Regarding Tables 3-3 to 3-6 which describe Total DDT and Dioxins/Furans TEQ (toxic equivalency) generally in Creek Reaches 1-4 except for the last Table which oddly only describes Reach 4 (the Lanxess site). These Tables also represent both surface and subsurface Soils and Sediment readings. Sediments of course are in the bottom of the Creek beneath the water and soils refer to creekbank soils above the waterline. 

Previously mentioned by myself is the fact that in four pages of Tables;  Dioxins/Furans over the four Creek Reaches plus Background (below Reach 1/Grand River) and with 889 samples over many years have an average of 99.87% detection rate. This is beyond incredible, is not remotely normal or ubiquitous and speaks to massive past and ongoing releases of Dioxins and Furans downstream from the Uniroyal/Lanxess property. THIS IS BEYOND SHAMEFUL and no wonder TRAC is so tightly controlled by agenda, membership, meeting times, minutes and limited public access and less.

Total DDT detections are also high although not at the same level of Dioxins/Furans.  The lowest detection rate through five locations is 10% and the highest 100% (twice). The average detection rate in the four Reaches plus Background (Grand River) is 57% . Keep in mind this is for DDT only albeit in both Sediments and Soils both surface and subsurface. This also is not "normal" nor ubiquitous.

Regarding concentrations above health criteria the results are startling. Sediment detections are very high for both surface and subsurface DDT and in fact ALL detections from the highest to the lowest EXCEED the health criteria of .00119 ppm. (parts per million) again for Reaches 1-4 and Background (Grand River). Soil detections for DDT on the other hand while ALL maximum concentrations per area (Reach etc.) EXCEED the health criteria of .078 ppm.; minimum concentrations are all below the health criteria.

Dioxins/Furans maximum concentrations in surface Sediments ALL exceed the health criteria of .85 ppt (Parts per trillion) while only two of five areas (4 Reaches & Background Grand River) of the minimum concentrations exceed the health criteria. Subsurface Sediments maximum concentrations for Dioxins/Furans ALL EXCEED the health criteria whereas only one of five of the minimum concentrations for the five areas exceeds the health criteria. 

Dioxin'Furan Soil maximum concentrations ALL exceed the heath criteria of 7 ppt. whereas 0 of the five minimum concentrations exceed the health criteria. This is the same for both surface Soils and subsurface Soils.  

The title above states that TRAC never do necessary followups to ridiculous presentations.. Let me add the following. Maybe they do privately but this is a public process and needs to be clarified to the public each and every time a deceptive, dishonest or blatantly foolish and non factual presentation is made.

• ♦ 71bb363

  Nice to have a Windows powershell installer

A more immersive theatre mode for YouTube.

JavaScript 1 Updated Nov 22, 2025

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  Lint more often and fix diagnostics list missing items on buffer open

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  Bumping deps

Silly is a nicer word than deceptive, evasive, phony or corrupt. As I have mentioned it's hard to write an intelligent and honest data Summary of dozens of sad, pathetic and client driven pieces of garbage (GIGO-garbage in, garbage out). Half the battle is won simply by a single presentation to TRAC followed by...nothing. It takes time to read carefully, analyze, understand and form an intelligent response. I've got that time and ability whereas most TRAC members who have the ability simply don't have the time or the incentive ($$$) to do so. They have paying jobs and careers and homes and families to take up their spare time. 

One of the biggest, most nonsensical pieces of crap that she bestowed upon TRAC are a series of Figures as in Figure 4-24 to 4-63. She referred to these Figures as I believe Box and Whiskey Plots. I don't know the origins of that name. These Figures allege to show large (many not all) amounts of data recorded for DDT and dioxin concentrations in Surface Sediments, Subsurface Sediments, Surface Soils, Subsurface Soils, versus either Location (Reach 1-4, Background) or Time (eg. 1996, 1997, 2013, 2015, 2017, 2022). 

There are a few issues with these Figures which I have previously mentioned such as the vertical (y) scale for concentrations visually minimizing the extent and amount of extremely high concentration readings of Total DDT and or Dioxin/Furan TEQ (toxic equivalency).There are other problems including large numbers of high Method Detection Limits (MDL) leading to far too many orchestrated Non Detects (N.D.) in the data  however the simplest and most obvious problem is the lack of relevance of the concentrations being shown. Yes you can compare the concentrations with location/distance downstream from Lanxess (Uniroyal) towards the Grand River and even somewhat over time (eg. 1996-2022)  but really and significantly what do they mean and how serious are they? Nobody knows and I think that is intentional.

Ms. Lyndall has failed to include any health criteria whether provincial or federal for either Total DDT or for Dioxins/Furans. The accepted health concentrations (which differ) for these two compounds as well as differing whether for Soils or for Sediments are MIA (missing in action). They need to be written on the Figures as well as most importantly drawn as a horizontal line across the Figures hence immediately showing how many of the data points are above (exceed) the mandated health concentrations.

Doing that exposes the massive and major contamination for five miles downstream from Uniroyal/Lanxess. This report was produced on behalf of Lanxess Canada for the purpose of once more snowing and bulldozing TRAC and the public. Mission mostly accomplished.

♦

Director (volunteer board member)
Greater Toronto/Hamilton Area
3-year term, hybrid

My Oral Village (MOVE) is a Canadian not-for-profit mission founded in 2011. MOVE is dedicated to make formal financial services accessible to people who cannot read, write, or work with numbers in conventional ways. The organization addresses the needs of the 1+ billion adults worldwide with limited literacy and numeracy, living in ‘oral’ cultures, ensuring they are not excluded from safe savings, payments, borrowing, and financial decision making.

At its core, MOVE’s mission is to:

• Design ultra inclusive financial tools: interfaces, forms, mobile apps, and processes that rely on visual and intuitive cues rather than text or complex numbers
• Enable low literacy households to manage money safely, especially in low income environments where financial mistakes can be catastrophic.
• Partner with financial institutions, NGOs, and regulators to embed oral friendly design into real products and systems.
• Advance research and global standards for financial inclusion that recognize literacy & numeracy barriers as a major structural exclusion factor.
• Empower vulnerable populations, especially women, to build financial confidence, autonomy, and resilience.

My Oral Village works to ensure that no one is excluded from the financial system because they cannot read or handle numbers.

For more information, visit www.myoralvillage.org and www.linkedin.com/company/my-oral-village-inc-/posts/?feedView=all

My Oral Village has tested inclusive financial numeracy tools in controlled pilot projects in Ethiopia, Pakistan, Kenya, Bangladesh and Sierra Leone, and completed in 2025 its first full national project in Sierra Leone, proving the effectiveness and relevance of the solutions for very vulnerable populations. The approach developed by MOVE is novel, and is outlined in several research works, including Oral information management tools, Oral financial numeracy and Measuring numeracy for financial inclusion. MOVE is at a pivotal moment in its journey, poised for significant growth in the coming years. To support this growth, MOVE is seeking volunteer directors (board members) who are comfortable wearing both a governance and an advisory hat during this early growth stage to guide the organization through its next phase of growth.

Core responsibilities include:

• Strategy: Setting mission, strategic priorities, and annual plans;
• Governance: Ensuring the mission of the organization is supported by sound practices & proper oversight;
• Financial oversight: Approving budgets, reviewing financial statements, ensuring sound controls;
• Risk oversight: Identifying and mitigating organizational risks (e.g., liability, insurance);
• Hands-on contribution: Directors actively support operations — communications, fundraising, program delivery — alongside governance duties.

MOVE is looking for a board Director with experience in any or several of the following areas:

• Administration and management: Experience supporting small not-for-profit operations, governance, planning and reporting.
• Financial oversight: Ability to review budgets, statements, cash flow, controls, and funding needs for a small not-for-profit.
• Early-stage growth: Experience advising startups or early-stage organizations as they scale strategy, operations, governance, and delivery.
• Technology and fintech: Familiarity with software and digital products in a fintech context.
• Oral-culture communities: Understanding of unschooled or low-literacy populations in developing countries and their financial literacy needs.
• International perspective: Experience working across countries, cultures, or global communities with sensitivity to local context and beneficiary needs.
• Banking or financial services: Knowledge of international banking, payments, savings, lending, compliance, or financial inclusion.
• Advisory contribution: Willingness to contribute expertise, networks, and practical support during MOVE’s growth stage.

