Ig Nobel Prizes 2009

Gas mask bra traps Ig Nobel prize


By Victoria Gill
Science reporter, BBC News

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The bra converts into a mask for the wearer and one for a needy bystander


Designers of a bra that turns into gas masks and a team who found that named cows produce more milk were among the winners of the 2009 Ig Nobel prizes.

The aim of the awards is to honour achievements that "first make people laugh and then make them think".

The peace prize went to a Swiss research team who determined whether it is better to be hit over the head with a full or empty bottle of beer.

The ceremony was organised by the magazine Annals of Improbable Research.

Catherine Douglas and Peter Rowlinson from the agriculture, food and rural development department of Newcastle University were the only UK recipients.

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Catherine Douglas was "thrilled" with her award

Dr Douglas, who was unable to attend the ceremony held at Harvard University in Cambridge, US, told BBC News that she was "thrilled" to have been selected and was a "big fan of the Ig Nobel awards".

She said that discovering cows with names were more prolific milk-producers emerged during research into improving dairy cow welfare.

The overall aim of the study was to reduce stress and fear by improving "the human-animal relationship".

"[This research] showed that the majority of UK dairy farmers are caring individuals who respect and love their herd," she said.

Dr Douglas dedicated the award to Purslane, Wendy and Tina - "the nicest cows I have ever known".

Risky celebrations

The Ig Nobel Prizes were presented to the winners by genuine Nobel laureates.

Dr Elena Bodnar won the public health prize for the bra that, in an emergency, can be converted into two gas masks.

She demonstrated her invention and gave one to each of the Nobel laureates as a gift.

Professor Martin Chalfie, who won the Nobel prize for chemistry in 2008, was this year's prize in the "win a date with a Nobel laureate" contest.

Past winners also returned to take part in the celebrations. They included Kees Moeliker, the discoverer of homosexual necrophilia in the mallard duck, and Dr Francis Fesmire, who devised the digital rectal massage as cure for intractable hiccups.

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The prize for mathematics went to the governor of Zimbabwe's Reserve Bank

Each new winner was permitted a maximum of 60 seconds to deliver an acceptance speech. The time limit was enforced by an intractable eight-year-old girl.

The evening also featured numerous tributes to the evening's theme of "Risk".

A 15-minute risk cabaret concert by the Penny-Wise Guys preceded the ceremony, during which the band paid special tribute to fraudster Bernie Madoff.

Appropriately, the prize for economics went to the executives of four Icelandic banks.

The governor of Zimbabwe's Reserve Bank received the prize for mathematics for printing bank notes with such a wide range of denominations.

The full list of winners:

Veterinary medicine: Catherine Douglas and Peter Rowlinson of Newcastle University, UK, for showing that cows with names give more milk than cows that are nameless.

Peace: Stephan Bolliger, Steffen Ross, Lars Oesterhelweg, Michael Thali and Beat Kneubuehl of the University of Bern, Switzerland, for determining whether it is better to be smashed over the head with a full bottle of beer or with an empty bottle.

Biology: Fumiaki Taguchi, Song Guofu and Zhang Guanglei of Kitasato University Graduate School of Medical Sciences in Sagamihara, Japan, for demonstrating that kitchen refuse can be reduced more than 90% in mass by using bacteria extracted from the faeces of giant pandas.

Medicine: Donald L Unger of Thousand Oaks, California, US, for investigating a possible cause of arthritis of the fingers, by diligently cracking the knuckles of his left hand but not his right hand every day for more than 60 years.

Economics: The directors, executives, and auditors of four Icelandic banks for demonstrating that tiny banks can be rapidly transformed into huge banks, and vice versa (and for demonstrating that similar things can be done to an entire national economy).


Physics: Katherine K Whitcome of the University of Cincinnati, Daniel E Lieberman of Harvard University and Liza J Shapiro of the University of Texas, all in the US, for analytically determining why pregnant women do not tip over.

