In today’s news, UK sends emergency aid to Yemen. US study warns many around the world could spend half their income on food by 2050, Japan’s scholarship program to expand educational alliance with Uzbekistan, UK scientists develop artificial intelligence tool to detect heart disease through routine electrocardiograms, Australian schoolboy walks more than 500 kilometers to help children in rural communities, researchers in Singapore use mushroom mycelium to boost taste and protein content of soymilk byproduct, and Estonian animal-people rights group rescues hundreds of chicken-folk from battery cage operation.
Dad and I spent the morning in the garden, and he taught me a few things about how to care for our plants. I would love to share some gardening tips I learned for you today. Floating row covers are a useful, chemical-free way to protect your garden from insects, frost, and excessive sunlight while reducing the need for chemical pesticides, which may harm beneficial insects and affect soil life. Different types of natural fabric row covers offer various benefits, depending on the level of protection your plants need. For the best protection, cover plants immediately after sowing seeds or transplanting seedlings, before crop-threatening insects have a chance to attack during the plant’s vulnerable early stages of growth. Row covers can be supported by wire hoops, with clothespins securing the fabric, and rocks or bricks weighing down the edges to prevent them from blowing away. Many types can be reused for several growing seasons if stored in a dry place where mice-folk cannot nest in them.
Now, it’s time to check out the joke, entitled “Big Cavity.”
A nervous patient was having her teeth checked.
“Open a little wider, please. Oh my! That’s the biggest cavity I’ve ever seen… the biggest cavity I’ve ever seen.”
“Come on, Doc. Did you really have to say it twice?”
“Oh, I only said it once, but there was an echo.”
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