#binary morphology

[bethanythebogwitch]

Wet Beast Wednesday: California Sheephead Wrasse

A lot of people through history and the modern day have an overly simplistic view about sex, both in the sense of biological sex (that is, what gametes something produces) and sex as in the act of mating. A lot of people think that sex is just a strict binary between males and females, but nature is far more diverse and varied than that (even in humans. Intersex people do exist after all). Today I'm showcasing one of the animals that completely goes against the alleged sex binary: the California Sheephead Wrasse. And yes, this is a pride post.

(Image: a male California Sheephead Wrasse in a tank in the Monterey Bay Aquarium. It is a large fish with a bulbous head. The head and tail are black, midsection is pink, and the belly and chin are white. End ID)

The California Sheephead (Semicossyphus pulcher) is a large fish in the Wrasse family of Labridae. They are sexually dimorphic, with the males and females appearing distinct from each other in size, shape, and color. Males are larger than females, reaching up to 91 cm (3 ft) and 16 kg (35 lbs), though there is quite a bit of size variation based on food availability. They have flatter faces than females thanks to a bulbous bump on the forehead. This lump is the namesake of the fish, since it allegedly make it look like it has a sheep's head. I personally don't see it at all. Males have black heads and tails with a white chin and underbelly and pink midsection Females are smaller and colored silvery to a dull pink all over except for their white chins and underbellies. There isn't really a maximum size or weight for females for reasons I'll get into later. The fish have large canine teeth that protrude from the mouth and modified throat bones that form a grinding apparatus called the throat plate.

(Image: a female California Sheephead. It has a less bulbous head than the male and is a pale pink all over, except for the white belly and chin. End ID)

Sheepheads, like many wrasses, are sequential hermaphrodites. A sequential hermaphrodite can transition between sexes during its life (as opposed to a simultaneous hermaphrodite, who can produce both sperm and eggs at the same time). Every California Sheephead is born female and some will become male later in life, making them protogynous. Protogyny is the most common form of hermaphroditism in fish, with over 75% of known sequentially hermaphroditic fish species being protogynous. This transition is a one-way process, males will not turn back into females. The transition is triggered by a number of factors, primarily size and the local availability of males. If there are not enough males in the area, the largest female will transition to male to fill the role. This transition takes between 2 weeks and a few months depending on availability of food and other conditions (temperature seems to play a role) and the fish will be capable of producing sperm before fully assuming the male morphology.

(Image a male and female Sheephead swimming next to each other. The female is roughly half the size of the male. End ID)

During mating season (July-September), males will pick a territory and claim all nearby females as mates. A younger male without a territory may challenge an alpha male to try to claim his territory. These fights are often resolved with threat posturing, but if neither male backs down, they will fight with biting and raking teeth against the opponent. During mating season, females will release batches of 375,000 eggs almost daily for males to fertilize. During this time, the alpha male will patrol his territory to mate as much as possible while chasing off smaller males who may attempt to sneakily fertilize some of his female's eggs. The larvae are planktonic for their first 34-78 days, and will sink as they grow. Juveniles have a different coloration to the adults. They are orange, with a white stripe running down the body and dark spots on the fins. The average maximum age of a California Sheephead is 21 years, but the oldest individual on record was 53 at the time of capture.

(Image: a juvenile Sheephead. It is a small, orange fish with a white stripe running from eye to tail and black spots on the pelvic, anal, dorsal, and tail fins. End ID)

The California Sheephead lives on rocky reefs and kelp forests from southern California to the Baja peninsula and Gulf of California. They prefer shallow water between 3 and 30 meters (10 - 100 ft) deep, though males will occasionally venture deeper. Sheepheads are predators that hunt hard-bodies invertebrates including urchins, shelled molluscs, and crabs. Juveniles hunt smaller prey such as sponges, bryozoans, and barnacles. The protruding canines give the fish a better grip when trying to pry food off of rocks. They crush the hard shells of the prey with sharp teeth before swallowing. The shells are then further ground down by the throat plates. Smaller individuals have been known to break open urchins too large to bit by picking them up and hammering them into rocks. Sheepheads play an important role in kelp forest ecosystems by keeping urchin populations down. Urchins eat kelp and without predators keeping their numbers in check, can reduce kelp forests to urchin barrens. Sheepheads are known to have a high site fidelity, meaning they will return to the same places over and over. They will maintains a sleeping spot (usually a crevice they can hide in or rock they can hide under) and return to the same places to hunt. They are diurnal and return to their sleeping spots at night to avoid predators.

(Image: a male Sheephead trying to pick up a sea urchin with tis mouth. End ID)

California Sheephead Wrasses are classified as vulnerable to extinction by the IUCN. Their primary threat is overfishing. The Sheepheads have been commercially fished since the 1800s and their numbers have dropped. The hermaphroditic nature of the species actually makes things worse. Commercial fishers are incentivized to catch the largest fish and the largest Sheepheads are the males and females that are likely to transition to male. Unlike with other species, there aren't small males around to make up for the loss of large males to fishing since the small fish are the females. The loss of males and the largest females (who are the ones most likely to transition to male) means there aren't enough males around during mating season to keep the population high enough. The introduction of marine protected areas and fishing regulations have helped the population recover. The loss of the Sheepheads is a big deal since they're one of the species doing the most to keep the kelp forests healthy by eating urchins. Natural predators of the Sheepheads include sharks, sea lions, and giant sea bass.

