The weird and wonderful duck-billed platypus just got even more weird and more wonderful.
Platypuses are famous for laying eggs yet producing milk, having a bird-like bill and a skeleton with reptilian features. Now it turns out that the mammal has an equally eye-catching way of deciding its sex, according to a study by Frank Grützner and Jenny Graves at the Australian National University in Canberra, and colleagues.
In most mammals, including humans, sex is decided by the X and Y chromosomes: two Xs create a female, while XY creates a male. In birds, the system is similar: ZW makes for a female, while ZZ makes for a male.
But in platypuses, XXXXXXXXXX creates a female, while XYXYXYXYXY creates a male. In other words, rather than a single chromosome pair, platypuses have a set of ten-chromosomes that determine their sex.
The researchers worked out the make-up of platypus sex chromosomes by using fluorescent markers to stain chromosomes in platypus cells before examining them under a microscope.
The researchers also found that when sperm is produced by male platypuses, the chromosomes are precisely distributed to form XXXXX-bearing sperm and YYYYY-bearing sperm. When an XXXXX-bearing sperm fertilises an egg it produces a female platypus. YYYYY-bearing sperm would produce a male.
thanks for that. we were just wondering about whether it had something to do with egg temperature. this year we have all female babies, and last year it was all males.
# Traditional waffles in the United States originated from pilgrims in 1620, who obtained the method from Holland. They are usually served as a sweet breakfast food, topped with butter and various syrups. They are generally denser and thinner than the Belgian waffle.
# The Belgian waffle (also referred to as the "Brussels waffle") often refers to a waffle that is less dense, crispier, has larger partitions and a larger volume than the traditional waffle. They are often served as a breakfast, with the same topping choices as a traditional waffle. More often than the traditional waffle however, they are served with fruits, whipped cream or ice cream, sometimes served as a dessert. While the thickness is the most commonly accepted difference between the Belgian waffle and the traditional waffle, the use of yeast and beaten egg whites in most Belgian waffle recipes, as opposed to baking powder in the traditional waffle recipe, gives them a lighter and crispier texture.
# The Liège waffle (from the city of Liège, eastern Belgium) is a waffle usually bought and eaten warm on the street. They are usually freshly made in small shops, but it is also possible to buy them in supermarkets. They are smaller, sweeter and denser than "Belgian waffles" and have a caramelized sugar coating on the outside, giving them a lightly sweet flavor. Most are served plain, but some are vanilla or cinnamon flavoured, and can be served with toppings like fruits, creams, and chocolate. The Liège waffle was invented by a cook of the prince-bishop of Liège in the 18th century.
A degree Celsius (°C) is a unit of temperature named after the Swedish astronomer Anders Celsius (1701-1744), who first proposed a similar system in 1742. From around 1750 the scale was known as the Centigrade scale, and though it was renamed after Celsius in 1948.
In the original scale devised by Anders Celsius the boiling point of water at 1,000 millibars was defined as 0 degrees and the freezing point of water was defined as 100 degrees, exactly the reverse of the modern Celsius scale. It was then reversed to its modern order some time shortly after his death, in part at the instigation of Daniel Ekström, the Swedish manufacturer of most of the thermometers used by Celsius. Several other people, including the Swede Per Elvius the Elder (1710) and the Frenchman Christian of Lyons (1743), independently invented the same temperature scale. The oft-quoted claim that the botanist Carolus Linnaeus (1740) is amongst those is unsubstantiated. The Delisle scale was another temperature scale that ran "downward".
Since there are one hundred graduations between these two reference points, the original term for this system was centigrade (100 parts) or centesimal. In 1948 the system's name was officially changed to Celsius (a third name which had also been in use before then) by the 9th General Conference on Weights and Measures (CR 64), both in recognition of Celsius himself and to eliminate confusion caused by conflict with the use of the SI centi- prefix, particularly in connection with one hundredth of a Grad.
Thanks Kitch. Interesting. I wonder why some meteorologists still use centigrade every now and again then since it's been officially renamed almost 60 years ago?
most of the time I get a bit worried about Posen's ??'s as I'm sure he knows the real answer...but in this case....
