Gen 📚 🇨🇦

Lover of libraries, the written word, and metadata. History and genealogy enthusiast. Happiest with the sand between my toes and the sun on my face.

[Idiotocracy @theidiotocracy]

🇨🇦 Yesterday, you shared the Canadian Shopping List 400+ times—and sent me some great suggestions.

I listened.

More brands. More categories. Regional choices. Ownership reviewed.

Here’s the expanded edition. Save it. Share it. Shop Canadian. 🇨🇦

#BuyCanadian #Canada

[The English Remnant @Englishremnant]

For centuries, families across Britain slept in what was known as a box bed, a wooden bed built into the wall or enclosed with doors, designed to keep out the bitter cold of winter.

Far more than a place to sleep, the box bed was a practical solution in cottages where space was limited and every bit of warmth mattered. By enclosing the bed, families trapped precious heat, reduced draughts and gained a little privacy in homes where several generations often lived under one roof.

These humble beds witnessed every stage of life. Children were tucked into them at night, babies were born in them, and loved ones spent their final hours there, surrounded by family. In many cottages, the box bed even formed part of the wall itself, helping divide the living and sleeping areas of a single-room home.

To modern eyes they may seem cramped, but to those who lived through harsh winters with little comfort, the box bed was a warm, secure refuge, a simple piece of craftsmanship that helped ordinary families endure generations of rural life.

Sometimes the greatest achievements of the past were not castles or cathedrals, but the quiet ingenuity that made a house feel like a home. 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿

[Fascinating History @Fascinate_Hist]

A 2,300-year-old Scythian woman's boot preserved in the frozen ground of the Altai Mountains.

[Stefan Moore ★ @2StefanMoore]

A quiet revolution is happening in cancer treatment. 😀

Using live MRI imaging, doctors can now see tumors in exquisite detail while a patient lies comfortably in the scanner. Once the cancer is precisely mapped, they slide a needle thin probe straight into the heart of the tumor, often through just a tiny nick in the skin.

Then, in seconds, super-cold argon gas floods the probe tip, dropping the temperature inside the tumor to –100 °C or lower. An “ice ball” forms & engulfs the cancer, shattering malignant cells while healthy tissue just millimeters away stays unharmed. The entire process is watched in real time on the MRI screen, giving doctors millimeter perfect control.

No big incisions. No general anesthesia in most cases & many patients walk out the same day & are back to normal life within days instead of weeks.

This technique (MRI-guided cryoablation) is already saving kidneys, sparing men from the side effects of whole gland prostate treatment, shrinking liver tumors & helping patients who were previously told “surgery isn’t an option.”

Centers like Johns Hopkins, Mayo Clinic, Memorial Sloan Kettering & MD Anderson are expanding its use every year, with success rates now rivaling surgery for many small to medium tumors & complication rates often lower.

For the right patients, freezing #cancer to death under MRI guidance isn’t science fiction anymore; it’s becoming the new standard of care. ❤️

[Dr. Brian Goldman @NightShiftMD]

An exciting development in Alzheimer’s research. A treatment that reduces tau protein production.

[Michelle Cowbourne @Glastomichelle]

A bit of portal energy brought to you from St Michael's tower on Glastonbury Tor. 🌟Photograph taken this morning at sunrise.

[Carolyn Rockey @CarolynWRockey]

Jo Nagai was raising swallowtail butterflies at his home in Kobe, Japan, when he noticed something odd. The ones he had looked after as caterpillars seemed to recognize him. Wild butterflies fled. His didn't.
He was in second grade. He wrote a four-page letter to Dr. Martha Weiss, an entomologist at Georgetown University who had studied whether moths could retain memories through metamorphosis. He asked if she could help him design a version of her experiment for butterflies.
She said yes.
Using a muscle therapy device, Jo trained caterpillars to associate the scent of lavender with a mild vibration. When the caterpillars became butterflies, 70 per cent of them still avoided the lavender. Their brains had been completely rebuilt during metamorphosis. The memory survived anyway.
Then he bred them.
The offspring, which had never been trained, also avoided lavender. So did their grandchildren. Without ever experiencing the vibration, two generations of butterflies inherited an aversion to a scent their grandmother had been taught to fear.
Jo documented it all in a 33-page research paper and presented his findings at the International Congress of Entomology in Kobe in 2024. He was 10.
A second grader wrote a letter to a Georgetown professor, and together they found evidence that butterflies can pass memories down through generations.

