Wikipedia:Reference desk/Miscellaneous

Reference Desk

Science Mathematics Computing/IT Humanities Language Entertainment Miscellaneous Archives
How to ask a question Search first. It's quicker, because you can find the answer in our online encyclopedia instead of waiting for a volunteer to respond. Search Wikipedia using the searchbox. A web search could help too. Common questions about Wikipedia itself, such as how to cite Wikipedia and who owns Wikipedia, are answered in Wikipedia:FAQ.
Sign your question. Type ~~~~ at its end. Be specific. Explain your question in detail if necessary, addressing exactly what you'd like answered. For information that changes from country to country (or from state to state), such as legal, fiscal or institutional matters, please specify the jurisdiction you're interested in. Include both a title and a question. The title (top box) should specify the topic of your question. The complete details should be in the bottom box. Do your own homework. If you need help with a specific part or concept of your homework, feel free to ask, but please don't post entire homework questions and expect us to give you the answers. Be patient. Questions are answered by other users, and a user who can answer may not be reading the page immediately. A complete answer to your question may be developed over a period of up to seven days.	Do not include your e-mail address. Questions aren't normally answered by e-mail. Be aware that the content on Wikipedia is extensively copied to many websites; making your e-mail address public here may make it very public throughout the Internet. Edit your question for more discussion. Click the [edit] link on right side of its header line. Please do not start multiple sections about the same topic. Archived questions If you cannot find your question on the reference desks, please see the Archives. Unanswered questions If you find that your question has been archived before being answered, you may copy your question from the Archives into a new section on the reference desk. Do not request medical or legal advice. Ask a doctor or lawyer instead.
After reading the above, you may ask a new question by clicking here. Your question will be added at the bottom of the page.
How to answer a question Be thorough. Please provide as much of the answer as you are able to. Be concise, not terse. Please write in a clear and easily understood manner. Keep your answer within the scope of the question as stated.	Link to articles which may have further information relevant to the question. Be polite to users, especially ones new to Wikipedia. A little fun is fine, but don't be rude. The reference desk is not a soapbox. Please avoid debating about politics, religion, or other sensitive issues.

=Jan

January 26

U.S. millitary

Does the U.S. force civilians to join the millitary/fight in war? have they in the past? isn't this just wrong, and violate the constitution? why else do we pay taxes?

You're describing a military draft, which is periodically authorized by Congress. To the best of my recollection, the Constitution doesn't address it. Taxes pay for a good bit beyond the military (and inherently can't prevent a draft -- tax dollars don't force people to enlist); check out the 2007 United States budget for an example (and note that defense isn't even the single largest line item). As for "isn't this just wrong" -- that's a moral question to which every person will likely have a slightly different answer. — Lomn 01:13, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

The Supreme Court ruled in the 1918 case Arver v. United States that the draft is constitutional. -- Mwalcoff 01:17, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

Another related issue is when they recall former soldiers under the clause saying they can be recalled to service "in times of national emergency". Many feel that this clause is being thoroughly abused by the Bush administration. StuRat 05:33, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

There are countries that do a lot more then force civilians to join the military in times of war. Many countries still force civilians to join the military in times of peace. Vespine 07:44, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

Press conferences

Why is the background behind the speeker ALWAYS blue (with the exception of event/sponsor logos)? everything from sports to the white house, the background is always blue. is there a good reason for this?

Short answer: it's not. However, the backdrop is usually chosen to avoid visual clutter (for example, dark blue looks better with business suits than neon green). — Lomn 01:15, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

Blue is a neutral color, as Lomn pointed out, like white, and I've seen equal amounts of both colors in press conferences. With purposes other than colorational (is that a word?) neutrality, Most White House press conferences use the Presidential Seal as a backdrop, which is predominantly blue. V-Man737 01:36, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

They're blue so the Ministry of Truth can more easily add/edit/crop the resulting videos using bluescreen techniques. --Cody.Pope 02:02, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

This may not be the reason why, but blue also contrasts strongly with the color of human flesh, making the speaker's face more visible. The reason movies and weather reports use "blue screens" is because human skin has very little blue in it. When they replace the blue, they won't be replacing the actor's nose, too. TheSPY 01:46, 30 January 2007 (UTC)

Megapixels

why does it take more megapixels to make a decent looking picture in print than on screen? my screen is 17" and roughly at 1 megapixel (1024x768 - 1280x960) resolution, pictures look great. to make print that big, i would need 5MP or so for it to look good. Why?

In my experience, you usually need a better printer to get better quality in prints. Of course, with the difference that you are noting, it seems to me that the issue you are experiencing may have to do with conversion from computer monitor pixels to printer dots per inch. V-Man737 01:30, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

That's a good question. I know that it happens, but can't fully explain why. One reason might be that we tend to read things on paper by holding them more closely than we typically keep the computer screen. But that explanation alone doesn't seem adequate, as 100 pixels per inch is great on a computer screen but you need a minimum of about 300 DPI on paper to make a decent looking print. StuRat 05:27, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

A typical LCD screen is 72 DPI, some CRT's might go up to 150DPI - modern color laser printers can go up to 600DPI(I'm sitting next to one) and some inkjets claim 1440DPI. An image at 72DPI looks ok on screen and bad on paper at the same physical size because the printer is producing a sharper image than the monitor. Thus you can see imperfections that would otherwise be invisible. It's like listening to a CD over mediocre headphones, and then listening to the same CD using a pair of Grado GS1000's. Only when you're wearing the expensive headphones can you hear the single 2nd Violinist who plays a wrong note halfway through the first movement.--inks^T 06:24, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

Granted, but there's still something wrong with this logic. If printers could be made just as fuzzy as monitors and look just as good, why wouldn't we be using such a setup ? There apparently is something inherently "pickier" about printed media. StuRat 07:43, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

Because people demand higher resolutions than 72 DPI for printed items. Maybe the backlighting of a picture on screen also has an effect?--inks^T 09:13, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

I had fun reading Color vision, and would recommend it. The brain reacts differently to different expectations. --Zeizmic 13:21, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

The issue is that different media have different resolutions to them. As for why it is different, it has to do with the way the screen works. And yes, you can make things blurrier and get away with a bit, but if the medium is one where blurriness is easy to detect, then you are going to notice it. Television screens are generally made in a way where blurriness is hard to detect — they are very low resolution, in the end (720 pixels across usually). DVDs are usually targeted at 720 pixels across, which is one of the reasons they can look blocky when run on a computer screen. The problem isn't expectations, it has to do with the physical hardware used to display the images. The problem with print is that you generally can't perceive individual "dots" with any ease, whereas on a monitor you do it all the time (the dots of the i's in this edit window are single dots). --24.147.86.187 13:52, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

Cheating at betting

I'm writing this story, but I haven't thought it through very well, so could someone tell me of a way that one may go about cheating at betting on horse races involving a pawn that deliberately loses every bet they make and using their own money? Vitriol 01:29, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

There are many ways, here are a few:

• Injure the horse you bet on, say by giving them tranquilizers.

• Make another horse run faster, say by giving it stimulants.

• Bribe the jockey (of the horse you bet on) to lose.

StuRat 05:19, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

Dick Francis has written many fine novels which are about horse racing, and a number of those dealt with betting fraud schemes. He might have dealt with the ploy you propose. How could the pawn be sure his bets lost? He would need to dope the horse he bet on to lose, or dope another to win, or bribe/threaten jockies. Now he has bet and lost. How does he get rich that way? Could a chronic loser ever become well known enough that when the payoff race came he bet on a horse, others saw that he had, and bet on the competition, then his horse naturally won 30 to one odds? You could only pull that once, and it would be hard to be a famous enough loser that placing bets on a horse would actually increase the payoff enough to get back the money deliberately lost plus the cost of fixing the races. Easier to deliberately make a good horse lose so that it could be bought cheaply, or so it could become disfavored, get long odds, then win the payoff race when the tampering was not done. Edison 05:35, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

I think I'll just abandon that idea. Vitriol 15:25, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

Please don't. Edison's first idea is so outlandish, where it fails at pragmatism it wins as flimflam. Here's how it works: Some swell walks into the parlor, among the lowlives sees another respectable businessman at the bar, slumming it just like himself. Why, it's Louis Fitzgerald III, or "Lucky Louie" as they call him, joyfully losing every horsey bet (he can afford it, anyway). "Everyone" knows Lucky Louie, so much that people routinely bet against him. But Shock! Surprise! today is Mr. Fitzgerald's big day– he makes a huge win on a long shot and "retires". Mr. Fitzgerald of course confides to our protagonist (on his way out of town) about the great scheme he's worked out with his lowlife partner, per User:Edison above. The partner just needs someone with a little capital to start the scheme over, and the superstitious lowlives can be expected to adopt our protagonist as their new patrician "mascot". Our new Mr. Lucky places regular losing bets through his partner, and waits for his big day. He starts having doubts, wondering if his partner was just pocketing the bets, but on the big day his horse wins. Too bad his "partner" is long gone, having placed all his accumulated con money on that winning horse.--Pharos 19:19, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

National Guard

Whats the difference between National Guard and the rest of the US Army and US Airforce? the articles on National Guard, Army National Guard, and Air National Guard all fail to explain this!

The United States National Guard is composed of state militias, which can be "nationalized" in times of emergency, to be made into a reserve military force. In practice, they are most often used in dealing with domestic security threats, like riots, but can also be used in foreign wars. StuRat 05:15, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

In other words the National Guard is under state control while the US Army is under federal control. Joneleth 16:05, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

Except that the National Guard is under federal control during times of national emergency. As, for example, the current occupation of Iraq. The National Guard is also used for disasters such as flooding, forest fires, etc. User:Zoe|(talk) 23:40, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

Secret Service investigations

Would the United States Secret Service investigate threats made against George W. Bush in his article on Wikipedia? I mean if someone vandalized his article and made an explicit threat against him. Just curious, of course. --Joelmills 02:59, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

Try it and see! Vitriol 03:27, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

My guess is they would log it in their records, if they became aware of it, but would take no further action unless there was any evidence that the threat was credible. There must be thousands of threats against Bush, after all, and they can't waste their time investigating all of them, so concentrate on significant threats. If you included a plan, which seemed to be well thought out and had some chance of success, then they would take it seriously. If your plan was to drop an elephant on the White House from an airplane, they would put a "crackpot" note on your file and close it immediately. StuRat 05:03, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

I absolutely expect that they would do their duty and track down the threatener. Quickly. Edison 05:39, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

They absolutely track and prosecute all threats both from within and (when possible) outside the United States. Even if you say you'll drop an elephant, they'll track you down. --Charlene 06:25, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

And the elephant? Clio the Muse 06:54, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

They would probably charge the human, but elephant charging is a bigger deal. Edison 18:36, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

You need to buy a special charger at a store that deals with professional electricians. --Anon, very quickly, Jan. 27, 03:15 (UTC).

If you're going to charge an elephant, you'll need a big gun. Personally, I'd run the other way. Clarityfiend 08:22, 27 January 2007 (UTC)

It probably depends on whether or not there was anything suspicious hidden in its trunk...Carom 18:40, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

Come on you guys, just drop it. V-Man737 00:36, 27 January 2007 (UTC)

Exact and complete pedigree of Imam Taqi

I want to know the exact and complete pedigree of Imam Taqi as to how many sons he had besides Imam Naqi, their names. Whether Abu Zafar was also his son if so his pedigree—The preceding unsigned comment was added by 59.95.153.4 (talk) 04:17, 26 January 2007

Do we have a page on him? Have you checked it? If not, I suggest asking on the Humanities reference desk. 68.39.174.238 05:25, 28 January 2007 (UTC)

Dreams

Why is it, that 13 years after retirement, I still have dreams where I am working.

John Luckie

My father believed we often dream about things and events that aren't important to us, anymore, since we're occupied with other things in daytime. Otherwise, I don't think anyone really could give a sufficient answer. 惑乱 分からん 10:09, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

35 years after high school, I still have those 'can't remember where my locker is" dreams... --Zeizmic 13:05, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

Almost every single dream I have takes place in the house I lived in when I was growing up. Anchoress 13:11, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

Some researchers believe that dreams are a mechanism or process of consolidating recent experiences into our long term memory structures. Something which happened today may be similar or analogous to something that happened at work, or some relationship with a client, boss or coworker. When you wake up and remember a dream, you can ask yourself what happened recently that the dream incident reminds you of. Freud had the insight that in dreams, the things we see may be puns related to life situations. A Freudian psychologist who taught "Theories of Personality" in college told of a patient who dreamed he dug a trench, filled it and dug it again. In the course of analysis, it developed that the man was worried about his income and his debts, and felt he needed to "retrench" his finances. Edison 18:42, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

The best sex I ever had was when I had "wet" dreams as a boy. Wish I could have them again but they seem to be the privilege of the very young.

Dreams are made when your brain pulls memories from your subconscious & creates them into a dream. Memories used can differ from events in your past to stuff from yesterday. Stuff you may not notice (such as if you watched a movie where a tiger is in the background, you may have a dream about a tiger) is often included in a dream, & problems in real life can over spill into our sleep time. Dreams can also be our brain's way of trying to resolve past traumatic or unsolved occurances. Someone or something you may not have thought about for years may be included in a dream - this is just your subconscious cycling your memories so that you don't forget in a way. Events which were reoccuring, such as school or work, are often included in dreams more than others due to the large exposure to these places. Alternatively, working dreams could be interpreted as a meaning. Meanings for dreams can be found as this site Dreammoods.com, which is very good in interpreting dreams... Hope this helps... :) Spawn Man 04:56, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

Bittorent clients

Yeah, so I use Bittornado, and am currently downloading a large file(1.5 gb) that's a couple years old. It has already taken three days to get to 58%, but then an error message occured saying "Permission denied". It seems now I can't restart downloading the file. So I was wondering if it's possible to download a new Bittorent client, and get the download at the same position as it was previously. Because I don't want to have to restart the entire download from the beginning. 68.167.0.198 14:32, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

It's unlikely, unless you upgrade to a newer version of Bittornado, and make sure to keep all the settings intact. However, I don't think that the "permission denied" error message is due to your BitTorrent client, could it be the tracker denying you permission to access it? Also, I should point out that three days to download 1.5 GB is not all that unusual on BitTorrent, especially if a file is not very popular. Be patient! — QuantumEleven 15:41, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

Sometimes you'll also get a Permission Denied error if your torrent program isn't being allowed to write the information to the hard drive (generally because your hard drive is completely full). So before you take too drastic measures, I'd recommend you ensure that you do indeed have enough space on your drive for the rest of the file. Also btw, we do have a computing reference desk as well, where this would probably be more appropriate. --Maelwys 15:52, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

In my experiences, it's just a tracker error. You can also try enabling DHT, though I'm not sure BitTornado has it. --Wirbelwindヴィルヴェルヴィント (talk) 22:43, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

Canadian Killer

There is curently a case in the Canadian courts concerning a serial killer of over 50 women, what is his name, and do we have an article. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 81.144.161.223 (talk • contribs)

Robert Pickton --Justanother 14:46, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

Actualy its 49 women, of which he is currently charged with 26 counts.

Fish in Winter

Im places like canada and Alaska, if a river has fish in it during summer, and then in winter the river freezes up, so that the whole river is in ice, from top to bottom, what happens to the fish? do they freeze in the ice?

If there is a river so shallow that it freezes completely, well yes, fish in it will freeze. But fish are smart enough to swim to deeper rivers, lakes, or the sea, before this happens. If any group of fish start to develop a tendency to stay in shallow water, they will be snuffed out by natural processes. Weregerbil 14:58, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

Generally, not the entire river, lake, etc is frozen. Thus, ice fishing exists. --Wirbelwindヴィルヴェルヴィント (talk) 22:41, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

Some fish have the ability to survive being frozen. --Carnildo 22:58, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

Those fish are the Notothenioidei, who live in Antarctic waters, and have antifreeze glycoproteins in their blood. bibliomaniac15 02:53, 27 January 2007 (UTC)

Rivers in Southern Canada don't generally freeze over, let alone freeze all the way through. I lived in Northern Canada for a number of years and never saw a river that was both shallow enough to completely freeze through and deep enough to have a fish population. In fact, now that I think of it, I never saw a river shallow enough to freeze over - most only froze to a depth of one metre, even after six months at -20 and below. --Charlene 05:47, 27 January 2007 (UTC)

Are there rivers that do freeze through perennially? V-Man737 06:04, 27 January 2007 (UTC)

I don't think that is possible. There would have to be some high part that froze through first, and the whole of the river below that would then either dry up or continue to be fed by tributaries.--Shantavira 09:38, 27 January 2007 (UTC)

info for you

I was looking at info on St. Patrick & found someone had hacked the site & added their own disgusting info there. Please check it out!!

Thanks for all the info you make available to us.

If you're referring to the article on Saint Patrick, I'm afraid I couldn't find any disgusting info (and no trace of it in the article's history in the last few days). Did you perhaps mean another article? In any case, thanks for bringing this to our attention, vandalism is an unfortunate side-effect of Wikipedia's openness. Next time you spot some vandalism you can also fix it yourself by reverting the article, for instructions, see Help:Reverting. — QuantumEleven 15:38, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

moulding and shaping leather

How can leather be treated to retain a moulded shape such as a breast plate? Jim, Prince Albert, Sk.

see Cuir bouilli and the Cuir Bouilli FAQ.—eric 17:49, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

Buying Nintendo DS Lite

If I buy a Nintendo DS Lite in America (including all the batter recharger cables etc.) and bring it to the United Kingdom, would I be able to buy British games and use them on my American console, and engage in group games also? Would I also have to buy a plug apadtor so I can rechard my DS Lite? Thanks, 81.131.35.104 16:46, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

The DS is region free; the only games that won't play on a US DS are Chinese ones (the DS doesn't have the Chinese alphabet installed by default). As for mulitplayer, British games should work fine, but for US carts, it depends on the game. Mario Kart DS lets you play against anyone, but some don't. As for the charger, oddly, although my (British) DS's instruction manual includes over 20 safety points on using the charger, including "Danger! This cord may be used as a noose!", it doesn't mention international use, although Nintendo's online version features the vaguely worded "When using an AC adapter, make sure you are using the correct model appropriate for your Nintendo DS" and "Connect ONLY accessories designed and licensed for use with the Nintendo DS to any external connectors". The US Nintendo is much more blunt though: "ONLY use the AC adapter... US/JPN"[1] so I suppose that means you'd have to use a plug converter rather than buying a new cable. Laïka 17:34, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

"This cord may be used as a noose"? How obvious can something get? Sort of like the tag on my scooter: "This product moves when used." bibliomaniac15 02:52, 27 January 2007 (UTC)

I can imagine it's a sight less gruesome than the hypothetical improvement: "This cord is dangerous if you tie it around your neck while the other end is attached to a ceiling fixture (see diagram)."

How to find an appropriate dividing line for attributable blogs, and those that are not?

Obviously a large amount of the blogosphere is one-person's opinion, diaries of coming-of-age teenagers, etc., and therefore of no use to an online enclyclopedia like Wikipedia.

But a small part of the evolving blog world is citizen journalism of a high calibre. Some are truly making information available that is not available elsewhere, whether breaking current events, or high-quality, non-commercial (and free) web directories.

I have looked around Wikipedia, including WP:V and WP:Policy, and tried to find a link to where is the appropriate place to discuss this on WP, rather than get partial discussions by various small groups on myriad different article pages. Is there any place this is being done at the meta-level?

Thanks. N2e 20:29, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

One article where some of this discussion is going on is Talk:Flat fee MLS, which by the way could definitely use a few more eyeballs from non-conflict-of-interest Wikipedians. But I am interested also in the broader question for Wikipedia in general.

You could take your questions about reliable sources over to Wikipedia talk:Reliable sources; I see a number of discussions there about blogs already. Tony Fox (arf!) 23:50, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

Thank you very much Tony Snow. That was exactly the information I was looking for. N2e 00:34, 27 January 2007 (UTC)

Heh. Definitely not Tony Snow. Right industry, wrong country and a bit to the right on the political spectrum. =) Tony Fox (arf!) 04:12, 27 January 2007 (UTC)

My opinion is that Blogs should almost never be used as a source in Wikipedia. Blogs are of too low quality, to temporal, and most often "off the cuff". Even in the case of a recognized expert in their field, the blog is not reviewed, edited or subject to peer criticism, and not of the same quality as the same persons comments in a journal or book. There are many people who disagree with my view and think that in the instance of a recognized expert, a blog should be allowed. I feel, for the purposed of meeting the standard of a reliable source, a blog almost never meets that standard. Atom 00:27, 27 January 2007 (UTC)

Longest sung note?

Can someone tell me how long the longest note sung by someone (either professional or amateur) is? I did a bit of google searching and found 20.2 seconds. However, I'm sure this can't be the longest note as I can relatively easily hold a note for between 25 and 35 seconds without any vocal training (Sorry, that's for humming, as for singing, 20 seconds isn't too hard, with a bit of practice I reckon I could get 25 seconds. Is this all I need to break the record?) . Any information would be greatly appreciated. Thanks. --80.229.152.246 22:13, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

Yeah, it isn't a rare thing to hum for twenty seconds straight. However, I'm picturing a person singing, like so that an audience can hear. To sing a note at an "audible" level (i.e., for an audience) would be difficult to hold for twenty seconds, as the amount of air needed to sustain such a volume would be tremendous. V-Man737 02:43, 27 January 2007 (UTC)

According to the site, that was for great hits, not overall. bibliomaniac15 02:49, 27 January 2007 (UTC)

Yeah... What's more, you'll probably find it difficult to locate any sauce that mentions the longest note ever sung (let alone describing the requirements for qualifying in such an endeavor). V-Man737 03:07, 27 January 2007 (UTC)

Got some sauce! Check here. Now this is the longest note held is a recorded hit, 20.2 seconds by Morten Harket, lead singer with group A-Ha, but it gives you some idea and what is even cooler is that you can listen to it! --Justanother 03:22, 27 January 2007 (UTC)

Bit more: Barbra Streisand - reportedly 25 seconds. Here is a thread on long Broadway "belts" with 15 sec mentioned as impressive but consider that this is belting it on stage, not crooning into a studio mike. Here is a singer's forum with links to their best efforts and a claim of 30 seconds. --Justanother 03:40, 27 January 2007 (UTC)

I humbly bow to your superior search skillz. V-Man737 03:53, 27 January 2007 (UTC)

Aw shucks. BTW, I kept saying "sauce" 'cause it tickled me - I liked it! --Justanother 03:58, 27 January 2007 (UTC)

My initial reason for picking it up. ^_^ V-Man737 04:27, 27 January 2007 (UTC)

I'm still kicking round with this one - don't know if it is copyvio but if you want to see Streisand belt for 19 sec [2]. --Justanother 04:31, 27 January 2007 (UTC)

Thanks for all the info. Maybe I should go for the longest note played on an instrument instead (without circular breathing). This one is actually listed in the Guinness Book of Records as being 49.2 seconds long. I reckon with a bit of practice I should be able to get reasonably close to that on my clarinet. Even if I don't, it will be good practice. Oh, as a little side question, does a hum have to be with the lips closed? I can make some lower sounds that sound mainly like singing but a bit like humming at the same time and I would like to know if this is really singing. Thanks --80.229.152.246 12:21, 27 January 2007 (UTC)

See humming and, for entertainment purposes, the Hum. (It seems that one could conceivably reduce "humming" to "making a noise while holding your breath" in an effort to make longer and longer records. ;-) V-Man737 15:07, 28 January 2007 (UTC)

January 27

Interesting plots

I need to write a short story and I have a little bit of writer's block. Can anyone give me examples of good sci-fi plots? Thanks.

You mean ones that are already written? If not, see Plot generator, or The seven basic literary plots. Anchoress 03:24, 27 January 2007 (UTC)

I agree with 'Seven basic plots, but for a little more detail...

Well now, that depends. There are the standard kiddy-adventure ones, where something new and exciting is discovered and you get to experiment with it, usually going a bit wrong in a way that means you have to solve a problem. There's ones where you encounter aliens, either through them coming to Earth or you going to their planet. That can either lead to war (over land/resources/human flesh), or you can use them as a device to show up something ridiculous about the world you currently live in, either by having them live in a utopia and not understand Earth's problems, or through them exhibiting a caricature of an Earth problem. There's ones where you explore new frontiers, like new planets or into the past or the future. There's ones where you just describe a normal day for someone in a fantastic setting, like on a different planet or in the future. There's ones where you describe sprawling empires and how people rise to power in some futuristic setting. There's ones where something goes terribly wrong, and something has to be invented to solve the problem. There's ones where you have your heros as freedom-fighters in an oppressive regime, working for a better life. Any help? It's often best to start with something you think's an interesting idea, or something about the world you think's ridiculous, then try to make a story around it. Skittle 03:29, 27 January 2007 (UTC)

There's a book called "How to write Sci-fi and Fantasy" that was published about a decade ago but which I read, and which has some very interesting tips about writing sci-fi. It's probably like 2 bucks now so I recommend picking it up. --Wooty Woot? contribs 03:47, 27 January 2007 (UTC)

Of course Wooty is speaking in the sense meaning "purchase the book," not the street slang version meaning "steal it." That would be horrible advice and I know Wooty better than that. I hope. ;-P V-Man737 03:58, 27 January 2007 (UTC)

What!??! I've never heard "picking it up" meant to imply STEALING!! --Wooty Woot? contribs 00:53, 28 January 2007 (UTC)

• I'd suggest you start creating characters, a world and things and start experimenting with those to see what happens if you put them together in different situations. The plot will happen all of its own accord. - Mgm|^(talk) 08:37, 29 January 2007 (UTC)

about the organization of ALA

Please help me to know about the EU organization for Asia and Latin America. I've heard that before it was named Tacis. Please provide me with the website URL.ez go 04:10, 27 January 2007 (UTC) Thank you in advance Baibulatez go 04:10, 27 January 2007 (UTC)

Being an acronym, the article's title will be all-caps. TACIS! Ta-daaaa. Also, here is their main website. V-Man737 04:30, 27 January 2007 (UTC)

Pink Floyd

In the beginning of the Pink Floyd song "Wish You Were Here" there are voices talking. Does anyone know what they are saying?

According to the article, "...the song segues from Have a Cigar as if a radio had been tuned away from one station, through several others, and finally to a new station where "Wish You Were Here" is beginning. ...This passage was mixed to sound as though the guitarist was sitting in a room, playing along with the radio; it also contains a barely-audible whine that slowly changes pitch, as if receiving AM radio interference. The intro riff is repeated several times and reprised when Gilmour plays further solos with scat singing accompaniment." Would the voices be in the "tuning away" part in the beginning, or the "scat singing" part? V-Man737 05:50, 27 January 2007 (UTC)

The questioner may be referring to the extract from a radio play which can be heard at the start, as mentioned here. I think it's mixed too low to be able to make out any actual words. --Richardrj ^{talk email} 06:12, 27 January 2007 (UTC)

Sub-Question

This made me curious, is there any connection between scat and scat singing? V-Man737 05:58, 27 January 2007 (UTC)

Unlikely; see here. --Richardrj ^{talk email} 06:16, 27 January 2007 (UTC)

Well, I'd throw some of the former at you if you started doing the latter. Clarityfiend 19:11, 28 January 2007 (UTC)

Is this a free licence

I want to nominate this picture so it could be a fatured picture but in the Featured picture criteria it says that is has to have a free license I do not know if it has a free license.Bewareofdog 08:40, 27 January 2007 (UTC)

File:PopeEcumenicalPatriarch.jpg

If you click on the image and go to its page, it says the picture is copyrighted. It was taken by a camera, thus implying it already has a copyright, and only the owner of the picture can change it to free license. --Wirbelwindヴィルヴェルヴィント (talk) 16:40, 27 January 2007 (UTC)

No, the uploader of that image (User:Hectorian) has specifically claimed that the Patriarchate placed it under a copyrighted-free use license. I can't find this on their webpage, though...--Pharos 21:50, 27 January 2007 (UTC)

The page is very vague about how the "press" can use them. I wouldn't consider it a valid "free" license. --24.147.86.187 02:46, 28 January 2007 (UTC)

In any case, it's a poor picture and wouldn't stand a chance. Please see Wikipedia:Featured picture criteria.--Shantavira 19:19, 27 January 2007 (UTC)

The puzzle of the pegs

Puzzle for ye: You are being chased by an angry mob out in the desert when you chance upon a cave. The door to get in is in the form of a large disc that can spin. There are four slots in the disc for pegs, and four pegs already there. These pegs are red at one end and blue on the other. The disc only opens when all the ends are the same way, as in all blue facing out or all red. You can change around any pegs you like to see if the door will open, but when you do the do the disc will spin a random number of quarter-turns. Lastly, the disc is covered by a hood so you can't see what you're doing! How do you open the door? Ludraman 11:35, 27 January 2007 (UTC)

Is this from a computer game? 惑乱 分からん 13:14, 27 January 2007 (UTC)

Not that I know of. It's a logic puzzle. Ludraman 13:35, 27 January 2007 (UTC)

Well, you don't say that I can't have my hand on a peg while it spins =8-) --Justanother 13:46, 27 January 2007 (UTC)

In that case you get your hand chopped off and you've only one hand to complete the task with :/ Ludraman

Can you take out all the pegs, or leave one out so you know the orientation of the pegs? Even then, would it be a good idea to go in a cave where there might be nothing but an angry mob waiting outside? --Wirbelwindヴィルヴェルヴィント (talk) 16:37, 27 January 2007 (UTC)

Keep running. Anyway, if you can work it out quickly, so can the mob.--Shantavira 19:21, 27 January 2007 (UTC)

The IQ of a mob is that of it's stupidest member, divided by the number of people in it

Why does there have to be a mob chasing me? I can't think when mobs are chasing me. ;_; V-Man737 15:14, 28 January 2007 (UTC)

Ummm...remove the hood? Clarityfiend 16:30, 28 January 2007 (UTC)

Keep flipping pegs until inevitably by random chance they are in the right position? (And then take the pegs with you into the cave to keep out the mob...) Duomillia 04:46, 29 January 2007 (UTC)

BUYING US STOCKS

HELLO FREINDS

I AM ENQURING ABOUT HOW I CAN BUY US STOCKS IF I LIVE IN INDIA. THANK YOU, AND GOD BLESS.

Contact a stock broker and tell them you want to buy stock in a US listed firm. I've no idea about the rules in India but I would be surprised if you cannot trade in international stock markets in India. You could, alternatively, invest in a bond on investment-fund that puts its money into US markets and this would open you into the market as a member of the fund.ny156uk 17:43, 27 January 2007 (UTC)

Editing a box without an edit link

I was at our city http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Placerville%2C_California and wanted to revise the Mayor's name in the right sidebar. (We have a new one.) How would I have gotten to that to edit it?

206.170.49.153 22:22, 27 January 2007 (UTC)

Use the "edit this page" link at the top to edit the whole page. Those right sidebars are usually "infoboxes", in this case generated by the code at the top of the page beginning {{Infobox City... . Some infoboxes contrive to have their own built-in "edit" links to make editing them easier, but it looks like {{Infobox City}} does not.

By the way, questions about editing Wikipedia can also be asked at the Help Desk. —Steve Summit (talk) 22:45, 27 January 2007 (UTC)

What pitch is this?