Origin
Of all the feedback that The Phrase Finder site gets this is the phrase that gives the most grief. At the outset it should be said that no one is 100% sure of the origin, although many have a fervent belief that they do. These convictions are unfailingly based on no more evidence than 'someone told me'. Having said that, we have put a considerable amount of time into researching this and are probably as close to the origin as we can get, short of absolute proof. This I am sure of - the phrase wasn't in wide use before 1961 - which tends to rule out many of the suggested sources.
"The whole nine yards" crops up in many contexts, which isn't surprising, as there are many things that can be measured in yards. This is the reason there are so many plausible explanations of the phrase's origin; regrettably, plausibility isn't enough, as we'll show.
The earliest known example of the phrase in print is in 'The Agitator, 29th Mar 1855'. This newspaper, based in Wellsboro, Pennsylvania, claimed to be 'Devoted to the Extension of the Area of Freedom and the Spread of Healthy Reform'. Despite that, rather than news, it contains made-up stories of the 'WWII bomber found on the moon' sort we see in our contemporary gutter press. The story from 1855 concerns a judge who arrived at an event without a spare shirt and decided to have one made for him. As a joke a friend ordered one with three times the required material, i.e. 'nine yards of bleached domestic and three yards of linen'. The outcome was:
"He found himself shrouded in a shirt five yards long and four yards broad. What a silly, stupid woman! I told her to get enough to make three shirts; instead of making three, she has put the whole nine yards into one shirt!"
Well, that does contain the phrase in question and it does relate to yards of material, which is one of the commonly repeated origins. This appears to be by pure chance though. After all, the individual words are common enough and have to appear together arbitrarily sometimes. This can't be accepted as the origin.
To get a more plausible source we have to come forward to as recently as 1967. In 'The Doom Pussy (A narrative about the Vietnam War and the men who are fighting it)', by Elaine Shepard.
A storyline in the book concerns a letter to a serviceman from a sweetheart, promising him comprehensive sexual favours when he gets back home. His response to this is:
"God. The first thing in the early pearly morning and the last thing at night. Beds all over the gahdam house. The whole nine yards."
It isn't clear if the author coined the phrase herself, although the manner of its use in the story would suggest not. Ms. Shepard died in September 1998, so unfortunately we can't ask her.
Although the precise origin of any particular phrase may be difficult to determine, the date of its coinage usually isn't. Phrases that are accepted into common use appear in newspapers, court reports, novels etc. very soon after they are coined and continue to do so for as long as the phrase is in use. Anyone putting forward an explanation of an origin the whole nine yards dating from before the 1960s has to explain the lack of a printed record of it prior to 1967. If, to take the most commonly repeated version for instance, the phrase comes from the length of WWII machine gun belts, why is there no printed account of that in the thousands of books written about the war and the countless millions of newspaper editions published throughout the 1950s and 60s? The ideas that it pre-dates the war and goes back to the 19th century or even the Middle Ages are hardly plausible.
The likelihood that the phrase originated in the 1960s is supported by the lack of any evidence prior to 1967 and the ample printed citations from soon after that. "The whole nine yards" was in wide enough circulation in the USA in the late 1960s for it to be appearing in newspaper adverts. There are many examples of this, as here from the 'Playground Daily News', Fort Walton Beach, Florida, 1st May 1969:
'Four bedroom home, located in Country Club Estates. Running distance from Golf Course. Completed and ready to move in. This home has "the whole nine yards" in convenience.'
Perhaps the best evidence that the phrase is from no later than 1961 is this... Ralph Boston broke the world long jump record in May 1961 with a jump of 27 feet 1/2 inch. No one had previously jumped 27 feet. This was big news at the time and widely reported. How likely is it that not a single journalist worldwide came up with this headline?:
"Boston goes the whole nine yards"
And yet, they didn't. No newspaper archive contains such a line. If the phrase was coined before 1961 it certainly wasn't known to that most slang-aware of groups - newspaper journalists.
