The influence of the Taiwan Legislature — specifically of its flying fists of fury, continues to spread nearly twenty years after the the solons were awarded the Ig Nobel Peace Prize. Today the Khaleej Times remarks (editorially): LIKE TERRORISM and epidemics, parliamentary pandemoniums have also conquered boundaries. Those left gasping by last week’s ruckus in […]
Tag: fighting
Eunuchs as better fighters?
Handicapping a genuine fight is not always as easy as it seems. As in other endeavors, much of the “everybody knows” knowledge ain’t necessarily so. Consider this case study from the Scientific Research Centre of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts: “Eunuchs as better fighters?” Simona Kralj-Fišer [pictured here] and Matjaž Kuntner, Naturwissenschaften, Volume 99, […]
How politicians won the peace prize
This video shows Taiwan’s national parliament again demonstrating why they were awarded the Ig Nobel peace prize in 1995. The citation lauded them for demonstrating that politicians gain more by punching, kicking and gouging each other than by waging war against other nations.
Ukraine parliament mimics Ig winner
News reports, including this video, show Ukraine’s parliament members punching, beating, and otherwise assaulting each other. This mimics the behavior pioneered by Taiwan’s Parliament, which earned the 1995 Ig Nobel Peace Prize (“for demonstrating that politicians gain more by punching, kicking and gouging each other than by waging war against other nations”). The Ukrainian effort […]
F in psychology
Investigator Deana Bales alerts us to a colorful method of teaching language skills. Page 99 of Psychology: Themes and Variations (8th edition, 2007), by Wayne Weiten includes this implicit lesson on synonyms [we have added the yellow highlighting]: