And the winner is....

October 4, 2002 10:51 AM

And the winner is.... The 2002 IgNobel prizes were awarded in Boston last night. Who says scientists are just a bunch of navel-gazers? Or that a washing machine for dogs was simply impossible? To all nay-sayers, I say........nay! All hail the great and glorious progress science has made possible!
posted by amberglow (16 comments total)

Fer fuck's sake.
posted by interrobang at 10:54 AM on October 4, 2002

the past winners are a hoot too!
with many thanks to the Annals of Improbable Research
posted by amberglow at 10:54 AM on October 4, 2002

dammit! I searched all over... sorry!

delete me pls.
posted by amberglow at 10:56 AM on October 4, 2002

Actually, I think I kind of jumped the gun. This is a better post than the previous one; there's more content. Sorry.
posted by interrobang at 10:58 AM on October 4, 2002

ECONOMICS
The executives, corporate directors, and auditors of Enron, Lernaut & Hausbie [Belgium], Adelphia, Bank of Commerce and Credit International [Pakistan], Cendant, CMS Energy, Duke Energy, Dynegy, Gazprom [Russia], Global Crossing, HIH Insurance [Australia], Informix, Kmart, Maxwell Communications [UK], McKessonHBOC, Merrill Lynch, Merck, Peregrine Systems, Qwest Communications, Reliant Resources, Rent-Way, Rite Aid, Sunbeam, Tyco, Waste Management, WorldCom, Xerox, and Arthur Andersen, for adapting the mathematical concept of imaginary numbers for use in the business world. [NOTE: all companies are US-based unless otherwise noted.]

Well done.
posted by starvingartist at 11:00 AM on October 4, 2002

well, let's save this baby--but not like this (from 1999):

MANAGED HEALTH CARE
The late George and Charlotte Blonsky of New York City and San Jose, California, for inventing a device (US Patent #3,216,423) to aid women in giving birth -- the woman is strapped onto a circular table, and the table is then rotated at high speed.
posted by amberglow at 11:19 AM on October 4, 2002

Ten hours, 1 minute later.
Four "Page Down" keystrokes.
And only one comment in the original post.

Metafilter is making me sad.
posted by mcwetboy at 11:26 AM on October 4, 2002

Yeah, I think the problem is that we're getting *so* many links posted that it's become impossible to keep track of all the stories unless you make it a full time gig. This link didn't use the same link as the previous, so the search engine filter wouldn't have caught the double.

Herein is why people have been complaining about the sheer volume of links. That being said, my opinion is that this is the better thread, from a sheer content value stand. Nice research Amberglow. :)
posted by dejah420 at 12:00 PM on October 4, 2002

Speaking of past winners, this one from 1999 actually seems like a damn fine idea. Those of us that drink tea and are tired of spots on our linens would very much prefer teapots which do not dribble.

Also, things that that should not dribble, visitors, dogs and the odd professor who keeps hanging around in the back yard asking about my ducks.

As a brief mention, speaking of dribbles and things dribble related, this companion research on the best way to dunk a biscuit...terribly important to mankind as we know it. Why, it's research like this that could cut our laundry bills in half. Think of the ecological savings in water bills alone!
posted by dejah420 at 12:44 PM on October 4, 2002

Doing an eyeball check of the past day or two's posts would avoid a lot of these breaking-news dps. (But yeh, this one's better.)
posted by gottabefunky at 12:46 PM on October 4, 2002

Snail Trail of hair leading up from their pubic hair to their belly button.

Boy that sounds kind of slow, snail trail.
Better, the Happy Trail for sex that is.
posted by thomcatspike at 1:12 PM on October 4, 2002

Ostriches find humans sexy? Who knew?

Why does anyone want to measure an elephant?

But speaking as someone whose students buy a lot of used texts, the highlighting study sounds potentially rather useful.

Perhaps there's a useful application for the elephant-measuring study out there too...
posted by thomas j wise at 1:14 PM on October 4, 2002

I was racking my brain about the elephant one, but the university has a large Animal Husbandry department, so maybe it has to do with cleaning times or medicine amounts needed or tick or parasite eradication....The highlighting thing was actually useful--so many used books have the weirdest things highlighted...I wish some scientist would invent an erasable highlighter.

Thomcat: treasure trail is the phrase my friends use, and did you see in that study how some people actually shaved theirs and reported whether they had more or less lint?

Dejah: watch out for that professor! and I thought tea towels were always wrapped around pots to catch the drips....
posted by amberglow at 1:23 PM on October 4, 2002

Doing an eyeball check of the past day or two's posts would avoid a lot of these breaking-news dps. (But yeh, this one's better.)

You can also CTRL-F and search for Noble and you'll find the previous post in a click or two.
posted by SpecialK at 1:45 PM on October 4, 2002

Amberglow - they do make an erasable highlighter.
In fact, there are tons out there!
posted by MeetMegan at 1:49 PM on October 4, 2002

Yes, amber, I can tell you too my BBL's were cut down significantly when I shaved my treasure trail. I thought it was weird that they couldn't figure out why the lint was more often, blue. My guess same reason why when you empty the lent trap in the dryer you get white lint for whites and bluish grey lint for the colors as the bluish color clothes are more likely to be next to your bellybutton.
posted by thomcatspike at 1:53 PM on October 4, 2002