Following is a summary of current odd news briefs.
Blowhard silencer, dead-fish brain science win spoof Nobel
prizes
CHICAGO (Reuters) – Psychologists who discovered that
leaning to the left makes the Eiffel Tower seem smaller,
neuroscientists who found brain activity in a dead salmon, and
designers of a device that can silence blowhards are among the
winners of Ig Nobel prizes for the oddest and silliest real
discoveries. The annual prizes are awarded by the Annals of
Improbable Research as a whimsical counterpart to the Nobel
prizes, which will be announced early next month.
Congo questions Tintin’s cultural status ahead of
Francophonie
KINSHASA (Reuters) – Any Tintin fan would feel at home in
the small wooden shed in a back street of Democratic Republic
of Congo’s capital Kinshasa, where the shelves are crammed with
brightly painted statues from the famous Belgian cartoon
character’s adventures. Friendly faces are everywhere – the
tufted-haired Tintin, the bearded Captain Haddock and the
bumbling policemen Thomson & Thompson – lovingly carved from
wood and carefully painted in bold colors.
Unaware of pregnancy, British soldier has baby in
Afghanistan
LONDON (Reuters) – A British soldier who did not realize
she was pregnant has given birth to a baby boy at the Camp
Bastion field hospital in Afghanistan. The Ministry of Defence
(MOD) in London said mother and baby were in stable condition
and a specialist “Paediatric Retrieval Team” would fly out from
Britain to care for them during the long flight home.
Planes of the future could fly on sawdust or straw
TOULOUSE, France (Reuters) – Passenger jets could be
chomping on straw or flying on fuel extracted from sawdust in
coming years as the search widens for cleaner alternatives to
kerosene, French scientists say. The “ProBio3” project, started
in early July and co-financed by a French government economic
stimulus program, aims to use traditional horse-bedding
materials to develop a new kind of biofuel that can be used in
a 50/50 blend alongside kerosene.
