goingTiny

unconsume - sustainability - resilience - community - solarpunk

[labelleizzy]

[goingtiny]

3D-Printed Homes, an Abandoned $590,000 Deposit, the FBI: What Really Happened in This Small Town?

Two men promised a $1.1 million 3D printer could fix Cairo, Illinois’ housing crisis. More than a year later, the one duplex it printed stil

Big Promises: Two men promised a $1.1 million 3D printer could fix Cairo, Illinois’ housing crisis. More than a year later, the one duplex it printed still isn’t finished.

“Here We Go Again”: There have been no new homes built in Cairo, Illinois, in at least 30 years. Residents have grown wary of outsiders with big ideas for the historic town.

Few Details: Developers said God sent them to Cairo. Plans called for one donated duplex and then 29 more over the next three years, with no details on how they would be funded.

[thevastnessof]

it’s actually quite easy to take over a small local government group if you really want to, bc if you volunteer consistently people will just put you in charge of whatever. I’m now one of like three people at a nature preserve making official decisions about trails, events, putting in a prairie, and designing a series of illustrations for a storybook trail etc., and it’s just because last summer I started coming over once a week to help the naturalist out for a couple hours. Mine now. you too can steal an organization and shape it to your will 🫵

[goingtiny]

How to Stop A Data Center in Your Backyard ~ L.A. TACO

These are lessons from San Gabriel Valley neighbors and activists who outsmarted developers and lobbyists.

When the people of Monterey Park found that their local government was going to approve a 250,000-square-foot data center just 500 feet from their homes, they organized. 

And within a few months, the developer withdrew their application.

Andrew Yip, an organizer with SGV Progressive Action, tells L.A. TACO that the organization’s success started with their “existing network of volunteers,” noting that “the community was able to jump in at a moment's notice.” 

[solarpunk-nightbird]

Heads up from a Southern Californian that it is time to buy any fans and/or KN-95 masks for the summer NOW, before the start of summer and wildfire season!!!

If you wait until your AC goes out to make sure you have enough fans, there will not be fans available for you to buy. If you wait for a wildfire, no one will have KN-95s for you to buy. They will all be sold out, especially as climate change makes summers more and more severe, and fire season longer and longer.

Other tips for keeping cool in extreme heat:

Do not ever leave a child or a pet in the car while it is off. Ever. Not "just for a few minutes," nothing. Kids have died from being trapped in hot cars in temperatures as low as 70 degrees F (21 C)

Especially if you live somewhere that doesn't typically get hot, make sure you own at least 2 tank tops and 2 pairs of shorts if at all possible. Thrift them or search them on Buy Nothing/something similar if you don't have them already. You will want the option

Cotton fabric evaporates moisture quickly and sheds heat fast. Cotton clothes are great for the heat for that reason, and if you're really desperate for relief, get cotton shirts/towels/cloths wet and either wear them or hang them up in front of a fan. The fan will blow the cooler, moist air throughout the room, cooling things down

Open windows and doors on opposite sides of rooms to create airflow

Hydration tablets and electrolyte drinks are magic for dehydration. You need to replace the salts you're sweating out. Salty trail mix is also great for this (you eat it on hiking trails for a reason)

Make sure your pets stay cool! Cold packs inside fabric can be really good for this (and for you!)

Most efficient place for a cold, wet towel to cool you down is the sides of your neck, your hands, and the soles of your feet (but NEVER put ice against your bare skin!)

Don't really expect anything of yourself between 1pm and 4pm - that is the hottest part of the day, and so it's the time you need to be the most chill (ba-dum tss). Movement creates heat (hence why you shiver, hence why exercising warms you up), so try to do as little as possible, and especially try to save errands and exercise until dusk

Many places now have heat shelters. Look them up in your area. The public library is often a spot for these, and if not, still a really good and FREE place to stay all day with AC

Plants cool things down. Standing on the grass will leave you measurably cooler than standing on the asphalt two feet away. Stay on plants, stay in the shade, and do what you can to add plants and green spaces to your area, to help keep it cool

If you live in a wildfire hotspot, try your best to get an air filter or air purifier now, because there will be none left by the time you need one

If you do end up near a wildfire zone: any smoke you can smell is smoke that can affect your lungs. Leave the house as little as possible (except to evacuate, which you should do as soon as an evacuation is called for your area). Duct tape the seams around windows and exterior doors to help keep out the smoke. And pack a go bag (change of clothes, toiletries, important documents, medications, spare food and water, essentials for pets or kids)

My qualifications: Lived in California my whole life, most of it in Los Angeles, and half my adult life living in buildings without AC. One time I went to a baseball game in 117 degree weather (47 C) and genuinely had a good time. I know things about keeping cool

[webuiltthiscity]

The Earthseed Dome by Lily Kwong is complete! At Transamerica Redwood Park

[goingtiny]

a text post by Rev Benjamin Cremer, which reads:

"When we Christians become convinced that we are the only authority on truth, that anyone who opposes us is evil, and that things will only get better if we are in charge of all positions of powers, that is when we know we are no longer worshiping God.

We are worshiping ourselves."