Please direct queries, or apply by sending a letter of interest and your CV or resume, to:
Board Chair
My Oral Village
info@myoralvillage.org

Closing date: Wednesday, August 12, 2026 at 5:00pm Eastern Daylight Time, however applications will be considered upon receipt.

The post appeared first on Capacity Canada.

♦

Every day, members of the HART Hub Waterloo Region (HHWR) Outreach Team walk alongside community members experiencing homelessness, mental health and substance use challenges, meeting people where they are, and connecting them with trusted providers of care and supports across the Region. 

House of Friendship team members include addiction counsellors and ‘connection coordinators’ who help individuals navigate the complex network of health and social support services across Waterloo Region.

Their shared goal is to make it easier for people to find and access the care and resources they need. 

“When people are struggling, they don’t know where to go, and they don’t know who to talk to,” said Holly, a House of Friendship connection coordinator.

Support may include assistance with paperwork, connections to housing or emergency shelter, or accessing food, clothing, and other essential services. For individuals focused on meeting their most basic needs, even these steps can feel overwhelming. 

“When you get into that survival mode, that hopeless feeling, it’s like you are just stuck,” said Holly. “It’s like you are in quicksand and you just can’t pull yourself out. You need some help.”

The Outreach Team is just one component of the broader HHWR network – a coordinated system of programs and partners working across Kitchener, Waterloo, Cambridge and the rural townships to provide integrated, people-centered care.

As part of this network, House of Friendship recently expanded its services with the opening of a 12-bed Transitional Housing Program this spring. This abstinence-based program provides short-term housing and supportive programming for individuals ready to address their substance use, creating an additional pathway toward greater stability and permanent housing. 

Impact Stat:

11% of chronically homeless people in Waterloo Region struggle with substance use.

♦

The post Providing Support Where it Matters appeared first on House Of Friendship.

We’re pleased to share the recording of our recent webinar, Flee From Parsimony: Escaping the Boundary Condition Paradox in Groundwater Modelling. This session, presented by Dr. Michael Callaghan, Senior Applications Engineer at Aquanty Inc., explores how integrated hydrologic modelling can address the growing complexity of modern groundwater management challenges.

The webinar examines the limitations of traditional groundwater models that rely on prescribed recharge zones and boundary conditions—approaches that can struggle to represent dynamic processes such as climate variability, surface water–groundwater (SW-GW) interactions, and contaminant transport. Using HydroGeoSphere, the session demonstrates how fully coupled surface–subsurface modelling avoids these constraints by treating recharge and system responses as emergent outcomes of physical processes, rather than fixed inputs.

Key Highlights:

• Understand the “boundary condition paradox” and its implications for groundwater modelling.

• Learn why prescribed recharge approaches may fall short under changing climate conditions.

• Explore how fully integrated surface–subsurface modelling improves process representation.

• See how HydroGeoSphere enables more reliable predictions for complex water management questions.

This session is especially valuable for hydrologists, consultants, regulators, and water resource professionals seeking modelling approaches that can support more comprehensive and defensible decision-making.

Watch the recording now to discover how integrated hydrologic modelling helps move beyond simplified assumptions and supports more robust groundwater analysis.

Watch The Recording

Nearly 9 in 10 neurodistinct professionals say they possess unique strengths they rarely see displayed by others.

Perhaps we’re overlooking their abilities?

In a LinkedIn post, my friend Jennifer Brown shared common misperceptions of neurodivergent coworkers, such as:

• The person asking a stream of questions isn’t being difficult. They often see risks three steps ahead that nobody else has spotted yet.
• The employee who turns off their camera isn’t disengaged. They may be listening more intently than anyone else in the room.
• The direct communicator who skips the pleasantries isn’t rude. They’re prioritizing clarity over performance.
• The one who needs to understand the why before they can execute isn’t resistant. They’re someone who, once they have it, will go further than you expected.

Before labeling someone’s behavior as a weakness, ask yourself: What strength might I be missing?

Share this action on Instagram, LinkedIn, or YouTube.

This week’s Better Allies content is sponsored by:

Inclusive leadership starts with communication. The words leaders choose, the stories organizations tell, and the conversations teams have shape culture every day. Double Forte helps organizations communicate with clarity, credibility, and purpose during the moments that matter most. Learn more at double-forte.com.

Here’s some advice I never expected to give: make your captions boring.

In Where Have All the Captions Gone?, actor and writer Franchesca Ramsey sings a compelling public service announcement to the tune of “Where Have All the Cowboys Gone?”

Her message for brands and creators everywhere: caption your videos and make those captions accessible. Specifically:

• Always include captions.
• Don’t change the font for every other word.
• Don’t make the words fly around the screen.
• Avoid decorative script fonts.

To learn more, watch this short video by accessibility expert Meryl K. Evans. As Evans wrote in the description of the video, “the best captions are boring.” If you want to add some flash and pizzazz to your reel, she recommends adding on-screen text outside of the captions or pumping up the presentation itself.

Fancy captions may grab attention, but simple captions help more people follow along.

My husband Tim and I recently interviewed a firm to help with some household needs. Even though I had scheduled every meeting, guess who they sent the contract to first to sign? Tim.

I assumed it would come to me.

It wasn’t a big deal — Tim forwarded the document to me for review — but it left me wondering: Why was he automatically the first signer?

At our next meeting, we asked our contact about it.

He took a breath and replied, “What we did was sexist.”

He then apologized and explained that when they work with same-sex couples, they always ask who should be the first signatory. Then he paused and wondered aloud why they didn’t do the same for heterosexual couples.

I suggested making that the standard practice for everyone.

He smiled and agreed.

Speaking of feedback, I received many thoughtful comments on last week’s newsletter, in which I recommended: “Don’t try out a disability.”

People shared examples of when it is okay and good to try out mobility equipment or to simulate a disability. Here are some of them:

• An adaptive sports info session where people can try equipment and determine if they would benefit from using it.
• Training for rock climbing routesetters and guides who use blindfolds or tie back a limb to learn about how to design routes and describe hold positions for paraclimbers (when disabled climbers are not available for the session).
• An inclusive design workshop that replicates barriers that affect people with disabilities.
• A chromatic vision simulator to verify that people with color vision deficiencies can discern your presentation slides or graphic material.
• A screen reader to check if your document or social media post is read aloud correctly.

In other words, if your goal is to learn something that will personally benefit you (such as discovering how you could use adaptive equipment or a mobility device) or give you insight so you can do your job better and more inclusively, then by all means use accessibility equipment, tools, and simulations.

Just don’t assume that means you understand the entire life experience and identity of someone with that disability.

Newsletter subscriber Tamara Glasbergen, who is pregnant with her first child, told me that she and her partner divide their household tasks equally, and that he proactively discusses what else he could do given she’s pregnant.

When she read an article in the Pregnancy+ app by Philips Avent titled, “Feeling supported by your partner during pregnancy,” she was shocked. The article describes tasks that partners can help with, like planning meals, cooking, and food shopping, as well as household tasks like laundry, tidying, and cleaning. She wrote, “To me that sounds like the bare minimum that partners should do and not something to be grateful for.”

Glasbergen decided to send feedback to Philips, pointing out that the article reinforced harmful stereotypes of heterosexual couples where the woman is responsible for the household. And if a man does any of the tasks, he is just “helping.”

She also suggested editing the article to recommend that partners rethink together how household responsibilities should be handled to best support the pregnant person.

The outcome? Philips replied that they’ll revise the content and thanked her for bringing it to their attention.👏

If you’ve taken a step towards being a better ally, please reply to this email and tell me about it. And mention if I can quote you by name or credit you anonymously in an upcoming newsletter.

That’s all for this week. I’m glad you’re on this journey with me,

Karen Catlin (she/her), Author of the Better Allies® book series

Copyright © 2026 Karen Catlin. All rights reserved.

