I was very remiss last summer and failed to decongest the irises. As a result this year's show was pretty poor; only four blooms. So a couple of weeks ago I bought three new tubs and some soil and set to. Step one, take two packed tubs ...

And divide them up into replantable bits (toes optional)...

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I don’t know why people complain about the quality of science reporting these days. As any fule kno, “combat” is a synonym of "boost".¹ A Science Journalist told me so. I know, lets blame the subs.

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Melvyn Bragg’s In Our Time on BBC Radio 4 is unfailingly interesting. Even sub-par episodes are head and shoulders above most other discussion programmes. This week’s episode, on Malthusianism, was no exception, being full of insights into the background and context of Malthus’ famous Essay on ...

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More or Less is one of my favourite programmes on BBC Radio Four. Not for the presentation style, which for me sometimes grates like fingernails on a blackboard, but for what they present, which makes it well worth getting beyond the style to the substance. And last week's episode was particularl...

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So, farewell then, Horace Freeland Judson.

“It is as if one were in the classroom with a dozen or so of the world’s greatest biologists, with Mr. Judson acting as the informed student,” he wrote. “We learn as he is learning."

That’s Jeremy Bernstein's appraisal in the NYT obit linked above...

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