I have recorded myself singing (singing is used in the loosest way possible here) what I think to be a B1. However, I do not think it can be. Also, about 13 seconds into the recording, the note starts to waver slightly more than before. Does anyone have any tips on how I can sustain notes for longer and achieve lower notes? If it helps, I'm a 14 year old male who plays the clarinet, is studying music for GCSE, but does not have any vocal coaching and would not like any. Thanks. --Catalyst2007 22:34, 27 January 2007 (UTC)

I can't get that soundfile to work, possibly because it has been uploaded as an image? This might also be why others have not responded yet. Might be worth trying to sort that out, unless it's just my computer being funny. Skittle 19:00, 28 January 2007 (UTC)

I can get it to play, you just need to click on the link underneath the icon of a speaker. If anyone else has trouble playing it, please tell me. As an aside, how do I upload it as anything but an image? --Catalyst2007 21:55, 28 January 2007 (UTC)

Hi Catalyst, Yes it does appear to be close to a B1 although as you point out the pitch wavers some. To sustain notes longer work on breathing in a controlled way from your diaphragm. Also, practice loosening your vocal chords as much as possible. As for your question about achieving lower notes, even trained basses rarely can sing any lower than this. In this range it is nearly impossible to sing in full voice (as you may have discovered.) S.dedalus 08:00, 29 January 2007 (UTC)

Maybe it is just my computer then, since that's just what I did. Hmm. To practise breathing from your diaphragm, try putting your hand on your tummy below your tummybutton. Then try to breath in so that place inflates: that lets you take deeper breathes, but make sure you don't hyperventilate! Without hearing, I don't know if you're doing this, but people often have a problem with singing in a 'breathy' way, which means they get less note for their breath. A way to try to avoid that is by paying attention to when you breath out normally: notice how you do it silently. Then try to get the same 'silent breathing' effect while singing. Skittle 16:34, 29 January 2007 (UTC)

Thanks for the advice. My music teacher recently told me something like breathing from the diaphragm to improve my clarinet playing. I didn't quite get how to make sure I was doing so though. Thanks for explaining how to do that. As an aside, can anyone advise me of some good ways of loosening my vocal cords? I'm not quite sure what to do and don't want to risk damaging them by doing it improperly. --Catalyst2007 17:33, 29 January 2007 (UTC)

Toilet Water

I am asking this with all seriousness...Why doesn't my urine make the toilet water bubble up sometimes?

Why doesn't, or why does? And what kind of bubbles are you talking about?

Are you male or female? And what is the nature of your local water supply - acidic or alkaline? And what does your solid and liquid diet consist of? And irrespective of gender, do you stand or sit to piss? Do you have some kind of surfactant cleanser block suspended in the cistern or over the bowl rim? And if so, what are the predominant chemical components? Is it blue or green? Do you ever drink carbonated drinks? And if so, do you move around i.e. dance a lot?

Ok, I am a standing male pee-er i noticed when i pee that sometimes the water will become bubbly. I am wondering why sometimes it doesn't become bubbly.

I noticed that when I was losing weight, my pee tended be bubblier. Could be something to do with fat lipids exiting the body. I really don't know though. Vranak

That's a possibility, I have been dieting and lost 203 lbs in the last year.

Really? That is fantastic. Well done! --Justanother 09:36, 28 January 2007 (UTC)

Could be the agitation of the liquid and whatever surface-tension-increasing compounds were suspended in it. 68.39.174.238 05:35, 28 January 2007 (UTC)

203 pounds? Amazing... That's more than I weigh... @_@ 惑乱 分からん 08:27, 28 January 2007 (UTC)

When I was 14, I found my urine foamed in the morning (only) if I had masturbated the night before. (This only happened in my teens.) I don't know the chemistry involved though.--Shantavira 09:18, 28 January 2007 (UTC)

The explanation is probably that a small proportion of your seminal fluid went "backwards", and entered your bladder. When mixed with the urine during the night, its protein content would make the urine foamy. --NorwegianBlue ^talk 22:01, 29 January 2007 (UTC)

The articles on surface tension, surfactant, and Human urine draw the connections closer together. I suspect that, as the content of urine varies, so its molecular structure might. If it contains a lot of surfactants (which, in the article, seem suspiciously similar to lipids), that would lower the surface tension of the water. V-Man737 15:30, 28 January 2007 (UTC)

I know that phosphates tend to foam up when agitated in water. Does urine contain a variable quantity of phosphates ? StuRat 12:30, 4 February 2007 (UTC)

submitting an article

how do i submit an article i cannot find a submit button!!

dennis fisher

See Help:Starting a new page. —Mitaphane _?|! 00:51, 28 January 2007 (UTC)

January 28

Picture of Gabriel Richard

I found a picture of Fr. Gabriel Richard for use in the Gabriel Richard article, but I can not tell if it is a very old photograph or a very good painting. I mainly need to know if this image is acceptable for upload and use on Wikipedia. The image is in the people section of this website: [3] Grhs126studenttalk 01:12, 28 January 2007 (UTC)

It looks like a painting to me, but it's hard to tell. You can call the Gabriel Richard Historical Society: Phone 313 963-1888; fax 313 496-0429. I got that contact info from this page, which also shows a nice old mural thats looks like it might be a WPA (and hence PD).--Pharos 01:40, 28 January 2007 (UTC)

costs of printing

Let's say I buy a copy of the Encyclopedia Britannica on DVD (or downloaded the entire wikipedia, whichever). Assuming I have a top of the line printer already, how much would it cost me to print the entire thing?

I guess what I'm asking for, is, what is the cost per page with the best printer available today?

Please no "well it depends..." answers, because I know a lot depends on this (prices of paper, quality of paper, ink, etc.) just make a judgement of the question and say what you mean to say. Thanks. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 70.225.185.24 (talk) 03:22, 28 January 2007

It also depends on the font size, how much text you print on each page... 惑乱 分からん 08:30, 28 January 2007 (UTC)

oh, yeah? Does it really depend on variables? wow, what a refreshingly relevant answer from the man with all the ideas. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 70.225.185.24 (talk) 23:33, 28 January 2007

The Encyclopedia Britannica would be much cheaper. ;-) The [cost of paper] varies wildly depending on how you go about getting it (not necessarily depending on the type, although this does affect the price as well). Also keep in mind that toner cartridges for a really good printer would probably be on the high end (didn't bother getting an estimate here). But essentially the cost per page would come out to a nearly flat rate that you could figure out using the cost of the paper itself, and how many pages your printer can print with one toner cartridge. In the end, I'd guesstimate (based on my own HP LaserJet something or other) an end result of 2 cents per page. V-Man737 15:22, 28 January 2007 (UTC)

oh, yeah? Does it really depend on variables? wow, what a refreshingly relevant answer from the man with all the ideas. - Woo, great way to start into wikipedia, by quasi-insulting the peers that try to help you. Good luck getting more help on this question. Gotta go on a date with Irony... Aetherfukz 16:03, 29 January 2007 (UTC)

I was Head of Procurement for a large British Civil Service Department and as part of my duties was responsible for buying amongst other commodities, Photocopiers, Printers, Toner Cartridges, Inks, Paper and other "consumables". In trying to encourage reductions in costs, I once carried out a whole life costing for printing a typical sheet of A4 with a typical amount of black text and some emboldened graphics and headings, including the acquisition cost of the printer (usually a top end HP model), running costs, power, paper, toner etc. I know nobody will believe this (certainly none of my Civil Service colleagues did including the Head of Department with the result that no effective reductions were achieved), but my calculations, which were subsequently verified by some of my suppliers, was 7 pence per side of A4 (UK) or about 14 cents (US). I don't know how many sides are bound into the Encyclopaedia Brittanica but that information I have given might be a useful starting point for you. Also, it may be useful to note that the toner and photocopier/printer suppliers I consulted during the foregoing exercise told me "in confidence" that the trade name for Black Toner is BLACK GOLD. And the paper suppliers I consulted on the effects on paper consumption of the exponential production of electronic media answered my query about when to expect the arrival of the Paperless Office as being about 2 weeks after the paperless toilet. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 81.145.242.73 (talk) 19:28, 29 January 2007 (UTC).

There would be no simple way to determine the cost...as mentioned above, it depends largely on variables. Paper quality, ink used, font size (affecting number of printed sheets), so on and so forth. It would be impossible for someone to provide you with a definite cost. However, it is not that expensive nowadays to print in large quantities, so the price wouldn't be significant...but if this DVD set of Britannica would contain all 32 hardcover volumes, that is a serious amount of content you're dealing with there, expect to print a couple thousand sheets. You'd need a lot of paper, at least.

Considering that you're willing to print out the entire Encyclopedia Britannica and have the space for it, why not just buy the normal hardcover set? Save yourself some trouble. --Xertz 03:52, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

Using your own printer would likely be far more expensive than getting it printed at Kinko's or some other professional copy center. The reason is that you are unlikely to have equipment at home meant for this volume. Therefore, you are likely to need to replace ink cartridges several times, constantly refill the paper supply, clear paper jams, and possibly replace the entire printer. All of this could end up costing hundreds of dollars and a great deal of aggravation. In addition, you will have the problem of binding the finished product. A copy center will have equipment to do this, as well. StuRat 12:22, 4 February 2007 (UTC)

internet captioned pictures

Is there a term, academic or not, for the short, punchy picture-with-caption one-liners that get used on message boards a lot? E.G.: "You make kitty scared", etc. 128.113.149.103 06:21, 28 January 2007 (UTC)

I believe they're called image macros. —Ilmari Karonen (talk) 11:03, 28 January 2007 (UTC)

Wow, I never knew that... 68.39.174.238 19:10, 28 January 2007 (UTC)

typewrtier ribbons

Approximately how many words can you type with a brand new typewriter ribbon before needing to replace it? I'm concerned with the typical Smith Corona portable typewriter, 70s-era. Thanks.

this link (http://debarth-fics.com/ribbon%20pages/ribbonsExpalined.htm) shows a little but doesn't seem to confirm an 'average' timescale for them to last. Hope it helps ny156uk 11:42, 28 January 2007 (UTC)

A great site for this sort of question -- though I don't remember seeing typewriter ribbons there -- is how much is inside. —Steve Summit (talk) 15:43, 28 January 2007 (UTC)

"Needing to replace it" is a very subjective matter. A typewriter ribbon doesn't simply "go bad". Instead, the print produced gets fainter over time. A company I used to work for used a dot-matrix printer for a great deal of printing. The ribbon used was similar to a typewriter ribbon, and we'd typically get 10,000 to 20,000 pages before someone would complain about it being too dim to read. --Carnildo 22:41, 29 January 2007 (UTC)

The above is for traditional fabric ribbons; carbon-film ribbons, which produce sharper and blacker letters, are used once only (see at Typewriters#Electric designs) and do run out suddenly. Cartridges with both types of ribbon were available for the Smith-Corona portable typewriter that I bought around 1978. --Anonymous, January 31, 2007, 02:40 (UTC).

The silicon valley of India

I am puzzled regarding the extent of modernisation in the Garden city of Bangalore.. Are there any call girls or escorts out there?? There is a likelihood of moving down to that place in the near future.. How exactly is the atmosphere? Are there any decent escort services?? Kindly advise !! Garb wire 09:35, 28 January 2007 (UTC)

I can't attest to their decency, but this google search turns up plenty of agencies. Have fun, and be safe! Natgoo 10:47, 28 January 2007 (UTC)

GCSE Law

This is an extremely odd question: my 15-year-old son wishes to take a GCSE in Law (an AQA syllabus, taken at the end of June in Britain) and I was wondering if anyone knows: is it possible to study for this over the summer holidays this year - for example, a summer class about it? Thanks--anon

There are a few open learning options - try here and here. If your son wishes to attend classes while undertaking the course it will help us greatly if you tell us where you are. Natgoo 10:45, 28 January 2007 (UTC)

I'm in London, England. Near Wimbledon, but I can travel into central London if necessary.--anon

The only course I could find is this, starting in April in Barking. It's on Friday mornings, though, so school flexibility may be an issue. Of the other courses I found, the minimum was 27 weeks, and most were of one year duration (and one cost £12 000!). I think enrolling in an open learning course is his only real option if he is married to the idea of sitting the exam this year (if the Barking course is unsuitable or full), but that of course depends on his capacity for independent learning. Good luck to both of you! Natgoo 19:21, 29 January 2007 (UTC)

Smoking Ban USA

82.47.26.79 10:59, 28 January 2007 (UTC)Where in the US was the 1st statutory ban on smoking in restaurants

I've not checked the page thoroughly but List of smoking bans in the United States may provide the answer. From a very quick 'scan' the earliest date that 'jumped out' at me was a place in Wisconsin. ny156uk 11:39, 28 January 2007 (UTC)

According to the page, San Luis Obispo, California, had the first ban on smoking in public buildings, in 1990. Marco polo 00:20, 29 January 2007 (UTC)

Oops, I failed to notice that you are specifically asking about restaurants. According to this site, several cities or towns, mainly in California, Illinois, or Massachusetts, enacted restrictions on smoking in restaurants in 1983. this article suggests that these restrictions mandated "no-smoking" areas within restaurants. According to the first source, the first full ban on smoking in restaurants was adopted in 1987 in Beverly Hills, California. Marco polo 02:05, 29 January 2007 (UTC)

Need History of Audio Player and Audio Recorders

I am a post graduate student,developing a software for playing and recording audio files of following audio formats:

      1.Au
      2.Aiff
      3.wav

I am preparing project report for the same.I need some information about history of audio players and recorders.How they were invented,which were initial file formats supported to play and or record.What sort of audio players and recorders are available now.I have searched a lot about it on internet,but could not get any useful information. It will be great if anyone could show some light on this topic.I am doing my part but it will be very useful if any of expert amongst you help me out.

Thanks 219.64.26.242 16:27, 28 January 2007 (UTC)

You did not specify digital audio recorders and players, so see Phonograph which says the first audio recorder, the phonautograph, (which could not play back a recording, but made the waveform visible) was invented in 1857, and the phonograph, which could record and playback sound, was invented in 1877. Edison 23:06, 28 January 2007 (UTC)

How utterly appropriate that Edison answers this. ^_^ V-Man737 10:17, 29 January 2007 (UTC)

I just missed to mention that the player and recorder is digital audio and recorder.I capture data from mike and save it in computer in above specified format.Is there any other information related digital players and recorders? Author of the problem 05:55, 2 February 2007 (UTC)

Phasor diagrams

hello well i have great difficulty in drawing phasor digs of ac circuits and i really need help plz help me!

joy

I'm familiar with phasors but have never heard about digging them... 68.39.174.238 19:11, 28 January 2007 (UTC)

Try phasor; sorry I can't help you further, but my knowledge is very rusty. You'd probably get more assistance at the Science desk. Clarityfiend 19:22, 28 January 2007 (UTC)

If memory serves, a phasor is simply representing a complex impedance with a vector. Draw a complex plane (real/imaginary axes) and plot each element of the circuit on the plane. A resistor has no phase change, so it lies along the real axis. An inductor is purely imaginary and leads by 90 degrees, while a capacitor lags by 90 degrees. Series connections simply add the vectors of the two components, while parallel connections do something different that I don't recall. Eventually you'll get a vector for the equivelant circuit. anonymous6494 13:03, 29 January 2007 (UTC)

home work - what are my views / understanding of the city, the financial centre of uk???

can someone plz help my with my home work... what are my views / understanding of the city, the financial centre of uk???

what does this mean

The City = the City of London, which is not the same as Greater London, for example. Skittle 17:05, 28 January 2007 (UTC)

Specifically, look at The Bank of England, The Old Lady of Threadneedle Street, The London Stock Exchange, and The Financial Times Share Index (FTSE). After reading about those powerhouses of the British Economy, you should be able to present a star project. Good Luck.

Cheats, hints, anything for the game "Drift: When Worlds Collide"?

Any level skipping cheat or anything else would be helpful. Especially how to get past level 10. Thanks! Trying to get past the level today! 71.85.0.61 18:05, 28 January 2007 (UTC)

After digging through this search for a while, I have come to the conclusion that there is only one "cheat," and it's not the greatest in the world at that. Essentially, run the program using DOS and add /debug at the end of the command line; this will give you access to a menu while running the game that, apparently, allows you to jump from level to level. V-Man737 10:25, 29 January 2007 (UTC)

Anyone who has played the game, and knows how to beat level 10 w/o losing wingmen? 'Cause that's really what I'm worried about. 71.85.0.61 23:41, 29 January 2007 (UTC)

Check out this site: Gamewinners.com. I've used it for many years & it has "unstuck" me on numerous occasions. If your game has any hints of cheats, it will be there... :) Spawn Man 05:05, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

Well, I finally got past the level (w/o cheating), but I lost two of my best wingmen. Oh, well. More will come, and I've gone farther now without much trouble. Thanks anyway! 71.85.0.61 13:09 2 February 2007 (ET)

Any hints for future gamers hiking your path? V-Man737 07:03, 3 February 2007 (UTC)

Tell them to work their hardest at destroying the Rocket Turrets on the back underside of the King ship after they destroy the stabilizers. 71.85.0.61 16:31 (ET)

Cooking... too much flour

I'm cooking some chocolate bombes as a surprise for the wife. I have a recipe from a restaurant and it makes 40 of these things. I'm cutting the recipe in half because we don't need 40. So I've been halving the ingredients but I made a mistake with the flour. I looked at the card and forgot about halving it. So is there something that can be done/added to make up for the fact that I doubled the flour? I don't have enough of the other ingredients to just double everything else and make a full batch. Dismas|^(talk) 18:29, 28 January 2007 (UTC)

Well, whatever you do, if you're not using the same ingredients in the same ratios, you're not going to get the same effect. Do you have enough ingredients left that you could quarter the recipe and start again? Or, you could halve your well-mixed mixture-so-far, then add quarter quantities of the other ingredients (not the flour again!) to get the ratios back. If you don't have enough for that, you could quarter your mixture-so-far, and add eighth quantities of the other ingredients. Skittle 18:54, 28 January 2007 (UTC)

Nope. No more vanilla extract to do something like that. I don't think I would have enough brown sugar either. I went ahead with it all the way it was. The first batch is in the oven now. I'll know in about 20 minutes just what happens. Thanks though. Dismas|^(talk) 19:00, 28 January 2007 (UTC)

I'm curious. Please tell us soon, and don't leave us in suspension... 惑乱 分からん 19:25, 28 January 2007 (UTC)

I'm curious too. Personally, if the only problem had been lack of vanilla extract, I wouldn't have worried about it. A little vanilla extract goes a long way in flavour, and doesn't affect the texture. Skittle 19:38, 28 January 2007 (UTC)

I don't even use vanilla extract. Someone here is allergic to vanilla (their eyes and lips puff up something incredibly), so I omit it in every circumstance. Never noticed a difference. Personally, I'm beginning to think it's a scam. --Charlene 04:32, 30 January 2007 (UTC)

Julia Child must have been smiling down on me today! The first batch is out and ever so tasty and delicious and chocolatey and.... They're just the way I remember them being. I'm not sure why though, I thought it would have affected them more. I have to cook them for 12 minutes, turn, then cook for 12 more. I now have batch two in for the second 12 minutes and the third batch in for the first 12. Doing that so I don't have to have the oven running with nothing in it while I take the finished ones out of the pans! I like efficiency. Dismas|^(talk) 19:47, 28 January 2007 (UTC)

You might want to write down the doubling of the flour on your recipe. This is your creation now! In my family, two of the more popular cakes were created by accidents similar to your case, and they've been re-created that exact same way many times since. ---Sluzzelin 21:01, 28 January 2007 (UTC)

Well, I'm going to try the recipe with the correct ratios first to determine if there is an observable difference. If there isn't, I'll go with the smaller amount of flour. Dismas|^(talk) 01:22, 29 January 2007 (UTC)

I'd do just the opposite. Since flour in one of the most healthy ingredients and likely the least expensive ingredient (except salt, perhaps ?), you should use as much of it as possible. If it tastes the same, try to maximize the cheap, healthy portion and reduce the expensive, unhealthy portion. StuRat 12:10, 4 February 2007 (UTC)

Shower Curtain

I had asked a question about why the Shower curtain leans in during a shower about a year ago, however, I have a follow up question to that. Why does it lean in More if i push it out?— Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.210.84.217 (talk • contribs)

Perhaps because this increases the air space at the bottom, allowing more air to flow in and thus increase the updraught.--Shantavira 20:55, 28 January 2007 (UTC)

Before speculating further, definitely read The Straight Dope on this question. (I don't think it specifically addresses this followup question, though. OP: what is your followup question? Are you saying that the curtain bulges inward, and when you try to push it outward, the part you're not pushing bulges more?) —Steve Summit (talk) 21:07, 28 January 2007 (UTC)

Bernoulli's principle according to New Scientist --Tagishsimon (talk)

Hand walking

I can't seem to find official (or unofficial) records of hand walking (walking on one's hands). Does anyone know of where they can be found? (Such as farthest distance walked on hands, longest time, etc.) Thanks for your help. --Proficient 20:58, 28 January 2007 (UTC)

For longest distance, Johann Hurlinger's (probably unverifiable) feat of traversing 870 miles from Vienna to Paris on his hands sounds pretty impressive and (remembering my 1970s edition) was at least mentioned in the Guinness Book of Records. But I found nothing else, except for colleges having "hand walking" races. I tried searching the Guinness Book's website, but they only show a small selection, and under Marathon Efforts, I only found things such as Pogo Stick Jumping, Greatest Distance Walked With a Milk Bottle Balanced on the Head, and Longest Lawn Mower Ride. As far as I can tell, your best bet is a recent hardcopy version of the Guinness Book. ---Sluzzelin 21:57, 28 January 2007 (UTC)

Thanks for your help. I'll see if I can get ahold of one. --Proficient 23:31, 28 January 2007 (UTC)

Yeah, I've noticed myself that the website for Guinness World Records is miniscule and disappointing. I hope it eventually fills in with the gooey goodness that the book was for me. V-Man737 10:27, 29 January 2007 (UTC)

Same here, but probably wont happen, they'd rather sell more books than put everything on the site. Cyraan 20:43, 29 January 2007 (UTC)

Adium

I have the program Adium for instant messaging and am womdering if anyone knows about it. I am stuck because I can't manage two accounts at the same time. Please tell me what I need to do, thanks.

You might try this page about creating accounts. If that doesn't work, keep in mind Adium is for managing many accounts on different programs through one central program. - AMP'd 23:13, 28 January 2007 (UTC)

What island did Dole buy?

I am doing a history project about Hawaii. At one point, the teacher mentioned that the Dole Food Company was so rich, it bought an island (from Hawaii). He didn't mention which one. I think I saw which island it was somewhere, but I don't remember where. I need an answer soon, as in an hour. Please help! 70.104.163.93 23:34, 28 January 2007 (UTC)

It was the island of Lanai, which was bought in 1922. Clio the Muse 23:44, 28 January 2007 (UTC)

And to think I had looked at that one too... I knew it started with L... Thank you so much!!!!!! You aren't a muse, you're a genius! 70.104.163.93 23:52, 28 January 2007 (UTC)

Well, thank you! Clio the Muse 00:02, 29 January 2007 (UTC)

But to clarify, even though Dole bought the land on the island, it was still a part of the territory (now state) of Hawaii. StuRat 12:03, 4 February 2007 (UTC)

Can I fix an article's name if I spell it wrong?

Lets say I create an article, and with out realizing it forget to capitalize a word or two in the name. Is there a way to fix it. Manitowoc lutheran high school this is what I'm talking about--ChesterMarcol 23:57, 28 January 2007 (UTC)

• never mind I fixed it, I'm a genius.

jobs

What is the highest paying job

• software company founder.--ChesterMarcol 00:03, 29 January 2007 (UTC)

Specifically: microsoft founder. Go back and time, kill bill gates, and steal his code. And hope he's not your grandfather. --froth^T 06:18, 29 January 2007 (UTC)

Naaah, not even close. He makes less than a million dollars in salary and bonuses. But I understand he has a nice nest egg. All i-know for certain is that the highest paid Jobs is not Steve ($1 in 2005). Clarityfiend 08:14, 29 January 2007 (UTC)

Indeed, also, alot of Bill Gates' reported worth is liquid, and mostly in M$ stock, it goes up and down by insane numbers daily. If the share price were to plummet, he would still be set for life, but not worth nearly as much. Cyraan 20:42, 29 January 2007 (UTC)

• I'd say the Queen Elizabeth makes quite a bit of money... - Mgm|^(talk) 08:30, 29 January 2007 (UTC)

Counterfeit tycoon or global warmer − Twas Now ( talk • contribs • e-mail ) 11:00, 29 January 2007 (UTC)

Aha! I found this [4]. It's far from complete, but George Lucas weighs in at $250 million (May the dollars be with you), so movie director/producer seems like a good candidate. Maybe there's a dictator or Arab sheik out there making more, but I doubt their compensation would be categorized as a salary. Clarityfiend 16:56, 29 January 2007 (UTC)

In simple terms some of the highest 'salary' jobs are those on the board of directors or a large firm. You could be on the board of several companies and make money that way. Also if you found a company that is a good way to make money (Walmart, Microsoft, Ikea all made their founders very wealthy). Media and arts range from terrible pay to really good pay (sports stars/actors get paid very well but low-popularity sports/small-time actors get paid very little). Stock-market investors can make a fortune, people like Warren Buffet have accumulated an unbelieveable amount of money. Royalty (like the Queen of England) don't make very much anymore, I think the Queen ranked out of the top 20 in the latest British-richlist. Business is the way to make money though, and information technology is one of the sectors with the most 'prominent' rich men (and most of the 'super rich' are men for now). ny156uk

Technically, the Queen isn't paid at all. She has a personal fortune inherited from her father and a large sum of money voted from the Civil List to cover her expenses as Head of State, but she isn't actually paid a salary. -- Necrothesp 00:36, 30 January 2007 (UTC)

warm material on inside of jacket is never in the sleeves

Whay does every jacket with warm material on the inside never add that same material to the inside of the sleeves? On the inside of the sleeves is always something that feels like nylon. How can that possibly be desirable?Iownatv 23:59, 28 January 2007 (UTC)

Having nylon in the sleeves makes it much easier for you to get your arms out without turning the sleeves inside out. Dismas|^(talk) 01:12, 29 January 2007 (UTC)

The nylon isn't as warm - but primarily it's the body (torso) that needs to be kept warm - hence the difference (think bodywarmers). For truly winter coats of course the sleeves are insulated too.87.102.4.142 13:43, 29 January 2007 (UTC)

I have a jacket with a warm lining which extends down the sleeves. While it's nice and warm, it does snag on my sleeves and tend to roll them up as I put the coat on. Warofdreams talk 02:17, 30 January 2007 (UTC)

There is a simple solution, they can insulate the sleeves and also put a layer of nylon on the inside of the insulation, to reduce friction. StuRat 12:00, 4 February 2007 (UTC)

Charlemagne's lasting impact on France

What lasting effects did Charlemagne have on France?

Read over the page on Charlemagne for an overview of his political achievements. It was he, it might be said, who began the process that led to the creation of the French nation. Clio the Muse 00:20, 29 January 2007 (UTC)

Qui a eu cette idée folle / un jour d'inventer l'école ? / c'est ce sacré Charlemagne ... sings France Gall.

(Whoever that foolish design hath / a school for poo' children ? / Bloody Charlie!) -- DLL ^{.. T} 19:14, 29 January 2007 (UTC)

January 29

Editing a Page

How do I edit a page and put a table of contents in it and put sidebars in and all that stuff?

A table of contents will automatically be generated once there are four sections to the article. See WP:TOC for more on that. The sidebars you're probably referring to are known as templates. There are many templates that can be used depending on what kind of article that you're working on. I suggest that you start with the help pages at Wikipedia:Help. And for further questions regarding the editing of articles, the Help desk is for questions about Wikipedia itself. This Reference desk is normally for questions about things outside of Wikipedia. Dismas|^(talk) 03:15, 29 January 2007 (UTC)

How do I delete a page?

How do I delete a page I already created? also, how do I rename a page title?

In order to delete a page, you can put "{{db-author}}" at the top of it if you are the only person who has made edits to the article in question. To rename a page, you would have to move it to the correct name. See WP:MOVE for more on that. For general help information, please see WP:HELP. And for future questions about editing Wikipedia, the Help desk is the best place to go. This Reference desk is normally for things that are outside of Wikipedia itself. Dismas|^(talk) 03:19, 29 January 2007 (UTC)

Wikipedia stuff

http://newsbiscuit.com/article/judge-directs-scary-obsessive-towards-wikipedia

Always a happy place! Wikipedia. --hello, i'm a member | talk to me! 00:39, 29 January 2007 (UTC)

Thanks for that... Now I'm wondering what that says about me... But did you have a question? Dismas|^(talk) 01:19, 29 January 2007 (UTC)

If your question was about the accuracy of that article, let me reassure you that the source is not a real newspaper but a parody news site. No scary obsessives have been sentenced by a judge to edit Wikipedia. All our scary obsessives are volunteers. -FisherQueen (Talk) 01:52, 29 January 2007 (UTC)

Yeah, I didn't notice that the first time, because the article wasn't really very funny, or particularly hard to believe. But then I noticed a link in the sidebar to an article on how Blair was going to make the Iraq war "carbon neutral". --Trovatore 07:26, 29 January 2007 (UTC)

It was the 'Pensioner admits they didn't have it better in his day' that clued me in, and the 'Jade Goody to be hanged in Iraq' that cinched it. Anchoress 07:47, 29 January 2007 (UTC)

OK the really funny thing about this is that I had a stalker who was almost exactly like the Carl Petersson of the article. Apparently my stalker has a Masters in Elizabethan playwrights or something, I should direct him here. Anchoress 06:46, 29 January 2007 (UTC)

"it’s hard to know which of the many people on the Star Wars discussion board are actually female." Awesome. V-Man737 10:32, 29 January 2007 (UTC)

In future, might I suggest the WP:Village Pump as the place for this sort of thing? Or possibly the refdesk talk page, if you specifically wanted to point this out to the refdesk community? Not wanting to be a killjoy, but it makes it easier to keep other off-topic discussions off this page if we keep them all off. Kind of like a bar asking that nobody wear a hat. Skittle 16:10, 29 January 2007 (UTC)

Mexico City

Hi, guys. I will be leaving at the end of this week for Mexico City, my first visit there, where I will be spending the best part of February. I would be grateful for any inside information any of you may be able to supply-where are the hot spots, cold spots, places to go and places to avoid? Some information on good restaurants and the night life would be a help. I will be staying in the Zona Rosa, if that's any help, though will obviously go wherever necessary. Also, I will be travelling out from a wintery London, and was hoping to get away with my summer clothes, but I understand the Mexican nights can be quite chilly. Should I take a coat? All advice gratefully received. Clio the Muse 01:59, 29 January 2007 (UTC)

I've had some delightful vacations in Mexico City in February. It is cool at night and in the morning. Not as cool, though, as London in February. (Typically, around 8 C at the first light of dawn, but between 10 C and 15 C by the time most tourists venture out.) When I have gone, I have brought a spring/autumn jacket, and that has been sufficient. You might also bring a sweater so that you can double up (sweater plus jacket) if it is unusually cold and/or for your trip to and from Heathrow (or Gatwick). On the other hand, it is often quite warm, or even hot (around 25 C) during the afternoon, and the sun is typically scorching because of the altitude and latitude. Unless you have very dark skin, bring sun screen, as it may not be available or may be overpriced in Mexico .

I assume that you have a guidebook and know not to carry valuables, especially not on the subway/underground, and to sit in cars that are full but not too full, with your purse or backpack firmly closed or tied shut and in front of you where you can see it. Also, avoid the ubiquitous VW bug taxis, some of which are driven by armed robbers. If you want to take a cab, call a (more expensive but safer) radio taxi, or hire a cab at one of the cab stands for the regulated and safer cabs. A Lonely Planet Guide will give the latest tips on safety.

For transport, I had good experiences with both the metro/subway/underground and the peseros, or minibuses, which are a good way to reach places not near a metro stop. If you speak a little Spanish and have a sense of directions, just stand on the side of the major street running in the direction you want to go at a pesero stop and ask people how to get where you want to go. People will tell you which one to take, and if you need to transfer.

I strongly recommend the National Museum of Archaeology. Also, don't miss Diego Rivera's murals in the Palacio Nacional. To me, the most enjoyable neighborhood is Coyoacán, particularly Plaza Hidalgo, with its street musicians, Frida Kahlo museum, people watching, good restaurants, and generally wonderful atmosphere.

Also, you absolutely must make the excursion to Teotihuacán. It is really spectacular, particularly the climb to the top of the Temple of the Sun. I recommend taking the public bus from the main Norte bus station (accessible by metro) instead of the overpriced turista coaches that charge ten times as much for the same trip and insulate you from interacting with locals.

