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When You Win a Nobel and They Can't Reach You at Home

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Re: When You Win a Nobel and They Can't Reach You at Home

#31

Post by McKayDavis »

dekhn wrote: post #13
eindiran wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Jokes aside, why is it so important that they reach him at 2:15 AM and can't wait until the next morning?

Basically, the announcement is a secret until it happens. It happens at a specific time, in Sweden, and they attempt to contact the winners at that time with a personal call ( https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/themes/the-nobel-call/ ). My cynical side suggests it's done mostly to generate PR. See also: https://worldneurologyonline.com/article/receiving-the-call-... https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2015/10/04/scien…

> Basically, the announcement is a secret until it happens.

I too had thought that this was the case, but it appears the press does get at least some advance notice. Last Wednesday Jennifer Doudna found that she had won the 2020 Nobel Prize in Chemistry in a phone call from a reporter. Ref: paragraph 7 of [1]:

> At a press briefing today, Doudna noted she was asleep and missed the initial calls from Sweden, only waking up to answer the phone finally when a Nature reporter called. "She wanted to know if I could comment on the Nobel and I said, Well, who won it? And she was shocked that she was the person to tell me."

[1] https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/10/crispr-revolutionary...

Re: When You Win a Nobel and They Can't Reach You at Home

#32

Post by [deleted] »

dheera wrote: post #19
dekhn wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Basically, the announcement is a secret until it happens. It happens at a specific time, in Sweden, and they attempt to contact the winners at that time with a personal call ( https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/themes/the-nobel-call/ ). My cynical side suggests it's done mostly to generate PR. See also: https://worldneurologyonline.com/article/receiving-the-call-... https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2015/10/04/scien…

I put my phone in airplane mode at night. Don't a lot of people do that? What are they thinking?

[deleted]

Re: When You Win a Nobel and They Can't Reach You at Home

#33

Post by compsciphd »

peterburkimsher wrote: post #27

The thread says: The #NobelPrize committee couldn't reach Paul Milgrom to share the news that he won, so his fellow winner and neighbor Robert Wilson knocked on his door in the middle of the night. When Robert Wilson rang Paul Milgrom's doorbell at 2:15 this morning, Milgrom's wife, who's in Stockholm, received a security-camera notification on her phone. She got to watch live as Wilson told Milgrom he'd won the #Nob…

agreed, I pondered including that as a comment after my post, but figured that be tacky :)

Re: When You Win a Nobel and They Can't Reach You at Home

#34

Post by walrus01 »

DaiPlusPlus wrote: post #26
walrus01 wrote: post #7

this kind of reads like an astroturfed advertisement for "ring" / "nest" type doorbells and security cameras.

I'm sure that's unintentional - don't blame the university, but I'm sure Nest and Ring anticipated their network of cameras worldwide to generate enough notable videos of unusual or funny antics that would be shared, so they shove their logo on their videos. Some people claim you can have the watermarked logo removed but you have to contact Google/Nest directly. I'm going to do that right now (I have 5 cameras... whi…

this reminds me somewhat of the camera software on low-end android phones sold in the developing world which watermarks every photo with "shot on... (blah blah trademark name)", because they trust that 90% of users won't know to look in the settings to toggle off the option. Or don't care. But hey, free advertising right?

https://www.google.com/search?q=android+phone+shot+on+redmi+...

Re: When You Win a Nobel and They Can't Reach You at Home

#35

Post by cxr »

dheera wrote: post #19
dekhn wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Basically, the announcement is a secret until it happens. It happens at a specific time, in Sweden, and they attempt to contact the winners at that time with a personal call ( https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/themes/the-nobel-call/ ). My cynical side suggests it's done mostly to generate PR. See also: https://worldneurologyonline.com/article/receiving-the-call-... https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2015/10/04/scien…

I put my phone in airplane mode at night. Don't a lot of people do that? What are they thinking?

I don't. That sounds like an anti-solution, i.e., something that seems to solve a problem, doesn't, but does create new ones. Is there a real problem that it does solve? Is there a geographic/cultural aspect to it?

Re: When You Win a Nobel and They Can't Reach You at Home

#36

Post by irrational »

toomuchtodo wrote: post #21
dheera wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I put my phone in airplane mode at night. Don't a lot of people do that? What are they thinking?

Don’t iPhones put themselves into do not disturb mode at night? I hope the Nobel folks call twice in 3 minutes!

I think that only works for Favorites. Do you have the Nobel committee in your favorites? ;-)

Re: When You Win a Nobel and They Can't Reach You at Home

#37

Post by TeMPOraL »

dheera wrote: post #19
dekhn wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Basically, the announcement is a secret until it happens. It happens at a specific time, in Sweden, and they attempt to contact the winners at that time with a personal call ( https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/themes/the-nobel-call/ ). My cynical side suggests it's done mostly to generate PR. See also: https://worldneurologyonline.com/article/receiving-the-call-... https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2015/10/04/scien…

I put my phone in airplane mode at night. Don't a lot of people do that? What are they thinking?

I don't. I considered it, but I decided that the remote risk of there being a real emergency outweighs the even more remote risk that I'll get an unimportant call in the middle of the night.

(If I ever did get an unimportant call in the middle of the night, the person on the other end would get an earful.)

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