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December 5

Wikipedia's Oligarchy

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Digital IR Photography

Digital IR photography using a Sony CyberShot DSC-S650

Will I be able to take Infrared Photographs, like this one on DA [1], with the addition of a IR filter onto a Canon 350D Rebel XT DSLR? Thanks. Acceptable (talk) 00:10, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

Most infra-red photography I've seen (and I'm an auld phart who's only just been dragged screaming into the digital photography age) was taken on specialised (and very finicky) IR film. Any digital versions I've seen have been as a result of a Photoshop filter rather than having been done in-camera. An IR filter is just a red filter that used to be used for black and white film to filter blues and greens. It didn't actually give the effect of the image you linked to. --WebHamster 01:05, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

If your digital camera doesn't have an IR filter built-in, then you can take sharp IR pictures if you use very long exposures. I managed to get some interesting IR pics with my CyberShot DSC-S650 using burnt film strips as a filter and high-sensitivity mode (very grainy). See the image. Be warned, though, that the pixels that will be activated by the IR might not be on a desirable color. In my camera, IR has a ugly magenta hue. This camera I have is quite IR sensitive, I guess. I can take picture of hot stuff in the dark. It's pretty cool. Anyway, given the quality of your camera, and the use of a professional filter, you'll probably get nice results if there is no IR filtering built-in. — Kieff | Talk 01:31, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

I don't think you need filters to take 'near IR' photos in the dark with a digital camera. To convince yourself, turn on your camera, dim the room lights - watch the LCD viewfinder then point your TV remote at the camera and push the buttons. The remote produces near-IR light - and the camera can see it as bright flashes. However, you aren't seeing mid-range IR, so you really aren't seeing properly into the realms of heat. You can get very similar photos to some of the so-called IR photos by taking a perfectly normal daylight photo, splitting off the red plane of the image and making a monochrome image out of it. The fact is, things look pretty similar in near-IR and Red. The only time I'd use a filter would be for daylight IR photography when you really need to block as much of the visible light as you can. SteveBaker (talk) 02:05, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

I never said I needed a filter for taking IR pics in the dark. But in daylight, yeah, I had to use something. — Kieff | Talk 02:57, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

Near-IR and red look similar for some objects, but others (especially tree leaves and some black fabrics) are very different. Not to mention that certain fabrics often used for swimsuits and summer dresses are transparent to near-IR. --Carnildo (talk) 21:39, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

In mid-range IR (which conventional cameras don't see), pretty much any thin cloth is translucent if the person stands still long enough. We had a military IR camera to play with in my last job (I was writing a computer graphic simulation of the thing) - and it was quite important to remember to walk briskly in front of the camera if you didn't want some co-worker printing embarrasing screen-shots and putting them up on the break-room noticeboard. The saving grace is that bodies look pretty weird in IR because you mostly see things like brown fat deposits versus regular fat versus lean areas - and you don't get natural-looking shading from lights and such - so these were not exactly your usual porn photos! SteveBaker (talk) 21:22, 6 December 2007 (UTC)

• From what I understand, digital cameras are all nicely sensitive to IR, but filter it out. One of our Sony cameras lets you bypass the filtering, and indeed gives an IR look. (It also has an IR flash.) --jpgordon^∇∆∇∆ 03:17, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

I know very little about digital IR photography, but I learned a lot about various methods from browsing this website. Maybe of use.. Pfly (talk) 04:17, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

There is an article in the current issue of Make (magazine) about shooting IR with digital cameras. It looks like you can't read it online unless you are a subscriber, but there are some links listed on the page that mentions the article, which may be of some help. As mentioned above, many digital cameras filter out the IR. --LarryMac | Talk 14:38, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

How big is a door?

