What is the most uninformative statement that people are inclined to make? My nominee would be “I love to travel.” This tells you very little about a person, because nearly everyone likes to travel; and yet people say it, because, for some reason, they pride themselves both on having travelled and on the fact that they look...
“Perhaps travel cannot prevent bigotry, but by demonstrating that all peoples cry, laugh, eat, worry, and die, it can introduce the idea that if we try and understand each other, we may even become friends.”
Travel is not some magical, all-powerful cure for the ills of the traveller or the world. And when done without care, without awareness, it can do a great deal of harm. But it is also a powerful tool to foster connection, which in turn breeds understanding. And that is dearly needed in our world.
I mean, I very much get how it feels that way given the current political climate, but the data does indicate Americans have gotten more open-minded over time, especially about racial/cultural differences.
And this studyspecifically notes a huge shift in rhetoric about immigration between 1945-1965 - correlating with the big boom in travel in the 40s, post WWII, and jet travel coming into play in the 50s-60s - two of the biggest increases in American travel. And the overall trend positive has continued, despite the increased polarization in the last couple decades.
I’m not at all saying that increased travel caused all of this, correlation is not causation and society is way more complex than that. But the trends are there, at least.
I don’t particularly agree with that, as it would essentially require exponential change in biases for a population to be considered open-minded, which isn’t how societys work. But even so, the study did actually show an increased rate of change towards positive sentiment corresponding with the boom in travel. Perceptions shifted from trending negative to trending increasingly positive during the period of inflection they describe.
My perception of the COVID years was… quite the opposite, at least outside of my immediate bubble. It felt like polarization and isolation increased more intensely that I’d ever seen. And the strong negative impact on conservative-leaning populations has been well documented.
It’s the season for steam’s summer sale, so here’s some solarpunk-y games I’ve been eyeing, for anyone who’s looking for something new to try this summer! (I haven’t played most of these, they are just things that I’ve seen around that give me solarpunk vibes.)...
Really interesting study from the Journal of Coastal Research - I think work like this is a massively useful transition strategy. There’s a lot of benefits to blending economic practicality (construction methods that remain feasible for local governments and small community or private groups), and ecologically minded design...
TX lawmakers are going to doom the state, again. “make no mistake, the 9th largest economy in the world runs on natural gas” - more like the largest laughing stock in the world blacked out the whole state on natural gas…
Wind was hit far less by the 2021 freeze, and solar was hardly impacted at all. Meanwhile, they continue to advocate for overreliance on under equipped natural gas facilities that completely failed to maintain functionality - shutting down TX for days, and killing 200 people as a result. Solar is the best option they have to prevent it from happening again, short of a total power grid overhaul, but instead of celebrating growth there, they decide to fearmonger about scary renewables.
This is also the site of the deepest wind turbine foundation in the world. It will be interesting to see the data on this one from ongoing studies into the impact of offshore wind farms on marine ecosystems!
I remember seeing a wiki awhile ago (possibly on the r/solarpunk subreddit?) that was dedicated to providing people with open source furniture. Primarily they used a laser cutter and cheap plywood for ease of use. The end goal was to create public spaces that were easy to set up in the communities. For the life of me I can’t...
Do you remember how long ago you saw it? Everything I’m aware of for furniture disappeared or went for-profit years ago.
Someone’s already mentioned Opendesk, which mysteriously cut off access to files with a “we’ll email everyone when they come back!”. Spoilers, they did not come back, its been nearly 5 years. Instead they started selling furniture by request and partnering with fabrication services. There are some others that were similar, AtFab, fabsie, opendesign (which I think was a wiki, so maybe that was the one posted?)… but none are still active and the websites/links are dead or replaced by something different using the name. You can still find designs on github though, and some on Pintrest, of all places.
Thanks! I'm studying marine systems & restoration, so that's right up my alley. And I've been wanting to get into scuba for ages - would love to see anything you have to share on it! :D
Personally, as it currently stands, no. But it could potentially be, given better waste treatment practices and far better regulation and consistently enforced safety requirements.
It's far greener than fossil fuels, when run carefully at least. But between the persistent issues with waste reclamation and harmful leakage, and the massive amount of damage that can be done when mistakes are made or safety is overlooked, I don't think it qualifies as "green".
So from a practical standpoint, I still think new resources are better spent developing infrastructure for solar, wind, geothermal, etc. But as we are phasing out other power sources, pretty much everything else should go before we start to decommission nuclear.
I voted to enable because I think it's worth seeing how restoring downvotes goes, but if the feature gets abused to bully or brigade I'm all for turning them right back off. I also think that even though voting rules aren't really enforceable, it would be good to add voting etiquette to the instance wiki as a guideline to help discourage downvoting excessively, or for asking questions & other benign things.
Really I hope the ability is added to restrict who can downvote, or at least to disable federation for downvotes. That would be the best option imo.
Giant kites could pull cargo ships across the ocean – and slash their carbon emissions - Beehaw (beehaw.org)
The Case Against Travel (www.newyorker.com)
What is the most uninformative statement that people are inclined to make? My nominee would be “I love to travel.” This tells you very little about a person, because nearly everyone likes to travel; and yet people say it, because, for some reason, they pride themselves both on having travelled and on the fact that they look...
Solarpunk Games
It’s the season for steam’s summer sale, so here’s some solarpunk-y games I’ve been eyeing, for anyone who’s looking for something new to try this summer! (I haven’t played most of these, they are just things that I’ve seen around that give me solarpunk vibes.)...
Eco Marine Power Develops New Sail Device for Ships (www.oceannews.com)
New AI reef conservation tool monitors, measures from space (www.westhawaiitoday.com)
Regulating Commercial Fishing Works - Scientists Find Half the World’s Fish Stocks Are Recovered or Increasing in Oceans That Used to Be Overfished (www.goodnewsnetwork.org)
What do you guys think of vertical farming? (slrpnk.net)
Vertical farming, the best solution to support an ever growing population or just a scam?...
Arktecture: Salt-Resistant Tech for Floating Seawater Agriculture Farms (www.designboom.com)
Making Costal Infrastructure More Hospitable to Marine Ecosystems (www.jstor.org)
Really interesting study from the Journal of Coastal Research - I think work like this is a massively useful transition strategy. There’s a lot of benefits to blending economic practicality (construction methods that remain feasible for local governments and small community or private groups), and ecologically minded design...
Facing Brutal Heat, the Texas Electric Grid Has a New Ally: Solar Power (www.nytimes.com)
Scotland’s Largest Offshore Wind Farm Gains Final Turbine (www.coastalnewstoday.com)
This is also the site of the deepest wind turbine foundation in the world. It will be interesting to see the data on this one from ongoing studies into the impact of offshore wind farms on marine ecosystems!
REQUEST: A wiki on open source furniture
I remember seeing a wiki awhile ago (possibly on the r/solarpunk subreddit?) that was dedicated to providing people with open source furniture. Primarily they used a laser cutter and cheap plywood for ease of use. The end goal was to create public spaces that were easy to set up in the communities. For the life of me I can’t...
Beyond borders: Why new 'high seas' treaty is critical for the world (news.un.org)
Welcome Ocean Enthusiasts!
Welcome to c/tidalpunk, a community dedicated to imagining and building a better future for our oceans and marine environments!...
Discussion question- do folkx here consider nuclear clean and/or green?
As the title says, I'm interested in this community's perceptions on nuclear energy.
Re-enable down-voting on slrpnk.net?
As you might have noticed, there is currently no option to down-vote posts here....