Bits & Pieces - Helmut Edition

The Ig Nobels. My favorites:

Physics: Lianne Parkin, Sheila Williams, and Patricia Priest of the University of Otago, New Zealand, "for demonstrating that, on icy footpaths in wintertime, people slip and fall less often if they wear socks on the outside of their shoes." (Paper: "Preventing Winter Falls: A Randomised Controlled Trial of a Novel Intervention," New Zealand Medical Journal, July 3, 2009.)

Public health: Manuel S. Barbeito, Charles T. Mathews, and Larry A. Taylor of the Industrial Health and Safety Office, Fort Detrick, Md., "for determining by experiment that microbes cling to bearded scientists." (Paper: "Microbiological Laboratory Hazard of Bearded Men," Applied Microbiology, July 1967.)

Our new United Nations space ambassador for extraterrestrial contact affairs. (via)

The biodiversity conservation problem. I'll have more later on this.

Murder as social act.

Stereotype Maps.

Ben Franklin's tips for nonprofit development and fundraising.

Monkey guards on patrol at the Commonwealth Games.

Snow White is 200 years old. (via)