iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Jenn Dowling-Medley @aliasjdm.bsky.social · 1h

The curse of having lived in Quebec is having to read all the infinitely bad ROC election takes 🥲🫠

010

Jenn Dowling-Medley @aliasjdm.bsky.social · 11h

> cat jumps on lap > cat is mysteriously wet 🫠

000

Jenn Dowling-Medley @aliasjdm.bsky.social · 14h

(not all boomers obviously, but the erosion of the state welfare has been contributed to by various political parties, no doubt because it's something the average voter doesn't think about because it "wouldn't happen to them" or "people will get lazy and not work if it's too accessible/adequate")

000

Jenn Dowling-Medley @aliasjdm.bsky.social · 14h

many people are aware that welfare in Canada often requires you to provide the financial info of your partner, but did you know you have to list your parents if you live with them or they help you in ON? Yes, the state expects parents to pay 4ever Boomers can be mad, but that's what they voted for.

100

Jenn Dowling-Medley @aliasjdm.bsky.social · 14h

idk maybe the combo of a monumentally bad market for new grads plus escalating cost of housing and food was going to have some consequences for the financial independence of many adults

110

Jenn Dowling-Medley @aliasjdm.bsky.social · 14h

ah yes, I am sure the article comments on Facebook will be not cursed 😂

Bloomberg article titled "How to protect your money when your adult child moves back home." The subtitle is "more adults are moving home. learn how to protect your money and retirement." The article image is a cartoon drawing of an adult man piggy backing on top of an older woman who is clutching a wad of cash

110

Jenn Dowling-Medley @aliasjdm.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

local populist candidate appears to have taken my suggestion to another candidate from facebook and made it part of their platform lol (while someone could have come up with my idea independently, they used a very similar verbiage to what I wrote initially)

000

Jenn Dowling-Medley @aliasjdm.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

It doesn’t matter what I think, though… it just is. Being in a major where your grades are systematically lower is a disadvantage if your GPA is an admission criteria. Starting the race 10s late is a disadvantage even if you beat some people too.

010

Jenn Dowling-Medley @aliasjdm.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

Yeah, except people in other programs can get high LSAT scores lol. All other things being equal it is a disadvantage. In Canada it’s pretty tough to get a >90 average in engineering, and many schools don’t curve (if the average was 45, so be it).

120

Jenn Dowling-Medley @aliasjdm.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

Yeah, more STEM undergrads would probably do it. There aren’t many of us because we have lower GPAs, amongst other things.

180

Jenn Dowling-Medley @aliasjdm.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

Honestly though when I talk to people who seem to have practices that seem excessive (not likely to be making any meaningful difference to risk or addressing a risk that is already near 0) it's usually a misinfo/lack of understanding of how risk works thing.

010

Jenn Dowling-Medley @aliasjdm.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

No doubt there are some people who are covid conscious or risk averse in the food allergy/celiac world whose behaviour is somewhat influenced by OCD or similar mental health issues. But you have to look at the motivation/context.

110

Jenn Dowling-Medley @aliasjdm.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

yeah, this happens with celiac too... folks with more relaxed/less risk averse behaviours tend say that people who are more risk averse/conservative have mental health issues, even where there is compelling evidentiary support for the more risk averse behaviour. Mostly it's a self-soothing thing.

130

Jenn Dowling-Medley @aliasjdm.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

as if le Pro des DVDs sets up a physical store near my old apartment (near my favourite intersection)

000

Jenn Dowling-Medley @aliasjdm.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

the issue with retailers like Alibaba and Amazon is that they have a tendency to ship counterfeit products and sometimes misrepresent products (e.g. show certifications which do not appear on product you get). A lot of the time this is a more trivial issue but not for electronics or medical things.

053

Jenn Dowling-Medley @aliasjdm.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

goes for Canadians too (though we have CSA in addition to some other standards) don't buy your Li ion battery off of Amazon or Alibaba

1127

Jenn Dowling-Medley @aliasjdm.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

Similarly - it is a legitimate issue that many foods labelled gluten or allergen-free contain unsafe levels of the problem protein. But... we must be cautious about groups/individuals who raise these issues. What is their angle? What ppm level? What methods/who tested it? Etc.

