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May 2

Pitch detector

Where can I find a free (online) pitch detector? -- Ypnypn (talk) 00:48, 2 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Does Electronic tuner help? I didn't see a free online one after a quick read. Some of the blue wikilinks may link to them though.--Canoe1967 (talk) 00:55, 2 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

http://instrument-tuner.software.informer.com/ Found some.--Canoe1967 (talk) 01:00, 2 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks! -- Ypnypn (talk) 01:31, 2 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Space Debris Removal

Hi,

I've presented this question at least 5x's to various organization's an met with just red tape that eventually turn's to, "We don't know who?"

Its a simple question that I ask, "Whom can have scrap right's to the space debris that no one wants in Space? Not only is it useless but it can pose definite threat's! An when I present the case to whom ever I get nowhere. I have the capacity to REMOVE it with the exception of any nuclear powered engines or anything that contain's nuclear waste or material in it. An the fight rages on between the various group's that do know its a threat but nothing ever gets done!

I want the salvage right's to the stuff that (no one wants) its simple. Yet impossible to get an answer to this question only very strange looks. EVERYONE AN ANYONE DOESN'T WANT IT YET NOTHING SEEMS TO BE DONE TO GATHER IT. I will gather it up an scrap the material simply put. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Scrapper11 (talk • contribs) 18:03, 2 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Hi. Thank you for your question. Unfortunately, we aren't able to give legal advice - which is what this question boils down to. Nevertheless, you may find some useful information through Googling 'Space salvage laws' or similar terms. For instance, this article, "Space Junk and the Law of Space Collisions". - Cucumber Mike (talk) 18:17, 2 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

What are you talking about? Have you tried even just googling "space junk cleanup"? Pretty much ALL the articles are about how something desperately needs to be done and ideas of how it could be acheived. I have absolutely NO doubt that if you actually had a viable plan, you'd be winning grants and sponsorships and salvage rights without ANY problem. The far more likely scenario however is that you just don't understand why this is such a hard problem. It costs a LOT of money to launch space ships and the "scrap" you'd like to salvage, of which there are tens of thousands of pieces by the way, won't cover anything close to a meaningful fraction of your operating costs. Vespine (talk) 23:05, 2 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Well, if you are talking about the value for selling off the items as scrap, then yes, I agree. However, some items, like intact but dead satellites, might go for millions of dollars to the appropriate museum or collector. StuRat (talk) 05:52, 3 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

But even if true for some items, I don't see that would significantly affect Vespine's final comments. Nil Einne (talk) 04:31, 4 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Why not just salvage some of the junk and see if anyone even notices! If someone does notice and then takes you to court, you could set a precident! 99.250.103.117 (talk) 03:31, 3 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

If you actually could do this and make a profit my guess is most of the owners would be willing to pay you a bit more to gather junk that might otherwise not be worth your while. Otherwise they are very likely to be fully liable for any damage their junk causes. There may be some bits that people would want to control like spy satellites but really most of the junk satellites up there have no value from the strategic point of view that I know of and use out of date technology. Even for spy satellites I'd guess the owners would just like to be able to pick it up immediately once it is retrieved. Dmcq (talk) 10:24, 3 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

By the way what I'd like eventually instead of just removing the junk by burning it in the earth's atmosphere or dumping it in the oceans, is to have an automated orbiting recycling and manufacturing plant where the bits are directed to. There's lots of refined materials in the junk and producing simple bits from them for bulk structures should be possible and possibly some small bits can be reused. Dmcq (talk) 10:57, 3 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

For our original poster, to be brutally honest, your claims are very hard to believe. If you aren't already affiliated with some large space-related business or a national space agency - then it's entirely reasonable that nobody wishes to discuss your idea with you. Those are busy people - and you simply don't come across as a credible, professional expert in the field...I don't mean to insult or demean you - but that is most certainly the impression you give.

The problem here is that once you're up there in orbit, the economics are entirely different than they are here down on earth. Down here, exotic metals are very expensive and bricks are not. Up there in orbit, the horrific cost of getting something into orbit in the first place means that bricks and lumps of solid gold with identical mass have very similar costs! But then we run into the extreme difficulty of building anything like an orbiting factory that could consume a scrap brick or a scrap lump of gold - and turn it into something that someone would want up there in orbit.

Recycling things in-orbit and leaving them in orbit is therefore an entirely different set of economics than collecting scrap in orbit and returning it to earth. I strongly suspect that the cost to fly a mission to collect scrap by far exceeds the value of that scrap down here on earth...but if you could find a way to collect scrap in orbit and use it for some good purpose up there - then perhaps you're on to something.

To that end, it has been suggested that if satellites were made by combining standardized modules (like Lego bricks for Satellites), then it would be possible to have robotic craft that could be employed to dismantle a failed satellite and to store all of the modules that DIDN'T fail (which is probably all but one of them!). It would then be able to use those standardized parts to repair other satellites. It could also be given the ability to de-orbit unrepairable failed modules.

SteveBaker (talk) 14:51, 3 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Well I'd have thought all the mass must be usable for something if it could be made safe if only as a shield.. Mass is the expensive thing to send up, not the intelligent little components. An ion rocket that could turn anything into a gas even little bits of metal would be good too. Dmcq (talk) 11:54, 4 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

I see the Variable Specific Impulse Magnetoplasma Rocket is already going towards having the sort of characteristics I'd want - not the highest efficiency but long life and able to handle most any stuff as fuel. Dmcq (talk) 13:46, 4 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

I once had an idea about attaching a very strong and large net to very long, strong and extendible legs. It would be like straining fish from a stream. Seemed like a good (but crazy expensive) idea, till I realized the Earth (and any giant nets on it) moves at the same speed as the junk. So I wouldn't recommend that, if that was your idea, too. I hope not. But I would guess the legal owners are still the people who owned them when they weren't junk. There are no laws in space, but once you bring it back to Earth, the old rules apply. InedibleHulk (talk) 16:30, 3 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

To the OP: if you wish to be taken seriously with organizations that you believe could properly answer your questions, it's important to make sure your writing is clear, proper and coherent. While we are able to work out what you want (you may not be a native English user), other organizations may toss your correspondence on first glance with all the grammatical errors. Normally I wouldn't comment on this, but it's important to be aware that such things do matter when trying to present a case. Mingmingla (talk) 19:23, 3 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

I understand that there are pretty clear laws covering the rights of finders to claim Flotsam and Jetsam. Part of the answer to this question would relate to whether such laws also apply in space (or whether anyone has proposed that they should, or shouldn't.) HiLo48 (talk) 04:40, 4 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

I once heard that when they built the George Massey Tunnel a gold miner staked a claim on the sand pile they had dredged out. He didn't work it very much but they were forced to buy him out to use the sand. Could be an urban myth but interesting if true.--Canoe1967 (talk) 23:03, 4 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Turducken origin

Is the origin of this meal American or English? It is listed as an English meal but the article itself seems to indicate a US origin, however it is without sources. Does anybody know the history of this funny meal? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 91.49.33.138 (talk) 21:27, 2 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Did you check our Turducken article? It says that the general idea of stuffing one bird into another has been around since the Romans...and claims to have three references to back that. SteveBaker (talk) 21:56, 2 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

