Sunday, October 8, 2006

Winners of the 2005 Ig Nobel Prize honored last Thursday


JUST FOR FUN, check out Improbable Research for the winners of this odd prize.

Scientists, et al., received awards
for exploring and explaining why woodpeckers don't get headaches

for showing that dung beetles are finicky eaters (Whence beetle pic?)

for inventing an electromechanical teenager repellant

for conducting experiments to learn why people dislike the sound of fingernails scraping on a blackboard

for calculating the number of photographs you must take to (almost) ensure that nobody in a group photo will have their eyes closed

for showing that the female malaria mosquito Anopheles gambiae is attracted equally to the smell of limburger cheese and to the smell of human feet.
Winners authored such articles as:
"Consequences of Erudite Vernacular Utilized Irrespective of Necessity: Problems with Using Long Words Needlessly."

"Termination of Intractable Hiccups with Digital Rectal Massage"

"Ultrasonic Velocity in Cheddar Cheese as Affected by Temperature."

THERE'S A FASCINATING ARTICLE about homework in this morning’s San Francisco Chronicle:

After years of teachers piling it on, there's a new movement to ... Abolish homework

According to some studies, the younger the student, the less beneficial is homework. Read the article. This "no homework" idea is not as wacky as it sounds. The article starts with a conversation with a homework-abolishing teacher whose students score highly on tell-tale tests.

EARLIER THIS MORNING, all of a sudden, Sunny the Cat got all weirded out. I looked out the window, and, Whaddyouknow? A deer was staring at me. I stared back.




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