Today I learned...

nivrip said:
Today I learned that there are over 500,000 alcohol-related deaths in Russia each year. :eek:

No wonder the population is falling.
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Wow, that's really awful! :eek: Mind you, when you think about it it was only a few years ago that beer was classified as alcoholic (it was previously classed as a soft drink!) then I guess it's unsurprising...
 
Today I laughed and learned:

The 2016 Ig Nobel Prizes were awarded on Thursday night, September 22, 2016 at the 26th First Annual Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony, at Harvard's Sanders Theatre. The ceremony was webcast live.

REPRODUCTION PRIZE [EGYPT] — The late Ahmed Shafik, for studying the effects of wearing polyester, cotton, or wool trousers on the sex life of rats, and for conducting similar tests with human males.

REFERENCE: "Effect of Different Types of Textiles on Sexual Activity. Experimental study," Ahmed Shafik, European Urology, vol. 24, no. 3, 1993, pp. 375-80.

REFERENCE: "Contraceptive Efficacy of Polyester-Induced Azoospermia in Normal Men," Ahmed Shafik, Contraception, vol. 45, 1992, pp. 439-451.



ECONOMICS PRIZE [NEW ZEALAND, UK] — Mark Avis, Sarah Forbes, and Shelagh Ferguson, for assessing the perceived personalities of rocks, from a sales and marketing perspective.

REFERENCE: "The Brand Personality of Rocks: A Critical Evaluation of a Brand Personality Scale," Mark Avis, Sarah Forbes, Shelagh Ferguson, Marketing Theory, vol. 14, no. 4, 2014, pp. 451-475.

WHO ATTENDED THE CEREMONY: Mark Avis and Sarah Forbes



PHYSICS PRIZE [HUNGARY, SPAIN, SWEDEN, SWITZERLAND] — Gábor Horváth, Miklós Blahó, György Kriska, Ramón Hegedüs, Balázs Gerics, Róbert Farkas, Susanne Åkesson, Péter Malik, and Hansruedi Wildermuth, for discovering why white-haired horses are the most horsefly-proof horses, and for discovering why dragonflies are fatally attracted to black tombstones.

REFERENCE: "An Unexpected Advantage of Whiteness in Horses: The Most Horsefly-Proof Horse Has a Depolarizing White Coat," Gábor Horváth, Miklós Blahó, György Kriska, Ramón Hegedüs, Balázs Gerics, Róbert Farkas and Susanne Åkesson, Proceedings of the Royal Society B, vol. 277 no. 1688, pp. June 2010, pp. 1643-1650.

REFERENCE: "Ecological Traps for Dragonflies in a Cemetery: The Attraction of Sympetrum species (Odonata: Libellulidae) by Horizontally Polarizing Black Grave-Stones," Gábor Horváth, Péter Malik, György Kriska, Hansruedi Wildermuth, Freshwater Biology, vol. 52, vol. 9, September 2007, pp. 1700–9.

WHO ATTENDED THE CEREMONY: Susanne Åkesson



CHEMISTRY PRIZE [GERMANY] — Volkswagen, for solving the problem of excessive automobile pollution emissions by automatically, electromechanically producing fewer emissions whenever the cars are being tested.

REFERENCE: "EPA, California Notify Volkswagen of Clean Air Act Violations", U.S. Environmental Protection Agency news release, September 18, 2015.



MEDICINE PRIZE [GERMANY] — Christoph Helmchen, Carina Palzer, Thomas Münte, Silke Anders, and Andreas Sprenger, for discovering that if you have an itch on the left side of your body, you can relieve it by looking into a mirror and scratching the right side of your body (and vice versa).

REFERENCE: "Itch Relief by Mirror Scratching. A Psychophysical Study," Christoph Helmchen, Carina Palzer, Thomas F. Münte, Silke Anders, Andreas Sprenger, PLoS ONE, vol. 8, no 12, December 26, 2013, e82756.

WHO ATTENDED THE CEREMONY: Andreas Sprenger



PSYCHOLOGY PRIZE [BELGIUM, THE NETHERLANDS, GERMANY, CANADA, USA] — Evelyne Debey, Maarten De Schryver, Gordon Logan, Kristina Suchotzki, and Bruno Verschuere, for asking a thousand liars how often they lie, and for deciding whether to believe those answers.

REFERENCE: "From Junior to Senior Pinocchio: A Cross-Sectional Lifespan Investigation of Deception," Evelyne Debey, Maarten De Schryver, Gordon D. Logan, Kristina Suchotzki, and Bruno Verschuere, Acta Psychologica, vol. 160, 2015, pp. 58-68.

WHO ATTENDED THE CEREMONY: Bruno Verschuere



PEACE PRIZE [CANADA, USA] — Gordon Pennycook, James Allan Cheyne, Nathaniel Barr, Derek Koehler, and Jonathan Fugelsang for their scholarly study called "On the Reception and Detection of Pseudo-Profound Bullshit".

REFERENCE: "On the Reception and Detection of Pseudo-Profound Bullshit," Gordon Pennycook, James Allan Cheyne, Nathaniel Barr, Derek J. Koehler, and Jonathan A. Fugelsang, Judgment and Decision Making, Vol. 10, No. 6, November 2015, pp. 549–563.

WHO ATTENDED THE CEREMONY: Gordon Pennycook, Nathaniel Barr, Derek Koehler, and Jonathan Fugelsang



BIOLOGY PRIZE [UK] — Awarded jointly to: Charles Foster, for living in the wild as, at different times, a badger, an otter, a deer, a fox, and a bird; and to Thomas Thwaites, for creating prosthetic extensions of his limbs that allowed him to move in the manner of, and spend time roaming hills in the company of, goats.

