I'm a big fan of the Improbable Research group and the Ig Nobel Prizes they give out every year. Usually the achievements they recognize are scientific, but if there is any connection at all with the legal field I am always happy to mention their work here. See, e.g. "Government Report on Reports About Reports Recommends Another Report," Lowering the Bar (Sept. 24, 2012) (reporting on the report that won the 2012 Ig Nobel Prize for Literature as well as some of last year's other winners).

This year's ceremony is on September 12, at the Sanders Theatre at Harvard University. (Get tickets here.) Of special interest: the event will feature the world premiere of "The Blonsky Device," an opera inspired by the life and work of 1999 winners George and Charlotte Blonsky. As you may recall (I mentioned it here), the Blonskys were awarded U.S. Pat. No. 3,216,423, "Apparatus for Facilitating the Birth of a Child by Centrifugal Force." Which was exactly what it sounds like.

There will also be a somewhat related lecture by Daniel Lieberman. He, along with two others, won the 2009 Ig Nobel Prize for Physics for the study "Fetal Load and the Evolution of Lumbar Lordosis in Bipedal Hominins," which translates roughly as "why pregnant women don't tip over."