- Neolithic parboiled bulgur wheat.
- Applying “catch shares” to bushmeat.
- The pros and cons of fish farming in Latin America.
- “It’s a masochistic business. Masochistic.”
Nibbles: Bananas, Avocadoes, Slow Food, Chilli, Sweet potatoes
- Red bananas: one man’s story.
- Avocado mayonnaise: one woman’s story.
- Terra Madre, Day 1: one man’s story. Almost like being there.
- Indoor hot pepper: someone’s grandad’s story.
- Sweet potatoes: several people’s stories.
Nibbles: Milk, Capsicum, Beef, Fruits
- Adventures in Food No. 1: Camel milk chocolate.
- Adventures in Food No. 2: Hawaiian Chili Water.
- Adventures in Food No. 3: Beef.
- Adventures in Food No. 4: Fruits from abandoned orchards.
Nibbles: Funding, Cow Gods, Ãœber Bee, Rice, Bushmeat, Oaks
- $50 million for climate change. Must be some for agricultural biodiversity. Via, which has the application forms.
- How the Egyptians came to venerate cattle.
- Building a better bee.
- Official US rice harvest forecasts 20% too high. Chinese comment: “Without rice, even the cleverest housewife cannot cook.”
- How about without bushmeat?
- IUCN lists endangered oaks. Know any ex situ collections? Tell IUCN!
Blue bananas
Ripe bananas are of course yellow. However, under black light, the yellow bananas are bright blue, as discovered by scientists at the University of Innsbruck (Austria) and Columbia University (New York, USA). The team, headed by Bernhard Kräutler, reports in the journal Angewandte Chemie that the blue glow is connected to the degradation of chlorophyll that occurs during ripening. In this process, colorless but fluorescing breakdown products of chlorophyll are concentrated in the banana peel.
I kid you not.