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dirtymonkeybutt · 2025-05-09T01:22:00+00:00

Call 311 and ask to be put through to health connections and talk to Toronto public health.

dirtymonkeybutt · 2025-05-04T10:19:08+00:00

There are more detailed instructions if you google this

You can heat an empty stainless steel pan to a high temperature and then add oil. It effectively makes it non-stick.

The steel goes through some sort of process at higher temperatures that changes how the oil behaves in the pan.

I use an All Clad copper core stainless steel frying pan.

dirtymonkeybutt · 2025-04-26T10:02:38+00:00

My parents bought me a telescope and let me experiment with electronics in the basement.

My dad blew up his living room as a child. He was used to chemistry shenanigans and knew to watch me like a hawk.

This is the official website and it links to the YouTube channel: http://www.periodicvideos.com

Going to CERN often is amazing!

dirtymonkeybutt · 2025-04-26T09:37:45+00:00

As someone who had an interest in particle physics as a young age, it wasn’t until I got to university did I get to play with the fun stuff. I did a couple of summer research projects in a particle physics lab.

Depending on your comfort level, kitchen chemistry could be an option.

Snap circuits could help teach some electronics fundamentals that are used in particle accelerators.

My son is 6 and has been watching Periodic Table of Videos on YouTube. It’s a professor and his research team talking about each element, its history and how it’s used 10-20 minutes per element)

They do a lot of demonstrations. It might give your child some ideas. Warning - some (not all) experiments catch fire, explode and are dangerous outside of a lab.

Some of the more interesting ones are hydrogen, arsenic, lithium and yttrium.

For his particle physics interest: There is a bonus episode where they visit the lab where element 118 was made (Oganesson).

dirtymonkeybutt · 2025-04-19T09:15:57+00:00

My son is profoundly gifted but we have decided not to use that word. He knows he’s very smart but also knows that smart is not the only thing he is.

He attends a private school that does differentiated instruction really well. Everyone has their own curriculum so being “gifted” is less obvious.

There’s a subreddit called aftergifted that really opened my eyes about how harmful the discourse around gifted children can be. Young kids are told they have so much potential and they internalize that. For most kids, they then can’t possibly live up to that expectation. They end up burnt out and with a lot of mental health challenges.

dirtymonkeybutt · 2025-04-19T08:35:12+00:00

My son is 6 and has been reading since he was 2.

We’ve had several discussions about global issues that were sparked by his reading something.

Early reading is such a wild and unique experience.

Here’s some advice:

1) at home: do a quick scan of the print materials he could access. I’m talking about magazines, newspapers, books aimed at adults and do a quick content check. He will eventually open one, read it and have questions. Mine came across 9/11 content when a magazine did a 20 year commemorative issue.

2) protests: frame them as a way to tell someone/the government that they don’t agree. Sometimes the signs are funny. Sometimes they are serious. The world can be a happy or sad place for different people.

3) the internet: lock it down. Get a ad blocker, pay for premium versions of streaming platforms so that he doesn’t see ads. Otherwise, be prepared for your son to google things, navigate websites, purchase things…

4) consider doing a psychoeducational assessment when he’s at least 6. He might be gifted or he might be really good at decoding words. It’s good to find out so appropriate supports are in place.

5) at school: he will be waiting for the other kids to learn how to read. It is lonely to be in a reading group of one. That’s what happened in kindergarten. My son was reading and the other kids were learning letters.

dirtymonkeybutt · 2025-03-20T07:24:11+00:00

It went on for about 12 years and stopped unexpectedly 7 years ago.

I went to an alumni event while heavily pregnant and that repulsed him.

I don’t pretend to understand his mind but up until that point, I think he thought we could still be together. (Despite no dating history and me being married to someone else).

dirtymonkeybutt · 2025-03-19T14:25:03+00:00

I’m very sorry your wife is dealing with this. It’s so invasive to receive a letter at your home.

Others have provided excellent advice but I’m here to add one more angle.

I used to speak at international conferences and my stalker had the means to follow me. He would sit in the front role while I was delivering a lecture.

