Solarpiracy - SolarPiracy

not enough fireworks and champagne on the whole fuckin continent to celebrate this the way you're supposed to celebrate it

French senator Claude Malhuret sums up the world made by the current American administration, 5 March 2025

The Local

Meet Your New Landlord: a Local Non-Profit | The Local

The Neighbourhood Land Trust has been snapping up buildings across Toronto, taking them off the market and into the community. Over 200 unit

A piece on community land trusts as a response to gentrification. They take rental housing off the market, eschew the prioritization of profit, and keep tenants and their rent where they are while involving tenants in democratically running the neighborhood

Grieve AND organize.

Good article by David Hunter on how to survive the Trump presidency, both on the personal and on the political plane.

Waging Nonviolence

There is hope — 10 ways to be prepared and grounded for another Trump presidency

The key to taking effective action if Trump wins is to avoid perpetuating his goals of fear, isolation, exhaustion and disorientation.

Author Ken Liu Explains "Silkpunk" to Us

Ken Liu’s new novel The Grace of Kings is a sprawling fantasy set amidst war, rebellion, and border-crossing intrigue. But it also features a truly fresh technological world to explore. Here, Liu explains to us where that technology came from—and just what exactly “silkpunk” means.

Ken Liu talks about silkpunk in his latest novel:

“Like steampunk, silkpunk is a blend of science fiction and fantasy. But while steampunk takes as its inspiration the chrome-brass-glass technology aesthetic of the Victorian era, silkpunk draws inspiration from classical East Asian antiquity. My novel is filled with technologies like soaring battle kites that lift duelists into the air, bamboo-and-silk airships propelled by giant feathered oars, underwater boats that swim like whales driven by primitive steam engines, and tunnel-digging machines enhanced with herbal lore, as well as fantasy elements like gods who bicker and manipulate, magical books that tell us what is in our hearts, giant water beasts that bring storms and guide sailors safely to shores, and illusionists who manipulate smoke to peer into opponents’ minds.

The silkpunk technology vocabulary is based on organic materials historically important to East Asia (bamboo, paper, silk) and seafaring cultures of the Pacific (coconut, feathers, coral), and the technology grammar follows biomechanical principles like the inventions in Romance of the Three Kingdoms. The overall aesthetic is one of suppleness and flexibility, expressive of the cultures that inhabit the islands.”

Do armadillos actually roll?

actually, the three-banded armadillo of south america is the only armadillo that actually rolls when in distress!

the larger and more common nine-banded armadillo of central and north america actually has too many bands in its shell to form a proper sphere, so what they do instead is... perform a three-foot vertical leap to startle an attacker and run like hell once they hit the ground, trusting their armor to protect them from attacks from the rear!

and for an animal completely covered in bone armor, they can sure pull a high rate of giddyup if they have to!

nyoom

The Resurgence of Waffle Gardens Is Helping Indigenous Farmers Grow Food with Less Water

In the face of climate change and persistent droughts, a growing number of people from Zuni Pueblo in New Mexico and elsewhere are adopting the traditional farming practice.

For the past 64 years, Jim Enote has planted a waffle garden, sunken garden beds enclosed by clay-heavy walls that he learned to build from his grandmother. This year, he planted onions and chiles, which he waters from a nearby stream. It’s an Indigenous farming tradition suited for the semi-arid, high-altitude desert of the Zuni Pueblo in New Mexico, where waffle gardens have long flourished and Enote has farmed since childhood.

“They are the inverse of raised beds, and for an area where it is more arid, they’re actually very efficient at conserving water,” said Enote, who leads the Colorado Plateau Foundation to protect Indigenous land, traditions, and water. Each interior cell of the waffle covers about a square foot of land, just below ground-level, and the raised, mounded earthen walls are designed to help keep moisture in the soil.

Similar sunken beds for growing food with less water have been used globally in arid regions, arising independently by Indigenous farmers, including across distinct Pueblo tribes in the Southwest. “When you have ecological equivalents you often have cultural equivalents,” said Enote. As climate change deepens, he sees this tradition as one of many ways to adapt while building food security and sovereignty.

Comrade I picked a bad time to get radicalized when it comes to safe organization. I’ve already linked up with my local DSA chapter but there’s really not much I can do except for attend zoom meetings and kind of just sit around with my dick in my hand. Besides sending money and going to more outdoor protests, do you have any suggestions on what to do about direct action while a meet up with my local groups is pretty much impossible?

First of all, welcome to the insurrection, friend! We’re glad to have you on!

I don’t think you’re alone in this boat. Material conditions are such that lots of people are getting radicalized-- they’re being evicted, they’re fleeing climate apocalypse, they’re seeing their loved ones die from cops and coronavirus and they’re helpless to stop it. They’re getting deported and fired and laid off and atomized and can’t even afford to subscribe to shitty streaming services as a palliative force.

Your first instinct-- to find others-- is fundamentally correct. We can only effect real meaningful change in large numbers. We don’t have the cash, but we have the people and we got the guillotine.

Do you have a job? Do you have a union? If the answers are yes and no, respectively, now is the time when you can organize more easily with your co-workers outside the control of your boss. Test the waters in friendly conversation with people you can trust not to snitch, and consider organizing your workplace. The IWW has a very useful guide on how to do so.

Do you rent? Consider forming a tenants’ union. Organizing one of these is less dangerous than organizing your workplace, as you don’t report to your landlord regularly. If your landlord tries to kick one of you out, all of you can strike.

Many mutual aid efforts are still ongoing in the face of lockdown. Now more than ever, we need to care for each other. Food Not Bombs probably has a chapter near you, and the ones around where I’ve lived continue to operate (albeit with precautions like gloves). Join one of those efforts. I’d focus on housing and food-related mutual aid.

Finally, use this time to learn a useful revolutionary skill. You can grow a tiny garden even if you’re in an apartment, you can learn to brew cider, mead, beer, and wine. You can learn to sew and mend, build structures, forage, survive in the woods, read revolutionary lit, and shoot with/care for a gun. Get comfortable carrying heavy things on your back, and expand your cardio abilities (lots and lots of running). Not everyone can run, of course, but do whatever you can to make it easier to escape or throw a punch (when we get back into contact with each other, take up a self-defense art). Once you know the basics, teach them to someone else.

If anybody else has ideas, please put them here!

And again, welcome, comrade, and good luck.

Glassware can get pretty expensive especially if you’re in college and always getting sht faced and breaking your glasses. Start just using your empty beer bottles and turning them into your new glasses. Look dope, easy to make and cheap! Follow these 5 easy steps.

Step 1 – Grab a beer bottle preferably with thick glass such as corona bottles. Tie a string just above the label on the empty bottle

Step 2 – Keep the string tied and soak it in lighter fluid.

Step 3 – Put the string back on the bottle and hold it horizontally. Light the sting rotating the bottle so the flame spreads. You should hear the bottle crack slightly in about 10 seconds.

Step 4 – After you hear the crack, pour cold water on the string and the top of the bottle will fall off.

Step 5 – Now grab sandpaper and sand the edges of the bottle till it is smooth.