Miss Sweetie Poo is a fictional character — a role played in the Ig Nobel Prize ceremony — but that role is played by a real eight-year-old girl. A blog commenter called ‘Shulamuth,’ familiar with Miss SP only from radio broadcasts, had understandably (given the rigorous selection process used to find each new Miss Sweetie […]
About: Marc Abrahams
- Website
- https://improbable.com
- Profile
- Editor, Annals of Improbable Research, Founder of the Ig Nobel Prizes https://improbable.com/whatis/about-marc-abrahams/
Posts by Marc Abrahams:
December mini-AIR
The December issue of mini-AIR just went out. Topics include: Challenge — Memorize the Human Genome; Santa Disappoints, Again; Horrors Over Trinkaus Sanitizer Discovery; Plasma Blobs Poet; Mad Honey Sex Competition; Dances, Whistles, Rat-Catchers, Buttons, Fear, and Love; etc. Mel [pictured here] says, “It’s swell.” (mini-AIR is the simplest way to keep informed about Improbable […]
The rat-catcher’s art
England’s professional rat-catching community produced at least two instructive books during the Victorian years. Studies in the Art of Rat-Catching, by Henry C Barclay, went on sale in London in 1896. Avowedly educational, it’s also a rambling entertainment that finishes up with this jolly sentiment: “I have heard from half a dozen head-masters of schools […]
A look back: CB-2000 special belt
Here’s another look back at Project AIRhead 2000 (announced in June 1994). The project celebrated every item, project or concept that had the number 2000 tacked onto its name in giddy anticipation of the coming millennium: CB-2000, a male chastity belt.