I've never encountered it here in the UK. Not sure who'd want to eat a food whose name begins 'turd'...AlexTiefling (talk) 22:06, 2 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

It's an innovation in the UK promoted by the big supermarket chains, who have wisely avoided the "t" word, going for "three bird roast" instead.[1] The Romans may well have eaten it, but the Romans weren't English. Alansplodge (talk) 23:16, 2 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Come on folks, the turkey is an American bird. Everyone knows Rush Limbaugh both invented the meal and the innovation of deep frying it. μηδείς (talk) 01:11, 3 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

You do also realize it is pronounced terDUCKen, not TURDecken? μηδείς (talk) 08:12, 3 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Of course. But the sound doesn't go away just because it's not stressed. And that pronunciation guide has serious consequences for the pronunciation of the tofu-based alternative... AlexTiefling (talk) 08:36, 3 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Ack, chewally the loke aishin of the sih lubble bough & dairy is vair eeyimp ortant.μηδείς (talk) 01:50, 4 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

What would that be - tofu stuffed inside a load of tripe and brains, stuffed inside a squid? Where does one go to vomit around here? -- Jack of Oz ^[Talk] 11:28, 3 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

I strongly suspect (without wishing to ruin my lunch by checking) that it will involve a layer each of tofu, seitan and tempeh. I love cooking with tofu, but I don't suppose that using it to replicate a turducken will be much less repulsive than the original dead-poultry version. AlexTiefling (talk) 11:46, 3 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

hail seitan Foofish (talk) 14:55, 3 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

I'm torn between repulsive and repugnant. -- Jack of Oz ^[Talk] 11:50, 3 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

But not as torn as a duck that's just been forced to swallow a chicken! SteveBaker (talk) 14:30, 3 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Would that be a ruptured duck? --Carnildo (talk) 01:06, 4 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

I nearly choked to death trying not to laugh at a French restaurant when the waiter said the the special of the evening was "a duck stuffed with a mousse." Edison (talk) 01:29, 4 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Maybe they bought their supplies from these people. -- Jack of Oz ^[Talk] 01:35, 4 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

And the show has reached a new low. Shadowjams (talk) 07:27, 4 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

May 3

Factual information

How do I give you factual information? It's taken me hours to get here, so I have zero interest in editing myself. — Preceding unsigned comment added by LstrmCloser (talk • contribs) 07:24, 3 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

If someone understands the statement "It's taken me hours to get here" please let us know, I feel it would be essential to understanding the content of the question.--Lgriot (talk) 08:33, 3 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

I interpret it as meaning "Here, to a place on Wikipedia where I can actually ask a question and stand some chance of getting an answer". In which case, my response is:

If you are unable or unwilling to edit an article directly, but have a link to a reliable source which could be used to enhance that article, edit the talk page, and make a short, polite request for other users to update the article; be sure to include a link to the source you would like to see used. Please be aware that we're all volunteers, so it my take some time for people to respond. Please also be aware that if the source is not reliable, or does not provide verifiable facts relevant to the subject of an article, your request may declined with varying degrees of politeness or bluntness by other users. If there isn't yet an article on your topic of interest at all, please begin at Requested Articles. Thank you for wanting to help enhance Wikipedia! AlexTiefling (talk) 11:07, 3 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

To answer the question, go to the Talk Page of the article that you have information about (click on the "Talk" tab at the top left corner of the article). Click on "New Section" and type in your information exactly as you have done here. To be included, it will need to be referenced by some kind of published material (book, magazine, newspaper, website) which you need to tell us about. Then you need to wait for a kindly editor to put it in the article for you, if they think that it's relevant and notable. Alansplodge (talk) 11:16, 3 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

And to get to that article in the first place, type its name in the Search box above and press Go. -- Jack of Oz ^[Talk] 11:24, 3 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Problem With Downloading a PDF Version of "The Constellation E-Book"

Hi Wikipedia Staff...My Name is John White & my e-mail address is: (email address removed)... The question I have is that I am unable to download the e-book as titled above from your site. I have followed these steps with the following results: 1). Attempted to download the PDF file numerous times and I reach approximately 92% and I get a "Render Error" Code... 2). I am "logged" in as a "user/member"... 3). The book "contents appears to load fine, then the "License Pages" start at about 85%+/-, then continues until 91% and "change"...Then I get the "Render Error" script response with a page of data... 4) The last line of the error code reads: "rendering 91.1784361773% rendering in function system, file /home/pp/local/lib/python2.6/site-packages/mwlib/nslave.py, line 64"... Is there something I should do to remedy this???...My intent is to use it only for my private studies and will not be sharing it the file with anyone... Your assistance regarding this matter would be much appreciated...

Thx Much...And you all are doing a "Fantastic Job" with respect to Wikipedia!!!

Respectfully, John White IV...(email address removed) — Preceding unsigned comment added by Jwhite888 (talk • contribs) 08:23, 3 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

I have removed your email address to protect against spammers - Cucumber Mike (talk) 10:34, 3 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Hi John. Thanks for your kind words about Wikipedia.

As I understand your problem, you are trying to download our article Constellation as a PDF by clicking Download as PDF in the left-hand menu. Apologies if I've got the wrong end of the stick.

I've just tried to replicate the error, but it worked perfectly for me. Therefore I've saved the PDF elsewhere, and you can access it here. I'll try to keep the file online for a day or two, but please try to download it sooner rather than later. Let me know if you have any problems. - Cucumber Mike (talk) 10:47, 3 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Mozilla Archive Format ¦ Reisio (talk) 12:00, 3 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Can you explain that a little more, Reisio? I've read the article a couple of times, but I don't really see the connection. - Cucumber Mike (talk) 15:02, 3 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Why rely on a server corrupting HTML into PDF when you can save the HTML directly. ¦ Reisio (talk) 23:30, 3 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Gotcha. Thanks. - Cucumber Mike (talk) 07:08, 4 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

I'm pretty sure this is a misunderstanding of the problem. Constellation is a commercial service that creates e-books for publishers. The OP is probably referring to some specific e-book, but unfortunately there is no way of figuring out which one or where the OP is trying to download it from. There is a facility in Wikipedia for creating e-books (go to the main page and look for "create book" in the left column), but as far as I know it doesn't have anything to do with Constellation. Looie496 (talk) 15:37, 3 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, I thought that, but the OP seems to know they're at Wikipedia, and the process described does seem to be mostly similar to the 'Create book' process here. I've left a message on his talk page - guess we'll just have to wait and see if we get any feedback. - Cucumber Mike (talk) 15:51, 3 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

I suspect you're right. The error mentioned above also seems to come from the MediaWiki collection extension used to generate PDFs [2]. Nil Einne (talk) 04:22, 4 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

criminal background checks

I would like to know how many years a potential employer can do a background check. I read somewhere that it illegal for them to check back more than seven years,depending on what your applying for. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Ricardonartates (talk • contribs) 17:40, 3 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

You can read about your rights as a prospective employee here. uhhlive (talk) 18:18, 3 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

