Pollinators love the spring and they love your lawn….until you cut it. Spring time is when pollinators need a quick get up and go meal, which usually comes from those peppy plants popping through your lawn early in the season. You can help pollinators survive the spring by just being
Continue readingTag: Direct Action
Things Are Good: Stop Mowing Your Lawn to Save the Planet and Your Time
Lawns are unnatural and require a lot of maintenance, so why do we have them? As a non-lawn person I just don’t get the appeal of a lawn when there are so many better alternatives which require less work to maintain. It turns out I’m not the only one baffled
Continue readingWritings of J. Todd Ring: Toppling Icons
There are many great problems in late-industrial modern society, and there are many ways these problems can be addressed – some of them more effective than others. In this short essay I will focus on strategies and tactics for real social change – what works, and what does not. And
Continue readingThings Are Good: Americans: Go Vote!
vote Americans: please go vote if you haven’t already. Not an American? Here, go enjoy pure internet click bait. I have nothing good to say about the last four years of the Republican rule in the USA. Sure, good things have come out of America over the years and we’ve
Continue readingThings Are Good: The Importance of Mapping Fossil Fuel Companies
The Corporate Mapping Project in Canada tries to connect the dots between corporations, organizations, and governmental bodies in regards to the oil and gas industry. Despite all evidence that the tar sands are horrible for the planet the Canadian taxpayer continues to subsidize the fossil fuel industry. Why? That the
Continue readingThings Are Good: This Doc on Bellingcat Inspires You to Act
Since 2014 an innovate research team has been looking into major news events in a way never done before, that team is known as Bellingcat. Bellingcat is comprised of volunteers (and a small paid staff) which use social media and other publicly available information to investigate in an organized and
Continue readingThings Are Good: You Can Protect Birds by Keeping Your Cat Inside
We all love cats, they’re curious and fluffy and provide mixed feedback on whether they like you or not. We all love birds too, that’s why we shouldn’t let them meet. If you are a cat owner please please please keep your cat inside. Cat’s account for millions of bird
Continue readingThings Are Good: There’s no Reason to Buy Clothes
If you’re like me then you’ve stopped wearing nice clothes to work because you never leave your house for work. Us “office workers” don’t need to buy clothes because the social situation around us has changed. If you work in an environment where you physically have to be there you
Continue readingThings Are Good: Protests Work: Minneapolis Police Defunding Begins and More
Democracy happens in the streets. Every single person who has supported the Black Lives Matter movement, or has shown support for social justice in a direct way, has helped make change happen in America. The conversation about racist police and blatant police brutality is getting more attention now than ever
Continue readingThings Are Good: Protesting Works
Democracy is messy and in order for it to function many voices need to be heard, when some groups can’t be heard they peacefully take to the streets. Despite a history of protesting for a good cause resulting in beneficial societal change there are people who doubt the efficacy of
Continue readingThings Are Good: Ways to Reduce Police Violence
vote This past week saw Americans out on the streets en masse to protest police violence, in particular race-based discrimination practiced by police throughout the nation. Non-white individuals get harassed more, suffer more violence, and are treated worse by the judicial system than white people. This has been proven time
Continue readingThings Are Good: Does Everyone Have a Victory Garden?
Since at least 2008 we’ve been championing that people with land should plant a food garden. The best time to start your garden is today, the second best time is tomorrow. Being stuck at home to slow the spread of COVID-19 has inspired people to start growing their own gardens
Continue readingThings Are Good: How to Reduce Your Carbon Footprint, and Why You Should Celebrate it
When it comes to reducing your carbon footprint it’s not what you do it’s what can you do. For some people it’s not a big expensive to install solar panels on their homes, whereas others don’t own a home. Every individual action counts. Once you’ve figured out what’s possible for
Continue readingThings Are Good: Amazon VP Resigns to Protest Poor Working Conditions
Amazon has grown from an online book retailer to the seller of all things and destroyer of established businesses. It also treats humans like robots and gives them no respect while also dismissing human concerns like good working conditions and a breathable atmosphere. The lengths of which Amazon has gone
Continue readingThings Are Good: Are you Creative? The UN Wants Your Help Fighting COVID-19
If you are a creative individual or work at a company that produces creative content then the United Nations wants your help. The UN has put out a call for creatives to produce engaging content to educate people about how to be safe during this pandemic. They are looking for
Continue readingThings Are Good: Folding@Home now Faster Than Fastest Supercomputer
Scientists can use your help folding. In particular they could use your computer to help understand how proteins fold. In order to understand viruses and ways to fight them it helps to run simulations to see how proteins interact with each other. You can get your computer to devote a
Continue readingThings Are Good: Grow a Garden to Alleviate Pressure on Food Supply Lines
People panic buying at grocery stores have messed up with the normal operations of industrial supply chains, including food. Not to worry though as toilet paper is still being made and crops are still growing around the world. Due to borders being closed and transportation being limited there is a
Continue readingThings Are Good: Make & Wear Masks to Stop the Spread of COVID-19
A mask shortage hit the Czech Republic early in their efforts to slow the spread of COVID-19 and the people reacted swiftly by making their own masks. Indeed, people in the Czech Republic shared sewing plans and techniques while delivering the final product to hospitals and neighbours. Their joint efforts
Continue readingThings Are Good: How You Can Help Fight COVID-19
The global pandemic of COVID-19 is flooding healthcare systems with more patients than they can handle. There is something you can do about this: stay home. Yes, just stay home. One of the reasons that people (except boomers) care about the virus is that it spreads so easily by asymptotic
Continue readingThings Are Good: 3D Printing Respirators to Fight the COVID-19 Pandemic
The Italian health care system finds itself short on parts due to the influx of COVID-19 patients. Due to the nature of the virus people with it are more likely to need breathing support as lungs are in such a bad shape. Some geniuses at one Italian hospital decided to
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