Home-made plum jam in your suitcase leads to a full TSA inspection. Sister-in-law's plum jam is now known as "terror jam" in our family.

It makes me very happy that important science continues to come out of the Cassini mission, 8 years after the spacecraft itself was flown into the planet. I had a small role in the pre-launch planning for Cassini, so I follow news about it with great interest.

Delivery tracking apps work in much the same way as the apps that tell you when the next bus is due. Both are demonstrations of the danger of extrapolation.

Back in the 1970s, my school taught us about the African slave trade, including the diagram showing how enslaved Africans were packed into the hold of the Brooks. That's an image that I will never ever forget. But our school houses were named Drake, Clive etc, so, mixed messages.

And yet, it's obviously Boris Johnson.

That brings back happy memories of the astronomy seminars at QMW, held in a warm, dark room late on a Friday afternoon. Often an effective cure for insomnia. Always enlivened by IWR asking a really pointed question at the end.

At least, from this side.

This actually makes me very happy. I learned Latin for two years at grammar school in the 1970s, and it's one of my lifelong regrets that I had to give it up because of timetabling clashes as I started my O-level studies and focussed on sciences. Latin is such an elegant language.

The National Archives has a handy explainer, although it's actually part of their Latin primer, and includes gerundives. www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/latin/stage-...

Top catting by Daphne!

Wasn't Gerund the name of the gorilla in the "Not The Nine O'Clock News" sketch. (I may be showing my age here.)

Disapproving Daphne disapproves.

Not acceptable. I'd write to the publisher and demand that all unsold copies are pulped without delay. There are standards, you know.

Yes, it still sets the gold standard for April Fool's pranks, although the Guardian's 1977 tourist guide to the island nation of San Seriffe deserves an honourable mention. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Ser...