They

 A modern day follow-on from the previous post... An animal species discovered in 2021 has been given a non-binary scientific name, in honour of a gay activist. 

Scientific names for living creatures are Latin and may have an -ae ending if named in honour of women and an -i ending if named after men or groups of people. This animal, Strumigenys ayersthey, has the unique suffix -they, which breaks with this tradition. It is an ant from Ecuador. I'm not putting up a photo of it as it's not very pretty!

It's been named after US artist and gay activist Jeremy Ayers (who passed away in 2016) so as to honour his LGBT activism and the non-binary community. 

Maybe there will be more such uses. Let's hope scientists find something cuddly for the next name.

Incidentally, on the subject of they pronouns, the museum mentioned in my last post isn't using "she/her" pronouns, as widely reported, but "they/them". I've added a paragraph to this effect but it does illustrate my point that if respected modern sources can't report today's news accurately, what hope do we have of being certain of the past as presented by poisoned or prejudiced sources.

Weight loss

Now news of that curious amorphous creature, Blobella susannae. This week I have lost just short of a pound, so we're heading in the right direction still, but I've not lost anything like as much as last week. 

I notice that losing weight usually goes in steps, not steadily, and not necessarily for any discernible reason. So big drops are followed by plateaux. This week's a gently sloping plateau. Next week I want a cliff edge!

So far I've lost 10½ pounds in four weeks. I'm very pleased with that. I'll try to make it 11 by the end of the month. And then lose as much as possible before the dreaded Christmas blowout!

Sue x