Nicole Smith 🇨🇦

Springsteen. The gift that keeps giving! Thanks for this, let's share for and wide, and remember: it's about protecting people's rights and lives, rather than just protesting.

Anonymous I’m a school nurse. We have a rule. Kids without lunch money get a cold cheese sandwich. Nothing else. It’s policy. This boy came in one Wednesday. Sixth grader. Stomach pain he said. I’ve been doing this twenty years. I know real stomach pain and I know hunger. “When did you last eat?” He looked at the floor. “Yesterday lunch.” Sent him to the cafeteria with a note. Told them to give him a full hot meal. Pasta. Salad. Milk. The works. Cafeteria lady looked at my note. Looked at me. Gave him the tray without a word. He ate like he hadn’t seen food in days. Probably hadn’t. Came back to my office after. “Am I in trouble?” “For what?” “For eating.” “That’s what food is for.” Started keeping granola bars, peanut butter crackers, juice boxes in my bottom drawer. For kids who come in with headaches that are really hunger. Stomachaches that are really empty. I’m not supposed to. Technically against policy. Don’t care. Told my principal once. She looked at me for a long moment..... Opened her desk drawer. Showed me her stash. Crackers. Fruit snacks. Applesauce. “What drawer?” she said. We never spoke of it again. That sixth grader is in high school now. Came to find me last spring. “I just wanted you to know I’m okay. And that I remembered. I always will.” He volunteers at a food bank on weekends. Has since he was thirteen. Best granola bars I ever bought.

60% of teachers in new Ed Week survey say student behavior has worsened over the past two years: “We’ve seen a large increase in the inability for students to cope when things don’t go their way. We see a lot of crying, yelling, shutting down, gross overreactions”

@arealmofwonder A riot of sunlight! How delightful

Poems for Lent (Day 26) • Derek Mahon •

Meningitis is one a few diseases where your child can be well in the morning and dead by the evening And if you’d ever seen it happen, you wouldn’t be debating whether to vaccinate or not Tragic and horrifying

You are not sick in 2026 because of a lockdown that happened in 2020.

AI data centers can use up to five million gallons of water each day. Am I the only one concerned about how this could pose a serious threat to our farmers and our food supply? What happens when these centers seriously strain our aquifers and dry up irrigation systems? Is it really worth it?

Happiness: 'truly seeing and appreciating what we already have, and understanding that somewhere, someone would give anything for what we take for granted'.

I don't think enough people understand that you can carry meningitis bacteria in your nose and throat and *not get ill*. It's only when the bacteria invade the body, entering the bloodstream or reaching the brain and spinal cord, that it gets very serious very quickly. So what makes people more vulnerable to invasive meningococcal disease? There are several recognised risk factors, but one is impaired immune function, including low lymphocyte levels such as reduced CD4 T cells. And we all know by now what can cause those reduced CD4 levels don't we? Yes. Covid infection. This is all *established science*. It's not new. All this blather in the papers about vapes and kissing. That's misdirection. The blather about lockdowns reducing cases? That's misdirection too. This disease is about *vulnerability*. Even a *temporary* drop in lymphocytes can make you vulnerable. I'm fed up with all the people diverting attention away from that.

Science Centre's 'hazardous' roof still fine while new TTC station next door rains indoors blogto.com/city/2026/03/s…

Lose thousands of nurses and hospital beds and definitely the hospital crisis will worsen dramatically. Urgent action needed.

So the students at the University of Kent meningitis outbreak are queuing for *antibiotics* not vaccines, according to Sky. So we are looking at an outbreak of *bacterial* meningitis. And what did I say might be this winter's breakout bacterium? BACTERIAL MENINGITIS.

Aerosol! Like Covid and a number of other dangerous diseases. So not necessarily close contact.

No one could have predicted this

It's accurate.

@Meningioma_host a picture from our walk this afternoon! Pure magic. The sky and trees reflected in still water. Hope you have had a lovely Saturday!

BAM! Colombia has announced a historic ban on all new oil and large-scale mining projects in its part of the Amazon Rainforest, protecting an area roughly the size of Sweden. 🌿 Experts say the move could help protect one of the planet’s most important ecosystems—often called the “lungs of the Earth.” 🌎🌳 Nature is amazing. Protect it. #ActOnClimate #nature

So now you're expected to live healthily till 61 on average, or worse, and you get to retire 7 years later, or longer. Wait, what?

Great metaphor.

When nearly 4,000 Google employees sign petitions, 13 Palantir employees walk out, and OpenAI’s head of robotics resigns over AI drifting into warfare, surveillance, and state power… we should listen. When the insiders sound the alarm, that’s a warning.