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Ig Nobels Awarded
prostoalex writes "The definitive study on bellybutton lint, a dog-to-person translation device and an inquiry into what arouses ostriches were recognized at 2002 Ig Nobel awards. The telecast of the event in RealMedia format is available from Harvard University server, there's also an Associated Press story. Ig Nobel awards typically recognize the most dubious contributions to the world of science and research."
Hang on, this could be quite handy.
For
a: breeding ostriches
and
b: Don't wear pink in a field full of ostriches, it makes then horny!
thank God the internet isn't a human right.
If you read the article, the question is, do ostriches find overweight, middle-aged men with belly-button lint hair sexy?
"We're sorry, but the website you're trying to reach has been disconnected."
The Slashdot polls probably deserve an Ig Noble as well then ;-)
A little planning goes a long way...
Ironic that awards for technologies with dubious benefits are being streamed in RealVideo...
----- Documentation is worth it just to be able to answer all your mail with 'RTFM' - Alan Cox.
___ I don't respond to Anonymous Cowards, and I Never Mod them UP.
" A potentially more practical achievement is a Japanese device that measures the tone of a dog's bark and relays his mood. The device is on the market in Japan, and an English version, called Bow-Lingual, should be ready in about a year. "
Imagine a Beo-WOOF! cluster of these.
Slightly disreputable, albeit gregarious
Don't be fooled into thinking that what appears to be intelligent behaviour is actually something very basic (although the same could be said of course for all levels of intelligence).
:)
Many years ago here in the UK, and light hearted popular culture TV magazine "That's Life" had a feature about gifted pets.
This one time, they went to visit a dog that could do maths. His owner would hold up two cards with numbers on them, the dog would add them up, and woof out the answer (3 = 3 woofs etc.) The bloke would then shout out "Well Done!" and the whole nation was amazed.
The presenter appeared to be completely taken in by it, especially after the dog had done 4 sums correctly on the trot.
The bloke had basically trained his dog to woof until he said "Well Done!"
http://www.improb.com/ig/2002/ig-winners-2002.html
The list of winners is available in this New Scientist article.
The winners - from the source - are here. I notice one old favorite on there - the periodic table table, which I linked to from my chemistry web site myself. Ahh, literalism ...
Funnier, though, is the pet washing machine. Unfortunately, I can't read the language, but they do have photos ... :)
-- Rick
Contrast this to truly dubious science, like that practiced by that Schon guy at Bell Labs who said he could make any material a superconductor, and fudged all his data to prove it. Now that was dubious science.
Where's the dude that invented napkins on a roll?
"Do what I do, get them good and drunk"
Trying is the first step towards failure.
I wanna know what that guy did with all that lint afterwards. "It tastes like grandma"
Hey! Hey hey, hey! Hey, hey! Hey hey hey hey!
Well yeah, but none that ever won a penguin for me.
she always said, "bellybutton lint is really goat cheese."
Yummy!
That you are using That's Life! as an example here...
Dogs that woofed, dogs that said "Susages", and carrots with penises. What a show...
Yeah, the funny part is that they are doing these cute little projects, most likely, with taxpayer money. Your money, my money, funny money, huh.
(Whatever)
In general, women have pubic hair that looks like an inverted pyramid, or a map of Tasmania, with a sharp cut-off at the top.
Thats information you need to get through life.
A link to goatse would be finally on-topic!
----
Testicular asymmetry in human sculptures. "To test Winckelmann's claim, I observed the scrotal symmetry of 107 sculptures, either of antique origin or Renaissance copies, in a number of Italian museums and galleries. Although the ancient artists were correct in tending to place the right testicle higher, they were wrong in so far as they also tended to make the lower testicle the larger: we may postulate that they were also using the common-sense view that the heavier ought to be the lower." (McManus, I. C. 1976. Scrotal asymmetry in man and in ancient sculpture. Nature 259: 426)
I've had enough abrasive sigs. Kittens are cute and fuzzy.
You know, I used to have a problem taking exams until I realized it was because I was using a black magic marker.
try { do() || do_not(); } catch (JediException err) { yoda(err); }
Other important things to research should include
1) Where do lost biro's go to
2) Why trouser turn-ups attract so much fluff (perhaps it's related to belly buttons?)
3) If you tie 4 cats together and drop them wil they all land on their feet?
I have never been able to tolerate the self-important, judgemental nature of these awards. Who are they to determine what is and is not of merit ? Basic science, especially, is FULL of research which seems largely irrelevant to many and is easy to ridicule when described out of context.
