Our friends at the International Rice Research Institute seem to have some newish toys to play with, based on a couple of recent uploads to YouTube. If you’ve been molested by the speed bumps on the IRRI campus, you’ll want to hear how Mrs Carolyn Moomaw Wilhelm was responsible for setting them up, when she and her husband, the renowned rice breeder James Moomaw, first arrived at IRRI. Or you may prefer to hear Peter Jennings, IRRI’s first rice breeder, reminisce with “singular wit” on the importance of luck. And do stick with Nyle Brady’s reminiscences, (above); he eventually says that resistance to grassy stunt virus was found within just a few months, in samples that nobody suspected were resistant.
Biodiversity Festival
This just in from Crocevia.
Dear Friends,
Greetings from Rome. We are very proud to present you the fifth edition of the International Audiovisual Festival on Biodiversity, a funded project of Centro Internazionale Crocevia taking place in Rome on 24th and 25th October.
The Festival was born to promote experiences and activities that NGOs and local partners worldwide are carrying out to protect the environment and, in particular, its biodiversity. During the festival, national and international documentaries related to the environment, biodiversity and food sovereignty will be presented, followed by performances of local artists famous for their social commitment and special attention they give to the local traditions.
For the first time this year, the participating documentaries will be also available on-line on ARCOIRIS TV http://www.arcoiris.tv/. During two weeks before the official event in Rome, the audience will thus have the chance to see the videos and participate at the festival by choosing their favourite documentary.
We would like you to promote among your partners or in your website the festival and video request, as we would be pleased to include your last works in our event. Please don’t hesitate to contact us for further request or info.
Best regards,
Centro Internazionale Crocevia
Nibbles: Flax, Pomegranates
- Irish linen returns.
- Evil Fruit Lord praises Pomegranate book.
Plants don’t get enough respect
That’s not our view. Well, it is, but you know what I mean. It’s the view of über-blogger P.Z. Myers, the man with a cracker in his mouth and a price on his head. PZ stepped manfully into the breach when the scheduled compiler of the Tangled Bank Carnival of the Vanities was diagnosed with a serious illness ((Best of luck, Jeff.)) and so Tangled Bank 110 is back where it started, at PZ Myers’ Pharyngula.
Luigi’s rumination on La Zucca was apparently the “sole entry from the vast field of botany” and it wasn’t that long a post either.
There’s some stuff over there about birds and other animals that eat plants.
And if you think plants get short shrift, consider agriculture. sometimes we do feel we are wandering in the wilderness, but at least this Tangled Bank seems to have smoked out some quasi-useful comments on Luigi’s missing potato dish. So, welcome, and thanks again PZ.
Nibbles: Health, Figs, Biocontrol, Small, Tomato
- US to spend $2.25 million to find out whether preserving biodiversity could reduce disease. We say “what, no ag? Again?”
- Fancy a fig?
- Mud pot formulation brings unbelievable benefits.
- More small is beautiful: artisanal weed. Via.
- Meet the Tom-Anto.