Apparently they are to bring attention to good and bad science that would otherwise be ignored because it also has some humor value.
-m
Re:The Medicine prize is a shame
by
magic
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· Score: 2
In the research paper, they did indeed find that men had performance anxiety and had to take stimulating drugs.
The couple with the fewest problems were "street acrobats".
-m
Re:The Medicine prize is a shame
by
K8Fan
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· Score: 2
In the research paper, they did indeed find that men had performance anxiety and had to take stimulating drugs.
The couple with the fewest problems were "street acrobats".
If they had received funding for this, they could have hired professionals, like p0rn performers. But then, on the other hand, there's no what they could squeeze Ron Jeremy and anyone else into the middle of an MRI machine.
-- "How perfectly Goddamn delightful it all is, to be sure"
Charles Crumb
Re:The Medicine prize is a shame
by
efuseekay
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· Score: 4
This is not blue-nosed attitude : you may have a wrong opinion of what the Ig is all about.
To correct that, I suggest you read this.
-- Mode (3) smart-aleck mode. Press * to return to main menu.
Re:The Medicine prize is a shame
by
Jonathan
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· Score: 5
Yes, yes, I think most people understand that Ig Nobel awards are awarded to both pseudoscience and amusing examples of real science. The problem is that combining the two ideas in one award is probably not a good idea, because people may mistake an example of one for another. Even if the researchers themselves have a sense of humor it doesn't mean that the politicians who hold the purse strings do.
Re:The Medicine prize is a shame
by
Goonie
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· Score: 2
If they had received funding for this, they could have hired professionals, like p0rn performers.
They may not have been good subjects for this sort of thing. If you want to generalise medical research to the general population, you've got to try and get people who are representative of that population in the area of interest. As you've alluded to, porn stars often become famous *because* their body is in some way unusual. Therefore, from a "general applicability" criterion, Mr and Mrs Joeseph Bloggs copulation is more interesting for a scientist than Mr Jeremy and half a dozen porn starlets.
--
Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from a rigged demo --Andy Finkel (J. Klass?)
Re:The Medicine prize is a shame
by
Goonie
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· Score: 2
I agree with most of the prizes, but awarding the IgNoble for Medicine to the researchers who observed intercourse in an MRI machine just smacks of the same blue-nosed attitude that has been impeding sex research for years.
Note where the research was done - the Netherlands, one of the most socially liberal societies in the world. It's unfortunate that you probably couldn't do this kind of research in the English-speaking world.
--
Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from a rigged demo --Andy Finkel (J. Klass?)
Re:The Medicine prize is a shame
by
K8Fan
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· Score: 3
I think most people understand that Ig Nobel awards are awarded to both pseudoscience and amusing examples of real science.
Thank you. Yes, I do understand that aspect of the awards.
The problem is that combining the two ideas in one award is probably not a good idea, because people may mistake an example of one for another.
Exactly. I find the idea of people fornicating inside of an MRI machine delightful, rather than just amusing. Talk about performance anxiety - trying to keep an erection in the middle of a machine making loud booming noises. No wonder Viagra was necessary.
Getting an award like this will get this research more attention, but I doubt if it will result in making it easier for researchers to conduct more research. No, instead it will result in more restrictions imposed on those with access to the machines by the institutions who own the machines to make sure that nothing happens that could jeopardize donations.
Even if the researchers themselves have a sense of humor it doesn't mean that the politicians who hold the purse strings do.
Right. Anybody remember Sen Proxmire's Golden Fleece awards? He single-handedly killed SETI. Mockery is a powerful tool in the hands of a fool.
-- "How perfectly Goddamn delightful it all is, to be sure"
Charles Crumb
This isn't just a Literature prize, it's also a Darwin Award.
Re:Levitating Frog Real?
by
gad_zuki!
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· Score: 2
As much as I want to join in sophomoric fun chuckling at levitating frogs and sex in MRIs, I think a lot of people (especially/. readers) assume this is all CSICOP-style "debunking."