(Image: a fisherman holding a male Sheephead on a boat. The large canines of the fish are particularly visible. End ID)

[religion-is-a-mental-illness]

By: Colin Wright

Published: Apr 22, 2025

The last four months have been a whirlwind of change in the gender debate. Just eight days into his second term, President Donald Trump signed an executive order provocatively titled “Protecting Children from Chemical and Surgical Mutilation.” It declared that the United States would no longer “fund, sponsor, promote, assist, or support the so-called ‘transition’ of a child from one sex to another.” The order arrived as the Supreme Court was deliberating U.S. v. Skrmetti, a pivotal case challenging Tennessee’s ban on sex-trait modification procedures for minors.

As the U.S. enters an era of legal warfare over pediatric “gender-affirming” care, it’s time to shift the terms of debate from outcomes to the foundational premises of the practice.

I have served as an expert witness for several court cases on gender-affirming care. These courtroom debates fixate almost entirely on whether the treatments show evidence of benefit. This is a mistake.

True, the evidence is almost nonexistent. Last year, British authorities released the Cass Review, a devastating critique of the evidence supporting pediatric sex-trait modification. The report was grounded in seven systematic evidence reviews—the gold standard in evidence-based medicine. One of the reviews, consistent with the others, described the evidence in favor of “gender-affirming treatment” in children and adolescents as “remarkably weak.”

But while it’s not wrong to highlight this evidentiary void, focusing solely on outcomes cedes too much ground to proponents by implying that outcomes alone could legitimize the practice gender transition. The deeper flaw in gender-affirming care lies not in the data but in their premises. If the foundational assumptions used to justify these treatments collapse under scrutiny, the interventions would remain unjustifiable, even if some evidence of benefit eventually emerged.

At its core, gender-affirming care rests on two claims. First, it posits that biological sex is not a fixed binary but a malleable continuum, shaped by traits like sex chromosomes, hormones, genital morphology, and other physical characteristics—most of which doctors can alter with hormones and surgeries.

Second, it asserts that a person can have a “brain sex”—equated with “gender identity”—that diverges from his body, creating a mismatch that drives gender dysphoria. The goal, then, is to align the body with this purportedly immutable “brain sex” through hormones and surgeries.

Both premises are scientifically untenable. Sex is not a spectrum. It’s a binary biological reality defined by reproductive function: males have the function to produce sperm, and females, ova. No hormonal or surgical intervention can change a person’s sex. Likewise, the notion that a person can have a “brain sex” incongruent with his body defies both biology and logic. Our bodies are an integrated whole, not a patchwork of independently sexed traits.

These unsound premises make gender-affirming care a house built on sand, not solid medical science.

Consider an analogy: exorcism might comfort a troubled patient who believes in demonic possession, but the practice’s legitimacy hinges on demons being real. Absent that, it’s a ritual, not medicine.

Similarly, gender-affirming care presupposes both a “sex spectrum” and “brain sex,” which do not exist. No amount of reported benefit can salvage a practice rooted in pseudoscience.

This distinction exposes a contradiction among the defenders of gender medicine in U.S. v. Skrmetti. The litigants against Tennessee argue that bans on “gender-affirming” procedures for minors constitute a form of discrimination based on sex. The ACLU, representing private plaintiffs in the case, attempted to spotlight potential benefits of gender-affirming care while sidestepping the shaky premises, yet its legal arguments invoking sex discrimination implicitly relied on sex being concrete and immutable. This undermines the justification for the gender-affirming care it supports, which requires that sex be fluid and changeable. They can’t have it both ways.

The legal battle over gender-affirming care must shift focus. Legislation should not merely target procedures but dismantle the pseudoscientific terminology and concepts—“gender identity,” “brain sex,” and “sex assigned at birth”—that prop them up. Medical institutions must face accountability for embracing these falsehoods.

This is a rare moment to halt the medicalization of confused, distressed, and vulnerable youth. By attacking gender medicine at its ideological foundation, we can end this harmful practice.

==

Never lose sight of the fact the underlying claim is the same kind of mystical mind-body dualism as Xianity's eternal soul or Scientology's thetans. That we are not entirely biological beings, but possessed by some biology-independent spiritual gender essence.

It's completely retarded.

[iamaine]

ive only dated four people but none of them have had simple relationships with gender

1) first person I dated is non-binary now (doesn't identify as trans)

2) second person I dated has expressed some rare desires about what their post-morphological freedom body would be (beard, boobs, penis, and just dial all the secondary sexual characteristics up to ten)

3) third person I dated was an egg but the very-low-dysphoria kind where they can probably continue living as a cis man happily enough

4) the only person I'm dating right now is a cis woman who wants to be tall and have a penis

Somehow haven't actually dated another (confirmed) trans person yet

[maonng]

Some basics of nominal classification

aight so, i wanted to make a post about nominal morphology but i cant be cause i would need to go into: case markings, derivational morphology and expression of plurality, most of which i have not stabalized in my master doc so ill just go into the expression of grammatical gender or grammatical classes in my conlang.

a lot of grammars talk about grammatical genders because a lot of grammatical gender systems are sex-based (french, spanish etc.) but i prefer the terme nominal classes for a three reasons:

the gender binary is fake and cant be limited to a binary sex system, even within natural gender systems (german (masc, fem, neutral), a variety of african languages which are not even sex-based)

even within sex-based, binary gender systems, it makes no sense to speak of gender for objects, concepts and so on so the sex dichotomy only applies to a few lexemes (and even then it's debatable)

the nominal classes in my conlang is based on different criteria that are completly outside of gender/sex considerations, at least within the nouns.

