There ought to be a Topic all its own.
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Seems accurate.
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There are different ones for different uses, from XXsmall to XXlarge.
Why do I know this? I went looking yesterday, because the CNN article says both
the size of a dinner plate
and
An Alexis retractor, or AWR, which can measure 17 centimeters (6 inches) in diameter, was left inside the mother’s body
To me, six inches does not a dinner plate make, and the first place I looked was to see if dinner plates are sized differently in NZ compared to the U.S. (answer: nope).
I wondered who first called it the size of a dinner plate, and found that the report by the New Zealand Health and Disability Commissioner says (without giving any other measurement, as far as I could see)
It should be noted that the retractor, a round, soft tubal instrument of transparent plastic fixed on two rings, is a large item, about the size of a dinner plate.
So then I went looking for info from the manufacturer. Here is the sales brochure which gives the various sizes of the Alexis Retractors:
However, it looks like they aren’t giving the size of the diameter of the devices, but rather the size of incision that each is suitable for. So, at this point I don’t think we know what dimension the device left in this particular patient was, and I guess we’ll have to trust that it really was the size of a dinner plate.
Do I have too much time on my hands? Eh, I’m retired, and I can do what I want 
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They come in flocks!
Between Sept. 6 and Sept. 12, one asteroid the size of a house, three the size of a plane and one asteroid the size of a bus will make way near Earth, according to NASA’s Asteroid Watch dashboard.
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Planes, trains, and automobiles?
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Reading time: two shakes of a lamb’s tail.
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also this:
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Can we take extra points off for the arbitrary color order in that already-bad-for-data-vis rainbow scale?
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Absolutely
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red hind is a type of grouper, sometimes called a strawberry grouper. very good eating.
didn’t know that record-breaking red hind were meaured in bowling balls.
how many bowling balls make a mature goliath grouper ?
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By weight or by volume?
(Looks like weight. RTFA)
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25 inches long and 20 inches around. that’s an eccentric bowling ball.
“dammit! gutter ball again!”
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Maybe lawn bowling, but that’s not a very big fish.
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red hind are not typically that big. certainly not a nassau or goliath, but that is a chunky strawberry, to be sure.
this is about the usual catch for around here:
not much longer than a banana.
a bowling shoe, maybe?
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The length of a dinner plate?
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We’ve had a massive storm today, so I imagine quite a few wheelie bins have gone on an adventure.
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