How big is the average doorway used in American homes? I've measured the doorways in my house and they are all different sizes. Is there a "standard" doorway size? If so, what is it? 69.123.113.89 (talk) 01:26, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

There are several "standard" doors. A typical door is thirty inches. A " wheelchair" door is thirty-six inches. I don't even know how the opening is measured. -Arch dude (talk) 02:26, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

I just measured my doorways. A 30-inch door is exactly 30 inches wide, and a 36-inch is exactly 36 inches wide. In each case, the doorway is exactly one inch less than the door. -Arch dude (talk) 02:35, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

The doorway is one inch less than the door? You must have to slam really hard to get your doors shut! DuncanHill (talk) 10:11, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

I'm guessing that they subtracted a half inch for the stops on each side. Dismas|^(talk) 11:37, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

To add to that, exterior doors are generally wider than interior. Also, I used to work for a steel door manufacturer and the most common size we built was 36 inches. Though, these generally didn't go in homes. They were generally for hospitals, schools, and the company that put up all the Wal-marts. Interesting that I used to make Wal-mart's doors and frames but I won't shop there.  :-) Dismas|^(talk) 07:52, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

It is a requirement in U.S. commercial use that doorways be at least 36" in width. This apparently accommodates both wheelchairs and emergency access. Where I used to work, we got yelled at if we narrowed our cubicle entryways below 36" using file cabinets or what-have-you.

It is common in U.S. residential use that exterior doors are 36" and interior doors are 30", but you see other, narrower dimensions for interior doors as well, especially with closet doors.

Atlant (talk) 13:43, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

A "doorway" is what is left after you take the door off the hinges. For my 36-inch doors, the resulting doorway is 35 inches wide. This is bacause the door, when closed, is flush against a set of moldings at the top and at each side. These moldings are each one-half inch in width. Thus, when I slam my 36" door with great force and effect, the outer half-inch at left, right, and top, strike these moldings, causing a very loud and satisfactory noise. If I subsequentiality need to maneuver an awkward appliance through the doorway, however, I must remove the actual 36" door from its hinges, and then maneuver the appliance through the resulting 35" doorway. In a commercial building, some of the doors are two-way swinging doors: such doors will have a doorway that is slightly wider than the door. This is not the case for a traditional residential door. Please note that your original questin was about doorways, not doors. -Arch dude (talk) 03:37, 6 December 2007 (UTC)

Nobody has yet mentioned the height. The question was "how big", not "how high wide". --Anon, 02:00 UTC, December 7, 2007, corrected only 4 days later, 03:36 UTC, December 11.

6'6" seems to be common. —Tamfang (talk) 03:06, 11 December 2007 (UTC)

Chicago Style Citations

I’m trying to write a paper using Chicago style citations, as required by a professor. In this system I need to use both in text citations and the references used at the bottom of each page matching the in text citation. My problem is where to put the references at the bottom of the page. I’m using Microsoft Word, if I type the references into the footer it appears on every page and if I use Word’s footnote feature it makes me use a superscript number, which I am not supposed to use. So how do I use in text citations and get the references on the bottom of the pages that they are used on? ChesterMarcol (talk • contribs) 01:41, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

If I understand you correctly, there's a "custom mark" option in the footnotes dialogue box. Enter (Jones 2000) into it. If you want, go on to reformat the "Footnote Reference" style. My reading of the Chicago Citation convention is that superscript numerals are just fine - [2]. --Tagishsimon (talk) 01:51, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

OK thanks, I will have to email him and see what he wants. This is all way too confusing.--ChesterMarcol (talk) 02:06, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

I use Chicago all the time (it's the citation style for history, usually) and I'm pretty sure superscript numbers are okay. Some people use the numbers for endnotes and the little symbols (*, that cross thing, and so on) for footnotes, so maybe that's what your teacher's doing. Natalie (talk) 03:03, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

Alternatively, stop using Microsoft Word, as it's a bug-ridden, user-unfriendly, worthless piece of tat. I realise that it's probably a little late in the day to tell you this, but it might be worth thinking about for future reference. 64.236.80.62 (talk) 12:03, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

I've heard good things about Open Office. MS Word does suck a lot, especially considering the cost. Natalie (talk) 18:23, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

Bring back MS Word version 4! —Tamfang (talk) 03:31, 11 December 2007 (UTC)

Declaring a National Day

Is there an organisation in Australia responsible for approving and declaring national days/weeks or months (not holidays) that relate to community events or issues? For exampale diabetes week, children's day etc. If so, who are they and is it a government or private organisation. Thankyou —Preceding unsigned comment added by Neighbiz (talk • contribs) 02:01, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

Private organizations just make them up.--Dacium (talk) 03:15, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

However, governments and politicians generally are often more than happy to be associated with them. For example, when Federal Parliament is sitting and Question Time is televised, they make sure they're wearing pink ribbons in Breast Cancer Awareness Month. In fact, the wearing of coloured ribbons by politicians is becoming something of a cliche (not that I'm suggesting any particular awareness campaign is without its merits). -- JackofOz (talk) 13:54, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

I'd like to see politicians get involved in Movember. It's the male version of BCAM.

