The Bananas Podcast

20/01/2025

(UPI) -- A Turkish woman who squashed five watermelons within a 60-second timeframe, using only her thighs, has set a world record.

Guiness World Records shared a video Friday of Gozde Dogan completing the challenge.

The clip shows Dogan sitting between two rows of watermelons, grabbing them one at a time, crushing them, and then cleaning the mess before continuing.

She is handed a plaque and told she is "officially amazing," becoming the first person to earn the distinction of using the thighs to smash the most watermelons in 60 seconds, in the female category.

Dogan broke the record in February. In 2017, an Iranian man made history for smashing three watermelons quicker than anyone ever had. In 2023, the same man, Ashkan Rohollah Doshmanziari set a record for stacking four watermelons on top of one another.

19/01/2025

NBC NEWS - Progresso is celebrating National Soup Month by reimagining a classic comfort food — as a hard candy called Soup Drops.

The company this week launched its first-ever "soup you can suck on," a savory lozenge that captures the taste of Progresso Traditional Chicken Noodle Soup.

Designed as a portable alternative to the classic meal, the drops come packaged in a can modeled after Progresso’s soup cans and contain 20 individually wrapped candies. Each drop has flavors of broth, chicken, vegetables, soft egg noodles, and a hint of parsley.

“When you’re sick, nothing is truly more reassuring than Chicken Noodle Soup," MC Comings, VP, Business Unit Director for Progresso at General Mills, explained in a press release on Thursday.

"So, we thought, why stop at the soup bowl? We took the beloved flavors of our Progresso Chicken Noodle Soup and packed them into a fun, savory candy Soup Drop for a totally new way to enjoy the taste you love whenever and wherever you want,” Comings added.

The soup drops are limited edition and will be available starting Jan. 16th at ProgressoSoupDrops.com. Each order is accompanied with a can of actual Progresso Traditional Chicken Noodle Soup.

Though the drops are sold out as of Friday, the company said they will have restocks of the drops every Thursday for the remainder of National Soup Month while supplies last.

18/01/2025

BBC - An amateur baker from northwest London says the sudden online popularity of his cakes has prompted celebrities to start requesting their own faces in sponge and icing.

Keith Scovell said the interest in his unique bakes had taken off since the BBC's The Traitors' host Claudia Winkleman shared a photo of his cake of her on her Instagram page.

The HR consultant said he was now taking some time away from work to enjoy the flurry of demand and said his smile had become similar to those on his cakes.

Mr Scovell said he couldn't reveal the identities of the celebrity requests, but said two new celebrity faces would be "caked" this week.

Speaking to the BBC, the amateur chef admitted he wasn't much of a cook: "I'm really rubbish in the kitchen, I could do without a kitchen actually - I could make it into a walk-in wardrobe!"

But, he said that his recent interest in cakes, fuelled by the public's enthusiasm, had made him reconsider.

"I've suddenly decided it's quite a nice room to go into," he said.Speaking to BBC Radio London, he said the sudden interest in his cakes had taken him by surprise.

"Claudia, posting my picture of my cake on her socials for her birthday - I adore Claudia - that accolade was incredible," he said.

Asked what he does with the cakes, he said: "At first I used to eat them, but I've got to stop!" He said his family and friends had "suffered them enough" and said, "Other people need to eat them now. "

He said the best thing about his cakes was that "if you don't like the one of you, you can just eat it."

15/01/2025

In these hard times, we commit to delivering you the hardest hitting, dumbest, and most inconsequential news we can find. So take a one-hour break from the stress of being human in a broken system, and enjoy the latest episode of THE BANANAS PODCAST.

Kurt and Scotty talk about Tokyo’s Crush Christmas March getting cancelled, plates of peeled bananas left on a residential street, missing dog rings doorbell to let owner know it’s home and thieves return stolen rug to Madonna Inn!

12/01/2025

(UPI) -- Belgium's food safety agency issued a warning to residents to not turn their Christmas trees into food after a city's recycling recommendations included using the needles in recipes.

The Federal Agency for the Safety of the Food Chain made the statement in response to the city of Ghent recommending cooking with conifer needles in its list of ways to recycle Christmas trees.

"In Scandinavia, they have been doing it for a long time: picking the needles from the branches, briefly immersing them in boiling water, pouring them through a sieve and drying them on a clean cloth," Ghent's website reads. "Once the needles are dry, you can make delicious spruce needle butter with them for bread or toast."

