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September 15

Can this be an exhaust mechanism to expel hot air?

If I put simple vents (just holes and pipes, no conical receptacle) on a flat concrete roof, will that draw out the hot air indoors, like a chimney does? 59.91.254.103 (talk) 03:26, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

Nome. Not unless it's hotter inside than outside. 124.30.235.62 (talk) 06:58, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

You need a either a heat or pressure differential for any vent pipe to move air in or out of a building. If there is some breeze entering the lower part of the building, a roof vent will allow accumulated hot air to exit from the top portion of the enclosed space. Otherwise, as noted above, the air movement will depend on the heat difference and won't be particularly efficient, unless you have a very large vent.

When you say "conical receptacle", if you mean the little hat sitting over the vent pipe, that is to prevent turbulence effects which interfere with air exit (and keep rain out). If you do have breeze, a whirlybird-type cap might more effectively remove air. And of course, you can use a fan (with vent cap) to move the air - again though, before you start punching holes through your roof, where is the cooler air going to come from? Franamax (talk) 09:48, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

If you look at the title: Can this be an exhaust mechanism to expel hot air? Assuming that "hot air" is hotter than the air outside, then yes. Plasticup ^T/C 14:31, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

That's precisely why much traditional Arabic architecture employs minarets. You may consider jutting a piece of pipe a few feet up, not so much that it can be seen from the street, but enough to catch some extra breeze above the lip of the roof. And cover the pipe somehow (the least amount possible) to prevent rain entering or birds nesting. But as mentioned earlier, you need to allow air to come in on the ground level for it to work. - Lambajan 15:55, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

You describe a method of passive cooling. You might be interested in our articles stack effect and solar chimney. Itsmejudith (talk) 17:07, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

Thanks to everyone responding. There was enough information already on Wikipedia as linked by User:Itsmejudith; only that I had no clue to search where. I was talking about a tropical situation where sunlight greatly heats up the concrete roof. The air inside the room would very hot. If you switch on the ceiling fan you will feel the heat coming down. By conical receptacle I meant the suction part of a chimney which is often conical in shape. I assume that the if the vent pipes were to draw properly, some sort of extra heating would be necessary, as happens in solar chimney. 59.91.253.148 (talk) 03:25, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

How close of a call was it?

The metrolink accident has made me look into rail safety around the world. I see in List of rail accidents that I've recently been on many of the lines that have had HUGE disasters. It seems fire on a train creates the worst disasters Al Ayyat train disaster. I remember traveling through Tanzania on TAZARA and riding through a brush fire. The fire was so close that we could hear loud crackling and the heat felt similar to standing three feet from an open home oven. One person in my compartment was the son of a railway engineer and had a pass that allowed him to frequently take the line. He told me he had never seen anything like it before. Was it careless of TAZARA to run through a close brush fire? What were the odds of an incident?

Lotsofissues 04:26, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

Did the fire span over a long stretch of track? Perhaps the conductor decided that stopping would be a greater danger. By the time the train stopped, it might have ended up in the middle of the fire—not the safest place to be! — Twas Now ( talk • contribs • e-mail ) 05:10, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

I moving and seeing fire for at least 8 minutes. Most of the time the fire would only be visible, but sometimes the fire was close enough to activate other senses. Lotsofissues 05:50, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

The train engineer could have stopped the train (which can take 1km or so to do, and you stop where you stop) and left themself and the passengers in the middle of a brush fire - or radio ahead for the conditions and just keep going. Rail accidents are more commonly caused by poor track maintenance (derailments) and mistakes setting the points (collisions). Franamax (talk) 09:32, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

And, as apparently in this case, by failure to obey signals. Of course many other different causes are possible -- including fire. --Anonymous, 15:15 UTC, September 15, 2008.

Of course at this point in the investigation they can't possibly know that the signal was translated into the correct lighted bulb. It could be that the right signal was sent from the station (or wherever they are sent from) but the wrong signal was displayed on the track. Lots of people have come out saying that the preliminary conclusions are nowhere near as conclusive as they sound. Plasticup ^T/C 02:16, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

For sure; that's why I said "apparently". In practice, it's a lot more common for the train driver to get it wrong, and if the stories about text messaging are correct then we also know he was distracted. But the signal or the person controlling it could certainly also be at fault. (For an example, follow my "causes" link above.) --Anonymous, 04:42 UTC, September 16, 2008.

Boil Advisory, Boil Order?

What is a Boil Advisory and/or a Boil Order ? I am under one. Got caught in Hurricane Ike, and my city govt. issued a "Boil Advisory" today, because the water processing area was damaged and power was out. Powerzilla (talk) 04:49, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

It means you are strongly recommended to boil all water before using it. See Boil-water advisory. — Twas Now ( talk • contribs • e-mail ) 05:34, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

Thanks. I'm not the only one that is affected by Hurricane Ike. Got power restored today, Internet access shortly after that. Several towns are under this order, as inspections for damage, etc. continue, more towns get this order. Powerzilla (talk) 05:50, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

I heart wiki. Lots of <3

We had a boil advisory here in the Washington DC suburbs some months ago because a large water main broke. The advisory was precautionary (they don't have water police to come check on you) but remained in effect until 48 hours of testing showed no harmful elements in the water. My point is that the advisories are not limited to huge disasters like hurricanes; they can be local emergencies as well. --- OtherDave (talk) 11:53, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

I can't believe you got emergency healthcare advice (something on which your life might depend), didn't understand it, and asked a pile of random guys on the internet! And believed their answer! Fortunately they were right. DJ Clayworth (talk) 04:00, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

You'd be surprised. The other day we had a guy on hear saying "My friend has a heart condition and terrible pains in his chest. What should we do?" Plasticup ^T/C 04:05, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

And "we" got that one wrong, at least until I came along, by not saying that this is an emergency and an ambulance should be called. There's medical advice and then there's knowing what's an emergency. --Anon, 04:17, September 16, 2008.

Poisons

What is the most commonly available, and yet, potentially lethal poison that can kill a human being? And, has anyone used said poison to commit suicide yet?? 117.194.227.156 (talk) 07:11, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

Well, for starters, good old nicotine is pretty nasty stuff. It's really easy to obtain, as your average cigarette probably contains about 1.5 mg of it, and apparently 40-60 mg can be lethal for adults. The reason smoking a couple of packs doesn't kill you is simply that most of the nicotine ends up outside your body. And yes, millions and millions of people have killed themselves with nicotine, but that's probably not what you mean. I'm unaware of any specific incident in which someone set out to kill themselves with it, but I'm sure someone has done it. -- Captain Disdain (talk) 07:42, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

Actually I wouldn't be so sure that "millions and millions of people have killed themselves with nicotine", if you're talking about tobacco smoking. A substantial majority of tobacco deaths are, I imagine (with no medical advice implied!), caused more by the "tar" than by the nicotine. Not that nicotine is exactly good for you—the nicotine article details ways in which it can contribute to cardiovascular disease—but I doubt that epidemiology has any way to tell how much the nicotine really contributes to that ("tar" also causes cardiovascular disease, and so does carbon monoxide, and so does particulate smoke).

The thing that irks me about this is the resistance to the development of a delivery system for nicotine as a recreational drug, without the other noxious substances in tobacco. I think that could save a huge number of lives. Instead the FDA wants to limit the amount of nicotine in cigarettes—reduce the substance that causes the pleasure rather than the substances that cause cancer.

(Oh, one last thing—the 1.5 mg in a cigarette is the delivered dose; there's lots more than that in the cigarette before it's burned. I wouldn't be surprised if the nicotine you get from smoking two packs would kill you, if you got it all at once and hadn't built up a tolerance. But I'm speculating.)

Carbon monoxide is pretty poisonous. — Twas Now ( talk • contribs • e-mail ) 07:51, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

You can be sure that people have used commonly available poisons to kiil themselves. Many household chemicals are poisonous (and will cause a prolonged and painful death, so perhaps we shouldn't be too specific in case you are thinking of using them yourself).--Shantavira|^{feed me} 08:43, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

Living is 100% lethal. Franamax (talk) 09:24, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

Things like arsenic and strychnine were often sold over the counter in Victorian times to kill off rats...and unwanted husbands,wives,etc. Lemon martini (talk) 10:35, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

And there's no metabolic pathway for alcohol. See alcohol poisoning. Julia Rossi (talk) 10:38, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

Consuming a large quantity of salt would kill a person. Useight (talk) 16:12, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

... or consuming a large quantity of water. Gandalf61 (talk) 16:18, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

Paracetamol is widely available and lethal. DuncanHill (talk) 17:03, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

Meanwhile, your local hardware or gardening supply store no doubt stocks dozens of items which are intended to serve as poisons. (While most aren't targeted specifically at mammals like us, a sufficient dose would certainly do you in.) Rat poisons containing warfarin ought to be effective. Most over-the-counter insecticides, herbicides, and pesticides are toxic at some dose. I'm sure that someone, somewhere, at some time, has died – or come close to it – through deliberate or accidental misuse of virtually all of these products. TenOfAllTrades(talk) 18:20, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

Oxygen 98.169.163.20 (talk) 02:07, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

Oxygen is only toxic under pressure. Carbon dioxide, which is present in every breath you exhale, is lethally toxic (not just suffocating) at a concentration of about 20% in air. Drinking too much water can also be lethal. Are those substances common enough for you? --Anonymous, 04:25 UTC, September 16, 2008.

When you come right down to it - it's kinda tricky to find something that ISN'T toxic under some circumstances. Anyway - my vote goes for Ethylene glycol - the main ingredient of anti-freeze. One mouthful is enough to kill an adult. One 'lick' is enough to kill a small child or a cat or dog. Since it tastes and smells sweet and it's usually a pretty color (like Gatorade actually) - it's a disaster waiting to happen. For suicides, I think Carbon Monoxide is a common poison for suicidal people. Shut the garage door - start the car engine. SteveBaker (talk) 13:34, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

Surprisingly, no. One of the most dramatic measures of how clean modern car engines are is that almost nobody commits suicide by running the car in an enclosed space anymore. --Carnildo (talk) 22:36, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

My vote would be aspirin, which has led to many deaths in infants who have taken overdoses of this drug. Saukkomies 09:42, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

T.V Costings

How much would a 40 to 60cm flat screen T.V cost? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 220.233.83.26 (talk) 07:52, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

Where are you? Zain Ebrahim (talk) 08:23, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

That would depend, among other things, on where you live. -- Captain Disdain (talk) 08:23, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

In the UK, the Argos catalogue has 19inch tvs starting at GBP150.--Shantavira|^{feed me} 08:31, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

I'm in Australia. 220.233.83.26 (talk) 08:46, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

Here is a 20" LCD TV for AUD 725. You could search for others on that site too. Fribbler (talk) 11:12, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

WalMart (Texas, USA) $220. SteveBaker (talk) 00:12, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

Flat screen or flat panel? For a couple of years flat screen TVs were all the rage. They are like normal CRT sets except that the screen doesn't have that slight curve in it. Then they came out with the thin flat panel sets that weigh like 2 lbs and mount on the wall all sexy-like. I have the former :-( Plasticup ^T/C 04:03, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

Chinese Culture

Could someone give me a brief explination about Chinese Culture? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 220.233.83.26 (talk) 07:58, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

Culture of the People's Republic of China. I don't think it would be easy to give a brief description. Zain Ebrahim (talk) 08:20, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

Reminds of Woody Allen's joke about speed-reading War and Peace in 20 minutes – "It was about Russia". So hey here's a try: there's a comedy club for standups in Hong Kong and the HK International Comedy Festival. Julia Rossi (talk) 10:34, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

Or Monty Python's Summarising Proust competition. But a game we can all join in. Paintings of pine trees. Stir-frying in soy sauce. Itsmejudith (talk) 13:21, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

The one I liked was the Peanuts comic where Charlie Brown kept on begging Lucy to tell him a story. Exasperated, she said "There was a man. He lived, and he died. The end". -- JackofOz (talk) 20:52, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

I seem to remember it being Linus doing the begging. His response to her story was something like "Wow, I almost feel like I knew the man..." jeffjon (talk) 12:28, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

How's this: China has had periods of stability that eventually end, resulting in periods of chaos, which in turn then end when a strong ruler emerges that once again establishes a new period of stability. These periods are called Dynasties, and they last anywhere from 14 to 600 years. It could be theoretically argued that the current regime in power in China (the Communist Party) is just another Dynasty. Of course that really doesn't fully address your question, which was specifically about Chinese culture, but it's a quick take on China's history, which helps provide some of a basic foundation to understand the cultural aspects of China. Saukkomies 09:47, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

...or periods of instability that eventually end. It's like whether the cup is half full or half empty, although in this case the instable periods are much shorter than the (mostly) stable periods. --antilived^{T | C | G} 04:42, 17 September 2008 (UTC)

New Mexico cliffs

Is there really a Four Fingers mesas in New Mexico? I saw the cliffs in Outrageous Fortune. They were where Lauren was taking leaps with Michael in pursuit.72.229.139.13 (talk) 08:39, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

Outrageous Fortune was filmed near Santa Fe and Abiquiu, New Mexico. There are a lot of beautiful rock formations near there. Corvus cornix_talk 20:21, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

Copycat urban legends

Have there ever been any cases of someone hearing an urban legend and acting on it, turning it from contemporary mythology to an actual documented event? Bradley10 (talk) 12:17, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

Not quite an urban legend, but close:IP over Avian Carriers. -Arch dude (talk) 17:29, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

Snopes refers to this as pseudo-ostention. --ColinFine (talk) 23:35, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

Practically every episode of Mythbusters. SteveBaker (talk) 23:57, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

Has anyone here actually been present when an event usually described as being an UL has occurred? I have once - and I get accused of 'talking shit' by people who think they know everything whenever I try to tell the story. Which is irritating. It's this one, FWIW. I was there when it happened and I could name fifteen other people that witnessed it too. I could even name the girl, if I had any particular desire to do to. It was in a sex education lesson at school when we were 12/13-ish. I doubt that she'd just heard/read about the UL somewhere and decided to try being funny in class either - she was in floods of tears afterwards and was still getting laughed at weeks later. --Kurt Shaped Box (talk) 00:32, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

Snopes has some details of cases where sharp objects actually were hidden in Halloween treats; that seems to qualify as a "yes" answer. In the site's "horrors" section, follow the "malicious mayhem" link, then the "razor blades" link. --Anonymous, 04:36 UTC, September 16, 2008.

Treatment of HARDWOODS.

I live on the Southcoast of South Africa anf have a Balau (Malaysian/Indonesian) hardwood sundeck which is showing signs of deterioration due possibly to the cyclic nature of our climate and strong sunlight and humidity.

What can I use to preserve my deck to prevent further deterioration.

Reply to Mike <email removed to prevent spamming>

15th September 2008 —Preceding unsigned comment added by 155.239.197.244 (talk) 12:57, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

We use "Cuprinol" on various outdoor wood thingamajigs. Heres the South African site: [1]. Fribbler (talk) 15:48, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

Is Sarah Palin any relation to Michael Palin

Is Sarah Palin any relation to Michael Palin... cue jokes about Monty Python and policy. -- Q Chris (talk) 15:04, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

If they were anything other than distant relatives (by virtue of having the same surname) I'd expect the media to go into a pun-laden fluff-piece spasm. So, I doubt it. Fribbler (talk) 15:51, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

Note that Palin is her married name. You might better check if she is related to anyone named Heath. Or maybe Heath Ledger. Edison (talk) 20:09, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

(thinks) Heath Leadger ... Brokeback Mountain ... cute cowboys ... lumberjacks ... cute lumberjacks ... who like to press wild flowers and hang around in bars ... Canadian Rockies ... Alaska ... Sarah Palin ... well, obviously there's a strong connection here. -- JackofOz (talk) 20:49, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

As the comic strip Get Fuzzy said last Friday, "NO-body expects the Alaskan politician." Deor (talk) 21:00, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

Off-topic, but kinda funny: Michael Palin for President. -- 128.104.112.147 (talk) 22:32, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

That was the GREATEST off-topic comment I've ever read! Thanks so much for brightening my day. Saukkomies 09:57, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

Daffy Duck

Why, when daffy duck gets out of the shower he puts a towl round himself, yet when he goes outside he only hears a shirt? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 193.115.175.247 (talk) 16:54, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

Daffy Duck does not generally wear any clothes at all. Perhaps you are thinking of Donald Duck, in which case your question is no less jejune. It's a cartoon. There's no need for an immense amount of logical consistency. --LarryMac | Talk 16:59, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

As much as this is a question using a quote from the tv series Friends I would answer it thus: Why wouldn't he put a towel around himself? He is going to be wet from the shower and will need something to dry himself down, why not wrap a towel around himself? ny156uk (talk) 21:56, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

Suspension of disbelief has some fantastic writing. To quote: "Gary Larson discussed the question with regard to his comic strip, The Far Side; he noted that readers wrote him to complain that a male mosquito referred to his "job" sucking blood when it is in fact the females that drain blood, but that the same readers accepted that the mosquitoes (in "fact") live in houses, wear clothes, and speak English." 98.169.163.20 (talk) 02:05, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

Democratic Presidents

During the years that America has had a democratic President in the white house was it usually with a republican controlled congress or with a democratic held congress? Does anyone know the stats on this? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.156.167.207 (talk) 18:45, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

Compare List of United States Congresses and List of Presidents of the United States. I will point you in the right direction, but you should do the research yourself. — Twas Now ( talk • contribs • e-mail ) 19:49, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

I don't see anything wrong with a pointer to someone else's research, if anyone knows of one. I'm moderately curious about the answer myself, but I'm not sufficiently curious to do the legwork—and I'm definitely too stubborn to reinvent the wheel if the answer were already out there. (And I would be shocked if it weren't.) TenOfAllTrades(talk) 20:10, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

(addendum) For that matter, I'd also like to know how it breaks down for all parties, not just Democrats. Be explicit about your methods of analysis, and be careful how you report results from the early Presidencies in particular—it hasn't always been just Democrats versus Republicans. Check out the 1st United States Congress, divided between the Pro-Administration Party and the Anti-Administration Party. Note that for about a quarter of a century, U.S. Presidents (from Jefferson to John Quincy Adams) came from the ranks of the Democratic–Republican Party. How would you count those? TenOfAllTrades(talk) 20:20, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

I was skimming through the list of congresses and it seems like for much of the Clinton, Bush Sr. and Reagan administrations the congress was primarily of the other party as the Executive. The Carter administration was primarily democratic in both branches. I didn't skim back any further than that. - Lambajan 20:36, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

After the 82 elections (41 mid-terms) between 1836 and 1998, the party not holding the presidency controlled one chamber 16 times, and both chambers 19 times. Divided government was common after elections between 1836 and 1894 (50%), rare between 1896 and 1946 (15%), and most common between 1948 and 1998 (62%). Ware, Alan (2001) "Divided Government in the United States." Divided Government in Comparative Perspective.—eric 02:01, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

USMC PFT

Hi all I have a question: In wikipedia's USMC PFT article, it states that a Recruit (or Marine, after boot camp) must score at least 135 points; however, I've heard that the testee (is that a word?) must score at least 300 points. 300 sounds more likely, but I'm not sure which is the case. Anyone know? --AtTheAbyss (talk) 21:13, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

It's far less than 300. That's the maximum score. See here for a table of passing scores. Seems its a bit complicated. Fribbler (talk) 22:27, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

United States Drilling own oil

Joe Biden made a statement that even if the US were to open drilling it doesn't mean the oil would stay here. Since the US is not a part of OPEC, how is the pricing & sales of US oil handled?LADYOFLAKE (talk) 22:00, 15 September 2008 (UTC) LADYOFLAKE

The open market, just like all oil. OPEC controls prices (to an extent) by changing the amount of oil they produce. But they still sell it to whoever wants to buy it. If you want to keep the oil, you would have to have government drilling and refining. Nationalisation isn't too popular in the states. Fribbler (talk) 22:22, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

The government could also keep the oil in the country by passing a law saying you couldn't export it. They wouldn't have to actually run the drilling themselves. Algebraist 22:55, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

But then the oil would still reach the same market rate, as it would compete with the US's necessary imports of black gold. In fact the whole situation is a bit of a political red herring. Drilling in say, Alaska, would only produce a small amount of extra oil which would reduce the world oil price by less than the daily whim of a stock trader. And "it would just leave the country" is also irrelevant in terms of a global commodity. The government would have to produce enough oil for self-sufficiency and regulate the price. Hmmm A Planned Economy in my Amerikaz? Fribbler (talk) 23:04, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

Biden is correct. Left to their own devices, those companies would sell their oil on the open market. Legistlating that it could only be sold in the USA wouldn't make any difference to the price because it's still a matter of supply and demand. Legislating the prices of oil for the internal market would get the US into deep trouble with all manner of international trade agreements. How could our negotiators continue to insist that (for example) Japan and China allow their internal rice market to 'float' in order to allow the import of rice from Texas at a fair market rate? Before you know it, US exports would be getting import levies from every country on the planet. It's not so much that US oil would or would not "stay here" - it's that the price would simply go up to meet whatever the international price of oil is. Worse still - what makes you think that the oil companies would invest in drilling for the stuff and pumping it out of the ground and onto the shore at $60 a barrel - when they could invest in any of several other offshore drilling prospects outside of US waters and sell it at $100 a barrel? You can't force a company to do that - so they won't. You'd have to set up a US government owned oil company or something. This whole "drilling for US oil" thing is merely a pathetic attempt by politicians to look like they are "DOING SOMETHING"...they don't give a damn that it won't work ten years from now because they won't be in office then. SteveBaker (talk) 23:45, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

Welcome to the electoral process. I also heard that candidates believe in the myth of Social Security, despite overwhelming evidence that it won't be around for my generation to collect. Plasticup ^T/C 03:58, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

A Planned Economy in my Amerikaz?

