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November 14

European Hares in Connecticut

Where are there lots of European Hares in Connecticut?--76.28.67.224 01:58, 14 November 2007 (UTC)

A quick Google search of "european hares Connecticut" reveals that this previously non-American animal was introduced into upstate New York, Connecticut, and Maryland starting in the late 1800s. The plain answer, then, is "people brought them here". At least one source claims that the purpose was to provide a game species, though it also notes that, in Ontario, less than a dozen "escaped" to provide a thin wild population there as well. That said, most references also suggest that the population is not characterized by "lots" but by being "rare or extirpated", so if you've seen "lots", you might want to contact someone about it. 71.123.80.6 04:20, 14 November 2007 (UTC)

I have done some hiking in Connecticut and have never seen a European hare. I hike frequently in other New England states and have never seen one on any of these hikes either. If they were common anywhere in Connecticut, I would expect them to have spread to neighboring states, as the distances are not great. I agree with the previous post that, if they are present in Connecticut at all, they are rare. Marco polo 15:10, 14 November 2007 (UTC)

That said, according to this site, there are localized populations of European hare (locally also known as jackrabbit) in southwest Connecticut (i.e. Fairfield County). These hares prefer an environment of grassy fields interspersed with woods and are quite fond of orchards. You might look for that sort of environment in southwest Connecticut, though most of these hares are likely to be on private property. Marco polo 15:30, 14 November 2007 (UTC)

Quote?

I seem to remember a quote/poem, something about whether hell is cold (icy?) or hot, and which one the writer would prefer (it definitely rhymed). For curiosity's sake, does anyone know the exact quote? -Wooty [Woot?] [Spam! Spam! Wonderful spam!]

Robert Frost's Fire and Ice? About the end of the world though, not Hell. Rmhermen 05:10, 14 November 2007 (UTC)

That was it. Thanks. -Wooty [Woot?] [Spam! Spam! Wonderful spam!] —Preceding comment was added at 05:30, 14 November 2007 (UTC)

For some reason the original question reminded me that hell is exothermic. :P Dureo 10:34, 15 November 2007 (UTC)

Job Title position

What is The job title position that entails overseeing the design of branding and advertising for a client and ensuring that the new branding and advertising fits in with the clients requirements and the image they wish to promote for their company or product and is primarily responsible for managing the communications risks and opportunities of a business, both internally and externally —Preceding unsigned comment added by Lord Lutz (talk • contribs) 05:19, 14 November 2007 (UTC)

"Overseeing the design [...] for their company or product" and "primarily responsible for [...] both internally and externally" are copy and pasted from the articles Creative director and Chief communications officer respectively. FiggyBee 05:30, 14 November 2007 (UTC)

Can I attend the Virginia Military Institute?

I have taken sat and act; I have some college credits. However I already sworn in to join the army in the summer, with four years of active duty and four years reserves. But the VMI says it does not accept someone over the age of 22 without a waiver. Seeing as how I'll turn 19 in January, and I'll be 23 when I'm out of active duty, what are my chances of being admitted? Can I attend while on the reserves? I don't understand how they admit people with a military background. Since when is someone who is finished with the military between the ages of 16 and 22?--Goon Noot 05:43, 14 November 2007 (UTC)

I strongly suggest you talk to the admissions staff at VMI, the sooner the better. It may turn out that active military service is one of the things they will give you a waiver for. As for the reserves, I can't see how it would be possible for you to be in ROTC and the army reserves at the same time (since you'd have two different ranks). But again, you need to talk to the admissions staff. I can't imagine you're the first person who's ever been in this situation. FiggyBee 06:04, 14 November 2007 (UTC)

Best Availiable Rate/Checkout

If i make a hotel reservation where i would have to pay upon checkout from the hotel and i wanted to pay instantly before i arrive, would calling the hotel and telling them to take out the cost right away help at all.--logger 06:32, 14 November 2007 (UTC)

One thing that hotels usually make very clear is how and where to pay. This is after all the most important components of their relationship with guests. As for paying in advance, contact the hotel and ask. Many have websites that explain this kind of thing. -- Hoary 08:38, 14 November 2007 (UTC)

For most major hotels, paying before arrival or at check-in is a bit unusual (though many places will take a credit card imprint or a cash deposit in case of damage to the room). As Hoary says, it never hurts to ask.

A related feature that many hotels offer is usually called something like 'express checkout'. You leave your credit card information with the front desk, and at the end of your stay one of two things happens. Either you receive an itemized bill delivered to your room first thing in the morning on the day that you're scheduled to depart, or you can check your bill through an online system that's built in your room's pay-per-view cable television box. If you're satisfied that the charges are correct, you can pick up and leave. There's usually a box in the lobby or at the front desk where you can drop off your room keys; you often don't need to see or speak to a human being when you leave. Again, call your hotel or check their website to see if this feature is available. TenOfAllTrades(talk) 14:47, 14 November 2007 (UTC)

The problem is that the hotel doesn't know in advance how much your bill will be. In addition to the room charge, you might use room service or take something from the MiniBar, watch a Pay-per-view movie or use the phone. They don't know in advance how much that could add up to - so they can only take payment when you leave. However, if you leave them your credit card number when you check in, they can usually debit that when you leave without you having to literally hand over money at the end. SteveBaker 20:33, 14 November 2007 (UTC)

Flowchart On Global Warming

Can anybody please find me a flowchart on how global warming changes the Earth's Climate??220.233.83.26 07:18, 14 November 2007 (UTC)

Global warming changes the Earth's climate by making it hotter - that's what "global warming" means. If you want to know about a particular mechanism of global warming, perhaps read the article, particularly the "causes" section? FiggyBee 09:08, 14 November 2007 (UTC)

Isn't this more the kind of thing (although this isn't about global warming).

A flow chart is a diagramming technique that's best suited to a single-threaded process. (eg: To drive to work: First find car keys, then go to car, if door is locked unlock it, get into car...etc). Global warming is a lot of trends all working at the same time - so that as CO₂, methane and water vapor (and other greenhouse gasses) are added into the atmosphere by half a dozen major sources, there are simultaneously feedback processes such as glacial and oceanic ice melting that causes a drop in albedo that causes more heat input. These things are all going on at once - and a flow chart really doesn't cover that. What I think you need is something more like the diagram on the right here (which is NOT about global warming) - I have no idea what these are called - but they aren't flowcharts. SteveBaker 20:29, 14 November 2007 (UTC)

trivia

i recently heard a trivia question that i knew way back but cant recollect the answer...it suck and it soars what is it? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 212.49.74.131 (talk) 11:29, 14 November 2007 (UTC)

A jet engine? A blowfly? A baby bat? China Airlines? This is more like a riddle, isn't it? --Milkbreath 11:44, 14 November 2007 (UTC)

MegaMaid — Lomn 14:07, 14 November 2007 (UTC)

lol ur mom on a airplane. Esskater11 23:36, 15 November 2007 (UTC)

highest lake in each continent

Dear Reference Desk

I have begun to research the highest lake in each continent and thought Wikipedia might be a help, plus what I find could be of help to others.

Definion of a lake is the first start - I think it has to be over 3 feet deep.

Can you help and I woudl also like to set up the bit I have found. Not sure about any of it though - only from looking at maps. Maybe Google earth might help.

Thank you Nonie —Preceding unsigned comment added by Nonie Hodgson (talk • contribs) 13:27, 14 November 2007 (UTC)

Have you seen highestlake.com? I have no idea why somebody picked up a domain name just for this, but it looks to be quite relevant. — Lomn 14:06, 14 November 2007 (UTC)

Extreme points of the World and its child articles may have coverage in this area. --Tagishsimon (talk) 14:36, 14 November 2007 (UTC)

Hmmm - I bet the highest lake in Antarctica is below sea level - and underground! You'll have fun figuring that one out! SteveBaker 20:21, 14 November 2007 (UTC)

Not exactly underground, more like under-ice... See Lake Vostok and the whole category Lakes of Antarctica.--mglg_(talk) 22:21, 14 November 2007 (UTC)

Subheadline in online news articles

What's it called when an online news article has a headline, in bold, in the middle of an article. It often is a key phrase or a heading for a new section of the article. BBC News often does this at least once per article (sometimes even more). For example, in this ABC article, the "subheadline" would be "Computers 'terrific'", and in this BBC article, the "subheadline" is "Wide variations". —Preceding unsigned comment added by 203.208.110.207 (talk) 14:12, 14 November 2007 (UTC)

One of the terms used for it is actually a 'subhead', which is just a shortening of subheading. Dictionary.com defines this as "a title or heading of a subdivision, as in a chapter, essay, or newspaper article" and "smaller heading or title in a book, chapter, newspaper, etc". I seem to recall there being some fancy/punchy neologism for this as well such as a 'bite-tag' or something, it's only purposes are to break up the text and keep you interested in the article.

Another term used is 'crosshead'/'cross-heading' - defined on journalism.co.uk as "A few words used to break up large amounts of text, normally taken from the main text." 86.21.74.40 14:45, 14 November 2007 (UTC)

"pull quote" is the term I have most often come across. i.e. pulling a quote from the piece.86.219.163.217 14:57, 14 November 2007 (UTC)DT

A pull quote is something different from a subheading or subhead. A subhead is an internal subtitle written by the author or editor. A pull quote is a quote from an external source cited by the author and somehow set off (for example, with indentation or larger type). Marco polo 15:06, 14 November 2007 (UTC)

Actually, a pull quote is typically a brief quote from the article itself, sometimes edited for succinctness, set off in a box or in larger type to attract interest. It is not (necessarily) from an external source. And it is not what the OP asks about. --mglg_(talk) 17:33, 14 November 2007 (UTC)

But I'm glad I found out what to call pull quotes. I've recently been wanting to refer to one, but didn't know what the term was. -- JackofOz 23:00, 14 November 2007 (UTC)

We don't disagree, mglg, I just didn't express myself clearly, I guess. When I said "external source", I meant "a source other than the author of the article or the editor". And you are right that it is a quote pulled from the article (or book) and set off somehow for emphasis. Marco polo 02:11, 15 November 2007 (UTC)

what you're looking for is 'crosshead'. (see http://www.thefreedictionary.com/crosshead) 83.104.131.135 10:30, 15 November 2007 (UTC)

What is Glucose BE45 confectionery grade?

I would like to know what Glucose BE45 confectionery grade is, what it is used in making, how and where it's made, and why it's use would be preferred over another type of sweetener? OKODUGHA 17:47, 14 November 2007 (UTC)

It would probably be best to start with our article on Glucose. I seem to remember a bottle of it in my mom's cupboard that she used to make Sugar paste when decorating cakes, so I looked up a cake decorating supplier. Here's what I've found at Maid of Scandinavia:

   Glucose is a special type of corn syrup made for the confectionery trade. 
   Use it in hard candies to prevent candies from getting sticky so quickly 
   and in caramels to help them hold their shape better without over-cooking.

--Mdwyer 01:54, 15 November 2007 (UTC)

Women

I need help. Almost all of my friends are men. Could someone advise me on how to make friends with women? Whenever I see one, I look away, and I'm too scared to approach one. I'm 18(sadly)and heterosexual. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.175.116.95 (talk) 22:48, 14 November 2007 (UTC)

People at Yahoo! Answers can give you some good advices. Have a look at this google search. 132.206.22.25 23:46, 14 November 2007 (UTC)

That's not what I mean. I mean just for a friendship. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.175.116.95 (talk) 23:57, 14 November 2007 (UTC)

I would just talk to them like normal friends. Cheers,JetLover (Report a mistake) 00:00, 15 November 2007 (UTC)

Indeed. Listen, ask questions, have a genuine interest in the responses. It's easy to make friends... don't be offensive, don't be staunchly political, don't make statements that are radical (at least until you are in a position that the friendship can survive arguments), be light-hearted, laugh, smile, ask questions - but don't make it feel like an interrogation, be agreeable - but don't be a push-over. For me the most important I consider to find people friendly is that they are relaxed, fun and non judgmental. Were I to become friends then I love to argue till the cows come home, gotta love the debate, but certainly it is rarely a successful policy in the early days of a friendship. ny156uk 00:31, 15 November 2007 (UTC)

Yeah - you could also try joining any local clubs or societies relating to things that girls also enjoy doing...this gives you a great reason to get in there and chat - and also a ready topic for first conversations. Debate clubs are great for this. SteveBaker 01:19, 15 November 2007 (UTC)

Practice talking to women you aren't sexually interested in (so women where there's no pressure). In fact, practice talking to everyone everywhere, perhaps just by making casual small talk. The same skills you learn in those contexts will eventually be honed well enough to work in the context of women you are attracted to. And who knows -- along the way, one of the "practice" women may turn out to be far more interesting to you than you first assumed! And remember: One of the skills that will get you highest-rated as a brilliant conversationilst is the ability to shut up and listen to what the other person is saying. ;-)

Atlant 13:51, 15 November 2007 (UTC)

A very good friend of mine (who has the enviable knack of being able to talk to absolutely anyone on absolutely any topic and being interesting) once told me that if a guy is lost for a reply to anything a woman says, the line: "So how does that make you feel?" (emphasis is important) is like magic. My experience is that it works totally - although you need to figure out a few variations on the wording if you plan on using it more than once in any consecutive 3 minute period! We guys (especially the geekier amongst us) find that a 100% abhorrent idea - and something we'd probably never consider saying...which is perhaps why it is so sucessful. SteveBaker 16:34, 15 November 2007 (UTC)

To 71.175: you are 18 and SAD about it?! Oh, my! You do not know how lucky you are. I agree with Atlant--talk to everyone, ask people about themselves, and practice the art of listening. Doing this will benefit you in all aspects of your life, not just getting a date.--Eriastrum 18:01, 15 November 2007 (UTC)

Volunteer occasionally in an aged nursing home. The women there are easy to talk to, often flirtatious, and if you become friends you can ask about these matters. Remember, they are only old on the outside.

Otherwise, try to be in a situation where you are working together. E.g if you volunteer to help with revegetation or animal shelter you wont have to think of things to say, you will have normal conversation in the process of getting the work done.

Someone please back me up with this.-- Polypipe Wrangler (talk) 21:21, 16 November 2007 (UTC)

Sounds good to me! The key to learning to talk to people is talking to people!