Its really just for a laugh, and a lot of the prize winners are great ideas. Ever try to plan a marriage? Quite the headache, Moon and the city of Las Vegas has done us a great social service. I know Pawsense has sold more than a few copies, how much software have you sold?
The awards would make a lot more sense if they didn't include ridiculous psuedoscience and just stuck to well-meaning research that just turns out to be hilarious. I'm sure its just easier to pick on Breatharians than to use your brain and sense of humor to find something that isn't painfully and obviously weird.
That gravity reduction thing may or may not be true. It is considered a flawed experiment by most. It is certainly not accepted scientific fact.
As for magnetic forces being bad for the body... without trying to state that absolutely it's not.... if they DID have some kind of harmful effect, we would notice it. Given that most tissue cannot respond to a magnetic field.... who knows?
Hmm. I just read the Literature prize winner's article.
"You can get your vitamins and nourishment from vitamins and minerals contained within food, or you can bypass food and hook into what we call the universal life force which is prahna. "
So basically, stop eating and let the Force feed ya. Either that or become photosynthetic. Sounds like fun...
-- Kat
--
Alcohol and calculus don't mix. Never drink and derive.
Don't worry - it won't become widespread. Cults which emphasise not eating are much like the ones that favour handling poisonous snakes - they tend to die out.
Hey! My cat likes to walk across my keyboard, so it isn't as a absurd a occurance as it may seem. Of course my cat also likes to look at my screen, apparently unaware that she is blocking my view...
Haven't had cats for long, have you? Of course she knows -- she just doesn't care.:)
--
This next song is very sad. Please clap along. -- Robin Zander
Re:How Come I don't get TV like this?
by
Goonie
·
· Score: 2
Yeah, those wacky Brits. I remember seeing a documentary from the U.K. where they took infrared video of a man and woman in a state of arousal -- shades of blue to indicate cool, yellow/orange to indicate mildly warm, and reds to indicate hot.
Yeah, it was a documentary called The Human Body. They managed to cover (and show) just about everything from birth to death, including the scene you describe. It hardly felt like a porn flick, though - it was all very scientific and absolutely fascinating stuff. The most amazing shot, though, was a shot from *inside* a woman's reproductive organs as she, um . ..peaked. How they got *that* particular camera angle (and I'm sure it was real) I'll never know.
--
Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from a rigged demo --Andy Finkel (J. Klass?)
Has anyone read the psychology article?
by
komet
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· Score: 2
"Unskilled and unaware of it: How Difficulties in Recognizing one's own Incompetence Lead to Inflated Self-Assessments". Now surely that's an article to show the PHB? But it seems it isn't on the web; does anyone know otherwise, or has anyone at least read it?
-- Any technology which is distinguishable from magic is not sufficiently advanced.
Re:IgNoble for Economics... Sun Myung Moon is lyin
by
re-geeked
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· Score: 2
"Next time you read the Washington Times, be sure to check their math. (Mind you, this is a good idea with any newspaper)"
Especially when said newspaper is owned by the one pushing the numbers.
Apparently Moon owns or owned the Washington Times. Was he before or after the right-wingers owned it?
-- "You can't get something for nothing." - my grandfather, on the stock market and Reaganomics.
The Ig Nobel Prize honors individuals whose achievements "cannot or should not be reproduced." [from the site Why *wouldn't* you want to levitate that frog again? I think that perhaps the most important method of spending our tax dollars very well may be levitating frogs and other amphibious creatures.
But I do want to check: the levitating frog is the real deal, right? I remember hearing about it at the time, and I still think it's pretty goddamned cool. The movie cracks me up. But before I go around telling people that I have a video clip of a floating frog, I figure I should check to make sure it's legit.:)
-Waldo
Re:Levitating Frog Real?
by
Forgotten
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· Score: 2
It's worth noting that this is a static field (not changing flux), so it's probably ok. But your knowledge of physiology isn't much less existent than the sum total of scientific research on the effects of magnetic and electric fields on living things, so the bottom line is that no one really knows.
