International Transgender Day of Visibility (TDoV) is a day for celebrating the lives of transgender people, recognizing the contributions we make to society and rallying against the discrimination we face. TDoV also functions as a counterpart to the International Transgender Day of Remembrance (TDoR)^[TDoR is observed on November 20th and memorializes those of us who's lives were stolen by transphobic violence, particularly trans women of color. TDoR was initially founded in 1999 in remembrance of Rita Hester, Chanelle Pickett, and Monique Thomas, three black trans women who were murdered in the Boston area.]; with TDoR being a somber occasion and TDoV having a more celebratory nature.

For this week, in observation of TDoV, I invite you all, the posters in our community to write a little bit about the celebration of trans lives.

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Green Lake and its sister Round Lake, are a pair of unique bodies of water located in the aboriginal territory of the Onandoga nation. This writeup will concern itself with Green Lake, but much of this information carries over to its sister.

The final remnants of a plunge pool formed during the last ice age by a glacial waterfall at least twice the size of Niagara Falls; Green Lake is situated in a gorge and fed entirely by rain and groundwater. As a result, it is one of the few meromictic lakes on earth.

So, okay, in general terms, lakes do this:

For the warmer months water organizes into distinct layers, each circulating in their own way. The warmest water, being the least dense, sits at the top. This is where the phytoplankton hang out, producing oxygen and consuming nutrients. The coldest water, being the most dense, sits at the bottom. This is where nutrients tend to accumulate and oxygen gets depleted by animal life. As summer turns to winter the top layers get colder and the water mixes as stratification breaks down, the same happens as winter turns back to summer. This process helps more evenly distribute oxygen and nutrients.

Ok so Green Lake doesn't do this.

The bottom of the lake is totally devoid of oxygen, so no decomposition; whatever falls down there, stays down there. The water is also very high in mineral content, which leaves layers of calcite deposits on anything that isn't moving. Moreover there is a layer of bacterially active water around 18-20 meters down that makes the water purple at that specific depth. Thanks to photosynthetic bacteria that deposit some of the minerals in the water, Green Lake is home to one of the few existing freshwater reefs.

I just think its neat.

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Do they exist or do these all just suck uniformly? Ive been mostly filing but sometimes my nails need a good clipping here and there.

Where does one find decent nail clippers? I am at wits end, must I make my own?

Capitalism and its allies (racism, queerphobia, ableism, and patriarchy, just to name a few) have turned what aught to be a time of rest and celebration at years end into the mess we know as "Christmastime". These systems of abuse and exploitation that we struggle against are in fact so deeply embedded into the "traditions" surrounding Christmas that their removal would render this so-called "holiday" totally unrecognizable. Without the atomization, the abuse of laborers and the gross consumerism fueled by the violence of empire… what would be left of what was once called Christmas?

The true War on Christmas lies not in saying "seasons greetings" or "holiday tree" but in the battles we wage for the liberation of all mankind.

Happy holidays comrades, a better world is possible.

The image (which is tight as hell) is a commemorative poster by Vladimir Menshikov depicting Ded Moroz, a Russian/eastern slavic cultural figure similar to Santa Claus, as a partisan in the Great Patriotic War. The poem in the bottom left (roughly) translates to:

We have settled our score with the invaders: To the executioners who barely survived, Our partisan raids, fierce and relentless, Still haunt their dreams at night.

Image and translation credits to Propagandopolis on twitter (its an xcancel link).

I was too busy with the nonsense to produce an actual effortpost so this is what we're getting this week lol.

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The mystery of "whats in the box on tank-mounted DSHKs?" has bothered me for a good long while and I have finally found a picture where the box is open. Now, I might have been able to find the answer through a little more digging but asking the bearsite sounded more fun lol.

(Image below is with the box closed)

The thing inside of the box looks like a WW2-era reflector sight but smaller, which would make some sense because many of these roof mounted MGs are meant to harass attacking aircraft. However that doesn't seem right since those sights are pretty sensitive and the sights for dedicated AA DSHK setups are very different.

My other guess was that its some kind of periscope setup to allow the user to aim and fire without fully exposing oneself but the angles dont seem right for that. It might be notable that this feature is part of the tank cupola mount itself, and is not present in any tripod setups or any other vehicle mounts.

So like... what is it?

I had notions of doing something more intellectual with this post but life is what it is and as such I have delayed my effortpost about The Indigenously Produced Unmagnified Gunsights of Cuba once again. I’m going to talk about music again this time.

Oceanlab was a side project of Above & Beyond and vocalist Justine Suissa, who was also the primary songwriter. Sirens of the Sea was their sole album and it is very, very important to me.

Ok so it’s EDM okay? To be precise it’s some particular style of vocal trance but its singer-songwriter vocal trance. Above & Beyond does this really cool thing where they tend to actually collaborate with their vocalists by getting them involved with the creative process, writing lyrics, production and all that. Now, the lyrics aren’t particularly complex and they won’t impress any pretentious nerds but they resonate with me and that's what it's about yeah? Oh yeah and they do acoustic versions sometimes???? which is wild??

