SuperHappyDevHouse

creatures as usb sticks, originally uploaded by Br3nda.

i'd love these for a full sugar on a stick deployment.

so -- bananas are yummy. Yes?

Did you know they're clones? The bananas in the supermarket are the cavendish variety, which are seedless and thus grown from root stock. Every banana plant is identical to every other.

You know what happens to large populations without genetic diversity? Eventually a disease arrives and wipes them out.

Bananas once had much much more variety, different colours, different sizes - but with seeds through them. A variety of banana was bred, called the Gros Michel, which was both seedless and it rippened very slowly. Thus it could be exported from the tropics to temperate climes like New Zealand.

What the world knew as "bananas" was the Gros Michel for a very long time. New banana plants were created from root stock - every plant was identical - and eventually "Panama disease" infected and all but wiped out the world's banana plantations.

The world was without bananas for some time (inspiring the popular song "yes, we have no bananas") until the Cavendish was bred from the vietnamese banana. This also has no seeds, but is smaller, less sweet, and much less creamy than the original Gros Michel. The cavendish bruises easy and stores for less time than Gos Michel. It was thought cavendish would not sell as well -- but it did, and today we recognise the Cavendish as the "banana".

However it's only a matter of time -- already fungus has appeared in African banana plantations, and the cavendish is under threat. We may see it vanish in coming years, and once again we'll have no bananas.

http://www.popsci.com/scitech/article/2008-06/can-fruit-be-saved
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gros_Michel_banana
http://www.damninteresting.com/the-unfortunate-sex-life-of-the-banana

A seed riddled wild banana

check out allthe varieties of banana in Thailand:
http://thailand.prd.go.th/ebook_bak/story.php?idmag=9&idstory=81
(thanks Kanrawee Aomrak)

Bananas

weather in new zealand, originally uploaded by Br3nda.

Corn can't survive without humans. There is no wild corn. Those corn seeds can't get out of the husks. It needs us to do this.

Nobody knows where corn came from. The closest relative is teosinte, a kind of grass. but that's a long way from corn. Corn just appeared as a crop in Mexico. http://www.koshland-science-museum.org/exhibitdna/crops02.jsp

There was once a conference held, where scientists tried to work out where the heck corn came from. "An Origin of Corn Conference". They never published any papers at the end of this conference. They can't work it out. (and there were some ragequits by angry people) http://web.ku.edu/~hoopes/506/Lectures/Maize.html

Nearly all the corn you find is identical - it's a plant with no variation. Every single stalk the same. All noteworthy differences long since bred out. Therefore it is massively vulnerable if a disease appears. We could lose corn, forever, and we have no idea how to breed it back from grasses in the wild.

"women's shirts" not "girls' shirts", lol, originally uploaded by hypatiadotca.

this is what happens when you order girl's shirts for your conference, when you should order women's shirts. (defcon)

it has come to my attention that some of you have not yet seen this, the best internet commerical eva .

VERY IMPORTANT INFO: if you've voting in Wellington mayoral election, which uses STV - you don't need to rate *all* the candidates.

If there's someone you never ever ever want to be mayor, don't give them any points at all.

ONE NONE NONE.

Zero points for her.

warning, make sure your bike has 2 wheels, originally uploaded by Br3nda.