Wikipedia:Reference desk/Miscellaneous

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February 12

I have 7 bumps on my head

and three bright green arrows on my head, they light up and blick, also are powered by bioeletric eels, what am I? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 152.163.100.199 (talk • contribs)

A human being who typed a riddle into the Reference Desk? ;-) -- AJR | Talk 01:00, 12 February 2006 (UTC)

a fkn freak. gelo 01:34, 12 February 2006 (UTC)

...whose talk page contains many warnings. :-( --hydnjo talk 01:46, 12 February 2006 (UTC)

Well, it is an AOL-registered IP, so it's pretty likely the messages arent for this poster. GeeJo _{(t) (c)} • 02:39, 12 February 2006 (UTC)

A gyroscopic stabilizer for dolphin biotechnology. ‣ᓛᖁᑐ 02:36, 12 February 2006 (UTC)

LOL, now you're reminding me of User:Khranus' Dolphin brain article. -- Pakaran 02:42, 12 February 2006 (UTC)

Not suitly emphazied. 12.72.246.157 09:12, 12 February 2006 (UTC)

Hey, even anons are starting to use that. What have we unleashed? DirkvdM 10:14, 12 February 2006 (UTC)

We've created a monster!! Yeltensic42 don't panic 01:18, 13 February 2006 (UTC)

A monster? -LambaJan 01:54, 16 February 2006 (UTC)

See Phrenology

Difference

In a lot of books, the subject is Wicca and Witchraft, what is the difference? I know that the difference between a wiccan and a witch is that a wiccan goes by a philosophy...

The Wicca article has some material about the differences. There's some terms and concepts explaned also. Rx StrangeLove 06:57, 12 February 2006 (UTC)

Generally the practicioners of witchcraft have been persecuted wherever they are in the world. I cannot think of a single nation where they were the bosses, and at the same time the nation believed in literacy for the masses. Thus, anything written about witchcraft tends to be by people other than the witches, so I would take with a lot of grains of salt the veracity. User:AlMac|^(talk) 11:41, 14 February 2006 (UTC)

Amazon.com

Hi guys. I live in Australia and there is this really good DVD on Amazon.com that i want to buy. i cant find the dvd at any stores here in australia, so i was hoping i could buy it from amazon.com.

however, i dont know whether they sell, ship or deliver to australia...

so could someone just clarify this for me? CAN i buy something from www.amazon.com and have it sent here? gelo 02:02, 12 February 2006 (UTC)

• Absolutely, though you'll pay through the nose for shipping. See Amazon International Shipping Rates: Australia. --Aaron 02:14, 12 February 2006 (UTC)

• By the way, I want to make sure you're aware that Australia and the United States do not use the same television transmission protocol, so unless you have a DVD player that will convert between NTSC (the American system) and PAL (the Australian system), the DVD will not display properly on your TV. In addition, your DVD player must be capable of overriding DVD region codes, which are specifically designed to prevent people in one part of the world from viewing DVDs intended for another part of the world. (The United States is Region 1; Australia is Region 4.) --Aaron 02:18, 12 February 2006 (UTC)

OK. So how can I know if my DVD player CAN play it or not? gelo 02:31, 12 February 2006 (UTC)

What's the make and model number of your DVD player, gelo? --Aaron 04:10, 12 February 2006 (UTC)

I don't know, but I'm sure the answer is on its way shortly. Unfortunately a lot of people find out the hard way about this, by being sold a DVD using a foreign region code but without any kind of marking on it to alert the buyer that it may not be suitable for a standard DVD player. I had such an experience, so now I always check before buying. (I'll get to see All About Eve one day - my time is coming.) JackofOz 03:32, 12 February 2006 (UTC)

Actually, almost all DVD players are designed to only play DVDs embedded with the region code where they were bought (players sold in America only work with Region 1 (US and Canada) DVDs, UK players only work with Region 2 (Western Europe) discs, etc.). The good news is that a majority of DVD players can be easily modified to become "region-free", often just by pressing a few buttons on the remote control in a certain order. You're not supposed to know about this of course, but thanks to the Internet, it's very easy to get the codes for your player, if they exist. Of course, solving the region code problem will not fix the NTSC/PAL problem. Unless your DVD player or television is designed to convert between the two formats on the fly, you're going to be out of luck regardless. But it should be noted that DVD players that offer that conversion, and can be region hacked, are easily available for as little as US$50. In fact, I just bought such a player a few months ago, from Amazon. --Aaron 04:19, 12 February 2006 (UTC)

I will check what make and model my dvd player are when i get home. but for now, i would like to know: is this all the same case when playing a dvd on the computer? or can a computer play any dvd whatsoever?

Probably not. The ones in North America are set to region 1. They can be set to any region up to (I think) 5 times and then they will lock in the last region used. CambridgeBayWeather (Talk) 09:09, 12 February 2006 (UTC)

However, the Internet again comes to the rescue. For most DVD readers, you can find a hacked firmware update online that will make the drive region-free. And, of course, if you use a DeCSS-based program to watch DVDs, it doesn't really matter what region your drive is set to. —Ilmari Karonen (talk) 19:02, 12 February 2006 (UTC)

All of this is to stop software piracy, of course. ^KILO-_LIMA 20:37, 15 February 2006 (UTC)

The MTV Sunday Stew

What shows are we going to expect on the MTV Sunday Night Stew?

I'm not expecting any. User:Zoe|^(talk) 03:22, 13 February 2006 (UTC)

Associated Dry Goods/May Department Stores 1986 merger

Hello,

I could really use some help for figuring out a tax basis. (I received some Associated Dry Goods stock as a childhood gift. Associated Dry Goods merged with May Department Stores in 1986, and May Department Stores merged with Federated Department Stores in 2005.) Because I received a payout for fractional shares as a result of the 2005 merger, I now need some information to use as the basis for figuring out my capital gains. The information I need is: 1)the exact date in 1986 that Associated Dry Goods merged with May Department Stores, and 2)the price per share of May Common Stock on that date. I can't tell you how much I would appreciate it if you could e-mail me this information at Darjimbea@aol.com. Thanks so much!Darjimbea@aol.com 03:26, 12 February 2006 (UTC)

It appears that according to this New York Times story, the merger was approved around October 3 or 4, and the deal was for ADG holders to get 1.72 shares of May for each share they held... perhaps you already knew that. I think to get that price per share you may need to go to the library and pull the October 3 1986 stock prices from whatever newspaper is available. I'm not expert on the exact tax strategy problem you are facing, but a little brief reading indicates that this is an arena where the IRS would have the same difficulty as you in determining the cost basis; as long as you do not grossly underestimate the gains (and therefore underestimate the tax liability) the IRS will accept your calculation on faith. (Although IANAL, IANACPA, cross my heart and hope to die.) KWH 00:46, 13 February 2006 (UTC)

Gaining access to military records of a family member

We are trying to learn more about our brother who was in the First Marines during WWII - he rec'd two purple hearts - was blown off a cliff in Bouganvillea. The family is wanting more information on our brother (he is deceased) Whom can we contact in the Military or public information center? KNC

Check here for a start: http://www.archives.gov/st-louis/military-personnel/ CrypticBacon 04:56, 12 February 2006 (UTC)

Taiwan seems to only be highly developed on the western coast.

Why is it virtually all Urban on just the west coast of Taiwan? Why are the inlands and eastern coasts almost all rural? --Shultz 04:30, 12 February 2006 (UTC)

• For military used,mainly. This is one of the reasons. Belows are for refering to.--HydrogenSu 11:57, 12 February 2006 (UTC)

因為台灣早期的政府(KMT)為了要與中共*(PRC)對抗 選擇把所有的軍事重地 設在西部.

如南方的鳳山 是可以和未來美軍登陸協同作戰(大概由菲律賓駐紮之美軍 由屏東港登入).

而且台灣位居世界重要戰略地位. 一但被共產世界攻佔 將嚴重威脅世界安全.

目前我國總統陳水扁(President Bien) 為了個人私人的政治利益 擅自意慾廢除"國統會" 勢必嚴重威脅台海安全 與世界安全 利益等. 我身為台灣人 非常憂心. 希望不會發生任何戰爭 確保世界和平.

並希望美國政府(USA)能夠及時阻止陳水扁荒唐的作為.

--HydrogenSu 11:39, 12 February 2006 (UTC)

• Ummm, why are you speaking in that language at the en.wikipedia? hydnjo talk 01:53, 13 February 2006 (UTC)

It is common for coasts to be more urban than inland areas; people have always been drawn to bodies of water to use for transportation (well, since they've had boats, at any rate). I don't know why the west coast would be more urban than the east coast, but it could be because it is facing the mainland, where the earliest inhabitants would have arrived from. Yeltensic42 don't panic 06:12, 12 February 2006 (UTC)

The islands geological features play an important part. Taiwan is very mountainous in the center and the east. On the other hand, the western part of the island has gently sloping plains making farming and travel easier. Most of the major cities are located in the west because of the advantages the geology brings. There is a larger number of native populations in the east however. [1] [2]. Rx StrangeLove 06:45, 12 February 2006 (UTC)

The distribution of major urban centres on one coast is common to many countries, for historical, resource-related or other reasons. Have a look at a few countries - in Australia, the best farming land is on the east coast, and that's where most of the population lives. Same in New Zealand. In the US, much of the poopulation is still in the historically important north-east, and similarly Canada's is in the area just north-east of the Great Lakes. Taiwan has the resource-rich area in the West and - for psychological reasons - they might like to keep Mainland China where they can metaphorically keep a closer eye on it. Grutness...wha? 08:25, 12 February 2006 (UTC)

Of course, now California is the most populous U.S. state (even though New York is still the largest city) and the sunbelt is growing the quickest; it seems that the population of the U.S. is spreading itself thinner over the available land. Yeltensic42 don't panic 17:33, 12 February 2006 (UTC)

California only has the largest population because it has the largest area (except for Alaska, which is too far north to be populous). If the East Coast had a state the size of California (say where New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Deleware, Maryland, the District of Columbia, Virgina, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia are), then that state would be more populous. 18:46, 12 February 2006 (UTC)

Actually, Texas is also bigger than California. California is the most populous because most people agree that it has the best climate. After it started getting crowded, they started moving to Florida, which I guess is meant to be sort of a poor man's California. Yeltensic42 don't panic 01:23, 13 February 2006 (UTC)

In California, you can survive without air conditioning. User:Zoe|^(talk) 03:25, 13 February 2006 (UTC)

Kinda really depends where you are. Weeks of 90 to 100 degree (F, of course) in parts of LA are survivable, perhaps, but most unpleasant without air conditioning. The Central Valley (where much of the agriculture is) has average highs of around 100 in the summer as well. There's a lot of California that doesn't benefit much (if at all) to its proximity to the Pacific Ocean. --jpgordon∇∆∇∆ 04:00, 13 February 2006 (UTC)

There's a reason why Florida was the least populous state in the South until around 1930...and why few moved here until the 1960s. Yeltensic42 don't panic 04:05, 13 February 2006 (UTC)

HCE

Is Hyper-Cerebral Electrosis real, or just a joke?

A paragraph at Exploding head tags it as a "persistent urban myth". CrypticBacon 04:59, 12 February 2006 (UTC)

The Craft

Wow! I just saw the film, it's great, is there a website with the spells? I looked up the craft on Wike, but it only had the imdb thing as an external link, can anyone help? Cheers

It's fiction. There might be something out there about the spells, but you won't be able to get them to work (I'd gladly bet a hundred dollars against a used kleenex that you can't). -- Pakaran 06:08, 12 February 2006 (UTC)

Meaning that 'real' witchcraft isn't fiction? DirkvdM 10:17, 12 February 2006 (UTC)

Meh I've done a few spells that've worked, I'd appreciate it if you wouldn't insult what people believe/religions.

Would these spells happen to be things that have perfectly valid and logical natural explanations? I'm betting "yes" on that one.  Run!  11:23, 12 February 2006 (UTC)

I just did a spell to keep the Sun from exploding, and sure enough, it didn't explode ! StuRat 18:36, 12 February 2006 (UTC)

It will eventually, a few billion years from now. STURAT IT'S ALL YOUR FAULT! Proto||type 12:56, 15 February 2006 (UTC)

I'm not insulting religion. I'm stating that basing a magical experiment on a fictional movie may be misguided. -- Pakaran 21:33, 12 February 2006 (UTC)

Car stats 2005

How many people died in the United States from car accidents in 2005? (And at what age on average?)

How many people were injured in the United States from car accidents in 2005?

Thanks for helping.

--- Bryan

I had trouble finding any 2005 information. We might have to wait a while before it becomes more widely available. But for 2004 stats, see http://www.iii.org/media/hottopics/insurance/test5/?table_sort_748377=7. It also breaks down the fatalities into age groups. In terms of injuries, this is a hard statistic to obtain considering the definition of an "injury" can be subjective. But a rough estimate given on this page state it as 3 million. - Akamad 19:35, 12 February 2006 (UTC)

This was someone else's question and I sneaked the age-question in with the purpose of pointing out the shocking facts to people, but it worked better than I hoped. The first 'key fact' mentioned in the first link above is Motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of death for people ages three to 33.

What could be done about this? Speed limits, seat belts, coming down hard on drunken driving and many other approaches have already had their effect (in the 1970's the death toll was about a four- or five-fold of what it is now). So what else can we do? Fewer cars would be one idea. But we don't want to curtail people's mobility, so we'd have to put more people in one car. Another idea would be a professional driver at the wheel. And what do we get then? Right, public transportation.

If the enormous death toll among young people doesn't impress you, think of the cost of losing those lives, supporting the handicapped who survived and the cars themselves of course. Or the air pollution being a health problem for people living near busy car lanes (effectively turning them into heavy smokers) and probably causing a climate change. Or losing time when commuting because you have to drive the car, causing you to loose something like an hour every day, that could be spent in a useful way in a train or cab.

The unwillingness to seriously tackle the problems caused by the holy cow have created a situation in which there's loads of room for improvement. So why don't we? The objection I hear most is that public transport is so lousy, it's for losers. But that's precisely my problem. Make it large-scale, standardised and with a fine grid and high frequency and it'll be better than having a private car. Among the thousands of big cities in the world where this could work, there isn't a single one that has made a serious effort. If only one would try it, that would be enough to convince the rest of the world. Just the one. Just this one hurdle needs to be taken. Anyone? (any mayors reading this?)

There, I've said my thing.  :) DirkvdM 20:48, 12 February 2006 (UTC)

Dirk, you should go to Paris, Berlin, or Munich. They have fantastic, widely used public transport systems, combining light rail, metro, buses and trams which completely trump car use even out to the medium-distance suburbs. But that only happens because the government invested very heavily in the infrastructure, and because the cities are compact (relative to their population) - you would have trouble doing the same thing in a sprawling mess such as Houston. — QuantumEleven | (talk) 08:51, 14 February 2006 (UTC)

If you're from Houston you might find the public transport in those cities impressive (I haven't been to Houston, but if it's comparable to Phoenix I sympathise with you - public transportation is even totally non-existent there on Sundays). But compared to what a lot of third world countries have it's quite pathetic. And the train-network is nothing compared to the Netherlands. Third world countries don't have a lot of private cars, so public transport is a whole lot better there than in Europe (which in turn is a whole lot better then North America). But even that is not what I have in mind, namely all transportation of people in one integrated system that transports several people per car, where you can get on and off less than 100 m from your point of origin and destination (exactly door-to-door would probably not work). You too are reasoning from the existing forms of public transportation, which, like I said, is always a problem here. Maybe another term should be used. I'm thinking more of a system of taxi sharing, possibly with minivans. DirkvdM 12:59, 14 February 2006 (UTC)

If you want to reduce accident deaths and injuries, one other thing that could be done is making the fitment of Electronic stability control for all cars compulsory. Of course, it wouldn't make such a big difference if people actually knew how to drive, but that's too much to hope for. --Robert Merkel 00:03, 13 February 2006 (UTC)

I didn't know about that, but it seems like something very complex that will have little effect (then again I can hardly judge that by the article). But another 'intelligent car' solution is that train of cars that completely takes over the driving (except for the first car maybe). Alas I forgot the name. Cars that happen to be going the same way team up to form a train, with minimal distance between the cars. This, of course, requires automation. But I've seen working prototypes. There's still one person in each car, but the cars are close together, causing less air friction and therefore fuel consumption (and thus cost, climate change and health hazard). And if the first car makes a mistake the closeness of the cars actually makes them safer (though the other one is probably screwed). And the driving is hands free, making it legal again to phone from the car. This works on highways, but probably not (yet) in cities. It would be a start, though, but not as easily implemented as a good public transportation. And of course the two could be combined. But does anyone know the name for this system? DirkvdM 08:32, 13 February 2006 (UTC)

You're looking for automated highway system. It's still a prototype, and likely many years from widespread implementation, because it requires extensive modification of the infrastructure. — QuantumEleven | (talk) 08:51, 14 February 2006 (UTC)

That's it, thanks. Like you say, it will take some time to implement this and like I said it won't work everywhere (or else it will take ven longer to develop). So a solution like I propose above with oof-the-shelf material and infrastructure is for now the way to go. If only one city somewhere would implement it, its superiority could be proven. DirkvdM 12:59, 14 February 2006 (UTC)

Bliss desktop from Napa Valley?

The article on Bliss - the default wallpaper that Windows XP comes with, claims that its taken from a photograph taken in in the Napa Valley region. Based on this I had added this info in the Windows XP and Napa Valley articles also. But looks like this may not be true and there are counter-arguments at Talk:Bliss (image). I searched at the Microsoft site and websites related to Napa Valley, but there is no mention of the fact that the photo is from the valley. Any clues as to the correct source? Jay 11:45, 12 February 2006 (UTC)

Blocke ads

Go to 33 pol. There should be two pictures. The one on the right I can see fine but the one on the left is saying blocked ads. When I follow the link I also see "blocked ads". If I click on the link on the image page it opens in a blank page and if I try to save it a window opens and closes too fast to see what happened and nothing is save. The picture on the right is fine and I can, if I wanted to, save it. I'm on XP with a IE based (Maxthon) browser. Any ideas why ones ok and the other is not. CambridgeBayWeather (Talk) 11:54, 12 February 2006 (UTC)

Your firewall or browser is blocking it. The url for the image is http:/upwiki/wikipedia/en/thumb/a/ad/Seosehpol_inside_night.jpg/250px-Seosehpol_inside_night.jpg. That "ad" in there makes the firewall think it's advertising. ☢ Ҡi∊ff⌇↯ 11:59, 12 February 2006 (UTC)

That'll teach me not to look proper! I knew that yestrday. I will of course hhave myself suitly emphazi right away. But why are some images loaded into a directory with ad in them? CambridgeBayWeather (Talk) 12:29, 12 February 2006 (UTC)

It's the browser setting. I finally mananged to find IE (I'm at work) and sure enough the picture works. Which makes me wonder how many other people have this problem without knowing why. CambridgeBayWeather (Talk) 12:32, 12 February 2006 (UTC)

It's the first byte of the cryptographic hash of the picture, converted to hexadecimal. So, ad is in fact 0xad, or 173 in decimal. Around 1 in 256 pictures will have that directory name. It's not MediaWiki-specific; I've seen other sites that use exactly the same kind of system. --cesarb 16:59, 12 February 2006 (UTC)

gardening

How does high altitude (8200 ft.) affect the choice of plants for a garden 20 miles from Boulder, CO (5000 ft.)? -S.T.

Books on rock gardening have suggestions for plants that live in mountainous regions. —Keenan Pepper 16:53, 12 February 2006 (UTC)

HMS Ganges

Where would i find the rcruitment list of HMS Ganges? Years 1902-1914. Hms Ganges Assoc.,National archives,& Veterans Agency don't hold them. Was it done in various towns, cities throughout UK? Regards, Owen

Chuck e Cheese locations

Hello my name is David and I am trying to settle a bet with a friend of mine.

I know there was a Chuck e Cheese location in Burlington Ontario Canada at or around the year of 1980. I have looked on there official website but can come up with no answers. Can you please give me the address where is was located?

Thank you so very much for your time.

