Ask Swami

[AiA in Atlanta]

Why am I dropping friends like turds? Help!

[Swami Dring]

Why am I dropping friends like turds? Help!

It could be the fumes wafting from your skiddy-riddled undies.

Or maybe they're just getting older and spending more time at home with their partners. It happens you know.

[JW Frogen]

Or maybe they're just getting older and spending more time at home with their partners. It happens you know.

I agree, monogamy is certainly a sign that you are getting closer to ill health, old age and death.

[donniedarko]

Dear Mr Swami

I would very much like to hear your commentary on the following puzzle.....

"Vine story has a puzzling twist

AFTER years of debating which way water rotates as it gurgles down the drain, scientists have a new problem to resolve.

Australian researchers have discovered that, contrary to expectation, almost all vines prefer to twist anti-clockwise as they climb.

Why is a mystery, Angela Moles, a University of NSW ecologist, said yesterday. Dr Moles uncovered the botanical bias while studying vines in nine countries, including Australia, Zambia, Mexico, Peru, Panama, Argentina, New Zealand and the Republic of Congo.

Her study sprouted from an email she received from one of her colleagues, Dr Will Edwards, a lecturer at James Cook University. During an excursion into a northern Queensland rainforest, an undergraduate student asked him why all the vines they could see were twisting in the same direction.

Unable to answer the question, Dr Edwards contacted Dr Moles, suggesting she take a look.

The researchers made three predictions. One was that plants would respond to the same "Coriolis effect" that, according to mythology, makes water turn one way as it goes down the plug hole in the southern hemisphere, and the opposite way in the northern hemisphere.

A second theory predicted vine tips would twist to follow the sun across the sky, again meaning they would go in different directions, depending on which hemisphere they were in. The third theory was that direction would be random.

Dr Moles began her vine study in Mexico, fully expecting to find that they would twist clockwise to follow the sun. To her surprise "100 per cent went anti-clockwise. That really blew our theories."

Globally, she found, 92 per cent twisted anti-clockwise, irrespective of which hemisphere they were in.

Speculating about a reason, Dr Moles said all proteins were thought to be "left-handed". That is, "they are not quite symmetrical". Possibly, she said, "when you put them together to build up the cell skeleton, that may give cells a tendency to twist in a certain direction".

That would mean vines were twisted in one direction not by global effects but by molecular-level biology. "But that is just a hypothesis. I'd love to hear other ideas."

Dr Moles said the fact that scientists had never noticed the preference of vines to twist to the left showed how little was known about the botanical world. "

[Swami Dring]

Dear Mr Swami

I would very much like to hear your commentary on the following puzzle.....

"Vine story has a puzzling twist

AFTER years of debating which way water rotates as it gurgles down the drain, scientists have a new problem to resolve.

Australian researchers have discovered that, contrary to expectation, almost all vines prefer to twist anti-clockwise as they climb.

Why is a mystery, Angela Moles, a University of NSW ecologist, said yesterday. Dr Moles uncovered the botanical bias while studying vines in nine countries, including Australia, Zambia, Mexico, Peru, Panama, Argentina, New Zealand and the Republic of Congo.

Her study sprouted from an email she received from one of her colleagues, Dr Will Edwards, a lecturer at James Cook University. During an excursion into a northern Queensland rainforest, an undergraduate student asked him why all the vines they could see were twisting in the same direction.

Unable to answer the question, Dr Edwards contacted Dr Moles, suggesting she take a look.

The researchers made three predictions. One was that plants would respond to the same "Coriolis effect" that, according to mythology, makes water turn one way as it goes down the plug hole in the southern hemisphere, and the opposite way in the northern hemisphere.

A second theory predicted vine tips would twist to follow the sun across the sky, again meaning they would go in different directions, depending on which hemisphere they were in. The third theory was that direction would be random.

Dr Moles began her vine study in Mexico, fully expecting to find that they would twist clockwise to follow the sun. To her surprise "100 per cent went anti-clockwise. That really blew our theories."

Globally, she found, 92 per cent twisted anti-clockwise, irrespective of which hemisphere they were in.

Speculating about a reason, Dr Moles said all proteins were thought to be "left-handed". That is, "they are not quite symmetrical". Possibly, she said, "when you put them together to build up the cell skeleton, that may give cells a tendency to twist in a certain direction".

That would mean vines were twisted in one direction not by global effects but by molecular-level biology. "But that is just a hypothesis. I'd love to hear other ideas."

Dr Moles said the fact that scientists had never noticed the preference of vines to twist to the left showed how little was known about the botanical world. "

That's a doozy right there, Darth.

This ..."Globally, she found, 92 per cent twisted anti-clockwise, irrespective of which hemisphere they were in" ....is fascinating shite and it boggles my little brane.

[JW Frogen]

There is a simple explaination for this, all plant life votes on the left.

It takes a neocortex to move to the right.

[AiA in Atlanta]

Swami,

Aussie's obsession with IQSRLOW interrupted his and the Indian's Bride coitus. Now the Bride shows no signs of resuming and Aussie's manly heedless urges are going unfulfilled. What should he do?

[donniedarko]

Dear Mr Swami,

Should people like this be allowed to travel?

"Woman goes down airport baggage chute

Posted Wed Aug 27, 2008 11:09pm AEST

An elderly woman misunderstood instructions while checking in at Sweden's main airport and was whisked down a baggage chute after she placed herself instead of her luggage on the belt, media reported.

The 78-year-old woman, who was not named, was preparing to fly from Stockholm's Arlanda airport to Germany on Tuesday when she lay down on an unmanned baggage belt in the belief she was following check-in instructions, the Upsala Nya Tidning local daily reported on its website.

She was quickly swept off to the baggage handling centre, where staff members helped get her back on her feet."

[AiA in Atlanta]

Swami,

Aussie's obsession with IQSRLOW interrupted his and the Indian's Bride coitus. Now the Bride shows no signs of resuming and Aussie's manly heedless urges are going unfulfilled. What should he do?

The man is about to explode. Help!

[Hebe]

Dear Swami,

Do you have a remedy for stress-induced acne? Stress reduction is not an option at this stage, but I have had toothpaste recommended. I'm not sure if I'm meant to eat it or apply it.