¡Buen viaje! Marco polo 02:32, 29 January 2007 (UTC)

Also, if you expect an area to be rather slummy, by all means avoid it. Mexico's drug trade is getting dangerous, so watch out, and have a fun time. ;-) The velociraptor 03:52, 29 January 2007 (UTC)

Great response, Marco Polo. You make me want to go there! Anchoress 06:36, 29 January 2007 (UTC)

Here's WikiTravel's article on Mexico City[5]. Vranak

www.tripadvisor.com is a very good site for people's recommendations of places to stay, places to go and attractions etc (http://www.tripadvisor.com/Tourism-g150768-Mexico-Vacations.html) is a Mexico page result. ny156uk 17:15, 29 January 2007 (UTC)

Thank you, one and all. This is very much appreciated. Clio the Muse 19:07, 29 January 2007 (UTC)

A couple other points. I'm sorry that I did not mention restaurants or night spots. My last trip there was three years ago, such places tend not to be "in" for very long, and to be honest, I don't remember names of places I went. But I found them in a guidebook, and I remember that several of the meals were wonderful. Also, I have one more tip, regarding Xochimilco. The standard thing for tourists to do in Xochimilco is to take a trajinera (covered boat) from the Xochimilco village landing, typically with a mariachi band on board, and travel a very short distance through a canal filled with other trajineras and tourists and mariachi bands. You will embark briefly on an island filled with stands selling cheap souvenirs. This excursion has some campy, festive appeal, I suppose, but when I visit a foreign city, I want to experience an environment that does not revolve around tourists. I was much more satisfied with an excursion in a trajinera through the Parque Ecológico de Xochimilco, 1-2 km to the north of Xochimilco village along the Anillo Periferico Oriente. Here is a link. Some sources say that these trajineras travel only on weekends, but we went on a weekday and had a trajinera and the whole park to ourselves. You will see how chinampas, the basis of Aztec agriculture, are built and maintained, and you will travel along beautiful and very peaceful waterways that are a welcome break from the noise and frenzy that is Mexico City. Marco polo 19:23, 29 January 2007 (UTC)

TigerDirect.com

Does anyone one happen to know the location of any tigerdirect.com warehouses in the northeast. I have checked their website and it tells only about the retailers Naperville, IL warehouse, however it also said it has a couple other distribution centers but does not specify their location. Any help would be nice.--Biggie 02:55, 29 January 2007 (UTC)

Do you really want to deal with this company? I checked out the last external link in the Tiger Direct article - lots of customer complaints. Clarityfiend 06:01, 29 January 2007 (UTC)

I have already bought a computer from them i believe that most customers complaints have been coming from the companies small gadgets.--Biggie 08:48, 29 January 2007 (UTC)

Actually, a large percentage of their customer complaints have to do with problems encountered when buying computers and other large items. After I figure in shipping, convenience, wait time, customer service, and the like, I always end up buying locally. Saving $20 isn't worth it if I have to spend 3 hours on the phone waiting for assistance. --Charlene 04:27, 30 January 2007 (UTC)

Best Place to Buy a Used Car in Europe

I am going to live in Europe for the summer and wish to buy a cheap used car for that time. Which West European country is the best to buy such a used vehicle in?

• The country you're going to stay. Getting a car across the border involves too many fickle rules. - Mgm|^(talk) 08:28, 29 January 2007 (UTC)

Check that you will be allowed to buy a car without an EU residency. If you can, and insure it properly, there will then be no problem crossing borders. But you will have to re-sell it in the country of purchase. Fiddly isn't it!90.4.253.79 16:37, 29 January 2007 (UTC)petitmichel

Assuming the country itself does not matter, for example, would Greece or Belgium generally be cheaper?

Although life is generally more expensive than in most other European countries, second hand cars in the UK are quite cheap especially for classics and pre 70's cars. Whatever country you want to buy it in just have a look on eBay on each national website (it's not that hard to find your way to the Dutch or Polish Motor eBay) you can compare prices and chances are that's where you'll find your gem. Anything directly north of the Netherlands will be more expensive than the average. If you decide to start your journey in the country where cars are the cheapest (a criteria like any other i guess) my bet would be on Eastern Europe. I hope you know what to look for when buying a used car though since not speaking the local language might not play in your favor in the transaction. Good luck if you need any. 87.64.176.170 01:56, 30 January 2007 (UTC)

Anything directly north of the Netherlands will be more expensive than the average.? That may have something to do with the fact that cars don't run very well in the North Sea. - Mgm|^(talk) 10:02, 30 January 2007 (UTC)

Right I meant Germany. [6] 81.243.179.62 12:34, 30 January 2007 (UTC)

Time shown in every Clock

Why is the time shown in every clock around the world, as an advertisement is, always 10 past 10.

Most people say that it's so that the hands don't cover the clock maker's name and logo on the clock face. We used to have an article about it at 10:08 but last I looked, it was deleted. I believe there's still info about it at http://www.straightdope.com/ though. Dismas|^(talk) 09:27, 29 January 2007 (UTC)

Yep, here ya go... http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a2_330.html Dismas|^(talk)

Amazing - this is the third or fourth time this question has come up on the Ref Desk in recent months, the most recent being here. The way I see it, the frequency of its appearance is an argument for the reinstatement of the article, its lack of verifiable facts notwithstanding. Guess that makes me an inclusionist. Ah well. --Richardrj ^{talk email} 10:26, 29 January 2007 (UTC)

I thought the same thing but didn't say it. I know I've seen it asked her at least twice since that article was deleted. Dismas|^(talk) 11:42, 29 January 2007 (UTC)

Putting a bit of my Goo Fu to work, I did come up a definative answer here with links to RS quoting Timex. So go for it. PS - "frame the maker's name" is a nice reason along with symmetry. --Justanother 14:51, 29 January 2007 (UTC)

Ten past ten is also a Happy Face.90.4.253.79 16:38, 29 January 2007 (UTC)petitmichel

seeking love advice (long)

Now come to the other side of the story. The vital part of my life. My college life was going fine. There were many friends of mine. They like me, most of the teachers knew me by my name i.e. a great achievement for a student. Even the non teaching staff means the higher authority also know me by my name.

During college life Snigdho and Anand regularly come to my house. To meet with me, to talk and discuss the problems of college work.

During January we were having our college annual function so I was busy in preparing for one of my play which I had written. I was directing the story. The teachers liked the story and allow me to go ahead. During the rehearsal period I met with many students from 2nd and 3rd year.(I was in the first year). I make friendship with them. I was a great experience working with the seniors. I was becoming hero because I was a student of multicharacter(I play cricket and that year we won the college trophy, I direct a story which is written by me, and I also know playing mouth organ, and last but not l least I was a good student) these characters had impress many 2nd and 3rd year student

After the function bad patch of my life start. I failed to make a position in the college during my final exam. I don’t know but something happened to me and it changed my life.

It was mid april(I think so) I was getting attracted to an another girl. But the problem was that she was already engage. I don’t know why it happened, that girl was already engage and still I was getting attracted to her.(actually I was getting attracted from the very first day) Gradually days passed and I was becoming closer to her(the second one). She is a good friend of mine. I was getting interested in her. During that period I came to know her life story. She was beautiful gorgeous and I think that her strong determination has impress me. She is very simple. I was very much confused because I don’t know which one I will opt( the first one or the second one). I left it for god. Let god will decide which one he chooses for me. It was really confusing for me because I don’t know which one is true and which one is just an attraction. But gradually I was getting closer to the second one. I think that god has chooses second one for me. But the main problem arises here that I cant told her that I love her, because I was a good friend and I fear that If I told her about my feelings I may lost the friendship. We spend good time in talking and knowing each other. She is very warm hearted, any one can make friend with her. She is very fine. She can believe any one very easily that’s why she was betrayed many times by her friends. What I know is that we have to believe on persons because there is no other way to live in this world but we have to identify them that whether he is correct or not in a very small span of time. Because if we take time in identifying good or bad then the relation may slipped out from our hand.

(Zindagi ko sahi tarike se jee lena chahiye or who bhi bahut kam samay par kya pata kal ho na ho! Aur sahi galat ka faisla humse nahi hota hai to phir use bhagwan par chhor dena chahiye. Sab kuch uski iccha ke anusar hota hai).

I love her very much. Still I m saying that she is very good friend of mine but now the friendship has grown so much that I cant live without her. Few days before according to me the definition of love is : love is a feeling which stars from our eyes born from heart and ends with life. But now I feel that love is beyond life it doesn’t ends with life. If this is true love then I will find her in my next birth and I m sure she will be mine. I have heard from many sources that true love never succeed but I will prove it false and I will wait for the time being come. I loved her so much that I can leave her for her happiness. And if such time come that I have to leave her for her happiness then I pray to god that from that day “I don’t want to live any more you just take me away”. I don’t know whether she love me or not but I will love her forever. I will wait for her. (Yeh kasak dil ki dil mein chuppi rehe gayi , Zindagi mein tumhari kami rahe gayi. Ek main ek tum ek deewar thi , Zindagi aadhi aadhi bati rehe gayi Zindagi mein tumhari kami rehe gayi. Maine roka nai who chala bhi gaya, bebasi door tak dekhti rehe gayi, zindagi mein…. )

Oh! God I can’t live without her so please tell me what should I do? Now I m feeling very upset. In my life I have never been so upset. I m fed up with this college life. I m not getting interested in anything. This year I didn’t participated in any sports, I didn’t participate in any function. I was mentally very strong, during my school days whatever the decision I have taken for myself is my final decision and no one can change it even my friends, but she is the only person to whom I cant refuse her, whether it is correct or not.

I m very optimistic but in her case I always fear of loosing her.

Oh god please helps me, please, please, please help me. I m loosing everything, my personality, my carrier, my ruling nature, everything. If any one told me which one will u opt first, carrier or _____ , then I will say carrier but think, a person has a good carrier and then he comes to know that he has no heart in his body. A person with out a heart is meaningless, so she is my heart. I can feel her every time; every time she breathes I can feel her. When she will stop breathe, my breath will also stop.

Today I m feeling so upset that I feel she Is not made for me. So I have taken a decision. I will leave everything. Means to sever all the relations with my friends. But how do I tell “her” to cut off all the relations from me, because I have promised her that I will not let her disappointed from my side. Then how it is possible. When I tell her to sever the relation then she will ask me the reason, which I can’t tell her. I think I have to take help of anand or snigdho. I will tell them that “you go to her and tell that I m very bad, I have many relations with other girls, I m not less than a criminal, friendship is just a joke for me, I m a play boy, etc like that”. At least for my carrier and my, parents who r expecting a lot from me.

I don’t know how much I m going to live. Because I have told earlier that a man without a heart is meaningless and she is my heart. So after departing from her I don’t think that I will be able to live more. I love her so much that I can’t express it in my words. I will always love her and I will love her after my life ends. She is everything for me.

One day I think that I have to leave everything and I have to stop talking to her. So I didn’t talk to her one day, but next day I cant stop myself and I talk to her. So tell me how this is possible to leave her. I m unable to think anything except her. She is my life, I love her, I love her a lot, I love her , I love her, I love her so much that I ……………. No words to express love. Actually it is a feeling which generate in us automatically. Suppose there is a both sided love (true love) then it is not necessary to express the love, it will automatically come out. Both the partner will understand the feelings of each other. Love is not to be done it happens, so tell me what can I do if I m in love and the other one is not accepting me? It is not my fault. Whatever is going is due to the almighty god. Oh god please help me. Please, please, please help me. I m very much confused. Show me the way

Tell me what should I do?

I am afraid that the Wikipedia reference desk is not a good place to seek relationship advice. Unless I am mistaken, none of the editors has the necessary psychological expertise. That said, based on some years of experience, I would say the following: 1) Although you are in pain, it will pass. The pain of frustrated love requires time to heal. If you move on, the pain will subside, over months. 2) Do not abandon your friendships. They are important to helping you move on and to your mental health. 3) Focus on something else. It sounds as if you are young and considering a career. That might be a good place to refocus your energy. 4) If you are in love with, or attracted to, someone who is not available, it is probably best to avoid contact with that person until your feelings subside, since seeing that person will only renew your anguish. Marco polo 15:36, 29 January 2007 (UTC)

It's also very difficult for us to help you because I think you are from India, while most of the people who answer questions here are from Western countries where customs surrounding love and relationships are perhaps different in some ways. However, I would like to make the following suggestion as something you might think about. Why don't you tell one of your friends - Anand or Snigdho - what is bothering you? One of them can maybe explain to the girl you love what the real reason is you cannot see her anymore - and they can almost certainly give you better advice than we can. Skarioffszky 16:10, 29 January 2007 (UTC)

It may not seem like a good idea but i actually come on here for advice like this. It is sometimes better to get a wide variety of people trying to help you than ppl who think roughly the same like many friends do. I can tell you I am close to your age or at least seem to be and i just went through a rough patch like this. i learned that from what I am doing right now ithurts a lot but it is always better to be honest. i hate it as well and iknow that as you are reading this is does not sound very nice to you either. But trust me..it always pans out better the more you are honest. I am forcing myself to stay at a distance from the person I love right now until this all passes. i suggest that you might do the same. Time can heal this. it hurts everyday but it begins to hurt less and less with each passing day. I have learned at least that much. Come to grips with reality..what you CAN have and what you CANT. You seem really confused but just remember..youre not the only one. We have all been through something and trust me..you will take something out of this. Just keep holding on.--Kittycat rox 19:37, 29 January 2007 (UTC)

We cannot give relationship advice or do counseling here because we do not have the qualifications and because typing things into a computer is impersnal. Speak to your doctor or a counselor at your school if your feelings for someone are causing this much distress. A caring friend or friends may be able to help direct you to sources of good advice. Do not take any drastic or irreversible actions until you have sought out counseling. Edison 22:59, 29 January 2007 (UTC)

Wait, is the one you're in love with the engaged one? If so, you're just going to have to cut off relations. If not, just marry her already --froth^T 05:44, 5 February 2007 (UTC)

Help me find an old football club

I am trying to trace an old football team in particular, one from what would have been Cheshire. The time period is c1890 and the team I am interested in is called Temple Rovers. They are from Birkenhead, now on the Wirral, but back then, it would have been Cheshire. Maybe they were just a sunday league or maybe they were a works team. In fact I know very little about them.

Any information about them would be greatfully received. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 88.110.173.24 (talk) 14:58, 29 January 2007 (UTC).

I suppose this is a football (soccer) club in Great Britain? 惑乱 分からん 15:11, 29 January 2007 (UTC)

Yes, it is. Marco polo 15:28, 29 January 2007 (UTC)

Assuming that you have done a Google search and turned up nothing, you are unlikely to find any information online for something so old and local. Your best bet would be to contact a local library in the hopes that they have microfiches or crumbling paper copies of "popular" (cheap) local newspapers from your time period in which the team might be mentioned. Or, local histories might just mention the team. Another route could be to visit old-age homes and ask if any of the oldest local residents (90s or older) remember their fathers or grandfathers having mentioned the team. Marco polo 16:57, 29 January 2007 (UTC)

Is there any chance that this might be a nickname for Tranmere Rovers F.C.? Back then, they played at a ground which although named Prenton Park was based on Temple Road in Birkenhead. Warofdreams talk 02:13, 30 January 2007 (UTC)

Anniversary of Thomas Paine's Birthday 1.29.1737

Can you tell me please how I could ask that Thomas Paine's Birthday, celebrated around the world, could be listed in the Anniversary section? He is the unsung hero of both the American and French revolutions, confidante of Ben Franklin. His writings and beliefs formed the skeleton of the Declaration of Independance. As the unknown true Father of the United States of America; should not this native Britain be included in your Anniversary section?

My Best,

Katy Kleinhans Houston, Texas [Email removed]

Hi there. Mr. Paine's birthday is included in our full list of events for this date, found in the January 29 article. To learn more about the process for selecting which events go on the Main Page each day, see Wikipedia:Selected anniversaries. -- SCZenz 16:45, 29 January 2007 (UTC)

Oh, and if you're interested, the usual term for someone from Great Britain is 'a Briton' :-) Skittle 18:41, 29 January 2007 (UTC)

Apropos Thomas Paine, I just saw La nuit de Varennes on DVD. Nice movie. 惑乱 分からん 22:27, 29 January 2007 (UTC)

"Paine Day" might be quite popular, especially with the S&M crowd. :-) StuRat 11:44, 4 February 2007 (UTC)

Quote from movie or tv show

I can't remember where this quote is from: "If you run away I'll kill your sister."

A quote very much like this appears in The Green Mile (film).

Wild Bill Wharton: You love your sister? You make any noise, you know what happens. I'm gonna kill her instead of you. Understand?

later

John Coffey: He kill them wi' their love. Wi' their love fo' each other. That's how it is, every day, all over the world.

Atlant 17:38, 29 January 2007 (UTC)

Improving the quality of my voice

I have made a brief recording of myself and uploaded it to . I would interested if anyone could give me any advice on improving my voice, both in terms of timbre and sound (e.g. richness and pitch) and in terms of clarity (apart from the obvious 'slow down'). Examples of what I consider to be 'good' voices include those of Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellan and Christopher Lee (I realise that they are all actors and that they have been properly trained and I have not). If it helps, I am a 14 year old male with a Northern UK accent (in my opinion, better than the south UK accent). Thanks for any advice. --Catalyst2007 18:18, 29 January 2007 (UTC)

I'd say you're still young enough to go the same path as the three guys you mentioned - train your voice. --Ouro 21:12, 29 January 2007 (UTC)

It's fundamentally no different from improving your golf swing. If, when you speak, it comes out sounding a bit flat, say it again. Clearing your throat or having a glass of water may help. Vranak

Well but it does help if you have someone look at your technique, if you train incorrectly you can actually do more harm then good to your technique. Ask at your school if there is any voice or vocal training. If not, look up vocal training online and start taking it seriously, if you keep at it for more then a few months maybe you can convince your parents to find you a tutor, if you get bored with it then it's probably not that important to you. Vespine 21:39, 29 January 2007 (UTC)

Definately worth getting some actual advice. For example, clearing your throat in the wrong way can damage your vocal chords. Skittle 22:19, 29 January 2007 (UTC)

Thanks for the advice everyone. I don't think I'll bother with a proper tutor or course, I was just wondering if there were any quick and easy ways to make my voice sound that little bit better. Talk to you later (did you see what I did there?). --Catalyst2007 22:21, 29 January 2007 (UTC)

I would suggest trying to increase your awareness of what you are doing when speaking. Who you are speaking to? What message are you trying to convey? Are you saying it in a convincing manner, with emphasis on the right words? The recording gave me the impression of someone mumbling in a microphone, with no particular purpose, and I had to play it twice to catch what you were saying at the end of the recording. Try recording your voice, while reading something interesting from a book to an imaginary audience that you are trying to fascinate. To increase the sonority of your voice, you might want to learn singing. You might also listen to a recording of someone whose voice you like, and analyze exactly what it is you like. And you might try to imitate the recording. Good luck! --NorwegianBlue ^talk 22:21, 29 January 2007 (UTC)

Whoa! That's a shed load of really good information that I hadn't even thought about there. Thanks very much. I must try that. --80.229.152.246 22:36, 29 January 2007 (UTC)

Demosthenes trained himself to speak well with stones in his mouth. WARNING don't blame me if you choke. meltBanana 23:08, 29 January 2007 (UTC)

A good microphone, Voice-over or radio voice may be very different from a good speaking voice, and what sounds good on tape might well seem artificial, affected, and forced if you spoke casually in person to someone in the same way. I think of Ted Baxter, ham TV personality on a fictional news program on the old Mary Tyler Moore TV show, or Gary Owens on the Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In TV show. With a voice recording, the visual cues are absent, so the voice may be forced to be unnaturally smiling, stern, or pompous. A video recorder would be a bit better, but it might still seem like a public personna which was developed, and an artificial or phony effect might be developed. I expect that a salesman, preacher, or politician, might develop such a public personna or image. Be aware that every one I know when they first heard themselves on tape, said "I don't really sound like that do I?" A voice coach of some type might be able to advise you. Margaret Thatcher reportedly altered her regional accent to be more accceptable nationally in her political career, so perhaps that is something a voice coach could address. It is possible to sound more mature through voice training. Police and military leaders work at developing a "command voice." People acting on the stage learn to enunciate and to project. You could learn to speak with received pronunciation whan you wanted and turn it off when you didn't, although that article says it is losing favor today. It all depends on what you wish to achieve. Edison 23:06, 29 January 2007 (UTC)

My voice teacher advised his students to drink some citrus juice (lemon, orange, grapefruit, etc.) every morning to get rid of phlegm, among other things. V-Man737 00:58, 30 January 2007 (UTC)

• Singing may help with breath control ,projection and phrasing,get out there on the old karaoke nights.Otherwise a local amature dramatic group.hotclaws**== 02:53, 30 January 2007 (UTC)

How is love and relationships treated in the west

To what extent do western movies portray the extent of realism about the Western Love life and culture?

Where is the limit drawn?

What exactly is the purpose behind the American Dreams?

Garb wire 19:30, 29 January 2007 (UTC)

Western movies vary. Some are reasonably realistic; some are not. They tend to idealize romance in a way that is not realistic. Real relationships are more complicated than most movie relationships. I'm not sure where you are from, but I'm not sure that most Western movies are more realistic than, say, Bollywood movies.

As for your other questions, I'm not sure what either of them is asking. Which limit do you mean? Which "American Dreams" are you referring to? Marco polo 20:17, 29 January 2007 (UTC)

What you have to understand is that the movie business in the west is exactly that, it is preliminarily a BUSINESS. Therefore, the movies that tend to get made are movies that "movie producers" think will get people into the cinemas. It's not about making documentaries about love life and culture, it's not even about making realistic portrayals of them, it's about making movies that people will buy tickets to see, which actually tends to be the opposite, unrealistic movies with fantastic plots and over the top characters. But that's what it is about and few people are under any other impression. Asking Hollywood to make realistic movies would be like asking McDonalds to make a home cooked meal. Some indy movies like Sideways get made, which are critically acclaimed for portraying real characters and settings, people with flaws and relationships that don't work out, but they tend to be the minority. Vespine 21:32, 29 January 2007 (UTC)

Nah Hollywood has been responsible for many wonderful 'real' movies, indeed many are based on real-life. What 'gets people to buy tickets' varies from group to group. The biggest movies of history are some of the most critically acclaimed, and vary from outright fantasy-stories like Forrest Gump to dramatic portrayals of a real-life story The Pianist. They reflect 'reality' in a different way. They don't reflect exact reenactments of what happened, but they reflect the sentiment, the cultural traits and the shared dreams/desires of many in the west - from meeting someone who understands you, to helping others through difficult times. Relationships are not all plain sailing, but the ups and downs are shown in movies with a focus (for the most part) on the upside winning in the end. The 'American Dream' is usually considered to be anybody being able to make it in America and a spirit of enterprise/can-do attitude. I would say that movies probably show more people having a 'can do' attitude and 'making it' than really do (proportionally), but again it could be seen to reflect a positive outlook on people's ability to alter the outcome of their lives. ny156uk 22:37, 29 January 2007 (UTC)

Torque

How do u add torque to a car? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 68.201.121.120 (talk) 19:31, 29 January 2007 (UTC).

Some thoughts. Bigger engine (or enlarge bore/stroke). Gearing changes; lower gearing (higher numerical) = more torque to the ground and less top end. Smaller diameter tires (same principle as gearing). Mod chips for the electronics. Camshaft change to a "torquer" cam. --Justanother 19:36, 29 January 2007 (UTC)

The article Engine tuning covers many of these techniques. Also as Justanother pointed out, you can change your torque at the wheels with tire or gearing changes, without doing anything to the engine at all. Friday (talk) 21:33, 29 January 2007 (UTC)

Add a turbocharger/supercharger. But as the old saying goes, "there's no substitute for cubic inches."

Atlant 13:01, 30 January 2007 (UTC)

Took me a while to understand that phrase, I was thinking "Of course there is: cubic centimetres." How foolish I feel... Skittle 15:55, 30 January 2007 (UTC)

See also "There's no replacement for displacement". Of course, forced induction techniques like turbos and superchargers let the engine increase its effective displacement, on demand. So the old sayings have become less accurate with advances in engine technology. I just got a new car with a turbo'd fourbanger, and it's got enough torque to be quicker than a lot of v8-powered cars around. Friday (talk) 16:01, 30 January 2007 (UTC)

Turbochargers, though, suffer from turbo lag. Superchargers, being driven directly from the engine (and in direct proportion to engine RPM) suffer much less from this, there being just a brief lag while the intake manifold rises in pressure.

Atlant 17:41, 30 January 2007 (UTC)

Replace the gasoline engine with a diesel, they often have much greater torque, but less horsepower. StuRat 11:35, 4 February 2007 (UTC)

Kellogg School of Management Mailings - These people don't work here any longer - take them off of your list please

Take these people off of your mailing list. They haven't worked here for years. Please let me know who else is on your list.

Ms. Judy Dennis Mr. Malcolm Caraballo Ms. Leah McLean Mr. Ronald N. Buswell Dr. Michael R. Farese PhD Mr. W. Dexter Paine, III Mr. James A. Mravca

Suzy Gorme Admin Specialist III WJ Communications, Inc. 401 River Oaks Parkway San Jose, Ca 95134 408-577-6200 (Spambot Starvation enforced) —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 216.52.19.34 (talk) 21:35, 29 January 2007 (UTC).

Unfortunately, the Wikipedia reference desk is not the Kellogg School of Management. You'd be better off contacting them directly. Splintercellguy 03:14, 30 January 2007 (UTC)

Looking for a quote

Does anyone know who first said "The cure for high prices is high prices." I have been looking for the first person to use this cliche and have found nothing. Menkatopia 21:52, 29 January 2007 (UTC)

My Googlefu didn't bring up anything relevant, too. Only the usual "some economist of old", "a friend of mine" and "as they say...". There was not a single site what literally quoted with reference to whom it quoted from. :( Aetherfukz 22:15, 29 January 2007 (UTC)

That sounds like it is from the Department of Redundancy Department. It would make more sense to say "The cure for scarcity is high prices." Edison 06:14, 30 January 2007 (UTC)

Thanks, my source (a guy at National Corn Growers) said it and I thought it sounded slightly quotable, until EVERYONE I talked to said it, or some form of it. Then an economist at Iowa State said "as a professor of mine used to say..." which got me wondering. Anyway, looks like tired cliche dressed up as insight. Thank you. Menkatopia 16:32, 30 January 2007 (UTC)

Is there an alternative online Reference website to Wikipedia.

I am genuinely so fed up with my own and others' questions and responses placed on the Reference Desks being erased, edited, and/or vandalised that I, and I am sure many other would-be contributors, are increasingly losing interest in Wikipedia, and I wondered if anyone might know of a better site where such ungoverned malpractices are better controlled or prevented. Thanks in utter frustration. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 81.145.242.132 (talk) 23:49, 29 January 2007 (UTC).

There's always Yahoo Answers, but to be honest, it really sucks. --Captain Wikify ^Argh! 00:26, 30 January 2007 (UTC)

Well, this is why we have a wiki, if you don't like it you can try to change it, I'm on your side, but yes, seems like quite a challenge when some people take it upon them selves to be the censoring voice of the ref desk, without much consensus.... Vespine 00:31, 30 January 2007 (UTC)

Really the only questions I've seen erased are loaded ones that have the potential to anger others; as for having your questions vandalised, I'm pretty sure we are all together on not wanting that to happen. If your deleted questions were sincere, you might try rewording them to sound less biased or emotionally charged. V-Man737 01:07, 30 January 2007 (UTC)

A couple of computers ago I had Encarta, which was on a CD, but which had an updated online service as well. It was excellent; professionally written, and largely free of nationalistic pride and absurd culturally-based bias, or political tub-thumping. It had a more neutral point of view than Wikipdia, and was totally free of idiotic vandalism, which hits many Wikipedia articles 6 times a day or so. Edison 06:12, 30 January 2007 (UTC)

There is no shortage of websites where you can ask questions, but I've never found any as comprehensive or tolerant as Wikipedia. Most are heavily moderated, fortunately. For starters, you might like to look at http://www.theanswerbank.co.uk/ --Shantavira 10:15, 30 January 2007 (UTC)

I appreciate all the above suggestions and responses, but why, with apologies if I am wrong, do I get the distinct impression that V-Man is one of the main culprits here? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 81.145.240.104 (talk) 12:14, 30 January 2007 (UTC).

Perhaps it may be because I am the one who removed this comment a couple weeks ago? Your IP address seems to be dynamic, but is from the same area as the poster of the comment that I removed. If you would like to discuss whether it was correct of me to remove it, post on my talk page. V-Man737 21:46, 30 January 2007 (UTC)

Thanks V-Man for having the integrity to own up. I respect that. But I question your motivation and right to so arbitrarily and savagely edit a sincerely held posted belief without, insofar as I am aware, any collaborative discussion or concordat with other Wikipedians. Whether you did so because you see yourself as some missionary zealot in the uniform of an Eagle Scout or Grammar Nazi, I am at a loss to say. But I do say that in circumventing any subsequent discussion surrounding the OP and ALL its responses, you exposed yourself to the horrors of '1984'. I believe also that discussions such as this, stemming as they do from your closeted and blue-stocking actions, should not be discussed as you suggest behind closed doors; but instead, in open forum. Perhaps only then, will my own, and the sympathetic views of other like-minded Wikipedians, gather some collaborative momentum.

Okay; the reason I recommended my talk page is not because it is private (in fact, it is just as public and open to readers as this page is); rather, there are certain guidelines for where certain conversations ought to happen in Wikipedia. Probably a compromise between the two would be the Reference Desk talk page; it is quite frequented by people who often use the reference desk and have questions or comments about it. I can understand why you would feel that my editing of your comment was arbitrary or savage, especially with a lack of consensus regarding it. I assure you that I have no malicious intentions or missionary zeal in the world of the Boy Scouts or the Grammar Reich (I see you've visited my user page!) - I am simply trying to follow and help others follow the guidelines that Wikipedia is based on. Out of curiosity, how much of Wikipedia's guidelines are you familiar with? This would help to determine your personal motivations in your posts, since usually people who are very familiar with the guidelines don't make strong-opinion-oriented comments with good intentions. Also, since your IP address is dynamic (AOL, it seems), this will be a lot easier if you have a user account. They come highly recommended! Let me know where you'd like to take this to discuss to its fullest. ^_^ V-Man737 01:02, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

I agree with the poster that it is inappropriate to change the words of others in a talk page like the Ref Desk (especially without consensus). I believe he was also quite correct in that many of the medieval policies and teachings of the Catholic Church were contrary to the teachings of Jesus. For example, leading religious crusades to conquer those of other religions is certainly not the type of thing Jesus wanted out of his Church. Ironically, the medieval Catholic Church also figuratively "changed the words of Jesus", and I find it just as unacceptable then as it is now. StuRat 11:27, 4 February 2007 (UTC)

Questions

These are going to seem ridiculous, but I'm in the middle of an argument and need a good source.

• True or false: it is illegal in the US to refer to the language we speak as "English"; it must be called "American".
• True or false: the US's military, as it is now, is the most powerful military, ever
• True or false: oral sex is illegal in some parts of the US

It's a long and complex story. My belief is that it goes false-true-false, but there's a few disagreeing. Your thoughts? --Thatswhatisaid 00:08, 30 January 2007 (UTC)

The answer to the first is definitely false. The answer to the second is absolutely impossible to give; what are you comparing it to? "Most powerful" is purely subjective and entirely depends on historical context. According to our article on oral sex, the answer to your third question is false. -- Necrothesp 00:30, 30 January 2007 (UTC)

In absolute terms, the answer to your second question is almost certainly "true." In relative terms, however, I think there are probably a few other claimants... Carom 00:34, 30 January 2007 (UTC)

Thanks very much. --Thatswhatisaid 00:42, 30 January 2007 (UTC)

The first is definitely false.

The second, is probably true, if you just measure how much money they have spent and the fact they spend more then the rest of the entire world combined, I'd say it's true.

