Ask Auntie Liz ........................................

[chenrezig]

I thought I might try something a bit different, and challenging to me ?

I know some of you aren’t too confident when it comes to using the Internet… or search engines like Google or Yahoo.

Is there something that has puzzled you and you would like to know the answer, perhaps a historical event or person you would like to know more about? Is there a TV programme that was a particular favourite of yours?

I am starting a thread called AAL …Ask Auntie Liz lol lol

Post a question, one at a time and I will see what I can find out for you about it… once I have posted an answer, then the next person can ask me to find out about the next thing/person event/place. One thing to solve at a time only please……..

So, who wants to have a go first? Go on…dare you !

Liz xx

[Honey]

than999
Liz for this.
I dont get much time to get on the computer these days so this thread is very welcome.
than999
I havent had time to check on the peregrines for a while, are there still 4 babies thriving?
x

[chenrezig]

They are very much thriving ! The adult feathers are beginning to show and they have been preening like anything, and also doing a lot of practice flapping of little wings … They were ringed last Wednesday, and at least one is walking properly now like an adult on its feet rather than on its haunches…  The nest is in a heck of a state –covered in you know what, and full of loose feathers of all sorts.

If you check out this link you can see a series of pics that show how much they have grown over the last few weeks since they hatched…

http://upp.hawkandowl.org/cathedral-per ... -may-2013/

Here are a couple of pics that I grabbed at 7am today of all four chicks n both parents







... ne4xt question please ?

[Myrna]

Can you tell me what has become of actress Liz Smith,grandmother in The Royle family,
she once did a documentary which i loved,and has acted in many parts on TV,i would
like to know is she still acting?


than999 Liz


Myrna xx

[chenrezig]

Awarded the MBE in 2009 Liz Smith is still about… her most recent TV appearance was on a BBC TV series called “The Young Ones” in 2010, where various elderly celebrities lived in a house on their own, managing without the help they usually had –others taking part were Sylvia Syms, Derek Jamieson, and

She was acting up until July 2009, when after completing a programme for BBC4 on cruise holidays. Shortly after she had a stroke and retired from acting.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liz_Smith_%28actress%29


BBC News “Liz Smith to retire”
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/8135085.stm

BBC - profile article on getting awarded her MBE
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/7804741.stm

Liz Smith and Paul O’Grady on a cooking programme  in 2008

Awarded the MBE in 2009 Liz Smith is still about… her most recent TV appearance was on a BBC TV series called “The Young Ones” in 2010, where various elderly celebrities lived in a house on their own, managing without the help they usually had –others taking part were Sylvia Syms, Derek Jamieson, and

She was acting up until July 2009, when after completing a programme for BBC4 on cruise holidays. Shortly after she had a stroke and retired from acting.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liz_Smith_%28actress%29


BBC News “Liz Smith to retire”
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/8135085.stm

BBC - profile article on getting awarded her MBE
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/7804741.stm

Clip from TV prog with Liz Smith and Paul O'Grady from 2008
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tunx34ZlJq8


Who is next ?

[maureenho]

Wonderful idea Liz, have made it sticky.

[Honey]

than999 Liz,
The last time I looked on the site i was so worried about the last hatch who didnt seem to be getting any feed.
Couldnt bring myself to check in again in case he/she didnt make it.
So very glad to see he is doing well.
than999
honeyx

[chenrezig]

As far as I know the parents basically stuff them till they are full ! I did pop in early this am and saw some food had been left in the nest and two of the chicks were feeding from it n squabbling over who had it.

Any more questions ?

[sandy4]

“Paid on the  nail”    We know what this means but where does the phrase come from? 

33900

[chenrezig]

The nearest I can get is this info ... on the oldest mention of the phrase from 1632

1596 – mentioned in Thomas Nash’ “Huae with you to Saffron Walden”  - "Tell me, haue you a minde to anie thing in the Doctors Booke! speake the word, and I will help you to it vpon the naile."

1632 - Philip Massinger play “The City-Madame”, in which a character welcomes the arrival of a ship that has given his master considerable profit, “And it comes timely; For, besides a payment on the nail for a manor late purchased by my master, his young daughters are ripe for marriage.”.

1753 - Anonymous open letter on a sixpenny broadsheet. “The Commanders and Officers of those vessels knew very well that Wool and Worsted were Commodities of a real and intrinsic Value: Articles that would sell at any Time or Place for ready Cash on the Nail”.

Versions…
14thC Anglo-Norman - payer sur le ungle - to pay immediately.
17thC French - sur l'ongle - exactly.
Dutch - op den nagel - on the nail
German - auf den Nagel - entirely, to the last detail.

