solarPUNK

The other day Hind Khoudary said something so heartbreaking in response to being asked about what are Gazans' reactions to news from that day, and she simply said "people here don't know, they don't have access to the outside world".

But we can help change that. You can purchase eSIMs and Mirna's team will distribute them to people in Gaza.

Here are instructions on how to buy eSIMs for Gaza. You should also follow Mirna El Helbawi to know which eSIMs are needed more.

Raised intersections! These are intersections where the road gently rises to the level of the sidewalk, acting as slight speed bumps for cars and eliminating the need for going up and down ramps with mobility aids or carts

Level train platforms and user operated bus ramps! Ramps operated by external buttons and level platforms make it so that wheelchair and walker users don’t need to speak to a driver to access transit

Moped cars/micro cars! Miniature cars often used by people who can’t use bikes. Many of them are so small that they fit in bike lanes

Frequent bench placement! A walkable street is one with places to rest.

Air conditioned bus stops! In places where it often gets super hot frequent bus stop placement combined with air conditioning can make transit safer and more accessible to more people

Cargo bikes! Who needs a car when you can haul your stuff and/or dogs around in a bike?

Hakama like pants (skirt?) made to retain its bottom pleats when sitting in a wheelchair thanks to a mesh insertion, once again a great inclusive design work by Kei Hirabayashi for Tottolink/Bottomall. About this work; OP states:

Last year, when I consulted with a wheelchair user about clothes that look beautiful when sitting, “It would be interesting to have bottoms that fold at right angles, assuming that you can put on and take off while sitting.”

I made this flower pin with recycled glass collected from around the city I live in. Would make a lovely cloak fastener on a solarpunk outfit. The metals are nickel and brass.

Happy Juneteenth! Wishing you a joyful day of celebration.

hi! i can tell that you care about animals. you want to help them. thats awesome! thats so good!

this is the wrong way to do it, okay? animal agriculture is a cornerstone of human society. it existed long, long before us and it will exist long, long after. shaming people for eating cows will not end it. in fact, animal agriculture is the reason we have cows at all! and thats super special!

so, how can you help?

if you want cows to live long healthy lives, the easiest way to help is to support smaller local farmers! shaming anyone that eats meat not only does nothing to help animals, it keeps the power n money with all the big wealthy farming conglomerates that do actually mistreat animals!

cussing at people that advocate for animal welfare and humane farming practice helps no one. by behaving like this, you are harming your image, you are harming your cause, and you are harming cows. donate to the spca or something if you want to help, okay?

"Who will help me plant these seeds?" the Little Red Hen asked.

"I would." said the Horse "But I'm a workhorse, and I'm too busy moving carts around."

And so the Little Red Hen planted the seeds by herself. And they grew into bountiful golden crops.

"Who will help me harvest the wheat?" the Little Red Hen asked.

"I would." said the Dog "But I'm a guarddog, and I'm too busy keeping away burglars and predators."

And so the Little Red Hen harvested the wheat herself and made it into flour.

"Who will help me bake the flour?" the Little Red Hen asked.

"I would." said the Pig "But I'm a mother of 5 newborn piglets, and I'm too busy taking care of my young."

And so the Little Red Hen baked the bread herself into twenty beautiful loaves.

"Who will help me eat the bread?" the Little Red Hen asked.

"We would." said the Farm Animals. "But we're ashamed, for we didn't do anything to make the bread."

"Nonsense!" said the Little Red Hen. "You, Horse, helped move around the stones that built my oven. You, Dog, kept me safe while I worked. And you, Pig, are raising a new generation of Farm Animals, who will too contribute to our Farm one day. You've all helped me so much by simply being you."

