The Ig Nobels Are Tonight

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Posted by timothy on Thursday September 12, 2013 @10:21AM from the much-much-thicker-in-the-middle dept.

alphadogg writes "Harvard University's August Sanders Theater will play host tonight to a glittering collection of scientific luminaries, in a ceremony dedicated to recognizing some of the most important research of the year. And it will probably involve stuff like green hair, dead salmon brains, and monkey butts. Yes, it's time again for the annual Ig Nobel Prize ceremony, where the weirdest and least useful scientific discoveries of the year are paraded before the public in a festival of bizarre nerd pageantry." Slashdot programmer David Hand will be in the crowd, too, triggering a flood of justified envy. Update: 09/13 14:23 GMT by S : Here are the winners.

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my favorite winner: 2008 Economics by Anonymous Coward · 2013-09-12 10:36 · Score: 5, Interesting

ECONOMICS PRIZE. Geoffrey Miller, Joshua Tybur and Brent Jordan of the University of New Mexico, USA, for discovering that professional lap dancers earn higher tips when they are ovulating.
http://www.improbable.com/ig/winners/
There is an Ig Nobel Peace prize? by gmuslera · 2013-09-12 10:40 · Score: 2, Interesting

Obama should get that one too.
1. Re:There is an Ig Nobel Peace prize? by quenda · 2013-09-12 13:59 · Score: 2
  
  The ignoble Peace prize is to be abandoned.
  They realised it was impossible to be any more bizarre or improbable than the real Nobel Peace Prize.
  How can you top the 1973 award to Kissinger and Le Duc Tho to end the Vietnam war?
  Or legendary snake-oil promoter Linus Pauling,
  convicted terrorists including Yasir Arafat and Nelson Mandela (OK, maybe) ,
  an AIDS conspiracy theorist, and various war criminals.
  Obama really won the inaugural "not being GW Bush prize", but that turned out to have been a little premature.
2. Re:There is an Ig Nobel Peace prize? by sFurbo · 2013-09-12 20:53 · Score: 2
  
  Obama really won the inaugural "not being GW Bush prize", but that turned out to have been a little premature.
  To be fair, he did turn out not to be GW Bush. Whether he was a step forward is another story.
August Sanders Theater by trb · 2013-09-12 10:49 · Score: 4, Informative

It may be Harvard University's august Sanders Theater. It is not Harvard University's August Sanders Theater. It was not named for a person called August Sanders.
1. Re:August Sanders Theater by Anonymous Coward · 2013-09-12 11:05 · Score: 3, Funny
  
  It was not named for a person called August Sanders.
  Plus its almost halfway into September now! Sheesh.
2. Re:August Sanders Theater by Quasimodem · 2013-09-12 12:13 · Score: 4, Funny
  
  August is Col. Harland Sanders brother, and the inventor of the bucket. Without August's pioneering efforts in chicken containers, you'd bring home Col. Sanders' Kentucky Fried Chicken by the poke.
Link to video by DogDude · 2013-09-12 11:42 · Score: 3, Informative

The link to the video of the awards is less than obvious on their web page...

2012 Ignoble Awards

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I don't respond to AC's.
Where are the nerds by JSG · 2013-09-12 11:47 · Score: 3, Funny

This is real news for nerds.
I note that the story above about the NSA inventing a new magnifying glass and can now read text down to 2 point or something has shit loads of comments but this one has very few.
Come on you buggers, comment here where it really counts.
Oh - you can't hear me no matter how hard I tap the keys ...... bugger
Cheers
Jon
1. Re:Where are the nerds by daniel23 · 2013-09-12 13:50 · Score: 2
  
  I hate to bring the news but the unicode task has been completed ("not worth the effort for the foreigners") while he team is busy now with ssl ("not worth the effort since the nsa ...") and IPv6 ("not worth the effort, hex between colons hurts the eyes")
  
  --
  605413? Yes, it's a prime.
Will there be an "ig-Nobel Peace" prize ? by Taco+Cowboy · 2013-09-12 13:17 · Score: 5, Funny

I hope they will spring a surprise for us and add an "ig-Nobel Peacec" prize, and award it to Obama.

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Muchas Gracias, Señor Edward Snowden !
Genuinely jealous by kruach+aum · 2013-09-12 18:50 · Score: 2

that I couldn't attend. I got lost on the way, there was so much light pollution I couldn't see the milky way.