This year's Ig Nobels...

[FBM]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-15117051

The full list of Ig Nobel winners:

Physiology Prize: Anna Wilkinson, from the University of Lincoln, and colleagues for their study in the journal Current Zoology titled "No Evidence of Contagious Yawning in the Red-Footed Tortoise".

Chemistry Prize: A team led from Shiga University, Japan, that determined the ideal density of airborne wasabi to awaken sleeping people in case of a fire or other emergency, and for applying this knowledge to invent the wasabi alarm. Patent pending.

Medicine Prize: Shared by two teams whose independent research jointly established that people make better decisions about some kinds of things, but worse decisions about other kinds of things‚ when they have a strong urge to urinate.

Psychology Prize: Karl Halvor Teigen of the University of Oslo, Norway, for trying to understand why, in everyday life, people sigh.

Literature Prize: John Perry of Stanford University, US, for his Theory of Structured Procrastination, which says: To be a high achiever, always work on something important, using it as a way to avoid doing something that's even more important.

Biology Prize: Darryl Gwynne and David Rentz for discovering that a certain kind of beetle mates with a certain kind of Australian beer bottle. The pair have published two papers on the topic.

Physics Prize: Philippe Perrin and colleagues for determining why discus throwers become dizzy, and why hammer throwers don't.

Peace Prize: Arturas Zuokas, the mayor of Vilnius, Lithuania, for demonstrating that the problem of illegally parked luxury cars can be solved by running them over with an armoured tank.

Public Safety Prize: John Senders of the University of Toronto, Canada, for conducting a series of safety experiments in which a person drives an automobile on a major highway while a visor repeatedly flaps down over his face, blinding him.

Mathematics Prize: Shared by a group of doom-mongers for teaching the world to be careful when making mathematical assumptions and calculations -

Dorothy Martin of the US who predicted the world would end in 1954
Pat Robertson of the US who predicted the world would end in 1982
Elizabeth Clare Prophet of the US who predicted the world would end in 1990
Lee Jang Rim of Korea who predicted the world would end in 1992
Credonia Mwerinde of Uganda who predicted the world would end in 1999
Harold Camping of the US who predicted the world would end in 1994 and then later in 2011

[Audley Strange]

Actually that first one is fascinating. Contagious yawning is one of the tests to see if empathy is present in a given species. That it is not found in Red Footed tortoises is mildly interesting. Even the thikki page is a good read.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yawn#Contagiousness

[Pappa]

Actually that first one is fascinating. Contagious yawning is one of the tests to see if empathy is present in a given species. That it is not found in Red Footed tortoises is mildly interesting. Even the thikki page is a good read.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yawn#Contagiousness

I noticed that my daughter was immune to contagious yawning when she was a baby. I tested it lots of times and she never joined in. That changed when she hit a certain age (I forget, but probably about 12 months), when suddenly she yawned almost every time just like everyone else. My guess was that this applies to all babies.

[Audley Strange]

I watched a long talk on Contagious Yawning quite recently and found it fascinating. It's a standard reaction that develops apparently except for in some children with Autistic Spectrum Disorders. If I remember correctly is found in primates and most curiously domesticated but not wild dogs, not even within their own packs.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

I watched a long talk on Contagious Yawning quite recently and found it fascinating. It's a standard reaction that develops apparently except for in some children with Autistic Spectrum Disorders. If I remember correctly is found in primates and most curiously domesticated but not wild dogs, not even within their own packs.

By "domesticated dogs", do you mean the species we've developed? And does "wild dogs" mean human bred species that don't live with humans or something else? I ask because I see African Wild Dogs nearly every day.

[mistermack]

I watched a long talk on Contagious Yawning quite recently and found it fascinating. It's a standard reaction that develops apparently except for in some children with Autistic Spectrum Disorders. If I remember correctly is found in primates and most curiously domesticated but not wild dogs, not even within their own packs.

By "domesticated dogs", do you mean the species we've developed? And does "wild dogs" mean human bred species that don't live with humans or something else? I ask because I see African Wild Dogs nearly every day.

And do they yawn?
Actually, domestic dogs are just selectively bred wolves.
We've selected them over and over again for the ones that integrate best into human society, so maybe we've selected for yawning dogs without knowing it. In that the non-yawning ones were more dangerous and unpredictable and didn't bond to humans so well, and got killed for biting more often by their owners.
When our ancestors' dogs had pups, they would keep the nicer ones, and kill and eat the ones that were harder to get along with.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

I watched a long talk on Contagious Yawning quite recently and found it fascinating. It's a standard reaction that develops apparently except for in some children with Autistic Spectrum Disorders. If I remember correctly is found in primates and most curiously domesticated but not wild dogs, not even within their own packs.

