Success!

Good times last night at the Ig Nobels. My buddy Shane accompanied me to the ceremony, which honors research that makes you laugh, and then makes you think. This years’ highlights included a study on the effects of Viagra for treating jet lag (in hamsters) and a study on how people eat (and particularly on how they decide when to stop eating) that involved the construction of a soup bowl that, unbeknownst to the diner, was essentially bottomless and neverending.

Sadly and bizarrely (even for an already bizarre event like this), photos were not allowed during the event. I snapped one prior to entering the theater, showing the Squeezebox troupe warming up for their grand entrance parade:

They announced that there should be no photos of the show, but I figured they were kidding. It’s tough to tell. So I snapped this one and promptly got yelled at:

The guy on stage there is eating from the neverending soup bowl.

After the show, Shane and I took off for John Harvard’s, where we met with a good group of about ten fellow scientists and skeptics!

Despite the best efforts of our waitress, we managed to procure much beer and drink well into the night. I got enough thumbs up on the idea of launching Skeptics in the Pub, Boston that I figured what the hell, let’s do it. A few of you have already e-mailed me, including some of you who couldn’t make it last night. I’m gathering a list of e-mail addresses, so please write me if you’re in the area and want to be in on the ground floor of what is sure to be a rocking good time (monthly!).

Of course I’d be remiss if I failed to mention once more that tomorrow is my birthday bash at Redline in Cambridge, around 8pm until when-the-hell-ever. Hope I see some of you there!

(Oh, and: those of you who weren’t able to attend the Igs can hear them broadcast in full the day after Thanksgiving on NPR’s Science Friday with Ira Flatow!)