The third, is probably true as well, if the oral sex is performed on a goat for example it would be illegal in some parts of the US, and if you include "PUBLIC PLACES" like, say, the library, or the mall, in your definition of "some parts of the US", then yes, oral sex IS illegal in "some parts of the US". :) But generally, two consenting adults can enjoy oral sex in the privacy of their own homes without fear of arrest. Vespine 00:44, 30 January 2007 (UTC)

Yeah, somebody was trying to convince me that there's a law that says all oral sex is illegal and some woman lost her job for not complying. ;) --Thatswhatisaid 00:46, 30 January 2007 (UTC)

There are laws in some areas that ban sex between unmarried partners, and a woman (Debora Hobbs, of Burgaw, NC) was recently let go from her job with the local sheriff's office for living with her boyfriend. Perhaps this is where your story started. --Charlene 04:18, 30 January 2007 (UTC)

A related subject is sodomy which was illegal in a number of states until 2003, when such laws were declared unconstitutional. It should be noted that, although the term "sodomy" is most often used to refer to anal sex, it has also historically been used to to refer to any number of sexual acts, including oral sex.Carom 00:49, 30 January 2007 (UTC)

Not complying? Sounds like she was having sex in her work place. It's no wonder she lost her job. This has nothing to do with whether or not oral sex is generally legal. JackofOz 00:57, 30 January 2007 (UTC)

There was a president who nearly lost their job becuase of an incident involving oral sex;) but that doesn't mean the act it self is illegal. Vespine 01:27, 30 January 2007 (UTC)

All three of those questions could have the principle of the freedom of speech applied to them: First, you can call your language whatever the heck you want. According to the First Amendment, it would be impossible to be legally punished on account of what you call your language (and suddenly all sorts of hilarious proper nouns flood my mind). Second, the main emphasis that the US military has always had is that of upholding basic freedoms, such as the freedom of speech; as opposition to this ideal strengthens, so should the armies that uphold that cause. Third, oral sex can be seen as a freedom of expression (no puns here, please;-) that the government has no business in outlawing. Of course, as mentioned above, there are decency laws that protect people's rights of exposure, especially children. I may have the right to say whatever I want, but that does not mean that you do not have the right to avoid exposure to my words. V-Man737 01:39, 30 January 2007 (UTC)

As for the "strongest military ever", I think the relative scale should be used. Under such a scale, the US military in the late 1940's would have been the strongest, as they were the only military with nuclear weapons at the time and had a large, mostly intact military left over from WW2. Had the US chosen to do so, they could have taken over the world at that time with the threat and occasional use of nuclear weapons. If the Soviet Union, or any number of other countries, had been in the same position, that's probably exactly what they would have done. StuRat 11:10, 4 February 2007 (UTC)

Hamstar

Why does my hamster mostly blink with only one eye at a time? Vitriol 01:05, 30 January 2007 (UTC)

Does it continue to blink with the same one eye over and over again? It might have an eye problem that needs the attention of a vet. I've never noticed a hamster's blinking habits before, so if it is just natural blinking (and not a problem), I don't know. TheSPY 01:54, 30 January 2007 (UTC)

Nah, it seems perfectly OK. The blinked eye seems to change and I think she'd be in more distress than she is if it were an eye problem. Vitriol

I'd say that's probably just how hamsters happen to blink. V-Man737 02:15, 30 January 2007 (UTC)

From a defensive point of view, it makes sense to blink one eye at a time, though I'm not sure why this should apply particularly to tortoises (as noted in the blink article).--Shantavira 10:54, 30 January 2007 (UTC)

He apparently thinks you're up to no good, and has decided he needs to keep one eye on you at all times. :-) StuRat 10:34, 4 February 2007 (UTC)

Coaches in the pros

Are there coaches in pro sports who never played their sport in high school, college or the pros? i say there are. Almost everyone i work with say no. Who is right?

losxray

Eric Mangini, head coach of the New York Jets did not, according to our article, play football professionally or in college, but he did play in high school. This is the best example that I know of in the United States, although it's certainly possible that a coach in another country meets your criteria more exactly. Carom 01:15, 30 January 2007 (UTC)

I've read Notre Dame coach Charlie Weis, who's bound to get an NFL job sooner or later, never played football, although I don't know if they're counting high school. -- Mwalcoff 01:34, 30 January 2007 (UTC)

Your terminology suggests you're only interested in American sports, but the career of Jose Mourinho is quite interesting. Although not as interesting as his press conferences. --Dweller 12:14, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

It's What's For Dinner

Why does beef sometimes emit a smell disturbingly similar to flatulence? V-Man737 01:12, 30 January 2007 (UTC)

So is it your beef that smells like farts, or your farts that smell like beef? Vitriol 01:15, 30 January 2007 (UTC)

Eh, I guess that depends on which came first out of the chicken or the egg. :-P At any rate, the smells are similar and I want an explanation right now so I can go back to happily eating beef. V-Man737 01:21, 30 January 2007 (UTC)

I suspect you're doing something wrong somewhere. Does it taste different? *Please note, even if you answer this question I cannot actually help you in any way.* Vitriol 01:24, 30 January 2007 (UTC)

I'm talking about roast beef that you get, sliced, at a grocery store. I suspect it may have something to do with storage and/or preparation techniques... It just has a sort of "aura," if you will, of "fartiness." V-Man737 01:29, 30 January 2007 (UTC)

Ground beef has a relatively high fecal coliform count. Maybe that's why? Anchoress 01:30, 30 January 2007 (UTC)

Thank you, Anchoress, for ruining my day. -- Mwalcoff 01:36, 30 January 2007 (UTC)

And to make this even more interesting, ground beef does not emit this smell, in my experience. Am I the only one? Is there just something wrong with me? V-Man737 01:42, 30 January 2007 (UTC)

Not all people are equally sensitive to odors - there's nothing particularly strange about not being able to detect a particular odor (although, if this is a recurring problem, you might want to seek medical advice...). Carom 02:33, 30 January 2007 (UTC)

How utterly bizarre... I was sure others have experienced my plight. I even recall hearing some jokes that mention beef smelling like fart. As for medical counseling, I suppose if I'm alone on this, it may be worth a brief mention to my doctor at my next visit (We're good friends like that). V-Man737 02:45, 30 January 2007 (UTC)

The bad smell in farts is the hydrogen sulfide (H2S). This is produced by sulfate-reducing bacteria under anaerobic conditions. Although fecal coliform can exist in both aerobic and anaerobic environments, I don't think they create H2S. Cows are prodigious methane (CH4) generators though I am not sure of their H2S output. --Justanother 04:05, 30 January 2007 (UTC)

Perhaps there is some kind of reaction that produces H2S after storage? V-Man737 04:08, 30 January 2007 (UTC)

If there is fecal in beef then I would expect some sulfate-reducing bacteria also and as some decomposition takes place during storage then I guess some H2S might be generated. All supposition, would take a better environmental scientist than I to say. --Justanother 04:15, 30 January 2007 (UTC)

Two possibilities:

• Your roast beef may be seasoned with onion powder, which can have a sulphuric odor when made from poor quality onions (as it quite often is).
• If the roast beef is actually sliced pressed beef, it may even contain ground onions (or even soy, which can also smell like farts). --Charlene 04:14, 30 January 2007 (UTC)

Now we're getting to the bottom of things... I'm not just blowin' smoke out my butt, either. As fart as I could tell, that 'einous smell was all in my head. V-Man737 04:26, 30 January 2007 (UTC)

Here is a nice piece on stinky green slime exuding from commercially-packaged beef.

Meat stored at 1 to 2 C under low oxygen tensions, either in gas-impermeable packs or in controlled atmospheres, occasionally exhibited an undesirable green exudate. The green pigment was identified spectrophotometrically as sulfmyoglobin. The conversion of myoglobin to sulfmyoglobin resulted from the production of H2S by bacteria tentatively identified as Pseudomonas mephitica. This organism produced H2S only when the oxygen tension was about 1 %O and the pH of the meat was 6.0 and above.

Mmmmm mmmmm good! --Justanother 04:28, 30 January 2007 (UTC)

Yay! We solved the mystery of the mystery meat! (P. Mephitica: "And I would have gotten away with it if it weren't for you meddling Wikipedians!") Five points for Gryffindor! V-Man737 04:50, 30 January 2007 (UTC)

So then what's yer beef: (Note the colon at the end). Edison 06:05, 30 January 2007 (UTC)

Undyed methyl alcohol in NZ and sensor cleaning?

I am trying to use methyl alcohol to clean my lens but the one I bought is dyed purple and the dye leaves as a residue and rendering it useless. Are the undyed versions available or was it made illegal or something like that? Also, what is a quick and cheap way to clean a DX format sensor? The swabs are quite expensive and I need the camera before the week ends and I don't quite trust that they will be delivered in time... --antilived^{T | C | G} 02:26, 30 January 2007 (UTC)

Yu Yu Hakusho Splinter "Resshuyaken"

Why is it in Yu Yu Hakusho episode 86 Minoru(one of Sensui's personalities)says "Splinter Resshuuyaken" when the original name was Resshuushiendan (裂蹴紫炎弾 Resshuu Purple Flame Shots).And why was the title "splinter" added but "Resshuuyaken" was left untranslated?Thanks —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 72.89.222.120 (talk) 03:10, 30 January 2007 (UTC).

Back to the Future on AMC

Everytime I turn on AMC (TV network) Back to the Future is on. Why is that? Besides that it is the greatest movie ever.--ChesterMarcol 03:45, 30 January 2007 (UTC)

Aside from it being the greatest movie ever, there would be no reason for playing it so often. ;-) Their ratings probably go up because people get so enthralled with the movie; thus they play the movie often to keep ratings up. V-Man737 03:49, 30 January 2007 (UTC)

Since yesterday It's been like that for me I think! [Mαc Δαvιs] X (How's my driving?) ❖ 04:19, 30 January 2007 (UTC)

Maybe AMC is caught in some kind of temporal anomaly do to tachyon radiation produced by the flux capacitor! --Cody.Pope 09:42, 30 January 2007 (UTC)

Speaking anecdoteally, AMC (and many other movie channels) tend to show a given movie several times over a short span. Presumably, this gives more viewers a chance to see the film when it's convenient. — Lomn 15:48, 30 January 2007 (UTC)

Trace A Ghanian Football Player

I am trying to find out information about a 22 year old Ghanian footballer. The only details I have are as follows : His name is Godwin and he is a striker who has lived in Caneroon for the last 4 years. He last played for Racing in Camaroon but might have played for other clubs. Sorry there is not much to go on but any information will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks JJ Jim9011 06:19, 30 January 2007 (UTC)

The only Godwin I know of playing for Ghana is Godwin Antwi who is currently playing for Liverpool FC in the youth/reserve team. Perhaps you mean him? Historically I think he played in Spain for Zaragoza. ny156uk 17:30, 30 January 2007 (UTC)

"Reality" page - edit

Hello,

I can't edit the "reality" page. I am trying to add something to it, however the talk page, and the "reality" page itself are both protected from editing. Is there anyway to get this unprotected, I couldn't find out how to ask for it to be unprotected so I am asking here? Can you unprotect it so that it can be edited? I have some actul productive information to add to the page.

PolarPenguin 06:58, 30 January 2007 (UTC)

It seems that that article was mentioned by a certain Kolbert (sp?) who is on TV sometimes. It also seems that whenever this gentleman(lady?) mentions any article on Wikipedia, people rush to vandalize it.V-Man737 07:03, 30 January 2007 (UTC)

The same vandals are hitting other pages like Vermont as well. The "Kolbert" is Steven Colbert as far as I know. The children who are causing the vandalism should be going to bed in a few hours so you can make your changes then. The article will most likely only be protected for a short time. Dismas|^(talk) 07:12, 30 January 2007 (UTC)

Shhhh! I was feigning ignorance for the sake of satire. ;-) V-Man737 07:36, 30 January 2007 (UTC)

Come back in 2 days; the article will be unprotected by then. Carson 07:39, 30 January 2007 (UTC)

Why doesn't the UN invade Sudan?

The UN asks the leader of Sudan if they can send in peacekeeping forces and he says no. Why do all of the Western nations, NATO, and the UN just sit around watching and asking politely? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 70.225.185.24 (talk) 07:44, 30 January 2007 (UTC).

If nothing else, simply so that when it is time to invade, they can say "We tried asking nicely!" V-Man737 07:48, 30 January 2007 (UTC)

The UN has no troops of its own, if it wishes to send in troops, it has to ask various countries. Some are overstreched as it is and others simply dont want to get involved, because if the cercumstances change, they could get bogged down in a quaqumire that they do notwant. This is one of the biggest shortcomings of the UN.81.144.161.223 09:43, 30 January 2007 (UTC)Xnton

If the UN had categorized the Darfur conflict as a genocide, its member nations would be obligated by the UN charter to invade. However, has not done so, perhaps because those countries didn't want to for some of the reasons above. Interestingly, the U.S. government has declared it a genocide, but this doesn't obligate the U.S. to invade. See also International_response_to_the_Darfur_conflict#Declarations_of_Genocide. -- SCZenz 09:57, 30 January 2007 (UTC)

A UN invasion against the will of the country involved would require a decision by the Security Council. However, one of the five permanent veto-wielding members of the Security Council is China. China has cultivated ties with the government of Sudan, probably to secure access to its oil reserves. China has indicated that it does not support forcible action against Sudan, so the Security Council would be unable to approve it. Marco polo 16:51, 30 January 2007 (UTC)

Why mince words? None of the major powers has any national interest in what is happening there. Clarityfiend 19:08, 30 January 2007 (UTC)

people are dicks. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 75.8.72.171 (talk) 03:22, 2 February 2007 (UTC).

Correction: People have dicks, but in reality that only applies to about half of them. V-Man737 03:47, 2 February 2007 (UTC)

Do these two cars exist?

I remember seeing a wall poster in walmart or kmart or some store along those lines that featured a pair of Lamborghinis owned(?) by the state of california. One had police decals and the other had FD decals. I thought they were part of the LAPD, but for some reason I can not find any info on the vehicals. Does anyone have any information about these cars? 70.135.170.58 08:08, 30 January 2007 (UTC)

I know that the Italians have a Lamborghini as a police vehicle though I've never heard of any U.S. police departments using them. Although it's possible since the police will often take flashy impounded vehicles such as Camaros, Corvettes, or Mustangs and use them to show kids that even guys that have flashy cars that were bought with drug money get busted. I don't know why a fire department would have a need for one though. Dismas|^(talk) 08:44, 30 January 2007 (UTC)

I can't access it but this page might have something for you... http://forums.forzamotorsport.net/forums/thread/36459.aspx Dismas|^(talk) 08:49, 30 January 2007 (UTC)

A page about me

Can i create a page about me and my life for interest of the general public to experience the emotional journey i have travelled? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Damien 27619 (talk • contribs) 08:39, 30 January 2007 (UTC).

Not here unless you put it on your user page. See WP:AUTO about writing autobiographies, see WP:N to see if you're notable enough, and see WP:USERPAGE to see what's allowed on a person's user page. Also, at WP:NOT you'll see that Wikipedia is not meant to be a free web host. So unless you plan on editing articles, just having a user page is frowned upon. Dismas|^(talk) 08:49, 30 January 2007 (UTC)

What you want is a blog. --Shantavira 10:58, 30 January 2007 (UTC)

Certainly, if you're that Damien. You'll still need sources though. Clarityfiend 19:05, 30 January 2007 (UTC)

riddle

what is it the most americans prefer but not for its use —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 212.49.81.139 (talk) 10:17, 30 January 2007 (UTC).

Uh... voting? The velociraptor 14:22, 30 January 2007 (UTC)

Would that be intended use? Vaseline? I don't understand the question... 惑乱 分からん 16:26, 30 January 2007 (UTC)

The correct answer would be Mickey Mouse. Thank you, thank you. V-Man737 21:29, 30 January 2007 (UTC)

Are you referring to his electoral career? The ole chap seems to have gotten fewer votes than Ralph Nader. 惑乱 分からん 23:52, 30 January 2007 (UTC)

golf course rating system

what is the meaning of "slope" and "rating" with regards to the difficulty of a golf course? how is this determined?

bill —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 63.3.17.129 (talk) 12:58, 30 January 2007 (UTC).

"Rating" is the expected score of a "scratch" golfer (one with a handicap near 0). "Slope" is a value representing the difference between that rating and the expected score of a "bogey" golfer (handicap near 20). "Average" slope is 113 - that is, a course that is equally difficult for both good and average golfers. The ratings are determined by a complicated formula that uses terrain, length of holes, and length of forced carries to figure out how many shots are needed for each hole for the bogey and scratch golfer.

Both values are used in the calculation of a handicap. Your handicap differential for a round is (your score - rating) * 113/slope. 96% of the average of your best 10 differentials of your last 20 rounds gives your handicap index. Your course hadicap for a particular course is index * slope / 113, then rounded to the nearest whole number. 25% of the time, you can expect to shoot better than your handicap in relation to the course rating.

Much more information at http://www.usga.org/playing/handicaps/handicaps.html Mishatx 16:35, 30 January 2007 (UTC)

Furniture retailing for the world-trendsetting by IKEA before and now a new phenomenon.

The world today is rendered small what with the advent of the world wide web and telecommunication. If in years past air flight from Kuala Lumpur to London would have taken 13 hours or longer, could you not imagine be teletransported to London in a matter of minutes! Today's world have become "an instant replay of events" everywhere, every time. Sometimes it is amazing and stressful at the same time to become witness to horrific events and situations. You wonder where will all this end? Because of the environment we live in is such, and we can't begin to fathom how deep the abyss is, our fears and anxieties have turned us into zombies and we are driven at that-to achieve our goals , meeting the demands of time and other peoples' expectations. We are slowly losing our privacy and worse, our souls. But there is a positive streak to all this. We adapt our "life model" to suit the circumstances. We even have to re-adapt or re-create new "business models." More to the point on the nature of the query: as the caption states we need a new phenomenon in furniture retailing. China will become and will remain for several years into the future the production house for the world. Some countries will turn themselves into "suppliers" for China global producers. Others will choose to become consumers. How we harness these thought strands and create a hybrid a life model? Next a business model?—abdul khalid aziz —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 60.52.75.182 (talk) 14:04, 30 January 2007 (UTC).

If I understand it, you are suggesting that some countries will become suppliers and some consumers, and you are asking how a middle ground can be found? Surely everyone in every country is a consumer, and all countries will have to supply something or they won't be able to afford to consume! Could you clarify what you are specifically asking? Skittle 15:37, 30 January 2007 (UTC)

If you mean who will become a new global furniture brand, somewhat like Ikea is becoming a huge international name, then I can't be sure - predicting the success/failure of businesses is quite hard. Skittle is right that all nations have consumers and producers. Indeed the countries with the strongest exports tend to be some of the strongest countries in the world - remember that exportation is about more than just physical-goods - China is still extremely poor compared to Western Europe (84th GDP per capita compared to USA being third) in many factors. ny156uk 20:51, 30 January 2007 (UTC)

Adagio for strings by Tiesto

Hi. Which kind of software do I need to create something like that song? If that software would be able to make heavy metal, rock, jazz or classical, much better :) --Taraborn 14:37, 30 January 2007 (UTC) PS:To hear the song I mean, search for it in Youtube... and you get... [7]

My understanding is that these songs are producing using Synthesizer's or electronic instruments. Software such as garageband on the Mac allow for this sort of thing and can let you plug your instrument in and have it record into the system for editing later (cleaning up mistakes/playing with your input information). I'm not sure but try searching google for "remixing software" (http://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=remixing+software&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8) some of the links might help. Good luck ny156uk 20:39, 30 January 2007 (UTC)

Thanks.--Taraborn 11:42, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

fall of saigon,, ???

hello,, i have been searching for information about the fall of saigon, and i am seeking to find out if any us navy planes were used to bomb during the fall of saigon,, i am most interested in what the submarine search planes (p3? py3?) were doing and if they were used to drop bombs during the fall or at any time at all during the vietnam war,, your help is very much appreciated,, thank you,, former cpl gagnon usmc —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 216.49.220.139 (talk) 14:53, 30 January 2007 (UTC).

A cursory search shows that the US disengaged from military participation in the Vietnam War well before the fall of Saigon occurred. There is no mention of any offensive activity by the US during the evacuation, and given the informal cease-fire given to the evacuating helicopters, it seems unlikely that the US would have jeopardized that with bombing missions. I can't find any references (or come up with any reasons) for P-3 Orions to be operating in any capacity beyond precautionary reconnaissance during this period. Even then, the carrier-based S-3 Viking seems a more likely candidate. For the war as a whole, the P-3 has not been adapted into gunship or ground attack precision attack platform. — Lomn 15:41, 30 January 2007 (UTC)

Illegal drinking Establishment

In South Africa there were/are places where one can go after hours, or on a sunday night ect to get alchahol, when there is no other alternative. In England, the pubs until recently closed at 11. So, lets say it is 1950, and you are out with the lads and 11 o'clock comes round and you have to leave, what would one do for alchahol other than a lock in? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 81.144.161.223 (talk) 16:14, 30 January 2007 (UTC).

Speakeasy? 惑乱 分からん 16:21, 30 January 2007 (UTC)

You don't have to go as far back as 1950 for this scenario. As you correctly point out, the licensing laws have only recently changed in England, and the problem still exists because, while pubs are now allowed to stay open past 11, many of them choose not to, and still close at 11. As for what you do - you can either go on to a club - these are allowed to serve alcohol as long as they like as long as they charge an entrance fee (I think) - or you can go home and watch crappy post-pub television while drinking booze you have bought from the offy. --Richardrj ^{talk email} 16:48, 30 January 2007 (UTC)

• The other alternative was the "lock-in" where the landlord would allow a few select friends to stay behind after closing.The doors would be locked and various fictions such as the till being shut and people paying by putting a "contribution" in a bowl were used to pretend it was a private party and therefore not illegal.This is still a flourishing idea where I live anyway.hotclaws**== 04:56, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

Interesting, but note that the OP asked for information on things other than the lock-in. --Richardrj ^{talk email} 06:11, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

Agent Orange

My uncle died a few years ago due to various lung problems and he blamed it on Agent orange. Now after a bit of reasearch it turns out that it was used to feel forest/jungle in 'Nam, so that commbatants could not hide there. So if my uncle died from dropping it from his plane, what effect did it have on the people below, and are there any lasting effects in vietnam from these substances, whether they be Orange, brown, red or green. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 81.144.161.223 (talk) 16:20, 30 January 2007 (UTC).

You could start looking at the articles Agent Orange, Agent Purple, Agent Pink, Agent Green and Dioxin. 惑乱 分からん 16:24, 30 January 2007 (UTC)

The attribution of health problems to soldiers exposed to agent orange was and continues to be a politically contentious topic. Here is how many people think about connecting an exposure and a disease: There are only a couple of ways to demonstrate that agent X can cause human disease A. First, if we expose laboratory animals to agent X in amounts at least remotely proportional to human exposure, and the animals develop disease A or something very close to it. That has never been shown for most (maybe not any) of the disease conditions often blamed on Agent Orange. Second, if we can show that disease A happens a lot more to people exposed to agent X than to similar people not exposed. Again, the difficulty is finding "similar people" who were not exposed to Agent X and accurately measuring rates of disease A in both groups. Most of the attempts to demonstrate higher rates in exposed people showed no difference. The problem of causal attribution is compounded by many factors, such as:

1. The accuracy or inaccuracy of army records showing exposure or the acceptance of the accuracy;
2. The tendency of people who have been through a powerfully stressful, negative experience to blame nearly every bad thing that subsequently happens on that experience;
3. Financial incentives for claiming that a disease arose from a service or work exposure;
4. Financial incentives for the government and chemical manufacturers to deny a causal relationship;
5. The large number of lies by high government officials about the Vietnam war made many people so distrustful that they would not believe any negative results of studies;
6. The many different conditions attributed to Agent Orange exposure increased the likelihood that statistical coincidences will occur for at least a couple of the conditions, and of course that is what was eventually seen: a few studies showed weak relationships that other studies did not.

Interestingly a similar poison exposure controversy (Gulf War syndrome)erupted after the Gulf War in 1991. Even though that war was different in nearly every important respect from the vietnam war (and no defoliants were used in the desert), the medical problems attributed to this similarly controversial condition were strikingly similar. It is pretty easy to predict that we will see a similar "disease" arise among Iraq veterans. About the only similar thing I cannot imagine is Dick Cheney or Donald Rumsfeld writing a book in 20 years like Robert Macnamara did, admitting that high government officials lied throughout the war to the American public about many important aspect of it. Your uncle had a right to feel betrayed and misused, regardless of whether his later health problems were caused by defoliant exposure or not. alteripse 02:13, 1 February 2007 (UTC)

Dornoch, Scotland

Does anyone know please the reason that Royal Dornoch, in Sutherland, Scotland, has 'lost' the title "Royal" this year. I live there, but none of the locals, who normally in this small town know everything, have any idea. Facts will be valuable please.

John Luckie —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 88.109.254.244 (talk) 17:04, 30 January 2007 (UTC).

Might be something to do with devolution.81.144.161.223 17:24, 30 January 2007 (UTC)

If it happened this year, it seems unlikely to be related to devolution, since Queen Elizabeth remains the queen of Scotland and Scotland's status has not changed in the past few years. According to our article on royal burghs, the decision whether to use the label "royal" is taken by the local community council. Here is the web page of Dornoch's community council. You might try contacting them with your question. Marco polo 18:15, 30 January 2007 (UTC)

...although royal burghs were actually abolished in 1975. I've looked at maps going back several years, and none of them use the "Royal".--Shantavira 18:28, 30 January 2007 (UTC)

January 31

Leather

Is leather meat?04:04, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

Found only in the finest shops and crappiest restaurants. V-Man737 04:33, 31 January 2007 (UTC) (edit: How rude of me to not link you to the article! leather V-Man737 04:35, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

Leather is meat. In The Gold Rush(1925) Charlie Chaplin stews and eats his boot. Delish! Edison 16:50, 2 February 2007 (UTC)

Would leather taste like whiskey, as they are both made with oak:]Hidden secret 7 20:23, 3 February 2007 (UTC)

Negative & Possitive Numbers by titles of Articles (What is it?)

i haven't logged on in quite some time. What are these negative and possitive numbers beside the title of the article? i saw them when i look on my Watchlist. flipjargendy 18:44, 30 January 2007 (UTC)

The number of characters (number of bits?) that have been added or removed from the article. Big numbers mean big changes. Very large numbers are in bold. Dismas|^(talk) 18:59, 30 January 2007 (UTC)

Bytes, actually. Characters are encoded in ASCII, which conveniently uses exactly a byte per character. --froth^T 19:25, 30 January 2007 (UTC)

Characters is more likely the correct measurement. WP is encoded in UTF-8, which ranges from 1 to 4 octets per character. — Lomn 21:10, 30 January 2007 (UTC)

I asked the technical desk about it a few weeks ago and conveniently lost the link they gave me. The number is the number of bytes added or removed since the last edit. - AMP'd 21:16, 30 January 2007 (UTC)

Found it: Wikipedia:Added or removed characters - AMP'd 21:18, 30 January 2007 (UTC)

Thanks! If i remember right each letter is about a byte. That might help us all know about how many words (mostly letters) have probably been changed. flipjargendy 22:54, 2 February 2007 (UTC)

As was stated before, UTF-8 encoding allows 1-4 octets per character (in theory; unfortunately not everyone implements UTF-8 quite the same). Latin-1 characters (with which UTF-8 is backwards-compatible) take up one octet, and these characters comprise most of what you'll see on Wikipedia. However, characters from higher Unicode blocks require more bytes to represent (for example, Han or Hangul characters). In simpler terms: the byte count will usually correspond to the number of characters, but this may not be the case if the modifications involve a few non-Latin characters. -- mattb @ 2007-02-02T23:06Z

farmer boys german goeth metal band

what happened to farmer boys and mathias sayer, i know that wikipedia has an article on them in german, but i can't translate and i haven't been able to find any satisfying info on them, (matthias in particular)

I assume that you are familiar with their work up to their 2000 hit album "The World Is Ours". Here is a somewhat rough translation of the German article on more recent developments:

"In January 2004 the Farmer Boys released their most recent work "The Other Side". Stylistically it connects seamlessly with their earlier work and, while it has been enthusiastically received by fans, it hasn't had the success of earlier albums. The release was followed, as before, by several festival appearances. Because the development of this album also took more than three years (another change of labels to Nuclear Blast), the band had by now completely earned a reputation as a "snoring band".

"Since then there hasn't been much news about the Farmer Boys. According to rumors, the band has supposedly dissolved, after Till and Dennis had taken on family relations. Today Till runs his own tattoo studio, Alex and Ralf play together in the band "Dacia and the Weapons of Mass Destruction". In addition, Alex remains the guitarist of the Stuttgart metal band "Tieflader". Toni has also found a new place for himself in the band "Stereopilot". According to rumors, Matthias is attending university in the USA. As there was never a clear official statement about the further fate of the Farmer Boys, in a certain way the fan community feels neglected."

Marco polo 23:45, 30 January 2007 (UTC)

Music

Hi I cant think of the movie (or the name of the music) in which some piano music featured and has gone on to become famous. The only instrument is a piano and there is no singing. Thanks

Hmm. I think we need just a little more information. The first one that came to mind was Chariots of Fire, but with such a non-specific question I am probably way off. JackofOz 23:21, 30 January 2007 (UTC)

Two possibilities, perhaps: The Piano, the music written by Michael Nyman, or Elvira Madigan, with a haunting score based on Mozart's Piano Concerto Number 21 in C. Clio the Muse 00:05, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

My guess would be 1973's The Sting, featuring The Entertainer and other piano rags of Scott Joplin, as adapted (and I believe played) by Marvin Hamlisch. The film received seven academy awards (including Best Music for Hamlisch), and Joplin's music had an amazing revival, as Hamlisch's soundtrack album became a major Top 40 hit. —Steve Summit (talk) 00:09, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

I remember hearing that most of the orchestrations were done by Gunther Schuller, although Marvin Hamlisch took all the credit. JackofOz 02:23, 1 February 2007 (UTC)

My money is on The Sting too. La double vie de Véronique (1991) by Krzysztof Kieslowski also featured a melancholy piano theme by Zbigniew Preisner who won a César for the score. The tune was titled Puppets and it gained some popularity. One odd coupling of solo piano music and film is David Lynch's Eraserhead (1977), one of the more disturbing movies in my opinion, accompanied by Fats Waller striding away in his bubbly, slightly Dionysian manner in tunes such as Digah's Stomp or Lenox Avenue Blues. ---Sluzzelin 06:11, 1 February 2007 (UTC)

tour of duty in Iraq

How long is a tour of duty for U.S. troops in Iraq? Mr.K. 22:32, 30 January 2007 (UTC)

Nobody knows for sure; tours are currently being extended. See Catch-22 for an analagous situation.

Atlant 01:52, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

Catch-22 is not exactly analogous. I would even dare to say that it is the exactly contrary to the present situation. Mr.K. 18:09, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

I'll bet the soldiers who are being "extended in country" or involuntarily returned for yet-another-tour would disagree with you. And it's pretty clear General Scheisskopf is in charge.

Atlant 20:24, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

More information about the similitudes and differences between the book and the war. Mr.K. 14:36, 1 February 2007 (UTC)

The standard length is 12 months.[8] Rmhermen 03:45, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

One important note: I assume by troops you mean the guys in the army, but the when you expand that to include guys serving in the other branches, such as the air force and navy, the times will differ somewhat. Also, although the tours maybe a year or so long that does not nessicarily mean the soldeirs/sailers/airmen are spending every day in Iraq; it is possible that some of these men are coming back to the U.S. for a week or two or R&R before returning to combat. 70.135.170.58 07:51, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

A friend of mine spent two tours with the Marines in Iraq, each was 7 months long. anonymous6494 20:42, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

I believe the "tours" started at 6 months, which is why people speak of being on their 3rd tour, when the war was less than 3 years old. The number of troops in Iraq has been increased by deferring returns and speeding departures. I believe also that in Vietnam a tour was one year. In World War 1 and 2 it was "for the duration." I've read a letter home from a World War 2 veteran of the fighting in Europe who said that if he had been allowed home after winning in Europe and before the projected invasion of Japan, he would have made himself hard to find, having seen what combat is really like. He expected they would be shipped directly to the Pacific to avoid them failing to report for more fighting. Edison 16:58, 2 February 2007 (UTC)

how many watts are needed to power ...

plz help me ive been itching my head trying to find out ...

how many watts (from a generator) are needed to power 2 turntables (decks) and speakers (playing fairly loud).

plz help

Turntables (used to) take about 14W, an amp of 50W powering speakers will be loud in any house - so thats less that 100W (a bright lightbulb). However if you want to make it loud for a concert hall you will need many more watts of power for the amplifier.87.102.2.51 01:26, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

I was going to say it is the amplifier that takes the most power, the decks will almost be negiligible. You are unlikely to have more then 100w in a domestic amplifier but proper venues can have more multiple amplifiers all up to 1500w or even more. Without the specs, there is no way to tell. Vespine 02:47, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

Just check the label on the back of the equipment for the rated current draw. The actual may be less, but an amplifier will draw substantially more watts than the output audio rating. Edison 17:00, 2 February 2007 (UTC)

Learning to ride a bicycle.

