Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony Tonight

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Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony Tonight

Posted by ryuzaki0 on Wednesday October 3, 2001 @08:49PM from the looking-at-it dept.

Ellen Spertus writes "The Eleventh First Annual Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony will be held in Cambridge, MA, on Thursday, Oct. 4, to honor scientific achievements that cannot, or should not, be reproduced. The ceremony, which will be webcast live and broadcast later on Science Friday, is sponsored by The Annals of Improbable Research. The accompanying Ig Informal Lectures will be held Saturday, Oct. 6, at MIT."

73 comments

isn't that swedish thing. by brujito · 2001-10-03 20:59 · Score: 0, Offtopic

isn't that swedish thing. novel price
1. Re:isn't that swedish thing. by nextian · 2001-10-04 07:57 · Score: 1
  
  I think this is science humor awards. Why should they use the word Nobel?
Similar prize for software? by smaughster · 2001-10-03 21:01 · Score: 3, Interesting

I think that initiatives like the Darwin award and the Ig Nobel prize are great. Maybe it would be a good idea to introduce such a prize for software that is too faulty or insanely difficult to use, or code that is too unreadable. Ermz, I am preaching for the wrong choir here, since some people actually like making unreadable code :)

--
I intend to live forever, so far so good.
1. Re:Similar prize for software? by Suicide · 2001-10-03 21:06 · Score: 1
  
  The only problem I see with that concept is, do you consider software faulty if it has been patched to the point where it is useable?
2. Re:Similar prize for software? by IncarnationTwo · 2001-10-03 21:27 · Score: 3, Informative
  
  If you did read through the pages to the past winners you might have noticed that they have a category of computer science (from year 2000 awards):
  
  COMPUTER SCIENCE Chris Niswander of Tucson, Arizona, for inventing PawSense, software that detects when a cat is walking across your computer keyboard.
  
  Some others of past winners are quite hilarious too. So for the lazy ones: link to past winners is here [improbable.com].
  
  --
  In dream society, people could be given the ability to mod replies. In real life, it would be disaster.
3. Re:Similar prize for software? by smaughster · 2001-10-03 22:18 · Score: 3, Interesting
  
  The point of IG Nobel prizes is that it is about (academic) research which has no use. I was thinking more of a prize for stuff that is too hard to use (but could have a use anyway).
  
  Some of the past results would have made great slashdot stories, how about: Charl Fourie and Michelle Wong of Johannesburg, South Africa, for
  inventing an automobile burglar alarm consisting of a detection circuit and a flamethrower."
  
  --
  I intend to live forever, so far so good.
4. Re:Similar prize for software? by DoctorNathaniel · 2001-10-03 22:30 · Score: 3, Interesting
  
  Nah.. wouldn't work. It would be indistiguishable from coroprate self-back-patting.
  
  The thing is, science works by a method of peer review and community respect: your collegues know you do good work because they read it. Software, on the other hand, is not judged at all...
  
  .. except in the Open Source world. Still, I don't think this would work: software either suceeds or fails; the best Open Source stuff simply does it's job well.. it doesn't discover new things.
  
  But all this misses the point. First you need a good name for the prize/magazine. I preferred the 'Journal of Irreproducable Results' to AIR, but that's just me.
5. Re:Similar prize for software? by mav[LAG] · 2001-10-04 05:24 · Score: 5, Interesting
  
  Some of the past results would have made great slashdot stories, how about: Charl Fourie and Michelle Wong of Johannesburg, South Africa, for
  inventing an automobile burglar alarm consisting of a detection circuit and a flamethrower."
  
  Far from being a whacky burglar alarm, the device you mention was originally actually an anti-hijack device. Johannesburg is the carjacking capital of the world. I have been resident here for over ten years and I can truthfully say that if you yourself haven't been hijacked then a member of your family or a friend has if you live in this town. I personally have had two attacks in my own driveway, my wife was the victim of an attempt and my father was hijacked and then kidnapped for over four hours.
  
  Most carjack attempts happen at traffic lights or outside your home. The robbers' modus operandi is to walk up to your car door brandishing a weapon - normally a 9mm or an AK-47. Sometimes they just shoot first, drag your body out the way and dump it before driving off. It's impractical to reach for a weapon yourself in these situations since a) you're sitting down and b) your seatbelt is often in the way.
  
  Solution: press a button (the original method of activation) and your would-be murderers get themselves horribly crisped by a sheet of burning hydrocarbons. Sounds damn good to me.
  
