Serious

In this category you will find mostly factual information and analyses. This is where the scientist I used to be comes to the fore. There are graphs and numbers and statistics…

Find subliminal and quasi-subliminal images in a film

A 90 minutes film is composed of about 135000 individual frames at a standard frame… read more

Published on 2024-11-19

Updated on 2024-12-08

More about pesticides in the European Union

There are many methods to assess environmental impacts of pesticides. We compare a composite index… read more

Published on 2024-10-26

Updated on 2024-10-28

Pesticide use in the European Union: the good, the bad and the ugly listed

350000 tonnes of pesticides are used annually by European farmers. The largest pesticide consumption intensity… read more

Published on 2024-10-23

Updated on 2024-10-28

Anoxic utrification of Laurustine (Viburnum tinus L.) leaves

Under anoxic conditions decaying Laurustine leaves (Viburnum tinus) can spontaneously inflate, i.e. fill with gas… read more

Published on 2024-09-05

Updated on 2024-09-24

A small case study of a “domestic” Japanese beetle (Popillia japonica) infestation in NW Italy

Popillia, the Japanese beetle, has arrived in north-west Italy about 10 years ago, and it… read more

Published on 2024-08-15

Updated on 2024-10-21

How good are your old pendrives?

We all have been accumulating a number of mass storage devices, in the form of… read more

Published on 2024-06-30

Updated on 2024-07-17

Un jumeau numérique pour le Système alimentaire mondial?

Le système alimentaire mondial est tellement complexe qu' il est virtuellement impossible à modéliser. Et… read more

Published on 2023-03-08

Updated on 2023-05-15

Wine: who makes it and who drinks it

This post was triggered by a recent visit I made to a posh winery in… read more

Published on 2022-10-04

Updated on 2022-11-16

Refugees

An analysis published by FAO at mid September 20191 lists dry weather and protracted conflicts… read more

Published on 2021-03-24

Updated on 2023-01-08

Disasters: sources of information and trends

This post gives a list of web-based sources that publish disaster information suitable for monitoring.… read more

Published on 2019-05-04

Updated on 2023-01-08

East African humanitarian crisis

https://www.nbcnews.com/slideshow/news/refugees-flee-drought-war-in-east-africa-34244347

East Africa is suffering a deep humanitarian crisis brought about a complex interaction between war… read more

Published on 2017-09-24

Updated on 2023-01-08

Global grain stocks

Although they are of paramount strategic importance (or, maybe, because of their strategic importance!) world… read more

Published on 2017-06-04

Updated on 2023-03-09

Un succès mondial qui dure: l’école prussienne

Updated on 2023-01-13; reformatted on 2024-10-09 L’école primaire obligatoire telle que nous la connaissons s’est… read more

Published on 2016-03-25

Updated on 2024-10-09

Why are US presidents taller than ordinary Americans?

Many websites, including Wikipedia, compare the height of US presidents with their main contenders and… read more

Published on 2015-09-27

Updated on 2024-10-30

African geomatics centres

Many African countries have established and operate dedicated institutions dealing with remote sensing, mapping, GIS,… read more

Published on 2015-01-24

Updated on 2023-01-08

Cellphone and internet boom in Africa!

The adoption of new Information and Communicatons Technology (ICT) at the macro and micro levels… read more

Published on 2015-01-22

Updated on 2023-01-08

Amazing maize…

The post analyses current trends of maize yield and production, and tries to look ahead… read more

Published on 2014-10-18

Updated on 2023-01-08

Global food supply trends in 2014, and beyond!

This post analyses the trends of yield, area, and production in the 31 countries that… read more

Published on 2014-04-02

Updated on 2023-01-08

Using the simple “Miami” Net Primary Production (NPP) potential as a crop monitoring indicator

Routine crop monitoring is done with indices which indirectly describe or capture the effect of… read more

Published on 2014-01-26

Updated on 2024-10-04

Crop monitoring dialects

There are many national and a handful of international crop monitoring and forecasting systems. All… read more

Published on 2013-02-20

Updated on 2015-01-25

Forecast and even planned: the Vajont dam disaster

The post on the risky business of forecasting is updated every time something happens with the… read more

Published on 2012-10-31

Updated on 2023-01-08

Pandemics and Tipping points

Experts I’ve interviewed over the past six years generally agree that such a Next Big… read more

Published on 2012-10-09

Updated on 2023-01-14

Civilisation-ending volcanic winter (note 1)

First published 20120718 /  last updated on 20120924 Is climate change the worst nightmare scenario… read more

Published on 2012-07-18

Updated on 2023-01-08

Projects that will (perhaps) save the planet

(Published 20100212 / Last updated 20111207) There are basically three types of BIG problems facing… read more

Published on 2011-12-07

Updated on 2015-07-12

Mountain climate(s)

This note about mountain climate is an updated and expanded version of an earlier text… read more

Published on 2011-11-01

Updated on 2011-11-16

Mixing oil, water and food in Saudi Arabia

Updated 20110922 In reaction to the first oil crisis of the mid seventies, the kingdom… read more

Published on 2011-08-08

Updated on 2023-01-08

La famine de 1845 en Irlande

Cette famine me fascine depuis longtemps. J’ai écrit ce petit texte il y a quelques… read more

Published on 2011-07-25

Updated on 2023-01-08

How to find information on a computer? (revised_02; 20100131)

This is a revised version of the 20100103 post. Tom rightly commented on 2010110 that… read more

Published on 2010-01-11

Updated on 2015-01-22

Recent rainfall and cattle trends in the Central-Western Sahel

  The graph shows recent trends of climate, urbanisation and a livestock production index (meat… read more

Published on 2009-09-10

Updated on 2011-10-19

Einstein on crises

Crazy wig

Below is a text by Einstein, which I got somewhere on the web. I like… read more

Published on 2009-03-30

Updated on 2022-08-14