The annals of basic science are full of findings that seemed irrelevant at one point, only until they were interpreted later from another framework or in light of other findings.
Basic science is all about asking questions for the sake of asking questions, because it would be arrogant for ANYONE to presuppose they know what is and is not going to be 'of scientific merit'. The people who run these awards, and the ones who snicker at the recipients, are arrogant in the extreme.
PHYSICS
Arnd Leike of the University of Munich, for demonstrating that beer froth obeys the mathematical Law of Exponential Decay. [REFERENCE: "Demonstration of the Exponential Decay Law Using Beer Froth," Arnd Leike, European Journal of Physics, vol. 23, January 2002, pp. 21-26.]
What do they mean "cannot not or should not be reproduced"?!!!!!! I'll run this experiment every chance I (URP!) get...
Soko
"Depression is merely anger without enthusiasm." - Anonymous
NPR's All Things Considered did a story about this. Except, they did the story on Thursday, April 1, 1999.
'SBEMAIL!' is better than a goat!!
Personally I don't think the physics winner (Demonstration of the Exponential Decay Law Using Beer Froth) satisfies the awards criteria for achievements that "cannot or should not be reproduced." I know once I finish work to today I plan to try to reproduce it!
. . . to get some ideas for research grant proposals.
The dog-to-human translator is taken. Maybe I'll go for tomacco.
-Peter
From the Associated Press article:
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."
That's the funniest thing I've read in a while. (I guess I don't get out much.)
If the desired output is a linear graph, it is only necessary to obtain two empirical data points. If you only have the opportunity to get one data point (or you are lazy), just adjust the desired slope accordingly.....
All of the stuff is amusing but some of it is actually a bit interesting. I'd like to see the work behind the literature prize. It is an interesting question to answer albeit not an earth shattering piece of science. Does improper high-lighting affect reading comprehension? Never thought of that...
There's a difference between having a different opinion (I have major issues with Linux and free software people) and just being lame. As far as I can tell, you fall into the latter category.
There should be a moratorium on the use of the apostrophe.
Max V.
NeXTMail/MIME Mail welcome
Yes, it seems that it just came to me.....could this be the breakthrough we're all looking for?
Ig Nobel awards typically recognize the most dubious contributions to the world of science and research.
Does this mean that Amazon's revolutionary "One Click" system will be honored?
From the website for the Chemistry Category Winner:
"After Ed Pegg Jr featured it on his puzzle website, there was a brief but spirited slashdot discussion, and a few people started offering to help me out with samples. To acknowledge their contributions and let them know how things were going, I decided to make a web site with pictures of all the samples they had sent and those I'd collected myself. The website eventually began to take on greater depth. Here's why."
Dupe posts are
If you watch or read the awards, or the associated publications, you'll note that the people running and participating in the awards are themselves science-types with senses of humor. They're laughing at scientific research in general, and in a good-natured manner, and not just sneering at a few scientists with unusual specialties...
The awards actually seem to go to a few different types of endeavors:
From my perspective, ALL of the awards seem to have gone to endeavors that are fitting subjects for humor, and I see no claims of valid scientific reasoning being INVALID or 'stupid', merely strange or funny. Further, as far as I can see, NONE of the RECIPIENTS are being 'snickered at' at all, only the "research", activity, or claims that earn the award. That is, it's not the PEOPLE being made fun of (ad hominem attacks are not good science), it is what they are doing or claiming.
In short, in my personal opinion, the only people who really have any reason to actually be offended are excessively thin-skinned scientists (e.g. the late Carl Sagan, who feared that the awards would make people "laugh at scientists") and crackpots, who kind of NEED to be made fun of so that they can claim that their Revolutionary Secrets That Shake the Very Foundations of Scientific Knowledge(tm) are being unfairly repressed by The Establishment...
Hacker Public Radio is our Friend
Actually, Clever Hans, the alleged "counting horse," picked up on his trainer's body language to know when to stop tapping his hoof. A lot of people who don't know much about animals don't realize that animals are very good at reading/communicating body and gestural language, which is probably where the confusion comes in.
/. effect in that it causes something to come to a halt, grinding or not... ;)
The TV example from the parent post is yet another example of the "Clever Hans Effect," similar to the
Feel better knowing that after 10 years?
I'm not a geek, I'm just a clever script.
42i
It took me forever to find this comic online, Dog decoder (see the one to the right).
Naturally, there is also the more subtle guide to interpreting the mood of an Irish Setter.