I am 23 years old and I never learned to ride a bicycle. I just purchased a regular adult bicycle and have had it for two weeks. It has no training wheels so I just practice riding it but it is frustrating because I continue to loose my balance.So far I can pedal for only a couple of seconds before I loose my balance. Usually I always fall on my left side. Does anyone know what would be a good method to learn to ride a bicycle? Also, how long would it take a person to ride a bicycle?

Just keep trying, and dont give up. A couple of years ago I bought a unicylce and had the same problem it took me a few weeks just to be able to go a few feet, but eventually I got the hang of it.--ChesterMarcol 23:30, 30 January 2007 (UTC)

One small suggestion: perhaps riding on grass would be safer. Vranak

And I guess it'd be best wearing both helmet, knee pads and elbow pads. You'd look ridicalous anyway... You'd probably have to work up your courage to bike reasonably fast, since a wheel gets steadier as faster it rotates... =S 惑乱 分からん 23:57, 30 January 2007 (UTC)

Also, as you pick up speed the bike gets more stable. Don't give up, bike riding is so much fun. Keria 00:53, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

One thing that initially helped me stay up is the principle that if you begin falling to a certain side, turn the wheel to face that way. Eventually you'll be able to lean the way you want to go, so that in turning the wheel that way you'll stay up. It get pretty fun once you get that down! V-Man737 01:09, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

I feel your pain. I just taught my son to ride a few months ago and it was tough at first and frustrating for both of us (when you've done it "all your life" you forget how hard it is for the beginner). What eventually worked was running along with him and stabilizing him and/or grabbing him as he fell. Now this is obviously a lot tougher if the student is an adult but it still might help to have a friend, or better, two friends, run alongside you. --Justanother 01:13, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

It takes a lot of practice to go very slowly (I remember competing with my friends to see who could take the longest to go a block); just gun it and go fast. You hardly need to do anything at all to stay vertical if you're going quickly. Something to do with angular momentum I think --froth^T 02:26, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

Yeah, I tried that line of reasoning with my son too. He went fast and fell over. A lot. A brisk running pace with me beside him did the trick. It just takes a bit for the body to learn how to work with the bike and not against it. Gyroscopic action (conservation of angular mementum) only goes so far. It doesn't really do it all as we who are used to riding might think. I was surprised. --Justanother 05:32, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

Don't try to hard:) You just have to let yourself do it, this makes it easier:) Or you could fill the tyres with water:]Hidden secret 7 11:54, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

What does filling them with water do? I've not heard of that before. V-Man737 12:21, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

I vividly remember learning to ride a bike. My mum refused to add stablisers, and it took a long time to get good. The choice of surface is tricky: if you ride on grass it will hurt less when you fall over, but you will fall over far more often as it is harder to cycle. If you cycle on hard surfaces, it will hurt, but you are more likely to succeed. I went for the hard surface, and got good at quickly putting a foot out to catch myself when I started falling. You could try to see if, when you start falling, you can steady yourself (whether with a foot on the floor or through balance/steering) without stopping completely. That will help you get a feel for balancing, and it will feel like you're getting further. It took me several weeks, if not months, to get the basic ability to keep going without falling, but after that it got better very quickly. It just took lots of practice. Good luck! Skittle 13:12, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

It's just like learning to ride a bike...............

Here's a column by someone who teaches adults how to ride a bike. It addresses some of the topics mentioned above, particularly speed. He also points out that, unlike when learning most other physical skills, you have to do the hard part first. I'd follow Justanother's suggestion and ask someone to trot beside you for stability's sake. There's a big difference between a child's and and an adult's mass, impact, and distance of fall from a bicycle. This site] sells stabilisers for adults. Good luck! ---Sluzzelin 22:19, 1 February 2007 (UTC)

If you could find a large person (or 2) to run alongside and steady the bike, that might help. It is one of those odd things that once you learn to ride a bike you never forget. I remember my dad running alongside when I was a wee rider, and I was fortunate enough to pass along the training to the next generation. But it was funny to see Dad riding a bike back in the day, which he clearly had not done in many decades. As an adult, you have the benefit of reading what the balancing principle is and having an intellectual understanding of which way to turn the wheel to correct for the bike tipping. See [9]. Good luck. Edison 17:12, 2 February 2007 (UTC)

Wilson School District, West Lawn, Pa. 19609

I would like to know the year that Wilson School District changed from being known as the Wilson Presidents to the Wilson Bulldogs.

Thank you very much. Karen F. Zerbe <email removed>

The whole district has a mascot? That's a bit different from the city. (Go Brashear Giants!) From the district's website, you can scroll to the bottom and click on "Questions or comments," which contains the main e-mail address for the school. A pity that they don't have a section on their history; perhaps you can encourage them to add that when you e-mail them! V-Man737 04:48, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

CD Question

I'm not entirely sure which section of the RD this belongs in, so I'll ask it here. I bought the Foo Fighters CD In Your Honor about a two years ago, and the one I got just so happened to have the MediaMax CD-3 software on it. Now, the Sony website it extremely ambiguous when describing what to do if you have one of these CDs, and the lawsuit wasn't exactly helpful, either, so I'm a tad confused.

What happened to me is this: I didn't realize that it was the crazy copy protection that screws with your computer, and I installed the program that lets you listen to their music. Once I discovered that it wouldn't let me import the songs to Musicmatch Jukebox, I went on the internet and found out how to disable and uninstall the software. I did, and was able to rip the CD fine.

But Sony got sued and people started getting cash settlements anyway.

What happens now is that every time I put a CD in my computer (whether is be game, music CD, or DVD to watch), the sound and video begin skipping in the pattern that the software used to prevent me from ripping the songs in the first place! I can rip music just fine, but I can't listen to it or use my CD drive without having issues.

Engadget recently ran an article that states that Sony is going to give 150 dollars to malware victims: [10]

My question is this: do I get any part of the Sony settlement at all? The software itself wasn't the XCP software, so I don't get in on that lawsuit, and I did disable it, which may have voided something-can somebody help me out? I dunno what to do. There's a chance the malware is still on my computer and the CD drive is still messed up. What do I do? --Thatswhatisaid 00:30, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

Without getting into your personal case, here is the official Sony-BMG settlement site and here is an EFF site on it. This is the use by Sony-BMG of nasty rootkit software as copy protection without sufficient informed consent.

We have an article on it, too. 2005 Sony BMG CD copy protection scandal. --Justanother 02:44, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

And yes, as of today there is a new wrinkle with the $150 in repair available. See here. --Justanother 03:12, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

Editing Papua New Guinea

Could someone please clean up the article of Papua New Guinea? I want you all to find the terrorist pig who put hateful words on the article and never let him or her on Wikipedia again.

The article is back to normal, and as you can see here and here, the perpetrators have both been blocked by Admins. V-Man737 01:17, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

Wi-fi Wii connection problem thingy

When I got my Wii yesterday and went to the channels that required a connection to the internet, it worked fine (I was using a Nintendo Wi-Fi USB Connector). Today, the USB connector keep disconnecting and re-connecting to the Wii (usually, it stays connected for five minutes, then disconnects for five minutes, and so on). Note that the distance shouldn't be a problem since it worked well yesterday. What is causing this and how can I fix it? –Llama man 01:46, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

I'm not familiar with the the peripheral. I think you might be able to get a more accurate answer over at Nintendo's website. The troubleshooting questions might help you out. If not, contact them, I've always found their customer support to be prompt and good. —Mitaphane _?|! 03:24, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

Run Rocky Run

File:Run rocky run.jpg

These three frames are from Rocky. What are the tracks? Camera dolly? -- Toytoy 01:55, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

(reformatted by froth)

Seeing as Rocky was set in Philadelphia, and Philadelphia is one of the few North American cities with working streetcar lines, I would say they're streetcar tracks. - AMP'd 02:40, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

But didn't you see the tracks did not go to the other ends of the roads? The tracks are buried in the roads, I guess. However, if the tracks are for streetcars, they probably have to go somewhere. -- Toytoy 03:07, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

I must have missed that. Still, it is in general very hard to catch the tracks from a camera dolley (or a camera itself for that matter) in a movie scene that has been edited and professionally produced. Perhaps the tracks that are "buried" are simply the end of the streetcar lines (After all, running over Sylvester Stalone is generally bad. - AMP'd 03:19, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

I have a good idea this time: Where Rocky started from is actually in front of a greenscreen or something similar, and the road behind him is actually a backdrop. you can see where the street changes color in your picture. - AMP'd 03:47, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

It was common early in the century to use rail cars to deliver goods through US cities, particularly the industrial areas. Rail delivery of freight has mostly been phased out, and trucks have supplanted it for the most part. Tracks for the trains were originally laid in the streets, to access the loading docks, warehouses, and so on. As the tracks were abandoned, they were pulled up in some places, or paved over. But in some places the tracks remain, abandoned but left in place. Rail delivery has been concentrated in large intermodal rail yards, where goods are transferred from rail cars to trucks, and the trucks then deliver the goods throughout the city. 71.113.119.179 05:59, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

I don't think Sylvester Stalone had the money to do bluescreen photography at that time. He was a poor young man. Moreover, Rocky played catch on the street with a local guy in that scene (Rocky was jogging, a guy threw an apple to Rocky, Rocky got the apple ...). It was unneeded and next to impossible for Sylvester Stalone to film that part with bluescreen.

I wonder if the cinematographer used the existing rail to save dolly money. Maybe they just borrow an unused cart from a junk yard, and put the camera on it. -- Toytoy 12:26, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

The tracks look too wide to run a dolly; dollies normally use ~24 inch track; using what looks like standard gauge or narrow gauge (4'8" and 3'6" respectively) would be overkill and very expensive for a studio laid camera dolly track (though as the above say, they may be using a converted wagon). I think the rails are still there, under the tarmac; note that the road has an odd sheen where the tracks end. Indeed, this is a good way to find hidden tramlines; after it rains, look at the road; two shiny strips appear, caused by subtle changes in the depth of the road over the tracks. Laïka 20:22, 1 February 2007 (UTC)

• It would not have been difficult to set up a camera dolley on rails of any width. A sidenote: In large cities where the trolley lines were abandonde decads ago, electric utility systeem engineers keep maps of where the old rails are located below the pavement. They act as an important return path for direct current applied to undergrould high voltage electric cable pipelines. If street work damages the rails, the utility must sometimes restore the connection so that cathodic protection against corrosion works. Edison 17:29, 2 February 2007 (UTC)

The jogging scene was filmed at the Italian Market (Philadelphia). Anyone ever been there? -- Toytoy 03:27, 3 February 2007 (UTC)

Elephant Population

So did Stephen Colbert actually triple the population of elephants? 129.116.35.170 03:34, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

If you mean, did his broadcast have an effect on our Elephant article, yes, it certainly did. Countless editors have tried to insert the fallacious tripling statistic, and the page has suffered on-and-off protection ever since. —Steve Summit (talk) 03:59, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

I was under the impression that Stephen Colbert actually sired the elephant population, if you know what I mean. ;-) V-Man737 09:06, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

leather

Is leather meat?

Probably not. Splintercellguy 04:30, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

Have you tried the first sentence of our article titled Leather? Vespine 04:40, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

Unh! I answered this already!The preceding statement was left unsigned by HagermanBot 04:55, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

Edwin Lutchens

Can you please give me any information on Edwin Lutchens re his period in Sydney, Australia and the house he built there at Darling Point. I would like the date he arrived when he started construction, when construction was completed and how long he lived there if at all. If he didn't live in the house who was it built for?— Preceding unsigned comment added by 58.166.103.151 (talk • contribs)

It's 'Lutyens'.--88.110.170.66 07:40, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

I can find no evidence that Edwin Lutyens ever visited Darling Point. Where did you get this information?--Shantavira 11:47, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

Probably Stephen Colbert. V-Man737 12:33, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

Leaky Cat

Is it normal for a cat to drool when being affectionate? I have a cat who does this. I'd understand drooling a little bit all the time, but she only drools when she is sitting in my lap and I am petting her. What gives? V-Man737 05:05, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

It's not unheard of. Recently someone called into National Public Radio's show Calling all Pets with a similar problem. Emmett5 05:15, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

This is not a normal relationship with your feline friend. Do you wake up with whiskers on the pillow next to you & a wierd sensation on your hands? Do you find yourself wondering where she is all the time? You may be in immediate danger. Try to resist, but there is no escape... ;) Spawn Man 05:47, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

According to various books on cats I have read, pet cats tend to have an infantile relationship with their owners, particularly when snuggling up to them; they regard them much as they would regard their mother. Thus, when they sit on your lap, they might purr (as they would do to assure their mother all is well), they might knead your lap (as they would knead their mother to stimulate milkflow), and they might drool in a sort of pavlovian reflex. Skittle 12:52, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

This is very normal for a cat, three of the ones I've had in my life would do exactly as you describe.

I suggest you put a towel under her head before you pet her, to catch all the drool. StuRat 05:14, 4 February 2007 (UTC)

tax exemptions.

can i claim tax exemtions at work to reduce the taxes the government takes out of my check? Danielkarluk 06:23, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

In the United States, you can modify the amount of your withholding by filling out a new form (I believe it's W-4) for your employer. This should generally be done at the beginning of the year, although I don't know if there are any restrictions on altering the amount of your witholding at some other point in time. Reducing your witholding will not modify the total amount of tax that you are obliged to pay, however - just when you pay it. Carom 06:45, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

Yes, form W-4. You knew we'd have an article on that ;-).

Atlant 13:25, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

I should also point out that there are restrictions on how much/little you can have witheld from your paycheck; these restriction are explained on the form. You can also find information (if you live in the United States) here. You may also wish to consult your employer. Carom 06:48, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

If you're asking about the United States, Form W-4 allows you to specify a number of exemptions and it also allows a "free-from" field that lets you add or subtract dollars from your deduction. But please be aware that the IRS imposes substantial penalties if you've significantly underpaid your taxes as of the end of the year (or whenever the December estimated tax payment is due; is that January 15?). So the smart play is to set your W-4 so that you owe the IRS a little more money when you file your annual return, but not enough additional money to trigger interest, penalties, or the attention of the auditors. But lots of folks just overpay during the year, though, and consider the refund a pleasant surprise (even though they know it was really an interest-free loan to the government).

Atlant 13:30, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

can i contact the person who answered my question?

I think his name was "carom". why must we use tildes? whats the purpose? This is my first time using wikipedia. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Danielkarluk (talk • contribs)

Yes, you can. You can click on the user's wikilinked name and go to her/his talk page to leave a comment, or you can email that user from their userpage if they have the email feature enabled. That is one of the reasons to use the four tildes to sign; it makes it easier for other users to communicate with you and find out more about you. Anchoress 07:00, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

To clarify; the reason you use tildes is to automatically sign and date your post. The site software converts the tildes to a signature for you. That way you do not have to sign each post yourself like I had to do back in the day while walking 5 miles to school! (joke) --Justanother 13:31, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

Five mile, uphill, each way. The 4 tildes mean that someone else does not have to laboriously search the history for the page, find out your username or IP address, then post it. Edison 19:59, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

In waist-high snow in a blinding blizzard. It's difficult on a page such as this to figure out histories, and especially after the day's questions have been archived. If you don't want to physically type in the four tildes, there's a button at the top of the Edit box that will create them for you (it's just to the write of the W with the slash through it). --Charlene 08:17, 1 February 2007 (UTC)

It was ten miles,uphill,on my head,against the force of gravity,waist deep in frozen yellow snow.Kids nowadays don't know they're born... Lemon martini 13:55, 2 February 2007 (UTC)

cassette to CD

Can anyone tell me how to transfer an audio cassette recording to a CD via an Apple Mac. please?--88.110.170.66 08:48, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

Connect the output from a cassette deck to the line-in in your Mac and use something like Audacity to record it? Same thing applies to virtually any computer that has a line-in. --antilived^{T | C | G} 08:58, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

And if your Mac doesn't have an audio input jack, buy one of the USB audio input gizmos that are commonly available. Atlant 13:32, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

All Macs since the iMac Core Duo have digital input jacks, not analog. I'm not sure if this will have an effect or not. [Mαc Δαvιs] X (How's my driving?) ❖ 18:40, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

Apple says (at least some of) the current inputs are universal: "Combined optical digital input/audio line in (minijack)" [11] That, or separate TOSLINK/line-level jacks seem to hold true across the current line.

Atlant 20:19, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

Exchange rates and prices

A lot of people are complaining about the Playstation 3 costing USD$599 (which is about GBP£300), yet the UK price for the PS3 is GBP£425: which at current exchange rates is a seemingly massive USD$830. From this, you could just assume that Sony are unfairly racking up the price in the UK by £125, but it seems to me there's more at work. Is it accurate to do a straight conversion and say "Look, consumers in the UK are paying $230 more than they have to" or does the price take into account other things? (It seems to me that, although $599 convented to £300 is a lot, it doesn't seem like a truly massive amount for a console. On the other hand, £425 does sound like a lot for a console.) Sum0 10:03, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

Obviously the exchange rate has a lot to do with it, but even discounting that, it's well known that many things (electrical goods among them) cost more in the UK than they do elsewhere. See Rip-Off Britain. --Richardrj ^{talk email} 10:11, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

It's not just the exchange rate (you should be grateful it is what it is, a year ago $599 was more like £400), there's also higher sales tax (VAT) than in the US (17.5% against 5%), retailer costs are higher (as staff salaries are higher thanks to the higher minimum wage), import/customs duty, etc. It's probably more than it could be, but not by much. Proto::► 10:32, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

The lack of public support for Hi-Def in Europe (33 million HDTVs in the US vs. under 0.5 million in Germany [12]; hence probably less than 2 million in all of Europe) means fewer people will go out and buy Sony-licensed Blu-Ray movies or the heavily marked-up Progressive cables for high definition. In order for Sony to make as much profit, they therefore must mark up the equipment more. Laïka 12:19, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

Australia gets ripped almost as hard, we're getting it for AU$1000, which on pure conversion is US$772. If that makes you feel better. Vespine 23:27, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

Taxes would also play a role. I'd bet it's far cheaper in Japan than anywhere else. Also, I'd bet that waiting a year will bring the price way down, can you stand a Playstation 2 for another year ? StuRat 05:05, 4 February 2007 (UTC)

Buffalo Nickle 1935

Who is depicted on the otherside of the 1935 Buffalo Nickle, as seen in the cite section of the Buffalo article.

The article on the Buffalo nickel has this to say:

Fraser featured a profile of a Native American on the obverse of the coin, which was a composite portrait of three Native American chiefs: Iron Tail, Big Tree, and Two Moons. The "buffalo" portrayed on the reverse was an American Bison, Black Diamond, from the Bronx Zoo.

Dismas|^(talk) 11:37, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

Periods for woman

I've taken tablets last month to postpone my periods and i it is postponed and I didnt get my periods on time this month, this is due to the effect of tablets or any problem in my body ........ and what is the cycle for a periods????

We cannot possibly answer this question accurately. You need to talk to a doctor and tell him what tablets you've taken and what happened. If you got these tablets from a doctor, or from a prescription from a doctor, that doctor is probably the best person to answer your question. Skittle 12:44, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

Reading the article on the menstrual cycle should make you a bit more informed about what's happening in your body. Dismas|^(talk) 13:27, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

You might also want to see Seasonale, a birth-control regimen that deliberately supresses menstruation for two out of every three months. Basically, it skips the week of placebo pills that the ordinary BC regimen imposes. Did you know that the BC vendors could have been doing this all along, ever since the pill was first invented? It was a deliberate decision to design the regimen to mimic the ordinary monthly ovulation/menstruation cycle.

Atlant 13:36, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

Bad fumes from olive oil in a seasoned carbon steel wok

I have a carbon steel wok which I have seasoned and used a few times. Recently I discovered that when you heat olive oil in it to a high heat on an electric hob, the oil gives off really horrible fumes which catch the back of the throat. It has happened a couple of times, even when I make sure the wok is clean beforehand. There is no chemical coating on the wok; it is just carbon steel which has been seasoned with oil. So I want to know whether this is normal, whether the fumes are poisonous, and whether perhaps it is caused by over-heating the oil. Thanks for your help. Darkhorse06 13:53, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

Olive oil is known to decompose at a pretty low temperature compared to other cooking oils. But assuming it was unadulterated olive oil, it's unlikely its fumes are very toxic. Maybe you should season with a more durable oil and stick to cooking with the olive oil ;-)?

Atlant 14:21, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

~EC~ I would say that it's the latter. Olive oil has a relatively low smoke point, and since good quality cookware conducts heat better, your wok is probably getting slightly hotter and faster at the same element setting as other cookware, leading to a different response to oil. My personal preference for wok cooking is peanut oil, although I will take a chance with sesame oil (which also has a low smoke point) if I'm feeling speedy. The alternative (I do this when I'm using my wok to make risotto, which starts out with warming the rice in oil, and I use olive) is to heat the element with the wok off, adding the oil to the wok off the heat, and adding whatever you're cooking the instant it's hot enough. On another note, I have read that smoked oils are carcinogens, but I don't know how dangerous they are or what type of ingestion is required. Anchoress 14:24, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

Thanks. I wasn't aware of the existence of smoke points for oils but the description of them here fits what I have observed completely. I think I will just try turning the heat down. Darkhorse06 17:22, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

The key is not to let the wok get too hot if you are using olive oil. You can still use strong heat, but not for very long or not unless you have a large volume of food heating up in the wok that you turn frequently so that the wok itself does not overheat. Marco polo 17:25, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

That makes sense. The problem is that I have an electric hob which doesn't respond very quickly to heat level adjustments, either up or down. This means you basically just have to pick one heat level and stick with it throughout the whole cooking time. Darkhorse06 20:37, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

I never fry with olive oil, try like the Chinese and use peanut oil for wok frying, they've been using woks for thousands of years:) Vespine 23:17, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

• I use virgin olive oil(I prefer the taste) which is thicker than peanut oil so I add a little water to it which solves the problem.hotclaws**== 08:02, 1 February 2007 (UTC)

Not while it's hot, I hope? V-Man737 08:05, 1 February 2007 (UTC)

MyNetworkTV

When will MyNetworkTV be expecting telenovelas from Univision?--12.18.90.138 15:37, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

Who says they will be? MyNetworkTV is in English, why would they want to broadcast Spanish language programming? Corvus cornix 18:06, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

Lufthansa's history

Hello, I searched Wikipedia about Lufthansa's History and found nothing.

What i am interested in, is a list of all the cities that Lufthansa offers its service and when did Lufthansa offer this service first in these cities(in what year)

A list of where they fly can be found at Lufthansa destinations, although there's no mention of when they started flying to each place. --Maelwys 16:12, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

This is from the German Wikipedia's article on history of Lufthansa:

Old Lufthansa (1926 - 1945)

April 1926: First scheduled flight: Halle - Erfurt - Stuttgart - Zurich (routing)

May 1926: Nocturnal flight: Berlin - Königsberg (now Kaliningrad)

Other destinations flown in 1926 without month being specified: Berlin - Moscow and Cologne - Paris, as well as various unspecified seaside spa destinations at the coasts of the North Sea and Baltic Sea.

1927: Munich - Salzburg - Klagenfurt - Venice. Employment of Flying boats for Berlin - Stettin (now Szczecin) - Copenhagen - Gothenburg - Oslo. That same year, Lufthansa helped found airline companies in foreign countries, Iberia among others, which flew Madrid - Barcelona.

1928: The Iberia flight was extended to Berlin (via Marseille) making Madrid - Berlin the longest continuous route in Europe at the time. First (unscheduled) transatlantic flight Baldonnel, Ireland - Greenly Island, Canada. Nonstop flights Berlin - Zurich and Berlin - Vienna. Unscheduled flights to Siberia and Tokyo.

1929: Mail delivery routes from Berlin to London as well as to Malmö and from Stuttgart to Basel. Unscheduled flight from Sevilla to Tenerife in preparation of a flight across the South Atlantic.

1930: 24 airmail departures from passengers ships. Unscheduled flight from Warnemünde to New York City. Airmail route Vienna - Budapest - Belgrade - Sofia - Istanbul, shortening the time for delivery from Berlin to Istanbul to 24 hours.

1931: Air commuter service Cologne - Frankfurt for the price of a second class train ticket.

1932: The largest passenger aircraft, the Junkers G 38, is employed for the route Berlin - Amsterdam - London. 36 airmail departures from passenger ships.

1934: First scheduled airmail flight crossing the South Atlantic. Berlin - Warsaw (Millionth airline passenger in September 1934).

1935: Test flight to Cairo. Scheduled flights from Amsterdam to Milan (in co-operation with KLM).

1936: Exploratory flights over the Hindukush and Pamir mountain ranges.

1937: New scheduled airmail flight: Berlin - Bagdad - Teheran

1938: Berlin - Bagdad - Teheran is offered to passengers as well. Daughter company in Peru allows for scheduled flights from Germany to Peru. August 10, 1038: first nonstop flight Berlin - New York City. Scheduled service introduced soon thereafter. (That year Lufthansa delivered over 250,000 passengers and over 5,000 tons of airmail).

1939: Natal - Santiago de Chile is taken over by Syndicato Condor. First nonstop flight across the South Atlantic. Services from Berlin to Bangkok (via five destinations) and Bangkok - Hanoi - Taipei

1939 - 1945: During World War II, Lufthansa was forced to close down many destinations, because the aircraft, manpower and material resources were used for the war.

New Lufthansa (1945 - present)

1955: First flights between Hamburg, Düsseldorf, Cologne/Bonn, Frankfurt, Munich, Stuttgart. North Atlantic flights from Hamburg to New York City using TWA pilots. That same year Deutsche Lufthansa (Ost), later Interflug was founded in Eastern Germany. I didn't look up their destinations.

1956: First German pilots fly to the United States. New destinations: Montréal and Chicago, Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, Buenos Aires, Istanbul, Beirut, Bagdad, Teheran. Lufthansa is now the Federal Republic of Germany's flagcarrier.

1957: Connections to Austria. Nonstop flight from California to Hamburg. Cargo service from Germany to the United States.

1958: Nonstop passenger service from Frankfurt to New York City. 30 transatlantic flights a week. New destination: Cairo.

1959: Nonstop cargo service from Frankfurt to New York City. New destinations: Stockholm, Athens, Karachi, Bangkok, Calcutta.

1960: Arrival of the jetplane. First flight with a Boeing 707: Hamburg - Frankfurt - New York City

1961: The Bangkok flight is extended to Tokyo. A network for nocturnal airmal delivery is established.

1962: Passenger services to Africa: Lagos, Johannesburg (with stops in Athens, Khartoum, Nairobi, and Salisbury (now Harare)

1963: First tests with shuttle service without booking, check-in and cabin service. New destination: Mallorca

1964: introducing Frankfurt - Hamburg - Copenhagen - Anchorage - Tokyo. This marks the first scheduled crossing of the Northpole for Lufthansa.

1965: New destination: Australia

1966: New destination: Tunis. First flights to South America's western coast via New York City. Prague and Moscow are the first destinations in Eastern bloc countries. New destination: Dar es Salaam via Khartoum and Entebbe.

1967: New destinations: Bogotá, Belgrade, Zagreb, Bucarest, Budapest.

1968: New destinations: Helsinki, Genoa, Naples, and Tel Aviv.

After 1968 there are no new destinations given at the German Wikipedia page. I doubt very very much that this list is complete, nor could I verify it online. Lufthansa's own website has a history page, but there's far less information there than in the article I quoted from. ---Sluzzelin 01:10, 1 February 2007 (UTC)

Native American culture

Who or what were the Indian Police that attempted to arrest Sitting Bull and Rain-in-the-face among others, the article is rather vague. thanks81.144.161.223 16:46, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

Not sure either, except that they were Indians: "The unostentatious courage and fidelity of the Indian police, who did not hesitate to sacrifice their lives in the service of a Government not of their own race, is worthy of remembrance." from An Account of Sitting Bull's Death by James McLaughlin Indian Agent at Standing Rock Reservation (1891) Rmhermen 17:26, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

Why should the Indian police come against me? We are of the same blood, we are all Sioux, we are relatives.—Sitting Bull

The Indian Police were organized at the Pine Ridge Agency by Dr V. T. McGillycuddy sometime in 1879. They initially numbered 50 and were drilled in regular calvary and infantry tactics. There were twenty-eight under the command of Lieutenant Bull Head near Sitting Bull's camp on Grand river, eleven more (and four volunteers) joined them by daylight on December 15. Six were killed or mortally wounded in the fighting. Mooney, James (1991). The Ghost-Dance Religion and the Sioux Outbreak of 1890.—eric 21:30, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

...Red Tomahawk, like the other police gathering at Bull Head's house, believed deeply in this thing he was doing. The Indian police—with their big, shiny badges—were called Ceska Maza (Metal Breasts) by their people, and Whitehair McLaughlin's Metal Breasts had long been impatient to arrest Sitting Bull. Some of the Blackfeet and Yanktonais among them had old grudges to settle with the Hunkpapa chief. Some of them who were Hunkpapa had old grudges, too, and all of them thought (like McLaughlin) that Sitting Bull was standing in the way of his people. Those whose hearts were not strong for this thing had been weeded out earlier...those who remained were eager to make the arrest. Smith, Rex Alan (1981). Moon of Popping Trees. pp. pp. 155-6. {{cite book}}: |pages= has extra text (help)

—eric 22:59, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

Native American Culture II

Please do not misconstrue this question as a racist blog, but were, or are all Native American people of the same race, I realise that they were divided into Tribes or Clans, but were the people encountered by Columbus and the like, the same as the Souix of the North East? Thank you 81.144.161.223 16:59, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

"Race" is quite a fuzzy concept, but I'd doubt it. The article Indigenous peoples of the Americas states that most of these originally came from Siberia. See Indigenous peoples of the Americas#Migration_waves. 惑乱 分からん 17:07, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

The term "race" is no longer accepted by most geneticists or physical anthropologists as a useful way to understand human genetic variation. "Race" is really a cultural concept. That is, a person's race depends on how people in a given culture define race rather than on their actual genetic makeup. For example, there is more genetic variation among Africans than there is between Europeans and Africans, yet in the cultural lexicon of the United State and Europe, indigenous sub-Saharan Africans are seen as members of a single race, distinct from the race defined as including indigenous Europeans. So, to answer your question, in the cultural context of the United States and Europe, all Native Americans are viewed as members of a single race, but this cultural category has little or no significance in genetic or physical anthropological terms. Native Americans may share certain genetic tendencies, but there are also significant differences in the genetic makeup of various Native American groups. It is important to add that genetic variation within a given human group of any size is almost always greater than the differences between the gene pools of different human groups, and that the differences between the gene pools of any two human groups are much smaller than the differences between the gene pools of subspecies of other animals. In other words, humans of all groups are very closely related genetically. Marco polo 17:37, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

See also human genome and population bottleneck. 惑乱 分からん 18:15, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

This is a very controversial and contentious area. See Indigenous peoples of the Americas. The standard theory is that Siberians populated the Americas in 3 waves, starting with the Clovis culture about 11,000 years ago, followed by the Na-Dene people of the Pacific Northwest, and finally the natives of Alaska. Christopher Columbus, the 1607 Jamestown colonists, or the Mayflower Pilgrims would supposedly have encountered the Clovis culture descendents. Recent findings have suggested that stone-age Europeans or people resembling Australian aborigines might have been here before the Siberians arrived. The Kennewick Man skeleton who lived in the Pacific Northwest 5000 to 9500 years ago looks more like Ainu than he does a descendant of Siberians. But suffice it to say there was varied appearance and varied mitochondrial DNA among pre-Columbian inhabitants of America, just as there was between Scandanavians, Greeks, Basques and other inhabitants of Europe. They did not all look alike, but people in different parts of the continent resembled each other more than they resembled those who lived 2 thousand miles away.Edison 19:49, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

Actually there is more evidence for settlement earlier than 11,000 years ago, than there is for European or non-Siberian input. DNA studies have found "the Amerindian population in the Americas may be derived from a theoretical founding population with an effective size of as small as 70." (from Models_of_migration_to_the_New_World). So probably much less diverse than Greeks, etc. Rmhermen 21:05, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

Marco Polo writes " It is important to add that genetic variation within a given human group of any size is almost always greater than the differences between the gene pools of different human groups, and that the differences between the gene pools of any two human groups are much smaller than the differences between the gene pools of subspecies of other animals." I have often wondered if this is, in fact, true. Any sources? Our subspecies article seems to imply that it may not be true. (However, that article also seems to contradict itself on some points of the definition - which has been pointed out more than once in the talk page.) Rmhermen 21:30, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

Population bottleneck says that all humans,( including the Greeks ) descend from "as few as 1,000 individuals" 70,000 years ago. Genetic diversity can apparently emerge over time. Edison 18:56, 1 February 2007 (UTC)

I would say no, Native Americans were not all of the same race, as they migrated to the Americas at different times and then drifted further apart genetically. Natives of South America, for example, have little resemblance to Inuits from northern Canada. They likely do have common relatives, but you'd have to go back tens of thousands of years to find them, which is enough time for races, as most people define them, to diverge. StuRat 04:22, 4 February 2007 (UTC)

World of Warcraft Subscription

If I downloaded World of Warcraft through bittorrent, would I still be able to purchase play time from Blizzard? I know you'd need an account to tie it to, but can you just register accounts at your whim or do you need a unique license key? I'm looking at this if it makes any difference --froth^T 18:26, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

As far as I know you can log your account onto any computer and anyone's copy of warcraft, so I don't think the source of the software matters, as long as it has a valid key. There is probably a problem though if the same key is logged onto multiple accounts all at once though, so if you use the key that comes with the rip there is probably a good chance it's been banned already for concurrent log ons. Vespine 22:05, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

You must have a CD Key to register an account. Those pre-paid game cards can only tie time onto a pre-existing account. While I'm not sure about this final point, I expect that Blizzard doesn't let fake keys slip through, since they're provided directly to a Blizz central database when the account is registered (the key has nothing to do with software installation). — Lomn 22:15, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

About Syllabus

What is the difference between ICSE and ISC and CBSE syllabus?