[ducissatenebrarum]

The Art Nouveau and Eclectic style doors of Malo-les-Bains, Dunkirk, France

( Photos credit : Phalempin Christian )

[free-and-to-none-accountable]

[hms-no-fun]

in light of today's events, i want to share a story i was told during a study abroad summer in italy, where i took a class on the rise of fascism.

the picture below is the site of a mass grave. captive partisans were brought here by nazis, forced to dig, and then executed on the spot.

our tour guide, who was delighted by our group because tourists never ask about fascism, walked us forty minutes to this vineyard in the middle of nowhere. there were no signs on the road. us americans were worried about trespassing, since no one on the property was around.

he took us to this grove and explained that the partisans were young communists from the nearby town of arezzo. local land & business owners, even their parents and friends, had eagerly ratted them out because they saw nazi occupation as bringing order back to the region.

we learned that many in central italy still to this day see nazis as heroes and americans as villains, because the nazis got rid of those troublesome punks while the americans brought bombs and tanks.

then our tour guide informed us that his own grandfather was one of the partisans executed here.

he told us that the nazis lined them up one by one and shot each in the head, and more times in the chest. but human beings are hard to kill, and it was known that even this kind of brutality was survivable.

so they threw grenades into the grave, just to be sure.

this was standard practice.

nestled in the bushes nearby with zero fanfare stands a single solitary monument. there are monuments just like it all across italy.

what stuck with me was not just the cruelty of the nazis. it was the callousness of the turncoats, who never stopped believing that they had done the right thing.

whether by nature or nurture, there is a class of people who will always prefer death and destruction over a reduction in profits. they cannot be reasoned with. they cannot be taught empathy. they will watch young people shot, dismembered, and buried alive, and they will say that god is good.

there is no reform. there is no compromise.

believe what your eyes see. listen to what your heart tells you. we are surrounded by systems that exist to launder guilt and naturalize structures of oppression, so that we side against our senses.

but you know exactly what is happening. you do.

we are waking up from a dream of peace in the interregnum of a war that never went away. the fruits of our nation's conduct, a largely bipartisan project from the start, have arrived by the truck-full. it did not come out of nowhere. it's not new, or unprecedented, or even particularly surprising.

what it IS, however, is the present. it's not a history book. it's not a mass grave. it is happening right now.

and right now, this moment and each moment after, is the *only* moment you will ever own.

stories will be told about this era for years to come. but only we are its authors.

only you.

only us.

[depsidase]

[smokeydabear420422]

[viking369]

And no, I'm not being intolerant, you're being a shitwit.

[goingtiny]

John Deere to Pay $99 Million in Monumental Right-to-Repair Settlement

The ag manufacturing giant will also make digital diagnostic, maintenance, and repair tools available to third parties for 10 years.

While the agricultural manufacturing giant pointed out in a statement that this is no admission of wrongdoing, it agreed to pay $99 million into a fund for farms and individuals who participated in a class action lawsuit. Specifically, that money is available to those involved who paid John Deere’s authorized dealers for large equipment repairs from January 2018. This means that plaintiffs will recover somewhere between 26% and 53% of overcharge damages, according to one of the court documents—far beyond the typical amount, which lands between 5% and 15%.

The settlement also includes an agreement by Deere to provide “the digital tools ​required for the maintenance, diagnosis, and repair” of tractors, combines, and other machinery for 10 years. That part is crucial, as farmers previously resorted to hacking their own equipment’s software just to get it up and running again. John Deere signed a memorandum of understanding in 2023 that partially addressed those concerns, providing third parties with the technology to diagnose and repair, as long as its intellectual property was safeguarded. Monday’s settlement seems to represent a much stronger (and legally binding) step forward.

[robertreich]

Tech billionaires want to force data centers on us with little to no regard for water usage, energy price spikes, environmental harms, or basic democratic decision-making. We must rein in AI before it's too late.

[starlightandtears]

Wow wtf HIV/AIDS was discovered by Flossie Wong-Staal, an Chinese-American woman, and she’s the reason the HIV test even exists. AND THEN she invented the molecular knife that lead to treatments for HIV/AIDS. And she’s STILL ALIVE. We don’t hear about the contributions of Women of Color enough, my word. Madness.

[vodcar]

Flossie Wong-Staal - Wikipedia

Flossie Wong-Staal - Wikipedia

https://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flossie_Wong-Staal

[yungcrybby-anonymousbosch666]

you can always tell a major breakthrough is made by a woman, a woc or any poc because it’s either completely ignored or never credited like it just happened by itself

[checkyourasianbias]

colored pictures of wong-staal, who died in 2020 at the age of 73

[goingtiny]

Missing in Action: Women Service Members “Delisted” from Arlington National Cemetery Website

When visiting Arlington National Cemetery this Memorial Day you won’t find Purple Heart recipient Nicole Leanne Gee, U.S. Marine Corps (1998

"When visiting Arlington National Cemetery Memorial this weekend you can easily locate male servicemembers graves and history on it’s website but not cisgender female, transgender, or minority veterans."

[xanaxfarts]

Assortment of whimsy window grates