For the love of God sound ON

hey don’t cry. spiro the bald eagle failing at catching a crab, okay?

oh mood

pessimist: the eagle has failed to catch a crab

optimist: the crab has succeeded at catching an eagle

SOUND ON.

NnnNNNN... mmmBLRBGLRGHNNNNnnn! BLHLRGHHHHH! Mmmmn... Yblgblghbbhgmmmn. Yrh BLRGHmmn!

Excellent captions. 10/10

Scrolled past this agakn and just can't get over how much I love it. We need to make things beautiful again and this is such a wonderful example. The beadwork on the wires of a utitarian object, contrasted with the grey concrete.

yesss im always saying this like sure i can give you logical advice but at the end of the day you can just do what you want to do until youre sick of it. cant move on cant switch gears til youre sick of it so go ahead and indulge

Book Club

What is a book related to solarpunk that has made you feel like a different person after reading it? That changed the way you looked at an issue, that made you reevaluate everything you knew about a topic, that made you walk around in a daze as thoughts swirled around your head too fast to make sense of? (That last one might just be me)

Let's talk about them! I'll go first. Walkable Cities: How downtown can save America, one step at a time, by Jeff Speck.

I'm actually not even all the way through it yet, but it's making me want to pack up and move to a city, when I have always been rather adamant that I never want to live in that populated of an area, after having lived rural for so much of my life. The idea of not having to own a car or drive one is incredibly appealing, but the evidence provided about the impacts of so many of us having personal vehicles is damning. The fact that so many cities are intentionally designed for cars, at the literal monetary expense of pedestrians, is absurd. The amount of pollution that is produced, the dependence on gas, the fact that most of the money spent on cars and fuel goes straight out of the community and to line the pockets of the rich is infuriating. Electric and hybrid cars don't solve these problems.

So this book is changing my life. What book should I read next that will change it more?

@plainsborn: becky chambers! a psalm for the wild build a prayer for the crown-shy

Yes!! This blog, as well as many of the posts I see, are dedicated solarpunk in the here in now. It's so important to dream though, of what the world could be like, and A Psalm for the Wildbuilt really changed how I did that. Our lives could be so good, couldn't they?

@spoiledmilk2012: braiding sweet grass

Another good one! I borrowed the audiobook from the library a few years ago, finished it, and promptly bought a copy for me and another for my mom. What stuck with me is how hopeful it is. So many books about the environment and Indigenous people in the US are -rightfully and understandably - bleak, to say the least. Wall-Kimmerer didn't shy away from the facts of the matter, but where other books can feel defeated and immobilizing, I walked away from that book ready to fix things.

@profiterole-reads

Everything for Everyone: An Oral History of the New York Commune, 2052–2072 by M.E. O'Brien and Eman Abdelhadi

I haven't heard of this one before, I'm adding it to my to-read list right now. Thanks for the recc!

I've got a few recommendations that kinda fit? They give me hope for the future and show me what might be possible.

Dark Emu - Bruce Pascoe

Dark Emu looks a lot more to the past than the future, but a lot of what it talks about is highly relevant to the future of farming, food production, and life in an Australian future. It's a really good overview of a lot of things, and I think that it's interesting information no matter where you are in the world.

The Care We Dream Of: Liberatory and Transformative Approaches to LGBTQ+ Health - edited by Zena Sharman

This is my number one recommendation for anyone who works in healthcare. It presents a beautiful view of what healthcare could look like for LGBTQ+ people, but so many of the ideas are just solid, patient-centred care.

Falling Back in Love with Being Human: Letters to Lost Souls - Kai Cheng Thom

Sometimes changing how we approach the future and implementing change means we need to look after ourselves, and remembering why we fight. This is a book that helped give me a lot of hope when I needed it.

