What Is Lunarpunk?

How to build a solar greenhouse heater using old beer cans

Matt Zeilinger, Solarpunk Girl (portrait of Krishna Jaya)

Humans delayed the onset of the Sahara desert by 500 years

Humans did not accelerate the decline of the ‘Green Sahara’ and may have managed to hold back the onset of the Sahara desert by around 500 years, according to new research led by UCL.

The study by a team of geographers and archaeologists from UCL and King’s College London, published in Nature Communications, suggests that early pastoralists in North Africa combined detailed knowledge of the environment with newly domesticated species to deal with the long-term drying trend.

It is thought that early pastoralists in North Africa developed intricate ways to efficiently manage sparse vegetation and relatively dry and low fertility soils.

Dr. Chris Brierley (UCL Geography), lead author, said: “The possibility that humans could have had a stabilizing influence on the environment has significant implications. We contest the common narrative that past human-environment interactions must always be one of over-exploitation and degradation. Read more.

There’s this greenhouse not too far from my house that I fell in love with when I went for the first time last year. It’s so crowded, but all of the plants are very healthy and pest-free. They have 50+ year old cacti and a ton of exotic plants.

@eternity-in-your-eyes this is just amazing! I don’t know if I’d be able to leave a place like that once I have entered haha thank you for the submission as I could only imagine having a greenhouse like that some day.

Do you know how to take care of your sewing machine?

Taking care of your machine over the long haul influences the longevity of your machine. It could mean the difference of having a machine over the span of 5 years versus 50+ years. Can a sewing machine even last 50 years? Yes, with proper maintenance and care it can! My personal machine was released about 1960 making it 58 years old. My grandmother’s Singer Touch and Sew is around 50 years old and she uses that machine so much it’s ridiculous it’s still working!

So how do I take care of my machine?

Glad you asked! It’s really not that hard to take care of your machine, in fact, the instruction booklet that came with your machine probably tells you how. Some new machines make it really difficult to take them apart to clean them up, but you’re going to want to figure out how!

If your instruction booklet doesn’t tell you how to clean your machine, below are some pictures from my own instruction booklet. Most machines are very similar and you can generally follow the same instructions. 

Here’s some general advice for cleaning your machine:

Firstly, dust out your machine. This means removing all the lint that gathered up from your last project (or projects). You can take compressed air and blow out your machine, or, like me, you can take a small, soft paint brush and gently brush it out.

Second, time to oil your machine! You can find sewing machine oil at almost any craft store. I recommend one with a zoom spout to make it easier to oil your machine.

So what do you oil? Pretty much any moving parts except gears and your belt. (Take a look at the pictures.) Work in the oil as you apply it by turning the hand wheel toward yourself. Also be sure not to put oil anywhere you would have thread or fabric moving through. Those places generally aren’t meant to be oiled and it will end up on your projects!!

Lastly, lubricate your gears. This is also a great time to check the condition of your gears. Gears wear down over time and I can say that I’ve had to replace gears before due to wear and tear. The teeth on the gears break with age (or improper machine use), although it can take a while before that happens.

LUBRICANT IS NOT THE SAME AS OIL. DO NOT OIL GEARS. NO. STOP. BAD. You can also buy this at your craft store, most likely.

How often should I be dusting and oiling my machine?

After every major project, or, if you’re working on a very large project (like a leather jacket), you might want to do it sporadically throughout.

How often should I lubricate my machine?

If you don’t use your machine frequently, once every two years is probably acceptable. I use my machine frequently enough to justify once a year.

OMG I FOUND BROKEN PARTS WHAT DO I DO?!

Google it. Most likely someone has already had the same problem and it’s probably documented somewhere on the internet just waiting for you to stumble across. Gears and belt replacements are the most common. 

If you’re looking for Singer Sewing machine parts, I highly recommend ordering parts from www.singeronline.com. Not only are they reasonably priced, but their products are high quality. I’ve ordered many parts from this business and they have my star of approval. They also have a youtube channel and document some common problems with machines as well as how to fix them. Check it out: Singer Online YouTube

Plastic-eating mushrooms are the new superheroes in combating the growing waste crisis

A new report from Kew Gardens suggests that mushrooms can break down plastic in just weeks. Learn about this study and the many environmental benefits of fungi.

~ the pondering muse🌙

I know I’ve written about this a lot in the past month but this article has some new tidbits about mushroom’s beneficial effects on soil remediation. Apparently, not only can mushrooms break down plastics, radioactivity, generate electricity, and a plethora of other things. But it can also remove pesticides, dyes, remnants of explosives in the soil, and act as a stimulant for biofuel conversion! Pretty interesting stuff isn’t it?

what skincare culture should be: -strong encouragement to use sunscreen and stay away from tanning booths -encouraging little black and brown kids to love their skin color, giving love to people with skin conditions such as vitiligo/albinism/hyper-pigmentation/etc. -good smelling lotion for all what skincare culture is: -unless a women has totally clear poreless pale skin that glows like paintings like the virgin mary she is gross and unhygienic and doesn’t take care of herself -don’t want to be that girl? spend $1000 a year on expensive goo sold by glossier and lush and inject weird chemicals in your skin to get rid of freckles and moles and wrinkles even though you’re only like 25

How about a Solarpunk moodboard 🌻🌍

solarpunk……good

solarpunk moodboard for anon

Kiki´s garden greenhouse

(just realised I never posted this on tumblr heh sorry)

this will be available as a square print later!