otterlover53 | Reading

I propose a new word for use in biological science: corollatype. This word is meant to be a counterpoint to karyotype whose etymological origin refers to the kernel, seed, or nucleus of a form. I chose corollatype as a reference to the biological corolla, which I understand as the collection of petals and reproductive organs on a flower. That term is derived from the latin word corona for crown or garland. Together, I intend this term to refer both to the physical form of the reproductive parts of an organism but also the appearance and behavior that draws attention to the sexual process too.

This term is meant to complete the following analogy:

Genotype is to Phenotype, as Karyotype is to (blank) .

Rephrased slightly to emphasize the utility here:

Genotype does not restrict an organism to a single Phenotype, just as Karyotype does not restrict an organism to a single Corollatype.

Used in this way, it would end the illogical gender-restrictive and anti-trans arguments, even before they start. It would require the proponent to first explain why, when Nature itself does not, they think they know what sexual appearance and behavior must be. If we need to quibble about Greek/Latin origins, then maybe peritype would be a better word choice to mean everything "near/around" the reproductive process of an organism (form and behavior)? Or maybe stemmatype as a reference to a crown or the ostentation that draws attention to the inner form?

I'm surprised that I haven't used this analogy on Dreamwidth before today. I've been searching for at least half a decade for a word to complete this analogy. I found an email to foeclan in 2020, where I was trying to find an even earlier mention that happened on a different social network, MeWe. Based on my experience with trying to ask the right question of AI, I tried to get a language model to create a new word to finish that analogy. Gemini was absolutely terrible at it. Copilot was much better. Copilot didn't give me the new word, but it pointed out the origin of karyo- as referring to kernel, which led me on my own to think of the other side of plant growth and flowering. So, AI got me there eventually but not directly.

Anyway, what do you think? Would such a term be useful? Is there a better word choice to select for this term?

mellowtigger

I've skipped some Moody Monday posts in recent months because there was simply too much of everything to consider. Even by disallowing my Doom Bingo 2025 topics, there's still just too much. During the last week, I've had half a dozen topics that seemed to be the most important new issue to mention today. Even since last night, I had this new issue bubble to the top of the stack.

The one thing that seems most urgent to mention is this, a news article from the Daily Boulder, based not in Colorado but in Texas, in the city of Dallas. Granted, it's from a low-credibility source, but the claims in it seem to be verifiable, and slightly more credible news outlets are repeating the story. And there is a lawsuit in progress with the Supreme Court of New York State, focusing on the issues named in the article. You can see the court filing yourself by visiting their court site then clicking the link at the top document named "PETITION *Corrected*".

Click to fill your mind with potential tin foil hat nonsense that's hard to neglect...

"In the lead-up to the 2024 presidential election, a private lab quietly performed sweeping changes to voting machines used in more than 40% of U.S. counties. No one told the public. No one reviewed the updates. No one verified the results. But the machines were altered...

SMART Elections immediately flagged the move. But by then, it was too late. The machines had already been used in the election. And Pro V&V? The lab responsible for certifying them? It all but disappeared. Their once-public website became a hollow page. No logs. No documentation. Just a phone number and a generic email address. This is the lab that signs off on voting systems in Pennsylvania, Florida, New Jersey, California—and countless other places. And when people started asking questions, they vanished. ...

In Rockland County, New York, voters noticed their ballots didn’t seem to count. People swore under oath that they voted for Senate candidate Diane Sare. But in district after district, the machines didn’t reflect it. In one case, nine voters said they picked her. Only five votes showed up. In another, five claimed to vote for her—only three were recorded. It wasn’t just third-party candidates. Kamala Harris’s name was missing entirely from the top of the ballot in several heavily Democratic districts. In areas that overwhelmingly backed Democrat Kirsten Gillibrand for Senate, somehow, Harris got zero votes. Zero. Meanwhile, Donald Trump received 750,000 more votes than Republican Senate candidates in those same districts. That’s not just voter preference. That’s a statistical impossibility."
- https://dailyboulder.com/report-voting-machines-were-altered-before-the-2024-election-did-kamala-harris-actually-win/

I can't ignore those details. They are quite strange in their own right, definitely. That's just the potentially illegal stuff, separate from the very legal voter suppression that we all expect anyway.

There is also, however, what Trump himself has said about Musk winning him the election thanks to what Musk knows about voting machines. There's also what Musk himself has said about anything being hackable, and about him being responsible for Trump's win. There's also the ongoing mystery of what exactly Musk's son said to Trump in the White House and separately to Tucker Carlson (a clip for which I have not found a more reputable source, so keep AI fakery in mind here).

Is there an illegitimate leader in the Oval Office?