Together, we can make a difference with the Better Allies® approach.

• Say thanks to Karen and buy her a coffee ☕ (Need a receipt for educational reimbursement? Reply to this email, and we’ll take care of it.)
• Sponsor an edition of this newsletter
• Follow @BetterAllies on Instagram, Medium, or YouTube. Or follow Karen Catlin on LinkedIn
• Read the Better Allies books
• Tell someone about these resources

Flip Misperceptions Into Strengths, and Other Actions for Allies was originally published in Code Like A Girl on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Excerpt from my paid Substack column, Her Edge.

Nobody is coming to discover you.

The women who get tapped for the biggest roles, stretch assignments, keynote talks, and career-changing introductions are rarely complete unknowns.

Their names are already in the room.

Someone has seen their work, heard them speak, read what they wrote, or watched them contribute. Over time, those moments teach people what to associate with their names.

That is the opportunity visibility creates.

It is also where things can go wrong.

There is the work you do. And there is the work people think you do.

Those two are rarely the same thing, and the gap between them shapes which opportunities reach you.

For years, the work people were most likely to see me doing happened around women in tech and girls in STEM. That was how Kim Tremblay first encountered me.

In early 2015, I gave a talk to a peer-to-peer group for women in tech about how to network inside your company. I had no idea that Kim Tremblay was in the audience. Kim was the VP of Engineering and co-founder of a cybersecurity company called Arctic Wolf. She heard me speak and walked away knowing who I was.

A few months later, we were both invited to a panel at Think About Math, a STEM workshop for Grade 9 girls at the University of Waterloo. When I saw Kim’s job title, I walked up to her and told her I wanted to do her job someday.

I was a Senior Manager at the time. VP felt like a huge leap. I had also never met a woman who held that title. I took the chance and asked if she would meet me for coffee.

What I didn’t know was that the conversation had begun months earlier. She had already seen me speak. She had already watched me contribute. She already had a sense of how I thought and what I cared about.

So when I took the chance and asked, she said yes.

Weeks later, I accepted an offer to join Arctic Wolf as the Director of R&D. Kim hired me.

People often call moments like that networking. But networking alone does not explain what happened. Kim knew my name before I asked her for anything. By the time the job opportunity appeared, I was no longer a stranger asking to be considered.

My name was already in the room.

That reputation kept opening doors. It also created a category around me that was much narrower than the work I was doing.

Outside my company, people knew me as an advocate for women in tech. Far fewer knew that I had a master’s degree in cryptography, had spent eight years working in mobile security at BlackBerry, held more than twenty security-related patents, or was helping build and scale a cybersecurity company.

The work I made visible shaped my reputation.

The work I kept inside my job remained largely invisible.

Once I saw the gap, I began deliberately widening what people associated with my name. Over the next several years, I created a cybersecurity meetup, spoke about ransomware and engineering leadership, appeared regularly on security podcasts, helped organize a cybersecurity conference, and used the opportunities available through my employer.

In 2022, AWS invited me to speak during its Toronto Summit keynote about how Arctic Wolf ran its security operations at scale.

Four thousand people were in the room.

Me on the keynote stage for AWS Summit Toronto 2022.

That stage was the visible result.

The reputation that put me there had been built through years of smaller contributions.

This is how to build that kind of reputation deliberately.

Before deciding what you want to be known for, you need an honest picture of what people currently believe you know.

Your job title will not tell you.

Your LinkedIn profile will not tell you.

The clearest evidence is found in the opportunities people bring you.

Look at the last ten times someone reached out to you professionally.

What did they ask for?

Perhaps they asked you to:

• mentor a new manager
• review a product strategy
• explain a technical problem
• join an interview panel
• speak about inclusion
• rescue a struggling project
• lead a difficult client conversation
• organize a team event

Those requests reveal your existing reputation.

People reach for the person they already associate with the problem in front of them.

That can be affirming. It can also expose a gap.

For years, the invitations coming my way followed a clear pattern. Radio shows, government meetings, podcasts, panels, interviews, and awards were overwhelmingly connected to women in tech.

That work mattered to me. I was proud to be associated with it.

But the pattern showed me what was missing.

Very few invitations were connected to cybersecurity, cryptography, engineering leadership, or scaling technical organizations.

That absence gave me useful information. The public version of my career did not reflect the full body of work I had built.

Do this audit without judging the results.

You are trying to understand what your visible work has already taught people.

Ask yourself:

• What do people consistently seek my help with?
• What topics am I invited to discuss?
• In what role do people introduce me?
• Which parts of my experience rarely appear?
• What do people inside my company know about me that people outside it do not?

The missing pieces matter.

They show you where your reputation may be limiting the opportunities that find you.

You’ve just read how to do this audit yourself. But seeing your own reputation clearly is harder than it sounds. You’re too close to it.

So I built a Claude skill to help you conduct the audit. It researches your public presence, examines what the world can actually see about you, and identifies the gap between the work you do and the work people think you do.

That gap is where the work starts.

On Substack, paid subscribers get the skill plus the eight steps that will help you close the gap.

By the end, you will know exactly what you want people to trust you with, what evidence you need to put in front of them, where to show up so the right people see it, and how to build all of it under your own name so it stays yours when the job ends.

Her Edge: Your Reputation Is Already Choosing Opportunities for You

Her Edge: Your Reputation Is Already Choosing Opportunities for You was originally published in Code Like A Girl on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Export all your chats from Gemini Web.

Python Updated Jul 17

♦

They are back in action for the summer of 2026: here is a story about a local farm and farm stand that I wrote last year. It’s good to have their produce available again this summer.

Amid the 100 acres of farm in Saint-Pascal-Baylon, a few minutes outside Rockland, I see and hear a group of farmhands pounding stakes into the ground for a trellis system on which will grow cucamelons.

Also, known as “mouse melons,” the grape-sized fruits look like tiny, cute watermelons and are one of dozens of crops growing at Jardin Boulay Garden, owned by Mary Lynn Boulay.

The work of pounding the stakes is certainly not cute in the blasting sun of the day, however. Atop the ladder, Olivia Romeo wields a heavy maul with sister Sophia Romeo and Jardin Boulay Garden co-farmer Stephane Berube – Boulay’s husband – holding the ladder steady.

What is perhaps unique about the Romeo sisters, who live a only a country-lane or two away from the farm, is that they love the work of farming, though they have real no real interest in becoming farmers: Olivia, 21, is a university psychology student, while Sophia, 22, works at an area grocery store.

Young farm hands working the land
The pair, who have worked the farm for several years, simply love tending to the fields and crops and helping grow food that the community eats. I admire their work ethic in the blasting sun and humidity.

“I like working hard. It’s rewarding,” Olivia says, with Sophia agreeing. “And at the stand selling, there’s the social aspect and getting to see different people from the community. It’s good relationships.”

With small family farms being consolidated into larger corporate entities and with fewer kids wanting to take over the family business of agriculture, it’s encouraging to see young people like the Romeos – essentially Gen Zs – caring about how their food grows and where it comes from.

For her part, Boulay stresses the importance of her farmhands for helping the farm tend the fields and sell the resulting produce at their market stand at the corner of Laurier and Giroux streets in downtown Rockland starting again in a couple of weeks.

“They are very good workers. They’re out here working hard and giving it their all. I depend on them,” Boulay says.

The farm grows blueberries, strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, cabbage, Brussels sprouts, cauliflower, broccoli, kale, tomatoes and just started cherries.

Standing over a field of green spiky leaves, Boulay hands me a fresh garlic scape from a hardneck garlic plant: I snap off a piece and the aroma of garlic released is immediate.

“I’ll be cutting them this weekend,” she says. “All the energy and water then leaves the scapes and goes to the garlic bulbs.”

Near the house, a handful of apple trees will produce the popular Honeycrisp and the venerable McIntosh, among other varieties.

A few metres from the greenhouse, where the season’s crops get their start as tiny sprouts in little plastic trays, is a peach tree with small cucamelon-sized peaches just starting to appear.