If you don't get lucky and find someone here who remembers the place, then I would suggest contacting a public library in Burlington and ask if they have phone books or business directories from that period, and can look up the address. --Anonymous, 19:00 UTC, February 12, 2006.

are their such books

hello wikipedians i have two questions about books which may or may not exist THE FIRST was mentioned on mystery science thearter 3000 a woman was reading a book called the beast in the jungle about a man who has been looking for something special in his life with a woman whom he likes the woman dies and he ends standing in front of the womans grave realizing she was the thing he was looking for all his life.the second is about a group of prisoners of war who have make their dreamhouse to keep from going crazy. PLEASE TELL ME DO THESE BOOKS EXIST OR NOT.

The Beast in the Jungle is the title of a novella by Henry James and is probably the source of your show. I don't recognize the other plot. alteripse 18:31, 12 February 2006 (UTC)

The second sounds reminiscent of The Bridge on the River Kwai, although that was of course about building a bridge, not a house. --BluePlatypus 19:16, 12 February 2006 (UTC)

windows clock question

when a turn off my pc, and then turn on the pc again, the PC is on the same day and time, how i fix this??

Isn't that how its supposed to be ? The PC should always give the current time and not be affected by rebooting. Jay 20:07, 12 February 2006 (UTC)

Yes. but my PC show the same time of when he was turned off, not the curent time and day.

Possibilities include:

• defective CMOS battery. Solution: replace battery
• weird NTP problem. Solution: turn off your NTP client

-- Finlay McWalter | Talk 20:26, 12 February 2006 (UTC)

I had a 1979 VW Rabbit with the same problem. It had an analog clock which stopped when the car was turned off. Apparently the battery voltage alone was insufficient to power the clock. StuRat 21:06, 12 February 2006 (UTC)

Your Rabbit had a clock? My family's '81 doesn't, although it does have a fuel injection system and a pretty little decal bragging about it.

—WAvegetarian•_{CONTRIBUTIONS}^TALK• ^EMAIL•22:43, 12 February 2006 (UTC)

If your PC is getting old, it'll almost certainly be the CMOS battery. They are usually quite straightforward to replace. --Shantavira 09:19, 13 February 2006 (UTC)

why don`t they make them all the same

hi was reading gelo3`s question about a dvd he wanted to buy and i was wondering why don`t they make dvds and dvd players so they could play anywhere in the world.

Regional lockout explains. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 19:52, 12 February 2006 (UTC)

Not very well, it doesn't. I'm no fan of region coding, but the Regional lockout article is, to my eye, unreadably POV. Some explanation of the manufacturers' goals behind these schemes (no matter how much we as consumers might disagree with those goals) would render the article less POV and, incidentally, make it useful as an answer to this question. Steve Summit (talk) 21:45, 12 February 2006 (UTC) [P.S. Okay, yes, there is a little "Advantages for producers" section; I didn't notice that at first.]

Well, actually, they do. Except that they're of the computer variety and you're thinking of stand-alone machines for video only. And then for just one video format. A computer can handle all types just a matter of software. The only reason for a stand-alone machine is that you might not want to have a computer in your living room. DirkvdM 13:03, 14 February 2006 (UTC)

question about superman

my brother said that the superman doens't fly, he use your another abilities in some way to fly, this is true??

I believe that in the original version, the planet Krypton was supposed to have had much greater gravity than Earth, so the "people" from there were much more muscular and could jump great distances in the low gravity of Earth. As evidence of this, the phrase "able to jump tall buildings" was used in the intro to Superman, and being able to jump tall buildings would be quite trivial to anyone who could fly, wouldn't it ? In later versions, they seem to have done away with all this theory and just allowed him to fly without any explanation. StuRat 21:00, 12 February 2006 (UTC)

It supposedly has something to do with Krypton having a red sun and Earth having a yellow sun. Superman's powers don't work on any world with a red sun. User:Zoe|^(talk) 03:29, 13 February 2006 (UTC)

(nerd hat on) Unless things have changed since Byrne's '86 reboot, Superman is basically somebody with crazy-ass telekenesis that is "channeled" to allow him to do certain things like fly, be very strong, etc. His flight is telekinetic, not biological -- he's using the power of his mind to move himself around, not negating gravity physically or expelling a gas or something. (nerd hat off, checks for 'hat head')66.129.135.114 14:22, 17 February 2006 (UTC)

That sounds like yet another, more recent, explanation. He apparently changes back stories as often as his cape. StuRat 00:28, 19 February 2006 (UTC)

Exodus 2006

As I was browsing the web late one night I stumbled across this site:

http://www.exodus2006.com/

At first I looked at the site with mild amusement. Apparently, its a site seeking to make people aware that the world is coming to an end, and offering various proofs to back its case up.

The page on the Bible Code has no information on various codes that proponents claim to hold water. In fact, the Exodus2006 site has a number of codes that they claim were found in advance of events that they describe.

I tried to get some information from the Bible Code page on Wikipedia, but it really didn't answer my question about how valid could these claims possibly be? Are they worth getting worked up over? Or is it likely that these same people found codes that actually werent valid, and silently removed them from the site?

--Shadarian 22:14, 12 February 2006 (UTC)

It's crap, ignore it. StuRat 01:02, 13 February 2006 (UTC)

You might be interested in timeline of unfulfilled Christian Prophecy. My opinion is that, as StuRat said, these claims are total rubbish and should be put back into the metaphysical limbo where they came from. — QuantumEleven | (talk) 08:42, 14 February 2006 (UTC)

TBA

Where exactly is the TBA in Canberra?

The Traditional birth attendant or the Trockenbeerenauslese? GeeJo _{(t) (c)} • 23:29, 12 February 2006 (UTC)

Perhaps the location is yet To Be Announced. --Canley 01:05, 13 February 2006 (UTC)

If I were a betting man, I'd say you might be looking for the TAB (ie. off-course betting shop, see also Australian punting glossary)? It's known as ACTTAB, and there are many outlets. Just ask somebody, or check in the phone book. JackofOz 01:50, 13 February 2006 (UTC)

4 Elephants and a Tortoise

This Uncyclopedia "view of the earth from space" http://uncyclopedia.org/wiki/Image:Earth-orbit.JPG with 4 Elephants and a Tortoise supporting a flat earth is a parody of something i've seen before, but for the life of me i cannot remember what. This is starting to annoy me, does anyone have idea what it is? :) -Benbread 23:00, 12 February 2006 (UTC)

Possibly the Discworld? Or perhaps jsut the myth it was based on (though you have to wonder what the turtle is standing on. GeeJo _{(t) (c)} • 23:23, 12 February 2006 (UTC)

February 13

Wikipedia vs. Microsoft

Does anyone know what the large paired valleys and peaks in this Alexa rank graph might represent? The valleys correspond to a drop in page views for Microsoft (but not Wikipedia), while the peaks correspond to an increase in page views for both. [3] ‣ᓛᖁᑐ 01:53, 13 February 2006 (UTC)

• Weekends. If you poke around on Alexa, you'll notice that most sites have big troughs every seven days. Microsoft is probably one of the few sites relatively immune to that trend given that so many people need to access microsoft.com at all times of the day and night in order to fix problems with Windows. (And I presume Internet Explorer loads some microsoft.com site as its default home page out of the box, which a lot of people probably never bother to change.) --Aaron 05:40, 13 February 2006 (UTC)

• Interesting thought but I'm not sure that explains the graph as there is one peak and one dip (per website) over the course of a month. There should be at least four of each (per website) for that theory to hold. Oooooh - extend the range of the graph and the relationship goes back for about half a year.  Run!  09:58, 13 February 2006 (UTC)

I suspect artifacts in the Alexa internet data, either in their raw data collection (which is not unbiased, and subject to all sorts of anomalies) or perhaps due to changes in the way they crunch it. There were other weird anomalies in December-January for other sites also. Steve Summit (talk) 15:48, 13 February 2006 (UTC)

Two sports-related questions

1) I don't watch a lot of American professional football, but this year I happened to be a captive audience for some of the playoffs. I noticed some video effects I hadn't seen before: somehow or another, the line of scrimmage is displayed in some camera views, as if it's painted on the field. Fox has a different effect that they display between plays, and it looks like the players can run over it. Is it some sort of green screen thing? Or what?

2) At the current Winter Olympics, there are now blue lines painted on the snow on the downhill and on the halfpipe. Aesthetically, they are quite unpleasant; instead of the skiers zipping down the beautiful white snow, someone's spraypainted ugliness on it. Also, on the ski run, there are sometimes lines crossing the course. What are these about?

Thanks! --jpgordon∇∆∇∆ 04:11, 13 February 2006 (UTC)

Well, it could be worse, instead of blue lines they could have used yellow spots in the snow to guide the skiers. StuRat 05:27, 13 February 2006 (UTC)

• Number 1 is 1st & Ten by Sportvision. --Aaron 05:43, 13 February 2006 (UTC)

That is just so cool. Thanks! --jpgordon∇∆∇∆ 07:06, 13 February 2006 (UTC)

I believe the ski lines are about depth perception. At the speeds the skiers are going, and largely surrounded by white, it's easy for them to become disoriented. The old solution used to be pine branches scattered near the track; I presume the blue lines are the high-tech version. DJ Clayworth 22:45, 13 February 2006 (UTC)

idiom

what is the meaning of " putting all your eggs in one basket"

Try this: [4] --Zeizmic 22:29, 13 February 2006 (UTC)

It means "try to distribute risks evenly". For example, the employees of Enron, who had their incomes, assets (in the form of Enron stock), and retirement funds all controlled by Enron, found out how bad it can be when you don't distribute risks evenly. Had they had their assets in some other form and had their own retirement accounts (IRA's, 401k's, etc.), then they would have fared much better when Enron went under.

Interestingly, there are times when it isn't advantageous to distribute risks evenly. In the literal example, putting all your eggs in one basket makes perfect sense if you need all of them for a recipe. In that case, breaking one is just as bad as breaking them all. However, if you only need one egg for the recipe, and are really clumsy, it might make sense to transport them one at a time, until you manage to deliever one unbroken. StuRat 23:33, 14 February 2006 (UTC)

the size of wikipedia

how many gigabytes/terabytes is the entire sum of wikipedia pages? how much does it grow every day?

Thanks so much.

Chris--68.121.254.253 22:20, 13 February 2006 (UTC)

Wikipedia:Reference_desk/Miscellaneous#Wikipedia_Storage.3F. Mark^{your words} 01:33, 14 February 2006 (UTC)

Who lived there?

Hello I am trying to find who lived at a certain address in the UK in the1960/70s Do you know of any website or government organisation who could supply this information? Thank you J.Chapman

Try Royal Mail, if the address is still there they'll know where it is & if it isn't they could give you the address of the local Post Office & someone there might remember where it was. AllanHainey 12:34, 14 February 2006 (UTC)

February 14

Non-Operating Business

Hi, I started a business or created a corporation on California last March but unfortunately I wasn't able to get the funding and the business has never been running and it is non-operative. I was hoping maybe someone might be able to help me I called IRS about this month's ago and they only told me that I just needed to send a letter telling them that the business is non-operating. Do I need to include this on my tax forms, where would I send the letter, do I include it with my other forms? I would appreciate any help. Thank you.

OK, I think it's bad enough when people give medical advice here, but never, ever, seek serious legal or tax advice. Ask the Enron guys, they got all their accounting advice here... --Zeizmic 00:52, 14 February 2006 (UTC

Heh, heh. Why don't you call IRS again? Or even go in and see them? Lisiate 02:18, 14 February 2006 (UTC)

Go see any accountant that prepares taxes and they can tell you what you need to do. If you had expenses in setting up the business you may be able to claim that as a business loss and a deduction on your personal return. Any basic tax question you have can be answered by going to www.irs.gov, downloading the 1040 form and it's instructions, then keep downloading additional forms and instructions as needed when they apply to your situation. See also the various publications. Of course it may or may not be worth your time to do it yourself, and that is why there are accountants. - Taxman ^Talk 14:37, 14 February 2006 (UTC)

I seem to recall that you need to amortize the expenses of starting a business over 5 years.. maybe I'm thinking of something else. Rhobite 19:08, 18 February 2006 (UTC)

If aliens were to look for the capital of our planet, would they make this mistake?

It would be understandable for an alien civilization to have a world capital, in other words, a capital of their planet.

Therefore say an exploratory ship enters our solar system and finds sentient life on one of the planets. That would be us, on Earth. They download the total sum of human knowledge by scanning our planet, and searches through all of our languages.

They see that a bell is "the ship's soul" in our culture. (I learned that a ship's bell is the soul of ships when we went over a unit about the wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald in school several years ago.) Therefore, they deduce that the "soul of our planet" must be on Earth somewhere.

Then they find a city named "Seoul", which sounds so similar to "Soul" that they think, "All right. We found it. This city MUST be the capital of planet Earth. We could assume that they regard their world capital as "the soul of their planet".

I guess to go out on a limb (in terms of typing this), they even decide to try and make contact with the planet's leader. But in order not to frighten the citizens of the metropolitan area, they send their landing craft to a narrow band of uninhabited land, ~37 miles north of Seoul to prepare to meet humans and make contact with what they believe is the leader of Earth.

So, could aliens mistakenly believe that Seoul is the soul and capital of Earth? I've been curious about this for a while now and the thought of this possibility keeps coming back. --Shultz 03:05, 14 February 2006 (UTC)

Answer - This question is very good, but unfortunatly you pass the answer in your desire to be clever with the Soul/Seoul notion. Aliens coming is definitly possible. People give aliens the ability to find our planet but do not consider how much about our infrastructure. Now back to your question, could the Aliens find the capital? Well 1) if they were given all human knowledge like you say, "through scanning", then of course they would know how our country is divided. 2) Even if they didn't they would go to the places of highest population, ergo the New York city approaches (Independance Day). Seoul is a very large city, but UN meetings and things like that could lead one to believe that maybe the is the head of the world, which as anyone on this planet knows is quite the opposite. 3) They would probably go the route of using their superior intellectual abilities to find out where humans were originally civilized. That could be many places depending on your school of thought. Africa, Egypt, Jerusalem...etc. The important question is not if they would make the mistake of going to Seoul, it's what the Aliens are doing in the first place. Are they going to go War of the Worlds on us and drain our blood onto the streets in the form of vegetation. Or will they do a K-Pax Kevin Spacey thing and just visit for "the produce".

I think that it's time for your nap now.  ;-) --hydnjo talk 03:09, 14 February 2006 (UTC)

Gee, why do you tell me THAT? Anyway, is it reasonable to assume that aliens will mistakenly believe that Seoul is the soul (hence Capital) of our planet? --Shultz 03:19, 14 February 2006 (UTC)

It's fun speculating about extraterrestrial life. I always thought it curious that, in 50's and 60's B-movies about discovering life on other planets, and TV shows like Star Trek, all the inhabitants of the alien planet spoke the same language. Why would they make that assumption, even for dramatic purposes, when our experience is so vastly different? JackofOz 03:31, 14 February 2006 (UTC)

Maybe the aliens used to all speak different languages, but over time as the planet became one nation (which also seems to be the case, usually) the languages were narrowed down to one. (After all, it's possible that in the distant future everyone on Earth will speak Mandarin or English). The other thing that's odd is how common it is for the aliens to speak English. Good thing Douglas Adams used the Babel fish to get around that. Yeltensic42 don't panic 03:49, 14 February 2006 (UTC)

No, wait! You forgot to consider the language mergings! That means in the future, all humans will speak some sort of Chinglish! Oh, the horror!! D: ☢ Ҡi∊ff⌇↯ 04:24, 14 February 2006 (UTC)

Perhaps they would choose to assume that Passo del Sole, Switzerland was it! (Emphasis on the word Sole)  ;-) --hydnjo talk 04:01, 14 February 2006 (UTC)

But they'll see that Passo del Sole isn't notable nor large enough, so they'll decide that it couldn't be the capital of the planet. Seoul has over 11 million people so they'll think that would have to be the case. --Shultz 04:20, 14 February 2006 (UTC)

This list may be of some use to you. BrokenSegue 04:35, 14 February 2006 (UTC)

Shultz, your question is unanswerable so our answers can have no meaning. We have no idea if aliens exist nor what their thought processes would be. In which case we cannot guess what their thoughts on the Capital of the world would be so any guess is as good (or as useless) as any other guess - Adrian Pingstone 09:36, 14 February 2006 (UTC)

Not to mention the outright assumption that English is the only language in the entire universe. JIP | Talk 11:20, 14 February 2006 (UTC)

Of course it is. I have no doubt in my mind that all extraterrestrials speak American English. --Optichan 14:37, 14 February 2006 (UTC)

Prosfilaes, I hope you're reading this. The reform of English spelling we've been discussing doesn't just involve this planet, it's a much bigger problem apparently. JackofOz 14:45, 14 February 2006 (UTC)

It's possible that they wouldn't have a concept of a "capital". It might be that their government is centered wherever the ruler happens to be, or that they are governed by some kind of general consensus of the population. Or something else too alien for us to think of. Even here on Earth, South Africa and the Netherlands each have multiple capitals, while some small nations (such as Singapore, Monaco and Vatican City) don't have a capital which is separate from their overall territory, and such US states as New York, Illinois, Nevada, Pennsylvania and California have a capital which is so much smaller than the financial/population center that aliens might see the later as more important (and I wouldn't necessarily disagree with them). -- Pakaran 15:47, 14 February 2006 (UTC)

• I'm sure that if aliens are smart enough to visit us, they're also smart enough to do their own homework and investigate by intercepting and deciphering our communications before assuming anything. - Mgm|^(talk) 19:48, 14 February 2006 (UTC)

• • It's obviously a plot for some kind of story / play / script / novel you're trying to write. Unfortunately, I don't think anyone would believe a race of space-faring aliens would be retarded enough to think Seoul was the soul of the planet. Particularly when it's only similar to the word 'soul' in English, which, when last I checked, wasn't the native language of South Korea. Proto||type 12:52, 15 February 2006 (UTC)

• • • Actually, in Slovak, Swedish, and Finnish, their word for "Seoul" is indeed "Soul". (The Swedish form will have a dotted accent, however.) --Shultz 18:48, 15 February 2006 (UTC)
      • Too bad the word for soul in any of those languages is something other than "soul". (And the Finnish name is sometimes also written with a dotted accent: Söul.) JIP | Talk 12:19, 16 February 2006 (UTC)

Maybe this planet is another planet's hell? ^KILO-_LIMA 20:32, 15 February 2006 (UTC)

Sub-question back to you, Shultz. How do you think they would tell who the leader of the 'capital of the world' was? (I always thought the'd pick the person with the most piercings...) 205.188.117.68 05:18, 17 February 2006 (UTC)

Joe and Chuck Scarborough

Are Joe Scarborough and Chuck Scarborough related? They share the same name and have ties to the Republican Party - Chuck donated money to Republican candidates while Joe was a congressman from Florida. Also, it is possible that Chuck Scarborough is old enough to be Joe's father - Chuck, born 1943, Joe, born 1963. Related or coincidence? --Blue387 03:32, 14 February 2006 (UTC)

Chuck is described as a 'Pittsburgh native' and has been anchor of WNBC since 1974. Joe is described as being born in Atlanta, GA and went to high school in Pensacola, FL. The postulate is not completely disproven, but signs point to 'no'. KWH 03:48, 14 February 2006 (UTC)

Is there a connection to the Master Musicians of Joujouka and pederasty?

Several people (and maybe it was in a Burroughs text, too), when mentioning the Master Musicians, often bring up the little boy, sewn up in goat skins, representing the goat god Bou Jeloud. Allegedly, he engages in sex acts with the some of the festivals participants. is there any truth to this? Am I getting it confused with some other pedophilic festival?

High grade truffles and mushrooms

How do high grade truffles taste like? How do they compare with mushrooms? --HappyCamper 04:39, 14 February 2006 (UTC)

The description in the article you linked is fairly accurate—including the bit that says "no description, however, has ever fully sufficed to make their flavor imaginable without having tasted them in some quantity." (I've had them maybe twice and have eaten truffle-infused oil a few times more.) One doesn't use them like mushrooms: the paper-thin slices that the article are a common preparation, or a pinch or two of finely-grated truffle might be sprinkled over the dish. —Charles P._(Mirv) 04:50, 14 February 2006 (UTC)

I remember once going to dinner with a group of colleagues, in Italy. One ordered a truffle rissotto, the most expensive thing on the menu. When it came - heaped high with slices of truffle - he complained "it's nothing but rice and mushrooms". I wonder what his criteria for choosing it were... Notinasnaid

What kept Hitler from invading Switzerland and Sweden?"

this question was given as the example and i want to know the answer.

