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2006 Ig Nobel Prizes Awarded

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the best-of-the-worst dept.

davidwr writes "The Ig-Nobel Peace Prize went to Howard Stapleton for his groundbreaking research in teenager-repellent technology. D. Lynn Halpern won an award for research into why fingernails on a chalkboard are almost as annoying as teenagers. Ivan Schwab garnered his award for research into avian headacheology. Two french researchers cooked up a medal for spaghetti research. Read more about these and other prizes here and at the Improbable Research official web site. To those Slashdotters who were expecting an award, better luck next year."

18 of 167 comments (clear)

  1. Aww... by Jello+B. · · Score: 5, Funny

    I thought my death clock would win this time... Maybe if I make a Smelloscope...

  2. time to use my mod points! by arun_s · · Score: 3, Funny

    electronic teenager repellant: -1, Troll
    work on the mystery of why fingernails being dragged down a blackboard produces an excruciating sound: -1, Stupid
    how woodpeckers avoid headaches: +1, Interesting
    why dry spaghetti breaks into more than one piece when it is bent: -1, Lame

    --
    I can explain it for you, but I can't understand it for you.
    1. Re:time to use my mod points! by grammar+fascist · · Score: 5, Funny
      electronic teenager repellant: -1, Troll

      Give it five years, and you'll be wondering how you can possibly get along without one.
      --
      I got my Linux laptop at System76.
    2. Re:time to use my mod points! by brown-eyed+slug · · Score: 5, Funny
      electronic teenager repellant: -1, Troll

      No, it really works! I've seen no electronic teenagers round here...

      Sorry.
    3. Re:time to use my mod points! by maxwell+demon · · Score: 5, Funny
      why dry spaghetti breaks into more than one piece when it is bent: -1, Lame

      You seem to miss the significance of that research. Note that the article mentioned the physics Nobel price for big bang research. This spaghetti research is of course very related to the question of how the universe was created. After all, we know it was created by the FSM, and surely bending and breaking spaghetti was an integral part of the act of creation.
      --
      The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
    4. Re:time to use my mod points! by theonetruekeebler · · Score: 4, Funny
      it's a remarkably difficult problem with a lot of applications (including, methinks, applications to space-station engineering
      Due respect, gard, but I'm not worried about whether my space station breaks into two pieces or three and I'm not going to spend much spare time trying to snap space stations in half. Any event such that my station is in N > 1 pieces has produced N - 1 too many pieces.
      --
      This is not my sandwich.
  3. Re:bird eyes? by Skidge · · Score: 5, Funny

    Maybe he started out researching injuries due to woodpeckers pecking out human eyes and one thing lead to another....

  4. No mention for Digital Rectal Massage? by atomicstrawberry · · Score: 5, Funny

    The winner of the medicine prize got it for ground breaking research into curing intractible hiccups by sticking his finger up a patient's anus.

    He also suggests that sex is the most potent cure for hiccups, but that won't really affect anyone on slashdot.

    1. Re:No mention for Digital Rectal Massage? by cgenman · · Score: 2, Funny

      After the awards he was giving away kits with rubber gloves, lube, and directions. Does anyone have a scan of the directions? They went quickly, and I've had these hiccups for days...

      --
      The ______ Agenda
    2. Re:No mention for Digital Rectal Massage? by Dorceon · · Score: 4, Funny

      Now that's the kind of DRM we can all enjoy!

      --
      What sound do people on rollercoasters make? Hint: it's not Xbox 360.
    3. Re:No mention for Digital Rectal Massage? by Secrity · · Score: 3, Funny

      Try http://public.diversity.org.uk/deviant/fsfist.htm

  5. PC? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    chalkboard
    Is this a politicly correct blackboard or something?

  6. But... by interactive_civilian · · Score: 2, Funny

    But, isn't that what DRM has always stood for?

    --
    "Empathise with stupidity, and you're halfway to thinking like an idiot." - Iain M. Banks
  7. Getting replies like these... by davidwr · · Score: 3, Funny

    +5 priceless

    --
    Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
  8. Re:Don't miss the past winners. by KokorHekkus · · Score: 2, Funny

    My favourite past winner is the 2003 Physics Prize: "An Analysis of the Forces Required to Drag Sheep over Various Surfaces". Real research... just sounds funny. Imagine being at a party "....interesting, so what kind of research do you do?" "Currently I'm investigating the frictional coefficients of sheep on different surfaces"

  9. RTFA by njdj · · Score: 2, Funny

    Since when are Peace Prizes given out to people who invent phyological/sonic/whateveryouwanttocallit weapons?

    If the teenager-repellent were designed to exterminate teenagers, you'd have a point. But it isn't. It's just designed to persuade them to go somewhere where they don't annoy people. It's not a weapon of any kind.

    You do understand the difference between insecticide and mosquito repellent, don't you?

  10. They always said the anal by The+Creator · · Score: 4, Funny

    -ouge hole whas the answer to DRM.

    --

    FRA: STFU GTFO
  11. The Quickest Way to Clear Out the Mall: by aquatone282 · · Score: 4, Funny

    Send in a pair of Army recruiters.

    Works like a champ.

    --
    What?