So, with these considerations in mind, lets get into the nominal classes in my language. I considered 4 different classes that are a result of the combination of 2 binary variable:

whether the considered (philosophical) object is animate

whether the considered (philosophical) object is found above or below the earth

Indeed, the linguistic community that speaks this language lives under the ground, and spends most of its life in complexe cave systems that they made as their dwelling.

this creates a few cognitive considerations in the distribution of objects into the different nominal classes that i will go into later.

from this we can deduce 4 nominal classes:

deep inanimate (dwelling, books...) DI

deep animate (people, bugs, fire...) DA

surface inanimate (mountains, rocks, fallen snow...) SI

surface animate (animals, clouds, falling snow...) SA

the usual way one can tell that a language has a nominal class system is agreement. In my language, gender agreement shows in different ways. one of the most elaborate is that each noun case affix agrees with the nominal class of the noun.

nominal class agreement shows in different ways all throughout the language besides nouns: all nominals bear some sort of agreement mark.

at first i wanted to give each noun a different ending depending on its nominal class but im starting to rethink this decision as it's kind of boring. going forward ill either have a few "stereotypical" endings for each nominal class but that are not necessary for a noun to belong to a class or ill just say f it and just make class unmarked in the lexeme.

im still working on the case markings and the case system so i wont be able to show much right now but ill start working on a few case infographics soon.

[forestdumbass]

Oh my god I love my degree I literally just asked about the morphological processes that formed the word enby low-key expecting to be laughed off (I asked anyways in case I got some resources to look it up myself) and the professor was literally so fascinated about it and thanked me for bringing it up??? Wdym non-binary people can be not only included but cherished in academia???

[owlservice]

Among mammals, a rare example of morphological specialization is provided by the binary sperm, which are found in most species of South American marsupials. Sperm are joined in pairs in the acrosomal region and do not separate until they reach the oviduct. Paired sperm swim more rapidly in viscous media than single gametes do; therefore, they may gain some advantage over single gametes under conditions of sperm competition [19]. In the woodmouse (Apodemus sylvaticus), sperm do not become joined in pairs, but their long, hooked acrosomes facilitate attachment and coordination of group locomotion, at least when observed under in vitro conditions [20].

Dixson, A. F. and Anderson, M. J. (2004) ‘Sexual behavior, reproductive physiology and sperm competition in male mammals’, Physiology & Behavior, 83(2), pp. 361–371. doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.physbeh.2004.08.022.

[tallysgreatestfan]

Hey do you have any cool personal worldbuilding detail hcs for the Uglies world? (Whether it’s about Tally’s city, any of the groups like the specials, Uglies, pretties, etc. that you would like to share? I’m really into the books myself and I’ve always wondered how the worldbuilding could be enhanced with just cool details that make it feel more lived in and well thought-out.

For me that is unusually difficult, since the worldbuilding in the books is already so densely packed and some of the best I've ever seen. I also love, and this is something Scott Westerfeld does in his other books too, how the characters feel truly shaped by this world, not like people from our time transplanted in the future.

So it is more some small detail stuff instead of filling in big gaps, but:

Before the movie came out, I had the headcanon that Uglies would not shave at all except for facial hair. Why should they? They're ugly anyway, why the effort? And I am a bit frustrated that the movie didn't actually went to that logical conclusion, but also, you can't turn off patriarchy and Hollywood beauty standards to make one movie more striking, and it would probably have been massively uncomfortable for the actresses, given how often women would get harassed just for having leg hair or something. But even now I still headcanon that it's relatively unusual to expect Uglies to shave, and that this is something Tally does is a sign of just how much of an hardliner Seatac aka the City is. Tally is flabbergasted as she learns about this after traveling around post-canon.

Despite being such a highly technological society, most people end up going into the trades as the New Pretty phase ends at 22, and only twenty or so percent end up in university. Who ends up where is mostly determined by aptitude tests, though it is possible to choose to some degree.

Something that is kind of marginally shown in the Impostors series: They have pretty much the same beauty standards as our culture, but they have vastly different ideas about gender, which also slightly vary between cities. Basically no different expectations between genders for character, life trajectory and skillset, except for behavior at balls or superficial m/f romance things (bringing flowers etc) or something, clothing and body types, and even for that it is much more fluid than our culture. The outlines the morphological committee gives are kind of gendered in the sense that they group certain traits together like "if that person choose to have big boobs, they also need to have shoulders that aren't wider than this", but they are not completely binary, and it's perfectly possible to chose combinations of "contrasting" gendered traits as long as the morphological committee agrees that the person is pretty afterwards. So Dr. Cable looking pretty unambiguously binary female is perhaps not quite an outlier, but definitely more rare than today.

Everybody over sixteen (or eighteen in some other cities) has these lesions making them lesser creative, which means that not just art and media plays a lesser role than in our society, the fictional media they do have quite often tends to be the reboot of the reboot of the expanded story of a side characters from that sequels prequel.

