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This has been discussed here, in relation to the classified ads, so i guess it is somewhat "on topic". Of course; real Ig Nobel winners use TIs....

The Ig Nobel Prize for Literature went to the Nigerians who introduced millions of e-mail users to a "cast of rich characters ... each of whom requires just a small amount of expense money so as to obtain access to the great wealth to which they are entitled."

This year's other Ig Nobel winners include:

PHYSICS: Since 1927, researchers at the University of Queensland in Australia have been tracking a glob of congealed black tar as it drips through a funnel — at a rate of one drop every nine years.

PEACE: Two researchers at Newcastle University in England monitored the brain activity of locusts as they watched clips from the movie "Star Wars."

CHEMISTRY: An experiment at the University of Minnesota was designed to prove whether people can swim faster or slower in syrup than in water.

In my opinoin, the Nobel Prize for Literature is well deserved. Millions of people are able to become millionaires - they just need a computer (and a little cash handy). This is real space age!
And (this is much more important, think about world peace), long lost family member appear all over. We have former ministers, sons of former presidents, princes all revealing their true identity through email. I think this is the real breakthrough.
(If I only could figure out, why they don't just grab the cash and run. Maybe they are too honest...)

I even got an offer to help a guy named Obiwan Kenobe recover over 100 megabucks... unfortunately I crossed over to the Dark Side long ago...

The physics department at UQ "experiment" is actually an illustration of "superfluid" behaviour in pitch. Glass behaves the same way. I saw it and although it's boring, it's "interesting" ;-)

Also in the foyer at UQ was a really neat somewhat kitsch display,
an early rainbow hologram from the 1960's of a cute (1960's "straight") blonde girl who winked at you as you went past... ;-)

Of much more troubling concern to me at that time (1982) were the bizarre multiple postings in the department halls of expositions on the subject that apparently the speed of light is changing.

Seems some fundamentalist christians couldn't cope with the universe being so very old as it is. Their explanation was the speed of light has sped up recently (since 4007 B.C. the "Time of Creation"). I found this very disturbing that people could actually seriously expound such garbage...

Oh well, it takes all kinds...

dw

I recently got an offer from the "widow of Mobutu Sese Seko." At first, I was perplexed because if one were going to "offer" easy money, one could at least use a much nicer character as a subject. But then, I thought about it further: Mobutu was so corrupt, who better to deal with than his family, after his death, when it comes to laundered cash. Now that you've crossed over to the dark side, I could forward you that email. :)

John

Mr. Wallace!

This is, after all, a calculator forum, and a pleasant one at that.

Please be mindful of possible ways your "tone of voice" may be (mis)construed!

I am a research scientist. I am a HP calculator enthusiast and am addicted to RPN over algebraic. I kin do maff and talk ennlish. I am also a fundamentalist Christian.

Don't worry, I don't believe nor teach that the speed of light has sped up, though some report that it may have slowed down (propagation of errors, anyone?). Whatever. The truth is, even with all our current knowledge and technologically improved abilities to inquire and observe, we really still don't know all that much about the universe, especially its origins, as we have to rely on old light transmitted fantastic distances and time through the old ether. Even old HP calculators like my beloved 34C can't help too much with that, seeing how it's kind of electronically decrepit and suffering from the dreaded "2 disease".

Please, though, whatever you believe, don't teach that we have our heads stuck where there is no light, new or old. Besides, not even we unedumakated phun... fon... fundies (that's the ticket!) believe Usher's 4004 terrestrial odessey anymore, just as no one believes the stuff Lamarck and Lysenko taught about heredity, or that TI, Casio and Sharp are the best.

May your HP calcs continue to give you joy and the Lord bless you anyhow.

Our holo-lady blows kisses at passersby.

BTW, I'm a Fundamentalist Pastafarian (http://www.venganza.org)

I like spaghetti, too, but not while I'm operating my HP calcs.

David;
Parmesan to you, fellow Pastafarian.
Blessed arrrrrr the Pirates.

Please don't ask me how to relate this to HP calculators.

Whoops... my karma just ran over my dogma!

Blessed are the cheesemakers...

There are only 10 kinds of people in the world: those who understand binary numbers and those who don't...

Real programmers don't... real programmers don't comment their code; if it was hard to write it should be hard to read!

What's the difference between a computer salesman and a used car salesman? A used car salesman KNOWS when he's lying...

dw