Take zis pill, it will take ALL ze pain avay, I perzonally promise!

This really sounds like one from Igor (or Junior Postman Groat, for that matter). Mamba poison does kill all pain (quite quickly), along with the rest of you.

It also reminds me of the proposed surgical treatment for migraine (amputation of the head)

Still, kudos to the scientists if this works well.

Interesting stuff. M22 is magnificent in my 8" scope, as my son (10) also agreed to when we observed it from France this summer. I will tell him he has seen the home of a black-hole binary system. I bet he will be excited.

Bondfest?

Now that is a phrase which could easily be misunderstood

No, mine is not the black leather one.

Deary me

Those "Golden Dawn" ultra right wingers and the church are taking themselves WAY too seriously,

Oh, wait.....

Maybe it is mandatory to undergo a full humourectomy before joining either

Can't you just see people vote

One a really nifty new way to handle loads of database transactions 10 times faster on the same hardware?

You're right, I can't either.

One whole load of foetid dingo's kidneys

Will that still be OK?

After all, it is just a quote from the great Douglas Adams

And at least I didn't say Belgium

Whoops!

If they really wanted to create an explosive atmosphere

Sukakuium would be the name of choice

In Chinese textbooks that would have to become Diaoyuium

At least it wasn't an electric eel

That would have been shocking

Infinity is a very long time indeed

The authors do assume the nuclei have infinite life span. This might not be correct. And anyway, some klutz in a lab coat is bound to drop it at some point (he might even be called Ponder Stibbons).

Interesting work, otherwise

Calling Sgt. Angua

Mine is the one with "The Fifth Elephant" in the pocket

Interesting.

Similar clouds have been known to surround galactic clusters, but not around our own. That is of course hard to do, and has been likened to "drawing up a map of the city whilst standing in the market square." A more accurate analogy would be "drawing up a map of the city whilst standing on a playground somewhere in the (unfashionable western) suburbs"

Thumbs up to the scientists for attempting perhaps not the impossible, but at least the very, very improbable!

Cool, seriously cool!

I visited their lab with two dozen students eleven years ago. They do a lot of seriously cool things there (like transistors that switch based on a single electron on the gate: talk about low power). The students were suitable impressed, even the guy who tried to do a limbo dance underneath a manipulator arm of a vacuum chamber set-up. Needless to say, our host was seriously relieved that I grabbed this student by the shoulder and gave him a very severe reprimand (think sergeant-major Shut-up Sahib).

Proud!!

I am proud the Dutch managed to get another two IgNobels!

Here's to research that makes you think and laugh (I am not picky about the order)

Biggest thing??

"Windows 95 was certainly the biggest thing in the last 20 years until now. I think Windows 8 certainly surpasses it."

What is Balmer smoking? Windows 95 the biggest thing in what? Computing? I would think other things in computing have been bigger (or at least better) in the last 20 years. The world-wide web, for one. OK that made its first wobbly steps in 1990/1991, so outside the time frame, but it only really took off the years after. The Mosaic Browser (1993) was a seminal event in computing. Windows 95 was not.

In my view, Windows 95 improved upon Windows 3.1(1) in that it camouflaged the fact that it was a graphic shell overlaid on MS-DOS rather better. It did a bit more than that, and popularized the WIMP-style (windows, icons, menus, pointer) GUIs still with use today. Yes I know MS did not invent them, but W95 did bring them to a big audience, and took the MS-DOS crowd away from the command line.

Pirate icon because I was ill on "Talk like a pirate day"

On the photograph

Soma seems to be doing an impression of a flounder. Is this to suggest Microsoft are floundering?

Darn, I'm hungry now

Mine is the one with Rick Stein's "Seafood" in the pocket (OK, in the backpack).

Neat!

I'll upgrade my home system shortly!

Get your Martian Blueberry Jam right here!!!!

Lovely! Rich in iron!

C.M.O.T. Dibbler would try that.

These old rovers (hopefully) never cease to amaze. I once pointed out Mars to my kids, and added: there are two robot cars driving about on that planet. Now they want to be space scientists

Of course

Real men carry binoculars like these

This was brought to you by

The expedition to scale both peaks of Mount Kilimanjaro

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=46btEgKmCTo

BTW, what is a diving rod?

I cannot find any in the nearest scuba shop.

I have given various programs two-fingered salutes

Not that they respond

But then I usually give the salute when the %$#@ software is not responding to keyboard and mouse either.

I also think that gesture-controlled, just like voice-controlled software, is a really good idea for open-plan offices. Methinks the BOFH would have a field day.

Lovely idea!

I think I will show this to my students when next I lecture on parallel computing

People doing irrational things with money?

Shocking

Makes you wonder what fashion is all about

The list of non-dangerous creatures in Oz:

Some of the sheep

Or maybe that was another place which just happened to be very, um, Australian?

Cheers to them!

Anyone who contributes to LOHAN deserves a pint!

May I welcome

our intelligent rubbish-bin overlords?

Sounds even worse than durian fruit

Eating durian fruit has been described as being like eating the food of the gods with your head over an open sewer.

Normally I am quite happy to try local dishes, but some local dishes are local for a very simple reason: nobody else in their right mind would consider eating it. Alternatively, the locals are masochists on a diet (to quote Arthur Dent speaking to a nutrimatic machine). I think I will give this Swedish "delicacy" a pass.