“I plant them, water them and transplant them. After that, I have to rely on Mother Nature,” says Boulay.

No farmers means no food
It’s likely that even few customers who shop farmers’ markets and market stands – and know they are buying produce from the farmer – recognize at least somewhat the difficulties and essential hard work in hot conditions that farmers face.

“Most people when they come up to the stand, you know, don’t really know everything that’s gone into what vegetables or fruits we’ve grown,” says Boulay.

Her message, therefore, is a very simple one: support farmers because without them there would be no food.

Check out my latest post Gen Z farmhands work Jardin Boulay Garden from AndrewCoppolino.com.

Written By:
Colleen James, Executive in Residence, Capacity Canada, Regional Councillor for the City of Kitchener and champion for inclusive, community-driven leadership and Scott Williams (he/him), Executive in Residence, Capacity Canada, nonprofit professional, community volunteer, and advocate for inclusive and thriving communities

Over the last year, we had the privilege of facilitating Capacity Canada’s first Equity in Leadership Peer Circle.

When we launched the program, we knew there was a need. We had heard from nonprofit leaders who often felt isolated in their roles and who were navigating the additional realities that can come with being part of Black, Indigenous, racialized, 2SLGBTQIA+, and leaders with disabilities from underrepresented communities. We hoped the Peer Circle would provide a place to learn, connect, and support one another. What we did not fully anticipate was just how meaningful those connections would become.

The need for spaces like the Equity in Leadership Peer Circle is reflected in broader research across Ontario’s nonprofit sector. A 2023 report from CivicAction and Toronto Metropolitan University’s Diversity Institute found that racialized people occupy just 18.2% of nonprofit

leadership roles in Ontario, while Indigenous Peoples represent only 1.6% of nonprofit leaders. The same study found that nearly one-third of racialized leaders and more than 40% of 2SLGBTQ+ leaders reported feeling the need to hide part of their identity in order to fit in at work. These findings highlight why leadership development cannot be separated from belonging, psychological safety, and community.

Our Peer Circle brought together leaders from across Waterloo Region for monthly conversations about some of the most important and challenging aspects of nonprofit leadership. Over ten months, participants explored burnout, advocacy, collaboration, reconciliation and decolonization, navigating systems, financial sustainability, racism and sexism, vicarious trauma, and psychological safety. Guest speakers shared insights and resources, while participants spent time learning from one another through honest conversation and reflection.

As facilitators, we entered sessions with a plan, but some of the most powerful moments emerged from the wisdom, vulnerability, and generosity that participants brought into the room.

At the end of the cohort, we invited participants to reflect on their experience. Their responses reminded us why spaces like this matter.

One participant described the group as “a collective deep breath for 3 hours once a month.”

They wrote:

“We were able to have honest, authentic conversations in a way that felt very natural, and I think that came from everyone being so deeply in need of spaces like this. It’s been incredibly grounding and supportive, and I’m genuinely sad that this particular cohort is coming to an end.”

Another participant highlighted the value of peer connection, describing the group as:

“A place to safely vent. A chance to be vulnerable instead of on.”

Others spoke simply about the opportunity to share openly, freely, and without fear of judgment. One participant told us that the Peer Circle had helped them “survive and thrive” through their first year as an Executive Director.

That theme surfaced throughout the feedback. Participants consistently pointed to trust, psychological safety, and authentic relationships as some of the most valuable aspects of the experience. One participant reflected that trust was not something that could be guaranteed, but something that group members actively built together. They credited the group’s Brave Space Agreement, shared accountability, and thoughtful facilitation with helping create the conditions where honest conversations could happen.

The feedback also confirmed that the Circle’s impact extended beyond any single session topic. While participants identified financial sustainability, reconciliation and decolonization, burnout, advocacy, collaboration, racism and sexism, and other leadership challenges as particularly valuable discussions, what stood out most was the importance of having a community of peers who understood the realities they were facing.

For us, that may be the most important lesson from this pilot. Leadership development is not only about acquiring new knowledge or skills. It is also about belonging. Leaders need opportunities to connect with others who understand their experiences, challenge their thinking, celebrate their successes, and support them through difficult moments.

The Equity in Leadership Peer Circle was designed as a learning opportunity. It became something more. It became a community.

We are deeply grateful to every participant who trusted us, trusted one another, and helped shape this first cohort. Their openness, honesty, and generosity created something special. As one participant put it, they came to rely on the Circle more than they ever expected.

The first cohort may be finished, but the need for spaces like this remains clear. We look forward to continuing the conversation and supporting the next generation of Equity in Leadership Peer Circle participants.

If you are interested in being part of the second cohort beginning September 2026, please complete this expression of interest form and we’ll be in touch soon!

Written by:

Colleen James, Executive in Residence, Capacity Canada

♦

Colleen James is the Regional Councillor for the City of Kitchener and founder of Divonify Incorporated, bringing more than 15 years of experience in municipal government and equity-focused leadership. An award-winning consultant and community advocate, she is committed to building inclusive communities through collaboration, accountability, and meaningful action.

email: colleen@capacitycanada.ca

Scott Williams, Executive in Residence, Capacity Canada

♦Scott Williams (he/him) is a nonprofit leader and community advocate with more than 20 years of experience advancing mental health and 2SLGBTQIA+ inclusion through leadership, volunteerism, and community engagement. Most recently, he served as Executive Director of Spectrum Waterloo Region’s Rainbow Community Space and continues to support Waterloo Region through volunteer leadership and community initiatives.

email: scottwilliams@capacitycanada.ca

The post When Leaders Need Community Too: The Equity in Leadership Peer Circle appeared first on Capacity Canada.

Python version of the Playwright testing and automation library.

Python 14.8k Updated Jul 17

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This is based upon multiple lines of evidence. Unfortunately it's also based upon multiple lies by the Region over the years. Also multiple deceptions. Lies, bragging and puffery do not produce healthy, clean water. The Region of Waterloo based upon their own self congratulatory back patting seem to think otherwise.

Looking at lists of wells and wellfields throughout the Region I find it disheartening to see the following words after too many listed wells namely: Standby, Disconnected, Purge, Abandoned. Also looking at the Number of Significant Threat Activities and the Number of  Properties with Significant Threats as listed in the Grand River Source Protection Area 2025 is downright scary.  Looking at the various listed threats including Nitrates, TCE, Chemicals, DNAPLS, Pathogens, Salt, Chloride  etc. does not build confidence. Another issue I find strange is that despite off and on warnings of water shortages and for example water rationing for lawns, again far too many wells throughout the Region are NOT pumping anywhere near their stated capacities and alleged abilities. Why is that?

I also am aware of the disinterest in soil and groundwater remediation to the point of denial of known facts by our authorities if it will reduce costs and enhance development and building. Growth apparently is never to be stymied or stalled either by lack of water or excess of contaminants. Workarounds, engineering "solutions", natural attenuation or whatever verbal manipulations are required to promote progress and growth at all costs, always wins out. This game is not sustainable and we, our children and following generations will be the big losers.

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New Data Reveals a Growing Gap Between Infrastructure Progress and Support for People

The Business and Economic Support Team of Waterloo Region (BESTWR) today released the second update to the Vision 1 Million Scorecard, a tool tracking Waterloo Region’s readiness to grow to one million residents. One year since its launch, the update offers reason for both confidence and concern.

On physical infrastructure, the region is making some progress. Housing starts have reached 32 percent of the 10-year target of 70,000 homes. The King-Victoria Transit Hub is 60 percent through detailed design. The LRT expansion to Cambridge has submitted funding applications. Highway 7 is advancing through engineering approvals. A side-stream filtration system to temporarily relieve the Mannheim water supply constraint is now being installed, with capacity expected by mid-2027 – though the region’s housing targets remain at risk until a long-term water solution is confirmed, given a development freeze that lasted over six months.

“The systems that move people, shelter them, and connect them to opportunity are being built,” said Ian McLean, President & CEO of the Greater Kitchener Waterloo Chamber of Commerce and Chair of BESTWR. “But the Scorecard also makes clear that building infrastructure is not enough. The metrics that measure how people are actually faring tell a more urgent and concerning story.”

