Boing Boing » bananas

Just look at this whirling maglev banana.

Cory Doctorow — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 22:05:23 +0000

Just look at it.

Mag Lev Banana (Thanks, Philip!)

Just look at this soldier feeding bananas to an adorable little goat

Xeni Jardin — Wed, 10 Apr 2013 11:58:40 +0000

Just look at it.

Just look at this liquid nitrogen-dipped banana being shot with a steel bearing.

Cory Doctorow — Sun, 31 Mar 2013 19:10:25 +0000

Just look at it.

I Broke my Banana (Thanks, Philip!)

Just look at this human-sized banana.

Cory Doctorow — Tue, 19 Mar 2013 15:00:48 +0000

Just look at it.

Ella's Deli and Ice Cream Parlor (Thanks, Viktor!)

Just look at this banana sculpture.

Cory Doctorow — Mon, 18 Mar 2013 20:26:50 +0000

Just look at it.

fruit - Matt James Stone (Thanks, Marie!)

Just look at this vomitous vintage banana recipe.

Cory Doctorow — Sun, 24 Feb 2013 23:00:06 +0000

Just look at it.

Ham and Bananas Hollandaise (Thanks, Teemu!)

Just look at the gross banana recipes in this 1940s Chiquita Banana promotional cookbook

Cory Doctorow — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 22:26:31 +0000

Just look at them.

Chiquita Banana Cookbook From '40s Is Bizarre (PHOTOS) (Thanks, Rebecca!)

Just look at these tattooed bananas

Cory Doctorow — Tue, 29 Jan 2013 01:35:45 +0000

Just look at them.

Jun Gil Park (via Jim!)

Just look at this gilded banana.

Cory Doctorow — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 15:20:13 +0000

Just look at it.

Katachi Golden Objects (Thanks, Jonni!)

Just look at this banana vending machine in Shibuya, Tokyo.

Cory Doctorow — Wed, 23 Jan 2013 21:14:56 +0000

Just look at it.

Shibuya Banana Vending Machine (Thanks, Brent!)

Just look at this sniper eating a banana on a rooftop during the inauguration.

Cory Doctorow — Wed, 23 Jan 2013 03:44:53 +0000

Just look at him.

Noticed some snipers hanging out on the roof during the inaugural parade. Zoomed in to find him enjoying a banana. (Thanks, Richard!)

Just look at this banana-shaped, banana-flavored ice-cream in an edible gelatin banana-skin.

Cory Doctorow — Mon, 14 Jan 2013 04:15:43 +0000

Just look at it.

The Peeled Banana Ice Cream

Just look at this gnarly conjoined banana.

Cory Doctorow — Mon, 31 Dec 2012 18:45:17 +0000

Just look at it.

photo

In post-Soviet Russia, Siberian banana just looks at you

Cory Doctorow — Mon, 20 Aug 2012 00:49:41 +0000

I'm presently at the SF Assembly in St Petersburg, Russia, where I'm one of the writer guests. Last night I was helping prepare for the sashlik barbecue, slicing up cucumbers, when a con-goer looked over my shoulder and said, "Ah, banana Siberski!" -- that is, "Siberian bananas!"

Just look at it.

Just look at that banana genome Venn diagram

Cory Doctorow — Thu, 12 Jul 2012 13:54:05 +0000

Just look at it.

The banana (Musa acuminata) genome and the evolution of monocotyledonous plants Angélique D’Hont, France Denoeud, Jean-Marc Aury, Franc-Christophe Baurens, Françoise Carreel, Olivier Garsmeur, Benjamin Noel, Stéphanie Bocs, Gaëtan Droc, Mathieu Rouard, Corinne Da Silva, Kamel Jabbari, Céline Cardi, Julie Poulain, Marlène Souquet, Karine Labadie, Cyril Jourda, Juliette Lengellé, Marguerite Rodier-Goud, Adriana Alberti, Maria Bernard, Margot Correa, Saravanaraj Ayyampalayam, Michael R. Mckain, Jim Leebens-Mack et al. Nature (2012) doi:10.1038/nature11241

Just look at this kitten in a banana-split costume, eating a banana

Cory Doctorow — Mon, 09 Jul 2012 14:03:31 +0000

Just look at it.