It depends entirely on your jurisdiction. The above link is only valid for the US. Mingmingla (talk) 19:16, 3 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

In the UK, employers who are authorised to obtain CRB checks can find out about any charge or caution (or even suspicion in the case of enhanced CRB checks) right back to the age of criminal responsibility (10 years). For other jurisdictions and employers, the situation will be different, as mentioned above. Dbfirs 12:26, 4 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Airports which only Ryanair flies to

Here in Europe, I'm travelling with Ryanair, which is known for, with a number of exceptions, mainly using secondary airports. However, I was wondering: what are the airports which at present only Ryanair flies to? A quick Google search confirms that there are such cases, although I couldn't find a lot of specific cases or a list of such airports. The closest example I can think of is Rome-Ciampino, which at present only Ryanair and Wizz Air use (I'm not sure if easyJet still flies there, as they did fly there in the past). From what I've read, most of the airports which only Ryanair flies to are very small and serve only one or a few flights, but among the airports where Ryanair is the only airline, which of them are bases or otherwise used for several destinations? Narutolovehinata5 ^tccsdnew 20:28, 3 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Have you checked out the airports listed at Ryanair destinations? That might help. CambridgeBayWeather (talk) 01:07, 4 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

I think that's very unlikely. An airport would be disadvantaged by restricting their services to one operator. Being an Irish airline, I would expect any such airport to be in Ireland, but all its Irish airports are used by other airlines.--Shantavira|^{feed me} 07:05, 4 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

I think you'd be looking at a new / newly converted, small airport which is still in thep rocess of attracting airlines. For example, between about 2011-2012 London Southend Airport was a single airline airport, but is now a two-airline airport, and will very soon become a three-airline airport. --PalaceGuard008 (Talk) 14:38, 5 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

May 4

What is the symbol?

The symbol is here. I saw it a few times and wonder what it is. --Justin545 (talk) 01:55, 4 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

See peace symbol. Dismas|^(talk) 01:57, 4 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you! --Justin545 (talk) 02:03, 4 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Resolved

As our article says, it's a representation of the letters "N" and "D" in the Semaphore code, for "Nuclear Disarmament". The symbol is actually the logo of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament. Alansplodge (talk) 08:27, 4 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

It also neatly resembles the footprint of a dove. Ah, the 70s, where are you now? -- Jack of Oz ^[Talk] 08:38, 4 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Also that of a vulture. They've gotten a bad reputation, but they live in communes, don't mind smelling "natural" and almost never kill to eat. Doves have always struck me as ivory tower types. InedibleHulk (talk) 17:39, 4 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

"Ivory tower" - now you are finally talking my language. Come on down. Or rather, up. Or rather, just keep away and leave me alone. -- Jack of Oz ^[Talk] 20:12, 4 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

They (the 70s) are in the North Laine, Brighton & Hove. Itsmejudith (talk) 11:12, 4 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, it rather got appropriated didn't it. The original CND crowd were often rather earnest middle aged folk in gaberdine mackintoshes, who wouldn't be seen dead without a tie. Alansplodge (talk) 20:02, 4 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Right wing types in those days fancied that it looked like the track of a domestic bird, and said it was, "The sign of the American chicken". ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 20:58, 4 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

And don't forget, the broken upside down cross, therefore a symbol of .....Satan? Gzuckier (talk) 05:26, 5 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Given that CND was founded by an Anglican parson and a Methodist minister, I think that's rather unlikely. Alansplodge (talk) 08:31, 5 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Double Brackets Edit Summary

When placing double brackets around a word what would an appropriate or useful edit summary be? I searched Wikipedia for an answer but could not find one. All I could find was something about "red links" aka WP:RED but what I'm inquiring about is creating "blue links" when placing brackets around a specific word/words. 24.90.154.201 (talk) 04:15, 4 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

If the word I doubly bracketed was 'gizmo', I'd write "linked gizmo". It's as simple as that; that's all you're doing, linking it to an article. -- Jack of Oz ^[Talk] 05:02, 4 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

I usually say "wikilinking", but "linking" is fine. Looie496 (talk) 05:16, 4 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Please don't post the same question in multiple places. The help desk is the right place for this question, and it is already posted there. RudolfRed (talk) 05:32, 4 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Jeremy Forrest

What is the current situation regarding Jeremy Forrest, the man who allegedly abducted a British teenage girl last October? This story says his case was listed at crown court on 11 January, but I can find no information on what, if anything, happened in court that day. If he has not yet been tried, when will he be? --Viennese Waltz 06:52, 4 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Googling "Jeremy Forrest" gets lots of results saying that he pleaded not guilty, and one (not RS)says he is currently on remand waiting for his trial to begin. He is also appealing against his extradition from France. Rojomoke (talk) 07:47, 4 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

fundraising

Could I post the same project on both Indiegogo and Kickstarter to increase the number of people that see it and the amount of money we can raise, or is that just 'not done'?

213.104.128.16 (talk) 10:52, 4 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

My guess is that it would violate the TOS of some such sites, but not all. ¦ Reisio (talk) 12:22, 4 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

I'm not sure about Indiegogo - but I don't think it violates Kickstarter rules. I'm posting here as a once-failed, twice-wildly-successful kickstarter veteran myself (my most recent project finished last night after raising 700% of goal and $60,000!). Bottom line is that I'd strongly advise against doing this.

The problem is that these services are not like eBay or Amazon store fronts. They aren't intended to be places to sell things (although they are often used that way). The culture amongst "backers" (we don't call them "customers") is entirely different - and the way that projects become successful is different too.

If you think that these sites are providing free advertising, you're severely misinformed. I assumed that with my first kickstarter - and it failed miserably. Your project will be visible on their front page for less than an hour...and unless you're lucky enough to become a "staff pick", or you are one of those crazy viral million dollar projects, you almost certainly won't appear there again until the last half hour of your campaign.

The way they work is by word of mouth. You have to work hard to get some critical number of people to see the site - then you have to get them sufficiently interested in your project (not your product...your *project*) to make them want to go out there and promote it for you. If you get that right, then a few hundred people will promote the heck out of your project to all of the blogs, forums and social media sites imaginable - and if what you're doing is good - then hundreds more will join in and a snowball effect will deliver all the promotion you could possibly hope for. If your project "goes viral" then magazine and major news sites will pick it up - and yes, you can earn millions of dollars.

But the key here is that you're entirely reliant on your own efforts to get that initial ball rolling - and then you're reliant on those people to get the word out.

