Betsy Devine: Funny ha-ha and/or funny peculiar

Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony 2006 @ Harvard Originally uploaded by fantastine1234.

I’ve been smiling all day, but people over at the Chronicle of Higher Ed are very sad… They missed the 2006 Ig Nobel prize ceremony last night because their spam filter ate press releases containing words…not “dung beetle” or “electromechanical teenager repellent”…but maybe the description of Kees Moeliker’s prize… Whatever the reason, I’m nominating their spam filter for its own Ig! Streaming video of the event should go up at http://www.improbable.com/webcast.html soon–at the moment, alas, the site’s getting so much traffic that things there are sloowwwwww. While you’re waiting, here’s some news coverage of last night’s craziness:

Candace Lombardi at CNET has the star quote from Ig winner Francis Fesmire.

“I someday really wish to be recognized for my work in cardiac research, but my son told me to look on the bright side. It’s sort of like winning a Darwin Award, but you don’t have to die.”

David Brooks of NH notes one serious problem.

People from NH are seriously under-represented on the list of past Ig Nobel winners!

Steve Nadis at Nature has some great quotes

“Another classic Ig tradition — scientists attempt to sum up their field in seven words. Frank Wilczek of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology does dark matter and dark energy: ‘What you see isn’t what you get.’ “

I guess that has to be my favorite quote. Well, to be honest, my favorite quote was one applause line in Marc’s list of show contributors — “And our slide jockeys, in the back, Betsy Devine and Keith Clark!”

Whew–just home from the party, to which I brought two dates:

1. Frank Wilczek and
2. the dummy of Frank Wilczek that that sat with Shelley Glashow at the 2005 Ig Nobels.

Just a few of tonight’s most exciting events….

Cane-wielding Minor Domo Julia Lunetta told me about an awesome podcast called Second Shift.

Pizza flippers hijacked to outer space–what a concept–I can’t wait to hear this!

I got my copy of Marc Abrahams’ new book The Man Who Tried to Clone Himself signed by many Ig notables.

If we get really, really poor–I can sell it on eBay!

Mathematica author Stephen Wolfram has a new project about to launch…

…so cool I’m sure it’ll show up in everyone’s Wired RSS feed. In other news, he has absolutely no idea how many of us used Mathematica to write our own Sudoku-solving programs.

In other news, red wine plus chocolate cake makes people very, very sleepy. Here’s hoping I wake up in time for the Igs next year, in case I win my own prize for that last insight!

The magicians before the magic begins

Originally uploaded by betsythedevine.

That is to say, I got to play the part of a clueless and unrehearsed Ignitary being shephered through my paces by an IgNobel Minor Domo–who really, really knew what she was doing.

Tonight, I’ll be in the back of the darkened theater, running IgNobel slides with graphics guru Keith Clark. Frank will once again be the Nobel laureate. For added reality factor, he will be flying in from Minnesota this morning and teaching a graduate class this afternoon before he hits stage, unrehearsed (as are most Ignitaries) but ready for whatever madness Marc Abrahams conjures up.

In the photo, IgNobel maestro Marc confers with soprano Margot Button–BTW, I snapped more rehearsal photos and put them on Flickr.