The most promising approach, according to Dr. Fall, is a multistimulus deterrent, flashing lights with high-frequency sounds produced in random patterns , so that the coyotes are thrown off guard.
So—after consulting nearly thirty people, we still don’t have a definitive answer to this Imponderable. It has thoroughly humbled us. We would love to hear from readers who might have the answer.
Until then, we can only offer the three theories offered to us that make sense:
80 / DAVID FELDMAN
1. The boots scare away coyotes.
2. It is far wiser to stink up a fencepost than to stink up a house.
3. To paraphrase Virgil Swanson, “Some people just do things to do things.”
Submitted by Rick Miller, of Gardner, Kansas. Thanks also to: Lynda Frank, of Omaha, Nebraska .
Why Do Bananas, Unlike Other Fruits, Grow Upward?
If you knew about the tumultuous birth process of the banana, perhaps you would be more charitable the next time you encounter some bruised specimens at the supermarket.
The banana is actually a giant herb in the same biological family as lilies, orchids, and palms. It is the largest plant on earth without a woody stem—a banana stalk is 93 percent water—and is consequently extremely fragile. Although it can reach a full height of fifteen to thirty feet in one year, even moderate winds can blow down a plant.
The fruit stem or bunch originates at ground level. At this stage, the bunch consists of all of the fruit enclosed in leaf bracts. The individual fruit “fingers” (the technical name for a single banana) are pointed upward. As the bunch or bud is pushing its way through the mass of tightly packed leaf sheaths known as the pseudostem, the fruit fingers remain pointed upward until they emerge at the top of the plant.
WHY DO CLOCKS RUN CLOCKWISE? / 81
The bananas exert tremendous pressure on the pseudostem. Before the fruits expand, the leaves enclosing them roll around on themselves inside the trunk. After the fruit emerges from the leaves, the fingers point downward, but only because the bud surrounding them has changed direction.
Once the entire bunch of bananas is mature, fully emerged from its sheath, and pointing downward, the individual leaf bracts enclosing the hands (the female flower cluster) fall away, exposing the fruit. At this point, the individual flowers grow rapidly, filling out.
Their increased weight bends the main stalk so that the individual fruits on the hand start to turn upward in about seven to ten days.
Dr. Pedro Sole, of Chiquita Brands, points out that in the past,
“primitive bananas grew upwards, like the seeds of most grasses forming a spike.”
So is there a logical reason for the banana’s tortuous up-and-down birthing process now? Jack D. DeMent, of the Dole Fresh Fruit Company, sees the answer in the behavior of the traditional noncom-mercial banana plant:
A flower is found on the tip of each individual fruit. This flower is removed during [commercial] packing but is present during fruit development. As the hands turn up, the flower is better exposed to insects and nectar eating birds and bats. Their feeding would normally aid in fertilization of the fruit. Today’s commercial banana is sterile and rarely—almost never—produces a viable seed.
DeMent theorizes that the commercial banana’s tendency to grow upward is a holdover from its ancestors that needed to point upward for their very survival.
Presumably, natural selection will simplify the growth process of the banana over the next few hundred thousand years or so.
Submitted by Lynda J. Turner, of Hackettstown, New Jersey .
82 / DAVID FELDMAN
Why Is There a Black Dot in the Middle of Otherwise White Bird Droppings?
An important question, one that philosophers throughout the ages have pondered. Luckily, ornithologists know the answer.
That black dot is fecal matter. The white stuff is urine. The urine and fecal matter of birds collect together and are voided simultaneously out of the same
So—after consulting nearly thirty people, we still don’t have a definitive answer to this Imponderable. It has thoroughly humbled us. We would love to hear from readers who might have the answer.
Until then, we can only offer the three theories offered to us that make sense:
80 / DAVID FELDMAN
1. The boots scare away coyotes.
2. It is far wiser to stink up a fencepost than to stink up a house.
3. To paraphrase Virgil Swanson, “Some people just do things to do things.”
Submitted by Rick Miller, of Gardner, Kansas. Thanks also to: Lynda Frank, of Omaha, Nebraska .
Why Do Bananas, Unlike Other Fruits, Grow Upward?
If you knew about the tumultuous birth process of the banana, perhaps you would be more charitable the next time you encounter some bruised specimens at the supermarket.
The banana is actually a giant herb in the same biological family as lilies, orchids, and palms. It is the largest plant on earth without a woody stem—a banana stalk is 93 percent water—and is consequently extremely fragile. Although it can reach a full height of fifteen to thirty feet in one year, even moderate winds can blow down a plant.
The fruit stem or bunch originates at ground level. At this stage, the bunch consists of all of the fruit enclosed in leaf bracts. The individual fruit “fingers” (the technical name for a single banana) are pointed upward. As the bunch or bud is pushing its way through the mass of tightly packed leaf sheaths known as the pseudostem, the fruit fingers remain pointed upward until they emerge at the top of the plant.
WHY DO CLOCKS RUN CLOCKWISE? / 81
The bananas exert tremendous pressure on the pseudostem. Before the fruits expand, the leaves enclosing them roll around on themselves inside the trunk. After the fruit emerges from the leaves, the fingers point downward, but only because the bud surrounding them has changed direction.
Once the entire bunch of bananas is mature, fully emerged from its sheath, and pointing downward, the individual leaf bracts enclosing the hands (the female flower cluster) fall away, exposing the fruit. At this point, the individual flowers grow rapidly, filling out.
Their increased weight bends the main stalk so that the individual fruits on the hand start to turn upward in about seven to ten days.
Dr. Pedro Sole, of Chiquita Brands, points out that in the past,
“primitive bananas grew upwards, like the seeds of most grasses forming a spike.”
So is there a logical reason for the banana’s tortuous up-and-down birthing process now? Jack D. DeMent, of the Dole Fresh Fruit Company, sees the answer in the behavior of the traditional noncom-mercial banana plant:
A flower is found on the tip of each individual fruit. This flower is removed during [commercial] packing but is present during fruit development. As the hands turn up, the flower is better exposed to insects and nectar eating birds and bats. Their feeding would normally aid in fertilization of the fruit. Today’s commercial banana is sterile and rarely—almost never—produces a viable seed.
DeMent theorizes that the commercial banana’s tendency to grow upward is a holdover from its ancestors that needed to point upward for their very survival.
Presumably, natural selection will simplify the growth process of the banana over the next few hundred thousand years or so.
Submitted by Lynda J. Turner, of Hackettstown, New Jersey .
82 / DAVID FELDMAN
Why Is There a Black Dot in the Middle of Otherwise White Bird Droppings?
An important question, one that philosophers throughout the ages have pondered. Luckily, ornithologists know the answer.
That black dot is fecal matter. The white stuff is urine. The urine and fecal matter of birds collect together and are voided simultaneously out of the same
Similar Books
