My neighbor is a chimpanzee
Or he’s trying to kill me. This is the fourth time there’s been a banana peel in my path in the past six weeks.
Banana peels are, in fact, significantly slipperier than other fruit peels. The journal Tribology (the study of friction) did the research in 2012. It’s titled “Frictional Coefficient under Banana Skin” and they won an Ig Nobel Prize for it.
I’m going to print the whole abstract, because it’s funny:
We measured the frictional coefficient under banana skin on floor material. Force transducer with six degrees of freedom was set under a flat panel of linoleum. Both frictional force and vertical force were simultaneously measured during a shoe sole was pushed and rubbed by a foot motion on the panel with banana skin. Measured frictional coefficient was about 0.07. This was much lower than the value on common materials and similar one on well lubricated surfaces. By the microscopic observation, it was estimated that polysaccharide follicular gel played the dominant role in lubricating effect of banana skin after the crush and the change to homogeneous sol.
Science! Is there nothing it can’t make boring?
Addendum: I am going to accept Carl’s win. But in future, I’m adding yet another clause to Rule Zero – nobody on life support. We’ll call it “Carl’s rule.”
Posted: March 9th, 2026 under personal.
Comments: 7
Comments
Comment from Some Vegetable
Time: March 9, 2026, 8:13 pm
How about an Israeli Army/ Mossad rule? “Anyone being actively hunted by them should be considered as good as dead”.
For a case in point, the current acting Iranian Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei has been injured in airstrike.
Comment from ExpressoBold Pureblood
Time: March 9, 2026, 8:50 pm
OH!
Is someone in hospital for an acutely detrimental condition considered “life support”?
Is someone in hospice for end of life ill health considered “life support”?
This is a slippery slope that needs careful definition!
I hope I am not banned for asking these questions!
Comment from Uncle AL
Time: March 9, 2026, 9:46 pm
@EB-PB — I hadn’t thought of that; you have a valid point. How about “on life support and the only one who doesn’t want the plug pulled is the hospital CFO”?
Comment from Uncle AL
Time: March 9, 2026, 10:24 pm
@stoaty — Perhaps a more conservative “Carl’s Rule” would be someone claimed to be brain dead but still on life support.
Possible addendum: “On life support but whose insurance is just about to hit Maximum Lifetime Benefit.”
Comment from Durnedyankee
Time: March 9, 2026, 11:29 pm
Does that cover poor people in a country north of me that visit a doctor while being poor?
Meanwhile here’s some info on Carlsruhe(l)
I’ll…just show myself out… (again)… shall I?
Comment from Rich Rostrom
Time: March 9, 2026, 11:36 pm
Hmm. Ariel Sharon was on life support for eight years before he won DP 57 for… Carl (surprise!) in 2014. Carl had picked him eight previous times (and I, EW1(SG), and Pablo once each). But only since 2010 (four years after his stroke).
ISTM that when someone has been on LS that long, or even for a month or a week, it should be allowed. But picking someone who’s been rushed to a hospital, maybe not – whether or not he’s put LS on for a day. And announcements of brain death are not usual.
Comment from Carl
Time: March 10, 2026, 3:25 am
I actually decided on Huntley on February 26th when I read that he had been seriously injured and was not expected to live. I had to wait for a week until there was a new dead pool.
How about:
New choice acceptable if they are on life support but not if the plug has already been pulled.
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