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December 29

Domains

Are Eritrea's .er and Belarus's .by ever used in domain hacks? .er could be used in shortcut to Blogger, blogg.er, like goo.gl and youtu.be, and .by could be used in domains such as drive.by and in Nordic place namesmas by means "village" in Swedish and "city" in Norwegian and Danish. And can South Africa's .za and India's .in be used directly after the main part, such as in piz.za and drive.in? Also, can .pl, .cz, .sk and .hu addresses contain diacritics, such as gdańsk.pl, česko.cz, košice.sk and magyarország.hu? --40bus (talk) 10:10, 29 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

See URL#Internationalized URL. PiusImpavidus (talk) 11:30, 29 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Plusimpavidus has only answered the last sentencee.

The answer to the first part is entirely dependent on the policy of the controller of the ccTLD in question, and that controller may or may not publish a policy. Technically, of course they could be used: the government of Tonga sells .to domains to any interested party, as I presume you know.

According to our article .by The Operations and Analysis Centre under the President of the Republic of Belarus allows for anyone (not only for those who reside in Belarus) to register a second level domain such as something.by, and it also says he .by code is used for domain hack by institutions from the German state of Bavaria (German: Bayern), such as bayern.by, the Bavarian Tourism Agency. Since "by" means "town" or "city" in Norwegian, it's also used by some Norwegian newspapers, such as osl.by for an Oslo newspaper, and trd.by for a Trondheim newspaper, however, neither of these statements appear to be sourced. When I just tried it, trd.by seems to redirect to a Norwegian casino site.

Our articles .er and .za say nothing about whether the ccTLDs are available to anybody outside Eritrea and South Africa respectively. .in doesn't explicitly address the question, but in talking about the use of subdomains it repeats "in India" several times. ColinFine (talk) 20:38, 29 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Colored asphalt markings

What's the purpose of such blue, green, pink marks on street grounds? I've seen them in multiple places in Warsaw (typically in non-traffic places, such as sidewalks) where they've stayed for several months or even years without being erased. From what I've read, those marks can be made for some roadworks, but I'm not sure. Brandmeister^talk 20:06, 29 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I've seen them used for several purposes, mostly for marking the course of some underground pipe or cable, but also for marking a distance such as 500m from a given spot. In the first case, there is a sequence of similar markings, not too far apart from each other. In the second case the marking is usually accompanied by a number or some code. --Lambiam 20:55, 29 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

See utility location. --142.112.149.206 (talk) 22:09, 29 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

In my experience (UK) they appear in preparation for invasive ground works, most recently in our road prior to the installation of the third set of broadband cables under our pavement. Apparently, existing suppliers and their customers get sniffy if new upstart suppliers not only add their own cables, but put a shovel through the existing cables in the process! Different colours may denote gas, water and telecommunication lines.

There is also an occasional rash of markings that outline potholes; whether this is done to guide the repairers of potholes, or as a placebo to pacify local road users, is not always clear. It is possible that the process accompanies the calculation of a cost for the work; the expenditure may not be forthcoming.^{[citation needed]} -- Verbarson ^talk_edits 21:24, 29 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks all. Brandmeister^talk 11:31, 2 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]

January 1

Peugeot's rivalry

Did Peugeot have any rivalry with other auto manufacturer that became famous or was famous but forgotten, like Lancia and Audi in 1983 and Ford and Ferrari in the 1960s? --Donmust90-- Donmust90 (talk) 19:15, 1 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]

When does competition rise to the level of rivalry? Peugeot was unexpectedly beaten in speed by Panhard et Levassor in the Paris–Bordeaux–Paris race of June 1895. --Lambiam 00:07, 2 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Peugeot, Citroën, Renault and Simca were the big four French automakers post World War II - and therefore rivals. The first two have merged, Renault is still around, but Simca has disappeared. Xuxl (talk) 11:40, 2 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]

While the Simca brand, after having been acquired first by Chrysler and then PSA Peugeot Citroën, has disappeared, the factory in Poissy that Simca acquired from Ford France in 1954 is still in full operation.

