♦

What if you cherished yourself, I asked my reflection in the bathroom mirror at school, one day last month. It knocked me out.

I’ve been doing art therapy this fall with a new therapist. During our first session, I drew myself as two distinct bodies, each on one side of a river that flows between them, separates them. The one self sits in peaceful meditation, untroubled, calm, gently smiling, eyes closed, inward-looking but attuned, while the other self gazes at her, lying on her stomach on the river bank, also looking somewhat relaxed, dangling one hand in the river, but she’s frowning, her mind full of muddled thoughts, trying to let them go by placing them onto leaves that are floating by.

What I could express to the therapist was that I longed to be the peaceful self on the other side of the river. She could think clearly. She was untroubled by change. She represented an ever-ness.

The therapist wondered: What if you were the woman on the other side of the river? What would that be like?

I laughed. I couldn’t imagine it. If it tiptoed toward imagining it, I sensed that the muddled self would spoil the peace of that other self simply by attempting to unite them together. It was almost like whatever was contained over there, in that self, would be spoilt by exposure to the rest of me.

It reminded me of a habit I’ve had since childhood. I withhold whatever is most desired from myself. It’s difficult to convince myself to use something that will get used up. A favourite tea, for example, will stay in the box and I’ll brew a different flavour instead. I save things, hoard them. Others eat or consume them instead. Or I tuck away something that I want to enjoy, and never get it out again. I enjoy it by hiding it away. For example, as a child I would hide my Easter candy in my drawer, not sharing it with my brothers, yet never ultimately eating it myself. I could never find an occasion worthy of eating that special candy. Because if I’d eat it, it would be gone. Better to keep it till melted together and spoiled than enjoy it? Strange, right? Interesting. Curious.

Immediately after that vision in the bathroom mirror at school, I went back to the library and scribbled down these words in my notebook:

What if you were the woman on the other side of the river? What would you be like?

How would you treat yourself? What if you treated yourself like a previous vessel? A sacred vessel? An honoured presence?

What if I honoured my presence fully? What if I trusted myself? What if I could just write like it was normal life and not an existential crisis?

Okay, friends. That’s a big what if, but I’m going there. All week I’ve written like it was normal life. It’s been so enjoyable.

xo, Carrie

Frankly it was a chemist who recently described the Elmira Maple Syrup Festival as the elephant in the room. His description suggested that the tree sap is magnified in concentration by about fourty times during the sap to syrup process and hence possibly so would any toxic contaminants present.  I only vaguely recall discussions around the Maple Syrup Festival decades ago . My recollection is that the concerns were that tourists and visitors might stay away based more upon fear and confusion than any real health concerns.

That being said was there ever any serious study or determination that concluded that locally produced Maple Syrup for sale at the Festival was safe and free of Uniroyal toxic chemicals? Well I know that if there was I sure never saw it and I've never turned down reading any kind of technical reports regarding Uniroyal and Elmira issues. I can also state confidently that various local authorities seemed far more concerned with subjective items such as real estate prices than with objective or scientific matters pertaining to health. Former Mayor Bob Waters certainly did his best to dispel fear and instill confidence in Woolwich and Elmira even at the height of the NDMA fear.

Similarly the Region of Waterloo and Ken Seiling seemed intent upon avoiding panic or public expressions of anger towards Uniroyal or the Ontario Ministry of Environment. Various excuses were floated very early on some of which turned out to be ridiculous such as the grease in the pumps for the drinking wells was the source of the NDMA. Wally Ruck of Uniroyal Chemical will remain famous for his statement that NDMA was not in Uniroyal's vocabulary thus falsely it turned out suggesting that just like the Ont. M.O.E., they had never heard of it before.

There was a lot of lying and bulls*it going around . Uniroyal Chemical did publicly and repeatedly state that they weren't the only source of contaminants to the Elmira drinking water aquifers. They then turned around later and accepted full responsibility for all the drinking water contamination. This likely was a major part of their sweetheart deal with the Min. of Environment who sure as hell didn't want to admit their negligence and failures to properly monitor Elmira manufacturers, chemical or otherwise. Eventually Nutrite (Yara) accepted blame for adding ammonia to the drinking aquifers and Varnicolor Chemical was just named this year, 36 years after the fact as a contributor of six chlorinated solvents to the drinking aquifers.  

So is it possible that trees were and are tapped for sap in groundwater contaminated areas around Elmira.? Possible for sure  but who's ever going to admit to it?

By Luisa D’Amato, Reporter
Luisa D’Amato is a Waterloo Region Record reporter and columnist. She writes on issues affecting day to day life in the area. She can be reached at ldamato@therecord.com.

The Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony has found its way home.

Two years after a devastating financial crisis, the organization has rebuilt and will give a historic performance Thursday at Centre In The Square of Mahler’s Second Symphony, known as the “Resurrection.”

Resurrection, indeed.

The Kitchener concert hall is a beautiful acoustic space, considered one of the finest in North America. The sound is warm and clear, and even the slightest vibration of a harp string carries to the back row.

This is the symphony’s performing home, originally built for that purpose with support from the region’s generous music loving community.

The hall opened in 1980 with a performance of this same monumental “Resurrection” symphony.

The orchestra was the hall’s major tenant until the sudden layoffs of musicians and staff in September 2023, followed by the shocking announcement that the organization was filing for bankruptcy.

There has been anguish, soul searching and hard work over the past two years as the orchestra sought a sustainable future under new management.

This concert, in this hall, marks its rebirth. “It is quite emotional being back in Centre In The Square now, after all we have been through,” said bass player Ian Whitman after the first rehearsal on Tuesday.

Whitman and his wife, violinist Allene Chomyn, lost their jobs when the symphony collapsed in 2023. They and fifty others were informed just days before the new season was set to begin.

The announcement came without warning. There was no chance to negotiate solutions such as a temporary pay cut.

Some musicians were forced to leave the region and find work elsewhere. Many, like Whitman and Chomyn, pieced together income by teaching and freelancing, commuting across southern Ontario to perform. Whitman called it the “401 Philharmonic.”

Musicians also organized community concerts and raised 495,000 dollars through GoFundMe to support performance costs, emergency needs and legal guidance.

The grim numbers emerged slowly. The symphony had been running large deficits even before the pandemic. In 2018 to 2019, the deficit was 730,000 dollars.

When concerts shut down in March 2020, finances briefly improved thanks to government support.

By July 2022, the deficit had been reduced to 200,000 dollars.

In person concerts returned in 2022, but audiences did not. Many were still hesitant to gather in public spaces.

Season subscription sales fell from 8,000 in 2019 to 2,000 in 2023. The symphony hoped for emergency federal funding and renewed support from major donors, but neither materialized.

By late summer 2023, the accumulated deficit had climbed above one million dollars, creating potential personal liability for the board of directors. They closed the organization and all resigned except board chair Rachel Smith-Spencer, who stayed to guide next steps.

Documents later showed the symphony owed 916,183 dollars and had assets valued at 273,620 dollars consisting of the music library, some large percussion instruments and office equipment.

Creditors included ticket and subscription holders owed 706,987 dollars, and forty six families with youth orchestra memberships owed 27,889 dollars.

Some musicians believed bankruptcy could still be avoided. That would allow the symphony to keep its name, charitable status and track record with granting agencies.

Musician Kathy Robertson approached arts supporter Bill Poole, known for leadership roles at the Centre for Cultural Management at the University of Waterloo and the Canadian Clay and Glass Gallery. He would later become chair of the new board.

“If ever I am thanked for saving the symphony, I say it is the musicians who saved the symphony because they refused to let it go,” Poole said.

A new board was elected by ninety three members in June 2024. It held a creditors’ meeting proposing zero cents on the dollar. Creditors accepted.

Meanwhile, the K-W Symphony Foundation, which had continued to operate independently, paid the organization’s only secured creditor, RBC Bank, which was owed 75,000 dollars.

The bankruptcy was officially annulled in October 2024. With a skeleton staff, the new board began reconnecting with donors and granting agencies.

Poole said they received support from the cities of Kitchener and Waterloo and the Region of Waterloo. The Canada Council for the Arts had even held funds for the organization in anticipation of its return. The Ontario Arts Council did not provide funding, which Poole described as a huge disappointment.

Some major donors have returned, although the symphony struggled to retrieve its donor database and could not contact several previous supporters. The organization aims to raise 480,000 dollars by next July and has already secured 250,000 dollars.

“Rebuilding trust was a huge piece of it,” Poole said. “We had to convince people that we are committed to operating in a really responsible way. There has been a lot of wait and see, and I completely understand that. This is a very challenging road.”