It's more likely than you think.Avnas Ishtaroth _{drop me a line} 05:08, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

If the Social Security trust fund exists, then Social Security will be around for a long time, with only a brief period of insolvency. Unfortuately, that period will start right around the time when I'd be retiring. If the government can't repay the money it's borrowed from the trust fund, then yes, Social Security will be non-existent. --Carnildo (talk) 22:44, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

Who is this man?

Can someone tell me who the man in this video is? Thank you. — Twas Now ( talk • contribs • e-mail ) 22:36, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

The caption on the clip itself says he's "William Veale, Retired Public Defender". Googling shows him to be a "truther" with a blog. - Nunh-huh 22:41, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

Oh, I didn't notice that. Thanks. — Twas Now ( talk • contribs • e-mail ) 23:13, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

CAFE standards widely ignored?!

In this list of "science questions" and the answers from the two US presidential candidates:

http://www.sciencedebate2008.com/www/index.php?id=42

McCain asserts that:

"I have long supported CAFE standards - the mileage requirements that automobile manufacturers' cars must meet. Some carmakers ignore these standards, pay a small financial penalty, and add it to the price of their cars. But I believe that the penalties for not following these standards must be effective enough to compel all carmakers to promote the development of fuel-efficient vehicles."

(The CAFE standards set limits for fuel economy for cars.) I've been horrified at how pathetic the CAFE targets are - and now we find that even those targets are not being met?!?! That's outrageous!

I've been trying to find out more about this - to what extent is this happening? Are all car companies doing this? How much is the fine? How long have they been doing this?

SteveBaker (talk) 23:31, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

Linking to the article in the title to improve the accessibility to non-American Wikipedians. --antilived^{T | C | G} 00:28, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

Well, here's one link: [2]. $675 mil in penalties since 1983 is really a drop in the bucket, considering the size of the US auto market. And if it's BMW and Mercedes buyers paying the penalties, that's just one more line item, right? Of more concern is that (I do believe) light trucks and minivans escape the CAFE standards altogether. And I'm completely gapping out on the name of Chrysler's hit retro-looking car of recent memory that got classified as a light truck and thereby escaped the CAFE net (edit:PT Cruiser). Also, the CAFE standards were supposed to be progressively tightened over time and Congress has granted several waivers. There's plenty of outrageous in there.

And what's even more outrageous is that all the waffling on fuel standards was largely for the benefit of US-based automakers, and now suddenly fuel is expensive and they don't know how to make small cars and they are somewhat screwed. But don't worry, a lot of car company executives got paid big money to put them in that state. Franamax (talk) 02:01, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

Nonsense! American car companies are doing all they can! In fact, by 2020 they plan to almost catch up with Cina's 2005 requirement. Plasticup ^T/C 02:08, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

And here's the skinny, according to NHTSA: [3]. Turns out there are light truck CAFE standards, currently 22.2 mpg_‑US (10.6 l/100 km). That's up from the 20.7 mpg_‑US (11.4 l/100 km) from 17 years ago. For passenger cars, the standard is 27.5 mpg_‑US (8.6 l/100 km), right where it's been for the past 18 years. To me, even in terms of the little baby gallons used in the US, these are both ridiculously high consumption numbers - but I don't need a floating palace to drive around in. Looking at the penalties, they seem to be mostly paid by the Eurolux makers, and I forgot to include Porsche and Lotus. Franamax (talk) 02:48, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

You can hardly blame the automotive companies though. They are simply responding to market forces. As individuals begin demanding more fuel efficient cars, they will begin to provide them. We can already see the trend starting. Plasticup ^T/C 03:56, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

I largely agree - although the long-term decline of US automakers from when GM alone had >50% market share, a great part of which was due to penetration of fuel-efficient imports, hardly suggests nimble response to market forces. :( True though, the US makers are finally starting to respond to the end of the American fantasy of unlimited cheap energy. This will also help with the global warming problem - if there even is such a problem of course. The globe seems to have decided, but America is not quite sure yet ;) Franamax (talk) 04:58, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

Digging a little more here: [4] By the structure of CAFE, there are actually disincentives to improving fleet economy, because the fine amount is determined from fleet-wide fuel economy but the fine is paid per-vehicle. So adding efficient cars can actually cost you more. Steve, you like to crunch numbers, there's lots of sigma's and dX's in there (no integrals though). Franamax (talk) 05:09, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

OK, one more post, then I'll really try to shut up. :)

• McCain is talking a good populist line but making no sense. Here are the recent CAFE fines: [5]. Note how they are largely luxury and high-performance makers, with pretty low unit volumes. These makers are not the ones destroying our planet (though they're not necessarily helping) and as Plasticup notes, they simply are responding to their market, which sees a CAFE penalty as just another line item, just like the high-end BOSE stereo - no matter how high the penalty, the customer has already decided to buy a Porsche. So in general, the CAFE penalty payments aren't so much a scandal as a reflection of the segmentation of the auto market into niche makers and corporate "vehicle fleets". If Mr. McCain had to meet "Family Average House Ownership" standards, he might find his fleet a little unwieldy too. (And BMW is at the cutting-edge developing fuel-efficient high-power engines)
• Here's a list of CAFE numbers for the major makers: [6]. Fascinating comparison there on how well the US-based makers have responded to market forces - just compare the CAFE numbers to changes in market share. Oops, better not do that. No, what matters in the marketplace is profitability, just look at how much money the US makers have earned ... uh, no, let's not do that either.
• And hidden in that last link is a little gem: if you sell an E85 capable vehicle, you get credited as 15% of the overall mileage whether or not ethanol ever goes into the vehicle! Now I have no problem with not using ethanol fuel, what with it providing slim to no benefit and having the side-effect of people undergoing slight problems with starving because they can't afford food, but that makes a mockery of the whole scheme.

not certain if it's still the case, but a few years ago the E85 credits existed even if you lived in a state where E85 wasn't even available. this included the 51st state, canada; where you could get an e85 credit even though there was only one E85 station in the whole country. (last i heard they opened a second one; may be even more now.) more impressive when you realize there isn't even a corn lobby in canada, they don't stick corn syrup into their soft drinks, etc. Gzuckier (talk) 19:20, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

• And finally, looking at the -new- CAFE standards, they seem to have been re-jigged. [7] And the overall result seems to be that the best strategy to escape potential penalties is to make your vehicles bigger!

Hell in a handbasket I tells ya, we're goin' to hell in a handbasket. Franamax (talk) 06:32, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

While we're on the topic of making a mockery of CAFE, don't forget the PT Cruiser. How many sheets of plywood can you throw in its bed? -- Coneslayer (talk) 11:39, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

Yeah, that was the one I vaguely and then definitely remembered above. Turns out it had more "cargo space" than "passenger space" I guess. I would have loved to get the contract for the software that helped tweak the design just past that 50% mark - imagine the rewards for getting a vehicle into the light truck fleet! Let's see, $5 per 1/10 mpg, transferring between fleets with ~5 mpg differential, volume of 100,000 vehicles per year: $25 million net benefit? Of course, that needs to be fed into the disincentive equation I linked above - but with the positive incentive to remove the vehicle from your passenger fleet. Huh, maybe the accountant should get paid the most on this one :) Franamax (talk) 11:58, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

Oh, and while we're on the subject, what about that PT Cruiser, huh? Sorry, I looked for a previous mention of it and missed it... time for some coffee, I think. -- Coneslayer (talk) 12:03, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

slightly OT: the chinese recently ramped up their fuel economy standards according to their set schedule; there isn't a single car assembled in North America today which can legally be sold in China. astounding, since one of the most popular makes of car in china is buick; but if you look at what's for sale there, they have much smaller engines than what's for sale here, in the same model. just another means of offshoring manufacturing, while keeping the corporate profitability; i.e., saving investment income at the expense of salary income. (not meant to be a political polemic, just an analysis of the shift of the US economy from farming to manufacturing to service to investment/"ownership") Gzuckier (talk) 19:14, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

September 16

Coed Naked Sports

What sport was the original "Coed Naked" T-shirt made for? 71.113.3.76 (talk) 07:40, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

I dunno, but your question was made for the entertainment desk. ;) Julia Rossi (talk) 09:14, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

I think I went to the wrong college. Plasticup ^T/C 01:42, 17 September 2008 (UTC)

Squeaking Pedal

The damper pedal on my upright piano squeaks every time I press down or release on it. Is there any way to lubricate or make the squeaking sound stop? Thanks in advance, 220.244.72.108 (talk) 09:52, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

If it is an expensive piano don't do anything until you are sure you have good advice, or call in an expert. Its very easy to squirt some oil around but removing it later could be a very difficult and expensive task if its wrong. -- Q Chris (talk) 11:22, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

I had exactly the same problem, and I was reluctant to fix it myself for fear of doing some damage. I asked the tuner, and he said to just carefully put a few drops of cooking oil, baby oil, or whatever oil I happened to have on hand, or a shot or two of oil-based cooking spray, on the mechanism - nothing more special or elaborate than that. I thought he'd do it himself since he was there anyway, but he said I didn't need him to do that and I was more than capable. We'd never met each other before, so he apparently didn't think it was the big issue I thought it may have been. I did what he said, and it was fine. I moved house and never saw him again, so I don't know whether the fact that it wasn't a particularly expensive piano made any difference to his approach to what I would have thought were part of a piano tuner's role. But thanks for the reminder; my piano's been squeaking again lately, so I'm off to the kitchen to fix it. -- JackofOz (talk) 12:14, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

you keep your piano in the kitchen?? -- LarryMac | Talk 12:29, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

maybe the cooking oil/spray is in the kitchen -- Julia Rossi (talk) 12:34, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

So that's why he keeps the piano there! I get it now. --LarryMac | Talk 13:02, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

Petroleum-based oil or grease should last longer than vegetable oil. mackstann (talk) 10:36, 19 September 2008 (UTC)

Far be it from me to contradict a piano tuner, but cooking oils can go rancid or turn gummy on year-or-so timescales. I'd favor a mineral oil or machine oil. -- Coneslayer (talk) 12:54, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

The trouble with mineral or machine oils is that there is likely to be a lot of nice wood nearby - and it's going to soak up oil and will get stained irrevocably. Vegetable oils and baby oil are more natural materials that won't do such terrible things to the wood. I think the tuner guy knew his stuff. Using the correct lubricant for the right situation is a complicated business. SteveBaker (talk) 13:18, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

Baby Oil *is* mineral oil. From an manufacturer's page [8]: "Ingredients: Mineral Oil and Fragrance" Unless you're talking about oil made from babies, rather than oil for babies. -- 128.104.112.147 (talk) 17:47, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

I used to work for a pipe organ company and one of the main lubricants we used for mechanisms that aren't visible was graphite. It comes in a spray can, a stick (similar dimensions to oil pastels), a powder, and another kind of a stick called a pencil. That stuff is great for when you don't want to swell up the wood with an oil and cause a tight mechanism to become tighter. If it's visible I'd suggest mineral oil out of all of the oils listed, or if it's a pin that's squeeking you can even use some wax. Pull out the pin and cover it with some wax and get some wax in the hole and put it back. We actually used the toilet wax ring seal for these types of things, but mostly for screws. I'd suggest graphite or mineral oil before wax just because that's how we did things. - Lambajan 16:29, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

I agree - dry graphite is a great lubricant for small, non-load-bearing mechanisms where you don't want to risk dust sticking to something goopy. I use graphite for door locks and such like. The reason I didn't suggest it here is because it's black and it smudges over everything so it might make a mess of nearby wood. We could also consider a silicone lubricant. Wax is good - but not if the object in question gets cold...that's probably not a problem for a piano. SteveBaker (talk) 17:49, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

indeed. good lubes for such applications: graphite as in the powdered stuff for locks- but it makes black marks. talcum powder is ok for emergencies, but it absorbs humidity and loses effectiveness quickly. they sell powdered teflon these days for locks, that would seem to be the best idea. wax,soap,etc. work but you need to take the thing apart to get into the moving parts, which you'd probably like to avoid. Gzuckier (talk) 19:11, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

Animal Costume

Ok, I've got a fancy dress party in 3 days and I need to dress up (or attempt to dress up) as an animal. Problem is that I've got a very limited selection of clothing and stuff at home (nothing vaguely resembles an animal) and I'll be too busy to get to a shop let alone make something until just before the party. I'm also not to keen to be spending a great deal on something that I'm only going to wear for a couple of hours.

Given these ridiculous restrictions, does anyone have any suggestions or know any sites that would be able to show me how to make a costume? It doesn't have to be anything spectacular, just half decent and enough to make people think I've made a slight attempt at it. 121.218.194.188 (talk) 11:45, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

You could go as a party animal. Or a lounge lizard.  :) -- JackofOz (talk) 11:57, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

How about getting a red top and sticking big black-circles on it, wearing black leggings (ideally) or trousers and shoes and trying to claim you are a ladybird? Failing that try this page (http://familycrafts.about.com/od/costumeideas/tp/fastcostume.htm) 194.221.133.226 (talk) 12:52, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

Ears + makeup = animal. Ears can be made of stiffened fabric or painted cardboard, and attached to a hat or a headband. Face paint is easily attainable. So, for a cat, put cat ears on a headband, paint whiskers on your cheeks, and choose some fairly neutral clothes. For a rabbit, do the ears, plus find something you can glue to your butt for a tail, like the pompom from a winter hat. Humor can make up for costume deficits, too- anything you can think of to add that would be funny will score you party points. -FisherQueen (talk · contribs) 16:26, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

There are party outfitters that will rent you costumes. If you're too busy to go to one of those in the the next three days, how come you can afford the time to go to a party? DJ Clayworth (talk) 17:26, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

Well, surely it's not that uncommon for someone to be terribly busy for a number of days in a row? I mean, I've certainly been there. That said, I would imagine that going to a store would take a lot less time than making a decent animal costume yourself. -- Captain Disdain (talk) 18:32, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

Pig-costume in 30 seconds:

1. Cut one 3-inch diameter circle of pink cardboard
2. Cut one 10-inch by 1.5-inch strip of pink cardboard
3. Wrap the strip into a cylinder
4. Glue the circle onto the end of the cylinder. Add nostrils with a black marker.
5. Attach over your nose with a rubber band

Make ears if you want. A girl's hairband can hold them up.

If you friends like puns, wrap yourself in a blanket. Plasticup ^T/C 01:42, 17 September 2008 (UTC)

Dead or alive? Wear something red, wrap yourself in a roll of cling wrap and tuck a bunch of parsley behind your ear and you can be animal protein in a supermarket... tape a label with description, barcode and price made with texta. Julia Rossi (talk) 02:51, 17 September 2008 (UTC)

You could make a catgirl/boy costume if you lack some materials and anime is your thing.--Lenticel ^(talk) 06:37, 17 September 2008 (UTC)

When I was very young,for an ugly bug ball,my mother painted me blue and attached half a bottle to my head.You can guess what creature I was supposed to be :) Lemon martini (talk) 10:02, 18 September 2008 (UTC)

Aircraft flying sideways?

On a recent transatlantic flight, I looked out of the plane window and was fairly surprised to see another aircraft in the sky below me. I have no idea what altitude we were flying at, I'm afraid, but it was some time after take-off, so it must have been fairly high. I know there are rules governing how much space is allowed between two aircraft in flight, but if I could clearly see the plane below me, would that constitute a near miss?

What was even more surprising was that the plane below me appeared to be flying sideways. That is to say, it was moving in the direction of the starboard wing, rather than (as I had expected) in the direction of the nose. Could this have been an optical illusion, or is it possible that it really was flying in that direction? --Richardrj ^{talk email} 12:31, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

See Flight level and Reduced Vertical Separation Minima for information on vertical separation. Other planes can seem quite close while still obeying the vertical separation rules—I've been taken by surprise at times, too. I would guess that the plane appearing to fly sideways was mostly an optical illusion, probably due to the motion of your own plane (you "feel like" you're at rest, and attribute all of the relative motion to the other plane). -- Coneslayer (talk) 12:51, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

Flying Sideways? Probably there was a big difference in wind speed and direction at the two altitudes. This is not at all uncommon. Since aircraft fly relative to the air mass they are in - it's perfectly possible that they seem to be moving somewhat sideways compared to the ground - but compared to the air they are flying within - they are going forwards. It's also possibly for an aircraft to sideslip by banking the wings in one direction and using the rudder to turn the aircraft in the opposite direction...although it's unlikely that a commercial airliner would be doing that in mid-atlantic - so I'm sticking with the "cross-wind" theory.

Near Collision? The rules covering the altitudes that aircraft fly at to avoid collisions are complicated: Flight level covers it moderately well. Basically, aircraft should be separated (vertically) by either 1,000 or 2,000 feet. But transatlantic-capable aircraft are HUGE and when something that's around 200 feet across is only 1,000 feet away, it's going to seem awfully close. If it really was a "near miss" then the pilots involved would have reported it to the Aviation Safety Reporting System. You can check here to see if your flight reported a near-miss situation. SteveBaker (talk) 13:07, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

The pilot was probably using his rudder to perform a forward slip. It makes it look like they are flying sideways. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Dlo2012 (talk • contribs) 17:34, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

oops sorry someone had already mentioned that--Dlo2012 (talk) 17:36, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

It's possible - but why do that in the middle of the Atlantic ocean? Sideslip manouvers are pretty much only used (by big airliners) when approaching a runway for a landing with a cross-wind. Mid-atlantic, the plane is on autopilot. SteveBaker (talk) 17:41, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

It's probably much simpler than that. If the other plane was flying at a very slightly different angle to you, relative motion would make it seem to be flying sideways. E.g. you are flying at 600mph and the other plane is at the same speed but on a three degree different course from you (a barely noticeable difference in direction) it would seem to have a motion relative to you of 30mph directly sideways - i.e. pretty fast. That's without any sideslip or use of rudder. DJ Clayworth (talk) 17:52, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

Google Earth and Wikipedia

How does Google Earth collect data for its Wikipedia layer? And how often it is updated? Thank you. Eklipse (talk) 13:13, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

Some Wikipedia pages have a 'template' at the top that records the location of the place or event that's being described - you can see it pop up at the top-right of the page. Look (for example) at the shopping complex The Domain (Austin, Texas) - at the top-right of the page you'll see "Coordinates:" then some kind of a blue splodge icon then a pair of numbers. Those are the latitude and longitude of the place being talked about (in degrees). If you edit that page and scroll down to the bottom - you'll see:

{{coord|30.3978|-97.7307|display=title|type:landmark_region:US}}

Which is what makes that text appear up there. Google's search engine looks through pretty much every page on the Internet via a process called "spidering" and indexes what it finds. I guess that one of their people thought it would be a pretty neat hack to find those templates and incorporate them into Google maps. The frequency at which Google spider a page depends on a lot of complex math - relating to how often they've seen the page change in the past, how important the page is and how often the search terms people enter cause it to pop up in searches. So the frequency could vary between many times per day for news sources to once a month or less for rarely visited and rarely updated parts of the net.