The Lancia–Audi and Ford–Ferrari rivalries alluded to in the question were not about rivalry between companies, but rivalry between racing teams; see Race for Glory: Audi vs. Lancia and Ford v Ferrari. --Lambiam 16:03, 2 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]

January 3

British weather website

Is there any British weather website which has daily data for stations in the United Kingdom? The starlingroot.ddns.net is not working anymore, it worked a few months ago. The "Historic station data" page on MetOffice's website has only monthly data, and the MetOffice WOW - Weather Observations Website has only hourly data. And is there any English-language website having weather observations for different cities and countries in Europe, similar to e.g. Infoclimat? --40bus (talk) 13:16, 3 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]

You might find windfinder.com useful. Although primarily aimed at coastal leisure activities, it also covers inland areas. {The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195} 94.6.84.253 (talk) 03:07, 4 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]

wunderground.com used to have this. IDK about now. 2601:644:8581:75B0:0:0:0:DA2D (talk) 18:47, 4 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]

January 4

Goal number one

How do you forgive and forget? (not sure if that's off-topic for the reference desk. if it is, sorry in advance.) TWOrantula^TM (enter the web) 05:47, 4 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]

By deciding to. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 06:05, 4 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]

One can decide to forget, but will it work? --Lambiam 09:22, 4 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Here is an essay on the topic, by a practitioner of mindfulness, that you may (or may not) find helpful. More advice: [1], [2] and (written from a Christian perspective) [3]. --Lambiam 09:32, 4 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]

(OR, in that I have no published sources for this, though I was taught it by others): Forgiving does not necessarily mean forgetting - it also doesn't necessarily mean condoning. It means not carrying ill will. In my experience, once I see the cost (to me) of bearing the resentment, and how illusory are the apparent benefits of doing so, it is easy to choose to let it go. ColinFine (talk) 14:25, 4 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Shall we forgive the OP for forgetting that we don't offer advice?DOR (ex-HK) (talk) 17:38, 4 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]

I'd suggest searching the web. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 17:47, 4 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]

The injunction does not apply to all advice, but is aimed specifically at giving medical or legal advice. --Lambiam 23:14, 4 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]

NonStopGo

One of the reasons I hurt myself quite so much last May was to make sure
that I stopped for long enough to arrive at this particular point. For only
through understanding can we see how to forgive both ourselves and other
people. In forgiveness there is love ; and although we can accept forgiveness
from others, true forgiveness comes solely from within. And only if we
love ourselves can we hope to achieve that shining state of grace which
is our true birthright and to find, finally, the gate which leads out of this
vale of tears : and opens for ever into the realms of eternal light.

7th July 2005

MinorProphet (talk) 05:42, 10 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Westminster Coroner's Court

I'm trying to research a sudden death that occurred in the London Borough of Merton. Please help me find information about Westminster Coroner's Court, also known as "Inner West London Coroner's Court". They appear to have no website, and publish no court listings. They claim that coroners records are closed to public access for 75 years.

But other coroners courts in the UK, for example "London Inner South Coroner’s Court", publish their court listings and say that inquests are public and anyone can attend.

Why is there are difference? Why is "London Inner South Coroner’s Court" open to the public, but "Inner West London Coroner's Court" is not? Surely all coroners courts operate under the same laws?

Thanks for your help Cylopi (talk) 12:41, 4 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]

As you can see from [4] coroners' courts are not subject to the Freedom of Information Act. I can assure you, however, that inquests held by the Westminster coroner are as public as inquests held by any other coroner. 2A00:23D0:54D:2001:7843:31E3:192B:798 (talk) 14:56, 4 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Where can I find unmarried men list in Science/Maths?

Like Brahmagupta, Isaac Newton, Nikola Tesla, Arthur Eddington.

I want to exclude Archimedes due to his unknown marital status, Leonardo da Vinci as he have romantic relations and Galileo Galilei who has 3 children out of wedlock. HarryOrange (talk) 14:08, 4 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Do you have any reason to suppose that such a list exists, @HarryOrange? ColinFine (talk) 14:27, 4 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Just to encourage celibacy HarryOrange (talk) 14:30, 4 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]

So, you've come here to ask people how to remove from a list that doesn't exist, some names that would probably belong only the list if it existed, because you have some private meaning of "unmarried"? ColinFine (talk) 12:56, 5 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]

If some men don't (appear to) have sexual relationships with women, they're not necessarily demonstrating celibacy - they might be otherwise inclined. Chuntuk (talk) 11:37, 6 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Possibly worth noting here that the more traditional meaning of "celibacy" doesn't necessarily exclude sex, just marriage. That could have been the meaning HarryOrange was using. --Trovatore (talk) 07:14, 12 January 2025 (UTC) [reply]