The new business model reflects a sharp focus on sustainability. The operating budget is just over one million dollars, about twenty percent of the previous size. All fifty two musicians are now freelancers rather than employees. There are six staff members, and only executive director Jason Doell works full time.

Concert venues have also changed. Centre In The Square is expensive and difficult to fill. There will be only three performances there this season, with most concerts taking place in smaller venues like churches. In 2022 to 2023, the symphony performed forty times in the main hall.

Whitman now works part time as the orchestra’s learning and community engagement coordinator. He is arranging performances in accessible community settings including schools, retirement homes, libraries, local restaurants and possibly Pride festivals and the Christkindl Market.

“We are ready to be of service to the community,” he said. “Things look incredibly hopeful.”

Mahler’s Second Symphony requires a massive ensemble of ninety musicians and a large choir. It is extremely costly to present, but this performance is supported by a major donation from philanthropist George Lange, described as a “Mahler nut.”

(Full disclosure: the choir performing in this concert is the Grand Philharmonic Choir, of which I am the executive director and also a singer.)

At rehearsals this week, you could feel history correcting itself as the sound filled the hall once again.

Mahler’s symphony is a magnificent work that saves its most powerful moment for the end. The choir begins almost imperceptibly, like a breath of wind, rising to a triumphant climax.

“Aufersteh’n, ja aufersteh’n wirst du, Mein Herz, in einem Nu.”

It means: Rise again, yes, you shall rise again. My heart, in the twinkling of an eye.

And so they did.

Read the original article at The Record

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With your burger and fries, you might get aïoli as a condiment. It will likely be delicious, but it’s also likely that it’s just plain ol’ mayo (and not even home-made) doctored and tinctured with flavouring. It’s not really aïoli in the truest sense.

A famous cold sauce, the original aïoli (note with the diacritic mark), the kind that is part of the culinary culture of Provence, Catalan and other variations found in the Mediterranean, is olive oil emulsified into a very healthy dosing of garlic and salt.

More common, of course, is an egg and olive oil emulsification, the former ingredient of which is particularly suited to the task.

The name aïoli actually combines the Catalan words for “garlic” and “oil,” so it makes linguistic sense at least that those ingredients collaborate, with a good bit of agitation, to make the truest aïoli.

[Image/Wikimedia Commons]

Check out my latest post Aïoli from AndrewCoppolino.com.

IS THE INDIGENOUS MEANING OF THE NAME SUSAN "SHE WHO WOULD KEEP SECRETS"?

Well we have evidence of mishandling of sampling and testing of milk collected from farms along the downstream Canagagigue Creek in the 1990s. We also through government reports have evidence of contaminated milk (odour & taste) from the same source in the 1960s. This milk was rejected by the former Silverwood Dairies in Elmira. What I don't know is if that dairy had any kind of testing or lab equipment to determine the nature of the chemicals in the milk. They could easily have been chlorophenols, chlorobenzene, NDMA, DDT, dioxins etc..

Based upon this history of either malfeasance or misfeasance presumably by our regional Health Department it gives me a better understanding of why no health study was ever done in Elmira. Can you imagine the outcry if indeed citizens of Elmira were poisoned by the water they drank, the milk they consumed as well as the air they breathed? All the coddling and support Uniroyal Chemical received from  Woolwich Councils and Regional Councils over the decades could be misconstrued as a government coverup. Or not misconstrued.

Then of course there is also the matter of beef cattle. I am not knowledgeable in matters of our food chain from farm to supermarket but if milk from cows can be contaminated by dioxins etc. then so can the flesh of cattle. We know that both DDT and dioxins bioaccumulate as they go up the food chain. This is why those chemicals being found in fish tissues in 2014 is so serious. Those fish are consumed by predators and the contaminants move up the food chain. Grazing by cattle on contaminated floodplains is a different mechanism but the results are the same. The chemicals are in the soils and when cattle rip a chunk of grass to eat soil particles attached to the roots are also consumed. hence contamination in milk cows as well as in beef cattle. 

As shocking as this shall we say incompetence has been, is it possible that it is still continuing?  Well we know that Lanxess and friends have not removed so much as a shovelful of contaminated sediments to date other than to  sample sediments improperly (shovel versus appropriate core sampler). We also know from numerous testing also sometimes using inappropriately high lab Method Detection Limits (MDL)  that the whole five miles plus of Creek is contaminated above health criteria. Therefore I think I can confidently suggest that there is an excellent chance that indeed to this day contaminated milk and beef are still on the market.

  IF THE REGION HAVE BEEN DOING HONEST TESTING THEN MAKE YEARS OF THAT TESTING PUBLIC.  IF THEY REFUSE THEN WHICH HEROES ARE GOING TO STEP UP? WILL IT BE WOOLWICH  COUNCILLORS OR REGIONAL COUNCILLORS? MAYBE EVEN OUR MEDIA?

                     OR WILL IT BE THE USUAL  i.e. NOBODY

The Youth Impact Project (YIP) is a collaboration between the Children and Youth Planning Table of Waterloo Region (CYPT) and Smart Waterloo Region Innovation Lab (SWRIL). The Youth Impact Project looks to fund youth who are addressing local challenges which are identified through the 2023 Youth Impact Survey results. The funded projects include a focus on supporting youth mental and physical health, increasing feelings of belonging, and responding to climate change and food insecurity.

In 2024, over 100 youth from 15 local organisations pitched their ideas to a panel of nine youth. The Youth Decision-Making Panel (“The Dragons”) decided which projects would receive funding to make their idea a reality. In 2025, CYPT and SWRIL are accepting youth applications online, and a team of three youth are deciding which projects will receive funding.

Healing with Hues is a project that aims to improve youth’s mental health and increase access to art supplies while reducing screen time. The group will create and distribute art kits through a partnership with the Region of Waterloo Library and Kitchener Public Library. There will be three types of art kits (Sketching, painting, and scrapbooking) and each art kit will contain cards about mental health topics such as self-care and dealing with stress. We loved this idea and we’re so excited to see how it unfolds!

Applications for the 2025 Youth Impact Project are now closed and 17 youth projects across Waterloo Region received funding. Stay tuned in the coming weeks as we announce the other 13 projects!

The post 2025 Youth Impact Project Showcase: Healing with Hues appeared first on Children and Youth Planning Table.

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the thing about writing is, the thing about being back into writing is that is opens me up and i feel things again or i feel more vividly because i have to, or because i wouldn’t be writing if i weren’t feeling so much it’s hard to say which way round this works

when i write i feel, when i feel i write

so i cry more—i’m touched by more—more touches me

is that true?

i don’t know for sure

but it certainly doesn’t have the opposite effect, writing certainly doesn’t close me off and tamp down my emotions and make me robotic or on auto-pilot though i can get distracted thinking about plot points and characters and what they’d be likely to do, even while i’m trying to have a conversation with someone else, i’ll say excuse me and run off to my notebook to scribble down a restless idea that flutters in and feels like it might flutter out if i don’t pay it attention immediately

mostly it’s this nearness to the surface that i’m feeling, like i’m poking my head above the waterline or being called just through the shimmering surface of things, up from underneath, and here I am, doing this thing I’ve trained my whole life how to do

and it’s not hard 

but it’s also hard in ways don’t sound like they should be hard

it flows along, it carries me

and i have to surrender to it for it to happen 

and that’s hard, not always, yet it is

and i have to feel such a shimmer of feelings they smear like an oil-streaked puddle on a hot street—why is the puddle streaked in oil? because we are pulling this raw material up out of the earth and selling it and burning it for fuel, even though it will cause our planet to warm to intolerable heights and our children’s children will suffer

but there’s all this feeling

just lying around, waiting to be felt

—not just rage, not just self-righteousness, not just schadenfreude, not just the hunger for poisonous evil to be put on display for our entertainment (that we want this flavour of feeling so much, that we crave it, the evil, the poison in the system, that is not good news for our species)

but we want to feel!

