Sometimes utopia is defined as a world of true justice, dignity, and equality. But can it go too far?

This year’s Ig Nobel Peace Prize goes to the Swiss Federal Ethics Committee on Non-Human Biotechnology, which got a law passed in their homeland which recognizes the innate dignity of plants. Their paper is entitled, "The Dignity of Living Beings With Regard to Plants. Moral Consideration of Plants for Their Own Sake."

Ars Technica has a good run-down of the major prize-winners, or you can go directly to the site of Improbable Research, whose wonderful journal I subscribed to for years.

Personal-favorite title: "You Bastard: A Narrative Exploration of the Experience of Indignation within Organizations," David Sims, Organization Studies, vol. 26, no. 11, 2005, pp. 1625-40. I can’t believe it’s only 15 pages long.