There are several other templates that bring up coordinates like this - the one that is used for all towns and cities (for example) contains that same feature. It's very cool that Google do this - and I think Wikipedians should make an effort to add these tags whenever they sensibly can.

SteveBaker (talk) 13:52, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

Google's FAQ on the issue is here, and supports Steve's analysis. There are other geo templates than coord, but coord is preferred and there are actions ongoing to deprecate other methods, so as to reduce the confusion that abounds in the area of geo-tagging. The FAQ says that google updates from Wikipedia in respect of coords every 1 to 3 months. --Tagishsimon (talk) 16:59, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

Yes I've thought about the coord template, however Google displays just a little fraction of these articles. Eklipse (talk) 20:22, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

It appears to be more or less the same section of the article header that you get when you hover over a link if you have Wikipedia:Tools/Navigation_popups turned on in your Wikipedia user preferences. It's the first paragraph - unless it's very short or something. SteveBaker (talk) 21:05, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

When browsing a Google-map of America, the Wikipedia links cover 100% of the area until almost the smallest resolution. It is quite incredible. Plasticup ^T/C 01:32, 17 September 2008 (UTC)

Yes, my question was why not all WP links are represented. But you claim the opposite. I'll recheck. Eklipse (talk) 18:55, 18 September 2008 (UTC)

"Fed pumps $70B into nation's financial system"

[9] I have little background in economics so what is happening is unclear. Can anyone recommend background reading? Thanks.

Lotsofissues 16:58, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

See debasement. Saintrain (talk) 17:13, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

What? It's got nothing to do with debasement. --Tango (talk) 17:19, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

Maybe the Fed is pumping out de basement. --- OtherDave (talk) 18:45, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

heh heh. Is that where they're printing it? Saintrain (talk) 00:03, 17 September 2008 (UTC)

In short, banks are scared so are keeping hold of all their cash rather than lending it to each other as they usually do. This means banks that need cash can't get it so can't stay in business. In order to prevent banks having to take drastic action (up to and including bankruptcy), the central bank is lending them money. --Tango (talk) 17:19, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

nice description of the international credit crunch, amidst a lot of editorialization: http://www.thislife.org/extras/radio/355_transcript.pdf Gzuckier (talk) 18:38, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

There's lots of intelligent articles on this at www.economist.com in particular their finance section (http://www.economist.com/finance/). Though they are written in a technical language it's not hard to understand what's going on. I would recommending reading around on wikipedia, articles such as Federal Reserve, Subprime mortgage crisis (and the many articles linked to from there) ny156uk (talk) 19:44, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

Thanks for the answers guys but I should have narrowed down what I meant. I don't understand what "pumping money" means? How does that work? Lotsofissues 23:05, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

The "injection" that your article writes about is not the most interesting thing happening right now, and it is described here. What happens is the Fed buys a bunch of Government bonds on the open market, which increases the amount of cash in the economy (people who owned bonds now own cash), which increases general liquidity. With more cash around it is easier for everyone (including banks) to secure the loans they need to make it through this rough patch. The bigger (and more interesting problem) is more-or-less a bank run, except that instead of individuals withdrawing their money it is other banks withdrawing their money. Well, technically they are refusing to roll-over debt, but the motivation and effects are identical. What the Federal Reserve is doing is (and your Yahoo! article totally missed this) is offering a loan to the American International Group, a gigantic corporation which is about to fail. Even if the loan isn't repaid in full, it may keep the company afloat long enough that parts of the group can be sold off, making the collapse less devastating. This is interesting because it is exactly what the Fed refused to do with Bear Sterns and Lehman Brothers. Plasticup ^T/C 01:22, 17 September 2008 (UTC)

Thanks. Where does the Fed get the money to buy so much? Didn't the fed assist in making the Bear Stearns buy happen? Lotsofissues 01:45, 17 September 2008 (UTC)

Check out Federal Reserve System#Budget. --Tango (talk) 13:33, 17 September 2008 (UTC)

Help me identify my vacation photos

I photographed these two cute cars in England and haven't managed to identify them. Can anyone help?

• 
• 

There are more pictures at the Humanities, Language and Science desks. Thanks, BenRG (talk) 17:42, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

The second one looks like it's an electric buggy as used by the elderly and disabled with a custom body on it. DJ Clayworth (talk) 17:47, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

It's an enclosed mobility scooter called an EVS Rainrider [10]. Mikenorton (talk) 21:54, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

I don't know about the second one, but the first one is a Caterham 7. I wouldn't know this otherwise, but a friend of mine recently realized what was apparently a bit of a lifelong dream and bought one. -- Captain Disdain (talk) 18:27, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

I've added the Caterham 7 image to the article on the subject. — Twas Now ( talk • contribs • e-mail ) 22:15, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

It was apparently one of the vehicles sold in kit form: it has a 'Q' registration. --ColinFine (talk) 22:19, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

Thanks everyone. I may get me one of those Rainriders. I already have a recumbent bicycle and that would be the next step up in awesomeness. -- BenRG (talk) 23:59, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

I do believe the second is a Peel P50 Avnas Ishtaroth _{drop me a line} 01:07, 18 September 2008 (UTC)

The Peel is a three wheeled car. There are clearly three wheels visible in the second image, one at each corner. We can infer the fourth. So, err, no. --Tagishsimon (talk) 01:10, 18 September 2008 (UTC)

Free hugs!

In anime conventions, one really can't move for adolescent women with signs advertising "Free hugs!" Are they being serious about offering free hugs, or is it just for show? I've never dared to try it out, as I have not seen anyone else do it either. JIP | Talk 19:06, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

They're probably serious, it's a popular thing. See Free Hugs Campaign — Matt Eason ^{(Talk &#149; Contribs)} 19:22, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

Benjamin Josiah Huggs was imprisoned in Okinotorishima for producing cheap cartoons at appallingly low frame rates and making the eyes way too big. "Free Huggs!" (I think you misread it). Enjoins everyone to sign a petition...

OK, look never mind - yes, they hug you if you ask. SteveBaker (talk) 20:57, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

It's been a while since we had a good Southpark reference. Zain Ebrahim (talk) 10:59, 17 September 2008 (UTC)

GIRLS give regular free hugs at Trafalgar Square on any given day,no catches,nothing asked for in return. Signed, Fluter. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 170.86.15.15 (talk) 14:33, 17 September 2008 (UTC)

Joanne Creighton

Who is or are the siblings of Joanne Creighton, President of Mount Holyoke? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 66.243.208.63 (talk) 20:15, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

fauxhawk?

I need to know, is a fauxhawk appropriate for a workplace? I work at an office, and i have a fauxhawk. It isn't one of those really big fauxhawks that many people have that reach a foot. The spike in the middle only reaches up about an inch. Do you think it is ok for a workplace?--72.146.115.196 (talk) 22:04, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

Depends on the ethos of the place and how the hairstyle looks on you. I don't think there's a general rule of thumb for this sort of thing. If you're not customer facing, it might be less of an issue. See also Fauxhawk if, like me, you had not a clue what the question was about. --Tagishsimon (talk) 22:12, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

The only person that can possibly answer that question is your boss. --Tango (talk) 22:13, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

Well what i am asking is if you met an employee with a fauxhawk, what would you think of them. My fauxhawk kinda looks like David Beckham's fauxhawk, just shorter. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 72.146.115.196 (talk) 22:47, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

What industry are you in and what do you do and where are you located? All of these factors come into play. --Nricardo (talk) 00:59, 17 September 2008 (UTC)

Yeah - if you were a computer game artist (such as I work with quite often) - we'd mock you horribly but it would in no way inhibit your career. If on the other hand you intended to become a bank manager...no way. Somewhere between those two extremes is your job - but unless you tell us what that is - we can't really offer advice. SteveBaker (talk) 01:41, 17 September 2008 (UTC)

What i'm asking is if it is a little bit smaller than the one in this picture.

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://bp0.blogger.com/_puFfKD8sh_A/R-xXlnIEfhI/AAAAAAAAAdI/uKikEDtZplM/s400/photo-9.jpg&imgrefurl=http://libbylogic.blogspot.com/2008/03/fight-faux-hawk.html&h=300&w=400&sz=17&hl=en&start=78&usg=__60Lye5I8ZLIBXb1FeUSyQy0H5_w=&tbnid=whTzh8o2Vn2s2M:&tbnh=93&tbnw=124&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dsmall%2Bfaux%2Bhawk%26start%3D63%26gbv%3D2%26ndsp%3D21%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN

is it ok? I'm a door to door salesman by the way —Preceding unsigned comment added by Dlo2012 (talk • contribs) 16:00, 17 September 2008 (UTC)

You'll sell more stuff if you have as unremarkable a hairstyle as possible. A pity, perhaps... Itsmejudith (talk) 16:42, 17 September 2008 (UTC)

Well, my customers don't seem to mind. I'm selling just as much as i used to before changing my hair, and I have actually gotten some compliments on my hair. --Dlo2012 (talk) 23:09, 17 September 2008 (UTC)

In the UK their regarded as quite trendy me thinks, (probably becuase David become had one, and he's like our Jesus), so yeah, you could probably get away with it even if you were a banker. (ps. love the word!)217.169.40.194 (talk) 09:09, 19 September 2008 (UTC)

What kind of tree is this?

This is the second time I'm come to Wikipedia asking about plants...

So we have an average, everyday tree in our front yard with berries which we can't identify. My mom seems worried that if we pick some of the berries from it and feed them to our goats, they might get sick. I doubt it (partially because goats are smart and would probably know if it was something bad, and partially because I don't know of anything that they won't eat), but I suppose it can't hurt to make sure... Anyone have any idea what it is? I'm sure that some rule stickler out there will mention that Wikipedia can't give advice when it comes to medical (or veterinary, in this case) stuff, but I'd like it noted that I'm not actually asking whether or not it's safe; I'm asking what it is. :P

(We are in Montana, if that helps... The berries are redish orange on the outside and bright orange on the inside. Watery but firm in the middle. And they smell vaguely of apples...)

Thanks in advance. You guys are always really helpful.

(PS: Sorry for the crappy image quality... My camera phone sucks.) --69.146.230.243 (talk) 22:44, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

Could be an Acacia. DuncanHill (talk) 22:48, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

Looks like a Rowan to me. If so, from the article, "Rowan berries contain sorbic acid, an acid that takes its name from the Latin name of the genus Sorbus. Raw berries also contain parasorbic acid (about 0.4%-0.7% in the European rowan[3]), which causes indigestion and can lead to kidney damage, but heat treatment (cooking, heat-drying etc.) and, to a lesser extent, freezing, neutralises it, by changing it to the benign sorbic acid." Whether that affects goats or not, I know not. --Tagishsimon (talk) 22:49, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

Now I look at that, yes rowan looks much more likely. DuncanHill (talk) 22:51, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

Ah, many thanks... This is very helpful. --69.146.230.243 (talk) 23:01, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

You could make Rowan Jelly to eat with your goats. [11]. DuncanHill (talk) 23:03, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

(ec): The stuff (de: Vogelbeere) is used for jams in Bavaria / Austria / Czech Republic. So it would seem to be edible after the heat treatment mentioned by Tagishsimon. --Cookatoo.ergo.ZooM (talk) 23:06, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

Ha ha... Oh, dear. Well considering that these goats are not meant to be eaten, I'm not sure that we'll go there, but thanks. :P And that's actually rather interesting... I think we shall try some of this jam later on. --69.146.230.243 (talk) 23:11, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

It's not a jam like one would have on a scone, but is very nice with roast & grilled meats, cold meats, etc. DuncanHill (talk) 23:16, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

Oh, I don't know. Rowan jam on a scone would go beautifully with my world-renowned Creamed Cat and Spleen Surprise.  :) -- JackofOz (talk) 22:23, 17 September 2008 (UTC)

September 17

mean

What split the purse means ? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.121.188.201 (talk) 01:28, 17 September 2008 (UTC)

"the purse" generally refers to a prize in the form of money, given to the winner of a contest. Thus to split the purse is to divide the prize money between two or more competitors. --Tagishsimon (talk) 01:50, 17 September 2008 (UTC)

Shoulder patch on soldier

What is the shoulder patch on this person? It is most likely army as the marines do not wear shoulder patches. --Blue387 (talk) 02:06, 17 September 2008 (UTC)

It says the image source is "Virtual CD 002:US Marines", if that helps. If you click "View All Images" you can see more from the set. What I don't understand is the pricing for these photos... — Twas Now ( talk • contribs • e-mail ) 03:30, 17 September 2008 (UTC)

(Especially considering how many free high-rez images of US Marines lying down with various weapons can be picked up for $0 on WikiCommons!). SteveBaker (talk) 05:06, 17 September 2008 (UTC)

For $699, you could probably just pay a soldier to walk around with you in whatever pose you like. Matt Deres (talk) 20:23, 18 September 2008 (UTC)

Looks army to me, and it should be a unit patch of some description -- but I can't tell more than that from that photo. I found a page listing a lot of different links to unit patches here [12], but I don't know how current or complete it is. I looked through the special forces/airborne/rangers types, but had no luck. It's important to remember when you're looking for this patch that it's the shape that you'll recognize more than the colors; the bright colors are subdued for field applications. Good luck... Deltopia (talk) 16:39, 17 September 2008 (UTC)

It could be the patch for the I Corps. --Blue387 (talk) 08:15, 18 September 2008 (UTC)

Thor

What country does thor come from? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 122.111.51.41 (talk) 06:09, 17 September 2008 (UTC)

Check out the article Thor. He's a figure in Norse mythology (and its modern equivalent, Ásatrú), which originates in the Scandinavian countries. --Masamage ♫ 06:21, 17 September 2008 (UTC)

Asgard. Clarityfiend (talk) 06:54, 17 September 2008 (UTC)

Or perhaps Asgard_(Stargate)#Thor? JessicaThunderbolt 15:40, 18 September 2008 (UTC)

Why were my edits rejected?

moved to Talk:Indian Armed Forces DJ Clayworth (talk) 16:04, 17 September 2008 (UTC)

Occupational Psychology

I wanted to know the scope of occupational psychology/IndustrialPsychology in India as I am trying to do a research on it. Can you help me find sufficient data in relation to this?

Chinese Clubs/Orginisations

What are Chinese clubs/orginisations like in China? Are they exactly like the ones in Australia? 122.111.51.41 (talk) 08:29, 17 September 2008 (UTC)

Chinese clubs and societies tend to be more active than in Australia and have a higher membership activity rate (no sources, though). As a member of a club in China, it would be considered your duty to be actively involved and committee membership has more prestige - more like, say, the CWA or RSL than a university club that's always struggling to find people willing to take on the responsibility. Members would also be expected to contribute their time for general activities, and would probably do so as a duty. Duties are taken more seriously in China. Membership also gives people a connection to each other. This means that members will feel more obliged to help out other members in need. This is also the case in Australia, but the obligation is stronger. Because there are more people around, recruiting is often easier. The organisation's hierarchical structure is likely to be the same as Australian organisations - general membership and a committee led by a president. Steewi (talk) 04:44, 18 September 2008 (UTC)

Ebay says the term "Shabby Chic" is owned and cannot be used

To whom it may concern.

Please help me here as my head is spinning with frustration.

I have always known the term "Shabby Chic" to mean a style of furnishing i.e. painted, distressed type of finish to give an item an appearance of elegance or an aged look.

The problem which is frustrating me, is that I tried to list an item on Ebay with Shabby Chic within the title.

Ebay removed the item and wrote;

---

Thank you for writing to eBay regarding your listing. My name is Ethan and I am glad to help.

We understand that you may not be aware that Shabby Chic is a registered company which produces their own line of products and has a page about their trademark:

http://www.shabbychic.com/corporate/sc_trademarkinfo.html

When members search using the words "Shabby Chic", they will be looking for the branded Shabby Chic items but they will find all the listings that contain the words "shabby" and "chic" regardless of where the words are located in the title. Looking through a large number of unwanted listings is very frustrating for the members and creates a poor shopping experience.

The good news is that you can use Shabby Chic once in your item description to compare the style of the product. However you may not use the words shabby and chic in the title of the item unless it is actually branded Shabby Chic.

I appreciate you bringing this situation to our attention, and thank you for your time.

Best regards,

Ethan B. Trust & Safety Team

---

Can anyone help me understand how a term can be bought thus not able to be used with infinging on copyright laws.

I may not be able to repond to this post as I only found this opprtunity to ask a question here by searching on google etc.

Therefore, please copy any reply to me directly at roger.edwards (e-mail removed for safety)

Kindest Regards, Roger. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 58.167.229.124 (talk) 10:51, 17 September 2008 (UTC)

Roger, I removed you e-mail because it is the policy here on the Reference Desk not to display such addresses to avoid misuse and spam. "Shabby Chic" is different from "shabby chic" and I can't see how they can constrain you from using the words in lower case.

There's certainly no copyright law involved here. The legal issue is that Shabby Chic is a trademark of the company. I do not know to what extent this trademark would prevent you selling things advertised as 'shabby chic'. However, the legal situation is a non-issue since eBay is running its own website and is free to do so as it wishes. Even if your lawyer advises you that you can use the term without violating the trademark, you would still need eBay's consent to do so on their website. Algebraist 11:13, 17 September 2008 (UTC)

Yes - I agree. There is nothing illegal in using those words in situations where you aren't mis-representing yourself as a company called "Shabby Chic" - companies can't take words out of the English language and own them. You could even start (say) an electronics company called "Shabby Chic" because trademark law only prevents people using the name in ways that would confuse a potential customer. You can also legally say "This dresser is so shabby, it's almost chic!" - because you aren't using the terms as the name of a company.

However, eBay have their own internal rules about what listings they allow on their site. Their rules are more stringent than the law requires. As they carefully explained to you - they want to allow people to search for "Shabby Chic" and get listings that ONLY relate to products from that company - and NOT to a bunch of random items that merely happen to be shabby and chic. So (within limits) they don't allow trademarked names to appear in the title of an auction item - even when it would be perfectly lawful to do so.

That's their call. When you make a website, you get to set the rules. It's the same here at Wikipedia - you're not allowed to post medical questions to the reference desk...it's not illegal to do so - but it is in violation of our internal rules. So - you have no reason to complain - they are at liberty to toss out your auction item for any reason whatever and there really isn't anything you can do about it...except maybe set up your own auction site!