Why did you pipe the correctly-spelled "Isaac" Newton to the incorrectly-spelled "Issac" Newton? -- Jack of Oz ^{[pleasantries]} 18:37, 4 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]

And do the same strange thing to Nikola Tesla? Cullen328 (talk) 23:03, 4 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]

I forget to include Paul Erdos , Charles Proteus Steinmetz HarryOrange (talk) 06:13, 12 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Champagne explosion

I had an unopened bottle of cheap champagne (Barefoot Rosé if that matters) left over from NYE, and about 10 minutes ago the thing spontaneously exploded. It had been just sitting there at room temperature. No serious damage but there is champange and broken glass all over the place now, and I'm in the process of cleaning it up. Are these explosions a usual occasional occurrence? I'm used to champagne bottles being thicker than regular wine bottles for obvious reasons, but this one seems on the thin side in retrospect, maybe as an economy measure. Could that be? I'm surprised it doesn't happen on store shelves if it happens at home. Thanks. 2601:644:8581:75B0:0:0:0:DA2D (talk) 18:39, 4 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]

I does happen.^[5][6] Sometimes a cause can be identified. When a bottle of champagne is stored in a freezer, or a fridge whose temperature setting is too low, the contents may freeze, causing it to expand. This can lead to minute cracks in the glass, weakening its strength. Thawed in a relatively warm environment, the pressure of the gas can then result in fracture. Another potential cause is premature bottling, when fermentation has not run its fill course ands the wine still contains yeast and sugar. (Almost all wine sold as "champagne" in the US, also when labelled "Brut", contains residual sugar to accommodate the local taste.) When warmed up, fermentation resumes and pressure increases. Finally, a small fraction of bottles is damaged in handling or comes with production defects, not detectable through visual inspection. --Lambiam 22:42, 4 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks. No idea about refrigeration before I bought it, but I got it off the shelf at a big supermarket, carried it home, and it sat in the exact same place in the room for several days before going kablooie. All I can think of is that carrying it home might have bumped it around or something. Oh well, no big deal in the scheme of things. 2601:644:8581:75B0:0:0:0:DA2D (talk) 01:20, 5 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]

The traditional method of making Champagne requires freezing it in the bottle, so I suppose most bottles are designed to handle that – although freezing from the bottom up is safer than top-down, as it creates no plug of ice between the liquid and the gas. If not using the traditional method, or if the wine doesn't come from the Champagne region, many countries (including all of the EU) forbid selling it under the name Champagne. The US however hasn't got that restriction.

Wines freeze around -5°C, so accidental freezing in a fridge set too cold seems unlikely. PiusImpavidus (talk) 11:15, 5 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]

In this case the bottle had not been opened, but the cold liquid carbonated contents of a closed bottle may freeze upon opening due to cooling by adiabatic expansion of the CO₂. --Lambiam 13:57, 5 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Once upon a time soda pop used to come in reusable glass bottles, and I read somewhere that this would happen from time to time with the larger sizes. And indeed, sometime around 1980 a large bottle of Coca-Cola, probably 1.5 liters, exploded while sitting in my cupboard. --142.112.149.206 (talk) 02:51, 5 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Organizations

Are there any international organizations headquartered in Australia, similar to UN and World Bank are headquartered in the US? --40bus (talk) 22:04, 4 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]

We have a Category:International organisations based in Australia. --Lambiam 23:05, 4 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Isn't this more or less the same question that you asked a month ago? Shantavira|^{feed me} 09:55, 5 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]

An international organization is a completely different thing from a multinational company. --Viennese Waltz 11:38, 5 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]

yes but both questions are easily answered with even the most cursory research and 40bus here seems to have a habit of asking research questions. 208.121.35.65 (talk) 17:37, 7 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]

January 6

Replacement for my My Yahoo page

Not sure this is the correct venue, but here goes.

Yahoo have shut down all personal My Yahoo pages. For those who don't use Yahoo, your My Yahoo page was sort of your own personal webpage, where you could have various modules that interested you displayed (e.g. cartoons, horoscopes, travel, finance etc). Yahoo have closed My Yahoo down. A big feature of my personal My Yahoo page was that it had loads of links to my favourite websites. This loss is the one that is hurting most.

