Jamey Ruth Klassen: Canadian Hero at 16

By

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August 28, 2025

Jamey Ruth Klassen is a Canadian recognized for her heroic actions in saving a man from drowning in Georgian Bay, Ontario, in July 2020, at age 16.

Rescue Incident

On July 26, 2020, Christopher G. Robertson’s kayak capsized in Georgian Bay near Collingwood, Ontario.

Klassen, then a high school student from Guelph, Ontario, observed the situation from Sunset Point Beach.

She swam approximately 600 feet to reach Robertson, who had sunk to the bottom of the lake, about 12 feet deep at that location.

Klassen dove down, pulled him to the surface while he was unconscious and not breathing, and with great effort, brought him closer to shore.

Assistance from a paddle-boarder helped bring Robertson the rest of the way.

After Jamey rescued Robertson from drowning, emergency teams from the Collingwood and Blue Mountains Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) and local paramedic ambulance services assessed him on shore and determined he was in critical condition.

Medical responders provided immediate care, including basic life support to stabilize his breathing and consciousness before transporting him by ambulance to a nearby hospital for further evaluation and treatment by medical professionals.

Robertson received the necessary hospital care and recovered after the incident.

Recognition

For her extraordinary courage, Jamey Ruth Klassen was awarded the prestigious Carnegie Medal, the highest honor for civilian heroism in North America.

News outlets and social media widely recognized her bravery, with many calling her a hero for risking her life to save another.

At the time of the rescue, Klassen was a 16-year-old student from Guelph, Ontario, on vacation with her family.

Jamey Ruth Klassen is proof that heroes don’t always wear uniforms or capes.

Sometimes, they’re 16, fearless, and willing to risk it all for a stranger.

sources —

https://www.carnegiehero.org/hero-search/jamey-ruth-klassen/

What are Piezoelectric Floor Tiles?

By

Aimee

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August 17, 2025

Piezoelectric floor tiles are specialized tiles that utilize piezoelectric materials—such as quartz, ceramics, or polymers—that generate an electric charge when subjected to mechanical stress or pressure, like footsteps.

When someone steps on these tiles, the embedded piezoelectric substance converts the pressure into a small amount of electrical energy. This can be stored, used to power low-energy devices such as LED lights or sensors, or contribute to smart building systems.

See Video

How Piezoelectric Floor Tiles Work

- Mechanical Pressure: Footsteps generate stress on the tile.
- Energy Conversion: Piezoelectric materials within the tile, like lead zirconate titanate (PZT) or PVDF, convert this mechanical force into a small electrical charge.
- Energy Use: The resulting energy may be stored in batteries or used directly for low-power applications such as sensors or lighting features.

Applications

Piezoelectric tiles are most often installed in high-traffic locations like airports, train stations, shopping malls, and public walkways where many footsteps occur throughout the day. Despite the innovative approach, the amount of energy generated from each step is quite low, so they’re generally best suited for micro-energy solutions rather than powering large facilities.

Limitations

- Low Power Output: The energy produced per tile per step is modest and usually restricted to powering small devices.
- Cost: Specialized materials and installation can be expensive, which limits widespread adoption for large-scale energy production.
- Durability: These tiles must withstand high foot traffic and changing environmental conditions over time, which poses engineering challenges.
- Efficiency: High volumes of foot traffic are needed to generate notable amounts of electricity, making them best for busy public spaces.

Piezoelectric floor tiles represent a creative, sustainable solution for harvesting energy from human movement, especially useful for powering sensors and small LEDs in smart buildings or public spaces. However, due to the modest energy output and relatively high cost, their use is currently limited to niche applications rather than large-scale energy generation.

sources —

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piezoelectricity

Radium in the Roaring Twenties

By

Alan

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August 17, 2025

Radium in the Roaring Twenties, was a new kind of miracle substance that captivated America, promising not just a faint, ethereal glow but a newfound sense of vitality and health.

Discovered by Marie and Pierre Curie in 1898, radium was initially hailed as a miracle substance, marketed in products like cosmetics, toothpaste, health tonics, and even food items, believed to cure ailments from cancer to impotence.

Its most prominent use was in glow-in-the-dark paint, like *Undark, applied to watch and clock dials, compasses, and military instruments.

This paint, made by mixing radium with zinc sulfide, was especially in demand during and after World War I for its ability to glow without sunlight, unlike fluorescent paint.

The Radium Girls

The young women who worked with it were known as the Radium Girls.

They were employed in factories across the United States, meticulously painting the luminous dials of watches with radium-based paint.

To achieve the delicate brushstrokes needed, they were instructed to lip-point — shaping the fine brushes with their mouths, unknowingly ingesting the deadly radioactive material with every pass.

They were told the substance was harmless, even beneficial, and often left work glowing faintly in the dark, a silent testament to the poison they carried.

Health Effects

The promised glow, however, hid a horrific reality.

As the years passed, the radium began to wreak havoc on their bodies from within.

Their bones began to crumble, their jaws rotted, and they suffered from severe anemia and cancers that doctors could not yet diagnose.

When the women began to sicken and die, their employers denied any connection, altering medical records and bribing doctors to cover up the truth.

The companies that had celebrated their beauty and skill now turned their backs on them.

La Porte v. United States Radium Corporation

It was only when a few courageous survivors, facing unimaginable pain and imminent death, took their fight to court that the truth began to emerge.

