The 2007 Ig Nobel Prizes have just been announced. My favourites: A toss-up between “Linguistics: Juan Manuel Toro, Josep B. Trobalon and Nuria Sebastian-Galles, for determining that rats sometimes can’t distinguish between Japanese, played backward, and Dutch, played backward” and “Aviation: Patricia V. Agostino, Santiago A. Plano and Diego A. Golombek, for discovering that hamsters recover from jetlag more quickly when given Viagra.”
Citizenship Test comments kick off!
If you’re not across the comments feed, check out the debate on my piece about the Citizenship Test. Going off!
Most toxic fart
Consonant-laden über-geek
Apparently my degrading media designation is “consonant laden über-geek”. At least that’s how Crikey bylined me on today’s article. Personally I’d have used another hyphen.
Joining the ABC Advisory Council
I’m tempted to apply for a spot on the ABC Advisory Council. I reckon I’d have something worthwhile to contribute. But am I close enough to their ideal of a fine upstanding citizen to fit with the others? “It’s your ABC,” but only for middle-class whites, plus a token Asian who’s a member of various committees so that’s OK.
Hacking the power grid, again
Following news a month ago that it’s easy to hack into nuclear reactors, news that another experimental attack caused a generator to self-destruct. The US government and the power industry fear what might happen if such an attack were carried out on a larger scale. Thanks to Jan Whitaker for the pointer.