It's Nobel Prize Season Again

Discussion in 'Off-Topic Discussions' started by Kizmet, Oct 5, 2016.

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  1. Kizmet

    Kizmet Moderator

  2. SteveFoerster

    SteveFoerster Resident Gadfly Staff Member

    Isn't that just applied physics?
     
  3. decimon

    decimon Well-Known Member

  4. Life Long Learning

    Life Long Learning Active Member

    The Nobel Prize is a joke with the political awards.
     
  5. decimon

    decimon Well-Known Member


    Don't forget that the Nobel Peace Prize is a beast apart from the category prizes.
     
  6. catlin0915

    catlin0915 New Member

    I thought they lost a lot of followers 7 or 8 years ago. Maybe it's just talked about less since...
     
  7. SteveFoerster

    SteveFoerster Resident Gadfly Staff Member

    Some of the peace prize winners are obviously political, some are good choices. For example, Muhammad Yunus was a great choice, but Al Gore, Barack Obama, and the EU... not so much. (I don't consider Jimmy Carter a political recipient, his work promoting peace has been longstanding and genuine.)
     
  8. John Bear

    John Bear Senior Member

    Probability that the literature prize will go to someone that even Ted Heiks has never heard of: about 93%. Probability that it will go to Colson Whitehead: 2%. John McPhee: 1%. Who else?
     
  9. Kizmet

    Kizmet Moderator

  10. Kizmet

    Kizmet Moderator

  11. John Bear

    John Bear Senior Member

    So here's your Nobel Prize in Literature quiz. Here are ten authors. Five won the prize and five didn't (and won't, because they're dead). Sort 'em out. For bonus points, name one book by each.
    Mark Twain
    James Joyce
    Leo Tolstoy
    Emile Zola
    Anton Chekov
    Sully Prudhomme
    Tomas Transtromer
    J M LeClezio
    Harry Martinson
    Orhan Pemuk
     
  12. decimon

    decimon Well-Known Member

    Ted Heiks has never heard of Bob Dylan? Where has he been? ;-)

    Dylan adopted the practice of using 'interpretive' lyrics. They have no particular meaning but are easily interpreted as what the listener would have them be. A most lucrative practice in the Baby Boom era.
     
  13. SteveFoerster

    SteveFoerster Resident Gadfly Staff Member

    Sitting on a cornflake, waiting for the van to come.
    Corporation tee-shirt, stupid bloody Tuesday.
    Man, you been a naughty boy, you let your face grow long.
    I am the egg man, they are the egg men.
    I am the walrus, coo coo cachoo
     
  14. decimon

    decimon Well-Known Member

    That was explained as being intentionally nonsensical. But, as Groucho had other principles so they may have had other explanations.
     
  15. Johann

    Johann Well-Known Member

    Mark Twain - no. Wrote Adventures of Tom Sawyer
    James Joyce - no. Wrote Ulysses
    Leo Tolstoy - no. Wrote War and Peace
    Emile Zola - no. Wrote Nana
    Anton Chekhov - no Wrote The Cherry Orchard (play)

    Sully Prudhomme - yes. Wrote Les vaines tendresses
    Tomas Transtromer - yes. Wrote "the Half-finished Heaven"
    J M LeClezio - yes. Wrote Le Procès-Verbal (The Interrogation)
    Harry Martinson - yes. Wrote Flowering Nettle
    Orhan Pamuk (sp.) - yes. Wrote The Museum of Innocence.

    J.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Oct 14, 2016
  16. Kizmet

    Kizmet Moderator

  17. John Bear

    John Bear Senior Member

    So when Greta Thunberg wins the peace prize, social media (and a few people here) will erupt.

    Incidentally, my Nobel for Analogies goes to the comment about the chemistry/molecular machine winners, likening the building a nano-motor (1/1000th as thick as a human hair) to building a Lego castle in the dark while wearing boxing gloves.

    I still like Colson Whitehead or John McPhee for literature . . . but a committee that gives it to Dylan could also give it to the guy who writes the fortune cookies at my local take-out.
     
  18. SteveFoerster

    SteveFoerster Resident Gadfly Staff Member

    On the one hand, one would think that any truly deserving recipient would, at a minimum, have been actively working for peace for longer than Thunberg has been alive.

    On the other hand, considering that some of the people who've received it over the years were more deserving of a war prize, she'd be far from the worst choice ever.
     
  19. Kizmet

    Kizmet Moderator

    I thought Trump was in line for that Prize. Greta might want to be careful that she doesn't fall on some bullets.
     
  20. Kizmet

    Kizmet Moderator

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