Marilyn's Photos - Oct 4 2025 - Those Speed Cameras

 

There's something everyone wants to "weigh in" on.  Those municipal traffic speed cameras.  Ours has gone bye-bye quite a number of times - clearly more against it in Grimsby.  Twenty-two municipal leaders have requested the province "fully reimburse all municipalities for the costs" of cancelling the Automated Speed Enforcement program. Our cameras are in school zones.  Well, the camera pole is still there.  Now what's there are those centre of the road markers to slow people dow and raised cross-walk with zebra stripes.  That works.   This is one of those crazy Premier moments.  When Doug Ford goes "Trump" and calls the tool as a tax grab, and decides, King-like, to ban the use of them.  The CBC article says it was his government who passed regulations in 2019 allowing the programs.  I wonder how self-driving cars will work and whether the owner can get the self-driving car to do these crazy things we do now. Will there be add-ons for self-driving cars so the driver can go through stop signs, speed through red lights and rush through school zones, just like they do today? Maybe a black-market add-on I used a Topaz filter to get the speed effects on Gerry's car.  He can speed through our neighbourhood, but don't stop and park.  It is no parking on our streets now that the hospital( two streets over) is being rebuilt.

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Marilyn's Photos - Oct 3 2025 - Live LIke Kings

 

If we lived like Kings then what? Well, on the toilet theme of the last few days, we would have a Groom of the Stool,  a high-ranking servant by our side.   In our age - a robot -  will attend to our private needs.   Monitoring the king's health was the key aspect of the job. This was done before our familiar flush toilet.  The first flush toilet was invented in 1596 for Queen Elizabeth I.  It turned out to be very loud and frightening.  It wasn't until the late 1800s that they were in regular use by kings and queens.  And of course, it is Queen Victoria who brought the separate room of the bathroom to the royal palace. So we might consider that we already live like kings and queens in this small but critical area of daily living.  And what pops up on the subject of toilets?  Prince William spent three months scrubbing toilets in Chile during his gap year.  He was working as part of a UK-based company called Raleigh International, which coordinates community and environmental projects in South America. Isn't this a weird little factoid. But it isn't unusual it shows up.  Those Royals keep showing up time and time again in the news and in Pinterest feeds.  It must be that North America is fixated on them, as I don't do any searches to get myself this barrage of pictures and stories.   Here's something - Queen Anne's Lace - "gets its name from legends associating the flowers's appearance with Queen Anne of England who was known for her lace-making skills.  Common stories claim the plant's delicate, lace-like bloom and its often dark-red center, a single drop of blood, was a drop of blood shed by the Queen herself while sewing lace."

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Marilyn's Photos - Oct 2 2025 - A Toilet is cleaner than this things

 

How do we know that a toilet is cleaner than these things? "A kitchen sponge, kitchen sink, pet food bowls, computer keyboards, carpets, cutting boards, and even cell phones are often dirtier than a toilet seat, as they are breeding grounds for bacteria that are rarely cleaned as aggressively as toilets." That's the summary of a study done comparing various common surfaces for bacteria levels.  Chlorox sponsored the study.  I particularly wondered what it meant  to "clean their toilet aggressively." How would we clean our desk more aggressively.  I imagine scenarios of getting out a toilet brush and scrubbing the desk with it.  We are meant to be alarmed when finding out that a standard desk is 400 times germier than a toilet seat. I guess the "so what" implication occurs with the scenario of eating at your desk.  That is a scenario for "Norovirus: A highly contagious virus that spreads easily through contaminated food, water, or surfaces and is a common cause of gastroenteritis."  But then don't you have to put your hands on the surfaces like the keyboard and desk and then put them in your mouth?  Do you usually put your hands in your mouth to eat?  I don't know.   I guess it depends on table manners and what foods people are eating.   I don't see the likely scenarios of the other two bacteria that could be involved: Staphylococcus aureus: A common bacterium that can lead to skin infections, sinusitis, and, in severe cases, life-threatening conditions like sepsis or meningitis. Pseudomonas aeruginosa: Found on surfaces like keyboards, this can cause pneumonia, especially in people with weakened immune systems. These two seem extremely rare to me, more like thoughts and ideas to ponder. We do have a societal toilet fixation, though.  I consider the presence of so many toilet hacks to be the sign for this: "using common household items like vinegar, baking soda, and cola to clean and deodorize the bowl and tank, applying baby oil to shine fixtures, or preventing rust with fingernail polish on toilet screws. Other hacks involve using Kool-Aid for cleaning the tank, placing a container in the tank to conserve water, and using shaving cream to eliminate odors at the base of the toilet." And all Chlorox probably wanted from their study was for us to buy more wipes for our desk rather than have people try all kinds of things to clean their toilets. This picture of a garden bench at Winterthur came up from a search of my computer for "toilet" - is it the handkerchief petals of the Dove Tree on the ground that caused the system to think this might be toilet tissue? There's AI lurking in there, I'm sure of it.

