Category Archives: Art

Art, books, SF

Subterranean Gallery: Russo, Richard Paul

Leave a comment

 San Francisco was turning into a jungle–more and more people living in cars, more and more mobs roaming the streets, more and more dangers in day-to-day living.

Rheinhardt was a sculptor who did the best he could in San Francisco… until they drafted his best friend to fight in South America… until his artist’s colony turned into a home for spoiled no-talents… until his girlfriend began to ask him where he was going… until he felt like he couldn’t stand it any more.

Justinian was a mystery man, a Vietnam vet who stalked Rheinhardt quietly, waiting for the right moment. Waiting to take him to Subterranean Gallery.

“Subterranean Gallery is a day-after-tomorrow SF novel with an authentically funky lived-in quality that immediately convinces the reader that its characters and settings are real, that the urban future of the United States is likely to be very much the way Russo imagines it, and that people of compassion and creativity may still find it in themselves to bring forth from oppression and desolation a revivifying hope. Reading Subterranean Gallery is an engrossing, gut-wrenching experience–but ultimately and uplifting one as well.” -Michael Bishop, author of The Secret Ascension

Source: Subterranean Gallery: Russo, Richard Paul: 9780812552591: Amazon.com: Books

Anarchy, Art, Climate, gardening, Kindness, Monday Musings, survival

Monday Musings 11NOV24

1 Comment

Well, its been a week hasn’t it? I wasn’t very happy with the election results, like many of you out there. I’m not a big fan of the orange man (someone called him a yam which I think is funny and somewhat appropriate)and voted for Harris.

Not a big fan of her either, but I wanted the Dems to stay in power because a lot of their agenda aligns with mine (climate, unions, anti-monopolist). That isn’t happening, and it’s time to dig in and do it ourselves, which is pretty much par for the course.

I don’t really expect the government (on either “side”) to do much for us, since both Reps and Dems are in bed with the global elites/big business. Although Biden was definitely making waves in monopoly busting.

So what do we do now? How do we address climate change, union busters, genocide in Gaza, monopolies, etc.?

We need to organize. That means unions need to step up. If your workplace isn’t a union shop, organize one. There are unions for everyone. If you can’t find one join the IWW (wobblies). They are a worldwide grassrootsunion, with a long history, that can help you organize your workplace (even us self employed workers–I belong).

Josh Hill has a nice post about this with several resources at the end. Here (Time to Prepare)

Worried about book bans? Join your school board, and/or the board of your local library. Give to your local library. Also, here’s an organization that organizes country wide. https://www.librariesforthepeople.org/

Climate change is a monster. What do we do about that? Solar and wind power are getting cheaper. Put some solar on your roof, add a windmill somewhere on your property. Buy an EV, car or bike. Bikes are great in cities and small towns. Battery life on vehicles is getting better all the time, and prices are actually coming down. Start a garden, or just grow a few plants if all you have is a patio to grow on. Buy local at farmers markets. Better food, and shorter distances for it to get to you. Invest in a heat pump, electric appliances. You can still grill, don’t be a jackass.

Make sure your utilities are investing in and using alternate sources of energy. Join organizations that are trying to mitigate climate change. Boycott and protest big oil, join, or donate to organizations that do that.

Here’s one https://regeneration.org/

Don’t like the wars we’re involved in join a peace organization. Preferably local. Protest, make sure the politicians know.

Don’t like abortion laws, write your reps, join, or donate to, Planned Parenthood

There is so much more to do. What’s important to you? Find organizations that work on that problem. No organization, build one. Do what you can to the best of your ability.

Make art, write, help a senior.

Speaking of which. Write letters to seniors or others that can’t get out and about. Here’s a couple of sites that ate specifically for that:

https://www.lettersagainstisolation.com

https://www.postcrossing.com

https://loveforourelders.org/letters

Feed people. Join a food bank, volunteer in a soup kitchen, find a chapter of Food not Bombs near you.

Find something you can do. The government isn’t going to help.

It never was.

Art, books, comics, my art, Science, SF, tardigrade

All Things Tardigrade

Among the Moss Piglets: The First Image of a Tardigrade (1773) — The Public Domain Review

The very first drawing of the microscopic “water bear” by a theologian turned microscope explorer.

Source: Among the Moss Piglets: The First Image of a Tardigrade (1773) — The Public Domain Review

What If Tardigrades Were the Size of Humans?

Tardigrades: animals with superpowers

The smallest bears in the world have almost superhero abilities. Actually, they are not bears: water bears is the popular name of tardigrades. They are virtually indestructible invertebrates: they can survive decades without water or food, to extreme temperatures and they have even survived into outer space. Meet the animal that seems to come from another planet and learn to observe them in your home if you have a microscope.

How to find a pet tardigrade and care for it

https://boingboing.net/2021/06/20/how-to-find-a-pet-tardigrade-and-care-for-it.html

The Tardigrade is a wonderful microscopic animal. I love them. In I used them in an SF comic once. You can read the whole thing here for free, or buy my small anthology book on Etsy.

Art, Climate, Monday Musings

Monday Musings — 16SEP24

That’s appropriate for my theme this week. Climate change and Capitalism. LOL

Greta’s Growth – by Joshua P. Hill – New Means

Greta hasn’t been in the news a lot for a few years. That’s because she’s not a teenager anymore and has learned that Capitalism is probably the leading cause of the climate “crisis”. (Yes I put that in quotes, because while it’s a real thing I sometimes think that crisis is the wrong word for it.)