What I find neat about diamagnetic levitation (what's holding up that frog in its blob of water) is that the force acts within each atom of the levitatee, so the net force on each of the frog's atoms becomes zero (gravity is exactly counteracted). Since the diamagnetic force is really pretty much equivalent in this to the way gravity normally acts on us all, the frog is probably fine. I'm actually a fairly strong proponent of animal rights (for slashdot anyway, you bunch of carnivorous bastards) but this particular frog was probably happier in the physics experiment with the whimsical researchers than when it went back to the (ulp) biology lab.
As another respondent notes, a strong and rapidly changing magnetic field can tear you inside out, by comparison. But it probably wouldn't levitate you very well either.;)
It's real alright, the physics they describe are legit.
And no, you fucking morons who don't even bother to read the site, it's not done with pressurized air. They use a rather strong electromagnet (6 Megawatts), which you couldn't plug into a household outlet. Read here.
-- Any technology which is distinguishable from magic is not sufficiently advanced.
That's what I remembered. I can't help but wonder if such strong magnetic forces are bad for the body. I must admit that my knowledge of physiology is nearly non-existent, but it seems to me that such a tremendous amount of magnetism would be less-than-healthy.
I also recall something about decreasing the force of gravity over a superconductor...something about a 2% reduction in weight over some super-cooled ceramic or something. Is there a connection to that? It's been a while... I vaguely remember an article debunking the 2% figure, and that the reduction in weight is actually so small as to be a result of chance, not the physics behind the levitation system.
Am I making this up? Is there a connection between these?
-Waldo
What the levitating frog needs
by
Anonymous Coward
·
· Score: 2
...is some really fast banjo music in the background. Yow!
Slashdot Mirror
This is a popmech story about the device. Also in their latest issue is a larger story about a machine that can cancle the gravity vector completely all the way to space. Now, I am as skeptacle as next guy, but if this is true, it will REVOLUTIONIZE the space program. You could get into space with a cylinder of compressed gas!
Numbers 31:17,18 Now kill all the boys. And kill every woman who has slept with a man,but save for yourselves every virg
watch, one day while they're in the middle of the war, instead of actually firing a shell, the sailor is just going to scream "BANG!", and wonder why nothing happened....
-
- *Normality Is The Root of All Evil*
Yeah, those wacky Brits. I remember seeing a documentary from the U.K. where they took infrared video of a man and woman in a state of arousal -- shades of blue to indicate cool, yellow/orange to indicate mildly warm, and reds to indicate hot.
The woman was a wonderful palette of yellows and oranges, with a few patches of red (the locations are an exercise left to the reader).
The man was dark blue all over with a single spot fiery red (again, you can guess where). Go figure...
We must boycott the evil PawSense writers today. They should feel the wrath of 31337 hax0rs like ourselves!
Seriously, if this gets a patent, I think we can stick this in the "ludicrous patent" basket too! Might be a handy one to point at in an argument.
Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from a rigged demo
--Andy Finkel (J. Klass?)
Or how about that tune from Hampsterdance.
---
This message has been ROT-13 encrypted twice for higher security.
I agree with most of the prizes, but awarding the IgNoble for Medicine to the researchers who observed intercourse in an MRI machine just smacks of the same blue-nosed attitude that has been impeding sex research for years. It was serious work about questions that need to be answered. It's not as if the functioning of the sex organs is any less important than the functioning of any other human organ.
But they had to struggle with the fact that nobody would give them funds to use the MRI machine, pay researchers, compensate volunteers and have more freedom. Seriously, this is an activity that (nearly) everyone engages in, yet we have little hard data (no snickering) on how it actually works...just a bunch of conjecture. Even the great Di Vinci was wrong about this.
It's not as if sex researchers like the Kinsey Institute or Masters and Johnson can afford their own MRI machine. For serious research like this to be lumped in with the nutcase who believes that people don't need to eat is shameful, and indicitive of how screwed up our society is.
"How perfectly Goddamn delightful it all is, to be sure" Charles Crumb
This isn't just a Literature prize, it's also a Darwin Award.
As much as I want to join in sophomoric fun chuckling at levitating frogs and sex in MRIs, I think a lot of people (especially /. readers) assume this is all CSICOP-style "debunking."