Specials process things at a much faster rate than everybody else, which also means that what blurrs together to a video for everybody else is just a fast succession of pictures. Haven't decided yet if they have software to "accelerate" the amount of pictures, or if they, since they are cyborgs, can simply turn off seeing this fast for the duration of watching the video.

Darker one about the Specials: They aren't even really capable of comprehending this, given how they're surged to feel invincible, but they usually don't end up getting as old as every other citizen of the City. They usually are either killed in service, or their body randomly rapidly breaks down from the strain of all these modifications and superhuman efforts several years from the usual dying age.

Macabre and somewhat gorey: So they are skinning people for the surgery to then put on new, more flawless skin, right? Almost every time a new year of doctors sees the surgical tanks in action, at least one person in the group either ends up vomiting or nearly vomiting.

Since Seatac is near the former Canadian border, both Tally and Shay learned French in school. Shay is somewhat fluent, but Tally very much isn't. Good for Tally that she is a cyborg with a built in translator matrix.

The reason Maddy and Az could escape so well is that Special Circumstances was in somewhat of a cold war situation with Special Circumstances from Paz at that time, Paz wanted to alter the lesions by utilizing emotions more and Seatac thought that was too dangerous, and so focused on that instead of hunting them down. Dr. Cable realized what a massive problem they would end up becoming right from the beginning, but had been with Special Circumstances for barely a year at this point, as a medic, not a tactician, and so had not enough power to change anything about that yet.

Seatac has an antimissile system that is under control of Special Circumstances. It has never been used in the entire history of the city except around 180 years before Dr. Cable came into power, to shoot down a medium sized meteor headed for the suburbs, and mostly just exists because maintaining it is just as much effort as breaking it down.

While they clearly still have eurocentric beauty ideals, they don't have much of the other surface level rascism anymore, and they also don't have capitalism anymore, so every city is more or less the same level of wealthy, no matter where on Earth it is. This results in the media that becomes global phenomena more or less randomly coming from all over the world. In the time Tally and Shay were Uglies, this was an rather raunchy high fantasy movie trilogy from Hlotse (Lesotho). They were too young to watch it, but managed neverthless through semi-legal internet tricks. Shay ended up having Whatpatt erotica level realistic fantasies about the female warrior main characters, Tally just watched it with Peris in uncomfortable silence over the several minute long sex scenes.

People aren't registered by name or ID, but by their genetic code. That makes it, apart from surface level transphobia not existing anymore, quite easy to change ones name. Dr. Cable went through several names about as good as you'd imagine a elementary school girl to come up with before settling with "Nyah" entering the Ugly age phase.

On that note, something I expected the movie to debunk looking at the role listings on IMDB, but it never actually came up (I think the books work with this, but not hundred percent sure, would need to look up the scene where Tally sees her parents): Couples usually keep their last name, and eventual children inherent the last name of the parent with the same gender as them. Trans people, or people with parents who have the same gender can chose or combine both names. So "Youngblood" is Ellies, aka Tallys mothers, last name. Dr. Cable wasn't registered with her mothers last name "Cable", but choose to change it as she was old enough to understand that system. And a bittersweet consequence of this headcanon: David inherents Az last name, not Maddys, meaning he has this remembrance of him even after Az death.

That were all I came up with out of the top of my head, there's probably even more I used in fics or so.

[eva-does-their-best]

¿Qué es tu pronombres en español? (Did I say that right?)

While you were right that "Qué" means "What", in Spanish the expression would be "Which are your pronouns?", "Which" being "Cuál", but you have to put it in plural since the subject, pronombres, is in plural, same goes for the verb and the possesive pronoun.

So, all together, it would be "¿Cuáles son tus pronombres en español?".

Alternative ways to ask could be "¿Qué pronombres usas? (Which/What pronouns do you use?)", "¿Cómo me refiero a tí? (How do I refer to you?)" or I think in some Latinamerican dialects you can ask it like "¿Cómo son tus pronombres?" but I am not 100% sure about that one.

And well, the answer is that in Spanish I use feminine pronouns, so Ella. Due to a very distinct and strict word class morphology plus very strict and predictable phonotactics Spanish is not as good at creating new words as English, so the pronoun options are very limited and anything outside the binary ones tends to sound awkward, so for now I only use the feminine ones n.n .

[kanguin]

I should be heading inside the store right now to pick up a prescription, but instead I'm sitting in my car blasting my AC still trying to grapple with what my therapist told me a few weeks ago.

It all started when I mentioned that in response to unchangeable, inescapable negative situations, I have always opted to change how I feel about the situation, rather than put up a fight against it. Ever since I can remember, my rationale has always been that if I have no power over a situation that makes me miserable, then I should simply change what I can: how I feel. Because that way, I am no longer miserable. This made logical sense because

A) being miserable is bad and is to be avoided at all costs, and

B) fighting unchangeable circumstances is a waste of energy, especially when you already aren't the most energetic person.

Mom's dating a guy I don't like because he's overwhelming to me? I don't know that he's going to turn out to be abusive, but I also don't know how to explain that I'm being overstimulated by a grown man with untreated bipolar disorder, I'm fucking 4 years old. So I'll just make myself like him, find the fun parts. Mom's marrying this guy and wants us to be a complete family? I don't know how to articulate that I don't feel incomplete, I'm like 5. So I make myself hype him up as the best stepdad in the world for a bit. I'm attending summer camp and for some reason want to board with the girls instead of the boys? Well obviously they have us separate for a reason, it makes no sense for me, a "boy" to want that, I'll find things to enjoy here.