and sometimes it’s easier to feel what’s being sent our way in a deluge to bathe in—we could hardly swallow it, it’s too filthy and vile, there’s too much of it—but we can swim in it, dive into it, covered all over with the warmth of our own bad feelings running back and forth between us and the sea of sludge

like bathing in a solution that matches our own salinity, inside and out

comforting—

this other feeling, this cornucopia of feeling, this enters differently

it hurts, for one thing, even while it heals

there’s more of it than a person can handle but only because it’s so complex, layered and folded over and over so we have to unfold it for ourselves and put it back together again to understand what’s it’s doing to us, saying to us, where it’s pointing us

it craves release but also it speaks the truth, that we are sensitive creatures, stuck in our ways

no, a person might say—it’s a choice, you’re choosing it

how to explain, it’s not, not unless all the stuff we do, dumb, lucky, thinking, unthinking is a choice

i could no more stop myself from both feeling and desiring to feel than i could prevent myself from entering and creating stories, lines of text, rhyme and rhythm and images that call forth feeling it’s all of a piece it’s all the same loop

what touches our grief

what offers relief

what spills from my eyes and splashes on my shirt

we are all just meeting, it’s early, a character says in a story i was reading in the new yorker while lingering in the bathroom moments ago, before returning to my office. yeah, the other character agrees, and she names couples who all had to start somewhere, pairs of people they know, and then he says her son’s name, and she agrees but not as wholeheartedly, as if maybe she knew her son all along even before she met him, though he’s talking about himself meeting her son, not her; and us, he says to her, yes and us, and she doesn’t answer him but she looks to the horizon where the sun isn’t quite rising—they’ve gone on a road trip, like they promised each other they would do, and it’s been awful and it’s been tender

and it’s ending but won’t end here

it never does

the story slips into my layers and fills in a crack, opens another wider

and we are just meeting for the first time, or we once were, no matter how close we become, so who knows, who knows what will happen as we voyage older and older

before we slip sideways and our bodies return to unaminated material

and we leave, if such a thing is to be believed, that there is a separate we

we leave, as breath, we leave and where do we go and what we have done while we were here, together

if not feel way way way too much, an overflowing volume of feelings that we want—that I want—to put down on the page and show to someone else

i can’t stop myself from wanting that, or from doing that, because it feels so good, it feels like a loop has been closed, or a circle made whole, or a sensation has resolved itself into pure beauty

i guess

something like that

but maybe a lot less dramatic

except when it’s not, except when it’s exactly that dramatic

xo, Carrie

The latest November 2025 data shows a major shift across North America’s luxury housing sector. The market isn’t swinging back and forth anymore — it’s settling into a steady, confident rhythm. Buyers remain active, pricing stays disciplined, and demand continues to hold strong. Waterloo Region reflects this trend closely, but with its own local drivers shaping how properties move.

Luxury single-family home sales jumped 9.9% year-over-year, while inventory climbed more than 14%. Homes continue selling close to list, averaging 97.82% of asking price, which shows that affluent buyers remain motivated and realistic.

The attached luxury market regained strength after a slower period earlier in the year. October numbers reduced the gap with 2024 and signalled a rebound driven by easing affordability and shifting buyer priorities.

Some regions experience fast-paced sales fuelled by low supply and strong demand. Others move more slowly with cautious buyers and higher inventory. Wealth migration, lifestyle shifts, and local confidence shape these differences — and these same forces influence Waterloo Region.

Waterloo Region’s luxury detached segment sits firmly in a Balanced Market, recording a 19% sales ratio. The median sale price reached $1,225,000, and homes achieved a 97.30% sale-to-list ratio.

• Median days on market: 23 (improved from 27 last year)
• Most active price range: $1.1M–$1.149M (48% sales ratio)

These numbers show strong buyer engagement, especially in entry-tier luxury ranges where value and location matter most.

The region’s luxury condo and townhome market also performed well, ending the month with a 20% sales ratio and a median sale price of $735,000.

• Sale-to-list ratio: 98.81%
• Median days on market: 23 (down dramatically from 40 last year)
• Standout price range: $840k–$859k (200% sales ratio)

Demand remains high for well-located, well-presented units, especially those offering lifestyle convenience, modern finishes, and strong value compared to major Ontario markets.

Affluent buyers compare properties closely and expect homes to align with lifestyle priorities — high-quality neighbourhoods, move-in-ready finishes, and long-term value.

Even with increased choice, well-prepared homes continue to sell quickly. Professional presentation, accurate pricing, and standout marketing remain essential.

The region continues to attract buyers relocating from higher-priced markets, along with professionals tied to the tech sector, universities, and research institutions. These buyers seek quality, privacy, and stability — all strengths of the local luxury market.

A strategic pricing plan and elevated marketing approach can position your home at the top of the market. Reach out to us today to start a tailored analysis and ensure your property stands out in today’s luxury landscape.

The post Luxury Real Estate Trends for November 2025: What Waterloo Region Sellers Should Know appeared first on Kitchener Waterloo Real Estate Agent - The Deutschmann Team.

Sub-title : FATBERRY FROM GUELPH IS NOT THE SAME AS BLACKBERRY

Upon what evidence you ask do I write the title above regarding dioxin contaminated milk ? The evidence is partially in last Saturday's (Nov. 15/25) Waterloo Region Record in the article/expose by Terry Pender titled  "The long cleanup of Elmira's water contamination crisis". In that article we are advised by the reporter through Susan Bryant that "...the milk containers from dairy farms along the creek were tested for dioxin, but the study was poorly designed, and the sampling was not done properly. The group was told that if high levels were found in the milk, the farmers would lose their milk quota. Do you want that to happen she remembers being asked."

Ms. Bryant's response to the reporter about the question  was "You didn't feel you could reveal all of the information publicly at that point because you felt it was going to be terrible for that community,".  For me this is a watershed moment of a citizen in a position to uncover a public scandal regarding our milk supply allegedly choosing instead to protect 22 farm families income.  I will say that after 36 years of reading technical reports on groundwater, surface water, some minimal soil sampling, fish studies, sediments , floodplain soils, air issues etc. that poorly designed studies and sampling being done improperly were the standard behaviours of the four corporations (Uniroyal/Crompton/Chemtura/Lanxess) and their consultants. That was standard operating procedure and was always done to lessen and minimize concentrations and detections of toxic chemicals presumably to also lessen potential, future cleanup costs.

Just a reminder that thirty years prior to this meeting with the Old Order Mennonites, Silverwood Dairies then at the north end of town (Arthur St.), refused to accept milk from some of these downstream farms due to chemical taste and odour problems .  Was testing done then? What were the results? Was the testing fudged as it apparently was in the 1990s? How in God's name do our elected governments whether municipal, regional or provincial justify introducing dioxins, DDT, NDMA and the whole suite of Uniroyal toxins into our food supply AND TELL NO ONE EXCEPT OF COURSE SUSAN?  

No, really. They both have that same unpredictable, emotional, beautifully chaotic energy.

Let me show you what I mean.

The “Why Are You Doing This?” Stage

My toddler flips out because:
His biscuit snapped in half.
His shadow won’t leave him alone.
I looked at him.
I didn’t look at him.

And my D3 chart? Breaks down because:
The SVG group shifted by half a pixel.
The scale “forgets” its domain.
There’s one undefined value in the data.
I reloaded the page at the wrong cosmic angle.

Both throw tantrums for reasons I still haven’t figured out.

“I Did Everything Right… So Why Does It Look Wrong?”

I spend hours on a neat UI, perfect grid, smooth animations. Then I hit refresh and—

D3: “Oh hey, I’m just gonna slide 20 pixels to the left. No reason.”
Toddler: “Guess what, I poured water on the bed. Because why not?”

Both instantly wipe out my sense of accomplishment.

Everything’s Fine—Until You Add That One Last Thing

You know those moments.

Everything’s working. The chart shows up. Axes line up. Tooltips behave.

Then I add just one more thing—a line path for violations.

Suddenly, the whole chart collapses. Like a soggy house of cards.

It’s the same with my toddler:
He’s happy. Eating snacks. Zoning out to cartoons.
I try putting socks on him.
Instant meltdown.
One tiny change, total chaos.

The Debugging Loop: Mom Version

Debugging D3 goes like this:
Console.log everything.
Zoom into the code.
Stare blankly.
Try a random fix.
Break something else.
Question my existence.

Parenting isn’t much different:
Offer food.
Hand over a toy.
Give a kiss.
Try the “mom glare.”
Offer a bribe.
Question my existence.

It’s the same frantic energy.

When It Finally Works—Bliss

The moment my D3 chart renders perfectly? Everything lined up, smooth, no errors, data mapping just right?

I feel the same joy as when:
The baby finally falls asleep.
The house goes quiet for two entire minutes.
I get to drink hot chai.
No one yells, “Ammaaaa!” for half a minute.

It’s peace.
Real peace.
Okay, temporary peace. Still counts.

Then… React Re-renders Everything

Just as I start to relax, React swoops in:

“Nice chart you have there.
Sure would be a shame if…
I re-rendered it all for no reason.”

