a plurality of facemasks

A garment device convertible to one or more facemasks wherein the garment device has a plurality of detachable cup sections. Each of the cup sections has a filter device, an inner portion positionable adjacent to the inner area of the user’s chest, and an outer portion positionable adjacent to the outer area of the user’s chest. The garment device has at least one securing device detachably coupling the inner portions of the cup sections to one another, and the garment device has at least one other securing device attached to the outer portion of at least one of the cut sections. This other securing device is operable to: (a) detachably couple the outer portions of the cup regions to one another; and (b) for each one of the cup sections, attach the outer portion of said cup region to the inner portion of said cup region after said cup region is detached from the other cup region, thereby converting the garment device to a plurality of facemasks.

Abstract for Patent Number 7255627, aka Garment device convertible to one or more facemasks, by Elena N. Bodnar.

Bodnar's invention for a brassiere that converts into a plurality of facemasks is worth mentioning because 1) on account of it, she was awarded an Ig Noble Prize on 1 October and 2) this may well be the only opportunity any of us will ever have to see the esteemed Nobel Laureate Paul Krugman, and two of his Nobel peers, wearing what appear to be C-cups in a very public way.

Photo: Ig Noble Winner Elena N. Bodnar with Nobel Laureates (from left to right) Wolfgang Ketterle, Orhan Pamuk and Paul Krugman

blink-free, guaranteed

I was volunteered by my aunt to take our family's group portrait at the reunion that we're pulling together next month. I agreed to do it in the desperate hope that I just may get out of appearing in the photo itself.

The horror lies in the fact that I have a very good chance of making my mother's family and extended family all look horrible -- which will almost certainly make them all hate me. Because the laws of probability, I’m almost certain, ensure that someone, if not most everyone, will have their eyes closed or cross-eyed when the moment arrives.

Thank god for Nic Svenson and Piers Barnes of the Australian Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization, winners of this year’s Ig Noble Award in Mathematics, for calculating how many photographs a person must take to almost ensure that no one in a group photograph will have their eyes closed.

According to their calculation, when shooting fewer then 20 people in good light or with a flash, divide the number of people present by 3 – and take that number of shots. In bad light, divide by 2. For more than 20, read the paper your own damn self.

Blink-Free Photos, Guaranteed »

[Image courtesy of The Great Shädy Äcres Picture Dump]