B-List

The Nobel Foundation is in the process of making the Nobel Prize
Announcements for 2003.  For details see the Nobel e-Museum:
   <http://www.nobel.se/>

This post is about the announcement of the winners of the less
well-known Ig Nobel Prizes for 2003.

* What are the Ig Nobel Prizes?
   <http://www.improb.com/ig/what-are.html>

* This year's winners
   <http://www.improb.com/ig/ig-pastwinners.html#ig2003>

A selection:
  + PHYSICS
Jack Harvey, John Culvenor, Warren Payne, Steve Cowley, Michael Lawrance,
David Stuart, and Robyn Williams of Australia, for their irresistible
report "An Analysis of the Forces Required to Drag Sheep over Various
Surfaces."
  + MEDICINE
Eleanor Maguire, David Gadian, Ingrid Johnsrude, Catriona Good, John
Ashburner, Richard Frackowiak, and Christopher Frith of University College
London, for presenting evidence that the brains of London taxi drivers are
more highly developed than those of their fellow citizens.
  + PSYCHOLOGY
Gian Vittorio Caprara and Claudio Barbaranelli of the University of Rome,
and Philip Zimbardo of Stanford University, for their discerning report
"Politicians' Uniquely Simple Personalities."
  + LITERATURE
John Trinkaus, of the Zicklin School of Business, New York City, for
meticulously collecting data and publishing more than 80 detailed academic
reports about specific annoyances and anomalies of daily life, such as:
What percentage of young people wear baseball caps with the peak facing
to the rear rather than to the front; What percentage of pedestrians wear
sport shoes that are white rather than some other color; What percentage
of swimmers swim laps in the shallow end of a pool rather than the deep
end; What percentage of automobile drivers almost, but not completely, come
to a stop at one particular stop-sign; What percentage of commuters carry
attaché cases; What percentage of shoppers exceed the number of items
permitted in a supermarket's express checkout lane; and What percentage
of students dislike the taste of Brussels sprouts.
  + ECONOMICS
Karl Schwärzler and the nation of Liechtenstein, for making it possible to
rent the entire country for corporate conventions, weddings, bar mitzvahs,
and other gatherings.

The rest of the HotAIR/www.improb.com has other amusing stuff too.