Well it would be a nice way to support Lemmy besides voluntary donations. You`d pay the Lemmy-Hosters and get something out of it that would be able to give back to the community (with gilding) at the same time.
Glad to see you! Didn't you say you were the only mod on /r/dndmemes? That must have been rough. Hopefully your stay here or wherever you end is goes well!
I’m not the only mod, there’s a solid group of who chat regularly in a discord, but I am historically the most active (although spicythuder is doing amazing work, if this was a competition they’d be winning rn lol) and do most of the public facing stuff.
So how do you expect it to shake out, btw? Do you think if there’s enough centaur cock on the sub they’ll be forced to let you stay? Are you expecting to get demodded regardless? I’m deeply curious.
I have gone back and forth on vertical farming. There are scams in the field, but there are also some merits (most of them apply to urban farming in general).
The main issue you have with vertical farming is that there is only so much stacking you can do before you get out of light. A pillar like in the illustration projects a shadow, in which you can’t really put plants.
However right now sunlight is not the limiting factor for plants growth. IIRC depending on the plant it is either water or CO2 so you can do some amount of vertical farming. To me, the interest is not to come as a replacement for regular farming (so growing grains is not the issue, you will have a hard time beating the efficiency of a flat field + tractor), the interests are:
freshness. Having herbs that you can cut as you need them is really a taste changer.
air cleaning. Some plants do have the ability to fixate some VOCs.
less transportation. Having the plants grown in the same building block means that the CO2 footprint will be much lower
more efficient water usage. Careful with this one, in some places water will be more scarce in city than countryside, but water consumption of such systems is generally lower.
less refrigeration. If the food has less transportation it also requires less refrigeration
local fruits all year long. Assuming they are put in a controlled environment like a greenhouse, getting food that normally requires a lot of transportation locally becomes possible.
So to sum up, it is less of a solution to make regular agriculture sustainable and more to make sustainable agriculture more enjoyable. Actually one does not need tasty herbs and exotic fruits, but the ability t have them without poisoning the planet is nice and, well, solarpunk.
Even away from cities, there are conventionally farmed crops that would appreciate the shade that a bunch of photovoltaic panels could offer: Put them higher up and provide sufficient access below.
There's an organic produce company in Manhattan that uses vertical grow chambers and they get around the lighting problem by illuminating from the center of the cluster and rotating the plant pods occasionally.
They get around energy usage by charging a premium and taking advantage of state agricultural grants.
It's expensive but you can get city grown butter lettuce year round.
Normally that would be a bit of an heresy, but fun thing: with the good LEDs at the good frequency, you can make a solar panel + LED setup that is actually efficient enough to provide more light to the plant than it would normally receive.
I am not saying that this is necessarily a good idea, but it is technically possible to grow more plants with solar panel + LEDs in the same area than through direct sunlight illumination. (IIRC by almost 200%).
The added complexity and manufacturing may not be worth it, but the calculation can be different where your energy is cheap and abundant through other renewable means that have lower footprint (like hydro or wind).
It can also be really good in areas where the climate isn’t great for year round growing, with enough PV you’ll still get enough to power the LEDs which you can put close above the plants and have on for 17 hours where as the natural sun might not be as bright or steady, also if you have like a wall unit inside then you don’t need to worry about frost, slow growth due to cold or hot weather scorching. Having herbs growing inside really improves the quality of a room too, that fresh smell is nice.
depends extremely heavily on the efficiency of the panels.
You would need to exceed 84% solar to electricity conversion efficiency to make that conversion pay off.
As chlorophyll has an approximate 90% maximum interception of 400nm to 740nm light and your panels would be getting the extra energy from frequencies outside of that range. The energy of a photon is determined by hc/λ, with the result that the energy of a blue photon (400 nm) is 75% greater than that of a red photon (700 nm).
Anything less than that would be a net loss unless there is a significant increase of ultraviolet light in the near future.
