Tornado Alley (PROG)

[blackhawks]

Between 50 and 100 air mattresses

https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/significant-digits-for-wednesday-aug-21-2019/

Some 150 beds and pillows were arranged in Denver this past weekend for an outdoor summertime screening of “Captain Marvel.” When the wind picked up, dozens of the air mattresses took flight, “a herd of air mattresses” according to a witness who filmed an estimated 50 to 100 beds “rampaging” over walls and into pools.

The video has since been set to “Ride of the Valkyries” and the theme from “Jurassic Park.” Life, uh, finds a way. [The Washington Post]

99 percent of bananas

Ninety-nine percent of exported bananas are of the Cavendish variety. And the Cavendish is facing an “existential crisis” in the form of a fungus called Tropical Race 4 which infects bananas plants through their roots and has spread from Asia to Latin America. Salvation may come, however, thanks to Crispr gene-editing which could make Cavendishes that are resistant to the fungus.

Mmmm, crisper bananas. [Wired]