Entertainment

Arrested Development

Has there been a funnier TV Show in the last 10 years? Even Family Guy can’t compare. Do you agree?

ANSWER PERSON RESPONDS: Certainly very funny, as is Family Guy (although as you may have noticed AP likes variety and avoids superlative ratings such as the best, worst, favorite, least favorite, etc.). Just sad that it ended.

2007, Lobby Book, Religion

Rumors about Mormons

I have heard that at Mormon weddings the bride will rub oil on the groom’s genitals as part of the ceremony.  This sounded odd to me and I tried to find info on it.  Is this something that really happens?  Thanks. [3344C]

AP isn’t Mormon, and LDS members not allowed to talk about what goes on in their Temples to non-Mormons. There is, apparently, some grain of truth to it.  There is an anointing of consecrated oil on people’s bodies, but perhaps nowadays not on any private parts.  The ritual washing and anointing seems to be done by Temple workers of the same sex.  The ritual was apparently at one time more intimate than today, but I’m uneasy about trusting the potentially biased ex-Mormon websites too much.

2007, Food, Lobby Book

Surly fast food workers

2 Comments

Why are the people that work at Subway so mean?! [3344B]

The instructions you have to give them each time are so long that I’d go crazy having to concentrate on that all day.  You’re probably too picky with your order and need to simplify things.  Next time, just get a 12” on white, meatball, just sauce, and see if that doesn’t make a difference.

2007, Language, Lobby Book

Polish name

What is the etymology of the Polish name, Chwialkowski? [3344A]

As you probably know, the ending -owski in Polish is a suffix to tack onto a noun like an occupation, town, or father’s name. Chwial or Chwialk may be a strange form of another word, or a variant spelling (maybe it got messed up when they dropped the diacriticals), but it’s certainly not a form of Polish sausage. I’ll leave it to you to consult a Polish language expert here at Duke.

2007, Lobby Book, Study

Needs to study harder

Does getting a “C” mean that I can’t get into a good PhD program? Keeping in mind that I am a master’s student now. [3343C]

AP always thought that a “C” in graduate school indicated a non-passing grade. I’m sure that there are no hard and fast litmus tests for admission into most Ph.D. programs, but you’ll have to be pretty sharp in the other areas of your academic career. You might want to re-take the class in question and get an A+ next time.

2007, Lobby Book, Science

Defensive ants

Dear Answer Person, I apologize for my long absence, but I have been most busy and I have been trying to devise a worthy challenge for you.  One day, I happened to disturb an ant colony; swarms of ants naturally stormed out of the colony; what was most curious was that their defensive/search movements seem to follow an organized but complex pattern.  Does there exist any research on modeling ant defense movement?  And if so, what’s the current/most researched model?  I thank you so much for what you’ve done.  Sincerely, AJL, Class of 2009. [3343A]

A simple literature search in a database such as Biological Abstracts indicates some research in this area.  Just one example would be this article regarding one species of ant defending against another species, “Combat between large derived societies: A subterranean army ant established as a predator of mature leaf-cutting ant colonies” by Powell & Clark (Insectes Sociaux. 2004; 51(4): 342-351). The authors discuss strategies used by the defending ants, such as “Lancaster’s Linear Law of Combat.”  Also: “Do Lanchester’s laws of combat describe competition in ants?” by McGlynn (Behavioral Ecology Vol. 11 No. 6: 686-690); and “Ant defence system: A mechanism organizing individual responses into efficient collective behavior” by Sakata & Katayama (Ecological Research. 2001; 16(3): 395-403).  It’s unclear to AP whether ants will use these same strategies against humans.

2007, Duke Libraries, Lobby Book, Study

Study rooms

Is this library going to build many more private study rooms? [3342C]

Yes, more group study rooms are in the plans for the renovations.  Over the next couple of years, unfortunately, until all the renovations are complete, there may be a loss of some group study rooms because some temporarily will be needed for offices by staff who are displaced by the construction.

2007, Food, Lobby Book, Medicine, Study

Caffeine

Is caffeine bad for you? Should I be drinking Dr. Pepper and Coke to stay awake? [3342B]

There seems to be agreement that in large quantities caffeine can be bad for you. How much is too much is debated. You can search the MedLine Plus website from the National Library of Medicine for links to reliable websites, or look for journal articles in MedLine The amount of caffeine in Coke and Dr. Pepper is far less than in coffee. How much you need to stay awake depends on how much of a dependence on caffeine you’ve built up, but your complexion and oral hygiene and weight would all probably suffer from all that sugar if you depend on soda pop for your caffeine fix.