Takin’ a break

Bad Santa So we discussed this thing among ourselves, and decided that we would both have a more enjoyable rest if we put this blog to rest too. Temporarily. That way we won’t be fretting about connections and internets and all that technology. Just about over-eating, our solemn duty at this time of year.

In the meantime, you could visit our page of links and try visiting some of them from time to time. So, for a couple of weeks we’re off to our respective non-work homes. We wish you everything you might wish for yourselves, and we’ll see you early in January.

Credit where credit is due

The latest Oekologie carnival is up over at 10,000 birds, and I’m here to state that although I submitted the article featured, I did not, as Mike suggests, write it. That was Jacob van Etten, and I hope he’ll submit another guest post soon.

The Oekologie carnival has its usual fascinating bunch of links to stories of potential interest. One in particular that took my fancy was an account of water wars in the south. The south of the United States, that is, where you would think that they would be better prepared. They’re not. As Jennifer at The Infinite Sphere writes:

As a result of the merging of a bad drought, a population explosion in the Atlanta metro area, a lack of planning to accompany said population explosion, lack of any kind of plan to deal with a severe drought, and pretty much no water conservation incentives at a state or local level. As a result, Alabama, Tennessee, and Florida are now duking it out over a watershed (Chattahoochee/ Flint/ Apalachicola Rivers) spread over the three states. It’s gotten so bad that the Georgia aquarium, home to the largest aquarium tank in the country, has drained several aquariums to save water (I would assume the water is now being used for some beneficial purpose).

Phew! There’s not a whole heap in there directly about farming, but it does indicate just how complex water management can be.

You spoke, we listened

Back to complete entries on the home page. That’s what you wanted — by a whopping six votes to one (with one indifferent person) — and so that’s what you’ve got. I added a large date on a light gray background to separate one day’s posting from the next. I hope that helps. And I’ve also moved the list of latest posts up high on the left, so they should be easier to scan. Remember; we live to serve, but if you don’t ask, you won’t get.

Tangled Bank

The latest Tangled Bank, no 91, is up. The timing of our update on the Indian fruit genebank, published this very morning and our submission to that edition of Tangled Bank, is purely coincidental. I was happy to see Larry Moran’s debunking of the Darwin Awards, not merely because it shows again that if something is too good to be true, it is often untrue, but also because Larry has finally figured out how to submit his posts. He claims that “the people who run this carnival don’t make it easy”. I’ve no idea how he could possibly have formed that idea, but I’m glad he’s over it.

I mention that because while there are many interesting posts, there aren’t that many about our pet topic. The complexities of multiple uses of forest lands gets a good outing at Biotunes, but that’s about as far as it goes.