Oh... By short straw do you mean that she lost some bet or whatever?

was she trying to cross said desert?

Are there any signs of her being dropped?

Are there any signs of her being crushed?

does the short straw have anything to do with her death? does her being naked have anything to do with her death/the events leading up to her death? does the desert have anything to to with her death?

"Is it an Improbability Drive?"

No

"Was she thrown from a catapult or cannon? "

No.

"Oh... By short straw do you mean that she lost some bet or whatever?"

yes.

"was she trying to cross said desert?"

yes

"Are there any signs of her being dropped?"

yes

"Are there any signs of her being crushed?"

yes

"does the short straw have anything to do with her death?"

yes

"does her being naked have anything to do with her death/the events leading up to her death?"

yes

"does the desert have anything to to with her death?"

no

"The winner takes it all, the loser has to fall..."

was she trying to cross the desert in the sky? was she trying to cross the desert on land? was she trying to cross the desert with other people?

"was she trying to cross the desert in the sky? "

yes

"was she trying to cross the desert on land?"

no

"was she trying to cross the desert with other people?"

yes

Did she fall from a helicopter or another flying machine?

was she crossing in a helicopter? was she crossing in a hot air balloon? was she crossing by hang gliding? was the bet with the short straw with those other people? are they dead also? are they naked also? did she start the trip naked? did she take off her clothes during the course of the trip?

"Did she fall from a helicopter or another flying machine?"

yes

"was she crossing in a helicopter?"

no

"was she crossing in a hot air balloon?"

yes

"was she crossing by hang gliding?"

no

"was the bet with the short straw with those other people?"

yes

"are they dead also?"

no

"are they naked also?"

yes

"did she start the trip naked?"

no

"did she take off her clothes during the course of the trip?"

yes

My guess is a hot air balloon was blown off course over a desert, and started losing altitude. Everyone on board started throwing out all ballast and weight (including clothes) but it wasn't enough to stop the decent. So they drew straws, and threw off the person with the short straw.

*descent

are the other people naked? does the removal of her clothes have anything to do with the circumstances of her death? was the bet to do with the straws some kind of depraved sadistic whim to kill someone? was the bet to do with the straws probably neccesary/tied into the survival of the others?

Hmm, what Friendly Sword said :P

Where did they pull the straws from? O.o

Got it! Well done. And on guessing the straw significance right away. That's usually the LAST thing people figure out. Makes it way easy when that nugget snaps into place.

I was actually super confused about the whole clothes off thing until SocratesDissastified managed to figure out it was a Hot Air Balloon and then it all clicked into place. :)

Really fun puzzle. I once did one like this that was something about a seagull sandwich.

Yeah, socrates had a really efficient way of cutting through the known information to get to useful information (general -> specific). Most people try to construct individual scenarios from whatever they currently know (me too), rather than just tackle individual questions in an orderly manner

Friendly Sword was the one with the real insights, I was just trying to meticulously plod through everything because I hadn't come up with a neat solution (sorry for all the questions!) This was really fun YJ so thank you :)

I think Krellin is correct XD

Well I made up a few scenarios of my own, maybe we can try one of those sometime.

that would be great :)

@Friendly Sword - Seagull sandwich and the raggedy man. Nice. I got asked that one in college a *long* time ago (I'm a child of the '50's).

Does Conservative Man want to have sex with her? Will she get pregnant? Would she tell him?

1 where is the unused parachute pack ?
( she didn't fall from the plane, she jumped.... )

2 are there any marks on the ground left by Dr Who's Tardis ???

How probable is it that she would truly have held on to her death-straw for the entire descent?

Wouldn't she be clutching at straws? <sorry>