#81616
09/24/2002 3:11 AM
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Joined: Feb 2002
Posts: 833
old hand
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old hand
Joined: Feb 2002
Posts: 833 |
WO'N posted a pome of Rupert Brookes's in Wordplay and Fun (in response to a post by troutdog, about some creaturely plurals being singular), and it contains the word "squamous."
I got all confused because someone told me, just today, that "squamous" means "skin" (or having to do with skin - it was a medical context) - and now I just looked it up and it means "scales." Has the word undergone a metamorphosis I haven't heard about?
Medical context: when gathering cells for a Pap test, the physician collects them from the squamocolumnar junction, the point at which the cervix changes colour from pink to red. The suggestion that women have scales there makes me somewhat queasy and uneasy...!
Let us go in peace to love and serve the board.
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#81617
09/24/2002 12:20 PM
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Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 1,027
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women have scales there makes me somewhat queasy and uneasy. This is a typical case of jargon being transferred "back" into everyday speech (see the "indication" thread). Those scales are quite real, but you only see them through a microscope. (Men have them too  ).
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#81618
09/24/2002 1:49 PM
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858 |
Body surfaces have different cell types of covering called epithelium. Surfaces that have
to be resistance to abrasion and loss of water are covered with a layer of cells that
become flattened and hardened as they age are replaced from below as they wear
away from outside. This type of epithelium is called squamous.
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#81619
09/24/2002 2:23 PM
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Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 5,400
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 5,400 |
similar to the skin on you lips? when you lips chap (ie, get very dried out) the skin most definately looks scaley.
we are all sort of conscious of the change of skin texture from "regualar skin" to "wet skin" (say the inside of your eyelids) and the egde between the two areas, that is still an other texture.. Face skin, to lips, to mouth is an other, and outer ear to inter ear is an other place of change.. (and in females, external to internal sex organs is very obvious change)
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#81620
09/24/2002 4:23 PM
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Joined: Feb 2002
Posts: 833
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the change of skin texture from "regualar skin" to "wet skin"
This is a good point! and of course, where else would you find "scaly" skin, but where the skin is also wet? Just seems a little weird, since the wet skin is often much softer or more pliant than the dry (again thinking not just of the sexual parts but of places like inside the mouth and the eyes), and "scaly" in other contexts seems rougher and less pleasing to the touch (ie the outside of fish).
Let us go in peace to love and serve the board.
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#81621
09/24/2002 5:06 PM
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Posts: 13,858 |
The study of embryology and histology truly impress one with the marvels of life so often
taken for granted.
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#81622
09/24/2002 7:34 PM
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Joined: Feb 2002
Posts: 833
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the marvels of life
yes...we start out as fish, just about, don't we? with gills an' all....Someone once told/taught me that the human embryo goes through a microcosm of evolution in the womb, starting all water-creature-fishy-like and passing through various stages that mirror the evolution of life on Earth, till it comes out a male or female mammal. Summat like that, anyway.
Everything in the natural world (including the workings of our own bodies and how they come to be) is pretty impressive, when you think about it....
Let us go in peace to love and serve the board.
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#81623
09/24/2002 7:49 PM
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Joined: Jul 2000
Posts: 3,467
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jul 2000
Posts: 3,467 |
Ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny.
TEd
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#81624
09/24/2002 7:56 PM
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Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny
The bassoon is the clown of the orchestra.
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#81625
09/24/2002 8:03 PM
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Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 6,296
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 6,296 |
In reply to:
The bassoon is the clown of the orchestra.
...and is the grandfather in Peter and the Wolf.
Not much of a clown there.
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#81626
09/24/2002 9:24 PM
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Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 1,346
veteran
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we start out as fish, just about, don't we? with gills an' all....through a microcosm of evolution in the womb
Well, it's only to be expected that the fish kicks off the life cycle.
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#81627
09/25/2002 1:07 AM
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Joined: Feb 2002
Posts: 833
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Well, it's only to be expected that the fish kicks off the life cycle.
Damn, that's good! Now I'm in love with Shona....[harem-growing-ever-larger-grin e]
Let us go in peace to love and serve the board.
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#81628
09/25/2002 10:53 AM
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Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 3,146
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Posts: 3,146 |
Well, it's only to be expected that the fish kicks off the life cycle.
Or, in your case anyway, twice!
The idiot also known as Capfka ...
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#81629
09/25/2002 11:53 AM
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Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 1,346
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>>Well, it's only to be expected that the fish kicks off the life cycle.
Or, in your case anyway, twice!Hmmm, not sure I want to evolve any further this time around. But unfortunately there's no cyclelogical equivalent to treading water. 
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#81630
09/25/2002 12:13 PM
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Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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no cyclelogical equivalent to treading water.
It's called a track stand. You normally need a track bike (it doesn't have a free wheel) to do it, but I've seen it done on a regler 10-speed and a sloped road. You cock the wheel all the way over in one direction and pedal forward or backward to maintain your balance.
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#81631
09/25/2002 1:43 PM
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Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 1,346
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You cock the wheel all the way over in one direction and pedal forward or backward to maintain your balancePerhaps I should have said - no easy cyclelogical equivalent to treading water.  Laziness is just shorthand for "economy of energy". 
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#81632
09/28/2002 4:44 PM
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Joined: Jun 2001
Posts: 2,636
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jun 2001
Posts: 2,636 |
And coasting is floating, right Pezcyclando?
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#81633
09/30/2002 2:38 PM
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Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 1,346
veteran
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veteran
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coasting is floatingSweet dream of freewheeling, Con... [sigh] PezcyclandoDamn'n'Blast. I've been missing out the "n" for all this time! 
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