SteveBaker (talk) 12:27, 17 September 2008 (UTC)

There's a nice irony here Steve. You quite rightly point out that "you're not allowed to post medical questions to the reference desk", but that also applies to legal questions, of which this original question is a prime example. If one or two of our more pedantic colleagues had passed by recently I doubt the discussion would have got this far ;-)) Richard Avery (talk) 14:39, 17 September 2008 (UTC)

Pedantic? Can do! I'd like to just point out that medical or legal questions are not a problem. That's not the same thing as medical or legal advice. For example, in this instance the original poster wasn't asking for legal advice, he was merely asking how this works. Not the same thing. -- Captain Disdain (talk) 15:06, 17 September 2008 (UTC)

The whole point about this question is that this ISN'T a legal matter - it's a matter of eBay policy and nothing more. SteveBaker (talk) 15:44, 17 September 2008 (UTC)

And one reason that it's an issue to eBay is that the company holding the Shabby Chic trademark must defend it. Trademark law in the U.S. is different from copyright law; you can lose trademark protection ("cellophane" was once a trademarked term, for example). On the other hand, trademark protection is limited -- you might be able to get away with a restaurant chain called Shabby Chic; you most likely could not get away with a line of clothing.

eBay is shifting its emphasis away from auctions and becoming more of a straightforward online retail site; no doubt it hopes to maintain good relationships with large vendors. --- OtherDave (talk) 16:28, 17 September 2008 (UTC)

Not sure how that's relevant; the "Shabby Chic" issue on eBay goes back at least seven years. (In other words, people were complaining about it when I worked there.) --jpgordon^∇∆∇∆ 22:12, 18 September 2008 (UTC)

Health

Any information on the health service in Ireland? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 193.1.82.216 (talk) 12:23, 17 September 2008 (UTC)

See Healthcare in the Republic of Ireland. Algebraist 12:34, 17 September 2008 (UTC)

Technically - I presume you're talking about the Republic of Ireland - Northern Ireland is a part of the United Kingdom and has the same health care service as the rest of the UK. We have an article Department of Health and Children (Ireland) - but it only tells you about the structure of the government department - not about what the current policy is. I guess the first place to look is at the web site of The Department of Health and Children. SteveBaker (talk) 12:36, 17 September 2008 (UTC)

Another useful website is The Health Service Executive. Fribbler (talk) 14:35, 17 September 2008 (UTC)

Did you know

... that early claims by European mountaineers to have set world altitude records in the Himalayas have been disproven by the discovery of Inca artefacts on the summit of Llullaillaco

this is taken from the front page, now maybe I am missing something but Llullaillaco is in South America, while the Himalayas are in Asia, this caused a bit of confusion for me as I wondered hoe the Incas got to Asia. Please explain. Thanks —Preceding unsigned comment added by 193.115.175.247 (talk) 13:51, 17 September 2008 (UTC)

European moutaineers reached a certain point on a certain peak in the Himalayas. Believing this to be the highest anyone had ever climbed on any mountain on Earth, they claimed the world altitude record. Later, some Inca artifacts were discovered on the summit of Llullaillaco, which is higher than the point in the Himalayas previously referred to. Therefore the European mountaineers' claim to the world altitude record has been disproven. That's how I read it. -- JackofOz (talk) 14:04, 17 September 2008 (UTC)

I thought Everest, in the Himalayas, was the biggest mountain (with some people saying that K2 is bigger, but anyway, it's in the Himalayas)?--ChokinBako (talk) 14:09, 17 September 2008 (UTC)

Yes - but the period of history we're talking about was before Everest had been climbed. K2 has periodically been claimed to be taller than Everest - but I believe that the NASA shuttle radar altimetery survey disproved that theory once and for all. SteveBaker (talk) 14:12, 17 September 2008 (UTC)

K2 is often described as being taller than Everest because it starts lower down, the peak is most definitely at a lower altitude, though. --Tango (talk) 16:47, 17 September 2008 (UTC)

This may be part of where the questioner's confusion came from. Think Himalayas, think Everest, and there's nothing higher than Everest. But the statement never mentioned Everest, just the Himalayas. And there are places in the Andes that are higher than places in the Himalayas. -- JackofOz (talk) 21:21, 17 September 2008 (UTC)

.PDF vs. .JPG

My new printer allows me to scan images and save them to either .pdf or .jpg format. I want to scan my old snapshots (mostly 4" x 6") and correspondence; most likely they will never be altered after I do so. Is there a quality difference between the formats? If I standardize on one format will I regret it later (because I will have to rescan them again in the other format)? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 66.120.95.34 (talk) 15:01, 17 September 2008 (UTC)

Normally you would use jpg for the photos and pdf for the documents. I have no idea how it's developed in this way, but that's what most people do and I'm happy to follow the herd :-) --Richardrj ^{talk email} 15:10, 17 September 2008 (UTC)

Neither format is particularly attractive - but PDF is more useful for multi-page documents. JPG is the better of the two for photos. If it'll do PNG - use that. SteveBaker (talk) 15:42, 17 September 2008 (UTC)

PDF is a container format that can hold images in a lot of different formats. If the "PDF" option just puts the JPEG file inside a PDF, which is likely, then there won't be any quality difference. But the only way to be sure is to save the same scan in both formats and look at them carefully. Comparing the file sizes might also give a hint. -- BenRG (talk) 16:20, 17 September 2008 (UTC)

As long as you don't use lossy compression on the image files, you should be able to easily change from one format to the other using readily available software. (You can convert them even if you used lossy compression. However, you'll lose image quality.) PDF (.pdf - "Portable Document Format") files aren't intended for editing once created, so you may have difficulty extracting the images later. The PDF format is a good choice for "documents", but is not intended to be an image format, but rather intended to be the equivalent to an electronic "printout". On the up side, it does allow you to store multipage items in a single file, which most "image" formats won't do easily. JPEG (.jpg) is a good picture format (the name stands for "Joint Photographic Experts Group"), especially for photographs of realistic scenes, however it can employ either lossy or lossless compression, and you may not be able to change the settings. PNG (.png) is a format where you know you'll get lossless compression. It does about as well as JPEG for photographs, and it's much better for line drawings and cartoon-like figures (see article for details). Another option is a TIFF (.tif) file. It's the "classic" image archive format, however like JPEG it has both lossy and lossless modes. I'll concur with the others - PDF will probably be best for the (multipage) correspondence, and for the snapshots I'd recommend PNG, or JPEG with lossless compression, if you can do that. -- 128.104.112.147 (talk) 16:37, 17 September 2008 (UTC)

Although the JPEG standard defined a lossless mode, hardly any software supports reading it and as a result it's essentially never found in the wild. If your software offers to save as JPEG you can be sure it's lossy. JPEG does do a very bad job on black-and-white images. PNG doesn't compress photographs nearly as well as JPEG in my experience (even at high JPEG quality settings). TIFF, like PDF, is a container format which can hold practically anything; if you've got a TIFF there's no telling how it's been compressed (although most commonly it's uncompressed or compressed with LZW, which is lossless). For black-and-white (not grayscale) images JBIG2 will compress much better than PNG, and can be contained in PDF or TIFF (though not all software will support reading it). PNG will do in a pinch for black-and-white images. All this is probably academic, though, unless you can switch to different scanning software. -- BenRG (talk) 17:47, 17 September 2008 (UTC)

Snapshots- .jpg . Correspondence- .pdf . Boomshanka (talk) —Preceding undated comment was added at 01:34, 18 September 2008 (UTC).

true to life pictures

what camera's out there take the best real life photo's (better focus, light, exposure..etc),im getting a new one soon and i currently have a digital kodak easy share one but it's not good for the type of pictures i want to take —Preceding unsigned comment added by 88.106.50.53 (talk) 16:02, 17 September 2008 (UTC)

The website http://www.dpreview.com/ is extremely good for indepth reviews of digital SLR cameras. If what you want is a point & shoot they do do reviews of those too. As for which one - well 'real life' is subjective. If you want something that photographs exactly what you see infront of you then it seems to be common to suggest that 50mm is around about what the 'eye' sees (i.e. 28mm is wider than our own vision, 100mm is more zoomed than our own vision). There is no simple answer unfortunately - suffice to say that the vast majority of cameras are capable of taking good photographs, but some make it easier than others - some offer more control than others. Personally I have a Pentax K100d (recently replaced with the K200d) and my parent's have a Fujifilm F110 (or F100 I forget) both of these are - in my opinion - excellent cameras for their price range. ny156uk (talk) 17:29, 17 September 2008 (UTC)

According to what I have learned, it is impossible to make a photograph of something exactly as we see it. The reason is that the brain is constantly adjusting the visual information it receives from the eye and correcting the balance between different lighting. Cameras aren't smart enough to do that, they capture the image exactly as it is - not exactly as it should be. The resulting photograph lacks the brightness differences, because it's a static object viewed under uniform light, and thus the brain can't automatically adjust it as it does the real world. JIP | Talk 17:33, 17 September 2008 (UTC)

For the reasons JIP notes, the most important thing for making a "true to life" photo is the skill of the photographer, not the quality of the camera. A shoddy camera can prevent you from making good photos, and an expensive one will let you work under more difficult conditions, but it's the photographer that's most important. --Carnildo (talk) 21:34, 17 September 2008 (UTC)

Though I will point out that a good camera can make a lot of difference over a crappy camera even with a mediocre photographer. I have a pretty crappy camera and no matter what I do with it, the quality is always pretty poor in terms of lighting, colors, etc. (Which is fine. I got it primarily to take pictures of documents, and it does that well. Everything else, it does pretty lousy.) I've seen other cameras though (sorry, don't know brand names, models) that no matter what the photographer aimed at the colors, lighting, etc. were all wonderfully vivid and balanced, effects that you could never get out of my camera (even if you did have very fancy external lighting apparatus, etc.). I suspect that the tradeoff between quality and price plateaus fairly early on, but there is certainly a tradeoff. I've definitely had cameras that took way better pictures than others, no matter what your skill level is. --98.217.8.46 (talk) 00:43, 18 September 2008 (UTC)

I agree, at least partially. I recently got a "Powershot A720IS". It is by far the "smartest" camera I've ever owned. It somehow intelligently determines the focus point and exposure far better than any other automatic camera I've ever used. However, I still take a lot of photos that "don't come out" in situations where a skilled photographer with a manual camera could have produced great photographs. Photography is an art form and handing over part of the artistic process to computer software is never going to be 100%.

All that said, If you're getting a new camera I strongly recommend you get a camera with "Optical Image Stabilization"(not digital stabilization. That's better than nothing, but not as good.). I also recommend "facial recognition" if you take a lot of snap-shots of people. (That causes the camera to focus on the nearest human face, even if they're not in the center of the frame.) APL (talk) 01:26, 18 September 2008 (UTC)

Swidnik Poland

There is a square in Swidnik, Poland on the highsteet, just outside the Solidarity ofices. I wish to know more about this, as my friend says it translates roughly and is named after comedy characters, like Tom and Jerry. Who is it acctually named after? What is it called and any other relatvant info thanks. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 193.115.175.247 (talk) 16:16, 17 September 2008 (UTC)

Polish Wikipedia states that it is officially named after the Constitution of May 3, 1791, but it is named "plac Bolka i Lolka" after two comedy characters. (I live in Poland, but I haven't heard about Świdnik before.) MTM (talk) 18:51, 17 September 2008 (UTC)

Highlander II The quickening

Does any one know where I can watch this movie online? I have tried www.watch-movies.net, but they say there are no videos available. It MUST be online some where though Plaese help me I will let you cut off my head if you do help.(after Ive watched it) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 193.115.175.247 (talk) 16:25, 17 September 2008 (UTC)

This question might be better suited to the Entertainment reference desk, but I'll offer one answer anyway: Why not just buy the DVD? This is one of those movies that can usually be found in the $1.99 bin so it isn't worth much effort to download it.

Atlant (talk) 18:44, 17 September 2008 (UTC)

I haven't seen it online anywhere. I'll second Atlant's notion that it's not particularly worthwhile. Watch it, but don't have your expectations high. Further off topic, I somehow managed to end up with 2 copies of it, and I haven't been able to give the other one away. Steewi (talk) 04:48, 18 September 2008 (UTC)

link JessicaThunderbolt 15:45, 18 September 2008 (UTC)

Where did the term change management originate?

Can you please tell me where the term 'change management' originated from and provide me a reference for this, along with the exact definition that was used at the time? thanks —Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.5.107.60 (talk) 16:27, 17 September 2008 (UTC)

you fire one bloke 'cause hes doing a shitty job and hire some one else to replace him, thats a change management. or. you cutyou finger nails from really long to short, but plan it first on a piece of paper, thats change management. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 193.115.175.247 (talk) 16:40, 17 September 2008 (UTC)

We do have an article on Change management (engineering), but unfortunately it's weak in terms of history. You may find that its references have helpful information. You may also be interested in the related topic of Configuration management. -- Coneslayer (talk) 16:44, 17 September 2008 (UTC)

Interesting question. I've just played with Google Book Search, doing searches by decade for "change management". According to the sample of books google has scanned, the term originated after 1950 - it appears to be absent in books from 1940-50 (in the sense in which we're using it), present in all decades after. You can play the game too, with this sort of query. The first two books google threw up in the query I've linked to are from a Sociological Abstracts book, and an Instrument Society of America proceedings, so I'd hazard a guess that the phrase emerged from academia. So now I'm guessing that much the same advanced search game could be played from google scholar or another academic paper search engine to find the first instance of use. --Tagishsimon (talk) 22:32, 17 September 2008 (UTC)

Factual error in the caption of the South Whitley, Indiana picture

The caption of the South Whitley, Indiana picture says the street name is Main Street. The street is named State Street. 165.138.201.1 (talk) 19:04, 17 September 2008 (UTC)

I have changed it, though you could have even done this yourself! That's the idea behind Wikipedia. — Twas Now ( talk • contribs • e-mail ) 19:15, 17 September 2008 (UTC)

Royal Lines

Who would be the most rightful heir to be King or Queen of Poland especially, but also of most other European countries, notably eastern europe, do we have such a list? I have seen a list of most likely people to be the rightful heir to the Romanov throne so that one is done, any others? Poland Particually. Thanks —Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.18.32.117 (talk) 21:31, 17 September 2008 (UTC)

The Polish monarchy was, unusually, elected, so I don't think there's any way to know who would be King now if the monarchy still existed. --Tango (talk) 22:59, 17 September 2008 (UTC)

Yep, no way at all. They mostly chose people from royal families of countries that they weren't currently at war with, if that helps at all! This site has some interesting attempts at answering your question, although not for a lot of places you are likely to be interested in. Tombomp (talk/contribs) 19:32, 18 September 2008 (UTC)

Keeping surgically removed objects

Suppose if I went to a North American hospital to get kidney stones or a bullet removed; do I get to keep the kidney stones or bullet after the surgery? If not, does the hospital just depose of it? Thanks. Acceptable (talk) 22:11, 17 September 2008 (UTC)

If you ask the surgeon he/she can save if for you. The norm is to dispose of it, but as you will likely be paying many thousands of dollars for the surgery they will probably honour your request. Plasticup ^T/C 03:34, 18 September 2008 (UTC)

Kidney stones they'll sometimes keep (or at least break up, examine, culture, etc) for diagnostic reasons. Same goes for a tumor, of course. A bullet is less of a diagnostic challenge. --Scray (talk) 04:02, 18 September 2008 (UTC)

A bullet? I think the police might be interested in that. Clarityfiend (talk) 04:07, 18 September 2008 (UTC)

And depending on what's known about how you got shot, bullets may be confiscated as evidence. (Of course this is neither legal nor medical advice, but I do watch a lot of Law & Order...) --Anonymous, 04:06 UTC, September 18, 2008.

Some bullets are removed many years after the injury. --Scray (talk) 04:14, 18 September 2008 (UTC)

One must wonder: what does one do with a kidney stone? Display it above one's fireplace? --Blue387 (talk) 08:15, 18 September 2008 (UTC)

Keep it in one's pocket as a reminder of one's mortality, and eventually bequeath it to a friend? AlmostReadytoFly (talk) 09:56, 18 September 2008 (UTC)

Samuel Pepys kept his on display in his study, I believe. I'm not sure whether it was above the fireplace. Deor (talk) 12:35, 18 September 2008 (UTC)

September 18

Dating and sex

How long should you date someone before sleeping with them? --124.254.77.148 (talk) 00:55, 18 September 2008 (UTC)

That's up to you and your boy/girlfriend/partner/whatever. Dismas|^(talk) 00:57, 18 September 2008 (UTC)

However long it takes you to feel comfortable. -mattbuck (Talk) 01:28, 18 September 2008 (UTC)

It depends on your own situation, feelings, beliefs, etc. There's no "right" answer to this. There are plenty of "wrong" answers. ;-) --98.217.8.46 (talk) 01:41, 18 September 2008 (UTC)

I know oodles of people who waited over a year, but there is no hard-and-fast rule. I also know plenty of people who had sex first and relationships later, and are very happy with the result. It is 100% up to you and your significant other. Plasticup ^T/C 03:32, 18 September 2008 (UTC)

Or your religion. Your parents might also have something to say about it, if you're not an adult, at least. --Anonymous, 04:10 UTC, September 18, 2008.

As short a time as possible?? Seriously though there isn't a rule, it's a case of when you both are ready to move things to that stage. 194.221.133.226 (talk) 10:29, 18 September 2008 (UTC)

Wait – dating goes before? —Tamfang (talk) 05:55, 21 September 2008 (UTC)

If you can stand waiting that long, you can't really go wrong with sex only after marriage. At least that way you know she'll be faithful, at least at first. But really, it's up to you. --Sapphire Flame (talk) 12:13, 23 September 2008 (UTC)

Injured Rat

Hey

I believe my pet rat has been bitten by my large dog. Although he did not peirce her flesh she was very still and not moving after the attack. I began to notice her eye was unusually red and it began to bleed. Unresponsive to food, i lay her in her cage and kept her warm, the next morning she was walking around, cleaning herself and strecthing in her cage, although still moving very slowly and prefering to be still. Is it possible she has internal bleeding and is there anything else i should be doing ?

Thanks QueeniePen (talk) 03:12, 18 September 2008 (UTC)

As I see it, you have two options. Either take her to a vet or just hope for the best. If she is walking around a little more and generally showing signs of improvement, things might just be okay. Why do you suspect that she was bitten by the dog? Could her lethargy be caused by some unrelated incident? Plasticup ^T/C 03:28, 18 September 2008 (UTC)

I know she was bitten by the dog as she had his saliva on her mid body as well as hearing him running around afterwards. Ive known him to be snappy around her but this was an unfortunate event when someone had let him in the house unexpectedly. She is ok now roaming around and climbing, the usual. Its just her eye that keeps bleeding hopefully all goes well!

thanks for your help :) QueeniePen (talk) 08:07, 18 September 2008 (UTC)

Take it to a veterinarian immedatly. Nobody here can give you the help you need because we cannot see the rat, nor are we qualified to give such advice. If there are serious internal injuries then there may be nothing that can be done to save it, but taking it to the vet is still better than letting it suffer. I had a pet mouse who had a tumor behind her eye, very similar to how you describe, but it died in surgery because it was just so small. JessicaThunderbolt 15:33, 18 September 2008 (UTC)

Sir Anthony Carlisle

Hello

I have my own website where I freely post much information about famous people and my own research in connection with an art collection.

However, I regret I do not really have the time to add to learn how to add the research to Wikipedia as well as my own website, which is at www.portrait-miniature.blogspot.com and has many supporting pages.

Quite a lot of the research could benefit Wikipedia. Thus I was wondering if there is anyone who would like to select and add information from my website to Wikipedia as they felt appropriate?

For example Sir Anthony Carlisle is only a small stub, but I have just published a lot of amazing information about him on a subsidiary website page at http://british-miniatures2.blogspot.com/2008/09/bone-henry-portrait-of-sir-anthony.html including his attempts to fly in 1796, his connection with photography, and his being the likely model for Dr Frankenstein.

If required I can be reached via email via my profile on my website home page.

Regards Don —Preceding unsigned comment added by 202.154.153.220 (talk) 05:25, 18 September 2008 (UTC)

Nice article, but unfortunately Wikipedia could only use material directly if it was released under a free licence. The only copyright statement I could find on your site was:

Please note that Copyright for all portraits remains with the Owner, but images may be copied for private or educational research with an appropriate credit or an Internet link to this website.

This is not acceptable for use here as Wikipedia requires a free licence allowing any re-use, including commercial. If you were to release the text under a GFDL (preferably by putting a licence statement at the bottom of the appropriate pages) we could then use the text but the images are still problematic if the owners have not released them with a free licence. SpinningSpark 09:40, 18 September 2008 (UTC)

I'm afraid we're unlikely to use your site, good as it seems, because of our rules on self-published sources such as blogs. Thank you for the offer though. AlmostReadytoFly (talk) 09:46, 18 September 2008 (UTC)

Don't be too hasty, I didn't look too carefully but a lot of the material seemed to be referenced. While you are right of course that a blog should not be used as a source, it could be used as article copy if the refs to reliable sources were included as well. SpinningSpark 12:31, 18 September 2008 (UTC)

engineering jobs

lets pretend that I have a Mechanical Engineering degree. Where in the United States/English speaking world are places with high rates of engineering jobs? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 173.8.100.90 (talk) 05:29, 18 September 2008 (UTC)

Silicon Valley? --Blue387 (talk) 08:15, 18 September 2008 (UTC)

Silicon Valley is not overly relevant for a mechanical engineer. The good news, though, is that such jobs are nearly everywhere. I would expect a high concentration, though, in major manufacturing areas (such as automotive plants) or the R&D facilities that support said manufacturing (Detroit). — Lomn 13:32, 18 September 2008 (UTC)

If it's simply a degree in mechanical engineering (rather than a specialized degree in automotive engineering), I'd stay away from Detroit. Most of the jobs are for automotive engineers, and there are a number of colleges in the area that produce nothing else. --Carnildo (talk) 21:31, 18 September 2008 (UTC)

Oreo

Which side of an Oreo are you supposed to dunk, the creamed side or the other side? February 15, 2009 (talk) 08:47, 18 September 2008 (UTC)

Have a look at the first few pictures here. Both sides are dunked together. Zain Ebrahim (talk) 09:19, 18 September 2008 (UTC)

Neither. You only dunk ginger nuts. -- SGBailey (talk) 14:24, 18 September 2008 (UTC)

There is no cream side; the cream is in the middle JessicaThunderbolt 15:48, 18 September 2008 (UTC)

For God's sake! No biscuit with cream should be dunked. What the hell is happening to the world! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.4.187.55 (talk) 18:37, 18 September 2008 (UTC)

Oh, I don't know. It would be a good way to get some cream in your coffee.  :) -- JackofOz (talk) 19:42, 18 September 2008 (UTC)

The Oreo filling isn't really cream. It's mostly shortening and sugar with some vanilla flavor. —D. Monack ^talk 22:30, 18 September 2008 (UTC)

86.4, I think, You're thinking of dunking in coffee or tea. He could be drinking milk. APL (talk) 21:17, 19 September 2008 (UTC)

@JT: I think the OP twisted it first.

