(no subject)

Twenty-six hours ago, I wrote:

There's quite a bit of other Ig-related excitement in my life right now. All will be revealed about it after tomorrow night's show.

So, debgeisler and benveniste graciously offered up their home and guest rooms not just to me this Ig Nobel weekend, but also to one of this year's winners, returning winners, or another Ignitary if it was needed. Just last week, we learned that we were, indeed, getting a 2009 Ig winner. And, my, what a winner we got!

Family, friends, fans, and LJ readers everywhere may I present Dr. Elena Bodnar and her versatile bra:

Lifesaving Lingerie doesn't have to be ugly This is a brassiere with two built-in face masks. Holding it is one of its inventors, Elena Bodnar. Ooh, shiny...and it can save not just your life, but also the life an innocent bystander. Or anyone you choose.... As usual, click through for more snapshots of Elena and her bra.

I picked up Elena and her son, Ross, at Logan Airport on Wednesday afternoon. They're from Chicago. Elena grew up in Ukraine and had just finished medical school when Chernobyl happened. That was the origin of the idea for a bra that can also be used as a face mask, not just for the woman wearing the bra, but also for a friend, or even a needy stranger. Ross lived in Ukraine for the first 6 years of his life, and has just entered his Ph.D. program in biophysics. Both Elena and Ross are delightful and I'm enjoying the contact high of experiencing the Igs through a winner's eyes.

When we arrived back in Middleton after Thursday night's ceremony, Deb announced that there were already more than 300 hits on Elena's name and Ig Nobel on the news sites. The first page of hits alone showed stories in seven different languages. Elena read the Russian coverage to us as Deb quickly cooked up pasta to go with leftover spaghetti sauce for a late-night dinner snack.

There's coverage all over the place. Here's a short list of some of the English links. Google "Ig Nobel" and "Bodnar" and you'll come up with many more....

BBC article
Coverage from The Guardian
CNews in Canada

Speaking of Canada, in another 8 hours, a Canadian TV crew will be showing up here at Deb & Mike's to interview Elena on camera. They're from the Daily Planet show on the Discovery Channel in Canada. They've scheduled an hour to set up the equipment and then it's show time.

I had an utter blast at the Igs this year. Nobel Laureate Bill Lipscomb has been going to Ig ceremonies for the last 15 or 16 years. He said this year's was the best ever. I've only been to two, but I can easily believe him. The sheer exuberance of the audience and the festivities did a wonderful job of overshadowing and completely outshining the rough spots that crept in now and then. Several of the winners even tried to bribe Miss Sweetie Poo. It was sooooo funny!

And now I'm blasted tired, with much more fun still to come. Sleep next, and perhaps more Ig chatter later.

Cell phone off; computer sound off

The Canadian Discovery Channel is set up 12-15 feet away from my computer, filming Ig Nobel prize winner Elena Bodnar. Great camera crew. I be very quiet now.

More Ig Nobel links

Elena Bodnar's Ig Nobel pulled in the lead in boston.com's White Coat Notes article about the ceremony and all of the winners.

"The Tech" from MIT printed an excellent overview of the entire ceremony.

Best overall coverage that I've seen so far is in New Scientist.

Request for my Canadian Friends

Ig Nobel winner Elena Bodnar is scheduled to be on the Canadian Discovery Channel show, Daily Planet, and I'd like very much to end up with one, two, or even three recordings of it. A digital recording would of course rock, but even a VCR tape would be great.

Daily Planet airs at 7pm EST, and is shown again at 11pm. I'm trying to figure out how to watch the whole thing online, and how to know which segment to purchase from the Canadian iTunes store. I don't know what the delay is on them going up on iTunes.

Any help, info, or advice quite welcome!

Ig Nobel Digression: Four Bar Stools

At the Igs this year, the wooden bar stool I sat on while running the slides is the same bar stool Bob Weir sat on for three hours. Alas, not at the same time as I did.

My two wooden bar stools -- the ones with the black and white striped tops with carrots painted in the center of one and tomatoes painted in the same place on the other -- were on stage along with the comfy "saddle seat" bar stool the Reno in 2011 bid picked up on clearance just a week before the bid became Renovation.

Four simple bar stools, each with a history and the stories that come from that. Stories that are rarely known or told.

A quick Google search suggests that Bob's three hours on the stool took place on April 16, 2000. Coincidentally enough, that also happened to be my sister's 50th birthday.

Favorite Ig Links Du Jour

National Geographic

New Scientist

Elena Bodnar pulled in lots of leads for her Ig Nobel Prize for Public Health. I just discovered one in the National Review.

She even made the fashion news thanks to The StyleList.

In addition to the Canadian Discovery Channel segment, Elena spent Friday talking with reporters in China, Columbia, and other countries that don't start with the letter "C". I'm looking forward to the presentations from Elena and all of this year's winners who will be at Saturday's Informal Lectures.