The Scorecard also flags four investments to watch closely over the next six months: the new regional hospital, which remains without a funding commitment; housing, where the long-term water solution remains unresolved; the Waterloo Region Megasite; and Two-Way-All-Day GO, which requires additional weekday and weekend service to reach the promise of All-Day service.

On people-centred metrics, the picture is more troubling. Chronic homelessness stands at over 1,000 individuals. Mental health eligibility assessments average over 130 days. Physician retirements are outpacing new entrants to family medicine, putting an estimated 100,000 residents at risk of losing their family doctor. Ontario continues to provide the lowest per-student post-secondary funding in Canada. And the regional unemployment rate has trended upward to 9.1 percent as of April 2026.

“The findings from this second update reinforce that growing communities must invest in people and services alongside physical infrastructure,” said Dr. Leia Minaker, Director of the Future Cities Institute and Professor in the Faculty of Environment at the University of Waterloo. “Investment decisions are challenging and require thoughtful tradeoffs to be made. The scorecard compiles useful data to support community decision-making and action in these complex areas.”

The Scorecard is a living document designed not to assign blame, but to align effort, inform advocacy, and focus attention where action is most needed for those living here now and for those who will join our region in the coming years. Community members are encouraged to explore the full findings at bestwr.org.

The Scorecard represents a collaborative effort among BESTWR’s five member organizations: the Greater Kitchener Waterloo Chamber of Commerce, Communitech, the Cambridge Chamber of Commerce, Explore Waterloo Region, and the Waterloo Region Economic Development Corporation.

About BestWR

The Business and Economic Support Team of Waterloo Region (BestWR) is comprised of five leading business organizations working as partners for economic prosperity and community needs. Currently chaired by the Greater Kitchener Waterloo Chamber of Commerce, BestWR includes: Communitech, the Cambridge Chamber of Commerce, Explore Waterloo Region, and the Waterloo Region Economic Development Corporation.

About Future Cities Institute

The Future Cities Institute founded by CAIVAN at the University of Waterloo conducts research, builds tools, and trains future city builders with a focus on data-driven decision making. The institute brings together global thinkers, industry leaders, and researchers to tackle urban challenges across housing, transportation, infrastructure, and beyond, supporting healthy, prosperous cities built for the future.

MEDIA & GENERAL INQUIRIES CONTACT

Ian McLean, Chair of BestWR

IMcLean@greaterkwchamber.com  | 519.897.1029

The post BESTWR Releases Second Update to Vision 1 Million Scorecard appeared first on Greater KW Chamber of Commerce.

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The residential solar sector has run into a major speed bump. Over the last few years, a historic wave of bankruptcies, liquidations, and abrupt market exits has swept the industry. From massive national giants like SunPower (which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2024), Titan Solar Power, and Freedom Forever, to regional players like ADT Solar and Pink Energy, roughly 100 solar installers have shut their doors since 2023.

If you are currently managing an orphaned solar system, you are likely experiencing the frustrating fallout: vanished customer support, voided workmanship warranties, and dead apps. When your installer folds, their proprietary servers go offline, leaving you completely in the dark.

If your solar company is suddenly bankrupt, independent solar monitoring is your way out. You don’t have to rely on a defunct company’s software to know what’s happening on your roof. By installing a universal, third-party system like the EYEDRO-HOME solar monitor, you can bypass your old installer, reclaim your data, and protect your clean energy investment.

Most legacy solar monitoring systems are tied directly to proprietary installer software or specific inverter networks. When those companies go belly-up, your app goes dark.

Eyedro operates on a completely independent model. The residential model, EYEDRO-HOME (as well as Eyedro 3-phase models) uses non-invasive, split-core current sensors that clip directly onto the electrical mains and solar feeds inside your breaker panel.

How it works: Because it measures the raw electrical current traveling through your wires, Eyedro doesn’t care who installed your panels, what brand of inverter you have, or whether your original installer’s servers are active. It communicates directly with your home Wi-Fi or Ethernet and beams real-time data straight to the independent MyEyedro cloud portal.

 

While your installer’s workmanship warranty is likely gone, your physical equipment (panels and inverters from brands like Enphase, SolarEdge, Tesla, or Q CELLS) is almost certainly still covered by the manufacturer’s 10 – 25 year warranty

But there’s a catch: You can’t file a manufacturer warranty claim if you don’t know something is broken.

If a microinverter fails or a panel goes offline, you might lose 10% to 20% of your production without realizing it. Eyedro provides high-resolution, real-time data and customizable alerts. If your solar output drops unexpectedly on a cloudless afternoon, Eyedro will let you know immediately. You can then contact a local independent solar technician to process the manufacturer’s warranty claim before you lose hundreds of dollars in lost generation.

Without an active monitoring app, you have no way to balance your energy production with your household consumption.

The MyEyedro cloud features a color-coded Net Graph that clearly contrasts your solar generation against your home’s real-time electricity demand. This allows you to:

• See exactly when you are overproducing and sending power back to the grid.

• Ensure your local utility company is accurately crediting you for net metering.

• Shift high-energy chores (like running the dryer or charging an EV) to peak solar production hours to maximize your savings.

You don’t need to pay an arm and a leg to rewire your system or replace expensive, proprietary inverters. An Eyedro monitor is installed at your electrical panel without modifying your existing solar hardware. Once configured, you are immediately back in the driver’s seat with a clean, responsive interface accessible from any smartphone, tablet, or web browser.

Your installer may have left you in the lurch, but your solar panels are still on your roof, ready to generate clean energy for decades to come. Don’t let corporate bankruptcies turn your premium solar system into an unmonitored mystery.

Equip your home with an Eyedro Solar Energy Monitor and guarantee your long-term energy independence.

Ready to restore visibility to your home’s solar output? Explore Eyedro’s Home Solar Energy Management solutions today.

Contact Eyedro Sales for more information.

♦

The Central Student Association (CSA) is the undergraduate student association at the University of Guelph. We advocate on behalf of our membership, representing their collective interests on a diverse range of issues such as public transit, housing, student rights and the accessibility of education. In addition, we offer numerous services and programs such as the Bullring, universal bus pass, health and dental plan, Bike Centre, Clubs, Student FoodBank, SafeWalk, Student Help and Advocacy Centre, printing, and promotional services.

The CSA Board of Directors works within the CSA’s welfare, image, and mandate, to defend and protect the rights and interests of students. Directors have a huge influence across campus and beyond, making decisions that affect the quality and type of services, events and campaigns offered by the CSA as a not-for-profit corporation. Between General Membership Meetings, the Board of Directors is the highest decision-making body of the organization. Directors also help to shape and build the student movement within these board meetings. The Board of Directors is made up of a four-person Executive, two at-large members elected per college, and representatives appointed from college governments and campus organizations, totalling to a maximum of 35 individuals. As a result, the Board of Directors meetings include passionate discussions about student issues from members with diverse backgrounds, and it is the role of the Chair to ensure the meetings flow efficiently with decorum.

The Board Chair serves as an external chair, not as a member of the Board of Directors. The primary duty of this position is to uphold the CSA’s Rules of Order and Robert’s Rules of Order in order to allow for democratic decisions to be determined by the Board of Directors. The Board Chair must work in an unbiased manner with utmost neutrality to ensure equity among all Board members in acknowledgment of the mandated diverse demographic of the Board. By extension, the Chair must be mindful in ensuring all Board members are given all available options when they inquire about parliamentary procedure. As a staff member, the Board Chair must uphold and support the CSA’s Mandate and Approach and work towards the overall success of the CSA.

Board Meetings are generally held alternating Wednesday evenings, and are typically 1.5 to 2.5 hours in length, though may extend to 5 hours on rare occasions. In addition to the scheduled Board Meetings, the Board Chair is expected to chair the CSA’s Annual General Meeting, General Members’ Meeting, and Emergency Board Meetings.