@86: I think the OP licked it second. Zain Ebrahim (talk) 14:30, 19 September 2008 (UTC)

shlungenfunger (phonetic): an African meat grilling tool

A world traveler friend who had spent a few years living and working in South Africa said they used a common meat grilling utensil termed a "shlungenfunger"(phonetic) and intended to patent and market it in the U.S. It was basically a handled long skinny metal rod with a sharp 90-degree hook at the end. One used it by grasping it with one hand and twisting the "hook" into the meat, lifting the meat off the grill, turning it over, and UNtwisting the meat back on the grill. I saw the prototype that was built but have been unable to "find" the word "shlungenfunger" (phonetic) anywhere on the web? Can anyone confirm the existence of the word in conjunction with the use stated above? Wikimoid (talk) 15:06, 18 September 2008 (UTC)

Yeah, i have used one on many an occasion when in SA, didnt really have a name though, and its utillity was vastly surpassed by BBQ tongs. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 193.115.175.247 (talk) 15:47, 18 September 2008 (UTC)

• Well, I don't know about the word, but the device is already sold in the US under the name "E-Z Hook", and another version (with rounded instead of squared handles) under the name "Pig tail". Wondrously good for grilling with; I give them as presents to fellow carnivores. The only South African term I've found so far for it is "gaffel", which appears to be the same word as wikt:gaffer. --jpgordon^∇∆∇∆ 15:51, 18 September 2008 (UTC)
  • Oh, on a whim I tried an alternate spelling possibility and did find a German-sounding "Schlangenfanger" here as a brand name for a barbecue utensil. Afrikaans will possibly have an equivalent. --jpgordon^∇∆∇∆ 15:58, 18 September 2008 (UTC)
    • Schlangenfanger translates to "snake catcher"... --Janke | Talk 17:40, 19 September 2008 (UTC)
      • Which sounds about right—you use long hooks like that ("snake hooks") to wrangle snakes. --98.217.8.46 (talk) 19:27, 21 September 2008 (UTC)

Paul von Hindenburg

I was trying to read some quotes by P von Hind. but could only find the wikiquote section for him in German. Understandable, but being such a large historical figure there must be a english sectio on him.

Further more, was he the guy with the spiked hat in the simpson when Burns gets married and he is the only guest on Burn's side exept Homer, Homer says down in front and he say NEIN!! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 193.115.175.247 (talk) 16:50, 18 September 2008 (UTC)

• Nah, that would have been Kaiser Wilhelm II (see here for an example.) --jpgordon^∇∆∇∆ 16:58, 18 September 2008 (UTC)

Or Otto Von Bismarck. It was a common look at the time. As for quotes, there is no english wikiquote page for him, no. Googling will get you a limited selection. Seems he wasn't that quotable. Fribbler (talk) 17:04, 18 September 2008 (UTC)

Distance from Brooklyn Bridge to...

Ground Zero? Anyone know? 80.229.160.127 (talk) 18:38, 18 September 2008 (UTC)

Well, it depends on where you measure. From the center of the World Trade Center site to the center of the Brooklyn Bridge would be almost exactly one mile (1.6 km). From the Manhattan shoreline to the east side of the WTC site would be about 3/4 mile (1.2 km). The bridge's approach roads extend still closer to the site. (Distances measured from the downtown NYC map in the 2001 edition National Geographic Road Atlas.) --Anonymous, 19:00 UTC, September 18, 2008, copyedited later for clarity.

Has any human being gone a lifetime without sleep?

I figure there must have been a few people out there with this odd, highly useful genetic quirk. There's certainly been a few that got by on an hour or two a night. How can you train yourself to do this? I, for one, would be extremely grateful, and would say even nicer things about you guys if you could simply give me a few more hours to my day.--Sunburned Baby (talk) 20:29, 18 September 2008 (UTC)

I have heard of well-documented cases of people who had some sort of accident or trauma and they never slept again. In one case the person lived for another 30 or more years, without a wink of sleep that whole time. This is of course exceedingly rare, and to my knowledge medical science has no explanation. Therefore, there would be no known method of making it happen deliberately. -- JackofOz (talk) 20:56, 18 September 2008 (UTC)

I'd want to see a reference on that. My understanding is that an acquired inability to sleep at all, which can occasionally happen, is invariably lethal within a fairly short time (though it probably doesn't feel short — see for example familial fatal insomnia). Extrapolating and speculating, probably some babies are conceived without the ability to sleep, but they die before birth.

Summary for the OP: This is not a thing worth wishing for. --Trovatore (talk) 21:05, 18 September 2008 (UTC)

Many people have gone from birth to death without sleeping. Algebraist 21:14, 18 September 2008 (UTC)

Here's a report of a 3-year old Russian boy who has never slept. -- JackofOz (talk) 22:10, 18 September 2008 (UTC)

I've only heard of such things happening after severe brain damage. While they are technically awake, they aren't actually able to function at all (a Persistent vegetative state, probably, although I don't know the exact definition of the term). --Tango (talk) 21:49, 18 September 2008 (UTC)

I've heard that you can reduce your sleep requirements by spreading your sleep out throughout the day. Rather than one 8 hour sleep, say, you'd have four 1 hour naps. I haven't read any real studies into it, though, so I don't know how well it works. --Tango (talk) 21:49, 18 September 2008 (UTC)

You might find Polyphasic sleep interesting. Clarityfiend (talk) 02:13, 19 September 2008 (UTC)

There are a few people, such as Thai Ngoc, who claim they do not need sleep and have not for many years, usually as the result of some trauma. Sleep scientists tend to think they are either regularly napping without being aware of it or are just liars. An old Guinness book of records had some of these people listed along with short term sleep deprivation records from people like Peter Tripp but they have stopped listing them now as they believe they are a danger to health. meltBanana 03:27, 19 September 2008 (UTC)

This week's Economist has an article that might be of interest: "THE function of sleep, according to one school of thought, is to consolidate memory. Yet two Italians have no problems with their memory even though they never sleep. The woman and man, both in their 50s, are in the early stages of a neurodegenerative disease called multiple system atrophy. Their cases raise questions about the purpose of sleep." DAVID ŠENEK 12:43, 19 September 2008 (UTC)

There are animals (Dolphins are one example) who sleep with only one hemisphere of their brain at a time - this enables them to be alert to danger yet still gain the benefits of sleep. Dolphins can't breath without conscious thought - so if they slept, they'd die. It's possible that some of these weird human cases are like that - but I suspect that most of their claims are simply untrue. Who is watching these two Italians for days and days to be sure they never take a catnap? People who (through some kind of brain injury) lose the ability to sleep usually die within a month or two. SteveBaker (talk) 20:41, 21 September 2008 (UTC)

How quickly does Google recognise new words?

I thought about putting this question on the Computing desk and I'm sure there's a case for that, but on balance I thought Misc was more appropriate. Let me know if I made a bad choice.

I recently unintentionally coined the word novomundane, right here on good ol' Wikipedia. It was a nice surprise when I discovered it was unknown to Google. However, Google still produces no hits over 30 hours later. When could one reasonably expect it to have been recognised? -- JackofOz (talk) 20:51, 18 September 2008 (UTC)

I would expect in a month or so. I may have to use this word somewhere! Perhaps I should get back to writing my sci-fi novel for this reason...that is if I have your permission to use it. :PAvnas Ishtaroth _{drop me a line} 01:13, 19 September 2008 (UTC)

Of course, Avnas Ishtaroth. Be my guest. Words belong to the world (and not just the New World, either). A month sounds a little slow if Google prides itself on being the best search engine in existence. -- JackofOz (talk) 01:31, 19 September 2008 (UTC)

Interestingly, Google does recognize the similar "novimundanus" as part of a species name. Adam Bishop (talk) 01:14, 19 September 2008 (UTC)

That is interesting. Thanks, Adam. -- JackofOz (talk) 01:31, 19 September 2008 (UTC)

Google seems quite slow to pick it up; I don't know how long one would usually expect, but I wrote a WP article last week which showed up first in a search less than an hour later: and I wasn't searching by title, either, but for a name within the article I wanted further information on. Gwinva (talk) 01:47, 19 September 2008 (UTC)

After a few searches, I see that Google picks up threads after they're archived. So after a few days, it should be there. Zain Ebrahim (talk) 14:27, 19 September 2008 (UTC)

OK, ta. -- JackofOz (talk) 08:05, 20 September 2008 (UTC)

September 19

food cover name?

Okay, so the title is lame, but that's what I need. It's for a project. I looked it up, and the best I can find is a picture, which is here. [13] yeah. so does anybody know what the formal name is for these things? A metal food cover. Like the ones you see in medieval movies, or fancy restaurants. Thanks in advance for your help, and if I could ask you, please post any answers you have on my talk page. I sometimes forget where to look for the answers. --Ninjawolf (talk) 02:46, 19 September 2008 (UTC)

dome plate? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 173.8.100.71 (talk) 02:50, 19 September 2008 (UTC)

Cloche? --Tagishsimon (talk) 03:06, 19 September 2008 (UTC)

Ahoy, me hearty. "Dome cover" be what you're lookin for? [14] [15] , [16], [17] etc. Arrgh! (Shiver me timbers, it be International Talk Like a Pirate Day) Gwinva (talk) 03:41, 19 September 2008 (UTC)

Avast & belay, Gwinva, all decent catering terms are french, arrrrr. Cloche. It be the plank for 'ee :) [18] [19] --Tagishsimon (talk) 11:16, 19 September 2008 (UTC)

Ahoy, cloches be for plants, Tagishsimon my matey, not food. Arrr, why do pirates need food co'ers, anyway? Aye. Gwinva (talk) 11:27, 19 September 2008 (UTC)

Be this the Cloche of the Titans, ye scurvy bilge rats? Clarityfiend (talk) 16:41, 19 September 2008 (UTC)

"Domed serving tray" is the best I can find. Wedgwood (an up-scale tableware maker) apparently calls it a "Round Dome and Serving Tray", if their Amazon.com listing can be believed. -- 128.104.112.147 (talk) 00:39, 20 September 2008 (UTC)

Question about dish that is probably Korean

I'm reposting this question that was posted to the top of the page and probably wasn't seen before. Graham87 05:45, 19 September 2008 (UTC)

Okay, I need help finding out about this one food dish (I believe it is Korean). It is gluttinous rice, molded and with some sort of thin, sweetened coat. The coat is very loose (like a dumpling), and it's brown. The rice is NOT ground or pounded. I've only eaten this dish once before, but couldn't get a name. If someone knows what I'm talking about, could you please tell me the name of this dish? I also heard that it is eaten with gimbap, but this may not be canon. Kikiluvscheese (talk) 05:32, 18 September 2008 (UTC)

Sounds like inari [[sushi]. The brown coating is tofu. Is that eaten in Korea too? Saintrain (talk) 17:01, 19 September 2008 (UTC)

I think that dish is a type of tteok, Korean rice cake. If these two are not the one you're looking for, you can browse Commons:Category:Tteok or Commons:Category:Cuisine of Korea. How does it taste? --Caspian blue (talk) 17:55, 19 September 2008 (UTC)

• 
  Sirutteok, steamed rice cake covered with azuki bean
• Yaksik, steamed rice cake made with honey, soy sauce
  Yaksik, steamed rice cake made with honey, soy sauce

Yes, yes! That's it, inari! I don't know why I was so sure it was Korean; that's probably why I didn't find it on my own. Thank you. Kikiluvscheese (talk) 03:39, 23 September 2008 (UTC)

why is attitude indicator set to 4 degree up in bell 212 helicopter

It is mandatory to put Attitude Direction indicator 4 degrres up in bell 212 helicopter. The reasons I have not been able to find out any where, but nevertheless the reason exists. Can anyone please help. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 202.134.59.78 (talk) 06:19, 19 September 2008 (UTC)

Without having found a specific source, it's likely a case of "true" level being distinct from the orientation of the gyros or whatever feeds the ADI on the aircraft. Maybe the 212 sits at a 4 degree angle when on the ground? It may also be a response to various 212 crashes -- I found examples of controlled flight into ground accidents that suggested the pilots were relying on the ADI for guidance when they crashed. 199.209.144.218 (talk) 13:02, 19 September 2008 (UTC)

Zoosadism

I remember watching a history show a number of years ago and it detailed a famous historical political leader who as a child partook in zoosadism. Does anyone know who this was, it might have been Napoleon or some one like that. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 193.115.175.247 (talk) 08:57, 19 September 2008 (UTC)

boredom

is it possible to acctually die of boredom? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 193.115.175.247 (talk) 11:07, 19 September 2008 (UTC)

Indirectly, maybe. Boredom could cause depression, which could means you stop taking care of yourself, maybe even stop eating, and that could kill you. It would take days or weeks of boredom, though, one boring lecture isn't going to do it! --Tango (talk) 13:23, 19 September 2008 (UTC)

Hm. More like, depression causes boredom. --jpgordon^∇∆∇∆ 16:04, 20 September 2008 (UTC)

Although boredom is not mentioned you may find Motif of harmful sensation and Fatal hilarity interesting. -Phydaux (talk) 15:35, 19 September 2008 (UTC)

If you fell asleep at the wheel, that could do it pretty quick. --140.247.240.38 (talk) 16:48, 19 September 2008 (UTC)

Probably not, or I'd be a goner for sure. -- 79.71.223.82 (talk) 16:57, 19 September 2008 (UTC)

--Rustycoke (talk) 17:06, 19 September 2008 (UTC)

If you stop actively using your brain beyond what you can do alone, stop stimulating it (books, tv, social life, leaving the house once in a while, doing non-routine tasks, work, learning, etc.), then this probably could effectively also be bad for you. --Ouro (blah blah) 11:06, 20 September 2008 (UTC)

I heard a story somewhere about two orphanages in Victorian England. One was much better funded than the other, but had a much higher baby mortality rate. It was found that, following contemporary ideas about child rearing, the attendants did not socially interact with the babies, who died from boredom/lack of attention, while the workers in the poorer institution were not so "enlightened". I have no idea if this is an old wives tale or what. Clarityfiend (talk) 23:39, 20 September 2008 (UTC)

The story is interesting - but I don't think it answers the question. If the children were not regularly "interacted" with, then there would be a longer delay between one of them getting sick and one of the attendants noticing and summoning medical help - which would of course impact the mortality rate. The theory that it was "boredom" that killed them is still possible - but this anecdote doesn't really prove that. SteveBaker (talk) 20:24, 21 September 2008 (UTC)

When you (anybody) are in a very stable place emotionally, see Harry_F._Harlow#Surrogate_mother_experiment. Saintrain (talk) 21:17, 21 September 2008 (UTC)

Walther Pistol

Have a MOD 1 Walther Pistol. Can't find it on any web site or when I took it to a antique road show. The paper in the box is two sided, one is in color with a blonde lady pulling the pistol out of her purse and an old black sedan.The other is a description written in german. Some one I found that knew a little german said he thought it was used during the nazi occupation and wasn't considered a real pistol becase they were outlawed at the time. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Rustycoke (talk • contribs) 13:25, 19 September 2008 (UTC)

Do you have a question? Algebraist 13:26, 19 September 2008 (UTC)

We have a page on Walther arms - you may find the information you want there, or on one of the pages linked therein. If you want to know what the German writing means, you might want to ask at Wikipedia:Reference desk/Language. -- 128.104.112.147 (talk) 00:28, 20 September 2008 (UTC)

Google Earth - how often does it update?

How long would I have to lie on my roof if I wanted to get onto the google earth? Do they update it bit by bit, or are they going to wait until they have everything at very high quality? Dolphus9091 (talk) 13:38, 19 September 2008 (UTC)

Google Earth#Resolution and accuracy has some information. --Richardrj ^{talk email} 13:48, 19 September 2008 (UTC)

I think you'd be better off tracking down the Google Van and getting on Google Street View. Useight (talk) 15:18, 19 September 2008 (UTC)

2-3 years or so. You'll want to bring some snacks. Plasticup ^T/C 16:12, 19 September 2008 (UTC)

Family History of James David Manning

Can you find out or direct me to where I can research the parentage of James David Manning? Below I have included the link to your article.

James David Manning

Abeytasback (talk) 18:00, 19 September 2008 (UTC)

Not sure, but if you knew his parents and where they were from, you might be able to backtrack a bit on ancestry.com, where you can view data from the 1880 and 1900 censuses mostly for free, and people in household for a few others. I'm afraid, looking at the article, he's going to be tough, though; probably too young for that, and not famous enough to be in one of the genealogy trees of famous people at www.genealogy.com. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 209.244.187.155 (talk) 20:40, 19 September 2008 (UTC)

chinese zodiac signs

I would like to find the characteristics of people born in the year of rabbit. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 218.111.30.101 (talk) 23:32, 19 September 2008 (UTC)

Here you go (http://www.usbridalguide.com/special/chinesehoroscopes/Rabbit.htm) - the main characteristics it says are...Keen, Wise, Fragile, Tranquil, Serene, Considerate, Fashionable, Sneaky, Obsessive ny156uk (talk) 23:36, 19 September 2008 (UTC)

Or you could just walk into any cheap Chinese restaurant and look at the placemat. DJ Clayworth (talk) 20:46, 22 September 2008 (UTC)

September 20

I-710 Long Beach Frwy extension

Will the I-710 in Los Angeles ever been extend? What does Pasadena have a big fight over extending the I-710? Is this because of houses or what makes it so arguemental to extend?Besdies neighborhood or what? is the I-710 extension further away from being successful than the SR 241 in Orange County?--57Freeways 00:31, 20 September 2008 (UTC)

So what's wrong with just putting the I-710 in. Elimination of many homes won't kill people. Do they have other excuse than just losing homes. pasadena just have strong opposition over the I-710 extension.--57Freeways 00:41, 20 September 2008 (UTC)

The obvious difficulty is that 'just losing homes' isn't really a small thing. If tomorrow you were told that you have 6 months to get out of your house because the land was being reclaimed for public-highways it might not be a big deal to you. If you've lived in the home for 20 years, or you feel a big sense of community around the local area then being made to leave the area to make way for a road-extension could be a big deal. Ultimately the government doesn't want to upset too many residents, doesn't want to get too much bad press, but will want to improve the road-networks. The counter-argument could just as easily be 'it's just a highway extension, other roads exist to get people where they need to go. Why do they need this road, not having it won't kill anyone'. There is no wrong and right, there is a need to compromise between both groups so that each can achieve something that is manageable and forward-thinking. ny156uk (talk) 10:50, 20 September 2008 (UTC)

Larry King

When you call Larry King, what are you asked? 66.53.220.172 (talk) 02:15, 20 September 2008 (UTC)

Presumable to succinctly present your question/statement to the call-screener. If you want more detail I know a cheap way to find out. Plasticup ^T/C 04:32, 20 September 2008 (UTC)

City name

name of city or town that means dry grass and a cave. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.220.151.79 (talk) 05:01, 20 September 2008 (UTC)

Created new section for question. --antilived^{T | C | G} 06:25, 20 September 2008 (UTC)

?? Hayden, Alabama. Hayden, Arizona. Hayden, Colorado. Hayden, Idaho.86.4.187.55 (talk) 08:00, 20 September 2008 (UTC)

Destructive power of securitization?