  --
  --- Hot Shot City is particularly good.
6. Re:Similar prize for software? by hummer · 2001-10-04 07:32 · Score: 1
  
  It has been on slashdot before.
  
  Several years ago now at least.
  
  hummer
Darwin Contest by da5idnetlimit.com · 2001-10-03 21:12 · Score: 1

Looks a lot like it...

I think to remember their motto was "For those who helped humanity to advance by removing themselves from it".

But then, the site doens give that many clues on what experiences those guys are awarded for...

--
It takes 40+ muscles to frown, but only four to extend your arm and bitchslap the motherfucker
It's a play on words by Edgewize · 2001-10-03 21:14 · Score: 1, Redundant

Ig Nobel -> ignoble

Synonyms of ignoble include disgraceful, shameful, and degenerate.
I'm pretty sure this is not related to the more widely recognized Nobel Prize awards.
The 2000 Ig Nobel Prize Winners by Anonymous Coward · 2001-10-03 21:23 · Score: 5, Funny

Loved those winners of 2000:
CHEMISTRY
"Romantic love may be indistinguishable from having severe obsessive-compulsive disorder."

COMPUTER SCIENCE
"Detecting when a cat is walking across your computer keyboard."

Of course I always knew the first one, so it's quite useful to tell people who are "in love", dunno about the later.
1. Re:The 2000 Ig Nobel Prize Winners by ThatComputerGuy · 2001-10-04 02:42 · Score: 1
  
  "Magnetic Resonance Imaging of Male and Female Genitals During Coitus and Female Sexual Arousal."
  
  Now tell me, how many geeks would have loved to sign up for that one "in the name of science"? The study could have been done with a lot more people if just one announcement had been made here on /. ...
  
  --
  XML is like violence. If it doesn't solve the problem, use more.
2. Re:The 2000 Ig Nobel Prize Winners by Loligo · 2001-10-04 10:03 · Score: 1
  
  >The study could have been done with a lot more
  >people if just one announcement had been made
  >here on /. ...
  
  Yeah, but they probably already HAD a thousand horny guys.
  
  They needed more WOMEN for the study.
  
  -l
Re:Similar prize for software? (Most Bugs?) by vAMP · 2001-10-03 21:25 · Score: 3, Funny

But thats not fair!
How can anyone compete with Microsoft???
:)
Heh.... by kinko · 2001-10-03 21:39 · Score: 0, Offtopic

reminds me of someone's sig I've seen....

'I hope when I'm gone, people will remember me and say: "I wonder where Kinko got the plutonium from?"'

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1. Re:Heh.... by glenkim · 2001-10-03 21:42 · Score: 0, Offtopic
  
  Wow, if that's so, this guy must be a role-model for you.
Levitating Frog by Anonymous Coward · 2001-10-03 21:49 · Score: 1, Interesting

Last Years Awards Kicked Ass

By Far any away the coolest thing is the levitating frog,

Check out the MPegs and Science behind it, fsuking amazing and something I never thouhgt id see

---Any sufficiently advanced motorbike is indistingasble from magic--
ObJoke by imipak · 2001-10-03 22:09 · Score: 5, Funny
scientific achievements that cannot, or should not, be reproduced.

I nominate:
- Windows XP
- Microsoft Mediaplayer
- MS SQL Server
- Last year's winner: IIS, up for a record four years in a row!
1. Re:ObJoke by Anonymous Coward · 2001-10-04 00:10 · Score: 2, Insightful
  
  With regards to your use of the word 'scientific'.
  
  To borrow a page from The Princess Bride. I do not that it means what you think it means.
2. Re:ObJoke by Lonesmurf · 2001-10-04 02:46 · Score: 3, Funny
  
  Just wondered why you put windows 9x in the OS/platforms section of your resume twice. You particularly proud of it of something? :)
  
  I'd change that before showing it around, man.
  
  --
  
  rJames.org - illustration
3. Re:ObJoke by Beckman · 2001-10-04 02:54 · Score: 1
  
  ...within rule bending that many CS and /. people apply their view of the world...
4. Re:ObJoke by stephend · 2001-10-04 04:58 · Score: 2, Funny
  
  Last year's winner: IIS, up for a record four years in a row!
  That's the first and last time that any Microsoft software has been up for over a year.
5. Re:ObJoke by Anonymous Coward · 2001-10-04 13:52 · Score: 0
  
  If you're going to make a (funny?) quote, at least quote right...
And the winner is... by Domini · 2001-10-03 22:32 · Score: 3, Funny

... for most versatile hybrid polymorphic y-chromosome based genome string :

Once again: Cowboy Neal!
Noise ratio. by IncarnationTwo · 2001-10-03 22:36 · Score: 3, Interesting

The good thing about the internet is that anyone could build up a site with this kind of contest. And the bad side of the internet is that anyone can build up a site with this kind of contest.