Over and over again I would meet insurmountable odds and just adapt rather than fight. That's why I've never known righteous anger. And I used to think that was good! I used to, until very recently, see myself as exceptionally lucky that since as far back as I can remember I've been so adaptable, so agreeable, and so easy going. How lucky am I, that when faced with intense stress, I get MORE rationally minded and LESS emotional, so that I can bypass that whole anger nonsense and focus on the problem at hand if it's actually fixable.

Bringing it back to my therapist though, she popped that bubble. She says, through no fault of my own nor even the adults around me, I have repeatedly denied myself the ability to develop an internal identity, a sense of self separate from the outside world. I already knew that I had a weak sense of self, but like, I thought it was no big deal, I still exist and obviously have consistent, observable traits, I'm in just not great at reading it myself, you know? So I've always turned to friends to get their opinion on who I am. It's always worked for me, people have always given me descriptions of who I am, so it's fine. Right?

But as I'm sure you're guessing, if anyone's reading this, no, it's not fine. By repeatedly denying myself the development of a distinct internal sense of who I am as a person, I have made it next to impossible to know what I desire to pursue in life, and what I need to feel fulfilled. And by repeatedly adapting instead of fighting at every seemingly insurmountable problem, I never learned how to fight and when I need to fight.

By not having a sense of self, I could not identify that I wasn't cis until I was 18 years old, and then for 10 more years I couldn't identify that I wasn't happy in a morphologically male body. Like, sure, if all but my genitals was magically made into a "woman's" body, the yeah I'd be down for that, but eh I can't be bothered to go through the whole transition thing, how bad could I want that really. Aren't I perfectly content where I am now, simply identifying outside the gender binary? Why bother going through all that if I can't be certain that I'd like that any more than this? When in reality I simply do not know what it feels like to love my body.

I'll be honest this is a lot to grapple with and I'm still not sure what to do now. My next appointment is near the end of the month, so we'll talk more then, but just. My whole worldview of what I thought was fine is just kinda shattered. And I really don't know where to start in undoing the damage I did to myself without even realizing it. I still feel weirdly guilty for wanting things that are a lot to ask of people, because I've never, or at the very least never consistently, put myself first. Like how the hell do you even approach your best friend and say that you want to spend your life not just with your romantic partner, but with them as well, without feeling guilty about asking so much from them? Like, I did it, it's something we've discussed now, but god, asking that much of people feels wrong, I don't want to inconvenience anyone, not remotely.

It's all so insane because, to my knowledge, I wasn't ever punished for wanting things. I trained myself to not want things all on my own. I noticed I didn't get everything I asked for for birthday and Christmas? Makes sense, that's a good lesson for kids to learn, etc. But then I started paying attention to what I would and wouldn't get each year. I followed the patterns. And then I started training myself to look through LEGO magazines talking myself out of wanting ANYTHING I couldn't either afford with allowance or wouldn't likely get for Christmas. So to go from that mindset, so deeply rooted in my brain, to suddenly advocating for myself outside of emotional bursts of desperation... It's so alien, it feels so wrong to want things, to want people, to make any sort of requests, or god forbid, demands, of others.

I hope one day this post is just as alien to me as those feelings are now. I don't know how I'll get there, or where "there" is, or what that would look or feel like. But. Hope. I hope.

[santoschristos]

Great Message from our Andromedan Brothers for Akar:

Brothers it is a great pleasure for us to communicate with you. We are Andromedans from one of the many constellations that are located within the Andromeda galaxy.

We are getting closer to you because the events that will happen in the next "TIMES" through visualization of the transition of a planet of another system on the trajectory of your planet which you call Hercolubus, Nibiru .. , and the displacement force of this planet has caused for several cycles in which physical disturbances have passed on your planet due to the energy fields it manages and alters.

Its passage causes an energetic attraction between planets and planets, generating energetic movements such as earthquakes and plate flows.

Because of the alignment of six planets in your Solar System, the energy fields have generated a strong field of attraction,

your planet is entering orbit where energies have been transformed causing states of imbalance.

This meeting is to give you a NOTICE to inform you about what is happening in the Cosmos that you cannot see. Andromeda and the Milky Way will form a single very large and powerful galaxy and this process must be a process of transformation.

This process is cyclical, being the other part of this Solar System, it’s binary and it’s approaching this part and then leaving. It corresponds to a slightly smaller-like star to the Sun and has an orbit too large inside this galaxy.

This star has used up its energy, feeding these ten planets one of them is yours, with light and radioactive, magnetic energy, and other forms of energy.

This twin Sun of yours, which you call Hercobulus, is already in an approaching period, it is larger than the size of the Earth, it does not collide, but its approaching at such a distance that the forces flowing in it act causing a series of changes in morphology and in the energetic part of the earth.

It’s an influenza that is not as serious as you might think and will manifest itself with the attraction of the Earth’s tectonic layers, whether they are continental or maritime, causing the magma of volcanoes to activate like marine and land plates causing earthquakes and volcanic activity.

Your genetics will be reconstructed, realigned, and your life will change. Communication systems will change significantly.

Our report is to inform you that very soon you will see a bright spot on your firmament and you should know that the information you will receive from the wrong dark beings manipulating you in the media will want to worry, leveraging on the faith and hope of your firmness divine evolution.