By splitting your project over two or more sites, you'll achieve the following:

You'll halve the number of those initial people at each site. You only have so many friends and family (or whatever) and by dividing their efforts in two, you halve the size of the message going out there. This could easily cause you to fail to reach that "critical mass" of backers that make the project snowball and take off.
You'll confuse the message. When news of your project reaches these key blogs and forums - people will be confused by the tangle of messages pointing them at different URL's.
You'll upset the community. These key backers who'll promote you are generally very savvy in their chosen crowd-funding site. If they see that you're double-dipping, they may well give up on you. I know I would!
Running a Kickstarter (or an Indygogo) project is an insane amount of work...at least if you do it well. For our last projects, my partner and I had to write a significant news item every two days - with meaningful content - and we personally responded to over 600 postings from our backers with over 200 messages, answering their questions, being friendly, joining in their jokes, being amusing, interested and so forth. Doing all of that twice would simply halve your ability to be helpful and responsive...which is death to a small project.
If you set your goal amounts realistically - then this is the minimum you need in order to achieve your project. By splitting your backers over two sites, you run the risk that you fail to make goal on either of them...or (possibly much worse) you might make the goal on one and fail on the other - getting only half the funding you need, yet still being on the hook to complete the project rewards. That's a very dangerous situation to be in! If you set your goal amounts unrealistically - then your backers will be suspicious because (at least in Kickstarter) you're asked to explain how you'll use the money to start and complete your project. Either way is very bad news.
Indygogo and Kickstarter are subtly different - but the result is a CONSIDERABLE issue for some kinds of project. In the case of our second Kickstarter, in order to produce our rewards, we had to purchase a $10,000 piece of equipment - give 10% of the funding to Kickstarter and pay postage to ship the rewards (which turns out to be about 20% of our costs). So we had to earn a minimum of $10,000+$2,000+$1,200 (naively)...so we needed a $13,200 minimum. If we fell even $1 short of that, it would be a disaster.
- Kickstarter was perfect for us because it says that if you fail to make your goal by even $1, you get no money at all and are not obligated to provide rewards. Great! Either we get our money and have a business - or we don't - but we're not in trouble because of doing that
- .Indygogo gives you whatever money is raised no matter whether you meets your goal or not and if you fail, it requires that you either complete the rewards anyway at whatever personal cost - or that you return the money to your investors yourself...which is bad news because they use PayPal and that service requires you to pay the credit card service fees...so you'll actually have to pay money to PayPal if you fail.

This means that those two sites are best suited to different KINDS of project. Kickstarter is great for starting a new business from scratch...you either succeed or fail - but the price of failure is nothing whatever. You are not taking any risks on board - except that you might screw up your cost estimates or something. Indygogo is better suited to an established business that knows that it can make and sell just one reward and still make a small profit no matter what...so no "goal" is really needed. You can't be both of those things. Savvy backers will notice that and call you out on it.

You have to become friends with your backers. They need to understand that you're a living, breathing human being - someone they like - and especially someone they can trust. They are taking an considerable risk by backing your project...many projects fail and most people who back multiple projects will eventually hit one that screws them over and never delivers it's rewards. So they are super-careful to check you out. Reputation is everything. Many of them hang out on both Indygogo and Kickstarter - so the news that you're promoting your project on both sites will be known and written about on both sites within a day or two. I strongly suspect that they'll see this as a breach of their trust...rightly or wrongly...and they won't like it, even if you are up-front about it. The viral promotion aspect of these sites would swiftly be poisoned as the news that you're not a nice person (rightly or wrongly) spreads as fast as the news of your product. Bad news travels faster than good...your personal reputation will soon be in the toilet - and not only this project - but every other one you try to launch afterwards will be tainted.
The terms of service of both Indygogo and Kickstarter allow those sites to kill a project at any time without giving you a reason and with no right of appeal. You accept those terms when you create your project - so you have no legal recourse. When they cancel a project, you lose everything. So if someone at either site doesn't like that you're doing this (and I can certainly see that they wouldn't like it) - they can kill your project stone dead regardless of what their rules say. Worse still, every new project has to be "approved" by them before it gets posted...and after once pissing them off like that, they might never approve another of your projects in the future. These sites are not democracies and they aren't places where you can apply their terms of service like a legal document. They are privately owned and their owners have a perfect right to do what the hell they like. They can (and often do) kill projects without anyone ever knowing why. You're taking a risk here. Once you've had a project killed - your backers will be disgruntled and are going to wonder why - and your personal reputation is in the toilet again - and now you won't be able to start a new project in the future without a great deal of resistance.

So I think that splitting your project is a dumb idea. You won't get twice the backers - but you will get twice the workload. Don't do it. SteveBaker (talk) 13:37, 4 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

perfect answer, thank you. I think in my case kickstarter is the way to go, if I can't get at least the initial costs it all falls apart. though, interestingly as it would be an expansion of an existing idea, the cost of producing and shipping at least some of the rewards is effectively just a slight discount and a different manner of advertising for my existing sales, which so far have only reached a few people. 213.104.128.16 (talk) 15:04, 4 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Again though, Kickstarter won't bring you more than a handful of sales unless you can self-promote it enough to get the ball rolling. We failed to understand that on our first project - and we got about $900 during the hour or so the project was on the front page...then nothing. For our second project - with a very similar product - we teamed with another company who produces complementary products to ours and ran a joint promotional competition. They supplied a 250 person opted-in email list and we donated the prizes. We got about 800 entrants. On the day that the competition finished, we started the kickstarter and used the excuse of announcing the competition winners to send email out to all 800 entrants. Of those, perhaps 50 or so pledged to the project - nowhere near enough to reach our goal - but they liked our pitch and enjoyed interacting with us - and they posted out to several important forums...which brought in more people...which caused more blogs, tweets, reddit's, forums and other social media to notice us. We hit our $12,800 goal in just a few days - and we rolled in about 300% over-goal at $42,000 after 30 days. Once we'd completed shipping all of those rewards, we ran a second kickstarter with a new line of products - but with our good reputation for doing what we promised, we met goal within a few hours - and went about 700% over-goal at $60,500 last night.

So in my experience, it's all about:

Getting that initial collection of enthusiastic backers.
Giving them incentives to promote you (eg: If we go 200% over goal, we'll give every backer a free widget! If we go 300% over goal, we'll improve the product by making it out of Kryptonite!). They'll want the free widget and the kryptonite version - so they have an incentive to push out the word.
Being a nice person who comes across as honest, generous, friendly and generally likeable. People will work for you for free if they like you! Your project video is crucial for that reason...we filmed ours with crappy lighting in our kitchen and ad-libbed the whole thing - but we were funny and "real" and very, very human. People loved that more than a professionally made glitzy video.
Delivering on every single promise...even if you made it in error or in haste. A corollary to that is be *VERY* careful about what you promise...if you promise every backer a free T-shirt, then expect to get 10,000 backers at the $1 pledge level!