011

Jenn Dowling-Medley @aliasjdm.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

yeah, this seems like it's analogous to EWG and their dirty dozen fearmongering pieces like yes, we should be worried about residues and contaminants but also we shouldn't take all reports/lobby groups at face value (a lot of them are fronts for organic/alt med/specialty food promotion)

110

Jenn Dowling-Medley @aliasjdm.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

But it is also a problem for their own kids. Children don't deserve to die or experience lasting medical harm because of their parents' beliefs. Maybe they will grow up to believe the same things but many don't and so end up fighting their parents for proper care as teens.

110

Jenn Dowling-Medley @aliasjdm.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

Yes, that is an element of it too. Many are of the view that "normies" are harming their children by following mainstream medical advice. That's why in Canada they have co-opted the "Every Child Matters" movement (about residential school survivors, but to them not since many are also deniers)

110

Jenn Dowling-Medley @aliasjdm.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

a big part of the MAHA "health freedom" movement is the ability to impose their views (anti-vaxx, anti-pharma, anti-gender affirming care) on to their kids otherwise, it wouldn't be much of a movement... an adult can already choose to not get things done without much external consequence

110

Jenn Dowling-Medley @aliasjdm.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

it is not good obviously, but it does not seem like accurate ROC reporting to me. They have *further* reduced access to free vaccine but most of the population was already ineligible.

000

Jenn Dowling-Medley @aliasjdm.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

I am still confused about why this is being reported as new? When I lived in Quebec (2018-2022) I was not eligible for a free flu shot. I got mine in Ontario when I visited my parents on my Christmas holiday (vaccine free, but had to pay something like $7 without OHIP for pharmacist to administer).

100

Jenn Dowling-Medley @aliasjdm.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

this goes beyond infectious things but also into things like very obvious eating disorders and serious injuries. Sometimes shit happens during a race but I'd guess that a significant proportion of those ending up in medical shouldn't have started the race, or perhaps even the season.

000

Jenn Dowling-Medley @aliasjdm.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

racing while sick in the heat is a real killer... I did it once unknowingly when I was coming down with some mono-like virus (got sick the next day). But I don't think we're going to get that analysis from anybody because the idea of holding coaching staff accountable is Inconvenient.

100

Jenn Dowling-Medley @aliasjdm.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

If it is indeed the case that coaches were allowing or pressuring athletes race sick with covid (or whatever) and this was putting undue stress on race EMT personnel, then the blame lies with them and not the conditions.

100

Jenn Dowling-Medley @aliasjdm.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

The only time anything like this happened was during the swine flu pandemic at Ofsaa XC 2009... lots of athletes competing sick, nothing to do with the heat (it wasn't hot, it was November).

100

Jenn Dowling-Medley @aliasjdm.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

Context: Lehigh University meet got cancelled due to heat, apparently because athletes were "dropping like flies." Respectfully, I don't understand. I have done so many meets in the great lakes region (and even Kentucky) that were this hot and this did not happen?

100

Jenn Dowling-Medley @aliasjdm.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

Lol, people from PA trying to convince everyone else that Bethlehem has "unique" weather that makes 25C dangerous to do a 5-8km collegiate XC race (20-30 minutes of running).

100

Jenn Dowling-Medley @aliasjdm.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

For better or worse I’m still poasting [sic] like it’s 2013 on all platforms

000

Jenn Dowling-Medley @aliasjdm.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

If accessibility is a concern (totally valid, lots of homes have steps) a lot of neighbourhoods will have indoor trick or treat events at community centres which are legitimately accessible to families (no weather issues, open bathrooms etc.).

