I missed this when it happened, but was reminded about these recently so decided I needed to point everyone to the latest winners of the Ig Nobel awards. This year’s awards ceremony took place on October 5th at Harvard University, with the follow-up lectures on the 7th.
Since I’m sure some of my guests might wonder if this is the kind of story they would want to read through, I guess I’d better put up a few winners to give you a sample of who wins these awards.
- ORNITHOLOGY: Ivan R. Schwab, of the University of California Davis, and the late Philip R.A. May of the University of California Los Angeles, for exploring and explaining why woodpeckers don’t get headaches.
- LITERATURE: Daniel Oppenheimer of Princeton University for his report “Consequences of Erudite Vernacular Utilized Irrespective of Necessity: Problems with Using Long Words Needlessly.”
(I have to say here that I have a cow-orker who could really benefit from this one. He wants to sound extra-smartified when he speaks, but just comes across as a pompous prick. On the other hand, he actually is a pompous prick, so perhaps he’s just trying to reveal his true inner self) - MEDICINE: Francis M. Fesmire of the University of Tennessee College of Medicine, for his medical case report “Termination of Intractable Hiccups with Digital Rectal Massage“; and Majed Odeh, Harry Bassan, and Arie Oliven of Bnai Zion Medical Center, Haifa, Israel, for their subsequent medical case report also titled “Termination of Intractable Hiccups with Digital Rectal Massage.”
I just threw this one in so I could make all of you think about digital rectal massages. I have the maturity of a 7 year old when it comes to excretory humor.
Honestly, I’d love to get a subscription to Annals of Improbable Research, the publication from Improbable Research – the folks responsible for the Ig Nobels. They publish some of the most interesting stuff.
[tags]Ig Nobel awards, Since that makes you laugh and then think[/tags]