Start Date: May 1, 2026- Total of at least 20 meetings per fiscal year (May 1 to April 30)

Honoraium: $50.00 per hour, rounded up to the nearest quarter hour – starting from pre-meeting – Minimum three hours paid for all regularly scheduled board meetings and training dates

Executive Supervisor: CSA President

Immediate supervisor: Policy and Transition Coordinator

• Required to complete the following online training modules:
  • Workplace Health & Safety
  • Anti-Oppression
  • Accessible Service Provision
  • Sexual and Gender Based Violence Awareness
• Additional training may be required at the request of the President
• Opportunity to shadow up to two Board of Director meetings
• Required to receive 5 hours of one-on-one training from the out-going Board Chair

• Primary responsibility will be to chair/facilitate Board of Directors meetings, emergency Board meetings, and members meetings using Robert’s Rules of Order and CSA Rules of Order
• Review board packages prior to meetings
• Make all necessary inquiries and complete research to ensure you are prepared as possible for discussion at Board meetings
• Attend meetings on an as needed basis before Board of Directors meetings and members meetings to go over upcoming items with the Policy & Transition Coordinator
• Conducts Board meetings in an efficient, effective, and focused manner and ensure adequate time to consider complex issues
• Establish a safe and inclusive environment that seeks and embraces diverse perspectives, independent thinking, and active participation
• Be mindful of the diverse identities represented on the Board and facilitate discussion in a way that creates space for voices most affected by the issues being considered.
• Formulate rulings of the chair when an issue arises which is not explicitly stated in the CSA bylaws and/or policies, while also adhering to Robert’s Rules of Order
• Demonstrate an understanding of University of Guelph student issues as well as an understanding of the workings of the Central Student Association, including Bylaws and Policies
• Sign minutes of the Board of Directors once they have been approved by the Board
• Lead the training of Board members on CSA Rules of Order and Robert’s Rules each semester
• Ensure the Board is made aware of and upholds CSA bylaws and policies pertinent to meeting discussions in conjunction with the Policy & Transition Coordinator
• Act as a resource for Directors with respect to all questions of process and motion writing
• Receive evaluation from Board members to incorporate feedback into your work annually

• Knowledge of Robert’s Rules of Order
• Highly effective communicator and skilled facilitator
• Experience chairing large meetings
• Arbitration, tact, diplomacy, and impartiality
• Reliable and flexible to emergency meetings held on short notice
• Strong understanding of, and commitment to diversity, and inclusion
• General knowledge of the CSA and how it runs
• Experience with student governance, not-for-profit boards, or similar organizational structures is an asset
• Familiarity with the Ontario Not-for-Profit Corporations Act (ONCA) and relevant case law, particularly as it applies to not-for-profit governance and board procedure, is a strong asset

Resumes and Cover letters should be submitted online through the CSA application process found at www.csaonline.ca/jobs

For a complete copy of the CSA Hiring Policy, visit csaonline.ca/about/bylaws-policies. The CSA hiring policy is found in Appendix C of the Policy Manual, Section 4.0.

The CSA is committed to employment equity and to the creation of a working environment that is welcoming for all applicants. We particularly encourage applications from women, Indigenous peoples, persons with disabilities, racialized people, international students, and members of Queer communities.

The Central Student Association welcomes and encourages applications from people with disabilities. Accommodations are available on request for candidates taking part in all aspects of the selection process. To arrange accommodations please contact lclarke@uoguelph.ca

New hires who require an Accommodation Plan must request a meeting with Lee Anne Clarke, the Business Manager and member of the CSA HR Support Team, prior to the hire date specified in the employment contract. This meeting will be confidential and specific to the individual’s needs.

The post The Central Student Association appeared first on Capacity Canada.

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Among numerous reference sources I've been reading is the RMOW (Regional Municipality of Waterloo) April 8, 2026 staff report to councillors titled "Wilmot Centre Aquifer Assessment". Hoo boy but it is quite the document.  The Region are arguing both in this report and at the Regional Council level that all is fine at the Wilmot Centre Wellfield.

Here's the rub. They are also advising that between past lower rainfall AND higher pumping rates the aquifer level has dropped three to four metres in elevation. Now perhaps on a municipal wellfield level that is not an unusual situation. Perhaps it is. Regardless if you have a private drilled well that extends 32 metres below ground surface for example and the aquifer level drops from 29.5 mbgs  (metres below ground surface) to 32.5 mbgs then guess what? You're sucking air instead of water. Prior to the aquifer's lowered elevation you had 2.5 metres or over eight feet of water level above your wellscreen (intake). 

Other issues that do not add credibility to the Region's position include their admission that certain groundwater elevation triggers have been crossed at the Wilmot Centre Wellfield already just as they have been crossed at the Mannheim West Wellfield. Then however the Region states "Crossing the trigger levels at Wilmot Centre does not mean that adverse impacts are anticipated at nearby private wells in the natural environment. This is a fundamental difference from trigger levels established under the Mannheim Well Field PTTW." (i.e. Permit To Take Water) .

Other problems with the Region's staff report include Table 1 on page 4 & 5. This Table purports to show pumping levels at three wellfields in Wilmot namely the Erb St. Wellfield, the Mannheim West Wellfield and the Wilmot Centre Wellfield. Clearly there has been increased pumping at the Wilmot Centre Wellfield from 2019/20 until 2025 compared to 1980. Also on page 8 the Region confirm that some of this increased pumping was to make up for decreased water pumping and problems at FOUR Kitchener Wellfields namely Strange St., Parkway, William St., and Greenbrook. Finally I find it peculiar that Table 1 does not include the Mannheim East Wellfield immediately beside but just over the Wilmot boundary from the Mannheim West Wellfield. Perhaps it is the incredible number of wells and total amounts of nearby pumping that is causing likely well interference issues with private wells.

Add to this in the report the Region's immodest attitude is characterized by their self admitted incredible, world class, superior professional and astute management of everything wet in Waterloo Region and you begin to suspect that they've been taking lessons from trash talking MMA fighters prior to losing a major fight (Conor McGregor anybody?). Somewhat like Donald Trump it's almost as if the Region are looking over their shoulder cringing at the expected upcoming disaster but bragging to give themselves courage, or as my father used to say they are whistling by the graveyard to hide their fear.

I mean one could call it exactly what it is which is corruption. That word however is too coarse for our refined, polished and smooth operators. They are O.K. however with "unwashed masses", lower classes, ne'er do wells,  homeless etc. for all those beneath their high station in life. Supposedly making a buck is a social good according to many. Yes "trickle down" economics is popular especially among the well to do. The theory is that all economic activity from building submarines to widgets helps everybody. The rising tide lifts all boats theory. Naysayers of course suggest that what is "trickling down" may not be of much quality or good. Some even suggest that it is merely the rich peeing on the poor and giving them their refuse, their wastes etc. One example might be the ABTC or A Better Tent City. Geez I hope I've got the right name and location here but my understanding is that the ABTC is situated almost beside the Erb St. Landfill. Lucky them. Not only do they get most likely a plumbing hookup to the nearest water system/wellfield which is the Erb St. Wellfield and it's direct hydrogeologic connection to the contamination plume beneath the dump BUT they also get, depending on the prevailing winds, to enjoy the odours of everybody else's garbage. 

Just try calling the police for illegal dumping on private property albeit with a shared aquifer beneath it. Just try to get a Crown Prosecutor to lay criminal charges for off-site toxic chemical odours leaving an industrial site. There are direct connections between TCE, vinyl chloride, NDMA, benzene and many other volatile organic compounds (VOCs) routinely leaving industrial sites and serious to fatal diseases. Thousands of people die every year just in Ontario from air pollution. Where are the manslaughter or murder charges especially for repeat offenders?