Chemistry: Javier Morales, Miguel Apatiga and Victor M Castano of Universidad Nacional Autonoma in Mexico, for creating diamonds from tequila.

Literature: Ireland's police service for writing and presenting more than 50 traffic tickets to the most frequent driving offender in the country - Prawo Jazdy - whose name in Polish means "Driving Licence".

Public Health: Elena N Bodnar, Raphael C Lee, and Sandra Marijan of Chicago, US, for inventing a bra that can be quickly converted into a pair of gas masks - one for the wearer and one to be given to a needy bystander.

Mathematics: Gideon Gono, governor of Zimbabwe's Reserve Bank, for giving people a simple, everyday way to cope with a wide range of numbers by having his bank print notes with denominations ranging from one cent to one hundred trillion dollars.

A story about technology expressing human dreams, instead of nightmares...

from the blog Gizmodo and Stu Mendleson

By Rosa Golijan, Wed Sep 30 2009




Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence, and William Kamkwamba has it in spades. At age fourteen, while many of us were sneaking out of classrooms, William was struggling to sneak into them—his family was unable to afford the $80 annual tuition. As is bound to happen to most students, he was caught. But instead of being sent to detention, he was barred from the school. In a show of the driven man he would become, he didn't allow that to hinder him and instead started spending his days in the local library. While there, he encountered a book called Using Energy:

Using Energy described how windmills could be used to generate electricity. Only two percent of Malawians have electricity, and the service is notoriously unreliable. William decided an electric windmill was something he wanted to make. Illuminating his house and the other houses in his village would mean that people could read at night after work. A windmill to pump water would mean that they could grow two crops a year rather than one, grow vegetable gardens, and not have to spend two hours a day hauling water. "A windmill meant more than just power," he wrote, "it was freedom."

This book is what changed his life. And I don't mean that as an exaggeration. It was truly what made a difference in his life. Because of that book, and the potential he saw in its ideas, William began to build:

William scoured trash bins and junkyards for materials he could use to build his windmill. With only a couple of wrenches at his disposal, and unable to afford even nuts and bolts, he collected things that most people would consider garbage-slime-clogged plastic pipes, a broken bicycle, a discarded tractor fan-and assembled them into a wind-powered dynamo. For a soldering iron, he used a stiff piece of wire heated in a fire. A bent bicycle spoke served as a size adapter for his wrenches.

Imagine that. A young boy being so motivated by ideas and the sheer need to build something life-changing that he discovered materials and uses for them which most of us wouldn't even dream of. As Mark Frauenfelder put it:

For an educated adult living in a developed nation, designing and building a wind turbine that generates electricity is something to be proud of. For a half-starved, uneducated boy living in a country plagued with drought, famine, poverty, disease, a cruelly corrupt government, crippling superstitions, and low expectations, it's another thing altogether. It's nothing short of monumental.

After completing his first windmill, William "went on to wire his house with four light bulbs and two radios, installing switches made from rubber sandals, and scratch-building a circuit breaker to keep the thatch roof of his house from catching fire." His project had the attention of village locals early on, but at this point he gained the attention of TED, Technology Entertainment Design, through whom he was introduced to individuals willing to contribute to his plans to "electrify, irrigate, and educate his village, as well as pay his tuition at the prestigious African Leadership Academy in Johannesburg."

In short: A young man struggled to educate himself, to build something his village needed, and in the end made a difference to the entire locale and gained the education he'd always wanted. Yes, it's a fluffy, feel-good story with a happy ending. What should you take from the it? Maybe that there's hope in the bleakest of situations, maybe that your teachers and parents were right about the power of education, maybe just that I'm a sappy bookworm with a soft spot for happy endings. No matter, if you wish to learn more, you can read the recently released The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind, check out William's blog, or peek at this video from before he ever wrote his autobiography.



and a TED talk:

Odds and Ends...