Atlant (talk) 23:35, 16 November 2007 (UTC)

List of articles in the english wikipedia with audio version

Are there a list of articles in the english wikipedia where the entire article are recorded in audio format. Also, is there any free program (without needing installation since I don't have administrative rights on those computers) to play .ogg audio files? Thanks 132.206.22.25 23:29, 14 November 2007 (UTC)

Wikipedia:Spoken articles. All the programmes listed at Wikipedia:Media help (Ogg) appear to require downloads. Rockpocket 00:19, 15 November 2007 (UTC)

Thanks anyway. 132.206.22.25 00:29, 15 November 2007 (UTC)

Nevermind, I've found it. It's here for those who did not know. Wikipedia:Media help (Ogg) gave me the instructions on how to play .ogg files. Don't mind to respond to this thread. 132.206.22.25 00:27, 15 November 2007 (UTC)

Use of Acrobat Reader's 'Read Out Loud' feature to create more spoken articles

Is it illegal for wikipedia to make use of the 'Read Out Loud' feature of Acrobat Reader to convert all wikipedia articles into spoken articles? It is easy. We just print the articles into .pdf using PDFCreator and have it read loud by Acrobat Reader. We then just record it while it is being read. Is it because Adobe Systems does not allow this that wikipedia does not do it? 132.206.22.25 01:02, 15 November 2007 (UTC)

I don't know about Acrobat Reader - but there are several OpenSourced/Free text-to-speech programs out there that definitely could be used for this. However, people who want the article read to them (predominantly blind or poorly sighted people) already have perfectly good text-to-speech software and there would be no point whatever in filling up Wikipedia's hard drives and network bandwidth with two million robotically read sound files that the end user can produce for themselves any time. The only things worth having voice recordings for are when someone with a nice voice reads the article. SteveBaker 01:13, 15 November 2007 (UTC)

Thanks for your response. I think if I have more questions on this issue, it's better that I ask them at Wikipedia:WikiProject Spoken Wikipedia. Adiós everyone. 132.206.22.25 01:26, 15 November 2007 (UTC)

I'm convinced the spoken article people (who all have very nice voices and do a good job, by the way) choose bizarre, controversial and unusual articles because they get a kick out of counterpointing their spoken academic tone with the unusual or taboo subject matter. Listen to the .ogg at nigga for example. Rockpocket 02:54, 15 November 2007 (UTC)

As a regular contributor of spoken articles, I can say that it can be tempting to pick an esoteric or "interesting" article when deciding my next contribution, but I try to go for topics which will benefit/be of interest to more people and which have been written well (ideally, Featured Article status). From my list of recordings, only one is "unusual", and I was asked by the article's author to provide a spoken version (I had to use my best imitated Scottish accent...). Having said that, I would have narrated this legendary article had it not already been done! Hassocks5489 12:45, 15 November 2007 (UTC)

• I think Adobe would have a problem with us using the software like that. You'd have to read the TOS very carefully. In general it's better to use a free alternative. Anyway, the aim of that particular wikiproject is to have articles that are not spoken by a robot but a real human. Visually impaired people are likely to have a robot-reading program already, so it wouldn't add any value for them if we did what you suggest. - 131.211.175.189 12:13, 15 November 2007 (UTC)

November 15

noogies

How can you escape from a noogie? --HJ980 00:34, 15 November 2007 (UTC)

With a monkey bite. --Milkbreath 00:52, 15 November 2007 (UTC)

Usual self defense techniques apply here. What is required is to break the headlock that holds you there. To do so requires that you convince whoever's holding you that it takes more effort to hold you that giving you the noogie is worth. Doing that might require hurting them. The simplest technique in this situation is to avoid getting into the headlock by having other people around for support. If there are five people and one noogie-distributor, they may be less likely to start anything due to the presence of witnesses and/or possible assailants. Steewi 01:02, 15 November 2007 (UTC)

Additional: Self defence classes can assist you in defending yourself, often while not hurting whoever is attacking you (it may not seem so, but this can be a good thing). Investigate nearby classes for Aikido, Judo or even Bagua for softer alternatives to karate and taekwondo. Steewi 01:07, 15 November 2007 (UTC)

There is no escape - but if you live in the USA, you can find methods of revenge by calling 1-888-DO-NOT-CLOSE - (which is a free punishment service for MINI Cooper Convertible owners who drive around with the convertible roof up on perfectly nice days!) Listen to the message then hit 1 and listen to the rest of the options. Enjoy! SteveBaker 01:09, 15 November 2007 (UTC)

Im not sure you understand, its just a funny thing we do not hurt HJ980 01:10, 15 November 2007 (UTC)

It can sure hurt being on the receiving end... Steewi 01:13, 15 November 2007 (UTC)

If one develops a habit of passing gas while getting a noogie, one will probably get less noogies. Biological warfare, natural style. --24.147.86.187 02:44, 15 November 2007 (UTC)

The above....Best comment ever. Esskater11 02:48, 15 November 2007 (UTC)

If you can maintain your cool and a sense of where your body is at all times during the noogie (two important self-defense skills in any event), you will often find that at least one shoulder is in or near the middle of your antagonist's lower back. With some wrangling, you should be able to reach the back hem of his pants, resulting in a devestating counter-maneuver. I believe Chuck Norris used this very technique to defeat Bruce Lee at Wrestlemania. Faithfully, Deltopia 10:30, 15 November 2007 (UTC)

Unexpectantly grab his crotch, keep hold, even after he has let go of you, then look him in the eye, and tell him that he will never ever o it again, to you or any of your friends, Confronting a bully is the best way out. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 12.191.136.3 (talk) 13:23, 15 November 2007 (UTC)

You guys don't know what a monkey bite is, do you? --Milkbreath 13:42, 15 November 2007 (UTC)

I'll bite - No, Milkbreath, what's a monkey bite? Deltopia 14:44, 15 November 2007 (UTC)

It's like a giant pinch. You grab a handful of flesh and grip hard. If there is particularly sensitive, ahem, flesh in the bite, so much the worse for the recipient. The belly is a good, non-lethal target. --Milkbreath 15:17, 15 November 2007 (UTC)

Guys - in all seriousness - this talk of attacking the crotch is really dumb advice. Firstly, you can do some serious and permenant damage doing that kind of thing - which is more likely to get the former victim into serious trouble than his attacker. Secondly, the bully will retaliate with his gang of half a dozen supporters - so you won't indimidate him into giving up. This tactic is truly a measure of last resort and should only be taught as such. It is TOTALLY inappropriate for responding to mere schoolyard bullying - bad though that can be. SteveBaker 16:26, 15 November 2007 (UTC)

Never mind monkey bites, I'm still wondering what the heck a noogie is. --Dweller 16:28, 15 November 2007 (UTC)

The noogie is part of a range of minor physical attacks, most typically perpetrated amongst pre-adolescent and adolescent boys. Other similar attacks include the wet willy, the wedgie, and the dreaded Rear Admiral. - Eron^Talk 16:31, 15 November 2007 (UTC)

Ah. Thanks. Don't get the Simpsons reference, but ho hum. Best advice is to avoid the problem in the first place. Try not washing ever again... no-one will come near you. (That's quite popular among students) Alternatively, you can get someone to spread a rumour about your advanced martial arts skills. Or become unfeasibly popular. Or muscly. Or feign insanity/heart attack. I'd guess that better than most of these options is just to take the noogie. An anonymous tip-off of the staff might wipe out the problem without damaging your social life. We had a problem at my school of "cripple nipple". When the deputy head spoke out against it in Assembly, the place practically fell down from the impact of stifled laughter. But it turned from being a cool thing to do to very uncool, because this stiff teacher had talked about it. --Dweller 17:08, 15 November 2007 (UTC)

The good old tittie twister. Boy, that takes me back. I remember the first time somebody asked me what the capital of Thailand was in the schoolyard. Those were the days. --Milkbreath 17:45, 15 November 2007 (UTC)

I like the "feign heart attack" option. How great would that be? Someone grabs you to give a noogie, and suddenly you convulse a few times and go limp, drooling slightly. If you could get a nearby sorprano to shriek, "AHHH, you killed him!!!" I think it would really add to the effect. Deltopia 18:29, 15 November 2007 (UTC)

Dangit, I had to look all over the interweb to figure out what the DRA was. Very nice. Deltopia 17:12, 15 November 2007 (UTC)

Im not exactly sure everyone understands, we're just friends and we do that to each other 4 fun, weer not trying to punch each other! HJ980 22:55, 15 November 2007 (UTC)

Make a tight almost-fist, with the middle knuckle of the middle finger protruding. Rub hard across the bones on the back of his hand. Non-fatal and non-permanent, but still effective. Also great for bear-hugs, ladies. --CliffC 00:15, 16 November 2007 (UTC)

Grab the noogie-er's offending forearm with both hands and, with a devastating counter-twisting motion, launch the mother of all chinese burns. That'll do it. Rockpocket 07:40, 16 November 2007 (UTC)

Dictionaries between languages

Is there any company known for great inter-language dictionaries, for any common language and english? Also, is there any company known for similarly good foreign language grammar books? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.175.116.95 (talk) 01:05, 15 November 2007 (UTC)

There are many companies that do this. Try Collins (and Collins Gem), Oxford University Press, Cambridge University Press, Hippocrene, Teach Yourself, the Colloquial language series, Routledge, Pimsleur, and others. Oxford and Cambridge University Press print more academic books, although many are accessible to beginners, while Teach Yourself, Colloquial, Routledge and Pimsleur are aimed at beginners with little language experience. Most of these companies produce both dictionaries and grammars, and can be found on most large online bookstores. Steewi 01:12, 15 November 2007 (UTC)

Langenscheidt is a big name in bilingual dictionaries. MrRedact 01:14, 15 November 2007 (UTC)

True - I'd left that one out. Thanks. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Steewi (talk • contribs) 01:24, 15 November 2007 (UTC)

I must say that I've been disappointed with Hippocrene. They tend to offer only a single translation for words that have multiple meanings. Marco polo 02:07, 15 November 2007 (UTC)

That's true, but they have some dictionaries for lesser-known languages that other companies don't produce dictionaries for. Steewi 05:15, 15 November 2007 (UTC)

Often you can just go to your local mega book store and they'll have a huge selection of foreign language dictionaries and grammar books for the most popular languages. If you have specific languages in mind, there are often specific companies known for being "the best" (e.g. Duden is generally regarded as one of the best German publishers, and when I was taking Germany the Oxford-Duden dictionary was recommended above all else). Similarly for some languages specific aspects of the dictionary can make it easier or harder to use; the best Russian-English dictionary I own is actually one produced in the former USSR, but it just happens to be extremely easy to navigate, which for a non-Roman character set can count for a lot if you are not terribly fluent. --24.147.86.187 02:35, 15 November 2007 (UTC)

There is a certain amount of badge engineering in the dictionary field. I currently use a Langenscheidt Croatian-English pocket dictionary, which was an exact replacement for its Berlitz equivalent (I exchanged because the Berlitz had faulty printing). Firms like Collins cooperate to produce, for example, the Collins-Robert English-French dictionary and the Collins-Pons English-German dictionary. Oh, and one more name for your list : Hugo (if they are still in existence!) SaundersW 11:17, 15 November 2007 (UTC)

unclear insurance co. liability

say, A hires B to do something and B subcontracts C. C messes up, and A requires B to pay consequential damages. B has insurance and the insurance company is required to pay 90% of the consequential damages. who holds C liable for its mess up? B or insurance company? Does the insurance company have the right to get money from C? --Iownatv 02:57, 15 November 2007 (UTC)

While wikipedia is not a lawyer, that is generally how insurance is supposed to work. B claims damages from Geico (for instance); Geico investigates and adjusts the claim before paying out; Geico goes after C to get back the money that Geico just paid to B. I think, but am not sure, that Geico will actually go after 100% of C's liability, not just the 90% that they will owe B, and if they get that, B will get all of its money back (rather than having to pursue a separate action against C for the last 10%, or having to decide if that's even worth it). Again, though, wikipedia is not allowed to present regulated professional advice, and your application of this knowledge is at your own risk. (My background is US common civil law, too, so if you're living somewhere else, I would ignore this completely.) Faithfully, Deltopia 10:23, 15 November 2007 (UTC)

Codd bottle (marble bottles)

Hi,

I've got an old beer bottle of the kind which is stoppered by a marble - a Codd-necked bottle. I'm also a home-brewer and I reckon it'd be cool to use bottles like that for a special beer (a solstice or equinox beer, for example). Of course I don't want to spend tens of dollars per bottle on century-old bottles that have an unknown life and may not be up to the job, I want to track down newly manufactured codd bottles. Do any present wikipedians of this reference desk know (a) whether there's any company manufacturing them in large numbers and selling the bottles to the public or (b) whether this sort of bottle can be made by a glass blower?

--Psud 08:44, 15 November 2007 (UTC)

Well, here's a start http://sigmafragrances.tradeindia.com/Exporters_Suppliers/Exporters/hp/13076/company_profile.html

Richard Avery 10:15, 15 November 2007 (UTC)

Darn! That's such a neat idea! No bottle caps...a 100% recyclable/reusable bottle! We should be using these for everything.

As the article says, these bottles are still in use in Japan and India. I would imagine that it would be useful to try to purchase a few cases of those products and 'repurpose' the bottles afterwards. I bet you could find a way to buy some online. The problems (I guess) would be:

1. They are clear glass (most beer is packaged in coloured glass to keep sunlight out of the beer and altering it's flavor)
2. You have to have enough carbonation in your beer to keep the upward pressure on the marble.
3. They have to be filled upside-down - which is going to be an interesting trick for you to pull off!
4. You'll have to call your beer Codswallop...that's a great name for a homemade beer! I do hope that's a true story.

If you had them custom made, I think it might take a lot of trial-and-error to get the bottle shape just right to allow the marble to make a good seal and yet also to ensure that it doesn't block the neck when you are drinking the stuff. But if you could get a few bottles of the Japanese or Indian product then I'd expect a competent glass blower to be able to copy them. The trick would be to form the shape of the entire bottle - but with a wide-enough neck to get the marble inside - then, after everything has cooled off, to add another ring of glass to the neck to give the marble a surface to seal against and to trap it inside. So, yeah - I bet a skilled glass blower could do it - and then at least you'd be able to have nice brown or green bottles made.

