Not nice to discover via Pharyngula that John Maddox has died. Unsurprisingly, PZ and his commenters¹ major on John’s forceful way with charlatans and the self-deluded. (By the way, is it too much to hope that Brenda Maddox will give her side of how it was that John came to call in James “The...

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The magic frangipani made it through its second winter. Almost three weeks ago, in fact, I noticed that the leaves had started to unfurl, and a little bit of me unfurled too. I took the photo there and then, on 21 March, but it sat in the camera until today and the trunk sat in the passage-way un...

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Great headlines of our times:

Er ... last time I checked, rocking a cradle calmed down the occupants.

Copenhagen, Denmark 12 March 2009

Following a successful International Scientific Congress Climate Change: Global Risks, Challenges & Decisions attended by more than 2,500 delegates from nearly 80 countries, preliminary messages from the findings were delivered by the Congress' Scientific Writing...

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Long ago -- and I really can't say when or where -- I remember reading about a bank that had supposedly written the following letter to a woman (I remember it was a woman; I could easily be wrong) who had been running a large and unauthorized overdraft:

Dear Madam,

Could we please return to ou...

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