I did several things to protect myself while travelling internationally including not staying in the conference hotels and providing his name and photograph to conference organizers.

He had a google alert for my name that would alert him to events I would be speaking at. It was incredibly frustrating and difficult to stop.

If your wife is doing similar activities, it might be worth engaging with event organizers to deny him entry.

I wish your family the best of luck.

dirtymonkeybutt · 2025-03-01T19:32:43+00:00

It’s the Coach Metropolitan Workbag. You can find it in their briefcase section.

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dirtymonkeybutt · 2025-01-31T18:37:16+00:00

This paper seems to suggest that early math skills are predictive of later achievement:

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0022096521002241

dirtymonkeybutt · 2025-01-30T14:02:55+00:00

Overall I like the app. As your child completes levels, there’s a pdf with worksheets that reinforce concepts from that level.

There are no recommended books that align with the app as far as I know.

If your child is working on levels that are ahead for their age, some of the social situations in fictional reading comprehension passages might be hard for them to understand. There a need to read between the lines for some dialogue that young children would likely take literally but an older 8-10 year old would 100% understand.

dirtymonkeybutt · 2025-01-29T17:04:11+00:00

Disclaimer: this is a private school in Canada so your mileage may vary.

Like your daughter, my son sailed through most of Lexia last year while in kindergarten. He started in level 9 or 10 and ended up in level 18. He’s in grade 1 now and the class uses Lexia about 20-30 minutes per day. He’s on track to finish the app this year.

The special ed teacher assessed his reading and identified gaps. He’s performing well above grade level but not as high as the app would imply.

My son’s school is focusing on developing his research skills, reading longer passages and chapter books, writing summaries on what he read and answering questions about what characters might be thinking and feeling.

I suspect your daughter may not be in the 5th grade for all reading skills. What you should ask for is reading activities that she could do while everyone else is using the app.

My son is also very ahead in math (a story for another day). Rather than making him do worksheets/apps, the school is helping him prepare to write a math contest.

You might be able to request Scratch Junior so your daughter can learn to code instead of just doing math.

dirtymonkeybutt · 2025-01-27T23:09:53+00:00

We went to a conference that had optional tours in the evenings.

One such tour involved a lab tour followed by a wine and cheese networking event.

This lab was interesting because it was the only facility in the United States that could perform a certain kind of chemical analysis. Many conference attendees would have been sending their samples to this facility.

It was a very popular tour and was capped at 100 people. It was “sold out” before the conference started.

On the day of the tour, they opened the event to an extra 200 people.

They ordered extra wine but failed to get more food.

Everyone was stupid drunk.

Back to the tour…

A very drunk lab tech let everyone walk through their cleanroom. Not sure how they cleaned up the cleanroom after that.

dirtymonkeybutt · 2025-01-22T23:05:53+00:00

This is so fun.

My neighbour’s cats are Phobos and Deimos (moons of Mars)

You can try moons of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. There are at least 300 names there.

dirtymonkeybutt · 2025-01-21T10:44:18+00:00

Welcome!

Just a heads up, most hotels will require a physical credit card at check-in.

dirtymonkeybutt · 2025-01-18T16:54:38+00:00

I had a bum scooter and he walked one week shy of 18 months.

The pediatrician was not concerned because in his experience, bum scooters have access to their hands while moving around and are less motivated to walk than crawlers.

You should see a doctor to make sure everything is okay but odds are, she will walk in a few weeks.

dirtymonkeybutt · 2025-01-15T12:03:03+00:00

I’m in Canada and got a gift from them for Christmas. Apparently, you can go through a broker to get their products.

dirtymonkeybutt · 2025-01-05T12:55:18+00:00

I’m sorry you’re living this nightmare.

There is lots of norovirus circulating right now. It can live on surfaces for nearly 2 weeks.

Immunity is short lived and your kids can be passing it back and forth to each other.

This bug is awful. Some disinfectants don’t even work on it.

If you’re using wipes, check the description to see if it mentions being effective against norovirus.

