I am excited! I was in Omaha for the 2017 Eclipse, and plan to be in Texas for this one, taking photos and enjoying the sight of it. It is a humbling sight, and from a spiritual perspective it is amazing for channeling energy through.
If you get some good photos be sure to share with us! I live in the Northeast of so-called US so I envy the view you’ll have. Great point about the spiritual impact of the eclipse and one of the reasons I felt like it fits with Lunarpunk. You can’t help but be in awe of nature and your place in the universe when a cosmic event like this takes place.
Originally designed for increased accessibility for the low vision community, if you are unable to see the eclipse or have ever wondered what an eclipse sounds like:
The LightSound Project, an initiative started by a team of astronomers and engineers at the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian in 2017, designed a handheld sonification device that senses the light changes that occur during an eclipse. As the moon passes over the sun, the device sonifies the shifts in light into flute, clarinet, and bassoon tones, as well as percussive clicks.
The lack of attention this issue gets outside of astronomy communities is symptomatic of colonial capitalist state society’s othering and exploitation of the natural world. For the vast majority of human history, everyone lived by the stars, to navigate and to plan agricultural, ceremonial, hunting, foraging, and migration cycles. Many indigenous people around the world still do. But if you stop thinking of the stars as living guides who impart their wisdom and start thinking of them as future platinum mines and colonies, you don’t pay as much attention to them and you don’t notice their disappearance until it’s too late. Most settlers see more stars on TV programs about pop sci than actually looking up at them. We are a part of the universe, after all, not some outside observer unaffected by it. We should at least care about that.
Cool! I bought my wife and I each one. I’ll probably try and propogate it into leca and grow it in my office year round under grow lights 🤞. The shipping hit hurts less for two plants
It’ll be amazing to see how these look in different settings! The company points out in their FAQ that the plant does require several hours of direct sunlight daily as they harvest energy for the bioluminesence from the sun.
This is wild. It’s an annual but sometimes you can keep them alive longer. I wonder if they programmed a kill switch in so you can’t do vegetative propogation or sterilized it so you can’t produce seeds.
I wonder if they programmed a kill switch in so you can’t do vegetative propogation or sterilized it so you can’t produce seeds.
Probably not, stopping vegetative propagation would require mucking around with root genes so it’d be a huge mess to keep the roots working correctly. As for sexual reproduction, despite all the fearmongering about “the terminator gene” there’s never been a commercially available plant genetically engineered sterile. In fact the technology never made it out of the early testing/seeing if it actually worked phase.
They could however make the plant sterile through non-genetic engineering methods, like breeding a triploid. But that’d be kinda pointless since you could still just make cuttings.
Hmmm… that’s an interesting concern. The article says the company doesn’t plan to crack down on those who might share with friends so it seems like they expect it to happen. I imagine it’s only a matter of time before someone someone is able to get seeds from the plant. Just imagine what could happen if they ended up in seedbombs.
That’s gotta be around 95% shipping! I’m still a bit tempted and can almost justify it if I consider it as insurance to make sure such a rare plant arrives safely. It’s definitely misleading marketing to say it’s $29, though.
Yeah, shipping plants is a pain in the ass. I’ve also done snails.
Shipping a live thing has so many variables. Current climate on both ends? And in between? Need to include a heat pack or cooler pack? Shit’s going to die sometimes, gotta bake in refunds.
$24 is actually reasonable. Hell, I spend that to send computers around the US. $20-$30, here to anywhere.
But a TCO of $50+ is a bit much to satisfy my curiosity. Maybe they’ll come to local places soon.
For me, Lunarpunk marks a return to spirituality and tradition with new traditions. For me, Lunarpunk represents the Night Life, but revitalized with safety and hope. For me, Lunarpunk is the space at the crossroads of the Witch’s culture and the Solarpunk culture.
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