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Marilyn's PHotos - Oct 1 2025 - Using this on the toilet

 

This question comes from the New York Times this morning: "Does using your phone on the toilet cause hemorrhoids?" Coming from the New York Times, I can assume it isn't click-bait material.  That's why I want to know the source - who says smartphones cause hemorrhoids?  There's a new study with this finding: "A 2025 study from Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center published in PLOS One found a correlation between using a smartphone on the toilet and a 46% increased risk of hemorrhoids, according to multiple sources including Healthline and Prevention. While the study doesn't prove causation, researchers, including gastroenterologist Dr. Trisha Pasricha, suggest the association stems from extended toilet time, which puts pressure on the rectal tissues." So that's the New York Times version of the question.   Here's the CNN headline: Using the phone while you poop greatly raises hemorrhoid ... Here's the Guardian headlines: Set a two TikTok toilet limit to reduce haemorrhoid risk ... Toilet scrolling: how bathroom phone use plays havoc with ...A Youtube headline from Straight Arrow News: Get off the throne: Study claims smartphones could increase ... NBC News: Smartphone overuse linked to a new pain in the butt Yahoo: If you're reading this while on the toilet, here's why that ... Times of India Take your phone to the toilet everytime? Beware, it can ... And the CBC? New study shows smartphone use in bathrooms could lead ... What are the guidelines on writing headlines?  We know there are stringent approaches in the industry.  Here they are:  Eliminate unnecessary words (e.g., a, an, the).  Omit forms of the verb ‘to be’ (e.g., is, are, was, were).  Use numerals.  Abbreviate days of the week and months.  Use present tense verbs (i.e., historical present tense).  Use strong verbs but avoid commanding verbs.  Follow a subject/verb-object structure.  Capitalize only the first word and proper nouns.  Don't use a period at the end.  Use single quotes to quote material.  Use a comma as a substitute for "and."  Use specific details if they are available.  Use only widely known acronyms and abbreviations.  Use names only when they're prominent and use only notable nicknames. Here's a sense of humour at the CP24 news station headquarters.

Marilyn's Photos - Sep 30 2025 - Truth and Reconciliation Day

 

Today is National Truth and Reconciliation Day.  It was started in 2013 and became a statutory holiday in 2021. We are one of 40 nations who have had reconciliation commissions.  South Africa observes the Day of Reconciliation on December 16th - originally the day  commemorating the victory over the Zulus in 1838.   Argentina had the National Commission of the Disappearance of Persons and observes March 24th as the National Day of Remembrance for Truth and Justice.   Sierra Leone, South Korea, and Chile have formed truth and reconciliation commissions to investigate past injustices and make them part of the public record. In total there are 40 countries that have established truth commissions. There are 195 countries in the world.  Mind the gap, so to speak. How many reconciliation commissions do some countries need? One for the indigenous population and one for the Black population if you look at U.S. history.  They had a commission for those interred during the second world war - that happened in 1988 and by 1992 the U.S. government had disbursed over $1.6 billion to almost 83,000 Japanese Americans. Canada had one of those as well.  In Canada, reparations to First Nations and Indigenous peoples is part of the process - both individual compensation and Treaty settlements.  Can you imagine what the compensation will be for treaty annuities dating back to the 1800s that are owing?  What about land "confiscated" and no treaty is in place?  Modern treaties, self-government arrangements, resource and land management rights - there are still so many things to work out.  So much has changed in 50 years.  Back then our education in our primary and secondary school system was from the colonialist's perspective.  Today there is a mandatory Indigenous-focused curriculum for primary and secondary school grades. In our adult world, it is CBC radio and television that give an Indigenous perspective.  My favourite radio show is Rosanna Deerchild's "Unreserved."  Here's part of her introduction to the weekly series: "We are based in what is now known as Canada. Rosanna hails from O-Pipon-Na-Piwan Cree Nation at South Indian Lake in northern Manitoba, and now lives and works in Winnipeg (Treaty 1)." Can you imagine how much unlearning potential there is in that phrase -  "what is now known as Canada."  If we just started with learning and unlearning place names, we could become fluent in a number of Indigenous languages.  I vote we start with Lake Louise "Ho-run-num-nay. (or Horâ Juthin Îmne), which translates to "Lake of the Little Fishes" in the Stoney Nakoda language. The name reflects the small size of the fish in the cold glacial waters of the lake."   We move on to our picture today. This is what a September garden can look like - annuals are at their peak in September  with lots of vibrant colours on mature plants.

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