And that's the reason it's been asked before as well. For one of those times, see this link. Dismas|^(talk) 05:26, 14 February 2006 (UTC)

I hope this doesn't become the next Good Burger....Yeltensic42 don't panic 19:38, 14 February 2006 (UTC)

No, that's the guy who keeps asking us why he's using songs to create his telenovelas. I keep deleting them. User:Zoe|^(talk) 22:11, 14 February 2006 (UTC)

How many car crashes are there a second in the U.S.?

How many car crashes are there a second in the U.S.?

I couldn't find numbers for the US. But for Europe it's 2 million per year costing 127 000 lives [5]. There are approximately 40 000 American lives lost on the road every year [6], therefore, an estimate would be 630 000 car crashes in the US per year (assuming that US and Europe have the same fatalities to crashes ratio). Which is 0.02 crashes per second, or about 50 seconds per crash. - Akamad 06:45, 14 February 2006 (UTC)

Based on Car Accident Statistics] there are 6,000,000+ accidents a year (40,000+ deaths) so the figures would be closer to 0.2 accidents a second and 0.02 automobile deaths a second. And a accident every 5 seconds and an an automobile death every 50 seconds. CambridgeBayWeather (Talk) 10:17, 14 February 2006 (UTC)

One problem with computing this sort of statistic is defining what you mean by a "crash". Is it a crash if you bump into the next car while crawling along at less than 1 mph and there's no damage? Or if it's 4 mph and the only damage is a tiny dent? Or a big dent, or a broken window, or a bashed-in door? Where's the cutoff? You might say the cutoff is whatever the law says about having to report the accident to the police, but that won't be the same everywhere either, not from one country to another or from one US state to another. And for that matter, do you really want only "car" crashes (and if so, is an SUV a sort of car?) or should accidents involving trucks and motorcycles count?

Okay, the European press release Akamas cites doesn't say exactly what it counts as a "crash", and it switches between talking about "road traffic crashes" and "car crashes" too. But have a look at this PDF document from the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. It tabulates all motor-vehicle crashes reported to the police in the US in 2004 (the stats for 2005 aren't available yet), and it says "Fatal - 38,253; Injury - 1,862,000; Property Damage Only - 4,281,000; Total - 6,181,000."

So if that's the statistic you want (and if not, perhaps you can find the one you want somewhere in that fat report), then it'd be about 10 times Akamad's estimate (presumably the difference is mostly for the sort of reasons I outlined, i.e. statistics on a different basis). 6,181,000 crashes per year is one crash every 5.1 seconds or, if you really want to put it that way, just under 0.2 crashes per second.

Drive safely, eh? Or even consider public transit. --Anonymous, 10:20 UTC, February 14, 2006.

This link, which was given in a recent thread a few days ago says 6 million crashes. But such data are pretty arbitrary because, as said "what constitutes a crash?" This insurance company probably bases it on reported crashes (they may have to pay for). A more interresting piece of info would be what it costs (after all, which point are you trying to make with the data?). And that was 230 billion US$ in 2000. Which is roughly 2% of the US GDP. That's an impressive figure. Losing 2% of the money you make on just this one cause! Then again, owning a car costs at least 3000 € per year (in Amsterdam - that'll be less in the US). Which is about 10% of the average GDP per capita in a western country. Imagine spending 10% of the money you make on just getting to the job and back (which represents probabbly about 80% of the normal use of a car - that's a guess, but probably not too far from the truth). DirkvdM 13:27, 14 February 2006 (UTC)

Book suggestor?

Hi. i was roaming around on a forum a while back and i came upon a guy who gave a link to this site where you input several of your favorite books/authors, and the thing takes these and recommends other books/authors that you would like.

however, i never saved the website or bookmarked it.

anyone know what this site may be? gelo 09:26, 14 February 2006 (UTC)

Amazon will do this for you based on what books you browse on their site as well as what you buy... Just a thought. Dismas|^(talk) 09:31, 14 February 2006 (UTC)

Hmm...tnx, but that wasn't it im afraid....anyone else have any clues? gelo 11:09, 14 February 2006 (UTC)

Are you thinking of Gnooks? It's explained [7] and you might want to look at Recommendation system as some of the links might help out. CambridgeBayWeather (Talk) 12:31, 14 February 2006 (UTC)

I missed this. It might be useful. CambridgeBayWeather (Talk) 12:36, 14 February 2006 (UTC)

Years ago, there was a website called Firefly.com which was probably the first application of Collaborative filtering. It was subsequently bought out by Microsoft and then shut down. The article does list several similar services though. --LarryMac 19:49, 14 February 2006 (UTC)

Kotomae in Management/ Business sense

Hi. I would appreciate it if anyone could kindly enlighten me on what is Kotomae in the field of Business Management Culture. All I know is that it is a Japanese word and is about controlling your finances by trying to foresee or forecast your expenses & investments.

Thanks. Mike --202.228.229.72 09:55, 14 February 2006 (UTC)

Happy Valentines Day

This isn't really a question, so I'll phrase it as one in order not to get queried.

Is there any reason why a person couldn't post the following statement here? :

• To all those readers and users who haven't received a Valentine today so far, and don't believe they have any reasonable prospect of getting one, and would like one ... Happy Valentines Day. There, I hope that made you feel better. Enjoy your day.

JackofOz 11:27, 14 February 2006 (UTC)

I can't think of any reason why you should not be able to post that here. So if you want to go right ahead. I don't think anyone will mind. CambridgeBayWeather (Talk) 13:06, 14 February 2006 (UTC)

Why, thank you, CBW. Consider it done. JackofOz 13:10, 14 February 2006 (UTC)

Well thanks for the kind thoughts I feel suitly emphazi. CambridgeBayWeather (Talk) 13:37, 14 February 2006 (UTC)

Oh, so that's how you feel when you get a Valentine! I've always wondered. What a revelation this site is!JackofOz 14:35, 14 February 2006 (UTC)

...and here is a very special Valentine's Day heart for each of you: [8] StuRat 23:10, 14 February 2006 (UTC)

<grumpy>I don't want any happy valentinos. That's a US thing and posting that here is cultural imperialism. </grumpy>. <somewhat more seriously>What is a valentine anyway? No, don't tell me, I don't want to know. Posting this question suggests I care!</somewhat more seriously> DirkvdM 11:24, 15 February 2006 (UTC)

Too late, try valentine. CambridgeBayWeather (Talk) 11:33, 15 February 2006 (UTC)

Have a Jill Valentine, Dirk. --Optichan 14:37, 15 February 2006 (UTC)

When I grew up I believed that "Valentine's Day" is so named in remembrance of Rudolph Valentino and his swooning fans of the 1920s. Is there a grain of truth in that? 192.121.232.252 12:08, 15 February 2006 (UTC)

Not the slightest - see St. Valentine's Day which was around a lot earlier than old Rudy. JackofOz 12:16, 15 February 2006 (UTC)

Donald Duck comics question

What is the Donald Duck comics series called where Donald and Fethry are working for a secret government institution whose job is to fight malevolent extraterrestrial aliens? The characters in the institution include a large, brown-skinned pig as the leader, a tough, hot-tempered female agent and some kind of blue alien with a snout. I know it's "Päihitämme Avaruuden Muukalaiset" in Finnish but what is it in other languages? JIP | Talk 12:25, 14 February 2006 (UTC)

The institution was called TNT (Tamers of Nonhuman Threats). I think the comics are just called the TNT series. --Canley 02:54, 15 February 2006 (UTC)

I need help with research topic

I am having a hard time finding information about a method for establishing boundries between self, relationships, friends, aquantances, and strangers. The method I want to use is called circles or boundaries. It is designed like a dart board with five different colored rings. Is their an article or other source that I can find it in? I really need this for a class project about abuse prevention.

dollar bill weight

My grandpa used to say, anytime someone would say "what do you want...",A pound of twenties. How much does a twenty dollar bill weigh? Thank you very much for any help

• Merkin money is said to weigh about 1 gram per note. One of your "pounds" is 454 grams in real units, so it's the weight of 454 notes. If they are all twenties then you'll have $9080 or about €7640 in real money. JIP | Talk 16:08, 14 February 2006 (UTC)

According to the Bureau of Engraving and Printing (the U.S. agency that prints paper money) all bills are about a gram, so a pound would be 454 notes [9]. By my own calculation, they would be worth $9,080, though I wouldn't trust that figure too much, since the given weight only has one sig dig. I weighed a new $20 bill in a Calibron X scale (handy if you're a geek interested in chemistry, and came up with almost exactly 1.1 g, so $8250 is probably closer. Clearly, there's been some inflation since your grandfather said this :). Incidentally, the hardest part of this research was folding the bill such that it would stay in the scale. -- Pakaran 16:15, 14 February 2006 (UTC)

I'll bet the humidity has a significant effect on the weight of a bill. StuRat 23:03, 14 February 2006 (UTC)

And money laundering makes the bills really soggy. --Zeizmic 01:09, 15 February 2006 (UTC)

U2 Query

> I know this is a long-shot but here goes anyway. > > On April 1st 2006 I am to be a best man to my friend, who is a lifelong > and fanatical U2 fan having travelled the globe to see > > them perform. > > The long and the short of it is, I am trying to get in touch with the band > to see if I can get some best wishes from them - especially > > Bono! > > Not sure if you can help, and I know this is a long shot, but any help would > be a good start. > > thanks for listening. > > PJR

Best wishes to the groom and his bride to be, The Edge (sorry Bono isn't here but i'm sure the rest of the lads hope the big day goes well)

More seriously, you could try contacting U2's record label, Island Records. You might have more of a chance if you offer a donation to one of Bono's pet causes if he provides the message.

You could also ask around at the fan forums at u2.com to see if anybody else has had any luck with this kind of thing, and how they went about it.--Robert Merkel 23:51, 14 February 2006 (UTC)

Economics question

What does it mean when a country (i.e. China) wants to float its currency? --Heather

Floating a currency is the opposite of binding it to another. A bound currency's value follows the value of another currency exactly, so their ratio is always the same. When a currency is floated, it is thrown at the mercy of the world's free currency market, so its value is determined on how much people want to buy it, not by the value of another currency. JIP | Talk 16:55, 14 February 2006 (UTC)

It's worth mentioning that this usually occurs only in the situation when the currency is believed to be over-valued. That is, it has been pegged at a value significantly above what it's free-market value would've been. So in practice, floating the currency works as a devaluation, at least in the short-term. --BluePlatypus 17:17, 14 February 2006 (UTC)

That's not the case in China, where their currency is thought to be consistently undervalued (to make their exports cheaper in other countries and thus help create a trade surplus for China). StuRat 22:57, 14 February 2006 (UTC)

To put this in a layperson's terms: The official exchange rate of the Comoros franc is 491.97 francs to the euro. It will remain at 491.97 until the government or central bank changes its mind. If Comoros were to float its currency, it could go up to 200 per euro or down to 49,000 per euro or whatever. -- Mwalcoff 04:33, 15 February 2006 (UTC)

A lot of former French colonies had their currency pegged to the French Franc, in keeping with the French colonial ideal that the inhabitants should become equal 'citoyens'. So the colonies were basically part of France. So even if the currency wasn't equal to the French Franc, at least it should 'float with it' (our richess is your richess, so our ups and downs should be your ups and downs). The odd exchange rate is most probably a esult of France switching to the €. Similarly, the currencies of the countries that adopted the € are now effectively pegged to each other by virtue of being the same. Which is probably a major cause for the positive development of the ecomonies of Portugal and (especially) Ireland (although subsidies played a big role here too). DirkvdM 11:33, 15 February 2006 (UTC)

Wow. Nice explinations. But not the simplest. Simplist explantion. Suppose you call the currency to be floated: BRICKS. now just apply the law of supply and demand. If you have a fixed price, the price of BRICKS is tied. Now if you very the price so that if the demand is high ( a lot of people want BRICKS ) then the price of BRICKS goes up. If the demand is low, the price of BRICKS goes down. Now read this explation again with the word DOLLARS for BRICKS. and that is the beginning of forien exchange. Read this: [10] --~~

Pabeng River

I am trying to find out what river this. All that comes up in Google search is the poem that I am researching. This is a Victorian era anglised name for a river in the Burma are during the Third Burmese War. Any ideas what the current name is or is just too small of a river to noted anywhere on the internet?--Birgitte§β ʈ Talk 17:31, 14 February 2006 (UTC)

This is just a guess, but I wonder if there's any connection with the city of Luang Prabang and Khong Phabeng waterfall, both on the Mekong River in neighbouring Laos? Perhaps Pabeng or some variety of it was an old or poetic name for the upper Mekong? Grutness...wha? 21:38, 14 February 2006 (UTC)

There's a place called Pak Beng or Pakbeng at the Mekong River too. [11] -- David Sneek 22:08, 14 February 2006 (UTC)

Unfortunately it looks like both those areas were in French territory at the time and this would be in the British sphere. --Birgitte§β ʈ Talk 12:25, 15 February 2006 (UTC)

That's true, but the Mekong does form part of Burma/Myanmar's border - and mountainous Southeast Asian border areas may not have been as rigorously demarcated in Victorian times, so the war may have spilled over slightly into IndoChine/Tonkin/whatever Laos was back then. Grutness...wha? 00:34, 16 February 2006 (UTC)

Regular expressions

I am wanting to write a number of regular expressions that contain the characters ) and |. How can I quote them so that they are taken literally? --Gareth Hughes 19:23, 14 February 2006 (UTC)

Usually special characters are escaped by using the backslash, however you have to account for any additional pre-processing being done prior to the regex processor getting ahold of your string. See | here, under Special Characters and Programming Languages. --LarryMac 19:42, 14 February 2006 (UTC)

Thank you, Larry. I was using the backslash, but I couldn't work out which characters needed escaping. The link was very helpful for helping me rewrite the expressions. --Gareth Hughes 15:12, 15 February 2006 (UTC)

snowboarding terminology

How to tell a McTwist from alley oop? Snowboarders, all forms, can write definitions for the snowboard entry. I have no idea where to begin this, but am curious after watching the Olympics.

In snowboarding, a McTwist is a general term for any 540 rotation while they grab the board - doesn't matter where, or with which hand - and they will be upside down half way through. In an alley oop, they do the same move, but they don't grab the board. Note that in skateboarding, a McTwist is a specific name for a Mute 540, where you grab the toe (left) side of the board with your right hand (or right side with your left hand if you're left footed) whilst in the air. Proto||type 12:44, 15 February 2006 (UTC)

Is this story offensive?

I heard this story at a university students' party from a woman. She said she had told it to her female friends and they considered it offensive.

There were two monkeys, one male and one female. Both had been raised among humans, so they didn't know they were monkeys, and they had never met each other. Then people decided they should mate. So they put the monkeys in the same cage. They looked at each other, but because they didn't know they were monkeys, they couldn't care less about each other. Both the male monkey and the female monkey just kept on masturbating.

I, and every other male student present, had a "yes, and?" feeling. None of us were the least offended. The female students present did not comment but I don't think they were offended either. What is your opinion about this? JIP | Talk 19:40, 14 February 2006 (UTC)

I personally do not find this offensive. However, it may be offensive to someone who considers masturbation a taboo subject due to social or religious influences. --Lox (t,c) 20:20, 14 February 2006 (UTC)

Not offensive, but not really that funny either... android79 20:46, 14 February 2006 (UTC)

That's what I thought, too. I was looking forward to hearing a humorous anecdote, such as that one with the monkeys who are sprayed with cold water whenever they reach for a banana, but then the story ended with the masturbation and I was left wondering whether there was a point. JIP | Talk 20:53, 14 February 2006 (UTC)

In my opinion, any story involving monkeys and masturbation is always funny. - Akamad 01:26, 15 February 2006 (UTC)

The woman's female friends need to "get some". --Nelson Ricardo 03:52, 15 February 2006 (UTC)

I'm not easily offended and in this case, assuming it's a true story, I don't even see any reason for offense. Would people who are offended by the use of the word 'masturbation' want to ignore some truths? I suppose there are such people, but I'd say "Fuck 'm" and of course not care if they were offended by my saying this. :) Assuming it's a true stroy I also don't see any humour in it. It's just a scientifically interresting story and I'm not too surprised either. If the monkeys were raised as peers by humans (in how far is this possible?) it makes sense that they don't see other monkeus as their peers. I just wonder about one thing. What kind of monkeys were they? Chimps can recognise themselves in a mirror. And I suppose the same goes for all apes. Now if they were apes raised in a human environment they must have encountered mirrors. So how did they deal with not looking like the humans they took themselves to be? If they did, that is, because I don't think that's necesaarily the case.

Another thing is that maybe they didn't understand the concept of sex. In a natural surrounding they would have seen their relatives and others in the group mate. When deprived of such, ehm, carnal knowledge, could they have figured out the concept of sex? Does it need figuring out? In how far is it a natural drive? Humans don't generally grow up seeing their parents mate. But they have various other ways of learning about it (eg videos of someone else's parents :) ). Suppose two humans grew up without any way to learn anout sex, would they figure it out? And don't throw Blue Lagoon at me. :) DirkvdM 11:55, 15 February 2006 (UTC)

I don't see what's offensive about it, either. Could we have a clue? I guess it'd be offensive to some people who find any sex-talk offensive. But.. Well, welcome to the 21st century already. --BluePlatypus 17:42, 15 February 2006 (UTC)

The question demonstrates that labelling something as "offensive" doesn't work. Offence is an individual emotional response to, in this case, hearing a story. Some people may feel offence when they hear it, others have different responses (humour, indifference, curiosity). A person who feels offence and who says "I find X offensive" is not describing his or her own experience, but making a judgment about something external to themself. We could never reach consensus about whether a story is "offensive" or not. But what we can all agree on is that Person A feels offence, and Person B doesn't. Therefore, if you know (or strongly suspect, which seems to be why you're asking the question in the first place) that some people do feel offence at such a story, that is a good reason to be cautious in the use of it, unless you're in the business of wilfully offending people. To paraphrase BluePlatypus from the discussion about the word 'negro': Whether the literal meaning is offensive or not is irrelevant to the connotations associated with the [story], and is no excuse to offend people by using it. JackofOz 08:45, 16 February 2006 (UTC)

Who is the person with the most degrees in the world?

I heard of a then 22-year-old Spaniard who had 56 (now probably more, or probably his head exploded due to knowledge overload ;D) and his IQ was measured at an astounding 197 level; it is quite impressive, so I wondered who had the 'Guiness record', googled for a while but didn't find anything useful. Any ideas? --GTubio 22:30, 14 February 2006 (UTC)

well googling on "Guinness" rather than "Guiness" might have helped. You might not count it as "kosher" degrees, but the Rev. Theodore Hesburgh holds the record for most honorary degrees (150). Grutness...wha? 00:59, 15 February 2006 (UTC)

Which, of course, doesn't mean squat apart from the fact that some people seem to like him. DirkvdM 11:57, 15 February 2006 (UTC)

I actually googled Guinness, just made that moronish mistake while typing this. And, as DirkvdM has said, those honorary degrees have absolutely nothing to do with what I am interested in. Thank you all, I'll keep searching. --GTubio 12:20, 15 February 2006 (UTC)

How could anyone earn 56 degrees by 22? Didn't they require the guy to submit a thesis for, at least, some degrees? Didn't he need to take some time-consuming classes, such as spending hours in a lab that one simply cannot do anything else? Can a student go to two schools at the same time? -- Toytoy 08:06, 18 February 2006 (UTC)

Operation Gladio

Can anyone explain what's Gladio, a supposed NATO secret army (or something like that)??? The article is a bit confusing, and I don't know many military terms like "stay-behind organization" or "black ops forces". Thanks.

For the meaning of 'stay-behind', see Stay-behind. Essentially the plan was that if Russia conquered western Europe, these groups would act as terrorists freedom fighters bombing and shooting the Russkies. Unfortunately the Italian groups got a bit ahead of themselves and started the bombing and shooting before the Russian invasion. Mark^{your words} 22:58, 14 February 2006 (UTC)

See, I don't know, maybe Operation Gladio ? StuRat 01:37, 15 February 2006 (UTC)

I think the questioner has already seen that. David Sneek 09:20, 15 February 2006 (UTC)

Mota

Who Is Claude Speed,The Guy From The Gta Series?

