#it's for organization and community not for science

[churino]

Design for Aquablast

In another life, she's the equal to shockwave and his ilk in their depravity. but through the guidance of others, she has grown and developed like rage to turn her worst impulses towards those who deserve it. Cutting off the rot in a literal sense as she's the stormtrooper's medic, but her true calling is "making" friends and having "fun"

Aquablast was born and raised on quintessa, not the most friendly world for transformers. And as such, lived in secret on the planet alongside other persecuted bots for much of their early life. The dominant species on quintessa, the quintessons, were depraved and inadvertedly exposed the transformers hidden in plain sight to all kinds of horific science, mysticism, and cruelty. Which fascinated Aquablast. Desensitized to that form of evil, she grew increasingly interested in the workings of the body. Machine and organic alike. To the point that, when one of her group had their energon drained from them, rather than morn the loss of a friend she.. made a new one. Reanimating the sparkless bot into a zombie like thing.

Being subsequently thrown out of her community, Aquablast eventually made her way off the planet, where she continued her experiments with cruelty and prolonging existence past the point of pain. Growing ever more giddy and excited about her breakthroughs. She eventually attracted the attention of like-minded bots. Where she met Hydradread, who became a close colleague of her. But at that point, their research halted being more focused on the fun of their projects rather than discovery and documentation. They only grew more debased until the fateful day they captured two autobots to experiment on. Drench and Rage, but their attempts at torture were so inefective at that point that their captives laughed at them.

Embarrassed, they let them go, but Drench the buly within his mocking gave them genuine advice on how to improve as people. And that was following Rage. Saying that his views would lead towards their liberation and to improve their craft. Ideas that appealed to them. Thus, the stormtroopers were born

[gardenvarietygay]

What to do now

Or how I stopped weeping and learned to love my community

I hate to remind everyone but the Trump administration will soon be in power. Don't bank on his platform only being campaign promises or rhetoric. Here's what you can do now to prepare for January and the years ahead.

This list is very incomplete, please add more information and organizations if you know of other issues that could use increased attention.

Healthcare:

Medicaid may soon be reduced or eliminated for many people. If you may soon become uninsured please visit a healthcare provider as soon as possible. If you are unsure of whether you are up-to-date on your vaccines, screenings, etc. call or visit your healthcare provider.

If you are uninsured, you can still receive healthcare at a Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC). FQHCs can vary from area to area but always offer a sliding fee scale, meaning that what you pay for healthcare will be determined by your ability to pay. You can find a FQHC near your using this tool. Find a clinic or healthcare provider that will work for you now, before the administration changes. Heads up that if you live in a small town or a rural area, your FQHC will likely be in the nearest big town, all the more reason to figure out your plans now including transportation. (If you don't have a hospital in your town, your FQHC is likely in the nearest town with a hospital)

If you have been diagnosed with HIV/AIDS, the Ryan White Program is a federal program that provides HIV treatment to low-income patients. Find a program near you using this tool. Find the state hotline to call for help here. You can also visit your local AIDS project by searching "[name of state] AIDS project." Planned Parenthood and other sexual health centers can provide care, find clinics near you using this tool.

If you are capable of becoming pregnant, find an abortion fund here. I hesitate to give more specific advice on this post, the link will provide additional information. I know it's scary right now but please use legal, science-backed methods of abortion. We are not yet to the point where it is necessary to induce abortion using herbal remedies or other methods, many herbal abortifacients are dangerous to the life of the pregnant person.

Become involved with any and all of the above organizations. Donate, volunteer, spread the word. Most of these programs rely on a combination of federal funding and public support. It is likely that federal funding will be reduced or disappear under the incoming administration.

If you or a loved one are or will soon be eligible for medicare please be aware that traditional medicare and medicare advantage are two very different services. Traditional Medicare is the program which most Americans expect to receive when they turn 65. It is administered through the federal government. Medicare Advantage is a health insurance program provided through private insurance companies. For most patients, the care they receive will be better through Traditional Medicare. It is likely that the information on this issue will become less reliable from the government.

The Center for Disease Control is the main federal agency which provides guidance for public health, including vaccines for children. It will likely be weakened or otherwise prevented from making public health recommendations. Your primary care provider will still be aware of vaccine schedules and able to vaccinate but the burden may fall on you to ask for vaccines. Get in the habit of asking for information on the latest vaccines at every visit.

