What is Digg?166 Comments
- giveer, on 10/12/2007, -2/+83"Some of the bananas are thick and over a foot long..."
Holy crap, that's intimidating. - Titan486, on 10/12/2007, -2/+81Wrote in June 2005, year and a half later haven't heard anything about in the mainstream news.
Anyone got a real update? - emid, on 10/12/2007, -3/+45intelligent design.... .obviously
- knightblade2oo4, on 10/12/2007, -3/+39someone's sarcasm meter is ***** up.
- JaJangMyun, on 10/12/2007, -3/+37WELL *****. How the hell are we going to have peanut butter jelly time now? Tell me that. A dancing ***** ham? ***** this. I quit.
- psygnisfive, on 10/12/2007, -3/+35Holy crap that's exhilirating.
- asteron, on 10/12/2007, -0/+32I was eating a banana at the time I found this article. Last time this happened the banana was destroyed over the course of 5 years so it wouldnt be an instant thing though the shift was pretty sudden. The article says that the current banana was recently wiped out in east asia but not in central america yet.
You could very well be telling your kids about how good the old bananas were compared to the new ones that they used to replace them. Being a banana fan I really wonder what the old bananas tasted like. People say they were bigger and sweeter and just better.
Enjoy the current ones while you can! - devindotcom, on 10/12/2007, -2/+32Start stockpiling.... and get 'em green.
- akira117, on 10/12/2007, -12/+38Ahhh man, lesbians will never be the same.... ;7(
Also wasn't the banana a reason god existed for some people?
I guess if this happens that idea will go down the *****. LOL ;7) - qwerter, on 10/12/2007, -2/+22@TreeNinja
I forget . . . what other species loves bananas? Ah yes, monkeys.
Now, what were you saying about evolution? - ajchavar, on 10/12/2007, -2/+17FTA:
Cultivated bananas never reproduce sexually on their own. Rather, new stems grow from the existing root, sometimes for many years. Forcing the pollen from one male flower to make its way to the female of another plant, however, is how traditional banana breeders like Aguilar’s team develop new varieties. Most mornings, usually just as dawn is breaking, a team of hand pollinators pedal through FHIA’s dirt-tracked fields on battered three-speed bicycles. They move from plant to plant, gathering the powdery pollen from the males and transferring it to receptive female flowers, keeping meticulous records of their activities (Aguilar calls the field “a giant spreadsheet”). The goal of all this is to get seeds, and to use them to grow Aguilar’s experimental varieties, one of which, he hopes, will ultimately yield a tasty, market-friendly Cavendish replacement. What are the odds of an individual seed ultimately yielding a thriving hybrid? “About 1 in 10,000,” Aguilar says. - bitcloud, on 10/12/2007, -4/+19There is another type of banana which grows in Far North Queensland which is about 70% seed... the seeds are around the size of peas, and they will, to my knowledge, grow from the seed (although they are not very nice to eat)
My suggestion is that the banana will be the first of many monocultures to be ravaged as a result of human's lack of understanding of ecosystems.
It's also one of the arguments against genetically engineered or patented plants. A monoculture which requires human intervention and maintainence is destined to eventually fail - due to disease or other factors. If we then seed the world with alternatives to the real thing, and these plants are competing for nourishment, we will inevitably destroy some of our most valued, and vital plant species (as well as the animals who rely upon them) - ajchavar, on 10/12/2007, -1/+14i love snopes, but i'm going to trust popsci over them. . .
- CBTF, on 10/12/2007, -7/+19I hate to say this... oh man... but FAKE.
Here's the snopes link: http://www.snopes.com/food/warnings/bananas.asp (This isn't the first time we've had this on the front page...) - hehe, on 10/12/2007, -4/+16http://www.youtube.com/p.swf?video_id=GtTMZafZ3GA&eurl=&iurl=http%3A//sjc-static7.sjc.youtube.com/vi/GtTMZafZ3GA/2.jpg&t=OEgsToPDskLkRp-HApYMw6i1PdZNUUQn ...what are we going to do without any more bananas?
In all seriousness, this is a testament to wild fruit and letting nature take care of its thing so that we don't end up with a bunch of defenseless clones. I'm sure something will be worked out...but we may not like the compromises that entail. - michaelschaaf, on 10/12/2007, -3/+13Then how did the second banana come into existence from the first?
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+10how will people express their zaniness if they can no longer go bananas?
going ape ***** is much messier.. - megaloid, on 10/12/2007, -0/+10To paraphrase my good friend Carl Jung, "Sometimes a banana is just a banana."
And to paraphrase my equally good friend Sigmund Freud, "Stop projecting human sexual attributes onto inanimate edible seed pods." - nyx210, on 10/12/2007, -1/+11magic.
- Geekbeard, on 10/12/2007, -0/+9... and we tied onions to our belts, which was the fashion at the time.