The energy of these abrupt atmospheric changes whose elemental will act throughout your planet, being this transformation is necessary, knowing that we support you at all times, covering your Creation as much as possible.

Our Andromeda galaxy is twice as big as your Milky Way galaxy.

We can summarize it with the following concepts:

1. We are near you and we will accompany you. 2. All systems of creation change, flow, and transform. 3. - You are about to end a cycle where your existence, your Being and your evolutionary means will change. 4. - In this process of change or cycles there is a planet in your own Solar System, but on the other side, called Ercobulos, which is approaching and will approaching bringing changes in the dense part. 5. - We are very happy to be able to contact you, being a great joy.

MAY THE LIGHT BE WITH YOU. Isabel Garcia Martinez

Image: Signal from Andromeda by Mahaboka

[erikabsworld]

Mastering MATLAB: Solving Challenging University Assignments

Welcome to another installment of our MATLAB assignment series! Today, we're diving into a challenging topic often encountered in university-level coursework: image processing. MATLAB's versatility makes it an invaluable tool for analyzing and manipulating images, offering a wide array of functions and capabilities to explore. In this blog, we'll tackle a complex problem commonly found in assignments, providing both a comprehensive explanation of the underlying concepts and a step-by-step guide to solving a sample question. So, let's roll up our sleeves and get ready to do your MATLAB assignment!

Understanding the Concept: Image processing in MATLAB involves manipulating digital images to extract useful information or enhance visual quality. One common task is image segmentation, which involves partitioning an image into meaningful regions or objects. This process plays a crucial role in various applications, including medical imaging, object recognition, and computer vision.

Sample Question: Consider an assignment task where you're given a grayscale image containing cells under a microscope. Your objective is to segment the image to distinguish individual cells from the background. This task can be challenging due to variations in cell appearance, noise, and lighting conditions.

Step-by-Step Guide:

1. Import the Image: Begin by importing the grayscale image into MATLAB using the 'imread' function.

image = imread('cells.jpg');

2. Preprocess the Image: To enhance the quality of the image and reduce noise, apply preprocessing techniques such as filtering or morphological operations.

filtered_image = medfilt2(image, [3 3]); % Apply median filtering

3. Thresholding: Thresholding is a fundamental technique for image segmentation. It involves binarizing the image based on a certain threshold value.

threshold_value = graythresh(filtered_image); % Compute threshold value binary_image = imbinarize(filtered_image, threshold_value); % Binarize image

4. Morphological Operations: Use morphological operations like erosion and dilation to refine the segmented regions and eliminate noise.

se = strel('disk', 3); % Define a structuring element morph_image = imclose(binary_image, se); % Perform closing operation

5. Identify Objects: Utilize functions like 'bwlabel' to label connected components in the binary image.

[label_image, num_objects] = bwlabel(morph_image); % Label connected components

6. Analyze Results: Finally, analyze the labeled image to extract relevant information about the segmented objects, such as their properties or spatial distribution.

props = regionprops(label_image, 'Area', 'Centroid'); % Extract object properties

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[materialsscienceandengineering]

Researchers from The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) have achieved a breakthrough power-conversion efficiency (PCE) of 19.31% with organic solar cells (OSCs), also known as polymer solar cells. This remarkable binary OSC efficiency will help enhance applications of these advanced solar energy devices. The PCE (Power-conversion efficiency), a measure of the power generated from a given solar irradiation, is considered a significant benchmark for the performance of photovoltaics (PVs), or solar panels, in power generation. The improved efficiency of over 19% that was achieved by the PolyU researchers constitutes a record for binary OSCs, which have one donor and one acceptor in the photo-active layer. Led by Prof. LI Gang, Chair Professor of Energy Conversion Technology and Sir Sze-Yen Chung Endowed Professor in Renewable Energy at PolyU, the research team invented a novel OSC morphology-regulating technique by using 1,3,5-trichlorobenzene as a crystallisation regulator. This new technique boosts OSC efficiency and stability.

Read more.

[remastered-fate]

weird question, but how did you figure out you were trans?

Honestly it was just being around demons for god only knows how long. Demons are super morphologically inconsistent so physical markers of gender don't mean jack shit to them.

I figured if I was going to really embrace the Demon Thing I might as well try out some other genders besides male, played around with some varieties of non-binary identity, then ended up trying out the feminine options and realized I liked being she/her/miss/lady/ma'am-d more than I liked being he/him/mister/gentleman/sir-d.

Though honestly I don't really give a shit. I like the feminine pronouns and addresses and I'll introduce myself with them, but my gender is just kind of a pile of question marks with a transparent pink film draped overtop. I like girl for now, but maybe I won't in the future, maybe I'll experience some weird identity shift and want to be male again or even move camps to non-binary. Who knows! Not me, that's for fucking sure.

[obsessivelollipoplalala]

I’m curious to get your take on something. As someone who studied linguistics, what’s your take on terms like Latinx, a word being used in the US to identify non-binary gender fluid people of Latin descent? It’s meant to me inclusive but also deeply unpopular within the Latin community. I was born in Latin America, live in the states, am very supportive of the gay community but HATE this term. Spanish (my native language) is gendered. Adjectives and other conjugations have to agree with the gender of the noun. I’m an ally to the gay community but it’s silly things like this that make people take a step back sometimes. Yes, tolerance is important but wanting to change the morphology and structure of a language simply to accommodate a portion of the population is kind of ridiculous. Thoughts?

