I want more on this too. Amazon’s monopoly has made it so hard to find alternative online stores to buy a lot of stuff, particularly if I don’t already know the name of a trusted manufacturer off the top of my head. Even competitor companies like Target and Walmart often offer less selection with higher prices and slower shipping. Also why is it that online retailers seem so scammy these days? Most brands seem to be new/disposable Chinese company names I’ve never heard of and reviews seem inflated/bot generated.

It seems like my local thrift store has the best quality to price for a lot of stuff, but they don’t always have something I’m looking for

Two of the worst sustainability issues with US agriculture practice is that we use too much land to feed livestock and inefficiently fuel cars. Growing plant-based protein sources uses about 90% fewer resources and land compared to say beef. A good 25-30% of our corn is also used inefficiently to create fuel for cars, relevant Technology Connections video. So reducing meat consumption and replacing a fraction of the corn fields with solar panels would free up a lot more land that could be used to directly feed humans and more efficiently power electric vehicles.

Dave Brandt is his name, he has some good educational seminars

No till farming significantly reduces the need for fertilizer, while reducing costs for farmers and reducing water pollution.

It was a cause championed by honest work farmer guy meme too:

They argue that they are preventing waste and fraud by holding doctors accountable. Like “oh if we didn’t have this power then doctors would order so many unnecessary tests and prescriptions”

(Not defending them, just sharing what they say)

Commenting, so sophisticated

I think this is a critical point. Broadcast TV and Radio used to create a common shared cultural identity. But now a lot of the population has hyper personalized algorithms driving what content they consume, and there’s an overwhelming amount of content out there. At least once a week I hear someone mention a new “must watch” TV show or podcast I’ve never heard of and don’t have time for… So yeah, who defines “culturally normal?”

Others.have already mentioned art. I also see fashion as a way to make me feel more confident about myself. If I feel like I look good, it adds to the messages I’m sharing with the people I interact with

Agreed.

There’s several examples of >2min speeches that hit super hard: Luthen’s “I need all the heros I can get”, Karis’ “random acts of rebellion”, the “one way out” speech, Mon Mothma’s final speech.

There’s huge character growth and complexity for most of the main characters. Although I guess Syril never had much character growth, but that was kinda the point of his obsessive character. And they really showed how the rebellion grew from basically nothing

Your local public transit card

Find a supportive and fulfilling community that is trying to make things better locally. I’ve found this at my Unitarian Universalist (UU) church. UU’s don’t believe in a shared religious text, instead they have a core set of shared values. My church has people who identify as atheist, Christian, several types of pagan, Buddhist, Jewish, Muslim, etc. We celebrate religious holidays from all of them as well as secular holidays like Trans Day of Visibility and Earth day. The focus is on being together and trying to make the world a better place. There’s active volunteer groups for hunger relief, housing support, the environment, and LGBTQ support. I also really like the music program. There’s a handy website to find a congregation near you, many stream services on Zoom so you can test them out before going in person. They can vary a lot based on the members of each congregation.

They give fine grain details on the Chance For Hope Foundation page. There are some pieces of info the charity posts transparently, but they’re missing critical items like any financial statements. The Charity Navigator rating system basically only recommends donating to charities with a perfect 4 star rating.

There are many great organizations out there doing awesome work. The website Charity Navigator does a good job rating different organizations for their transparency and how much of their funds are actually spent on their mission. They gave the “charity” mentioned in the article a 2 star rating.

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Not strictly about boundaries, but I think you’d like the Evolving Self by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. It goes a lot into how to consider your priorities in life and what you want to spend your time on

Agreed. There’s plenty of suffering that happens in life just because. Purposeful suffering doesn’t seem like a good thing in most cases.

But there’s also the issue of the definition of suffering. Minor suffering like tolerating a colder thermostat setting in the winter, it saves money and energy, seems rather subjective on where the line could be drawn on bad vs good.

Check out your local recycling center, they often do tours!

Hmm I wonder which power source may be best suited for dry and sunny areas with abundant land available

There was news today that the Senate is considering cutting Medicare in addition to Medicaid, as well as news of major changes to how science funding is sent out to researchers. Also the travel bans for foreign nationals from certain countries.

This is why. Republicans in Congress are planning to take “at least” $880 Billion over ten years out of Medicare and Medicaid to pay for extending tax cuts for the wealthy. There are also ads in the opposite direction raising alarm about this. They say they’ll make the cuts without reducing benefits, and by that they generally mean they’re going to pay doctors even less for caring for those patients.

The Coalition to Strengthen Healthcare has some resources to facilitate grass roots advocacy if you’re interested!