What’s a crevice garden? It’s a rock garden taken right to the edge — an extreme design inspired by dramatic, impossible places like alpine ridges, windswept seacoasts and sun-baked deserts. Closer to home, you need only look underfoot to grasp the operating principle: See that single dandelion with its foothold in a tiny crack between curbstones or sidewalk pavers, no soil in sight? Its vibrant blooms scream in defiance of everything gardeners think they know about what plants want — just as a Saxifraga or Silene clinging to mere fissures in a vast, rugged landscape do. A new book, “The Crevice Garden: How to Make the Perfect Home for Plants From Rocky Places,” encourages us to emulate what’s at work in such scenes, large and small. Its authors, Kenton J. Seth , from Colorado, and Paul Spriggs, from British Columbia, are rock-garden designers who sometimes collaborate. With an ambitious lecture schedule, their 5,000-plus-member Modern Crevice Gardens Facebook group and … [Read more...] about Why You Should Try Crevice Gardening: ‘This Is the Future’
Earth climate change history
Greek PM ‘unaware’ of prominent politician’s wiretap
ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Greece’s prime minister said Monday he was unaware that the country’s intelligence service had been bugging an opposition politician's mobile phone for three months, insisting that he wouldn't have allowed it had he known. Kyriakos Mitsotakis, who faces elections next year, made the remarks in a televised address to the nation three days after a wiretapping scandal led to the resignations of the head of the National Intelligence Service, Panagiotis Kontoleon, and the general secretary of the prime minister’s office, Grigoris Dimitriadis. “What happened might have been in accordance with the letter of the law, but it was wrong,” Mitsotakis said. “I didn’t know about it and obviously, I would never have allowed it.” The National Intelligence Service, known by its acronym EYP, answers directly to the prime minister’s office, a change Mitsotakis brought about himself after winning 2019 elections. Mitsotakis said the mobile phones of Nikos Androulakis, who had … [Read more...] about Greek PM ‘unaware’ of prominent politician’s wiretap
BioNTech reports strong first half, expects demand to grow
BERLIN (AP) — BioNTech, which teamed with Pfizer to develop a powerful COVID-19 vaccine, has reported higher revenue and net profit in the first half of the year and expects demand to grow as it releases updated vaccines to target new omicron strains. The German pharmaceutical company said Monday that revenue hit about 9.57 billion euros ($9.76 billion) in the first six months of 2022, up from nearly 7.36 billion euros in the same period a year earlier. But revenue dropped to about 3.2 billion euros in the second quarter from 5.31 billion euros in April through June of last year. BioNTech said the dynamic nature of the pandemic has led to changes in orders and revenue but that it expects a strong end to the year. It said it plans to release revamped vaccines tailored to the latest omicron variants as early as October, which could lead to a fall booster campaign. “With our initiatives around variant-adapted COVID-19 vaccine candidates, we expect an uptake in demand in our key … [Read more...] about BioNTech reports strong first half, expects demand to grow