"Besides," the Little Red Hen added. "I couldn't possibly eat all the loaves on my own, most of them would go to waste. Come, eat with me."

one of my "special interests" in the past couple of years has been exploring fast fashion vs. slow fashion. it has been a long journey trying to find clothes that actually 1) fit me 2) look good 3) are made from material that is not actively shoving plastic in the ecosystem 4) involve ethical labor, fair trade, fairly compensated, etc

before i did this research, i really had no clue about fabrics or fashion brands. i used to think i had zero interest in fashion, in fact.

i grew up wearing walmart and thrift store clothes, and when i went to college i bought clothes from target and asos. something started to shift a little bit when i found vintage resellers on etsy and ebay... those clothes were so unique. but a lot of the vintage clothes were polyester blends, stiff, and would fall apart as easily as my asos clothes. i would leave them hanging in my closet and never wear them. i would wear the same old t shirts and jeggings every day. i felt like it was impossible to ever wear comfortable clothes, or ever feel good in clothes, so why bother?

it started with linen. linen is very comfortable and pretty sustainable. i was amazed that i didn't feel the urge to rip my clothes off when i wore linen. lightbulb number one.

a friend let me borrow a nooworks dress, and i went to the store and got some overalls. wow. overalls. lightbulb number two. holy shit, you can wear overalls. you know how people say "not binary or non-binary but a secret third thing." that's overalls.

i realized i loved the bonkers prints that nooworks had, and all of it was soft, and made ethically. it was a higher price point than i was used to, which gave me pause. but then you realize: we're not supposed to be buying dumb clothes every other weekend. and isn't a slightly higher price point for soft clothes that you won't want to tear off your body worth it?

so i started my research. i made a spreadsheet. the prices can be all over the place across brands, so i made a column for prices. sizes can be all over the place too -- people always ask me "where is the plus size slow fashion?" it's there. just look at the size column. people say "isn't it better to buy secondhand?" yeah, it is. i have many links to secondhand sources.

Sure, there will be as many ways as there are outcomes you might want.

Before we talk about any plantcraft we ask where we are, what the land is like, and what we want to achieve here. So I’ll sort of fill that in a bit on your behalf and that might give you some ideas.

I’m just going to randomly presume that you’re in the New England region of the USA for no other reasons than 1. Lyme babyyyy and 2. It’s where I’m from, so lol. We’ll presume you have a quarter acre of unbroken turf with no landscaping or features, in American suburbia, but near enough to undeveloped woods that ticks have a fairly unbroken habitat and complete their lifestyle appropriately. We’ll presume that they are definitely present and frequently foray into the housing development. And we’ll presume that your outcome and intentions are basically: “I want to feel like this space DOES MORE for the environment, specifically by reducing the need for inputs and maintenance, and increasing the biodiversity on this property; but I’m not able to change my entire way of life, which is set up mostly how I want it already.”

If you live in the NE region, then the ticks you mostly live with are the American deer and dog tick. and the bad news about those buddies and my presumed vision of your situation is that you should be practicing rigorous tick checks in everyday life anyway! even if your yard is a sterile moonscape 😌🙃 because they are endemic, insidious and on the rise due to climate change; and in your situation it’s not unreasonable to expect them even if you keep a lawn suitable for competitive croquet, and hose it down with permethrin. So step one is to practice tick safety regularly anyway: for yourself in the shower when you shower, and for your dog when you’re sitting on the couch.

Secondly, it sounds kind of like you and your dog go out in the yard off-leash, or want to, so it could be a good idea to fence the property or just a defined play area on it. because a) dogs are dogs, and b) limiting deer access is a gentle way to limit the food cycle.

Okay so what next? Here are some ideas that will all give different outcomes.

1.) barrier off a small pleasant grassy area for you and your dog to play in; keep it quite close-cut. You have your area and the ticks have theirs.

2.) barrier off the least desirable corner of the property , ideally near an existing tree, and score a small piece of turf with a sharp tool; drop in some purchased native wildflower seeds. let the turf grow out, go to flower, and seed. When it goes golden let it stand there. Add a stack of logs and erect a “bug hotel”, of some description, which won’t do much for bugs but will tie the look together. Put up a wooden sign reading THIS SPACE RESERVED FOR NATURE. You have your area and the ricks have theirs (other way around.) this sounds insane and instagrammish but if you live in a suburb, HOA area, with others, etc then you’ll be surprised how much the Explanatory Sign changes the way people feel about it. Also, saves you having to radically redesign anything. You made a Nature Bit, and that can be a complete sentence or the beginning of a journey. Maybe over the years you can add a water source for wildlife, more plantings, and generally observe how it all evolves.

