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2009 Ig Nobels Awarded, For Gas-Mask Bras and More
alphadogg notes that the 2009 Ig Nobel Prizes were awarded yesterday evening in Cambridge, MA. (You may find that site has been pre-Slashdotted; and improbable.com's video feeds of the ceremony don't work at the moment either.) News.com.au has coverage of the bra that converts quickly to two gas masks, a study of why pregnant women don't tip over, the award for literature, and other gems. "Ireland's police won the literature prize from writing more than 50 traffic tickets to a frequent visitor and speeder named Prawo Jazdy. In Polish, this means 'driver's license.' Pathologist Stephan Bolliger and colleagues at the University of Bern in Switzerland won for a study they did to determine whether an empty beer bottle does more or less damage to the human skull than a full one in a bar fight."
"I'm sorry miss, I thought the phone was an alarm warning of a gas attack. Let me help you get back in again". .....
I would have to think through my minimal physics training that a full beer bottle would be more effective in a bar fight then an empty one. Assuming there is a cap on the bottle. If the cap is off, all bets are off.
I hope never to win one of these awards, but we could be surprised one day. Some of this research may end up useful in a way we never foresaw.
sudo mount --milk --sugar
The lowly beer bottle has had a much greater impact on the world's institutions of higher learning than all other academic topics combined.
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
Which converts quickly to two gas chambers. Dutch style.
One might have to wonder if heavy breathing might change the effectiveness of such a gas mask.
Apart from *ouch*, this actually sets a great example - a simple yet elegant experiment that anyone (who happened to have a spare 60 years) could do, yet it still contributes something to science.
You can learn a lot about a person if you just take the time to inject them with sodium pentathol
dutch oven.
I am more dangerous drunk with empty beer bottles than sober with full ones.
http://improbable.com.nyud.net/ig/winners/#ig2009
Create panties that turn into gas masks and I'm in.
bra that converts quickly to two gas masks,
They neglected to mention the more impressive part: they did a live demonstration for six people, all using bras she was wearing, and she removed them without taking off any other clothing.
She was also decently endowed, and I'm not referring to the size of her...grants.
Please help metamoderate.
The bra that quickly converts into two gas masks would really fit in the comical series "Allo Allo", if you know it.
I had not heard about the Zimbabwean Dollar before. The Wikipedia article has a great picture of the $100 billion note and the three eggs it bought when it was released. Their financial software can't even handle the $trillion numbers involved in people's bank accounts. The countries money supply was 900 quadrillion dollars in 2008! Words can't even express how insane this is.
"She's beautiful, she's rich, she's got huge... tracts of land."
Liberal? Conservative? Compare perspectives at Left-Right
TFA has no pictures. You can all go home now.
Alexander Peter Kristopeit bought his basement from his mommy for one dollar.
I always heard bras converted to yarmulkes with chin straps....
Why, without your clothes, you're naked, Miss Dudley!
It was a hoot as usual.
The past couple of years I have had to get orchestra seats, down on the floor in front of the stage. These used to be the least desirable seats, as occupants had no cover from the constant barrage of paper airplanes. Now they try to limit the planes to two designated times, but there is a lot of random traffic anyway.
When the very MILFy Russian blonde doc pulled not one but two emergency bras from under her tight black velvet dress and put them on the faces of four actual Nobel laureates, the crowd went wild. Good times.
NB: In case you want to read a screenplay in which the Ig Nobel ceremony is a pivotal plot point:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/13651346/The-EightFoot-Bride-an-original-screenplay
If Slashdot were chemistry it would look like this:Cadaverine
I thought that was very good. From his blog
24:
Given decentralized constrained optimization by maximizing agents with well-defined convex objective functions and/or convex production functions, engaging in exchange and production with free disposal, leads, in the absence of externalities, market power, and other distortions, there exists an equilibrium characterized by Pareto optimality.
7:
Greedy people, competing, make the world go round.
god n. : the Supreme Being, indistinguishable from a good random number generator.
or GTFO
imagine the hero status of the guy who throws a smoke bomb into the Hooters restaurant.
rip, rip, rip, ahhhhhh!!!!!!!!!
But did anyone else watching the sword swallower shout out to their computer display "Don't hiccup!"?
No, because someone in the audience did before he started...
Please help metamoderate.
...when I had the opportunity to travel back in time. I gleefully grabbed the once in a lifetime chance and travelled back to 1970. Once in 1970 I participated in a question and answer session with the great minds of the time.
"Have you abolished war?", "Have you cured cancer?", "Do you have flying cars?", I was asked.