My toddler’s on the same page:

“Nice clean floor you have there.
It’d be a shame if…
I dumped my toys everywhere.”

React and toddlers—partners in chaos.

But Still—I’d Choose Both

Because even with all the chaos, the frustration, the meltdowns, both give me these wild, beautiful moments.

My chart looks amazing when it works.
My kid’s adorable, mess and all.

And both have taught me:
Patience
A debugging mindset
Resilience
Flexibility
A sense of humor
And how not to take life too seriously

D3 taught me to handle toddlers.
Toddlers taught me to handle D3.

Together, they taught me how to survive as a mom in tech.

Final Byte

Here’s the thing about D3 charts and toddlers:

Try to control everything, and they’ll fight you.
Work with them, and they’ll surprise you.

Honestly, that’s my whole life philosophy now.

— Megna Guduru | Code & Curry

When My D3 Chart Acts Like My Toddler was originally published in Code Like A Girl on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Well I'm getting feedback all ready.  The Record's reporter has very politely and professionally to date suggested that his errors aren't errors. He is so far beyond incorrect it's almost hilarious. That said I do believe that his multitude of errors are primarily based upon his sources. If you only talk to blind people you will find that their descriptions of suspects for example might be a little narrow and limited.

Woolwich Township are refusing to include any of my written work as Delegations to TRAC despite them being clearly indicated as such. Verbal Delegations are refused and my written ones as well. I'm told (in writing) that I am disrespectful in my writing. I can hardly believe it. Perhaps if I made a few amendments such as "Quigley, Almeida, Deal, Ansari, Este, Merriman, Stamm, Ash, Strauss, Seiling, Cadeau, Shantz, Bauman and so many others are wonderful human beings whose humanitarian efforts assisted world overpopulation being held in check." Is that a little too subtle for them? Not sincere enough? Too sarcastic?     

The Record's article suggests that well E10 on Scotch Line, just around the bend and south of Elmira, with help from Lanxess might be able to resume providing drinking water. That well has NEVER provided drinking water to residents. At least that is what we've been told. When you are dealing with professional liars who knows.

The information provided by Susan Bryant in regards to milk quotas and contaminated milk from cows grazing on contaminated floodplains is shocking. Recently I was advised by a researcher (PhD) from Hamilton that the former Silverwoods Dairy at the north end of Elmira turned down milk from a number of farms along the downstream Canagagigue Creek . The milk had chemical smells and taste and they would not use it. That was in the 1960s. Then apparently in the 1990s Ms. Bryant was advised by the Region's Health Department that sampling and testing of milk from those farms was done improperly and poorly because nobody wanted the Mennonite farmers to lose their milk quotas. That was bad enough but I had been told by Susan Bryant back in the 90s that yes dioxins were certainly found in the milk but that they were "ubiquitous" in store bought milk hence not a big deal. 

We are told in the article that "The pockets of contamination run downstream from the plant for hundreds of metres." This is also a falsehood or inaccuracy. Two of the bigger studies around 2020 plus the earlier ones in 1988 (OWRC) and 1996 (MOE) show that the contamination from DDT and dioxins extends the full five miles or 7.5 - 8 kilometres downstream all the way to the confluence with the Grand River. Most likely they could be detected in the Grand River as well if any testing had been done there at the time.

Again kudos to the Record and Terry Pender for publishing Workplace Safety Insurance Board statistics for the Elmira plant. Certainly chemical plants can be dangerous places to work. I should know as my father worked for Uniroyal for 25 years, approximately thirteen of them in Elmira. He then transferred to the Breithaupt St. plant in Kitchener and retired in 1980. I also worked for a whopping three months at the Uniroyal tire factory on Strange St. in Kitchener. My God but that place was a health disaster in its' own right and later studies proved that. I do wish that the WSIB statistics provided for Uniroyal/Lanxess in Elmira had actually named Agent Orange and DDT as causes of the compensation for some of the various health issues. 

♦

Located in Vaughan, Ontario and established over three decades ago, Hesperus♦ is a model for aging in community offering affordable, elder living in a beautiful environment where both individuals & community flourish through a caring, social, spiritual and cultural life. Presently, home to about 100 residents, Hesperus offers a beautiful campus with protected green space on a wooded ravine along the Don River East. We are a not-for-profit (NFP) charitable organization. You can find out more about us at www.hesperus.ca

We seek candidates who foremost share an enthusiasm for our mission and who are willing to advocate for seniors. The individual must have time to participate actively in ongoing board and committee work.

The board of Hesperus Village operates as a policy governance board. In particular we are looking for leaders with skills and expertise in any of the following areas:

• Governance
• Legal Expertise
• Community Support Services
• Strategic Partnerships
• Fundraising / Marketing
• Property Management / Housing Knowledge

At Hesperus Village, we ask our board members to commit to the following:

• Understand and embrace the vision, mission and values
• Attend a mix of in person and remote board meetings (8 -10 per year)
• Actively participate in at least one board committee
• Committ 4 – 10 hours per month to board work
• Understand the duties, authority and responsibilities of a Board member
• Be familiar with board policies and governing documents of Hesperus Village

To Apply: Please send a cover letter and resume to board@hesperus.ca

The post Hesperus Village appeared first on Capacity Canada.

♦

Because I would attempt to reason with it. Unlike most of the big bads we typically see in the genre, this one seems most amenable to being reasoned with.

The image above, by Anna Kooris, is courtesy Apple TV+ via a Globe and Mail review.

Spoilers for Pluribus, obviously. Let's say I was called to Carol's meeting as one of the few people immune to the virus. Give me a bit of artistic license as I also incorporate knowledge given elsewhere in the first three episodes.

=+=+=

So, Zosia, I'll address you since you're speaking on behalf of all (waves hand around at the world) this, and you have come up with no better collective name for yourselves than "us". 

I'm not as hostile as Carol is. I haven't had the shock that she's had, and I can see how a human hive mind would be an interesting new opportunity for the human race.

But I have questions.

I want to say that I appreciate you trying to be understanding of and accommodating to our horror in the face of what's just happened. I do appreciate that you are trying to be nice, as creepy though that is, especially when you speak in unison like grade two students welcoming a guest to the classroom. I have to admit that, in many ways, the world is better now, than what it was. There is no more war. You seem to be working towards eliminating poverty. There's no more disinformation. No conspiracy theorists. There is no more crime. There is no more killing. That seems to be one of your biological imperatives you speak of: you have a deep abiding aversion to killing. As someone who doesn't want to be killed, I appreciate that.

Though, I have to ask, the meat you've served us at this meal: it's not going to be around for much longer, is it? What you've made us comes entirely from the refrigerated supply left behind back before all (waves hand around at the world, again) this. The slaughterhouses are closed, aren't they? The pigs and beef cattle are being allowed to spend the rest of their lives roaming, aren't they? Will there be eggs in our future, though? You don't have to kill the chickens to get those. Dairy? Five-year-old cheddar? Will our coffees have cream? Certainly, there should be honey, since beekeepers do their best to keep their hives alive and healthy. So, it's not going to be an entirely a vegan world, is it? I'll do my best to live without bacon.

I do appreciate that you seem to want to protect and preserve the sum total of all human knowledge. But, speaking to you, as much as you try to speak from Zosia's experience, or from Helen's memory, or from the loved ones of all of us you've brought here, there are times when there are people speaking to us, and there are times when I know the words come from the virus.

You don't want to kill, at all? Commendable. But that's not humans talking. You have in your collective consciousness humans who hunted for sport. I viscerally disagree with them, but I'd be interested in hearing what they're saying in your head, right now. You want us to be happy, and will move heaven and Earth to make us happy, but happy doing what? What is our purpose now? Carol Sturka is never going to publish another book again. The moment a new manuscript gets to her publisher, the entire human race will have read it. Laxmi's son is not going to have to go to school anymore -- no kids do -- because the sum total of all human knowledge is now in their heads.

Are there concerts going on in the world right now? Is there stand-up? Or were they all cancelled? Not that any warning was needed or refunds offered -- everybody already knew, and money means nothing, anymore. And if there are concerts in the future, once we're all part of the happy hive mind, how will we choose who sings, and who listens?

And then there is the fact that, as much as you wanted and still want to help us, and as happy as the people around us seem to be, you still trampled over the consent of well over seven billion people.

You speak of biological imperatives. That's clearly the virus talking, spelling out all creatures' instinctual desires to do everything they can to live and grow. What are the other imperatives? Tell me: is the human race right now setting aside some of its resources and time building a massive communications array to beam out the RNA sequence for other planets to find? That would seem to be a natural progression of your biological imperative to exist and grow. Or is that array going to point back to that star 600 light-years away, telling them, "We got your message. We're here. Come, let us join the galactic consciousness!"