Within the 400 to 740nm range chlorophyll has a huge gap: cdn.kastatic.org/…/27c5e928745dbde12550494315ec70… whereas sunlight is strong across all of it. Grow lights usually only provide blue and red wavelengths that are better absorbed. Also, most plants’ growth are not limited by sunlight but usually either by water/nutrients or CO2, so most of them can receive a bit less light than the sun typically provides.
The calculation we had done a few years ago, that gave us the result that a square meter of PV could light up almost 2 square meter of crops, only took these spectra into account.
Since then, I have read really counter intuitive things that may even raise the efficiency higher (and the weirdness of grow boxes even more). People started using LASER LEDs to grow plants. Low power of course, but it turns out that concentrating the light on where the plants and leaves actually are does indeed maximize the number of photons that get absorbed.
Here again, I am not sure this is something desirable or the future that I want, but this is a possibility that is out there.
Freshness is such a key thing, the difference is taste is so significant especially with herbs and greens so enabling people to have an easy to manage and small footprint little tower of good food in their garden, balcony, or similar would be really good especially for renters if it could be packed up for transport then resembled in the new location.
Depending on how you generate power, you could use LED grow lights in vertical farms. You also have the luxury of working in an environment that you can tightly control; that means you may not need to use pesticides or herbicide at all. If you aren't working in large fields, you can get away from using heavy diesel farm equipment.
Fundamentally, we need to use less land for farming, we need to use far fewer pesticides and herbicides, and need to reduce the emissions associated with farming. Vertical farming has the potential to help with all of those.
You could, for instance, shut down at the end of a cycle and do a thorough cleaning without using pesticides. Using steam, heat, and high-powered ultraviolet light, you should be able to effectively kill any pests or eggs that pests are leaving. Yes, pesticides are certainly less expensive in the short run, but in terms of long-term health for the entire planet, they're super-bad.
That is a very interesting perspective, thank you for making me think of things in a slightly different light. But yes I agree any type of advancement in farming from this point in human history and onwards should be attempting to achieve 2 things:
“…offers to give participation medal back because she’s being targeted by transphobes and just wants the harrassment to stop.”
I mean, I assume that’s the reason, right? Why else would you give back a participation medal? It wouldn’t be out of principle because it’s a ridiculous thing to expect anyone to do.
I searched up this story after making the above guess and it was roughly right because these people are so damn predictable. Only the worst outlets are reporting on it, and they’re misquoting her horrendously. She didn’t “offer”, she said if the organisers want it back she’ll give it back. It was an acknowledgement that it’s the organisers’ decision, not hers.
She’s maintined the whole time that she’ll follow whatever rules are in place, including running as a man when the organisation requires it. Of course transphobes are using that as “proof” that she’s a man.
She’s also quoted in headlines as saying “I’m not a woman,” but it was sarcasm. She said, “I get it… I’m not a woman, I don’t have a womb.” She was characterising the hateful remarks she’s received and they twisted that and said it came from her mouth and even called it an “admission”.
It has the same shameless “14,000” fact-twisting in the headline, but unlike other articles piggybacking on it, at least it tells some of her side and doesn’t constantly misgender her.
She also says she won’t apologise because she didn’t do anything wrong, which she didn’t. She’s running for no prize and she’s raising money for charity, but the culture war needs victims I guess, so she’s fair game to these people.
Thanks for the details. As it always turns out, things are never as bad as conservatives want it to be. Fuck transphobes, who think world needs to align with their views. It’s like they cannot accept that transpeople have always existed whether they like it or not.
To me it’s just so weird to watch them get angry about things they’ve never cared about before. My uncle now “cares” deeply about the integrity of women’s college sports but when asked could name zero college or professional level female athletes. But he does know he hates the American women’s soccer team because they were mean about trump.
