IG NOBEL PRIZE WINNERS

Nutrition: Brian Wansink,

for investigating people's appetite for mindless eating

by secretly feeding them a self-refilling bowl of soup

Linguistics: Juan Manuel Toro and Josep B. Trobalon

for determining that rats sometimes can't distinguish

between recordings of Japanese and Dutch played backward

Literature: Daniel M. Oppenheimer of Princeton University

for his report "Consequences of Erudite Vernacular Utilized

Irrespective of Necessity:

Problems with Using Long Words Needlessly"

Literature – Presented to the Internet entrepreneurs of Nigeria,

for creating and then using e-mail to distribute a bold series

of short stories, thus introducing millions of readers to a

cast of rich characters—General Sani Abacha, Mrs. Mariam

Sanni Abacha, Barrister Jon A Mbeki Esq., and others—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 and which they would like to share with the kind

person who assists them

Physics – Presented to Jack Harvey and John Culvenor of Australia,

for their irresistible report

"An analysis of the forces required to drag sheep over various surfaces".

Economics – Presented to Karl Schwärzler and the nation

of Liechtenstein,

for making it possible to rent the entire

country for corporate conventions, weddings,

bar mitzvahs, and other gatherings

Mathematics – Presented to K.P. Sreekumar and G. Nirmalan

of Kerala Agricultural University, India, for their analytical report

"Estimation of the Total Surface Area in Indian Elephants"

Technology – Presented jointly to John Keogh of Hawthorn,

Victoria, Australia, for patenting the wheel in the year 2001,

and to the Australian Patent Office (IP Australia) for granting

him Innovation Patent #2001100012