Environment:

We will need environmental orgs to fight new policies, sue the government, and stall at every turn. Donate to your favorite environmental nonprofit. None of them are perfect, many of them are effective. Find out more here.

Become involved at the local level. Join a local chapter of a national group or a local organization. Visit parks and conservation areas around you, pay attention to any signage that has the names of local organizations that help to maintain that area and join them. If you see "adopt a stream" or "adopt a highway" signs, call to see what the responsibilities for that program are and if you are able to help. In my area, you organize a group of people and call a phone number to register. The requirements are that you adopt the stream for one year and clean it at least twice for about two hours, then they put a sign up that says you've adopted it. They provide trash bags, reflective vests, gloves, hand sanitizer, and trash grabbers.

Obviously, cleaning up litter from a creek or helping maintain a public park doesn't fight climate change or prevent strip mining. Those are problems that require big solutions from well-funded organizations. Those problems are the reasons you donate to organizations like the Sierra Club. You protest and disrupt big projects with organizations like the Indigenous Environmental Network who helped to organize the Standing Rock protests against the Dakota Access Pipeline in 2016-17.

However, cleaning up litter from one creek does mean that there's one less creek that's clogged with litter. That's one more area that can better support wildlife, help prevent flooding, and connect vital habitat areas that are otherwise fragmented. The organizations that lobby, sue, and stall cannot spend their resources on local environmental projects just like you cannot individually prevent the government from leaving the Paris Agreement.

If you have access to any outdoor area where you can grow plants, you should be planting native species. A balcony, a window box, a patio, even a single flowerpot will make a difference to pollinators and wild birds. Use this tool from the National Wildlife Federation to find native plants which support the greatest number of insects in your area. Insects are a vital link in the food chain, particularly for wild birds whose numbers are in shocking decline. Learn more about planting with natives here. A directory of native plant nurseries can be found here. Native plants can also be purchased from the NWF through its Garden for Wildlife shop.

Humanitarian Issues:

The National Alliance to End Homelessness works with providers and lawmakers to end homelessness with a housing-first approach. They have resources to educate yourself on becoming a better advocate for people experiencing homelessness including things as simple as contacting your representatives.

Get involved with local LGBTQ+ centers. Local LGBTQ+ centers are not always members of national organizations so it can be difficult to find them through a central database. However, you can find an on-campus LGBTQ+ center through a university which may be able to help you directly or point you toward organizations which can help. LGBTQ+ centers frequently have resources for finding queer-friendly healthcare, business to work for, advocacy organizations, and more.

Please keep the people of Gaza and all of Palestine in your thoughts as we fight for change at home. The Middle East Children's Alliance is providing food, clean water, medical and psychological care to families in Gaza. Please donate to them if you can.

Likewise remember the struggle in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Goma Actif provide medical care, food, and water for displaced Congolese. Please donate here. (Text of the fundraiser is written in French first, scroll down to find the English translation further down the page.)

This is just what I've been able to come up with so far. Please add any ideas for actions that support yourself or your community.

[knxfesck]

What do you think gay men are attracted to in men that they can’t be attracted to in women?

It can’t be anything about femininity or masculinity obviously. That’s both sexist, and cultural so can’t be what drives men-only attraction.

It can’t be anything about stated identity because someone could lie just as easily as they could tell the truth in such a statement, and it makes no sense because homosexuality and heterosexuality exists in other species with no stated identities. It’s not like other animals without gender are all pan.

Saying idk it’s the vibes or some indescribable trait men have that women can’t but “I can’t explain” is a nonanswer.

Soooooooo what is it? Or do you think any sexuality but bi/pan is just cultural performance or an identity rather than an inborn orientation?

- [ ]

I think all sexuality is fluid and cultural obviously but I genuinely don't know how or why you expected me to answer this. Do you think I'm the top gayness scientist or something

[wachinyeya]

[cognitivejustice]

"The industrial model of agriculture production begins to look less viable’

In agriculture, growing only one crop – monoculture – has tended to encourage increased output by lowering overall costs. But these so-called economies of scale have brought with them environmental threats resulting from intensive production.

