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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."

4 of 167 comments (clear)

  1. bird eyes? by circletimessquare · · Score: 4, Informative

    His research, published in the British Journal of Ophthalmology, followed studies of head injuries in woodpeckers from the 1970s. The answer lies in how a woodpecker's skull and brain are arranged: the muscles around the sensitive brain tissues make the woodpecker's head function like a perfect shock absorber.

    shouldn't that be Ornithology?

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    intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
    1. Re:bird eyes? by ian_mackereth · · Score: 4, Informative

      Only eventually... he started out by wondering why woodpeckers' eyes don't pop out. (The nictating membrane tightens just before impact, if you're interested...)

  2. Re:time to use my mod points! by arun_s · · Score: 4, Informative
    Apparently someone doesn't know how interesting this problem is.
    Very interesting indeed, it appears I have been too hasty.
    --
    I can explain it for you, but I can't understand it for you.
  3. Links to stories botched and slashdotted by davidwr · · Score: 3, Informative

    I don't know what happened to the news-story link, I know it was there when I submitted it. Anyhow, Google News has many more stories to choose from.

    The Improbable Results site I linked is very slow due to media attention. I'm sure Slashdot didn't help :).

    Here's a Coral Cache version of the Improbable Results website and the list of present and past winners.

    If Coral doesn't work, here's a MirrorDot version of the Improbable Results main page.

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    Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.