Mend!: A Refashioning Manual and Manifesto - Kate Sekules

There are parts of this book I don't agree with (we can't all just buy vintage garments and refuse to engage with modern clothes), but some of the ideas about mending, and clothing repair are really solid. It's also a practical book with a lot of tips and teaching people how to mend. If anyone has better books on the topic I'd love to hear about them!

The Last Girl Scout - Natalie Ironside

I joke that this book is political debate wrapped in a compelling story, but I've put it on this list for the world-building. The ways Ironside thinks about food production, building community and caring for each other are fantastic. There is a lot in this book that I think can serve people when it comes to thinking about community, and working together for shared goals, despite our differences. Trigger warnings for like absolutely everything though.

And one more that isn't a book (yet) but is an amazing webcomic - Runaway to the Stars. If you like Becky Chambers I reckon you'll love it!

The only one of these I've heard of is The Last Girl Scout, which is already on my to-read list, but I'm adding the rest! The Care We Dream Of sounds really interesting, I already put in a request for my library to acquire it.

@aspiringwarriorlibrarian: Locklands. It’s an odd one but it’s world of radical empathy sure made an impact

Added to the list!

@tam--lin Rutger Bregman's Humankind, and Solnit's A Hope In The Dark. Also Sheldrakes Entangled Life, in a way.

I've had my eye on Humankind for a while, I'll bump it up my list! Haven't heard of Hope in the Dark, but it sounds really good.

I've read Entangled Life, it's a fascinating read. If fungi are of interest to you, I read the intro to In Search of Mycotopia: Citizen Science, Fungi Fanatics, and the Untapped Potential of Mushrooms this morning and it sounds amazing - criticizing capitalism and the patriarchy before we've even made it to chapter one!

@fandom-and-random: ok this one might seem a little morbid, but The Smoke Gets In Your Eyes - Lessons From The Crematorium, by Caitlin Doughty (ask a mortician on youtube). an incredible memoir that asks questions about why our culture interacts with death so strangely, and answers with alternately sad, gross, and heartwarming stories from a career in the death industry

I've heard of Caitlin Doughty, but I didn't know she wrote a book! Adding that to my list.

@southernsolarpunk: #robin wall kimmerer's The Serviceberry!!! #as soon as I read it it shot it's way to the top of my solarpunk book recs #she talks a lot about the gift economy and the alienation of labor under capitalism #very good book please read it I will recommend it forever

Funny story, this has been sitting in my home, on my to-read pile, since January. My dad loaned me his copy to read and I just. Have not done that yet! It sounds really good, and Wall Kimmerer is a fantastic writer and storyteller.

I didn't read your email but I gave it a sniff

i’m starting a collection

the collection grows!!!!!

A+ weird little dude, but I'm equally fascinated by the choice of music.

The night sky on Mars

I was wondering whether the constellations would look any different on Mars, so I looked it up, and apparently not; galactically speaking Mars is so close to us that the difference is imperceptible. However, I did find this neat additional bit:

If you know me, you know I’m a fan of “covert” fight scenes. Scenes where two people are fighting but they’re both pretending that something else is going on. This one from Dreadnaught (1981) is one of the best.

By the way, the guy that choreographed this scene, later went on to choreograph The Matrix films, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Kill Bill.