SteveBaker (talk) 15:32, 4 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

I didn't read much of the discussion between you and SteveBaker but I would note I agree with SB that it's unlikely the plan violates Kickstarter's TOS per se. I doubt it violates Indiegogo TOS either. Note in the case of KS, there are a large number of people particularly in the video gaming category who have crowd funding campaigns from their own website using PayPal. These campaigns are usually primarily targeted at people who cannot use Amazon (for US campaigns) for whatever reason such as having no credit or debit card but do have access to PayPal funds and that particular reason also applies to UK campaigns. That means most of the campaigns are focused around their Kickstarter efforts. However this isn't universal, for example Star Citizen's campaign started on their website, and their total collected outside when they closed was higher than from KS at the time. Since they've continued their crowd funding efforts after, the amount collected outside KS is now even more. Other projects have done other sometimes controversial things. E.g. while Shroud of the Avatar's fundraising primarily happened on KS, a lot of the discussion was on their website (they also used live video streams and developer chats which were linked from their KS). You may remember I said 'per se' above, the reason for this is because in KS's case and I strongly suspect in Indiegogo's case (whether you use flexible funding or fixed funding), even though neither is intended as a presales platform, you are still required to complete your project and fulfill promised rewards. Again in the KS case, if you fail to, you're supposed to return funds, or at least explain what happened to them. What this means is actually untested AFAIK, there have been a few failures but so far no one have taken the project creators to court. In other words, if you're going to run a campaign on both, consider what you will do if you met your target on one (I'm presuming fixed funding for Indiegogo), but not the other. Will you have enough funds? If you will have enough funds, this means your total collected if both succeed would potentially be double what you need. This may be an issue in that since most people aren't going to back both and there's no guarantee you'll get more exposure or more support (in fact as I think SB has higlighted you could get less), you could end up with both failing when if you'd just run one you would have succeeded because of the split in support. Of course if you don't have enough funds if only one succeeds, your problems are fairly obvious. (In cases where for some reason you don't really need any additional funding, as I presume is the case for Indiegogo flexible funding campaigns, this isn't an issue but bear in mind people may be less likely to support you if they feel they you don't need their money at all or alternatively they may think you are up to no good. In any case, it's important you are honest with your backers and potential backers.) Most projects that accept PayPal outside KS have waited until they've met their goal before opening up PayPal for these reasons. Nil Einne (talk) 21:42, 4 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Good thoughts! I agree that opening up additional ways to *PURCHASE* your product while the Kickstarter is running are just as dubious as running a campaign on two sites at once. Opening up online sales once the Kickstarter is over is something that a LOT of backers ask for though - and we will be doing that, but only for a limited time.

There are really two distinct cases here:

Projects (like ours) where we have to slowly manufacture the rewards and ship them out as we make them (typically in first-to-pledge is first-to-deliver fashion). The more people pledge and the more widgets we sell, the longer it'll take for those rewards to get done. In this kind of project, backers are justifiably nervous that any business activity whatever outside of Kickstarter will delay the day when they get their rewards. So proudly announcing that you're selling stuff online will just get people upset with you.
Other projects, such as (say) producing a stage play or writing a book have the exact same delivery date no matter how many people pledge. In that case, nobody should be too concerned if you've found other ways to fund your project outside of Kickstarter because any additional money you get will not make their rewards any worse, or any later.

So in our case, we are VERY careful to specify that making rewards for our backers takes precedence over any other commercial activity. So for our online store, we'll only open it for a few weeks - and orders received that way will go to the back of the queue for our manufacturing process. In effect it's just as if the project had run for a couple more weeks...but we can get started with ordering equipment earlier than if we'd just added two weeks to the Kickstarter project duration.

As for failed projects - or horribly delayed projects...there are a lot of them out there. Some failed because the project owner made stupidly rash promises...others because they simply hadn't thought through the costs of doing what they claimed they'd do. There are a few that were outright fraud...but those are very few indeed. Mostly, backers feel sorry for the project owner - and give them a spectacular amount of leeway...especially if the owner is trying to get rewards out. That's what makes Kickstarter different from just buying things online. As a backer, you are (mostly) getting a new business venture started...you have to be aware that businesses fail - and that project owners are fallible. You actually have to do your homework.

Here are some typical failure modes:

Here, for example, is a guy who made crazy promises. Several people tried to tell him that what he was doing was unrealistic - but he pushed on with it anyway. Fortunately, he seems to have come to his senses within days of the end date of the project and cancelled it - so nobody lost money - but his backers were less than happy about it.
Here a guy promised more than he could reasonably achieve. He seems to have spent all of the project funds without completing the work he promised and is now selling stuff to online customers before he's finished sending rewards to all of his backers. Now he's close to a year late on some unknown percentage of his reward shipments. About half of his backers are angry and demanding their money back...the other half are patiently trying to help him get through it. The degree of tolerance and support from these people is amazing given the ineptitude of the project owner.
This one was an outright scam. The project owner stole pictures from other projects - lied, cheated and generally abused the system - he was almost certainly going to take the money and run. Fortunately, backers noticed before the project ended and Kickstarter pulled the plug on it in time.
This one seems to be a rather sad case...but it's quite notorious. The project owner contracted a company in China to make his product - and they ran off with his money - and his hugely expensive steel molds - and may even be making his product in competition with him. He tried his best to recover the situation - trying to raise more money to pay for new molds, etc. But in the end, the stress of the situation caused him to suffer some kind of a breakdown. Some of his personal friends came in to try to help him out - and even started manufacturing his reward products with a 3D printer - very, very, slowly. Two years after the project ended, people are gradually getting their rewards...but it'll take many years for the project to complete...if it ever does. It's hard to know what the project owner could have done differently.
This one - which is still in progress - looks like a complete "no-hoper". The projects owner is trying to sell what looks to be a few bits of foam polystyrene stuck to gether for $100! It's a complete non-starter...
This one was a case where Apple prevented the project owner from making his cellphone charger gizmo. He earned $140,000 or so - and now has to return that money to his backers. Sadly, Kickstarter took 5% and Amazon credit services took between 3% and 5% - so he's going to be around $14,000 in the red at the end. There is a message for business owners here!

Our own second kickstarter (here) was successful - 300% over-goal - but we badly mis-estimated the time to complete the rewards, and we are finishing with the last shipments about 2 to 3 months late. This is absolutely typical of first-time businesses - around 70% of Kickstarter projects are late in delivering rewards. We were too "gung-ho" about being able to ship sooner just by working harder - but even working 12 to 14 hours a day, we were horribly over-optimistic. However, we were unfailingly honest with our backers - we kept them informed, and we made steady progress. They understood - and not a single one of them complained...that's the nature of the game.

However, in our most recent Kickstarter, we're an established business - seeking to expand our product range and to double our production capacity. I suspect we'll be held to higher standards (and justifiably so) - but with what we learned from the first successful venture, we're being much more hard-nosed about what we're capable of achieving...and reward shipment dates are around 8 months for our last backers. But again, so long as you're open, clear, honest and up-front - backers will understand.

