archy

Science marches on
Enough with the debate and this future of democracy crap. Let's look at something really important. Last night while we were rediscovering the meaning of schadenfreude, the winners of the 2004 Ignobel Prizes were announced at a gala ceremony at Harvard.

Among the winners:

In MEDICINE: Steven Stack of Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan, USA and James Gundlach of Auburn University, Auburn, Alabama, USA, for their published report "The Effect of Country Music on Suicide."

In BIOLOGY: Ben Wilson of the University of British Columbia, Lawrence Dill of Simon Fraser University [Canada], Robert Batty of the Scottish Association for Marine Science, Magnus Whalberg of the University of Aarhus [Denmark], and Hakan Westerberg of Sweden's National Board of Fisheries, for showing that herrings apparently communicate by farting.

In ENGINEERING: Donald J. Smith and his father, the late Frank J. Smith, of Orlando Florida, USA, for patenting the combover (U.S. Patent #4,022,227).

Thanks to these and other intrepid stalkers of knowlege, the world is a better place today.