Note, I'm not automatically opposed to joining a galactic consciousness. That's one way to achieve immortality and get through the Great Filter.

Unless you are that great filter.

You're working on figuring out why we're immune to your psychic glue, and once you find a way for us to join you, you will make us join you, whether we agree to or not, because you want us to be happy, and having us join you is the way you think we can be happiest of all. You spoke of your biological imperative to Carol, using the metaphor of seeing someone drowning and throwing them a life preserver. You wouldn't stop to think, you said, you'd just do it.

I respect that. I respect that you want to help. But because you never stopped to think when you saw us drowning, you never thought that we might have gills.

You have the sum total of all human knowledge and living memory inside you, right now, and you want us to be happy. If that's the case, use that knowledge and memory to try to think outside your biological imperatives about what I've told you. When that happens, what do you think we should do?

=+=+=

♦♦ ♦

♦Retro Video Games Day – Nintendo Edition
Saturday, November 29
1:00 PM – 4:00 PM
FREE
Central Library Reading Lounge – 85 Queen St. N, Kitchener

Drop in and play a variety of great games on Nintendo consoles ranging from the brand new Switch 2 to the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) which debuted in Canada almost 40 years ago! We will have all of the Nintendo home consoles available to play and even a few surprises! Have you always wanted to try VR? Come enjoy a short introductory VR experience.

Click here for more info

♦The Sounds of Christmas
November 27 to December 5
Various Times
$40
Waterloo Mennonite Brethren Church – 245 Lexington Rd. Waterloo

Sounds of Christmas is a multi-performer musical journey through the many styles of Christmas music. From traditional to country to gospel, you will tap your toes and sing along during this holiday celebration. In support of Kidsability.

Click here for more info

♦Holiday Digital Lights Show
Thursdays to Sundays
November 27 to January 7
Every Half Hour Starting at 7:00 PM – 8:30 PM
FREE
The Old Post Office – 12 Water St. Cambridge

In 2018, the City of Cambridge installed a digital projection system to display light shows on the facade of the Old Post Office building located at 12 Water Street South. These shows have quickly become a community attraction and run nightly (Thursday to Sunday) year round. The show changes seasonally and is appropriate for all ages. Tune your car radio to FM 92.5 to listen to the music that has been choreographed with the show.

Click here for more info

♦

♦Open Mic Comedy at Revive Karaoke
Tuesdays
7:30 PM – 11:00 PM
FREE
Revive Karaoke – 28B King St. N, Waterloo
Click here for more info

Jukebox Bingo
Wednesdays
7:00 PM – 10:00 PM
FREE
Falls Road Irish Pub – 296 Victoria St. N, Kitchener
Click here for more info

Breakfast Club
Fridays
10:30 AM – 11:30 AM
FREE
Health Caring KW – 44 Francis St. S Kitchener
Click here for more info

♦

♦Social and Recreation Information Fair
Monday, November 24
4:00 PM – 8:00 PM
FREE
RIM Park – 2001 University Ave. E, Waterloo

Join us and other local organizations, service providers, and local businesses offering inclusive recreational opportunities. Our information fair is a chance to see what is being offered in the community and to connect directly with staff and/or volunteers to see if these programs are a good fit for you or your loved ones. There will also be an opportunity to connect & bond with other families and individuals about shared interests at special interest round table discussions.

Click here for more info

The post November 19, 2025: What’s Happening in Your Neighbourhood? appeared first on KW Habilitation.

Most nights, my house finally quiets down around 11 PM.

My toddler’s asleep after bargaining like a tiny lawyer, the dishes are done (because, let’s be real, nobody else is coming to do them), and I’m about ready to shut down — except my mind refuses to follow the script.

Somewhere between raising a kid and writing code, I picked up a risky little habit: fixing production issues at midnight, pretending I’ve got it all handled.

And that’s how this story starts.

I barely sat down before my laptop buzzed.

“Build failed. Can you take a look?”

Can I? Technically, yes. Emotionally? Not even close. Mentally? I checked out two months ago.

But you know how it goes — responsible tech mom mode kicked in, so I opened my laptop anyway.

It’s 11:30 PM. I’m poking at a stubborn React component with my left hand, holding my kid’s leg with my right because he keeps twitching in his sleep.

VSCode is in dark mode, so is my patience, and honestly, this bug is even darker.

By 12:05, I finally spot the issue. By 12:07, I break something else. At 12:10, I’m questioning every career decision I’ve made since I first wrote console.log.

Not because the bug was impossible. Not because I thought I was bad at my job.

I just hit empty.

Women in tech don’t talk about this enough — how we somehow end up working two full-time jobs: one that pays, and one that drains.

So I cried, as quietly as I could, hoping my toddler wouldn’t wake up and see me losing it next to an open pull request.

For a minute, I felt like I was failing everything:

Motherhood.

My job.

My career.

Myself.

I stared at my screen, eyes stinging, and wondered:

Why am I trying so hard to prove I can do it all, when literally no one asked me to?

Somewhere along the line, women learned:

✔ If you rest, you’re lazy

✔ If you ask for help, you’re weak

✔ If you set boundaries, you’re “difficult”

✔ If you break down, you’re dramatic

✔ If you keep juggling it all in silence, you’re a “supermom”

I don’t want to be a supermom. I just want to be a human mom.

I closed my laptop.

No drama. No long explanation.

I sent one message:

“I’ll look at it first thing in the morning.”

And what happened?

Nothing.

The world kept turning.

The company survived.

Nobody died.

No one even answered.

For the first time in forever, I chose myself.

I fixed the build in five minutes — fresh, not fried.

My kid smiled at me like I’d just performed a miracle.

And it hit me: I don’t have to be perfect. I just need to be present.

Here’s what nobody bothered to tell me:

✨ You’re not failing.

✨ You’re not weak.

✨ You’re not behind.

✨ You’re not meant to do this alone.

✨ You deserve rest — guilt-free.

And, maybe most important:

You’re allowed to close the laptop and choose yourself.

Even at midnight.

Especially at midnight.

8. I’m Still Learning

Every day.

Every build.

Every bedtime story.

Motherhood didn’t make me weaker in tech. If anything, it made me stronger in ways no certification could.

It taught me patience. Resilience. Perspective. And the nerve to finally say:

“I need a break.”

🧡 If any of this hits home, you’re my people.

Our stories matter. Our burnout matters. Our healing matters. And, honestly, our boundaries matter most.

Here’s to every woman balancing code and life — not perfectly, but honestly.

The Night I Cried Over a Broken Build and How It Changed Me was originally published in Code Like A Girl on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Hear me out, I have always loved autonomy at work, the freedom to build, fix, and experiment without waiting on someone else. But being an analyst did not always give me that. I was good at finding answers, writing SQL queries, and building dashboards. Yet whenever something broke upstream, whether it was a failed pipeline refresh, a renamed column, a missing table, or a forgotten join, everything stopped. And if you have worked in analytics long enough, you know that moment well when it is a fix you cannot make.

That loss of control frustrated me, so I started taking data engineering courses. In the beginning, it felt like a whole new language: pipelines, orchestration, ETL and ELT, dbt models, Git, Airflow, data lineage, warehouses, all of it. I did not fully understand what I was learning, but I stayed with it and kept moving forward.

Over time, I realized it was not just about new tools. It was about thinking differently. Engineers design for reliability. Analysts often build for right now. But when analysts start thinking like engineers, they stop firefighting and start building foundations that last.

I used to rebuild the same reports from scratch, new query, same logic, different filters. Many of us have done this without even noticing how much time it quietly consumes.

Engineers approach problems once, deeply, and then make their solutions reusable. Analysts should do the same. When you modularize logic, standardize joins, or template your transformations, you spend less time fixing and more time interpreting. Good analysis is not about speed. It is about building systems that enable the speedy delivery of insights.

Early in my career, documentation was an afterthought, something I did when someone asked, “How did you calculate this?” And if we are being honest, most analysts learn documentation reactively, not intentionally.

Then I realized that documentation is more than explanation. It is evidence of thinking. When you document assumptions, business logic, and dependencies, you build transparency. People stop questioning your numbers and start trusting your process. That trust is what gives analysts real influence.

A great analysis should be repeatable without your presence. Engineers build pipelines that run daily, cleanly, and consistently. Analysts can do the same by creating reusable models, defining metrics centrally, and parameterizing reports.