Or in other words. I would otherwise greatly encourage, for example you to put ut such a contest, but the fact seems to be (at least to me) that the web is filled with such contests of small communities and groups.

Then again, should you (or anyone) somehow gain a larger community behind such endeavour, and get some outside funding from advertisers or sponsors, then your idea might be worthwhile, or even good. So if you can get these two, and create some working nomination/moderation system for nominees it would sound a great project, but without them you will be having hard time and need lots of will to build such contest. You can note that these fellows have been doing this for a decade now, and had a community at the beginning to start with.

--
In dream society, people could be given the ability to mod replies. In real life, it would be disaster.
Cat typing detector? I want one! by JaredOfEuropa · 2001-10-03 22:50 · Score: 5, Funny

I need to stop my damn cat from making all these "first post" posts! Yes, now you know where they come from.

--
If construction was anything like programming, an incorrectly fitted lock would bring down the entire building...
Truth in advertising by streetlawyer · 2001-10-03 22:54 · Score: 3, Funny

I object in the strongest possible terms to the idea that this painfully self-conscious attempt at proving that "Scientists aren't all dull" should appear under the category "It's Funny, Laugh", and demand that Slashdot establishes an "It's Embarrassing. Cringe" category for the purpose.

Oh yeh, and the Darwin Awards can fuck off too.

--

-- the most controversial site on the Web
1. Re:Truth in advertising by strredwolf · 2001-10-04 05:06 · Score: 2
  
  You are located in England, aren't you?
  
  The Ig Nobel Governors board has already heard about your topic from Brittan's govermental head of science. Their responce was akin to "How can you tell if it's funny or not? If Brittan is not allowed it's scientists to laugh at themselves, then it is a dark day in the land of the Queen."
  
  BTW, durring that year, three Brittish scientists came voluntarily to receive their Ig Nobels.
  
  --
  
  --
  # Canmephians for a better Linux Kernel
  $Stalag99{"URL"}="http://stalag99.net";
2. Re:Truth in advertising by Anonymous Coward · 2001-10-04 06:07 · Score: 0
  
  You must not get a lot of dates. Grow a sense of humor, it helps, really.
Gone in 60 Seconds by sasha328 · 2001-10-03 23:16 · Score: 1, Offtopic

"A Wedding in 60 Seconds."
I don't think they'll be signing, it takes too long. I think they'll just finger print the wedding certificates.

Desides, where is the science in the wedding?
1. Re:Gone in 60 Seconds by Anonymous Coward · 2001-10-04 03:30 · Score: 0
  
  The science comes from last year winner in economics:
  
  "The Reverend Sun Myung Moon, for bringing efficiency and steady growth to the mass-marriage industry, with, according to his reports, a 36-couple wedding in 1960, a 430-couple wedding in 1968, an 1800-couple wedding in 1975, a 6000-couple wedding in 1982, a 30,000-couple wedding in 1992, a 360,000-couple wedding in 1995, and a 36,000,000-couple wedding in 1997."
Win-A-Date by baronben · 2001-10-04 00:37 · Score: 0, Offtopic

Did any one see the Win a date with a Nobel Laureate? Wish there was still time to enter, I would finaly be able to relize my dream of Romancing Sheldon Glashow. Oh to have a night with that sexy, sexy man

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Sleep is for the weak!
Re:Get some PRIORITIES! (OT) by hrieke · 2001-10-04 00:38 · Score: 1, Offtopic

True. But this is not a board to talk about earthquake aid or other humanitarian help, it about what ever fancies the editors. If you want to start a board on humanitarian aid, please do, and more power to you in doing so.

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III.IIVIVIXIIVIVIIIVVIIIIXVIIIXIIIIIIIIVIIIIVVIIIV IIVIIIIIIVIII...
The /. Mongerator Awards by squaretorus · 2001-10-04 00:49 · Score: 1, Offtopic

How about a choice event for the /.ers where the most rediculous moderation gets an award.

Nominations start NOW! event in a month!
Gone in 60 seconds... by Uttles · 2001-10-04 01:10 · Score: 0, Offtopic

Boy if the wedding is that short I'd sure hate to go on that honeymoon...

