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2006 Ig Nobel Prizes Awarded
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."
Don't miss the list of previous winners. It's full of hilarious and sometimes interesting stuff.
A Dutch group won the IgNobel for their work on malaria mosquitos and limburg cheese. In a more serious experiment, they found the smell of feet is one of the main attractions to malaria mosquitos. They then tried Limburg Cheese because it smells, well, like feet.
They are one of the leading institutes in mosquito research in the world.
Sig (appended to the end of comments I post, 54 chars)
What's next, Peace Prize for the nuclear bomb? They certainly bring peace...
There was this guy named Bertrand Russell.
At the end of World War 2 when the 'allies' had the nuke and the Soviets didn't, he advocated a pre-emptive nuclear strike against the Soviet Union.
As soon as the Soviets developed their own nukes, he became an anti-nuclear peace activist.
For him, it was all down to game theory.
So yeah in a sense nukes may brought peace -- if the Soviets hadn't developed them, Eastern Europe and Russia would quite possibly have been nuked into submission. I think that would have been less 'peaceful' than the cold war.
In the free world the media isn't government run; the government is media run.
So this means that the next time one's wife has the hiccup, you can suggest to her anal sex to cure the hiccup?
This would work best!
Being in the security industry I learned of this device some time ago (early this year). . .
I first experienced it more than 40 years ago; so I'm not sure why it's news now. Drove me fucking nuts. Store that used it is now bankrupt and a parking lot.
KFG
If someone intentionally plays high pitched unbearable sounds in attempt to "repel" me like a friggin insect, I'd feel compelled to put some earplugs on and come wreck his shop with my friends.
That's the kind of peace we're talking.
His research simply confirmed something that's been known for a long time. Vagus nerve stimulation helps with all sorts of neuromuscular conditions, including cardiac arrest -- anyone who has taken a CPR class should know this.
Another, slightly less awkward way to stimulate the vagal system is to press hard in the soft spots beneath the ears; this is how I normally cure my hiccups (2-3 bouts weekly, since I was about 20).
"Trolls they were, but filled with the evil will of their master: a fell race..." -- J.R.R. Tolkien on Olog-hai