Niagara Falls Froze Over in 1911

In 1911 Niagara Falls totally froze over, I have seen some pictures of this event. What I have been trying to find out is the exact day(s) it was frozen over and specifically, what was the temperature that caused this to happen and what was the temperature pattern that led up to this astonishing phenomonon.--Timtompkins 19:31, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

Thanks for anything you can find out.

Tim

In principle, I would think that this could take place only as a result of a period of well-below-freezing temperatures affecting the entire Great Lakes basin, or at least the basins of lakes Superior, Huron, Michigan, and Erie, such that the rivers flowing into the lakes froze up as well. Otherwise, the water flowing into Lake Erie would tend to lift the ice blocking the Niagara Falls enough to allow water to flow over the falls beneath the ice. But perhaps there is some other explanation? Marco polo 19:40, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

Here's some information for you: Snopes --Maelwys 19:42, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

I had just found the same site and was going to post the link! According to that site, the falls did not freeze completely in 1911 but did freeze in March of 1848, when ice temporarily formed a dam across the Niagara River above the falls that stopped the flow of water to the falls. Marco polo 19:45, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

If you would like, you may be able to access the historical weather data you want at this National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration site, but it will cost you. The obvious place to look would be temperature records for Buffalo or Niagara Falls in 1911. It might also be interesting to look at the records from other Great Lakes cities located in large areas draining into the lakes, such as Marquette, MI; Grand Rapids, MI; Green Bay, WI; Detroit, MI; Toledo, OH; and Cleveland, OH. Marco polo 20:05, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

925

I know 925 on a silver ring means it's sterling, and 999 means it's fine silver. What does 925 mean on a titanium ring? 64.198.112.210 20:28, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

See Millesimal fineness. It is a measure of how pure the metal is. 1000 (or 1.000 would be completely pure (and impossible to attain), .500 would be a 50/50 mix. Rmhermen 21:35, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

ie 92.5 % of whatever it is.87.102.23.143 21:50, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

Book?

Greetings,

If I knew someone who published a book, could I post an article about it?

AlexanderTG 21:16, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

This is not a ref desk question- replying on user talk. Friday (talk) 21:27, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

Depends on the notability of the author, and the NPOV stance~. 惑乱 分からん 02:51, 1 February 2007 (UTC)

IQ

I'm 12. I scored 126 on the International High IQ Society's eCMA test. I assume it is designed for 18 year olds. Could anyone tell me my actual IQ and my mental age? 71.28.247.144 22:10, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

No one will be able to answer that question, have a read of the IQ test section in the IQ article. Especially "online" IQ tests don't really mean anything, and IQ tests in general don't mean much for people who are very young, to get an accurate indicator of your IQ you would need to be professionally tested in a controlled environment. At your age, how well you are doing at school is a better indicator of how "smart" you are. Vespine 23:04, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

I took both of the tests on their site [13], and I'm pretty sure it's not reliable. First, it's online, which is inherently hard to control for. Second, it doesn't really look like the IQ tests I've taken in the past. I've never before been asked an obscure geography question, for instance, let alone several. Third, the tests (hard then easy) gave me scores of 120 and 114, which are quite a bit below what I'm used to getting. MENSA's requirement is around 130, and I was well above it. Fourth, it claims it's almost guaranteed you won't get the same test twice in a row, but at least a dozen questions were the same. They probably aren't legit, so your score wouldn't be worth adjusting if it could be. There are plenty of real IQ testers around, though, if you want one you can trust. Black Carrot 23:47, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

Yes, a huge amount of general knowledge questions, which 'reputable' IQ tests avoid as only revealing a person's ability to memorise facts. Even the supposed 'verbal reasoning' and suchlike questions tended to really be general knowledge questions. Case in point, asking "_ is to Brasil as Pound is to Britain". Now, a verbal reasoning test would be to work out that it is asking for currency, and select the thing that fits that category. Except it has already required you to know that the Pound is the currency of Britain, and the list of options are all currencies, so it is really testing that you know the currency of Brasil! In addition, the pattern-forming questions (and, to an extent, the verbal reasoning) are a perfect example of the old adage that IQ tests really test your ability to think like the person who set them. I could see an argument for multiple answers to many of the questions. Of course, none of this is because I'm bitter that it only gave me a score of 119 :-) Skittle 00:39, 1 February 2007 (UTC)

I find it amusing the amount of people who I come across claiming to have way above 130IQ when that would put them almost into the top percentile of the population. I tend to think that someone who scores over 130 on an IQ test would be smart enough to know not to brag about it whenever anyone brings up IQ tests;) Vespine 04:29, 1 February 2007 (UTC)

Heh, and perhaps more importantly, the precise structure of the test can alter the score significantly. While well-structured tests should produce roughly the same scores, IQ tests are pretty finely balanced, and it doesn't take much...my scores, for example, have ranged over a 35 point spread, depending on the particular variant, although the most well constructed tests tend to cluster around the third quartile (from what I can remember - it's been a couple years since I was really into this stuff).

Also, there's a huge amount of literature on the subject of IQ tests, and the debate over their general validity/usefulness is fairly fierce. If anyone is interested, The Mismeasure of Man and The Bell Curve are interesting starting points. Carom 04:37, 1 February 2007 (UTC)

If you took two IQ tests and got slightly different results, could you be a member of Mensa and Densa at the same time? Would that actually make any sensa? Clarityfiend 15:39, 1 February 2007 (UTC)

• From a psychological perspective, I put no stock at all in IQ tests. It's basically a scam. .V. _[Talk|Email] 17:47, 2 February 2007 (UTC)

The problem is that we don't have a good scientific definition of "Intelligence" - and you can't measure something that you can't define. The only thing an IQ test measures is your ability to solve the problems that the IQ test poses. There is positive correlation between things like the dollar amount of your future earnings and your IQ test results - so IQ is some kind of a predictor of future wealth. But a lot of what is claimed for them is untrue. For example, many studies have shown that you can improve your IQ test scores by practicing with old test questions. That doesn't make sense if it's a predictor of anything. I think it's also clear that outrageously high scores and outrageously low scores do indicate things that are very obvious to everyone without the need for the test - but if you take two people who's scores differ by (say) 20 points - I doubt you could find any other objective difference between them. My IQ score is impressively high - but I can't play chess worth a damn - I'm terrible at languages, I don't spell very well and my grammar and punctuation is poor. But I can annihilate most other people at computer programming. So what did my IQ score predict? Certainly it didn't predict my linguistic or chess-playing abilities. Some IQ tests frustrate the heck out of me. You get those ones where you have four geometric patterns and you have to pick the odd one out. I end up finding perfectly good reasons why any one of the patterns could have been the odd one (This one is the only one with a prime number of right angles, but this one is the only one with more than 50% of the figure coloured black, but this one is the only one with order-4 rotational symmetry, but that one is the only one where the correlation between curved shapes and black shapes is perfect)...so I end up having to ask myself which of those differences was the one that seems most obvious to the majority of people. I presume that made my score less than it might be for someone who was unable to see all of the weird differences that I was able to see. The test clearly isn't working for me! The bottom line is: Don't sweat it - IQ tests are mostly bullshit. SteveBaker 22:54, 4 February 2007 (UTC)

Does editing WP make you more or less intelligent?

--Light current 18:38, 1 February 2007 (UTC) Well does it?--Light current 22:33, 1 February 2007 (UTC)

IQ tests, like college admissions tsts, probably seem far more accurate, valid, reliable, and fair to those who score high than to those who score lower. The article has some NPOV discussion of their validity and reliability. Editing Wikipedia, especially if you click random articles and recent changes, will lead you to learn many new things and the relationships between them, and how to look things up. Debates improve your reasoning and rhetorical skills. These factors might well raise your IQ score, as mentioned above, when analogical reasoning tsts require you to know the meaning of the terms used.Edison 19:01, 1 February 2007 (UTC)

Of course: I've now learned many interesting ways to spell penis (as seen in many articles from time to time)! More seriously, I've always been an "eclectic" kind of learner, jumping around from topic to topic and the richly-hyperlinked environment of WIkipedia is just about my perfect natural environment for learning. It's almost as much fun as watching an episode of Connections.

Atlant 14:15, 2 February 2007 (UTC)

LC, I was not originally going to say anything here but I think there is a point to be made. Editing on wikipedia can be stressful and contentious. It can truly test you. You can rise above the stress and contentiousness and achieve a "higher state of consciousness" wherein you gain new respect for others and for the multifaceted nature of life. Blah Blah Blah. I would say that would be "more intelligent". Or you can "choose" to entrench yourself in partisan positions and shut yourself off from the fruits of observation and discourse. Yada Yada Yada. That would be "less intelligent". This is not a comment on any one person or dispute in particular; it is simply my observation in response to your question. --Justanother 14:39, 2 February 2007 (UTC)

Yes of course. You have picked up on the other meaning of intelligence: being smart 8-)--Light current 14:44, 2 February 2007 (UTC)

Editing Wikipedia can make a person far more dangerous. Rather than bumbling an explanation of this phenomenon, I'll just quote the excellent words of Pope. It's really the personality of the editor (specifically their humility) that will determine how intelligently they use any newfound knowledge. -- mattb @ 2007-02-02T14:49Z

A little Learning is a dang'rous Thing;

Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian Spring:

There shallow Draughts intoxicate the Brain,

And drinking largely sobers us again.

—Alexander Pope, An Essay on Criticism

But, without wanting to be annoying, he isn't saying "It's really the personality of the editor (specifically their humility) that will determine how intelligently they use any newfound knowledge", he's saying "If you learn a little bit about something, you will get 'drunk' on the knowledge. If you keep going and learn all you can about something, you will have a more sensible approach to the subject." It's an interesting observation, nicely put, but it doesn't really match the meaning you've put to it. Skittle 17:22, 2 February 2007 (UTC)

My second statement wasn't meant to be an interpretation of Pope's text, just an additional observation of my own. As I indicated, his words are self-explanatory. Since the quote is two couplets I didn't want to try and put it all in-line. Wikipedia can provide a little knowledge on a broad array of subjects, and in-depth knowledge on just about nothing. Pope's Essay contained several pointed satirical attacks directed at some of his contemporaries that he accused of this sort of "drunk with a little knowledge" behavior. I don't think he meant it to be a totally general statement, but more as a means to criticize the sort of people he perceived to be poor at criticism (though his statement is very often true and thus is often seen paraphrased as an aphorism). Thus my second remark about the significance of personality in all this, for it would be rather cynical to believe that every person with a little knowledge on a subject is instantly blinded as to their own ignorance.

Sorry for the confusion; the last thing I want is to be seen as misinterpreting one of my favorite pieces of satire. -- mattb @ 2007-02-02T18:05Z

Exercising your brain has been shown to improve it. Editing Wikipedia will make you more intelligent than vegging out in front of the TV for the same number of hours. But will it make you more intelligent than playing chess or writing a novel or playing the piano or learning a new skill? I have no clue. Wikipedia editing can be as stressful or as relaxing as you want it to be. If you get involved in all of the politics and try to work on contentious topics - yeah - it's horrible. If you pick a small, obscure field of which you have some personal expertise - then it can be very relaxing and fulfilling. I've written most of the articles on Mini, MINI (BMW) and Mini Moke - and mostly, that's been very interesting and relaxing. But fighting tooth and nail for what you see as 'rational' in WP:Fair Use could get you totally stressed out! SteveBaker 22:39, 4 February 2007 (UTC)

International MBA compared with a normal MBA

What is the difference between an International MBA and a normal MBA? Is an International MBA also known as an Executive MBA or are there any differences between those also?

International MBA is the term used when there is some aspect of it taught about other countries, or some of the classes are given in other countries. Thetre is no perceptible difference between this program (in terms if value, future salary, or acceptability) than any other MBA. As always, the wuality of the school, and the experience of the candidate far outweigh that. An "executive MBA" is one that is taken after hour, or on weekends by people currently in industry already, rather than college age kids coming from a B.A. or B.S. It basically means (pay lots more money, take less time, not as hard to obtain). The graduates from this program are usually slightly more capable than a standard MBA, primarily because they have already been in industry, and have experience under their belt, and often use their business to give a context for what they learn, improving their skills in the very area they are already employed. I say that it is easier (not easy) because the professors usually recognize that their students have a great deal of experience already. Because they are usually much more expensive than a standard MBA program, they are big moneymakers for business schools (paid for by a corporation, or an executive who can afford to pay more). The most important criteria should be how well you fit the program you choose. A good fit will mean a great deal of experience that you can step into a job with. The top schools pretty much find jobs for every graduate (Harvard, Chicago, Kellogg, Wharton school, Sloan School, Carlson, Johnson, ...) Atom 22:57, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

Also remember that in some countries you simply cannot get into an MBA program right after your undergraduate. There may not be rules, but it's often the practice that only students with five years experience in the business or non-profit world are accepted. --Charlene 08:06, 1 February 2007 (UTC)

Pricing

Is there any way to find out the fair market price for a consumer item, and how that price varies? Say I wanted to buy an iPod online - is there anyway to find out how much I should expect to spend, and in which countries' websites I should be searching? Black Carrot 23:19, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

There are a lot of websites out there that track prices but I have not come across any that track prices cross-nation. One thing you need to consider when cotemplating purchasing goods abroad is that some products require the payment of taxes on importation. I know I selected a beautifully crafted Faber Castell pen for my birthday and was annoyed to find that the 'bargain' I found online ended up being much closer to the in-store price due to the tax for importing the item. ny156uk 23:27, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

Can you give me links to some of them? Black Carrot 23:50, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

Price comparison service (engines) is UK-centric. For US, try secretprices.com, froogle.com, pricewatch.com to name a few. --Justanother 15:16, 1 February 2007 (UTC)

South African clothing

what is the clothing like in south africa?

Depends on a lot of things, such as wealth, ethnicity, age, weather, culture etc. For middle and upper class, at least, generally not particularly different from the rest of the Western world. 惑乱 分からん 23:48, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

Jeans and a shirt always worked for me. Afrikaans, lower income people seem to enjoy Rugby shorts on men. Shoes seem to be optional. Young Afrikaans people often dress in an equivalent way to european clubbers. while english speakers tend to dress in a more relaxed fashion, hence jeans and a shirt. Native South Africans tend to lean toward a more rap/ RnB influenced fashion sence. However this is a vast and unfair steriotype. So basically wear whatever you want and you will be accepted as long as youre a nice person. Fashion is pretty much the same where ever you go, I find anyway, as most of the clothing companies are international and tend to sell the same clothes in many different countries.81.144.161.223 10:50, 1 February 2007 (UTC)

And because so many of the West's used clothes are bailed up and shipped to third world countries for resale. That why I keep seeing the local university's shirts on kids deep in the jungle/savannah/etc. Rmhermen 17:28, 1 February 2007 (UTC)

There is no longer a term called third world country Garb wire 07:53, 3 February 2007 (UTC)

How do you make a user page

I want to try to make a user page with all the logos how do you do that. --Croc 00:47, 1 February 2007 (UTC)

Well, if you know HTML you can use that to a great extent. Quite a few people just find other things that they like about other people's user pages, copy it, and tweak it to fit themselves. Dismas|^(talk) 00:58, 1 February 2007 (UTC)

Perhaps you are refering to userboxes. - Akamad 01:26, 1 February 2007 (UTC)

Before you spend a lot of time figuring out how to make a fancy user page, and especially before you slather on a bunch of userboxes, know that the really hip users think that simple user pages are way cool, and that userboxes are silly at best. —Steve Summit (talk) 03:41, 1 February 2007 (UTC)

Health care costs per person...

So its an often quoted statement that says that the american government spends more PER PERSON than the canadian government on health care. What I don't understand is how that is possible, given that 60-70% of canadian health care is publically funded, where as in the states, its all privately funded? Is the american figure referring only to Medicare and Medicaid. Cacofonie 01:29, 1 February 2007 (UTC)

Your assertion that healthcare in the us is "all privately funded" reflects a misconception. More than 40% of healthcare spending in the U.S. is by governments. You know of Medicare for seniors and Medicaid for the very poor. There's also healthcare for military personnel and veterans. There's the State Children's Health Insurance Program for low-income kids. All those anti-smoking ads the government funds count, too. So does federally funded medical research at universities. Here's the breakdown of U.S. public healthcare spending in 2005:

Federal (total=$644 billion):

Medicare -- $342 billion

Workers Comp. -- $0.759b

Medicaid -- $177.3b

Medicaid SCHIP -- $1.5b

SCHIP -- $3.8b

Defense Department -- $26.1b

Maternal/Child Health -- $.628b

Veterans' Administration -- $30.2b

Vocational Rehab. -- $.391b

General Hospital/Medical -- $6.2b

Substance Abuse/Mental Health Services -- $3.2b

Indian Health Services -- $2.2b

Public health activity -- $10.7b

Research -- $31.3b

Structures and equipment -- $7.2b

State and local (total=$259b)

Temporary Disability -- $.096b

Medicaid -- $133.4b

Medicaid SCHIP -- $.653b

SCHIP -- $1.7b

General Assistance -- $6.2b

Maternal/Child Health -- $2b

Vocational Rehab -- $.117b

Hospitals and school health -- $19.2b

Public health activity -- $45.8b

Research -- $5b

Structures and equipment -- $11.8b

Private-sector healthcare spending in 2005 was $1.085 trillion.

Source -- Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services -- Mwalcoff 02:00, 1 February 2007 (UTC)

Wow, thanks for the data! So then, if I understand this correctly, American health care pays more per person while ONLY covering the special populations enunciated above? Whereas the canadian system is leses per person, and covers everyone? Or is the figure given meant as they spend more per person actually covered by the insurance? Sorry if thats not very clear.... Cacofonie 20:57, 1 February 2007 (UTC)

On the face of it, it would seem to be the first of those; in short, much less is spent on health in Canada per capita than in the US; the Canadian government meets more of the cost of healthcare. The $1886 versus $2548 figures are based on the whole population of the country, not merely those insured under the various schemes. (And the figures are for Per capita government expenditure on health at average exchange rate (US$), defined as Public Health Expenditure (PHE) per capita is the per capita amount of the sum of outlays on health paid for by taxes, social security contributions and external resources (without double-counting the government transfers to social security and extra-budgetary funds), and are from the World Health Organisation [14].) How you interpret all of this is another set of questions altogether. --Tagishsimon (talk)

Although that said, this provides for each country data which might be indicative of the efficacy of each country's healthcare system. From the four indicators I looked at, Canada was ahead in three and the US in one. --Tagishsimon (talk)

USAF European Air Transport Service Eschborn Germany

Is there any history regarding the Eschborn Air Base in 1946? There was a 441st Troop Carrier Group there, as 14th Troop Carrier Sqd and 32 Troop Carrier Squardron. Before moving to Rhien Main it was redesignated 61st Troop Carrier Group but still European Transport Service "EATS" om a triangle was on the nose of the C-47's. The 14th history sign showed action for Africa, Sicily, Holland, Normandy and Rhein. The "patch" read "Airborne Troop Carrier" with an open parachute. Where can I get information on this WWII outfit? Signed: Ted Medler 1946 Air Inspectors office.4.245.31.59 02:17, 1 February 2007 (UTC)Ted Medler

First university in German Language

Hello, Thank you to the person who answered the question about Lufthansa.He helped me a lot.

I got another question:

In what year and in what city was built the first university in the german language?

I can not decide between Prague and Vienna.

What is the right answer?

Charles University in Prague was founded in 1348, followed by Vienna in 1365 and Heidelberg in 1386. Clio the Muse 09:54, 1 February 2007 (UTC)

Yes, but the question is whether the language of tuition at Charles University was German from the get-go (as it presumably was at Vienna), or some other language (Czech?). I don't know the answer, btw :-) --Richardrj ^{talk email} 16:31, 2 February 2007 (UTC)

The language of tuition at this time throughout Catholic Europe was Latin. The everyday form of speech of the students at these universities would, for the most part, be German. Only Bohemian peasants would have spoken Czech. Clio the Muse 16:47, 2 February 2007 (UTC)

Perhaps the question should be rephrased as "when, and at which university, were classes first taught in German ?". This, I suppose, could include classes on learning the German language as well as classes on other subjects, taught in German. StuRat 04:02, 4 February 2007 (UTC)

Good point. It looks like the answer to that question is the University of Leipzig, 1687, when Christian Thomasius "made the daring innovation of lecturing in German instead of Latin". He also published in German until the academy banned him. Thomasius later helped found Halle University in 1694, where he continued to hold lectures in German. ---Sluzzelin 07:52, 4 February 2007 (UTC)

riddle

what is it that most americans prefer but never use

The right to vote? Though I think the turnout rate is something like 60% so that wouldn't quite work... --24.147.86.187 12:46, 1 February 2007 (UTC)

This was asked the other day, it's still on this very page. Please see the previous question for any answers. Dismas|^(talk) 13:08, 1 February 2007 (UTC)

Statistics/Normal Distribution

(Question and answers so far moved to the Mathematics desk. ) Edison 19:13, 1 February 2007 (UTC)

WW II Rations

My boss would like to know why where eggs rationed during the war as surely there were plenty of chickens. Thanks

I'm going to guess that the rationale was to diminish the amount of chicken feed required to power all those chickens; as food was more scarce the inefficiency of converting grain into eggs became intolerable. --Tagishsimon (talk)

I would imagnine it was because the Army was buying up most of the eggs and shipping them to the soldiers, leaving fewer for the locals to eat. Rmhermen 17:24, 1 February 2007 (UTC)

Something like that was the case in the US, according to the section "A Scrambled Egg Situation" in Economic Basis of the Black Market. Perhaps we can conclude that it was a mix of limitation on inputs and changes to patterns of demand. --Tagishsimon (talk)

[15] says as for rationing in Britain, "egg rationing varied from between one every two weeks during the Winter to 3 or 4 during the Spring and Summer months." and "Expectant mothers and children were also allowed up to 18 eggs per month." [16] says "Eggs, butter and meat could be obtained fairly easily without coupons in rural areas." in wartime Britain. On another aspect of wartime rationing it says "Some people who lived near the sea even tried catching the odd Seagull or two to add to the cooking pot" but does not address the use of their eggs. [17] says poultry was not rationed in the U.S. in WW 2. [18]says "Foods, such as sugar, eggs and meat, were rationed"in the U.S. Edison 19:35, 1 February 2007 (UTC)

Reminds me of the Bob Hope anecdote. While on a USO(?) tour, he quipped, "Fellows, the folks at home are having a terrible time about eggs. They can't get any powdered eggs at all. They've got to use the old-fashioned kind you break open." Clarityfiend 22:04, 1 February 2007 (UTC)

Can you copy from Wikipedia with CITING Wikipedia?

Someone wrote a 'letter to the editor' of our local paper on 'The Quality of Life' and took some sentences verbatim from Wikipedia. He says that because of open source, he can do this without any reference.

He also replied to me with the following saying Widipedia's disclaimer says he does not have to CITE... "Important note: The Wikimedia Foundation does not own copyright on Wikipedia article texts and illustrations. It is therefore useless to email our contact addresses asking for permission to reproduce content. It is possible to reproduce content under the license and technical conditions applicable to Wikipedia (see below and Wikipedia:Mirrors and forks). The permissions to reproduce Wikipedia's content in accordance with these conditions are granted without request."

I would think that since Widipedia is like an encyclopedia, one should at least say that he copied the information from it (I'm not asking whether he has to ask permission - the real question is whether CITING is necessary, as he used sentences as though he wrote them himself).

Thanks very much for the help - Sorry to sound so dumb.

Best regards 68.54.76.151 13:47, 1 February 2007 (UTC)

The words you want to stress in the above are the "in accordance with these conditions". One of the conditions is the GFDL licence. I believe that requires the borrower to cite, but I'd be happy to be corrected.

Much, much, *MUCH* more importantly, he's committed plagiarism (and yes, it's still plagiarism if your source is in the public domain - it's intellectually dishonest whether or not it's a copyright infringement). Newspapers tend to take a very dim view of plagiarism. They'll want to know that something they printed, even a letter to the editor, was not the original thought of the writer. If I were you I'd call them and ask to speak to an editor. I've seen even small-town newspapers print editor's notes after learning that letters were partly plagiarized.

It sounds like he doesn't understand the difference between copyright and intellectual honesty. If you use someone else's words without attribution, it's plagiarism no matter what the source. --Charlene 14:13, 1 February 2007 (UTC)

Unless the few sentences fall under fair use and then the GNUFDL would apply to the whole document. And he would be required to write at the end of it

"Copyright (c) YEAR YOUR NAME.
   Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document
   under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2
   or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation;
   with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts.
   A copy of the license is included in the section entitled "GNU
   Free Documentation License". "

I have a feeling he didn't do that. I do not believe that there is an obligation to cite wikipedia. Jon513 14:27, 1 February 2007 (UTC)

Thanks for your comments, all - Keep up the great work :) 68.54.76.151 15:47, 1 February 2007 (UTC)

The GFDL does have attribution requirements, but because Wikipedia content is licensed to the GFDL by the individual contributors, it is they who you are supposed to cite. Actually implementing that in a way other than the "History" pages of articles has been a topic of on-going discussion, though. --140.247.248.95 17:24, 1 February 2007 (UTC)

Socks

Why is it that however carefully one smoothes socks they inevitably feel wrinkled once the shoes are on ?

And why do I always get a stone in my left shoe, or sandal ? Winter and summer ?90.9.213.37 14:20, 1 February 2007 (UTC)petitmichel

Question 1, friction with the shoe when putting them on. No idea on the rest. Dismas|^(talk) 15:13, 1 February 2007 (UTC)

I disagree with the premise of the question: in my experience my socks do not wrinkle in the shoe. Perhaps well fitting socks & shoes do not exhibit the characteristic, and ill fitting do? --Tagishsimon (talk)

Either your socks are too big, or your shoes are too small. Or maybee your feet are too small?--Light current 17:20, 1 February 2007 (UTC)

As Dismas pointed out, sometimes the socks already wrinkle in the process of putting the shoe on the foot. If you're wearing laced shoes, it helps opening and really loosening the shoe all the way before slowly slipping your foot in it while pulling your sock up at the same time. If you don't do this carefully when putting on skates or ski boots, for instance, you'll feel uncomfortable very soon. As for the stone in the left shoe, do you have an assymetrical gait? Do you drag your or twist your left leg differently than your right one when you walk?

No idea about question 1, but in regard to question 2, it's quite simple. Stones are attracted to the warmth of your body. When you aren't lookig, stones will sometimes attempt to enter your shoe. Lovingly place them back on the pavement & reassure them that your shoe is not the best place to be. You problem will soon vanish as there are no pebbles in rubber rooms of asylums... ;) Spawn Man 23:36, 1 February 2007 (UTC)

Buying international newspapers and magazines in Maryland, USA.

When I lived in southern California, there was a store down the street where you could buy magazines from around the world. I can't find any such thing in the Baltimore/DC area. I'd like to purchase the occasional copy of Private Eye without having to buy a year's subscription for $72. Jbaber 14:59, 1 February 2007 (UTC)

I would think that you should be able to in D.C. given the number of people from outside the country that probably live/work in the area. Check the yellow pages maybe? Dismas|^(talk) 15:15, 1 February 2007 (UTC)

A few suggestions:

• An international airport store that sells newspapers and magazines will have many international titles, to satisfy the clientele.

• A large book store or comic book store will likely carry some international titles.

• Their website sells back issues for 5 pounds each (around $10 ?), so you could go that way (if they deliver outside the UK), but I'd think the subscription would likely be cheaper in the long run unless you want very few issues each year.

StuRat 03:53, 4 February 2007 (UTC)

Butterflies

To Whom It May Concern:

My boyfriend and I were discussing butterflies the other day. What we would like to know is what happens to a butterfly when it rains? I know if you touch one the pollen rubs off on your hands,but does this cause harm to the butterfly? And if so what will rain do to them? How do they protect themselves from types of weather that may harm them? What is mortality of a butterfly? Your prompt answer would greatly appreciated.

Sincerely, Kathleen Tyson

An answer is found here. In essence, they seek shelter. --Tagishsimon (talk)

Okay, that is believable, but many butterflies imigrate over the oceans, what do they do if there is no vegitation to dart under. I realise many of them die in these amazing crossings, but some survive so, how?

I can only speculate that the survivors a) do not get hit or b) get hit but do not suffer structural damage. Not a very satisfactory answer, not least since it is not referenced. But the plethora of "butterfly rain gauges" and "butterfly rain shoes" makes the google search challenging. This chap has a duck & dive theory in which the flutterby sees and avoid the raid. An article on the physics of water droplets suggests that "Other examples of this non-wetting approach can be found in duck feathers and butterfly wings. These corrugated surfaces also provide air pockets that prevent water from completely touching the surface. As a result of the limited contact that the drops have with the surface, there is very little friction against drop motion. This means that water can bounce or roll off duck feathers and butterfly wings quite easily." So maybe there's avoidance, and slightly more robustnes of design than we'd think ... certainly the non-wetting business probably answer the "pollen rubs off" issue you raised. Not much more light shed at this forum. As to mortality (lifespan?), I give you "The average lifespan for an adult butterfly is 20 to 40 days. Some species live no longer than three or four days; others may live up to six months" from here.--Tagishsimon (talk)

Just wanted to add that butterfly scales are what you're seeing when you disturb a butterfly wing; according to this expert, "Monarchs can fly after they've lost a lot of scales! However, they probably can't fly as efficiently when they've lost significant numbers." Ernest Williams et al. corroborate those sentiments precisely. V-Man737 01:15, 2 February 2007 (UTC)

educational

How can I approach the question 'who am I?'-------ANTHONY

Who are any of us? or I am the God of your universe, you just dont seem to know it yet.

I'd start at Self (philosophy) and see where that leads. --Tagishsimon (talk)

Don't forget to check out amnesia. Clarityfiend 18:17, 1 February 2007 (UTC)

Who am I? Maybe you're "reaching far too high". ---Sluzzelin 23:45, 1 February 2007 (UTC)

• What are your strong points? Those are important in establishing who you are. - Mgm|^(talk) 10:50, 2 February 2007 (UTC)

Meditate, daily. JackofOz 06:58, 3 February 2007 (UTC)

Kiddies? (Not Goats)

Greetings,

I was wondering; is there an account of how many children King Solomon of Israel had? He had 700 wives and 300 concubines, so it must have been many.

Thanks, AlexanderTG 17:49, 1 February 2007 (UTC)

Our article on Solomon appears to make no mention of any of his children. Rmhermen 20:00, 1 February 2007 (UTC)

2 Chronicles mentions his son Rehoboam becomming King if Israel after Solomon's death. There may be additional information from Jewish sources.129.112.109.250 21:08, 1 February 2007 (UTC)

AC/DC

AC/DC is supposed to be working on a new album and it being released in this year. Can you help me find out more information on this, and if it`s true?