Claude Speed is the name of the player character from Grand Theft Auto 3 Flea110 00:25, 15 February 2006 (UTC)

The actor who played him in the FMV sequences of GTA2 is Scott Maslen, who plays DS Phil Hunter on British cop show The Bill. --Canley 02:46, 15 February 2006 (UTC)

See Claude Speed for more information. --Canley 02:47, 15 February 2006 (UTC)

February 15

How to best protect a falling egg

I will soon be competing in a contest in which an egg (probably "size large") will be dropped from about 7 meters onto a hard floor. I'm to make something to prevent the egg from breaking when it hits the floor (to be connected somehow to the egg, not placed on the floor before it's dropped). What is the best/most efficient way of doing this? Flea110 00:34, 15 February 2006 (UTC)

Well, there's a parachute, but it's quite tricky to get one that works properly so it may take quite a bit of experimentation. You could also suspend the egg, with something like rubber bands, inside a large box. Another option is just to put a lot of soft material between the egg and the bottom of the box, like bubble wrap, packing peanuts, etc. For something a bit unconventional, how about floating the egg inside a salt-water filled bag ? If you can combine different methods together, you can protect the egg even better. StuRat 01:01, 15 February 2006 (UTC)

...or you could ram the egg back up the chicken's butt and toss it off the roof. LOL. StuRat 01:03, 15 February 2006 (UTC)

This is the most common science contest in the world. Try out Google on this, and get some ideas. Most of the time they put on some different constraints (such as you can only use 10 paper clips), in order to make it interesting. --Zeizmic 01:05, 15 February 2006 (UTC)

Try putting it in a child's inflatable swimming armband. Make sure that the pressure is on the 'ends' of the egg, not around the middle.
Slumgum 01:08, 15 February 2006 (UTC)

I think I'm going to go with the egg wrapped in some bubble wrap, the bubble wrap being suspended by rubber bands, the rubber bands connected to a spiky/pointy exoskeleton of...maybe balsa wood? Any ideas on what to use for exoskeleton material? Flea110 02:35, 15 February 2006 (UTC)

The best way to think about this is from several different physics perspectives; you must either: decrease the effect of gravity's acceleration on the egg (through a parachute, parasail, etc), decrease the effect of the kinetic energy imparted by the sudden deceleration of the egg (by "springy" items like springs, foam rubber, rubber bands, bubble wrap which can absorb energy) or else conduct the force of the impact to the egg's surface in a distributed manner (possibly through some form of truss, or miniature geodesic dome). I'm shooting from the hip here because I can't remember what happened when I last did or saw this sort of contest (over 20 years ago) but I think that the last might be most effective; if the egg could be suitably attached in multiple places to the crossmembers of a proper geodesic dome-sphere, much of the force would be absorbed by flexion of the "sphere" and the remainder distributed to the attachment points. A tetrahedron truss would be a far simpler case of the same effect, though with drawbacks. Blends of all 3 approaches wouldn't hurt. This is all, of course, dependent on the materials you are allowed to use. KWH 04:24, 15 February 2006 (UTC)

I suspect that, by a tremendous margin, the biggest concern is keeping the egg from contacting anything hard (e.g. the ground). Second is distributing the force over the surface of the egg, and then as long as that's done I doubt the actual amount of [de]acceleration will matter. Eggs are actually pretty strong, but brittle (try manually crushing one). So I worry about suspending the egg with bands, because unless they're extremely taut, I picture the egg continuing on happily once the rest of the structure's stopped and dashing itself against the ground (and then springing back to the center of the structure). So with these in mind my only specific idea is what me et al. did in 5th grade with materials restricted to masking tape and (fairly rigid) drinking straws. Tape the middle of each straw to the egg (wrapping each tape fully around) at more-or-less random angles, so you end up with a spiky ball of straws tangent to an egg (no longer visible itself, it's covered with tape :). So it's equally safe from all sides, and when it hits nothing's going into the egg directly, force goes into the tape surrounding it. The preceding worked from ~2.5 meters (the only height tried). Getting the tape off is a hassle, I assume that's okay.

Party balloons also work wonders (again, subject to any restrictions you may be under as to what you are allowed to use.) Ideally, four of them in a tetrahedral configuration, held together by string (or better, tape), with the egg in the middle so it doesn't fall out. The baloons weigh next to nothing, provide a huge surface (which will increase drag enormously, slowing down the egg's fall), plus a huge air cushion to take the blow on impact. Of course, this is assuming that you're dropping the egg onto a non-spikey surface, so for those egg-drop experiments onto foot-long razor-sharp spikes, you may need to think of a different solution. Egg drops are so much fun! :) — QuantumEleven | (talk) 08:57, 15 February 2006 (UTC)

I don't know how much time you have to prepare the egg, but if you have, say, at least ten minutes, you could boil it hard. – b_jonas 11:10, 15 February 2006 (UTC)

It's not a great article, but we have one on this too: Egg drop competition. – b_jonas 11:12, 15 February 2006 (UTC)

A slowly leaking helium filled balloon with the egg in a padded basket below. CambridgeBayWeather (Talk) 11:22, 15 February 2006 (UTC)

Let me generalize the last two comments. Google for egg dropping competitions, see what the rules of such competitions prohibit but yours don't, and use that. – b_jonas 11:54, 15 February 2006 (UTC)

What about inserting the egg (with a thin layer of bubble wrap) into the middle of a fairly large stuffed animal with a balsa wood exoskeleton? The balsa wood would hit the ground first, distribute the shock of the impact to the arms and legs of the stuffed bear, while the egg is safe in the middle of the bear's belly? Flea110 06:34, 16 February 2006 (UTC)

If the egg is already falling, as the question implies, there isn't much you can do to protect it except put down something soft for it to fall on. AllanHainey 11:40, 16 February 2006 (UTC)

I competed in one of these once. We ran out of ideas and wrapped the egg up in my coat.

...bad idea. Sum0 16:04, 16 February 2006 (UTC)

Football transfer record for non-international

Does anyone know what was the highest fee paid for a footballer who has never played for his country? The two highest fees I know are for Dean Richards (footballer) and David Villa. Although the latter was paid in Euros, the fee was calculated at the time to be 7.99 million pounds (£). Richards went for £8.1m. I know that the uncapped Denílson went for £22 million, but later went on to play for his country, so he doesn't count.
Slumgum 01:08, 15 February 2006 (UTC)

If it was in total, Paolo di Canio has never played for Italy, and has had about 32432 transfers. Edu (6 million pounds) has never played for Brazil. If Carlo Cudicini ever gets sold, it may well be for more than £8m (he's never played for Italy at senior level, so technically could now qualify to play for England), but at the moment, I'm pretty sure you won't find one more costly than Dean Richards, who was both grossly overpriced, and extremely crap - a lethal combination as regards this record. Proto||type 12:35, 15 February 2006 (UTC)

Hitler

Did hitler die a virgin? my teacher says he did but i find this hard to believe if he had a wife. please help me find the truth--68.96.48.203 01:32, 15 February 2006 (UTC)Keenan 2-14-06

Your teacher is a great example of the sad state of education in our country. (I assume you are American.) Just nod your head and agree. You know the truth and that's all that matters. Although difficult to prove, Hitler most likely was not a virgin. --Nelson Ricardo 03:49, 15 February 2006 (UTC)

I'd say it was impossible to prove that he died a virgin (because he could have had sex and never told anybody); but it is possible to prove he died a non-virgin if evidence was produced that he had sex. JackofOz 07:25, 15 February 2006 (UTC)

Whoa, your name is Keenan too? Anyway, it's suspected that Hitler was homosexual. See Hitler#Adolf Hitler's sexuality. —Keenan Pepper 03:49, 15 February 2006 (UTC)

And the relevance of this to whether he died a virgin or not is .....? JackofOz 07:25, 15 February 2006 (UTC)

Even if he was homosexual which can't be proven without doubt, that still doesn't mean he was a virgin. Homosexuals can have sex too. - Mgm|^(talk) 09:35, 15 February 2006 (UTC)

I can attest to that. JC 14:21, 17 February 2006 (UTC)

It is of course impossible to prove anything, but Eva Braun includes some interesting information. It is apparently true that Hilter married Eva Braun on April 29, 1945. But they committed suicide together on the 30th, which doesn't give a lot of time. Enough time, of course, but not much time and Hilter was probably pretty busy, and under the circumstances they may not have felt like it. But of course not everyone waits until they are married and "there was gossip among the Führerbunker staff that Eva was carrying Hitler's child". I'm sure your teacher will love to have this evidence presented. Notinasnaid 08:25, 15 February 2006 (UTC)

You can always make up some evidence - PhotoShop in a Hitler mustache on an ultrasound baby pic. :-) StuRat 06:12, 16 February 2006 (UTC)

GoDaddy

One of my clients asked me some questions about GoDaddy and since I dont use it very often, I was wondering if someone could help me here. Here are my questions:

1. How do you change the font color of a marquee in GoDaddy?

2. How do you "bookmark" (as in, clicking on a link and it take you to another part of the page) a website like the have done here: http://www.hchybr.com/volunteerinformation.htm in GoDaddy?

Thank you VERY much for your time!!!!! Zach 02:54, 15 February 2006 (UTC)

Well, the second question is to do with "HTML Anchors", there is plenty at google or you could look at this for example. I don't know what you mean by the marquee though, could you please clarify (or perhaps someone else knows what you mean!) --Lox (t,c) 06:54, 15 February 2006 (UTC)

Beginings of Segregation

hey guys, i need help with something...If you can link me to any helpful websites, or have your own factual knowledge on these questions, i would be so grateful!

How did Segregation begin between blacks and whites start?
Info. on beginnings of segregation (after slavery ended)
Info. and pics. on racism, and segregation from about 1865-1940s ('50s)
About the lawsuit- "Separate but equal"

                                             ♥Hot FLIP

Assuming you mean in the US, see Plessy versus Ferguson. StuRat 04:11, 15 February 2006 (UTC)

I'd say segreagation started by some blacks moving out of Africa, turning white and the Sahara desert drying up and the Mediterranean flooding. Then again, I might have piled one anachronism on top of another here. DirkvdM 12:12, 15 February 2006 (UTC)

Were they originally black, though, and turned white? I would have thought they started out with pink skin, like apes, and then the ones who left stayed that way and the ones who stayed eventually turned black. Or maybe I'm just dumb :). Yeltensic42 don't panic 17:01, 15 February 2006 (UTC)

Actually primates, and to some extent all mammals, have a mix of black and pink skin. Black skin is more common on exposed areas, like the noses, and pink skin is more common under fur, inside the mouth, etc. There are exceptions, however. StuRat 05:59, 16 February 2006 (UTC)

Not all primates have black noses (Rowan Williams, for example). JackofOz 06:07, 16 February 2006 (UTC)

They'd probably have evolved the dark skin to keep from getting sunburnt when they lost the hair, but I can't think of why they'd have evolved pale skin. The darker a color, the better it absorbs heat, and going north, it gets colder. Therefore, we can think that if they had started out with dark skin, they might have kept it, so as to keep warmer in the cold north. But then again, I don't know what I'm talking about. DuctapeDaredevil 03:04, 16 February 2006 (UTC)

Dark skin is just to keep from getting sunburned, so people further north don't need it. Hmm, I hadn't thought of that before, how darker colors would absorb more heat and be useful to keep warm further north...I guess it doesn't work that way with skin? Maybe someone who knows more about it will come along and explain it to us...DirkvdM? StuRat? JackofOz? Keenan Pepper? Do you know the answer? Help! Yeltensic42 don't panic 05:22, 16 February 2006 (UTC)

Dark skin would help you keep warm and light skin would keep you cooler, but there are more important factors which control skin color evolution...

You are correct that dark skin is to prevent sunburn (and also skin cancer). Light skin, however, is needed where the Sun's rays are weaker to allow enough sunlight through to provide for the synthesis of vitamin D. Since we now can get that as a supplement, it's no longer an issue, so, in a million years, we may all be black, LOL. StuRat 05:53, 16 February 2006 (UTC)

I'm not sure about this, but if the skin is dark and therefore absorbs the heat, it'll be at the surface, where it is more easily lost. However, to assess this one would have to know how much heat (ie infrared radiation) gets reflected, how much gets caught in the skin and how much penetrates, for blacks and whites. Do we have an article on that? DirkvdM 09:11, 16 February 2006 (UTC)

I don't think it'd be that it was in place of whatever is ragulating body temp. now, but that it would help when it's a cold day. I notice sometimes the wind chill factor can be negative, but I don't notice much because it's very sunny. DuctapeDaredevil 05:12, 17 February 2006 (UTC)

You might also find useful information at African American history and related articles. --Robert Merkel 14:03, 15 February 2006 (UTC)

wow...thanks for the links, and some weird bias, Yeltensic42 don't panic...But this isn't really what i was asking, i cant explain it...but segregation didn't really start when africans started moving out of africa, well it did but not quite it was more of like slavery... i think that my Proff. told me that, that made them closer (whites needed blacks, as slaves)...let me rephrase my question...Do you guys think that segregation (between blacks and whites, and yes, in the US) began after the civil war? Use facts, along with it's bibliography, to back up your argument. By "segregation" i mean, when blacks had "the same things" as whites but not in the same way...you get what i'm trying to say? Anyway, I'm going to be doing a history "exhibit", so most of the things on my dislpay will be pictures (about this, my subject) but with captions to describe a "story" of the pic., so if you guys find good pictures through these time..."I love YOU!!!" By the way, I just realized that I haven't posted any question/topics in wikipedia for a really long time! (as some of you might remember my penname) I would always start to get off the subject and talk about something else...like what i'm doing right now...stopping...okay...getting back to the subject... ♥ Hot F.L.I.P.

What bias...? But yeah, I remember your username, it's "Fine Little Island Person". (BTW, "don't panic" isn't part of my username). Yeltensic42 don't panic 03:05, 16 February 2006 (UTC)

Bias....your point of view.....but whatever. wow! you remember what it stands for? awesome! umm.. yeah i know it wasn't part of your username, i just accidently copied and paste it along with with your name (did this because... actually i have no idea why i lazily copied and paste your name in my editing.) ♥ Hot F.L.I.P.

Again, assuming you mean formal segregation in the US, that is, the "seperate but equal" doctrine listed in the title, then that started with Plessy versus Ferguson. StuRat 05:53, 16 February 2006 (UTC)

Actually, the 'equal' thing may have been the theory (I don't know), but (probably very much like in South Africa) in practise it didn't work out that way. When my (white) parents were in Florida in the 1950's they sat down in a bus behind a black guy, who consequently got moved to the back (giving my surprised parents a nasty look). The theory may have been that there was simply a segregation between the 'races' (albeit with the blacks at the back, which is probably not a coincidence), but in practise it was the black guy who had to move, even though my parents were the ones who broke the rule. DirkvdM 09:11, 16 February 2006 (UTC)

Right, I'd assumed the question asker already knew that it wasn't really equal, but perhaps it was worth saying. Here is a famous photo of "WHITE" and "COLORED" drinking fountains, making it quite obvious the two were not equal:[12] StuRat 20:59, 16 February 2006 (UTC)

They are inherently equal, but in some places the law and common practice have not always acknowledged that (or have given it lip service only). That's the problem. JackofOz 01:43, 17 February 2006 (UTC)

The "separate but equal" doctrine refers to equality of the facilities for each race, not the equality of the races themselves. StuRat 03:12, 17 February 2006 (UTC)

So....segregation (literal seperation...not slavery) did start before the civil war (that ended in 1865)...right? ♥ Hot F.L.I.P.

I suppose so, in that slaves lived in slave quarters, not the main house, if that's what you mean. StuRat 00:48, 19 February 2006 (UTC)

Oscar/aggressive fish

We bought two oscars one albino tiger sriped and one red. They seem to get along but how do we know if they have bred? There is slimy stuff appearing at the bottom of our tank. There is a filter and all they do is lay around but they are alive. WE are worried that they are not active. Please help us.

Tim and Marsha Baker

Well, for the first question, if there are any other fish in there you'll know they've bred. Someone else will have to answer the rest, though. Yeltensic42 don't panic 07:04, 15 February 2006 (UTC)

I found a page about Oscar breeding using Google: [13]. You may want to join the MSN group at [14] and post a message there. --Uthbrian (talk) 09:52, 15 February 2006 (UTC)

Unsolved Mysteries Case

When I was about 8 years old, I watched a story on Unsolved Mysteries about a young girl who was killed. It was one of the most frightening things I had ever seen. Although any adult would not consider it anything exceptional, it terrified me for months. What I remember is that the girl was abducted from her house during the night, probably through a window which was picked open, and she was murded. Her body was found, and she was buried in a green coffin, which they showed. Damn did that green coffin creep me out. This episode would have aired sometime around 1992. Does anyone know the name of this girl or of any links about the case? Thanks. Captain Jackson 05:16, 15 February 2006 (UTC)

Where can I find the source of this figure?

I found this quote at a site:

'Angling currently contributes £3.4 billion to the UK economy and provides substantial employment in rural areas.'[15]

Just what I was looking for. Trouble is, the site gives no source for this figure. I've googled it but no response. Can anyone help? Cheers.

My guess is the Countryside Alliance or some such lobby group with interests in protecting angling would be the source of such a figure. Check with them. --BluePlatypus 12:43, 15 February 2006 (UTC)

You could try DEFRA they collect statistics on agricultural/rural/fishing stuff & if they don't have it they'll no doubt be able to direct you to some other branch of government that has the statistics. AllanHainey 11:47, 16 February 2006 (UTC)

Fixed your link. — QuantumEleven | (talk) 14:21, 16 February 2006 (UTC)

Pagan/english translator

I have been searching for several weeks on many search engines, trying to find a translator capable of exchanging the english language to pagan and vise verse. I have had no success. Do you have any knowledge of where I may find such a translator? Any suggestions would help, even if there are no guarantees for success. Thank you for your time in this matter.

John Aller AKA: nagurra

You might as well stop looking. "Pagan" is not a language. —Charles P._(Mirv) 06:28, 15 February 2006 (UTC)

afterthought: Is there a specific pagan text that you are trying to translate? If so, posting an excerpt (or linking to it if it's available online) might help clear up which language it uses. —Charles P._(Mirv) 06:31, 15 February 2006 (UTC)

Paganism refers to religion. So the question can only make snese if you're trying to translate a religious text and even then I don't get it. Or are you referring to another meaning of pagan? Maybe some dead Burmese language? DirkvdM 12:17, 15 February 2006 (UTC)

I'm assuming you mean Gaelic. Which may explain why you've had no success. Try searching for Irish or Scottish Gaelic instead of Pagan. --87.82.1.43 15:50, 15 February 2006 (UTC)

"It was a perfectly decent English poem, until you translated it into Gaelic and runed it." StuRat 20:40, 16 February 2006 (UTC)

Difficult to type words

Can you give any examples of words that are very hard to type? I've got an example myself, but I'll keep that for tomorrow so as not to 'lead the witnesses' (or what should I call that here?). DirkvdM 10:23, 15 February 2006 (UTC)

Words that use only the fingers on one hand might qualify (this would apply more to people who were properly trained in typing, but probably not to those who just 'picked it up'). Some left-hand examples are: databases, desegregated, effervesced, revegetated, reverberated, stewardesses, sweetbreads, vertebrates and watercress. Some right-hand examples are: monopoly, lollipop and polyphony.JackofOz 10:46, 15 February 2006 (UTC)

Short words that get typed fast such as teh, subts, tset and so on. CambridgeBayWeather (Talk) 10:53, 15 February 2006 (UTC)

I think the words where left and right-hand letters alternate can be typed the fastest, but are also easier to mistype because you swap two letters. – b_jonas 10:59, 15 February 2006 (UTC)

Also any words in a language other than your own. CambridgeBayWeather (Talk) 13:11, 15 February 2006 (UTC)

And any words which are similar to other, more commonly typed words (or contain letter combinations similar to them. If you regularly had to type the word "thought", and then needed to type the word "though", you';d find it very difficult to stop yourself adding the final "t" if you were typing quickly. As to the ones using the same hand, two I always have troupble with are recidivist and Ethiopia. YMMV. Grutness...wha? 00:42, 16 February 2006 (UTC)

Turns out the very first reply, by JackofOz, points right at one of the problems with the word that inspired me to this question, the Dutch word staatssecretaris (undersecretary of state). It's all letters on the left side of the keyboard (except one). But on top of that there are many repeating letters, and even almost a repeating rhythm, but not really, so the fingers get confused. Maybe this last 'rhythm bit' has to do with me playing the piano. I keep on practising the word (I'm helping out on the Dutch Politics articles) but I always have to do it letter-by-letter, like an absolute beginner. DirkvdM 09:22, 16 February 2006 (UTC)

Keep on practising those left-hand piano pieces I told you about a while ago. Piano practice comes in handy in all sorts of places. JackofOz 20:22, 16 February 2006 (UTC)

longest word

what is the longest word in the english language

There's an article on this here: Longest word.--Rhi 11:42, 15 February 2006 (UTC)

Yup, the 'gogogoch' placename I learned at school is in there too. But I'm now disappointed to learn that it was made up just for the purpose of being the longest placename. DirkvdM 12:30, 15 February 2006 (UTC)

Why be disappointed? "What's the name of that big city in New York State?" "That's easy: New York!" "No, that doesn't count, that was made up just for the purpose of being the name of that city." Steve Summit (talk) 20:13, 15 February 2006 (UTC)

Thank for your help (sorry about the grammar; I was in a hurry)

Oh no, you don't get away that easily. It's debate time again. Lots of words are just made up (eg. "Google") and quickly become accepted as legitimate words. I've often wondered why such "lexical entities" (for want of a better term) as Llanfair ... gogogoch and pneumono ... coniosos, and others, fail the test. These "entities" appear millions of times in print and all over the web but they are still denied the status of "word". This is rather counter-intuitive. They consist of letters, in a certain order, and they have a known meaning, so why aren't they words? Who gets to make these decisions, and what criteria do they use? JackofOz 13:13, 15 February 2006 (UTC)

Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis is a medical term, ergo it will never be given the status of 'word'.

