GIVE THANKS FOR THE IG NOBEL

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Harvard University, Ig Nobel Prize, Ira Flatow, Marc Abrahams, Nobel-Laureate, NPR, postaweek2011, science, Science Friday, Thanksgiving, wasabi fire alarm

“The best thing about Thanksgiving?

Family, friends and pie.

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The best thing about the day after Thanksgiving?

Leftovers and The Ig Noble Awards.

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The editors of the science humor magazine, Improbable Research, recognize the strange and the weird in the world of science. The journal is satirical, produced by scientists, mostly for scientists. Editor Marc Abrahams says, “It first makes people laugh, then makes them think.”

In America, science has a great day-after-Thanksgiving tradition. Faithful Science Friday listeners tune in for a heaping helping of silliness.

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Ira Flatow has a passion for for science.  Plus, he’s a bit of a ham.

Flatow is the host of NPR’s Science Friday. Today he and Marc Abrahams, the Ig Master of Ceremonies, introduced listeners to the winners.  Speeches are brief.  The science is, well, silly.  Studies include, but are not limited to, the jumping abilities of various kinds of fleas, why any pile of string will inevitably tangle itself up into knots, techniques for collecting whale snot, cosmetic options available to neutered pets, and the effects of Viagra on jet-lagged hamsters. Science is a big tent. Seriously.

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“Ignitaries”, a handful of real Nobel Laureates, and tons of amused spectators gather at Harvard to honor scientific achievements from the merely bemusing to the downright bizarre.  Along the way, there’s some throwing of paper airplanes, a Win-a-Date-With-A-Nobel-Laureate contest, and the appearance of Miss Sweetie Poo. The 21st Annual Prize Ceremony (this year’s theme is chemistry) features the science of sighs, inquiries into the yawning habits of the red-footed tortoise and songs about the chemistry of coffee.  And airborne wasabi.  Really.  Listen while you eat your leftovers.

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Want to see the whole ceremony? It begins with a sword swallower followed by real smart guys singing The Elements. (Remember them from high school chem class?)

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Most winners are pleased.  It’s a curious honor ~ it signifies you have done something people chuckle at.  More people hear about it, become curious, think about what you accomplished and, maybe, fall in love with it.

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Like the Wasabi Fire Alarm. A taste of the stinging stuff sets off alarm bells on your tongue. A Japanese team took advantage of this for their real but really crazy-sounding invention, The Odor Generation Alarm and Method for Informing Unusual Situation. They waited until their test subjects were deeply asleep, and then filled the room with wasabi gas. Of the 14 test subjects—including four who were deaf—13 woke within 2 minutes. (It turned out that the fourteenth person had a blocked nose).

Wasabi ~ The Premier Waker-Upper.  Just one more thing to be thankful for.

Toni 11/25/11

Lost? Check Out This List…and, hey, thanks, NPR, for your good works.

Tags

Amelia Earhart, Atlantis, frustration thwarted by NPR's list of other Lost folk, Google Earth, Jimmy Hoffa, NASA, NPR, on being lost in the ether, Rose Mary Woods, Watergate Tapes

I just have to share this. I was trying to follow a link on the NPR site and somehow lost it. I don’t know where it went and neither did the Wizard of Oz guy or gal who’s out there in the ether making all this internet stuff work. Instead of giving me a 411 code or maybe it’s 811 or 919 or some three digit number that means Dude, you’ve come to a dead end in a dark alley with no hope of finding your way out, well, you get what I mean, instead of pulling me into a snit because I’d failed to navigate the web, failed yet again, NPR commiserates with me. The page you’re looking for is lost?  they say. No matter. Join the club. Here’s a list of other famous lost folk and things.

Lost is big I guess. This list is blue chip, berserkely good. A yowzwer among lists.

(See Art
Plotnik’s new book for more superlatives…)

THE LIST OF LOST THINGS AND PEOPLE

Amelia Earhart

Researchers are still trying to figure out what happened to aviator Amelia Earhart, who disappeared while flying over the South Pacific in 1937.