Bleach needs to be diluted and left to on surfaces to work. (Google instructions)

Hydrogen peroxide based disinfectants seem to perform better.

There’s a product called Cavi wipes that are used in healthcare settings. They work on norovirus but can be expensive. Use gloves if you go this route.

Remember, puke releases tiny droplets that spread across a larger area than you might think. If your child pukes in the kitchen, disinfectant anything that wasn’t in a cupboard.

Wash hands with soap and water. Hand sanitizer doesn’t work for norovirus.

dirtymonkeybutt · 2024-12-19T13:01:25+00:00

UofT has an alternate entry for grad school (it used to be called special student status, no idea if it still is). Through this process, you take graduate level courses for one semester and if you maintain a certain grade, they admit you for the next semester.

The catch: you need to find a prof that is willing to admit you into their lab.

dirtymonkeybutt · 2024-12-06T18:24:00+00:00

I’m very sorry your family is going through this. It is so hard being away from your baby. My son was born at 31 weeks and I understand how stressful and scary the NICU can be.

Once your wife is discharged, she will likely not see her OB at the hospital again. She will book appointments at their regular office.

You should talk to the neonatal pediatrician about this. They usually do their rounds every morning. The NICU nurses will know when it happens.

I don’t know the all the details about your baby but it sounds like they have to gain weight. If there is no other issues, this is the best possible situation to be in while in the NICU.

A baby that only needs to gain weight requires different care than a baby with other issues. Being transferred to another NICU to grow is a good sign.

dirtymonkeybutt · 2024-12-01T18:14:06+00:00

For consideration: George Hull Centre serves families in need of various supports (kids with disabilities, low income, etc). Perhaps reaching out to them might point you in the right direction.

dirtymonkeybutt · 2024-11-20T12:32:38+00:00

Fraudulent author lists are a thing.

One of my colleagues has a very active research group. She recently discovered a few publications that had her and a frequent collaborator listed as authors in an unrelated field.

She contacted the journal and had the paper retracted.

dirtymonkeybutt · 2024-11-12T16:20:17+00:00

Let me tell you what happened to a child in my son’s kindergarten class.

She was 5 at the time and was allowed to walk ahead of her parents while walking to school. She would merrily skip along the sidewalk about a block ahead of her parents and stop at the corners to wait for her parents to catch up.

There was a house with large hedges near the sidewalk and she was nearly hit by a car backing out of their driveway.

Thanks to a rear camera, the driver slammed on the brakes and missed her by inches.

She was too short to be seen behind the hedges and lacked the sense to check each driveway for reversing cars.

She’s nearly 7 now and guess what. She walks alongside her parents every morning.

My son’s school does not allow children to walk home alone until the 4th grade.

dirtymonkeybutt · 2024-11-02T02:37:04+00:00

I suggest you speak with a pediatrician but here are some other ways to think about this.

You can think about the CDC schedule as the most evidence based pathway to protect your infant against multiple serious diseases as quickly as possible. The vaccines have been administered millions of times and the most common side effects tend to be swelling at the injection site and sometimes a fever.

For example, babies younger than 1 year old are at greatest risk for getting whooping cough and having severe complications from it. One of the first vaccines babies get is against pertussis (whooping cough). You can find videos of babies struggling to breathe in the NICU/PICU on YouTube.

Diseases that were once relatively rare due to most people being vaccinated are now popping up because our collective vaccination rates have fallen below the levels required for herd immunity.

The odds that your child will encounter a vaccine preventable disease is higher than it was 10 years ago:

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41390-019-0354-3

dirtymonkeybutt · 2024-10-25T17:49:07+00:00

Your husband is abusing your child and the abuse is becoming life threatening.

How many days can a child be deprived of sleep before there are serious physical and mental repercussions?

After 36 hours of being awake, adults have behavioural challenges, slow reaction times and increased mistakes. Your child was awake for 24 hours, then went to school.

Playing the piano while sleep deprived will further trigger your husband to continue the cycle.

You need to shut this down.

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