Despite being sure they are all inventions, we feel obliged to include some of the versions of the source of the phrase that are going the rounds. Take your pick, and feel free to make up your own, everyone else does...
* It comes from the nine cubic yards capacity of US concrete trucks and dates from around 1970s. Widely circulated although arrant nonsense as even the largest concrete mixers were smaller than 9 cubic yards in 1967.
    * The explanation refers to World War II aircraft, which if proved correct would clearly predate the concrete truck version. There are several aircraft related sources:
          o The length of US bombers bomb racks.
          o The length of RAF Spitfire's machine gun bullet belts.
          o The length of ammunition belts in ground based anti-aircraft turrets, etc. No evidence to show that any of these measured nine yards has been forthcoming.
    * Tailors use nine yards of material for top quality suits. Related to 'dressed to the nines'?
    * The derivation has even been suggested as being naval and that the yards are shipyards rather than measures of area or volume.
    * Another naval version is that the yards are yardarms. Large sailing ships had three masts, each with three yardarms. The theory goes that ships in battle can continue changing direction as new sails are unfurled. Only when the last sail, on the ninth yardarm, is used do the enemy know which direction the ship is finally headed.
    * A mediaeval test requiring the victim to walk nine paces over hot coals.
A male (or drake) gets a curly feather on his tail and a female "quacks" when she is about 6 weeks old.
Platypuses are famous for laying eggs yet producing milk, having a bird-like bill and a skeleton with reptilian features. Now it turns out that the mammal has an equally eye-catching way of deciding its sex, according to a study by Frank Grützner and Jenny Graves at the Australian National University in Canberra, and colleagues.
In most mammals, including humans, sex is decided by the X and Y chromosomes: two Xs create a female, while XY creates a male. In birds, the system is similar: ZW makes for a female, while ZZ makes for a male.
But in platypuses, XXXXXXXXXX creates a female, while XYXYXYXYXY creates a male. In other words, rather than a single chromosome pair, platypuses have a set of ten-chromosomes that determine their sex.
The researchers worked out the make-up of platypus sex chromosomes by using fluorescent markers to stain chromosomes in platypus cells before examining them under a microscope.
The researchers also found that when sperm is produced by male platypuses, the chromosomes are precisely distributed to form XXXXX-bearing sperm and YYYYY-bearing sperm. When an XXXXX-bearing sperm fertilises an egg it produces a female platypus. YYYYY-bearing sperm would produce a male.
sad I didn't know it off the top of my head..
<--- AG degree from farm u
<--granted most of my crap was plants......I still had animal requirement classes...damn I forgot almost everything...
hahaha
now..If I can just remember the other phobia I need to recall...
# The Belgian waffle (also referred to as the "Brussels waffle") often refers to a waffle that is less dense, crispier, has larger partitions and a larger volume than the traditional waffle. They are often served as a breakfast, with the same topping choices as a traditional waffle. More often than the traditional waffle however, they are served with fruits, whipped cream or ice cream, sometimes served as a dessert. While the thickness is the most commonly accepted difference between the Belgian waffle and the traditional waffle, the use of yeast and beaten egg whites in most Belgian waffle recipes, as opposed to baking powder in the traditional waffle recipe, gives them a lighter and crispier texture.
# The Liège waffle (from the city of Liège, eastern Belgium) is a waffle usually bought and eaten warm on the street. They are usually freshly made in small shops, but it is also possible to buy them in supermarkets. They are smaller, sweeter and denser than "Belgian waffles" and have a caramelized sugar coating on the outside, giving them a lightly sweet flavor. Most are served plain, but some are vanilla or cinnamon flavoured, and can be served with toppings like fruits, creams, and chocolate. The Liège waffle was invented by a cook of the prince-bishop of Liège in the 18th century.
doesn't look like it :wink:
In the original scale devised by Anders Celsius the boiling point of water at 1,000 millibars was defined as 0 degrees and the freezing point of water was defined as 100 degrees, exactly the reverse of the modern Celsius scale. It was then reversed to its modern order some time shortly after his death, in part at the instigation of Daniel Ekström, the Swedish manufacturer of most of the thermometers used by Celsius. Several other people, including the Swede Per Elvius the Elder (1710) and the Frenchman Christian of Lyons (1743), independently invented the same temperature scale. The oft-quoted claim that the botanist Carolus Linnaeus (1740) is amongst those is unsubstantiated. The Delisle scale was another temperature scale that ran "downward".