The FASFC responded by warning residents that Christmas trees "are not meant to end up in the food chain."

The agency explained that trees grown for Christmas decorations are most often treated with pesticides and other potentially dangerous chemicals.

"What's more, there is no easy way for consumers to tell if Christmas trees have been treated with flame retardant -- and not knowing that could have serious, even fatal consequences," the agency said in a statement provided to Euronews. "There is no way to ensure that eating Christmas trees is safe -- either for people or animals."

Ghent edited the post on its website after the warning, changing a heading from "eat your Christmas tree" to "Scandinavians eat their Christmas trees" and including a warning: "not all Christmas trees are edible."

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09/01/2025

Wanna help the victims of these wildfires? Wanna show your support for the firefighters who are risking it all for Los Angeles? Great!

Welcome to the "$3 Bad Hand Banana Challenge" to raise money for the California Fire Foundation! Let's help the victims and the firefighters who are risking it all for LA!

The rules are simple: 1) Ask friends, family and enemies for as many $3 donations as you can raise for your Bad Hand Banana drawing 2) Draw a banana with your non-dominant hand 3) Post your "Bad Hand Banana" on whatever socials you have and encourage others to draw their own "BHB" 4) Send the donations to this GoFundMe by January 31, 2025.

100% of these donations will go to the California Fire Foundation. The California Fire Foundation, a non-profit 501 (c)(3) organization, provides emotional and financial assistance to families of fallen firefighters, firefighters and the communities they protect.

Draw! Share! Donate! LINK IN STORIES AND BIO

THANK YOU FROM THE BANANA BOYS!!!

07/01/2025

It’s Tuesday! New bananas!

Pub Buds

Kurt and Scotty talk about a retired couple trying to visit every pub in Australia, the world’s strongest coffee and Miller High Life’s new perfume!

05/01/2025

PEOPLE — Waiting for holiday gifts can feel agonizing, but for one suburban man, the wait took about 46 years longer than usual.

Tim King, a Lombard resident and the owner of the TKING Construction Services, was performing a small remodel on the bathroom of his parents’ home when he found a piece of hidden treasure tucked away behind the drywall – a decades-old Christmas gift.

“Before we closed up the drywall on the wall, I was like, ‘I should probably look and see that there is nothing back there,’ and sure enough, there was a present,” King said.

The gift was wrapped up in festive Disney-themed paper that had yellowed a bit from its days hidden away, but the surprises did not stop there. Upon closer inspection, Tim realized that the gift had his name on it.

"So when I pulled that out, it was super old wrapping paper, and then I was like, ‘Oh crap, that has my name on it,'” King said.

King thinks the gift may have fallen down into the wall as his parents once used the attic to hide gifts ahead of the holidays.

When he finally did get to open it, King discovered a set of Matchbox Thunder Jets, which he said would have been a great gift.

“I would have been six, so that is pretty awesome,” King said.

King believes the toy set was purchased during the Christmas season of 1978.

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02/01/2025

METRO – Can you imagine the horror this dad felt when he saw his baby’s face looking out at him from inside the washing machine?

That’s exactly what happened to a Twitter user a few weeks back, but thankfully it wasn’t his actual baby.

Instead, it was a t-shirt that featured his child’s face, which proved a huge relief when he found out.

The image was originally shared by xnned on Twitter, who said they were nearly taken to the hospital with a heart attack after the shock.

It has since gone viral sharing site Imgur, however, after user ARussianAndHisBike shared the picture with a warning.

They alerted others from getting a similar fright, saying: ‘Please, if you are ever washing your favorite shirt with a picture of your child on it, just put a warning note on the washer or something.’

Imgur users saw the funny side, and one said ‘How else am I supposed to wash the baby, Karen?’ while another quipped, ‘It helps if the baby doesn’t look terrified on the shirt too.’

Some others took a minute to realise it was just a t-shirt, with one saying ‘GOOD GRIEF’ in relation to not seeing the warning that it wasn’t a real baby.

The photo has now been viewed hundreds of thousands of times, and liked over 3,000.

In practical advice, one person suggested turning the shirt inside out to avoid situations like this, and mentioned that it’d also have the added affect of helping preserve the image.

That’s way less fun, though.

01/01/2025

SBS – A Chinese farmer has triumphed over a first round legal battle against a large chemical company which he alleged pollutes his land in the Heilongjiang Province, reports People’s Daily Online.

