The Frozen Banana Republic (2014)
modernfarmer.com
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We picked up our rental car in to a desolate area near a volcano where the ground was a reddish-brown clay. If felt like being on Mars: http://imgur.com/Z2oS0HS
After about an hour or two of traveling, the scenery shifted to a Shire like area with lush green rolling hills: http://imgur.com/BCQECak, homes built into the ground like hobbit holes: http://imgur.com/xf9Dmsg, trolls that were turned to stone after being exposed to sunlight: http://imgur.com/MM146hm a pristine river snaking through that eventually morphed into rapids: http://imgur.com/M0yIPkH.
The waterfalls were breathtaking. They were festooned with hexagonal column sections formed from dark lava: http://imgur.com/IJXgMWL.
Further on, we came across some not so lonely mountains: http://imgur.com/QhcOCLo and small glacier lakes: http://imgur.com/CuFhMhE
Surprisingly, I learned that the first European visitor to the Americas, Leifur Erickson, hailed from Iceland: http://imgur.com/PBWkafA
I'm leaving out so much more, like the naturally heated outdoor geothermal pools of the Blue Lagoon spa.
The people were delightful, well educated, very technically literate and luckily spoke fantastic English. As a country of just over 300,000 people, they are the per capita winners of the world:
Lowest murder rate Most peaceful country highest energy usage Happiest population Best gender equality Highest literacy rate, most books read, most authors
I've toyed with the idea of taking a 3 month sabbatical there to work on my game. (The only person I know there works for CCP, makes of Eve Online). It looked like it would be one of the most romantic places in the world to spend your honeymoon at.
We have rain forests, deserts, volcanoes, and alps, all in one country.
We also have geothermal springs (and geothermal pools) like Iceland, and big glacial lakes too (http://image.shutterstock.com/z/stock-photo-asphalt-road-alo...)
You can go skiing and surfing in the same day (if you enjoy cold water, that is). And we also love per capita bragging.
Of course, being larger, you can't see everything in the same day.
NZ is definitely on my list of travel destinations in 2017. Anything in particular I should see?
http://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2016/06/16/473526920/how...
It's economical, unlike banana production in Iceland.
This leads to some people underestimating the effects of radionuclide intake.
"Working for a week at the Fukushima plant gives you the banana equivalent dose of one hundred bananas (100 BED)", or whatever.
We got stuck with Cavendish after a blight hit the monoculture[0]
Can anyone confirm?
The 'common' banana available in Thailand is neither Gros Michel nor Cavendish. It's a tiny little thing that (going by a photo on Wikipedia it's something similar to a Latundan I believe) IMO is only useful for blending (i.e. for a smoothy) because it's too 'moist' to eat as-is. Thai's seem to mostly grill or fry them, rather than eating them fresh.
We recently (this year) have been able to grow the less common (and more expensive to buy locally) 'big' bananas, which I've confirmed today are in fact cavendish.
I'll ask my in-laws (who had already grown Cavendish) if they know anything about where to buy/find either Gros Michel fruit, or plants.
This whole thing gets quite confusing (for me at least) as I don't read (and speak very little) Thai, and software translators convert the Thai for "Banana", "Cavendish Banana" and "Gros Michel Banana" all into "Banana" in English.
Enjoy the Cavendish while you can, a new blight has evolved that is destroying them and spreading worldwide.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_banana_cultivars
which has Nendran as a cultivar under the Plantains category. But the Wikipedia link for it redirects to the main link for Banana. But that link does have a photo of it:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banana
Anyone visiting Kerala, consider asking for it and trying it out.
Edit: The cultivars list above has Nendran under the AAB Group - Triploid cultivars of Musa × paradisiaca and within that, under the plantain subgroup.
So that may be the Latin or scientific name, and I guess it is a plantain.
And Nendran is also mentioned here:
It's economic for Marijuana producers even in countries with high energy costs. I know bananas are not so high value - but then the energy is cheaper?
Also - some sidewalks and parking spaces have heating - so the snow/ice melts! Amazing.
Source: Lived there for 4 years.
There's no need to. They have lava lamps.
Whether or not to keep building hydro power plants is one of the most controversial political topics in Iceland, and a strong differentiator between the agendas of different parties.
Fun fact, we're the second largest per capita importer of bananas in the world, just behind Iceland, and bananas are the most common item in shopping baskets.
By the way, if anyone's in for a cheaper alternative around Europe, try visiting the Azores Islands. I used to think of it as unbelievably beautiful but then Iceland happened.
[0] https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@64.1369102,-20.3120604,431m/d...
[1] http://www.ecowatch.com/two-indoor-farm-startups-stand-up-to...
One of the things that surprises immigrants, including myself, is the produce. A lot of it is shipped in. Bell, broccoli, and many other fresh goods are sold wrapped in plastic because of imports. Some say the vegetables look fake. Things like bell peppers aren't nearly as tasty as the ones I would buy back in the states. Not only that, but the food tends to spoil more quickly, and I'm guessing this is in part to the shipping.
The most notable exception is goods that can be grown in Norway. They are more likely to be loosely packed and actually look better. Granted, not a lot can be grown here as less than 5% of the land is arable.
With soil-less growing, you get over some of these issues, hopefully with the addition of produce (and other goods) being cheaper.
It's true that Norway produces more renewable energy than it uses energy, but since it sells its green power to other countries who pays more for "green power", Norwegian customers actually buy most of the power they consume from non-renewable sources elsewhere.
However, since Norwegian consumers "know" how green Norwegian power production is they don't care/know about paying extra for the EU goo (Guarantee of origin).
It's a dumb situation where two groups of customers (the ones who pay extra for green Norwegian GoOs and the Norwegians who rationally presume that the power they buy is "local" Norwegian green power) both believe they're buying the same green energy.
The important notion here is that a subset of consumers support the economic cost of running renewable energy plants, while the other subset of consumers are led to believe they do because of geographic proximity, when in fact they don't.
That doesn't change anything for Norway though, it only shows that the current European energy policy can easily be abused. The case remains that Norway can easily add more renewable production and use that to grow vegetables in containers (ideally adapted so that they can cope with fluctuating supply). Norway has so much potential that they can still export more energy towards Europe, but as Denmark has the same plans, running significantly more wires towards southern Germany is the main problem here, not some certificates.