Not only is it that time of year again—it’s already weeks past. The Ig Nobel Prize ceremony actually occurred on September 13 and was mentioned in Magnifico’s OND diary on September 14. However, I think it’s best to review the Ig Nobels while the Nobels are in the process of actually being announced, as it offers a bracing contrast.
Before launching into the Ig Nobel Prizes, I thought I would mention that I was particularly happy to learn of Donna Strickland and Gerard Mourou’s sharing in this year’s Nobel Prize in Physics, as my own research benefitted from the advance they made in laser technology. Back in those days, I was a laser spectroscopist who was interested using laser spectroscopy to reveal information about molecular dynamics. Eventually, as a postdoc, I used a laser system based on Strickland and Mourou’s design, which produced ultrashort high intensity laser pulses, which made it possible to probe very fast molecular processes. But that was a long time ago. Nonetheless, it’s gratifying to know that their work has been properly recognized. By the way, Donna Strickland now becomes just the third woman to share in a Nobel Prize in Physics, after Marie Curie and Maria Goeppert-Mayer. And she is the first woman Physics Nobel Prize winner not named Marie or Maria.
We’ll review the nonsense—as well as tonight’s comments—below the fold, but first, here’s a word from our sponsor:
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The 2018 Ig Noble Prizes
The Ig Nobel Prizes are awarded to published scientific work that, according to Annals of Improbable Research, which awards the prizes, “first makes you laugh, and then makes you think.” You can watch the very entertaining awards ceremony, which took place at the Sanders Theater at Harvard University, here. The list of awards and the literature references can be found here. Now to the the awards:
Medicine [USA]:
Marc Mitchell and David Wartinger, for using roller coaster rides to try to hasten the passage of kidney stones.
Anthropology [Sweden, Romania, denmark, the Netherlands, Germany, UK, Indonesia, Italy]:
Tomas Persson, Gabriela-Alina Sauciuc, and Elainie Madsen, for collecting evidence, in a zoo, that chimpanzees imitate humans about as often, and about as well, as humans imitate chimpanzees.
Biology [SWEDEN, COLOMBIA, GERMANY, FRANCE, SWITZERLAND]:
Paul Becher, Sebastien Lebreton, Erika Wallin, Erik Hedenstrom, Felipe Borrero-Echeverry, Marie Bengtsson, Volker Jorger, and Peter Witzgall, for demonstrating that wine experts can reliably identify, by smell, the presence of a single fly in a glass of wine.
CHEMISTRY [PORTUGAL]:
Paula Romão, Adília Alarcão and the late César Viana, for measuring the degree to which human saliva is a good cleaning agent for dirty surfaces.
MEDICAL EDUCATION [JAPAN]:
Akira Horiuchi, for the medical report "Colonoscopy in the Sitting Position: Lessons Learned From Self-Colonoscopy."
LITERATURE [AUSTRALIA, EL SALVADOR, UK]:
Thea Blackler, Rafael Gomez, Vesna Popovic and M. Helen Thompson, for documenting that most people who use complicated products do not read the instruction manual.
NUTRITION [ZIMBABWE, TANZANIA, UK]:
James Cole, for calculating that the caloric intake from a human-cannibalism diet is significantly lower than the caloric intake from most other traditional meat diets.
PEACE [SPAIN, COLOMBIA]:
Francisco Alonso, Cristina Esteban, Andrea Serge, Maria-Luisa Ballestar, Jaime Sanmartín, Constanza Calatayud, and Beatriz Alamar, for measuring the frequency, motivation, and effects of shouting and cursing while driving an automobile.
Reproductive Medicine [USA, Japan, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, India, Bangladesh]:
John Barry, Bruce Blank, and Michel Boileau, for using postage stamps to test whether the male sexual organ is functioning properly—as described in their study "Nocturnal Penile Tumescence Monitoring With Stamps."
Economics [Canada, China, Singapore, USA]:
Lindie Hanyu Liang, Douglas Brown, Huiwen Lian, Samuel Hanig, D. Lance Ferris, and Lisa Keeping, for investigating whether it is effective for employees to use Voodoo dolls to retaliate against abusive bosses.
That’s all for this year. If Trump doesn’t destroy the world in the interim, I’ll be back next year to do it again.
And now, to the comments:
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Note: Please remember that comment inclusion in Top Comments does not constitute support or endorsement by diarist, formatter, Top Comments writers or DailyKos. Questions, complaints or comments? Contact brillig.
From Kluger2:
J Rae threw down a limerick challenge about the Kavanaugh nomination!
NYCee and jubal8 (and maybe others since I last looked) responded!
NYCee wrote this and this, and jubal8 wrote this and this and this …
And NYCee started back up again this afternoon with this comment!
Finally, first-time Daily Kos commenter, whatabob provided this comment!
Excellent! (Ed. note: Kluger2’s submission is one of the richest TC threads I recall seeing! Congratulations to all! Most appreciated!)
From Otteray Scribe:
Our lexicon needs editing! This astute observation from BOHICA in Morning Open Thread is spot on.
From Ed Tracey:
In the diary by Walter Einenkel about the Rifle, Colorado woman arrested for berating two Latino women for not speaking American — with this comment, Joe Bob points out some other reasons for their backlash.
TOP MOJO
Top Mojo for yesterday, October 3rd, 2018, first comments and tip jars excluded. Thank you mik for the mojo magic! For those of you interested in How Top Mojo Works, please see his diary on FAQing Top Mojo.
TOP PICTURES
Top Pictures for October 4th, 2018. Click any picture to be taken to the full comment or picture. Thank you jotter!