*winces*

[conuly]

Bad, bad, *bad* writing here.

Somebody asked about the odds of having a third boy (instead of a girl for a change) and I responded that they're the same as they ever were. But just in case, I googled - I mean, I don't know, I suppose it's likely that some men are prone to make more X sperm or more Y sperm, but even then the odds are the same, they've just always been skewed, right?

So I read this site that claims:

One sample, containing only the “small, round-headed sperm” presumed to be X sperm, belonged to a man whose family had produced only daughters for over 250 years.

The site goes on to explain how this idea was mistake, etc. etc. etc., but I'm still hung up on the fact that apparently this man's family had produced only girls. He must simply not exist! Nor his father, nor his father's father....

Sheesh.

Comments

[takaal.livejournal.com]

Well... if he'd married in, it could be a true statement. I descend from a long line of only females, myself...!

[interactiveleaf.livejournal.com]

Yebbut if he married in then one might think that *his* sperm would not be of great utility to the study.

In general, it's just crappy writing. I have no idea what they actually meant.

[conuly]

If they'd said that his family had produced only *boys* for 250 years, now, *that* would be interesting.

[interactiveleaf.livejournal.com]

That would be *possible*. :D The girl thing just doesn't parse.

[sayga.livejournal.com]

A friend of mine has boys running in her family and her husband's family too. She is the only girl after something like 6 boys, and her husband has only brothers. She wasn't surprised to have 4 boys in a row (and is now having her 5th, a girl). It's weird. But yeah, the article clip doesn't make sense. I like to think they went 250 years into the future and discovered that he is the last male born in his family, and everyone after him was a girl due to his mutant sperm.

[takaal.livejournal.com]

Aha! Time travel explains it all!

He *is* his own grandpa - thus keeping himself out of the "just girls" loop!

[sayga.livejournal.com]

Time travel *always* explains it all. A temporal anomaly!

[conuly]

But that's not possible. After one generation, no more sperm producers!

[sayga.livejournal.com]

Which isn't possible? I agree the clip you posted is not possible. In my time travel scenario, I mean that he is giving the sample NOW in 2008, following which, every child ever born to his descendents for the next 250 years into the future are females. The article write time traveled and found out that his mutant 2008 sperm produced only girls. Not that my time travel scenario is possible anyway.

[conuly]

It still doesn't matter. After his daughters, it's a moot point - they're not the sex-deciders. Unless they have mutant bodies that kill off male fetuses, just like he has mutant X-only sperm, that is.

[sayga.livejournal.com]

Oh I see; they're saying his sperm decided that he will only produce girls, not that his GENES decided that he will only have girls. I assumed his mutant sperm created mutant girl babies or something and once introduced to his mutant sperm, no male child could ever be conceived in the mutant female body. Yeah, it makes no sense, without time travel and/or mutants.

[sayga.livejournal.com]

Everyone descends from a long line of females, if you pick the right family thread. My mother, mother's mother, mother's mother's mother, etc. Bahahaha. OK, but this is just getting silly now though.

[peebs1701.livejournal.com]

I'd imagine they were talking about his mother's side of the family or something. *shrugs*

[conuly]

Except they can't be, because his mother has a father too. And if his mother's father's family had only produced girls for 250 years... and sex in humans is inherited from your dad... it just doesn't *work*.

[atdelphi.livejournal.com]

Precisely. Though - tangentially related - I once read about a neat case involving several generations of a large family who produced nothing but daughters. I believe it turned out that the women had some sort of mutation that made their bodies hostile to the Y chromosome. I don't know if it's that they were killing male sperm right off or that male fetuses were being miscarried early on, but their DNA had inadvertantly found a way around that whole "the sex is determined by the father" thing.

[conuly]

That makes sense - but then there's still no point in tallying up the x and y sperm.

[atdelphi.livejournal.com]

Oh, yes - hence the tangent. Nothing to do with the cited case, which I'm still squinting confusedly over.

[peebs1701.livejournal.com]

I'm thinking a long maternal line where the women only produced girls. It doesn't make sense any other way.

[conuly]

Except then what would be the point of checking his sperm?

[peebs1701.livejournal.com]

Ah, I get it now. Yeah, that does seem weird.

[leora.livejournal.com]

And that his mother clearly broke by producing him?

[marveen.livejournal.com]

I would presume that he was the first male born for 250 years, myself....