By "domesticated dogs", do you mean the species we've developed? And does "wild dogs" mean human bred species that don't live with humans or something else? I ask because I see African Wild Dogs nearly every day.

And do they yawn?
Actually, domestic dogs are just selectively bred wolves.
We've selected them over and over again for the ones that integrate best into human society, so maybe we've selected for yawning dogs without knowing it. In that the non-yawning ones were more dangerous and unpredictable and didn't bond to humans so well, and got killed for biting more often by their owners.
When our ancestors' dogs had pups, they would keep the nicer ones, and kill and eat the ones that were harder to get along with.

Every domestic dog breed in the world is descended from a wolf that wasn't smart enough or lucky enough to get away from humans.

[mistermack]

Every domestic dog breed in the world is descended from a wolf that wasn't smart enough or lucky enough to get away from humans.

I dunno about that. I think the smart ones were the ones that hung around us and got fed for doing fuck-all.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Every domestic dog breed in the world is descended from a wolf that wasn't smart enough or lucky enough to get away from humans.

I dunno about that. I think the smart ones were the ones that hung around us and got fed for doing fuck-all.

i.e., slaves and beggars.

[mistermack]

Every domestic dog breed in the world is descended from a wolf that wasn't smart enough or lucky enough to get away from humans.

I dunno about that. I think the smart ones were the ones that hung around us and got fed for doing fuck-all.

i.e., slaves and beggars.

Hmmm, slaves that don't work, and beggars that have a free roof, free protection, free food, free entertainment.

Slaves and beggars would be horses and pigs.
Out of them all, cats did best. They definitely make fools of us.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Every domestic dog breed in the world is descended from a wolf that wasn't smart enough or lucky enough to get away from humans.

I dunno about that. I think the smart ones were the ones that hung around us and got fed for doing fuck-all.

i.e., slaves and beggars.

Hmmm, slaves that don't work, and beggars that have a free roof, free protection, free food, free entertainment.

Slaves and beggars would be horses and pigs.

Sorry, but working dogs were slaves. Native Americans used them to pull travois when they moved. And, of course, there's Korea.

[mistermack]

Every domestic dog breed in the world is descended from a wolf that wasn't smart enough or lucky enough to get away from humans.

I dunno about that. I think the smart ones were the ones that hung around us and got fed for doing fuck-all.

i.e., slaves and beggars.

Hmmm, slaves that don't work, and beggars that have a free roof, free protection, free food, free entertainment.

Slaves and beggars would be horses and pigs.

Sorry, but working dogs were slaves. Native Americans used them to pull travois when they moved. And, of course, there's Korea.

True, but the fuckers love it. Look at Huskies, they can't wait to get pulling, and they're quite close to wolves. Korea though, that's true.
I'm sure our ancestors would eat their dogs when times were bad.

[Animavore]

I don't see Roy Spencer on that list.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

True, but the fuckers love it. Look at Huskies, they can't wait to get pulling, and they're quite close to wolves. Korea though, that's true.
I'm sure our ancestors would eat their dogs when times were bad.

And that's why they stayed slaves. Programmed genetically to be "good dogs". You try making a meal out of a wolf and see what happens. Set up a video camera first, please, and anchor your body so you don't get dragged out of the picture. (We've been getting road kill deer in steadily over the past two weeks, and the wolves are getting good at sorting out a carcass quickly. )

[mistermack]

True, but the fuckers love it. Look at Huskies, they can't wait to get pulling, and they're quite close to wolves. Korea though, that's true.
I'm sure our ancestors would eat their dogs when times were bad.

And that's why they stayed slaves. Programmed genetically to be "good dogs". You try making a meal out of a wolf and see what happens. Set up a video camera first, please, and anchor your body so you don't get dragged out of the picture. (We've been getting road kill deer in steadily over the past two weeks, and the wolves are getting good at sorting out a carcass quickly. )

Wolves are opportunists.
I've read that scientists examining wolf scat in Alaska and NW Canada regularly find bear fur, both brown and black.
I can't imagine wolves killing adult grizzlies, but grizzlies kill grizzlies, and black bears, and maybe wolves just drive the winner off the carcase.
Humans wouldn't stand much chance of catching a wild wolf to eat, but if you had raised it from a cub, it would be pretty easy to smash it's brain's out with your club, when it wasn't expecting it, or shove a spear through it.