As Greta’s politics have grown and evolved, they reached a point where they now make billionaire media owners, milquetoast executives of major non-profits, and more than a few politicians a little uncomfortable. All she’s done is follow the science, but over time the science has led her to see that the climate crisis doesn’t exist in a vacuum. There are massive monetary incentives to destroy the planet in this capitalist system. ExxonMobil, Chevron, Shell, and BP made over $100 billion in profits in 2023 alone. And those numbers were down from 2022. So, naturally, in following the science Greta had to start examining the capitalist system if she wanted to really get down to the root of the climate crisis. After all, as Chico Mendes said, “Environmentalism without class struggle is just gardening.”

Source: Greta’s Growth – by Joshua P. Hill – New Means

Speaking of capitalism and the climate thing, here’s good news.

Challenges for Samsung

While the specs on Samsung’s batteries sound impressive, they’re not a breakout product, and similar batteries exist.

For example, Chinese battery makers already have a 150 kWh battery pack with a semi-solid electrolyte that can power EV cars for a staggering 650 miles on a single charge.

Also, Samsung’s 9-minute charge promise probably refers to the time it’ll take to go from 10-20% of battery life to 80%, and not from 0 to 100. It’s well worth noting that charging speed slows down significantly after 80% to protect the battery.

Now, considering that the 9-minute charge is in fact for going from 10-20% to 80% battery life, Chinese rivals are already offering 5C or 6C charging speeds.

Furthermore, other battery makers, such as CATL, are also developing batteries with longer life spans ranging up to 20 years. So, it’s fair to say that competition is very stiff and Samsung doesn’t hold a distinctive advantage.

Interestingly, though, the biggest hurdle—for all the companies involved, by the way—is the limited availability of charging infrastructure. Such impressive technical advancement is of no use if they can’t come up with the necessary infrastructure to support it.

And more good news:

Pacific islands submit court proposal for recognition of ecocide as a crime

Three developing countries have taken the first steps towards transforming the world’s response to climate breakdown and environmental destruction by making ecocide a punishable criminal offence.

In a submission to the international criminal court on Monday, they propose a change in the rules to recognise “ecocide” as a crime alongside genocide and war crimes.

If successful, the change could allow for the prosecution of individuals who have brought about environmental destruction, such as the heads of large polluting companies, or heads of state.

Vanuatu, Fiji and Samoa have proposed a formal recognition by the court of the crime of ecocide, defined as “unlawful or wanton acts committed with knowledge that there is a substantial likelihood of severe and either widespread or long-term damage to the environment being caused by those acts”.

Is This Climate Tech Start-Up Going Rogue?

Make Sunsets’ sulfur dioxide strategy has academics and NGOs fuming.

I’m kinda laughing a little at this one. People are up in arms because it’s not something that’s “officially” sanctioned. Like permission is required to do anything. Of course, it seems like techbros just playing, with no clue. So there’s that.

Another day, and another weather balloon ascends gracefully into the clear blue skies above Northern California. But this balloon isn’t headed up to the stratosphere to predict the weather—it’s going there to change it.

Make Sunsets is a tiny start-up headquartered in South Dakota that is using balloons to release small quantities of sulfur dioxide into the upper atmosphere, in the hope of reflecting some of the Sun’s energy away from the earth. Each gram of SO2, says Andrew Song, one of Make Sunsets’ founders, offsets the warming from one metric ton of carbon dioxide released by burning fossil fuels. Not everyone is convinced by Make Sunsets’ methods, however—and many researchers and environmentalists worry the startup’s unregulated operations are disrupting more responsible research into geoengineering, including a prominent effort at Harvard.

So how about some non climate related news? Here’s an interesting article on heart health, and an intervention that has been and is used all over Europe but not so much in the states.

“Game-Changer” for Your Heart

But there is a cutting-edge, FDA-approved natural therapy that I call a game-changer for your heart…

I’m talking about enhanced external counterpulsation, or EECP.

Most cardiologists continue to ignore this treatment because it doesn’t fit the traditional image of what they do. They consider heart disease a “plumbing” problem. And the solution is to simply fix the blockages.

But if that were true, why do heart attacks happen after these blockaGes have been cleared or bypassed?

The real causes of heart disease are damaged blood vessels that inhibit blood flow and inflammation. That’s where this life-saving therapy comes in.

Multiple studies reveal that EECP is the safest and most effective reliever of angina chest pain available. It has been shown to have huge benefits for patients with coronary artery disease and heart failure.

Why is that? BIG PHARMA. Doctors would rather take the drug money than use something that actually works.

So not climate change but more capitalism.

Damn, I might be a socialist. Whoops. (No the proper term is anarchist.)

Letters Against Isolation

Here’s something good that you can do for a “senior”. It’s called Letters Against Isolation. They have a giant list of nursing facilities where you can write letters to a senior there, to help brighten their day. You sign up, go to their portal and pick a facility (or up to 200 per campaign) and write a nice letter to someone who lives in them. No names are exchanged because of privacy regulations, so the letter have to be fairly generic.

https://www.lettersagainstisolation.com/faq

That is just one of a few penpal/letter writing sites I’ve found, I’ll probably do a post on it sometime soon.

Rocco Buttliere

Rocco Buttliere makes landscapes with RoBlox. Above is one of them. See more here: https://www.roccobuttliere.com/portfolio/landmarks