So... I did not have that conspiracy theory on my card for Doom Bingo 2025. And now it's lodged in my brain. If the lawsuit proves successful, its implication will break the USA.

mellowtigger

For what it's worth, I've been watching this NBC live news feed for the last 2 hours or so.

Watch on YouTube

I had other things to discuss for the upcoming Moody Monday post. I wanted to talk about the Border Patrol helicopter that circled over my house for 2 hours, then the next day was the ICE raid and community response here in Minneapolis. Something else always takes precedence, though. The absurdities arrive fast and furious, don't they?

And, yes, of course they're shooting reporters again, just like they did in 2020 in Minneapolis.

mellowtigger

The gentle rain falling for most of last night and today in Minneapolis did not make local air conditions better, as you'd expect from raindrops carrying particulate matter from the air to the ground. Instead, the cold front took all of that Canadian wildfire smoke from throughout the air column and brought it down to the surface. Ugh.

Click to read the longer story of today's minor medical drama...

As soon as I woke this morning, I knew something was off. I had only an occasional cough, but something about my breathing was "wrong". It was half an hour later before I tried vocalizing, and my voice sounded like I had been coughing for hours, but I hadn't. I looked at social media and saw that air quality was a hazard today. (Like this post on Reddit. Strong language used.) I wondered if I was developing asthma? I know all about allergies, but I know nothing about asthma. I could inhale air just fine, but my body was telling me that my breathing was wrong somehow. I called for another doctor appointment today and let my supervisor know that I'd be out.

At the doctor's office, I was a terrible interview subject. I couldn't explain what was the problem. I still can't tell you. The best I can articulate now is that I can breathe, and I'm not gasping or wheezing, but my body is telling me it's somehow not enough. It's just somehow wrong. *unhelpful shrug* My oxygen saturation at the time was 95%, so the doctor sent me on my merry way, thinking it had something to do with my high blood pressure and sleep apnea, and they double-checked to confirm I had my upcoming appointment with the sleep specialist. Maybe I was mouth breathing during my sleep and dried out my vocal cords earlier? No idea. I'm pretty much fine now, although my eyes and lungs are still telling me that something's wrong. At least my voice recovered fully and quickly.

I took the micro bus to the grocery/pharmacy to pick up my new blood pressure medication, a higher potency combination than what I had before. A fire truck went by, and the bus driver commented that they had passed emergency vehicles almost every 30 minutes on their shift today, far more than usual. A minute later, an ambulance turned ahead of us into the parking lot for my grocery/pharmacy. There's definitely something going on out there.

People had been sharing photos on social media for a few days, capturing the beige skies from the Canadian wildfire smoke. That was fine. I was fine. Until today. News stories like this one were already talking about how bad the air quality is here. After I returned to work for the afternoon, I found this page with hourly measurements. Click the thumbnail to see the whole webpage screenshot.

That timeline matches exactly my own experience today. Perfectly fine last night. Wake up at 7am feeling bad and worried. Already feeling better by the 10am meeting with the doctor. Holding steady since then, with most of the crud coughed out of my lungs in that first hour after waking up.

I turned on the fan for the house central heating, so that filter will catch some of the pollution. I've turned on the corsi-rosenthal box in my bedroom occasionally to do an even better job while I'm at my personal computer. I'll keep wearing my mask any time I need to go outdoors.

The short version (original meme source on Reddit, and photo source on MSN via StarTribune):

*gigglesnort*

Apparently Minneapolis has the 2nd worst air quality rating on Earth today.

Edit Wednesday: I added the photograph of downtown Minneapolis half-hidden in the pollution, for better context.

mellowtigger

There are so many issues I wanted to talk about today. I also wanted to talk about a Border Patrol helicopter spending about 2 hours overhead today. This is my Reddit post about it, but other people posted elsewhere too. Those topics all got pre-empted this afternoon by an email from our boss. In it, they explained that those of us whose home states were named in this update to our employer's remote-work policy will get to stay in our current jobs. They are still trying to get an answer if it would affect any potential promotions within our team.

The latest version of the remote-work policy is linked below, and it names U.S. states from which nobody will be hired for either full-time or part-time work. It's about half of the USA. These United States seem increasingly not to be.
https://hr.psu.edu/more/flexible-work-arrangements/out-of-state-notice

Minnesota is currently listed as prohibited for part-time work. I work full-time. It was also listed that way in the oldest archive copy of that statement, from after I was hired as a remote worker. Other people in my team are full-timers in now-prohibited states. Since I don't know why any of the states are on this prohibition list, I can't guess if I might someday be on the full-time prohibition list too. Or... if someday they might just suddenly decide that we can't stay employed either.

This kind of job insecurity wasn't on my Doom Bingo 2025 card. I need to save as much money as I can for any potential future unemployment. Unfortunately, I also have house repair/replacement projects that need to happen. We live in interesting times.