But the kicker is how he got there. Wang Enlin spent the last 16 years training himself in the law for the purpose of suing the chemical plant, Qihua Group.

Wang, in his 60s, had only had three years of formal education before commencing self-study in law.

Wang claims Qihua Group effluents began flooding his and his neighbours’ lands in 2001, and have continued to the present day. The toxic waste turned the lands infertile and incapable of growing crops, necessary for Wang’s livelihood and business.

Qihua Group, however, denies these allegations.

On winning the first trial, the Angangxi District Court ruled the affected families would each receive compensation of 820,000 yuan (about AUD $156,000) from the chemical corporation. But, Qihua Group has since appealed the court’s decision.

Wang was playing cards and making dumplings with friends on the eve of Lunar New Year, when suddenly his house was flooded with effluent from the Qihua Group chemical plant.

Though he understands that the chemical plant has deep pocket to sustain lengthy and expensive legal proceeding - over AUD $380 million in networth – Wang says he sees this court case as a way to demand justice for his neighbours and himself.

31/12/2024

News5CLEVELAND — It didn’t work out for those hoping for “KOKANE,” “HEROIN,” “DOG TURD,” or “IH8OH1O” as their personalized Ohio license plate in 2024 (“IH8XICH” was rejected too).

As of Dec. 9, the Ohio BMV rejected 931 applications this year, which is up more than 20% compared to the same stretch in 2023.

Most requests are denied for including references to profanity, drugs, s*x, or other inappropriate combinations of letters and numbers.

Members of the “KIA GRLZ,” “MAFFIA,” or just a “SCAMMER” were rejected as well.

One way drivers tried to sneak some personalized plate requests by the Ohio BMV this year was by embracing some of the letters already used in one of Ohio’s 194 specialty plates.

For example, perhaps it was a University of Cincinnati fan who unsuccessfully tried to pair the iconic “C” with a plate request for “OCAINE” back in May.

Ohio BMV Registrar Charlie Norman previously told News 5 that only a fraction of a single percent are rejected each year.

Political references to current President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, and President-elect Donald Trump all made the rejected list as well.

See the full list of 2024’s rejected vanity plates from the Ohio BMV below.

31/12/2024

28/12/2024

GUARDIAN - A Florida dog missing more than a week came home on Christmas Eve and rang its owner’s doorbell to announce its return.

“It was about 2.30 am. She came pawing at the door, ringing the doorbell,” Brooke Comer told local television station KSBW, “which was Christmas Eve. And then that morning, I woke up to – she had made it on everybody’s [doorbell] camera.”

The dog, a four-year-old German shepherd named Athena, was lost on 15 December, which prompted a frantic search.

“People all the way from Jacksonville and Saint Augustine were like inboxing me,” Comer said.

Comer said Athena’s 2am return woke up her family.

“I tried not to wake up the kids, but the kids woke up anyways from the excitement,” Comer told the TV station.

Athena was not fitted with a microchip to help identify her. Comer said they would make sure to get that done over the holiday period to prevent further escapades.

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26/12/2024

Popular Mechanics – On 5/10/2024, one of the most massive solar storms in decades (& the strongest aurora display in centuries) crashed into Earth, making the northern lights not so northern—for a few nights, at least.

Now, details are still emerging about how the solar storm impacted the everyday goings-on here on Earth. One strange side effect, as reported by Spaceweather.com, is how this intense geomagnetic storm impacted farms knee-deep in May planting season. Because of this busy time of year, many farmers worked into the night with GPS-guided tractors doing a lot of the heavy lifting.

But then, things got weird.

“Our tractors acted like they were demon possessed,” Elaine Ramstad, an aurora chaser who’s family works a farm in northern Minnesota. “All my cousins called me during the May 10 storm to tell me that ‘my auroras’ were driving them crazy while they were planting.”

Ethan Schmidt, a service manager for John Deere, also told Spaceweather.com that more than 80% of farms use some basic form of GPS—these “smart” tractors can plant in perfect rows, apply just the right amount of fertilizer, & then harvest those crops later on. However, on the night of 5/10, things went haywire as the Sun’s rays impacted the Earth’s ionosphere.

On a good day, the ionosphere is a GPS obstacle because charged ions can interfere with GPS measurements. But during a once in a lifetime solar storm, that challenge can become insurmountable. Photos of crops planted on May 10 show crooked rows, as the tractor struggled to get a GPS lock.

Solar storms struck again in October, & one farmer reported that his John Deere’s Autosteer feature “jumped the line,” meaning it would make quick movements left or right. Eventually, the tractor would have to be reset.