(Says who? Steve Summit (talk) 20:13, 15 February 2006 (UTC))

Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis is not a medical term. It's a collection of letters designed to [1] be long, and [2] look medical, but is used not at all by physicians, pathologists, or, as far as can be determined, anyone else in the course of their daily work. - Nunh-huh 03:50, 17 February 2006 (UTC)

Are hepatitis and Casablanca not words? JackofOz 20:26, 15 February 2006 (UTC)

Llanfair is a place name, so the same applies here. Words like floccinauccinihilipilification and antidisestablishmentarianism are in the dictionaries, so these do count as the official longest words in the English language. --87.82.1.43 15:54, 15 February 2006 (UTC)

That a word is not found in dictionaries is in itself no proof that such a word does not exist. It means the writer of the dictionary either (a) is not yet aware of the word, or (b) has chosen to exclude it because of the scope of the dictionary (eg. the Concise Oxford has far fewer words than the Oxford), or (c) has decided it isn't a word at all. That last reason would exclude the above examples and dord from most dictionaries, yet what does Wikipedia say ? - Dord is one of the most famous errors in lexicography, a word accidentally created by the G. and C. Merriam Company's staff and included in the second edition of its New International Dictionary, in which the term is defined as "density". If I were to describe a similar error as "another dord", that would be a proper use of the language. By any reasonable definition, "dord" is now a word despite its erroneous birth, yet lexicographers are still holding out. Same argument for Llanfar and pneumono. JackofOz 20:26, 15 February 2006 (UTC)

Probably Titin. GeeJo _{(t) (c)} • 16:07, 15 February 2006 (UTC)

Pardon me for stating the obvious, but trying to find the longest word is a lot like trying to find the largest number. If you think you've found the largest number, you can always add 1 to it, and -- hey presto! -- you've got an even larger number. If you think you've found the longest word, you can always slap an "anti" or "pseudo" or something at the beginning, or an "ism" or "est" or "er" or "esque" at the end, and make an even longer word. (And of course there are lots more prefixes and suffixes than the few I've mentioned.) Steve Summit (talk) 20:13, 15 February 2006 (UTC)

Gaames mascots size

Anyone know what is the lenght and the height of mario, sonic, alexkidd and donkey kong???

A few centimetres each, I think. JIP | Talk 12:22, 15 February 2006 (UTC)

Am I dumb or does this depend on the screen size? Or both? (Let's keep all options open.) DirkvdM 12:32, 15 February 2006 (UTC)

Let's go with number of pixels. --Optichan 14:56, 15 February 2006 (UTC)

I think there are some games where we're told how tall the protagonist is supposed to be; I can't remember at all where this information is from, but two feet rings a bell for Sonic. Yeltensic42 don't panic 16:56, 15 February 2006 (UTC)

Thanks to Super Mushrooms, Mario's size can vary even in a single game. But he is usually portrayed as being shorter than his brother Luigi. Of course, we don't know his height either. --Optichan 17:26, 15 February 2006 (UTC)

Well, Bob Hoskins played Mario in the film version and Captain Lou Albano played him in the live action television series. Hoskins is 5'4½'' according to Celebrity heights, and Albano is 5 ft 10 in according to our own article on him. So the best bet is that Mario is 5'4½'' normally, and Albano snacked on Super Mushrooms before every show to gain the extra 5½ inches. GeeJo _{(t) (c)} • 21:15, 15 February 2006 (UTC)

I was not talking about the size of image that you see on the screen, I was talking about of the size that character have, since scale can vary in each game.

line-cartoon

There was this animated cartoon in the 70's (I think) that consisted of one line, basically a 'distortion' of a single line that went horizontally across the screen. What was it called? DirkvdM 12:41, 15 February 2006 (UTC)

Linus på Linjen? JIP | Talk 13:00, 15 February 2006 (UTC)

The Dot and the Line? Probably not. ☢ Ҡi∊ff⌇↯ 15:23, 15 February 2006 (UTC)

"La Linea" originally enough, in the original Italian. --BluePlatypus 15:55, 15 February 2006 (UTC)

There is a current series of ads for Hilton hotels playing in the US which uses the same method. Apparently the ad showing Paris Hilton with the caption "millions of men have entered the Paris Hilton, often two or three at a time, some by the back door, so why don't you ?" didn't test well with the focus group. StuRat 21:46, 15 February 2006 (UTC)

I liked their slogan: "Experience a night in Paris". --Zeizmic 13:50, 16 February 2006 (UTC)

Yes, it's La Linea. Of course, I could have thought of that! Actually, I thought it was Spanish, but it turns out to be Italian (the talking is totally unintelligible, as I remember it). It's highly original with a simplicity that betters even Nijntje (sorry, Dick). Actually, it's a piece of art (almost Zen?) with a good deal of humour thrown in for good measure (although that was probably intended more the other way around). It's been years (decades?) since I've last see it and I'd love to see it again. The dot and the line sounds interresting too, by the way. And is Linus på Linjen a Scandinavian name for it or is that a reference to our hero Linus Torvalds? DirkvdM 15:01, 17 February 2006 (UTC)

It's just a Scandinavian name, it has nothing to do with Torvalds. If you say "Linus" in Finland, everyone knows it's about Torvalds, but in Sweden you can't go two metres without bumping into someone named Linus. JIP | Talk 15:31, 17 February 2006 (UTC)

Origin of Jaffa Cakes

Finnish or British?

Hi, a friend wants to know who invented Jaffa Cakes, the tasty chocolate-covered, jam-filled biscuitcakes. He says that some Finnish people believe they're a Finnish invention, whereas many Brits think they're a British thing. It goes without saying that the British must have invented them, but can anyone provide proof? — Matt Crypto 13:19, 15 February 2006 (UTC)

Although 'jaffa cake' is now a general term, the original Jaffa Cakes were created by McVities, who are unquestionably a British company (now owned by United Biscuits). That's not definitive proof, though. Hmm. Proto||type 13:44, 15 February 2006 (UTC)

• And there was I, thinking they had some relation to Stargate SG-1 and the Jaffa... - Mgm|^(talk) 08:35, 16 February 2006 (UTC)

Copyright Licensing Agency

What is the purpose of the CLA? Surely they can't license other people's copyrights without permission?--Keycard ^(talk) 18:53, 15 February 2006 (UTC)

• I believe they serve as a middle man. Instead of every small publisher or author running their own licensing department, they pay these guys to take care of all of it for them. Somewhat like ASCAP for music. The technical term for this sort of busines seems to be copyright collective. But no, they can't license without permission -- they no doubt get permission to be a designated licenser or something like that first. --Fastfission 19:49, 15 February 2006 (UTC)

graphic artist

I am trying to find employment for an individual with a degree in Graphic Arts. She also has taught art to advamced students and has done some work as a "currator" in a volunteer capacity. I am wondering if there is some job title that may take advantage of these skills that I have not thought about. Can you help me?

tshenk--Tshenk 20:11, 15 February 2006 (UTC)

In order to answer that, we would need to know what you've already thought of. Have you considered creating graphics for web sites ? This could be done from home. StuRat 21:38, 15 February 2006 (UTC)

Japanese/Chinese Band in Times Sq., New York

Hi, I was in New York City in the 3rd and 4th of Febraury and I remember there being a Japanese (or Chinese) band playing in a building in Times Sq. They were not playing outsite, but there was a plasma screen showing the band playing so that people outside could see. When they were coming out I walked past one of the singers and [deliberately] banged into him (I was in a rush!). But what I would like to know is: who is this band? I also remember seeing them (if it was the same band) last year. Thanks. ^KILO-_LIMA 20:25, 15 February 2006 (UTC)

It appears to be a solo artist (perhaps with backup singers) named Rain who was playing at MTV's TRL Studios in Times Square on that day.[16] KWH 07:13, 17 February 2006 (UTC)

animal anus picture

For miscellanious reasons, I need photos of the following animal's anuses. They don't have to be direct, they can be photos where the animal's anus is simply visible:

• -fox
• -wolf
• -coyote
• -husky
• -alaskan malamute

I had no luck in finding them myself. Thanks, --septumatic

This is my favorite reference desk question ever -- not because it's wierd, because it is, but because it is so obviously encyclopedic in nature. I am so sorry I can't help. --James S. 23:25, 15 February 2006 (UTC)

Well, let's speculate what it's for... ok, maybe not. --Zeizmic 02:41, 16 February 2006 (UTC)

Perhaps a new Wiki encyclopedia of animal anuses ? Or an addendum to our black hole article ? StuRat 05:35, 16 February 2006 (UTC)

When your not the lead dog, all the views are the same.

Homies

How Many Spanish-Speakers Are In The U.S.A?

Try Spanish in the United States and Languages in the United States. CambridgeBayWeather (Talk) 00:10, 16 February 2006 (UTC)

February 16

Rich Author

Who Is The Richest Mexican Novelist In The World?

♥Hot F.L.I.P.

This is little more than a guess, but possibly Laura Esquivel? Grutness...wha? 10:35, 16 February 2006 (UTC)

The Muhammad Cartoon

With all these Arabs and muslums that are rioting, taking hostages, and making threats to kill the people who made it, aren't they concerned that they are just confirming the cartoon in the eyes of the world. Or is just that they aren't thinking ahead as usual. Responding to a cartoon depicting Muhammad as a Terrorist by trying to kill everyone just confirms it for me.

Not a question. --Zeizmic 02:36, 16 February 2006 (UTC)

It's at least phrased as two questions, though question marks would be an improvement. I think the answers are pretty clear:

1. Probably not.
2. Someone is certainly thinking ahead. ‣ᓛᖁᑐ 03:09, 16 February 2006 (UTC)

It seems to me that this hypersensitivity to any type of insult can work for the West. Just find a nice isolated spot in the Middle East, erect a giant flag with Mohammed doing something immoral with a camel, and surround the place with thousands of land mines. Since the crazies put such a high value on protecting the image of Mohammed and such a low value on human life, they should be willing to charge the flagpole until they get through. Certainly dying in such a cause will get them a dozen virgins, so everybody's happy, right ? After they destroy that flagpole, erect another one somewhere else, and so on. We will have the Muslim world purged of these idiots in no time. StuRat 05:30, 16 February 2006 (UTC)

Since I can't dissuade you from your Islamic generalizing, I want to at least inform you that it's 72 virgins.  :) Superm401 - Talk 06:30, 16 February 2006 (UTC)

Although according to one cartoon heaven is running out of them. DirkvdM 09:43, 16 February 2006 (UTC)

Hence one of the better cartoons, of somone entering the afterlife and hearing "sorry, we're all out of virgins..."!

There's a theory that Syria just wants to dissuade the Americans (sort of a more blunt clue for the ones who don't understand Iraq) from trying to invade, with a warning about the sort of violence they might find there, hence the televised riots. Ojw 09:26, 16 February 2006 (UTC)

They certainly wouldn't want to protect the image because any image of Mohammed would be insulting. Also, to storm it they'd have to check where it is, for which they'd have to look at it, which is also 'not done'. Maybe they could hire an infidel to point them in the right direction? That would be ironic. And anyway, even if it would work it wouldn't last too long because there are precious few people who would do something like that, despite what politicians and media are trying to make you think. Let's get upset about stuff that really kills a lot of young people, like (yes, here I go again) cars. Cars kill about half a million people a year. How many people got killed through terrorism last year? I don't know really (anyone?) but if it's 'half a thousand' then road kills are a thousand times more important than terrorism (let alone a bit of fake indignation). Let's stop getting all worked up about a few nuts and a few staged uproars that have little effect in the grand scheme of things. DirkvdM 09:43, 16 February 2006 (UTC)

I think it's a bit unfair to call the indignation caused by these cartoons "fake". I just find it quite funny that the European/U.S press is fully behind the idea of free speech for these cartoons, but were absolutely horrified when the competition for cartoons about the Holocaust was announced. GeeJo _{(t) (c)} • 10:41, 16 February 2006 (UTC)

The difference is that the West values human life, while the Muslim world puts a much higher value on symbols of their religion. Therefore, most people in the West don't find murdering millions of civilians funny, while many in the Muslim world apparently do. This also explains why some Muslims respond to any perceived insult by threatening to kidnap and kill people. StuRat 20:27, 16 February 2006 (UTC)

Mmm-hmm. But the Mohammed cartoons were not created to be funny, they were created to be controversial — The Holocaust cartoons were commissioned as a response. Not because theyre funny, but because they'll produce controversy. Again, you're making derogatory generalisations about the Muslim community, without much to back it up. I can't remember ever seeing Muslims in my area tumbling about in laughter after watching Schindler's List, for example. You also seem to believe that there are no Muslims in "the West", or that none were offended by the cartoons, which doesn't make much sense given the protests that have taken place throughout Europe. GeeJo _{(t) (c)} • 21:39, 16 February 2006 (UTC)

Perhaps pleasure would be a better word to describe how many Muslims feel when they see the murder of Westerners, such as when Palestinians and others were dancing in the streets following the 9-11 attacks. StuRat 03:45, 17 February 2006 (UTC)

There may be many Muslims physically located in the West, but those rioting are not integrated with the West, rejecting democratic, secular concepts like Freedom of the Press. In my opinion, allowing people to immigrate to your country who are opposed to all the values of your society is a huge mistake, and those who are unwilling to integrate should be deported back to the culture that they apparently prefer. There should be a series of steps any new immigrant should be required to meet to stay in a country, including learning the language, the laws, and history of the new country. And some branches of Islam, like Wahabism, should be banned outright as fundamentally incompatible with Western Democracy. StuRat 03:34, 17 February 2006 (UTC)

I don't know about the US, but here in the etherlands (and probably most of Europe) immigrants weren't just 'allowed in'. They were desperately needed and sought after to do the dirty work we decadent westerners refused to do any more. Now we've found that apart from being able to work they are also humans with their own desires and beliefs and such. And now we're stuck with them and since we don't wish to adapt to what we asked for we demand that they adapt to us. DirkvdM 07:55, 18 February 2006 (UTC)

There is another option, you can grant short term work visas, then deport anyone who refuses to leave of their own accord when the work term ends. You don't need to give away your country (to people who want to completely change all of it) just to find workers. StuRat 01:46, 19 February 2006 (UTC)

I disagree that protesting against the cartoons means that you're protesting against free speech. I attended a protest against the decision by the British Government to go to war against Iraq. That doesn't mean I'm against democratic government. It means I disagree with the specific decision implemented by a single example of such a government. You'll find most Muslims in Western communities have no problem with free speech in general, they simply find the specific images to be highly offensive. Having a peaceful protest is simply an escalation of the process of writing a complaint. Activism != Terrorism. I also find it slightly hypocritical that you defend the extollment of one form of speech which you find acceptable (the cartoons), and then denounce another idea (Wahabism), that you disagree with, and believe that anyone who has such beliefs should be deported. GeeJo _{(t) (c)} • 14:15, 17 February 2006 (UTC)

Peacefully protesting against the newspapers that printed them is fine. However, protesting the nation as a whole, by boycotting products of that nation, burning their flag, storming their embassy, etc., is designed to force that nation's government to control the press, which is very anti-free speech. And trying to take hostages over the cartoons is far worse. As for Wahabism, defending free speech has it's limits, and when somebody tries to call for terrorism, this should not be protected. And immigration policy is unrelated to free speech. Any country has the right to prohibit entry of people who will do more harm to their country than good. StuRat 01:40, 19 February 2006 (UTC)

people who feel strongly about an issue usually don't think there actions very well through. i also don't believe it is as much of how muhammad is shown, but that he is shown. there are also stories about local leaders adding cartoons which are worse just to start some extra reactions, it's all kinda typical. Boneyard 12:06, 16 February 2006 (UTC)

There's no contradiction between being "fully behind the idea of free speech for these cartoons" and being absolutely horrified at an expression of free speech. Free speech is ugly; that's kinda the whole point. You have the right to say something someone might find offensive. --jpgordon∇∆∇∆ 16:30, 16 February 2006 (UTC)

Not according to the law. There are laws prohibiting things such as racial vilification, and glorification of terrorism. JackofOz 20:18, 16 February 2006 (UTC)

That depends on the country. In the U.S., even hate speech is considered protected by the First Amendment to the United States Constitution.--Pharos 20:35, 16 February 2006 (UTC)

Indeed, and the House of Lords recently blocked the clause of the anti-terrorism bill making glorification of terrorism a crime in the United Kingdom. GeeJo _{(t) (c)} • 21:21, 16 February 2006 (UTC)

Yesterday they passed a separate law outlawing glorification of terrorism. JackofOz 21:44, 16 February 2006 (UTC)

The House of Commons passed it, the House of Lords still have to ratify it, and there's some question as to which way their decision will fall. See this BBC article. GeeJo _{(t) (c)} • 22:25, 16 February 2006 (UTC)

It's funny how eager some people are to curtail the freedom of speech of others in order to preserve their own. DirkvdM 15:14, 17 February 2006 (UTC)

What do you call this?

http://i1.tinypic.com/nwfqqv.jpg

I think there's an article about this on Wikipedia but I can't find it. Thanks. 203.173.191.106 02:14, 16 February 2006 (UTC)

It's called a soda gun, apparently. --Robert Merkel 02:42, 16 February 2006 (UTC)

Thanks 203.173.191.106 02:54, 16 February 2006 (UTC)

What's the copyright status of that image? I notice the article is missing one. —Keenan Pepper 04:46, 16 February 2006 (UTC)

And here I thought it was an early version of the phaser. JIP | Talk 12:02, 16 February 2006 (UTC)

The Sandman: Brief Lives

I need a relatively detailed description of both sides of Delirium's envelope-list from Brief Lives. Can I have said description, or maybe a link to a picture? DuctapeDaredevil 02:55, 16 February 2006 (UTC)

Chapter 3, page 12, lower right panel

The back of the envelope is shown. It's torn at the top. Four names are written on it, with the right side of the envelope being the "top" with respect to the writing. The names are (line breaks as on the envelope):

the lawyer

tHe ALDERMAN

Etain of the

Second Look

the dANCiNG

woman.

"alderman" is written in fairly blockish capitals. The E in "Etain" is somewhat curvy, unlike the E in "alderman." The "he," "Second," and "ook" in "the Second Look" are in cursive. The i's in "Etain" and "dancing" are dotted with little flowers.