Now, single-crop farming is increasingly an economic risk for producers themselves. In the EU, one in 10 farms followed ecological practices in 2021 – almost double the share a decade earlier. This shows that growing numbers of European farmers are doing their part to preserve biodiversity. 

Greater biodiversity can reduce business risks from droughts because a mix of crops diversifies water needs, according to Professor Christoph Scherber, head of the Centre for Biodiversity Monitoring at the Leibniz Institute for the Analysis of Biodiversity Change in Germany. He said crop variation can also lead to general increases in agricultural output.

‘It is important to show that agriculture can support biodiversity but also to acknowledge that biodiversity itself can bring higher production to farming,’ said Scherber, who coordinates BioMonitor4CAP.

[youare-number6]

Style Tuning - Muted Tones

This style is similar to the Purple Chaos but i has muted tones.

[dailyanarchistposts]

Biocentrism

Deep ecology, or biocentrism, is the belief that nature does not exist to serve humans. Rather, humans are part of nature, one species among many. All species have a right to exist for their own sake, regardless of their usefulness to humans. And biodiversity is a value in itself, essential for the flourishing of both human and nonhuman life.

These principles, I believe, are not just another political theory. Biocentrism is a law of nature, that exists independently of whether humans recognize it or not. It doesn’t matter whether we view the world in a human centered way. Nature still operates in a biocentric way. And the failure of modern society to acknowledge this — as we attempt to subordinate all of nature to human use — has led us to the brink of collapse of the earth’s life support systems.

Biocentrism is not a new theory, and it wasn’t invented by Dave Foreman or Arnie Naas. It is ancient native wisdom, expressed in such sayings as “The earth does not belong to us. We belong to the earth.” But in the context of today’s industrial society, biocentrism is profoundly revolutionary, challenging the system to its core.

[noncompliantcyborg]

trick or treat! mayhaps featuring cephalopods?

trick AND treat: This is a little paralarval giant pacific octopus I photographed back in 2021 named Hilda Doolittle (or maybe Emily Dickinson but I'm pretty sure its Hilda).

Though you can't see them, the outer surface of Hilda's body is covered in countless little chitinous tufts called Kölliker's organs, that she can puff out and retract. Eventually, she'd lose these little tufts before reaching adulthood. While scientists aren't yet certain of their purpose, Kölliker's organs have a huge impact on the surface area of paralarval octopus and may be used to leverage drag for more adept movement while the octopus is small. They estimate surface area is 2/3 greater when all Kölliker's organs are puffed out versus retracted.

[wayti-blog]

"In the murky African riverbeds, eyesight is rendered virtually useless. To navigate their surroundings, some electric fish have evolved a shocking adaptation that challenges our perceptions of sensory intelligence and teamwork in the animal kingdom. Scientists at Columbia University’s Zuckerman Institute recently learned that a species of weakly electric fish (Gnathonemus petersii), also known as the elephantnose fish, shares sensory information within its group almost instantaneously. One fish in the river can instantly tell what lies a far distance in front of it by using the electric field generated by its peers further out.

It’s a remarkable and never-before-seen collective sensing that parallels the collaborative systems used in human-engineered technologies such as sonar and radar."

"Electric brains"

“Think of these external signals as electric images of the objects that nearby electric fish automatically produce and beam to nearby fish at the speed of light,” said Dr. Pedraja. “Our work suggests that three fish in a group would each receive three different “electrical views” of the same scene at virtually the same time,”(...)."

continue reading

[spotaus]

Ec-4o!Sci ♡ (Bio-Engineer who somehow maintains a Lab in the apocalypse)

[raffaellopalandri]

Book of the Day – The Age of Sustainable Development

Today’s Book of the Day is The Age of Sustainable Development, written by Jeffrey D. Sachs in 2015 and published by Columbia University Pres. Jeffrey D. Sachs is a world-renowned economics professor, author, educator, and global leader in sustainable economic development. The Age of Sustainable Development, by Jeffrey D. Sachs I chose this book because I often mention it when I present the…

[spock-adoodledoo]

oh my god i just finished the dark forest finally. 7/10 i suppose, i went through the first half or so of the book being really annoyed by luo ji but also enjoying the chapters where he shows up because unfortunately he was entertaining. still don't understand the imaginary girlfriend thing, it just feels like he needs someone to protect from the world which like ??? ok sure i guess, it just rubs me the wrong way personally. for the second half and especially the end i became luo ji's number one defender it's fine. for the rest, holy crap—the droplet, the microcosm of the universe on those runaway ships, the wallfacer project, luo ji drawing from rey diaz's plan, the attitude of the world towards him, the entire theory... wow

[solarpunkpresentspodcast]

Blog post: Can Solarpunk have Visions of Organized Religion?

