Pointless research: top 10 Ig Nobel award winners for silly science

[T_i_B]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/science-news/6223831/Pointless-research-top-10-Ig-Nobel-award-winners-for-silly-science.html

1) Digital rectal massage is a cure for hiccups, winner, Medicine, 2006

2) Chinstrap penguins can squirt poo up to 40cm, winner, Fluid Dynamics, 2005

3) Ducks can be homosexual necrophiliacs too (winner, Biology, 2003)

4) Suicide rates are linked to the amount of country music played on the radio, winner, Medicine, 2004

5) Dog fleas can jump higher than cat fleas, winner, Biology, 2008

6) Lap dancers get higher tips when they are ovulating, winner, Economics, 2008

7) Rats can’t always tell the difference between Japanese spoken backwards and Dutch spoken backwards, winner, Linguistics, 2007

8) You can extract vanilla flavouring from cow dung, winner, Chemistry, 2006

9) Why woodpeckers don’t get headaches – winner, Ornithology, 2006

10) Malaria mosquitoes are as attracted to limburger cheese as they are to human foot odour – winner, Biology, 2006

[MrModerate]

1. Now wait a minute. Not all of these studies are useless . . .

Number 4 might save some lives!

And less frivolously, there could be some significant medical and/or ergonomic value from Number 9.

[T_i_B]

2. "Number 4 might save some lives!"

Would that be by banning country music?

Mind you, I can see the appeal of banning country music regardless of suicide rates! :rofl:

[MrModerate]

3. Or alternatively, by carefully allocating country music airplay . . .

to where it would do "the most good."

I have a little list.

[caraher]

5. I'd wager it's already most popular in "Red States..."

Just sayin...

[rurallib]

4. #10 may have some real applications in the tropics.

[Blue_Tires]

6. ok i confess...i MUST know the science behind #6

[nebenaube]

7. pheromones... (most likely) n/t

[Duer 157099]

11. that plus some behavioral changes I bet

my guess is that ovulating women subconsciously become more seductive, whatever that might mean for each individual. And if they're already a lap dancer, then it probably means something significant.

[ChazInAz]

8. Indeed!

What were the procedural protocols? What sort of a control group was used? What kind of music? (Perhaps country and western would have a negative impact, vis a vis the previous research on suicide levels.) If anyone plans on duplicating the experiment, will they need volunteers?
Just asking...

[Orsino]

9. #1 is just common sense, I suppose...

...particularly if unannounced.

[Posteritatis]

10. Several of those sound genuinely interesting

Several also sound genuinely horrifying, and the two overlap in places, but still.