It is our politicians who write our laws including the exceptions and loopholes. How many loopholes do you see for owners of semi detached homes, townhouses or lower cost housing who accidentally spill a couple of gallons of gasoline ?  However if you are a corporation or business person the rules suddenly change and you are given opportunity after opportunity to either mend your ways or at least hide them better. How often do you see serious polluters sent to jail? Severin Argenton (Varnicolor Chemical) in Elmira was one of the extraordinarily few. He was sentenced to eight months in jail after the Ontario Ministry of Environment refused to abide by their own initial Control Order and investigate deeper soils and aquifers on his property. Hence it was twenty-five years AFTER he served his eight month sentence (or part of it) and had passed on before Uniroyal/Lanxess and the Ontario MECP admitted publicly that he had indeed contaminated the Elmira Municipal drinking water aquifers with half a dozen chlorinated solvents. That folks is justice when polluters, politicians and justice system members (eg. Robert Reilly) all socialize together at Westmount Golf Club and other non-public venues.

Every time I write, refactor, or merge code, I expect something to break.

I don’t stare at the screen when something eventually goes wrong, thinking, “I’m a terrible developer.”

Instead, I think, “Interesting. What did I miss?” or “Which part didn’t work exactly?”

What do I do when I get an error?

Sometimes the mistakes are very simple, like overlooked typos or faulty conditions.

Annoying, but generally easy to fix.

Sometimes they are complicated. Maybe not even reproducible and occasionally occurring.

There can be thousands of ways to cause an error.

The important thing is, my brain doesn’t immediately jump to “I’m a terrible engineer” when something breaks.

I take a breath and do what developers do:

• Look at the error/logs
• Compare the recent changes
• Retracing steps
• Form a hypothesis
• Test the hypothesis
• Repeat till it works
• If all else fails, ask for help

This process has not yet failed me. The profession is built on this.

We anticipate problems, which is exactly why debugging exists.

I’ve noticed something interesting: I often don’t apply the same logic to my own life that I use in coding. When I fail to accomplish something or feel like I’m not performing well, I tend to engage in self-blame. I often assume it’s my own shortcomings or lack of motivation, rather than taking the time to analyze the situation and understand what went wrong.

Somewhere between my coding environment and my everyday life, I seem to have forgotten the methodical approach I rely on to solve problems. What happened to that structured plan I use to address challenges?

Well… when the code breaks, I don’t feel like I am broken. The problem exists outside of me. It is something I can observe, understand, and work on. But when something goes wrong in my own life, that distance disappears.

I realized I saw difficult moments as evidence that something was wrong on my part. A missed goal felt like proof that I wasn’t disciplined enough.

I was skipping the part where I investigate. I was skipping the questions that help me understand the root cause.

“What was the main issue?”

“What can I try differently next time?”

The same curiosity that helps me solve problems every day tends to disappear when the problem is my own.

Maybe that’s because our lives are much harder to debug than our code. There is no clear error message indicating where and what went wrong. Emotions, memories, fears, and expectations are all intertwined in the situation. However, I realized that the same process may still be applicable.

Here are my takeaways:

• I will try not to judge myself before understanding the problem.
• I will remind myself that, as a human being, it is okay to make mistakes.
• I am not gonna assume that the only culprit is me.
• I am not gonna treat every mistake as a reflection of who I am.

Software engineering has taught me that problems are not failures. They are invitations to investigate.

The next time something in my life isn’t working, I want to stop asking:

“What’s wrong with me?”

And start asking the question I have asked countless times while debugging code:

“Where should I start looking?”

Software Engineering Taught Me a Better Way to Fail was originally published in Code Like A Girl on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Working with threads always feels hazardous to me.

Non-determinism limits how much we can exercise with simple tests. Stress tests can shake out some bugs, but they’re slow and potentially flaky. I don’t like flaky tests.

So I have a few concurrency patterns that I trust, and I use ’em a lot. AtomicReference is one of them. It’s got a lot of concurrency power and a easy-enough API. I can make sense of programs that use AtomicReference.

The drawback of AtomicReference is that I usually need a while loop to update it. The atomic compareAndSet() function returns false if my thread loses a race and must retry. After writing a whole bunch of these tricky loops yesterday, I factored out a helper testAndSet() function in order to split difficult business logic from difficult concurrency code.

In one situation, my code sets a state variable to Canceled, but only if the current state is cancelable. It must also tell the task it has been canceled.

private val state = AtomicReference<State>(State.Idle)

override fun cancel() {
  while (true) {
    val previous = state.get()
    if (previous is State.Running || previous == State.Idle) {
      if (!state.compareAndSet(previous, State.Canceled)) {
        continue // Lost a race.
      }
      (previous as? State.Running)
        ?.callback
        ?.onFailure(this, IOException("canceled"))
    }
    return
  }
}

That loop really complicates this code! And it’s an ugly loop, with a return break out at the bottom.

Here’s the cleaned up version that uses testAndSet():

override fun cancel() {
  val previous = state.testAndSet(
    condition = { it is State.Running || it == State.Idle },
    newValue = State.Canceled,
  )
  (previous as? State.Running)
    ?.callback
    ?.onFailure(this, IOException("canceled"))
}

Getting the signature for this was difficult! Once I realized that the function should return the previous value (and not a Boolean), everything snapped into place.

The testAndSet() code is a tad bit fancy ’cause I’m using tailrec instead of a conventional loop.

/**
 * Updates this reference to [newValue] if the previous value matches
 * [condition].
 *
 * It is possible that a [condition] is invoked multiple times in a
 * single call to this function. This will occur if this state object
 * is updated between fetching previous value and replacing it.
 *
 * Returns the previous value. This will always be the replaced value
 * if the value was updated.
 */
internal tailrec fun <T> AtomicReference<T>.testAndSet(
  newValue: T,
  condition: (T) -> Boolean,
): T {
  val previous = get()
  if (!condition(previous)) return previous
  if (compareAndSet(previous, newValue)) return previous
  return testAndSet(newValue, condition) // Lost a race, retry.
}

I’m particularly proud of how this small function successfully separates business logic and concurrency logic.

Programming. It’s fun.

Most Core Web Vitals audits follow the same checklist. Compress the hero image. Preload the LCP element. Fix the ad slot that shifts layout. Trim the JavaScript bundle. All of that matters, and none of it touches the one element that loads on literally every page of your store: the mega menu.

That’s the part that gets skipped, and it’s also the part with the highest compounding cost. A slow hero image only hurts the homepage. A bloated mega menu hurts every product page, every category page, every blog post, every checkout step where it’s still rendered. If your navigation is heavy, you’re not paying that cost once. You’re paying it on every single pageview.

Nobody thinks of navigation as a performance risk because it doesn’t feel like “content.” It’s not a banner, it’s not a slider, it’s not a video embed. It’s just the menu. It’s been there since the site launched, nobody touches it, and so nobody audits it.

But look at what a typical mega menu actually contains: a full category tree, sometimes with product thumbnails, static blocks, promotional banners, icons for every top-level item, and JavaScript to handle hover states, flyouts, and mobile toggles. On a Magento 2 store with fifteen or twenty top-level categories and subcategories nested three levels deep, that’s a lot of DOM.

And because it renders on every page, whatever weight it carries gets added to every single Core Web Vitals measurement Google takes for your site. A homepage with a heavy hero image is one problem. A site-wide navigation element with bloated markup is a problem multiplied by every URL Google crawls.

Google’s official Core Web Vitals guidelines set three thresholds you need to hit for at least 75% of real user visits: Largest Contentful Paint under 2.5 seconds, Cumulative Layout Shift under 0.1, and Interaction to Next Paint under 200 milliseconds. Here’s where a mega menu tends to fail each one.

This is the most common one, and it’s almost always self-inflicted. Flyout panels that push page content down when they open. Menu icons or thumbnails loading without reserved width and height, so the browser doesn’t know how much space to leave. Custom fonts for menu labels loading late and swapping in, which reflows every menu item at once. Any of these can quietly tank your CLS score, and because the menu is present on every page, the shift happens on every page too.

The mega menu itself is rarely the LCP element, but it can delay it anyway. If the menu’s HTML and CSS block rendering, or if its JavaScript has to execute before the browser can finish parsing the page, your actual LCP element (usually a product image or hero banner) ends up waiting in line behind navigation code that the user doesn’t even need yet.

