If you come to the Ig Nobel Prize ceremony, you might enjoy chatting with your neighbors, in the audience. Many have done amazing things. In this video, Ann Crighton-Harris tells how she became the first woman to be a professional electrician in London’s theaters. Perhaps you sat near Ann Crighton-Harris in the audience at the […]
Tag: London
“Mind the [wildcard] gap” — in academic paper titles
If you’ve ever used The Tube (the underground railway system) in London, there’s a very good chance you’ll know about this announcement : What’s perhaps less well known is the wealth (perhaps even the plethora) of academic papers which have taken advantage of the phrase in their titles. Here are but a few examples : […]
London’s top-secret BT Tower revealed (23 years ago today)
On this day, Friday 19th February 1993, Ms. Kate Hoey (member of parliament for Vauxhall, London) used ‘Parliamentary Privilege‘ (which provides immunity from prosecution under the Official Secrets Act) to reveal the existence of a previously secret high-tech installation in central London. “Hon. Members have given examples of seemingly trivial information that remains officially secret. […]
Cockney Rhyming Slang and Medical Terminology
A refinement on a subset of UK medical slang [see my treatise on the general topic] is provided in a short communication by authors Anand N. Bosmia, Christoph J. Griessenauer, and R. Shane Tubbs for the International Journal of History and Philosophy of Medicine, Volumes 1-3: 2011-2013. See: Cockney Rhyming Slang and Medical Terminology. Examples : […]
Fire in the river (Cleveland), fire from on high (London)
The Cuyahoga River in Cleveland, Ohio, caught fire, in 1969. Randy Newman wrote a song about that. This week, in London, UK, things in a neighborhood in London are burning, the heat being supplied by a new, tall building that—for lengthy periods of the day during at least part of the year— focuses sunlight down […]
Ig Nobel Prize winner Chris Frith lecturing at Harvard this week
The long-named Harvard Mind/Brain/Body Interfaculty Initiative announces: MBB 2013 Distinguished Lecture Series Uta Frith and Chris Frith (University College London) Uta Frith – Autism: The First Fifty Years Wednesday, April 24th, 5:15 p.m., Science Center Hall D Chris Frith – How the Brain Creates Culture Thursday, April 25th, 5 p.m., Science Center Hall D BACKGROUND: Chris Frith, […]
The growths and declines of facial hair on Londoners
Not being a barber, and not having had an adulthood that spanned 130 years, Dwight E Robinson was in no position to report firsthand the frequency of changes in relative prevalence of sideburns, moustaches and beards in London during the years 1842-1972. He used an indirect source: issues of the Illustrated London News published during that time. […]
The Ig Nobel show at Imperial College [video]
Here’s video of the Ig Nobel show we did at Imperial College London on March 9, 2012. (Imperial College’s web site has a better quality video.). This year’s show featured Mason Porter, John Hoyland and Stevyn Colgan and Ig Nobel Prize winner Mirjam Tuk—with a special appearance by Professor Andrew George, who recited wretched poetry by […]
Steve Colgan’s insider’s peek at the Ig Nobel London events
Steve Colgan, one of the stars of the Ig Nobel UK Tour events in London and Teddington, prepared his insider’s look at both events and at some of the preparatory meetings. Full details, with lots of good photos are in his blog. Here are a few bits of it: The other reason for me visiting […]
Observational research: Penguins, proposal, London Zoo
A filmed marriage proposal in the London Zoo, witnessed by penguins and filmy-eyed tele-observers: [HT Ian Sample]