By 1900 the US began to use 'cash on the barrel' and 'cash on the barrelhead', with the same meaning as 'cash on the nail'. That has a much stronger claim to have a literal derivation, as barrels were used as impromptu counters in US stores and yard sales.
http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/cash ... -nail.html

[Misspears]

than999. Never heard of paid on the nail

Ann x

[mumxtwo]

Are moles actually Blind?
Graham took the dogs for a walk this morning and was lucky enough to see a little velvet fellow crossing the road.

643

[wendy]

I have one for Auntie Liz, which will be a big help to me.
Did I start a new topic when I went to see Norman Lamb, the Minister for Care?
If so please can you post the url, as I have something important to add to it.

[chenrezig]

The answer is that moles do have eyes though they do not work very well.

Findings about the eyesight of moles could offer new understanding of human disorders, researchers have claimed.

The University of Aberdeen team said moles may be seriously short-sighted or have skin covering their eyes but their sight was better than expected.  They suggested moles see light even when their eyes were permanently shut. The team also said mole eyesight played a crucial role in controlling their body clocks and helped them to mate during the spring.

The research - a three-year project which is part of a longer study of moles - looked at Iberian and European moles. The University of Aberdeen's Dr Martin Collinson said: "Moles live in the dark, and in the case of the Iberian mole their eyes are covered by skin, so the assumption was that they were blind.  "It has also been assumed that animals that live in the dark will gradually lose their eyes through evolution.  "When we became the first to study moles' retinas we had expected them to be a degenerate mess. However we found that they have fully developed retinas that have all the right cell types for detecting light and which also make all the right connections with their brains."  He added: "In the case of the Iberian mole we found that even though their eyes are permanently shut, they can see and run away from bright light.  "We also we found that moles have masses of a specialised type of retinal cell that is needed to control body clocks.  "We should have listened to the country folk, because as any mole catcher knows, moles get up in the morning, have a nap in the middle of the day and then get active again in the evening, before bed."

'Important clues'
Dr Collinson said: "Our work has shown that, in fact, a partially-formed eye can be very important for the ecology and survival of the animal, and that there is nothing inherently impossible about the evolution of the eye.  "It also highlights the fact that among the animal kingdom there are thousands of species that have not been studied but which may hold important clues for our understanding of human pathology. "For example there is a type of stem cell in our retinas that could hold the key to repairing retinas after disease or injury that lead to blindness. Although these stem cells are asleep and virtually inactive in humans, in moles they are awake and reactivated. "If we could work out how moles do that, we would hold a key to human retinal repair." The findings are being published in the Royal Society's journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/nor ... 402100.stm

[chenrezig]

I have had a look and I can only find these two, but I think there must be more posts mentioning Norman Lamb?

http://chill4us.com/index.php?topic=40881.15

http://chill4us.com/index.php?topic=28111.165

Liz

[wendy]

no it was recent that I went.
thanks anyway, i will start a new topic in a bit, having a rest now

[JaneJ]

Dear Aunty Liz,

(Love this thread by the way!!)

As you know we count ... 1,2,3,4,5.

Why then after 10 we say eleven and twelve but not oneteen and twoteen?

This has alwyas puzzled me.

Hope you can help.

Love and hugs

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

[chenrezig]

Just a reminder...so i don't get snowed under and miss finding someone's answer.. one question at a time please? Once I have answered one, then you are very welcome to ask another .. I wouldn't want any of my virtual nephews and nieces to miss out


++! ++! ++! ++!

[maureenho]

I think this is it Wendy

http://chill4us.com/index.php?topic=43529.0

[chenrezig]

The first known numerical system dates back to about c 3400BC, and the next oldest, c3100BC from Egypt.


As to names of numbers …

0 … The word zero came via French zéro from Venetian zero, which (together with cypher) came via Italian zefiro from Arabic صفر, ṣafira = "it was empty", ṣifr = "zero", "nothing". This was a translation of the Sanskrit word shoonya (śūnya), meaning "empty". The first known English use was in 1598.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/0_%28number%29

1 …  The glyph used today in the Western world to represent the number 1, a vertical line, often with a serif at the top and sometimes a short horizontal line at the bottom, traces its roots back to the Indians, who wrote 1 as a horizontal line, much like the Chinese character 一. The Gupta wrote it as a curved line, and the Nagari sometimes added a small circle on the left (rotated a quarter turn to the right, this 9-look-alike became the present day numeral 1 in the Gujarati and Punjabi scripts). The Nepali also rotated it to the right but kept the circle small.[1] This eventually became the top serif in the modern numeral, but the occasional short horizontal line at the bottom probably originates from similarity with the Roman numeral  . In some European (e.g., Germany) and Asian (e.g., Israel) countries, the little serif at the top is sometimes extended into a long upstroke, sometimes as long as the vertical line, which can lead to confusion with the glyph for seven in other countries. Where the 1 is written with a long upstroke, the number 7 has a horizontal stroke through the vertical line.