Any suggestions as to a replacement? Mjroots (talk) 10:15, 6 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]

MSN.com does that pretty well. --Viennese Waltz 10:25, 6 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Could you explain in more detail how one can go about to create a personalized web space using MSN.com? --Lambiam 12:29, 6 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]

[7] would be a start. That link is for UK users, presumably you can customize it to your own country. --Viennese Waltz 13:38, 6 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Perhaps one of the content curation tools listed here, some of which are free, will serve your purposes. I have no knowledge of any of these tools beyond what you find there. --Lambiam 12:34, 6 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]

No modules, but there is Neocities. Actually, I may misunderstand: perhaps you seek a kind of home page which is online but available to you only, mainly for collecting bookmarks. Card Zero (talk) 13:53, 6 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]

For those answering, while it appears to be a question asking how to make a basic list of links, it is not. Yahoo's links page was created by selecting modules through a GUI and then customizing the settings. For example, I could select the comics GUI and then select which comics I want to show up in my links. I don't need to know any of the URLs. I just place a check next to the comics I like. For finance, I add the module with a click and then type in the ticket symbols for the stocks I care about. It automatically creates a daily stock thumbnail with links to news articles about those stocks. So, it is true that there are many available options to create a list of links, there are not as many options to create a custom content page for multiple areas of personal interest. 68.187.174.155 (talk) 15:35, 6 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]

The IP is correct, but as I said above, I can live without horoscopes, comics etc. The ability of easily store links to favourite websites is the biggest loss. @Card Zero: - it doesn't have to be for me only. I think that using a subpage of my user space will fall foul of WP:NOTWEBHOST #5, even though many (but not all) of the websites are used in Wikipedia research. Mjroots (talk) 15:39, 6 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Does it have to be a website in that case? Why not browser bookmarks? In fact, I believe these days some browsers will let you select bookmarks for a "start page" or "start screen" that is displayed when you open a new window/tab. And if they don't, you can probably find a browser extension that will do that. -- Avocado (talk) 17:20, 6 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Major traffic fatality incident, Denmark, 2019

In 2019, Denmark had a minor spike in traffic fatalities. I feel that the spike is most likely the result of a single accident with multiple fatalities. However, I cannot find any news about multiple-fatality accidents in Denmark in 2019. Everything that I find is related to train accidents, which I do not think Denmark includes in "traffic fatality" counts. Can anyone find a list of accidents or news about a single large-scale accident that might skew the yearly count for 2019? 68.187.174.155 (talk) 15:25, 6 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]

First of all, where are you seeing this spike and is it a reliable source? Shantavira|^{feed me} 09:55, 7 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]

And is it even statistically significant? With unrelated events happening by chance, there will always be fluctuations in number of events by time period. Spikes will occur every now and then, entirely by chance. --Lambiam 13:05, 7 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]

I found this document (pdf) which seems to go into this matter in great detail. I don't read Danish, but I ran it though Google Translate. The table on page 28 shows that there were 199 traffic-related fatalities in Denmark in 2019, which is more than the two previous years but less than some earlier years. So I agree with the above posters that there is not enough here to constitute a spike. The document doesn't list individual accidents, btw. --Viennese Waltz 14:24, 7 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]

The mean number of fatalities of the 10-year sample given in this Danish report is 194.9, while its estimated standard deviation is 27.3. This means that the 2019 value deviates from the mean by 0.15 sigma, which is more remarkable by how little the deviation is. --Lambiam 23:54, 7 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]