SteveBaker (talk) 15:13, 5 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Caffè latte vs. café au lait

What's the difference between caffè latte and café au lait? --107.207.240.46 (talk) 18:58, 4 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

According to the article Latte, in general it is just two different ways of specifying the same thing. But, in the US, apparently, "au lait" could mean use scalded milk. RudolfRed (talk) 19:03, 4 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

And according to the article Café au lait: ""Café au lait" and "caffè latte" are used as contrasting terms, to indicate whether the beverage is served in the "French" or the "Italian" way, the former being in a white porcelain cup or bowl, the latter in a kitchen glass and always made from an espresso machine, whereas "Café au lait" might be espresso or dark coffee based." Personally, I'd rather have a nice cup of tea, but there's no accounting for taste is there? Alansplodge (talk) 19:54, 4 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

I like how the Dutch call it "koffie verkeerd" (incorrect coffee). If I can ask two follow-ups, what's supposed to be incorrect about it? And is there any evidence that France stole the idea from Italy (or vice versa), à la Flaming Homer? InedibleHulk (talk) 01:42, 5 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

It is likely a play off of the drink caffè corretto ("proper/correct coffee" in Italian), which is a shot of espresso with a shot of liquor. If one substitutes milk for the alcohol, that might well make your "coffee correct" into a "coffee incorrect". -- 71.35.99.144 (talk) 16:04, 5 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Actually I think it means "corrected coffee" (meaning that the liquor corrects the taste of the coffee). --Lgriot (talk) 09:21, 7 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Also not to be confused with Café Olé, which I think is Mexican coffee... --Jayron32 04:03, 5 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

I'm surprised that we don't have an article on a proper "milky coffee" - hot milk (microwave or saucepan) with a big spoonful of instant coffee and two or three sugars. Much better than this foreign muck made from beans! Tevildo (talk) 12:06, 5 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Agreed, but it has to be full cream milk ("milk wi' nowt taken out"). Adding sweetened condensed milk makes an even richer drink. Dbfirs 15:40, 5 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Sad, very sad. -- Jack of Oz ^[Talk] 19:50, 5 May 2013 (UTC) [reply]

Now I've seen Wikipedia from Alpha to Omega, impressive! ^{Market St.⧏}_{⧐ Diamond Way} 07:01, 6 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

May 5

Facebook Issues--HELP NOW

No matter what I do, I cannot get HUNAN, CHINA off of my FB Likes page. I've Liked and Unliked, logged out and back in, tried to follow up with FB, everything you can think of, but I can't get it off of my page.

I want it OFF !

Can you please help me with this asap?

Sincerely,

Michele D, NJ, — Preceding unsigned comment added by 173.70.66.61 (talk) 13:59, 5 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Sounds like this is something you should be asking on the Facebook support pages...but I find that I have to hover over the picture of the thing I want removed. Click on the checked "Like" text that pops up to "Unlike"...and then (crucially) click the "DONE" box above that section to make it permenant. SteveBaker (talk) 14:18, 5 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

What does Facebook say about this? Depending on how detailed your FB page and ID have gotten you can always start a new page (or at least you used to be able to back in my surfing Mark Z's matrix days). ^{Market St.⧏}_{⧐ Diamond Way} 07:00, 6 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

radio issues

supposing I wanted to start setting up a small independent 'radio' station online, I understand that I would need to pay for rights to play most music, does anyone know how much that would cost, or where I would go to enquire about the details of this? 213.104.128.16 (talk) 14:29, 5 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

We need to know where in the world you intend to host this service. The laws on this stuff varies wildy. Also, be aware that we're not allowed to offer legal advice here. SteveBaker (talk) 15:17, 5 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Personally I'd recommend you to investigate setting up through Live365 first. --TammyMoet (talk) 16:54, 5 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

yea, it's broadcast from the UK, and having a look around, it seems I'd need a PPL license? 213.104.128.16 (talk) 19:23, 5 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

http://licensing.ofcom.org.uk/radio-broadcast-licensing/community-radio/ Sfan00 IMG (talk) 19:49, 5 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

That refers to Ofcom's process for licensing community radio broadcast over the airwaves, so is unlikely to be applicable. Warofdreams talk 22:48, 5 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

In the UK, you would need licenses from the PPL, PRS and MCPS (these last two work together). The organisations provide some advice (linked), and the Community Media Association also provides advice and support to its members on matters including licensing. As TammyMoet says, it's a lot easier to start by setting up through a third party which deals with these matters for you. Warofdreams talk 22:48, 5 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

abnormal tryglicerides. and maxalt?

Does maxalt meds cause abnormal tryglicerides? Carol — Preceding unsigned comment added by Hotjag (talk • contribs) 16:36, 5 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

What's abnormal is a personal thing. Hence this is a medical question, and we are unable to help. -- Jack of Oz ^[Talk] 19:48, 5 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

I disagree. We can certainly report whether a particular side-effect is known for a particular med. In fact, our articles already contain such info. However, Maxalt#Adverse_effects doesn't list that one. I did find this study, though: [3], which seems to indicate that it does cause an increase in triglycerides, particularly in middle-aged women. StuRat (talk) 07:38, 6 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Yah. "Are my triglycerides abnormal due to Maxalt" is a medical question to avoid. "Are triglyceride levels affected by Maxalt" is not. --jpgordon^{::==( o )} 14:39, 6 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

That eHealthMe report should be viewed with a bit of skepticism. They generate those reports by automated analysis of a large database, and there are all kinds of ways that can go wrong. It's nothing like a proper scientific study. The very most that can be said is that there is an indication that taking Maxalt is correlated with an increase in triglycerides. Looie496 (talk) 15:06, 6 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Oglaf

Not only does oglaf.com refuse to load for me, I can't see the website in any of the top 20 links in Google search either when I search for "Oglaf". Can someone please explain what might have happened? Has the site been taken down altogether? Or worse, has it been taken down only in India or something? La Alquim ista 19:28, 5 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Works for me, in Canada, with Firefox. So not down altogether. No idea about India. But no, Google doesn't list it for "oglaf" or "oglaf.com" for me. "site:oglaf.com" works for results. InedibleHulk (talk) 20:28, May 5, 2013 (UTC)

This appropriately named site can help you check if any site is down for everyone, or just you. Not sure if it takes whether your country has blocked a site into consideration, or only whether their servers can access it. You might also be interested in these tips for getting around blocked sites. InedibleHulk (talk) 22:56, May 5, 2013 (UTC)

is there any site that I can to take advices from the women?

I'm man, and I would like to make a opinion poll of one open question. But I need this question only for women (and I don't care if some men will be there...) and it is needed that will be a lot of answers. Do you know any site that may be suitable for that? מוטיבציה (talk) 21:20, 5 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

See http://www.what-women-want-from-men.com/forumsformen.html.

—Wavelength (talk) 22:03, 5 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

You could also use a general polling site and add a question "Are you a woman?" - and simply filter out the responses that say "No". Of course a percentage will lie - but then a percentage of any women-only poll will be polluted by idiots in that way...unless you actually do a live poll by asking people out on the street. SteveBaker (talk) 22:16, 5 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Even then, you can run into cross dressers, drag queens, hermaphrodites, people undergoing gender reassignment processes ... -- Jack of Oz ^[Talk] 22:59, 5 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

And here I thought we were in an evolved age of gender-neutral behavior . . . oh wait its doing something for women due to their status as women, by all means carry on, and some say chivalry is a dying art! (or was that just EL James in between counting her stacks) so confusing keeping up with all this new "religion", is it that it only has to be gender neutral when its traditionally male? Or is it more this, so many new social morays so little time :-(^{Market St.⧏}_{⧐ Diamond Way} 06:44, 6 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Even in an era of gender-neutrality and gender-equality, we still need to ask polling questions of specific genders because we have yet to reach "gender-identicality". If you want to know which brand of tampon is most comfortable, you really need to ask women - and if you want to know whether Viagra tastes better than Finasteride - then you're going to need to ask a bunch of men. That's not a gender stereotype - it's just the way things are. (And BTW, your signature imparts an irrational desire for me to yell "Mornington Crescent!!") SteveBaker (talk) 20:41, 6 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

You can try http://www.askwomen.reddit.com . --JasonMacker (talk) 10:41, 6 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

May 6

Does it matter if I got those credits in time?

