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The 2014 Ig Nobel Prizes Will Be Awarded Tonight

Posted by timothy on from the as-they-should-be dept.

alphadogg (971356) writes At Harvard University's Sanders Theater this evening, a collection of the most off-the-wall, bizarre and lurid scientific efforts of the past year will be dubiously honored with an Ig Nobel Prize. The Ig Nobels are awarded annually by Improbable Research, an organization devoted to scientific education that publishes the Annals of Improbable Research magazine six times a year. Past honorees have included:*A study about homosexual necrophilia in ducks; Competitive analysis of breakfast cereal sogginess; The discovery that dung beetles can navigate using the Milky Way galaxy. The ceremony begins at 6 p.m. EST, and can be viewed online for free here.

30 comments

  1. Timezones are our friends. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    That would be 6pm EDT, with the webcast and pre-ceremony concert starting 20 minutes earlier.

    1. Re:Timezones are our friends. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Why can't we just use 2200 UTC like normal people?

    2. Re:Timezones are our friends. by Frosty+Piss · · Score: 1

      That's 0900 Zulu, pal.

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  2. Gak! by gstoddart · · Score: 1

    Past honorees have included:*A study about homosexual necrophilia in ducks

    Now that is something I could have done without knowing about.

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    Lost at C:>. Found at C.
    1. Re:Gak! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Shhh, just let it happen...

    2. Re:Gak! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The tl;dr is "Male duck ran into the windows of our research institute, while we were waiting to see if it was going to get back up another male duck waddled up and started sodomizing it."

    3. Re:Gak! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      So... just like multiplayer FPS games, then?

    4. Re:Gak! by penguinoid · · Score: 1

      Ducks are notorious sex offenders. "If it's a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down." is true for ducks because they have evolved a maze-like vagina for just that occasion.

      And now I decree that you will never think the same way again about having "all your ducks in a row".

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    5. Re:Gak! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Not at all. The duck not even once commented on the number of cocks the scientists could shove up their asses, or how better fucking a dead duck was compared to fucking the mothers of the scientists. The duck did, however, comment on how the scientists were nothing but a bunch of quacks.

    6. Re:Gak! by Andtalath · · Score: 1

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

  3. Please Stop. by AltGrendel · · Score: 2, Funny

    I'm bored.

    --
    The simple truth is that interstellar distances will not fit into the human imagination

    - Douglas Adams

    1. Re:Please Stop. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renormalization

    2. Re:Please Stop. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Go fuck yourself if your creed allows it...

    3. Re:Please Stop. by Frosty+Piss · · Score: 2

      Go fuck yourself if your creed allows it...

      It does, and I do it daily, sometimes more than once.

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      If you want news from today, you have to come back tomorrow.
    4. Re:Please Stop. by derdesh · · Score: 3, Informative

      For those who don't get it, acceptance speeches at the Ig Nobel awards are strictly timed, and enforced by having a little girl call out "Please stop! I'm bored!" over and over once the award winner exceeds the time limit. The comment is actually quite funny.

    5. Re:Please Stop. by Scarletdown · · Score: 1

      Go fuck yourself if your creed allows it...

      It does, and I do it daily, sometimes more than once.

      So, you are that Man from Nantucket then, I presume? :D

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      This space unintentionally left blank.
  4. No kidding? I saw it on the Intertubes... by Frosty+Piss · · Score: 0

    The Ig Nobels are awarded annually by Improbable Research...

    In other words, these "awards" have nothing to do with the Nobel Prize, and are essentially a "shits and grins" thing put on by some "organization" that few people have heard of?

    No kidding? I saw it on the Intertubes...

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    1. Re:No kidding? I saw it on the Intertubes... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Except they'll come up in legislative debates when it comes to defunding science initiatives, like the NSF.

      Too bad no Ignobles are handed out for any of the "Intelligent Design" people.

    2. Re:No kidding? I saw it on the Intertubes... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Except not.

    3. Re:No kidding? I saw it on the Intertubes... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Except they'll come up in legislative debates when it comes to defunding science initiatives, like the NSF.

      Too bad no Ignobles are handed out for any of the "Intelligent Design" people.

      No. Even if the topics are seemingly frivolous, the Ig Nobel researchers are doing real science, whereas the intelligent design idiots are not.

    4. Re:No kidding? I saw it on the Intertubes... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yes it is a 'shits and grins' thing, but LOTS of people know about it, and it's been going on longer than your sorry ass has probably been alive.

    5. Re:No kidding? I saw it on the Intertubes... by Frosty+Piss · · Score: 1

      Yes it is a 'shits and grins' thing, but LOTS of people know about it, and it's been going on longer than your sorry ass has probably been alive.

      Really? Older than 51 years? Listen, Anon, I've worked for universities, chip fabs, and the DoD longer than you've known how to masturbate.

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    6. Re:No kidding? I saw it on the Intertubes... by Barsteward · · Score: 1

      Intelligent design is tooooooo stupid for the Ig-nobels as there is zero science in it

      --
      "The hands that help are better far than lips that pray." - Robert Ingersoll (1833-1899)
  5. Shitting dogs! by paavo512 · · Score: 1

    The shitting dogs magnetic line orientation study is bound to belong among winners!
    http://www.frontiersinzoology....

  6. JIR by fermion · · Score: 1

    Just to mention, since many have probably never heard of it, the JIR was a great to read in college. My favorite collection was Druken Goldfish. I also particularly remember the study that sought to predict the date when National Geographics would trigger a world cataclysm.

    --
    "She's a scientist and a lesbian. She's not going to let it slide." Orphan Black
  7. Watch IgNobel awards or Scottish Election returns? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Which would be more entertaining?

  8. This needs to be a BBT plot line by RogueWarrior65 · · Score: 1

    Sheldon Cooper needs to do some research that gets him an Ig Nobel now that he's no longer doing string theory.

  9. Also known as Slashdot headline awards. by Lewrker · · Score: 1

    Let's jump to conclusions because LOL they're studying POOP!

  10. The winners by Katatsumuri · · Score: 1

    A brief summary of the winners is here.