One of the biggest improvements I noticed came when I adopted the Star Schema approach in Power BI. Designing data models with clear dimension and fact tables not only simplified relationships but also significantly improved DAX performance. Queries became faster, calculations were cleaner, and troubleshooting was far easier.

And if you have ever tried to troubleshoot a slow dashboard or inconsistent metric, you know how quickly poor structure exposes itself. Therefore, when anyone can reproduce your work and get the same result, you have built more than insight. You have built infrastructure.

We test dashboards visually far too often and say, “It looks right.”

Engineers do not guess. They test by adding validation checks, data quality alerts, or dbt tests that catch silent errors before they reach a meeting. Analysts can do the same.

As an analyst, I often create a dedicated data check page to compare a DAX result against a SQL result or to slice a metric multiple ways to confirm consistent behaviour. If a measure breaks under a simple filter, the model needs work.

Testing does not slow you down. It protects your reputation even when you are not in the room.

When analysts think like engineers, their work multiplies in value.

A well-designed model becomes the backbone for multiple dashboards.
A single KPI definition becomes the company’s shared language.
A documented process becomes a teaching tool for the next analyst.

I saw this impact firsthand. The documentation and reusable patterns I created eventually led to my being asked to build a full dashboard design system for the company. It showed me that good structure does more than support your work. It elevates it.

I know the word “engineering” can sound intimidating, especially if you come from a non-technical or traditional analytics path. But thinking like an engineer is not about becoming one. It is about adopting a mindset that makes your work more reliable, more efficient, and more scalable.

Analysts Could Use a Little Engineering Thinking was originally published in Code Like A Girl on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Thank you to everyone who joined us yesterday for our Annual Conference, “Child and Youth Belonging: From Data to Action.”

Each year, we host an Annual Conference in November close to World Children’s Day. The focus of the event is to come together and take coordinated action to improve child and youth well-being. Yesterday, over 200 adults and youth gathered to learn and work together, focusing on community well-being and belonging.

We started off the morning with smudging and intention setting Clarence Cachagee, the Founder of Crow Shield Lodge. He then spoke about Indigenous Ways of Knowing, asking us to reflect upon who we were and what we needed as a child — and how we can bring that reflection into today and everyday.

Then, we moved into breakout rooms focusing on topics like “Mobilizing the Data of our Youngest Citizens,” “Interrupting the Human Trafficking of Young People,” and “Community-led Practice Model for Black and Indigenous Youth Mental Health.”

In the afternoon, youth joined us to kick off the intergenerational portion of the day. First, we heard from Cheryl Perera, O. Ont, LL.D (honoris causa), Nobel Peace Prize nominee and founder of OneChild, about her journey and how young people can make meaningful change. Then, youth groups who received funding through the 2024 Youth Impact Project shared their stories from pitching their ideas to implementing positive change in the community. Finally, we launched the 2025 Data in Action Report, a list of actions that young people want to see to make Waterloo Regiona place where everyone belongs and thrives.

Shout out to all of the speakers, breakout session facilitators, and performers who joined us, including:

• Clarence Cachagee (Crow Shield Lodge)
• Spirit Nation Singers
• ADTET Drumming Group
• Cheryl Perera (OneChild)
• Groups of youth who received funding from the Youth Impact Project

Thank you to Tapestry Hall in Cambridge for hosting us! And finally, we’re especially grateful to the over 50 youth who joined us on their PD day.

The post 2025 CYPT Annual Conference appeared first on Children and Youth Planning Table.

♦

Today is the first day that I’m not going into an elementary school (a library or a school office) in about three years. It’s wild to be out here and not in there. I’ll miss the kids in the library. I’ll miss them coming in and basking in the light of my attention. To thrive out here, I need to be sure that my attention pours onto someone else, something else, every day.

Why give yourself away? Because it returns to you, tenfold. What you give returns. So know what you’re giving, give with honesty, give what is true to your experience, and what you’d hope to receive.

Dear school library, thank you for re-tuning my focus. Thank you for healing my heart and mind.

At the library: I’ve learned better boundaries, I’ve learned the value of structure in trust-building, I’ve learned the importance of recognizing what’s holding me back (so often a blockage in my own mind), I’ve learned how to seek what I want. How to ask—wait, is this what I want? Or—how can I improve on this process? what’s not serving us? how can I set us all up for success? I know that I am part of a community, I am part of the larger world.

There are things that I don’t want to return to from my life and routines before this job.

Looking back, I see my own self-pity. I recognize a tendency toward self-inflicted martyrdom. If I could change anything about my past self, I would excise the self-pity. Tell yourself the truth! That’s what I say to myself often, when I hear myself tipping toward self-pity. I could pretend that it’s other people stopping me from speaking my mind; I could pretend that I have to work a “real” job because of financial concerns rather than it being a choice I’m making; I could pretend that I don’t have the time to write; I could pretend that an artist can’t be a “good person” and that’s why I don’t want to be an artist.

But I am an artist. Many people are, possibly even most people. (And why this obsession with being “good”? Still trying to figure that out.)

An artist is someone who seeks beauty and wants in some way to interpret it and preserve it and share it.

I’ve learned that it works just as well, if not better, to share my art with kids, to pin it to a bulletin board, to ask questions, to witness others who have found a voice in small part due to my being there to listen.

I’ve learned that it’s okay to want to publish—it’s one way a writer finds connection with the larger world, but it’s a way, not the only way, and that’s often confusing and the experience of publishing can feel really disconnected from the effort and play and experimentation that went into a project. So I like to think of projects differently.

I learned that every day there is the possibility that I will be connecting with someone else, in some way that feels meaningful to both of us. I hope for that, out here too.

Unconditional positive regard. I hope to walk with this into the world, into relationships, to the best of my ability, and when I can’t or when I struggle: box breathing, 5 breaths; a walk in the wind; music and watercolours; notebook, 5 minutes, what’s on your mind?; go to the gym; find a repetitive menial task; or cook a homemade meal and hope for lots of takers around the table.

xo, Carrie

♦Image courtesy Apple TV+

Apple TV seems to be providing some of the more highly original, thought provoking, and thoroughly creepy science fiction television out there today. The first season of Severance blew my mind. And, while Murderbot wasn't deeply creepy, the adaptation still knocked it out of the park, in my opinion. And then we come to Pluribus, the latest series from Breaking Bad and Better Caul Saul creator Vince Gilligan, which turns a whole lot of dystopian apocalyptic tropes on their head, and makes us think deeply about what it means to be an individual, and human.

Spoilers obviously follow, so if you don't want to be spoiled, refrain from reading after the break. And, honestly, this show hits better, the less you know of it, going into the first episode. So, if you haven't seen it, go see it, then come back to this review.

=+=+=

All right, you were warned.

The story starts under a night sky, as a clock counts down from just under 440 days. Post-doctoral students and interns at a SETI-like communications array detect a signal from space. While not as exuberant a first contact scene as in Contact, the young scientists believably can barely contain their increasing glee as the authenticity of the signal from 600 light years away is confirmed, the intelligence behind it undoubtable. And the signal carries an unusual pattern. It seems to be split into four parts, each emitting in a different pattern. What is this quatenary pattern? Some encryption code? Or something a lot more basic?

Upon realizing that the signal is actually a DNA sequence, the governments of the world, showing unfortunately natural human curiosity, start producing this DNA to see what it can do. At first, it appears to do bupkis to the assortment of animals they try it on. But when an apparently-dead subject rat two workers try to dispose of (thankfully while wearing biohazard gear) wakes up and bites one, the plague has found a host intelligent enough to get started on its plan.

While this has a bit of the feel of a zombie plague, these "zombies" move with a choreography that is truly creepy to behold. Moving as though they know what every single one of them is thinking, they set about preparing to infect all of humanity. And the countdown clock counts down. Still another few weeks to go.

The first episode of Pluribus is a slow burn. We break off from the building invasion/plague to follow cynical best-selling romance author Carol Sturka as she finishes off her book tour alongside her agent/lover Helen. Why should we care about this woman? As a non-best-selling author, I found myself somewhat unsympathetic to her complaints about the fame she's received from art she sees as, at best, formulaic. But, stay tuned; actress Rhea Seehorn puts on a masterful performance, especially when the poop hits the fan and the whole human race, everywhere, including her partner Helen, goes into seizure.

Pluribus is billed as a dark comedy and you see it as Carol, panicked almost out of her mind, still improvises wonderfully to get her partner onto a makeshift stretcher, into the back of a borrowed pick-up truck (after shoving the seizing driver into the passenger seat) and driving to the nearest hospital, where she finds everybody there -- patients, doctors, nurses, everyone -- affected. She still does the best she can, trying to tend to Helen, and giving her CPR after the woman comes out of the seizure, smiles beatifically at her, and dies.