It is almost like he is outraged because the media wants him to be angry, not think for himself. I am not even going to make the distinction between so-called conservative and liberal media.
things are never as bad as conservatives want it to be
Not disagreeing with your reply and I don't think you meant anything by it, I just feel like it's important to point out that even if she had beat every single cis woman in the race, that still wouldn't be a bad thing, just a thing that makes conservatives (E: and transphobes in general, of course) uncomfortable (but they don't get to define what's good or bad for the rest of us).
Agreed. It’s incredible how bigots put up so much bullshit, that even the attempt to debunk it cedes a bunch of rhetorical ground.
You can see that with this woman, according to them she’s “offered” to give the medal back and “admitted” she’s not a woman, because by immersing her in their bigoted attacks they’ve managed to put her in a position where those words came out of her mouth and they could twist them against her.
Or in my comment I said she won no prizes and was raising money for charity, but even if she won prize money and trophies and did nothing for charity, that would be fine. That’s what it means for a trans athlete to compete. If they’re not allowed to win, they’re not really competing.
I think the saying goes that arguing with a bigot is like wrestling with a pig - you both end up covered in shit but the pig loves it.
She looks so happy in those pictures. Fuck the media for sensationalizing a nothing-burger and fuck them again for headlines like these that literally cause violence. They have to know that targeting her will result in threats and harassment.
And a 100 million more "fuck you"s to the assholes who gobble up this conservative propaganda and use it to fuel their circle-jerk of hate.
She’s maintined the whole time that she’ll follow whatever rules are in place, including running as a man when the organisation requires it. Of course transphobes are using that as “proof” that she’s a man.
Man alive, just let the poor woman run. If she’s willing to let you misgender her so she can run then she’s literally doing everything you’re asking her to. Fuck off and let her do her thing!
People have a fucked-up understanding of voting in the US. You are not voting for the person you agree with. You are voting for the person you’d rather negotiate with.
If you actually care beyond the aesthetics of whether you did the cool thing or not, you have to think about the function of what you’re doing and not just whether it feels good.
Even worse, you’re voting for the person who represents the party that, over decades, has the greatest chance of moving the Overton window over near to the place where your policies seem like a moderate idea if their party starts winning every election.
You just have to hope that the Overton window is already at a point where your policies are actually able to be changed in your lifetime.
Unlike the US you can actually vote for an independent of green candidate without it being a throwaway vote.
When the time comes your independent doesn’t have a chance of getting in - they still get funding, but your second third and fourth preferences get taken into account and lesser monies paid out accordingly.
Like, can you imagine being able to vote Bernie without it being a total throwaway?
We have this in some small pockets in the US and its exciting but doesnt always work all that well, yet, if progressives just dont run. NYC mayor Eric Adams was elected through a ballot like this.
While this is certainly a valuable mindset and I agree with it wholeheartedly, it does necessitate being in a somewhat privileged position in life. Sometimes it’s all we can do to make it through the day, pay our rent and bills, or keep a desperate hold of our shit jobs. Growing gardens, installing solar panels, or changing diets aren’t always at the top of the priority list when there are other more basic needs that are still unmet.
It also won’t solve the problems we have with the environment and such. Not even if everyone did this. Go nuts, don’t let me stop you, but more is needed.
As a disabled person and caregiver, I agree. I still do what I can but some days it is incredibly difficult to even do the bare minimum.
It’s hard not to get discouraged when my body betrays me, but for me I have to remember that my best will usually fall far below a non-disabled person’s best… And this is ok. (I’m still not completely convinced that it is ok but it’s what I tell myself.)
That’s what I’ve been trying to learn from 2023. It started with a lot of energy and ambition and the former ran out early in the year. Been trying to be patient with myself and realize the best can simply be getting to the next day.
The thing is that the people who can not do it, mostly live a very sustainable lifestyle anyway. Subsidence agriculture is basically organic and a lot of permaculture is just repackaging that for a Western audience. Diets are also fairly vegan as meat and other animal products tend to be expensive and if they are not they are usually raised at home.