In truth, the hardest part is going to be filling them and maintaining enough internal pressure to keep them sealed. If you had a high pressure air line, you could pour the beer in with them the right way up, hook up the high pressure air hose to the top of the bottle to get enough pressure inside - then rapidly invert the bottle so the marble rolls down into the neck without too much beer pouring out - then, finally, remove the air hose to allow the internal pressure to clamp it firmly in place...squirting any beer that ran into the air hose or was in the neck of the bottle all over the place!

Hmmm - we need some lateral thinking here! Just the thing that RefDesk denizens are good at!

SteveBaker 14:17, 15 November 2007 (UTC)

Thanks, all. Steve: From playing with my old codd bottle (filled with water), you can fill them upright, place a hand over the mouth of the bottle and invert it. You loose a little of the contents but it works. With the exception of the English ales and stouts I make, there's certain to be enough pressure to hold a marble in place. --Psud 21:09, 15 November 2007 (UTC)

Aaahhh! Sorry - I didn't notice that you'd told us you had one! I don't quite understand how this is going to work though. If you pour the beer in with a funnel or something - the contents of the bottle are going to be at the same pressure as the air. When you turn it upside-down, the marble will settle in place - but there is no additional pressure inside to keep it there so when you put the bottle back up the right way, won't the marble just fall back down again? Maybe if you shake the CO₂-laden liquid up while it's upside-down, perhaps it would release enough gas to stay sealed. But our article on these bottles specifically states: "The bottles were filled upside down"...presumably under pressure. Why would they do that if it was as easy as you say to do it the right way up? It seems to me that you need to convince yourself that you can actually seal the bottle you have with soda or beer using using your technique before you go out and spend a fortune on getting some custom-made and finding that you can't make it work. But buying a crate of soda and paying shipping from India or Japan ought to be a LOT cheaper and more reliable means for getting "known to work" bottles. SteveBaker 00:46, 16 November 2007 (UTC)

Actually, it's pretty hard to see how it'll work unless you know the way I brew! I usually keg my beer and carbonate with pressurised CO₂, and for "quick and nasty" bottles - say for short term storage or a party - I'd fill the bottles from the tap with beer at 2°C well loaded with CO₂. I'd fill the bottle right way up, place my hand over the mouth of it, invert it (over a glass) and give it a small shake. At any temperature above 2° there'd be positive pressure in the bottle (because more gas dissolves in cooler water/beer, so at higher temperatures more comes out of solution). For a more "special" beer, I'd bottle it straight from the fermenter, secondary fermentation would then happen in the bottle fueled either by the remaining sugars in the beer or by added sugar or unfermented wort - the bottles would be stored upside down while the secondary fermentation happened. The bottle I have (which is missing it's rubber washer) drips very little when inverted full of water. --Psud 05:03, 16 November 2007 (UTC)

Sex in space

Are there any incidents of astranoughts having sex in zero-g? I mean, you've got several guys and girls up there for months at a time - they must get pretty horney; and what could be more romantic than doing it in a space station (if your a nerd, that is - and lets face it, astranoughts arn't exactly college jocks) Hyper Girl 13:18, 15 November 2007 (UTC)

There is an article on the topic. Sex in space. Jon513 13:48, 15 November 2007 (UTC)

For the record, those people in the spaceships are astronauts. "Astranought" seems like it out to mean something about zero stars. :-) --LarryMac | Talk 20:47, 15 November 2007 (UTC)

At least one married couple have been into space together; Mark C. Lee and Jan Davis, and there are a few who claim that they had sex while up there. NASA would seriously discourage it though; apart from the severe lack of privacy on the shuttle, the various fluids (especially sweat) can damage equipment and, as any shuttle pilot can tell you, it's very difficult to dock when there's no gravity... Laïka 23:26, 15 November 2007 (UTC)

• In space,no-one can hear you scream with pleasure..86.53.57.148 15:56, 16 November 2007 (UTC)

British Immigration

I hate it when people ask horribly general questions, so I will understand if you do not indulge me. I am wondering how difficult it is for a US citizen (BA, 3.8 GPA at a good school, no work experience) to emigrate to England. I don't know all the ins and outs of the immigration laws, but even if I did factors like employer sponsorship and the business cycle are equally influential. Plasticup ^T/C 15:00, 15 November 2007 (UTC)

Clarify please. Do you mean emigrate, i.e. move permanently ? Or do you mean simply work for a time in the UK whilst retaining US citizenship ? (To be pedantic, you cannot emigrate to England, only to the UK, of which England is part.)86.202.159.13 15:09, 15 November 2007 (UTC)DT

As a general answer - The British Consulate in America's website britainusa.com gives general advice including linking to FCO documents such as their guidance on Residence in the UK.

Immigration is handled by the Home Office's Border & Immigration Agency, whose website contains all the rules and regulations relating to emigrating. Foxhill 15:23, 15 November 2007 (UTC)

From memory only; not easy. You need several years of residence to apply for a permanent residence. You only get several years of residence if you're able to get a work permit. You only get that (in most circumstances) if an employer applies for such a thing for you, and they only get it if they make a good enough case. You should take this answer with some salt, and follow the links above. --Tagishsimon (talk) 17:06, 15 November 2007 (UTCTrue)

True, and a work permit will usually only be issued if no UK or other EU citizens can be found to do the job, unless you are exceptionally talented in your work - e.g. footballers from outside the UK have to have played in 75% (I think, it's a high figure, anyway) of their national teams' recent games. Of course if you can acquire an EU passport, through having an Irish-born grandparent for example, then it gets much easier. It may be easier to move to another EU country, like Belgium, get citizenship there, then move to the UK: this is sometimes done when football clubs want to import a player who doesn't meet the UK work permit criteria - they park him with an associated team in Belgium for a few years and move him to the UK later.

Plasticup's lack of work experience is likely to be the critical obstacle. One possible way round this might be to get a job with a US company which has an office in the UK and arrange a transfer to the UK, which would let you build up residence time towards getting permanent residence and/or citizenship. Probably the easiest way to get in is to marry a UK citizen! Lest Plasticup be too discouraged, while it's difficult for US citizens to immigrate to the UK it's not impossible - as of the 2001 census, 150,000 people had done it. -- Arwel (talk) 20:12, 15 November 2007 (UTC)

As the others say, it all depends on what you plan to do for a job, really. Without work experience or a higher degree, you would probably have to have some specialist skills to get a decent job in the UK directly. Once you have the job, it would be pretty easy. Rockpocket 01:23, 16 November 2007 (UTC)

From experience, it is easier to emigrate than it looks once you have a job. If you are suitably impressive (although in reality being merely average with a good work ethic will suffice), many companies would rather retain you than go through the hassle of replacing you and will apply for a long term work visa, tweaking the job description to fit you so no other EU citizens are suitable. The hard part is getting a work visa to find your first job. Tried and true methods are getting an ancestry visa through British parents/grandparents or an EU passport from Irish/Spanish/Italian/etc ancestors. Unfortunately, being fom Bermuda doesn't allow you a working holiday visa which would give you two years of work visa to find somewhere permanent. However, maybe you already have UK citizenship from being a British colony (my friend had a UK passport from her parents being born in Hong Kong depsite never setting foot in the UK). Maybe applying for a student internship with a UK company is possible? A normal student visa will allow you to find part time work which might be enough to get the foot in the door. Then there is always hooking up with a EU citizen. If all else fails it may be easier to just get work experience in the US to get enough points for a highly skilled migrant visa. BeamerNZ (talk) 02:22, 17 November 2007 (UTC)

Warriors Tea-Party Pals

I live in Roseville, California and enjoy woodland stroll, this morning I took a small path about 100 yards away from the asphalt path, near a creek. Upon leaving the tree I was leaning on had a note tape to it. Appearing to be placed the night before; the dew did not destroy the blue permanent marker. The note stated as such: Warrior Tea-Party Pals and an arrow drawn at the base of the tree. The reverse side was an "Admit one" for the BloodSource(TM) "The Blood Drive fea...unlegiable. It stated you need to "Bring I.D." and to "EAT & Drink Before Donating” Then finally by the I.D. reminder, in blue ball-point pen, was the time 8:30 no AM or PM. I found this Admission ticket at 7:30ish in the morning. What do these Warrior Tea-Party Pals do during their event? And is it an actual invitation to the lucky hiker- me- who finds it? Hopefully you respond quickly because I plan on going. Thank You. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 67.172.117.226 (talk) 16:14, 15 November 2007 (UTC)

I found this link http://bbs.clubplanet.com/new-jersey/105426-hey-neena-3.html but I have no idea what they're talking about (kids these days! no respect for the English Language). 83.104.131.135 16:53, 15 November 2007 (UTC)

My advice would be disallowed as legal and medical. But....is your will up to date? -SandyJax 20:22, 15 November 2007 (UTC)

Sounds like a blood donor group.-- Polypipe Wrangler (talk) 21:27, 16 November 2007 (UTC)

Sign In Problems

I tried to sign in, and had forgotten my password.

I entered my User Name, and selected "E-mail New Password."

I am encountering "Internal Server Error" persistently. No new password is being sent.

What do I do now? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 198.182.205.177 (talk) 21:55, 15 November 2007 (UTC)

Well, I just tried that exact thing and it worked OK. Aside from "Try again later", the only thing I can suggest is to take this over to the Wikipedia:Help desk - they are there for answering questions about Wikipedia itself, the Reference desk is really intended for questions of a more general nature. Good luck! SteveBaker 00:12, 16 November 2007 (UTC)

Dog eats his own shit

My dog is 8 years old and sometimes after he takes a shit he eats it and then his breath smells like shit and it's really nasty. How can I stop him? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 96.227.100.48 (talk) 22:13, 15 November 2007 (UTC)

My son has the same problem

Our article on dog training may be of use. — Lomn 22:44, 15 November 2007 (UTC)

I might as well be the one to also mention there's a section on it, in the article on Coprophagia. -- DatRoot 22:55, 15 November 2007 (UTC)

I'm beginning to wonder if we need a separate ref desk for Coprophagia-related question...it comes up in a statistically unreasonable number of answers! (Also this question is a duplicate of the first ever question asked on the Ref Desk!) SteveBaker 00:07, 16 November 2007 (UTC)

Certain muzzles will make your dog unable to eat anything with it on. Just put the muzzle on him before letting him out to poop. MrRedact 00:40, 16 November 2007 (UTC)

Make sure he's getting decent quality food. Sometimes dogs eat their own faeces either because they aren't getting enough nutrition from what they are eating or there's a digestive imbalance whereby their digestive system isn't absorbing nutrients properly. Then again there's always the possibility that he just likes the taste! ---- WebHamster 00:45, 16 November 2007 (UTC)

Yep dogs will eat poop if they feel it is not fully digested or if they think it is a game - you try and lift it they will eat it to stop you getting getting your hands on it first. Lanfear's Bane | t 10:48, 16 November 2007 (UTC)

In my opinion, my own dog does not eat his own **** anymore, but, he does, however, vomit it up anywhere he could. Ericthebrainiac (talk) 20:48, 24 May 2008 (UTC)

Six degrees of separation MJ to Elaine Paige

Using the principles of Six degrees of separation, how could one link former US sprinter Michael Johnson (athlete) with singer Elaine Paige? Thanks. Acceptable 22:45, 15 November 2007 (UTC)

The Six degrees of Wikipedia is broken for quite a while now, maybe someone else has a similar tool? --antilived^{T | C | G} 22:55, 15 November 2007 (UTC)

Elaine Paige hosted a series on BBC that had guest star Elton John, Elton john appeared in the tv series The Simpsons which also had Hank Azaria. Hank Azaria worked with Matthew Perry in Friends, Matthew Perry worked with Jason Alexander on Friends, Jason Alexander worked with Wayne Knight on Seinfeld and Wayne Knight worked with Michael Jordan in Space Jam. I think that's 7 though (Paige-John-Azara-Perry-Alexander-Knight-Jordan) - Or if you switch it to this...Page-John-Azaria-Perry-Devito-Jordan. Danny Devito starred in Space Jam and worked with Matthew Perry in a Friends episode (he was a stripper for Phoebe) ny156uk 23:01, 15 November 2007 (UTC)

This (http://www.thekevinbacongame.com/) will do a job. I've not tried it as I was too happy with my own work above, but presumably it works. ny156uk 23:04, 15 November 2007 (UTC)

That's impressive, but he asked about Michael Johnson, not Michael Jordan :) It shouldn't be too hard to fix, he was in Master of Disguise with Dana Carvey... Adam Bishop 23:27, 15 November 2007 (UTC)

Ahhhh I hadn't noticed that. And there I was thinking I was some kind of hero. Well either way it tends to be that the key is...use The Simpsons, Friends or one of the other shows that has a huge number of guest-stars. Hank-Azaria is the easy link from Simpsons to Friends, but i'm sure there are many more. Michael johnson competed at the 1992 Olympics where MIchael Jordan played basketball for the Usa...though you'd need to lose a jump in the link. Basically Danny Devito was Uncle Herb in the Simpsons...So you get Page-John-Azaria-devito-Jordan-Johnson...Ahhh i'm a hero again. ny156uk 23:36, 15 November 2007 (UTC)

Too easy! Elaine-Paige via the TV series to Elton John via the Simpsons to Homer Simpson (or his voice actor if you are being picky about only real people) via the Simpsons again to Andre Agassi via 1996 Olympics (they were both Gold Medal winners) to Michael Johnson. 4 steps. SteveBaker 00:04, 16 November 2007 (UTC)

Do the Olympics really count? Because you can go Page-John-Castellaneta-DeVito-Carvey (through any SNL episode DeVito hosted when Carvey was on it) -Johnson. Adam Bishop 00:08, 16 November 2007 (UTC)

Here's one with just media appearances. Michael Johnson was a guest captain on They think it's all over, hosted by Nick Hancock, who also hosted Room 101, where Peter Cook appeared, who was in this with Diane Keaton, who was in the original performance for Hair with Elaine Paige. That night of 100 stars is a bit of a weak link (found through a feature on imdb). A more natural connection is from Nick Hancock to Richard E. Grant on room 101, who was a guest star on Frasier (as Daphne's brother) with Kelsey Grammer who was in the Simpsons (sideshow Bob) and so on, but that's rather long. Nick Hancock hosted the first three seasons of Room 101 (guests here). He was a the first guest when Paul Merton took over, who was on Have I got News for you which had a lot of famous guests. Difficult to keep it under 5 with really good links, though. risk 01:01, 16 November 2007 (UTC)

Silly me. Jonathan Ross was on They think it's all over as well, and he's interviewed pretty much anyone. You can go Michael Johnson->Jonathan Ross->Al Pacino->Diane Keaton (Godfather)->Elaine Paige(Hair). You can cut it down one if Ross has interviewed one of Elaine Paige's co-stars. risk 01:13, 16 November 2007 (UTC)

Here we go, he interviewed Elton John in the second episode of Friday night with Jonathan Ross: Michael Johnson->Jonathan Ross->Elton John->Elaine Paige. 3 steps. risk

Wow thanks, this is amazing. Acceptable 02:12, 16 November 2007 (UTC)

Bah! No fair! What's wrong with my Olympic games link?! All of the athletes parade together during the opening and closing ceremonies - so Agassi and Johnson were right there - on the same TV show - both in shot at the same time - at least twice. That's at least as valid as any other "being on the same TV show" link. SteveBaker 05:19, 16 November 2007 (UTC)

What is "Mongolian fur"?