At this time, everybody else wakes up, and before you can say 'Zombie Apocalypse', writer Vince Gilligan flips the script. The "Zombies" don't try to eat Carol. A doctor tries to kiss her, but backs off when Carol adamantly rejects him. They seem far more interested in taking Helen's body away and cleaning up the damage around them than they are in Carol. When Carol yells at them to back off and demands to know what they want, the whole crowd replies, in unison, "We just wanna help, Carol."

That is an utterly chilling moment. That is the last thing you'd expect the Zombies to say, and it reveals so much. These people are now operating as a single entity. They have taken over completely. And, most of all, they know Carol's name.

Weirder still, the people obey Carol's orders. When a creepy neighbour child is told to go away and leave her alone after pointing out to Carol at her doorstep where the spare key is, every single neighbour on Carol's street piles into their cars and and goes away, leaving Carol alone.

Carol, having rushed home with Helen, driving past mobs of infected people fighting to put the fires out, rather than to stop them, gets to her TV set and tries to get news from the rest of the world. To her delight, C-SPAN is still running, but tuning in, she sees an unfamiliar man in a suit standing behind the presidential podium, smiling at the camera, while the ticker crawl reads, "No pressure. We know you've got questions. Carol, when you're ready you can reach us at this number."

The highest surviving member of the former American chain of command, who happened to have a suit on, fills Carol in on the details. Humanity is now a hive mind. It's all just the human race, they assure her. They know her because they have the memories of the people who know Carol, including Helen, who they swear was happy to join the collective, even as she died. They assure Carol that her mind is her own. They just want her to be happy, as they are happy. They promise to try and not do anything that would hurt her or frighten her. But as she is now one of only twelve humans who has proven immune to the hive mind virus, they're doing what they can to remove that obstacle and welcome Carol into their living embrace.

"I thought you said my mind was my own," Carol replies, showing great feistiness even while surely being near, if not past, her breaking point.

Be sure to get close for the C-SPAN conversation. The words on the lower-third of Carol's screen are truly a delight to behold.

Pluribus, at least the first three episodes I've seen, is wonderfully acted, fantastically directed, and amazingly written. Vince Gilligan and his partners have put together a scenario that viewers can engage with on many levels. You can follow along with and sympathize with Carol's visceral anger over what has happened, and her drive to bring things back to the way things were, as unrealistic though that may be. And in terms of what she's facing, Vince has crafted an infinitely creepy and alien adversary that's disturbingly easy to like, both for its humanity, and inhumanity. The concept of a human hive-mind raises tons of questions that gets your brain rolling, in much the way the concept at the heart of Severence does. How does this work? What is humanity's new purpose? What the heck is going to happen next?

One of my elevator pitch lines for The Curator of Forgotten Things is "what if the robots took over, but they were nice about it." I feel the same vibe here. This is the coziest of cozy apocalypses, and yet it's more frightening than your typical alien or monster thrash. The antagonist that just wants to help is rare, and probably difficult to write well, but when done well, as done here, it's as scary as it is strangely compelling. Helping in this regard is actress Karolina Wydra as Zosia, who acts as a spokesperson for the hive mind, and is developing an excellent chemistry with Rhea Seehorn's Carol.

Pluribus is running for nine episodes this season, and reports on the original deal suggest that two seasons have been commissioned. It's still early to fully assess this series, but I'm on board. And I highly recommend that everybody else get aboard.

We need to see this. Together. All in one.

Is radon lurking in your basement? Is it something you should worry about? It’s definitely a concern, it’s the highest cause of lung cancer for non smokers, and the 2nd highest for smokers. One in five homes have concentrations of the gas above recommended levels. Only a small percentage of homes across the country have dangerous levels, with even lower levels found here in Ontario, but there’s no way of knowing if your particular home is affected without testing.

What exactly is radon? It’s a radioactive element that’s also a noble gas. These gasses are chemically inert, meaning they aren’t very reactive, and have wide usage in a variety industries. Radon is chemically inert but atomically unstable, with a half life of 3.8 days. This instability leads to radioactive decay, where a nuclei splits into something else, giving off dangerous ionizing radiation in the process.

Radon eventually transmutes into stable lead through a series of decay chain daughters that are radioactive too. The daughters are toxic heavy metals and lodge in the lungs causing further havoc. The decay chain of radon lasts years. Each step in the transmutation produces more beta and alpha particles, further damaging cellular machinery, causing cell death or even cancer.

The radon that lurks in random peoples’ basements comes from the the decay of radioactive thorium and uranium found in the earth’s crust. Many of the radioactive isotopes in this decay process have very long half lives and will be indirectly producing radon for millions if not billions of years into the future.

Thorium and uranium are commonplace but aren’t evenly distributed in the crust. Geology, soil type and glaciation all factor into the presence of radon for a particular location. Maps are available that show these areas. But the randomness of these factors combined together make it impossible to say which houses in a neighbourhood will be affected.

Testing is the only sure-fire way to know if you’re at risk if your house is in an area prone to radon. If higher than recommended levels are uncovered the installation of a ventilation system is a great idea and will completely alleviate the issue. The systems aren’t even that expensive, coming in at under $2,000. Here’s someone I know who does radon testing and mitigation, Tom Weber.

So yes, radon is a problem. Cancer is definitely something no one wants and radon elevates that risk. Even though only 7% of Canadian homes have dangerous levels, your home might be one of them. And radon is constantly transmuting, with a half life of only 3.8 days. Every time you breathe in some of the gas, a portion of the radon nuclei split, blasting your lungs with a tiny jolt of radiation. If you’re concerned, testing is the way to go. Your future self might thank you.

The post Should You Worry About Radon? appeared first on Andrew Shackleton.

It is truly disgraceful. Between NDMA, DDT, Dioxin, Benzene, Trichloroethylene, Parathion, Lindane and so many other toxic chemicals, that health studies were never done. This was described by two commenters with at least a modicum of regret versus the utter joy and relief Uniroyal Chemical likely felt when they realized how successful their lobbying as well as public relations was going. However reporter Terry Pender puts it to them pretty darn well when he describes the number of  governments, militaries and compensation boards who compensated workers, soldiers and civilians who became sick after exposure to Agent Orange. Apparently here in Dogpatch...oops Elmira I mean, human life and health are much less valuable. 

Other errors in the Record article include the fact that Susan Bryant was not appointed to TRAC in 1991. TRAC has only been around since about 2023 and in my opinion stands for Terribly Respectful of All Crap or in the alternative Totally Rotten and Corrupt. I do feel that the second term is too harsh and the focus should be on how deferential they are to authority and how they won't say shi* when their mouths are full of it.

Then we get to the concentrations . Groundwater has been measured for the last 36 years here as parts per million (ppm) or parts per billion (ppb) or parts per trillion (ppt). Alternatively they can be measured in the same order as milligrams per litre or micrograms per litre or nanograms per litre. I suspect whatever measuring numbers the reporter has published are nonsensical but at the very least they should match with the measuring methodology that we've all learned here over the last one third of a century plus. The health standard for NDMA is 9 parts per trillion or 9 nanograms per liter. It can also be referred to as .009 parts per billion or .009 micrograms per liter.

There are not eleven extraction wells on the site overall but actually thirteen when you appropriately include the two in the Municipal aquifer on site. The eleven wells most likely are strictly low pumping volume wells for the Upper Aquifer (shallow i.e. water table). Lou Almeida's bulls*it about whatever is underneath the plant stays underneath the plant is either wishful thinking or bullsh*t as previously suggested.

Allegedly the Region of Waterloo have changed their position on the need for Elmira's water from just a few years ago when Eric Hodgins (RMOW hydrogeologist) advised RAC/TAG that the Region no longer were looking at Elmira water for drinking purposes. 

NDMA did not develop "...in the aquifers from a mix of chemicals that leaked out of the plant."  It developed in various liquid waste ponds yes from a mix of chemicals and from there was both airborne and it also percolated downwards into the aquifers. In 1979 Uniroyal Chemical were fully aware that they had high readings of NDMA in the air around their plant, a full decade before the Ministry of Environment allegedly decided to test for it in the south wellfield (E7, E9).  