-Wilderness Whisper

[Kashif Pirzada, MD @KashPrime]

Make sure to use the 'recirculate' mode in your car's ventilation system. It brought the PM2.5 count in my car down to 10 ug/m3 from 55. Didn't feel that choking sensation as much.
God help us all!

[Kashif Pirzada, MD @KashPrime]

Many of you in the US Northeast and Central Canada are waking up to the worst air quality in the world (from wildfires). Here is some advice to get through the next few days:

- Avoid running, cycling, outdoor sports and strenuous yard work while the air is bad. The harder you work, the more pollution you inhale, the worse you'll feel.
- Check the AQHI (air quality health index) before going out. If its high, better to stay indoors.
- If you have asthma or COPD, keep your inhalers handy. The soot from the fires will trigger these conditions and could lead to an emergency
- Wear an N95 mask if you plan to spend a lot of time outdoors. Even a surgical mask will help a little bit
- Check on vulnerable people in your family and community
- Set up HEPA filters indoors. Most home heating/HVAC systems should have filters, if you don't, then get a standalone filter sized to the rooms in your home. Even taping a filter to a box fan can help.

If you're feeling short of breath, are wheezing, feel winded, can't catch your breath... get indoors to cleaner air, and call 911.

[Jack Posobiec @JackPosobiec]

Croatia has stormed the Eurovision final with a historic anthem that denounces the Ottoman occupation and revives the ancient Christian tattoo tradition to protect young girls from rape

Performed entirely in Croatian, the song slams centuries of Islamic Turkish occupation of their lands and recalls how Catholic girls were tattooed with Christian motifs to stop them from being abducted, converted to Islam, and forced into sexual slavery

"That’s why many chose the grave, our mothers did not birth slaves”

Turkey is already attacking the group for performing the song

[Made In Canada @MadelnCanada]

Americans: I use miles and pounds

Europeans: I use kilometres and kilograms

Canadians: [snorting a line of assorted measuring systems] I'm 5'8, I weigh 150lbs, horses weigh 1000kgs, my house is an hour away and I drive 80 km/h to get there, I need a cup of flour and 1L of milk

[Tara Dublin @taradublinrocks]

This is GLORIOUS

David Letterman & Stephen Colbert on the roof of the Ed Sullivan Theatre bringing back the classic @Letterman routine one last time

This is how you go out, @StephenAtHome! 😂

And may @CBS implode literally the same way without you

[𐌁𐌉Ᏽ 𐌕𐌉𐌌𐌉 @OrevaZSN]

Whatever Microsoft engineer decided to make the Teams status indicator change from green to yellow after two minutes of inactivity, come here. I just want to talk.

[Jen @JentheWoz]

Times 100 Most influential people of 2026. To reach this level of prestige after a year is beyond words. Congrats #DrCarney #MarkCarney PMofCanada #Canada #CanadaFirst

[TrendShift 🍵 ⏳ @TrendshiftTea]

what you do if someone breaks into your home?

An Ex-theif beautiful lady shares tips on home to be safe when a thief breaks into your home 😭😂😭😭
you really never know what your next scroll will be

[𝗖𝗹𝗮𝘀𝘀𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗹 𝗠𝗲𝗹𝗼𝗱𝗶𝗲𝘀 @Old_But_Gold50s]

Bach in the rain. For anyone who needs something beautiful right now.

[Scott Robertson @sarobertson_]

PM Carney: "Many of our former strengths, which rested on our close ties with the United States, have become our weaknesses now ... And while we have overcome the initial shock of the betrayal, we must never forget the lessons it has taught us. We must take care of ourselves."

[MERICA MEMED @Mericamemed]

This is simultaneously the funniest and most relatable reel I’ve ever seen in my life

[Stuart Benson @LeftHandStu]

If you're in downtown Ottawa on Wednesday evening, the National Arts Centre will be livestreaming the launch of the Artemis II lunar mission from the five-story screens of its outdoor Kipnes Lantern.

The first of two launch windows opens tomorrow at 6:24 p.m. and you can check for updates at https://t.co/fcqoj7vF8h

[CN Tower / Tour CN @TourCNTower]

Tonight the CN Tower will dim for 5 minutes at the top of every hour in honour of Air Canada pilots Antoine Forest and Mackenzie Gunther who died in the plane crash at LaGuardia Airport