I'm seeing women's coats advertised made of "Mongolian fur". As I recall, there was a big flap eight or ten years ago, with claims that Mongolian fur was actually dog fur. AFAIK, this was/is not an urban legend. Thanks for helping, I did try Google. --CliffC 23:39, 15 November 2007 (UTC)

I can't produce a very reliable site, but several of the sales sites that came up in my google search indicated that it was lamb. -FisherQueen (talk · contribs) 23:50, 15 November 2007 (UTC)

I took a second look at the picture in the catalog, and it's long and kinda wavy like an overgrown sheep, so lamb is probably the right answer. Thank you. --CliffC 00:48, 16 November 2007 (UTC)

Incidently, perhaps you are thinking of this story? ---- Mdwyer (talk) 18:39, 16 November 2007 (UTC)

No, I hadn't seen that. Interestingly, your 2007 article says "Penney is charting a different course than rival Macy’s, which last month pulled Sean John jackets after they turned out to contain the same fur." Sean John is Sean John Combs is Puff Daddy is P. Diddy was Puffy Combs. The sole NY Times hit I got for "Mongolian fur" was this 1998 Style story including the society tidbit "In an unlikely pairing, Martha Stewart, in a tan suit, mingled with Puffy Combs, in a white dinner jacket and Mongolian fur overcoat, at Clive Davis's Plaza party." I guess the fur business has turned into a nice sideline for Puffy. --CliffC (talk) 05:57, 17 November 2007 (UTC)

Train / Caboose

Is there a name for the little fenced-in platform at the back of a caboose? Actually the very last part of a train going down the track.

What is it????

Long ago, politicians used to stand there and wave to a crowd.

Thanks,

67.142.130.34 23:41, 15 November 2007 (UTC)

When a candidate stumps from a train city to city, it's called a whistle-stop tour. They'd normally rent a business car with a rear platform, rather than a caboose. Sorry to disappoint, but the rear platform was just called the rear platform. Many business cars survive in museums or private ownership. Business cars in private hands are often called 'private varnish.' If you google around, you'll find many references, here's one: [1]. n2xjk 04:58, 16 November 2007 (UTC)

The technical name for the little platform on a passenger car is an open vestibule. The larger platforms on cabooses were (non-technically) called verandahs or porches. The walkways around the front and back of diesel hood units are also called porches. FiggyBee 11:33, 16 November 2007 (UTC)

There are a couple photos of this on the observation car article. Like n2xjk said, politicians used passenger cars and not cabooses. Slambo (Speak) 11:59, 16 November 2007 (UTC)

I know it's not strictly relevant now, but in the UK, the covered platform on a brake van (equivalent to a caboose) is known as a verandah. A prominent example was the Great Western Railway 'Toad' brake van, which was distinctive in having a longer-than-average verandah at just one end. EdJogg (talk) 01:49, 17 November 2007 (UTC)

November 16

Electronic Medical Records (EMR)

Is there any governing agency that is mandating that hospitals convert to EMR? If so, what is the date in which this is to happen? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Stvzgrl (talk • contribs) 02:25, 16 November 2007 (UTC)

You didn't say which country... so here's the UK situation. The UK's National Health Service has the National Programme for IT which includes an "electronic care record for patients" and should link General practitioners and hospitals. After at least 5 years and the departure of several IT partners, the project is still unfinished and the estimated costs have risen 5-fold. The article however does not state the estimated completion date. Astronaut 05:46, 16 November 2007 (UTC)

You may be interested in reading Electronic medical record and Electronic health record. From the list of problems and the slow rate at which hospitals are moving toward EMR, it seems unlikely that there is any agency that would mandate a change in the near future, regardless of country. 152.16.59.190 (talk) 01:17, 18 November 2007 (UTC)

There is no such government mandate I know of in the US. The hospital I work for has implemented an EMR system in a policy to (slowly) go paperless, but this was purely a choice by the administration. -- Kesh (talk) 15:29, 22 November 2007 (UTC)

Largest unsupported marble dome

What is the the largest unsupported/self supported marble dome in the world? Emporis says the Minnesota State Capitol [2] but also says that the Rhode Island State House is 2nd behind St. Peter's Basilica. [3] For some more contradiction, most Rhode Island sources give a list as St. Peters Basilica, Minnesota State Capitol, Taj Mahal and then the Rhode Island State House, while most Minnesota sources list their State Capitol as the largest. Lets add this source to the mix. [4] Any ideas? Eóin 03:45, 16 November 2007 (UTC)

Let's talk diameters;

• St Peters - 42m (138.8ft) interior
• Minnesota - 18.38m (60ft) interior (27.12m (89ft) exterior) [5]
• Taj Mahal - 17.7m (58ft) interior
• Rhode Island - 15.24m (50ft) interior [6]

So, in summary, the Rhode Island State House article, Brown and Emporis are completely wrong. A couple more thoughts; St Peters was never the largest unsupported dome of any kind - It's slightly smaller than the concrete dome of the Pantheon, which is 1400 years older. Also, none of the four domes mentioned are made entirely of marble. They are all mostly brick and/or steel, with marble facings. FiggyBee 12:16, 16 November 2007 (UTC)

Ah, I saw after I edited it that you've been working on the Minnesota State Capitol article. I didn't mean to tread on your toes. :) FiggyBee 12:44, 16 November 2007 (UTC)

No problem. This clears things up nicely, thanks. -- Eóin (talk) 21:19, 16 November 2007 (UTC)

Psychology question

Halloween is over, so the local stores are putting up their Christmas decorations and music. I've recently read Jonathan Swift's A Modest Proposal. Mmy question is: Is it normal that I break out into uncontrollable laughter every time I hear the line "holy infant so tender and mild" from Silent Night? --67.185.172.158 06:51, 16 November 2007 (UTC)

No it isn't. I suggest you visit a qualified physician :-)) Astronaut 07:10, 16 November 2007 (UTC)

At least you don't think it's "hold the infant, so tender and mild." like everyone else around where I live. Kind of funny to listen to them carolers. Dureo 12:46, 16 November 2007 (UTC)

Good example for our mondegreen article. -- -- JackofOz (talk) 20:56, 16 November 2007 (UTC)

Given the context, I'd suggest that thinking it's funny is normal. Laughing out loud in public places is a violation of social norms, however, and the lack of ability to control this deviant behavior suggests a medicalization of these symptoms might be appropriate. Though IANAP (where P = psychiatrist), you might consider asking one about this issue. Jfarber 14:35, 16 November 2007 (UTC)

Isn't anyone going to remind the original questioner that we can't give medical or dietary advice here on the reference desk? Otherwise, someone's liable to soon recommend some fava beans and a nice chianti...

Atlant 13:01, 16 November 2007 (UTC)

I used to have an mp3 of Soylent Night. I can't remember who did the song but I want to say it was negativland. I'll try to find it. -- Diletante (talk) 01:38, 17 November 2007 (UTC)

Maybe when you were a kid something really funny happened while that line was playing in the background, except you dont remember it, and thats why you find that particular line funny. --Candy-Panda (talk) 03:23, 17 November 2007 (UTC)

Come to think of it, "tender and mild" does suggest that the "holy infant" was marinated in a slightly spicy sauce prior to cooking. Confusing Manifestation(Say hi!) 02:54, 19 November 2007 (UTC)

We don't have an article on infantophagia (or infantophagy?) maybe someone with reliable medical sources could create an article in both Wikipedia and Wiktionary about this behaviour associated with the pica disease. I think eating babies and feotuses is practiced by some people who believe it contains rejuvenating substances, I don't know the name of this practice and couldn't find a reference here on Wikipedia. I have some stomach churning pictures of people eating cooked babies in my 'unusual images' folder. I try to keep a scientific interested eye on human practices but sometimes it does get a bit too graphic. Apologies for bringing this joyous thread to a too down to earth level. Keria (talk) 11:16, 21 November 2007 (UTC)

Usenet groups legality

I'm not sure if this should be in the entertainment section, computing or where but here goes... With the large record companies having the clout to shut down music sharing internet sites, busting pirate companies all over the world and even taking individual people to court, is there any reason why the usenet groups have remained relatively untouched and generally out of the debate? For a resource that lets people easily download just about everything it seems low on the 'get rid of it' priority list. Kirk UK 88.144.64.61 09:21, 16 November 2007 (UTC)

It's possibly the distributed and decentralised nature of usenet which presents the problem. --Tagishsimon (talk) 09:34, 16 November 2007 (UTC)

I think it's more down to the fact that Usenet is simply off most large media companies' radar. They don't understand it, largely because it predates the Web. Also I suspect the amount of file sharing that goes on via Usenet is not huge. These days, newsgroups are increasingly accessed via Google Groups, which I think does not allow for sharing of multimedia files. So in order to download you have to use a news client, which are not always particularly easy to set up. Furthermore, many ISPs don't provide news servers any more.

The same goes for IRC. It's possible to download all sorts of stuff on IRC channels, but most people don't know anything about IRC, and for those who do, it's not really worth the bother. --Richardrj ^{talk email} 09:45, 16 November 2007 (UTC)

Disagree; I'm sure it is on the agenda. I think their defence tends to be in adding useless file data, and in getting one out of the n posts which make up a RAR or a ZIP taken down, such that the whole file is useless. YMMV --Tagishsimon (talk) 09:56, 16 November 2007 (UTC)

Just commenting on Richardrj's reply: there is tons of stuff available on usenet. I'm trying to find a cite somewhere, but I have a figure of "several terabytes per month getting uploaded" stuck in my head. Certainly several dozen (if not hundreds) of DVDs and CDs are posted daily. The mp3 groups are particularly active; I imagine it's a logistics problem and/or lack of knowledge problem that keeps usenet under the radar, not a lack of posts. Matt Deres (talk) 05:23, 18 November 2007 (UTC)

I do not know if this practice is done by media companies or by virus/trojan creators, but if you browse the listings for say (it was quite common in one of the Erotica video groups_) you'll find listings for scene releases but the content of the releases does not match the ground name. So they will have an XviD release done by RNS, which is an mp3 group or an XXX DVD release by LOL, which traditionally releases XviD TV rips.--152.2.62.27 13:53, 16 November 2007 (UTC)

GFDL and re-use of article

My questions: ++What else would I have to do? Is there something about linking to the GFDL? ++Where do I have to do this. It seems crazy to list the contributors and the GFDL Text with an article thats of one page only.++Can I just give the URL address of the site from where the article is taken. In such a case is the copyright law violated? If yes, what is the way out?

I'm sure this has been answered before, but I can't track down any answers and I'm having a heck of a time understanding exactly how to comply with the GNU FDL. I've read the license several times but could not get an answer to my question. If I see an Article, which is part of a compilation that is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License and I make it into a derivitive work such as a newsletter or a journal that I then distribute to clients, what must I do?

Thank you all so very much in advance for your help. Nurture 11:33, 16 November 2007 (UTC)

On the web, licence your instance of the text under the GFDL, and linking to the GFDL, are all you need to do. That could be done by a single line at the foot of the page. In print ... maybe a bit more difficult. You'd satisfy the spirit by saying "This article licenced under the GFDL, details at http:// some web address. I think technically you need to include the whole of the GFDL licence, which is why Creative Commons seems to be more popular - see the cartoon at Commons:Licensing, for instance. A link back to the original article, I think, will satisfy any conditions on the listing of the authors. --Tagishsimon (talk) 11:57, 16 November 2007 (UTC)

Wikipedia:GFDL Compliance indicates what wikipedia expects, citing four levels of compliance:

• Undetermined or disputed: Either more research is needed, or it is disputed.
• Low/None: Fails in a very significant way, usually by lacking mention of Wikipedia, the GFDL, or both.
• Medium: Makes an effort to comply, usually including mention of Wikipedia and the GFDL. May link to offsite GFDL, and/or lack link to original article.
• High: Approximates our licence; should link to original article[1]; should link to local GFDL[2]; should list original authors and dates[3].

Wikipedia:Mirrors and forks notes, regarding authors, that the copy: must acknowledge the main authors (which some claim can be accomplished with a link back to that article on Wikipedia). I'd tend to agree with that. --Tagishsimon (talk) 12:09, 16 November 2007 (UTC)

Technically you are supposed to include the entire GFDL with your copy of the article. Sound crazy? It is! The GFDL is not an ideal license for re-using material at all. Imagine trying to use photograph with a GFDL license in a magazine! ---- 24.147.86.187 (talk) 18:06, 16 November 2007 (UTC)

Sport amongst non-humans

Are there any other animals that could be said to play any kind of sport? Not just cats play fighting, but something with some sort of rules/structure based play. I'm thinking like perhaps monkeys might play 'defend the tree' or animals may play something akin to British Bulldogs (or whatever other places call the game). ny156uk 16:43, 16 November 2007 (UTC)

Not sure if this[7] meets your criteria, but it seems interesting and relevant. Doubt you're gonna see "sport" in the way most people think of it, but definitely appears that certain animals do exhibit play behavior with some kind of consistent rules/structure. Also, I've seen video of chimps playing soccer, doing karate, playing pac-man, etc., though I doubt that's what you were looking for; monkey see, monkey do after all. I also vaguely remember one of the Steves pointing out in response to some question that his dog follows a set of rules in playing the "tug o' war" game with a rope. -- Azi Like a Fox (talk) 17:22, 16 November 2007 (UTC)

The Wikipedia article on otters says they play at tobogganing, though other sources claim that they only slide as a means of locomotion. ---- Milkbreath (talk) 18:02, 16 November 2007 (UTC)

Ravens are said to enjoy a little sliding on their backs in the snow. This mentions it. I think there was a National Geographic article about it years ago, with photos. -- Corvus cornix (talk) 19:05, 16 November 2007 (UTC)

Excellent responses - thanks everyone. I particularly like the idea of ravens doing a form of sledging down hills in the snow! Sounds great. ny156uk (talk) 01:00, 17 November 2007 (UTC)

You see some interesting competitive behavior in leks. Not sure whether you'd call it "play" though. -- Diletante (talk) 01:16, 17 November 2007 (UTC)

It's really obvious that animals 'play' - play being practice for real activities, mostly (but not entirely) undertaken by the young - who most need the practice. The real question here is whether there are rules to that play.

