Canadian COVID Forecast Jan 31 - Feb 13, 2026 ONTARIO VERY HIGH [increasing] About 1 of every 106 people is infected. Compared to lowest point of pandemic in Canada: -Infections: 11.0 x higher -Long COVID: 6.1 x higher -Hospitalizations: 15.5 x higher -Deaths: 17.0 x higher

Hospitalizations are expected to require 8.2% of Canada's staffed hospital beds for three weeks (CIHI: average duration of COVID hospitalizations). www.cihi.ca/en/covid-19-...

About 2.3% of people in Canada are infected and/or experiencing life activity-limiting long COVID this week. The estimated cost of hospitalizations from this week's infections in Canada is $120.0M.

Infections in Canada this week are expected to result in 5,400 hospitalizations, 800 premature deaths (people who die at least 1 year earlier than they would without COVID) and 15,000 new long COVID cases serious enough to limit daily life activities.

Might be getting new neighbours this spring! 🤞🪶

New Photos: Guyana 2026 This coming week I'll start sharing my new Guyana photos in earnest, but as usual my BlueSky audiences gets a sneak peek! Here's a lovely tropical flat snake we found during one of our night walks. Preview more photos from this trip: www.maxwaugh.com/2026/01/30/n...

I took this photo this morning, and I'm so in love with it - the timing, the focus, the colour. I can't quite believe it worked so well. The new camera definitely helped. Also, she's so cute and chubby! #birds 🌿

Using a two stroke gas leafblower for 30 minutes generates as many non-methane hydrocarbon emissions as driving a Ford F-150 Raptor for 5,108 km - it’s a scandal two stroke engines are still legal to use in cities given there are clean and safe battery electric alternatives

Rufous-tailed Hummingbird #birds #hummingbirds #CostaRica

"The COVID-19 pandemic is in its seventh year, and research shows its many life-altering harms. There are thousands of studies saying repeat COVID can cause a vast number of illnesses impacting the mind and body, even from mild infections in vaccinated people." - @teachrprecarity.bsky.social

Five classes I took in university: Arctic Ecology (field course in Churchill, MB) Evolution Lab Studies in Herpetology (paired with Integrative Vertebrate Biology) Wildlife Conservation and Management Field Biology (field course on Andros Island, Bahamas)

At ECCC: “staff reductions will target scientists, engineers and policy experts whose work supports weather forecasting, pollution prevention, marine conservation, habitat restoration, environmental disaster response and safety of dangerous goods” www.nationalobserver.com/2026/01/23/n...

NO!! 😞

Microsoft and Blackrock have "have largely given up on organic adoption [of AI] by consumers. They have moved on to a new dream of forced adoption mandated by government and managerial coercion." Fascinating piece here on what Davos can teach us about the AI industry by @mattseybold.bsky.social

What kind of society would we have if AI takes over as our entertainment, friend, teacher, and parent, the way tech companies are pushing it? If it were to become the portal through which we see and experience the world?

"What we saw as the primary sources of disinformation in Canada, Russia, China, India, the US has now begun to start overtaking as one of the largest sources of disinformation in Canada." "What's next? Prepare yourself for this one... AI that tailors disinformation depending on the target!"

Nothing has highlighted just how technically illiterate the senior business management and political classes are right now as the whole AI thing. Just an entire generation of "leaders" incapable of spotting a bad sales pitch because of some woo woo tech words that sound cool.

If you, as a scientist, cannot be bothered to engage in the intellectual work of science, please quit your job and leave it to someone with skill and integrity.

Man who wouldn’t wear mask to protect people fine wearing mask to shoot them

I had at least 17 species of birds in my yard today! Notable visitors were a white-crowned sparrow and a northern mockingbird (I love their Latin name, Mimus polyglottos). They are both less common in #HamOnt at this time of year. 🪶

Ontario received 14,233 comments on its plan to drop protections on a portion of Wasaga Beach Provincial Park, transferring management to the municipality. The plan is moving ahead unchanged, despite 98 per cent of those comments being in opposition. thenarwhal.ca/wasaga-beach...

