Some quick one-liners (synopsis and/or reviews) on the films and shows memorable enough to remember seeing this year. These are in no particular order, and I’m missing many of them: Good Luck to You Leo Grande – It’s Sex, Lies, and Videotape 40 years later. It was okay. Tar –
Continue readingAuthor: Marie Snyder
A Puff of Absurdity: Year in Review
I don’t normally do a year in review, but his was my most tumultuous year in decades. It’s right up there with the year I dropped out of high school and moved in with my sister in Ottawa on a whim, and the year I moved six times mainly by bicycle.
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: It’s Time to Clear the Air
A recent New Yorker article warns about a “ragtag coalition of public-health activists” who want us to wear masks forever! And then the New York Times published an article about “The Last Holdouts” who wear masks when others have moved on. The framing and headlines of these pieces put a target for
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: Politics of Hopelessness
I started posting other people’s twitter threads in part because twitter was (is) threatening to self-destruct, but also because there are some incredible gems that could disappear into the ether even if twitter remains. It’s not set up to easily find that one post you read weeks ago – ever
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: SARS #1 and Collective Amnesia
SARS #1 (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) was a deadly coronavirus that hit Canada in February of 2003. It started in China in November 2002 then entered Toronto in a traveller flying in from Hong Kong. SARS #1 differs significantly from SARS-CoV-2 because the OG killed people faster, so it was easier
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: Hiding a Pandemic in Plain Sight
This excellent thread is from Barry Hunt: Canada only reports a handful of cases even though cases are 10 times to 100 times higher this year than last year. We only publicly report 2% of cases. Sometimes 1%, sometimes 3%, but literally just a drop(let) in the bucket. The public
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: Evidence on Both Sides
A school board in Winnipeg passed a motion to strongly recommend masking at school to protect from SARS-CoV-2 and other viruses currently affecting kids. Many of the comments on that post call for a full mandate, and one called out trustees for not shutting down an anti-science delegate at their
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: Do Masks Harm Children?
There’s some shock and outrage that I’d suggest encouraging masks in class to curb the spread of the three-plus viruses inundating pediatric wards in hospitals right now. Some have accused me of wanting masks in order to virtue signal or to feed my ego, but it’s actually just about saving
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: Dr. Moore and the Media Must Take Responsibility for Viral Deaths in January
Let’s have a look at that article by Elizabeth Payne that highlights a mishmash of comments from Our Chief Medical Officer of Health, Dr. Kieran Moore: “Ontario’s chief medical officer of health links viral surge to ‘negative consequences’ of extended mask mandates, rules out new ones — for now.“ First
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: A Polite Request is NOT a Mandate.
A few parents are upset that I’m trying to “bring back masks” in schools. Some have threatened to take their kids out of our board if we force masks on them again. The motion I presented last Monday very carefully tried to assure people that I don’t want to force
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: Ventilation and Viral Evolution
I watched a great webinar from OHCOW (Occupational Health Clinics for Ontario Workers) on, in the first half, Covid and ventilation, specifically in congregated settings, with Amy Katz, a knowledge translation specialist at St. Michael’s Hospital, and Dr. Amy Li, a civil and environmental engineering professor at University of Waterloo. The second half
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: Yup, Masks Really Work. I’m not Sure Why This is So Hard to Grasp!
I’ve been inundated lately with pictures from the sides of mask boxes that say something like this: I could return volley with this, from the side of my 3M Aura N95s: Instead I went for a lesson in logic, specifically, the fallacy of accident: And here’s a great thread from
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: What”s a Government to Do?
RevivalCare‘s erudite answer on Twitter to Breakfast Television’s question: What do you think the federal government should do to help alleviate the current healthcare crisis? Provide free universal N95s to all Canadians, via a purchasing agreement with domestic manufacturers. Mandate all Canada Health Transfers are subject to audit, at the
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: An Ask to Mask in Class
Here’s a run-down of presenting a motion to request that students masks if they can, two weeks ago, and the final motion that was passed last night. It’s been picked up by City News, CTV News video, CTV News article, CBC News, and NewsTalk 1010. Some of the articles present it as if it’s
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: On the Social Disease of Anger
The anger that escalated at a recent Ottawa-Carlton school board meeting when a trustee proposed and lost a motion to mandate masks, in a setting of generally polite discussion, makes it seem like this type of anger is new. But this video of the history of masks, and what we
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: The Big Con – Time to Wise Up
A great quote, but unlikely from Mark Twain. From @1goodtern: Have you ever known someone find it impossible to realise and admit they were the victim of a scam? We’re seeing it now with hundred of millions of people refusing to admit they’ve been taken in by a public
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: Ableism Affects Everyone – Even You
Happy Friday, everyone! Here’s a fun TikTok explaining how ableism comes back to bite you in the butt in less than 2 minutes: @khoyadoc you’re not gonna be “fine”. #ableism #capitalism #disability #longcovid #covid19 #left ♬ original sound – khoya doc
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: Problems with IHRA
After receiving literally hundreds of emails on this topic, starting before I was even elected, I watched this excellent panel discussion tonight about IHRA presented by Independent Jewish Voices Canada, the Palestinian Youth Movement, and Ground UP Waterloo Region, and featuring Fitsum Areguy, Greg Bird, Jasmin Zine, Sheryl Nestel, Mark
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: Complete Chaos
A UK journalist wrote about the recent death of a 9-year-old girl in BC. He intersperses his thread with parts from this article, but I just included his commentary and quotes below: ‘Strep A’ and ‘flu’ death in 9-year-old kid in Canada: but even this case is not as rapid
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: Sweden’s Pandemic Experiment
This book, Sweden’s Pandemic Experiment, is online for free. It was written a year ago, but still applies today. I just read chapter 5 so far, as it was shared directly by Emil J. Bergholtz, a professor of theoretical physics: “The Swedish Covid-19 response: From poorly judged utilitarianism to history revisionism
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