Since there are one hundred graduations between these two reference points, the original term for this system was centigrade (100 parts) or centesimal. In 1948 the system's name was officially changed to Celsius (a third name which had also been in use before then) by the 9th General Conference on Weights and Measures (CR 64), both in recognition of Celsius himself and to eliminate confusion caused by conflict with the use of the SI centi- prefix, particularly in connection with one hundredth of a Grad.
waffle house...closest thing...
a) thinks it makes them sound smarter
b) their college profs 2 old to know better.
Origin
Of all the feedback that The Phrase Finder site gets this is the phrase that gives the most grief. At the outset it should be said that no one is 100% sure of the origin, although many have a fervent belief that they do. These convictions are unfailingly based on no more evidence than 'someone told me'. Having said that, we have put a considerable amount of time into researching this and are probably as close to the origin as we can get, short of absolute proof. This I am sure of - the phrase wasn't in wide use before 1961 - which tends to rule out many of the suggested sources.
"The whole nine yards" crops up in many contexts, which isn't surprising, as there are many things that can be measured in yards. This is the reason there are so many plausible explanations of the phrase's origin; regrettably, plausibility isn't enough, as we'll show.
The earliest known example of the phrase in print is in 'The Agitator, 29th Mar 1855'. This newspaper, based in Wellsboro, Pennsylvania, claimed to be 'Devoted to the Extension of the Area of Freedom and the Spread of Healthy Reform'. Despite that, rather than news, it contains made-up stories of the 'WWII bomber found on the moon' sort we see in our contemporary gutter press. The story from 1855 concerns a judge who arrived at an event without a spare shirt and decided to have one made for him. As a joke a friend ordered one with three times the required material, i.e. 'nine yards of bleached domestic and three yards of linen'. The outcome was:
"He found himself shrouded in a shirt five yards long and four yards broad. What a silly, stupid woman! I told her to get enough to make three shirts; instead of making three, she has put the whole nine yards into one shirt!"
Well, that does contain the phrase in question and it does relate to yards of material, which is one of the commonly repeated origins. This appears to be by pure chance though. After all, the individual words are common enough and have to appear together arbitrarily sometimes. This can't be accepted as the origin.
To get a more plausible source we have to come forward to as recently as 1967. In 'The Doom Pussy (A narrative about the Vietnam War and the men who are fighting it)', by Elaine Shepard.
A storyline in the book concerns a letter to a serviceman from a sweetheart, promising him comprehensive sexual favours when he gets back home. His response to this is:
"God. The first thing in the early pearly morning and the last thing at night. Beds all over the gahdam house. The whole nine yards."
It isn't clear if the author coined the phrase herself, although the manner of its use in the story would suggest not. Ms. Shepard died in September 1998, so unfortunately we can't ask her.
Although the precise origin of any particular phrase may be difficult to determine, the date of its coinage usually isn't. Phrases that are accepted into common use appear in newspapers, court reports, novels etc. very soon after they are coined and continue to do so for as long as the phrase is in use. Anyone putting forward an explanation of an origin the whole nine yards dating from before the 1960s has to explain the lack of a printed record of it prior to 1967. If, to take the most commonly repeated version for instance, the phrase comes from the length of WWII machine gun belts, why is there no printed account of that in the thousands of books written about the war and the countless millions of newspaper editions published throughout the 1950s and 60s? The ideas that it pre-dates the war and goes back to the 19th century or even the Middle Ages are hardly plausible.
The likelihood that the phrase originated in the 1960s is supported by the lack of any evidence prior to 1967 and the ample printed citations from soon after that. "The whole nine yards" was in wide enough circulation in the USA in the late 1960s for it to be appearing in newspaper adverts. There are many examples of this, as here from the 'Playground Daily News', Fort Walton Beach, Florida, 1st May 1969:
'Four bedroom home, located in Country Club Estates. Running distance from Golf Course. Completed and ready to move in. This home has "the whole nine yards" in convenience.'
