I Started Working On An Edible Forest Garden Three Years Ago, And This Is The First Year That It’s

New 'e-dermis' brings sense of touch, pain to prosthetic hands

Amputees often experience the sensation of a “phantom limb” – a feeling that a missing body part is still there.

That sensory illusion is closer to becoming a reality thanks to a team of engineers at the Johns Hopkins University that has created an electronic skin. When layered on top of prosthetic hands, this e-dermis brings back a real sense of touch through the fingertips.

“After many years, I felt my hand, as if a hollow shell got filled with life again,” says the anonymous amputee who served as the team’s principal volunteer tester.

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Honestly if your response to "I dont have many skills that would be useful in a post-capitalist society" is "so I guess I'll just be pursuing my intellectual hobbies as my contribution to my community" instead of "so I guess I'll be doing dishes in the cafeteria/janitorial work/manual labor" you should really reconsider how you come at the very concept of work and society as a leftist. Is socialism no longer appealing if you have to do the work you previously took for granted? Is the liberation of the proletariat not worth it if you have to contribute something besides your dream job in academia or leading support groups? Are you really "too good" for "that type" of work, even if it is for a world where no one starves?

we will still have hobbies/run d&d/learn other languages under socialism - in fact, we would likely have far more time to pursue them than under capitalism - but when we think of our future labor, we ought to consider the "menial" tasks that keep society running; loading boxes onto trucks, cooking in a factory kitchen, packaging medical supplies for distribution, building new homes as a worker and not an architect. these jobs will never disappear, and to assume that someone else will do them while you lead workshops or go to school to become a trained professional is to announce your continuing loyalty to petite bourgeois ethics. The dream of socialism is not a fantasy where you continue to do the exact same thing you want to do under capitalism, but now with a clear conscience about it. It's to build a better world as one global movement, to lift up the most oppressed and downtrodden from the muck; a task which requires, above all else, heavy and thankless work that we must be prepared and happy to undertake if we ever hope to succeed.

Succulent Care Guide

I see a lot of people killing their succulents due to ignorance of how to care for them. Here’s a quick guide!

Lighting: Most* succulents require full sun, meaning they need direct sunlight for 4-6+ hours a day. South or west-facing windows are ideal for succulents. You can also move your succulent around windows throughout the day to give as much light as possible, if you want.

If your succulent has previously not received enough light, GRADUALLY give it more and more sun over two weeks. This will prevent sunburn.

Failure to give your succulent proper lighting will result in etiolation – a process in which your plant will grow lanky, weak stems in an attempt to find more light. 

If you can’t provide enough light, succulents probably aren’t right for you. Look into lower light plants, such as pothos or peace lily!

Type of Pot: Succulents need a pot with a drainage hole. End of story. No rocks in the bottom will help, no bullshit. Drainage. Hole.

Size of Pot: Pick a pot no more than one inch larger than your plant’s rootball. Overpotting will kill your plant. Oversized pot = too much soil = more water than your plant can use = death from root rot.

Soil: Regular potting soil is terrible for succulents as it’s water-retentive. Succulents like well-draining soil with lots of perlite or pumice, and gritty ingredients such as fine bark or turface. Look for a cactus&succulent soil mix, or just improve regular soil by adding 50% perlite. Avoid anything with peat moss! Avoid MiracleGro.

Time to Water: Find a wooden toothpick for small pots, or a wooden dowel for larger ones. Insert the wood into the soil. If it comes out wet, with damp soil sticking to it, it’s not time to water yet. If it comes out clean and dry, your succulent is thirsty! Think of checking brownies with a toothpick to see if they’re done baking. 

This is recommended because often times your finger cannot feel the soil towards the bottom of the pot, and you need to make sure all of the soil is dry before watering.

DO NOT WATER ON A SCHEDULE. DO NOT RELY ON A WETNESS METER (THEY ARE INEFFECTIVE). DO NOT WATER DAILY. Listen to your plant!

How to Water: When your succulent’s soil is dry, water thoroughly, until water drains out of the drainage hole. Allow all excess water to drain before putting it back into any saucers or decorative pots.

