Housekeeping

April 23, 2008April 23, 2008

Competition news

First, a word of explanation. We took a vow of silence yesterday. No posts, no nibbles, nothing to detract from the global gloriousness of Miss Hathorn and Robert, competition winners extraordinaire. But of course we were both hot to trot this morning, so much so that we both nibbled independently. ((These things happen with a distributed system.)) That has now been fixed, with today’s monster bowl of nibbles.

Anyway, that has given us a chance to do the needful as far as our winner and runner-up are concerned, and adhere them to Association Kokopelli. Proof below. In addition, Miss Hathorn gets a packet of seeds of something called New Red Fire, a lettuce.

Of course, we could have faked the whole thing, and in a world of cut-throats and frauds we forgive your general skepticism. But we didn’t, and we hope that Miss Hathorn and Robert will return to share the joy they are getting from their prizes.

Thanks

February 25, 2008February 25, 2008

Excellence in blogging

We got tagged, awarded, rewarded, etc. with this E for Excellent blog-meme thing, for which thanks to Ian over at Further Thoughts. Not having seen this particular disease in the wild, as it were, we tried to track it back to the index case, a singular failure. Six steps back, at Another Tangential Thinker, the trail just snaps to a close. CS, whoever he or she might be, may as well never have existed. And at some point in its history, the meme doubled its virulence, demanding 10 new victims per infection. Given that there are two of us, we decided five each would satisfy the beast (plus one from both of us), and give you lot something to think about.

Here they are; now, who done what? Tell us in the comments.

Fimoculous Because he had it exactly right about Paris Hilton.
The Loom Because it’s not just what you say, it’s how you say it.
This Week in Evolution Because it is never less than thought-provoking.
Daughter of the Soil Because she reminds me of me at an earlier stage.
Strange Maps Because he knows that it’s location, location, location…
Communicatrix Because she writes like a dream and thinks even better.
John Hawks Weblog Because the proper study of mankind is man.
Human Flower Project Because no matter how irrelevant, it is always relevant.
Ecosystems and Poverty Because everybody has to be somewhere.
Gene Expression Because it forces me to remember my math.
Language Log Because it’s no fun being a linguistic martyr.

We note, in passing, that a lot of people just infected their entire blogroll. That seems pretty miserable. We note further that each of us could probably have chosen a different five without it making a huge amount of difference. We note finally that some of those blogs need no help from us to gain readers, but they’re all equally excellent.

January 14, 2008

Life goes on

Well, I’m back in the office and eager to get back into the blogging groove, once I catch up with work stuff, which should be within the next month or two. It wasn’t the most stress-free of holidays, though I am oddly refreshed. I wont say much about what’s been happening in Kenya, apart from that it was both worse and not as bad as the punditry would have it. On the home front, my mother-in-law finished her “water project” up at the farm. The tank shown below is now up and delivering running water to the compound.

January 9, 2008January 10, 2008

Tangled Bank 96

Yes, it is back … and after only one extra week of waiting (which sped by thanks to holiday sloth). Tangled Bank 96 is up at aardvarchaeology with a New Year’s helping of good biological blogging. And we’re in, under climate change, which is fine, because as any fule kno agriculture is not biology. Alas, there really is very little this time of an agro/eco bent, but there’s still a lot worth reading. And if you’ve just landed from there, looking for some hard-rocking biology, there’s some of that here too. I think.

January 4, 2008

We’re back

There may be a big blank space above. It ought to be a fancy link to a video of Levon Helm singing Poor Old Dirt Farmer. Lovely song, but with the ethanol subsidies and everything it is hard to imagine even the poorest old dirt farmer unable to make a living growing corn.

Anyway, I’m rested, relaxed and raring to go. ((I hope Luigi is too, but he’s possibly had a more stressful break than I have, if newspaper reports are anything to go by.)) There’s only one way to catch up with the backlog of stuff that’s come in over the past two weeks, and that is to ignore it. Inevitably, that means missing some good stuff, but if we were to look for it we’d never get started again. So help us out.

Is there some really interesting bit of agrobiodiversity news we’ve missed? Some new twist on agricultural biodiversity? Let us know. Thanks.