Can someone explain to me this section of our subprime article?

"Securitization is a structured finance process in which assets, receivables or financial instruments are acquired, classified into pools, and offered as collateral for third-party investment.[53] There are many parties involved. Due to securitization, investor appetite for mortgage-backed securities (MBS), and the tendency of rating agencies to assign investment-grade ratings to MBS, loans with a high risk of default could be originated, packaged and the risk readily transferred to others. Asset securitization began with the structured financing of mortgage pools in the 1970s.[54] The securitized share of subprime mortgages (i.e., those passed to third-party investors) increased from 54% in 2001, to 75% in 2006.[46] Alan Greenspan stated that the securitization of home loans for people with poor credit — not the loans themselves — was to blame for the current global credit crisis.[55]"

So let's say 2-3 million loans default and banks take the hit. Why would that effect be so much less dire than a securitized package failing?

Lotsofissues (talk) 11:53, 20 September 2008 (UTC)

That loss would all be taken by someone that had consciously decided to take a high risk investment (in exchange for higher return), those that wanted a low risk investment wouldn't lose anything. It all goes wrong when far more people default that expected and the so-called "low risk" investments start losing money because all the high risk investments are used up. --Tango (talk) 12:03, 20 September 2008 (UTC)

Also note that large losses in the securitisation entity means that the low-risk tranches suffer mark to market losses even though they experienced no direct losses (all the tranches are revalued by the market after a certain "trigger event" occurs) and remember that the rating agencies gave these assets AAA ratings. These losses were very large over the last year or so becasue no one wanted to buy any tranches. And I think Greenspan was saying that the availability of securitisation enabled lenders to free up capital to underwrite more subprime loans. Much more than they would have if they had to keep all the original loans. Zain Ebrahim (talk) 12:52, 20 September 2008 (UTC)

Securitization is awesome and is not the problem here. The problem is that people bought these CDOs without understanding what they were, and now the market for them has seized up. It is hard to mark to market when the market is totally illiquid! Some of the the underlying securities are solid, but no one can/wants to buy them. That is why the government bailout is such a great idea. The Government can buy tons of these securities, which gives the banks the cash they need now (saving the financial system), and the Government can hold the securities to maturity a probably reap a small profit. Hooray! Plasticup ^T/C 15:31, 20 September 2008 (UTC)

Unfortunately it is not at all clear that these securities are worth what the government is paying for them and it is also not at all certain that if the banks just get some liquidity they will be healthy again. Comrade Paulson is taking a big risk. 194.171.56.13 (talk) 19:44, 20 September 2008 (UTC)

It is infinitely better than the alternative. Plasticup ^T/C 04:13, 22 September 2008 (UTC)

September 21

How can there be more than one singularity?

Supposedly, at the bottom of every black hole, lies a singularity. A one point, eternal, foundation of nowhere and nowhen. How is this possible? Is it mathematically related to infinite subsets of infinity? i.e. {all even numbers}, {all numbers greater that 16} {all fractions between 1 and 2}, etc.

For that matter, what exactly is a singularity? I realize we're all gonna find out any day now, but it still would be nice to know something in advance. I'm not into visiting places on Earth I know nothing about, and I aint to crazy about being yanked out of town to visit Singularityville. So if it isn't too much trouble, please brief me a little about the weather, interesting places to visit, etc so I can at least make the best of it. :)--Dr. Carefree (talk) 03:42, 21 September 2008 (UTC)

I think you've worn out this topic on the Science desk. Is that why you brought it here, or is your intention simply to share your irrational fear with others? --Scray (talk) 04:10, 21 September 2008 (UTC)

You may find this interesting. --Tango (talk) 11:20, 21 September 2008 (UTC)

"Singularity" in the context of a black hole means a mathematical singularity. The theory (general relativity) breaks down there; nobody believes that it correctly predicts the "breakdown of the real world". So, it isn't possible. Also, we're not going to find out any day now, since (a) the LHC is currently out of commission pending repairs that will take months, (b) it will take months to years of data collection and analysis to identify new phenomena at a high confidence level, (c) it's very unlikely that the LHC will produce black holes to begin with, and (d) observing a black hole in the lab wouldn't tell us what's happening inside the event horizon. -- BenRG (talk) 11:56, 21 September 2008 (UTC)

I brought this topic here because I wasn't quite sure if this was math, science, or what. Sorry if I was beating a dead horse, but yes, I've been thinking alot about black holes per my Science Desk posts. I'm a really curious person, and as any scientist can tell you, one question often leads to many others.

I was more interested in the first question, anyways. Because, from a logical standpoint, "many singularities" doesnt seem to make any more sense than "many infinities". The second half was just a humorous attempt (note the smiley face) to pad a worst case scenerio so it can sit in my mind somewhat comfortably. I think about worst case scenerios alot, because like any uncomfortable guest, -once you stop paying attention, he's likely to trash the place.Dr. Carefree (talk) 18:04, 21 September 2008 (UTC)

Many infinities does make sense, though. If we consider regular Euclidean space, you can think of an infinity in every direction - each direction yields a different point at infinity. Singularities can, in the right coordinate system, be thought of as points at infinity, and there can be more than one of them. Also, I don't believe there is any requirement in general relativity for there to exist a single coordinate system describing the whole of a given space, you may have to patch together different systems in order to describe the whole space - there could be only one singularity per patch. --Tango (talk) 18:34, 21 September 2008 (UTC)

Damper Pedal

Well, about the squeaking pedal in this question: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Reference_desk/Miscellaneous#Squeaking_Pedal , it's not the bottom part of the pedal squeaking, but the mechanism inside the piano. How can you lubricate the mechanism?

btw, I can't reach the thing inside ;) 220.244.109.31 (talk) 05:49, 21 September 2008 (UTC)

I agree that graphite powder is probably the way to go. Have you managed to get the front panel off? They usually come away quite easily without requiring any tools. Further to that I suggest you find a piano forum where you can get expert advice.--Shantavira|^{feed me} 08:38, 21 September 2008 (UTC)

Einstein refrigerator

Moved to the science desk. My mistake. --antilived^{T | C | G} 10:20, 21 September 2008 (UTC)

"God created the inegers" by stephen hawking

Im thinking of getting this book. Do you think Id be able to understand it? Im an A-level student doing the sciences and maths. --RMFan1 (talk) 13:27, 21 September 2008 (UTC)

I've never read it, but it looks like it contains actual mathematical papers, so you will probably struggle to understand it all of it. However, that's no reason no to give it a go - try and understand as much as you can, and then come back to it in few years once you've got a greater mathematical background. I read a book on p-adic numbers in my 1st year of Uni that was very much over my head, but I'm now reading it again because I'm going to do my 4th year project on them - having read it before (even though I didn't understand much of it) meant I knew I found the topic interesting enough to do a project on, and gives me a head start in understanding the book the second time through. --Tango (talk) 14:15, 21 September 2008 (UTC)

It depends what you are looking for. God Created the Integers is a collection of English translations of 31 important works in the history of mathematics, from Euclid to Alan Turing. There is some introductory material about each author written by Hawking, but it does not attempt to explain the concepts of mathematics in any systematic way. Some parts, such as Turing's paper On Computable Numbers, are reasonably accessible, but most parts are mainly of historical interest. If you are looking for a general introduction to mathematics you will probably be better off with something like Ian Stewart's From Here to Infinity or Courant and Robbins' What is Mathematics?. Gandalf61 (talk) 15:30, 21 September 2008 (UTC)

The newly released Princeton Companion to Mathematics is also at about the right level, and looks very good (disclosure: I am acquainted with two of the editors). Algebraist 18:04, 21 September 2008 (UTC)

Two questions regarding the movie - Wanted

1. Is it really possible to curve the bullet? 2. Is there a bath anything like that showed in the movie, that can refresh / cure your body? --V4vijayakumar (talk) 13:55, 21 September 2008 (UTC)

1. Not practically. In order to change an objects direction, you need to apply a force when the object is changing directions. Once the bullet leaves the gun, any force given to the gun stops, leaving the bullet to travel in a straight line. Only forces which act on the bullet after it leaves the gun can curve its trajectory. One of these is gravity. Like any object, a bullet will curve downward in the shape of a parabola. (Not what you're looking for, though.) The only other force which can act is aerodynamics. It may be theoretically possible to get a "curve" on a bullet by shaping the exterior of the bullet such that it generates an aerodynamic force. This is what causes the curve of a curveball. Any force would likely be minor, though, and unlikely to do things like you see in the Wanted trailers. Additionally, most guns are rifled, to spin the bullet and stabilize it. You would need a special gun to shoot your curve-bullet.

2. Haven't seen the movie, but if there was a bath which had remarkable regenerative powers, Hollywood would be using it left and right, and we'd be plagued with late-night infomercials for "at home" regenerative baths. -- 128.104.112.147 (talk) 23:28, 21 September 2008 (UTC)

No, and no. And to preempt your next question, there is also no secret cult of assassins talking to God through a loom. Plasticup ^T/C 04:11, 22 September 2008 (UTC)

But the movie is excellent, ain't it? --Ouro (blah blah) 06:52, 22 September 2008 (UTC)

I didn't think so, no. I even went in expecting a dumb and exciting action movie, but it had pretensions of being so much more. I don't mind dumb movies that don't take themselves seriously, but there is nothing worse than a bad movie that tries to be "deep". Plasticup ^T/C 04:30, 23 September 2008 (UTC)

It's possible (theoretically) to have a bullet curve in flight...but we have to be careful how we describe this:

Newtons' laws of motion requires that some outside force is applied in order to have the bullet change direction after it leaves the gun. A bullet fired in a vacuum would require little 'rocket thrusters' to apply forces to make it curve. But in air, there are some other options.

Soccer players and baseball pitchers can easily cause a ball to curve...to change direction after the 'projectile' has left the 'launcher'. They do this by spinning the ball and rely on the fact that air drag increases as the square of the velocity - so the side of the ball that's rotating forwards gets more drag than the side that's rotating backwards - hence the drag force through the air is asymmetrical and the ball curves in flight. It would be perfectly feasible to construct a gun that spun the bullet to make it curve in flight. However, that curve would be 'built in' to the way the bullet was spinning as it left the barrel.

However, one could imagine a bullet containing a gyroscope with a teeny-tiny motor and battery to change the rate of spin of the outside of the bullet by rotating the gyroscope in the opposite direction. A sensor in the nose of the bullet - or radio control from the gun - could cause the motor to spin up or slow down - and thereby steer the aerodynamic curve of the bullet after it left the gun. Alternatively, the bullet could pop out little fins and steer itself like a missile - or use tiny jets of compressed air to adjust its trajectory. So it's not 100% impossible...in theory at least.

If the bullet aimed itself using some kind of tiny thermal camera - then it's possible that it could be fired from a conventional gun. The spin imparted by the gun would greatly complicate matters - but an undersized and very hard bullet would fail to adhere to the spiral 'rifleing' inside the barrel so it wouldn't spin so much - and whatever gyro/thruster/fin mechanism steers it could be designed to remove any undesirable spin or account for it while steering.

SteveBaker (talk) 11:52, 22 September 2008 (UTC)

In the movie the bullet travels in a complete circle. I haven't taken a physics class in a while, but changing the direction that much would require as much energy as was originally put into the bullet, yes? Maybe? Plasticup ^T/C 04:26, 23 September 2008 (UTC)

Applying to Cambridge

I got 3 Bs and a C at AS level but only because I had a shit year, didnt study much etc. But I am definitely capable of all As. So Im working my ass of this year and think I can end up with 3 As at A level and could get the C at AS up to an A as well. So I think I can get the grades required for a competitive application to cambridge but since i have to apply now, all they're going to see is what Ive got right now: 3 Bs and a C. Is there any chance of them giving me a conditional offer, the condition being I get my grades up to As or whatever? Or is there a way I could explain that I am capable of getting the required grades so that they at least consider me? From my knowledge of how applying works, I fear that as soon as they see my current grades they'll turn me down and I won't have a chance of getting in --RMFan1 (talk) 14:00, 21 September 2008 (UTC)

I'm afraid that you may be right, Cambridge is likely too look at your current grades and your predictions and say, NO. You have a chance though if you got very good GCSE grades and write an excellent personal statement, you might get an interview, and if you do it had better go very well for yo to have a chance. But really, no I'm sorry it's not likely. Harland1 (^t/_c) 14:09, 21 September 2008 (UTC)

They may consider your expected grades, rather than you currently obtained grades, do your teachers agree that you can get them to A's? I think you would need to give a very good reason for having done badly in the 1st year ("didn't study much" isn't going to cut it!). If they give you an offer, it will almost always be conditional (they sometimes give low offers (3 E's, say) to extremely good applicants that they really want and don't want to lose just because they have a bad day for the exam, but they don't give many of those). Cambridge will also require something more than just good grades to get in - if you have some impressive extra-curricular stuff it would definitely help. (Disclaimer: I applied to Cambridge, reached the interview stage, but was rejected, so I'm not an expert on how to get in! I suspect the lack of any good extra-curricular stuff let me down.) --Tango (talk) 14:10, 21 September 2008 (UTC)

Well my teachers feel the same way I do, I was too lazy at AS so until they see that I am working hard this year I dont think theres anything they can do. As for extra-curricular activities, rowing will definitely give me a boost, I am a prefect, and am taking part in other activities but i doubt that alone will make much of a difference --RMFan1 (talk) 14:18, 21 September 2008 (UTC)

If it's just that you didn't work hard last year, I really don't think you'll be able to get in. You could try taking a gap year and applying afterwards once you have your A-level results and have done something worthwhile for a year, but it's a long shot (and they'll want to know why you didn't apply now and just defer, which is the usual way of taking a gap year). You're probably better off settling for another Uni. --Tango (talk) 14:38, 21 September 2008 (UTC)

Do have a good read through [20], as well as speaking to your school's careers advisor. DuncanHill (talk) 14:47, 21 September 2008 (UTC)

If a selective school has a choice between an applicant who got bad or mediocre grades and has hopes or promises of getting better grades, and another applicant who got good grades consistently, the school is ikely to take the student with the unblemished record, unless there are countervailing factors in favor of the less diligent scholar, such as a desire for geographical balance in the student body, athletic prowess, influential relatives or relatives likely to donate huge sums of money to the school. It is pretty common for people who have had a bad year to aspire to do better. It does not always happen. Edison (talk) 15:25, 21 September 2008 (UTC)

I don't know the particulars of the English system or your personal resources but if you, say, were in the US, I'd tell you to try and find a real college counselor (e.g. the type that work for expensive private schools, not the schmoes they use at public schools who get paid a shit salary), because someone like that can really make the difference in applications and can tell you with reasonable precision what your options really are. Hiring one for personal work is not cheap but if you're serious about playing in the big leagues they can make the difference, at least in the US. Most people who don't experience with those sorts of institutions directly are not aware of how vital someone like that can be. It's not about shady dealings (at those levels of education, money doesn't mean much unless you've REALLY got it), it's about knowing exactly how the admission offices of these sorts of institutions work and knowing exactly how to market the student. (And knowing what's a lost cause.) --98.217.8.46 (talk) 19:12, 21 September 2008 (UTC)

I've never heard of anyone in the UK paying for someone to help them fill out Uni applications. Most schools/colleges will have people that can help, though, and it's a good idea to talk to them. --Tango (talk) 20:14, 21 September 2008 (UTC)

The important step in getting into Cambridge is to perform well at interview, not to fill in the form well. There are certainly people who charge (a lot of) money to coach people for the interview. Of course, a good school will do this for free. Algebraist 21:57, 21 September 2008 (UTC)

Even if you got 5 As at AS you would not necessarily get an interview at Oxbridge. But why fret about it? Sounds like you will get the grades to get into into a good "pre-1992" uni and so long as you work consistently you'll enjoy your time and do really well there. If that doesn't appeal, then consider doing an apprenticeship and earning some money straight away. Itsmejudith (talk) 22:55, 21 September 2008 (UTC)

For the benefit of non-UK readers, what is "AS?" In the US there is high school. Edison (talk) 23:01, 21 September 2008 (UTC)

The last two years of what you would call High school is what we call sixth form. Just under half of 16-18 year olds take the traditional "General Certificate of Education Advanced level" university entrance route in this phase. They can study either in the same school where they were from 11-16 or in a sixth form college or in a further education college, depending on what the set-up is in the area where they live. After one year, students take Advanced Subsidiary Level (AS), usually in four or five subjects. Then in the second year they go on to take A2, usually in three to four subjects. The pass grades are A, B, C, D and E. You apply to uni through UCAS at the start of your second year (i.e. about now), when you know your AS grades and your teachers predict your A2 grades. The unis give offers conditional on obtaining certain grades at A2. Generally speaking, Oxford and Cambridge universities (the equivalent of your Ivy League) are looking for straight As. Other internationally-renowned universities might want ABB at A2. Even if you only get two Es, you can probably get in somewhere to do something, but at that point you really do need good careers advice. The above applies in England. Totally different in Scotland. Itsmejudith (talk) 23:12, 21 September 2008 (UTC)

See also Advanced Level (UK), for examination & assessment details. Gwinva (talk) 23:22, 21 September 2008 (UTC)

To the OP: if you really want to go to Cambridge, then give a shot...you'll never know unless you try. It might also depend on what school you now attend: in an attempt to widen the applications (ie get a balance of people from various education backgrounds), Oxbridge have in the past interviewed some students with low grades, if they believed they might achieve higher results given a better environment. But while Cambridge has a certain name and status, there are many other quality universities in the UK worth considering. Depending on your subject, your extra-curricular interests, or your socialising preferences, other universities might be more suitable (just one example: if you like city life, you might find Cambridge too small). Talk to people you know who have been to different universities. Visit some of them. Consider the lecture sizes, the pastoral care and support, the cost of living, the student facilities and accommodation, the availability of part time work to supplement your money, and so on. Gwinva (talk) 23:34, 21 September 2008 (UTC)

You have other university choices to fall back on, so you might as well apply to Cambridge if you really want to. You will, needless to say, have to devote part of your personal statement to explaining your low AS grades, and it may be advisable to ring the admissions secretary or similar at the college you apply to (don't submit an open application in your situation) in order to clarify your chances. If you get rejected before the interview stage, then it is still worth attempting to ring up or communicate directly with the college to argue your case. As was mentioned before, however, I think it would be best to take a year out and wait for your A2 results before applying.--Diniz(talk) 23:24, 21 September 2008 (UTC)

If you're not familiar with Cambridge, go and take a look around, and also look at some other universities with good reputations in the subject you wish to study. If your heart is still set on Cambridge, I'd go for the year out option - the chances of being interviewed for Cambridge with BBBC at AS are slim; the chances of being interviewed with AAA achieved at A level are high, and you may be able to use the year out to gain some valuable relevant experience. If a year out isn't an option, then by all means apply to Cambridge, but don't expect too much, and look seriously at your other options - BBBC should get you offers on most courses at most universities. Part of my job involves working on university admissions; most of the advice above looks sound to me, but don't think of getting someone else to write your personal statement - we would take a very dim view of this, and have in the past withdrawn offers due to personal statements being plagiarised from websites. Warofdreams talk 09:49, 22 September 2008 (UTC)

Thanks for all your advice guys. If I applied to the unis I want to go to this year including cambridge and say cambridge didnt give me an offer. Then at A2 I did in fact achieve all As and decided I wanted to take a gap year to try and get into cambridge the following year, would I be at any disadvantage because of the fact Ive already applied or would they still have to reconsider me? --RMFan1 (talk) 14:54, 22 September 2008 (UTC)

I couldn't say for sure whether this would put you at a disadvantage, but I'm sure that Cambridge would have your previous rejection on file, and might choose to take it in to account. Universities have to, on request, give reasons for their rejections, and if this situation did arise, it might be wise to check the reason (to see if the rejection is solely on the grounds of your predicted grades), and enquire directly from the department you are applying to how they would view an application based on actual grades, after a year out. Warofdreams talk 15:50, 22 September 2008 (UTC)

Laminated padlocks

What exactly is a laminated padlock? What is the lamination, that is :-) Thanks! ╟─Treasury§Tag►contribs─╢ 15:30, 21 September 2008 (UTC)