To see how Kirsty Duncan advocated for science, watch her TED talk or read her book, "The Exclusion Effect: How the sciences discourage women & girls and what to do about it" Scientists must be free to learn, to speak, and to challenge, she said -- an even more vital argument now than then.

Oh jeez, I was so hopeful for her to get better 😞 RIP. www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...

They're doing a great job in my area, the plows come by about once every 90 minutes or more. We're lucky to be on a 2nd priority route. #HamOnt

This year, the Timbit turns 50 years old. It is estimated that Canadians have eaten enough Timbits to go to the Moon and back five times over the past half century. But what is the history of the Timbit? This is the story. 🧵 1/6

One of the best things I’ve read in a while:

Thanks, Darren! I'll add it to my virtual life list :) Darren is an ornithology prof at the University of British Columbia, so has some interesting things to say about bird migration and how things can go wrong.

Excellent essay by @jeffvandermeer.bsky.social on how a faith-based focus on non-existent creatures detracts from our awareness & appreciation of the real (& marvelous) animals living around us. 🧪🐻🐾

America is a gun.

If you're looking for some toe-tapping tunes to stay warm this frosty weekend, may I suggest Schoonertown, the latest album by PEI's The East Pointers? ❤️🇨🇦🎶 youtube.com/playlist?lis...

📣 Join us - we’re hiring an engagement officer for the CAN BON 🍁 initiative! An effort to transform Canada’s capacity to mobilize its knowledge about the changing state of nature. See the job posting here👇 www.linkedin.com/posts/andrew...

Poor Stolarz 😓

There are more than 100 proposals for Indigenous Conserved and Protected Areas #IPCAs which could bring Canada closer to its conservation goals if they had the financial support they need. – Valérie Courtois, Indigenous Leadership Initiative #cdnpoli

BREAKING: Now that TikTok is under US-based ownership, the social media app potentially collects more detailed information about its users, including precise location data. My latest for @wired.com: www.wired.com/story/tiktok...

I saw a tayra in Costa Rica but our guide told us it was a jaguarundi (we only got a fleeting glimpse, it was very fast!). It wasn't until I got home and uploaded my photos to iNaturalist that I learned about this cool semi-arboreal weasel!

Robin catches fish

My first crochet project is complete! #crafting

Phil Collins: "I got COVID in hospital. My kidneys started to back up, you know, everything that started that could, all seemed to converge at the same time.” He joins a LONG LIST of high-profile individuals who are now disabled since Covid began. consequence.net/2026/01/phil...

It'll be -40 C in the nighttime this coming weekend, and also my bday. "True Winter" is one of my best chilly releases. I thought I'd share that "true winter" experience with you. So here's download codes so you can enjoy some freezing ambiance. (see next skeet) thegatelessgate.bandcamp.com/yum

When map turtles started showing up dead with their shells crushed, scientists set out to solve the whodunnit. @jesstaylorprice.bsky.social has the story for Nat Geo! 🧪🐍 www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/arti...

Free public lecture by award- winning ecologist Jack Imhof Thursday Jan 22 (tonight) online & in person Registration link & event details in the article (no paywall) and in post below. www.thespec.com/news/hamilto...

#Natgeo highlights the work of Dr. Grégory Bulté with support from our Climate Custodian, Cass Stabler, to help preserve one of Canada’s most climate vulnerable reptiles: the Northern Map Turtle. 📸 Michael Snyder & Justin Dalaba 🔗 www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/arti...

Today I learned something about Canada

It really grated on me that Don Robertson could not pronounce PWHL ("WPHL" and "PWHA") or Sceptres ("Spectres"), but managed to name men's teams and leagues no problem. #HamOnt

Tsundoku: A Japanese word for the art of collecting books and letting them pile up in your home, likely to never be read. (So, you know, most of us readers.)

How to get into nature.

🫠

CJZ research in the news brocku.ca/brock-news/2... Read the original study in the Canadian Journal of Zoology here: doi.org/10.1139/cjz-...