3. Practice No Mow May and Let it Bloom June. Just don’t mow the lawn in May and June. Do more by doing less. These initiatives started in the UK, but have had great results when trialled in America - learn more here: https://beecityusa.org/no-mow-may/ and if it’s just for two months, why not make it a personal science project? Journal the number of ticks you pick off your dog on your tick check - it’ll be kinda interesting to know anyway, wouldn’t it? Are you restricting your life for fear of a problem that ends up not being reflected in the data? - and count how many butterflies you see. Also: really easy branding on this one, easy to explain to the neighborhood, easy to put up a sign or post links on Nextdoor, quite easy to get buy-in from neighbors. Now there’s an idea. Having a continuous coordinated butterfly-friendly grass habitat across several properties in May and June is more impactful than having a shitty half-considered plan in one. Plus, you’d be dodging the dry hot part of the year that’s most attractive to ticks.

4. Keep pet Guinea hens. Haven’t you always wanted pet Guinea hens? They’re small, empty-brained dinosaurs that scream like they’re being skinned, act like you’re going to eat them whole, and have no redeeming properties except for eating deer ticks and dropping pretty feathers for crafts. They will invent 65 new ways to kill themselves just to make you feel guilty. What? You just said you didn’t want ticks, you didn’t tell me you HATED BIRDS -

5. Keep the lawn, dig a few large holes in it, and drop in a loose grid of baby fruit trees. Most of them are not native to the USA, they’re definitely not wild, but they’re part of creating a different kind of Space: shaded, cool, covered, offering blossom to insects and (soon) shelter to animals, encouraging mosses and lichens, not impacting ticks or your dog much one way or the other, not really wanting any work from you, and being generally considered Improvement to the Neighborhood. And you’ll see the benefit while you’re still living in the house, which you won’t normally with Big Proper Trees (which will probably be cut down by the next owner, where fruit trees are considered strangely lovable and have long lifespans). You can mow if you like (don’t strim the trunks!) or not, plant flowers in the grass beneath or not, prune them for fruit bearing… or not. If over time you find that you’re loving the trees and how they change the whole vibe, surprise - you’ve gotten a head start on a big journey towards a yard that feeds you and nature. And while they may not be native, there are few critters that say no to a plant raised for blossom and sugary fruit; the wasps alone will grasp you by the collar and murmur gratitude in your ear. Next year you might fill in some shrubs, or take your experience from raising apple trees (surprise, they’re usually the easiest trees to raise - plug and play trees, basically) to other, more difficult prospects. Maybe you’ll have levelled up so far that you’ll be ready to take on some big challenges. Black walnut…? Anyway 5b) trees live on a different time scale to us, so if you crave having more of them, I’d suggest starting with keeping one or two adorable entry-level ones, pay attention to them, and see how you get on.

6. Call up the local cooperative extension, find your local Facebook eco group, and get in touch with your local community for what they’re doing (and do they have any free plants.) it may well turn out that you have no taste or energy for doing much with your own lawn, but you end up spending every weekend in a local national park tending to the reintroduction of rare orchids. Who knows. Also, they might have free plants. Anyway, advice from people who know the land, not me.

7. Journal and pay attention to the land you have, and what your local nature preserves look like, through the seasons. YOU generate YOUR OWN ideas about what you want your home to look like. Slot the bits together and call it your own plan. Also, read “Reading the Forested Landscape,” because it changed my life as a child and im projecting on you.

8. Flip the turf over, replant with clover or something that meets your needs, and call it a day. Eh, bees like clover, it doesn’t grow high enough for ticks and it gets on surprisingly well with dogs. See also any other groundcover, but make sure it’s good for dogs - you have a duty to the dependent animal you already have, it doesn’t matter if you get internet points or not.

9. Hire a local nature-centred landscape designer for a consultation. This is literally exactly what my neighbor does for a living, and you’d be surprised — it isn’t just RICH PEOPLE who hire him. They will come over, squint at the angle of the sun, and reinterpret everything.

10. Don’t trust anyone who tries to answer the question with a list of plants that you should just go out and buy, unless they are a local person who knows your land, such as the landscaper from number 9 or the professor from 6, or someone similar.