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Perhaps girlies should stick to hair, make-up and costumes…?

When asked why Radio 4’s Today programme is so heavily reliant on men and under-representative of women (in terms of presenters/anchors, correspondents and guests), editor Ceri Thomas detailed how tough it is to work on Today, saying that while he approves of evening the gender balance elsewhere in the BBC (where the work is easier), the Today programme is not the place for novices.

Listen here. It runs from 7.33 to 11…

Disappointing doesn’t cover it. It is f***ing infuriating to hear this sort of response from a top editor at the BBC. He backs up his comments by talking about the “skillset” and thick skin needed to work on Today, showing he had obviously forgotten not only the sterling work of Sarah Montague (God knows how she deals with the testosterone in that place) but also the New Year’s Eve edition of the show when guest editor PD James’ took Director General Mark Thompson to task, proving that women can give a rollicking to male bigwigs who are even further up the tree than Ceri himself.

My fury evaporated on reading Jennie Bond’s astute assertion that Mr Thomas’ comments are “complete bollocks”.

Toads may have a sixth sense, enabling them to predict earthquakes. Evidence has been gathered in L’Aquila, Italy, where toads fled their breeding colony three days before last year’s earthquake.

Toadally amazing.

Soz.

Sienna Miller’s take on the UK’s potential to grow exotic crops. I guess she hasn’t put too much thought into where her roses come from on Valentines but she’d struggle to get them blooming in Blighty’s February frosts. She’s not a million miles off though. (more…)

A new project from Garden Organic is promoting growing your own exotic crops in the heart of England. The Sowing New Seeds project has already found Midlanders growing chick peas, karela (knobbly cucumbers), dudi (long marrow-shaped veg), snake gourd, fenugreek and West Indian eddoes, and they’re keen to find more.

They want to find exotic varieties that grow well in the UK and start up a bank of exotic fruit and veg seeds that can’t be bought in the shops. (more…)

A struggle between India and Bangladesh over a 3×3km island has ended with the land being swallowed by the sea.

Fishermen say the majority of New Moore Island in the Sundarbans, also known as ‘Purbasha’, has disappeared under water and satellite images confirm that 90% of the land is submerged.

The School of Oceanographic Studies at Jadavpur University in Kolkata predicts that 15% of the Sagar Islands, 30% of Ghoramara (see the vid above) and 15% of Mousuni will be submerged by 2020, while uninhabited Islands like Jamwadwip will lose 34% of their land mass.

View Sundarbans in a larger map (more…)

If you’re easily grossed out you might want to avert your eyes. I just wish my neighbour’s cat was this well trained.

It’s coming up to that time of the year where I’m planning what to plant and where but I know that as soon as I’ve dug over the garden and planted my seeds in perfect rows my neighbour’s cat will hot foot it over, find herself a fresh patch of ground and delicately defacate, unearthing my seeds and leaving me with poop in my prize veg patch.

So this year I’m waging war on cat poo. (more…)

It drives me crazy when we in the west describe ourselves as “civilised” at the same time as turning a blind eye to the following facts…

So why do we mark World Water Day each year but do nothing to fix the problem? Is it because sanitation simply isn’t sexy enough? (more…)

Award-winning Guardian journalist Paul Lewis came to Cov this weekend to hold an NUJ workshop in investigative journalism.

Paul won the 2009 Bevins Prize (aka the Rat Up A Drainpipe Award) and was a runner-up in last year’s Paul Foot Award for his investigation into the policing of the G20 protest in London and the infamous death of newspaper vendor Ian Tomlinson. The Guardian was the only newspaper at the time to question the official police response that:

Paul has become an expert in working with “citizen journalists” and using video as evidence - and his investigation makes you wonder how many truths go untold when we accept press office statements at face value. (more…)

St Patrick’s Day never fails to entice half of England (and the rest of the world) to don green, drink Guinness and suddenly remember how Irish we all are.

But how green is Ireland?

(more…)

Following on from last week’s feature about Sexism In The City, I’ve thoroughly enjoyed these video compilations of the farcical coverage of Clinton’s campaign. Thank God there’s someone out there pulling all this crap together to show it up for the shoddy nonsense it is. (more…)