I am spending my vacations in the beautiful island of Leukada, in the Ionian sea. Consequently, my posting rate here has dropped significantly in the last few days. I will return in August; in the meantime I will still post something, but expect a much smaller rate of articles for a while here.

When I received the message from Frau Christian Plachta an associate  at the Institute   yesterday “Pflanzenernährung mitgeteilt, dass Herr Konrad Mengel am 12.07.2012 im Alter von 82 Jahren verstorben ist. Die Trauerfeierfindet am Donnerstag, den19.07.2012 um 14:30 Uhr in der Kirche in Pohlheim-Watzenborn statt” meaning that “ Institut of Plant Nutrition informs that Professor Dr Konrad Mengel has expired on 12.07. 2012 at the age of 82 years and the “Trauerfeier”   assembly will take place  on 19.07.2012 at 14.30 in Church from Pohlheim-Watzenborn.

Given all the Higgsmania, I thought it appropriate to draw attention to another topic on which much energy [excuse the pun] had been spent previously; Fukushima.  The English version of the accident report by the appointed commission (NAIIC) has been released and unfortunately its conclusions were all too expected.

"It takes more work to communicate with someone whose native language isn't the same as yours. And autism goes deeper than language and culture; autistic people are "foreigners" in any society. You're going to have to give up your assumptions about shared meanings." -- Jim Sinclair, "Don't Mourn For Us" 

We all say hurtful things to the ones we love. Some things we mean, and others we're just using the other person as a punching bag. Sometimes the damage we do with those words can't be undone and can't be healed, and relationships end. Parent/child relationships are different, though, or should be. As parents, we're supposed to develop thick skins and our children by the age of two are working hard to help us get those thick skins with their repeated cries of "I hate you!" ringing in our ears. Those words and feelings continue on through adolescence as we as parents impose order and rules on our children for their safekeeping.

Having come across this article, "Sleepy medical staff run increased risks of accidents driving home after a night shift", I couldn't help but be struck by two obvious questions.

(1).  Since when does being a medical staff member make any difference in the risks of driving while sleep deprived?  If it doesn't matter, then it seems that the study is being unnecessarily specific for something which is common, obvious knowledge.

(2).  More importantly, if the risks are dramatically higher for "sleepy medical staff", one has to wonder what the risks are to patients.