18 1/2 Minutes of Watergate Tapes

Rose Mary Woods, the loyal secretary of President Richard Nixon, took responsibility for erasing tape that was crucial to the Watergate investigation.

Jimmy Hoffa

Prosecutors in Michigan say authorities are calling off their latest search for the remains of Jimmy Hoffa, the long-missing former Teamsters boss.

Your Luggage

Travelling without luggage can be a major inconvenience, but for commentator Bill Harley, it turned out to be a blessing in disguise.

The Lost City of Atlantis

Slate senior editor Andy Bowers explains the myths surrounding the lost city of Atlantis, a metropolis mentioned in ancient texts.

Waldo

Artist Melanie Coles has plastered a 2,300-square-foot Waldo on a roof in Vancouver. Now she’s waiting for Google Earth satellites to pick him up.

Tapes of the Moon Landing

After three years of searching for the Apollo 11 tapes, NASA concluded that the footage of the first manned moon landing is probably lost forever.

So, I’m in good company and not one bit put out that my valuable link has been sucked up into the ionosphere. Amelia? You out there? 

Patty

8/5/11

http://www.npr.org/blogs/therecord/2011/08/02/138924113/newport-folk-2011-tradition-remixed&ps=cprs

DELIVERING HAPPINESS ~ IT IS DARKEST BEFORE THE DAWN

Tags

4000 years of Christmas, Charles Darwin, Clyde McPhatter and the Drifters, Happiness, Lunar eclipse, Marduk, Mesopotamians, NPR, NYT science writing, Oliver Sacks, Rachel Carson, science, Science Friday, Silent Spring, Solstice, Stephen Jay Gould, Winter solstice, writing

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There's a proverb that says It is darkest before the dawn. After December 21, the light begins its inevitable return, and the days grow longer.  The mid-December solstice marks the beginning of winter in the Northern Hemisphere,  December 21, 2010 at 6:38 PM ET. It brings the shortest day - and the longest night - of the year.

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Such precision we have about the solstice these days. No one's really sure how long ago humans recognized the winter solstice as a turning point - the day that marks the return of the sun. One delightful little book written in 1948, 4,000 Years of Christmas, puts its theory right up in the title. The Mesopotamians were first, it claims, with a 12-day festival of renewal, designed to help the god Marduk tame the monsters of chaos for one more year.

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"Shall we liken Christmas to the web in a loom? There are many weavers, who work into the pattern the experience of their lives. When one generation goes, another comes to take up the weft where it has been dropped. The pattern changes as the mind changes, yet never begins quite anew. At first, we are not sure that we discern the pattern, but at last we see that, unknown to the weavers themselves, something has taken shape before our eyes, and that they have made something very beautiful, something which compels our understanding."

-Earl W. Count, 4,000 Years of Christmas

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Other than the few facts above, and a radio reminder that there will be also be a lunar eclipse on the night of the winter solstice, I must admit I know nothing else.  That’s why I read the NYT science section and listen to the NPR Science Friday podcast.  The journalists and guests demystify why apples fall down or how echolocation works or what’s with those brain waves, anyway.  The language is clear and they assume the reader/listener knows nothing. (A fine assumption, in my case ~ I am not offended.)

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I am thinking that I can apply their logical style and storytelling skill to any nonfiction piece, on any topic.  Rachel Carson launched an entire movement with her book, Silent Spring. She wasn’t a writer. She was a marine biologist who could think on the page and was passionate about her subject.  Did you ever notice how scientists who write well start with one narrow fact and lead the reader from there to an understanding of the broader concept?  Think: Oliver Sacks (The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat), Stephen Jay Gould (The Panda’s Thumb), Charles Darwin (Voyage of the Beagle).

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I’m hooked on Nature Lit. Here’s a link to a list of 8o Best Books for Nature Lovers.

http://www.bachelorsdegree.org/2010/10/18/80-best-books-for-nature-lovers/

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I spend lots of time hiking – in national parks and forests, preserves and the woods behind my house.  I revere trees.  They are Nature’s Way of Delivering Happiness.

Toni

Happiness Song #15  ~ A Personal Favorite

Courtesy of Clyde McPhatter and The Drifters