REFERENCE: GoatMan; How I Took a Holiday from Being Human, Thomas Thwaites, Princeton Architectural Press, 2016, ISBN 978-1616894054.

REFERENCE: Being a Beast, by Charles Foster, Profile Books, 2016, ISBN 978-1781255346.

WHO ATTENDED THE CEREMONY: Charles Foster, Thomas Thwaites. [NOTE: Thomas Thwaites's goat suit was kindly released for Ig Nobel purposes from the exhibition 'Platform - Body/Space' at Het Nieuwe Instituut in Rotterdam, and will be back on display at the museum from 4 October 2016 till 8 January 2017.]



LITERATURE PRIZE [SWEDEN] — Fredrik Sjöberg, for his three-volume autobiographical work about the pleasures of collecting flies that are dead, and flies that are not yet dead.

REFERENCE: "The Fly Trap" is the first volume of Fredrik Sjöberg's autobiographical trilogy, "En Flugsamlares Vag" ("The Path of a Fly Collector"), and the first to be published in English. Pantheon Books, 2015, ISBN 978-1101870150.

WHO ATTENDED THE CEREMONY: Fredrik Sjöberg



PERCEPTION PRIZE [JAPAN] — Atsuki Higashiyama and Kohei Adachi, for investigating whether things look different when you bend over and view them between your legs.

REFERENCE: "Perceived size and Perceived Distance of Targets Viewed From Between the Legs: Evidence for Proprioceptive Theory," Atsuki Higashiyama and Kohei Adachi, Vision Research, vol. 46, no. 23, November 2006, pp. 3961–76.

WHO ATTENDED THE CEREMONY: Atsuki Higashiyama
 
Ha, some crackers there, Urmas. :D

Really liked the ones about VW, scratching the opposite side to relieve an itch (why would you when you can scratch the itchy side?), the Peace Prize regarding bull**** and the one about things looking different when looking through your legs. :D

The whole thing should have got the Peace Prize as it is all a load of bull****. :p
 
Today I learned that scientists finally concluded that the chicken came first, not the egg.

That's because the protein which makes egg shells is only produced by hens. :D

Well, I'm glad I finally got that one sorted out. :D
 
Urmas said:
BIOLOGY PRIZE [UK] — Awarded jointly to: Charles Foster, for living in the wild as, at different times, a badger, an otter, a deer, a fox, and a bird; and to Thomas Thwaites, for creating prosthetic extensions of his limbs that allowed him to move in the manner of, and spend time roaming hills in the company of, goats.
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That's hilarious! :lol:

Some good stuff there @Urmas, I think we have all learned something! :thumb:

@Taffycat good find! I'd always thought that the hole in a spaghetti server was just to let the water out, but it's interesting to know there is another useful purpose to it :)
 

EDIT: Oh, and a "simpler" alternative already exists in many languages:

French: Tchéquie (officially La République tchèque)
German: Tschechien (Tschechische Republik)
Finnish: Tsekki (Tšekin tasavalta)

Etc.
 
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Today I learned a little about Maleo birds!

The Maleo is a surprising bird. Although it only numbers around ten thousand in the wild – and close to zero in captivity – it is remarkable amongst our feathered friends for the unique way it cares for its young. Instead of incubating their eggs, the Maleos lay theirs in the baking sand of Sulawesi island – the only place in the world in which they can be found in the wild.
More remarkable still is that when it emerges the chick will already be able to fly.
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Today I learned that scientists may be on the brink of a cure for HIV :eek: :thumb:

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2016/oct/02/scientists-testing-cure-for-hiv-report-progress

Mark Samuels, the managing director of the National Institute for Health Research Office for Clinical Research Infrastructure, told the Sunday Times: “This is one of the first serious attempts at a full cure for HIV. We are exploring the real possibility of curing HIV. This is a huge challenge and it’s still early days but the progress has been remarkable.”
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https://www.theguardian.com/society/2016/oct/02/scientists-testing-cure-for-hiv-report-progress
 
Taffycat said:
Today I learned............... that it is not Sunday! :eek:

I woke, fully convinced that it was Sunday morning. But duh... I guess I should think of it as having "gained" a day. :blush:
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I've been doing that lately, probably because I haven't had any work to speak of since the end of July and one day seems to just blur into another.

In some respects it's good being a slob but I do like to keep active and working also buys toys ;)

Oh, and today I learned... nowt :(
 
floppybootstomp said:
Oh, and today I learned... nowt :(
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Well we can't have that can we Sir Floppington! So, just for you, some interesting froggy-facts :D:

  • There are over 5,000 species of frog.
  • Frogs don’t need to drink water as they absorb it through their skin.
  • A frog’s call is unique to its species, and some frog calls can be heard up to a mile away.
  • Some frogs can jump over 20 times their own body length; that is like a human jumping 30m.
  • Many species of frog care for their offspring. For example some poison dart frogs lay their eggs on the forest floor so they can guard them and urinate on them to keep them moist.
  • Females of some frog species keep a regular check on their offspring (tadpoles) and if food becomes scarce she will deposit unfertilised eggs for them to eat.
  • Asian tree frogs build nests in trees above water so that when the tadpoles hatch they fall directly into the water.
  • Due to their permeable skin, typically biphastic life (aquatic larvae and terrestrial adults), and mid-position in the food web frogs and other amphibians are excellent biological indicators of the wider health of ecosystems.
  • Since Pictish times, the frog has been considered lucky in Scotland. This is why stone frogs are commonly kept in gardens and often given as housewarming gifts.
  • In Egypt the frog is the symbol of life and fertility, and in Egyptian mythology Heget is a frog-goddess who represents fertility.
 
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