Bananic Panic
Jason Adamoli
Today, this story is a bit more sad than usual. Something we all know and love is being attacked, and scientist are trying to cure it, but so far, they haven’t done much. Bananas are under attack by a disease known as “Panama disease”, or “fusarium wilt”. This is different strain of a disease that wiped out the Gros Michel banana, an extremely popular strain in the 1960s.
Banana scientists are and growers are trying to figure out which type could replace the Cavendish, the popular banana at the moment that most people buy and consume. Taiwan has made various “mutant” bananas that are resistant to the strain. They are no tasty, or suitable for long distance transport, but they are slightly more resistant to the disease.
For now, the disease has not spread Latin America, but consumers in north America and Europe could see changes in prices and quality if it does make it there, as Latin America is a large producer of the Cavendish banana. Plant pathologist Dusunceli said “The spread of Fusarium wilt could have a significant impact on growers, traders and families who depend on the banana industry.”
This truly is a dark time for fruit lovers everywhere, and we need to spread awareness of this epidemic. #prayforbananas
The World According to Jason
My name is Jason Adamoli. I like music, videogames, food, poetry, television, Hugh Jackman, subway, and sitting alone in a dark room crying. I’m from Albuquerque New Mexico (as if that wasn’t obvious) and I believe that people are offended too easily. I try to run stories that aren’t riddled with sadness so that m not quite so sad all the time, but so far, I still do. I also want people to have somewhere to come to enjoy themselves, to forget the daily commotion and read a heartwarming story, or a review on a disappointing movie. Overall, I want people to for just a moment forget their lives and get lost in a story.
This story is a bit sadder than usual Recently, google added a feature to the “google maps” app that told you how many calories you could lose if you walked instead of driving to your destination using pink cupcakes.
This seems like a neat feature, it can entice people to walk , help people exercising choose where to walk to, and help one decide their daily route. However, people have, of course, found a way to be offended over it.
Many people have taken to twitter, accusing this feature of “fat shaming”. One user tweeted “ty for shaming me for my mini cupcake consumption google maps!!!!” and another tweeted “Do they realize how extremely triggering something like this is for ppl who have had eating disorders? Not to mention just generally shamey”. Google ended up pulling the feature from the app.
I guess that knowing how many calories you could burn is now considered a bad thing. Many news sources, such as the NYtimes, and the Huffington post have written stories defending the people who attacked google. A perfectly good app censored because people were offended over something tiny. Really makes you think what other innocent features could be taken down from your favorite app or website because people find a reason not to like it.
Googles Map Problem
By: Jason Adamoli
CNN wants to ban the term “fake news”
By: Jason Adamoli
CNN calls for a ban on the term “fake news” in an opinion piece written by Hossein Derakhshan and Claire Wardle.
According to the article, the term “fake news” is not only self-defeating, but it simplifies a large problem. They then go on to talk about how meaningless the term has become because of its use against various news sources.
The term “fake news” refers to a false story that is trying to be passed off as real. various new sources such as CNN, fox news, Buzzfeed, and the Huffington post have all been accused of reporting various fake stories so far this year, so it’s no surprise the first to write about it would be CNN.
However, this term and distrust of the media is not just present in America. Polls show that trust for mainstream news media is at an all-time low in various countries across the world. They talk about Russia, because of course they do, followed by description of possible fake news.
This article is dumb. You can’t ban a term because you don’t like it, especially when it does actually apply to things that are happening. There is fake news out there, whether CNN likes it or not, and banning the term wouldn’t be solving anything, just helping to ignore it.
