The trans community isn’t safe in Canada, that’s why Pride month is necessary. And there’s no straight month because nobody has ever been discriminated against for being straight! Last week I said, “a glance towards Florida should be enough for the rest of us to recognize this anti-pride position as
Continue readingAuthor: Marie Snyder
A Puff of Absurdity: Conformity Experiments
This image comes from a century ago, of course. It’s still very hard to be different, but sometimes it’s vital. When I taught a course called the Challenge of Change, I offered up a number of challenges along the way. Students who were uncomfortable participating in any of them
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: PSA: Ontario Pollution Concentrations
You can find how much particulate matter is in the air in your community at this link, and air quality index forecasts here. Click on the little graph beside the number to see, in real time, how things are right now and whether or not it’s okay to open a
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: On Track for Privatization
A couple weeks ago, Texas came very close to passing a bill defunding public education: a “school choice” bill that would provide vouchers for parents to be able to “use taxpayer dollars to pay for private school tuition.” It passed in the Senate, but then died in the house. They’ll
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: Spot the Difference!
Which crowd would you feel safer in, especially with wastewater levels of Covid very high and in an upward trend in places, and no longer being monitored elsewhere! Here’s the Combo Breaker gamer conference: And the UBC medical school graduation: Fun fact: (from a study published in NIH in October 2022)
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: Graphic Response to Mask Removal in Hospitals
Dr. Evonne Curran sent a 3,000 word letter to the medical authorities in Scotland because “prevention is primary, and our job is to keep people safe. Withdrawing masks in hospitals is unsafe.” It’s all neatly summarized in this graphic. Most important to remember: “Long Covid affects children.” That’s entire full
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: Rough-Cut Research Peer-Review: On Remote Work
One more thread to be saved before I write something of my own; this time it’s James Heathers‘ scathing take down of Talia Varley’s article in the Globe and Mail. in which Varley attempts to prove that remote work negatively affects our ability to learn and innovate. If I were
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: Ely’s Long Covid Disability Roulette
The Washington Post put out a free article about a new study that defines long Covid. They identify 12 key symptoms to create a common language on this. The symptoms are attached to point with the general idea that the more points, the worse the ability to carry out everyday activities: They
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: On Keeping Kids "Safe" From Pride
Student Trustee Kenzy Soror wrote an excellent, brief thread on the problem with parents keeping their children home because it’s pride day or month: “I take great concern with the decision of some families to ‘keep’ WRDSB students at home on June 1st. I hope that those who made this
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: Social Identity and Narratives
From Alan Levinoitz: A lot of politics can be explained by ignoring Maslow’s hierarchy and realizing that people care as much about symbolic meaning, a sense of dignity, narratives in which ‘your people’ are the heroes, as they do about promises of material well-being. Why–ask liberals–do conservatives vote against policies
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: Why We’re Not Keeping Kids Safe from Covid
I mentioned a bit about McKinnon and Co. in footnote to a recent post on health care privatization, but these threads need a wider audience. I can’t verify any of this, but it all comes with legitimate links and images from the documents. Long story short, Canada put economic recovery
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: On Letting Them Fail
In my recent “Kids Today” post, I mentioned the problems with not letting kids fail classes as one of many examples of how we swoop in to rescue them instead of actually supporting their learning and growth as human beings, arguing that their behaviour is being affected by never having to experience
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: Pandemic Historic Ties to Fascism
I’m very concerned with the public largely ignoring Covid despite a growing shift to get kids to replace workers who are lost to Covid deaths or disability after convincing us that everything’s back to normal. If it’s no longer an emergency, then governments no longer have to do anything, or –
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: Kids Today!
A letter has been circulating and in the news complaining about kids today. Things have changed in the last few years, but I don’t think it’s as dramatic a shift as is being portrayed yet, and while phones play a role, so does our cowardice in neglecting to set clear
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: Some Pretty Pictures and a Poem
On my twitter feed, I make sure to temper my covid and climate change posts by re-tweeting incredible physical feats (mainly cycling and gymnastics), beautiful art, hilarious posts, lots of animals, and the occasional profound poem or piece of literature. It’s vital, like, absolutely vital, to stay in touch with
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: Why Ranked Ballots Make Sense
I believe that WRDSB has a committee formed to determine the process to appoint two new trustees. I’ve been actively avoiding following the news on all this, but I do want to respond to the suggesting floating around that an appointment is undemocratic. Voting is typically the most democratic method, but
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: The Need to Grow
When I taught civics and we discussed Canada’s immigration policy, that we typically take in about 250,000 newcomers each year, but over 600,000 apply, many students would suggest we need to take them all. They’d prefer an open door policy that maybe only stops the criminally-minded from entry. My follow
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: Modernism, Post and Meta
When I’m not ranting about Covid and climate change, I’m biking, reading, writing, and watching shows and movies. Tons of movies. Right now Monday mornings start with Yellowjackets as an appetizer, then Succession is the main course, followed by Barry for dessert (all on Crave). Next Monday will be the season finale
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: Strep A Causing Fatalities in the Region
Last December, I wrote a few times (here, here, here, and here) about strep becoming more invasive and deadly if it follows a Covid case–even if it’s mild or asymptomatic Covid–after 15 kids across the UK died within a few weeks. Covid does a number on the immune system’s ability
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: On Prosocial Cuing
Saving another thread from twitter, this time it’s a really short one from Dr. Lisa Iannattone: “I’m a little confused at the ‘making people feel bad about how their choices harm others is bad advocacy’ takes. Didn’t we do that with smoking? Wasn’t the ‘secondhand smoke kills’ education campaign exactly
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