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Solarpunk around the world

I’ve seen a few posts with people trying to imagine how Solarpunk would look and how people would adapt in different parts of the world so I thought I’d share a few interesting technologies that are being developed.

Wasp’s 3D printer can be assembled by 2 people and can build houses with zero cost in materials because it uses mud, clay, natural fibers - basically anything that there’s plenty of at the site.

The Eliodomestico solar distiller can produce 5 liters of clean drinking water each day. You fill it with salty or dirty water in the morning and by the end of the day you have clean drinking water. 

The Wilson Solar Grill stores up energy during the day so that you are still able to cook dinner after dark, unlike the traditional solar grill that can only be used during daylight. Great for people in areas that currently rely on burning wood to cook food.

In colder regions with plenty of plant life you could use this compost heap heating system to keep your home warm.

Here is a fascinating article on how densely populated countries, who don’t have enough space for agriculture and currently rely on food imports, could find food security with floating vertical farms.

Abandoned oil rigs could be turned into living hubs and marine research stations.

WarkaWater Towers can collect 25 gallons of potable water from the air every day and are made from bamboo or juncus stalks.

Also for areas with little water scientists from Shanghai Jiao Tong University in China have developed a special fabric that can can clean itself just by being exposed to sunlight.

The Arctic Harvester is a concept for a floating city that would fuel itself by eating icebergs. It would also be designed to take advantage of endless daylight during summer.

Here is a proposal for a solar powered hydroponic food belt for the Arabian Peninsula.

I have a pile of other things on my Solarpunk The Tech That Could Make It Happen Pintrest board. All these new technologies excite me sooooooo much! 

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So I had a dream last night that I was the supporting character in. The main character had been the author, but was cursed into playing through his own story by some sort of sorceress. There were villages to save from dragons and such.

But what I remember was when he was asking for forgiveness. I told him it's like a pool of water.

See, if someone bumps into your pool of water and spills a little bit you drop a stone into the pool to raise the water again.

If someone bumps into you pool hard though you have to drop multiple stones into the pool to get it back to even.

But someone REALLY bumps into your pool and you have a crack that's leaking slowly; well first you have to address the damage of the crack and fix it before you can start trying to bring the level back to even. Then it might take a while to bring the pool back to level.

So then I woke up and thought about it. I think the way most people go about life is thinking it's not their job to fix other people's damage and that the other person needs to make it up to them. But I also thing that most people don't care about your pool of water or more likely they didn't realize that they had spilled. In that case it's the first person that suffers because they are thirsty. They think "It's that person's fault that I am suffering, they need to fix it."

It's not just. I don't think forgiveness is fair. But it is for your benefit.

P.S. I also realized that after my dream that stones aren't the perfect analogy, refilling the pool with a cup would make more sense. But hey it was a dream.

#forgiveness #dreams #philosophy

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Right. So I'm starting something that I can do from the safety of my house because staying at home saves lives. I'm starting my own MAGA thread, meaning Make America Green Again. I'm going to be sharing ideas for projects, maybe some science blogs, anything I can think about that will transform the toxic sludge that is the Trump campaign into a positive message that is accessible to everyone with internet.

I still haven't planned anything out, but I encourage everyone to join me to Make America Green Again.

#makeamericagreenagain #solarpunk #ecopunk #fuck maga #all your fanbase now belong to us

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all hail the glow cloud

#all hail

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thanksgiving is cancelled in 2020. instead, november will be a month of Dionysian madness, casting curses, moonlight revelry, dubious self-care methods, ritual sacrifice, and mashed potatoes. 

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Solarpunk stuff for really broke people

Hey! I’m excited about sustainability, but I’m really poor! So here are some tips if you are also poor. 

Some starter tips

There are some things you can take that, while not stealing, people won’t expect you to take. This includes seed collecting from untended gardens, portions of plants that grow in the wild, and soil from parks. This kind of stuff can cut down on expenses.

Seeds can be sold in expensive stores, but can also be taken from produce you buy. Stuff like garlic, onions, green onions, tomatoes, and potatoes are all really easy to reproduce by themselves. Care enough to want organic, heirloom, ect? Go to a farmers market, take the seeds.

Some places also do seed libraries or seed swaps. Keep an eye out for these, especially if you live in or near a big town. Dollar tree also sells seeds in the spring.

A lot of this might involve bending rules. Be sneaky and be careful.

Plants

Ideally, land to plant on in a garden is how food is produced. However if you’re like me you live in a cramped, overpriced studio on the second floor or something.

Yeah containers work. But you need soil for that, and you can’t grab all of it from potting soil bags ripped open at your local garden store. Maybe if you’re patient. But I’m not.

Hydroponic setups work better. One like this requires a plastic bottle, some kind of mesh, and fertilizer. 

