2006 Ig Nobel Prizes Awarded

davidwr writes "The Ig-Nobel Peace Prize went to Howard Stapleton for his groundbreaking research in teenager-repellent technology. D. Lynn Halpern won an award for research into why fingernails on a chalkboard are almost as annoying as teenagers. Ivan Schwab garnered his award for research into avian headacheology. Two french researchers cooked up a medal for spaghetti research. Read more about these and other prizes here and at the Improbable Research official web site. To those Slashdotters who were expecting an award, better luck next year."

bird eyes?

[circletimessquare]

His research, published in the British Journal of Ophthalmology, followed studies of head injuries in woodpeckers from the 1970s. The answer lies in how a woodpecker's skull and brain are arranged: the muscles around the sensitive brain tissues make the woodpecker's head function like a perfect shock absorber.

shouldn't that be Ornithology?

Re:bird eyes?

[ian_mackereth]

Only eventually... he started out by wondering why woodpeckers' eyes don't pop out. (The nictating membrane tightens just before impact, if you're interested...)

Re:time to use my mod points!

[arun_s]

Apparently someone doesn't know how interesting this problem is.

Very interesting indeed, it appears I have been too [sciencenews.org] hasty [psu.edu].

Re:wow, that was lame.

[chawly]

A lot of AC posts is what I see on Slashdot. God has nothing to do with it - he is too far away to help you - even if he cared. You are an Anonymous Coward, sir - God doesn't want you.

Great..

[Turn-X Alphonse]

So we give it to a guy who's abusing technology to deal with a social problem? Yes I get that teenagers can be annoying, but using things like this could cause long term damage (don't say it can't, we have a good decade to go before any major signs will show up if it rolls out majorly this year). I can see the use at some places but I can also see it pissing off some kids will will go out of their way to damage any places with one of these things to "get revenge".

Either way bad invention and even worse for awarding him a prize for it. People are still people and when we start making weapons to use on 1 subgroup it's only a step away from becoming a welcome against all.

Links to stories botched and slashdotted

[davidwr]

I don't know what happened to the news-story link, I know it was there when I submitted it. Anyhow, Google News has many more [google.com] stories to choose from.

The Improbable Results site I linked is very slow due to media attention. I'm sure Slashdot didn't help :).

Here's a Coral Cache version of the Improbable Results [nyud.net] website and the list of present and past winners [nyud.net].

If Coral doesn't work, here's a MirrorDot [mirrordot.org] version of the Improbable Results main page.

Re:Peace Prize?

[mgblst]

Close:

"Nobel's inventions including dynamite and Ballistite led to the death of millions of people, so he created the Nobel Prizes in an effort to make up for these perceived evils."

from wiki.