Giant yellow flying Peyronies-diseased phallus is sure to baffle, confuse and ridicule Texans

[Ian David]

By Lara Crigger| Also by this reporter
02:00 AM Jan, 29, 2007

Look there, in the Texas sky! It's a bird! It's a plane! It's ... a banana?

In an art installation sure to launch a thousand UFO conspiracies, Montreal artist César Saez plans to send a 1,000-foot helium blimp in the shape of a banana into low Earth orbit over the Lone Star State.

If everything goes right, the fruity dirigible, known as the Geostationary Banana Over Texas, should launch in August 2008.

The astrofruit is an artistic commentary on the absurdity of American politics -- especially Texan-style kookiness, says Saez.

"I see Texas like a crossroads of important social and cultural happenings in the states and in the world," he says.

He estimates the project will cost $1 million, and so far he's raised one-eighth of that, including a $15,000 grant from the Canada Council for the Arts.

Technically, Saez's "geostationary banana" is misnamed, as the blimp will neither circle the equator nor reach an altitude of 22,236 miles. Instead, it will orbit in near space, meandering the stratosphere at 100,000 to 160,000 feet above the Earth's surface.



<snip>

Ground observers should be able to spot the airship's curved shape with the naked eye; Saez estimates the banana will appear 10 percent to 20 percent the size of the moon.

More:
http://www.wired.com/news/culture/art/0,72550-0.html?tw=rss.index

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

1. I wish they wouldn't call it an orbit, either.

Feh.

[BlueJazz]

2. I'll bet People will gather by the "Bunches" to see this item.

I couldn't resist....

[originalpckelly]

3. I want to know why they are floating Rush Limbaugh to the stratosphere?

Oh wait, that's the world's biggest dick. Ironically, Limbaugh also qualifies for the world's smallest dick.

[badgerpup]

4. The things that people get up to...

:wow:

Remember the guy who attached a bunch of weather balloons to his lawn chair and took a shotgun along with so he could deflate them one by one and descend?

Caused a great deal of consternation to the air traffic in the area...
When asked :wtf: he thought he was doing, he replied:

A man just can't sit around.
:rofl:
http://www.snopes.com/travel/airline/walters.asp
I do enjoy creative HARMLESS playful lunacy...think it's one of our more postitive traits. :applause:

[Ian David]

5. Giant flying penis and no recs? n/t