I think you can see clear rules in the way dogs play. My dogs play at least three distinct games with us and (to a lesser extent) each other - which all seem to have "rules". One, for example, I call "Three inches away and growling". The dog has a toy in it's mouth and will come up to you like they want to play catch or some kind of pulling game - as you reach towards them, they'll stand absolutely still until your hand gets with in three inches of the toy and then quickly pull it away so you can't quite reach it. This behavior gets repeated over and over - usually with some play-growling going on at the same time. Your job is to try to distract the dog with one hand so you can sneak in and grab the toy with the other. This seems to be a game - and it has just one essential rule: The dog isn't allowed to simply move the toy out of reach immediately - (because that's too easy and this is a test of reaction speed). So only when your hand gets within three inches are they allowed to react. Yeah - it's simple, but dogs are simple.

Even rough-and-tumble fighting games have a "rule": You have to execute a 'play bow' before you start in order to indicate that this is "just for fun" and not a real fight. So each dog will lower their head to the ground with their tails up in the air prior to the start of the game. Unless both dogs do this, the game can't start (or, it'll end badly with some actual vicious yelping barks and real biting because someone didn't want to play).

SteveBaker (talk) 15:41, 17 November 2007 (UTC)

Seagulls enjoy fighting each other out of boredom and this has a complex set of 'rules' that they all observe, much like a sport has. My budgies like rolling balls around the carpet and their favourite sport of picking toys up off the top of their cage with their beak and seeing how far they can throw them onto the floor although I think their main enjoyment from that is seeing me pick the toys up and put them back so they can do it again! GaryReggae (talk) 16:02, 18 November 2007 (UTC)

So your budgies have successfully trained you to play "fetch" ? Would you ask them how they did that because I've never been able to get my dogs to do it properly and maybe they could give me some tips.  :-) SteveBaker (talk) 19:09, 20 November 2007 (UTC)

Installing adobe flash player

I can't seem to install flash plater. I downloaded the exe and ran it. After a couple seconds, it said done and hit close but it didn't do anything as far as I can tell and I definitely don't have flash player...

Did you close your browser and re-launch it? ---- 24.147.86.187 (talk) 18:07, 16 November 2007 (UTC)

Yeah. It just doesn't do anything.

Well, try it again. ---- 24.147.86.187 (talk) 20:11, 16 November 2007 (UTC)

I did. Several times. Nothing is happening.

Well, perhaps you could be a little more verbose in explaining what happens, what type of operating system you are using, what browsers you are using, etc. We aren't psychic here ---- 24.147.86.187 (talk) 21:14, 16 November 2007 (UTC)

Windows vista with firefox

24, are you talking to yourself again? --- SandyJax (talk) 22:36, 16 November 2007 (UTC)

WP:CIVIL. The question was originally asked by User:206.169.187.67, whose IP resolves to Time-Warner in Los Angeles. 24 appears to be Comcast Cable in Massachusetts. Corvus cornix (talk) 00:46, 17 November 2007 (UTC)

Again? I don't talk to myself. Not on here anyway. And I sign my posts! Also, it would be a little counter-productive to argue with myself over something like this. when I do ask questions they are usually over verbose, not terse! --24.147.86.187 (talk) 05:33, 17 November 2007 (UTC)

I have the same trouble with Firefox and XP. You should really be asking this at the Computing desk though. Clarityfiend (talk) 08:53, 17 November 2007 (UTC)

I don't think that's the way you install Firefox plugins. You should go to a page that has flash content, and Firefox will give you notification that additional plugins are needed. Click install additional plugins, and it'll install Flash by itself. No exe file needed. --antilived^{T | C | G} 09:57, 17 November 2007 (UTC)

I concur with Antilived; at least that's how it works with XP. Firefox just says it wants to update something, you click yes and away it goes in the background - there's no manual downloading and executing of a file by the user. I would ask the OP how he/she knows they don't have the player - are there websites that don't work? When you get to one, Firefox should be asking you if you'd like to update (again). It's not really a stand alone program you launch and use to make Flash animations (that one costs $$$). Matt Deres (talk) 02:02, 20 November 2007 (UTC)

Sometimes a reboot is needed. Also visit the flash site in your firefox browser.Rfwoolf (talk) 16:32, 18 November 2007 (UTC)

Pool Noodles

Does anyone know what the exact name for the material pool noodles are made of is?

What, pray, are pool noodles? -- DuncanHill (talk) 19:41, 16 November 2007 (UTC)

Why, they are Pool noodles, of course! And they are made of polystyrene foam, according to the article. - Eron^Talk 19:44, 16 November 2007 (UTC)

I had bizarre visions of Olympic-sized pot-noodles! -- DuncanHill (talk) 20:13, 16 November 2007 (UTC)

That's obviously wrong. That's Styrofoam. Googling seems to indicate that it's EVA foam. ---- Milkbreath (talk) 20:11, 16 November 2007 (UTC)

The pot plot thickens: this link suggests that it's polyethylene foam. I'm itching to improve the article, but now I don't know how! - Eron^Talk 20:21, 16 November 2007 (UTC)

I'm doing it now. EVA is a kind of polyethylene foam, sort of. ---- Milkbreath (talk) 20:23, 16 November 2007 (UTC)

(I can't believe I'm actually discussing this) Here are some more links in support of the polyethylene foam theory: [8] [9] [10]. I read the description of EVA and its uses and it didn't seem quite right to me. - Eron^Talk 20:35, 16 November 2007 (UTC)

That Thermotec link looks legitimate, but they don't say what their "Supafoam" is, exactly. The other two are ads, which I don't think we can trust to get the science right. You might be right, but we're not there yet. And what do you mean you don't believe? These pool noodles are the greatest thing since the Hula hoop. ---- Milkbreath (talk) 20:47, 16 November 2007 (UTC)

I am hoping to find a patent application somewhere that will nail it down. And don't get me wrong; I love the noodle. I'll just never be able to sneer at seemingly pointless pages again. - Eron^Talk 20:52, 16 November 2007 (UTC)

I've changed the article to read "polyethylene foam", but I'd still like to nail it down. ---- Milkbreath (talk) 21:13, 16 November 2007 (UTC)

This is a most edifying thread, and pool noodles seem to have that effect! They were also used to build a fun and flexible model of the double helix, in celebration of "DNA Day". ---Sluzzelin talk 07:14, 17 November 2007 (UTC)

The exact name is "Funoodle"

Buying a digital camera - UK High Street.

Please don't bin this as I am NOT seeking legal advice - merely purchasing guidance. I bought a digital camera from a well-known Uk Photo Shop that turned out to be well below advertised standards - and returned it per the company's 30 day returns policy. But was told I had invalidated that policy because I had opened the software packet and loaded it onto my PC - but had NOT registered the software - or the camera. I was told that at the instant I opened the packet, I had breached the copyright license and had thus invalidated the whole returns policy. BUT, how could I have otherwise transferred the digipics I took as part of my sampling process when the camera was NOT recognised by my PC unless I loaded the camera-specific software. I eventually resolved the situation to my satisfaction - but only after threatening Trading Standards authority intervention etc., but seriously, when I was offered (and accepted) a replacement, on opening the box, the first words I saw were instructions that I should first load the enclosed software???????????????????????????

Well done for getting satisfaction. I would think this would fall under the Unfair Contract Terms Act 1977 since, as you say, you can only establish the bona fides of the product by opening the package. File under "vendor trying it on". I don't know what case law there is in this area - IINAL - but I know concerns exactly as yours have been raised many times about so-called shrink wrap contracts - e.g. Cory Doctorow - "Shrinkwrap Licenses: An Epidemic of Lawsuits Waiting to Happen" --Tagishsimon (talk) 23:51, 16 November 2007 (UTC)

So long as the software was uninstalled when the camera and software disc were returned then there is no problem whatsoever with copyright. The software licence trumps their returns policy. ---- WebHamster 23:59, 16 November 2007 (UTC)

Also, drivers and accompanying software are commonly publicly available through the manufacturer's website. Using copyrights as an excuse is simply invalid if you're allowed to acquire such software without actually buying the camera. --antilived^{T | C | G} 09:52, 17 November 2007 (UTC)

I recently had to return camcorders to both Sony and Panasonic shops and they refunded instantly withou question. Great service.--88.110.2.66 (talk) 12:14, 17 November 2007 (UTC)

November 17

Colorblindness restrictions

I acknowledge that there are various forms of colorblindness. But could a colorblind person have difficulties distinguishing between a yellow and red traffic light? As well, could it be a potential limitation for future careers such as a graphic designer and pilot? Thanks. Acceptable (talk) 01:37, 17 November 2007 (UTC)

Yes (and between red and green), although shape and position of the lights helps. Yes, it is a potential limitation - Colourblind people can get private pilot licenses in most places, providing they can demonstrate they are not unsafe, but military and commercial aviation generally requires accurate colour vision. You can read the ICAO opinion on colourblindness here. FiggyBee (talk) 01:57, 17 November 2007 (UTC)

As for graphic design, I could imagine someone being a just fine designer despite having red/green issues—color is important for design, but in many cases it is not as important as a good eye for proportion and a good sense of creativity. Every once in awhile they'd probably do something accidentally outrageous to the non-colorblind but that wouldn't be that hard to correct for if they had an editor. --24.147.86.187 (talk) 05:31, 17 November 2007 (UTC)

A LOT depends on which kind of colour blindness you're talking about. You have three types of colour sensor in your eye. Red, Green and Blue. Any or all of those could be faulty - and they could either be 'weak' (ie producing a smaller visual response than they should) or absent altogether. So, for example, you might not be able to see red - or you might see red only weakly. So you could have Red-missing, Red-weak, Green-missing, Green-weak, Blue-missing, Blue-weak or (very rarely) combinations of those (eg Red-weak, Blue-missing). There are fancy names for each variety and combination.

My son has one of the mildest and most common forms of red/green colourblindness, his green sensors are weak, He tells me that he can easily tell the difference between the colours on a traffic light - and not just by their position. But he does have some clear restriction in the area of red/yellow/orange/green discrimination. We only found out that he was colourblind at all because I was nagging him for continually leaving his Nintendo Wii game console in 'standby' (or 'pause') mode instead of turning it off. The console has one of those tricolour LED's that shows Red when it's plugged in but turned off, orange when it's in 'standby' and green when it's fully on. It turns out that the orange and the red LED colours were ALMOST indistinguishable to him. I wondered if he was colourblind and gave him one of the many online colourblindness tests - which he failed (he subsequently had the high school nurse run the same test with a proper calibrated set of tests and got the same result). I think he has a 'weak' green sensor - so colours that are predominantly red but with small amounts of green differentiating them are hard for him to distinguish. Somehow that messes up his red/orange perception in LED light but not for traffic lights. It's a subtle business evidently.

While I've definitely heard that being colour blind is a limiting factor in aviation - and a problem for graphic designers, it depends a HECK of a lot on which kind of colourblindness you have. There are about a dozen variations - some more severe than others. In fact, my son's main passion in life is 3D computer graphics - and he's been turning out excellent work in that field since he was 7 years old. The fact than neither he nor I could tell that he was colour blind for 16 years - half of which were when his major passion was in an area where colour mattered greatly - means that this is not in any way a limiting factor until you come to being able to turn off your Wii! The ICAO aviation test mentioned above requires you to distinguish red, green and white - which you can do with the most common forms of colour blindness because white contains blue - so if you are missing or weak with either red or green, your blue sensor will still tell you which one is white. Similarly, inless you are missing both red and green, you'll easily be able to tell the difference between the red and green lights because one or the other would appear much darker than the other.

Actually, this discovery of his problem has been greatly upsetting to him - because he worries that it might limit him in a future career - and since it is such a very minor limitation, I really wish I'd never tested him. We've tried lots of practical tests on the computer - and aside from the official colourblindness tests (the ones with the numbers made out of coloured dots), and red/orange/green LED's - it's impossible to fool him.

Incidentally, we figured out a way to fix the Wii problem. We taped a sheet of green plastic over the LED. That filters out most of the red light so the LED is almost dark when it's showing red, a dim shade of green when it's showing orange and a bright shade of green when it's on. This is plenty good enough for him to distinguish between the three states.

But - as I said, some people are profoundly colour blind - and that an entirely different matter.

