Toronto Flooding

Yesterday's storm in Ontario caused flash flooding.  Here are the pictures from CP24. I recognize many of the streets in the pictures - particularly the underpass on King Street in the Liberty Village section - full of water.  Etobicoke was hit and I looked to find out if our street Orchard Crescent was flooded.  It backed onto Mimico Creek which was a source of flooding in Hurricane Hazel and then a serious one in 2013 - two years after we moved.   Specific questions like this seem hard to answer.  News media cover what is most dramatic and show-worthy.  Like the skyline above over Toronto, or the car in the flooded highway ramp close to our old neighbourhood in Toronto.  There are pictures of GO Trains in water and flooded subway cars flooded with people sitting in their seats.  There's dramatic coverage at the Toronto Star site. This was a couple trapped in an elevator with water rising.  This wasn't a major flood like Hurricane Hazel in which 81 people killed in that surprise flood and much work was done on storm water management afterwards, but it is hard to win with water.  Anyone with a pond knows this story. And our picture of the day is a Grimsby garden that is noteworthy.  Is it the intense plantings of flowers and shrubs, filling every single space?  No, it is the artificial turf.  Once you look at it, you realize it is too perfect to be living grass.  It looks like one of the premium brands - Namgrass Serenity Artificial Grass.  I can't imagine there actually is serenity - you must sweep and vacuum it to keep it grass-like. That would likely have to happen every day.

Statistical Thinking

I've been gathering statistics to see how successful the website, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram pages are for our upcoming fundraise The Fantasy of Trees. I was lucky to get statistical training as part of an MBA. Statistical thinking has become the interpretive technology of choice in dozens of fields: economics, psychology, education, medicine, and the sciences.  The internet headlines tell us there are 5 important website statistics, the most important economic statistic, the best offensive statistic in sports, customer experience statistics, Black Friday's most important statistic.   I wonder about the critical thinking skills of people in general and this is a question that's been analyzed a lot.  Paul Barsch's article on Eight Things You Should Know About Statistics says this: "In May 2010’s issue of Wired Magazine, author Clive Thompson laments the poor mathematical literacy of his fellow citizens. For example, he cites people laughing at the concept of global warming as they face some of the harsher winters on record, or the extra-vocal debate on vaccines and possible links to autism. Mr. Thompson would tell us that it’s the trend lines that matter, and we too often look at the trees and miss the forest. The problem, he says, is that “statistics is hard” and an overall understanding of this important discipline is severely lacking. He says, “If you don’t understand statistics, you don’t know what’s going on, and you can’t tell when you’re being lied to.” Quora/Wikipedia say: Therefore, as the infusion of mass media information into a social system increases, segments of the population with higher socioeconomic status tend to acquire this information at a faster rate than the lower status segments so that the gap in knowledge between these segments tends to increase rather than decrease.

Grimsby Garden Tour - Painted Ladies - July 18 2015

The Hamilton Spectator's start to Open Gardens Week was a great success yesterday.  I had visitors all afternoon from all around the Niagara and Hamilton area. More garden events are coming to our area.  Next Sunday is the Blooms for Africa Grimsby Garden Tour, with concentration on the Painted Ladies of Grimsby Beach. If you are able to come, Grimsby Beach is a wonderful experience of homes from times gone by. This was a Chautauqua community.  I hadn't realized that there was the Mother Chautauqua in New York (still there).  There were Independent Chautauquas or 'daughter Chautauquas'.  Then there were also Circuit Chautauquas - 'Tent Chautauquas'.  These were touring events. When these were at their peak, performers appeared in more than 10,000 communities to audiences of more than 45 million. The Garden Tour/Event is next Saturday, July 18 2:00pm to 9:00pm.  Tickets are $20.00. Here's the link: http://www.bloomsforafrica.org/upcoming_events.html To see some of the Grimsby Beach history: http://vitacollections.ca/grimsbychautauqua/results?fsu=Grimsby+Beach+--+History