AC/DC#New_album seems to be about this. Friday (talk) 19:49, 1 February 2007 (UTC)

make things happen again in counter strike condition zero

I wnat to know that if is possible to do in CSCZ that one thing will change in every of round, (a exemple i want to put that in every round the start money will be 6170$ even if the playes kill many players and get many money in the next round everybody will start with 6170$)

If you're admin, im sure its possible to give all players $x with a console command, I'm sorry dont know what that is though, I googled for a little bit with no luck. Cyraan 02:20, 2 February 2007 (UTC)

But i want (a example) that in every start of round the round that the game set the amount of money of the players to number like 6170$ without the admin having to type a command on every round.

Never played CS, but could it be a cvar in the server configuration file? --Wooty Woot? contribs 03:17, 3 February 2007 (UTC)

Quick change video

I saw a video of a quick change couple which was truly amazing. The woman could completely change clothes including shoes in seconds. This is NOT a x rated video. She is never without clothes on. I think this video is from a TV program. Anyone know where I can find it on the net?129.112.109.250 20:52, 1 February 2007 (UTC)

I would suggest this sort of google search --Tagishsimon (talk)

Or if you prefer YouTube[19]. Vranak

Was it from America's Got Talent? They had a good one. --Justanother 07:07, 2 February 2007 (UTC)

David and Dania it was. See Quick-change and here. --Justanother 07:10, 2 February 2007 (UTC)

Vocal Vibrato Lessons

What is a good website with online free vocal vibrato lessons? Thx. Jamesino 02:33, 2 February 2007 (UTC)

This Google search yields a plethora of sites that are right on the money. Most of them are promotional, so they'll give you some free "tips" before inviting you to send them money for the full Monty. All in all, I'd say that most of the sites have fairly good tips. V-Man737 03:52, 2 February 2007 (UTC)

ZORK- V.1

How do I create an account on zork? Яussiaп F 02:55, 2 February 2007 (UTC)

If you mean the first version of Zork, you wouldn't create an account the way you would with an MMORPG; rather, you can simply type "save" and it will save your status on the computer. To access your save point, type "reload." V-Man737 04:00, 2 February 2007 (UTC)

So you can only save one file a time? Would you be able to copy old save files into other folders if you wouldn't want them to be overwritten? 惑乱 分からん 11:16, 2 February 2007 (UTC)

Although the game was designed to have only one save file at a time, I'm sure a person could manipulate computer files around to allow for different save files. V-Man737 11:19, 2 February 2007 (UTC)

alternative words for ocean

i am looking for alternative words for ocean or other languages words for ocean

If you go to the ocean article, and have a look down the left hand side of the page, there will be links to non-English language versions of the ocean article. So you can have a look at those to see what oceans are called in other languages. - Akamad 03:44, 2 February 2007 (UTC)

Thesaurus entry for ocean --Tagishsimon (talk)

How do I delete a note of a change I have made to a page?

I want to clear a note in a page's edit history of a change I made before I created an account on Wikipedia. I want to do this to conceal my IP address. So can I do it? If so, how? Yoshiroshin 04:37, 2 February 2007 (UTC)

AFAIK, no, can't be done. (Well, okay it could probably be done by a developer, but I think you'd have an uphill battle trying to convince one of the need, and I doubt there's a standard procedure for doing it.) --Tagishsimon (talk)

An administrator could clear an edit history, but only in certain circumstances (like slander or information that could put an editor at risk). If you have a genuine concern that it could put you at risk, you should speak to an admin about it. Rockpocket 06:42, 2 February 2007 (UTC)

I'm not sure that'll clear the IP addy, just the comment. --Tagishsimon (talk)

It would remove the edit and the record of the editor/IP making the comment. How it works is the whole article gets deleted then only selected versions get re-instated. If the selected comment doesn't get reinstated its record - and that if the contributor - remains invisible to everyone except other admins. Rockpocket 06:56, 2 February 2007 (UTC)

• If you don't say what edit it is, no will know the IP belongs to you. Concealing it for fears other than it being linked to you are useless, because anyone with bad intentions will know the IP exists already whether it is displayed or not. - Mgm|^(talk) 10:48, 2 February 2007 (UTC)

Of course the best way to conceal your IP address in the future is to create a proper user account. Once you do that, only admins can find out what your real IP address is. SteveBaker 22:27, 4 February 2007 (UTC)

Webpage Font

Is there any way I can alter the font you are using on your website pages. I find it very tiring. I am 83 years old and I prefer a more conventional font like times new roman. Thanks.

Yes, there is. Your browser should have an option that allows you to over-rule the Wikipedia default font. On Mozilla Firefox, you should choose Tools > Options > Content > Advanced. Then de-select the tickbox that says "Allow pages to choose their own fonts, instead of my selections above". Then simply change the the fonts in the section above to one of your choosing. When you click "OK" Wikipedia should reload using the font of your choosing. I'm sure there is a similar function in Internet Explorer, though I don't know for sure how to access it. Rockpocket 07:26, 2 February 2007 (UTC)

Further, from Internet Explorer help: If you want to have the fonts and colors you specify in Internet Explorer to be used for all websites, regardless of the fonts that have been set by the website designer, follow these steps:

• In Internet Explorer, click the Tools button, and then click Internet Options.
• On the General tab, click Accessibility.
• Select the Ignore colors specified on webpages, Ignore font styles specified on webpages, and Ignore font sizes specified on webpages check boxes, and then click OK twice.
• Then go back to the General tab, click Fonts, and select the Fonts you wish to use.

Rockpocket 07:33, 2 February 2007 (UTC)

Quick trick: If your mouse has a wheel, you can instantly increase the font size in IE (but not the font) by holding down the ctrl key and rolling the mouse wheel one click backwards.--Shantavira 09:32, 2 February 2007 (UTC)

Cinq vins pour moi

On a TV commercial tonight, I heard again a song I sort of like, in French, that I've never been able to figure out the lyrics to. To me it sounds something like

Cinq vins pour moi

Cinq vins pour moi

Cinq vins pour moi moi moi moi moi

Cinq vins pour moi

and continues in the same vein. Google turns up nothing. Does anyone know what song this might be? --Trovatore 07:48, 2 February 2007 (UTC)

Oh! That famous song! It is French, and it means "Five Wines For Me." It goes like this:

Five Wines For Me

Five Wines For Me

Five Wines For Me Me Me Me Me

Five Wines For Me

I think it's a drinking song, though I can't remember how I figure... V-Man737 08:20, 2 February 2007 (UTC)

I'm fairly certain it would be "Ça plane pour moi" by Plastic Bertrand--or perhaps a parody of that song Melburnian 08:37, 2 February 2007 (UTC)

Plastic Bertrand... Nice! 惑乱 分からん 11:21, 2 February 2007 (UTC)

Gingivitus help.

Okay, I got braces two years ago (note: non-vandalizing 15-year-old Wikipedian). I've brushed my teeth, flossed, and gargled. Yet, today, I had a sensitive tooth, and upon further examination, I had Stage 1 Gingivitis. I have chronic halitosis and I often have to scrape plaque off my teeth, even after brushing for two minutes, yet I have gingivitis. How? The velociraptor 08:08, 2 February 2007 (UTC)

Do you still have braces, or are they off now? You should call or visit your dentist. If you hadn't said that bit about brushing for two minutes and flossing and gargling (sardines?), I would have told you to do all that. There could be a different problem that you aren't aware of yet. It occurs to me that if you are able to scrape dental plaque (and you're sure it's not algebra) off your teeth immediately after brushing, you may be brushing your teeth incorrectly. V-Man737 08:29, 2 February 2007 (UTC)

Chronic halitosis is often a sign of tooth decay. See your dentist! When you do, ask her/him about your trouble with plaque - s/he may suggest an electric toothbrush. My dentist told me that brushing with even a very cheap electric toothbrush (the kind that costs $9.99 at Zellers) generally gets teeth cleaner than brushing with a regular brush. Edited because my grammar is horrible today. --Charlene 12:54, 2 February 2007 (UTC)

European Union

Hello,

I would like to know:

Based on what agreement are specified the actual rules of the European Union? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Akrepja (talk • contribs)

Nothing in the EU is simple ! The constitutional rules of the European Union are defined in a complex set of interlocking and overlapping treaties - see Treaties of the European Union. An attempt to replace these with a single, simpler and more streamlined European Constitution received a major set-back when referenda in France and the Netherlands in 2005 failed to approve the draft constitution - see our article Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe. Gandalf61 10:20, 2 February 2007 (UTC)

Citizens of honour of Trier

Hello, I have been trying to find a list of the citizens of honour of Trier,in Germany but didn't suceed. Can anyone help me

Trier, Germany#Miscellaneous says "Trier is also the birthplace of the influential philosopher and revolutionary Karl Marx," among other things. V-Man737 09:54, 2 February 2007 (UTC)

Or do you perhaps mean "people who have been made honorary citizens of Trier"? In that case, you'll find a list here (the descriptions are in German, but you can look up the names if necessary). — QuantumEleven 10:49, 2 February 2007 (UTC)

Sport quotes

Who made the confused statement: ‘Brazil aren’t as good as they used to be, or as they are now’?217.35.119.229 09:39, 2 February 2007 (UTC)

Sounds like one of Private Eye magazine's Colemanballs, although it's not listed in the article. Could have been one of any number of (probably British) football commentators. --Richardrj ^{talk email} 10:43, 2 February 2007 (UTC)

Heh. What a silly thing to say. The Brazil team is just as good as they are now. V-Man737 11:28, 2 February 2007 (UTC)

Strange problem.

I think I am strange and normal human laws dont apply to me.Sometimes I think I am a scientist but the next minute I think I am a fool.I am wasting a lot of my precious time because of my strange thinking.Please help me.— Preceding unsigned comment added by 210.212.215.141 (talk • contribs)

You sound like me, four years ago. ^_^ Could you put your concern into the form of a question that we could probably answer? V-Man737 10:34, 2 February 2007 (UTC)

Only those who acknowledge how very little they know become truly creative scientists.--Shantavira 12:22, 2 February 2007 (UTC)

Certainly agree with that. For instance I know sweet FA! (or so it seems)

--Light current 14:48, 2 February 2007 (UTC)

Used to happen to me a lot, now not as much as before. When I was trying to learn something from an unintelligible book I thought I was an idiot, when I played trivial with fools and "owned" them I felt like a genius. Maybe that's your case :D --Taraborn 12:37, 2 February 2007 (UTC)

I'd love to help but you'll need to go into more detail about what sort of 'strange thoughts' you're having. Don't be shy. :) Vranak

I feel the same way most of the time too:( Could it be some sort of mood swings:( And my strange thoughts are stranger:]Hidden secret 7 20:31, 3 February 2007 (UTC)

hola

what is it that 45 percent of brazillians claim to. i have bin told if i carefully google it al solve it in exactly two days... that was 6 days ago so help anyone

Probably cell phones. Pretty much half the population owns one by now. — Kieff | Talk 15:45, 2 February 2007 (UTC)

Also, I found a few references to 45%. 45% of Brazilians are of African ancestry. Something about 45% of their energy is from renewable resources. --Justanother 16:02, 2 February 2007 (UTC)

I heard 40-50% of Brazilian couples regularly participate in anal sex. That might be it, or it just might be how my brain is tuned... =S 惑乱 分からん 16:23, 2 February 2007 (UTC)

I like this "statistic" from that article:

"For example, in ancient Peruvian cultures, at least half of all married couples indulged in anal intercourse in their lovemaking experiences."

The writers were lucky - it is really hard to find survey data from ancient civilizations (removes tongue from cheek). --Justanother 16:29, 2 February 2007 (UTC)

Well, they did have recording devices in ancient Peru... ---Sluzzelin 17:30, 2 February 2007 (UTC)

I hold my tongue. --Justanother 17:36, 2 February 2007 (UTC)

It's not your tongue I'm worried about, it's the cheek. V-Man737 20:46, 2 February 2007 (UTC)

I believe the "statistical data" is a bunch of old pots... Second, I notice the AskMen article I linked fails to cite a source for their Brazilian survey... 惑乱 分からん 18:50, 2 February 2007 (UTC)

Oh, I wouldn't doubt it. I live in Brazil and I can confirm that most Brazilians are obsessed with anal sex and asses. I honestly can't see why all the noise about it. By the way, the "hola" in the section header is probably a mistake by the OP, since here in Brazil we speak Portuguese, not Spanish... — Kieff | Talk 21:29, 2 February 2007 (UTC)

And how do brazzies greet each other, then? For instance when they try to pick up some babe with a hot ass? (Btw, what is that in portuguese?) 惑乱 分からん 22:05, 2 February 2007 (UTC)

(I see 惑乱 分からん is also concerned with cheek.) ;-) V-Man737 02:35, 3 February 2007 (UTC)

Hmmm, I start to realize the difference between "tongue in cheek" and "tongue between cheeks"... =S 惑乱 分からん 08:40, 3 February 2007 (UTC)

Uk Tax Question

I understand self-employed people can write-off specific purchases as tax-deductable/not pay VAT on them. I know that if you have a formal dress-code at work you can approach your employer about claiming tax back for the outfits you have to buy. Can you contact the Inland Revenue/tax authority directly and claim VAT back on items you purchase specifically for work? ny156uk 19:09, 2 February 2007 (UTC)

You can only claim VAT back if you are VAT registered, so I think the short answer to your last question is No. You may be able to reduce your income tax liability (or not, I don't know). VAT != income tax. --Tagishsimon (talk)

VAT is not Income Tax. As Tagishsimon says, you can only reclaim VAT paid if you yourself are registered for VAT. Self-employed people can claim income tax allowances for equipment, particular clothes (safety equipment, for example), brought in pursuance of their work, but ordinary employees can not. Contact HM Revenue and Customs directly for information, as none of us are tax experts. -- Arwel (talk) 01:31, 3 February 2007 (UTC)

dsl

Which is the cheapest dsl service that you can get in Sanford, Florida? (NOT BELLSOUTH, THEY RAISED THE PRICE! THEY SUCK!)— Preceding unsigned comment added by 74.230.100.86 (talk • contribs)

Your best bet is to look in your yellow pages and comparison-shop by phone. You might also compare cable access through your local cable provider. Marco polo 02:09, 3 February 2007 (UTC)

James Bond Ultimate Edition DVD cases

Which brand of double-disc slim DVD cases was used for the James Bond Ultimate Edition box sets? I need to get replacements for two of them (not due to wear and tear but the fact that two of the movies were stored in really cheapo cases with brittle plastic). Tony Myers 23:38, 2 February 2007 (UTC)

3 February

another computer question

I pressed ctrl+alt+delete and pressed end process for something. Now my speakers wont work for watching videos on the internet. The speakers do work, but when i try to go to the control panel, it won't let me change any options.— Preceding unsigned comment added by 74.230.100.86 (talk • contribs)

Perhaps a computer restart will resolve the issue? Or you may have terminated the Windows Audio service. Splintercellguy 02:30, 3 February 2007 (UTC)

i think it was the second one. any way to fix it?

Here's how you turn on Windows Audio Service:
1)Click on the START button on the taskbar
2)CLick on RUN
3)Type MsConfig into the box and click OK
4)Go into SERVICES and find "Windows Audio" and make sure the box next to it is checked. If it isn't, then check it.
5)Click APPLY and OK.
6)Restart your computer.
--Codell^«T» 03:29, 3 February 2007 (UTC)

Never mind, i rebooted it and it worked again. "The ghetto way is the only way" ha ha ha

This would have been an excellent question for the Computer Ref Desk. StuRat 03:33, 4 February 2007 (UTC)

Yeah Yeah Yeah

I remember an old french song that went something like this:

Yeah Yeah Yeah, Je besoin de ma musique, Je besoin de vivre sur terre, de soleil et du pluie....

It's by a male artist and is not related to the band Yeah Yeah Yeah

Does anyone know the title/author of this song? Thx. Jamesino 02:54, 3 February 2007 (UTC)

These lines are from Céline Dion's "Autor de moi" (Thérèse Dion / Pierre Tremblay ).

"Moi, j'ai besoin de terre et de soleil' / d'un peu de pluie comme une fleur. / Toutes les saisons pour moi sont pareilles. / Ma vie s'écoule tout en douceur.

Not sure about the yeah yeah yeah, and musique doesn't appear in the lyrics (though chanson does). ---Sluzzelin 04:06, 3 February 2007 (UTC)

It's "Besoin pour Vivre" by Claude Dubois lyrics ici--Melburnian 08:47, 3 February 2007 (UTC)

Yes! Thank you Melburnian, that it. Jamesino 17:30, 3 February 2007 (UTC)

Muscle Cramps

I sometimes get spontaneous muscle cramps in my calves. I have found that I can give myself muscle cramps at will in my calves and bicepts. What effect do these cramps have on the muscles in which they occur? Do they offer some kind of work-out in the muscles, or are they somehow detrimental? Thanks.

See muscle cramp for a start. According to the article, cramps aren't inherently damaging in themselves, but may be indicative of other problems: "There are two basic causes of cramping. One is inadequate oxygenation of muscle, and the other is lack of water or salt." V-Man737 06:55, 3 February 2007 (UTC)

Isn't an accumulation of lactic acid after heavy exercise another source of cramps ? StuRat 03:28, 4 February 2007 (UTC)

--muscle cramps usually mean you are lacking magnesium you can buy it in powder form at the health food shop or in tablet form. MrsV

eating healthy are canned foods bad?

i look at alot of lables on everything in canned food i see contains(calcium carbonate)or some other type of preservative and in juice i see alot of (high fructose corn syrup) i just assumed it wasnt good for you just judging by the name ive also watched a documentary about fast food its called "super size me" and it relates to the topics of fast food being unhealthy and how its addictive my dad is having problems with his health and i am sure its because of his diet i would just like to know about things that are natural and good for you VoLtADrUmMeRVoltadrummer 05:04, 3 February 2007 (UTC)

"Natural" doesn't mean good for you. Calcium carbonate, for example, is simply a calcium additive for foods that don't have any. High fructose corn syrup is probably best to stay away from, though, it's simply "empty calories" and is even worse than sugar. Of course, simply trying not to eat these foods isn't always the best solution. Everything in moderation. A balanced diet, with grains, meat, and the occasional Big Mac is the best way to go. If you eat a Big Mac meal every day, you could end up with artery plaques and general unwellness, but once in a while won't hurt (this isn't medical advice, have to say that :P). Canned foods are no more dangerous than any other kind of food, but you have to watch the salt content, easily found on the side of the can under sodium. If it's big (over, say, 15%), you're taking in a lot of salt and that might raise blood pressure. Just use common sense, realize that just because it has a chemical-ish name doesn't mean it's bad, and make sure you or your father is getting what you need nutrition wise and still enjoying foods you like in moderation. EDIT: if someone feels this is medical advice, feel free to remove part of all of it. I'm just trying to answer the original question, but don't want to start any conflict. Poster: lf your father has medical problems, he should be seeing a physician if he isn't already, because we can't answer specific medical questions here. --Wooty Woot? contribs 06:20, 3 February 2007 (UTC)

"Natural" food enthusiasts often err because of paranoid assumptions about the process that food often goes through, using intensely long chemical names for things like "salt." Take, for example, the evils of dihydrogen monoxide. V-Man737 06:55, 3 February 2007 (UTC)

Canned foods aren't as nutritious as fresh or frozen. The reason is not additives but the very high heat which the food is subjected to for a long period of time. That kind of processing can destroy certain vitamins (most notably Vitamin C). Calcium carbonate, on the other hand, is not bad for you at all. The biggest mistake the "natural" industry has made is to brand anything dangerous as a chemical. Water is a chemical. Baking soda is a chemical. Everything on Earth is a chemical, or a combination of them. Just because something has a chemical name doesn't mean it's bad for you - vitamins all have chemical names.

As for natural foods - you have to read your labels. Many "natural" foods contain less salt, less sugar, and (most importantly) fewer cheap fillers such as TVP or soy protein isolate and contain more real food than major supermarket brands. The best way to eat, however, is to consume as few pre-processed foods as possible. Cut out the Hamburger Helper, the Sidekicks, the gravy mixes, the canned spaghetti, the onion soup mix in the pot roast, the canned and dry soups, the frozen entrees, the TV dinners, the cookies and pop, the processed foods full of ultra-cheap fillers (but not sold at ultra-cheap prices) and above all cheap restaurant/drive-in food. Buy meat (if you eat it), fresh vegetables, fresh fruit, and whole grains. Learn how to cook, and especially learn how to use herbs and spices. Not only will you eat better, you'll also save huge amounts of money and you'll likely lose weight. After a few months if you try fast food you may find it inedibly greasy and salty. --Charlene 07:29, 3 February 2007 (UTC)

All this said you might want to look more into edible salt and search around google - the debate over how much is an acceptable amount of salt is still raging on. There are many who argue the limits have been set arbitrarily and that the effects of too-low a salt intake are not explained. Additionally recently scientists did the 'super size me' experiment (http://www.lse.co.uk/ShowStory.asp?story=IG2533398B&rss=true) and found, from the preliminery findings, very different results to this film. There is an obsessions in the modern age with 'natural' food and the 'ill effects' of processed-food but very little is proven about these having any actual damaging effect on your body. A healthy diet is not simply one that misses out processed-food and only eats natural not is it one that does the opposite. Be weary of people who deny processed-food nutriotional/health worth, it can be easily consumed as part of a healthy diet with no ill-effects. There is no definitive diet, we are fortunate enough to choose what we eat - base your decisions on a selection of things, not just 'health' - such as your enjoyment of the product, personal preference, ease of making, cost - because in the real world these things are also part of your food regime and diets do not cover them. ny156uk 10:29, 3 February 2007 (UTC)

In the real world, hundreds of millions of people don't touch processed food and have no problems whatsoever. The real barrier to eating healthier is refusing to change your food regime. In reality it's much easier to stick some fresh food in a crock pot in the morning and come home to a freshly home-cooked dinner than it is to drive every single day to McDonald's, but people don't figure in the time it takes to actually go get drive-in food. --Charlene 12:36, 4 February 2007 (UTC)

I agree with the majority of responders that canned foods are worse than frozen, and fresh foods are the best yet. If you do eat canned or frozen foods, try to get "raw ingredients" as much as possible. That is, get plain, low-salt canned potatoes, not frozen tater tots or boxed potatoes au graten, given the choice. Fresh potatoes would, of course, be the best choice, but not everyone likes to take the time to prepare those. StuRat 03:24, 4 February 2007 (UTC)

Okay, you've boggled me. They make canned potatoes? Really? When you can just wash off a potato, put a hole in it with a fork, stick it in the microwave, hit "Potato", and in a few minutes you have a freshly cooked potato? --Charlene 12:38, 4 February 2007 (UTC)

Clearly a tinned-potato has benefits over a non-tinned one...longevity being the biggest factor of purchasing tinned produce over fresh produce. :"According to the British Nutrition Foundation, broadly speaking, the vitamin and mineral content of frozen and canned fruit and vegetables is equivalent to that of fresh products." For instance vitamin C and folic acid are sensitive and their levels can be lower in vegetables that have been stored a few days before consumption compared to that which is kept frozen prior up until consumption. Losses occur during the canning process but they are then remain constant for the shelf-life of that product. Benefitis of both frozen/fresh produce exist, we should not look to call this a 'good food'/'bad food' issue - the case is not that simple. ny156uk 17:45, 4 February 2007 (UTC)

Another benefit of tinned potatoes is the reduced production of the poison solanine because they are both entirely protected from light and they are thoroughly cooked. Rmhermen 21:48, 4 February 2007 (UTC)

Vegetable Oil Expeller Press

Do you know where I can purchase or find instructions on how to make pure cold pressed vegetable oil (expeller pressed)? An example would be if I would like to make home made cold pressed olive oil or sesame oil? There must be a home device that would allow me to make the oil? (SpamBot Starvation Enforced) Ken→KenKeeve 05:51, 3 February 2007 (UTC)Ken Mardian

Google "olive oil press". They are available, but they're four-figure machines. The ancient presses took up half a room and quite literally weighed a ton - they were made of solid stone. Also look here - according to this article, expeller-pressed oils are not cold-pressed. --Charlene 07:13, 3 February 2007 (UTC)

TV

was the Queens wedding in 1947 televised?

I'd guess more likely shown at cinemas... 惑乱 分からん 12:48, 3 February 2007 (UTC)

I found examples of the radio broadcast and also this (http://www.birth-of-tv.org/birth/assetView.do?asset=BIRTHOFTELEV19001___1113215017890) which seems to suggest the event had at least some filming. She was not Queen at the time so searching by 'Princess Elizabeth' instead may help you track down more information. From my quick search I cannot see anything that suggest it was broadcast, and the page bbc 1 makes me think it was unlikely because of the coverage area of the channel - though it could have been recorded and shown in cinemas/town halls etc. ny156uk 12:53, 3 February 2007 (UTC)

Being around at the time I can say that it was not televised. What was television in UK 1947? But her Coronation was televised. (We soldiers were given the day of... but then marched to the camp cinema and compelled to watch.)86.216.123.47 16:12, 3 February 2007 (UTC)petitmichel

There was television in the UK in 1937. Parts of the Coronation of George VI were televised to the 20,000 London homes that had television. The service was shut down on September 1, 1939, and started up again on June 7, 1946. Unfortunately, the reference I'm getting all this from here hasn't got past September 1947 yet (the Princess having married in November of that year). I suspect that newsreels of the wedding would have shown up on the news in many countries, but I strongly doubt there were live cameras in the Cathedral. That's a very modern invention.

Then again, public royal weddings are a relatively modern phenomenon - most of Queen Victoria's children were married privately. Now that I think of it, most of the public traditions of the British Royal Family are innovations. --Charlene 12:28, 4 February 2007 (UTC)

I would venture "no". Several sources, including some official ones, make a big deal about her coronation in 1953 being televised at her request; one would think that the same articles would have mentioned it if her wedding had been televised. --jpgordon^∇∆∇∆ 14:59, 5 February 2007 (UTC)

cost of a coke at McD's

Someone told me that when I buy a coke at a fast food place, most of the cost goes towards the cup itself as opposed to the liquid in it. Is this true? any internet sources? Someone also said the same goes for cereal and cereal boxes.

I think most of the money goes to the company's profit. But you may be right about paper cups costing more than the liquid in them; it's just carbonated water and very cheap syrup --froth^T 20:09, 3 February 2007 (UTC)

I guess that is true since they'll always fill 3/4 of the cup with a bunch of ice.

I think you'll find that the greatest cost of common soft drinks is for labor, no matter whether it comes from a fountain at a fast food place or already bottled or canned. That explains why larger sizes typically cost only slightly more than smaller sizes: the labor to handle them is practically identical. --Anonymous, February 3, 2007, 22:24 (UTC).

Here in the USA, most restaurants and fast-food places offer free refills. This strongly suggests that the liquid is almost zero cost and the cups are the bigger part of the cost. I'm always amused to see people buying large sized drinks when the refills of small-sized drinks are also free! But pricing in these places doesn't necessarily have anything to do with the actual costs. They might sell drinks for less than they cost to make in order to sell more high-profit burgers...or maybe the other way around. It's a subtle marketting dance. SteveBaker 22:16, 4 February 2007 (UTC)

One reaon you might still buy the bigger drink is that you're planning on taking the last refill out of the store with you, perhaps on that nine-hour car ride that still looms ahead of you. And often, the price delta between the small and the large is trivial anyway. Atlant 12:53, 5 February 2007 (UTC)

And the really small sizes (like the mcdonalds happy meal size) are only good for one or two gulps! --froth^T 17:36, 5 February 2007 (UTC)

Ink Cartridge recycling

Is there any charity recycling Epson ink cartridges in the UK. Most seem not to want Epsom; I wonder why this should be so? --88.111.50.88 16:35, 3 February 2007 (UTC)

Don't know about the first question, but the answer to the second one is that compatible Epson cartridges are so cheap that nobody would buy recycled originals. This is because most other makes of cartridge contain part of the printing mechanism, but Epson cartridges are just simple tubs of ink. See Inkjet printer. --Heron 21:41, 3 February 2007 (UTC)

family tree

86.41.86.150 19:44, 3 February 2007 (UTC)hi there, I'm trying to find a good free site where i can trace back some family. born here in cork, ireland. person i need to find our about is deceased and have little info only name and address. i think i have relations by way of this old man somewhere in ireland but don't know where to start. please help. Trish

I don't know of any completely free sites. However, many sites, such as this one will permit access to their records (or some portion of their records) for free for a limited "trial" period. With a little ingenuity, you can find out a great deal of information, although you won't necessarily be able to access all their records. However, there is an alternative: if you have fairly accurate information about the name and residence of your ancestors, you may be able to conduct your research by calling or emailing geneological societies, etc. in the relevant area. In the United States, many societies will assist you with research (look up birth certificates, etc.) free of charge, although there would certainly be fees to obtain copies of any documents. I don't know if geneological societies in Ireland are as accommodating. Carom 21:54, 3 February 2007 (UTC)

The LDS church would probably be willing to do it for you; I couldn't find their genealogy website though... The rest of that article has useful information. V-Man737 03:05, 4 February 2007 (UTC)

PS3 + Xbox 360 + Wii = $$$

Greetings,

I am wondering why the new consoles are costing so much. They have said "We want to spread gaming to everyone" but I can't go shelling out $600 for a game system, and $100 for a contoller, and $60 for a game. Then you have to get an HDTV and an HD-DVD. I want to know why the prices are what they are and when the prices might be lowered.

Fare thee well, Alexander the Great AlexanderTG 21:03, 3 February 2007 (UTC)

A Xbox 360 system is $250. Buy one and rent games. --Wooty Woot? contribs 21:22, 3 February 2007 (UTC)

A wii is 250. An Xbox 360 is 300. I want to know why they're expensive AlexanderTG 21:27, 3 February 2007 (UTC)

The consoles are currently all pretty new, and they all contain cutting edge technology. Moore's law states that the rate of technological advance in microchip technology is very rapid, so what seems state of the art now will be common place in a years time, and hence components will be cheaper to source. Plus, specialised components such the accellerometers in the Wiimote will gain from economies of scale as the Wii takes off; more companies will be willing to produce these components now that their success is almost certain, and so they will begin to compete to offer the cheapest quote. The Gamecube and Xbox both dropped by $50 after 6 months, and a further $50 after another 18 months-2 years, while the PS2 took almost 2 years to drop in price, but then dropped by $100. This generation will likely follow suit; I can see the PS3 falling in price dramatically, but not for another couple of years, when the currently state of the art technology becomes much more common and hence cheaper. If you want cheap, I'd buy a Wii; as the console isn't quite as hi-def, the games are cheaper (no Wii game should cost over $50, apparently), and wireless controllers are included as standard, unlike the 360. If you're willing to wait a little while, though, the 360 should drop soon. Laïka 21:33, 3 February 2007 (UTC)

Because a team of accountants and marketers decided that those were the most appropriate unit cost/profit margin/marketability price points for the units. The market will force their hand if the price points are unsustainably high. I usually buy consoles a generation behind, it's a great money saver. Then again, I really don't care much about video games. Anyway, considering inflation, this generation of consoles isn't any more expensive than the last with the exception of Sony's offering. For some explanation of the reasoning for this latter console's price, you can easily dig up tons of articles analyzing the cost of the unit itself and some of Sony's explanations as to why they think the price is sustainable. P.S. - That's a misapplication of Moore's law. Moore's law isn't a predictor of technological advancement or even microprocessor capability, only transistor density (and by extension, IC feature size). -- mattb @ 2007-02-03T21:39Z

if your looking for a ps3 that is lower than 500 bucks, then i suggest waiting a couple of months. Sony has been losing a lot of money and they are likely to lower the price soon. The wii is already as cheap as it can get, so don't wait for the price to go down any time soon. The xbox 360 is getting older, so it should get a little cheaper by the end of this year.

