"H1N1 in Households, or the Math of Spreading Swine Flu", my latest Decoded Science article, discusses a recent research paper by Dr. Thomas House.

He found a statistical distribution, or mathematical model, that relates the spread of H1N1 throughout a household with the number of family members living in that household.

This could influence the way epidemics are recognized and handled in the future.

As always, both my DeHaan Services ("Math Fights H1N1 Flu in Decoded Science") and Xanga ("Math and Statistics versus Swine Flu") blogs transmit publicity about my latest online article.

Yesterday's writing tip was also about images, but had a focus on checking for permission before using someone else's picture that was published online.

Today is about selecting an image.

Both today's article in Decoded Science and yesterday's in DeHaan Services ("First International Day of the Girl at Yonge-Dundas Square", about the start of an annual autumn charity event in Toronto), use pictures of people to catch a reader's attention.

In fact, they use rather cute pictures of people.

It's important to attract attention. Use cute, bold, or surprising images to attract readers.

Yes, make sure the image relates to the article.

Do as most successful online magazines do: ensure that an interesting picture leads your article, much as this sneezing girl does in my publicity articles touting the way math can combat an H1N1 pandemic.

The United Nations has declared that Oct. 11 is the "International Day of the Girl".

My latest DeHaan Services blog post, "First International Day of the Girl at Yonge-Dundas Square", gives further details and points to the official web site.

"Plan Canada", a descendant of "Plan International" (once "Foster Parents Plan International"), is organizing the event, which mixes free entertainment with fund-raising and a touch of shopping.

Naturally my Xanga blog also promotes my article, in "The First International Day of the Girl"

Today's writing tip involves the use of web-sourced images.

I may, or may not, have stressed the importance of using images lawfully.

I've used Flickr's "Advanced Search" option for the vast majority of the images in my articles, taking care to select "Only search within Creative Commons licensed content" plus "Find content to use commercially".

Then I also right-click the image to find the terms. Generally "attribution" and "commercial" are shown, and sometimes "may (or may not) modify" is included.

Today I kept finding very suitable pictures by one photographer who also had a license stipulation in the right-hand margin, pointing to the Getty licensing agent.

That's fine; if I had a budget and lead time for my article, I might well have used that image.

As it was, I respectfully searched anew.

The writing tip is to be sure that you have the right to use the image before you copy it into your article. It's especially important if you want to write about such angels of charity as "Plan Canada" who organized the Toronto "Day of the Girl" event at Yonge-Dundas Square.

North Toronto has a couple of options for the 2012 Canadian Thanksgiving weekend, as I explain in "Two North Toronto Canadian Thanksgiving Events in 2012".

Yesterday, "2 Free Events for Thanksgiving 2012 on Queen's Quay in Toronto" presented a pair for Toronto's very southern edge.

North York Centre is just south of the Gibson House Museum, where an old-style farm kitchen demonstrates classic Canadian cooking for the autumn harvest.

Black Creek Pioneer Village goes one better, for those who reserve a turkey dinner, or the vegetarian equivalent, for one of their six sittings.

My recent article is also promoted in my Xanga blog ("2 Options for Canadian Thanksgiving 2012 in Toronto North").

To make up for a lack of creativity this late at night, let me recycle a double writing tip.

Once again, I've written about a pair of Toronto events. They are linked by geography, being in north Toronto rather than on southerly Queen's Quay. Plus, these events are linked as food-oriented, since they are set in the kitchen and dining rooms of their respective venues. (Yesterday's article was about events at two neighbouring sites).

Also, I've re-used an image from a much earlier article. I'd considered my stand-by of creating a map for these venues, but there is not much need once I explain that Gibson House is near the North York Centre. By the way, I had another map available for the Black Creek Pioneer Village site. Now that location truly deserves a map.

Today was busy for me, so I had to save time where it made sense. As well, it's Thursday so the weekend is fast approaching; and so I needed to get this article onto the Web while I can. That excuses the re-use of perfectly helpful images for my current article about options for the Canadian Thanksgiving weekend in Toronto north.

I felt fortunate to find and share two free Toronto venues that are practically neighbours for the upcoming 2012 Canadian Thanksgiving weekend.

"2 Free Events for Thanksgiving 2012 on Queen's Quay in Toronto" highlights Harbourfront Centre's "Harbour Kids" for those under the age of 12; and PawsWay's "Woofjocks Canine Performance Team" dog show.

My article includes links to their official sites, as well as an older meditation I'd published at Suite 101 called "I Have Problems with Giving Thanks at Thanksgiving". Surely this seasonal holiday deserves some personal thought about its meaning, rather than simply racing to visit relatives and dine in celebration of the harvest.

Naturally my Xanga blog ("Queen's Quay in Toronto for the 2012 Canadian Thanksgiving") also promotes my article.

Today's writing tip praises the ability to use coincidence in an article.

Specifically, I'd checked Harbourfront Centre's site to learn what they were doing for Canadian Thanksgiving 2012.

Then I researched what the City of Toronto offered for this same holiday weekend. To my delight, the PawsWay event was listed there, as well as several other festivities.

I knew that PawsWay is on Queen's Quay in downtown Toronto because it's on one of my favourite routes for my long training runs.

Rather than combine even more events into one messy stew of miscellany, I decided to present one article with a sharp focus. People can experience both free events in one trip downtown, or return again and again if they so choose.

I might yet write about another autumn Toronto event that celebrates Thanksgiving for this weekend, but today's single article makes a much tidier package.

It may be a coincidence that these events "coincide" in geography as well as in the calendar; but as a writer, it's a good thing to take advantage of this opportunity to write about two separate, free Canadian Thanksgiving events in Toronto that are good neighbours.