The 2004 Ig Nobel Prize Winners

Well, more than the Nobel prize (genuine!), I like the NOBEL. The 2004 IgNobel has been announced and of particular mention are the following:
PUBLIC HEALTH: A Five second rule for eating food dropped on the floor Research questions: How long is it safe for the food dropped on the floor to remain on the floor before you pick it up again to eat it? Answer: 5 seconds (according to High-school student Jillian Clarke) Other findings: Women are more likely than men to eat food thats been floored. Cookies and Candy are the most picked up floored food items.

ENGINEERING:Baldness concealer: How to hide baldness using a series of methodological steps to cover the bald areas with exsting hair. A new Hair styling technique to conceal partial baldness. The explanation is given in wonderful detail with diagrams. My description will be of no consequence before this detail.

LITERATURE: Preserving the Nude Pictures and Heritage (American Nudist Research Library [ANRL] ): This is my pick..http://www.anrl.org/ does an enviable job in preserving nudist literature, photographs, and archives for future generations. Imagine year 2500, If ANRL survives the alien invasion all Playboy magazines will be national treasures? See their wonderful collection in case you want to see it ;-)

ECONOMICS: Vatican Bishops and Roman Catholic Clergy for Outsourcing Church Prayer mass to India [Kerala]. The Kochi diocese gets 350 requests monthly for thanks giving and special prayer mass. A prayer that costs $20 in the US costs roughly $0.45 in India. Even before that, Insourcing is done by Non-resident Indians in USA for doing a pooja for Lord Venkateshwara in Tirupathi, Andhra Pradesh India. talk about reverse sourcing! They can perform the pooja virtually through Internet and collaborative technologies. The time is not far when your mouse will sprinkle some vibhuthi (sacred ash) in your hand, and you can smell the camphor, flowers, and incense fumes through the virtual reality system. All for $1 sitting in your studio apartment in California.This was predicted...finally the Indian Outsourcing boom is getting recognised.

PEACE: [This is a Nobel contender]KAROAKE [Invented by Daisuke Inoue]: The invention of Karoake is a break through considering the fact that it maintains the peaceful equilibrium in a community because people become tolerant by listening to their own singing. This is a wonderful mental tolerance building method. So if you are intolerant and short tempered start a daily exercise...switch on the most difficult song to sing in Karoake mode and then sing...You will have to tolerate the most intollerable audio ever heard.

BIOLOGY: Well..the Nobel prize for Medicine went for "Odor recognition" [see my previos blog]. what about the finding that the Herring fish that makes mysterious sounds in the night is actually communicating with its fellow Herrings. The "hearing" of the Herring is sharp...but the discovery is that the mysterious sounds are emanated when they fart. farting communication skills anyone?? Humans too have distinct fart sounds..I donot know whether they actually use it for communication?

CHEMISTRY: COCA COLA COMPANY, UK for claimed that they used high technology NASA spacecraft water purification process to come out with a new bottled mineral water "Dasani", which was nothing but tap water from Thames river that underwent the basic reverse Osmosis treatment. It became a great marketing and PR disaster when, chemical tests revealed that it was contaminated with bromate- a carcinogen. In case you bought a bottle of "Dasani" water call freephone 0800 227711, Coke will refund you. To Malayalees, a question..Does "Dasani" ring a bell? "Dahasamini" is a great thirst quenching ayurvedic additive that Malayalees add to their drinking water. Nothing can beat this ayurvedic sophisticated technology from India.