Marc Abrahams's Blog, page 48

Announcing the 2022 Ig Nobel Prize winners

Ten new Ig Nobel Prizes were awarded tonight at the 32nd First Annual Ig Nobel Prize ceremony. The winners, and a description of their work, are listed on the list of all Ig Nobel Prize winners (1991-2022). Each winner has done something that makes people LAUGH, then THINK.

The faces you see in the image here are most (but not all!) of the team that was awarded the 2022 Ig Nobel Peace Prize, for developing an algorithm to help gossipers decide when to tell the truth and when to lie.

Video of the ceremony is online for your edification or whatever. You might also enjoy browsing through some of the press reports.

A quick teaser video for the 2022 Ig Nobel Prize ceremony

This teaser is about one minute long. The ceremony webcast begins at 6 pm (U.S. eastern time), on Thursday, September 15, 2002, and will be a little longer than that. Details — and the webcast itself — will be on the ceremony web page.

“The Know-It-All-Club” Opera

A new mini-opera called “The Know-It-All Club” will premiere as part of the 32nd First Annual Ig Nobel Prize ceremony, on Thursday, September 15, 2022. The theme of the 2022 ceremony, evinced in the opera and other bits, is: Knowledge.

The ceremony will be webcast. You can watch it here at http://www.improbable.com

The opera plot: Every member of the Know-It-All Club makes clear their opinion that there is only one person in the Know-It-All Club who knows anything.

Physics: The Rotation of Whirling Dervishes

“Rotation of Whirling Dervishes” is a review column about some of the scientific research that focuses on whirling dervishes. Specifically: (1) Physics of the Skirts of Whirling Dervishes, and (2) Whirling Dervish in an MRI Tube.

The column appears in the special Rotation and Spinning issue (volume 28, number 5) of the magazine.

You can read that article free online. Better still, buy a copy of the issue (it’s in PDF form). Or better better still, subscribe to the magazine!

One week from today: The 2022 Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony

The 32nd First Annual Ig Nobel Prize ceremony will happen entirely online (again, as in 2020 and 2021, in deference to the lurking ambitions of Covid-19), on Thursday, September 15, 2022. The webcast begins at 6 pm (U.S. eastern time).

Ten new Ig Nobel Prize winners will be introduced. Each has done something that makes people LAUGH, then THINK.

Details are on the ceremony web page.

Visions of Pork Production, on French Belle Époque Pig Postcards

Amidst the vastness of a study on old French pig postcards, there is an image from a once-famous, now-somewhat-neglected way to teach drawing.

The pig postcard study is: “Visions of Pork Production, Past and Future, on French Belle Époque Pig Postcards,” Michael D. Garval, Nineteenth-Century Art Worldwide, vol. 14, no. 1, Spring 2015.

The drawing is by Victor Jacquot, who created a series of eight small books called Interprétations pour Dessiner Simplement. Jacquot shows, in clear, simple pictures with few words, how to draw many sorts of objects.

The booklets have become fairly rare. Booklet number 8, at least, seems to be available in some form from France’s National Museum of Education.

This general technique (of how to draw pictures), with variations, became fairly popular. You can find other books, by other authors, with other examples on display. One example, published in 1913: What to Draw and  How to Draw it , by E.G. Lutz.

 

The 32nd First Annual Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony

The 32nd First Annual Ig Nobel Prize ceremony happened on Thursday, September 15, 2022. 

Ten new Ig Nobel Prize winners were introduced. Each has done something that makes people LAUGH, then THINK.

Details, with full video, are on the ceremony web page.

 

September 15: The 32nd First Annual Ig Nobel Ceremony

The 32nd First Annual Ig Nobel Prize ceremony will happen entirely online on Thursday, September 15, 2022. The webcast begins at 6 pm (U.S. eastern time).

Ten new Ig Nobel Prize winners will be introduced. Each has done something that makes people LAUGH, then THINK.

Details are on the ceremony web page.

 

Coming Soon: The 32nd First Annual Ig Nobel Ceremony

The 32nd First Annual Ig Nobel Prize ceremony will happen entirely online on Thursday, September 15, 2022. The webcast begins at 6 pm (U.S. eastern time).

Ten new Ig Nobel Prize winners will be introduced. Each has done something that makes people LAUGH, then THINK.

For more details, see the ceremony page.

 

Pussy Stimulation Study

A new, stimulating study of cats is aimed at assisting human women. The study is:

“Vaginal Lubrication and Pressure Increase Induced by Pudendal Nerve Stimulation in Cats,” Jialiang Chen, Yihua Zhong, Jicheng Wang, Bing Shen, Zhijun Shen, Jonathan Beckel, William de Groat, Christopher Chermansky, Changfeng Tai, Journal of Sexual Medicine, epub 2022.

The authors, at Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China; the University of Pittsburgh, USA; and Capital Medical University, Beijing, China; explain:

Vaginal lubrication and contractions are among the top difficulties affecting sexual intercourse in women after spinal cord injury.

Aim — This study aimed at determining if pudendal nerve stimulation (PNS) can improve vaginal lubrication and induce increases in vaginal pressure.

Conclusion — PNS can improve vaginal lubrication and induce increases in vaginal pressure.