As for eleven, twelve etc I cannot find quite the answer you are looking for, but these are the origins of the words for

Eleven - In English, it is the smallest positive integer requiring three syllables and the largest prime number with a single-morpheme name. Its etymology originates from a Germanic compound ainlif meaning "one left".

Twelve - The word "twelve" is the largest number with a single-morpheme name in English. Etymology suggests that "twelve" (similar to "eleven") arises from the Germanic compound twalif "two-leftover", so a literal translation would yield "two remaining [after having ten taken]"

Thirteen -  In Germany, according to an old rule, 13 as the first compound number was the first number to be written in digits; the numbers 0 through 12 were to be spelled out. The Duden (the German standard dictionary) now calls this rule outdated and no longer valid, but many writers still follow it.
For the English language, different systems are used: Sometimes it is recommended to spell out numbers up to and including nine or ten or even ninety-nine or one hundred. Another system spells out all numbers written in one or two words (fifteen thousand, but 15,001).
For the origins of the rest of the numbers

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1_%28number%29
                                    ^
for the rest of the numbers just copy the link and change the number which the little arrow above points to the numer you would like to know about.




https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Number#Fi ... of_numbers
http://www.aaamath.com/nam11ax2.htm
http://www.aaamath.com/nam14ax2.htm

[wendy]

thank you for finding my link

[mumxtwo]

than999 for the answer about moles Auntie Liz.

Graham and myself were very interested to read it gre55555

[chenrezig]

So was I lol  sp0

[Jeanne]

I think that elephants take two years to have a baby, not sure tho. But, do they ever carry more than one baby? thanks Jeanne x

[chenrezig]

Hi Jeanne,

You are quite right, elephants have a pregnancy lasting two years, and they usually only have one, but twins are sometime born. (Crikey, bad enough being pregnant with one for two years but twins?!!)

Birthing and calves
Gestation in elephants typically lasts around two years with interbirth intervals usually lasting four to five years. Births tend to take place during the wet season. Calves are born 85 cm (33 in) tall and weigh around 120 kg (260 lb).Typically, only a single young is born, but twins sometimes occur.The relatively long pregnancy is maintained by five corpus luteums (as opposed to one in most mammals) and gives the foetus more time to develop, particularly the brain and trunk. As such, newborn elephants are precocial and quickly stand and walk to follow their mother and family herd. A new calf is usually the centre of attention for herd members. Adults and most of the other young will gather around the newborn, touching and caressing it with their trunks. For the first few days, the mother is intolerant of other herd members near her young. Alloparenting – where a calf is cared for by someone other than its mother – takes place in some family groups. Allomothers are typically two to twelve years old. When a predator is near, the family group gathers together with the calves in the centre.

For the first few days, the newborn is unsteady on its feet, and needs the support of its mother. It relies on touch, smell and hearing, as its eyesight is poor. It has little precise control over its trunk, which wiggles around and may cause it to trip. By its second week of life, the calf can walk more firmly and has more control over its trunk. After its first month, a calf can pick up, hold and put objects in its mouth, but cannot suck water through the trunk and must drink directly through the mouth. It is still dependent on its mother and keeps close to her.

For its first three months, a calf relies entirely on milk from its mother for nutrition after which it begins to forage for vegetation and can use its trunk to collect water. At the same time, improvements in lip and leg coordination occur. Calves continue to suckle at the same rate as before until their sixth month, after which they become more independent when feeding. By nine months, mouth, trunk and foot coordination is perfected. After a year, a calf's abilities to groom, drink, and feed itself are fully developed. It still needs its mother for nutrition and protection from predators for at least another year. Suckling bouts tend to last 2–4 min/hr for a calf younger than a year and it continues to suckle until it reaches three years of age or older. Suckling after two years may serve to maintain growth rate, body condition and reproductive ability. Play behaviour in calves differs between the sexes; females run or chase each other, while males play-fight. The former are sexually mature by the age of nine years while the latter become mature around 14–15 years. Elephants have long lifespans, reaching 60–70 years of age. Lin Wang, a captive male Asian elephant, lived for 86 years.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elephant

http://kids.nationalgeographic.co.uk/ki ... -elephant/