Perhaps the best evidence that the phrase is from no later than 1961 is this... Ralph Boston broke the world long jump record in May 1961 with a jump of 27 feet 1/2 inch. No one had previously jumped 27 feet. This was big news at the time and widely reported. How likely is it that not a single journalist worldwide came up with this headline?:
"Boston goes the whole nine yards"
And yet, they didn't. No newspaper archive contains such a line. If the phrase was coined before 1961 it certainly wasn't known to that most slang-aware of groups - newspaper journalists.
Despite being sure they are all inventions, we feel obliged to include some of the versions of the source of the phrase that are going the rounds. Take your pick, and feel free to make up your own, everyone else does...
* It comes from the nine cubic yards capacity of US concrete trucks and dates from around 1970s. Widely circulated although arrant nonsense as even the largest concrete mixers were smaller than 9 cubic yards in 1967.
    * The explanation refers to World War II aircraft, which if proved correct would clearly predate the concrete truck version. There are several aircraft related sources:
          o The length of US bombers bomb racks.
          o The length of RAF Spitfire's machine gun bullet belts.
          o The length of ammunition belts in ground based anti-aircraft turrets, etc. No evidence to show that any of these measured nine yards has been forthcoming.
    * Tailors use nine yards of material for top quality suits. Related to 'dressed to the nines'?
    * The derivation has even been suggested as being naval and that the yards are shipyards rather than measures of area or volume.
    * Another naval version is that the yards are yardarms. Large sailing ships had three masts, each with three yardarms. The theory goes that ships in battle can continue changing direction as new sails are unfurled. Only when the last sail, on the ninth yardarm, is used do the enemy know which direction the ship is finally headed.
    * A mediaeval test requiring the victim to walk nine paces over hot coals.
But I had to run it up the flagpole and salute it.
Thanks...I think!
There are three words in the English language that end with 'gry.' ONE is 'angry' and ONE of them is 'hungry.' What is the third word?
   EveryONE uses it every day, and everyONE knows what it stands for and if you have been listening, I have already told you what the word is.
 :worried:
"language" is the third word
aggry [OED:1:182; W2; W3]
Agry [OED (see "snappily")]
Agry Dagh (Mount Agry) [EB11]
ahungry [OED:1:194; FW; W2]
air-hungry [OED (see "Tel Avivian")]
angry [OED; FW; W2; W3]
anhungry [OED:1:332; W2]
Badagry [Johnston; EB11; OED (see "Dahoman")]
Ballingry [Bartholomew:40; CLG:151; RD:164, pl.49]
begry [OED:1:770,767]
bewgry [OED:1:1160]
boroughmongry [OED (see "boroughmonger")]
bowgry [OED:1:1160]
braggry [OED:1:1047]
Bugry [TIG]
Chockpugry [Worcester]
Cogry [BBC]
cony-gry [OED:2:956]
conyngry [OED:2:956]
cottagry [OED (see "cottagery")]
Croftangry [DFC, as "Chrystal Croftangry"; OED (see "way")]
diamond-hungry [OED (see "Lorelei")]
dog-hungry [W2]
dogge-hungry [OED (see "canine")]
Dshagry [Stieler]
Dzagry [Andree]