Chapter 4, page 14. The envelope is seen in the top middle, top right, and middle left panels. The back is seen in the top middle panel; I can't tell which side is supposed to be shown in the other two. No writing is visible on the envelope in any of these.

Chapter 7, page 4. In the top right panel, the front of the envelope is seen. There is a cancelled stamp in the upper right, and some writing in the upper left where a return address would be, but no specific words or letters can be made out. The center, where a delivery address would be, appears blank.

In the bottom left and middle panels, the envelope is seen, but no writing is visible, nor is it clear which side is supposed to be showing.

Chapter 7, page 5. The front of the envelope is shown in the upper right panel. Again, something in the upper left, but can't be made out. However, this time there appears to be a delivery address in the center:

Sant--

The Nor--le

Dashes do not actually appear on the envelope; I use them here to represent parts of the address covered by Delirium's finger. I assume this is meant to be "Santa, The North Pole". The upper right of the envelope is also hidden by Delirium's hand.

In the middle left panel on that page, the front is shown again, but the only markings--again not legible--is in the upper left, as per a return address. The rest is hidden by Delirium's hand. In the middle right panel, the envelope is falling, Delirium having dropped it. The back is shown; it appears to be the same as on Chapter 3, page 12, except that the i in "dancing" is dotted only with a circle, and the two n's in "dancing" are lowercase. I suppose you could the c is also in lowercase, but since a lowercase c is a lot like an uppercase C, save for the size, I can't really say.

Chuck 05:12, 17 February 2006 (UTC)

Thank you so much!! You are like some kind of god, and I'm gonna worship you now. 172.165.27.15 05:57, 19 February 2006 (UTC) (Who happens to DuctapeDaredevil, but on FireFox)

The phrase "김일성 시" redirects to Seoul. What does that stand for?

Does anyone have any idea what "김일성 시" stands for and why it redirects to Seoul? Someone here ought to know Korean, or maybe know a Wikipedian friend that knows Korean. If you know a Korean, have them take a look at it and tell us what it says and how it has anything to do with Seoul. Thanks. --68.102.193.78 05:24, 16 February 2006 (UTC)The preceding unsigned comment was added by User:Schultz, who also created the redirect. Mark^{your words} 12:45, 16 February 2006 (UTC)

PS: "서울" is Hangeul for Seoul so the other phrase must stand for something else. --68.102.193.78 05:27, 16 February 2006 (UTC)

I don't know any Korean, but it's probably the Korean name for Seoul. Yeltensic42 don't panic 05:26, 16 February 2006 (UTC)

Like I said, "서울" is Hangeul for Seoul so the other phrase must stand for something else. --68.102.193.78 05:45, 16 February 2006 (UTC)

I fed this to a translator [17] and it reported "Kim Il-Song hour". The Korean Wikipedia [18] clearly shows that 김일성 is Kim Il-sung (I don't read Korean but it has dates of birth and death on it). Interestingly "시" alone is translated as Poem, and may have more meanings. I wonder if it's a political statement. Someone could always ask the contributor... Anyway, is it Wikipedia policy to include original foreign language renderings in the English, in this way? Notinasnaid 09:12, 16 February 2006 (UTC)

Redirects are cheap. If we can redirect from the original name, even if it does not use the same alphabet, why not? --cesarb 11:48, 16 February 2006 (UTC)

There's no point asking the contributor (Schultz), because he is also the questioner (Schultz). I'll delete it. Mark^{your words} 12:45, 16 February 2006 (UTC)

One reason not to start these redirects is that languages are ambiguous. A single word in one language may have more than one English translation. And different languages may use the same letters to mean different things. Then there are cases where the foreign word already has an English meaning (e.g. nova). So such redirects can never be more than a random sampling of foreign words. Or, each English article has the potential to start with a disambiguation for stacks of non-English words. Such a universal Wikipedia sounds interesting, but also sounds a major policy shift... Notinasnaid 15:22, 16 February 2006 (UTC)

Some more research [19] shows that while 시 doesn't mean city by itself, it is used at the end of some contructs about cities, including "뉴욕 시", New York City. Now, [20] suggests that the phrase can also be translated through "Kim Il-sung Si" to "Kim Il-sung City". That article talks about some speculation, for which no evidence was found, that Seoul might have been renamed if North Korean had won the war. But that's a long way from it being an uncontroversial redirect. Notinasnaid 15:34, 16 February 2006 (UTC)

That's original research and [[Wikipedia:NOT] is a crystal ball.  freshgavinΓΛĿЌ  03:41, 18 February 2006 (UTC)

Quote

Who is the U.S. Economist quoted as saying: "when a man marries his housekeeper the GNP goes down"? Thank you.

It was the British economist Cecil Pigou, who noted the anomaly that if we hire somebody to clean our house, the GDP goes up, but if we marry our housekeeper, the GDP does down. [21]. JackofOz 05:41, 16 February 2006 (UTC)

Those are the smartest U.S. economists. Superm401 - Talk 06:33, 16 February 2006 (UTC)

In other words no-one. That should teach you to unsuitly overemphazi your questions. :) DirkvdM 15:18, 17 February 2006 (UTC)

The film "Death of a Son"

Can anyone please tell me how the TV film shown in 1988, called "Death of a Son" and starring Lynn Redgrave and Malcolm Storry ends. With thanks.

The son dies? Thuresson 02:37, 17 February 2006 (UTC)

Thank you for the answer. However the son died at the BEGINNING of the film. The last part of the film was the British court case against the man who supplied the drugs to the son and which caused his death. My question is what was the verdict in this court case? With thanks.

According to All Movie Guide the play by Tony Marchant was based on a true story so the answer shouldn't be impossible to find. Is this movie about young people with diabetes dying suddenly? I found the following (link):

In 1989 Dr Patrick Toseland, then a senior and well-respected pathologist at Guy's Hospital, London, was asked to investigate 19 deaths reported by doctors in the previous 18 months that had occurred in young people with diabetes. The deaths were unusual - they all happened suddenly, they all appeared to follow a rapid decline in blood sugar levels and the deceased were all using 'human' insulin. Dr Toseland thought that this sort of sudden death in young diabetics was something new.

Try searching for "dead in bed syndrome". Thuresson 20:00, 17

February 2006 (UTC)

This film is nothing to do with diabetes, As the "All Movie Guide" states: A 3 year court case was the result of a mother's fight to convict the man who killed her son with a lethal drug overdose injection as told in this true story. But what was the verdict in this court case?

Antony Armstrong-Jones photograph

I have in my possession a photograph taken by Antony Armstrong-Jones in 1956, which I would like to include in a book I've written. I have tried all the picture libraries, and I can't seem to find any way of contacting Lord Snowdon's organisation that might deal with the copyright of his pictures. Has anyone any suggestion how I might proceed with this? I would be very grateful for any advice. Thank you David Barry

Missed this one. Why not go here and try either the Public Information Office or the Press Offices. They don't have a lot of email contact but they do have phone numbers. Are you this Dave Barry? CambridgeBayWeather (Talk) 11:30, 17 February 2006 (UTC)

Hello and welcome to Arnold's Pizza Shop!

Why is this prank funny? and why is it avalible after Arnold Strong fryed a black man? --Mussel876 16:39, 16 February 2006 (UTC)

Then pls mark for deletion. --Zeizmic 17:43, 16 February 2006 (UTC)

Um, mark what for deletion? This is way over my head, except that I observe that Arnold Strong is an early screen name of Arnold Schwarzenegger, suggesting its use carries overtones of social commentary, or deliberate obfuscation. Notinasnaid 11:45, 17 February 2006 (UTC)

What is the vaccuum brand that makes the least amount of noise?

Yeah, this is so Consumer Reports, but I can talk about my new Roomba robot vacuum! It doesn't make much noise, but it really works, and is fun to watch. If I were smarter, I could hack it! --Zeizmic 20:46, 16 February 2006 (UTC)

Really? Maybe my Roomba is old-school, but I'd never call it quiet. That does not make me love it any less of course. A full-house in-wall vacuum system is quiet where you use it (but noisy as heck wherever the motor is). Also, not particularly easy to install after the house has been built. --LarryMac 20:55, 16 February 2006 (UTC)

Noise doesn't travel through vacuum (maybe you watch too much Star Trek?). So a vacuum itself making noise is even more impossible (in as far as there can be levels of impossibility, such as in fuzzy logic, but I digress). And just in case you're talking about a vacuum cleaner, considering that a vacuum is by definition nothing, I wonder how one goes about cleaning it. That sounds like a very Zen problem. DirkvdM 15:22, 17 February 2006 (UTC)

I can't tell where Zeizmic or LarryMac are from, but it's quite normal for a vacuum cleaner to be referred to as a 'vacuum' over here. (In the USA I thought it was generally called 'hoover'.) JackofOz 21:48, 17 February 2006 (UTC)

In Dutch it's called a 'dust sucker'. But that's no excuse to call it a 'sucker' for short. :) DirkvdM 07:58, 18 February 2006 (UTC)

Can you give me a link to the list of acceptable excuses?  :-) JackofOz 08:08, 18 February 2006 (UTC)

Office 2003 Activation Help

Hey guys, I recently re-installed my operating system. However, when I tried to re-install Microsoft Office 2003 Standard Edition it wouldn't let me re-activate the product because it said my registration code had already been used. Do you guys know of any crack that can generate the confirmation id for me?--God of War 21:24, 16 February 2006 (UTC)

It's probably not needed; you could call Microsoft and ask them to unblock the activation. --cesarb 21:36, 16 February 2006 (UTC)

Since nobody actually owns Office for the home, I suspect it's something tricky. I ran into that problem, that I couldn't get easy copies of a modern version anymore. So I went totally over to OpenOffice and haven't looked back. --Zeizmic 21:46, 16 February 2006 (UTC)

Just today I discovered that when someone saved a .doc file as an .html file with msWord it expanded it to almost 500 kB. OpenOffice made it into just under 100 kB, which made a big difference since it was to be sent by email. Actually, when I trimmed it by hand the size was close to 40 kB, so msWord had made it about 10 times too big with loads of unnecessary nonsense. So that's one up for Open Office (and one more up for a good oldfashioned handjob). DirkvdM 15:33, 17 February 2006 (UTC)

Pressure Cookers

How high do the temperature and pressure become? All I can find is that food cooks much more quickly in them (tastes better, too).

Hint: Pressure cooking Lots of great physics in pressure cooking. My mother-in-law put a great big dent in the ceiling with one! --Zeizmic 23:29, 16 February 2006 (UTC)

You can vary the boiling point of water ( lower it ) with more pressure. My parents had a pressure cooker with a varible pressure rating of 15 psi, 30 psi and 45 psi. Made GREAT mashed potatoes. Artoftransformation 01:05, 17 February 2006 (UTC)--

Raising the pressure actually raises the boiling point, so allows you to cook food hotter without it boiling. StuRat 02:14, 17 February 2006 (UTC)

Ah, I had always understood that the higher temperatures meant more vitamins and stuff (taste?) were lost (broken down), but does the fact that you don't need to go up to the boiling point make a difference too? This sort of info is lacking from the article. Since I won't be the only one who thinks of this first when hearing the word 'pressure cooker', such info should really be in it. DirkvdM 15:39, 17 February 2006 (UTC)

Taste might go, but since the cooker is completely sealed, I don't see how any vitamins would be lost. They'd be there somewhere, even if in the juice (yummy). JackofOz 21:40, 17 February 2006 (UTC)

Yeah, but they're said to break down in high temperatures. DirkvdM 07:59, 18 February 2006 (UTC)

Job Question

Dear Whoever Receives This:

Please forward my question to the appropriate representative. Here it is...

In all sincerity, I am trying to find a job I could do from my own computer or residence. I've always been a hard working, honest, loyal, trustworthy individual and there was never any drug activity in my life. Personally, I'm chemically-allergic, so my life has never been corrupt with drug problems.

I've virtually like an 'orphan' because all my personal family helping hands are dead and many died young, so I'm trying to find a way to survive by myself. My previous full-time work group members were all laid off in the USA at the end of 2001. There was no job fault conduted by us. We were merely a cost reduction for a major corporation. However, despite this simple reason, and the fact I've been dropping off resumes a great deal, I've not found anyone interested in a good worker. Might there be something I could do for you via my computer or residence? If so, please contact me at my personal e-mail and we can chat more and I'm willing to share with you the IMPRESSIVE work tasks that I've already done. Thank you,

Nancy Nowicki My Personal E-mail is: email removed

Email removed to prevent spam. --cesarb 22:17, 16 February 2006 (UTC)

I'm not suggesting you list your resume here, but you could at least tell us what type of work you do. StuRat 23:21, 16 February 2006 (UTC)

On the other hand, we're batting zero for getting people high-paying jobs... --Zeizmic 23:31, 16 February 2006 (UTC)

You mean there is a high paying job around this place? CambridgeBayWeather (Talk) 00:16, 17 February 2006 (UTC)

From what I gather, there are only 3 employees of Wikimedia who get payed for their work. - Akamad 03:34, 17 February 2006 (UTC)

How do we know what is fact vs what's personal opinion in Wikipedia?

Question in title only

Based on the article itself, you don't. This is why all good articles include outside references (Wikipedia:Verifiability). GeeJo _{(t) (c)} • 22:28, 16 February 2006 (UTC)

For all facts? In trhat case I wonder if we have a single good article by your definition. Of course the same could be asked for any encyclopedia or other source. A good indicator is the subject. If it's uncontroversial it probably won't be biased (which, however doesn't mean it's true). When it's about, say, communism, you can expect everyting to be POV. But then, that goes for other sources on the Internet even more than for Wikipedia because here, POV's are somewhat balanced out. DirkvdM 15:43, 17 February 2006 (UTC)

Note that I didnt say that all facts needed to be referenced, merely that the articles needed to be. GeeJo _{(t) (c)} • 12:45, 18 February 2006 (UTC)

I think it was the New York Times that did a test of a handful of articles in the Encyclopedia Britannica (was it?) and compared them with their equivalent Wiki articles. Britannica averaged something like 98% accuracy to Wikipedias 97%, and when you factor in that Wiki is several times larger than Britannica, it doesn't seem like that much of a big deal anymore. Of course those figures were for standard articles (bios, country descriptions, events, and the like) so you have to take many more vague wiki articles with a grain of salt. In general though, if you're paying attention, you can trust the stuff that's in Wiki.  freshgavinΓΛĿЌ  17:04, 17 February 2006 (UTC)

That was Nature magazine. Considering how often people think things are from the US when they're not it isn't surprising they often overestimate the importance of the country (as if there is a need). DirkvdM 08:01, 18 February 2006 (UTC)

Author

Who Is The Richest Novelist In Spanish Language?

See above. If the question was not answered before then it's unlikely that it will now. CambridgeBayWeather (Talk) 23:52, 16 February 2006 (UTC)

Nobility And Royalty Jauregui

What Members And Families Of The Nobility Or Royalty Have Jauregui As Their Last Name?

Probably Spanish but looking at Juan de Jáuregui maybe not. CambridgeBayWeather (Talk)

Stereotypical Canadians

I'm making a list of Canadian stereoptypes (humorous, false, true) to introduce to my students, and this is what I have so far:

The stereotypical Canadian:

• … eats Kraft Dinner for every meal.
• … is named Doug or Jen.
• … thinks Canadians speak with no accent.
• … will drop the gloves with any American who suggests that Canadians say “aboot” instead of “about”, or that we live in igloos.
• … says “eh?” at the end of every sentence.
• … is called a “hoser”, or a “canuck” by Americans.
• … loves only 2 things: beer and hockey.
• … always wears heavy winter clothing (a flannel lumberjack shirt, Kodiak boots, and a tuque)
• … tries to deke out everyone and everything.
• … listens to music on a ghetto blaster.
• … buys candy with a loonie or a toonie.
• … says prolly instead of probably.
• … goes to work on the vomit comet.
• … doesn't like people from T-dot (or T.O.)
• … watches the CBC, especially Hockey Night in Canada and This Hour Has 22 Minutes.
• … worships maple syrup and the maple leaf, common loons, and beavers.

Can anybody think of any more? Funny and true ones are best. The object is to intruduce words, images, and culture tidbits that someone outside of N/A or Europe might not have heard of.  freshgavinΓΛĿЌ  00:05, 17 February 2006 (UTC)

Ultra polite. Tom Holt, English author even noticed this in at leat one of his books. CambridgeBayWeather (Talk) 00:14, 17 February 2006 (UTC)

Eats ketchup chips and poutan.

Plays funny ice games with rocks and brooms.

-LambaJan 00:35, 17 February 2006 (UTC)

That would be poutine, yumm : ).  freshgavinΓΛĿЌ  03:24, 17 February 2006 (UTC)

The stereotypical Canadian is an American without a gun
Slumgum 00:48, 17 February 2006 (UTC)

Watching a few old episodes of Due South might give you some more ideas... Grutness...wha? 01:17, 17 February 2006 (UTC)

They not only lack guns, but have healthcare. Yeltensic42 don't panic 01:46, 17 February 2006 (UTC)

• They like to drink 2-4's (24 packs of beer).StuRat 01:58, 17 February 2006 (UTC)

• They like to pretend they have a queen, so had to borrow one to put on their money. StuRat 02:05, 17 February 2006 (UTC)

• ...doesn't tip properly at an American restaurant? KWH 02:29, 17 February 2006 (UTC)

Never heard that one before. I don't think the kids will get it though, they don't have the concept of "tipping" here at all : /.  freshgavinΓΛĿЌ  03:26, 17 February 2006 (UTC)

That's actually more something for a similar list about USians. In my experience, they're the ones who stand out by overtipping. Or tipping at all for that matter. DirkvdM

• Google "you know you're from canada when" --Nelson Ricardo 03:25, 17 February 2006 (UTC)

• too polite to win at the Olympics. --Zeizmic 12:58, 17 February 2006 (UTC)

Picking nits, but if you go to work on the "vomit comet" and don't like people from T.O., you've got a bad case of self-loathing... "vomit comet" is (to my knowledge) the slang for all-night buses in Toronto. I'd drop the "comet," anyway -- that's a very regional reference and doesn't speak to Canadians in general. I'm wearing a flannel shirt and Kodiak boots RIGHT NOW, by the way... :-) MattShepherd 14:27, 17 February 2006 (UTC)

The sometimes refers to the TTC in general, not exactly sure why. I just included it because its an interesting tidbit : ).  freshgavinΓΛĿЌ  16:58, 17 February 2006 (UTC)

• Apologises when you tread on their foot. Thinks a beer commerical is a patriotic symbol. You can probably find a copy of the Joe Canadian commerial to show if you look hard enough. DJ Clayworth 17:09, 17 February 2006 (UTC)

You know, I think I just may : ). It's easily found on google video.  freshgavinΓΛĿЌ  11:44, 18 February 2006 (UTC)

off colour, off topic thing deleted. --Zeizmic 18:10, 17 February 2006 (UTC)

A Canadian is someone who:

• climbs on a mountain and yells at the top of his lungs how he is better than you because he is quieter and more humble.
• talks like an American, looks like an American and acts like an American but remains adamant that Americans are nothing like him.
• wears a little Canadian flag on his backpack so no one thinks he's American.
• stays up at night worrying that someone, somewhere out there doesn't like Canadians.
• always goes out of his way to find the Canadian angle on anything. ("Did you know the guy who designed this year's Super Bowl logo is Canadian?")
• is named Gord.
• tells jokes about people from Newfoundland.
• follows all four major sports -- pro hockey, junior hockey, minor hockey and women's hockey.
• thinks the rest of the world also buys milk in balloons. -- Mwalcoff 00:42, 19 February 2006 (UTC)

OK, I'm curious, they buy milk in balloons ? StuRat 01:14, 19 February 2006 (UTC)

See the milk article. Milk in Canada is sold in 1 1/3 litre bags that resemble rectangular water balloons. Samw 02:48, 19 February 2006 (UTC)

Cool, anyone have a pic ? I'd like to see that. They might even become my second most favorite type of milk bag. StuRat 03:05, 19 February 2006 (UTC)

See [22] Samw 04:35, 19 February 2006 (UTC)

February 17

Who Is.......?

Who Is Moises Ramses Jauregui? Unsigned question by User:206.170.104.24

City

What Mexican City Has THe Largest Population Of Japanese And Filipino People? Unsigned question by User:206.170.104.24

• See Demographics of Mexico#Middle Easterners & Asians.--Pharos 06:32, 19 February 2006 (UTC)

Who Was?

