Slashdot

Unfortunately none of those dozens of varieties have the attributes that make the Cavendish banana by far the most successful and important fruit crop in the world:

1. Long shelf life
2. Very uniform and predictable ripening times

That is why you can get bananas cheaply, even though they might be grown thousands of miles from where they are eventually sold.

Most, if not all the other varieties are only viable crops when they are sold very close to where they were grown.

J05H writes "Scaled Composites team hurt in teststand explosion this afternoon. There are threads on Uplink and NSF. Drudge and various news agencies are carrying the news. Two dead, four injured critcally at Mojave Airport, one minor injury. Suspected explosion of Nitrous Oxide (NOX)tank, which serves as oxidizer in the SS2 hybrid engine. While safer to handle than liquid hydrogen, NOX can decompose violently when contminated or disturbed. Images from local newscopters looks like the MONODS test trailer was involved. A sad day for the families, everyone at Scaled, Mojave and the space community."
http://uplink.space.com/postlist.php?Cat=&Board=missions

J05H writes "NASAWatch.com is carrying the following additional trouble for the US space program:

NASA RSRM Train crashes in Alabama
Train Derails Carrying NASA Rocket Motors, AP
Bridge Collapse Causes Train Crash, Fox 6
"A train carrying a load for NASA crashed Wednesday when the bridge it was crossing collapsed, injuring six people.""