The word "laminated" appears to be in the sense of "flat plate" (which I think is what a lamina is but haven't looked it up). Thus a laminated padlock is one made of stacked metal plates instead of a solid block of metal. Look at "laminated padlock" on Google Images. Also, this on Answers.com has a clear explanation (paragraph beginning "In the early 1920s...").--212.248.232.249 (talk) 16:27, 21 September 2008 (UTC)

Ah, thanks. Would you happen to know what the security benefit of such a structure is? ╟─Treasury§Tag►contribs─╢ 16:30, 21 September 2008 (UTC)

There may be better answers, but my sense has always been that they are easy to manufacture, but not the ideal design from a security standpoint. --Scray (talk) 20:23, 21 September 2008 (UTC)

From Master Lock: About Us: "In 1919, locksmith and inventor Harry Soref had a thought: if bank vault doors and battle ships were built in laminated layers of steel for greater strength, why not make padlocks the same way?" Note that this is compared to the hollow locks then in use - no word on if laminated locks are better than solid locks. However, constructing the lock out of many thinner layers may allow you to use a better grade of steel, one that might be impossible or very expensive to machine a solid padlock from. So while a solid padlock made of the same material might be better (although I can't say for sure), at a given price point you may be able to afford a better quality laminated lock than a solid lock. -- 128.104.112.147 (talk) 23:14, 21 September 2008 (UTC)

With the laminated locks, you only have to hacksaw or drill through the two rivets that hold it together. Those don't seem to be as hard as the shackle - and they probably can't be because they have to be soft enough to form as rivets. So for that reason, I presume the laminated kind are somewhat less secure than the solid body kind. However, it's possible that some detail of the construction of solid padlocks makes them less secure for some other reason. SteveBaker (talk) 00:03, 22 September 2008 (UTC)

2008 China Milk Scare

Generally speaking, will the babies that are affected by the melanin in the 2008 China Milk scandal recover from their kidney stones? Or will they suffer permanent kidney damages? Acceptable (talk) 15:59, 21 September 2008 (UTC)

Since, as far as I know, there were some deaths reported among the infected babies, I'd say the damage is rather permanent. Start here. --Ouro (blah blah) 06:56, 22 September 2008 (UTC)

From melamine: "these melamine cyanurate crystals don’t dissolve easily. They go away slowly, if at all, so there is the potential for chronic toxicity.", so I'm guessing yes. --antilived^{T | C | G} 07:22, 22 September 2008 (UTC)

Shipping cost, cheapest prices

What would be the cheapest way to ship a 20" - 24" CRT television from Colorado to Texas? Ground shipping would be the cheapest, of course and I am pretty sure USPS would be the cheapest carrier. However, I am not familiar with the way I can minimize my shipping costs. Please advise. Kushal (talk) 16:15, 21 September 2008 (UTC)

I recommend using eBay's "Shipping calculator". The cost depends on both the size and weight of your package. I'd guess that a 24" TV would need a 30"x30"x30" box and probably weighs about 30lbs. That's too flat out too big and too heavy for USPS. UPS Ground will charge you $130! (UPS Air, next day deliver is $750!!!) No matter what, something that heavy will be costly to ship. Have you considered selling your TV in Colorado and buying a new one in Texas? You can pick up a used 24" TV in Dallas for ~$35 (I looked on Craigslist for about 30 seconds and found three at around that price) - you could do even better if you spent an afternoon cruising local garage sales. I'd be very surprised if you could ship your TV to Texas for as little as $35 - so even if you gave away your TV for $0 - you'd still be better off! Another consideration: Dunno whether you intend to get cable or satellite when you arrive in Texas - but remember that the impending change to digital TV in February means that there will be an awful lot of old Analog TV's on the market very soon! SteveBaker (talk) 21:08, 21 September 2008 (UTC)

Yes, I do have cable, SteveBaker. I am not worried about the transition at all (who watches over the air, anyways?). A second television would be great. I can certainly wait for the old Analog TVs. Do you have any idea when this junk will start arriving in the market? I am giving the TV in Colorado away. There's no point. Kushal (talk) 22:36, 21 September 2008 (UTC)

"Full-power terrestrial broadcasts using the analog NTSC standard will be required by law to cease by February 17, 2009." (see List_of_digital_television_deployments_by_country#United_States). People can buy convertors - and there is a government voucher program to assist people with buying them - and cable/satellite TV will support analog TV for some time to come - so it's not like analog TV's suddenly become worthless. However, the end of the line for analog TV is on the horizon and people will presumably start replacing them as the deadline looms. So I presume (without proof) that the cost of used analog TVs has already dropped - or will soon start to drop.

At any rate - the answer to your original question remains the same - don't ship your TV - dump the old one and buy a used one in Texas to replace it. SteveBaker (talk) 23:53, 21 September 2008 (UTC)

Thank you very much, Steve. You have been most helpful. Kushal (talk) 21:18, 22 September 2008 (UTC)

Roommates and Sex

What does one do when one has been walked in on by one's roommate during sex? There was a warning sock on the door handle, so he just misunderstood, but I have no idea whether I should apologize, or leave for a week, or what.

So, what does one do?

146.57.84.68 (talk) 17:49, 21 September 2008 (UTC)

Laugh it off? You should probably talk about it to ensure it won't happen again - clearly he wasn't familiar with the sock convention. --Tango (talk) 18:17, 21 September 2008 (UTC)

I've always thought it was pretty mandatory to have a "sex talk" with the roommate early on. Make sure you're on the same base with the conventions (socks on doors) and some basic rules (stay in your own bed, be courteous about how you are forcing people out of the room, don't be a pig about it during exams, etc.). Figure out, say, whether it is acceptable to have people occasionally spend the night (which is a burden on the other roommate and so should probably be limited). You probably should have already done that but now that you've had this you should confront it directly and have a good sit down over it. Don't overreact and don't be overly embarrassed but try to be sympathetic to your roommate, esp. if he is not actually going to likely be having over many ladyfolk of his own. In almost all roommate interactions the best policy is to know where the boundaries are and to then respect them—that way there are no surprises, no irritations, no awkward moments. --98.217.8.46 (talk) 19:24, 21 September 2008 (UTC)

My kid just started at college and although they have individual bedrooms, they do share apartments. The college gives every student a copy of "The Naked Roommate: And 107 Other Issues You Might Run Into in College" by Harlan Cohen. It's a really good book (and funny too) that covers exactly this kind of situation. I strongly recommend it for both you and your victimroommate. SteveBaker (talk) 20:46, 21 September 2008 (UTC)

Get a room! Your roommate is paying as much as you are. The only excuse for excluding the roommate from enjoyment of the premises is that the roommate has an equal expectation of privacy for such lyrical interludes as yours that that was briefly interrupted. You certainly have no expectation of seizing exclusive use of the room overnight, with the roommate left to sleep in a chair in the lounge. Get the dirty deed done, and send the correspondent on the "walk of shame" back to his/her residence. Edison (talk) 22:55, 21 September 2008 (UTC)

You could always invite him for a threesome I guess. -mattbuck (Talk) 23:07, 21 September 2008 (UTC)

I'd never heard of the sock convention. Good thing to know (although I think it unlikely I'll ever be living in an American dorm). Steewi (talk) 23:32, 21 September 2008 (UTC)

My room mate and I were able to talk about it. Whenever one of us had a friend over the other would sleep on the couch. Neither of us really abused the situation, and it worked out fine. It doesn't have to be a big deal if you both talk sensibly about it. Plasticup ^T/C 04:09, 22 September 2008 (UTC)

Any Way I could hear how this sounds?

Image talk:Lead Sheet.jpg Could someone upload a music file playing this short? (I'll give you a barnstar!)--Ye Olde Luke (talk) 19:26, 21 September 2008 (UTC)

I made a MIDI file. www.geocities.com/bavi_h/Lead.mid --Bavi H (talk) 01:42, 22 September 2008 (UTC)

A barnstar pimp! Plasticup ^T/C 04:07, 22 September 2008 (UTC)

that actually sounds pretty cool. Thanks Bavi! —Preceding unsigned comment added by Ye Olde Luke (talk • contribs) 23:40, 22 September 2008 (UTC)

I want this headwear

[21] What's it called? Looks like I'll head to Turkmenistan one day. Lotsofissues (talk) 22:55, 21 September 2008 (UTC)

This page says it's a 'telpek'. Steewi (talk) 23:35, 21 September 2008 (UTC)

September 22

Health draw (dessin santé)

I m wondering if the "sun"; that suposed to reflect the father; could reflect "autority" too? Thank you for your time and devotion, Marie-Eve —Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.55.245.184 (talk) 00:04, 22 September 2008 (UTC)

Son or sun? Plasticup ^T/C 04:06, 22 September 2008 (UTC)

Potentially, both. The ambiguity is possible when the picture on French website dessin santé is read by an English speaker. But I don't think we can give an answer, as the point of the website seems to be that your personal interpretation of the picture is supposed to reveal insights into your psychological make-up. Itsmejudith (talk) 10:04, 22 September 2008 (UTC)

Which means, yeah, if you see a way that it could reflect authority, then it does. It depends entirely on whomever is viewing the picture. --Ye Olde Luke (talk) 23:52, 22 September 2008 (UTC)

Debt (and more)

Since the United States has such a staggering debt and is spending so much money on things such as bailing out gigantor bank companies and fighting terrorists in the Middle East, why can't the treasury just whip up a $50,000,000,000,000 bill to cover the debt and save all the failing companies? 75.169.212.113 (talk) 02:06, 22 September 2008 (UTC)

Because that would reduce the value of all the other money. It's is called inflation, or even hyperinflation. The Weimar Republic used that trick once. Zimbabwe is using it now. The consequences are disastrous. Plasticup ^T/C 03:06, 22 September 2008 (UTC)

Thanks for the reply. Just curious, if you don't mind my further inquiring, how does this devalue all other money? Why does this devalue money? It would seem that, with the elimination of debt that an economy would perhaps rebound, but apparently not so? 75.169.212.113 (talk) 03:33, 22 September 2008 (UTC)

Think of it this way. You have one vase. It's so beautiful that someone will pay you $100 for it. If you had two then you should get $200, right? Not really. Because the person buying it wants that one special vase. The more there are, the less someone will pay for it. Some economist is probably going to tell me that my comparison is flawed in a lot of ways but the basics are basically the same. If you pour a bunch of something into a market, the price or value should go down. And I think that Plasticup meant the Weimar Republic. Dismas|^(talk) 03:46, 22 September 2008 (UTC)

I did mean the Weimar Republic, and you edit-conflicted my correction! Plasticup ^T/C 03:52, 22 September 2008 (UTC)

Imagine that a market is selling 5 apples. 5 people show up, each with $1. The market equilibrium price is $1 per apple. Now imagine that the government prints a whole load of money, and everyone at the market has $3 each. When they show up to buy the 5 apples each of them can offer more, trying to outbid the others, and the market equilibrium price will rise to $3. Dismas's explaination is pretty good, just backwards. Plasticup ^T/C 03:55, 22 September 2008 (UTC)

If the government prints more money - then someone somewhere ends up with more money - that eventually gets into the economy and makes lots of people have more money. Suppose everyone magically wins a million dollars - nobody will go to work for $10 per hour - if nobody works, no food is grown, no products are on the shelves - we all die. Hence salaries have to go up enough so that people will work - $1000 an hour will do that. That'll drive prices up. Pretty soon, people will need to work because a loaf of bread costs a thousand dollars.

If those were the only consequences, maybe we wouldn't care - just write an extra zero on the end of all of the bank notes every year and nobody cares - right?

Sadly, no. The process of money losing value is devastating. Anyone who has been saving suddenly finds that the money they had doesn't buy anything anymore - inflation is like stealing money from careful savers and rewarding people who run up large credit card debts. However, many of the people who are sitting on large piles of "saved" money are banks and investors who lend it out to people...when they see their large pile of cash shrinking in value due to inflation, they try to make it grow more quickly by pushing up borrower's interest rates. That means that the people who have shrinking debts now get stung with high interest rates on those debts - which is bad for them too. All of this is disruptive and scares people - confidence in the currency is lost - other countries no longer want to trade X of their currency for Y amount of dollars - they start to demand 2Y dollars. As your currency falls in value, initially, it seems like a good thing. Your goods that you make for Y dollars now sell for X/2 in other countries so your exports start to look attractive. Sadly, things you used to be able to buy for Y dollars from China - now cost 2Y dollars - which pushes prices up...more inflation.

Inflation is tough to control - prices go up - people demand more wages - that increases prices - round and round. Government is not immune to price rises - they have to buy stuff too, but increasing taxes while prices are spiralling upwards is VERY unpopular. So instead of raising taxes - they print more money. The more money they print, the worse things get. Pretty soon it takes a wheelbarrow full of dollar bills to buy a loaf of bread...then a truckload. People DARE not save...as soon as they get their pay, they must rush out and spend it all on...anything...because within a few days, it's going to be worth nothing. Now nobody dares to save - so there is no capital to be had to start businesses, to buy machinery. Industry is rapidly crippled. Unemployment and food shortages are inevitable. Before you know it, you're a third-world country.

So you can't print money to get yourself out of a crisis...although that is precisely what the US government are doing.

SteveBaker (talk) 03:57, 22 September 2008 (UTC)

Firstly, you are describing hyperinflation, which is many many orders of magnitude larger than regular old 3-20% inflation. Mild to moderate inflation isn't that bad, especially when it is steady. Secondly, that is not what the U.S. Government is doing. They are financing their debt through the sale of securities, not by printing money. Your solution causes inflation, their solution causes a government deficit. Plasticup ^T/C 04:04, 22 September 2008 (UTC)

Gasoline Consumption

What would use up more gas: using the air conditioner or wind resistance from having the windows down? i must know, i live in the freaking desert!the juggresurection ^{(>-.-(Vಠ_ಠ)} 03:11, 22 September 2008 (UTC)

I would imagine that this depends on how fast you go, the faster you go, the more effecient the AC becomes when compared to opening the windows, since the wind resistence will increase with the speed of the car. - Akamad (talk) 03:18, 22 September 2008 (UTC)

well, on my way to my college campus, i encounter speed limits varying between 35 and 55 mph. the juggresurection ^{(>-.-(Vಠ_ಠ)} 03:22, 22 September 2008 (UTC)

This was covered by a Mythbusters episode. According to our article, windows down is better below 50 mph. As I recall however, they didn't test it in the desert. Clarityfiend (talk) 03:24, 22 September 2008 (UTC)

cool. thank you, as you can imagine with gas prices these days, any kind of gas reducing technique will help. the juggresurection ^{(>-.-(Vಠ_ಠ)} 03:27, 22 September 2008 (UTC)

Mythbusters did a really careful set of tests on this and decided that there was a threshold speed - above which closing the windows and turning on the AC was more fuel-efficient than turning off the AC and opening the windows. However, what that speed is will depend on the kind of car you drive. I believe that the threshold is likely to lie somewhere between 35 and 55mph though - so you might find yourself opening and closing windows like a madman as you do your daily drive in an effort to optimise your gas consumption. That would be bad because every time you open the windows, all of that cool air spills out and when you close them again, the AC will have to work hard to get the temperature back down again. I suggest that a simple rule would be to close windows and turn on the AC for freeway driving and open the windows and turn off the AC when you're in town. Sadly, I find that the reverse is comfortable. Here in Texas, 110F daytime temperatures are possible. At low speeds, the airflow isn't enough to compensate for the higher air temperatures so I NEED the windows to be closed and the AC to be on. Airflow only cools you down when the ambient air is below body temperature - once the thermometer hits 100F - forget opening the windows! But the savings are of the order of 5% for small cars and much less for big SUV's - so it's not that big a deal. You can get better fuel savings by driving a manual transmission car and shifting so as to keep the RPM's solidly in the 2000 to 3000 range (especially when accellerating). SteveBaker (talk) 03:34, 22 September 2008 (UTC)

I don't really like that Mythbusters experiment: the 2 car experiment they did had the AC on full blast for the whole journey, and they had to wear heavy jackets and things to keep warm. Who would do that? If the AC was left at a sane setting I think it would have lasted a lot longer. --antilived^{T | C | G} 07:13, 22 September 2008 (UTC)

Well, I live over here in central Arizona, and at this time of the year, its starting to get cooler out, so i might not have to worry about it for very much longer. but as far as what car i drive, its a 1992 Ford Crown Victoria LTD Police edition. not very car savvy so i couldnt tell you the engine size or anything.the juggresurection ^{(>-.-(Vಠ_ಠ)} 03:45, 22 September 2008 (UTC)

Why do American Colleges have two people per dorm room?

Why do American Colleges have two people per dorm room? It also can happen in the UK, but 1 per room is much more common and generally the two per room only applies to non-first year students who choose to do this. -- SGBailey (talk) 05:52, 22 September 2008 (UTC)

I think it's pretty obvious that the reason to stuff multiple students in a room is money. As to why this would be different between the States and the UK, I don't really know, but I can speculate that more of the American dorms were built more recently, and the market conditions had changed (though I don't know in exactly what way). As a possible data point, at Caltech, where I did my undergrad, there were two groups of houses (see House System at the California Institute of Technology), called the old houses and new houses. The old houses were built in the 1930s and had mostly single rooms; the new houses were built in the sixties or so and had mostly doubles. --Trovatore (talk) 07:25, 22 September 2008 (UTC)

Dorm rooms for more than one person are the norm in Poland wherever you go, with fairly typical rooms having 2-4 persons, in a variety of configurations (i. e. two double/triple rooms sharing a bathroom and kitchen area). The obvious reason is money, furthermore it's easier to build fewer doubles than more singles, and allows to house more people in a building of roughly the same volume. Rooms for multiple persons can also induce socialisation, which is what dorm life is about after all. A single room is considered a luxury here, although I have had the pleasure of living in a single room in a dorm in Cologne in Germany, where nine single rooms shared a common room, kitchen and four bathrooms on one half of a dorm floor. Cheers, Ouro (blah blah) 09:31, 22 September 2008 (UTC)

I think there's a supervision aspect to it, as well as the financial one. Roommates watch each other. Suicidally depressed people often get reported to the college authorities by their roommates, etc. Darkspots (talk) 10:45, 22 September 2008 (UTC)

So we have several reasons for having double rooms, but none for why they should exist in some places but not in others (Trovatore's speculation fails, alas; many UK universities have been built since the '60s, and the rest all have lots of new accommodation, but little of it is double-rooms). Here's my random try: is it normal in the US for undergraduates to be offered accommodation by their college throughout their degree? It isn't in the UK, so that could explain the difference. Algebraist 11:15, 22 September 2008 (UTC)

When I was at an old UK university the newer dorms almost all had single rooms, whereas the older ones had shared rooms. I was told that the older shared rooms used to be single rooms, because pre-launderette and pre central heating one person would need the space for coal scuttles, ash pans, drying racks and ironing boards. In the 70s my clothes never saw an Iron unless I went home to my parent's house but in Victorian times evidently suite shirt and tie and neat appearance was the order of the day. -- Q Chris (talk) 12:24, 23 September 2008 (UTC)

There is a false premise here. Not all US colleges work that way. My son is at the University of Texas at Dallas - they have apartments with four small study/bedrooms for four students. There is a shared kitchen, laundry-room, balcony, storage space and lounge area plus two full bathrooms. The apartments are unfurnished - although they come with a full set of appliances (Cooker, fridge, washer, drier) and there are built-in desks in each bedroom. The bedrooms are small - but perfectly adequate for one person. SteveBaker (talk) 11:33, 22 September 2008 (UTC)

The premiss can, I think, be saved by the word 'usually'. I don't have figures (does anyone here have them?), but I believe this practice is quite normal in the US, while to me (in England) it is almost unthinkably barbaric. Algebraist 14:16, 22 September 2008 (UTC)

At my UK Uni (Durham) we have some shared rooms, but they're a tiny minority, and you only have to share for a maximum of one term unless you volunteer to share again. --Tango (talk) 14:32, 22 September 2008 (UTC)

Because two dissimilar people sharing one room is a theme of American comedy? (i.e. don't watch too much American television.) Adam Bishop (talk) 11:41, 22 September 2008 (UTC)

So far as I can tell, the norm here in Ontario is to have two people per room. At Wilfrid Laurier University we noticed that the pairings were not random, but rather generally followed a rule of thumb: same or similar major, one person local and one person from far away, one person from a large city and one person from a rural area or small town. Not always; the numbers just wouldn't work all the way through, but often enough that it was obviously intentional. Worked well! Matt Deres (talk) 20:46, 22 September 2008 (UTC)

Folklore^{[verification needed]} has it that my college, once upon a time, had four persons in one room in a boys' dorm - an altogether of eight people sharing a common bathroom. Even if it really happened, it did not last long and things went back to four people sharing a bathroom really soon. It seems that at least on-campus freshmen are supposed to have roommates, unless they specifically request to have a room by themselves. Kushal (talk) 21:09, 22 September 2008 (UTC)

If you can request a single room, why doesn't everyone do so? --Tango (talk) 21:50, 22 September 2008 (UTC)

Presumably because, as we are discussing, in the US (but not the UK) it is considered normal and healthy for students to share a bedroom. Algebraist 21:55, 22 September 2008 (UTC)

On-campus student accommodation in North America tends to be very low-grade compared to normal people's housing -- typically crowded and dreary. This is considered part of the college experience, at least for the first year or two. -- Mwalcoff (talk) 23:56, 22 September 2008 (UTC)

Single rooms are more expensive. --Nricardo (talk) 02:32, 23 September 2008 (UTC)

When I was an undergraduate, the supply of single rooms was limited, and preference was given to upperclassmen. When I was a freshman, some friends of mine got singles in the middle of their sophomore (2nd) year. But I couldn't get one until my senior (4th) year, due to higher demand. (The singles also cost more, as Nricardo said.) -- Coneslayer (talk) 11:44, 23 September 2008 (UTC)

I assume that "upperclassmen" means 3rd or 4th years, not aristos? DuncanHill (talk) 12:33, 23 September 2008 (UTC)

Yes. If we had any aristocrats at my large state university, I expect they lived in nicer off-campus apartments or houses, not the dorms. (Actually, I recently found out that some of our undergraduate football players live in on-campus "graduate student apartments", which are much nicer than the dorms. I suppose they are our aristocrats.) -- Coneslayer (talk) 13:35, 23 September 2008 (UTC)

Presumably, then, part of the reason is that US students have less money than UK ones. In the UK the student loan is usually easily enough to pay for university-provided single accommodation. Algebraist 12:31, 23 September 2008 (UTC)

Not really, at least in my experience. It was simply a matter of there not being enough single rooms. (Perhaps it's not clear—the single rooms were physically smaller than the normal double rooms. They accounted for maybe 10–15% of the rooms in my dorm. There was no provision for getting a regular double room to yourself.) -- Coneslayer (talk) 13:39, 23 September 2008 (UTC)

Anti-Islamist bias in Muslim countries

"In Egypt, Jordan, Syria and Algeria, a man with a long beard is often treated as an Islamist — and sometimes denied work. Not here in Dubai." [22]

I've been to the Levant and don't remember seeing long beards but also don't recall hearing anything about discrimination against Islamists. I always assumed many people would identify as such. Background behind that passage? Thanks.

