This week's compendium

Here’s this week’s compendium. This week…

1. Google launched teachparentstech.org whose name says it all [1]. It’s informative. And fun too.

2. the Daily Mail published this article on Israeli airport security’s cutting edge [2a]. Tiny Israel leads the world. H/t The Rubin Report [2b].

3. Grammar Girl explained how to pluralise surnames [3a, 3b]. Important info at this greeting card writing time of the year.

4. Nutrition Diva expounded the benefits of nuts, and also peanuts (which, she said, are legumes and not nuts) [4]. I love peanuts even more now.

5. the Australian Government announced subsidisation of nicotine patches to help smokers kick the addiction [5a]. Good move. The recently released 30th US Surgeon General’s report on smoking documents smoking’s continuing scourge [5b],

6. a treehugger item explained that if 66% of the UK’s shops closed their doors, carbon emission savings would equate to 1.1M fewer cars [6]. I bet they don’t, but.

7. an MJA paper concluded sheepskins are an effective method of bedsore prevention [7]. I wonder if this is the reason the sheepskin price has risen lately.

8. on a sadder note, the floods in south eastern Australia have drowned many southern hairy-nosed wombats in their burrows [8a]. What a tragedy. Southern hairy nosed wombats are a listed endangered species [8b].

Finally, I wish you, dear Farmdoc’s Blog readers, a wonderful week.

farmdoc's blog post number 676

In my life (so far) of over 62½ years, I’ve witnessed many unforeseeable changes. Today’s post’s about one of them. Last Monday I wrote of our Canadian friends Mark and Maya who recently visited us along with their (pictured) children Marina (aka my sous-chef) and Mateus (aka Pug, and The Boy Wonder). I’ve known for some time that the children’s surname is their mother’s maiden name. I’d never come across this before. When they were here in Mole Creek, I forgot to ask Mark and Maya why they’d done this. Two days ago I discussed it with Sweetheart Vivienne. Then, lo and behold, in yesterday’s Age Catherine Deveny wrote this article about precisely this topic. Talk about synchronicity. When I was a lad, all children were assigned their father’s surname. Routinely. No ifs or buts. I assume this ritual continued until recently. For example my granddaughters, born between 2000 and 2007, all have their father’s surname (albeit their mother’s maiden name as their middle name). I just don’t know how I’d feel if any of my daughters’ children had their mothers’ maiden name (i.e. my surname) as theirs. In one way it’d be nice because as the father of daughters my surname wouldn’t otherwise make it to the next generation. But a child’s surname being its mother’s maiden name’s still strange to me – even though Ms Deveny’s article helped explain the rationale. Again I feel like a sheep man in cattle country. Ho hum.

farmdoc's blog post number 532

I’ve written here of the link between first name and occupation, personality and behaviour. There’s a curious correlation between surname and occupation too. For example Drs Killer, Hacker and Blood. And the Tasmanian Co-ordinator of Timber Communities Australia is a Mr Chipman. Then there’s Professor William C Dement (pictured) of Stanford University. Born in 1928, he’s a pioneering US sleep researcher, and founder of Stanford’s Sleep Research Center, the world’s first sleep laboratory. The surname/occupation connection? Sleep deprivation reduces mental function. If you doubt me, ask Sweetheart Vivienne or any of our darling daughters. They all have sleep problems. Indeed it was darling Meg who, whilst reading a book by Professor Dement, first told me of him. I feel sorry for those who don’t sleep well. Me? No worries. A night with disturbed sleep’s rare for me. So much so, I can drink a cup of strong coffee at bedtime, and five minutes later I’ll be in dreamland. Today’s the start of Sleep Awareness Week. It runs until next Saturday. It’s so low key that a google search turned up almost nothing. Maybe the organisers are tired. Like I am, because I had an hour less sleep last night after turning my clocks forward for the start of daylight saving. So ZZZZZZZZZZ