The people who need to change as their lifestyle is unsustainable have the means of actually changing it to a fairly large degree. Maybe not solar or gardening, but going vegan is certainly possible and even for the two first there are usually ways of finding a workable solution.
Those are examples, not requirements. Do what you can. Anyone who judges you for not doing enough while you’re struggling to merely survive is a shit person.
If there are small changes you can make to live a more sustainable life, do them. If there’s nothing you can do, that’s okay too. And if you’re so weighed down by the struggle of mere existence that you don’t have the mental energy to think about ways to change - that’s okay too. We who have the privilege to act should act, and when we do, we carry the aspirations of those who wish they could act but can’t.
If I meant to criticize anyone by this post, it would be the people in wealth and privilege, who could change their lifestyle to be more sustainable - who could be an example to their friends and family and neighbors by living their values - but who choose not to, because they believe personal sustainability is irrelevant when political and corporate actions have so much more impact on the world.
I'm all for free speech, but if the fediverse is going to have ANY chance of catching on, new users can't be bumping into Nazis and the like. The main on-boarding instances need to be akin to network TV - safe for pretty much everyone. From there they should be able to opt-in to more contentious communities. If that means a tiered system, so be it.
Have you ever turned on the TV to a positive commentary over the display of goosestepping twats? No. And if you did so within the first few channel flips, you'd just say, "I guess TV isn't for me." You don't have a big free speech debate in your head. There's no middle ground. It's amazing that they're so universally reviled that they are the default bad guy in every form of media. Why? Because everyone knows the universal rule - Nazis can fuck alllll the way off. It even runs past THAT goal post straight on to being illegal in the home of the movement. There is no bigger, "Whoa. We reeeally fucked up," than that.
As for other harassment, it has pretty much the same effect. Everyone knows that shit is out there if they look for it. The people coming here to compete for space in our latrines aren't worth having. If anything, we should be sending them back to Reddit.
I've seen a lot of refreshing, civil, reasonable discussion since moving here, to the point where I almost feel bad for not thanking someone for thanking me. It's almost like the entire community is recovering from social media PTSD. It's not about being fragile snowflakes. If anything, it's the exact opposite, with no internal dialogue beyond, "Oh, it's this? If I stay here I'll end up dead or in jail, and this isn't worth either. Bye."
Usually, new platforms have a few months before the garbage starts to accumulate, but everything here has been moving at a much faster clip. There isn't a ton of content here yet (and almost no OC), so interaction will make it or break it. I suspect we have a month, at most, before "free speech" turns to "open hate" and the platform dies.
Yeah I saw a controversy and blocked them a while ago, I lost family members to Q antiscience bullshit so I ain‘t going to deal with anything like it online. Only thing is I don‘t know if kbin instance block hides the users too and stops me from interacting with them? I really don‘t want anything to do with these guys.
The bill was created to crack down on the KKK originally. I’m not seeing any sources that it creates an exception for them. Come on, let’s not be like the right and just make shit up.
Yeah, my first thought is what’s the source. I wouldn’t put it past any GOP legislature to do this, but I came to the comments explicitly looking for a source.
Post has just been updated. It doesn’t explicitly exempt the KKK, but it does provide exemptions for organisations’ parades, rituals, initiations, ceremonies, celebrations, or general requirements. It also explicitly permits hoods under this exemption.
The KKK typically files the proper paperwork for their demonstrations and parades in advance. Under what circumstances do you envision them being denied permission to wear their hoods during a permitted demonstration without gifting a first amendment victory to the Klan?
I was under the wrong impression that it’s actually banned in the US, but it is not, from wiki:
As of 2016, the Anti-Defamation League puts total KKK membership nationwide at around 3,000, while the Southern Poverty Law Center puts it at 6,000 members total.