Who Was The Best Soccer Player In The World In 1989? Unsigned question by User:206.170.104.24

There wasn't a FIFA World Player of the Year award until 1991, but the 1989 European Footballer of the Year was Marco van Basten, who would have got my vote for World's best.
However, Ruud Gullitt was voted best player by readers of World Soccer (1989 World Soccer Awards).
Slumgum 00:54, 17 February 2006 (UTC)

Novelist

Which Writer\Author Can Be A Combination Of Jorge Luis Borges And Nathaniel Hawthorne? Unsigned question by User:206.170.104.24

What's the prize in this literature quiz? Notinasnaid 08:53, 17 February 2006 (UTC)

Literature

Which Author\Writer Can Be A Combination Of Jorge Luis Borges And H.G. Wells? Unsigned question by User:206.170.104.24

H.G.Borges? Seriously though, I'd suggest Ray Bradbury, but there are any number of possible answers, since Borges was a lot closer to science fiction than you'd think, and Wells often wrote with a magical realist sense of both social conscience and whimsy. Unless, of course, the question is asking for a predominantly science fiction author who also wrote in a wide number of literary genres, in which case Poul Anderson, or a predominantly science fiction author who also wrote essays on a vast array of subjects, in which case Isaac Asimov. Nah - go with Bradbury. Also, the question is posed in the present tense, and Bradbury's the only one of those three still alive, AFAIK. Grutness...wha? 10:34, 17 February 2006 (UTC)

dragon ball Goku question

[Is there] anoyone [who] is [a] comics, anime, or cartoons character ... that can beat Goku (at the end of dragon ball gt)???

No.  freshgavinΓΛĿЌ  19:19, 17 February 2006 (UTC)

Dr Manhattan could liquidise him in about three seconds, but that's just my educated conclusion. Sum0 15:10, 18 February 2006 (UTC)

Heavy

What Is Heavy Metal Literature And Who Is The Most Famous Heavy Metal Novelist?

Alexandre Dumas, père perhaps (for The Vicomte de Bragelonne and its ferrous hero)? JackofOz 01:32, 17 February 2006 (UTC)

Whoa, if you're talking Dumas, what about The Man in the Iron Mask? And wasn't there a children's book about a steamshovel and another about Thomas the Train Engine? alteripse 02:42, 17 February 2006 (UTC) Oh. I just looked up the Vicomte and discovered it's the same book. Great minds... alteripse 02:43, 17 February 2006 (UTC)

(wink) JackofOz 04:32, 17 February 2006 (UTC)

Michael Moorcock, novelist and metaller (not truly heavy, mind - Blue Oyster Cult and Hawkwind couldn't be really classified as HM). Grutness...wha? 02:27, 18 February 2006 (UTC)

Bon Jovi

Who Is The Bon Jovi Of Literature?

Bon Jovi is.  freshgavinΓΛĿЌ  03:34, 17 February 2006 (UTC)

Reminds me of a Peanuts cartoon where Lucy was lying around listening to Schroeder playing, and when he was finished she said "Schroeder, one day you're going to be the Beethoven of music". He looked suitably nonplussed and couldn't think of a thing to say. JackofOz 05:18, 17 February 2006 (UTC)

I wish I had the kind of memory that could just quote random Peanuts clips.  freshgavinΓΛĿЌ  16:42, 17 February 2006 (UTC)

Yeees .. I am kind of special. But this wasn't random, it was at least 5% related to the foregoing. JackofOz 21:34, 17 February 2006 (UTC)

Richest

Who Is The Richest Writer\Author In The World?

J. K. Rowling. -LambaJan 03:51, 17 February 2006 (UTC)

Nope. Donald Trump is a writer and author (Donald_Trump#Books), and is worth more. I am pretty sure Bill Gates has written a book, too. J.K. Rowling was, however, the first person to earn $1 bn solely from book sales and book-related stuff, such as her percentage take from merchandise sales, the Harry Potter movies, the movie merchandise, etc. Proto||type 12:46, 17 February 2006 (UTC)

Crowd Advertising

I need the specific word/words that describe a specific type of advertising:

Most often related to sporting events, this is when each individual person within a specific section of a crowd holds up a small sign/poster (preplaced in their seats) in order for the larger sign to be put together.

Such signs are called "flip cards" and they are mostly used for "pep" and rooting rather than advertising. Also occasionally for hijinks, as when Yale students disguised themselves as the "Harvard Pep Squad" and tricked Harvard well-wishers into revealing "We Suck" (instead of "Go Harvard" [23]). This was a variant of the The Great Rose Bowl Hoax of 1961 - Nunh-huh 03:45, 17 February 2006 (UTC)

Thought I answered this a few hours ago; I guess I forgot to save. The phrase I think the original poster is looking for (although it doesn't necessarily refer to advertising as such) is card stunt. --Anonymous, 18:30 UTC, February 17.

Novelist

Who Is The RIchest Novelist In The World?

• See above. - Mgm|^(talk) 10:03, 17 February 2006 (UTC)

Spanish

Who Is The Richest Novelist Of Spanish Language In The World? this question has been asked already look above for the answer and if there is not a answer stop asking.

Giving a Name a meaning

Hello! I have a difficult question, but if you can help me that would be the greatest thing. My wife has a beautiful name but it has no official meaning. I would love more then anything to give that to her as a gift. I've search the internet and their's probably only a few people in the world with that name. I've also search many websites for a meaning and there's none. But it does mean everything to me. Please! Can you help me?

Sincerely, Jonas

It would help massively if we knew your wife's name. However, numerology and related methodologies may serve as inspiration for some meaning. Besides, almost any name will mean something, or be very close to something, in at least a few languages - mine is nearly a politeness particle in Japanese, as well as having a religious Hebrew meaning (okay, so that's where it's derived from)! --Sam Pointon 03:45, 17 February 2006 (UTC) (edit: apologies for the grammar and stuff. Wiki-ing at quarter to four in the morning does that to me).

Well, he did say it was a difficult question. Maybe he was referring to the fact that he wants us to come up with a meaning of something without us knowing what it is. This is the third time I bring this up today, but that sounds rather Zen. DirkvdM 15:57, 17 February 2006 (UTC)

The meaning of your wife's name is that you can refer to her without having to go and get her or take out a picture of her. Therefore one meaning of your wife's name could be "more expressive then any picture" or "easy to carry around". MeltBanana 16:52, 17 February 2006 (UTC)

Ethnic

Hi,Here Is My Question What Race I Am?:I Was Born In Mexico,My Father Is Of Spanish And Northern African,Arabian Ancestry And My Mother She Has Native American Ancestry And Some Asian Ancestry,I Just Want To Know Ethnicity I Am.Thank You.

If you have to choose, perhaps Mestizo comes the closest. Or you could just pick "All of the above" on any form that asks. StuRat 03:56, 17 February 2006 (UTC)

You're human. You already demonstrated that you know your ethnicity. In addition to what Stu said, you could also consider using 'Mixed,' or not answering. -LambaJan 04:16, 17 February 2006 (UTC)

'Human' would be the best answer to a question about race. JackofOz 04:31, 17 February 2006 (UTC)

See our article on ethnicity - it's a somewhat nebulous concept, and it becomes meaningless to try and pigeonhole people into ethnic groups when there is so much mixing going on.

Also, just as a suggestion, you may want to reduce your usage of the Shift key - in English, there is no need to capitalise every word (if you want an in-depth discussion, see capitalization), and it makes your question a bit difficult to read. — QuantumEleven | (talk) 09:01, 17 February 2006 (UTC)

Let me pose you a question. You're part Spanish, part North African, etc etc etc, but which race to you consider yourself to be - which do you identify with? Do you think of yourself as a Mexican, a native Mexican, Spanish? The race you are in your heart is probably closer to what you should consider as an answer to your question than any dividing up by fraction of this and fraction of that. I think of myself as a Celt, for instance, because many of my lines of ancestry go back to Ireland and Wales - some of them a long way back. I have ancestry from other places, too, but I identify with the Irish lineage most strongly. I have friends who consider themselves equally of Maori and British descent, despite only having 1/8 Maori lineage. It's how you feel that's the important thing. Grutness...wha? 10:51, 17 February 2006 (UTC)

Let me be the third one to point out that your race must be human (there are no separate human races - there's just one human race). If you're asking about your ethnicity in the sense of skin colour and nose size and such, there are few indication in the information you give. That your father's ancestry is of Spanish, North African and Arabic ancestry says nothing. All sorts of ethnicities live in those regions. Spain is actually one big melting pot, with Celts in the North West, a strong Arabic history in the South and Germanic tribes passing through (and settling) about a millennium and a half ago. The North African and Arabic ancestry makes a semitic line probable, but that's all. Most likely, though, I';d say the best we can say is that you are your own mix. You're unique. But then everyone is, so what's all the fuss? DirkvdM 16:07, 17 February 2006 (UTC)

And while I'm on the subject. The fact that on my CV my place of birth shows that I'm from Curaçao probably makes potential employers think I'm black, which I'm not. Of course that should not make a difference, but the truth is I hardly ever get any responses to my job applications. DirkvdM 16:13, 17 February 2006 (UTC)

Surely you could add a small picture of yourself to your CV? - Adrian Pingstone 16:57, 17 February 2006 (UTC)

Some employers would then say "Who is this guy who thinks it's appropriate to attach a picture?", though!

I don't include a pic of my face on my resume, but do find it very illustrative to include, along with my letter of resignation, a nice pic of my butt. StuRat 06:06, 18 February 2006 (UTC)

On the matter of mixed races, here's a nice story of bureaucracy collected with some related stories and thoughts by the same person. --Anonymous, 18:40 UTC, February 17.

That's a rather telling story. I don't know if Australia is ahead of the world in this respect, but asking questions over here about race in relation to employment or security clearances would be in breach of all kinds of anti-discrimination laws. It wouldn't happen; and a person would be within their rights to refuse to answer if it did. JackofOz 21:30, 17 February 2006 (UTC)

But I bet that wasn't always true. --Anon, 05:05 UTC, Feb. 18.

Certainly not. See White Australia policy. JackofOz 06:08, 18 February 2006 (UTC)

An approach to the question, emphasized by DirkvdM's experience, is that much of what one gets "labeled" in these matters depends on how others perceive you. In one context, someone with a "mixed" background would be called one thing, in another, something else. Context is pretty important in questions of this sort, especially since some of the available categories are not even present in some countries than they are in others. --Fastfission 19:21, 17 February 2006 (UTC)

Indeed. There are several anthropologists who treat this for what it is. One even told the story about how he's white, his wife is black, and his daughter is black in the U.S., but white in Brazil because in the U.S. it's standard to follow this ridiculous discriminating policy of Hypodescent, whereas in Brazil there are several terms for color and someone inbetween can be light brown one day and dark brown the next. -LambaJan 21:22, 18 February 2006 (UTC)

Cricket Ratings

How are cricket ratings calculated?What is the diference between SAMSUNG and WISDEN cricket ratings and which one is better?Among all the ratings which one is the most authentic? --221.135.192.53 04:53, 17 February 2006 (UTC)

Are they actually calculated? I thought they just some numbers up over tea and then rounded up. Sorry, couldn't resist.  freshgavinΓΛĿЌ  19:13, 17 February 2006 (UTC)

The details of neither system are available publically. Some vague details of Samsung/Espn ratings are available at http://www.espnstar.com/cricket/scr/scrdetails.jsp

The U.S. And the U.N.

What would it take for the U.S. to withdraw from the U.N.? Whose decision would it be?

Since the relationship with the UN is conducted via treaty, I would think the US Senate would pass a bill to repeal adoption of the treaty (as was done in the case of the ABM Treaty), which would need to be signed by the President, or overridden by a 2/3 majority, to take effect. The decision of whether to evict the United Nations from New York would also have to be made. StuRat 07:08, 17 February 2006 (UTC)

Alternatively the United Nations could vote to expel the United States, but the chances of this happening are somewhere betweeen 0 and infintessimal. Thryduulf 12:39, 17 February 2006 (UTC)

Then again, all non-negative numbers are between zero and infinitessimal. As to the question, the US already don't acknowledge the International Court of Justice, which to me seems like an essential part of the UN (the legal leg of the trias politica), so they're already half out of it. What made it possible for the US to withraw from that would probably be nough to take the final second step too, although I mustr admit I'm just guessing here. DirkvdM 16:17, 17 February 2006 (UTC)

• For future reference, you might want to look up infinitesimal. It does not mean infinite. --Anon, 18:25 UTC.

My mistake (and a stupid one at that). DirkvdM 08:31, 18 February 2006 (UTC)

I think it's actually the International Criminal Court that the U.S. doesn't recognize, unless our articles on them are wrong. Of course, it wouldn't be very surprising for the U.S. not to recognize either of them... Yeltensic42 don't panic 17:02, 17 February 2006 (UTC)

The article does state that the US ignored a ruling in 1984 concerning Nicaragua. This would only make sense if they didn't recognise the court anymore. The article does state that the US "withdrew its acceptance" after that. Considering the dominance the US have in matters concerning the ICJ (military interference in other countries) that would merit a more prominent place in the article. I'll remedy that. DirkvdM 08:31, 18 February 2006 (UTC)

*shakes head* Why am I not surprised? (about the U.S., not the article) Yeltensic42 don't panic 21:29, 18 February 2006 (UTC)

Considering the number of Muslim nations in the UN, can we expect the international courts to implement aspects of Sharia law, like having women's testimony count for half as much as men's ? StuRat 01:56, 19 February 2006 (UTC)

Which you consider wrong. And I do too. But who are we to judge that? And in general, who is to decide that? Since there is no objective method to determine which culture is in the right the only alternative is democracy. And in my book that means giving at least the most prominent cultures a say, in accordance with their sizes. And this system is as workable an approximation of that as one can get. Given how new the notion of worldwide international law is, we should give them some slack and also accept difficult decisions. If a major country starts ignoring them they will back down and the whole thing will never get off the ground. And I'm not just thinking of the ICJ but of the UN as a whole. Ironically, the US was instrumental in the founding of these institutions. Their backing gave other countries confidence that it might work. The lack of backing just means wars of all kinds will keep on existing longer. DirkvdM 09:33, 19 February 2006 (UTC)

cartoon reference

I could probably discover this if I spent enough time digging through http://home.nc.rr.com/tuco/looney/tunes.html, but it's more fun to ask here. Anybody remember the name of that old Warner Brothers cartoon where after 10 minutes of committing assorted mayhem against each other, the guard dog and the wolf -- or maybe there was rooster involved -- would call it a day, punch out through the time clock, say "See ya tomorrow, Ralph", with no lingering animosity towards each other at all?

(I'll even say why I'm looking: I want to use it as a metaphor for how I wish Wikipedia editors could get along with either after they've finished with a day's slugfest on opposite sides of the POV issues in some article.) Steve Summit (talk) 05:09, 17 February 2006 (UTC)

• Well, lookit that. A bit of searching suggested their names were Sam and Ralph, after which a google search for "sam ralph sheepdog wolf" gave, as hit #2, our own Sam Sheepdog and Ralph Wolf. --Steve Summit (talk) 05:24, 17 February 2006 (UTC)

I liked the scene where the greedy wolf was carrying the entire herd of sheep, and straining under the weight, and unable to see with a face full of wool, when he ran into the sheepdog. The wolf then returned each sheep to it's respective spot before being beaten mercilessly by the sheepdog. StuRat 07:20, 17 February 2006 (UTC)

I just have to mention that one of my best working relationships was described by onlookers in terms of the Sam and Ralph cartoons. We each were adamant about our points of view and the approach we'd take for various problems (I was a programmer, he was a business analyst), we'd argue vehemently (if not quite as violently as Sam and Ralph), and at the end of the week, we'd go out for a couple beers. --LarryMac 20:08, 17 February 2006 (UTC)

I suspect that many prosecutors and defense lawyers have the same relationship, arguing with each other in court only to meet for drinks after work (where they plan how they can get elected and make the laws even more needlessly complex, so they will get even richer interpreting them). StuRat 06:00, 18 February 2006 (UTC)

baby shoe copper plating

need information to learn how to copperplate baby's shoes with copper

It's called bronzing. This article is a very old stub. If you Google for it, you come up with lists of companies who do it. --Zeizmic 13:03, 17 February 2006 (UTC)

Sand

What happens to sand in nature? What natural processes occur which convert sand into something else to keep the balance? Or is sand accumulation inevitable?  Run!  15:47, 17 February 2006 (UTC)

Sand can turn into glass with enough heat; this happens in nature when lightning hits it. It's an interesting thought though - what if everything wears down to sand in the future? We'll all be killed!
Slumgum 16:14, 17 February 2006 (UTC)

Ah, it's not 42, it's sand! We've cracked it!!! DirkvdM 16:21, 17 February 2006 (UTC)

That's why I recently changed my username. :) YeltensicSand don't panic 17:04, 17 February 2006 (UTC)

Sand can become part of conglomerate rocks or sandstone, etc. or be subducted along fault lines back into the magma from whence it came. Rmhermen 17:11, 17 February 2006 (UTC)

Hint: Rock cycle --Zeizmic 17:13, 17 February 2006 (UTC)

Sand becomes sandpaper also. Alas, Wikipedia is not paper. Sand castle ? --DLL 19:31, 17 February 2006 (UTC)

Meaning

what is the Meaning of "The incompetence boggles the mind"

If something is said to "boggle the mind" it means that is is unbelievable, incredible, etc. In this case it would appear that someone's incompetence (*cough*bush*cough*) is at an unbelievable level.  Run!  18:04, 17 February 2006 (UTC)

RBD's English CD

What songs are we going to expect from RBD in English? And what is the name of RBD's English CD?

We are not expecting anything. User:Zoe|^(talk) 00:52, 18 February 2006 (UTC)

Considering I have no idea who "RBD" is, I would be quite surprised to get anything from them. Even more so if it's not in English. Dismas|^(talk) 15:56, 18 February 2006 (UTC)

The CD should be named "Rebel" - they started in a telenovela called ReBelDe. Also, they're the only meaning of that trigram. Let us create the disamb page : Reverse Brain Drain, Русский Банкирский Дом, Red Blue Devils, Revue Burkinabè de droit ... --DLL 21:24, 18 February 2006 (UTC)

us production of 13 million.....

What does the US produce 13 millions tons of a year?

A clue is tomatoes.

I vote we kill any non-questions that aren't signed. I think they are all from the same behaviourly-challenged individual. --Zeizmic 23:14, 17 February 2006 (UTC)

I answered a few of these gameshow questions and I didn't get a reward or even a thank you. I'm starting to waiver in my motivation. I like the questions that people ask when they don't already know the answer, but really want to. When you answer those ones someone becomes happier. -LambaJan 05:28, 18 February 2006 (UTC)

Yea, we might never ketchup with all these questions. StuRat 05:47, 18 February 2006 (UTC)

 freshgavinΓΛĿЌ  throws 13 million tons of tomatoes at StuRat

StuRat removes the tomatoes from his hair and makes salsa from them for his nachos. StuRat 18:36, 18 February 2006 (UTC)

Mmmm... You know... That's a lot of salsa to keep for yourself... -LambaJan 06:08, 19 February 2006 (UTC)

Money

Who is the richest mexican and mexican-american in U.S.A?

Forbes says the richest Mexican is Carlos Slim Helu, head of América Movil and the fourth-richest person in the world. -- Mwalcoff 00:56, 19 February 2006 (UTC)

February 18

Who Is...?

Who Is The Ray Bradbury Of Mexico?

Ray Bradbury. Accept no imitations. Grutness...wha? 07:48, 18 February 2006 (UTC)

ME. I'm sorry that Ray spent his life imitating me. Signed : Leon Trotsky. By delegation : --DLL 21:16, 18 February 2006 (UTC)

copper john

why was copper john erected outside of the auburn state prison i can imagine a museum or library as a more suitable location.