Their landmark legal battle against the U.S. Radium Corporation in the late 1920s became a turning point in American history.

The Radium Girls not only exposed the lethal greed of a powerful industry but also laid the groundwork for modern labor laws and workplace safety standards.

Their story is a haunting and tragic reminder of the human cost of corporate indifference, but it is also a powerful testament to the resilience of those who, with their final breaths, fought for justice and forever changed the world for the better.

sources —

La Porte v. United States Radium Corporation, 13 F. Supp. 263 (D.N.J. 1935)

How the Global Flood Preserved History

By

Alan

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August 16, 2025

The global flood has provided one of the most dramatic fossils ever discovered that shows a flying reptile, a Pterosaur, locked in combat with a fish known as Aspidorhynchus.

The fish has its jaws clamped tightly around the Pterosaur’s wing, and both animals are preserved together in stunning detail.

What we are seeing is not the slow work of millions of years, but a snapshot frozen in time — a violent struggle instantly cut short.

This fossil poses a serious problem for the idea of slow sedimentation.

If these creatures had been buried gradually, scavengers, decay, and water movement would have destroyed the scene.

Instead, both predator and prey were rapidly entombed before they could even separate, capturing the moment forever in stone.

Such preservation only happens when overwhelming forces bury living creatures suddenly under massive amounts of sediment.

From a biblical perspective, this is exactly what we would expect from the global Flood described in Genesis.

As the waters surged and sediment flowed, countless animals were buried in mid-action—eating, swimming, giving birth, even fighting for life.

This fossil is one of thousands that record catastrophe on a massive scale, not the calm passage of deep time.

Tall Tales

Far from being a tale of evolution and millions of years, the Pterosaur and fish locked together in stone testify to the reality of God’s judgment through the Flood, very likely just thousands of years ago.

For those that might argue that fossilization takes millions of years, it might be important to know that science can fossilize wood in just under a week.

Planet earth can and does change it’s land forms over short periods of time.

Mount St. Helens

After it’s eruption in 1980, the mud flows cooled and settled, they began to solidify.

Over time, the volcanic ash and debris mixed with water formed a cement-like material, which eventually hardened into rock.

This process contributed to the geological changes in the area surrounding Mount St. Helens, creating new land forms and altering river paths.

I’ve quite often wondered what kind of fossils I might find under the sedimentary rock that Mount St. Helens created just 45 short years ago — who knows — I might find a fossilized fish, or an elk, or maybe even a bear.

Macro‑Friendly vs. Actual Food

By

Alan

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August 13, 2025

Macro-friendly foods are those optimized for their macronutrient profile—most often high in protein, lower in fats and carbs, and providing more food volume for fewer calories. The term is popular among people tracking their macros (protein, carbs, fat) for specific fitness or weight loss goals.

Foods described as macro-friendly often have a higher protein-to-calorie ratio, making them supportive of muscle-building or fat-loss diets.

Often, these foods are processed or modified versions of traditional foods (e.g., protein wraps, low-fat sauces, sugar-free syrups) to help meet calorie or macro targets while feeling fuller and more satisfied.

Macro-Friendly Example Swaps

Food Type	Regular Option (Actual Food)	Macro-Friendly Substitute
Mayonnaise	Full Fat: 90cal/10g fat/0g prot/0g carb	Fat-Free: 10cal/0g fat/0g prot/2g carb
Tortilla	Flour Tortilla: 300cal/10g fat/7g prot/46g carb	Joseph’s Lavash: 100cal/4g fat/10g prot/14g carb
Ranch Dressing	Hidden Valley: 145cal/15g fat/0g prot/2g carb	Bolthouse Farms: 45cal/3g fat/1g prot/3g carb
Syrup	Aunt Jemima: 210cal/0g fat/0g prot/52g carb	Cary’s Sugar-Free: 20cal/0g fat/0g prot/5g carb

Pros of Macro‑Friendly Foods

- Help you eat larger portions for the same or fewer calories
- Facilitate easier adherence to calorie/macro-based diets, crucial for weight loss or muscle building
- Prioritize protein intake, supporting satiety and muscle maintenance

Limitations & Considerations

- Macro-friendly foods can be heavily processed to fit specific dietary goals. They may lack the micronutrients or other health benefits of whole, minimally-processed foods.
- Focusing solely on macros can lead to choices that neglect food quality, fiber, vitamins, and minerals.
- Long-term health is best supported by a foundation of whole foods: fruits, vegetables, whole grains, legumes, lean meats, nuts, and seeds, which provide nutrient density beyond macros.

Macro-Friendly vs. Actual (Whole) Food

Actual food (whole food) refers to minimally processed, nutrient-rich foods that naturally contain both macro and micronutrients essential for overall health.

Macro‑friendly foods prioritize macro ratios and calorie control but may lack the complexity and nutritional value of whole foods.

Personal Thoughts

Whenever I think Macro-friendly, I often imagine some scientist in a lab somewhere pouring over a stack of spreadsheets.

Whenever I think of actual food, I’m reminded of how I’ve eaten the real deal my entire life. Whole milk, cheese, butter, beef, salad, sugar, and so on and so forth.

Somehow I’ve managed to stay as close to a real diet as possible though, and even after all of these years my weight has varied ever so slightly from when I was in high school.

Some might call me lucky but I don’t think luck has much to do with it. There’s nothing wrong with a little exercise and sunshine — it does a body good, and so does real food.