*Some succulents’ lighting needs may vary – such as Haworthias with “windows” in their leaves, who don’t like as much sun, or Sempervivums who need much more sun than most. Look up your specific plant’s care to be sure!

Those “clean energy is ready to go whenever” memes annoy the hell out of me because they’re typically ignoring two-thirds of the issue.

In a nutshell, there are three legs of energy infrastructure:

Power generation: Getting the power in a useful form

Power transport: Getting the power in a useful form where you need it

Power storage: Getting the power in a useful form when you need it

In  some respects, clean power generation is, indeed, a solved problem; clean transport and storage, however, are not. For many applications, no good non-polluting alternatives exist, and when they do, the environmental costs of setting up and maintaining those alternatives are not, themselves, insignificant. (Look up what goes into your average rechargeable battery some time!)

No, that doesn’t mean it’s an impossible problem, nor does it in any way excuse the continued intransigence of the the petrochemical industry. It does mean that there’s still a great deal of important work to be done, and it’s galling that so many self-labelled environmentalists are just casually contemptuous of it all - often to the extent of accusing researchers in power transport and storage of being oil industry shills for having the temerity to discuss the remaining challenges - because “clean energy is ready to go whenever”.

Greenhouse  by Travis Anderson

Winnipeggers rally to call for just transition from reliance on fossil fuels

Change must be made to protect 'our planet and our civilization from disaster,' one attendee says

A group of about 100 people rallied outside the Canadian Museum for Human Rights in Winnipeg on Saturday to call on the federal government to make a major pivot away from fossil fuels.

The Liberal government has pledged to move the country toward a post-carbon economy, and organizers of Saturday’s rally want to see a plan to make that happen.

Instead, governments are putting the responsibility for solving the climate crisis on the backs of individuals, said one attendee.

“The evidence that climate change is caused by humans and is causing extreme weather events and other catastrophic results is not deniable, so we need to take action because this is a crisis,” said Melanie Dennis Unrau, a volunteer with the Manitoba Energy Justice Coalition.

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Tagging: @politicsofcanada

Tiny Houses in Urban Context

I’ve seen a lot of really great tiny home designs, and I’ve seen a lot of love from other people for those designs as well. They combine a small space, perfect for one or two people, that usually only apartment buildings design for, with the benefits of having a detached home, with a yard, and windows on all sides for more natural light. 

What I don’t see is a whole lot of context, least of all in an urban neighborhood environment.  These houses are often pictured in an open grassy, or forested space, which is nice for some people I’m sure, but there are lots of people who would prefer to live in a city, in pedestrian and transit friendly areas, rather than in the middle of nowhere, where you’d have to use a car to get everywhere.

There already exists an urban context for tiny homes, but due to restrictive zoning, it’s not commonplace in most cities in the U.S.

They’re called Bungalow Courts, or sometimes Cottage Courts, and basically it’s where you take two adjacent lots, and rather than having one large single-family-house per lot, you have around 3 or so tiny houses per lot, all facing a shared space in the center. 

 All this takes up the same space as two city lots, which are usually zoned to only allow one house per lot. But not everyone wants, or can afford a large house, so Bungalow Courts would be a perfect fit in a lot of neighborhoods that currently lack a lot of housing diversity for a range of wants and needs.

Anyway, I just thought I’d share, because I think this a really neat concept that should be allowed more places. I’d think I’d like to live in a Bungalow Court; I like the idea of having a house to myself, but I don’t need much space, and I don’t want a huge yard to maintain.

In order to make this legal to build out, zoning would need to be changed to allow 3-4 units of housing to be built on lots currently restricted to only 1 unit of housing. A big contributing factor to rising housing costs has been the over-favoring of single-family houses on large lots since the end of WWII, so not enough units of housing are being built in many cities to keep up with demand. 

Legalizing more “missing middle housing” like Bungalow Courts in single-family-house-neighborhoods would help cities incrementally keep up with demand, in a way that fits nicely into existing neighborhoods. 

Happy Earth Day!! Tick off your progress of your zero-waste journey! How many do you do already and how many will you be able to do by the end of the year?

Going zero waste is something that everyone adapts to differently according to what they have available, so do what you can, be aware and spread the word!

I wanted to add a link to every product, and I also need to add some other things but if you want to help me out that’d be great!