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This year’s Ig Nobel Awards …

… have been announced.

UD‘s favorite:

Probability prize

Bert Tolkamp, Marie Haskell, Fritha Langford, David Roberts, and Colin Morgan, for making two related discoveries: First, that the longer a cow has been lying down, the more likely that cow will soon stand up; and Second, that once a cow stands up, you cannot easily predict how soon that cow will lie down again.

Reference: “Are Cows More Likely to Lie Down the Longer They Stand?” Bert J. Tolkamp, Marie J. Haskell, Fritha M. Langford, David J. Roberts, Colin A. Morgan, Applied Animal Behaviour Science, vol. 124, nos. 1-2, 2010, pp. 1–10.

Mr UD liked this one:

Psychology:

Laurent Bègue, Brad Bushman, Oulmann Zerhouni, Baptiste Subra, and Medhi Ourabah, for confirming, by experiment, that people who think they are drunk also think they are attractive.

Reference: “‘Beauty Is in the Eye of the Beer Holder’: People Who Think They Are Drunk Also Think They Are Attractive,” Laurent Bègue, Brad J. Bushman, Oulmann Zerhouni, Baptiste Subra, Medhi Ourabah, British Journal of Psychology, epub May 15, 2012.

Margaret Soltan, September 12, 2013 8:29PM
Posted in: march of science

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4 Responses to “This year’s Ig Nobel Awards …”

  1. Tenured Radical Says:

    I dunno. I like:

    Archaeology:

    Brian Crandall and Peter Stahl, for parboiling a dead shrew, and then swallowing the shrew without chewing, and then carefully examining everything excreted during subsequent days — all so they could see which bones would dissolve inside the human digestive system, and which bones would not.

    Reference: “Human Digestive Effects on a Micromammalian Skeleton,” Peter W. Stahl and Brian D. Crandall, Journal of Archaeological Science, vol. 22, November 1995, pp. 789–97.

  2. Margaret Soltan Says:

    TR: I couldn’t get past the point where they actually swallowed it.

  3. MattF Says:

    Somewhat off-topic (if you can imagine that), but worth noting– WTF Visualizations:

    http://wtfviz.net

  4. Margaret Soltan Says:

    MattF: I like the hamburger best. UD

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