WhiteBoard News for Friday, October 10, 2003

Washington, District of Columbia (Reuters):

An Indian who spent 18 years trying to prove he was alive, researchers who showed London taxi drivers have bigger-than-average brains and the inventor of Murphy's Law won "IgNobel" prizes on Thursday. 

The spoofs of the Nobel prizes were also awarded to researchers who found politicians to have simple personalities, a Japanese inventor who studied a statue that seems to be repulsive to birds and an economist who chronicles annoying behavior. 

The IgNobels -- a play on the word ignoble -- are given annually by the science humor magazine "Annals of Improbable Research" and several groups at Harvard and Radcliffe universities to "honor achievements that cannot or should not be reproduced." 

"We try to make people laugh, but we also want people to think," said Annals editor Marc Abrahams, who puts together the awards -- presented in Boston -- every year. 

This year's "peace prize" goes to Lal Bihari of Uttar Pradesh in India, "for a triple accomplishment: First, for leading an active life even though he has been declared legally dead; Second, for waging a lively posthumous campaign against bureaucratic inertia and greedy relatives; and Third, for creating the Association of Dead People," the IgNobel committee said in a statement. 

Bihari, who lives in Azamgarh, 130 miles southeast of Lucknow, was listed as deceased in 1976. 

He eventually found thousands of other Indians in the same plight -- apparently a scam in which officials are bribed to declare landowners dead so their property can be "inherited." 

Abrahams said the Indian government at first refused to give a dead man a passport to travel to the IgNobel ceremony, but finally agreed last month to issue Bihari with travel documents. But it was too late for Bihari to get a U.S. visa. 

"The Indian government, which didn't recognize his life, gave him a passport," Abrahams said. "But the American government, the paragon of efficiency and helpfulness, won't give him a visa. You would expect a man who comes back from the dead would get a little extra help." 

The engineering prize went to now-deceased Air Force Captain Edward Murphy, Air Force doctor John Paul Stapp, and George Nichols, who in 1949 came up with Murphy's Law -- "If anything can go wrong, it will." 

The medicine prize went to a team at University College London for a study showing the brains of London taxi drivers are more highly developed than those of their fellow citizens. 

Their report, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (news - web sites) in April 2000, showed that cabbies have an especially large hippocampus, associated with spatial memory. London cabbies must memorize a map of the city and pass a grueling test on their navigational abilities. 

A team at the University of Rome and Stanford University in California won the psychology prize for their report, published in the deadly serious science journal Nature in 1997, showing that voters judge politicians on two personality characteristics, as compared to five determinants of personality in most social interactions. 

The chemistry prize went to Yukio Hirose of Kanazawa University in Japan for his study of a bronze statue that fails to attract pigeons. 

John Trinkaus of the Zicklin School of Business in New York City was given the literature prize for more than 80 reports about oddities such as what percentage of automobile drivers fail to completely stop at one particular stop-sign and what percentage of shoppers exceed the number of items permitted in a supermarket's express checkout lane. 
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Vancouver, Canada (Reuters):

A man is recovering in a Vancouver-area hospital after his apparent attempt to steal a roll of copper wire ended up giving him a 27,000-volt electrical shock. 

The man was found on Monday wandering in a Surrey, British Columbia, railroad yard with second degree burns but without his shoes, which police said had been blown off when he tried to disconnect the wire from a running generator. 

Investigators said the 41-year-old man, whose name was not released but was already "well known" to police, was expected to recover from his injuries and faced several criminal charges. 
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Cincinnati, Ohio (Ananova):

A Cincinnati woman who was told she couldn't have children was shocked when she gave birth on the toilet.

Amber Roth's doctor thought she was pre-menopausal and had taken her off the pill, reports Channel Cincinnati.

She was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis 16 years ago, uses a wheelchair and is mostly numb from the waist down.

However, after visiting the doctor she began to feel something was not right: "My clothes were getting tighter," she said. "My belly was sore and also my back."

Mrs Roth discovered the real reason why she was experiencing these changes. "I was going from the toilet to my chair and ended up on the floor," she said. "Then I heard these gurgling noises."

Her husband, Thomas, said: "I noticed there was something in the toilet. I said: "Oh my God! There's a baby in there! I can't believe it!'"

He called an ambulance as he held the 2lb 8oz boy in his arms. Mrs Roth said she was in a total state of shock.

Dwight Thomas Roth Jr is doing well, according to doctors, but will spend the first few months of his life in hospital.
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Kiev, Ukraine (Ananova):

A parrot is believed to have foiled a burglary by breaking a year of silence to shout: "Stop! I'll shoot".

The parrot, owned by a retired police officer, reportedly foiled the break-in after his owner left his flat in Kiev, Ukraine, for a few minutes.

When he returned he found three men stretched out on the floor with their hands behind their heads, the Cegodnya newspaper reported.

The thieves, who had believed the man was leaving for the entire day, later said they had heard a voice say: "Stop! I'll shoot! On the ground!", when they came into the flat.

The parrot, which had lived with the retired policeman for a year, had apparently not spoken a word before the incident.
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Duiven, The Netherlands (Ananova):

Dutch firemen who were called out to deal with an early morning house fire found the "blaze" was the sun's reflection.

A man called the police and fire brigade after spotting what he thought were flames shooting from a neighbouring house in Duiven.

But when firefighters arrived they could see no sign of a fire and asked the neighbour to explain himself, reports the Nu website.

They were all baffled until a fireman noticed water in the gutter reflect the sun's rays, making it look as if the house were alight.
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Muncie, Indiana (Ananova):

An Indiana man has been charged with burglary after his false teeth were found at the scene.

Paul D Lee's dentures apparently fell out when he stumbled after breaking into the house near Muncie.

The teeth were found by a relative of the burglary victim, a the day after the break-in.

Both the homeowner and the police had missed the dentures in an initial search.

An Indiana law requires false teeth to carry the owner's name underneath the artificial gum.

Lee was later allowed to keep his dentures after signing for them, according to a police report.

The 39-year-old, of Muncie, is being held in Delaware County Jail on a $25,000 bond.
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