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RISD researchers create floating mycelium pods to cleanse waterways

A team of RISD students and researchers have created floating planting beds made of a mycelium to cleanse waterways of pollutants

A team of Rhode Island School of Design students and researchers have created tesselated, floating planting beds made of a mycelium biomaterial to cleanse waterways of pollutants and restore wetland habitat.

The floating Biopods act to introduce native plants back to degraded wetland systems while cleansing the water through bioremediation, or the re-introduction of microorganisms that naturally decontaminate their environment.

"Because of the urbanization of the Providence River itself, a lot of the wetland that acts to actively remediate pollution had been removed. So the project is really about reintroducing this new biology to kick start these ecosystems again so that the river might repair itself."

"It's interesting, the relationships that we have to biomaterials and the way that we are connected to systems that have the potential to remediate in a way that isn't electricity intensive or chemically intensive," said Banerjee.

Bionicle Anomalocaris V.2

Once you start thinking about humans as a species in a biome, it affects your entire way of looking at normal things.

The other day I referred to female morning joggers as an 'indicator species' in that if you see women jogging in the dark it means that the environment provides migration pathways (sidewalks, clear signs) and doesn't have any known predators of female morning joggers (guy with knife, bear, BigTruck, male morning joggers).

Though, I think that people consider framing humans as animals reacting to their environment as rude.

Every post I make about lawns leads me back to the reality that the problem is Homeowners' Associations, so I am trying to research Homeowner's Associations (I don't know what they are exactly), and as far as I can tell they are some type of lawn mafia (?)

This website which has "HOA: Everything you need to know" provides this information:

you pay money to them every month

the money sometimes (?) is used to maintain a pool or something that you can swim in

they make up rules for things you can't do in your own house or yard

if you break the rules, they make you pay more money, sue you, or kick you out of your house

People sign a contract that lets the Homeowner's Association control their lives for the reason that they might get to swim in the pool and because of a persistent rumor that HOAs increase "Property Values" (?) although the website says "The data is mixed on whether that's true or not"

This is one of those things where it seems like we would have remembered to make it illegal by now. I live in my house and some stinky punk tries to tell me that I can't paint it a color- the very boards of the side of my house. If I continue, said putrescent busybody then removes me bodily from my home for painting the wall that I bought and legally own, rendering me homeless. This seems to run contrary to many rights and freedoms a citizen is assumed to possess

you call this place "wall greens" yet its walls... are not green? how very pecuilar...

I hate how everything's called devices and apps now. Those are frail words with no weight and show no respect like machine and program do.

"Original" Sin is what i've titled this piece. by me. sorry if you don't have "collapse long posts" enabled. I have many thoughts.

Transcript - References

final track I had the honour of working on for Vast Error Volume 5: Side B

Listen to Vol. 5: SIDE B >> HERE <<

Or listen to GAIAEON (OUTRO) >> HERE<<

Compare the way gymbros/bodybuilding enthusiasts/etc. talk about the influence of genetics on success to the way rationalist/more general social optimizationist IQ enthusiasts talk about the influence of genetics on success.

Every gymbro on the planet will acknowledge that good genetics play a role, often a pretty large role, in how much muscle you can expect to gain—especially if you're a natural lifter (as opposed to enhanced). But this is virtually always said merely as a caveat, never the centerpiece of discussion. The centerpiece of the discussion is always effort and training methodology. Why? Because the assumption is that if you're here, listening to a gymbro talk about gym shit, you want to get jacked. Your genetics are what they are, so why dwell on them? The point is, what can you do, with whatever genetics you happen to have, to get as jacked as possible. And the answer is ultimately "yeah, some people are gonna have a higher natural ceiling than others, but you won't know where yours is until you try—apply yourself as if you have a chance to be the best in the world, and even if you don't reach those heights, you'll probably end up pretty fucking jacked". And this is true. And as far as I'm concerned, it's the best way to think about the notion of natural talent.

IQ enthusiasts are always talking about how we should be testing IQ early and sorting people into social roles based on their scores. I despise this kind of thinking. I'm not Terence Tao, I have no desire to pretend I'm Terence Tao. But I like math, and I'm gonna try to get as good at math as I can possibly be. If someone had tested me at a young age, decided I wasn't cut out for math, and filtered me into a different social role, I would regard that as an injustice (a grave injustice) against me. People should be empowered to pursue their own ends, that's my eternal mantra when it comes to politics. Maybe society would achieve more net productive capacity if we filtered the people with natural math talent into math roles or whatever. I cannot underscore enough the degree to which I do not fucking care.

I have no sympathy for people who want to tell others who to be.

I think the bicycle helmet discourse really just reinforces the idea that people believe that accidents only happen to the stupid and careless, and that people who get hurt somehow deserve it. And since nobody wants to believe themselves to be stupid, or thinks they could be careless or distracted, it's not necessary to take precautions.

And then they take safety advice as an insult because telling someone to be safe is seen as an accusation of being stupid and irresponsible, and not just a value neutral acknowledgement of statistical inevitably. We see it with masks, and seatbelts, and now bicycle helmets because everyone wants to believe they're too clever to get hurt, and too lucky to get hurt badly, until suddenly you're not and you have to resign, in shame, to being one of the people you previously saw as annoying nags, assuming you're even still alive.