The funny thing is there are quite a few Yamamoto's doing some neat work in chemistry, I guess one out of that crop isn't that bad

If Yamamoto wasn't going to invent a way of getting vanilla out of cow dung, then who will?

"No, I spoke with him."

It would be highly irregular for them to begin building a nest at this time of the year. That's as much assurance as I can give you. The queen usually starts the building of the nest, but she requires help, and at this point in the year the queens are among the only few surviving wasps still out there. I'd put money on the fact that she's probably more interested in finding a place to hibernate than she is of starting a nest.

I like this one from last year:
MEDICINE: Francis M. Fesmire of the University of Tennessee College of Medicine, for "Termination of Intractable Hiccups with Digital Rectal Massage"

I never thought of that... got the hiccoughs? ...now here's a solution guaranteed to work!

The Ig Nobels are out. Highlights:

• CHEMISTRY: Mayu Yamamoto of the International Medical Center of Japan, for developing a way to extract vanillin -- vanilla fragrance and flavoring -- from cow dung.


• LITERATURE: Glenda Browne of Blaxland, Blue Mountains, Australia, for her study of the word "the" -- and of the many ways it causes problems for anyone who tries to put things into alphabetical order.


• AVIATION: Patricia V. Agostino, Santiago A. Plano and Diego A. Golombek of Universidad Nacional de Quilmes, Argentina, for their discovery that Viagra aids jetlag recovery in hamsters.

even if they've found a way into my basement?
are you sure they won't build a nest in there?

Well, they won't be building a nest at this time of year. It's too late and too cold now. As soon as the snow comes and they'll all die and you can just go up and take down that nest and get rid of it. But even if you leave it, wasps almost never use the same nest twice, so it will probably be abandoned next year anyhow. At this time of year I really don't think you have anything to worry about. It'll be fine.

Taylor, there is a nest, we've tried RAID poisoning it twice already, and though it's sent their numbers down, it's obviously not doing the full trick. I would leave it until the snows come and they die, except that I don't want them to build a nest in our basement. And knowing that it's the queen who's gotten in suggests that there's a hole connecting the nest and the house. Queens don't get out and move at this time of year. Everyone's collecting food to feed her and keep her alive through the winter... so... yeah, I think it's a slightly bigger problem than just leaving our doors open and hoping they'll fly away.

if I wasn't allergic to them, I'd handle it myself. But either way it's going to involve a bit of damage to the house...

If you get a chance to play Halo 3 or if you play it again, have a Elephant race. See who is the first to go around the perimeter 2 times.