Lotsofissues (talk) 07:14, 22 September 2008 (UTC)

In at least two of those countries (Egypt and Syria), the main Islamist party is an illegal organization. Algebraist 10:27, 22 September 2008 (UTC)

But is the ban on the Muslim Brotherhood directed by anything resembling popular opinion? Lotsofissues (talk) 07:28, 23 September 2008 (UTC)

Earliest Egyptian Sea Voyage

When was the earliest Egyptian sea voyage? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 199.91.37.33 (talk) 11:41, 22 September 2008 (UTC)

The ancient Egyptians probably sailed in the Mediterranean and the Red Sea their entire history but like other ancient people they most likely never went far out to sea preferring to stay in sight of land. It is likely that their furthest voyage was to the Land of Punt and as that article says that was first recorded in the 25th century BCE. meltBanana 23:18, 22 September 2008 (UTC)

Space exploration

_{<Question Moved to the Science Desk> Fribbler (talk) 12:57, 22 September 2008 (UTC)}

irish surnames

[[23]]. I am concerned that the 5th and 20th name are in fact the same. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 92.16.148.143 (talk) 16:54, 22 September 2008 (UTC)

They are the same. The list has been mangled by repeated questionable edits. And the original source from The Observer, I can't seem to get that on their website any more. Fribbler (talk) 17:16, 22 September 2008 (UTC)

I was trying to go back through the history to figure it all out. It appears that 19 and 20 should be Quinn and Moore - and that even predates the addition of the reference to the Observer list. I also was unsuccessful in located that original source. I am almost positive that 20 shouldn't be "Smidt". Who knew such a trivial article would attract so much vandalism? --LarryMac | Talk 18:07, 22 September 2008 (UTC)

Name of model

I'm looking for the name of the model in an advert. It's a strange ad because there is no apparent brand name or product being sold. It features a scantily clad woman holding the moon in her hand, and the word "diesel" below her. Any know it? It's in England BTW, I saw it on the Tramlink. 79.76.159.93 (talk) 19:42, 22 September 2008 (UTC)

Are you certain there's no brand name? -- Coneslayer (talk) 19:47, 22 September 2008 (UTC)

Are you looking for the name of the woman, OP? OR the brand that is being marketed? Kushal (talk) 21:04, 22 September 2008 (UTC)

The first sentence of the OP's post is "I'm looking for the name of the model in an advert" (emphasis added). Dismas|^(talk) 03:07, 23 September 2008 (UTC)

There is apparently a brand of jeans called Diesel. Their advert here involves the moon or some similar celestial object. Did the word "diesel" look like the logo on that image? Was the model in the advert wearing jeans? (Oops, I just noticed that Coneslayer has already pointed you in the same direction.) Deor (talk) 13:30, 23 September 2008 (UTC)

I know the ad you're talking about. I'll try and get a picture on my way home so others might be able identify for you. JessicaThunderbolt 13:39, 23 September 2008 (UTC)

NFL and MLB

Why some teams are belong to American side and others are belong to National? What is the difference between National and American? Why Toronto is called an American while Montreal was called National? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 142.204.74.94 (talk) 20:26, 22 September 2008 (UTC)

Your title references the NFL, but your question doesn't seem to mention anything about (American) football. Major League Baseball (MLB) comprises two leagues, the National League and the American League. The Montreal Expos were created as a National League team simply because they applied for membership at a time when the NL was undergoing expansion. Similarly, the Toronto Blue Jays were awarded their franchise at a time when the AL was expanding. --LarryMac | Talk 20:34, 22 September 2008 (UTC)

For the NFL side of things, the league is divided into two conferences, named the National Football Conference and American Football Conference. Unlike MLB, these are not distinct leagues -- rules and suchlike are identical between them. The names, however, date back to the AFC's origins as the American Football League, an upstart competitor of the NFL that became significant enough that it forced a 1970 merger. At the present time, though, a team being "American" or "National" signifies nothing more than its present conference affiliation. — Lomn 20:59, 22 September 2008 (UTC)

The only significant difference between the American and National leagues is the use of the designated hitter. Rmhermen (talk) 21:50, 22 September 2008 (UTC)

The National League of baseball was founded in 1876; the American League became a major league in 1903. Until recently, these were two separate organizations with their own umpiring crews and rulemaking bodies. Why were the Expos assigned to the NL? Don't know; I'm sure there was a reason why Montreal and San Diego were put in the NL while Kansas City and the Seattle Pilots were put in the AL. Toronto was added to the AL because that was the only league that expanded in 1977. They added two teams, and it's hard to make schedules for an odd number of teams, so they added both teams to the AL. -- Mwalcoff (talk) 23:48, 22 September 2008 (UTC)

Another difference is the "1 o'clock" AM rule in the AL. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.88.205.224 (talk) 12:06, 23 September 2008 (UTC)

The correct date for the American league becoming a major league is 1901; 1903 was the first World Series between the two leagues. Montreal ended up in the National League because the AL was first to chose its expansion teams in 1968, picking KC and Seattle. Montreal joined the process late and the two spots left to fill were in the NL. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 207.236.147.118 (talk) 18:29, 23 September 2008 (UTC)

Paying rent

My 24 year old son (from a previous marriage) lives with my husband and I. He pays us $200. a month in rent. Not because we need the money, more to teach him responsibility. He started working out of town this week (he pays for a hotel room 4 nights a week) and doesn't plan on comming home most weekends (opting to stay with friends in the area instead). Should he still pay us rent even tho he is basically never here? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 98.150.20.248 (talk) 21:49, 22 September 2008 (UTC)

Why would he pay you rent if he's not living in your house? This seems a very strange question... --Tango (talk) 22:24, 22 September 2008 (UTC)

-There may the occassional weekend that he does come home and the majority of his things will still be here. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 98.150.20.248 (talk) 22:39, 22 September 2008 (UTC)

Well, you could charge him for storage and per night, but it would seem petty to me. He's not staying with you because he doesn't want to support himself, he's just coming home to visit his parents, by the sound of it. Most parents complain their children don't visit enough, charging him to visit would be an unusual parenting style... --Tango (talk) 22:45, 22 September 2008 (UTC)

Thanks....I agree with you. I'm simply gathering ammo for the possible disagreement that may occur with my spouse. lol Thanks again! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 98.150.20.248 (talk) 22:51, 22 September 2008 (UTC)

The storage is probably most likely to be an issue - your spouse might not like having your son's stuff stored in the house as though he's living there when he's not actually living there. Perhaps you could entice him to pack a lot of his stuff to be kept as storage. That might ameliorate the issue a bit more. Steewi (talk) 02:57, 23 September 2008 (UTC)

If he had a traditional landlord/tenant relationship, he would still owe the landlord the rent every month. If you're trying to teach him responsibility, why not charge him the $200 each month whether he's there or not? What are you teaching him otherwise? That as long as he's related to the landlord, he can get free storage for his stuff whether he "lives" there or not? That's not how the outside world works, so what really are you teaching him? Dismas|^(talk) 03:04, 23 September 2008 (UTC)

I disagree, the "outside world" includes families and most families won't ask for storage charges or put a kids belongings on the front lawn as soon as he moves out. Depending on the space you have I would get him to go through his belongings and pack them in crates you can store in the attic or somewhere. When my daughter moved out we got her to sort things into categories of rubbish, e-bay, charity shop, things to store and things to take. She made £50 on e-bay, a considerable donation to charity and had a surprising amount of rubbish tucked away in her room! We now store some crates in the attic and will probably keep them until she has a more permanent address. -- Q Chris (talk) 09:40, 23 September 2008 (UTC)

I also disagree with Dismas. One's parents can never be traditional landlords (which doesn't mean I'm against charging rent to adult children who live with their parents). Providing free storage for stuff is part of what family members sometimes do for each other. One way you can show your husband that your son has moved out, is by starting to use the room, for instance for storing some of your own stuff there. Keep the bed there of course, because I guess you still want your son to be able to stay the night when he comes. Good luck with your husband! --Lova Falk (talk) 18:00, 23 September 2008 (UTC)

If the rent really isn't about the money then continue to charge him rent but keep the rent money stashed away. You could always return it to him when he wants to put a down payment on a house or security for his own apartment.--droptone (talk) 11:37, 23 September 2008 (UTC)

pebble tec

folks have made comments about the swimming pool finish called pebble tec, but i cannot find them ... HELP???

http://www.pebbletec.com/ —Preceding unsigned comment added by 98.150.20.248 (talk) 22:41, 22 September 2008 (UTC)

Dear OP,

Please explain what your did to try to find this? I mean, I went to the most well known search engine on the planet (Google.com) and typed "pebble tec" into the only available space and pressed the RETURN key. http://www.pebbletec.com was the first AND second result it returned. How the heck did you not find them? Your computer skills are clearly good enough to find the Wikipedia help desk. How the heck is it possible that you didn't try google?!?!

SteveBaker (talk) 00:55, 23 September 2008 (UTC)

Is it possible this is an advertisement? --Scray (talk) 01:39, 23 September 2008 (UTC)

's good to know that Wikipedia is more popular than Google or that swimming pool finish (thing). --Ouro (blah blah) 05:53, 23 September 2008 (UTC)

September 23

McCowan Subway Station

Why is there a McCowan and Scarborough centre station if they are 600 metres apart, there is an elevator at the Scarborough Centre Station, the 4 bus routes that stop at McCowan also stop at Scarborough and there are 9 more stations there and a bus terminal? Also there is connection to Go transit and a mall from Scarborough. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 99.247.0.42 (talk) 00:47, 23 September 2008 (UTC)

Well, crossing the road either way is kind of a pain in the ass, so maybe it was useful to have another stop after the mall (although according to McCowan (TTC) it is one of the least busiest stops). Maybe the RT was supposed to go farther, it's not unheard of to have stops that close elsewhere, like downtown; maybe they expected Scarborough to grow faster. Maybe McCowan was supposed to be the spot where the trains turn around, not a station, but they put one there anyway. Adam Bishop (talk) 03:10, 23 September 2008 (UTC)

Bush's SAT Scores

What did President George W. Bush score on his SAT I and II's? Acceptable (talk) 01:19, 23 September 2008 (UTC)

Bush is about 30 years to old to have taken those tests. Rmhermen (talk) 01:25, 23 September 2008 (UTC)

Say what? Bush would have been at the age to take the tests in around 1963 or 1964; the tests certainly existed then. Of course they were called something slightly different (probably Scholastic Aptitude Test and Achievement Tests). --Trovatore (talk) 01:33, 23 September 2008 (UTC)

The SAT I and II were created in 1994 according to the article. They are not scored the same or cover the same subject matter as the old tests. Rmhermen (talk) 01:39, 23 September 2008 (UTC)

That's an absurdly pedantic approach to take to the question. The SAT I and II are the direct successors to the Scholastic Aptitude Test and the Achievement Tests. --Trovatore (talk) 01:45, 23 September 2008 (UTC)

Hey, if it's not pedantic non-answers, it's not the Ref Desk! --98.217.8.46 (talk) 02:11, 23 September 2008 (UTC)

566 verbal and 640 math. And here is his transcript from Yale. Plasticup ^T/C 03:06, 23 September 2008 (UTC)

Is it rational to hypothesize that being the son of the President certainly aided in his entry into both Yale and Harvard Business School? Acceptable (talk) 03:09, 23 September 2008 (UTC)

As his father was not President at the time of his admission to either of those institutions, no. Plasticup ^T/C 03:13, 23 September 2008 (UTC)

It is worth mentioning that in 1964 Yale wasn't requiring (or paying any heed to) SATs. Jews were doing well on standardized tests and the entrenched antisemitic establishment was rejecting the tests as a way to keep them out. Interesting, Jews are now one of the most over-represented minorities in current Ivy League faculties. Some prejudices dissolve away so fast, yet others persist for centuries. Plasticup ^T/C 03:38, 23 September 2008 (UTC)

It is rational to hypothesize that his being a legacy student helped (legacy preferences are often an "affirmative action" for the rich and white). And his father being politically connected (and rich) couldn't have hurt. --98.217.8.46 (talk) 13:24, 23 September 2008 (UTC)

Interesting fact. At Yale (and presumably other Ivy League schools) legacy students have higher test scores than non-legacy students. Make of that what you will. Plasticup ^T/C 16:12, 23 September 2008 (UTC)

Subsequent question on Bush's SAT

Given that i've heard the 'because of his daddy' thing about a milion times from people and considering the above responses here's my Q: Was Bush's SAT (or whatever) scores notably worse than his fellow students at Yale joining that year? What % of students entering Yale that year had scores around his level? What % of all students entering the university system had scores at his level? I would note - I don't understand the idea that Bush is unintelligent. His academic skills may (if the evidence mounts up) be lacking, but it seems evident that he is at least socially-intelligent. 194.221.133.226 (talk) 13:47, 23 September 2008 (UTC)

Out of a country of 300 million people wouldn't it be possible to find a person who was both socially intelligent and actually intelligent? — Preceding unsigned comment added by DJ Clayworth (talk • contribs)

This shows current ranges for the middle 50% of Yalies. Of course the test has changed, but the scores are (I assume) normalized. With that in mind, Dubya seems to be, as Bob Uecker used to say, "Just a bit outside". Clarityfiend (talk) 17:43, 23 September 2008 (UTC)

The scores were recentered in 1995, so you can't directly compare scores from the two eras. -- Coneslayer (talk) 17:56, 23 September 2008 (UTC)

Taming budgerigars/parakeets

I have 7 baby budgerigars (yeah, that's what happens when you have a boy and a girl) and I was wondering what the easiest way to tame them was. They're pretty afraid of me and when I try to take them out of the cage they fly around. I don't want to traumatize them being to forceful trying to take them out, and I want them to be able to trust me enough to not fly away. Do you have any advice for me? --Sapphire Flame (talk) 12:33, 23 September 2008 (UTC)

This site seems okay. Hope it helps! Utan Vax (talk) 13:01, 23 September 2008 (UTC)

BA planes that fly from Heathrow to Munich

Can anyone tell me the make/type of short haul plane that flies from Heathrow to Munich for BA? If it helps, the flight numbers are usually around BA0948 to BA0956. I've tried looking at the fleet on the BA website, but to no avail. Any help much appreciated, thank you in advance. Utan Vax (talk) 12:57, 23 September 2008 (UTC)

Go the BA website, and start booking flights from Heathrow to Munich. After picking your dates, it will list all of the flights on each day. Click on the flight number (e.g. "BA0950") and you'll get a pop-up window that includes the equipment type. It looks to me like Airbus A319/A320 are typical. -- Coneslayer (talk) 13:03, 23 September 2008 (UTC)

That's great! Thanks very much. Utan Vax (talk) 14:58, 23 September 2008 (UTC)

Indian book

Dear Wikipedians,

i'm still searching for a book, which is mentioned in this online article: 125 years later Indian circus struggles to survive, The Hindu (2004): Pravin Walimbe: The World of Circus. Well i've searched in all online catalogues I know (WorldCat and so on) and with search engines but I couldn't found anything. I've written to The Hindu but no answer. Maybe it's on hindi? I've found alternative spellings (Praveen Valimbe or Pravin Valimbe). Any indian librarian here ;) ? I want to know the publisher, the publishing year and maybe (if it’s given) an ISBN. Or maybe somebody can find a contact adress of the author. Thanks in advance for your help! --130.133.152.127 (talk) 13:46, 23 September 2008 (UTC)

Democracy and Republic

I don't see much difference between these democracy and republic political philosophies. Is it really possible to directly relate, election campaigns, or the way candidates are going to solve national issues (like outsourcing, energy, global warming, etc.) to these philosophies? --V4vijayakumar (talk) 13:48, 23 September 2008 (UTC)

Do you mean US Democratic Party and US Republican party and their political philosophies? I don't know about the US but in the Uk major political parties produce an Election Manifesto that outlines their policies and ideas for how to deal with the major issues/running of the country. I suspect the same will be true in the US. The parties will be looking to offer policies that are popular with their core voters and also popular with swing-voters. They will also use their own political compass/ideological beliefs in how they decide what policies to promote, and the 'inner workings' of them. Traditionally parties are aligned on the political 'wings' (usually defined on the left wing or right wing). Of course parties change and there is much movement around by parties historically as the public and media influence what policies are 'important' and thus (to a degree) that dictates how the parties line-up. E.g. in the UK nowadays most major parties seek to be 'low tax' - because that is what is favoured by much of the public. Previously this was not always favoured and the Uk was more 'socialist' in its taxation policy. 194.221.133.226 (talk) 15:31, 23 September 2008 (UTC)

At the bottom of the two parties' articles linked above, you will find links to their "2008 National Platforms". These, I think, are analogous to the "Election Manifesto" mentioned above. The describe each party's philosophy and policy goals. -- Coneslayer (talk) 17:49, 23 September 2008 (UTC)

how to place an ad?

<This question has been removed since it was an advertisement and I the poster should not receive any sort of PR however small from this question> Gunrun (talk) 17:22, 23 September 2008 (UTC)

This is the reference desk of Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. It is not a paper of any sort, and it won't advertise your book for you. Algebraist 17:08, 23 September 2008 (UTC)

Oil Depletion tax allowance.

Back in the 70s, as reported in Phillip Stern's book, "The Rape of the American Taxpayer," oil drilling companies could automatically write-off 22% of the monies they made BEFORE paying taxes. Does an oil depletion tax allowance continue to exist and if so, what is the current write-off?