- Refrag, on 10/12/2007, -1/+10The banana is the most popular fruit on the planet. It'd be a huge loss.
- darkmule, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7Okay, I live in the tropics, there is a fairly small sized Banana plantation behind my house. We steal them from time to time (no one maintains it, so why the ***** not?)
We have three banana tree's growing out in the yard, they produce small banana's (most commonly used for baking in the US). They have several other types of banana's here as well. I think this article is a bit off in the sense that 'omg no more bananas ;x' since there are so many different kinds of banana's in general.
Banana's do lack seeds, the grow up from the root of another plant, but there is also another way to grow them after a banana has its banana's, which is is by chopping off the top part of the tree where the leaves are at, or just below that area, you chop it somewhat at an angle, then take another banana leaf and place it down inside of the banana, this keeps the plant going on and on for several more sets of stocks.
Needless to say, here alone we have the small yellow banana's which are very sweet, we have large banana's that stay green and are used for cooking, (boiling, making of banana chips, and several other things traditional to Polynesian cultures), and we have large yellow banana's which may be eaten just like the little yellow ones. There are also some 'red' banana's but they're from India, the outer skin of the banana is red rather than yellow.
Meh, I wouldn't personally worry about it, since there are so many other types out there that are just as good as these other types. I also don't think one could consider the planets a 'clone', unless there is some 'dirty' stuff going on in their labs, that is slightly questionable. Banana's have been around *forever*, they're an odd plant. - ItsFake, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7I thought God made the banana.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qq7LXn4KSrM - Hellomoto, on 10/12/2007, -2/+9porqué!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
- anagoge, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7Those strawberries seem to have affected your caps lock key. Damn those crazy huge strawberries!
- ajchavar, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7plus the snopes article came out before the popsci one, and the reasoning it has for the banana extinction, while similar, is different from the one in the popsci article, and it still does say that the cavendish is going extinct. just that it doesnt mean the end of all bananas, which the popsci article says as well, though one is not necessarily led to believe that by the title/description on digg
- mancat, on 10/12/2007, -1/+8porqué.
- tommarley, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6"The banana is too perfect, lacking the genetic diversity that is key to species health."
http://productdose.com/article.php?article_id=3880 - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6@jimmygoon:
Nature did not create them without seeds, they were systematically bred by people from other varieties to reduce seeds.. - whoaohh, on 10/12/2007, -1/+7Move a strain to an isolated greenhouse three thousand miles away from the contamination. Let the contamination consume all the living bananas, preserve the strain. Wait 3 years. Replant. Repeat as many times as necessary.
I think the world could handle a banana drought for a few years. - 1911wolf, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5One thing I have noticed over the years is that today's bananas just don't have that true banana taste. Back in the 80's when I was a kid and later in the early 90's when I had my own place, bananas where always on my shopping list, fairly cheap for the broke starving student. Today's bananas are brought to market way too early and ripen too fast. They taste awful compared to what they used to.
- schavira, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5I hate bananas. But this will be devistating those who do love them.
- treelovinhippie, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5We've been hearing heaps about it for the past year+ here in Australia... banana prices have sky-rocketed to something like AUD$15 a kilo.
- asteron, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6Well the banana as a species will be ok but bananas as we know it (the Cavendish) is threatened.
- Comatose51, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5@saleen281: They're not extinct. Wild bananas still exist and look nothing like culinary bananas.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Wildbananarj9.gif - subscribtion, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5Back in my day we didn't drive, we walked! And we didn't need water to walk, we drank gas; because we were men!
- newtype78, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5This means no more beloved Bananaphone!
- iliketokick, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5In 2003, I tried to tell people about this, and no one believed me. Now everyone's going bananas over it.
- kingkilr, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4Is this a sex metaphor?
- Xeth, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4@broomett
You're the one not paying attention. The bananas may be clones but they force them to ripen much faster nowadays. I agree with parent that bananas used to taste better, among a lot of other foods... - MrKlaatu, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4@ asteron
"I really wonder what the old bananas tasted like. People say they were bigger and sweeter and just better."
SOYLENT YELLOW IS BANANAS!!!! - Steve95613, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4This leaves only one question,"Which came first, the banana or the...banana?"
- Rocketbird, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4RTFA
- daofma, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4Giant banana laboratories do, in fact, exist. Just ask Chiquita.
- orientis, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4"It isn't a problem if it doesn't affect me"
- Refrag, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5Buy organic. They're still green because they aren't gassed to ripen. They also taste better.
- bitmeizer, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4The price spike in Australia was mostly due to Cyclone Larry late in 2006 which wiped out the majority of banana crops in North Queensland. However, I am yet to hear a good reason why prices are still so high - we should be into the next cycle of crops by now.
- the_snitch, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4Im still waiting for my banana phone
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4Annoying juvenile acroyms For the Myspace Crowd!
- RockMyMonkey, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3The snopes article kind of confirms the article that is linked at the very top of this post.
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