At the May mouthoff the theme was working mothers. A kind of celebration of May Day and Mother's Day which fall in the same month. As I was in the middle of an awful time I did not have a story (- or maybe too many stories?) to tell about my own mother so riffed on the topic. I apologize that this is not so much a story as a rant.

Thanks to Doria Hughes for encouraging me and taping, editing and posting the mouthoffs for a year.


Find more videos like this on MASSMOUTH The Power of Story


Some video from my show at Bull Feeny's Second part of the story of Mary Read - part one is here: http://massmouth.ning.com/video/mary-read-at-seanachie-nights more to come... Thanks all who came out to Bull Feeny's to hear my stories from the life and times of Mary Read. What a fabulous audience you were and special thanks to Lynne Cullen for the venue, invite and hospitality. You mooses is great. X her mark (Mary...)
MUSIC: Mary Black - "Though I Live Not Where I Love"

Ed and Kelly's Wedding September 27, 2009

Norah at Bull Feeny's Pub tonight - Portland ME

7- 9PM @ Bull Feeny's in Portland MA - 375 Fore Street - upstairs -


Come celebrate 'Talk Like A Pirate Day' as a three day weekend, with Norah Dooley performing as pirate Mary Read, telling tales about the people she sailed with in the Golden Age of Piracy, and the wonders of the seven seas. In the early 1700s, Mary Read disguised herself as a sailor to survive in the harsh world and became a pirate quite by accident when her ship was overtaken by pirates and she was captured by the crew of Captain "Calico Jack" Rackham.

Performer Norah Dooley tells Mary's story in the first person, brandishing pistol and sword, and sharing pirate lore, secrets and seafaring stories from her sea bag. Some of her favorites are Maury O'Connor and the Mermaid (Ireland), Arion and the Dolphins (Greek), Ocean Born Mary (New England), and Mitsu and the Pirates (Japan). Norah plays the pennywhistle and leads songs and sea shanties, including John Kanaka, The Mermaid, and Run the Riggin' Again. Lynne Cullen will join 'Mary' on the concertina.

Bull Feeney's EMAIL: info@bullfeeneys.com
Lynne Cullen EMAIL: thetwacorbies@yahoo.com

NECN shows rational discussion breaking out at Town Hall!

I guess you could say that Sheila and I are rōnin for health care reform. Rōnin literally means "wave man". The term originated in Japan when it referred to a serf who had fled or deserted his master's land. It then came to be used for a samurai who had lost his master. Sheila and I have no particular affiliations, just a strong affinity for justice and an extreme distaste for bullshit. Sheila has been going to everyone of these Town Halls this summer and has been kicked around by non other than Rush Limbaugh himself. She and her family have been attacked by right wing bloggers nationwide.

At the Town Meeting today,Sheila took on Barney for not supporting what he says he believes in - single payer plan, and she was the main mover in getting us to the event in time, as luck would have it, to be interviewed. Sheila is the brains of our rōnin team.

Yesterday, seems the right wing droids were all in DC so a rational discussion broke out. Take a look in the video above.

A friend in Raging Grannies from RI gave us some good questions for the right wing "astroturfed grassroots" :

" Why are you mad NOW?

You didn't get mad when the Supreme Court stopped a legal recount and appointed a President.

You didn't get mad when Cheney allowed Energy company officials to dictate energy policy.

You didn't get mad when a covert CIA operative got outed.

You didn't get mad when the Patriot Act got passed.

You didn't get mad when we illegally invaded a country that posed no threat to us.

You didn't get mad when we spent over 600 billion (and counting) on that illegal war.

You didn't get mad when over 10 billion dollars just disappeared in Iraq.

You didn't get mad when you saw the Abu Grahib photos.

You didn't get mad when you found out we were torturing people.

You didn't get mad when the government was illegally wiretapping Americans.

You didn't get mad when we didn't catch Bin Laden.

You didn't get mad when you saw the horrible conditions at Walter Reed.

You didn't get mad when we let a major US city drown.

You didn't get mad when the deficit hit the trillion dollar mark.

