For vacant/neglected land, it's great to learn what invasives, weeds, and tough & abundant natives are edible. Giant knotweed, Himalayan blackberries, yarrow, etc fill-in-your-plants-here. Also it's great to go around pulling out invasive species because people will just think you're a really committed environmentalist, and you can harvest other edibles while you're at it. Be doubly sure about the land history though, don't want to unknowingly be picking from a superfund site! And for goodness sake, be sure of your ID! I've seen people mistake Oregon grape (native) for English holly (invasive) before, and you don't want to be that person.

With tubers/roots especially, you need to know the history of your soil and/or get a soil test for heavy metals. There are ways of improving polluted soil, and certain plants/parts of plants have less or no contamination. Cornell has a pdf available for free titled "Soil Contaminants and Best Practices for Healthy Gardens" which has a lot of good information, please do read it if you're gardening or foraging in urban areas.

From experience, landlords often have no clue and don't care if things are grown in pots/incorporated into existing landscaping. A big pot with Swiss chard, lettuce, kale, etc can look pretty aesthetic. Apartment complex often have edible invasives and/or the above mentioned edible and/or native plants- and nobody picks them.

You can also learn to graft, and graft fruit bearing varieties onto existing ornamental varieties- crab apples, pears, cherries, plums, etc.

A lot of people just straight up ignore plants, and a lot of people have no clue what food looks like if it's not in a store or restaurant. Use this to your advantage. I have seen landscapers look at a plant that clearly doesn't belong (invasive spurge laurel, for example, which is neither a surge nor a laurel), or is growing up through another (hazelnut through a rhody), and just completely ignore it, watering, fertilizing, and pruning them just like the rest. The ones most likely to do this are the ones that "prune" everything to be a cube or sphere though, so keep that in mind. What can still produce food when whacked into a cube? A few things. Also, look for the edges and backs, and places where the landscapers let things slide a little because they figure the clients won't ever look there.

Aww, @mtnman451 did someone challenge your world view, and present an idea that would lead to less human suffering in the world, and it's so scary that your flight or fight response kicked on shutting off your ability to think rationally, leaving you only with petty insults and baseless accusations?

Oh, am I wrong? Do you have some good, sound studies to disprove the idea? Or are you just repeating what the media has told you?

Well, you tried to re-engage your rational brain, but sadly, you didn't quite make it. Too scared to look for real world evidence because it might show you that you're wrong and then you'd have to face up to the realization that you've been lied to all your life and we don't have to just stand by while others suffer?

Aww, @mtnman451 did someone challenge your world view, and present an idea that would lead to less human suffering in the world, and it's so scary that your flight or fight response kicked on shutting off your ability to think rationally, leaving you only with petty insults and baseless accusations?

Oh, am I wrong? Do you have some good, sound studies to disprove the idea? Or are you just repeating what the media has told you?

You may not like my answer: acknowledge that sexism can affect men. Recognize that, although the patriarchy generally privileges men, they are also subject to restrictive gender roles that are harmful to them (shunning all things “feminine,” not showing emotions, being protectors/strong, never admitting being victims of SA/IPV, having to “earn” their manhood, etc.).

Give young men a place other than the right-wing manosphere to be heard about the issues they experience. If these grifters are telling them “only we understand how hard it is to be a man, the left hates you for your gender” and they look to the left and see “men claiming they have ‘problems’ are losers who just hate women, all men are trash,” do you think they’re going to be drawn towards or away from feminism?

Nobody walks into a counter-cultural space knowing everything about it - else, it wouldn't be counter-cultural. That boy was brought up with the lessons The Patriarchy teaches, and was punished when he strayed, and rewarded when he did not. That's a LOT of unlearning to do.

The first is that you have to recognize that we are talking about what we can do. Feminist, progressives, etc. What can we do. Our potential actions are limited. This is what is within our reach.

The second is that just because there is something we can do does not mean we are the root of the problem. So many people get defensive when these things are suggested and outright say something along the lines of "how dare you say this is our fault?" when that is not what is being said. You have to give up that knee jerk reaction if you want to be effective.

It's sure been true for me that the more support I have in my own life and the more I honor my own emotional needs, the easier it is to take on the work of fixing what I didn't cause but want to change.

So if considering this☝️ upsets you, maybe take a step away from activism for a while and focus on getting that support.

All I hear from leftists is how much they hate me for my immutable traits, how much they blame me for everything wrong with the world, how much they want me and everyone who looks like me dead.

Whereas Alt-right types would call me "brother" and welcome me into their ranks so long as I hated the right ways.

Do you understand the difference?

The same patriarchal, anti-feminist system that harms women also harms men. The same gender roles that pigeon hole the vastness of human variability and potential into a tiny, ill fitting allotment of space for women, does the same thing to men. It is the same coin, just different sides.

Male children are raised to cut off their emotions, to cut off their vulnerability, to cut off their needs- and by doing that, our culture has also cut off their ability to be fully human and to fully connect to others as human. This is a thing done to them, and yes, women have a hand in it.

All I hear from leftists is how much they hate me for my immutable traits, how much they blame me for everything wrong with the world, how much they want me and everyone who looks like me dead.

Whereas Alt-right types would call me "brother" and welcome me into their ranks so long as I hated the right ways.