If I log into my university account right now, it says that my class standing is a junior although I'm on my 4th year of college. The university recognizes a person with under 30 credits a freshman, over 30 a sophomore, over 60 a junior, and over 90 a senior. I will be over a 110 credits by the end of this semester and will be on track to graduate on time.

On thing that gets me down is the fact that I did not have 90 credits as a senior in college. So am therefore classified as a junior by UNF.

My biggest fear is personally, the feeling that I am held back or this is equated as flunking a grade or something to that extent. It's not a big deal in the job hiring process but I just feel like it's something that is wrong. And even though it's not something that can be felt physically, it is effecting me mentally. I feel like this will always follow me, and that my quality of life is being effected by it.

I am graduating on time, but is this the same thing as flunking a grade?

I don't want to sound psychotic, but I feel like, as a person; someone who achieved those credits in a proper timespan is better than me. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.106.199.107 (talk) 01:46, 6 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Whether the lack of credits and senior standing is a problem or not is something only your school can answer. Ask your guidance counselor or other school official. RudolfRed (talk) 03:18, 6 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

I can't speak to your university specifically, but at mine at least, what grade you were classified as at any given point in time isn't even shown on your transcript. It was really just used for internal purposes (e.g. priority for class registration), it didn't really have any official meaning at all. I think it's extremely likely that this won't matter in the slightest. -Elmer Clark (talk) 04:18, 6 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

I've wondered about this kind of thing too, so I asked the librarians I work with (they have Masters degrees from a variety of schools). My anecdotal conclusion is that, no, it doesn't matter in the slightest. No one is 'better' than you just for taking a larger course load. I took 4 years for a 2 year diploma: it didn't affect my standing or ability to get a job in any way. And I've never heard of an employer checking on it, at least in my field. Mingmingla (talk) 05:54, 6 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Being kicked out of school is flunking. Anything else isn't, even double secret probation. Honestly, unless you're going on to more advanced degrees, I doubt if potential employers care much about your grades or how long it took you to obtain them. Nobody in the real world ever asked me about my GPA or school record. Certainly a lot of high profile people got away with blatant academic lies for years before anybody bothered to check. Clarityfiend (talk) 10:56, 6 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Clairtyfiend, the Honorable Senator John "Bluto" Blutarsky denies any involvement in those matters.^{Market St.⧏}_{⧐ Diamond Way} 11:34, 6 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

If you really have these feelings to such a degree, it might be a good idea to seek counseling. Looie496 (talk) 14:36, 6 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

TCM Database Selling Movies

close request for opinion

The following discussion has been closed. Please do not modify it.

Hello,

Don't you think that's it's a conflict of interest when the TCM Database, which describes and rates movies, is allowed to link to many, many movie titles on Wikipedia and then offer that title for sale? I would question the objectivity of those reviews. Also, doesn't that open a can of worms allowing for other websites to link to things that they sell? Personally, I think their links should be removed.

Thanks, Joe McLaughlin — Preceding unsigned comment added by Joemcphilly1960 (talk • contribs) 11:47, 6 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Your suggesting wikipedia remove TCM's links? Or TCM wikipedias? "Conflict of Interest" is a legal term more than a business term and we don't give legal advice here, but if you feel strongly that wikipedia is somehow assisting this I'd bring it up on those talk pages or perhaps the Film WikiProject talk page or a noticeboard.^{Market St.⧏}_{⧐ Diamond Way} 11:58, 6 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

There is nothing we can do to prevent TCM, or anybody else, from linking to our site. It isn't technically possible. But even more than that: with the license Wikipedia uses, TCM could actually, if they wanted to, make copies of our articles and place them on their own site.

I'm a little confused here.

If TCM has links from their site that point to Wikipedia - then since we assume that Wikipedia articles are unbiassed and free from WP:COI, doesn't that mean that TCM are trying to be unbiassed themselves by linking to unbiassed reporting?
If Wikipedia has links to TCM (who sell movies) - then, indeed, we should be highly skeptical about the independence of their reviews and should not rely on them as Reliable Sources for statements in our articles.

Which of these is our OP really asking about?

If it's the former, then I think that it's better for their readers that they link to us and it gets us more readers - both of which should be encouraged (not that we could stop them anyway!).

If it's the latter, then I agree that this is a dubious situation and this should probably be raised as an issue at the Reliable Sources Noticeboard so that we can take appropriate action.

SteveBaker (talk) 20:26, 6 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

I don't find the second point a major problem. None of the TCM articles I've seen cited as references have been promotional in any way. Clarityfiend (talk) 21:29, 6 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

This is the reference desk, we don't give armchair opinions, see the guidelines at the top of the page. μηδείς (talk) 23:05, 6 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

has there ever been a murder in lake caroline va?

has there ever been a murder in lake caroline va — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2001:5B0:21FF:1EF0:0:0:0:3C (talk) 15:11, 6 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Note: I've changed the section title -- "question" is not useful. Looie496 (talk) 15:20, 6 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

I don't know of a specific case but [4] says that the "Murder risk index" in that area is 45, where US average is 100. If they'd never had a single murder, then I'd expect that the index would be zero. Since the rape risk is way *above* average...there is clearly no shortage of violent behavior in the area. SteveBaker (talk) 20:00, 6 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

This site says that the crime statistics show zero murders - but doesn't say over what period that data was collected, or how old it is. If the data reflects the time between 3 and 4am last Wednesday - then we wouldn't be surprised...but if it's over the last 100 years, we would be. SteveBaker (talk) 20:15, 6 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Pokemon Species by Popularity

Duplicate question removed - see WP:RD/E.

The following discussion has been closed. Please do not modify it.

Hey, all! So we all know that there are many (649) species of pokemon. In order of popularity, what would be, say, the top 20? For example, can someone find an official list, or perhaps see which one has the most hits on Google (the latter method may be inaccurate, and besides, there are 649 to look up...)? I ask because I can't find out for myself, due to my restricted network only allowing Wikipedia access (it's not here, either. Perhaps someone can create a list of this sort?). Thanks in advance! — Preceding unsigned comment added by 174.79.50.132 (talk) 18:01, 6 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

UK private medical treatment

This is inspired by a recent comment on the Science desk. I have a friend who has a medical condition. Naturally, he knows better than to ask any questions here about the condition itself. However, the time to get it treated on the NHS would be measured in years rather than weeks, so he's thinking of getting it treated privately. However, he doesn't have medical insurance, and has never been involved in any way with the private medical system. What's the process for doing this? What's the first step in obtaining a private consultation? Tevildo (talk) 18:34, 6 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Here's what NHS Choices says on the matter: Do I need a GP referral for private treatment? -- Finlay McWalterჷTalk 18:51, 6 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

I would like to suggest that your friend goes through the usual NHS channels to test the delay theory. You use the word "would" which to me implies speculation. If a long delay is confirmed there is no reason why you can't see a specialist privately. Richard Avery (talk) 06:57, 7 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Housing for university student in Kawempe