eard-hungry [CED (see "yird"); CSD]
Echanuggry [Century:103-104, on inset map, Key 104 M 2]
Egry [France; TIG]
euer-angry [OED (see "ever")]
ever-angry [W2]
fenegry [OED (see "fenugreek")]
fire-angry [W2]
Gagry [EB11]
girl-hungry [OED (see "girl")]
gonagry [OED (see "gonagra")]
gry (from Latin _gry_) [OED:4/2:475; W2]
gry (from Romany _grai_) [W2]
haegry [EDD (see "hagery")]
half-angry [W2]
hangry [OED:1:329]
heart-angry [W2]
heart-hungry [W2]
higry pigry [OED:5/1:285]
hogry [EDD (see "huggerie"); CSD]
hogrymogry [EDD (see "huggerie"); CSD (as "hogry-mogry")]
hongry [OED:5/1:459; EDD:3:282]
hound-hungry [OED (see "hound")]
houngry [OED (see "minx")]
huggrymuggry [EDD (see "huggerie"); CSD (as "huggry-muggry")]
hund-hungry [OED (see "hound")]
hungry [OED; FW; W2; W3]
Hungry Bungry [Daily Illini, in ad for The Giraffe, Spring 1976]
hwngry [OED (see "quart")]
iggry [OED]
Jagry [EB11]
job-hungry [OED (see "gadget")]
kaingry [EDD (see "caingy")]
land-hungry [OED; W2]
Langry [TIG; Times]
leather-hungry [OED]
ledderhungry [OED (see "leather")]
life-hungry [OED (see "music")]
Lisnagry [Bartholomew:489]
losengry [OED (see "losengery")]
MacLoingry [Phillips (as "Flaithbhertach MacLoingry")]
mad-angry [OED:6/2:14]
mad-hungry [OED:6/2:14]
magry [OED:6/2:36, 6/2:247-48]
malgry [OED:6/2:247]
man-hungry [OED]
managry [OED (see "managery")]
mannagry [OED (see "managery")]
Margry [Indians (see "Pierre Margry" in bibliog., v.2, p.1204)]
maugry [OED:6/2:247-48]
mawgry [OED:6/2:247]
meagry [OED:6/2:267]
meat-hungry [W2; OED (see "meat")]
menagry [OED (see "managery")]
messagry [OED]
music-hungry [OED (see "music")]
nangry [OED]
overangry [RH1; RH2]
Pelegry [CE (in main index as "Raymond de Pelegry")]
Pingry [Bio-Base; HPS:293-94, 120-21]
Podagry [OED; W2 (below the line)]
Pongry [Andree (Supplement, p.572)]
pottingry [OED:7/2:1195; Jamieson:3:532]
power-hungry [OED (see "power")]
profit-hungry [OED (see "profit")]
puggry [OED:8/1:1573; FW; W2]
pugry [OED:8/1:1574]
red-angry [OED (see "sanguineous")]
rungry [EDD:5:188]
scavengry [OED (in 1715 quote under "scavengery")]
Schtschigry [LG/1:2045; OSN:97]
Seagry [TIG; EB11]
Segry [Johnston; Andree]
self-angry [W2]
selfe-angry [OED (see "self-")]
sensation-hungry [OED (see "sensation")]
sex-angry [OED (see "sex")]
sex-hungry [OED (see "cave")]
Shchigry [CLG:1747; Johnson:594; OSN:97,206; Times:185,pl.45]
shiggry [EDD]
Shtchigry [LG/1:2045; LG/2:1701]
Shtshigry [Lipp]
sight-hungry [OED (see "sight")]
skugry [OED:9/2:156, 9/1:297; Jamieson:4:266]
Sygry [Andree]
Tangry [France]
Tchangry [Johnson:594; LG/1:435,1117]
Tchigry [Johnson:594]
tear-angry [W2]
th'angry [OED (see "shot-free")]
tike-hungry [CSD]
Tingry [France; EB11 (under "Princesse de Tingry"); OED (see "parquet")]
toggry [Simmonds (as "Toggry", but all entries are capitalized)]
ulgry [Partridge; Smith:24-25]
unangry [OED; W2]
vergry [OED:12/1:123]
Vigry [CLG:2090]
vngry [OED (see "wretch")]
war-hungry [OED (see "war")]
Wigry [CLG:2090; NAP:xxxix; Times:220, pl.62; WA:948]
wind-hungry [W2]
yeard-hungry [CED (see "yird")]
yerd-hungry [CED (see "yird"); OED]
yird-hungry [CED (see "yird")]
Ymagry [OED:1:1009 (col. 3, 1st "boss" verb), (variant of "imagery")]
just to get you started...hahahaha