I saw this before and perhaps you are trying to recreate it. In 2019, traffic fatalities in Denmark increased 20%. But, they were so low that it was a small bump to make that 20% jump. The reason it matters is because the increase was used as the basis to use government funding for more bicycle lanes and improving intersections. But, the increase was not statistically significant and didn't mean anything, so it should not have been used as justification for any changes. Now, from memory, it was a multi-car, weather-related accident in January that added more than 10 fatalities to the yearly count. That was overshadowed by a train accident due to the same snowstorm which killed 8 (I remember it was 8 because most new articles listed 6, but some stated that a few days later, two more bodies were found). So, my gut feeling is that you are intending to show that this "20% spike" in traffic fatalities is really a data artifact created by a single large-scale accident and not representative of general driver behavior in Denmark. Unfortunately, I do not know how to search Danish news. But, if my memory is correct, you can use the date of the well documented train accident in Denmark in 2019 to get the date of the multi-car accident and then, hopefully, find that as well. I doubt you will find it in any English-based news repository. You will have to search Danish repositories. 12.116.29.106 (talk) 16:17, 7 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Yes. That is what I am doing. I found multiple overblown newspaper headlines like "Biggest increase in traffic fatalities in five years! Your mind will be blown when you see the numbers!" and I am using that to demonstrate that while it is technically true that there was a 20% increase in fatalities, the proper context around that increase is that it is negligible and the result of a single event that could have happened on any other year. Basically, it is a presentation on applying context to data and how it is often done improperly. Now that I know there was a multi-vehicle traffic accident at the same time as the train accident I keep finding, I decided to read those articles and many of them comment on the car accident as well as the train accident, but I didn't read through the articles to notice previously. 68.187.174.155 (talk) 13:15, 8 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]

According to the document linked by @Viennese Waltz, there were 199 deaths in 2019, compared to 171 the year before. That's a 16% increase, not 20%. On the other hand, it's an extra 28 people - so more than the result of a single incident. It just looks like random variation in a decade (the 2010's) that saw about 200 people killed every year on Denmark's roads. This decade it's been more like 150 a year, so if they spent a lot of money in 2019 it was worth it. You can further eamine annual figures here and here. Chuntuk (talk) 13:23, 9 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]

What's 'this decade'? There tends to be some controversy especially with 2020 and 2021 figures since reduced traffic due to COVID-19 whether from lockdowns or just changes in behaviour e.g. with more working from home are often cited as reasons for reduced fatalities the. Nil Einne (talk) 10:34, 10 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Neurodiverse dating site

Is there website that shows with neurodiverse person goes well with which other neurodiverse, e.g. ADHD with Autism, Autism with HPI, HPI with dylexsia etc? --Donmust90-- Donmust90 (talk) 15:55, 6 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]

For any combination of forms of neurodiversity, some persons will go well with each other, while others will not. This depends mainly on other factors, in particular the personality and personal value system of each. --Lambiam 12:57, 7 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]

January 8

Anthropology Wikipedia page

Does anyone know why the Wikipedia page for "Anthropology" jumped to 6 million views on Dec. 25, 2024?[8]https://pageviews.wmcloud.org/?project=en.wikipedia.org&platform=all-access&agent=user&redirects=0&start=2024-12-18&end=2025-01-07&pages=Anthropology 136.26.125.34 (talk) 23:28, 8 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Probably just a glitch. Such things happen all the time. Shantavira|^{feed me} 09:54, 11 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Previously, a spike for views of a particular page was due to some device or other (a digital assistant?) suggesting searching for the topic as part of its default demo or a tour of its features. Obviously I can't remember any specifics but it was along those lines. So a reasonable theory is that a lot of people got a device for Christmas that did something similar, although "try asking about anthropology" seems an unlikely way to show off a new phone's AI gimmicks, but maybe. Perhaps the spike was a side-effect of whatever the gadget really said. Card Zero (talk) 11:08, 11 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Clearly, this is a result of extraterrestrial aliens abusing this article as a source for humanoid porn. Homo erectus and relatives are depicted in full frontal nudity which may excite the libidinous erectiles in our solar system, the Milky Way or the Andromeda Nebula. --Cookatoo.ergo.ZooM (talk) 18:42, 11 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]

January 11

Young adult novel series called Blitzkrieg

Does anybody remember who was the author of a novel series, aimed at middle and high school students called Blitzkrieg? It was about a high school football team and I think it was or were published in the 1970s or 1980s. --Donmust90-- Donmust90 (talk) 00:49, 11 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]

The series was actually called Blitz and was written by Paul Nichols (about whom we don't seem to have an article). There are some examples here. --Viennese Waltz 07:46, 11 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]

"Paul Nichols" is the pen name of Robert Hawks (b. 1961).^[9] More about him here. He has also published under his own name,^[10] as well as young-adult horror under the pen name "M. T. Coffin" :).^[11] In any case, neither the author nor the books appear to meet Wikipedia's notability criteria. --Lambiam 09:42, 11 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]

January 12