4 ms·

Ig Nobel win for Alpine 'goat man'

26 points by sjcsjc 10y ago

Artoemius 10y ago
This is probably the most profound work out of these (no sarcasm): On the reception and detection of pseudo-profound bullshit http://journal.sjdm.org/15/15923a/jdm15923a.html http://journal.sjdm.org/15/15923a/jdm15923a.html
tspike 10y ago
If you missed the original article: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3612748/Why-decided-life-London-goat-Switzerland.html http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3612748/Why-decided-... He makes for a nice clickbaity punchline of a headline, which is obviously part of the intent as he wrote a book on the experience and was desperate to escape his job. Still, for some reason I find it fascinating, especially the bit about his initial rejection from and subsequent acceptance into the herd.
hyperpallium 10y ago
> Medicine Prize - Christoph Helmchen and colleagues, for discovering that if you have an itch on the left side of your body, you can relieve it by looking into a mirror and scratching the right side of your body (and vice versa).
- 2muchcoffeeman 10y ago
  Does it have to be in a visible spot? One arm is more flexible than the other and this would be useful when scratching my back.
  - dogma1138 10y ago
    More predictable than visible, the brain needs to be able to feel the gaps. I would think this isn't that different than the phantom touch experiments people have been conducting over the years e.g. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DphlhmtGRqI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DphlhmtGRqI. The nervous system is a pretty interesting "bus", since there isn't a separate "bus" for each nerve and many of them share the same "bus" the brain actually figures out what happens based on various other inputs including latency, signal strength, and input from other senses like sight, sound, and smell. Overall since every nervous system is unique your brain actually has to "learn" how does a signal from touching your finger looks like and then it classifies that signal as say "light prick left index finger", to compensate for the transmission delay your brain also knows how that signal should look like so it actually starts processing a "replay" or a "synthetic" version of the expected signal before the "real" one arrives, or is even generated; this is very important for your reflexes and response time. It's pretty interesting that you start "feeling" being punched in the stomach before your brain can actually register it or even before the punch lands simply because the sensory input from your sight is on a shorter link (and also potentially processed faster).

26 points by sjcsjc 10y ago

This is probably the most profound work out of these (no sarcasm): On the reception and detection of pseudo-profound bullshit http://journal.sjdm.org/15/15923a/jdm15923a.html http://journal.sjdm.org/15/15923a/jdm15923a.html

tspike 10y ago

If you missed the original article: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3612748/Why-decided-life-London-goat-Switzerland.html http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3612748/Why-decided-... He makes for a nice clickbaity punchline of a headline, which is obviously part of the intent as he wrote a book on the experience and was desperate to escape his job. Still, for some reason I find it fascinating, especially the bit about his initial rejection from and subsequent acceptance into the herd.

hyperpallium 10y ago

> Medicine Prize - Christoph Helmchen and colleagues, for discovering that if you have an itch on the left side of your body, you can relieve it by looking into a mirror and scratching the right side of your body (and vice versa).

2muchcoffeeman 10y ago
Does it have to be in a visible spot? One arm is more flexible than the other and this would be useful when scratching my back.
- dogma1138 10y ago
  More predictable than visible, the brain needs to be able to feel the gaps. I would think this isn't that different than the phantom touch experiments people have been conducting over the years e.g. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DphlhmtGRqI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DphlhmtGRqI. The nervous system is a pretty interesting "bus", since there isn't a separate "bus" for each nerve and many of them share the same "bus" the brain actually figures out what happens based on various other inputs including latency, signal strength, and input from other senses like sight, sound, and smell. Overall since every nervous system is unique your brain actually has to "learn" how does a signal from touching your finger looks like and then it classifies that signal as say "light prick left index finger", to compensate for the transmission delay your brain also knows how that signal should look like so it actually starts processing a "replay" or a "synthetic" version of the expected signal before the "real" one arrives, or is even generated; this is very important for your reflexes and response time. It's pretty interesting that you start "feeling" being punched in the stomach before your brain can actually register it or even before the punch lands simply because the sensory input from your sight is on a shorter link (and also potentially processed faster).