The (re)Union

Three days ago,when finally after 2 1/2 years, our alumni meet which was supposedly never supposed to happen, took place, i feel contended. Somehow ,against all precedences to the contrary , i managed to do the right things, at the right time.Which is a lot, given the long history of inaction that i have been accustomed to.

The IGNobels.

The Ig Nobel Prizes are a parody of the Nobel Prizes and are given each year in early October — around the time the recipients of the genuine Nobel Prizes are announced — for ten achievements that "first make people laugh, and then make them think." Organized by the scientific humor magazine Annals of Improbable Research (AIR), they are presented by a group that includes genuine Nobel Laureates at a ceremony at Harvard University's Sanders Theater.

The Ig nobels, recognise the fun aspect of serious research.It brings in a human moment to geeks immersed in saving mankind.I am wondering why this hasn't become the talk of the world, I am sorry if it is , but that's not the case in my part of the world. Most of them haven't even heard of it.

Here , i am listing down the most outrageous of them along with this year's recipients.

2007

• Aviation: Patricia V. Agostino, Santiago A. Plano and Diego A. Golombek, for discovering that hamsters recover from jetlag more quickly when given Viagra.
• Biology: Johanna E.M.H. van Bronswijk, for taking a census of all the mites and other life forms that live in people's beds.
• Chemistry: Mayu Yamamoto for extracting vanilla flavor from cow dung.
• Economics: Kuo Cheng Hsieh, for patenting a device to catch bank robbers by ensnaring them in a net.^[3]
• 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.
• Literature: Glenda Browne, for her study of the word "the". ^[4]
• Medicine: Dan Meyer and Brian Witcombe, for investigating the side-effects of swallowing swords.
• Nutrition: Brian Wansink, for investigating people's appetites by secretly feeding them a self-refilling bowl of soup.
• Peace: The Air Force Wright Laboratory in Dayton, Ohio, for research and development of a "gay bomb," which would cause enemy troops to become sexually attracted to each other.
• Physics: L. Mahadevan and Enrique Cerda Villablanca for their theoretical study of how sheets become wrinkled.

gosh.. come to think of it. Everything's outrageously outrageous. It would fill in 10s of pages. I would like to mention about one that's from my own place . Awarded in 2002 in

Mathematics - Presented to K.P. Sreekumar and G. Nirmalan of Kerala Agricultural University, India, for their analytical report "Estimation of the Total Surface Area in Indian Elephants."
Incredible !!! ain't it? awesome .

The ignobels draw attention to scientific articles that have some humorous or unexpected aspect. Examples range from the discovery that the presence of humans tends to sexually arouse ostriches, to the statement that black holes fulfill all the technical requirements to be the location of Hell, to research on the "five-second rule," a tongue-in-cheek belief that food dropped on the floor won't become contaminated if it is picked up within five seconds.

Got inspired? let me know. And why don't you check out
other mock awards:

• Golden Raspberry Awards for bad film work
• Darwin Awards for fatally foolish behavior
• Pigasus Award for paranormal fraud (U.S.)
• Bent Spoon Award for paranormal fraud (Australia)
• Stella Awards for "outrageous" lawsuits

(sourced from the one and only wikipedia)

Everything you do can be traced back to you!

Posted on gadgetell.com, July 24th, 2007 at 9:52 AM by Robert Nelson

Section: News

Harry Potter fans all over could not wait to get their hands on the latest release but someone just could not control their excitement and took some time to photograph each and every page and then made them available via BitTorrent before the books actual release. For some people this may have seemed like a wonderful and quick way to find out just how the final Harry Potter book will end however it could really be the end for the person who posted the pictures.

The EFF checked out the leaked pictures and did some investigating of their own. They found that the EXIF metadata contained the serial number of the camera along with some information about the settings. The camera in question was a Canon Rebel 300D. With a unique serial number it is possible to find the person who took the images. Of course it would still not be a perfect or easy quest. The camera would have to have been registered when first purchased and even then it could have been registered with old or inaccurate information.

So while it would be hard to track down the owner of that camera it just brings a good point, in today’s digital age it is becoming very hard to stay anonymous. In the past we have seen information tracked by hidden details left from laser printers, Word documents, PDF files, CD burners and software. While I am not a fan of this hidden information its also not a huge concern for me because I am not someone who would leak something like this. So leakers be warned, you most likely can be tracked.