You really dumped a bunch of gasoline in my inbox and asked me to light a match lmao

Okay, there are a lot of things going on here and I want to address them all. From a linguistic standpoint—meaning from the standpoint of simply studying how humans use and modify language—I think “Latinx” is interesting because people were presented with a problem: how can we express gender neutrality in a gendered language? Seeing what people’s minds come up with in these kinds of situations is objectively interesting. It’s why I said recently that something like doublespeak in 1984 is nonsense, because humans find ways around obstacles in language all the time.

I sympathize with people who want more gender neutral language, and I’d be interested to hear how non-binary people born in Latin America, for example, feel about speaking a language with grammatical gender and if/how that impacts their experience. How do they express themselves in Spanish? Or how do non-binary people express themselves in other gendered languages like Italian and French? It’s an interesting question.

With all of that said, I have absolutely seen the consensus in the United States by the people who are actually supposed to be described by the term that they hate it. Even terms like “Hispanic” and “Latino” can be controversial because people (especially those whose families haven’t been in the US for a long time) tend to more readily describe themselves by nationality, like, “I’m Mexican” or “I’m Venezuelan” as opposed to, “I’m Hispanic.” There’s already this issue with trying to condense different people and identities into a neat little category on the census that fits America racial ideas, and when you add a term that goes against how the language actually functions into the mix, I think it’s understandable that people will be resistant to it. The reason why I, personally, don’t really use “Latinx” is because most people from Latin America don’t use it, this has been confirmed by polling, and I don’t want to use a term that the actual people are uncomfortable with.

I should note that I actually had no idea how this term was even supposed to be pronounced for years, because I only ever saw it on the internet; I thought it was like “latinks” (the way we usually pronounce an “x” in English) and my brain skidded to a halt when I first heard, “Latin-ex.” I was actually talking about this very issue with my co-teacher a couple of weeks ago, who lived in Mexico for years and taught ESL to immigrant teens in Texan high schools, and she had no idea it was actually pronounced that way, either. I’m bringing this up to point out how heavily confined to the internet this term was for a long time, and how little this term is still used in real life. Again, I think this partly explains the resistance people have to this term, because it didn’t happen naturally irl, it’s an internet word that people are trying to bring into the regular world.

I do think the morphological rules and phonotactics of Spanish play a role in people disliking them term, too, because yeah, using an “x” as a kind of neutral marker might work in English, but not Spanish. Grammatical gender is baked into the language’s DNA, and I don’t see that ever changing. It would be too drastic. I think that even if people aren’t opposed to being inclusive, most Spanish speakers kind of have the immediate reaction of, “What?? But that’s not how that works.”

So, yeah, I understand why people dislike the term. I don’t see it catching on widespread outside of the internet, at least not in the near future. I certainly don’t think people outside of a community should say, “You don’t like this term to describe yourselves? Too bad! Use it!” 

The only thing I’m going to push back on is the idea that pushing a term like this would justifiably “make people take a step” back from trans rights (because that’s really what this is, it’s not about sexual orientation but gender identity), because as fucking stupid as I think “folx”** is, I don’t think there’s a reason to turn one’s back on trans people. I’m not saying that you’re doing this btw, I’m just preemptively putting it out there because plenty of people go, “Ugh, these marginalized people are being annoying and loud, therefore bigotry against them is justified.” And that’s a big no from me. There’s so much backlash against trans people in our culture now, and clunky internet terms don’t compare to the violence and animosity happening in real life. I think this whole thing reflects the very interesting cultural moment we’re in with increased visibility of trans and non-binary people, and people trying to find new ways to express their identities, and there are going to be clumsy attempts that really don’t work out long-term, but that’s inevitable.

**(“FOLKS” IS LITERALLY ALREADY GENDER NEUTRAL BECAUSE ENGLISH DOES NOT HAVE GRAMMATICAL GENDER LIKE ADDING THE “X” DOES NOTHING, NOT EVEN CHANGE THE PRONUNCIATION)

[semidecentpoet]

That’s like saying all new words are stupid.

Okokokokokok, I’m not gonna go on the record and say I’m a language expert, but I am minoring in linguistics and am just a general language enthusiast, so I think I have plenty of ground to stand on here.

(Also, I am a non-binary person myself who uses they/them, so take THAT /lh)

(Also also, if you want what is basically a musical, badass version of this argument—and you know you do—go listen to “Gendering Teddy” by the @narcissistcookbook, it is a BANGER)

New words are not new. When our understanding of ourselves and/or the world around us changes, we come up with language to describe it. We’re human—we are biologically wired for language. That’s how this works.

Not to say that genders outside the common binary are new, but broader and deeper understanding of genders outside the binary—beyond just saying “I’m not this”—is still relatively recent.

At the very least, common understanding of these genders—and of the concept of gender itself—is changing, evolving. So, naturally, must our language.

The prefix “neo-” means “new.” That’s literally all there is to it. “New pronouns.”

And I hate when people say they’re “grammatically incorrect.” BECAUSE THEY ACTUALLY ARE GRAMMATICALLY CORRECT!!!!

