November 5, 2021
The Sprouting Waters of Oʻahu and the Recovery of Indigenous Knowledge
"In Honolulu as elsewhere, to reshape our cities around the care of streams, rivers, lakes, oceans, and the lands they water would mean a core rebalancing of power from distal federal and commercial entities to local ones. A watershed urbanism in this sense would require a shift from an economy based in revenue extraction to one based in the maintenance of food systems and other natural resources, with its yield to be reinvested on the islands rather than off. The future of Oʻahu could exemplify a watershed urbanism that re-roots design and planning in Indigenous knowledge, and de-engineers more a century of settler colonialism." (QUITE a long read, but worth it.) [more inside]
Wheelchairs are Life, and Losing Them Can be Death
Engracia Figueroa has died after a horrible experience with United Airlines. CW: death, bodily trauma. [more inside]
Virginia election result
New York Times: Youngkin Wins Virginia Governor’s Race, Dealing Blow to Democrats on Telling Election Day. Politico: The Surprising Strategy Behind Youngkin’s Stunner - an interview with two of Youngkin's strategists. [more inside]
"he might wake up one morning to find his writing done"
Two long, mysterious fictional stories about death, art, and family, both with ambiguous endings. "The Drowned Father" by Pamela Sargent: "Old memories were coming back to him, of sitting in other buses and expounding on his own fictitious accomplishments." "Darkroom" by Geoff Manaugh: "The documentary was vital, and, though Jay didn’t want to admit it, a film about his mom’s sisters‚ his dead aunts, was his only idea."
Supply Chain woes and solutions
Empty Shelves, no toys for Christmas, your custom order held up for months! The supply chain in America is already under stress and is reportedly getting worse. [more inside]
One dirty trick for huge muscles fast
“There’s a doctor and it’s like a two-year fucking waiting list to get with him,” Timothy said. “And this guy gives out HGH like candy — you just have to get on that list." The problem, said Wood and Pope, is that because side effects don’t happen immediately, they’re not perceived as scary enough to outweigh the benefits of PEDs. Shorter-term side effects appear to be less common with new PEDs, and long-term effects — including cardiovascular, liver, and kidney issues — don’t show up until later in life. It’s hard for users to conceptualize drawbacks. The thought of getting stiff arteries in 40 years or having a heart attack at 60 might not faze someone who wants to look muscular in two months.
Kim Stanley Robinson & Omar El Akkad discuss the climate crisis
Kim Stanley Robinson and Omar El Akkad discuss the responsibility science fiction writers have to address the climate crisis. [more inside]
Tom & Greg
“the conspiracy theory of systemic racism”
The day after Election Day, the African American Policy Forum hosted Educators Ungagged: Teaching Truth in the Era of Racial Backlash. The panel featured educators who've been forced out of schools (PDF on the educators), including principal Dr. James Whitfield, suspended Aug 2021 in "A win for white power at a school board" (archived WaPo). The event also showed Virginia governor-elect's campaign ad of a parent complaining about her child having to read "some of the most explicit material you could imagine".... She didn't name the offensive text. Readers, it was Toni Morrison's depictions of the violence of slavery in the novel Beloved. [more inside]
Mind Over Mattress
Around the 17th century, the Dutch started reinforcing their dykes and harbours with sturdy mats the size of football pitches – hand-woven from thousands of twigs grown on nearby coppice plantations. LOW←TECH MAGAZINE investigates Fascine Mattresses: Basketry Gone Wild [archive] [more inside]
Active moose in classroom
Don't Fear The Chook-chooks
Ever thought of raising chickens? YouTube has made it easier than ever to get started. The Insteading channel has a 21 video Beginner's Guide to Raising Chickens. I learned a ton from the Edible Acres channel, their operation is as much about producing huge amounts of compost as lots of eggs. They take in food scraps from restaurants and collect bags of leaves from their neighbors, and let their chickens do all the work. They even use the heat from the compost to keep their chicken warm in winter (in upstate New York).
Woman who climbed El Capitan on her 70th birthday says you can do it too
Dierdre Wolownick, mom of Free Solo star Alex Honnold, believed to be oldest woman to scale the rock formation. Dierdre Wolownick says it's never too late to start a new hobby. And she should know. Wolownick started climbing at the age of 60 in an effort to be closer to her son, Alex Honnold, a world-famous climber and star of the documentary Free Solo. Now, 10 years later, she's scaled the formidable El Capitan rock formation at California's Yosemite National Park for the second time, on her 70th birthday. [more inside]
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