• What an interesting story this turned out to be! --jpgordon∇∆∇∆ 04:33, 18 February 2006 (UTC)

The Chevrolet logo

Does Chevrolet have a name for their logo? User:Zoe|^(talk) 00:52, 18 February 2006 (UTC)

It is commonly referred to as the Bow Tie; I am not sure if that's considered official. --LarryMac 02:07, 18 February 2006 (UTC)

Chevron is taken.  freshgavinΓΛĿЌ  11:33, 18 February 2006 (UTC)

I add a question. Those words derive from latin caper (goat), which gave chèvre, caprice, chevron (goat ; slanting beam ; division of the field (heraldry) ; and badge) in french, and, for people's names, Chevrolet and others.

It is clear why the cars choose the logo. But why does the second meaning of chevron, beam, derive from the first, goat ? The others keep the same shape "^" ? --DLL 21:13, 18 February 2006 (UTC)

William C Durant noticed the design in the pattern of a wallpaper in a French hotel room. He ripped a piece of the paper off the wall and took it back to the USA for the Chevvie logo. JackofOz 21:33, 18 February 2006 (UTC)

Who is Siranney?

Mentioned by Virginia Woolf as a Persian essayist. Anyone know more about this person, is there a more persian spelling, or do I have to buy Ernest Rhys' Modern English Essays. MeltBanana 02:15, 18 February 2006 (UTC)

I think the name 'Siranney' is a gross agluttination of either Avicenna (which itself is an agluttination of ibn-Sina) or Al-Farabi. -LambaJan 06:04, 18 February 2006 (UTC)

Effects of being vegetarian and non- vegetarian on health.

I would like to have detailed information about effects of being vegetarian and non vagetarian on the human health. Not only the basics but thorough information, ideas and views on this concept.

For the former, you can get a good start by reading our Vegetarianism and Vegetarian nutrition articles. Not sure about the latter; our Omnivore article is a stub.

"Carrots and lettuce ? You want me to eat carrots and lettuce ? That's not food, that's what food eats !" StuRat 05:42, 18 February 2006 (UTC)

I'm a vegetarian, but I eat eggs and dairy. If I weren't living in the U.S. then there's a good chance I wouldn't be a vegetarian. They put so much nasty stuff in the food here. I really don't like rBGH, which comes out not only in meat, but to even a greater extent in dairy products. Because of that I like to stick to organic dairy products when I can, but I'm blue collar and was born rather lactose intolerant, so I usually just do without dairy or eggs. They're a rather small part of my diet. I don't miss them, and I don't miss meat. Good food is good on its own merits, and when it's good you're not concerned with the lack of whatever pleasentries you've grown accustomed to. -LambaJan 06:14, 18 February 2006 (UTC)

How often do you think dairy cattle become your meat? Those are the cattle that get bovine somatotropin to increase milk production. I posted aquestion at talk:dairy farming to get confirmation but suspect that your fears are groundless (and even ground-beef-less). alteripse 22:14, 18 February 2006 (UTC)

During the 2004 international rainbow gathering I was effectively forced to eat vegetarian (getting my own meat and storing it was rather problematic). This included loads of fruit, especially water melon. Which means loads of sugar. Which was probably the major cause for me getting a urinary tract infection (which I only recently completely got rid of - almost 2 years later!). I suppose one cause is that fruit isn't very 'natural' anymore. The original fruits were probably not quite as sweet (although this is just a guess). Then again, the meat we can buy here isn't very 'natural' either (though I don't know in what respects) and I don't know what effects that might have. Another example is some relatives of mine in South America who had several orange trees and therefore drank orange juice like water. As a result they got stomach ulcers from the acidity. So even non-sweet fruits are bad for you. I suppose the big secret is to vary your food intake. Which means fruit, veggies, grains, meat, dairy products and what have you.

Food pyramid

Funny, the food pyramid here shows 'low fat' milk but no warning against sugars. Whilst sugar is a bigger health hazard than fat. It's more fattening for one. A pointer is that milk and meat naturally contain fat, but sugar is refined and added to food in way too high concentrations. Again, it's how 'natural' the food source is that counts. So my health advise rule-of-thumb is "Go with nature, that's what we evolved with". And we didn't evolve as vegetarians. DirkvdM 08:53, 18 February 2006 (UTC)

True, but we did evolve as, say 90-95% vegetarian, with meat being a "rare treat", like it is for many other primates. So, having a bucket of fried chicken every day is most definitely "not natural". Most of the nutrients we need come from fruits, vegetables, nuts and grains, with only a few coming solely from meat. Therefore, to be healthiest I suggest a 90-95% vegetarian diet, with the "rare meats" being ones that are the healthiest, like cold-water fish, such as salmon. StuRat 18:32, 18 February 2006 (UTC)

Hmm, I don't know the size of your buckets, but that does sound rather over the top (you're not talking 20 l buckets, I hope :) ). Which brings up a point that may be more important than anything else. Moderation. It doesn't really matter much what you eat, as long as it's varied and in moderate amounts. Then again. You're right that meat was probably a treat for most of mankind's evolution. But when someone shot, oh, say, a mammoth, I don't think our ancestors gave their cholestrol levels or whatever much thought and filled their bellies many times over for days in a row. So that would also be 'natural' but I'm not sure if that necessaraily means it's healthy in this case (still could, though, as long as it's an occasional occurrence). DirkvdM 19:44, 18 February 2006 (UTC)

"Shot mammoths" ? And did they use their night vision scopes, too ? LOL. StuRat 00:59, 19 February 2006 (UTC)

Ah, yes, I suppose bow and arrow were not the right tools to catch a mammoth. Even with night vision. DirkvdM 09:44, 19 February 2006 (UTC)

But why do you advise 'rare meats'. And what do you mean by it? The type of meat that is rarely encountered? Before the age of river pollution salmon was nowhere near rare and there will still be places where it abounds. In Maastricht (where I grew up) maids used to specify they didn't want to get salmon every day before accepting a job because that was the poor man's meat. DirkvdM 19:44, 18 February 2006 (UTC)

By "rare meats", I meant those meats which were eaten only on rare occasions (that would have been all meats). I'm sure salmon abounded in cave man days, too, but were hard to catch with just a spear. So, most days they would have had the settle for berries and such. StuRat 00:59, 19 February 2006 (UTC)

I remember reading about Scottish workmen in the 19th century complaining about having to eat salmon every day. User:Zoe|^(talk) 07:10, 19 February 2006 (UTC)

Hmm, I'm starting to doubt now that meat was a rare extra. Human communities rose mainly at seashores and along rivers. Nets and poison would have ensured regular catches of fish. The only question is how long ago this started to be the case. Bears manage to catch fish. And humans have been much more agile and intelligent for a long time on the evolutionary scale. A possible problem with this might be that they were not sedentary. But even then they would have known where in their extended territory they would have to go to get some good catches at that time of year. And many probably would have been sedentary if one place gave a constant supply of fish (or whichever meat). I have always understood that humans started to become sedentary when they developed agriculture. But that doesn't make sense to me anymore now. If you've found a river with plenty of salmon, then why move elsewhere? DirkvdM 09:44, 19 February 2006 (UTC)

Wikapedia: An Academic Resource?

Hey Wikapedian-

I'm a student at the new UC in Merced, CA. In my writing class, we've been asked to write a paper on the usability of Wikapedia as an academic resource for university students. What are your thoughts? Can you offer me an insider perspective? I've been looking at accuracy, type of writers/editors involved, accessibility, speed of article revision, and academia perception. (Actually, I tried to post a question that the user community could answer, but I wasn't quite sure where to put it.)

I would really appreciate your perspective, and I know it would add a lot of weight to my paper.

Thank you very much for your time!

Have a beautiful day!

Blessings,

Merissa

Merissa, if you check Wikipedia:Press coverage there are numerous articles by others on the reliability and appropriateness of using Wikipedia as a press or academic source; if you want an amusing spray on the topic and can figure out a way to get access to it, the Australian news magazine The Monthly has an article claiming that the Wikipedia is, essentially, too accessible to students leading to laziness. My own take on the matter is that Wikipedia is useful as a background source, and occasionally can be cited to provide a general background to introduce a reader to a topic they are not expert in (almost like an extended footnote rather than a fact-establishing citation). You might also conceivably quote the Wikipedia if it provides a nice turn of phrase that says something you've established by further research you want to say. Otherwise, it, like every other general-purpose encyclopedia, is not really suitable for citation in tertiary-level academic work. --Robert Merkel 07:18, 18 February 2006 (UTC)

So we're paper weight to you? Thanks a lot. :) But more seriously, I often warn against using Wikipedia as a serious source just yet. It's still a work in progress. However, in the meantime it's certainly useful, but more in the sense that Robert pointed out, as a good starting point, to pick up some ideas and terminology and use that for further research. After which it would be nice if people came back to the article to add their findings to it. (Note that this is pure communism - take what you need and add what you can.) Nature magazine compared Wikipedia to the Encyclopedia Britannica and found they both contained mistakes. Let this be a warning for any sort of referencing - no source is completely reliable. Wikipedia contained more mistakes (though the difference wasn't too big), but it has only existed for a few years. How long does it take to write an encyclopedia? If we've come this far in a few years, what will the future bring (say another 10 years - or 100 years even)? Also, Nature only looked at articles on hard sciences. In the case of articles on more 'social stuff' there's a lot of POV (Point Of View - a much used flame-term here). Especially concerning controversial topics (apropos communism :) ). At the moment, with such articles, you'd be lucky to find a balance of POV's. But quite often people don't just add their own POV or bias, but remove those of others as well, deleting possibly correct facts while they're at it, resulting in revert wars. So far, rules have been fairly relaxed (which made sense to get the thing off the ground), but at the moment there is a drive to get people to cite their sources, by inserting this message after certain clais in articles: . Which would then have to be replaced with somethig like a link backing the statement up. Hopefully this hasn't started too late.

But, most importantly, if you want to find info on the Internet, few sources are as reliable and/or complete as Wikipedia. You should just check this source as you should any other source - on the Internet or on paper. As far as citing is concerned, a problem is that Wikipedia constantly changes, so anyone checking on your citation might have to dig into the history. So I'd say add the date to any citation.

And you may quote me on all that. :) DirkvdM 09:27, 18 February 2006 (UTC)

We get a fair few wikipedia-related questions here... do you think the reference desk should have a wikipedia section?  Run!  10:31, 18 February 2006 (UTC)

That would probably attract a lot of the wrong questions, for example ones best handled at the Help desk.  freshgavinΓΛĿЌ  11:30, 18 February 2006 (UTC)

Exist WIKIRESEARCH?

Hy! I live in Romania and I like very much the Physics Research. Exist Wikiresearch? If yes, where? If not, when? Thanck you! -- Abel Cavaşi 06:52, 18 February 2006 (UTC)

Let me try to put that into proper English:

"Hi! I live in Romania and I am interested in physics research.
 Do you have any articles on this topic ?  If yes, where?
 If not, when do you expect to add them ? Thank you!"

The answer: Yes, we have many such articles. Can you narrow it down a bit, to a specific area you are interested in, like cold fusion, perhaps ? StuRat 07:59, 18 February 2006 (UTC)

No need to tease him about his English; it's probably better than your Romanian! Steve Summit (talk) 14:47, 18 February 2006 (UTC)

I'm not teasing, but offering what I believe to be his meaning so others (especially those who can barely read English) can understand it and respond. StuRat 18:09, 18 February 2006 (UTC)

Thank you for trying to translate. I like it, but I meant that as if there is Wikipedia, Wiktionary, Wikibooks and so on, is there Wikiresearch? I ask this because I am searcing for a place where it is possible to make open-minded researces in every topics. Your help in correcting my english is always welcomed. -- Abel Cavaşi 19:27, 18 February 2006 (UTC)

Thanks for clarifying that. I think there was a proposal to create a new Wiki site which would allow original research, but I don't know what happened to it. StuRat 02:08, 19 February 2006 (UTC)

Ah, that sounds like a very good idea. Actually, this was one of the very first uses of internet, with researchers exchanging findings. And it was in exactly such a seting (at CERN, which you should know if you're into physics) where Tim Berners Lee thought up the World Wide Web. I supose this still goes on at universities (outside the www, though, so you'll have to get the right url's somewhere). If this were done on Wikipedia (or rather a sister project) then I suppose it would all have to fall under the GPL (ie open source). But there will be enough scientists around the world interrested in this. Actually, I myself have suggested an alternative to the Big Bang theory on the science help desk a while ago. Which raises the question if anyone can get in on this. serious physicists might not want to be bothered with the nonsense a philosopher like me comes up with. There could be some sort of portal (not in the techie sense of the word) where the nonsense is filtered out by hobbyists. Actually, I'm realy starting to like this idea. I wouldn't be able to participate seriusly, but it would be fun to see scientists at work, seeig how they work out ideas. As a philosopher of science I'm thrilled by the prospect. DirkvdM 20:05, 18 February 2006 (UTC)

Part of my life pokes into the research scientist world, and most of them are pretty primitive in the Internet-department. I mean, they use these things called books! You still generate the best brainstorming in the hallways of conferences. For research publication, they are very formal (their income depends on it!). --Zeizmic 20:45, 18 February 2006 (UTC)

Ok! You are very receptive and very profound. What can we do for Wikiresearch? -- Abel Cavaşi 09:11, 19 February 2006 (UTC)

grape juice?

What's the best way to a grape juice stain out of a pair of slacks? any magical chemical cleaners? figured you folks'd know about that kind of stuff--64.12.116.11 22:51, 8 February 2006 (UTC)

• This was posted on the Archives. I moved it here. -LambaJan 11:03, 18 February 2006 (UTC)

All that oxyclean^TM style stuff seems to work well for things like that.  freshgavinΓΛĿЌ  11:27, 18 February 2006 (UTC)

Indeed, I highly reccommend keeping a supply of OxiClean^TM in every home. -BillyMays 02:17, 19 February 2006 (UTC)

Do quail fly?

To what extent do quail fly? (The Wikipedia article describes them as 'terrestrial birds') Would a quail hunter normally shoot the bird on the ground or in the air? ike9898 13:30, 18 February 2006 (UTC)

See the movie 'Wedding Crashers'. --Zeizmic 13:59, 18 February 2006 (UTC)

Quail are flushed out and shot while in the air. Dismas|^(talk) 15:52, 18 February 2006 (UTC)

As are Texas lawyers. User:Zoe|^(talk) 07:16, 19 February 2006 (UTC)

Illinois-Time Change

Does the state of Illinois observe a time change?

If you mean a Daylight Saving Time change, yes. The midwest state that's been odd in this regard is Indiana. --Steve Summit (talk) 15:21, 18 February 2006 (UTC)

Arizona and several other states in its neck of the woods are also like that. Yeltensic42 don't panic 21:35, 18 February 2006 (UTC)

Temple in Jesus' Day

Is it possible to get a picture of the Temple in Jesus' Day? I need it for a class I teach. Thank you, Maureen Smith

No pictures of the Second Temple survive from that era. However, a few artist's reconstructions have been made (some of which are shown in the article.) GeeJo _{(t) (c)} • 18:01, 18 February 2006 (UTC)

How about this drawing (from this page) scanned from Nordisk familjebok? Thuresson 20:28, 18 February 2006 (UTC)

Galavision

Will Galavision make more English soap operas?

"More"? Have they ever? User:Zoe|^(talk) 07:19, 19 February 2006 (UTC)

Sexuality

What is a big hogan? I have searched everywhere for a definition. Thanks for your help.

According to Urban Dictionary it probably refers to the penis. —Keenan Pepper 22:00, 18 February 2006 (UTC)

Five Kilometres

Suppose I had to walk from my appartment to campus over a distance of 5 kilometres through a North American urban environment (ie down town big city). Would I be right in assuming that it would take me about 30-40 mintues? Duomillia 00:03, 19 February 2006 (UTC)

Are you including the recuperation time for your injuries from all the muggings ? StuRat

Heh. I'd allow a little longer than 30-40 minutes. I do a lot of urban walking (especially lately - my car died recently), and although I don't live in North America, the time taken would be pretty similar in most western countries. I find that ten minutes per kilometre allows for a small amount of lee-way when I'm trying to get somewhere, which would be 50 minutes for five kilometres. If you're prepared to do it with a little less lee-way, then I'd say you'd still be looking at about 40-45 minutes. Look at it another way - most people walk at around 4 mph - to do five kilometres in half an hour means travelling at a little over 6 mph. Grutness...wha? 00:34, 19 February 2006 (UTC)

FWIW, my regular ~2km (possibly a little longer) walk through central Oxford takes twenty to thirty minutes, depending on traffic and what I'm carrying.

As regards "pretty similar", North America suburban (or not-city-centre) is a bit less pedestrian-friendly, I find, so might take longer than equivalent European areas, but dense urban should be much of a muchness. Shimgray | talk | 00:39, 19 February 2006 (UTC)

A "downtown big city" environment may have heavy pedestrian traffic and frequent intersections with traffic lights, both of which will reduce walking speed. Even if you're a fast walker, I think you might easily find that walk taking a full hour, maybe even more. Of course these things will vary by time of day and also, perhaps by more than you think, from one place to another. --Anonymous, 00:40 UTC, February 19.

Half an hour for 5 km means 10 km/h. That's not walking. That's running. On easy flat terrain with no obstacles I walk at a speed of 6 km/h (one km every 10 mins - an easy rule of thumb). Many crossings of busy streets could easily halve that speed, so I'd say more it would take more like an hour and a half. Then again, I walk fast, but also I'm referring to a comfortable walking speed, so you may have to adjust for those factors.DirkvdM 10:05, 19 February 2006 (UTC)

February 19

Movie Theater Previews

Is there a website somewhere that lists the Previews shows in Theaters before the movie starts, and what previews played before what movies?

As for the second part, I don't think they always show the same previews with a given movie. StuRat 00:37, 19 February 2006 (UTC)

Actually, I did hear that The Waterboy achieved boosted box-office success because Star Wars nerds knew there was an Episode One trailer before the film. I don't know how they found out this info though.
Slumgum 01:04, 19 February 2006 (UTC)

I would guess it spread by word of mouth, probably via the Internet, once the first nerd saw the trailer. StuRat 03:14, 19 February 2006 (UTC)

Knowlege of Sex and Reproduction

Before I ask you this question, I have four points to tell you:

1.Some people who're against sex education in schools say that knowlege of what causes pregnancy should only come from parents.

2.The problem with this is that most parents are unwilling or reluctant to tell their children about these facts.They want them to find out themselves when they grow up and get married.

3.Many people around the world don't know and aren't told what causes pregnancy, and then they get married and have sex, and by the time they know and find out about that, they already have children!

4.I believe that all humans, especially married adults, have the right to know these facts about what causes pregnancy.Don't you think that way too?

How much, and how many percent, of all people, at the time they first got married, knew about this fact?(Tell me the answer to that for the whole world, but if you don't know that, tell me the answer for a particular country or the Western world.)Bowei 00:34, 19 February 2006 (UTC)

I am sure nowadays in Britain the answer is that 100% know it (from parents , TV soap operas, friends, sex education). But it wasnt always so. I remember a friend who said that her grandmother didnt know until she got married for example. But that was very unusual. PS - we still have a lot of teenage pregnancies despite that knowledge. Jameswilson 02:09, 19 February 2006 (UTC)

Note that quite a few people might have sex the first time without knowing that that can lead to pregnancy. This seems like the more important statistic to me. StuRat 03:11, 19 February 2006 (UTC)

Dimension Films

When did Disney start making movies with Dimension Films? I know they stopped making movies with Dimension Films on October 1, 2005 because the Weinstein Brothers left Disney. --70.24.236.84

Vida Guerra

Guys who knows Vida's address(not internet address, real), plz write me [email]

Question asked by 62.183.50.164. User's email address removed by Thuresson 08:00, 19 February 2006 (UTC)

I suggest you visit her management agency here and ask them how to contact her. CambridgeBayWeather (Talk) 09:06, 19 February 2006 (UTC)

UK Service Records

Is there anywhere that i could get a hold of family members armed forces records in england without telling them (Surprises see!)

Links

As a frequent visitor to Wikipedia; I have often been struck by the fact that of the many Links in a given article, most are blue, and others red. My question is, what is the difference between the blue and the red Links? Replies to my question may be emailed to: REMOVED Menahem

Blue are links with articles and red are links that require articles. CambridgeBayWeather (Talk) 11:48, 19 February 2006 (UTC)

Business

Hello When i business is failing and their Financial Ratio is below 2:1.. what can that business do to improve its problem.. Thank You..