Fun_People Archive
21 Sep
Ig Nobel Delegations

Date: Wed, 21 Sep 94 18:03:07 PDT
To: Fun_People
Subject: Ig Nobel Delegations

				Please post/forward this as appropriate
===============================================================
CALL FOR DELEGATIONS!
to the 1994 Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony
===============================================================

You are invited to attend the 1994 Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony on 
Thursday, October 6, 1994, at 7:30 p.m., in Kresge Auditorium at 
MIT.  The ceremony honors individuals "whose achievements cannot 
or should not be reproduced."


DELEGATIONS
A limited number of seats is reserved for official theme 
delegations of 4-12 beings (human participants only).  The 
Ceremony commences with the formal Grand Entrance Parade of the 
Delegations, an experience not to be missed   If you wish to bring 
a delegation, please get in touch IMMEDIATELY with:
     Margaret Ann Gray     617-253-0217     mag@mit.edu


TICKETS
Tickets are on sale at the MIT Museum Shop in The MIT Student 
Center.  The price is $2 per ticket.  There will be a strict limit 
of five (5) tickets per person.  We have been asked to remind you 
that scalping is illegal in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
For ticket information call 617-253-1533.


BACKGROUND INFO
In case you want too much background info, it is attached
starting here:


======================================================
Scientists Dreading Oct. 6 Ig Nobel Prize Announcement
======================================================
            Ceremony to feature
            Nobel Laureates, 1200 Hecklers, and a Convicted Felon

(CAMBRIDGE, MA, Sept. 21, 1994)    Four Nobel Laureates, 1200 
hecklers, and a convicted felon will gather at MIT's Kresge 
Auditorium on October 6 to honor this year's Ig Nobel 
Prizewinners.  The annual ceremony honors individuals whose 
achievements "cannot or should not be reproduced."  

Ten Ig Nobel Prizes are given in categories including Chemistry, 
Medicine, Literature and Economics.  Past winners include: Los 
Angeles Police Chief Daryl Gates (1992 Ig Nobel Peace Prize "for 
his uniquely compelling methods of bringing people together;" 
Yvette Bassa, the inventor of bright blue Jell-O (Ig Nobel 
Chemistry Prize, 1992) and Dr. James Nolan, author of the 
painstaking medical report "Acute Management of the Zipper-
Entrapped Penis (Ig Nobel Medicine Prize, 1993).

The Prizes are handed out by genuine Nobel Laureates, with 
assistance from a crowd of 1200 good-natured hecklers, many of 
whom wear lab coats, bathrobes, animal costumes, or old computer 
equipment.  A group of official Authority Figures lends dignity 
and tone to the occasion -- last year they included a dentist who 
has performed more than 10,000 root canal procedures, a past 
president of the American Bar Association, and Russell Johnson, 
Professor Emeritus from Gilligan's Island.  This year's Authority 
Figures will include a convicted felon.

This year's Ceremony will take place at MIT's Kresge Auditorium on 
Thursday, October 6, 1994 at 7:30 p.m.  Arrangements are being 
made to video broadcast it live over the Internet.  National 
Public Radio's "Talk of the Nation Science Friday" will be 
recording the entire ceremony for broadcast on the day after 
Thanksgiving.  Last year's ceremony was also broadcast on NPR, and 
was covered by press from around the world.

The 1993 Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony saw the debut of the Heisenberg 
Certainty  Lectures, delivered by some  of the greatest minds of 
our age.   Each lecture is on a topic of the speaker's own 
choosing -- and is limited to 30 seconds or less.  The time limit 
is strictly enforced by a professional soccer referee.  This 
year's Heisenberg Lecturers include: Nobel Laureates Sheldon 
Glashow, William Lipscomb, Dudley Herschbach, and Richard Roberts;  
astronomer Margaret Geller, the discoverer of the "Great Wall" of 
galaxies;  and Marvin Minsky, who founded the field of artificial 
intelligence.

The MIT Museum cosponsors the Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony in 
conjunction with its ongoing exhibitions and programs related to 
humor at MIT including the MIT Hall of Hacks and The Annals of 
Improbable Research, the new scientific humor magazine edited by 
Ig master of ceremonies, Marc Abrahams -- the former editor of the 
Journal of Irreproducible Results. When Abrahams left the Journal 
for the Annals, he brought with him the entire staff and a- 40-
member editorial board that includes seven Nobel laureates and IQ 
champion Marilyn Vos Savant. The Ig Nobel Ceremony is sponsored in 
part by the Peter DeFlorez Fund for Humor at MIT.

Tickets are $2 and may be purchased in advance at the MIT Museum 
Shop at the MIT Student Center at 84 Massachusetts Avenue (across 
the street from the main entrance of MIT) or at the door prior to 
the ceremony.

For ticket information call 617-253-1533.



================================================================
Ingest some mini-AIR
================================================================

The mini-Annals of improbable Research (mini-AIR) is the mini-
journal of record for inflated research and personalities.

mini-AIR is an electronic publication, available over the 
Internet, free of charge. We publish approximately 12 issues per 
year.  To subscribe, send a brief E-mail message to either of 
these addresses:
	LISTSERV@MITVMA.MIT.EDU     or      LISTSERV@MITVMA
The body of your message should contain ONLY the 
words "SUBSCRIBE MINI-AIR" followed by your name.
Here are two examples:
	SUBSCRIBE MINI-AIR Irene Curie Joliot
	SUBSCRIBE MINI-AIR Nicholai Lobachevsky

© 1994 Peter Langston