I don't think your statement about the Wii is correct. Some of the specialized components will drop in price (as Smurrayinchester pointed out), and this will give Nintendo some room to drop the price. Additionally, as Nintendo recoups some of the cost of developing the Wii, the price will probably drop (I'm not an economist; this is is simply based on my observations from the last generation of consoles). I would be extremely surprise if the price of the Wii did not drop within the next 18 months. Carom 22:20, 3 February 2007 (UTC)

The critical thing you need to know about the console business is that most consoles are sold for less than they cost to manufacture. The manufacturers make their money by taking a percentage of the price of games for that console. This makes for an odd state of affairs. You'll notice that games for the Xbox and PS3 are costing around $60 while Wii games cost around $45. This is because Nintendo made a cheaper console (no fancy hi-def stuff for example) - and were able to sell it for about what it costs to make (some sources claim they make a small profit on the console - others claim they make a small loss - but it's close). That means that Nintendo can sell games for less because they have less to recoup for losses on console sales. The PS3 - despite it's outrageous price tag is still being sold at an enormous loss. This is the reason for the horrible shortage of game consoles when they first come out around Xmas. If the manufacturer is making a loss on every console, the more they sell, the worse off they are - since game sales don't roll in to make up for this loss immediately, the manufacturer has a serious cash flow problem. The general idea is to sell just enough consoles to make sure that the people who publish games for it will be interested in writing for this console - but not so many that you sink yourself in horrifying losses. As the game income starts to ramp up, they can afford to sell more consoles - then more games - then more consoles. Gradually, the price of components falls and economies of scale kick into a higher gear and they are able to fulfill the demands of their customers for console hardware.

Nintendo's strategy of making a cheap - not so capable - console at close to break-even prices has enabled them to sell vastly more machines than Sony in the short term.

It's a bizarre situation where a company doesn't want to sell too many of its products. But if you are losing $100 on every machine you sell - and you sell a million of them - then you may need to sell 10 million games just to break even! This strange situation explains why the Nintendo DS has been so much more successful than the vastly more capable Sony PSP. The average DS owner has 12 games in his/her collection. The average PSP owner has one point five games! This is a disaster for Sony - they'll never recoup the loss they made on the console on the basis of one and a half games sold!

SteveBaker 02:19, 4 February 2007 (UTC)

*applause* excellent answer! --froth^T 17:34, 5 February 2007 (UTC)

I still don't buy this 'console manufacturers lose money on console sales alone' - maybe that's what they want you to believe - so you think you're gettng a good deal - look at the PS2 now - £99 approx - for something that's worth (using a comparision to DVD players) approx £40. Overall I think they make a profit just on the console sales (provided of course they sell 100million of them...)87.102.8.103 17:55, 5 February 2007 (UTC)

romeo vs tybalt

can one of you guys give me a link that gets me to the fight of romeo and tybalt from the 1960's movie? i tried to find it on youtube but all i got was a bunch of highschool plays.

A 1960's movie will be under copyright still so any clips from it are liable to be illegal copyright violations. Best to go rent it yourself. Rmhermen 22:11, 3 February 2007 (UTC)

Pain

If you are very tierd and in pain. can that make you more irratable then normal?--DarkFuture 23:27, 3 February 2007 (UTC)

Yes. See irritability. — Kieff | Talk 23:33, 3 February 2007 (UTC)

For most people, it would be very difficult to not be at least somewhat irritable when in pain and tired. --Charlene 02:21, 4 February 2007 (UTC)

You should have asked that question two days ago. |-( (For some reason, I was only irritable when I wasn't editing Wikipedia.) V-Man737 03:13, 4 February 2007 (UTC)

Load Bearing wall

Is there any advice/precautions I could take when drilling into a supporting wall to attach some cabinets which will be taking a relatively large amount of weight (i.e. up to 100kg)? Howso-Mchowsoson 23:47, 3 February 2007 (UTC)

You should be fine provided that the diameter of your fastener is not more than, say, 25% of the width of the load-bearing members (studs). I would also not space them close together vertically, not within, say, 100mm of each other vertically (assuming about a 10-12mm drill). Make sure you use sufficient fasteners! This is a "guestimate" by someone with qualification to make such but govern yourself accordingly. --Justanother 23:57, 3 February 2007 (UTC)

The reasoning is that when you drill a hole in a compressive member you are reducing the cross sectional area and increasing the stress. Bearing walls are built with more than ample factor of safety (on the nature of 2 - 3x or more) so the reduction from one bollt hole going 1/2-way in is on the order of 10%. And if you have a bolt in there then there is no net loss. The guess comes in in guessing that you can afford that 10%. I know the bolts will be in but what about when they are not? --Justanother 00:12, 4 February 2007 (UTC)

You did not mention it, and it was assumed by the previous responders, but instructions with cabinets I have hiung said be sure to locate the stude and get at least 1 vertical pair of screws into the stud. It would be an obvious mistake to attach heavy cabinets only to plaster or drywall. In a kitchen I remodeled, I installed hanger studs horizontally between the normal vertical studs, before putting up the drywall, so the full width of the cabinet was structurally supported. The screws must be large enough and deep enough into the studs to not shear off or pull out. Washers inside the cabinet help avoid the screwheads goung through the cabinet back. If multiple cabinets are attached firmley to one another, and each is atached to at least one stud, ithe whole assembly will be more stable than is just 1 cabinet is attached to 1 stud. Edison 00:21, 4 February 2007 (UTC)

Nuffield Guppy

I'm working on getting the Mini Moke article through WP:FAC and one of the reviewers asked that I try to get a redlink to Nuffield Guppy at least up to stub status.

All I know is that the Nuffield Guppy was a military vehicle designed in the 1940s or '50s by Sir Alec Issigonis for the Nuffield Organisation. Issigonis also designed a lot of influential cars such as the Morris Minor, the Mini and the Mini Moke. The only Google hits for the Guppy point back to my Mini Moke article here on Wikipedia so it could very well be that there is no information on the Internet about this vehicle! His biography "Issigonis and the Mini" mentions nothing about it - all it says about his time working with Nuffield is that he designed two military vehicles:

1. A weird vehicle that could best be described as a 'parachute-droppable motorized amphibious four-wheeled wheelbarrow' (with a photograph of this bizarre vehicle which looks pretty much exactly like what you currently have in your head right now!)
2. Some sort of Jeep-like vehicle.

But the book fails to give any names for either them. The odds are good that one of these is the Nuffield Guppy - but which one? Various books on the Mini Moke suggest that the Guppy was in some sense a predecessor of the Moke - so I certainly need to mention it in my article - and it should be linked too.

From the context, I might suspect the Jeep-like thing is the Guppy because the Mini Moke is also Jeep-like - but then a Guppy is a small fish - which would be a good name for an amphibious motorized wheelbarrow and the Mini Moke was also designed to be parachute droppable.

I seem to have hit a dead end. I don't really have enough information for even a stub. SteveBaker 01:58, 4 February 2007 (UTC)

Those two may not be as far apart as you think. While Jeep-like vehicles are not truly amphibious vehicles (which can propel themselves while floating on water) they are "water resistant", in that their higher ground clearance and other modifications made them more likely to be able to drive across a shallow stream without stalling than their predecessors. Also, what is the caption on the pic of the weird vehicle ? StuRat 02:37, 4 February 2007 (UTC)

It says "Issigonis in 1944, testing the amphibious motorised wheelbarrow developed for the armed forces." SteveBaker 21:42, 4 February 2007 (UTC)

Great on your working on that article. I had a friend that was very into Mini Mokes. I'm afraid I can't add anything of substance to your question. I tried a bit of GooFu but no better luck than you. But I was curious if you saw this "Sport Moke" that came up?[20] --Justanother 02:53, 4 February 2007 (UTC)

And again [21] --Justanother 02:59, 4 February 2007 (UTC)

Weird! I'll look into it. The article is a little on the short side for a FA - anything more I can find to write about is a good thing. Thanks. SteveBaker 21:42, 4 February 2007 (UTC)

If none of us can find any references to the Nuffield Guppy online or elsewhere, perhaps you remembered the name wrong ? Could it be the tadpole or some other name ? StuRat 03:01, 4 February 2007 (UTC)

No - I didn't "remember" it - it's in a couple of reference books that I quote in the article. The name is definitely right. SteveBaker 21:42, 4 February 2007 (UTC)

While the internet is likely not the best source of obscure auto trivia from the post-war years, I did find a bit more on the work Issigonis was doing at Morris Motors and those strange vehicles which may or may not have been the Guppy. The Nuffield throws me as that is after "Lord Nuffield" AKA William Morris of Morris Motors so why would the Guppy have not been a Morris? What is the source for the Guppy piece? Anyway, from here:

During World War II, Morris Motors undertook military work, notably the development of the Morris lightweight reconnaissance vehicle for the war department. As a member of a reserved occupation Issigonis was excused service in the armed forces and remained at the company’s Cowley plant near Oxford. There he worked on military vehicles of various types, including a motorised wheelbarrow intended for use by the air force in jungle conditions together with an amphibious version designed for use by the Royal Navy.

--Justanother 03:20, 4 February 2007 (UTC)

Yes - that's pretty much the information I have. The 'Nuffield'/'Morris' connection (See Template:British Leyland) comes about because the 'Morris' and 'Riley' companies were merged in the early 1940's under Lord Nuffield to form the 'Nuffield Organisation' - which later joined with the Austin Motor Company to form British Motor Corporation (who went on to make the Mini and the Mini Moke). I suppose that if this 'Guppy' was in development before the merger between Morris and Riley, we might find reference to it as Morris Guppy or Riley Guppy - but I don't get any hits for either of those either. SteveBaker 21:42, 4 February 2007 (UTC)

It is interesting that these days motorised wheelbarrows are quite common; see google images. Or as we say in the States, motorized. --Justanother 16:46, 4 February 2007 (UTC)

Yes - this thing looks more like a miniature landing craft - with an outboard motor on the back and four balloon tyres for use on land. The photo has Sir Alec Issigonis sitting in this thing - it looks like it's maybe six feet long and three feet wide. But I'm not sure that this is the 'Nuffield Guppy'. According to the Issigonis biography, he also designed a "lightweight reconnaissance vehicle (a kind of Jeep)...for the Ministry of Defence". If I could connect "Guppy" to "Wheelbarrow" then I'd have enough information to write a decent stub article but everything I read either talks about the Guppy without saying what it was - or talks about the Jeep-like thing or the Wheelbarrow thing without giving either a name. I guess I may have to try to track down email addresses for some of these book authors and see if they can tell me anything more. It's very frustrating! SteveBaker 21:42, 4 February 2007 (UTC)

Well, just going on my gut (but I have a very good gut), I would say that the amphibious craft would have to be the Guppy. And a craft that someone sits in is quite different from a wheelbarrow, no? Forget the jeep-like vehicle, IMO, that is another project. Forget the wheelbarrow. The Guppy is the amphibian. (Puts crystal ball away). --Justanother 23:04, 4 February 2007 (UTC)

That's my guess too - but this is an encylopedia. It would be bad enough to have an unreferenced stub - but to have an unreferenced stub that's a guess would be unforgivable. SteveBaker 03:32, 5 February 2007 (UTC)

Oh, totally. I was not suggesting you guess in the article, just giving my guess as to the fruitful line of investigation and my guess as to probable outcome. Sorry if it did not come across that way! --Justanother 03:45, 5 February 2007 (UTC)

99 cents

T Why is it that in many western countries (Canada, US, Britain, there might be more but I am not sure) prices in stores are generally pegged at x dollar and 99 or 98 cents? Usually for high-priced goods, the dollar amount will also end in 9. Is it not much simpler if prices are whole numbers?

It's about first impressions, which always count. $19 and some cents sounds a lot less than $20. People will be more attracted to an item that sounds cheaper, even if the actual difference is only 1 cent. JackofOz 02:16, 4 February 2007 (UTC)

Our article on psychological pricing discusses this in a fair bit of detail. TenOfAllTrades(talk) 02:16, 4 February 2007 (UTC)

(woops, after e.c.) Wikipedia also has articles on psychological pricing and price ending. This is a popular question, and to read some more information, have a look at the answers last August and the answers last December. ---Sluzzelin 02:23, 4 February 2007 (UTC)

Try INSISTING on paying the full dollar, ie 20.00 not 19.99. It totally throws their accounting procedures!--88.109.5.77 09:37, 5 February 2007 (UTC)

Shelf life of "Reddi-wip" ?

What is the shelf life of a can of Reddi-wip once the seal is broken and some of the product has been dispensed? 71.112.12.68 03:39, 4 February 2007 (UTC)

Wouldn't it approximate the shelf life of the unopened can? Unless the spout is somehow contaminated. In practice it seems half of it is used when it is opened and the rest disappears mysteriously over the next day. Edison 05:24, 4 February 2007 (UTC)

No new password received

Tried to log in and told password not valid. Clicked on send new password and advised it would be sent by e-mail to me. No sign of it within 24 hours. Tried this several times and still no e-mailed password. Please help..........Gerard222.152.200.231 04:18, 4 February 2007 (UTC)

The folks over at Wikipedia:Help desk ought to help ya out... I'll copy your question over there. V-Man737 04:36, 4 February 2007 (UTC)

movie

i remember that i watched this movie a long time ago. the only scene that i can remember was a boy running into a HUGE library and then the library started to flood with paint and he was sent to this animated world. thats all i remember, so sorry for the little info. thanx to anyone that can find out which one it is!

I believe the movie you are recalling is The Pagemaster. I hope you have a most wonderful day! Kyra_~(talk) 06:02, 4 February 2007 (UTC)

Royale with Cheese

I'm not exactly sure if this belongs in Humanities, Language, or Entertainment...but here goes: Is there actually such a thing as a "Royale with Cheese" in SI countries, or did Quentin Tarantino make it up? --Lazar Taxon 06:09, 4 February 2007 (UTC)

He didnt make it up McDonald's menu items--ChesterMarcol 06:40, 4 February 2007 (UTC)

help100

i have a series of questions and answers some arent right some are.plese help me get all right..coz 1 or two are wrong 1.every minute 47 of these are sold or distributed throughout the world-bible 2.more humans have bin killed attributed to this creature than all wars fought-mosquito 3.what can hard boiled eggs do that soft boiled egsscant-spin 4.blueberry jelly was created forthis especially for this well known american-ronald reagean 5.which word means unclothed-nude 6.all hospitals in singapore uses this item on babies-pampered diapers 7.this english football club was formed coz their rivals cudntpay their rent-liverpool

This sounds like one of those awful trivia lists which are largely unverifiable or at least highly apocraphal. -- mattb @ 2007-02-04T20:41Z

Isn't that blueberry jellybeans? Clarityfiend 21:50, 4 February 2007 (UTC)

The hard boiled egg thing isn't quite right. The difference is that if you spin a hard-boiled egg, it stands up on one end - where a raw egg will spin on it's side - something to do with how the liquid inside resists being spun. It's a good way to tell whether an egg is cooked or raw without cracking it open. I don't think there would be much difference between soft-boiled and hard-boiled though. SteveBaker 21:52, 4 February 2007 (UTC)

Homework - Where did the torch relay of Sydney 2000 start?

Anybody know Anybody know where did the torch relay of Sydney 2000 start?

Thanks.

The torch relay for the Sydney 2000 Olympic games began in Olympia, Greece. I hope you have a most wonderful day. Kyra_~(talk) 10:38, 4 February 2007 (UTC)

All Olympic torch relays begin in Olympia. Have a look at this article for more info: Olympic Flame. - Akamad 13:04, 4 February 2007 (UTC)

Geez? Did we just help out a guy with his homework? 惑乱 分からん 23:18, 4 February 2007 (UTC)

Oops, I actually didn't see the word homework in the big heading :-) Akamad 05:15, 5 February 2007 (UTC)

So someone swam across the ocean with it

"The Sum of All Human Knowledge"

I was flipping through some information on Wikipedia, and I came across the statement that's in the title of this post.[[22]]. I've seen it in reference to Wikipedia's goal plenty of times before, though. I was wondering, what's the rationale for this statement? It seems contradictory that Wikipedia can be the sum of all human knowledge when certain things are excluded (How-to guides, very niche subjects, many lists, etc.) It should probably read the sum of all notable human knowledge. :P .V. _[Talk|Email] 14:45, 4 February 2007 (UTC)

Well, I would say that wikipedia is the encyclopedia component of a greater project, wikimedia or wikiwhatever, that could, and does, include those classes you say are excluded. Certainly "human knowledge" has to have some (assumed) qualifier on it or wikiwhat would list what I had for breakfast yesterday (Sausage McMuffin). I think that such a qualifier can remain inferred and assumed and Wales can continue to state his goal as he did if that is his goal. --Justanother 15:08, 4 February 2007 (UTC)

Wikipedia is, in actuality, the sum of all pop culture, recent news event, fictional universe, and esoteric programming language knowledge. -- mattb @ 2007-02-04T20:43Z

I thought it was the sum of all vandalism. Clarityfiend 21:54, 4 February 2007 (UTC)

Certainly this can't be literally true because new human knowledge (like where that pencil is on my desk right now) changes insanely fast and it utterly non-notable. However, the goal to contain all notable facts seems - amazingly - to be within our grasp. The lack of things like 'How To' documents doesn't necessarily preclude us reaching that goal because most How To guides are just convenient presentations of already-known facts. SteveBaker 21:56, 4 February 2007 (UTC)

Also, it is not "all human knowledge" but "the sum of all human knowledge". It is possible to know the sum of all of the prime numbers between one and a million without knowing what all of those numbers are. This usage of "sum" is akin to "summary". If you read "the summary of all human knowledge" then perhaps this would be more close to a practical goal. SteveBaker 22:05, 4 February 2007 (UTC)

• This is more of a Wikimedia Foundation goal, than a specific Wikipedia one. - Mgm|^(talk) 10:44, 5 February 2007 (UTC)

Google remembering what you've searched for.

I've just had a bad infection of viruses and spyware on the ol'puter and in the process of cleaning it up, all my Internet settings were lost. I used to have the feature where Google remembers what you've previously searched for disabled so that it didn't pop up that annoying box everytime I typed into a search box. I can't for the life of me remember how I disabled it! Any thoughts? Thanks :) Farosdaughter 15:16, 4 February 2007 (UTC)

That is not Google, that is IE autocomplete. You can disable it in IE settings. --Justanother 15:23, 4 February 2007 (UTC)

Thankyou! I use FireFox but I googled autocomplete and found how to disable it. Thankyou very much for your help. --Farosdaughter 15:28, 4 February 2007 (UTC)

You are welcome! --Justanother 15:40, 4 February 2007 (UTC)

Mathbot's Tool

Hi, I was wondering what Mathbot's tool measures? For me it says 29% and 28% but for another user e.g. MER-C (which I got from RFA nominations) it says 100% and 100%. What does this mean? Why isn't mine 100% and 100% or theirs less? Please explain why this is, because I don't really understand it! Asics talk 16:28, 4 February 2007 (UTC)

it simply measures how often you write anything in the edit summary and apparently you usually don't. Not a huge deal but considered an important nicety. --Justanother 16:37, 4 February 2007 (UTC)

I see, I'll do it more often now! Asics talk 17:27, 4 February 2007 (UTC)

I recently discovered that there is an entry in your Preferences that makes the system remind you if you try to commit a change without entering an edit summary. That'll fix your scores up in no time! SteveBaker 22:01, 4 February 2007 (UTC)

Checking-in

I'm flying from Heathrow to Sydney soon. Virgin Atlantic encourages me to check-in on-line up to 24 hours in advance, but as I will still need to have my baggage checked, show my passport and ticket, and collect a boarding pass at the desk (so they tell me), what is the point of doing anything on-line? They say it will save queuing at the airport, but I'll have several hours to kill (and the check-in queue is quite an easy place to chat to people) and there's nothing else to do anyway. Incidentally, the check-in article doesn't allow for checking in on-line, although I know that several airlines offer it. I'm also wondering why "kiosk check-in" is specifically excluded for flights to Sydney.[23] --Shantavira 18:17, 4 February 2007 (UTC)

There is no point. The only reason they are trying to make you do it is to speed up the queues, which it presumably will, even if only marginally (check-in staff having slightly less to do per transaction). Ultimately, it's a cost-saving measure. They want to be able to lay off staff, and they figure this is the way to do it. --Richardrj ^{talk email} 20:23, 4 February 2007 (UTC)

You're more likely to get your choice of seats. Anchoress 20:26, 4 February 2007 (UTC)

For all the airlines that I've traveled on (domestic U.S.), when you check-in online, you print out a boarding pass (and don't have to pick it up at the desk). It's especially useful for people who don't have checked baggage; they don't have to go to the desk at all; and can go straight to the gate. I don't know about your airline though; it does seem silly to have to pick up the boarding pass. --Spoon! 23:05, 4 February 2007 (UTC)

Contacting

What are the band members from AC/DC's address? How could I possibly contact them?

Some record publishers will forward mail addressed to the band - failing that, you'd probably need to find a fan club that has (maybe) a forum that the band read. You won't find their home addresses though. SteveBaker 21:58, 4 February 2007 (UTC)

You could maybe send an e-mail or C/O snail mail to their record label. 惑乱 分からん 23:20, 4 February 2007 (UTC)

Forgotten alien movie

I saw an alien movie many years ago and I've forgotten its name. I believe they were green aliens who used ray guns that caused a target person to die and the only remains were colored bones. It took place in Washington, DC, I think. A few were brought to a large room to interview, but they just shot everybody. What was this movie? Thanks! Reywas92^Talk_Sigs 22:16, 4 February 2007 (UTC)

It was probably Mars Attacks! Anchoress 22:19, 4 February 2007 (UTC)

The hilarious Mars Attacks! by Tim Burton. 22:19, 4 February 2007 (UTC)

Ack ack, ack ck ack ack. Ack ack! Ack ack ack... Atlant 12:55, 5 February 2007 (UTC)

Have no fear! We come in peace! 惑乱 分からん 17:23, 5 February 2007 (UTC)

Wholesale prices and newsstands

Do newsstands usually pay the same price for magazines as home subscribers, do they get a further discount for buying more than one copy per month, or do they pay a premium for the faster shipping? NeonMerlin 22:31, 4 February 2007 (UTC)

It's most likely cheaper than for private consumers, though I don't know the exact details. 惑乱 分からん 23:21, 4 February 2007 (UTC)

This question was already asked probably not more than a month ago. See the archives for the answers. Dismas|^(talk) 00:50, 5 February 2007 (UTC)

Here's the link to the archived question. ---Sluzzelin 01:01, 5 February 2007 (UTC)

Cleaning the really fine stuff

There are two things I'd like to have info on cleaning, and I don't know what material they are. First is the case of a fifth-generation (video) iPod. I work hard preserving my iPod's cleanliness, but some dirt or something inside the case undoes this. The second is the case of an American Silver Eagle. It's still quite clean, but I just want to have the info ready. What are these materials, and how should I clean them?--the ninth bright shiner ^talk 23:54, 4 February 2007 (UTC)

In general, coins are not cleaned. I don't know if it would matter with bullion coins though. Rmhermen 00:00, 5 February 2007 (UTC)

I'm not talking about the coin itself; the coin is sealed inside a plastic case, which is placed in a rectangular case with the U.S. Mint emblem on the front in silver, and the rest some sort of fuzzy material.--the ninth bright shiner ^talk 00:13, 5 February 2007 (UTC)

What Is the Source of This Quote?

"What is a man that you have regard for and what is a human that you have consideration for? Man is like a mist. His days are like a passing shadow. In the morning he shines and then he is gone; by the evening he fades and withers. You cause man to revert to dust. Were we wise we would understand his destiny. In his passing he does not take everything; his honor will not follow after him. Mark the innocent and behold the righteous for they shall have peace."

I think you may have the wording a little off (or maybe you are quoting a different translation of the original): http://ogreatmystery.com/newskete/psalter/kathisma20.html SteveBaker 03:28, 5 February 2007 (UTC)

Israel = Isis, Ra, El? — Etymology of the word "Israel"?

In the (undated) documentary The Naked Truth, Jordan Maxwell contends that the etymology of the word Israel was such that Israel was essentially an acronym derived from the names of three deities (Isis, Ra and El). Can anyone disprove or substantiate that claim? Does anyone know the actual etymology of the word "Israel"? I have looked at Israel, but as of this writing it doesn't contain a detailed etymology. The claim is made by Maxwell at 1:18:07 into this video: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6410112404402873027

Many thanks in advance for any help. 86.56.48.12 04:21, 5 February 2007 (UTC)

The Online Etymology Dictionary says it means "the Jewish people, from L. Israel, from Gk., from Heb. yisra'el "he that striveth with God" (Gen. xxxii.28), symbolic proper name conferred on Jacob and extended to his descendants, from sara "he fought, contended" + El "God." [[24]]. Not sure if that's correct, but it looks like it's right. .V. _[Talk|Email] 05:23, 5 February 2007 (UTC)

The above is correct. It is clear from the bible that Israel is derived Gensis 32, 28 "And he said: 'Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel; for thou hast striven with God and with men, and hast prevailed". Maxwell's theory, like most theories in Biblical criticism it can be neither proven or disproven. Jon513 14:58, 5 February 2007 (UTC)

I have long since believed that the name for the modern state of Israel was partly due to the English PM Disraeli, a zionist. but this may be erronious. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 81.144.161.223 (talk • contribs) 15:22, 5 February 2007 (UTC)

Benjamin Disraeli's name is derived from Israel, not the other way round. In Hebrew, Israel is spelt ישראל, where the final portion, אל, represents El. The spelling of the first part, ישר, leaves no room for interpretation as Isis-Ra, which, in Egyptian is ỉs.t-rȝ. Even with the feminine ending on Isis removed, the Hebrew lacks the final consonant of Ra, and the equivalence between Egyptian ỉ and Hebrew י is quite uncertain. This looks more like someone trying to be clever (without knowing any Hebrew or Egyptian), and it is not a sound hypothesis. — Gareth Hughes 15:40, 5 February 2007 (UTC)

Yes, I thought the same without knowing the languages involved. It struck me a weird that the logic was based on English words. Not to say that the film is not interesting, it is. But I wonder how much of it is accurate. For instance it makes many analogies between Christ/Buddha/Krishna as being recurrent. One that sticks with me is that it says that both Christ and Buddha are described as appearing as a flower in a crystal womb. Literally. While I can see that as Buddhist imagery, I have never seen any claim in Christianity that Mary's womb became crystal clear when Jesus entered her womb and that he appeared as flower there. Has anyone ever heard such? --Justanother 16:44, 5 February 2007 (UTC)

Cleaning a down comforter

In a commercial drier how long do you think it would take to dry a giant, thick down comforter that just came out of the wash? --froth^T 05:21, 5 February 2007 (UTC)

I usually set it to 60 min and check up on 10 minute intervals to see if it was okay. If you find it hard to keep track of this, use a timer and set the alarm for 10 minutes, check on it, then set the timer again.--JDitto 05:41, 5 February 2007 (UTC)

So you'd worry that it would burst into flame or something? Or do you mean check on it just to see if it's done. It's my only blanket and my parents are out of the country right now; it would be very bad if it caught fire o_o --froth^T 05:46, 5 February 2007 (UTC)

Jesus - you need to check the material - if it's synthetic at all you need to be really careful - if it's cotton then there should be no problem.87.102.8.103 12:01, 5 February 2007 (UTC)

The safest thing would be to dry it without heat, or with only slight heat, not much more than room temperature, on the "delicate" setting, or whatever fits this description. It will take a long time, probably hours, to dry, but it will not be risky. Marco polo 14:53, 5 February 2007 (UTC)

Assuming it's cotton with down inside - and it's still quite wet - if you put it in a drier (dustbin sized ?) it still takes ages - the inside stays damp for ages (like an hour) - the best way for these things without using much electricity is to hang them outside on a line and let wind do the work (overnight maybe) - or all day.87.102.8.103 15:49, 5 February 2007 (UTC)

Hah, it would freeze solid! All's well though; I took JDitto's advice and checked on it every once in awhile and it was fine. It's all natural, no worries. It was still kind of damp in places but I was too tired to stay up any later so I just lived with it; it kind of reeks of wet bird now though --froth^T 17:31, 5 February 2007 (UTC)

Accounting Practice

Sir,

Please let me know in my e mail address (redacted to prevent spam) the answer for the following.

I have one customer who owe me some money, which is a part of my major revenue. To the same customer I owe some money too. Can it be set off against each other by assuming the payments?

What shall be my accounting entry in this case.

Thanks & Regards

Shaji

It's generally good accounting practice not to net off. So you should keep both the debtor and the creditor in your books of account. By the way, I removed your email address as having it up on this page tends to attract spam. --Richardrj ^{talk email} 11:58, 5 February 2007 (UTC)

Great Persons

Please give me some site links for getting the biography of some of the Great Persons who lived or still alive. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 62.150.215.184 (talk • contribs).

This question is too "open-ended" to be meaningful. Can you narrow it down, perhaps giving us some criteria for what you would consider greatness?

Atlant 12:58, 5 February 2007 (UTC)

You can also look at our page Lists of people, which has links to many lists of people based on various criteria, including (were we to take your question literally) List of people known as The Great. Those lists, in turn, will link to Wikipedia's biographical articles, which will in many case have references to full biographies in their citation sections. -- SCZenz 15:46, 5 February 2007 (UTC)

Brett Favre is the obvious solution. Rya Min 16:26, 5 February 2007 (UTC)

Voting for Nelson Mandela or Stephen Hawking in the "still alive" category. -- mattb @ 2007-02-05T18:14Z

cost of making passport in india

i would like to know the cost of making a passport in india and what is the procedure and where should i go for that?

I will cost Rs 1000 and you will find more information here http://passport.nic.in/ --Trieste 13:24, 5 February 2007 (UTC)

Printing issues

Hello,

I have what I hope is a very simple question. I am trying to print out pages and two things are happening. First problem is the page is not print friendly and the text (etc.) sometimes is cut off in the right side of the page even when i use the print tab on the left. Second problem is when I do print a page out the links on the page print out with the address next to them.

Thanks Douglas

Regarding the margin problem, let me give you three alternatives to just hitting "print". 1) Print in Landscape. 2) Print only the main frame. You can usually right-click on the frame and select "print" or "print frame". 3)Highlight the part you actually want to print (including images) and then right click and "print selected". --Justanother 16:37, 5 February 2007 (UTC)

I would suggest that the "Printable Version" link at left is the optimal solution. — Lomn 18:19, 5 February 2007 (UTC)

I did not assume that they were referring to wikipedia since they say the page is not print friendly but you are right if they were. Wikipedia, like many sites, offers "printer-friendly" versions. --Justanother 18:45, 5 February 2007 (UTC)

Feminine hygiene

What did women use before the modern age of packaged products to manage they're monthly periods? trabitt.

• Ever hear the term "on the rag"? Quite literal. See Sanitary napkin. --jpgordon^∇∆∇∆ 14:46, 5 February 2007 (UTC)

Internet Marketing

How much is Internet Marketing worth in the UK in £'s according to latest figures.

How do I create a Political Party.

help (77000)

hi am ian and sd lyke to thank the guy who helped me with my question on what do 45 percent of brazillians claim to...contrary to popular belief its not anal sex but it was african ancestry,ad like to thank him or her.wikipeia should expect a small donation from me. anyways i have another question i was handed 77000 from start to finish i suspect its a fact or trivia question.the key i have bin given is google av bin told al get the answer after 3 days.

That was me and you are very welcome! --Justanother 16:46, 5 February 2007 (UTC)

Question. It is Monday morning. Is this an assignment given to you by a teacher as a teaching tool in the use of internet search? --Justanother 16:48, 5 February 2007 (UTC)

As an aside, while your questions are very interesting, maybe you should re-read them before you post as your grammar and phrasing are attrocious.— Preceding unsigned comment added by 81.144.161.223 (talk • contribs)

Please don't BITE the questioner, especially if you can't spell atrocious. Edison 18:06, 5 February 2007 (UTC)

Eh, why can't African ancestry and anal sex both be right? Surely they don't contradict each other... (*Refusing stubbornly to admit giving a bad answer...*) =S Well, anyway, I have trouble understanding what your question is, but I guess you're asking what "77000 from start to finish" refers to... 惑乱 分からん 17:30, 5 February 2007 (UTC)

Wakuran, your answer was not wrong. It just was not what the teacher was looking for. Obviously a teacher will be more interested in teaching about ethnic diversity than anal sex. --Justanother 17:33, 5 February 2007 (UTC)

Career in photojoirnalism

I am doing a career report for school, and my career is international photojournalism. I have a few questions for you guys at wikipedia. What union or group would I have to belong to? Is there any special licence or certificate needed? Will any further schooling or off-the-job training be needed for raises in pay or promotions? I can't find this info anywhere else. Thanks, 209.81.119.178 18:24, 5 February 2007 (UTC).

NBC / ABC / FOX / CBS

Someone please sort those four networks in order terms of U.S. viewership, including only the main channel, not all affiliates.