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Did you know that horses are still used for logging? Not just as a way to keep traditional handicrafts alive, but because horses are genuinely better at some jobs than machines?

Horses are much gentler on sensitive ecosystems, they're more flexible in rocky terrain, and they don't topple over on a hillside.

They can enter dense forests and drag out one specific tree without damaging the other trees and without compacting or eroding the soil.

They also run on hay instead of gas or electricity. Horses don't pollute the ecosystem with either oil leaks, gas stench, or noise.

In conclusion, draft horses are awesome c:

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By Ray Levy Uyeda, May 16, 2025

Activists in eastern Kentucky are forcing the Bureau of Prisons (BOP) to go back to the drawing board mere months after the federal agency signed off on a Record of Decision approving a 500-acre site in Roxana, Kentucky, as the location for a $500 million medium-security prison. 

On Jan. 22, the Appalachian Rekindling Project (ARP), a community-building and land restoration organization led by Indigenous women, announced that it purchased a section of the site the BOP identified as its first choice for the new prison. With the acquisition of 68 acres of private land, the ARP aims to heal the land and the local community—in part by stopping the prison from ever getting built.

“This land has already seen so much harm in the strip-mining industry and has already been out of access [to] environmental care and tending,” said Tiffany, one of the leaders of ARP who declined to use her last name for privacy and safety reasons. “The thought of adding another extractive industry—one that extracts people from their communities and extracts labor out of them—was really horrifying to us.”

The land purchase, made with the help of the Institute to End Mass Incarceration (IEMI), comes after 20 years of back and forth between the federal government and residents of Letcher County, the eastern Kentucky municipality with a population of 21,000 where the prison was originally intended. The saga began in 2006, when Republican Rep. Hal Rogers requested that the BOP evaluate the potential for a new prison in Kentucky, citing the need for an economic stimulus. 

Ten years after, the BOP approved $500 million for a new prison built atop a former mountaintop coal-removal site. In 2018, a small coalition of rural organizers succeeded in forcing the agency to table the project. By then it was clear that the BOP preferred to spend the funds improving aging prison infrastructure rather than on building new prisons. Also concerning to locals was that most of the initial cost for the Letcher County facility was slated for preparation of the land, as mountaintop removal sites require extensive remediation. 

“The last time [Donald] Trump was in office, he did speak out vocally against this project; he thought it was a wasteful allocation of funds,” said Joan Steffen, an attorney at the Institute to End Mass Incarceration. She told Prism that the Department of Justice has consistently asked for the earmarked funds to be taken out of the agency’s budget. 

This is why it was a surprise when in 2022, the BOP announced that it was revisiting the project—this time under the guise of constructing a medium-security facility. When the agency released the Record of Decision in late 2024, locals assumed it was the end of the road for any resistance, despite significant gaps in the agency’s environmental justice analysis. 

But throughout 2024, the ARP quietly organized and collected funds for the purchase. Tiffany also met with the landowners multiple times and built a relationship with them, finding common ground in that they were both born and raised in Letcher County. The landowners even knew her mom. She emphasized the importance of community ties in Appalachia, explaining that her deep roots in Letcher County resonated with landowners. 

There’s no chance that the ARP will sell to the BOP, Tiffany told Prism. This means that the federal government has to reconsider its plan and reevaluate potential sites for prison construction—a lengthy and bureaucratic process that can take years. Meanwhile, the price tag for a new construction project will balloon beyond what the agency wants to spend.

In this latest iteration of the fight against the prison in Letcher County, organizers hoped to articulate not just what they are against, but what they are for. 

“Rematriation is a solid strategy for abolition,” Tiffany told Prism. One of the hopes of organizers is to return bison to the land. The animals were once ubiquitous throughout the Midwest and Appalachia until they were hunted into extinction for the purpose of rendering Indigenous life unlivable. They also plan to plant native and non-native plants like persimmons, pawpaws, and grasses, both as food sources and as natural flood prevention. Of course, they’ll also need to hire local people to put up fencing for the bison, help plant and restore the area, and manage other projects.

The ARP’s approach to economic development and land care offers a tangible alternative to the promises made by the region’s congressman. Rogers insisted that a prison would result in jobs and a local boost to the economy. However, locals worried about the educational requirements for correctional officer positions as well as mounting evidence that prisons depress local economies. 

