solarbird / is on Nostr

This blog is where Solarbird :flag_cascadia: (npub1hlx…va6k) writes in longer form, and also where she has collected all her old blogs and journals (LJ, Dreamwidth) into a single gestalt. Content here is also cross-posted to Dreamwidth, where she maintains an active presence to this day.

Blog: [solarbird.net](https://solarbird.net/blog/ )
Profile: [solarbird.net](https://solarbird.net/blog/author/solarbird/ )

Last Notes

2024-07-08 16:25:00

**Tell your family that climate change is actually real and Trump wants more of it.**
[Republican Florida is banning textbooks that mention climate change](https://www.orlandosentinel.com/2024/07/05/textbook-authors-told-climate-change-references-must-be-cut-to-get-floridas-ok/ ), meaning that one of the first-and-worst impacted states is going to try to raise children as ignorant as possible of the facts behind what climate change will be doing to their state.
So Floridians, and people with family and friends in Florida, you’ll need to be the ones filling in the gap. At least, until Florida throws out Republican governance.
Horrifically, there’s nothing unique about Republican Florida in this plan. Not only will rewriting textbooks to meet Florida’s suppression rules affect textbooks in general, Republicans all over support the deliberate disinforming of students in general, and in particular on every topic that they’ve decided they don’t like, banning books everywhere, blocking teaching about history in so many ways, particularly of racism, declaring the mere existence of LGBT people to be obscene. You know the story.
But thanks to the fash funders in the oil and gas companies, they *extra* hate people learning about climate change. Particularly if those people find out the coal and oil companies have known about it for decades, and said “fuck the climate, I won’t outlive it. If my grandkids can’t hack it, that’s not my problem. It’s theirs.”
As hyperbolic as that sounds, it’s actually a reasonably close paraphrase of someone who said that in front of me, and absolutely meant it.
Naturally, all of this includes Trump and his campaign, which has its own strategy – both with and without Project 2025 – to roll back all of Biden’s and the Democrats’ climate progress of the last four years as aggressively as possible. They see the tipping point in renewables costs happening, they see the growing social acceptance of it, the outright *enthusiasm* for it, and by hook or by crook they want that shit *stopped.*
Republicans want to dump as much more carbon dioxide into the air as they can as quickly as they can, enriching the coal and oil companies who pay them so well. It’s why the companies are dumping so much money into fash politicians and causes; they know these bribes are simple investments. It’s the circle of fascist looting at work, in all its fetid grotesquerie.
This is once again who the MAGAts are and this is what they do, and they will do it everywhere, if not stopped.
So make sure your family and your friends understand all this, and what it means. Make sure they understand how *important* it is – I concentrate on the fascism more than the climate change, but only because you have to smash the first to get anywhere on the last. Push comes to shove, *nothing* matters more than climate change. Not in the end.
Meanwhile, much of the media are either derelict or in the pockets of Trump supporters, hyperfocusing on trying to take down Biden before the campaign even really gets going. They won’t talk about this, so it falls to us.
The UK did their part. France shocked and delighted me and did theirs. They *both* reminded us all that if we show up, we win.
It’s our turn.
Time the save the world.
119 days remain.
[[link](https://solarbird.net/blog/2024/07/08/tell-your-family-that-climate-change-is-actually-real-and-trump-wants-more-of-it/ )] #politics #science #USPol #fascism #politics #science #uspolitics

2024-05-07 06:19:55

**fine, but that’s it for this version**
What I hope is the FINAL major update for the Megamap:
I decided it was kind of rude to cut off discovery park so I widened the workspace to put it back on, and discovered that also gave me the space to add back the West Seattle bridge detail so I did that too, and a little cleanup because why not.
Anyway, it’s now wider, 722x656mm or roughly 28.5″x26″ now at intended print resolution of 300 dpi (because that’s a standard here).
I really think and hope I’m done with this version, now that I know this thing has legs I’m kinda like “whelp now time to do it over again with proper tools” so that maintenance will be easier and alignment won’t be such a bear and a half. Because it will be.
[Here’s the project](https://github.com/solarbirdy/NorthshoreBikeMap ), and [here’s the May 2024 Megamap directly](https://github.com/solarbirdy/NorthshoreBikeMap/blob/main/MEGAMAP%201%20-%20May%202024.jpg ). Enjoy!
[[link](https://solarbird.net/blog/2024/05/06/fine-but-thats-it-for-this-version/ )] #art #biking #art #BikeMap #BikeTooter #biking #northshore #seattle
https://solarbird.net/blog/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Megamap-Wide-Preview-May-2024.png

2024-03-20 07:29:11

**this is some 1820s science right here**
What.
“[We have discovered that hard, electrical conductors (e.g., metals or graphite) can be adhered to soft, aqueous materials (e.g., hydrogels, fruit, or animal tissue) without the use of an adhesive. The adhesion is induced by a low DC electric field.](https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acscentsci.3c01593)“
Most importantly: it stays stuck with the voltage turned off. It’s stable for MONTHS. Reverse the polarity of the electrical flow and it unsticks. YES REALLY. This is some literal “Alessandro Volta playing around with bananas in a shed” science AND YET it WORKS and we DID NOT KNOW.
[Here’s a video](https://synapse.cafe/@lili/112126208798607099). Holy shit. What.
[[link](https://solarbird.net/blog/2024/03/20/this-is-some-1820s-science-right-here/)] #science #science