I was lucky enough to discover this group twice, the first time was on some lonely night when I was a teen. I came across Clear Blue Water (a single) on Grooveshark (rip), checked out the rest of their discography, thought it was pretty, and proceeded to forget about it for a decade and a half.

I am almost embarrassed to admit just how much Sirens of the Sea affected me when I rediscovered it in the autumn of ‘23. It was like a hug, a cup of coffee, and a sit-down with the Jungian archetype of the kind of woman I admired the most and wanted so dearly to become. The kind of woman who carried empathy, knew failure, was capable of struggle, yet always embraced the love and joy of life. I can’t really articulate how, but this album helped me lay down my grieving for the years I spent otherwise.

My favorite track is “On a Good Day”, and I consider it to be the theme song of my post-transition life. I just cried listening to it, like actually right now, as I write this I still got a little bit of tears drying on my cheek. “If I Could Fly” is a total bop and they did something to the rhythms towards the end of that one and it does really good shit to my brain. “Miracle” is about climate change, it slaughters me HARD because it came out over two decades ago and nothing has changed.

This is the end of this post. Take care of yourselves. Tomorrow needs you, as does the next day, and every day after.

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Just found out Noisia disbanded a couple years ago, rip.

Hello Hexbears!

I am acquaintances with a student who has a very likely lead on a software development position with a major military equipment manufacturer. He is VERY excited about this. Now, I don't know him too well but we are close enough to have a conversation and I would like to try to prevent him from going down this path. Especially considering he has other, less blood-soaked leads. His politics are unclear but from what I can gather he is vaguely progressive/berniecrat-ish, possibly sympathetic to the Palestinian cause but that's not 100% confirmed.

I have an idea of how I'm going to talk to him about this but I'm looking to see if anyone here has any experience regarding what is or is not effective in conversations like these.

Immanuel Kunt

Y'know, when I signed up for this back in June I had grand plans for some grand writeup on the domestically produced unmagnified gunsights of Cuba. I had collected images and info and sources but I lost sight of it as life stuff happened and my time for the trans mega snuck up on me.

Que sera sera.

Anyways, today felt like the first whisper (you have no idea how hard I just thought about the ideal word for this metaphor) of autumn and that put me in the mood for one of my favorite autumnal albums. More Constant Than the Gods by SubRosa is a really lovely doom? sludge? metal album. I like how big it sounds. The lead vocalist is a really talented lady, and its got violins, also the lyrics talk about dying and stuff and I'm into that. Its very fall-y to me, as is Standard Time Volume 1 by Wynton Marsalis, but for extremely different reasons.

The funny thing is that, like the poster of the previous mega it is also my 5th transiversary, I started HRT half a decade ago today (ok technically it was the 17th but I'm gonna count it since thats when I started writing this). Now, I don't think that taking HRT was what made me "officially trans", rather it was the degree of self acceptance required to get to that point. It's a long story, and one I prefer to share privately, but it took a very, very long time before my fear and desperation gave me the strength to allow myself to have this. I think it all turned out pretty well, I experience existence in much higher fidelity, I'm this whole person, along with everything that entails.

I feel very blessed to be transgender.

I hope you all stay safe and have a good, or atleast tolerable week.

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As a reminder, please do not discuss current struggle sessions in the mega. We want this to be a little oasis for all of us and the best way to do that is not to feed into existing conflict on the site.

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First off, no one got hurt, his car was fine, mine has a fucked up rear bumper, tail lights, and the trunk won't close on its own but its tied shut with paracord for now. He was actually really chill about it despite it being my fault since I was signalling one way but decided to turn the other way at the last second, which was dumb. I was pretty badly shaken up by it last night but after a bunch of emotional support phone calls, quite a bit of crying, and a good night's sleep I think I'm feeling okay.

In terms of the practical matters I think I've got the big picture down. I have the other guys number and the accident report thing the cop gave us and I've gotta get in contact with my insurance and go to an autobody shop to see what they can do.

I come to the nice people of the bearsite to see if anyone has pointers so I can avoid any newbie mistakes. Particularly I'm wary of being overcharged for services at repair shops but anything about navigating the aftermath of one of these things would be appreciated.

Being less of a car-centric burger has been one of my goals and I think this whole event might be a nice motivator to get to work on that.

ACLU Press Release

Article from Journalist Erin Reed

Article from Advocate.com

Basically, if you got a misgendered passport as a result of the executive order in January you can now get it changed. Additionally, if you need to get a new passport, update a currently held passport, replace a lost/stolen passport or renew a passport that will expire in less than one year you are allowed to receive one that reflects your gender identity.

This is an evolving situation and it may change in the near future. From the Erin Reed article:

"whether transgender people should submit a passport update request immediately depends on their risk tolerance and individual circumstances"

However this is from the ACLU's press release:

"We encourage all class members impacted by this policy to take advantage of this injunctive relief"

It is at times like this I am reminded of the advice given to me by a man at the passport helpline some time ago:

"We have no idea what is going to happen. Trust your gut and do what you think is right."