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~ now you know
love=OCD link is interesting! by pedro · 2001-10-04 02:34 · Score: 1

I don't understand why that sort of research should be considered 'ignoble'. IMHO, it's pretty damned interesting, and could provide insight into, oh, Terrorism, and how sustained ideation about a particular topic can 'lock up' the brain. Perhaps a simple drug therapy, deliverable in an aerosol form and sprayed over a wide area, could unknot the neural systems of obsessed nutcases like the Taliban, and restore them to some degree of sanity.

--
Brak: What's THAT?
Thundercleese: A light switch.. of TOTAL DEVASTATION!
Hey JACKASS by Uttles · 2001-10-04 02:39 · Score: 0, Flamebait

Moderator: read the damn article before you go modding people down. One of the ceremonies is a 60 second genuine wedding. If you don't agree with my sense of humor then I could understand flamebait or troll although I wouldn't think they would be deserved. Funny would be appreciated, but I'm DEFINITELY not offtopic, asshole.

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~ now you know
Don't Worry by steveo777 · 2001-10-04 02:40 · Score: 1

Nature has a way of doing these things...
Soon, the Ig Nobel prizes won't be needed. That is, once some more Darwin awards are handed out.

--
This sig isn't original enough, it's time to come up with something witty...
Things you wanted to know, but afraid to ask by f00zbll · 2001-10-04 02:43 · Score: 1

The awards are funny. I especially like the Medicine, Physics and Peace awards. MEDICINE Willibrord Weijmar Schultz, Pek van Andel, and Eduard Mooyaart of Groningen, The Netherlands, and Ida Sabelis of Amsterdam, for their illuminating report, "Magnetic Resonance Imaging of Male and Female Genitals During Coitus and Female Sexual Arousal." [Published in British Medical Journal, vol. 319, 1999, pp 1596-1600.] PEACE The British Royal Navy, for ordering its sailors to stop using live cannon shells, and to instead just shout "Bang!" PHYSICS Andre Geim of the University of Nijmegen (the Netherlands) and Sir Michael Berry of Bristol University (UK), for using magnets to levitate a frog and a sumo wrestler. [REFERENCE: "Of Flying Frogs and Levitrons" by M.V. Berry and A.K. Geim,European Journal of Physics, v. 18, 1997, p. 307-13.]
Re:Cat typing detector? I want one! by Hard_Code · 2001-10-04 02:46 · Score: 2

Perhaps that's where all this 'grit' is coming from...

--

It's 10 PM. Do you know if you're un-American?
Re:Get some PRIORITIES! by MaxGrant · 2001-10-04 06:33 · Score: 2

I think it's time we declared "war on tectonics" to prevent a catastrophe like this from ever happening again!
It is you who need to get a sense of perspective. There's not a damn thing any of us can do about preventing earthquakes. It's a "natural disaster." Or the act of a capricious god. It's relatively safe to assume that the next time an earthquake strikes in that region, the inhabitants will have learned what kinds of structures they can and cannot build, and the damage will be minimized accordingly. In the meantime, what precisely do you know about the humanitarian impulses of /. readers?
Can't take anymore by Clan+Hanna · 2001-10-04 12:21 · Score: 1

I managed to sit through almost 37 minutes of this "ceremony," watching the streaming web-cast. I enjoy intelligent people making fools of themselves on stage as much as the next guy, but this was just too much... or maybe too little. I had to turn it off... didn't even get to any of the actual awards, just to the beginning of the first act of the mini-opera, "Marriage Complex."

--
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I'm sick and tired of being responsible for the preservation of the universe and its outlying suburbs.
Not bad, but somebody slap the camera operator! by Dr.Dubious+DDQ · 2001-10-04 13:56 · Score: 2

Just got done watching. Not bad. My biggest complaint were the less-than-stellar technicians operating the equipment. The non-functioning (or just misplaced?) microphones, and the camera operator stubbornly focussing on the podium while the activity takes place elsewhere (e.g. the slideshow...)

Did I hear that right? "Stalinworld"???? (the IgNobel Peace Prize winner...)

--
Hacker Public Radio is our Friend
Re:Get some PRIORITIES! by Anonymous Coward · 2001-10-07 22:23 · Score: 0

Bah! Did you read the whole thread? I don't think so.

The thread started with someone complaining that we should not be concerned with trivia such as the ig-nobels in the aftermath of the worst terrorist attack in history. My response could be paraphrased as "Bad shit happens all the time [this is just one example] and you don't always agonize about it on SlashDot, so why start now?"

It was not intended to say anything about tectonics, the socio-economic conditions in developing countries or the humanitarian impulses of Slashdot readers.