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ig nobel

Seriously, how do you use Diet Coke as a contraceptive? Like, do you pour it over stuff, or do you merely ingest it as usual? Look, the linked article doesn't say. But apparently the study is wrong, and I guess you would pour that effervescent stuff over junk as they did in a petri dish. TMI: I am drinking Diet Coke right now, after having consumed lasagna and a mini Twix bar.

Also, how cross-disciplinary are the Ig Nobel awards, that they gave the prize in literature to an org theorist? The study of perspective-taking is clearly psychology, if you want to parse disciplinary boundaries, but I suppose they were thrown by the idea that it's a "narrative understanding of indignation."

When I was in high school, I would spend hours every Saturday night listening to and taping off the radio the Dr. Demento show. Yes, I was a late bloomer. Anyway, one of my favorite novelty songs back then was "Carrot Juice Is Murder" by The Arrogant Worms. Mainly because it was ridiculous and preposterous. But anyway, the Ig Nobel prize in peace was awarded the Swiss Federal Ethic Committee for adopting the legal principle that plants have dignity. Read the table of contents, or the whole thing. I leave the editorializing to you. I am all for biodiversity as an ecological principle and for the sake of preserving the environment. But I am sure the philosophers among us can discuss better whether we should engage in the moral consideration of plants for their own sake, and whether they have interests of their own that must be protected to preserve their dignity (measured at collective, individual, or species level?) as living beings. Interesting question in the study: what has a good of its own, or its own interests? Follow up question from Belle: how on earth would you deal with the other minds problem with respsect to plants? Haven't you philosopher types been struggling with that question even concerning sentient beings or hell, mammals? Finally, how to compare and balance the dignity interests of plants with those of other organisms? Ultra-finally: who cares?!

Ok, slight editorializing: this is what happens when you stay neutral throughout wars and have too much time on your hands. For more Swede-bashing, they also apparently don't understand American literature.

Full post as published by Law and Letters on October 03, 2008 (boomark / email).