The 2019 Ig Nobel prizes

[MillCreek]

https://www.improbable.com/ig-about/the-2019-winners/

https://www.popsci.com/ig-nobel-prize-2019/

Up until this very moment, I did not know that wombats had cube-shaped poop.  And that surgeons can be trained like dogs using click training.

[MechAg94]

ENGINEERING PRIZE [IRAN]
Iman Farahbakhsh, for inventing a diaper-changing machine for use on human infants.
REFERENCE: “Infant Washer and Diaper-Changer Apparatus and Method,” US patent 10034582, granted to Iman Farahbakhsh, July 31, 2018.

I don't have kids.  If this were not very expensive, would you have bought one?  

[Brad Johnson]

I had no idea there was such interest in the scrotal symmetry of French postmen.

Brad

[MechAg94]

I noticed the one about the pleasure of scratching an itch.  I am not certain about that, but a while back I was getting dry skin itching on my lower leg a lot.  Running hot water (as hot as I could stand it) over the area felt really good. 

[230RN]

"PSYCHOLOGY PRIZE [GERMANY]
 Fritz Strack, for discovering that holding a pen in one’s mouth makes one smile, which makes one happier — and for then discovering that it does not."

Two research projects done under two different grants.  First Grantor was BIC Pen Manufacturing, the second was Eberhard Faber, pencilmakers to the world.

Standard Operating Procedure for the Commercial Science industry.

Terry, 230RN, speaking for Truth, Justice, and the American Way.

REFs:
https://www.shopbic.com/products/stationery/pens#1
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eberhard_Faber

[MechAg94]

"PSYCHOLOGY PRIZE [GERMANY]
 Fritz Strack, for discovering that holding a pen in one’s mouth makes one smile, which makes one happier — and for then discovering that it does not."

Two research projects done under two different grants.  First Grantor was BIC Pen Manufacturing, the second was Eberhard Faber, pencilmakers to the world.

Standard Operating Procedure for the Commercial Science industry.

Terry, 230RN, speaking for Truth, Justice, and the American Way.

REFs:
https://www.shopbic.com/products/stationery/pens#1
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eberhard_Faber

It may be SOP, but at least it wasn't a govt grant.