Marc Abrahams's Blog, page 104

12 Days Until…

The Ig Nobel Prizes honor achievements that make people LAUGH, then THINK.

This Ig Nobel moment takes place at the 2018 First Annual Ig Nobel Ceremony during Act III of “The Broken Heart Opera,” in which clever children build a toy heart so they can break it so they can mend it.

This is a glimpse from a past ceremony, tune in to see what this year will bring.

The 30th First Annual Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony will be webcast September 17, 2020 at www.improbable.com

“Some People Were Effectively Disturbed”– an Ig Nobel Prize favorite moment

This historic Ig Nobel Favorite Moment video stars Kazutaka Kurihara and Koji Tsukada, who were awarded an Ig Nobel Prize in acoustics, for creating the SpeechJammer — a machine that disrupts a person’s speech, by making them hear their own spoken words at a very slight delay.

The Ig Nobel Prizes honor achievements that make people LAUGH, then THINK.

Once more, in Japanese:

The 30th First Annual Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony will be webcast September 17, 2020 at www.improbable.com.

Coordinator, Narrator, & Typist: Seth Gliksman

First Ukrainian language translation of an Ig Nobel Prize ceremony

UA Geek created the first Ukrainian language translation of an Ig Nobel Prize ceremony:

13 Days Until the Igs

The Ig Nobel Prizes honor achievements that make people LAUGH, then THINK.

This Ig Nobel moment features Gus Rancatore, the owner of the Cambridge staple Toscanini’s Ice Cream, as he unveils a new flavor of ice cream made possible by the research of Mayu Yamamoto. Nobel laureates Bill Lipscomb, Robert Laughlin, Craig Mello, Roy Glauber, and Dudley Herschbach can be seen here given the distinct honor of being the first to sample the new flavor. Yamamoto was awarded the Ig Nobel Chemistry Prize in 2007 for discovering a method of extracting vanillin from cow dung.

This is a glimpse from a past ceremony, tune in to see what this year will bring.

The 30th First Annual Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony will be webcast September 17, 2020 at www.improbable.com

“That’s When I Learned What an Endoscope Looks Like”– an Ig Nobel Prize favorite moment

This historic Ig Nobel Favorite Moment video stars Roksi Freeman, who was a minordomo at many Ig Nobel Prize ceremonies.

The Ig Nobel Prizes honor achievements that make people LAUGH, then THINK.

The 30th First Annual Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony will be webcast September 17, 2020 at www.improbable.com.

Coordinator, Narrator, & Typist: Seth Gliksman

Successor Rules for Flipping Pancakes and Burnt Pancakes

The theoretical advanced in pancake flipping, discusses in the August 2020 issue of mini-AIR, were not the end of the story.  Further advances can be found in this study:

“Successor Rules for Flipping Pancakes and Burnt Pancakes,” Joe Sawada and A. Williams, Theoretical Computer Science, vol. 609, part 1, 4 January 2016, pp 60-75. The authors, at the University of Guelph and at Bard College at Simon’s Rock, report:

“A stack of n pancakes can be rearranged in all n! ways by a sequence of flips, and a stack of n ‘burnt’ pancakes can be rearranged in all… ways by a sequence of… flips. In both cases, a computer program can efficiently generate suitable solutions. We approach these tasks instead from a human perspective. How can we determine the next flip directly from the current stack? How can we flip the minimum or maximum number of (burnt) pancakes overall? What if we are only allowed to flip the top… (burnt) pancakes?… For the third question, we prove that solutions almost certainly exist for pancakes and burnt pancakes using only these three flips.”

“50,000 Is a Big Surprise and Mystery”– an Ig Nobel Prize favorite moment

This historic Ig Nobel Favorite Moment video stars Koichi Matsumoto, who created the Ig Nobel Museum Exhibition in Tokyo.

The Ig Nobel Prizes honor achievements that make people LAUGH, then THINK.

And now for the same story in Japanese:

The 30th First Annual Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony will be webcast September 17, 2020 at www.improbable.com.

Coordinator, Narrator, & Typist: Seth Gliksman

14 Days Until the Ig

The Ig Nobel Prizes honor achievements that make people LAUGH, then THINK.

This Ig Nobel moment features author Neil Gaimen at the 2010 Ig Nobel ceremony as he gives a 24/7 lecture on the likelihood of the random lifeform pictured on your book jacket being either a writer or a bacterium. The 24/7 lectures are lectures given first within 24 seconds and then in only 7 words.

This is a glimpse from a past ceremony, tune in to see what this year will bring.

The 30th First Annual Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony will be webcast September 17, 2020 at www.improbable.com

15 Days Until the Ig

The Ig Nobel Prizes honor achievements that make people LAUGH, then THINK.

This Ig Nobel moment took place at the 2004 Ig Nobel Ceremony when Ramesh Balasubramaniam of the University of Connecticut and Michael Turvey of the University of Connecticut and Haskins Laboratory were awarded an Ig Nobel in Physics for exploring and explaining the dynamics of the hula hoop. What followed was three Nobel laureates masterfully demonstrating those very dynamics.

This is a glimpse from a past ceremony, tune in to see what this year will bring.

The 30th First Annual Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony will be webcast September 17th, 2020 at www.improbable.com

“Reputation for Not Following Rules”– an Ig Nobel Prize favorite moment

This historic Ig Nobel Favorite Moment video stars Neil Gussman, who helped wrangle reporters at many Ig Nobel Prize ceremonies.

The Ig Nobel Prizes honor achievements that make people LAUGH, then THINK.

The 30th First Annual Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony will be webcast September 17, 2020 at www.improbable.com.

Coordinator, Narrator, & Typist: Seth Gliksman