:: Pedantic Platitudes ::

:: Thursday, October 02, 2003 ::

OK, I had no idea that the phrase "fold the paper hamburger-wise" and "hot dog-wise" were California specific. Today, I was teaching some people how to make paper hats, and I said, "Fold the paper hamburger-wise." They looked at me and said, "What?!?" And I sat there agog: "You've never heard of folding a paper hamburger-wise?" They had never heard of folding a paper hamburger-wise. They were from New Jersey and New York. Then a third person walked up and said, "Yeah, don't you know about hamburger-wise?" He was from California. Apparently, they call it different things in different places: "tall guy to tall guy and short guy to short guy" or "mountain fold and valley fold." Hmf. Go figure...

Anyways, I was teaching people how to fold paper hats when I attended the 13th annual First Annual IgNobel Prize Ceremony today. This is a spoof of the Nobel Peace Prize and celebrates actual scientific studies that "first make people LAUGH, and then make them THINK." Previous winners have been studies on scrotal asymmetry in ancient sculpture, an estimation of the total surface area of Indian elephants, the invention of a translating device to understand the barking of dogs, and "Courtship Behaviour of Ostriches Towards Humans Under Farming Conditions in Britain."

I had heard a lot about last year's ceremony, and I really wanted to go this year, so my friend Alex helped me procure tickets. I went with the Harvard Computing Society, which had a delegation at the ceremony. The ceremony really runs like an awards show, with various musical numbers and interesting demonstrations in between the actual awarding of prizes. As part of the HCS delegation, I had to dress up as "Gray Goo," which had to do with the theme of "nano" at this year's IgNobels. We decorated ourselves with duct tape and pieces of gray paper and were vocal at various points in the show.

Present were several Nobel laureates and other special guests, including Edward A. Murphy III, the son of the Murphy of Murphy's Law, which states that anything that can go wrong will go wrong. I also enjoyed the appearance by the guy who invented the plastic pink flamingo that people put in their front lawns.

There was even a "nano" opera, which was most hilarious, much like the rest of the show. My favorite award tonight was the one given for biology, and this year's recipient studied homosexual necrophilia in mallard ducks. Incredible, no? Apparently, what happened was a mallard flew into a window at a science museum and died. The curator of the museum noticed that another mallard walked up to the dead one and started copulating with it. The curator noticed that the mallard that was alive was male, as was the dead one. After an hour of watching the action, the curator finally felt the need to put a stop to it, and he confirmed that both mallards were male, hence his detailed study.

It really was very irreverent, with random things going on at the same time and audience members constantly flying paper airplanes onto the stage.

Here's a newspaper story on the event.

After the show, I helped the HCS delegation clean up all the paper airplanes that had been made and flown. That's why I was teaching people how to fold things.

Earlier today, I had my Chinese test, which I think I did acceptably on. I participated in a psychology study that netted me about $20 for less than an hour's worth of work. Then, I went in to The Crimson to finish my dining hall story. Barring any last-minute things-going-awry, it should run tomorrow.

There was also an open house this evening at the residence of the house masters, who provided us with delicious food and MONKEYBREAD, the delicious, gooey, sweet, cinnamon-y delight that we all love. I went and socialized a bit.

Tonight, I stayed up late finishing up my problem set for Science B-29. That's OK… tomorrow is Friday.

:: SL 1:19 PM [+] ::
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