Sure, they look different than what we’re generally used to (that’s just bc they’re new). But they operate in the same way/similar to how other pronouns operate morphologically—which is actually REALLY FASCINATING AND I LOVE IT SM but I digress—

For example:

She/her/hers

They/them/theirs

Xe/xem/xyrs

See what I mean?? Same direct object markers and possessive markers and shit!! I think it’s so frickin cool!!

And I think some people might say something like, “just use they/them.” But, while gender expression is not always indicative of gender identity anyway, a lot of people beyond the gender binary don’t feel like they/them reflects who they are.

So they use these new pronouns instead. And it is more than valid. It’s human.

Ik they/them works for me, but that’s who I am. I’m not ab to project my form of expression onto others or force others into boxes they don’t belong. That’s a cishet thing to do, grosssssss

Lastly, it’s not cringe (and I’m not just saying that bc my linguist brain eats this shit up like it’s goin out of style), and it’s not “ruining the movement” or whatever.

People who hate queer people already hate queer people. Making ourselves more palatable for others does nothin but hurt us. They will not like us more if we are quiet, nice gay and trans folks.

I dare say that those who use neopronouns and embrace who they are—even if others find it weird—are the ones who most embody what the movement is about.

Queerness is about loving and accepting ourselves and others for who we truly are. It’s about expressing ourselves. That includes language.

Thank you for coming to my Ted talk lol

hey quick test, reblog or like this if you DONT think neopronouns are stupid im trying to prove a point to my sister and her partner

for context my sister is a binary trans lesbian dating a genderfluid lesbian and today she came up to me saying that her and her partner as two trans people have both decided neopronouns are stupid

[hezigler]

Intersex in the US Today: A Report

Being intersex refers to a range of conditions in which a person's biological sex characteristics, such as chromosomes, hormones, or anatomy, do not fit typical binary notions of male or female. It's important to understand that intersex is a naturally occurring variation in humans, and intersex individuals have diverse gender identities and sexual orientations, just like the rest of the population.

Prevalence

Estimates of the prevalence of intersex variations in the United States vary. The most commonly cited figure, suggesting that up to 1.7% of the population is intersex, has been widely discussed but also critiqued for including conditions that some clinicians do not typically classify as intersex. More recent estimates, focusing on individuals with atypical chromosomal patterns, gonads, or genital morphology, place the prevalence closer to 0.015% to 0.05% of births. This means that while intersex variations are not as common as the higher estimate suggests, they are still a significant reality for many individuals.

Genetic Combinations Beyond XX and XY and Their Percentages

It's challenging to provide precise percentages for all the various genetic combinations associated with intersex variations due to the rarity of many specific conditions and the lack of comprehensive population-level data collection. However, some of the more well-known chromosomal variations and their approximate prevalence include:

* Klinefelter Syndrome (47, XXY): Occurs in approximately 1 in 500 to 1 in 1,000 male births (0.1-0.2%). Individuals typically have male external genitalia but may experience a range of physical characteristics and developmental differences.

* Turner Syndrome (45, X): Occurs in approximately 1 in 2,500 female births (0.04%). Individuals typically have female external genitalia but have only one X chromosome.

* Trisomy X (47, XXX): Occurs in approximately 1 in 1,000 female births (0.10%). Many individuals may not have any noticeable physical differences.

* 45,X/46,XY Mosaicism: Occurs in approximately 1 in 6,666 births (0.015%). Individuals have a mix of cells with 45,X and 46,XY chromosomes, leading to a wide range of physical presentations.

* 47, XYY Syndrome: Occurs in approximately 1 in 7,000 male births (0.0142%). Individuals typically have male external genitalia and may be taller.

* Other rarer chromosomal variations such as 48,XXXY, 49,XXXXY, and 48,XXYY have even lower prevalence rates, ranging from approximately 1 in 18,000 to 1 in 100,000 male births.

It's crucial to remember that intersex variations are not solely defined by chromosomal makeup. Other genetic factors, hormonal influences, and anatomical variations also contribute to the diversity of intersex experiences. Conditions like Congenital Adrenal Hyperplasia (CAH) and Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome (AIS), which involve hormonal and genetic factors, are also considered intersex variations. The prevalence of CAH, for example, varies depending on the specific type, with classical forms occurring in approximately 1 in 10,000 to 1 in 20,000 births.

Commercial Genetic Testing for Intersex in the US

Commercial genetic testing that includes testing for Disorders of Sex Development (DSD), which encompasses many intersex variations, is available in the United States. One prominent example is the Invitae Disorders of Sex Development Panel.

This panel analyzes multiple genes associated with atypical gonadal or anatomical sex development, often presenting with abnormalities of external genitalia, internal sex organs, hormonal dysregulation, and/or infertility. The testing can help confirm a diagnosis and guide treatment and management decisions. Invitae utilizes next-generation sequencing technology to perform full-gene sequencing and deletion/duplication analysis.

It's important to note that while commercial genetic testing can identify genetic variants associated with intersex conditions, the interpretation of these results and the diagnosis of an intersex variation typically require consultation with medical professionals, such as endocrinologists and geneticists, who specialize in DSD. Additionally, standard direct-to-consumer ancestry or general health genetic testing services may not be designed or reliable for diagnosing complex intersex conditions, often focusing on single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) rather than comprehensive chromosomal or gene-level analyses. For a definitive diagnosis, a karyotype test, which examines the full set of chromosomes, or targeted genetic sequencing recommended by a healthcare provider is usually necessary.