And you thought the only alternate use for diet coke was a mentos fountain...

For your amusement, here is a summary of the winners of Harvard's "Ig Nobel" prizes, courtesy of BBC News:

Nutrition: Massimiliano Zampini and Charles Spence for their study showing that food actually tastes better if it sounds crunchier.

Peace: The Swiss Federal Ethics Committee on Non-Human Biotechnology and the citizens of Switzerland for adopting the legal principle that plants have dignity.

Archaeology: Astolfo Gomes de Mello Araujo and Jose Carlos Marcelino for demonstrating that armadillos can turn the contents of an archaeological dig upside down.



Biology: Marie-Christine Cadiergues, Christel Joubert and Michel Franc for showing that fleas on dogs can jump higher than fleas on a cats.

Medicine: Dan Ariely for demonstrating that expensive fake medicine is more effective than cheap fake medicine.

Cognitive Science: Toshiyuki Nakagaki, Hiroyasu Yamada, Ryo Kobayashi, Atsushi Tero, Akio Ishiguro and Agota Toth for demonstrating that slime moulds can solve puzzles.

Economics: Geoffrey Miller, Joshua Tyber and Brent Jordan for discovering that the fertility cycle of a lap dancer affects her tip-earning potential.

Physics: Dorian Raymer and Douglas Smith for proving that heaps of string or hair or almost anything else will inevitably tangle themselves up in knots.

Chemistry: Sheree Umpierre, Joseph Hill and Deborah Anderson for discovering that Coca-Cola is an effective spermicide (it was shared with C.Y. Hong, C.C. Shieh, P. Wu and B.N. Chiang who showed the opposite). (see New Scientist for an elaboration on this)

Literature: David Sims for his passionately written study "You Bastard: A Narrative Exploration of the Experience of Indignation within Organizations."

So yeah, next time you need to justify a lap dance, say you're doing economic research...
Also, this reminds me of the Darwin awards. You know, most creative/spectacular/stupid ways of cutting off your contribution to the gene pool. I'll have to look for those.

Sarah Palin = Bush with Lipstick

Her insane gibberish non-answers could only rival our current President for lack of intelligible content. Apparently she's coming to CA to promote her good ol values and tell people to support Prop 4 and Prop 8. I'm sure we all remember our favorite abortion related Prop that we've seen twice before and rejected twice before. And who could forget the attempt to undo same-sex marriage in the ongoing battle of Brad Pitt vs Utah Mormons. With McCain looking more and more like a propped up corpse paying for $5k+ makoevers to hide things like his drooping left eye, the thought of her being president makes me want to beat my head against a wall. So if anyone can think of a good 50 character message to have displayed over her event, pop over to Courage Campaign and make the suggestion. It might be flown back and forth over the event and the Los Angeles area. (DEADLINE for submissions: 9 p.m. Wednesday)

A Demon's Nursery Rhyme (The story of Sam)

There once was a man named Sam
And Sam felt that he had been damned
The sun never shined, the moon wasn’t kind,
And Sam never could understand

But one day Sam meet Miss Sue
And Sue seemed to have a clue
She kissed all his wounds, and became his Moon
In this world no love was as true!

Until that one fateful day
Sue was taken so far away
Sam looked and he looked, and his life he forsook
And in this way he started to pray:

Bring her back, bring her back!
Was it something I lacked?
How dare you treat me as such, was I asking for much?!
Why tease me when you see that my heart is black?
How much more can I take before I just snap?
Did you not see that for me there's no chance?
Why not keep it as such, did I ask for Sue’s touch?
Yet openly you delivered the match
Even easier still for you to just snatch
And strip me of anything I thought should last.

This prayer was evil and Sam knew it to
He was just so angry it was all he could do
He cursed, and rehearsed, and made himself worse
Until Sam wasn’t Sam, he was now Mr. Cruel

Mr. Cruel cursed the world and his fate
Nothing left to love, nor to hate
Without Sue around, his heart can’t be found
Such a terribly lonely state

Anime Night: Someday's Dreamers - Summer Skies

Another Monday another Anime Night. Tonight's showing Someday's Dreamers - Summer Skies is a spiritual successor to the original show Someday's Dreamers. Synopsis from animenewsnetwork.com:

Suzuki Sora is a cheerful country girl from the small town of Bie. She made a promise to her father, and following this promise applies and is accepted for a magic intership in Tokyo, where she will face the life in a big city. While training to get better with her magic, she meets a mysterious boy also practicing to become a mage. While he can not use magic that well and he seems distant and cold at first, Sora's fate intertwines with his and the two are thrown together, learning a lot of new things about life and each other.

The showing will be at 7pm in 101 Morgan and for those not in attendance torrents can be found here at animesuki.

NIN in Vegas!

Well Im posting this to let all cuppers know that NIN is playing Las Vegas December 13th and the tickets are going on sale this Saturday, October 4th. Presale tickets will be available this Tuesday, September 30th. I realize that Vegas is not so close to the Bay, and that many of us recently saw NIN, but the invite still had to be extended. I am for sure going, Im (as usual), already fronting 2 people tickets, just because I want to ensure that I have a great time. Its for my birthday ya know. Funny thing is, the tickets go on sale this Saturday, the day I get my NIN tat done. I cant help but see the connection. Im bound for this show! I also wanted to let everyone know that that means I will for sure not be able to go to the Bay area for Xmas. I am sad about this truth, but in all honesty, if Im making a trip out to Vegas, Im going to gamble, drink, get a hotel room, and after gas and what not its going to blow my December check out of the water. Anyone who feels inclined to spend some magic birthday time with me is more than welcome to meet me up in Vegas, Ill buy you a drink, and pay for a round of poker, and I expect to be held to that! Still, you guys made it all the way to Sylmar for my last birthday, I will never forget the gesture, if you take a year off I understand. Take care all, hit me up Moose lets play some magic.