-Kraft
Live and let live
The importance of this would first of all be to establish a 'communications baseline' that goes outside of the very specific methods we use for translation that is a trial and error method. Imagine never having a compiler or any standard languages, requiring people to code per task, and then making some poor schmuck have to tweak a translation algorithm to that specific language.
a generalized language translation would require a more abstract understanding of what exactly is communication and language. Regardless of any theoretical 'star trek like' application of a universal translator, a system like this could not only make real time language (including voice) translation a reality for international affairs, but would also perhaps help in the development of computer languages and interfaces.
"Clever Hans" (the horse in question) is a classic case...
The trainer really THOUGHT his horse could do mathematics. It took some study to determine what was really going on. What was happening is that after presenting the question, the trainer would unconsciously lean forward in expectation, and as Hans reached the correct number of hoof-taps, would relax slightly. It turned out that Hans was cueing off of the slight changes in posture for when to start and stop tapping. They discovered that Hans couldn't get the correct number if he couldn't see the trainer, and that they could get him to tap out any number they wanted (regardless of the math problem presented) by these slight changes of posture done intentionally.
Other animals (that is, animals other than human beings) may not be as good as we are at abstraction, but they can be pretty darn perceptive...
Hacker Public Radio is our Friend
I think I saw prior art on the dog/cat washing machine in Puerto Rico. I was in traffic caused by a carnival and saw a ride through donkey wash car wash style.
As for this invention I'm sorry but no pet of mine will ever be placed in a device that looks that much like an industrial microwave.
Work for Change & GET PAID!
"...Waste Management, WorldCom, Xerox, and Arthur Andersen, for adapting the mathematical concept of imaginary numbers for use in the business world. [NOTE: all companies are US-based unless otherwise noted"
Hmmm.... I wondering why my last phone bill was $36.45 + $7i dollars.
A lot of irony has already been pointed out, but perhaps the MOST ironic is the slashdot page about it that I'm seeing right now:
check out my screenshot:
Slashdot Screenshot
So much irony on so many levels...
hmmm... I had a look through the inventions that : "cannot or should not be reproduced."
:)
For shame on giving an award to the under-ease (air-tight underpants that have a carbon filter to stop gas emmisions from smelling too bad)
Have a read of the web-pages, there are people with pretty embarrassingly horrible problems (80% of colon removed, crohns disease, spastic colon etc.) who cannot control their "emmissions"! It's kinda funny - but it shouldn't get a prize like this
Johns: Well, how does it look now? Riddick: Looks clear.
Sorry for the offtopic post, but this is important.
See this story from yesterday for more details. Pets Warehouse has recovered from the Slashdot Effect and is back up. Click the link, click the link, click the link! Don't let Robert Novak, Slashdot enemy-of-the-month, earn one more dollar from his website!!!
Also, e-mail them and tell them what you think! Call them at 1-800-991-3299 from a payphone: they'll have to pay for the 1-800 call *and* for the payphone usage!
Show them the POWER of Slashdot!!!!!
My first impression was that they didn't have the listing of awards on the site, which was disappointing. I tried a google search and was able to find a page with the list, actually links to the current and previous lists.
No one seems to have posted an actual list of winners yet, so here you go.
BIOLOGY
"Courtship Behaviour of Ostriches (Struthio camelus) Towards Humans Under Farming Conditions in Britain," Norma E. Bubier, Charles G.M. Paxton, P. Bowers, D.C. Deeming, British Poultry Science, vol. 39, no. 4, September 1998, pp. 477-481.
PHYSICS
"Demonstration of the Exponential Decay Law Using Beer Froth," Arnd Leike, European Journal of Physics, vol. 23, January 2002, pp. 21-26.
INTERDISCIPLINARY RESEARCH
Karl Kruszelnicki of The University of Sydney, for performing a comprehensive survey of human belly button lint -- who gets it, when, what color, and how much.
CHEMISTRY
Theo Gray of Wolfram Research, in Champaign, Illinois, for gathering many elements of the periodic table, and assembling them into the form of a four-legged periodic table table.
MATHEMATICS
"Estimation of the Total Surface Area in Indian Elephants (Elephas maximus indicus)," K.P. Sreekumar and G. Nirmalan, Veterinary Research Communications, vol. 14, no. 1, 1990, pp. 5-17.
LITERATURE
"The Effects of Pre-Existing Inappropriate Highlighting on Reading Comprehension." Vicki L. Silvers and David S. Kreiner, Reading Research and Instruction, vol. 36, no. 3, 1997, pp. 217-23.