Halloween Cute Banana Cat (via JWZ)

Just look at this banana cream pie ad.

Cory Doctorow — Sun, 08 Jul 2012 13:04:24 +0000

Just look at it.

Contest entry - Pie

Just look at this banana-flintlock.

Cory Doctorow — Mon, 04 Jun 2012 22:14:56 +0000

Just look at it.

This Is A Banana (Thanks, Brian!)

Just look at this banana peel trucker hat (for a banana)

Xeni Jardin — Sat, 12 May 2012 17:51:53 +0000

Just look at it. Contributed to the Boing Boing Flickr Pool by BB reader Laser Bread, who explains:.

My kids were grumpy at breakfast this morning, so I had this idea to make a quick banana peel trucker hat for the banana to wear using the peel of the banana. This cheered them up and it made the banana look relatively hip.
How to make:
1 or 2 bananas. One to make the hat, one to model the hat. This could also be made using one banana. Carve the shape of the hat using an x-acto knife. Leave one of the banana peel sides longer, to make the rim of the hat. Most bananas come with a little sticker. Use this sticker to serve as the logo on the hat, if you want your hat to have a logo.
Simple project, takes about 5 minutes yet the memories will last a lifetime.

Is this the banana your grandchildren will eat?

Maggie Koerth-Baker — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 20:33:01 +0000

Over the weekend, I stumbled over a great Damn Interesting post about the history and future of the banana. Some of you already know the basic story here: Bananas, as we know them, cannot reproduce. The ones we eat are sterile hybrids. Like mules. The only way that there are more bananas is that humans take offshoots from the stems of existing banana trees, transplant them, and allow them to grow into a tree of their own. It's basically a cheap, low-tech version of cloning, and it has a long history in agriculture. (Note: This would be why Christian evangelist Ray Comfort's video on bananas has become a classic Internet LOL. In the video, Comfort presents the banana—particularly its seedless flesh, handy shape, and easy-access peel&mash;as a testament to the perfection of supernatural design ... completely ignoring the fact that all those things are the result of human-directed agricultural selection.)

The downside to this is that clones are, shall we say, not terribly genetically diverse. Turns out, a lack of genetic diversity is a great way to make yourself vulnerable to disease. Back in the 1950s, a fungus all but wiped out a variety of banana called the Gros Michael. Up until then, the Gros Michel had been the top-selling banana in the world. It was the banana your grandparents ate. You eat the Cavendish, a different variety that replaced Gros Michael largely on the strength of its resistance to the killer fungus.

Gros Michel and Cavendish bananas both look and taste different from one another. Born in 1981, I've probably never eaten a Gros Michel banana. And chances are, my grandchildren won't know the flavor of a Cavendish. That's because the Cavendish still suffers from the same, basic weakness as its forebear. Just like Gros Michel, all Cavendishes are exactly alike. So a plantation full of Cavendishes is highly susceptible being wiped out by disease.

The disease banana plantations now fear: Black Sigatoka, a different fungus that can kill trees and reduce yields in the survivors. The solution: Goldfinger, a new banana clone bred to resist Black Sigatoka. It's surprisingly difficult to track down a verifiable photo of the Goldfinger online. The one used here comes from the website of a Vietnamese fruit company. Based on this, and other photos I found, it looks our grandchildren will know a banana that is decidedly squatter than the bananas we know today.

If you've got photos of Goldfinger bananas, or if you've tasted them, post in the comments! My understanding is that these bananas are already semi-popular in Australia, Singapore, and other places in that general vicinity. It'd be great if Happy Mutants from that part of the world could tell the rest of us what we have to look forward to.

Read the post at Damn Interesting that inspired my hunt for a picture of the Goldfinger.

Read a Popular Science article from 2005 about banana breeding, banana monoculture, and the threat of disease.

Image from Anh Vi Fruits.

Just look at these BBQ'ed Banana Boats

Cory Doctorow — Mon, 19 Mar 2012 17:07:48 +0000

Just look at them.

Banana Boats (via Neatorama)

Just look at this Banana Man.

Cory Doctorow — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 23:19:29 +0000

Just look at him.

Bananamanology