I don't think there's a regulating body, but organising one takes a lot of publicity and celebrity support to get it recognised on top of all the other ones. Good luck to you if you're planning to start one. If it gets notable, someone will add an article about it. Steewi (talk) 01:04, 6 December 2007 (UTC)

Funny you should mention politicians and Movember - http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=QWxOHKI_0jY —Preceding unsigned comment added by 203.208.109.169 (talk) 04:56, 6 December 2007 (UTC)

mechanical pencils

How do they make the tiny, extremely skinny pieces of graphite used in mechanical pencils? It seems really difficult since they break so easily. 70.171.229.76 (talk) 02:33, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

• Graphite is ground into a powder, mixed with some water and maybe some colorants, extruded into tubes, and baked at about 1000°C. --jpgordon^∇∆∇∆ 03:13, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

Yeah but how do they make the tubes so small and yet perfectly round? 70.171.229.76 (talk) 03:42, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

Black majic Esskater11 03:48, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

See extrusion. Neil ☎ 13:45, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

PETA and canibalisim

Beans, peas and vegatable protien only go so far. Does PETA intend that people eat each other instead of animals to obtain this nutrient ? 65.163.115.114 (talk) 03:13, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

If they are promoting that sort of diet perhaps they should be called FARTA? --WebHamster 03:57, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

And just what is actually wrong with eating each other? I've been doing it for years, and it doesn't taste like pork ;) --WebHamster 03:37, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

No, I don't believe one of their stated point is promotion of cannibalism. It's also important to note that vegetarians and vegans argue that non-animal sources of protein actually do go far enough, if they are chosen carefully. Natalie (talk) 03:34, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

Personally I'll stop eating animal protein when evolution gets rid of my canines and incisors. Meanwhile PETA can, errr, errrr, eat me! :P --WebHamster 03:39, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

It's not just vegans who say that plant sources of protein go far enough. According to the American Dietetic Association, "plant sources of protein alone can provide adequate amounts of essential amino acids if a variety of plant foods are consumed and energy needs are met." See Vegan nutrition#Protein and amino acids. MrRedact (talk) 18:37, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

"WEBHAMSTER ITS WHATS FOR DINNER Esskater11 03:45, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

Or is it: WEBHAMSTER: THE OTHER WHITE MEAT ? --ShelfSkewed Talk 03:55, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

Surely PETA = People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. While they probably do advocate and encourage vegetarianism, their focus is not so much to stop people eating meat, but rather that the meat they do eat should be obtained in ethical ways. Having read PETA's paraphenalia in the past, I think they explained that all our commercial meat sources, i.e. beef, chicken etc are all fed grain and plants anyway, that if we all had to eat the grain the animals eat we'd have a motherload of food to eat and could probably better use this to solve world hunger (That last part I added in). You should look at the stats of deforestation made way for commercial meat farms. That's one good reason to be come vegetarian: global warming and deforestation. Rfwoolf (talk) 07:52, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

PETA = People Eating Tasty Animals. Lanfear's Bane | t 11:06, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

My favourite fallacy is the one that argues something shouldn't be done just because it's "unethical" or "immoral". It's like saying that something shouldn't be done because it shouldn't be done. But well, I can't expect people to get magically smarter, I'll have to get over this. --Taraborn (talk) 11:46, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

Is that to say you don't understand what ethics and morals are? Are you saying that you hold no morals or ethical philosophies when it comes to the treatment of animals? Saying that ethics and morals are logical fallacies, and are the equivalent of saying "don't do it because you shouldn't do it" strikes me as possibly naïve. Don't get me wrong I'm no spokesperson for PETA, and I'm not even vegatarian, but your statement nonetheless implied you believe there should be no moral or ethical boundries when it comes to animals. Are you aware of things like animal testing, battery cages, the difference between free-range and commercial meat farms? Rfwoolf (talk) 12:14, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

