Fiendish thingies!

I stumbled across this discussion of Asian thingies.
Thingy from the collection of the metropolitan musem
I believe I have seen these in a non-Asian context. I think I need to hit the books…

2014 IgNobels awarded

Winners were ceremonially announced last night. I haven’t yet watched the awards video, so I do not know if Miss Sweetie-Poo was called into service.

The Medicine Prize was won by Ian Humphreys, Sonal Saraiya, Walter Belenky and James Dworkin, for developing a means of treating uncontrollable nosebleeds that involves packing the patient’s nose with bacon.