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."

Comments

Re:Ouch

[BadAnalogyGuy]

A full beer bottle is prone to break at the neck due to the air bubble retracting into the cap area during swinging (assuming you are holding it by the neck, which you should if you have any sense at all). If it breaks at the neck when you hit, you end up with shards of glass on yourself rather than on your opponent.

I'm interested in why pregnant women don't tip over. I'm trying hard to avoid bringing bovines into the comparison.

Re:Prize for Medicine

[Anonymous Coward]

Yes, I have to say that this is a great experiment; not "ig" at all.

(Might have been better if he'd done the control knuckle-cracking by finger, and not by hand.)

Mathematics Prize for Gideon Gono

[KnownIssues]

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.

Re:Mathematics Prize for Gideon Gono

[jijitus]

Haha, in Argentina we have knocked on average two digits every decade until the nineties, when we had one last 4-digit drop to force our currency to equal the US dollar. Of course it didn't last, now it's valued USD 0.26 But the Zimbabwean dollar wins all records. I had never seen exponential notation and the percentage sign together before.

Re:Mathematics Prize for Gideon Gono

[Kuroji]

Pales utterly in comparison to the hyperinflation that was caused by Mugabe's policies. If they hadn't redenominated the Zimbabwean dollar, the last printing of money would have had twenty-five more zeroes on it.

Then again confiscating personal property and businesses for redistribution by the state is almost NEVER a good idea.

Re:Hey, not fair!

[commodore64_love]

>>>The lowly beer bottle [or wine bottle] has had a much greater impact on the world's institutions [...]

Fixed. In college alcohol helps people meet one another, which leads to procreation and children, who then grow-up to drink more alcohol. The great classics of literature were written while copious amounts of alcohol were consumed, and in ancient history society revolved around the great central beer halls. Even the gears of government are greased by alcohol as politicians discuss nuclear arms bans, free trade agreements, or health reform over dinner and alcohol.