Poster's Log: Hat tip to mumimor who mentioned this series in their answer to this AskMefi question. I thought it deserved to be a separate front page post.
Editorial Note: I want to quote the WHOLE THING. But I won't. But just a taste more, because not everyone has time to read big gender theory papers during their lunch break. "In keeping with the trend toward divergence as a strategy for managing taxonomical tensions, the cis/trans distinction has birthed a third term, nonbinary, which, unlike its seldom used predecessor, genderqueer, has caught on like wildfire in a few short years. Initially, nonbinary—an umbrella term for all those who identify as neither men nor women—offered a much needed home to all those orphans at the fuzzy edges of the cis/trans binary. But increasingly, nonbinary identity is being claimed by people who look and behave in a manner indistinguishable from ordinary lesbians and gays, or even ordinary heterosexuals." "One precondition for the universalization of nonbinary identity is the trans idealization of cisgender. [...] Keep in mind that cisgender is not and has never been a social identity. Like heterosexuality, cisgender is an opposite fabricated out of thin air. This is not to say that there are not people who are not transgender, in the sense of people who do not desire transition. [...] Strikingly, cisgender (and "officially" transgender) is now defined as a matter of "personal identity" alone. But how is a gender-typical person to go about developing a relation to their gender identity? In a context in which most gender-typical people have never had to think about their gender identity, when they look within to find some felt relation to it, they may well draw a blank. When they do find feelings about manhood and womanhood, these feelings are likely to be extremely ambivalent--how could they not be, since these terms are artifacts of patriarchal gender expectations and racialized civilization distinctions? While they may have heard trans people talk about gender dysphoria, they will search in vain for the feeling that indicates cisness. For there is none. The reason is that cisgender--the notion of an alignment so exact between one's personal sense of identity and the gender role assigned to one that there is no rub, no ambivalence, and no sense of constraint--is and has always been a fantasy. Nobody has ever felt that way. We trans people invented the fantasy of cisgender as the opposite to the extreme gendered and sexed discomfort we have experienced. We are the ones responsible for the idealization of cisgender, and it falls partly to us to undo it." "I propose that we throw a wrench in this identity machine. It may be necessary to generate new identities, given that nonbinary is not a true social category but rather a vast umbrella with no positive social content. However, we can abandon Western binary and taxonomic thinking by refusing to create a fictive opposite for each new term. We can drop the notion that gender is purely psychic and work instead toward creating a livable, valued, and legible social category for feminine male-assigned people (given the high cultural and erotic value of masculinity, a space for masculine femaleassigned people will likely always exist). Most importantly, we can stop idealizing (and attempting to name) some version of normal gender, and we can refuse to use the misleading terms binary and cisgender altogether. For just as there has never been a heterosexuality without homosexual desire, there has never been a cis- or binary gender free from cross-identification or gender atypicality." (spotted on this tweet from nathan duford)
While administration officials insist that SmartPay is wasteful, both Republican and Democratic budget experts say that's wrong, according to Bing and Asher-Schapiro. "SmartPay is the lifeblood of the government," former General Services Administration commissioner Sonny Hashmi told the reporters. "It's a well-run program that solves real world problems...with exceptional levels of oversight and fraud prevention already baked in." "There's a lot of money to be made by a new company coming in here," said Hashmi. "But you have to ask: What is the problem that's being solved?"
From Object to Companion CaseDept. designs high-quality phone cases with precision, durability, and obsessive attention to detail. But while their products were built to last, the brand lacked a voice to match. We repositioned CaseDept. around a simple truth: your phone ? and its case ? is always with you. Not just as protection, but as presence. The brand became a companion for daily life, reflected in a dynamic tagline system: On all your... moods, moments, meet-cutes, messes. A restrained identity system, tactile packaging, and conversational tone bring humanity to the category ? turning a functional object into something quietly felt.
Today is Earth Day, but like I’ve said before, every day should be Earth Day. We are part of nature, not above it, and when we don’t treat our home well, it will eventually not treat us well. We (powerful corporations especially) are behaving like the earth is indestructible… which it isn’t! Hopefully, you don’t need to be a “nature” person to understand that this planet is the one we humans and all other species have to live on. We don’t need to behave like greedy, short-sighted pigs, and we certainly shouldn’t let our corporations behave that way at our expense and their profit. This “Earth Preservation” print addresses the major culprit in putting profits before the health of the planet and its inhabitants… the oil and gas industries. The power of the oil lobby comes from their deep pockets and huge profits, which are often subsidized by us, the taxpayers, who will also be paying to clean up the environmental damage of extracting and burning oil and gas. Yes, we need energy from oil as we transition to more renewables and electric vehicle infrastructure, but the point is that the investment in evolving needs to be made in order to loosen the toxic stranglehold the oil and gas industries have. The future is worth investing in and fighting for. Don’t let them make a killing! A portion of proceeds from this print will benefit Greenpeace’s work to combat environmental destruction. Please support them if you are capable!
-Shepard
Print Details: Earth Preservation. 18 x 24 inches. Screen print on 80# cream Speckletone paper. Signed by Shepard Fairey. Numbered edition of 550. Comes with a Digital Certificate of Authenticity provided by Verisart. $60. A portion of the proceeds will be donated to Greenpeace. Available on Thursday, April 24th @ 10 AM PDT at Obey Giant Store. Max order: 1 per customer/household. International customers are responsible for import fees due upon delivery (Except UK orders under $160). ALL SALES FINAL.
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Security bods can earn up to $10K per report
Ransomware threat hunters can now collect rewards of $10,000 for each piece of intel they file under a new bug bounty that aims to squash extortionists.…
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
The exodus accelerated in March as the administration intensified science cuts, with job views spiking 68% year-over-year. Applications to Canadian institutions increased 41%, while interest from Canadians in US positions plummeted 13%.
Recent months have seen more than 200 federal HIV/AIDS research grants abruptly terminated, cuts to NIH COVID-19 funding revealed, and a $400 million reduction in research grants at Columbia University.
"To see this big drop in views and applications to the US -- and the similar rise in those looking to leave -- is unprecedented," said James Richards, who leads Global Talent Solutions at Springer Nature.
European institutions are capitalizing on the talent migration. Aix-Marseille University launched its "Safe Place for Science" initiative with $17.2 million to sponsor researchers, while Germany's Max Planck Society created a Transatlantic Program offering positions to scientists "no longer able to work in the United States." The trend extends beyond Europe, with US-based views of Chinese science positions increasing 30% in the first quarter of 2025.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.