You finally got mad when the government decided that people in America deserved the right to see a doctor if they are sick. Yes, illegal wars, lies, corruption, torture, stealing your tax dollars to make the rich richer, are all okay with you, but helping other Americans... oh hell no!"

Barney answers some health care Qs and

Too bad you weren't there:

We went to another town hall meeting and we were very glad we did. Along with some lovely octogenarians, we were some of the only people with signs and all our signs in support of HR 676 and single payer/medicare for all. Every person who walked by us said they agreed with us. We also had a chance to raise some real questions, in public debate, about what is going on around health care reform.

So where were the whack jobs wanting to save poor granny from the death panel ? Had they all gone to DC with the "teabaggers"? All 20K of them, nationwide? And the La-La LaRouche folk? Wither have they gone? In DC too?

So,today we had a discussion of health care reform actually about...wait for it...health care reform. And why is this not bigger news? After all, Barney said HR 676 could not pass (Medicare for All) because of the widespread fear of big government in the country. Huh? And then he was very rude to my friend Sheila when she pushed him to answer a very good question: Why there was not more visible support from Democrats for Medicare for All? Barney's answer included this story:

A Jewish mother was much distressed over the problem of her young son who was afraid to eat kreplach. She took the boy to a Rabbi for consultation. After hearing the case, the rabbi said, "Now, Madam, this is very simple. Take the boy home, take him out into the kitchen, and show him how kreplach are made. This should probably eliminate the condition.Hopefully the mother followed the rabbi advice. On the kitchen table she put out a small square of dough beside which was a small mound of prepared chopped meat. "Now," she said, "there is nothing here you should mind." The lad beamed and nodded encouragingly. The mother then put the meat in the center of the dough and folded over one corner. The boy smiled and all seemed to be going well. She folded over the second corner and the third. The boy was nodding, and the experiment seemed to be progressing most favorably. Then she folded over the fourth and final corner; whereupon the boy jumped up and said "Oy, KREPLACH !" and ran screaming from the table.

Barney used this to show why he could not get the votes in Congress to pass HR 676 - He said that "People are too afraid of big government in health care..." to move HR 676 forward. I say he missed the point of our questions about why the Democratic party has not pushed for real reform.

What is happening is not analogous with the story he repeated above. The important story is that there are forces in the media who are pointing to kreplach and saying,

" THIS KREPLACH IS MADE WITH THE MEAT OF GRANNIES KILLED BY DEATH PANELS AND SERVED IN A SAUCE OF GOVERNMENT FUNDED ABORTED FETUSES!"

The right wing lies about health care reform are every bit as disgusting and evil as the dccc and Democratic Party response has been feeble, late and half hearted.

Barney, shrugging his shoulders with a "Nu - what do you want from me working with such idiots?" might be okay if the 1st story , with the rabbi mom and the boy is the story that is being acted out all over the country. BUT it is not. And the evil lies have taken root. Our party DOES have the power. Not to silence the lies but to dominate and crush them with a heavy dose of truth. What are the Dems waiting for? When will you step it up? And actually, it may be too late - so the other question is - "Nu, what kept you?" Did you really, as a party, want meaningful health care reform? Or just want to look like you want reform? Because, in reality, the Dem party is in the pockets of big pharma and insurance companies? These are the questions we will ask ourselves in NOV.

"We have one party that is severely compromised by its ties to big money, and another party that is just plain nuts." said Neal Gabler in the Globe op-ed today. As commentator Bill Maher said recently, when will the President and the Democrats "stand up for the 70 percent of Americans who aren't crazy?" Personally, I am not holding my breath. They should tho' and we should ask them to step it up - recent polls show that only 23% of Americans identify themselves as Republicans.

Q: When will the Democrats act like they have the power to make the changes they promised?
A: When we kick their butts and hold them to their word.

And we will have to because I believe all this media attention on the bogus " grassroots" opposition is a smoke screen behind which the Dem leaders have sold out the single payer AND public option. Hope I am wrong? We shall see.