soon may the wellerman come, your brain gets smart but your head gets dumb

the reviews are in

"male loneliness epidemic" is misleading because it implies that men are suffering because they can't get girls when I feel like the actual problem is that pretty much any online content that's aimed specifically at men conceptualizes the masculine ideal as what I call the Buff Scammer. there are only two things in this world that matter, says the Buff Scammer: being jacked and making money. how you get to either of those things doesn't matter, you just need to be as rich and as buff as possible or you have failed as a man. Get into drop shipping. Eat nothing but raw meat. Rugpull a memecoin. Remove seasonings from your diet. Sell an online course. Go to the gym daily. Starve yourself so your body will achieve ketosis and start burning fat. Attend a seminar on real estate investing. Work 80 hours a week. Take steroids but don't let anyone know about that part. Flip a YouTube channel after 10xing the subs. Sell AI art on Etsy and AI audiobooks on Amazon. What's that? You're trying to do this to get girls? Why would you care about women? Women are all stupid whores who don't help you get richer or buffer. The only people you should be paying attention to are other rich, buff men. If you do hang out with women you should be pimping them out on Chaturbate so you can at least get an ROI off your time spent not thinking about men. Male friends? You don't have time for friends. You should be hustling and grinding 24/7 365. And if you absolutely do need to spend time around other men you should only be spending time with other buff scammers so you can collaborate on entrepreneurial ventures. Like Jesus Christ even writing this is exhausting I feel like trying to be this dude would be fucking miserable like not only did you turn yourself into a friendless, materialist, misogynistic asshole who can only conceptualize the world in terms of value extracted but you're NOT EVEN HAVING FUN DOING IT!!!!!!

At some point in my transition, the "hate yourself, get an eating disorder, buy product" messaging I get switched from woman flavor to man flavor, and omfg. What the hell is this shit!

The "woman" version would often disguise itself as self care. There's this facade of softness and gentleness. ("indulge yourself: buy skincare! do what's right for YOU: starve yourself and smile emptily at zucchini noodles! this is empowering. your body is a temple, divine feminine chakra mother!!!") In the man version, no such thing. Self compassion is not allowed. You've got to brutally grind yourself into the shape of a Real Man or die trying, but you don't get to *enjoy* being the Real Man because comfort is for girrrrrrlllssss.

My dangerous trans gender ideology is that being a man should be enjoyable. If there's nothing fun about it, change your approach or stop being a man.

annoying as fuck

I think my favorite memes are the ones about insignificant but universally relatable things

"In a degraded and semi-arid farming area in India, simple science-driven changes to the landscape have colored the horizon, and a village’s fortunes, with green.

In the Latur district in the central western state of Maharashtra, 40 years of erratic rainfall, groundwater depletion, soil erosion, and crop failures have impoverished the local people.

In the village of Matephal, the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) launched a project in 2023 that aimed at addressing these challenges through integrated landscape management and climate-smart farming practices. [Note: Meaning they've achieved this much in just two years!]

Multiple forms of data collection allowed ICRISAT to target precise strategies for each challenge facing the 2,000 or so people in Matephal.

Key interventions focused on three critical areas: water conservation, land enhancement with crop diversification, and soil health improvement. Rainwater harvesting structures recharged groundwater around 1,200 acres, raising water tables by 12 feet and securing reliable irrigation. Farm ponds provided supplemental irrigation, while embanking across 320 acres reduced soil erosion.

Farmers diversified their crops, converting 120 or so acres of previously fallow land into productive farmland with legumes, millets, and vegetables. Horticulture-linked markets for fruits and flowers improved income stability.

Weather monitoring equipment was also installed that actively informed sustainable irrigation practices.

“It is a prime example of how data-driven approaches can address complex agricultural challenges, ensuring interventions are precise and impactful. Matephal village is a model for other semi-arid regions in India and beyond,” said Dr. Stanford Blade, Director General-Interim at ICRISAT.

Farmers actively participated in planning and decision-making, fostering long-term commitment.

“This ICRISAT project improved yields, diversified crops, and boosted incomes. It also spared women from walking over a kilometer for drinking water, now available in the village for people and animals,” said Mr. Govind Hinge of Matephal village.

Looking ahead, ICRISAT writes it wants to use Matephal as a case study to scale these methods across India’s vast and drier average. As Matephal’s fields flourish, the village is a testament to the power of collaboration and science in transforming lives and landscapes."

-Article via Good News Network, March 3, 2025. Video via International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), February 26, 2025

plants love being polyploid its one of their favorite things to be

you give animals an extra set of dna and they crumble into a little cartoon pile of ash. you give plants an extra set of dna and they say ahh finally an extra set of dna to do activities with