Beamspun 7: 31st May 2020

Local sunrise / publish time: 0352 UTC (-6m)

Hey Sunday folks, or whatever epoch it is where you are, and welcome new readers. Not going to lie to you, I am tired at the time of writing this. There will probably be typos, missing and incorrect links, grammatical crimes, hidden crocodiles, discarded sweet wrappers and all the other sins of humanity. All errors are my own, of course. Unless someone else made them.

But that's no excuse. These things come and go, and we're in it for the long haul. We push on and do what we have to do, because nobody else is going to do it for us. And then we relax when we're done, kick back, smile, sleep, dream some more, snore, mutter strange paragraphs and then do it all again the next time the sun comes up. Because that's how stuff gets done and how the world changes.

This week my energy is being sustained by photos of the little things from people I talk to. Flowers, skies, whatever takes their interest. So here's one for you from my walk today.

Links

• news: The UK's largest solar farm has been approved - worth a read to see the details of such schemes and the opposition. Will the massive battery explode?

• change: Deliberately farming for climate change: "'But young farmers may be resilient to the virus ... since they have been laboring with uncertainties, perhaps their entire careers... "They're becoming acclimated to not being acclimated," Lemos said._'

• data: I've really noticed the lack of rain here in the UK this year. When should we start to get concerned? OK, more concerned? Turns out the UK government has some very detailed monthly water reports which I probably spent far too much time looking into. That sits right alongside the energy mix dashboard in my book.

• architecture: Following on from Earthships a few weeks ago, here the Guardian look at a very stylish house in New Zealand, complete with river stones for thermal inertia, condensation drainage, and indoor swimming pool...

• taichi: Breathe in heaven, root down into the earth. Sam Masich demonstrates the 'pouring qi' exercise out among Berlin's trees. (Skip to 3:18 to get to the nitty gritty.)

• zines: One from last year, but Optopia issue 1 is free to read and worth a look. They're also on tumblr and are open to submissions.

• books: From 'smart cities' to seeing cities as ecosystems? The "Multispecies Cities" book has been announced by World Weaver Press.

• books: ...oh, and hopefully the Glass and Gardens e-book collection will still be on sale by the time you read this.

• batteries: Could it be economical to re-use batteries from electric cars on solar farms?

• batteries: Meanwhile, some people are already ripping bits out of Tesla cars for re-use. I love this - we need more communities centred around reverse engineering.

• plug: A quick post from yours truly, about solar power connectors, feeling stupid, and long-term learning, because if you can't link to your own content, what can you link to?

• tech: Finally, not so Earth-based, but the US Air Force is playing with beaming solar power from space to Earth, whatttt?

Solnotes

Wow, the bright lights. I'd forgotten what long days feel like, and the days they feel oh so long at the moment. There's a great growth out there, emanating from the soil, and while the fruits may still be growing or ripening, we can still harvest that feeling into ourselves, ready for the months ahead. Slow it all down, take it all in, and I'll see you back here next week.

Get in touch

For any feedback, suggestions, broken links, comments, or general 'hi there' type stuff, leave a comment, or you can find me hanging out in any of these places:

• Mastodon: @scribe@mastodon.sdf.org
• Gnu/social: @6gain@loadaverage.org
• Twitter: @6loss
• XMPP: 6gain@xmpp.zone
• Email: beamspun (at) exmosis.net - until the spambots find me

I'm also documenting my own 'everyday solarpunk adventures' over at the 6suns blog.