Andy Jordan of the Wall Street Journal attended the 2008 Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony, and brought his videocamera. He produced a lovely four-minute report. Click the image here to watch it.
Month: October 2008
Steven Milloy versus the Ig Nobel Prizes
A man named Steven Milloy is misusing the the good name of the Ig Nobel Prizes. Mr. Milloy does his dirty business in an October 30, 2008 article, one of his regular so-called “Junk Science” columns that are published by Fox News.* The Ig Nobel Prizes, which we have awarded every year since 1991, honor […]
(L)Ode Upon a Creaking Chair
Contrary to what you might think, sitting is not a static activity, unless you are dead. In the study Chair Load Analysis During Daily Sitting Activities, Carla Paoliello and Edgar Vladimiro Mantilla Carrasco adopt the perspective of a chair. They quantify the shifting risks your furniture faces when someone sits on it. Now – right […]
Taxonomy: Approved tastiness of giraffes
The June 6, 2008 issue of The Daily Telegraph contains a rare newspaper report about a fine point of taxonomy: According to a report in the Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper, vets were asked to treat an adult, female giraffe at Israel’s largest zoo, the Safari Park in Ramat Gan. The team, led by Professor Zohar Amar, […]
History of warfare, told with food
Food Fight is an abridged history of war, from World War II to present day, told through the foods of the countries in conflict. Watch as traditional comestibles slug it out for world domination in this chronologically re-enacted smorgasbord of aggression. That is the claim — and yes, it’s an accurate claim — by the […]
The Case of the Acrobatic Airplane
I told my story in Federal Court in Boston sufficiently well that counsel for the manufacturer asked me to work for that company in any further cases. I found it a bit amusing that the request was made in the men’s lavatory. Sometime later I told the story to a woman lawyer who took umbrage. […]
Talking About Talking
“Are Women Really More Talkative Than Men?”, Matthias R. Mehl, Simine Vazire, Nairán Ramírez-Esparza, Richard B. Slatcher and James W. Pennebaker, Science, vol. 317, no. 5834, 2007, p. 82 (http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.1139940). The authors, who are variously at the University of Arizona, at Washington University and at the University of Texas, report that: Women are generally assumed […]
Under cover agents: stress, cash and ‘staches
Frequently, the UCE [Under Cover Employee]’s feeling of alienation results from the distorted perceptions associated with highly stressful situations, although, sometimes, a factual basis exists. Fellow employees may resent UCEs because they get special attention. Co-workers observe what appears to be UCEs’ living the good life: staying out all night, wearing expensive or exotic clothes […]
Ig Nobel special ceremony tonight in Genoa
Tonight is Ig Nobel night at the Genoa Science Festival. The event starts at 9:00 pm. at the Ducal Palace. AIR editor Marc Abrahams will introduce several Ig Nobel Prize winners, and will present the prizes to several of the new winners (Italian winner Massimiliano Zampini and French winners Marie-Christine Cadiurges and Christel Joubert) who […]
Thinking on your feet
When one’s feet smell unpleasant, it’s polite to wonder why. But six scientists at the Shiseido Research Centre in Yokohama, Japan, pursued this interest more thoroughly than mere politeness alone would dictate. The pioneering research study, Elucidation of Chemical Compounds Responsible for Foot Malodour, by F Kanda, E Yagi, M Fukuda, K Nakajima, T Ohta […]