SteveBaker (talk) 15:14, 17 November 2007 (UTC)

Hi: The men (and some of the women) in my family "suffer" from colorblindness. You should know that the "red" and "green" lights on a stoplight are not pure red and green. They are orange-red and blue-green. That's so we colorblind people can tell the difference. Colorblind people can learn to notice the small differences in colors that others take for granted. I remember as a child getting flipped out by the horizontal traffic lights in downtown Cincinnati, because it was difficult for me then to tell the red and yellow lights apart without the top-bottom difference. I'm pretty sure you can't be a pilot and be colorblind. My grandfather wanted to join the Air Corps during WWII, but was disallowed because of his colorblindness. It was fortunate -- several friends who did join the Air Corps never came back. My grandfather wound up spending the war repairing tanks in England. -- Mwalcoff (talk) 22:47, 17 November 2007 (UTC)

My grandfather too was shut out of the air force during World War II because they discovered he was red-green colorblind. He ended up driving military trucks. --S.dedalus 02:44, 18 November 2007 (UTC)

Must have been before they did serious studies on colorblind people. It turns out that colorblind people make excellent snipers -- disruptive camoflage doesn't work on them. --Carnildo (talk) 06:16, 18 November 2007 (UTC)

I'm colorblind, several optometrists have told me and I've done tests online. They've told me I can't drive a train, and I think they said I can't be a pilot either. I was however a graphic designer, a good one I'd say, and coped just fine. The one job I had I told them I had trouble with certain colours, but in the next job I made a decision not to - and so I had to discretely ask for opinions on certain colour matches. I guess it depends on how it affects you. If you outright can't tell the difference between red and green you might have problems, but for other subtle differences it shouldn't rule you out. On the other hand if you had to get a job mixing colours such as a printer or mixing inks - you would absolutely have to have someone check each mix. But graphic design is a lot more than just using colour, it has to do with visual layout, proportions, sizing, and yes an understanding of which colours work well together and illicit certain responses. Rfwoolf (talk) 16:25, 18 November 2007 (UTC)

Colorblindness might actually be an advantage for someone in an artistic field. For one, a colorblind person has to actually learn facts about color relationships that a normally sighted person can take for granted. This is not unique to colorblind people. I remember reading how when they designed what's now called Quicken Loans Arena, Gordon Gund, the owner of the Cleveland Cavaliers who had been blind for 25 years, vetoed a proposed orange-and-blue color scheme because he knew it would be harsh on the eye. Gund may have just remembered that from his youth, but I bet he also read about colors and people's reactions to them. The other advantage to being colorblind is that if you can't tell apart the colors, you know another 10% of men won't be able to tell them apart either. -- Mwalcoff (talk) 17:59, 18 November 2007 (UTC)

Re-use of Article

My Questions: ++I have taken an article, of about one page, from the Wikipedia and want to use it for distribution, to my clients as a newsletter (printed copies). I have decided to add the URL Address of the page as a reference at the end of the page. In such a case, am I violating the copyrights law? ++If yes, what is the way out?

Nurture (talk) 10:14, 17 November 2007 (UTC)

Technically, the terms of the GFDL require that the full text be appended to any documents licensed under it. In practice, however, it's generally acceptable to provide a credit tagline at the end of the article. Type in the article name at Special:Cite for a few potential layouts. If the article includes any pictures, it's probably a good idea to add separate credits for them. GeeJo ^(t)⁄_(c) • 14:14, 17 November 2007 (UTC)

I agree - nobody is going to bother you for not including the entire text of the GFDL (a couple of pages) with every copy of a one page article - so long as you clearly state where the article came from, that it is licensed under the GFDL and where the GFDL can be found. It's plenty good enough to say something like:

"This article has been reprinted from Wikipedia (www.wikipedia.org) under the terms of the GFDL (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WP:GFDL)".

SteveBaker (talk) 14:45, 17 November 2007 (UTC)

Well, legally it is not 100% plenty good but practically it is. Legally the GFDL says that no only you have to include the entire text, no matter what size of material you are reproducing, but you have to go through the trouble of indicating which version it is from the article history, a list of its authors, etc. Totally, totally impractical for offline dealings, and IMO it's too bad that Wikipedia didn't dual-license under its own more-free license from the start. --24.147.86.187 (talk) 16:05, 17 November 2007 (UTC)

There has been significant discussion about adopting the GNU Simplified License at the next licence update (which is allowed by the terms of the GFDL). I've not read the thing in detail, but hopefully by the time it moves on from the draft stage it'll've redacted most of the unwieldy aspects of the current licence. GeeJo ^(t)⁄_(c) • 17:38, 17 November 2007 (UTC)

ASK A LAWYER. Jon513 (talk) 13:57, 19 November 2007 (UTC)

Is there a word for fear of flying ladybugs?

I've been scared of them since I was a tiny kid! MalwareSmarts (talk) 16:55, 17 November 2007 (UTC)

Yahoo Answers says it's Coccinellidaephobia, though given that all 6 ghits for that word point to Yahoo Answers, I'm guessing someone made it up by tacking "phobia" on to the latin word for ladybug. It's really a very specific form of entomophobia. - Eron^Talk 17:06, 17 November 2007 (UTC)

Find a computer through it's MAC adress

Is it possible to find a stolen computer when it connects to the internet with its MAC adress? Keria (talk) 18:26, 17 November 2007 (UTC)

I'm pretty sure only the router it is on sees the MAC address. So yes, you could, but only if the router it connected to is one which you controlled. And even then, the most you could do is say, "Jinkies, someone has connected my computer to the internets!" and maybe deny them internet access. Maybe if you had your router's IP assignment very well set up you could say which internet outlet it was plugged into in your building, but again, that depends on them using it on YOUR specific router. --24.147.86.187 (talk) 20:39, 17 November 2007 (UTC)

Yeah, MAC is a physical-layer thing and this information won't exist in the IP layer. You can only see MAC address on the local network segment. Also I think it's pretty standard these days that MAC addresses can be easily changed by the end user. Friday (talk) 20:42, 17 November 2007 (UTC)

need to verify a name of hospital in Africa

I hope that someone can help me to find out if there are Iwosan clinics in Nigeria. Someone told me that there is a clinic in 7 fola coker street Ijebu ode, Ogun state. Will you please verify this place of address? Am seeking a friend thats there and am not sure if is still there and be of that address too.

thanks,

Kenneth Allen Khalln (talk) 22:34, 17 November 2007 (UTC)

Whichever country you are currently in probably has an international exchange service - and might even be free. You call this number, they then call directory services in Nigeria and with all 3 of you on the line they get the number for you. Of course this service can only confirm an address, you might not be lucky to GET an address by just giving them a name - they are usually only happy to give out telephone numbers and confirm an address. Then once you have the this information, it will cost you to make the call. Rfwoolf (talk) 16:16, 18 November 2007 (UTC)

November 18

Motorola Razor Cell Phone

Does anyone know how to (and whether or not it is even possible to) change the following "setting" on a Motorola Razor cell phone? In my cell phone's address book, all of the entries are listed as such: (for example) John Smith 18005551212. Is it possible to make the address book entries read as such: John Smith 1-800-555-1212 ... (that is, with the three traditional dashes placed in the telephone number in the correct positions)? It's extremely difficult to read the telephone numbers when all eleven digits are strung together with no separations at all. Thanks. (Joseph A. Spadaro (talk) 00:57, 18 November 2007 (UTC))

To my knowledge this is impossible with Motorola's original firmware. There are many alternative free softwares available to replace the firmware for that phone. You might want to read on those and see if any proposes what you want. You will have more hits in GOOGLE if you typer RAZR though. Keria (talk) 13:48, 18 November 2007 (UTC)

Vaudeville Performers

I am looking for information on a vaudeville duo by the name of Jillson and Reed.209.244.188.57 (talk) 01:36, 18 November 2007 (UTC)

There's a little here. Xn4 02:14, 18 November 2007 (UTC)

Urinal Cakes in the mouth?

What happens when you hold a urinal cake in your mouth? Are they toxic? How does it taste? BradTimlin (talk) 02:09, 18 November 2007 (UTC)

They most likely have dangurous chemicals and the drinking of ones urin can make you EXTREMLY sick and other would be even worse. It would taste horrible, a good idea would be to drink your own piss then add chemiclas then old warm pee from about 3 days ago. Esskater11 02:30, 18 November 2007 (UTC)

Parts of that answer are slightly urban-mythesque. I would recommend not ingesting a urinal cake, because of the toxic chemicals. However, drinking of urine, while it can be dangerous if you have certain diseases, is not necessarily dangerous (it's not necessarily beneficial either, but that's a different issue). You probably take a greater risk eating chicken in certain dodgy eateries than you do in drinking your own urine. There are millions of people who drink their own urine on a daily basis with no ill effects - see urine therapy. When Morarji Desai became Prime Minister of India in 1977, he initially attracted much more attention from the Western press with his revelation that he was a daily urine drinker, than the fact of his political success at the age of 81. He died at the age of 99. As for the taste issue, maybe a citation would be more helpful than Esskater's assumption that "it would taste horrible". -- JackofOz (talk) 02:49, 18 November 2007 (UTC)

The urinal cake article says that they're mainly made of either paradichlorobenzene or naphthalene. Both of those are toxic, and considered to possibly cause cancer. MrRedact (talk) 03:59, 18 November 2007 (UTC)

Well thank you for the "answers" but I was thinking about holding a NEW urinal cake in my mouth, not one with piss on it... what chemicals are in it that would make it harmful? BradTimlin (talk) 04:05, 18 November 2007 (UTC)

Maybe you missed the answer right above yours, but they contain toxic and carcinogenic chemicals. Don't do it. --24.147.86.187 (talk) 05:01, 18 November 2007 (UTC)

According the articles paradichlorobenzene and naphthalene some symptoms include nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, blood in the urine, jaundice, fatigue, lack of appetite, restlessness, pale skin, dizziness, headaches, liver problems, painful irritation of the nose and eyes, skin blotches, lower numbers of red blood cells, cancer, liver and kidney tumors. In short DON'T EAT IT. Jon513 (talk) 13:55, 19 November 2007 (UTC)

Song in dell comerical

In the Dell comerrical where the guy is walking in that robot suit. What is that songs name. Sorry for being vauge. Esskater11 02:25, 18 November 2007 (UTC)

The W. A. N. D. by The Flaming Lips [11] --Melburnian (talk) 03:01, 18 November 2007 (UTC)

career in extraterrestrial/paranormal studies

how would i go about finding a career in studying/researching aliens or other paranormal things? what kind of degree would i need? who would i work for?

Though it would be fun to be a professional ufologist, most people who study UFOs do so as a hobby. There aren't any real careers in ufology, outside of writing books or giving lectures on the subject. Zagalejo^^^ 06:11, 18 November 2007 (UTC)

Here's an article from CUFOS that might be of interest: [12]. Zagalejo^^^ 06:17, 18 November 2007 (UTC)

What with the dearth of evidence for the "paranormal", etc., chances are that you'd be working for a charlatan or nutball. -- Hoary (talk) 07:40, 18 November 2007 (UTC)

There is extremely little professional parapsychology research going on any more, and what little there is is on the decline, but it does still exist. See Parapsychology#Parapsychology today and Rhine Research Center. Getting a PhD in psychology might help. MrRedact (talk) 14:25, 18 November 2007 (UTC)

The FBI has a very small number of jobs available in the extraterrestrial/paranormal field, according to a documentary I once saw called The X-Files. MrRedact (talk) 16:06, 18 November 2007 (UTC)

My advice about starting a career of this sort would be to go and read some Isaac Asimov books on the topic and then reappraise your position. Richard Avery (talk) 09:21, 19 November 2007 (UTC)

There is the Koestler Parapsychology Unit at the University of Edinburgh. DuncanHill (talk) 09:27, 19 November 2007 (UTC)

The trouble is that these subjects have been researched and found to be simply untrue. Hence we know the answer and there is clearly no need for further research. What research remains is being done by the nut-jobs - so funding is going to be tough to find - and jobs even tougher. I strongly recommend getting some serious scientific training and researching some of the utterly bizarre, mind-twisting things that are really happening in our universe - once you get past the superficial stuff, UFO's and 'paranormal' phenomena would not be as weird. You certainly could get a job researching 15 dimensional space or quantum computers that can do an infinite number of calculations in parallel or the prospects for making tiny robots that are small enough to enter your bloodstream and repair cells or materials that are strong enough to make an elevator that would take you up to geostationary orbits - which is hanging from literally nothing! There are plenty of really interesting subjects to study that will actually give your contribution meaning for the future of humanity - rather than flushing your life down the toilet doing 'junk science'. SteveBaker (talk) 17:58, 19 November 2007 (UTC)

Not true Steve. There are a lot of charlatans, and I am in no way claiming that there is such a things as 'the paranormal', but to say "these subjects have been researched and found to be simply untrue" when the question asked "how would i go about finding a career in studying/researching aliens or other paranormal things? what kind of degree would i need? who would i work for?" seems rather slapdash. Aliens have not been researched and found to be untrue, but plausible explanations that do not involve aliens have been found for most terrestrial 'alien' sightings. Aliens themselves remain rather likely, although it has not been possible to do much research into actual aliens as we haven't found any yet (and may not).

The question asker wanted to know what degree would be useful in researching paranormal things, and I would think it would depend on what paranormal things you wanted to research, and what aspect of them you wanted to look into. If you're interested in a particular area, get a degree in a reputable subject that would give you insight, become a research scientist and see if you can convince someone to fund you to research the area. Some people would be happy to fund some odd things out of curiosity, some would fund some things to see them disproved, some in the hopes they would be proved. Or you could end up poor lab-less :) If you're more interested in the general paranormal 'experience' and the way these things spread and are discussed (including those who believe, and those like Steve above), perhaps an anthropology degree would be best. That would probably increase the chances that you'd get paid to research and write about these things, although you'd be looking with a very different perspective.

I find these things fascinating, and I'm afraid I'm a Fortean. If you tell me you saw the ghost of your dead mother and she made you a pancake, I'll be terribly interested. I probably won't believe your interpretation, but I'll certainly file it away as something that happened, and investigate the smell of fried batter that lingers in your room... Skittle (talk) 23:00, 19 November 2007 (UTC)

Latina and Polynesian Porn sites

Hi I'm just wondering if anyone here knows of any good sites with latina and polynesian chicas? Lesbian would be best but if not hardcore porn. Thanks in advance LocoLatino (talk) 07:20, 18 November 2007 (UTC)

Porn sites seem to be very energetic in advertising their existence, and there seem to be plenty of bulletin boards devoted to this uplifting subject. You're an active contributor to "talk" here; would you care to contribute to an article at some time? -- Hoary (talk) 07:39, 18 November 2007 (UTC)

You asked this question before, it can be found in the archives, specifically Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Miscellaneous/2007 November 9#Latina and Polynesian Porn sites. Rockpocket 07:43, 18 November 2007 (UTC)

semiconductor

Band diagram of a p⁺n junction. The band bending is a result of the positioning of the Fermi levels in the p⁺ and n sides.

i have read the book of the semiconductor and found the probleme with instrinsic fermi energy level in the topics of banding of energy band. as i read it is found that the fermi energy level is constant for a semiconductor and if the semiconductor isnot dopped uniformely,making dopped gradient along the length,the bending effect of energy band is found eg: the cb,vb and fermi energy level get slope and as i said that the fermi energy level is same so it doesnot get slope but the istrinsic fermi energy level is get slope

but i m confused what the actual physical meaning of the instrinsic fermi energy level????