Excerpt:

"I’m sure you’ve heard someone say that there’s not much religion in science fiction’s visions of our future. Generally, it’s a lament, but as an atheist who was raised entirely without religion and lost an entire quadrant of her family in concentrations camps, I’m okay with that. To me, religion is the root of quite a lot of evil done by people to other people and to the world around us. Also, why would anyone want to belong to a group that tells you what to believe and how to behave? Here’s to a future where we just try to be kind, compassionate, helpful, and just to each other while aiming to tread lightly upon the Earth, and to a future where we find awe in the amazing world around us.

Wouldn’t this also be the solarpunk way? It is a fairly anarchistic endeavor, not much for following papal edicts or any other orders from the higher ranks of organized religions. Yet, I bet for a lot of people, including solarpunks, life outside of an organized religion would feel rudderless or lacking. I may be allergic to religion, but I can see that many people need and even enjoy the spiritual, supportive, social, and/or communal aspects of religion."

Click through to read more!

[wachinyeya]

How one neighborhood in Colombia is tackling climate change at the community level https://one.npr.org/i/1228839451:1228839452

In Colombia's second-largest city, rainy season floods and dry season fires are now a fact of life. As reporter Jorge Valencia found, local residents are grappling with those and other effects of climate change by taking matters into their own hands.

[youare-number6]

Style Tuning - Muted Tones - Pt 2

..

[dailyanarchistposts]

Biocentrism Contradicts Communism

As you can probably tell, my background in revolutionary theory comes from Marxism, which I consider to be a brilliant critique of capitalism. But as to what should be implemented in capitalism’s place, I don’t think Marxism has shown us the answer. One of the reasons for this, I believe, is that communism, socialism, and all other left ideologies that I know of speak only about redistributing the spoils of raping the earth more evenly among classes of humans. They do not even address the relationship of the society to the earth, Or rather, they assume that it will stay the same as it is under capitalism — that of a gluttonous consumer. And that the purpose of the revolution is to find a more efficient and egalitarian way to produce and distribute consumer goods.

This total disregard of nature as a life force, rather than just a source of raw materials, allowed Marxist states to rush to industrialize without even the most meager environmental safeguards. This has resulted in such noted disasters as the meltdown of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, the oil spill in the Arctic Ocean, and the ongoing liquidation of the fragile forests of Siberia. It has left parts of Russia and Eastern Europe with such a toxic legacy that vast areas are now uninhabitable. Marx stated that the primary contradiction in industrial society is the contradiction between capital and labor. I believe these disasters show that there is an equally important contradiction between industrial society and the earth.

But even though socialism has so far failed to take ecology into account, I do not think it is beyond reform, as is capitalism. One of the principles of socialism is “production for use, not for profit.” Therefore, the imbalance is not as built in under socialism as it is under capitalism, and I could envision a form of socialism that would not destroy the earth. But it would be unlike Marx’s industrial model .

Ecological socialism, among other things, would have to deal with the issue of centralism. The Marxist idea of a huge body politic relating to some central planning authority presupposes (1) authoritarianism of some sort; and (2) the use of mass production technologies that are inherently destructive to the earth and corrosive to the human spirit. Ecological socialism would mean organizing human societies in a manner that is compatible with the way that nature is organized. And I believe the natural order of the earth is bioregionalism, not statism.

Modern industrial society robs us of community with each other and community with the earth. This creates a great longing inside us, which we are taught to fill with consumer goods. But consumer goods, beyond those needed for basic comfort and survival, are not really what we crave. So our appetite is insatiable, and we turn to more and more efficient and dehumanizing methods of production to make more and more goods that do not satisfy us. If workers really had control of the factories (and I say this as a former factory worker), they would start by smashing the machines and finding a more humane way to decide what we need and how to produce it. So to the credo “production for use, not for profit,” ecological socialism would add, “production for need, not for greed.”