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Ig Nobels Feature Exploding Colonoscopies, Left Leaning Views of Eiffel Tower
alphadogg writes "The Ig Nobel Prize ceremony has honored a wide array of strange research and advancement over the years, from exploding pants to woodpecker headaches to aggressive parking enforcement, and Thursday night's ceremony in Cambridge, Mass., was no exception. Particular highlights included a Russian company that turns ammunition into trace amounts of diamond, Japanese engineers who developed a speech jamming device, and research into such critical topics as why coffee is so hard to carry without slopping and what makes a ponytail move the way it does."
Husbands, take notice.
" LITERATURE PRIZE: The US Government General Accountability Office, for issuing a report about reports about reports that recommends the preparation of a report about the report about reports about reports.
REFERENCE: "Actions Needed to Evaluate the Impact of Efforts to Estimate Costs of Reports and Studies," US Government General Accountability Office report GAO-12-480R, May 10, 2012. "
Its a shame the guys who did this didn't get a mention: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-18247680
It had a been a subject of great debate a amongst my friends - other stouts not doing this was a point of confusion for a long time! (which of course lead to more testing....)
IgNobels are not really a disservice at all. They are a humorous recognition of the very thing you're talking about.
Nobody's discrediting those IgNobels (and, in fact, previous winners with quite high standing in their fields have always taken it with good humour and their science validated).
Bad science won't win an Ig Nobel. It's just unusual applications of good science that will.
From the Ig Nobel FAQ:
Are you ridiculing science?
No. We are honoring achievements that make people laugh, then think. Good achievements can also be odd, funny, and even absurd; So can bad achievements. A lot of good science gets attacked because of its absurdity. A lot of bad science gets revered despite its absurdity.
Schroedinger's Brexit: The UK is both in and out of the EU at the same time!
"The Ig Nobel Prizes honor achievements that first make people laugh, and then make them think. The prizes are intended to celebrate the unusual, honor the imaginative — and spur people's interest in science, medicine, and technology."
I think you have misunderstood the Ig Nobel Prize. It's not intended to mock the recipients. It's intended, partly, to reward basic (and sometimes not so basic) research into areas you'd otherwise forget might benefit from research.
"Are you ridiculing science?
No. We are honoring achievements that make people laugh, then think. Good achievements can also be odd, funny, and even absurd; So can bad achievements. A lot of good science gets attacked because of its absurdity. A lot of bad science gets revered despite its absurdity."
http://www.improbable.com/ig/
May we live long and die out
You mean 2010? That's when Andre Geim got the Nobel prize in physics (for graphene), having previously gotten the Ig Nobel for levitating frogs.
what does IOS6 maps show?
That it's switched places with a small, defunct candle factory near Shrewsbury.
Let me guess: ;-)
You're married for less than three years
There are fewer illiterates than people who can't read.
Without reading the research, coffee is hard to carry while walking because the regular pace of your walking creates a resonant frequency that increases the sloshing until it spills over. If you take irregular steps or move your cup around in a random motion you can overcome this. However, you won't look cool doing either of these.
The challenge will be to get them for the same research.
What's the difference between a job and a wife?
After three years the job still sucks.
Free Martian Whores!
Hardly. Tell that to the men who've been destroyed by the kangaroo family courts in this country. When she's hurt by him, it's all over the news as a national outrage. When he's hurt by her, he's emasculated on morning talk shows for being, in some cases, quite literally emasculated (penis chopped off). The attitude that men are the first cause for all her troubles is entwined in pretty much all current television and music as well. Our culture equates female empowerment with histrionic, narcissistic little twats like kim kardiashian, and then it arms this adolescent attitude with the force of the law. The net result shakes out as the men still being held responsible for sexual outcomes as in the distant past, but now lack any of the power to make relevant decisions, with the exception to abstain in the hopes it'll mitigate the risk of accusation. These guys are then labeled pussies by their sexually active peers and as 'afraid of real women' by feminists.
She can make the decision to ruin him for any reason and that's that. A glance walking down a hallway, an unbuttoned shirt, or a date request.. it doesn't matter as it's 'assault' if she says it 'made her uncomfortable'. There's no accountability on her part for using 'her right to choose' responsibly, knowing neither of them have the money to raise a child. No need to when all it takes is a belated accusation to ruin his life and have the state bilk money out of his paycheck and give it to her. If she's got a problem with him, the solution is just a single false abuse accusation away.
There cannot be equal distribution of power without equal distribution of responsibility, and one cannot fight for equality while only considering the needs, whims, and interests, of one side without considering the other.