In one study of how the introduction of prisons affected rural Central Appalachian communities, researchers found that poverty rates remained just as high as before construction. The federal agency, Appalachian Regional Commission, lists the Kentucky counties where three federal prisons have opened under Rogers’ tenure as “distressed.” Recent research from the Prison Policy Initiative also found that chronic understaffing at prisons and jails isn’t effectively countered by promises of pay increases or workplace benefits. In other words, the growing body of research contradicts the purported reasons for constructing prisons. 

“​It’s become something that [Rogers] is so ingrained towards establishing that his ego will not let him let go of it,” said Artie Ann Bates, a resident of Letcher County and organizer with the coalition group Concerned Letcher Countians. “I think when someone is so driven to acquire something that they no longer listen to logic or reason or dissenting voices, then that’s a problem.”

But it’s not just claims about jobs that concern local residents like Bates; it’s also that the BOP appears to have no comprehensive plan for issues such as flooding. Eastern Kentucky and much of Central Appalachia faced catastrophic flooding in 2022. This includes Roxana, where the Letcher facility was planned for. Not only have the impacts of mountaintop coal removal increased streamflow, bringing greater amounts of contaminated water at faster paces through Kentucky’s mountains and hollers, but when disaster strikes, prisons rarely have adequate plans for how to evacuate people in their custody. 

“Folks who are incarcerated really do get bottom-of-the-barrel treatment,” Bates said. “They’re sort of the forgotten population.”

Bates has a different view of Letcher County’s potential for economic revitalization. She’d like more mental health services provided to locals and to see an economy based on regenerative agriculture. The ARP’s acquisition is a great place to start. For her it also offers another benefit: healing. 

“[Concerned Letcher Countians] think that it will be the kind of growth and development that will provide the nexus for young people to learn Indigenous practices and restorative use of the land,” Bates said. “It’s economically good. It’s ecologically productive, it’s culturally positive. It’s the beginning of righting a wrong that started 500 years ago.”

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Landlord wants the grass cut in the middle of a heat wave ohh my god THE GRASS KEEPS THINGS COOL

our yard has more fireflies out of the entire neighborhood, it attracts flycatchers and several insectivorous species I fucking hate lawn culture so much

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handmade by Trovelore

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why bother caring about the environment when 1. It’s so obviously a lost cause and 2. There’s definitely going to be a nuclear war?

And what are you doing about it Anon? Learn about ecological restoration or get out of my way.

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“There is only one way and that is your way. There is only one salvation and that is your salvation. Why are you looking for help? Do you believe help will come from outside? What is to come will be created in you and from you. Hence look into yourself. Do not compare, do not measure. No other way is like yours. All other ways deceive and tempt you. You must fulfill the way that is in you.”

— Carl Jung

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bell hooks mentioned going through a time in her life where she was severely depressed and suicidal and how the only way she got through it was through changing her environment: She surrounded her home with buddhas of all colors, Audre Lorde’s A Litany for Survival facing her as she wakes up, and filling the space she saw everyday with reinforcing objects and meaningful books. She asks herself each day, “What are you going to do today to resist domination?” I also really liked it when she said that in order to move from pain to power, it is crucial to engage in “an active rewriting of our lives.”

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look at this

midnight parrotfish. 4 feet long. beak that can take a chunk out of you. the average parrotfish shits 700 pounds of white sand a year. thats 700 poinds per fish per year. just on average. they contribute greatly to sand bars, coastal beaches, and coral reefs. theyre ghe best fish ever. they have an additional set of teeth inside them to help grind up the limestone they ingest. because they just wanna eat the polyps! but they gnaw on that shig. wheres my fideo

look at this. that's stone. these motherfuckers can EAT yIur bones. and your fingers. but they are very sweet and just kind of horny and very pretty. there are 80 species of parrotfish that have been discovered thus far

steephead parrotfish

spectacled parrotfish

tricolor parrotfish

baby tricolor parrotfish

stoplight parrotfish

striped parrotfish

blue-barred parrotfish

bluemoon a.k.a. black crescent parrotfish

ember parrotfish

they are so beautigul

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See also, "We're in a drought; conserve water!" Meanwhile, bottled water companies and golf courses for rich folk empty the aquifers.

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"this animal can be wiped out completely with no consequences" yeah, they said that about wolves too

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Biodiversity can be achieved through executive dysfunction!

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'Scholasticide' refers to the systemic obliteration of education. To deprive a people of education is to deprive a people of a future; it is to deprive a people of the chance to rebuild their society; it is to deprive a people the ability to express and assert themselves. Ultimately, depriving a people of education is to deprive a people's existence.

Source: All universities in Gaza have been destroyed. What does this mean for Palestinians?