"No, no and no.", I replied, "but we have pigs that glow under UV light, remote-control cyborg African beetles, bras that double as gas masks and iPhones. Oh, and we know why pregnant women don't fall over!"
I thought they took the news rather well. Considering.
How the Ig Nobels compare with the Nobels: http://www.networkworld.com/slideshows/2009/092809-ignobel.html
From the actual issue of Arthritis and Ruhmitism where Ig Nobel Prise winner Dr. Donald L. Unger, published the results of his investigation into a possible cause of arthritis of the fingers. - http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/cgi-bin/fulltext/86510619/PDFSTART
Read the reply... I love it when serious people let loose!
Does knuckle cracking lead to arthritis of the fingers?
To the Editor:
During the author's childhood, various renowned authorities (his mother, several aunts, and, later, his mother-in law [personal communication]) informed him that cracking his knuckles would lead to arthritis of the fingers. To test the accuracy of this hypothesis, the following study was undertaken. For 50 years, the author cracked the knuckles of his left hand at least twice a day, leaving those on the right as a control. Thus, the knuckles on the left were cracked at least 36,500 times, while those on the right cracked rarely and spontaneously. At the end of the 50 years, the hands were compared for the presence of arthritis. There was no arthritis in either hand, and no apparent differences between the two hands. Knuckle cracking did not lead to arthritis after a 50-year controlled study by the one participant. While a larger group would be necessary to confirm this result, this preliminary investigation suggests a lack of correlation between knuckle cracking and the development of arthritis of the fingers. A search of the literature revealed only one previous paper on this subject, and the authors came to the same conclusion (Swezey RL. Swezey SE. The consequences of habitual knuckle cracking. West J Med 1973;122:377-9.).
This result calls into question whether other parental beliefs, e.g., the importance of eating spinach, are also flawed. Further investigation is likely warranted. In conclusion, there is no apparent relationship between knuckle cracking and the subsequent development of arthritis of the fingers. This study was done entirely at the author's expense, with no grants from any governmental or pharmaceutical source.
Donald L. Unger, MD
Thousand Oaks, CA
Reply
To the Editor:
I appreciate the opportunity to review Dr. Unger's report. His "self-controlled" study adds considerable credence
to our 1973 study findings. Dr. Unger exercised amazing self control by performing 50 years of knuckle cracking (KC) on his left hand at least twice daily, "while those on the right cracked only rarely and spontaneously.'' No evidence of arthritis in either hand was found at the end of 50 years. I have taken the liberty of consulting Dr. John Adams, PhD, at the Rand Corporation. who has generously provided me with the following statistical analysis.
The basic study designed by Dr. Unger is a two-arm trial without randomization. Although it is not clear, it appears
that the study was not blinded. Blinding would only be possible if the investigator didn't know left from right. This is not likely since studies indicate that only 31% of primary care physicians don't know left from right. (The figure is reportedly somcwhat higher for most specialists.) The lack of randomization suggests the need for a multivariate analysis to reduce bias. Controlling for knuckle-to-knuckle variation in race, sex, socioeconomic status, initial severity, comorbidities, and Ecuadorian
barometric pressure at the time of measurement would be advisable. The sample size appears too small to support accurate inference. Typically, sample sizes of roughly twice the available research budget are required for valid inference. Restrictive
eligibility criteria and convenience sampling limit generalization of the results to knuckle-cracking physicians
with a lot of time on their hands.
I should note that SES, the co-author of our 1973 investigation, was 12 years old at the time of the study and that
the study was stimulated because of his grandmother's co
Sometimes the best solution is to stop wasting time looking for an easy solution.
Meh, who cares? That's why I post AC.
You, obviously, because you complain about it.
Pathologist Stephan Bolliger and colleagues at the University of Bern in Switzerland won for a study they did to determine whether an empty beer bottle does more or less damage to the human skull than a full one in a bar fight
Hey now, this one is actually useful information! You now know which bottle to pick, based on how much (or little) damage you actually want to do.
Admittedly, I don't think I'd willingly go out drinking with Dr. Bolliger...
The fact that it covers a boob is a funny fact that everyone will forget once the gas bomb explodes.
I am quite confident they will. Forget it, that is.
I am so confident that I propose we do the same with jockstraps that would be held together with Velcro so they could be pulled out quickly in the case of a emergency.
Why not cover the other 50% of the population, right? Think of all those soldiers in the battlefield without a gas mask and not a boob in sight.
Surely, they won't mind nor pay attention where it was just prior to the gas attack.
Think of the lives this could save!
Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
Re: the full/empty beer bottle-as-weapon research.
I claim the Philosophy Prize for considering whether a half-empty or half-full beer bottle is more dangerous. The answer: yes.
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