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Nobel Prize

Posts Tagged ‘Nobel Prize’

These Are The ‘Bizarre’ Things That Happen After You Win A Nobel Prize

Nobel Prizes winner for physics astrophysicist Saul Perlmutter displays his lifetime parking pass good for parking at the University of California at Berkeley Tuesday, Oct. 4, 2011, in Berkeley, Calif. The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said American Perlmutter would share the 10 million kronor ($1.5 million) award with U.S.-Australian Brian Schmidt and U.S. scientist Adam Riess. Working in two separate research teams during the 1990s, Perlmutter in one and Schmidt and Riess in the other, the scientists raced to map the universe's expansion by analyzing a particular type of supernovas, or exploding stars. (AP Photo/Ben Margot)

Nobel Prizes winner for physics astrophysicist Saul Perlmutter displays his lifetime parking pass good for parking at the University of California at Berkeley Tuesday, Oct. 4, 2011, in Berkeley, Calif. 

IN 2011 astrophysicist Brian Schmidt won the Nobel Prize in Physics. He went on the Nobel circuit. He travelled. A lot.

‘There are a couple of bizarre things that happen. One of the things you get when you win a Nobel Prize is, well, a Nobel Prize. It’s about that big, that thick [about the size of an Olympic medal], weighs a half a pound, and it’s made of gold.”

“When I won this, my grandma, who lives in Fargo, North Dakota, wanted to see it. I was coming around so I decided I’d bring my Nobel Prize. You would think that carrying around a Nobel Prize would be uneventful, and it was uneventful, until I tried to leave Fargo with it, and went through the X-ray machine. I could see they were puzzled. It was in my laptop bag. It’s made of gold, so it absorbs all the X-rays—it’s completely black. And they had never seen anything completely black.”

“They’re like, ‘Sir, there’s something in your bag.’
I said, ‘Yes, I think it’s this box.’
They said, ‘What’s in the box?’
I said, ‘a large gold medal,’ as one does.
So they opened it up and they said, ‘What’s it made out of?’
I said, ‘gold.’
And they’re like, ‘Uhhhh. Who gave this to you?’
‘The King of Sweden.’
‘Why did he give this to you?’
‘Because I helped discover the expansion rate of the universe was accelerating.’
At which point, they were beginning to lose their sense of humor. I explained to them it was a Nobel Prize, and their main question was, ‘Why were you in Fargo?’”

Spotter: Scientific American

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Posted: 14th, October 2014 | In: Reviews | Comment


The silly idea of an international minimum wage

Muhammad Yunus

MUHAMMAD Yunus has done some pretty good things in his life: the founding of the Grameen Bank led to a Nobel Prize for example. Yet this really does have to be a silly idea: the idea of having an international minimum wage:

I propose that foreign buyers jointly fix a minimum international wage for the industry. This might be about 50 cents an hour, twice the level typically found in Bangladesh.

Sigh.

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Posted: 13th, May 2013 | In: Money | Comment


Noble Prizes favour chocolate eaters

IS the Noble Prize committee biased towards chocolate eaters? This picture reveals the correlation between countries’ annual per capita chocolate consumption and the number of Nobel laureates per 10 million population. For purposes of clarity, deep-fried Mars bars  and Hen Night body paints are deemed to be chocolate…

Spotter

Posted: 4th, November 2012 | In: The Consumer | Comment (1)


In Pictures: Barack Obama Gets Nobel Prize And Best Twilight Sex Scene Award

ANORAK’S apostle was there to see Michelle Obama dressed in 24-carat gold robes introduce her Nobel Peace Prize-winning husband – your leader President Barack Obama – to Norway’s King Harald during a ceremony at the Royal Palace in Oslo. Says Haralkd: “A million dollars is a f****ng bargain to meet The One. Now America won’t bomb Norway.”

It’s pretty clear to one and all that the Nobel Prize ceremony should be enlarged to included other categories that give Norwegians a chance to meet some famous, good looking people: Nobel Prizes for 2010:

Best Smile
Best Sex Scene
Robert Pattinson Look Alike Prize (Twlight Zone)
Most Fanciable Male In Soap
Best Cheese Cake

More prizes just as soon as Norway can afford them… Pictures:

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Image 27 of 28

The 2009 Nobel Peace laureate, US President Barack Obama, during his speech at the Nobel award ceremony in the City Hall of Oslo, Norway.

Posted: 10th, December 2009 | In: Politicians | Comment