r/ClimateChange posts a weekly compendium of hopeful news and it's the best thing I've read in a very long time. There is a great deal more being done than we usually hear about. Global emissions are slowing and the upper limit of warming expected has been reduced. We can slow and turn climate change, it's possible.
Read through the post.
r/ClimateChange posts a weekly compendium of hopeful news and it's the greatest thing I've read in a long time. Things are very bad but there is more being done than we usually hear about. There's hope that our food storage and home solar and frugality will make a difference to ourselves and humanity.
Just took my very elderly mother to lunch at a nice restaurant with a lovely big covered patio and lots of fans going. So far as covid avoidance the best possible restaurant to eat at.
Then I realized that as it's a nice restaurant, all the food was chock full of fresh spinach and herbs and greens. I have no idea which greens are likely to harbor parasites, or how many cases there have been in my area, or anything at all to help me make decisions. Because our slimy excuse for a government is ruining food protection just like they ruined airborn virus protection.
We ate anyway, because there's very little else my mother can do and sitting home will also shorten her life. I've worked so hard to keep us safe and they just throw more risks at us.
I hope y’all have physical copies of your birth and marriage certificates. You probably won’t have time if the bill passes. I just spent $28 on my birth certificate from Missouri. (I’m unemployed until September.)
Since I changed my name when I got married, I tried to get my marriage certificate online from the county clerk - they sent me to Vitalchek. All Vitalchek could provide was the unofficial certificate. This will not be sufficient if the SAVE act passes.
YOU’LL NEED AN OFFICIAL CERTIFIED COPY of your marriage license with a raised seal. I have to actually mail my printed out request to Harris county, Texas.
I need an actual notary for the marriage license in Iowa.
How many people do you know who have a printer, envelopes, a stamp, a checkbook, or access to a money order (transportation)?
There’s a 10 day window to receive my birth certificate. Who knows how long the marriage certificate will take.
Who do I go to to start a campaign for the federal government to pay for these documents? And simplify access to acceptable versions? Would that be an ACLU thing?
Feel free to copy and paste this to all of the organizing sites.
-- Maggie Ricketson
Chef Moe posts really good frugal recipes, often made with shelf-stable foods. His angle is teaching how to use professional culinary techniques on everyday food. He's on several social media platforms.
This recipe combines Vienna sausages, canned chili, and pasta. Looks good, I'm going to try it.
Mods, be sure to set a minimum account age or karma amount. r/povertykitchen is absolutely swamped in day-old bots posting recycled cooking tips.
You can get 26 Tanith Lee titles for a very good price on Humble Bundle right now.
Lee is one of the classic dark fantasy writers, though not as well known as she ought to be.
Excellent thread from r/heat_prep on methods people in hot countries use to keep cool. Several ideas I haven't heard before.
Be sure to read the whole thread, the comments are very good and from several countries.
The beloved Black Forager has a book coming out! If you don't know her, search on various social media. She's a delight.
I have a nice thick encyclopediac plant reference but I think I also need recipes. And humor.
https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Happy-Snacking-Dont-Die!/Alexis-Nikole-Nelson/9781668002544
From Terri Michal on Facebook:
Hello my friends!! Who's going to the Birmingham city council meeting tomorrow to ask the Councilors to add the amendments we are asking for to the Data Center Ordinance that they approved on June 9th? You must be there by 9:15 to sign up to speak. We speak at the end of the meeting so it may be 1 1/2 - 2 hours. We cannot stop pushing for this! Please join me! Here is a document you can refer to concerning our asks. I'll put the link in the comments. Hope to see you there!! #protectalabama #protectoxmoor #datacenters
https://docs.google.com/document/u/0/d/1HCaX\_xpNBmQfXJhKRYBnyp7kvY0QUw2zznMKKEA-h58/mobilebasic
From J Chris Cochran on Facebook (Public hearing is 9:00 a.m. Tuesday at Birmingham City Council)
If you are going to the meeting on June 9 at Birmingham City Hall:
NOTE 1: Based on established urban heat island research, the combined loss of 79 acres of tree canopy, continuous release of 300 megawatts of waste heat every minute of every day, reliance on evaporative cooling in a humid climate, and the bowl‑shaped topography of Oxmoor Valley creates a risk of localized temperature increases in the range known to endanger human health — particularly through elevated nighttime temperatures. This risk warrants formal heat‑impact and public‑health modeling before siting decisions are made.
NOTE 2: To put it in terms that make more sense, the proposed mega data center will throw off enough heat to melt a freight train’s worth of iron every hour, twenty-four hours a day.
