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2004 Ig Nobel Prizes Announced

ancice writes "The 2004 Ig Nobel prizes are out. Article by New Scientist. An 'invisible gorilla has scooped the 2004 Ig Nobel Prize for Psychology'. And 'dropped food is safe to eat if it has spent no more than five seconds on the floor' - Public Health. Finally, there's proof for the 5 second rule! And for Engineering, 'Patenting of the combover'. Official page with ceremony and lectures."

14 of 204 comments (clear)

  1. Proper definition/clarification of 5-second rule by stecoop · · Score: 5, Funny

    The 5-second rule - if food product should land on the ground and if the dog doesn't eat said food product in 5 seconds than you can have it.

    In conjunction with:
    Read your town charter, boy. `If food stuffs should touch the ground, said food stuffs shall be turned over to the village idiot.' Since I don't see him around, start shoveling! - Homer.

  2. 5 seconds on the floor? by MrRTFM · · Score: 4, Funny

    What if it lands in dogshit?

    Is there a formula to work out the exact 'safe time' based on what food lands on when it falls?

    --
    You can't expect to wield supreme executive power, just because some watery tart threw a sword at you
    1. Re:5 seconds on the floor? by savagedome · · Score: 5, Funny

      What if it lands in dogshit?

      There might be some common sense involved in that decision.

  3. Prior art on combover? by FerretFrottage · · Score: 5, Funny

    Didn't they find cave drawings of cavemen that used combovers? The difference being that the combover covered most of their entire bodies.

    --
    "Look Lois, the two symbols of the Republican Party: an elephant, and a fat white guy who is threatened by change."
  4. Like in video games... by suso · · Score: 4, Funny

    ...if you see a piece of food lying on the ground, pick it up.

  5. Re:No, the 5-second rule hasn't been proven. by Destoo · · Score: 4, Funny
    "The next step was sterilizing the tiles and inoculating them with E. coli, then placing 25 grams of cookies or gummies on the tiles for 5 seconds. In all cases, E. coli was transferred from the tile to the food"


    There you go.
    It should be LESS THAN 5 seconds.
    4.99 seconds would have been good.

    5 was just too much.
    --
    Nouvelles de jeux et technologies en français. TC
  6. Re:Winner by Ford+Prefect · · Score: 5, Funny
    I didn't see the bee at all, until it was played back. The bee was on the screen for a full 20 seconds in total.

    Reminds me of something from a certain radio series I listened to last night..
    The Somebody Else's Problem field is much simpler and more effective, and what's more can be run for over a hundred years on a single torch battery. This is because it relies on people's natural disposition not to see anything they don't want to, weren't expecting, or can't explain. If Effrafax had painted the mountain pink and erected a cheap and simple Somebody Else's Problem field on it, then people would have walked past the mountain, round it, even over it, and simply never have noticed that the thing was there.

    So, presumably to avoid detection, terrorists and other ne'r-do-wells should wear gorilla suits - invisibility is just too much effort. :-)
    --
    Tedious Bloggy Stuff - hooray?
  7. Country music and suicide rates by scotay · · Score: 5, Funny

    A disturbing study showing that the suicide rates for whites in US metropolitan areas is higher in cities where more country music is played on the radio earned the Ig Nobel prize in Medicine for Steven Stack of Wayne State in Detroit and James Gundlach of Auburn University in Alabama.

    I think some further study is needed here. My theory is that country music is not actually the culprit, but Southern Baptists are. Country music is more likely to be played in areas infested with Southern Baptists and other fundamentalist Christians. These groups are able to place stricter social controls on anything fun and are constantly harping on homosexuals and on anyone that might be having a good time and not constantly worried about damnation. This denial of the reality of free American lives eventually leads to higher suicide rates. I think we would need to start playing country music in more liberalized areas and see if that might increase the rates of buzzkill before we can blame country music exclusively.

  8. Re:Text in case of Slashdotting.. by Ford+Prefect · · Score: 5, Funny

    Ben Wilson of the University of British Columbia, Lawrence Dill of Simon Fraser University [Canada], Robert Batty of the Scottish Association for Marine Science, Magnus Whalberg of the University of Aarhus [Denmark], and Hakan Westerberg of Sweden's National Board of Fisheries, for showing that herrings apparently communicate by farting.

    Please, not 'farting' - I believe the correct term is 'fast, repetitive ticks' (or, um, 'FRTs').

    --
    Tedious Bloggy Stuff - hooray?
  9. i knew i wasn't crazy..... by to_kallon · · Score: 5, Funny

    Oddly a large fraction had not noticed a woman in a gorilla suit walk through the scene
    for years i've been seeing this big rabbit, and everyone thought i was nuts. but who's laughing now......?

    --


    The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it.
    -Oscar Wilde
  10. Re:Country music suicide enhancer? by tomhudson · · Score: 4, Funny
    A disturbing study showing that the suicide rates for whites in US metropolitan areas is higher in cities where more country music is played on the radio
    Now why am I not surprised?
    Hey, billy-bob, I dare you to put your shotgun barrel in your mouth.
    Shut up, Cleatus!
    Double-dare yah!
    Yeah? Well I triple-dare you-all back!
    Okay.
    Bet you a buck your wad of chaw's gone blocked the darn barrel.
    (mumbled around barrel) Aint.
    Is to!
    (mumbled around barrel) Aint!
    Is to!
    (mumbled around barrel) Aint! I'll proove it to ya! * Bang! *
    (shakes head in surprise) Sumbitch, he was right.
  11. The 5 second rule by iso · · Score: 4, Funny

    I have been told since I was a kid that this is the three second rule! I can't believe for all these years I've been throwing out two seconds worth of perfectly good food!

  12. Gorilla Gender Bias? by milo_Gwalthny · · Score: 4, Funny

    I wonder if they ran this experiment by gender. When I'm watching the guys on TV throw the ball between themselves and at the hoop I never seem to notice my wife walking into the room and talking at me.

    She, OTOH, notices everything. And remembers.

    --
    Milo
  13. Re:Proper definition/clarification of 5-second rul by stecoop · · Score: 4, Funny

    Hmm, that would fall under Section 1 paragraph II - heading A - The Village Idiot.

    The owner would be the village idiot for these reasons:
    1) You're standing in front of the door
    2) You brought your beer to the bathroom
    3) You didn't finish your drink *before* going to the bathroom
    4) You are walking in pee
    5) You're in crowded men's room

    Possible Remedies
    1) Pee in your beer bottle to rectify anyone from stealing your beer in the future
    2) Finish drink before going to bathroom
    3) Plan on going to the bathroom before ordering drink
    4) Don't walk in Pee
    5) Don't take drink to bathroom.
    6) Don't stand in front of a bathroom door
    7) Let the dog have it - or you're the village idiot.