The ammonia that came from Nutrite (later Yara) wasn't publicly acknowledged for almost a decade after the start of the 1989 Elmira Water Crisis. Nutrite was literally next door (west side) to Uniroyal. The agreed deal between Uniroyal and the Ontario Ministry of Environment was that Uniroyal were the single, only source of contamination in the Elmira Aquifers. This helped the Ont. M.O.E. look better than admitting what is now acknowledged namely that there were at least two other sources namely Nutrite and VARNICOLOR CHEMICAL. Earlier this year at a TRAC meeting it was admitted that Varnicolor Chemical contributed five different chlorinated solvents to the Municipal Aquifers.  That site is still currently under remediation and took THIRTY-SIX YEARS for the admission to surface.

Yet another falsehood with the claim that no contaminants were found in leeches held in cages in the Canagagigue Creek. Leeches more readily absorb chlorophenols and that is exactly what they absorbed from the Creek water for decades until well after the 1997 Upper Aquifer Containment System was implemented. It did significantly reduce chlorophenol discharges via groundwater into the Creek and only after many years were leeches considered no longer needed for testing in the Creek. By the way Hadley Stamm echoes the cry of the wounded corporate polluter when she sanctimoniously suggests that big excavators "...would be hugely destructive for the creek". Then either use small excavators or a different methodology.

Hadley Stamm also states that "Those signs are not warranted, and Woolwich put them up." First of all neither Hadley nor Nathan Cadeau (councillor) were anywhere near Elmira and the Water Crisis when that occurred. Secondly Nathan's claim that DDT and dioxins were lower in the fish than provincial criteria (Tissue Residue Guidelines) is a complete falsehood. They exceed for DDT, dioxins, mercury and PCBs.  I've read that study and if Hadley and Nathan have then they are liars. Otherwise they have second hand advice which conveniently tells them what they want to hear.

More coming tomorrow. Reporter Terry Pender has focused his interviews on those who enjoy the corporate gravy train and want to be on the "winning" side versus being accurate and forthright. Despite this I applaud his efforts and the Record for stepping up. I also seriously suspect that at age 76 Susan Bryant is now having memory problems. This is not a moral or ethical criticism. Life can be a bitch for us older folks and we all have physical and or mental issues as we age.  

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I enjoy a bowl of congee in cooler weather, and I enjoy as much exploring the different textures and mild flavours of this less familiar rice dish popular in many regions of Asia.

The steaming hot bowl, a comfort food if there ever was one, might be studded with chicken, beef, a few vegetables, grouper and the unusual preserved egg.

Congee is in many ways the equivalent of a chicken noodle soup that, aside from being delicious, can soothe a cold or upset stomach.

And when you eat congee, you’re consuming a huge bite of history: the word comes from the Tamil language, the dish having a thread of its origin in Sri Lanka and India. There are recorded accounts of early versions of the dish having been prepared in China a thousand years before the Christian era.

Variations of the dish are made in Korea, Cambodia, Indonesia, Vietnam and many other countries. Interestingly, through their history as early explorers, Portugal has a version called canja, which likely came to the country through its colonies in India.

Some refer to it as rice porridge, and that’s fair enough; others might call it a watery gruel, which does have some culinary accuracy.

Congee, though, is a blank slate: a relatively bland concoction, it absorbs the flavours of what is added to it. Often made with the unlikely proportion of one part rice to ten parts water, congee was a way to stretch out food when the larder was getting bare—and larder leftovers contributed to the taste and nutrition.

First and foremost, however, congee must remain a rice dish and not a meat or fish or vegetable stew to which rice has been added, though it can have a variety of toppings and added ingredients. Often a breakfast food, congee may also be eaten with dim sum offerings.

That preserved egg is traditional, giving the congee a heady, almost mushroom-like flavour. Cured for weeks or longer, the egg is deep grey or very dark brown. Also known as a “century egg,” it’s made by curing an egg in an alkaline solution. The yolk becomes jelly-like, making it less familiar to the North American palate.

So, unlike pho, banh mi sandwiches, pad Thai and a host of other dishes, congee just hasn’t caught on with North American eaters, but it has with me. I encourage you to try it.

Check out my latest post Warm up to congee from AndrewCoppolino.com.

Juselius-Rajamäki, T., Piilo, S., Salminen-Paatero, S., Tuomaala, E., Virtanen, T., Korhola, A., Autio, A., Marttila, H., Ala-Aho, P., Lohila, A., & Väliranta, M. (2025). External and internal drivers behind the formation, vegetation succession, and carbon balance of a subarctic fen margin. Biogeosciences, 22(12), 3047–3071. doi.org/10.5194/bg-22-3047-2025

“The model allows explicit simulation of water exchange between groundwater and surface water and can be parameterized using physical properties of peat and mineral soils. The high spatial resolution of the model makes it suitable to estimate water fluxes at the scale of vegetation inventories and remote-sensing data. ”

Figure 7. (a) The GW–SW exchange flux patterns from the Lompolojänkkä sub-basin averaged for summer 2017, representing the current climate conditions. Positive flux values indicate the locations of groundwater exfiltration and infiltration towards groundwater. (b) The groundwater table elevation changes result from the drier climate conditions. Negative values indicate that the groundwater level decreases, whereas and positive values indicate that the groundwater level increases.

CLICK HERE TO READ THE ARTICLE.

In this research publication, researchers investigated the formation, vegetation succession, and carbon balance of peatland margins in Finnish Lapland. This study leverages HydroGeoSphere (HGS) alongside paleoecological records and remote sensing to address long-standing challenges in understanding how new peatland areas initiate, expand, and influence climate through carbon cycling.

Traditional research on peatlands has focused mainly on central mire areas, with less attention paid to margins where lateral expansion occurs. These frontier zones are critical because their hydrology and vegetation succession determine whether new peatland areas function as carbon sinks or methane sources. By combining peat core analysis, vegetation reconstructions, and HGS-based hydrological modelling, this research provides a detailed picture of how fen margins evolve under different climate and hydrological conditions.

The study found that peat initiation at the Lompolonvuoma fen margin began roughly 2,000 years ago and proceeded in a nonlinear fashion, with multiple patches eventually coalescing. Vegetation succession shifted from sedge–ericaceous communities to Sphagnum-dominated bogs, but some areas remained resilient fen systems due to sustained hydrological inputs. HGS simulations showed that high water tables in fen-type margins are maintained even under drier climates, offering resistance to fen-to-bog transition. This hydrological buffering helps explain why certain margins persisted as methane-emitting fens while others transitioned to carbon-sequestering bogs.

HydroGeoSphere proved essential in linking hydrological processes with ecological outcomes, demonstrating how groundwater–surface water exchanges shape vegetation succession and carbon balance at peatland margins. This research highlights the need to integrate field data with physics-based modelling to better predict the climate feedbacks of peatland expansion.

This work provides critical insights for peatland science and climate research, showing that advanced modelling approaches like HGS can help disentangle the complex drivers of peatland development and improve forecasts of their role in future carbon-climate dynamics.

Abstract:

Peatlands are the most carbon-dense terrestrial ecosystem, and recent studies have shown that the northern peatlands have been (and still are) expanding into new areas. However, depending on the vegetation and hydrological regime in the newly initiated areas, the climate forcing may vary. If these new areas developed as wet fen-type peatlands with high methane emissions, they would initially have a warming effect on the climate. On the other hand, if development began as dry bog-type peatlands, these new peatland areas would likely act as a strong carbon sink from early on. However, although some research has concentrated on the expansion of the new northern peatland areas, there remains a significant lack of studies on the successional development of the newly initiated peatland frontiers. In this research, we combine paleoecological, remote-sensing, and hydrological modeling methods to study the expansion and successional pathway dynamics in a subarctic fen margin in Finnish Lapland and discuss possible implications for the carbon balance of these marginal peatland areas. Our results show that (1) the studied peatland margins started to develop ca. 2000 years ago and have continued to expand thereafter and (2) this expansion has occurred in nonlinear fashion. In addition, wet fen-type vegetation persisted in the studied margin for the majority of the developmental history, and only dryer conditions after the Little Ice Age instigated the fen-to-bog transition. However, a notable part of the fen margins in the Lompolonvuoma and Lompolojänkkä basins has remained wet fen-type vegetation, and the persistence of this vegetation type was likely caused by the hydrological conditions in the peatland and surrounding catchment. Our findings show a large variation in the peatland expansion and succession dynamics, even within a single peatland basin. Although changes in climate conditions initiated the fen-to-bog process in some margins, some vegetation remained in the wet fen stage, showing resilience to allogenic forcings. Thus, when estimating the peatland carbon stocks and predicting the future trajectories for peatland development, this heterogeneity should be taken into account to avoid errors caused by the oversimplification of peatland lateral expansion dynamics.

CLICK HERE TO READ THE ARTICLE.