[leora.livejournal.com]

Any abnormality that caused women to only produce girls isn't likely to involve an abnormality in the sperm, since that wouldn't affect any of those women who had been producing daughters. Women always produce sex cells with no Y chromosomes (and by always I mean any exceptions are too exceptional to bother with in this sentence), so no change in the ratio of sex cells in the gametes would help a female line to keep having daughters no matter which males they mated with.

[tsukikage85.livejournal.com]

You know what's sad?
I totally didn't catch that.

[takaal.livejournal.com]

Well... if he'd married in, it could be a true statement. I descend from a long line of only females, myself...!

[interactiveleaf.livejournal.com]

Yebbut if he married in then one might think that *his* sperm would not be of great utility to the study.

In general, it's just crappy writing. I have no idea what they actually meant.

[conuly]

If they'd said that his family had produced only *boys* for 250 years, now, *that* would be interesting.

[interactiveleaf.livejournal.com]

That would be *possible*. :D The girl thing just doesn't parse.

[sayga.livejournal.com]

A friend of mine has boys running in her family and her husband's family too. She is the only girl after something like 6 boys, and her husband has only brothers. She wasn't surprised to have 4 boys in a row (and is now having her 5th, a girl). It's weird. But yeah, the article clip doesn't make sense. I like to think they went 250 years into the future and discovered that he is the last male born in his family, and everyone after him was a girl due to his mutant sperm.

[takaal.livejournal.com]

Aha! Time travel explains it all!

He *is* his own grandpa - thus keeping himself out of the "just girls" loop!

[sayga.livejournal.com]

Time travel *always* explains it all. A temporal anomaly!

[conuly]

But that's not possible. After one generation, no more sperm producers!

[sayga.livejournal.com]

Which isn't possible? I agree the clip you posted is not possible. In my time travel scenario, I mean that he is giving the sample NOW in 2008, following which, every child ever born to his descendents for the next 250 years into the future are females. The article write time traveled and found out that his mutant 2008 sperm produced only girls. Not that my time travel scenario is possible anyway.

[conuly]

It still doesn't matter. After his daughters, it's a moot point - they're not the sex-deciders. Unless they have mutant bodies that kill off male fetuses, just like he has mutant X-only sperm, that is.

[sayga.livejournal.com]

Oh I see; they're saying his sperm decided that he will only produce girls, not that his GENES decided that he will only have girls. I assumed his mutant sperm created mutant girl babies or something and once introduced to his mutant sperm, no male child could ever be conceived in the mutant female body. Yeah, it makes no sense, without time travel and/or mutants.

[sayga.livejournal.com]

Everyone descends from a long line of females, if you pick the right family thread. My mother, mother's mother, mother's mother's mother, etc. Bahahaha. OK, but this is just getting silly now though.

[peebs1701.livejournal.com]

I'd imagine they were talking about his mother's side of the family or something. *shrugs*

[conuly]

Except they can't be, because his mother has a father too. And if his mother's father's family had only produced girls for 250 years... and sex in humans is inherited from your dad... it just doesn't *work*.

[atdelphi.livejournal.com]

Precisely. Though - tangentially related - I once read about a neat case involving several generations of a large family who produced nothing but daughters. I believe it turned out that the women had some sort of mutation that made their bodies hostile to the Y chromosome. I don't know if it's that they were killing male sperm right off or that male fetuses were being miscarried early on, but their DNA had inadvertantly found a way around that whole "the sex is determined by the father" thing.

[conuly]

That makes sense - but then there's still no point in tallying up the x and y sperm.

[atdelphi.livejournal.com]

Oh, yes - hence the tangent. Nothing to do with the cited case, which I'm still squinting confusedly over.

[peebs1701.livejournal.com]

I'm thinking a long maternal line where the women only produced girls. It doesn't make sense any other way.

[conuly]

Except then what would be the point of checking his sperm?

[peebs1701.livejournal.com]

Ah, I get it now. Yeah, that does seem weird.

[leora.livejournal.com]

And that his mother clearly broke by producing him?

[marveen.livejournal.com]

I would presume that he was the first male born for 250 years, myself....

[leora.livejournal.com]

Any abnormality that caused women to only produce girls isn't likely to involve an abnormality in the sperm, since that wouldn't affect any of those women who had been producing daughters. Women always produce sex cells with no Y chromosomes (and by always I mean any exceptions are too exceptional to bother with in this sentence), so no change in the ratio of sex cells in the gametes would help a female line to keep having daughters no matter which males they mated with.

[tsukikage85.livejournal.com]

You know what's sad?
I totally didn't catch that.