Dear sir or madame I am inquiring about housing - a hostel near a university in Kawempe. I understand there is a 6 story hostel being built by a firm from Canada, called "Good Life Developments" Is this correct and how do I get information about renting a room?

thank you for your time Kathy — Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.76.0.67 (talk) 18:54, 6 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

May I assume you mean Kawempe, Uganda? -- Jack of Oz ^[Talk] 21:42, 6 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

This site lists student hostels and their contact details for Makerere University. If you're interested in a different university, let us know which one it is, and I'm sure we'll be able to find the information for it. Tevildo (talk) 21:44, 6 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Grading for a student who never went to class or took an exam

What is the typical policy of large US state and private colleges toward a student who registered for a class, but never attended the class or took an exam. Is the result more likely to be a failing grade recorded for the class, or a "drop" with no associated grade? Edison (talk) 19:37, 6 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

You have to go through a whole process to drop a class. If you just don't show up or do any work, you fail. Adam Bishop (talk) 22:29, 6 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

That's how it worked for me, but in Canada. Aced an English test, and was told I had no need for an English course. Didn't fill out any paperwork, just assumed I don't show up. End of the year, figured I could afford to half-ass a radio course and still pass the year (we were allowed to fail one). But combined with the English course, they flunked me. Down $15,000 on an oversight, but it was a blessing in disguise: Another two years, I'd have been unemployed with a journalism degree. If you really want to pass, I suggest making sure you've officially dropped every class you think you have. InedibleHulk (talk) 23:00, May 6, 2013 (UTC)

The official policy at my school is that if you are registered for a class, you WILL get a grade, even if you have dropped off the face of the Earth. However, exceptions are made when exceptions are due, like when someone has a mental breakdown, or is too sick to even sign a form. Someguy1221 (talk) 23:09, 6 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

May 7

Movie title

As a young teenager back in the early 60's I watched a moive which greatly impressed me at that time but I jsut can't recall the title. The background setting was in Europe around the 1600's or 1700's. The story centred on two small time farmers. One farmer went to borrow money from another farmer and provided two horses as surety. The first farmer later repaid the money with interest and was given his horses back but he found them to be in poor health. Enraged he demanded the other farmer nurse his horses to health or purchase them from him. The second farmer refused, citing it was not his responsibility to take care of the animals. The second farmer called upon his hired hands and threatened the first farmer with harm. The first farmer bakced off but returned a few days later with friends and attacked the property of the seconfd farmer. The seound farmer secured the help of more powerful people and the first farmer did the same. The dispute escalated and the killings begin. Various opposing parties began a systematic campaign to eradicate the other and a civil war broke out and eventually led to outright wars between neighbouring countries. After a period of time and in the midst of financial ruin and terible casualties, all sides of the dispute began the slow countdown to analysing the cause of it all. They eventually tracked it down to the two farmers in question. The matter was brought before the court which ruled in favour of the first farmer. The second famrer was ordered to nurse the two horses to good health. In the closing stages of the film, the second farmer brought a now two healthy looking horses to the first farmer, watched by court officials. The frist farmer took possession the horses and brought them to the gate and open it. He then set the horses loose to the surprise of all those present. The film was well made and the plot was believable. I also remember some high profile actors at that time although they played only cameo roles in the movie.

If there is anyone who can recall seeing this movie, I certainly like their imput on it or lead me somewhere to solving the title of it. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Martin Hiew (talk • contribs) 03:17, 7 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Gotta love wikipedia reference... Man on Horseback. Actually, the movie made quite an impression on me as well, obviously. IMDB has more of an article on it, under its original title Michael Kohlhaas - Der Rebell. Based on the book Michael Kohlhaas apparently based on a maybe real person Hans Kohlhase. Coincidentally, remake coming out now Michael Kohlhaas (film) which makes googling the original more difficult. Gzuckier (talk) 04:22, 7 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you very much for that imput! I never would have though the film was actually German in origin since all the spoken dialogue was in English on the big screen. I like to get a copy of the original but there don't appear to be a source when I can get it. It will bring back a lot of memories. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Martin Hiew (talk • contribs) 08:35, 7 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Greatest Time Difference Between a U.S. President's Birth and His/Her Child's Death

So far, I was able to find Francis Grover Cleveland (lived 1903-1995), who died 158 years after his father, U.S. President Grover Cleveland (lived 1837-1908), was born. Francis Grover Cleveland narrowly beats Pearl Tyler Ellis (lived 1860-1947), who died 157 years after her father, U.S. President John Tyler (lived 1790-1862), was born. Is there any case of a greater time difference for U.S. Presidents' birth and their child's death than with Grover Cleveland and his son? Thank you very much. Futurist110 (talk) 07:35, 7 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

I made the header agree with the question. -- Jack of Oz ^[Talk] 10:36, 7 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

plugs

Hello. Is there someone out there who knows what these plugs are called? They were being used on a model railroad display. Thank you. → Michael J Ⓣ Ⓒ Ⓜ 09:33, 7 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Without seeing the face, they could be anything, but are probably just ordinary three prong plugs. The wire looks like ordinary Romex, and the clamp connectors on the ends are just to keep the cable from losing its connection should someone yank upon it—a feature that more common/cheaper cables haven’t. ¦ Reisio (talk) 09:44, 7 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Looking for a good Flash Game to emulate about mining

Hey all, I'm designing a game in Multimedia Fusion 2 for a class, and I need to make short mini-games about various occupations, one of which being mining. Well, I can't for the life of me think of a fun minigame about mining. It's pretty tedious work. The game also needs to fulfill several requirements:

1) Involve human sprites (perhaps controllable but not necessarily) 2) The player must lose if he does nothing; the game can't remain in an unsolved state indefinitely (please ask if you require clarification, Tetris and Space Invaders would fulfill this requirement while chess or Minesweeper would not) 3) It cannot involve a movable camera, the player must be able to see the entire play area from the beginning (sorry Dig Dug fans) 4) It is permissable to remake another game so long as the inspiration is credited.

So....can anyone think of a mining mini-game, or could you link me to a Flash game or something that details a simple game revolving around the concept of mining? It's the one occupation I haven't come up with a mini-game on my own. Thank you! --Ye Olde Luke (talk) 11:43, 7 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Recommended animation software/programmes

This is probably not the best place to ask this type of question, but I will try to ask it here anyway to see if I can get any possible good suggestions. This question is mostly for any art and/or animation experts out there.

I want to take my artist skill further into the field of animation other than the simple frame-by-frame type, but I would want something that is easy to use, practice with, and produce video animations with, yet at the same time, can yield professional results if given time and dedication. I am trying to avoid Adobe Flash or Photoshop for now. I have tested several free/open-source programmes so far, they were all okay but I was hoping for better.

I have looked up the list of 2D animation software, but I do not have the time to test all of them yet.

Examples of styles that I would like to base my work on: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=grWUPA0MPKw http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aEkchEJv-H4 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rM3DW3w0RFc

What 2-D animation programmes or software do you guys recommend I use to get such results? I thank you all in advance. 72.235.221.120 (talk) 13:22, 7 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]