This is the one most stores never think to check, and it’s also becoming the hardest metric to pass. Recent field data puts INP as the most commonly failed Core Web Vital across the web, largely because fixing it requires rethinking JavaScript architecture rather than just compressing an image. A mega menu with dozens of hover and click listeners attached to a deeply nested DOM tree is exactly the kind of thing that produces laggy taps on mobile, especially on mid-range phones where most of your real traffic actually happens.

You don’t need anything exotic. Open Chrome DevTools, go to the Performance tab, and record a page load with the mega menu open. Look at how much of the layout thrashing and paint time is attributable to the nav versus everything else on the page.

Then run PageSpeed Insights on a handful of representative pages, not just the homepage. Look at the “Avoid large layout shifts” and “Reduce JavaScript execution time” flags specifically, and check whether the elements called out belong to the menu or to page content.

Finally, check your DOM node count. If a huge share of it comes from the navigation markup rather than the actual product or content on the page, that’s your signal. A menu that renders 40 categories with icons and thumbnails can easily add hundreds of nodes to every page on your site before a single product shows up.

Render the menu server-side, not via late JavaScript injection. If the menu HTML has to be built client-side after the page loads, you’re adding delay and shift risk to every page. Server-rendered markup, filled in before the browser starts painting, avoids both problems.

Reserve space for flyout panels. Give dropdown and mega panels fixed dimensions in CSS so they don’t push content when they open. This alone eliminates a large share of menu-related CLS.

Lazy-load anything below the immediate visual priority. Category thumbnails inside a mega menu don’t need to load with the same urgency as your hero image. Defer them.

Reduce DOM depth. Flatten unnecessary nested wrappers around menu items. Every extra div and list layer adds parse and layout cost that repeats on every page.

Debounce hover and click handlers. On a menu with many nested interactions, unthrottled event listeners are a common source of slow INP on mobile.

If you’re running Magento 2 and evaluating mega menu extensions, this is the part of the spec sheet that usually gets ignored in favor of “how many layout styles does it offer.”

The performance-relevant questions matter more:

• Does it render server-side or does it depend on heavy client-side JavaScript?
• Does it reserve space for images and flyouts by default, or does that fall on you to configure?
• Is it built to work with full-page caching like Varnish, so the menu doesn’t become the one uncached element slowing every request?

MageDelight’s Mega Menu extension for Magento 2 is one example built with these constraints in mind. It’s Varnish-cache compatible out of the box, supports a drill-down style specifically for stores with deep category hierarchies (which keeps the DOM lighter than rendering every subcategory at once), and ships Hyvä-ready, which matters if you’re already prioritizing frontend performance on a modern Magento theme.

None of that replaces a proper audit of your specific implementation, but it’s a reasonable baseline to start from instead of retrofitting performance onto a menu that was never built with it in mind.

Core Web Vitals work usually starts and ends with images and third-party scripts, because those are the obvious, visible culprits. The mega menu doesn’t get the same attention because it feels static and permanent. But static doesn’t mean free. It renders on every page, it often carries more DOM weight than people realize, and on mobile it’s frequently the source of the laggy taps that show up in INP data without anyone tracing them back to navigation.

If you haven’t checked your mega menu’s contribution to CLS, LCP, and INP specifically, that’s worth doing before your next round of image compression. It’s the one element on your site that never takes a day off.

Here are answers to a few common questions about mega menus and Core Web Vitals.

Every page it renders on, which for most stores means the whole site. That’s what makes it different from a homepage banner: the performance cost compounds across every URL Google measures.

Flyout panels and dropdowns that don’t have reserved dimensions, so they push page content when they open. Fixed-size CSS containers solve most of this.

Yes. If its markup or JavaScript blocks rendering, it can delay the actual LCP element (usually a hero image or product photo) even without being the LCP element itself.

Generally yes, since it comes down to JavaScript execution and event handling rather than image compression or CSS dimensions. Debouncing hover and click listeners and reducing DOM depth are the most direct fixes.

Not necessarily. Start by auditing your current setup with DevTools and PageSpeed Insights. If the extension itself renders client-side, doesn’t reserve space for flyouts, or isn’t cache-compatible, that’s when switching becomes worth considering.

Source: developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/core-web-vitals — Google Search Central, Core Web Vitals thresholds

Core Web Vitals and Mega Menus: The Navigation Element Nobody Optimizes was originally published in Code Like A Girl on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

In our previous article, The Transactional Outbox, we built a rock-solid, Postgres-backed staging area. We guaranteed that high-throughput analytical data from BigQuery safely reaches Google Pub/Sub without a single dropped event.

But what about our downstream microservices?

Network flickers… consumer crashes… transient ACK timeouts… What happens next?

Imagine you spin up a GKE worker or a Cloud Run service that does the following:

• Listen to a Pub/Sub subscription
• Pull a message
• Execute the business logic (e.g., update database state, hit a payment gateway)
• Acknowledge the broker (broker.Acknowledge())

If the network blips after your business logic completes but before the delivery confirmation reaches Google Pub/Sub, the broker will redeliver that exact same message to another pod in your GKE cluster. Your database gets hit again—and this time, it's a duplicate.

If forgetting to process a message means you forgot to charge a client $50k, processing it twice means you just double-billed them. Try explaining to your compliance team that it wasn’t corporate fraud, it was just a “highly available network retry”.

Instead of blindly trusting the network, we make the database the ultimate arbiter of truth. We introduce a simple inbox table with a unique constraint on the message ID.

Instead of a fragile, multi-step process, we execute a single, atomic database transaction:

1. The Gatekeeper (Deduplication): The worker pulls a payload from the broker and attempts to insert the unique message_id into the Postgres inbox table.
2. The Execution (Business Logic): If the insert succeeds, it means this is a brand new message. We execute the business logic in the same transaction, commit, and then tell the broker that the message was successfully processed. If the insert fails (because the ID already exists), we skip the business logic entirely and simply notify the broker we are done to prevent further retries.

By pushing the deduplication logic down to Postgres, we eliminate race conditions across our entire GKE cluster. We wrap the deduplication and the business state changes in a single transaction.

// 1. Begin a single atomic database transaction
tx, err := db.Begin()
if err != nil {
    return err
}
// ALWAYS defer a rollback to prevent connection leaks if the function returns early.
// If tx.Commit() succeeds later, this becomes a safe no-op.
defer tx.Rollback() 

// 2. Attempt to insert the message ID. 
res, err := tx.Exec(`
    INSERT INTO transactional_inbox (message_id, created_at)
    VALUES ($1, NOW())
    ON CONFLICT (message_id) DO NOTHING;
`, msg.ID) // Don't forget to pass the actual msg.ID variable here!

// 3. CHECK THE ERROR before touching `res`
if err != nil {
    return err 
}

rowsAffected, err := res.RowsAffected()
if err != nil {
    return err // Handle potential driver errors
}

// 4. If rowsAffected is 0, another pod already processed this.
if rowsAffected == 0 {
    // We can explicitly rollback early, or let the defer handle it.
    // We still acknowledge the broker to stop redeliveries.
    broker.Acknowledge(msg.ID) 
    return nil
}

// 5. Execute your core business logic within the SAME transaction
// err = executeBusinessLogic(tx)
// if err != nil {
//     return err // The defer will safely roll this back
// }

// 6. Commit the transaction and safely acknowledge the broker
if err := tx.Commit(); err != nil {
    return err
}

broker.Acknowledge(msg.ID)
return nil

I often hear developers argue: “Why add database overhead? Just use an in-memory cache like Redis for deduplication!”

Here is the reality:

Caches get evicted; ledgers are forever.

If your Redis cluster restarts, or a key expires too early, your line of defense vanishes. Idempotency isn’t just a fancy backend buzzword — it is the firewall protecting your revenue.

Imagine your service processes finances. When the monthly financial reconciliation report runs, your CFO does not care about transient network partitions or broker availability limits. They only care that the ledger balances. By anchoring your deduplication to the exact same ACID-compliant database that holds your financial state, you guarantee that a message is only ever applied once and the client is billed correctly.

The Redelivery Trap: Building a Safe Transactional Inbox for Google Pub/Sub was originally published in Code Like A Girl on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.