september 18
Story Sunday: Ig Nobel Prize Goes For Alligator On Helium
YouTube
MSN & CNN
“Alligator sucking on helium wins parody Ig Nobel Prize”
Scientists are answering a question no one is asking. What would it sound like if an alligator sucked up helium? When a team of international researchers wanted to find out whether a gator’s vocalizations relate to its body size, they devised an experiment that would earn them the 2020 Ig Nobel (a wordplay on “Nobel” and “ignoble”) Prize for acoustics. Researchers captured footage of the snorting alligator in a helium-filled tank. In perhaps one of the biggest letdowns in the history of scientific study, it sounded nothing like a cartoon chipmunk. Now in its 30th year, the annual Ig Nobel Prize awards ceremony, usually presented at Harvard University’s Sanders Theatre, was conducted remotely due to pandemic restrictions.
Among this year’s other elite competitors, a study which demonstrated that meticulously groomed eyebrows are a reliable indicator of grandiose narcissism took home the prize in psychology. The prize in economics went to an international team of creeps (presumably) who wanted to know whether the rate of French kissing correlated with national income inequality. Based on data from 13 countries across six continents, they found that where kissing was more frequent, income inequality was also more likely to occur. Go figure. American Richard Vetter took home the prize in entomology for his brave study on spiders (which aren’t technically insects) that revealed most of his peers are, allegedly, arachnophobic. And, the award for materials science went deservedly (because it’s gross) to a collaboration between the US and the UK to study whether frozen human feces could be made into usable knives. Spoiler alert: It certainly cannot.
But, who could forget the most Ig Nobel moment in recent history? The medical education prize went to a roundup of sometimes ill-advised world leaders for showing that “politicians can have a more immediate effect on life and death than scientists and doctors can” during the global coronavirus pandemic.
Hannah Sparks
New York Post
September 18, 2020
POTD: Tandy 5000
This is clearly a newspaper clipping from back in the day. I can’t for the life of me remember where I picked this up but, I have had it for years. My, we have come a long way. ~Vic

Picture of the Day
Foto Friday: Sunsets Local
All photos, below, are my personal collection. ~Vic
07-12-2016
12-12-2016
11-05-2017
11-11-2017
06-02-2018
08-06-2018
09-18-2018
01-06-2019
01-29-2019
02-03-2019
Tune Tuesday: Whatever You Like 2008

It’s Tune Tuesday! Ten years ago, today, the #1 Billboard Hot 100 song was Whatever You Like. I hadn’t heard this song until five minutes ago. By the time 2008 rolled around, I wasn’t listening to Top 40 stations, anymore. I was listening to BobFM or SimonFM or what everyone today refers to as ‘variety hits’. Yes, I am showing my age. ~Vic