NOTE 3: The proposed facility will produce enough heat to take three to four million gallons of cool water and turn it into steam and it never stops. It will release that hot, humid air into the already hot, humid air of the valley. The continuous release of waste heat and moisture into an inversion‑prone, bowl‑shaped valley would exacerbate the negative effects of thermal inversion by trapping heat and humidity near ground level, particularly overnight. This means homes that are miles away would not even cool at night.
NOTE 4. The proposed plant uses mega fans and cooling towers that produce Low‑frequency sound, infrasound (<20 Hz), and vibroacoustic exposure. This “sound” travels for miles. The proposed facility is effectively a “sound weapon” because it would produce continuous low‑frequency noise similar in type to sound exposures known to cause nausea, stress, and disorientation with prolonged exposure. While this prolonged exposure is dangerous to people, animals are particularly sensitive to these frequencies, which raises welfare concerns given the proximity of the Greater Birmingham Humane Society’s animal rescue facility.
NOTE 5: The use of terms like “closed loop” cooling is deliberately misleading. In court, we would call it fraudulent. The cooling process is evaporative. It’s like sweating. New water (hydration) has to be continuously added.
NOTE 6: The meager economic benefits are far outweighed by the real costs (health and money) that would be forced onto the people of Oxmoor, Bessemer, Hoover, Vestavia, and Birmingham.
Photo of my grandfather taken about 1927, possibly on deck of a Navy ship. He was about 22 years old.
Keep picture as black and white. His eyes were blue and hair dark blond, if it makes a difference.
Enhance details of face and clothes.
Slightly blur background to make figure stand out.
I will leave this up a while to get a really good submission.
From Terri Michal:
‼️EDIT‼️ Please note the time has changed, the public hearing will begin at 9:00, NOT 9:30!
Randall Woodfin and the entire Birmingham City Council are planning on taking away your right to a public hearing in the case of an AI Data Factory wanting to locate in YOUR district. They, the politicians elected to these positions, say public hearings are too 'political'.
We say REINSTATE THE MANDATED PUBLIC HEARINGS!! Join us on June 9th at 9AM. (Gather with us outside at 8:30 if you'd like to walk in together.) Speak at the mic if you'd like, or support those who are. Everyone counts!!! Like, comment and share so we can get the biggest reach possible!! #protectalabama #protectbirmingham #protectoxmoor #datacenter
Just got home from a long trip. Google Maps worked fine on the outward leg. I set it to avoid highways, as I always did, and it avoided interstates and took us down state highways.
But on our return trip on Tuesday, May 26th, we ended up way in the country on a bizarre route. It seemed to be avoiding everything labeled a highway. Then I switched that option off, but the map continued to direct us down county roads. It took at least two hours longer than our outgoing route.
This was the day Google was supposed to change to mostly AI search results. Did they change the map search to AI, too?
We're packing up for a trip in the morning, getting all the last stuff ready. The power goes out briefly; I sigh and pull out the LED headlamps and an LED lantern. It comes back on and I continue packing.
Then with another big crash the power goes out decisively. My very elderly mother had just gotten up for something and I can hear her fumbling in the dark. I'm bellowing "DON'T MOVE!" as I feel for her headlamp, and she's calling "What did you say?" I get the headlamp on her and get her back to bed before she pitches over anything. Whew!
Grab Mom's phone, use its light to find the lantern, then my phone. My phone is low so I pull out a charger and get it going. Roll a spare battery into my room to power my CPAP. Continue packing. Mother Nature will not ruin my early start tomorrow!
Notes: Only one of the three battery-powered light bulbs came on. Great idea, alas not reliable. Mom's headlamp is dim. Need to check mine and change batteries as needed.
I'm reading about the history of the potato. Apparently it's a near perfect food and you can survive healthily on just potatoes and milk. (Yay, think I'll plant some!)
BUT the potatoes we grow in North America and Europe are part of monocultures continuously threatened by ever-evolving potato blight and beetles. Farmers have to treat their fields with a variety of strong pesticides every year and the pests still jump over to gardens and wipe them out. (Ooops.)
Looked around and found a source of heirloom potatoes, both modern and Andean adapted for North America. They're sold as seeds rather than tuber pieces, but the variety ought to offer more pest resistance.
https://www.cultivariable.com/product/potato/potato-varieties/tps-broad-tetraploid-mix/
Detailed info on potato seeds and how to grow them:
https://www.cultivariable.com/instructions/potatoes/how-to-grow-true-potato-seeds-tps/#planting
Also found that sweet potatoes and yams are two different kinds of tubers that are unrelated to potatoes, but also highly nutritious. People have called sweet potatoes "yams" but they're different. So more genetic variety.