PEACE
Keita Sato, President of Takara Co., Dr. Matsumi Suzuki, President of Japan Acoustic Lab, and Dr. Norio Kogure, Executive Director, Kogure Veterinary Hospital, for promoting peace and harmony between the species by inventing Bow-Lingual, a computer-based automatic dog-to-human language translation device.
HYGEINE
Eduardo Segura, of Lavakan de Aste, in Tarragona, Spain, for inventing a washing machine for cats and dogs.
ECONOMICS
The executives, corporate directors, and auditors of Enron, Lernaut & Hausbie [Belgium], Adelphia, Bank of Commerce and Credit International [Pakistan], Cendant, CMS Energy, Duke Energy, Dynegy, Gazprom [Russia], Global Crossing, HIH Insurance [Australia], Informix, Kmart, Maxwell Communications [UK], McKessonHBOC, Merrill Lynch, Merck, Peregrine Systems, Qwest Communications, Reliant Resources, Rent-Way, Rite Aid, Sunbeam, Tyco, Waste Management, WorldCom, Xerox, and Arthur Andersen, for adapting the mathematical concept of imaginary numbers for use in the business world. [NOTE: all companies are US-based unless otherwise noted.]
MEDICINE
"Scrotal Asymmetry in Man and in Ancient Sculpture." Chris McManus, Nature, vol. 259, February 5, 1976, p. 426.
I choose to remain celibate, like my father and his father before him.
The dog is trained to bark until his owner shouts "well done!", and then stop.
Owner: "Rover, what's 1+2?"
Dog: "Woof! Woof! Woof! Wo--"
Owner (cutting him off): "Yes, that's right, three!!!"
Along the bottom cuff is an additional add-on cartoon showing a road with the same face on a run-over flattened Irish Setter with the caption "SURPRISE".
It was certainly irreproducible.
Nearly fifty percent of all graduates come from the bottom half of the class!
The guy (Theodore Gray, I have one of his Mathematica textbooks, I think) who made the wooden periodic table table is hilarious, and also has a page nicely documenting what happens when you drop sodium into water, which includes a nice quicktime video of a drop of sodium into a lake.
It's psychosomatic. You need a lobotomy. I'll get a saw.
Ever dream you could fly? Get up from the Flight Sim. I Fly
From the Periodic Table Table's site:
"the Periodic Table Table was awarded the highest conceivable award for which it is eligible"
Interestingly the sentence works just as will shifted round:
"awarded the highest award for which it is conceivably eligible"
The point of the ignoble awards is to be FUN!
A mixture of laughing at the genuine hoaxes as well as marvelling at the crazy scientific experiments people manage to get funding for is going to be a much better laugh than what you are proposing.
Personally I like the award for making frogs levitate, dunking chocolate biscuits and for the use of imaginary numbers in accountancy by Enron ;-)
-WolfWithoutAClause
"Gravity is only a theory, not a fact!"Well, at least that's what they say they were doing down at the pub during working hours! Why didn't I think of this one!
"Freedom means freedom for everybody" -- Dick Cheney
Actually, there is a very important result that turned up from some research done several years back. As it turns out, if you tie four cats together such that each set of 4 legs stick out orthogonally to the other three, and drop the bundle-o-cats from a height, the cats will, as they near the ground, rapidly come to a stop, hover a mere foot or two above the ground, and spin rapidly.
Not really, but thats the funniest mental image I've had in awhile.
> 1) Where do lost biro's go to
Somewhere in the cosmos, [Veet Voojagig] said, along with all the planets inhabited by humanoids, reptiloids, fishoids, walking treeoids and superintelligent shades of the colour blue, there was also a planet entirely given over to Biro life forms. And it was to this planet that unattended Biros made their way, slipping quietly through wormholes in Space to a world where they knew they could enjoy a uniquely Biroid lifestyle, responding to highly Biro-oriented stimuli, and generally leading the Biro equivalent of the good life.
source
"There are already a million monkeys on a million typewriters, and Usenet is NOTHING like Shakespeare." - Blair Houghton
Sorry if this appears twice - but my detective work has uncovered the results of the IgNobel winning belly button research and I just want to share he edification: http://www.abc.net.au/science/k2/lint/facts.htm
In a minimum-phase system there is an inextricable link between
frequency response, phase response and transient response, as they
are all merely transforms of one another. This combined with
minimalization of open-loop errors in output amplifiers and correct
compensation for non-linear passive crossover network loading can
lead to a significant decrease in system resolution lost. However,
this all means jack when you listen to Pink Floyd.
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