It still isn’t a stretch. The KKK aren’t routinely rejected for parade applications in regions they’re active, they basically just need to add a line about wearing hoods to their application.
Yeah, this goes into the same bin as carbon offset. Just because you had a couple trees planted in one part of the world you should not be allowed to polute the rivers in another part of the world.
In California, something like 53% of the land is public or state property meaning that California has even more land for the public to use than Washington. Poor sap tricked himself into thinking Texas was so great. Texas is a shithole. Sorry not sorry.
A lot of Libertarianism sounds great on paper, so it’s an easy trap to fall into. Once you consider the human element and factors like greed, it stands out as an exceptionally abusable political model; but if you don’t think about it critically (which is a LOT of people), it’s just liberty this and non-aggression-principle-that and it all sounds just oh-so peachy… again, on paper.
Have a look into libertarian socialism aka anarchism (among other ideologies). An internally consistent ideology that accounts for humanitys shitty side while maximizing human freedom. With a decent track record to boot
Unfortunately so many are indoctrinated through language to not understand such an abstract. Anarchism/anarchy is “chaos”. Not to mention the horrible representation of the much more visible oxymorons. Anarcho-capitalists are a contradiction in themselves.
But there is one compelling argument for people to learn and understand it. Understanding it will piss off anarcho-capitalists and Big L Libertarians to no end. And take away any of the mystique or good will others might have towards them. No freedoms but social freedoms. If you have a freedom that is personal to you that others do not get to enjoy or share. That is a privilege and not a freedom. And even pointing this out will cause both groups to sethe and sputter ineffectually
Tell me more about how your planning of a revolution goes, or how accelerating towards it will surely work this time and won't bring us yet again a Hungary or a Third Reich again!
The second poster’s story so clearly shows why a man’s partner being their only emotional support is devastating to both people in the relationship, yet this idea is still so insidiously pervasive in our society. No one wins.
I am mid thirties male and getting divorced. Making friends as an adult is so hard. Even going to things I like, doesn’t guarantee I’ll click with anyone there really.
especially if your taste is a little off the beaten path. I really like a ton of music that most would consider “weird” or “an acquired taste,” which means other fans tend to be condescending and douchey (I may be pretentious, but I try to draw the line at condescending). Add to that the fact that I live in a tiny town and that many of my other hobbies attract either edge-lords (i.e. TTRPGs) or bros (i.e. snowboarding and baseball), and it can feel like it’s not even worth trying to get to know people with shared interests.
Luckily I work in a job where I can have meaningful relationships with several of my coworkers even if we have very little in common beyond the work (and my extroverted wife and kids mean I get about all the interactions my introverted self can handle).
edit: Almost forgot to offer you some support! Keep trying OP, there are people worth knowing out there, and you may already know some of them. I’ve had really good luck getting in touch with some college friends and doing discord or zoom game nights where we chat and play online card games or TTRPG’s once a month.
Hey Thanks I appreciate it! I am in a really good headspace for the first time in months so things are going well :) I also work with a Therapist and Psychiatrist so I have support there as well
Have you gotten the advice to make friends with other divorced dads yet? 🥲/s
Jokes aside, I’m sorry for your circumstances. I’m in my 20s and it’s already hard to make friends now, I can’t imagine how it’ll be in the future. Ironically enough, I have met and made friends with quite a few 30-40 year old divorced dad’s through local ttRPG groups and FFXIV.
If it’s any encouragement, most of them say they have bounced back after the roughest period of their lives in getting divorced, and are happier now than pre-divorce. I can’t really say if what they’re saying is truth or a lie, but I wish you all the best, from one internet rando to another!
I am doing pretty good honestly, I am shy and have social anxiety so it has always been hard to make friends and trust people, but I am on good terms with my ex and I go to a Board Game group weekly so eventually ill find some friends there :) I also still talk to friends made starting in HS and College so I may move back to the PNW at some point.
I moved here to be by Family which is nice, but I kind of hate the south.
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