Fertilizer is, in a lot of places, seen as a bright blue powder sold in gardening stores. You could buy that. I wouldn’t personally. You could steal it from a chain store. But more likely, you could make your own. This article talks about fertilizer from food and food waste. And you can learn about nutritional needs of plants here.

This method could grow herbs, leafy greens, and some vine plants like pole beans, with support. this is not recommended for root plants like potatoes, for a lot of reasons.

Of course if you have access to dirt (not necessarily potting soil) you’re in a better place. Do a few tests, like drainage and composition. PH shouldn’t be a huge deal if you’re digging it up, just find dirt that shit is already growing in. Find a container that can hold a lot of dirt, poke a few good sized holes for water drainage, and plant that shit!

If you manage to bring some of your shit past usable to seed, congrats! Maybe learning about seed collection would help you spread the love to your other friends.

Oh and since there are no bees in your apartment (I hope) you’re gonna need to hand pollinate fruiting plants.

Recycling and reusing

Perhaps the most efficient way of doing this is having friends who also reuse things. You’re not gonna be able to save every candy wrapper most days, and I’m in no position to give up simple luxuries like candy. If you got the money, finding local producers who use compostable/recyclable materials for your little luxuries is nice though. But some of us ain’t got that kinda money. And that’s ok.

As I said before, bottles can be used to make hydroponic gardens. Maybe if you want you can help your friends set up some gardens if you got one too many two liters from Little Caesars.

Plastic bags can be turned into plarn (plastic yarn) and used to knit or crochet. If you feel so inclined you can learn to make cool shit, like reusable shopping bags or something. You could also make a bunch of plarn and outsource this to your friend who likes to knit in exchange for something you wanna do, or are good at.

Egg cartons can be used as seed starters. If you use the cardboard kind, they’ll dissolve into the soil if you break em down a little before planting them.

Aluminum foil can be used to keep algae out of your hydroponic garden, or as an alternative to steel wool. 

There’s a lot that I could say, but reuse stuff is popular right now. Ideally, it should be reused into something that has a good use. And remember, sharing your talents and outsourcing things you can’t do is good and pure.

Green Power

This is gonna be a little more expensive. If you got a little money laying around, this could help reduce your power bill or something. But this isn’t gonna be free or next to free.

Phone chargers are an easy one to power. They charge up and don’t vary in their power needs.

This tutorial is, quite frankly, brilliant, and takes away a lot of the barriers to making solar powered stuff (like soldering). They tear apart a garden light to do this. That light could be used for some plants or something.

Wind and hydro are kinda unrealistic for an apartment, but it’s something people do.

Local resources

Food banks, community gardens, borrowing land, pooling resources. Buy an empty plot with your friends and start a community garden. 

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#if you love me let me go #panic! at the disco #panic #this is gospel #aesthetic #asthetic

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Bottle rocket under ice

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Orbital path of asteroid near miss in 2002. Yah, that’s how close we came to nuclear winter and possible total destruction.

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Flash freezing some samples with liquid nitrogen!

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If one remembers this particular episode from the popular sitcom ‘Friends’ where Ross is trying to carry a sofa to his apartment, it seems that moving a sofa up the stairs is ridiculously hard.

But life shouldn’t be that hard now should it?

The mathematician Leo Moser posed in 1966 the following curious mathematical problem: what is the shape of largest area in the plane that can be moved around a right-angled corner in a two-dimensional hallway of width 1? This question became known as the moving sofa problem, and is still unsolved fifty years after it was first asked.

The most common shape to move around a tight right angled corner is a square.

And another common shape that would satisfy this criterion is a semi-circle.

But what is the largest area that can be moved around?

Well, it has been conjectured that the shape with the largest area that one can move around a corner is known as “Gerver’s sofa”. And it looks like so:

Wait.. Hang on a second

This sofa would only be effective for right handed turns. One can clearly see that if we have to turn left somewhere we would be kind of in a tough spot.

Prof.Romik from the University of California, Davis has proposed this shape popularly know as Romik’s ambidextrous sofa that solves this problem.

Although Prof.Romik’s sofa may/may not be the not the optimal solution, it is definitely is a breakthrough since this can pave the way for more complex ideas in mathematical analysis and more importantly sofa design.

Have a good one!

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Inside  Out

Anger: Aries, Scorpio

Joy: Pisces, Cancer, Leo

Disgust: Gemini, Taurus, Libra

Fear: Capricorn, Virgo

Sadness: Aquarius, Sagittarius

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So, my friend has been trying to get me to read these books, because I don't already have fandoms people throw at me from all sides. But this guy seems to be cool. 

A) He likes Doctor Who. That is enough for me.

B) He References Tolkien. 

C) He seems cool. 

But I still have four books I am in the middle of, plus five or six tv series. I think it will have to wait. 

Anyways all good things enjoyed come to those who wait.

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