Are you referring to this image? I'm no expert, but I think it is misleading. The intrinsic Fermi level does not change. The diagram is meant only to illustrate the change in the positions of the conduction and valence bands relative to the device level, and the intrinsic level has to remain between them. It would be better if the device level sloped and the other three lines were straight across. You should ask this on the Science desk. --Milkbreath (talk) 17:33, 18 November 2007 (UTC)

No, the diagram is not misleading. The point is that the Fermi level is always flat within any set of conductive materials in electrical contact, once equilibrium has been reached. If at any moment the Fermi level is not flat, electrons will flow until it is. The Fermi level is essentially the dividing line between filled and unfilled electronic states, and if electrons have a higher energy in one material, they will flow to an available lower-energy state elsewhere, thereby increasing the electrostatic potential in that region, until the Fermi level is flat. This is completely analogous to a water surface. If two or more containers of water are connected with hoses, water will flow between them until the water level is the same in all the containers. In a given semiconductor material, the Fermi level has an essentially fixed position (determined by the doping) relative to the valence and conduction bands, so after the Fermi level has become straight, the valence and conduction bands will be bent. --mglg_(talk) 01:48, 19 November 2007 (UTC)

OK, now I'm confused too, I guess. The diagram shows two Fermi levels, one for the device and one for the intrinsic semiconductor material. The first is straight and the second is not. "Intrinsic" means "undoped", so that line should be at the same level on both sides, because both sides are silicon. Also, this is not conductive materials in electrical contact, it is a pn junction. Electron and hole migration ceases when a depletion region forms, and that region is in equilibrium, not the two materials. Further, the highest available energy level (Fermi level) of an electron in the valence band or conduction band will not be affected by doping, what is affected is the balance between carriers, which will move the device line to express a sort of average level.

I really wish he'd asked this on the Science desk. I'm a little over my head, but I'll stand in for the questioner until I understand this myself. --Milkbreath (talk) 03:23, 19 November 2007 (UTC)

• A p-n junction is an interface between two materials – p-doped silicon and n-doped silicon – in direct contact (including electrical contact).
• The depletion region is established by the charge-carrier flow that I mentioned. The displacement of charges results in electric fields, which produce the band bending and the flat Fermi level. When electron and hole migration ceases, it does so precisely because the Fermi level has become flat, so that no direction is "downhill" any longer.

Maybe some background will help: In the absence of doping, there are no states in the band gap, so there is the same number of holes in the valence band as there are (thermally excited) electrons in the conduction band. This is described by a Boltzmann distribution around an average energy in the middle of the band gap. This average energy defines what the diagram calls the "intrinsic Fermi level". If you add some dopant atoms (with one electron "too much", in the case of n-doping), there will be more electrons than holes around. This will correspond to a higher average energy in the Boltzmann distribution (an actual Fermi level, which the diagram calls "device Fermi level", that lies closer to the conduction band). Similarly, p-doping will lower the (device) Fermi level, moving it closer to the valence band. If an n-doped region is in electrical contact with a p-doped region, the true (device) Fermi level has to be flat, because otherwise charge carriers would move until it became flat. This will cause the other bands to bend. That all the energy levels in the materials far from the junction on either side have moved up or down simply means that these regions are at different electrical potential (relative to some common external reference). If you are familiar with chemistry or thermodynamics, the Fermi level is essentially a chemical potential for electrons. --mglg_(talk) 04:18, 19 November 2007 (UTC)

I'm familiar with electronics, or used to be. Or thought I was until I saw all this about a quantum approach to semiconductor theory. The higher-energy electrons on the n side cannot flow to the p side because of the space charge at the junction barrier. And the diagram seems to show that electrons in the conduction band, for instance, are at a higher energy on the p side than on the n side; how can that be? I'm using the technique here of asking stupid questions until the other guy figures out what it is I don't know that I can't tell him I don't know because I don't know it. But let's try returning to the original question: "What the actual physical meaning of the instrinsic fermi energy level?" --Milkbreath (talk) 11:42, 19 November 2007 (UTC)

Do paypal provide service for Bangladeshi users ?

I'm a Bangladeshi resident . I've started signing up in paypal but i did'nt find Bangladesh in their country/region list ? Is it possible for me to enjoy the service of paypal ?

It seems that Bangladesh is not one of Paypal's "supported countries". I noticed that a few other Muslim countries (Pakistan, Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Egypt, Iran, United Arab Emirates) are not "supported", or served, by Paypal, nor are some poorer countries in the Americas (Haiti, Dominican Republic) or some African countries (Nigeria, Ghana, Congo-Brazzaville, Zimbabwe). Possibly, legal or financial infrastructures in those countries would make it difficult for Paypal to offer its services in those countries, or U.S. government restrictions on money transfers to or from certain countries may stand in the way. Marco polo (talk) 02:35, 19 November 2007 (UTC)

Paypal also relies upon all sorts of electronic banking services that may simply not exist in those places. SteveBaker (talk) 17:48, 19 November 2007 (UTC)

Extras in Films and Lip Readers

I've just been watching a film with a restaurant scene. You can clearly see about 3 groups of extras in the background talking (though obviously the voices are not heard) and it got me thinking... What do they talk about and can lip-readers see what they are saying? I expect they don't talk based on any sort of script, so plausibly they might be discussing roles they've done in other film or just day-to-day things. Anyways seeing as A) I cannot lip read and B) I don't know anyone who has been in a film. I wondered if anybody knows, or indeed if they do lip-read, does watch the extras. I should note that this is just because I was watching a film i've seen about a million times, normally i watch the main characters!! ny156uk (talk) 12:10, 18 November 2007 (UTC)

Not so sure about films, but in plays the characters having unheard conversations in the background are discouraged from having meaningful conversation because they might get involved and miss a cue, so it is common to just repeat a phrase (softly) such as "Bread and butter" while appearing to show facial expressions consistent with a conversation. Edison (talk) 14:46, 18 November 2007 (UTC)

Edison - wow, that is interesting. I would have never known that. But, yes, it does make a great deal of sense. (Joseph A. Spadaro (talk) 15:11, 18 November 2007 (UTC))

In film they can talk about anything although it's important that they don't actually make a noise. In any professional production (compare to an unprofessional production where the director might not be very experienced) the extras are supposed to be absolutely silent so that the actors' voices can be recorded clearly. This gives the editor the chance to put background noise in later - and whatever noise might have been picked up by an extra might contaminate the added background sound in an unideal way. Some of the time the extras are saying nonsense lines like "I have no dialogue" - but other times if they can hear eachother they may even have proper conversations. I'm no expert on lip reading but I would guess that you would need to clearly see the lips and facial expressions, and, you'd need to watch the movement for a couple of seconds to get some idea of the sentence structure to make out what the person is saying - and in a film it's rare to clearly see an extra speaking for a long time where you would get an opportunity to make out what they're saying -- but either way it's probably nonsense. Rfwoolf (talk) 15:18, 18 November 2007 (UTC)

See also Walla. 84.65.107.232 (talk) 15:20, 18 November 2007 (UTC)

According to the lip reading article, it says "...Other difficult scenarios in which to speechread include: lack of a clear view of the speaker's lips. This includes obstructions such as moustaches or hands in front of the mouth; the speaker's head turned aside or away; bright light source such as a window behind the speaker.". It also mentions that to lip read you normally rely on a lot more than just the lips, such as the tongue, facial expression and movement, gestures, as well as context, and that only about 30-40% of english speech is deciferable from lips alone.

So my guess is that lip readers would have a hard time deciphering what extras are saying - not without a bit of sound or context etc Rfwoolf (talk) 15:26, 18 November 2007 (UTC)

There's a term for what they say in the background, and I'm pretty sure we have an article on it, but I can't remember what it is at all. There are some specific nonsense phrases which are often used because they sound like "background chatter". --24.147.86.187 (talk) 17:03, 18 November 2007 (UTC)

See walla. I always preferred rhubarb. --jpgordon^∇∆∇∆ 17:10, 18 November 2007 (UTC)

Rhubarb rhubarb rhubarb. Custard! FiggyBee (talk) 17:45, 18 November 2007 (UTC)

Rhubarb#Other_uses_of_the_word. Corvus cornix (talk) 22:34, 18 November 2007 (UTC)

This probably also applies to newsreaders on TV. Many news shows start out with 2 people chatting, and when the lights go on they turn to face the cameras and start the show. At the end, they do their goodbyes to the viewers, then resume their chat. I always wonder whether they pick up where they left off before ("As I was saying before we were rudely interrupted by this damn news broadcast, ...."), or start a new conversation, or whether they're just saying "rhubarb" etc. -- JackofOz (talk) 23:55, 18 November 2007 (UTC)

BONSOR

Bonsor name is extremely rare in India. In UK there are many listed in Wikipedia, including that of Sir Nicolas Cosmos Bonsor, the fourth Baronet. Am interested to trace my ancestary,and therefore request e-mail/ address of Sir Bonsor to enable me to get in touch with him. Further,i would like to know how i can insert my write up in the Wikipedia. Thanks.

Surinder Bonsor, India. 59.95.24.213 (talk) 13:19, 18 November 2007 (UTC)

A quick search on google doesn't turn up a site/email that is forthcoming. For individuals of this nature you may be best writing to the houses of parliament in the UK, or the MP that is now in one of the constituencies he represented (namely Angela Watkinson). ny156uk (talk) 14:27, 18 November 2007 (UTC)

Some genealogical info is on thepeerage.com and he can be contacted via his website. 84.65.107.232 (talk) 15:17, 18 November 2007 (UTC)

Also, an article on him is at Nicholas Bonsor. Feel free to edit this, but please remember to keep to the rules/guidelines at Biographies of living persons and cite reliable sources of your information. Foxhill (talk)

A question concerning "Universal Pictures Lorimars" 1984 production of "The Last Starfighter".

Are there plans for creating a sequel to this movie? The door for a sequel was left open by allowing the bad guy, "Xur", to escape in the final moments of the movie. Thank you,

Brian Long

This is probably a question that's impossible for us to answer on the Reference Desk unless there's an employee of Universal who contributes. Even then he/she may not be able to answer due to confidentiality issues. My gut instinct says unlikely, the film is very much a product of it's time and it's nearly 25 years old - a remake is a more likely idea. Exxolon (talk) 18:08, 18 November 2007 (UTC)

Gold In Desert

Could gold only be found in river and creek beds? Because a picture that showed a large gold nugget described it as being discovered in the southern California desert, would that have to be found near or in a river or creek, not the actual desert?

See gold prospecting. Gold is found in seams in rocks, but some gets washed out with erosion and becomes concentrated in river beds.--Shantavira|^{feed me} 18:02, 18 November 2007 (UTC)

See Gold#Production and daughter articles Gold prospecting, Gold mining, and Gold extraction. Exxolon (talk) 18:03, 18 November 2007 (UTC)

So it wouldn't be found beneath the desert floor/sand? The big rock was probably found in the pictures that was discovered in the southern California desert was probably found in a riverbed or creek, not the actual desert? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.120.225.37 (talk) 14:11, 19 November 2007 (UTC)

• High-tech gold mines need not necessarily have anything to do with rivers. Our Open-pit mining article lists several gold mines around the world where all the gold is found by mechanical or chemical processes. In fact, in these types of mines water can often be more of a nuisance than an aid. --M@rēino 16:29, 19 November 2007 (UTC)

Even if it were true that gold was only ever deposited in river and creek beds, a lump of gold will sit around unchanged for millions of years. So a river that flowed through lush vegetation in southern California a few million years ago, eroding mountains and dumping gold into it's bed might well have dried up and turned into desert today. The gold, however, would remain right there where the river used to flow. Hence, it should come as no surprise that gold shows up in lots of places where there is no modern river. However, it's probably a lot easier for a prospector to recover gold from a river that's flowing right now than it is to trek around at random digging holes and looking for the stuff out in the desert...which would explain the idea that rivers are good places to look. SteveBaker (talk) 17:44, 19 November 2007 (UTC)

Metrodome Field

In the Metrodome, the Gophers and Vikings play on back to back days. They change the paint in the endzone and midfield. How do they get the gopher's paint off within 12 hours to get the Vikings paint down instead?

Since the Metrodome uses an artificial surface, they just replace the sections with the logos. They're not repainting anything. — Lomn 19:25, 18 November 2007 (UTC)

Tallest building in Flagstaff

What is the tallest building in Flagstaff? Æetlr Creejl 19:46, 18 November 2007 (UTC)

Sechrist Residence Hall, with 8 floors,

Also Sechrist Hall, with 8 floors at Northern Arizona Universtiy.

DarkZorro 19:50, 18 November 2007 (UTC)

Stripes

How do they get those broad, faint stripes across a soccer pitch, a bit like the yard lines in American football? --Milkbreath (talk) 20:40, 18 November 2007 (UTC)

If you mean the green-on-green stripes, they occur when you mow the lawn in different directions, causing the grass to be bent in different directions. I believe professional groundskeepers use special mowers for this, but it is very low-tech. Google "stripe mowing" and you'll find a bunch on that. --24.147.86.187 (talk) 21:01, 18 November 2007 (UTC)

Its not really even that special of equipment. Its just a roller on the back of the lawn mower that pushes the grass in one direction or another. They use them in Baseball alot and make some pretty intricate designs in the grass.