Its really just for a laugh, and a lot of the prize winners are great ideas. Ever try to plan a marriage? Quite the headache, Moon and the city of Las Vegas has done us a great social service. I know Pawsense has sold more than a few copies, how much software have you sold?
The awards would make a lot more sense if they didn't include ridiculous psuedoscience and just stuck to well-meaning research that just turns out to be hilarious. I'm sure its just easier to pick on Breatharians than to use your brain and sense of humor to find something that isn't painfully and obviously weird.
It's very legit.
Water is diamagnetic, (so are lots of other molecules).
This means that, very weakly, they respond do the presence of a magnetic field with the same field.
This means if you put them in a strong enough field, they can levitate.
The coil used to levitate that TINY frog, was about 6 megawatt if I remember....
Also.. stable magnetic levitation with ferromagnetic materials is theoretically impossible.
That gravity reduction thing may or may not be true. It is considered a flawed experiment by most. It is certainly not accepted scientific fact.
As for magnetic forces being bad for the body... without trying to state that absolutely it's not.... if they DID have some kind of harmful effect, we would notice it. Given that most tissue cannot respond to a magnetic field.... who knows?
"You can get your vitamins and nourishment from vitamins and minerals contained within food, or you can bypass food and hook into what we call the universal life force which is prahna. "
So basically, stop eating and let the Force feed ya. Either that or become photosynthetic. Sounds like fun...
Kat -- Alcohol and calculus don't mix. Never drink and derive.
What am I going to do with 30 subscriptions to VIBE???
Shine on, you crazy diamond.
Hey! My cat likes to walk across my keyboard, so it isn't as a absurd a occurance as it may seem. Of course my cat also likes to look at my screen, apparently unaware that she is blocking my view...
Yeah, it was a documentary called The Human Body. They managed to cover (and show) just about everything from birth to death, including the scene you describe. It hardly felt like a porn flick, though - it was all very scientific and absolutely fascinating stuff. The most amazing shot, though, was a shot from *inside* a woman's reproductive organs as she, um . . .peaked. How they got *that* particular camera angle (and I'm sure it was real) I'll never know.
Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from a rigged demo
--Andy Finkel (J. Klass?)
"Unskilled and unaware of it: How Difficulties in Recognizing one's own Incompetence Lead to Inflated Self-Assessments". Now surely that's an article to show the PHB? But it seems it isn't on the web; does anyone know otherwise, or has anyone at least read it?
Any technology which is distinguishable from magic is not sufficiently advanced.
"Next time you read the Washington Times, be sure to check their math. (Mind you, this is a good idea with any newspaper)"
Especially when said newspaper is owned by the one pushing the numbers.
Apparently Moon owns or owned the Washington Times. Was he before or after the right-wingers owned it?
"You can't get something for nothing." - my grandfather, on the stock market and Reaganomics.
Apparently living on light is a whole lot like munching lots of LSD.
Even Science Friday doesn't do this...
The Ig Nobel Prize honors individuals whose achievements "cannot or should not be reproduced." [from the site
:)
Why *wouldn't* you want to levitate that frog again? I think that perhaps the most important method of spending our tax dollars very well may be levitating frogs and other amphibious creatures.
But I do want to check: the levitating frog is the real deal, right? I remember hearing about it at the time, and I still think it's pretty goddamned cool. The movie cracks me up. But before I go around telling people that I have a video clip of a floating frog, I figure I should check to make sure it's legit.
-Waldo
...is some really fast banjo music in the background. Yow!
Thanks...must go watch Office Space again...must go watch...
Shine on, you crazy diamond.
Q. My cat is deaf. Can you help me?
A. PawSense detects the paws of even deaf cats. Even if a cat is deaf, PawSense blocks cat typing once detected.
"Magnetic resonance imaging of male and female genitals during coitus and female sexual arousal"
So now when someone asks a participant where the weirdest place they had sex was, they can truthfully answer "in an MRI machine!"
I'm surprised they only got 13 participants!