010

Jenn Dowling-Medley @aliasjdm.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Cool. One of things that bugs me about trunk or treat is that it seems like a car centric capitulation that both makes things less safe for kids out and ruins the magic for kids participating

131

Jenn Dowling-Medley @aliasjdm.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

I didn't know that there was so much effort/$ being expended on feng shui outside of rich white people with an Orientalism fetish decorating their mansions though

010

Jenn Dowling-Medley @aliasjdm.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

reminds me a bit of TCM (I guess some aspects of TCM do also involve qi)... for some reason people assume there must be something to it since China has also contributed considerably to biomedical knowledge/research

110

Jenn Dowling-Medley @aliasjdm.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Lots of cemeteries have Halloween events like spooky tours or other thematic tours - Beechwood had a special tour for the Day of Truth & Reconciliation yesterday, for example. For some reason, these events don't get the same NIMBY rise up. Neither do groups doing running workouts.

000

Jenn Dowling-Medley @aliasjdm.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Aside from, a lot of things, worth pointing out that the Beechwood Cemetery is a national historic site, very expensive/exclusive to get into, and beside a low SES area (Vanier). I don't think it takes much imagination to see that there is likely some unstated class divide motivation to this

100

Jenn Dowling-Medley @aliasjdm.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

another year, another pseudo controversy about horror movie showings in Beechwood Cemetery in October

100

Jenn Dowling-Medley @aliasjdm.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

sure, the flu and covid vaccines are not sterilizing or anything but even so getting more shots in more arms makes a difference to overall transmission even if some people (me) will probably not get super ill if infected

000

Jenn Dowling-Medley @aliasjdm.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

news: flu szn beginning early! good thing that we're only letting certain groups access the vaccine even though I don't think the demand for the non-eligible groups is that high

100

Reposted by Jenn Dowling-Medley

Christopher Bird @mightygodking.com · 01/10/2026

today in Toronto it is hot and rainy, which is the worst non-natural-disaster weather combination. oh and it's also October 1, which is the PERFECT time for hot and rainy

082

Jenn Dowling-Medley @aliasjdm.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

That's good to hear. In fairness, I'm talking about general intake shelters where they're not going to euthanize an animal that is adoptable (which some are, since they *are* up for adoption). No doubt that happens to some that have more serious issues that you never see listed.

100

Jenn Dowling-Medley @aliasjdm.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

realistically almost nobody is going to adopt a chronically ill, old pet and the shelter will be paying for this anyways plus other costs but I guess there could be other issues at play that are driving the pet to be given up

0100

Jenn Dowling-Medley @aliasjdm.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

brutal when you see a senior pet that's up for adoption because their family couldn't afford their care anymore... always wonder if that's truly the only issue why the shelter doesn't just pay for the meds and let the pet stay where it is

9604

Jenn Dowling-Medley @aliasjdm.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

often what is more interesting is to see what successful groups are actually doing. There is some need for caution re: doping and also considering whether the people were already ultra talented before joining the coach/group. (I remain skeptical of double threshold because I'm lazy ha)

000

Jenn Dowling-Medley @aliasjdm.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

not all, of course, but it is a problem with a lot of work in this area. Coaching/programming is an obvious one: almost always the program prescribed is something nobody would ever do or so extreme (e.g. no speed workouts vs speed workouts) that the answer isn't useful.

100

Jenn Dowling-Medley @aliasjdm.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

the eternal challenge with many exercise science or PT type studies is that in the quest to do a proper controlled experiment with objective metrics, you inevitably design an experiment that loses real world relevance

100

Jenn Dowling-Medley @aliasjdm.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

(if I thought they worked well in the general population, you'd probably see me wearing them in a race... which I don't. I tried the nose strip once when I was not recovering from a cold/in asthma flare and I don't think it did anything.)

000

Jenn Dowling-Medley @aliasjdm.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Right, I'm talking about a more specific thing (sub-population use) and also whether the outcomes (metrics) are relevant. Short-acting asthma inhalers (e.g. salbutamol) also don't do much if you don't have constricted airways, hence why they are not a banned substance.

100

Jenn Dowling-Medley @aliasjdm.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

(ex sci nerds and expensive "sciencey" online coaches hate it when you say this lol)

010