A couple months ago I saw a book that showed how to make designs in your lawn with similar techniques. Don't remember the name of the book but I'm pretty sure a little hunting around on Amazon would turn it up. Dismas|^(talk) 11:23, 19 November 2007 (UTC)

Buying watermelons

Is there a key to choosing ripe/good watermelons in stores? I've heard that if one taps/slaps the watermelon and if it makes a certain sounds, then one can know that it is ripe. Is this true? Acceptable (talk) 22:28, 18 November 2007 (UTC)

I've been taught that if it sounds hollow inside it's a good one. --antilived^{T | C | G} 23:30, 18 November 2007 (UTC)

After living for a while in southern europe where watermelons were very common during the summer the key is to buy them from where the seller will slice into the melon to show you that the flesh is ripe to within 1/2 cm. of the skin. This rarely failed but I admit is of little use in modern supermarkets. I have witnessed lots of learned tapping and slapping of watermelons but have not yet found that there is a sure and certain method to ensure sweetness from maturity. The knowledge of the vendor is the best guide. Richard Avery (talk) 09:16, 19 November 2007 (UTC)

My wife (who is French and must therefore know everything there is to know about food) claims that pushing her thumbs against the ends of the melon provides the necessary information (although precisely how remains a mystery to a mere Brit like me). Personally, I want a double-blind placebo study of her abilities because I'm not convinced they produce results that are better than chance. SteveBaker (talk) 17:37, 19 November 2007 (UTC)

I hope for your sake Steve that she doesn't read that! DuncanHill (talk) 17:39, 19 November 2007 (UTC)

That's an interresting technique. I thought it was "the darker the better" but I wish I could see a proper scientific investigaion into the matter. Keria (talk) 20:18, 19 November 2007 (UTC)

November 19

What do South Asian peasantry wear to protect themselves from the sun?

In Southeast Asia the rural folk wear conical hats, so surely South Asians also have protection?

lots of issues | leave me a message 05:12, 19 November 2007 (UTC)

What do you mean by "South Asain"? Indians? "South Central Asia" like the middle-east?

PS: It's better if you use internal links like [[User:Lotsofissues|lots of issues]] (Result: lots of issues) than external links like you're doing. --antilived^{T | C | G} 08:20, 19 November 2007 (UTC)

• Modest South Asian women (not necessarily peasants) wear their dupatta so that it covers their hair. If you click on the article, you'll see that the woman in the right of the top photo is using hers as a sunshade. --M@rēino 21:11, 19 November 2007 (UTC)
• Oh, I forgot! In some situations, it's perfectly acceptable for a man to soak a turban in cold water, which protects him against the sun's heat (although not so much against harsh sunlight). --M@rēino 21:15, 19 November 2007 (UTC)

How does one fart on command?

How does one fart on command? What preparation is reguried? Thank you for your help in this matter. Weasly (talk) 10:36, 19 November 2007 (UTC)

This requires considerable practice and constant vigilance on the part of the practicant. The first stage is the obtaining of the gaseous emission. Usually this amounts to a slow accumulation of small amounts until it is felt (both literally and metaphorically) that sufficient is available when required. However, this brings us to a quite difficult part of the practice, the emitting of small amounts to retain a reasonable state of digestive comfort but not so much as to deplete the available store. This will normally be held in the appropriate receptacle known as the (..........) insert name as required. On the command being received the participant should be in a position to oblige. However, under no circumstances should the command be obeyed with any force or vigour. The reasons for this are firstly that the deposit of gas may be depleted too quickly and the participant will be unable to repeat the order if required and secondly there may be laundry implications.

I hope that helps. Richard Avery (talk) 11:13, 19 November 2007 (UTC)

See Flatulist. Le Pétomane, a famous French flatulist, gave himself an enema everyday to ensure that there were no unpleasant smells, but then his ability was unusual, in that he could fart indefinitely (he could take in air through the anus, rather than having to rely on the digestive system to produce the gases). Professional flatulence was once a very profitable business (Le Pétomane was paid more than almost any other celebrity, while Roland the Farter was given a 30 acre manor in exchange for farting once a year at Christmas!) Laïka 13:39, 19 November 2007 (UTC)

Rotary vs foil razors?

Due to sensitive skin and labourious nature of manual shaving, I'm thinking of giving electric razors a try. Would get a chargable and washable razor. If they could shave other areas such as armpit, nads etc that would be an added bonus. Did a little research about them. However, a few questions remain and a new questions have popped up. First about foil razors: Are the ones with 2 or 3 foils better than the one with 1 foil?. Do the foils last longer than rotary cutters?. Do they have a larger shaving surface than rotary razors?.

and about the rotary razors: do they offer a better shave than foils? are they better for people who get razor bumps?

about both: what to look for when choosing one? and what to avoid? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 131.220.46.26 (talk) 14:00, 19 November 2007 (UTC)

Personally, I've found (rotary) electric shavers much more irritating than manual shaving with a safety. FiggyBee (talk) 22:43, 19 November 2007 (UTC)

Wireless Earphones

How does wireless earphones work? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.120.225.37 (talk) 14:13, 19 November 2007 (UTC)

Fundamentally, it's a transmitter/receiver pair. The precise technology can vary, but solutions are found in the same frequency bands as cordless phones and other consumer wireless devices. Bluetooth, for instance, runs around 2.4 GHz, and is commonly used by newer wireless headsets. — Lomn 14:32, 19 November 2007 (UTC)

Bluetooth is a bit more subtle than just a transmitter/receiver pair - the headset has to negotiate with the phone (or whatever) to agree on how they will communicate. Bluetooth is a digital network protocol. This is what allows (for example) 10 people crammed together in an elevator to all use their headsets at once without interfering with each other. SteveBaker (talk) 17:32, 19 November 2007 (UTC)

Measure of Effects of Alcoholic beverages

Is there a boundary for Alcoholic beverages effects which lower than that percent,the harms and effects will be wiped out?Flakture (talk) 14:50, 19 November 2007 (UTC)

It's not known. Several recent studies have suggested that moderate consumption of alcohol (on the order of 1 drink per day) may actually reduce a person's risk of certain diseases (including heart disease). It may be a balancing question—is there a tradeoff between slightly increased liver toxicity and decreased risk of cardiovascular illness?

Also worth noting is that a small amount of ethanol is present naturally in the body, produced by various mechanisms: [13]. Is this endogenous alcohol detrimental? Would we be better or worse off if it weren't present? TenOfAllTrades(talk) 15:06, 19 November 2007 (UTC)

Do you mean the immediate effects or the effects of long-term consumption? Rmhermen (talk) 16:22, 19 November 2007 (UTC)

Is this site okay to use...?

Someone Is Missing -

If someone you know comes up missing... This website will supply you with the following; A web address to use immediately Web space, and our abilities for as long as you need Taxa (talk) 16:14, 19 November 2007 (UTC)

• Are you asking a question, or placing an advertisement? If you're doing the latter, you're pretty foolish; this page will be archived in a few days and generate very little traffic thereafter. --M@rēino 16:33, 19 November 2007 (UTC)

I think they're either a) asking if the site is legit, and will do what it says rather than run off with any info you give them or b) asking if it's okay to use the site (as a reference?) in Wikipedia. 130.88.140.7 (talk) 16:37, 19 November 2007 (UTC)

I've removed the advertisement stuff. That said, I'm very skeptical of the "we'll be a household name and deter would-be kidnappers!" claptrap. They won't, it won't, and there are far more visible forms of media already available (namely, local TV news). I suppose that every little thing might help in a missing-persons case, but this looks like a waste of time. — Lomn 16:40, 19 November 2007 (UTC)

From first impressions, the fact that it is a very amateurish looking website rings my internal alarm bells. Also reading the terms and conditions on the site, a full privacy policy is mentioned in passing but I can't seem to find one anywhere in the domain. The site doesn't seem to have any formal links/agreements with any Law Enforcement agencies and seems to me to be run purely by a group of volunteers. The 'List a Person' page/form is also not secure. There are other, more official sites such as theyaremissed.org (USA), missingpeople.org.uk (UK) (and many others) which are run by charities or law enforcement agencies that do this kind of thing a lot better. (in my opinion). 81.76.37.180 (talk) 17:03, 19 November 2007 (UTC)

It seems unlikely that members of the public are going to go there on a regular basis to see if anyone they know the whereabouts of just happens to be listed missing. If a lost child shows up needing help - I trust that one's first call would be to 911 - not to go look at some web site just on the offchance of seeing who they belong to! That being the case, it's hard to imagine that this is going to be of much use. On the other hand, desperate parents, looking for anything they can possibly do to locate a lost child will get some comfort from the feeling that they did one more thing with a chance of helping in the search - so I suppose it's not a complete waste. I'm skeptical that the site managed to locate 3 missing persons - I suspect that what they are really saying is that three missing persons on their site have been located (but not because of their publicity perhaps). At worst, this site may be merely well-meaning but ineffective - at best, if it helps in locating just one person then it's more than worth all of the effort to maintain it. It's hard to imagine any kind of scam that might be involved. SteveBaker (talk) 17:27, 19 November 2007 (UTC)

For 911, of course, read "their local emergency telephone number". Funny, I'd gotten the impression Steve was British (their number would be 999 or 112). --Anon, edited 18:08 UTC, Nov. 19.

(I am British - but I live in Texas - and the habit of saying 911 is hard to break! Fortunately, most non-Americans know what 911 is.) SteveBaker (talk) 18:33, 19 November 2007 (UTC)

• Several people already mentioned holes in this site. If you ever need to coordinate the search for a missing person. Get together with media and law enforcement officials and get out an official Amber Alert if you're in the United States and the missing person is a kid. People are more likely to watch a website if it is part of an official missing persons organization. Small organizations won't do much to boost visibility. - Mgm|^(talk) 20:57, 19 November 2007 (UTC)

Jayhawk, Dolphin team colors

I was curious about the team colors for the Jayhawks after seeing their football game highlights, and it brought to my mind a similar question for the NFL's Miami Dolphins. The jayhawks' page says blue and red, but is it a certain shade of blue? Because it almost looks closer to purple at times, by what I remember of their basketball games. other times, it's more clearly blue. It's a *very* deep Royal, anyway; don't know what you'd call it. The settings were not changed on the TV's contrast, brightness, etc. This brought to my mind a similar question for the Dolphins. At times, I recall their non-white uniforms look bluer, and at other times greener. The blue is clearly Aqua like your site lists (and like the blue of the dolphin on their helmet), but the other looked kind of washed out, meaning the couple times I saw that on TV, it might have been an effect from washing that made them look a little different.4.68.248.130 (talk) 16:28, 19 November 2007 (UTC)

Teams tend to have fairly specific (and sometimes trademarked) colors used. The St. Louis Rams, for instance, moved from blue and yellow to "New Century Gold" and "Millennium Blue" when they changed color schemes around 2000. There's probably a specific Pantone designation for each of those. On the other hand, there are cases like the Tennessee Volunteers where, despite being readily identified by "orange", at least three different shades of orange have been on a uniform at once.[14] — Lomn 16:52, 19 November 2007 (UTC)

I've always believed that teams change their colours regularly in order to improve sales of replica uniforms to their fans - so this may be a deliberate change, introduced to make every fan want to buy "this season's" uniforms. But it's also possible that the more subtle differences you are seeing are due to different stadium lighting (day versus night games, one football field versus another) - or in the automatic or manual adjustments made during TV production at the whim of producers and cameramen - or even whether you are watching TV with the room lights on or off. Colour perception is a complicated matter and it's really easily messed up. So if even if it was something as subtle as the colour of the grass beind different in the various cases, you might be subject to the Same color illusion for example. SteveBaker (talk) 17:16, 19 November 2007 (UTC)

Top of a tall tower

Is there a name/word/article given to the act of bottleing up ones emotions for years before going to the top of something tall and starting to shoot randomly with a rifle. An/or what people should do instead, if not Ill let you know... —Preceding unsigned comment added by 12.191.136.3 (talk) 17:20, 19 November 2007 (UTC)

This has happened very few times in recent history - so it's unlikely there is a clear, simple name for it - we certainly have articles about some (if not all) of the times it's happened. (Charles Whitman, the Beltway sniper attacks and of course the John F. Kennedy assassination come to mind). In terms of what a deranged person might do instead - there are plenty of options that don't involve killing a bunch of innocent people and then end up (typically) with a slow and painful death (or a lifetime in jail) after being gunned down by police. Psychotherapy would probably be the most obvious (and perhaps, extreme) alternative - but there are many others. Simply yelling and screaming from a suitably high (and hopefully deserted) place would probably be just as effective at getting rid of pent up rage and frustration - taking up adrenaline-depleting extreme sports might be another. After throwing a car violently around an autocross track several times, one feels an inner calmness that's hard to beat - it's a cheap and fairly safe sport. SteveBaker (talk) 18:27, 19 November 2007 (UTC)

I would recommend moderate-intensity aerobic exercise as a way of releasing tension. I'm not sure of a word for bottling up one's emotions, but the apathetic free feeling beforehand can be described as fey. -- _{Escape Artist Swyer} ^{Talk to me} _{Articles touched by my noodly appendage} 18:50, 19 November 2007 (UTC)

Modern popular parlance would term this type of activity as going postal, the formal name for it in some circles is a killing spree or running amok. 81.76.37.180 (talk) 19:48, 19 November 2007 (UTC)

Psychotic break?--droptone (talk) 20:38, 19 November 2007 (UTC)

Mr. and Mrs. Jane Doe

Amanda Gamble writes that a couple must always be referred to under the man's name if they are to be called Mr. and Mrs., and that "Mrs. Jane Doe" is only used for divorced women. Do progressive and feminist etiquetticians agree with this? Similarly, do they allow a man to call himself "Mr. Jane Doe" if he is less famous than his wife? Also, do same-sex couples become "Mr. and Mr." and "Mrs. and Mrs.", or "Messrs." and "Mdms."? NeonMerlin 23:12, 19 November 2007 (UTC)

I've never heard of a Mr. Jane Doe style but the rest sounds the right. With people concerned with feminist etiquette (e.g. my wife) you use Ms. Jane Doe even if they are married. I'm not sure that this is widely followed, though, but if my wife insists on it being proper etiquette it probably is, though I'm usually mystified by such customs and somehow grew up ignorant of them. No clue about same-sex couples—the rules of etiquette are, as you have no doubt noted, extremely heteronormal and favor the old idea of a woman as a man's property, so applying it to homosexual relationships is going to somewhat upend the whole project in my view. --24.147.86.187 (talk) 23:34, 19 November 2007 (UTC)

in the article about the frech national motto liberté is mistranslated

i am a french speaker and i have become aware that the article of liberté egalité et fraternité has been mistranslated liberté is not liberty but freedom i am not a registered user of wikipedia so could someone edit this ? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 81.23.48.9 (talk) 23:40, 19 November 2007 (UTC)

What meaning of the word 'liberty' do you think is intended here, that is not 'freedom'? Skittle (talk) 00:06, 20 November 2007 (UTC)

November 20

Illegal/Navy

Can an Illegal Immigrant join the Navy,or the air force,army,marines,coast-guards etc.?