Do you understand the difference?

using broad generalisations like 'men are trash' just isn't an effective strategy imo. it gives free ammunition to right-wingers to say to men "look, i told you that women/gays/leftists hate you!!". and, more importantly, it reinforces the seeded beliefs of impressionable young men who could've been swayed to our side.

(i just thought of this) think of it this way: when you look at the right-wing and they are spewing generalisations at every opportunity, it pushes you away from them. one of the reasons you don't want to be right wing is because of the bad things they say about you and others. it works exactly the same way vice versa.

hating on a whole gender is also not good for trans people, to my understanding. would a trans guy want to transition if men are monsters? would a trans woman want to transition if all she sees are bioessentialists who may not accept her? i'm not trans, but i think this makes sense? correct me if i'm wrong.

in short: generally-hating on men alienates half of the entire planet, which is obviously not a winning plan if one's cause (i.e. equality) involves human beings at all.

The same patriarchal, anti-feminist system that harms women also harms men. The same gender roles that pigeon hole the vastness of human variability and potential into a tiny, ill fitting allotment of space for women, does the same thing to men. It is the same coin, just different sides.

Male children are raised to cut off their emotions, to cut off their vulnerability, to cut off their needs- and by doing that, our culture has also cut off their ability to be fully human and to fully connect to others as human. This is a thing done to them, and yes, women have a hand in it.

Women are not better than men. Hurting men does not help women. We are all humans. Scoffing at and dismissing the ways the men and boys are hurting does not help anything. It is not a neutral act. It is directly harmful to everyone.

Americans have a weird way of thinking that they know the politics and actions of a person, based on their race and gender.

The fact of the matter is a lot of women voted for Trump. A lot of Latinos voted for trump. A lot of millennials and gen z voted for Trump. A lot of college educated folks voted for Trump.

We, as people who are not conservatives, need to ask why. We need to look at the data, we need to look at what voters said, we need to get to the why. And then we need to change things.

We can not afford to continue allowing the democratic big names to look down on and mock poor, uneducated, rural, religious folks.

We cannot afford to alienate more than half the population; we cannot afford to leave them behind, we cannot afford to let them think that we don't care about them. We cannot afford to let them think that we don't care about their futures and their success.

The group that leans the most republican is White evangelical Protestant- but Evangelical Protestants only make up 25.4% of the total population, and almost twice as many belong to the other Christian groups. That's not so lop-sided, I believe that we can make inroads. And I believe that because I believe the actual values of the left are more in-line with Jesus's teachings than the right.

Do you remember Jesus's message? It wasn't in favor of the behavior of the president elect, I can tell you that.

What can we do to convince the lean republican voters to instead lean Democratic?

You know who's fault that is? Who raises men? In this country, who does the majority of child care? Who is it that tells little boys not to cry? Who tells little boys to be tough and brave, to hide their feelings?

Fucking everyone, that's who, but especially mainstream women. But I know men can be gentle, and feminist, and frankly, more emotionally intelligent and skilled than I at building connection and relationships. Because I've met men raised by actual feminists, and I've met men who have lived long enough that they had the opportunity to learn better than how they were raised.

We have got to stop painting all men with the same brush. If we want progress, if we want things to get better, than from a practical perspective, it's much more helpful to say that most men at their core care and are good people, and that we need to work together to stop the ones that hurt people. We should be encouraging the good men around us to stand with us as allies, not saying that they are our enemies.

That will look different for everyone, but one thing that will be universally required in the days and years ahead is compassion and an unshakable commitment to kindness.

We will help each other through this. We will find ways to help other people. We will protect the people we love and even those we don’t to the best of our abilities. Because that’s the only option we have.

We will do it angry, we will do it sad, we will do it terrified. But we will do it.

Look at your state and your community- what has changed? What can you do to support that change (if it's a good one) or mitigate it (if it's a bad one)? What are the on going problems of your community that aren't effected by this election and what can you do? What organizations are already working on them? Can you join them? Or donate? Or do free advertising for them?

Looking nationally, celebrate the wins. There are some.

The walls are made of stone, but they are very, very thin. This makes them vulnerable to earth quakes, windstorms, etc. Also, one of the primary benefits of stone walls is their thermal mass. These have so little thickness, they wouldn't have any thermal mass and if it were in a temperate climate, this location would be miserably cold.

Spot lights are high and in recessed locations- they won't help you see to do work, they're useless up there.

No windows and no screens: lots of bugs, including disease carrying mosquitos. Bad idea.

Granite counter tops are expensive, not a diy project, require annual sealing to prevent staining, not easy to repair (but to be fair, not easy to damage), and since they're heavy would use up a lot of energy for transportation.

Lights burning energy just to look cool, as there's plenty of natural light

This is trying to look like it's in the tropics, and a big glass roof over head just makes me feel like the direct sun light would be hot and uncomfortable. But then there's plenty of openings for heat to leave. IDK, looks hot.

Things that could be solar punk, theoretically:

The gas stove could be powered by a biogas digester

The water from the sink could be diverted through a grey water system to water crops

All food waste could be composted to return nutrients to the crops

The lights could be used only when needed an powered by a solar panel

This could be an outdoor kitchen that's undergoing construction and is (remember, this is fiction) just being staged for this photograph and they're going to complete construction later.

The rocks in the walls might not actually be rocks, they could be actually constructed out of some new fangled fungus grown thing, allowing for thin walls grown off of waste product, and as this image is clearly trying to imply the tropics, perhaps the walls don't need to be very insulating