“As the aurora activity began, my GPS was off by close to a foot. Twice while on Autosteer, the tractor danced a row to the left, to the right,” Randstad told Spaceweather.com, “& then the defoliator was off a row, so I had to loop around & start over. By nightfall, there was no controlling the Autosteer.”

Hopefully, by planting time next season, farmers will have plan B for when their machines become a bit Sun-addled.

25/12/2024

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!! HAPPY HANUKKAH!!!
AND HAPPY HOLIDAYS TO EVERYONE WHO GIVES A CRAP ABOUT HOLIDAYS!

We appreciate each and every Bananimal for being a gift to the world. Now put down your phones and hug your favorite person (or pet).

Thanks to .iguess for the art!

21/12/2024

FOX 13 - COLUMBUS, Ohio (WSYX) – A funeral home in Ohio wants to serve mourners in a new way by providing alcohol.

Evergreen Funeral Cremation and Reception in Columbus recently applied for a liquor license, which would make it the first of its kind in the state.

Hunter Triplett, the funeral home’s owner, said he wants to be able to provide guests with a livelier vibe if that’s the way they want to celebrate their loved ones.

“My role in this position is to kind of be a party planner for dead people, you know, be more of a celebration of life [rather] than more of the multi-day traditional services, which costs a lot of money,” Triplett said.

The owner wants to shed the funeral business’ reputation of being dark and morbid by offering manageable prices and the opportunity to raise to toast to a lost loved one.

Triplett said adding a bar will allow people to make their services more personalized.

Evergreen Funeral Cremation and Reception is the largest full-service funeral home in central Ohio.

The building was once a chocolate factory. Triplett’s family bought the property in 2015.

With a cemetery right across the street, Triplett said he wants his services to be easy to manage as a “one-stop shop.”

According to the National Funeral Directors Association, some states don’t allow funeral homes to serve food or drinks.

Triplett says he plans to offer his bar services around the beginning of the new year.

15/12/2024

AP NEWS - A Massachusetts man trying to escape from police shimmied down the chimney.

And got stuck.

The man fled onto a rooftop, channeling what the Fall River Police Department described as “the essence of the seasonal icon,” but he ended up needing to be rescued by the detectives who were pursuing him after getting wedged inside a chimney Tuesday evening.

Body cam video from the Fall River Police Department shows a detective shouting, “Hey he’s on the roof. Get down here!” Detectives were alerted moments later by a bystander that a man was “screaming” inside a nearby chimney. Incredulous detectives climbed up the roof and peered down into the shaft with a flashlight to see the man stuck.

“You’re an idiot,” one of them said.

Detectives called in firefighters who had to carefully knock out bricks to free the man. “Due to his Santa-antics (the man) was transported to a local hospital out of caution,” police said.

The man remained in the lockup Thursday on drug charges and other charges from outstanding warrants. His court-appointed attorney didn’t immediately return an email message.

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14/12/2024

SKY NEWS - A council in the US has asked its residents to stop sticking googly eyes on the city's art.

The comedy eyes have appeared on statues and murals around the city of Bend, Oregon, causing a viral sensation.

"While the googly eyes placed on the various art pieces around town might give you a chuckle, it costs money to remove them with care to not damage the art," the city said in posts on social media.

"It would cost $0 to leave them on," replied one Facebook user, while another praised the artworks' additions.

"My daughter and I went past the flaming chicken today and shared the biggest laugh," she said, using a nickname for the "Phoenix Rising" sculpture. "We love the googly eyes. This town is getting to be so stuffy. Let's have fun!"

Another Facebook user wrote: "I think the googly eyes on the deer specifically are a great look, and they should stay that way."

Others said the city should focus on addressing more important issues, such as homelessness, instead of spending time and money on removing the googly eyes.

Bend's sculptures frequently get adorned with seasonal decorations like Santa hats and wreaths which the council does not remove The googly eyes, however, are being removed because of their adhesive, according to Bend's communications director, Rene Mitchell.

"We really encourage our community to engage with the art and have fun. We just need to make sure that we can protect it and that it doesn't get damaged," she said.

Bend has spent $1,500 (£1,188) on removing googly eyes from seven of the eight sculptures impacted, according to Ms Mitchell and has started treating some of the art pieces, which are made of different types of metal such as bronze and steel.

The "Phoenix Rising" sculpture may even need to be repainted entirely.

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