With all universities in Gaza destroyed, students are turning online to continue their education. Yes, they are still studying even while surviving through a genocide. After all, education determines their future, and also the future of Palestine.

However, continuing their education online is difficult. With the frequent attacks, students often do not have reliable Internet, and electricity, the necessary equipment, or even the space for them to continue their online studies. And thus, Ihyaa (@ihyaasociety) is born. Ihyaa is a Gazan youth-led initiative that aims to provide a space with Internet, electricity and study equipment to help university students continue their education.

However, Ihyaa needs your help. Without enough funding, Ihyaa cannot electricity and Internet costs to help students access their online lessons, nor can they provide stationary and a place for students to study!

Help students in Gaza continue their education, and with that, you can help them rebuild Gaza's future! Please share and donate if you can.

Ihyaa is started by the vetter Mohammed Ayesh (who vets the fundraisers on this list). It has also been promoted by @/gaza-evacuation-funds (also see x, x, x), and promoted by nabulsi

You can enter my necklace raffle (2.0) if you donate to Ihyaa (deadline: 15 July!)

Ihyaa's Instagram: ihyaa.society

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Growing up, my brother and I deeply dreaded going shoe shopping. It took hours, especially if it was for winter boots. My dad would examine the stitching, the brand reliability, the temperature recommendations, every piece of information he could get his hands on, and then when he'd finally found the right brand, it was on to making absolutely dead sure they fit properly - he had a particular way of poking the toe of the boot to ensure our foot was where it was supposed to be that always drove me nuts. This was always on a weekend, and it was about the worst punishment we could imagine.

Years later, I found out that he'd spent his entire childhood on the Canadian prairies with cold feet. My grandmother just bought whatever boots looked like the best value, regardless of whether they'd keep anyone warm. They'd kept him from frostbite, probably, but never, ever comfortable.

The reason my grandmother never had a thought about this was because she was buying her kids real boots. There was a sort of magical quality about real, purpose-made boots that meant that of course they'd work, because when she was growing up on the Canadian prairies, they had the kind of no money that meant you just stuffed some newspaper into your shoes and soldiered on.

The last pair of winter boots my dad bought for me was 15 years ago, in preparation for a three-month stint living in northern Quebec in midwinter. They cost $200 then, or something like it. I've worn them every year since, driving out to the remotest locations on the Canadian prairies and never once thinking about my feet.

When I read the Vimes Boots Theory for the first time, it rang a bell that reverberated back three generations.

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If you, speaking now to those citizens of the imperial core, can only remember one thing about automation, it must be this: automation does not reduce the amount of labour required for a given process (in truth it greatly increases it), rather it relocates the labour, and changes its form.

Installation and operation automated grocery store checkout involves more labour-hours of concerted effort than the hiring of a checkout worker. However, more of these labour-hours are realised inside the computer factory (rather than the store) and are carried out through the acts of manufacturing, transport, and maintenance than the complex and multifaceted task of a human worker.

It is more efficient, not cheaper. In the context of global imperialism, it produces a greater profit by shifting production to global south countries, where the cost of labour has been maintained (through military and political action both overt and covert). It is essential for the imperial core citizen to recognise this fact; the job is not gone, in fact, there are more jobs required to do the work, but they are happening elsewhere, to people in worse conditions.

If you can remember this, you will be able to very quickly understand which direction the correct position on a given instance of automation is. Many arguments fall apart when faced with this simple fact; that automation only relocates labour, rather than creating or destroying it.

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I got really hyperfixated on markov chains and made a little project... You can put any text you want into it, and it will crunch it with its teeth and turn it into something new. It's effectively a form of cut-up poetry, but it has a variety of uses!

it's 100% free and I'm trying to make it as user-friendly, accessible, and customizable as able. If you'd like to donate you can, of course, do so, and it is appreciated but not required!

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there's a lot of criticism of leftists for not supporting centrist liberals in the face of fascism during election years but I think now's the time for more criticism of centrist liberals not supporting leftists in the face of fascism. the way the new york times and other left-leaning outlets are trying to represent mamdani while our federal government is being taken over by outright nazis advocating for (and taking legitimate steps to begin) ethnic cleansing is insane and they should be utterly ashamed.

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ID: A wheelchair symbol edited to have the anarchy A in the middle of the wheel. Text reads: Protesting as a Wheelchair User: Everything You've Always Wanted to Know about Accessibility and Direct Action.

new zine just dropped! this link has the version for print and the version to read online. should be screenreader accessible--let me know if the formatting is fucked up and you can't access the alt text.

feel free to share, print, and distro wherever <3