I think Taraborn was saying that the language could be simplified from "this shouldn't be done because it's unethical" to simply "this shouldn't be done" on the grounds that "unethical" and "immoral" simply mean "shouldn't be done". —Preceding unsigned comment added by Psud (talk • contribs)

That is rather interesting. From that mindset you can dispel 'any and all ethics and morals. It shows a lack of understanding of the ethics and morals in the first place. One could argue that it is morally and ethically unsound to be cruel to animals because, if it were the other way round and you were an animal, would you like to be treated in this way? Of course you could argue things like animals don't feel pain (generally false), or that we need to kill animals for food (true, but PETA might argue several things, firstly that you don't have to kill animals for food and opt for vegatarianism, or that the pain and ill-treatment inflicted on animals is still 'unnecessary' (the means don't justify the end), or they could argue certain other dangers and risks of other kinds of animal treatment including hormones, genitic modification, etc). Ethics run much deeper than this. Perhaps what the OP was communicating is that he/she simply doesn't understand the ethics and morals involved in animal treatment. They are presumably not as simple as "because you just shouldn't". 124.188.65.118 (talk) 17:19, 7 December 2007 (UTC)

Just as I imagined, a bunch of mindless angry mastodons without a clue replying. It's not that hard, think for a while. What are ethics? By definition "those things that should and should not be done". You can say that something shouldn't be done because it is unethical. Okay, now replace the definition of unethical in that statement. What do you get? Taadaa! Whatever.

Moreover, I'd like to remind fellow RD users that moral values are an artificial set of rules created by humans themselves in order to establish social order. That means they have no mystic or magical origin unlike some people think. --Taraborn (talk) 13:26, 8 December 2007 (UTC)

Taraborn, just to say that "shouldn't" isn't tautological in your above criticism. The "ethical" part sorts and qualifies the "shouldn't" part. Thus, it is not a fallacy. While all unethical things shouldn't be done, not all things that shouldn't be done are unethical. Some things shouldn't be done because they are dangerous (running out into traffic) or because they have aesthetic consequences (one shouldn't put certain colors together or have avocado-colored appliances). There are big and small "shouldn'ts". Saying "you shouldn't torture animals" could mean: because they are sentient and feel pain and we should strive never to cause pain to other living things (ethics); because it will damage *your* own soul (bourgeois pragmatism); because you should be doing something else instead (time management); because you don't own the animal (legal/property rights); because *I* am trying to sleep and the yelps are keeping me awake (being neighborly)...I am just making the point about your own logical fallacy here. I like animals. Also, given this, your statement, "I can't expect people to get magically smarter" is really unkind and unfounded. Saudade7 03:36, 9 December 2007 (UTC)

Evolution gave us carnassial's and canines's for a reason. Yummy, yummy meat. Everytime you hear someone is a vegetarian - eat twice as much meat for dinner. Lanfear's Bane | t 13:04, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

It is perfectly possible to remain healthy without eating meat. PETA does indeed advocate a vegetarian diet for everyone, and they do not advocate cannibalism. There. A factual answer to the question, folks; it isn't that difficult. -FisherQueen (talk · contribs) 16:40, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

Ah yes, but then it's not as funny and takes much more willpower :) --WebHamster 21:55, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

Eco-Scam ?!

Is the whole environmental movement a scam ? You ought to see and hear what Sean Hannity and other conservatives had done to Al Gore ( I just got a Gor-gasm! One of Rush Limbaugh's cute jokes.), calling him a hypocrite and showing tapes of him flying in a smoke belching jet while telling US to quit driving, etc. They made Al Gore look like some kind of shyster, conman. One guy said that if you want your house burned down, donate to Earth Share, if you want your pets, food taken from you, donate to PETA, and groups who believe that farming is evil.

Is people like THAT correct saying that if you donate to environmentalists, you're gullible for every conman, etc. around ? 65.163.115.114 (talk) 08:38, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

One guy said that global warming is global b******* for crying out loud.

Will I be able to donate money to any environmental and/or animal organizations w/o the Feds crawling up my ass, due to Operation Backfire (FBI), related police operations ? I was told to ask this question. 65.163.115.114 (talk) 08:43, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

You should take a peek at global warming controversy, climate change denial and scientific opinion on climate change. I personally like the sound of solar variation, however like many things there is so much crap, lies and political hyperbole surrounding any truth there may be it makes it very difficult to tell. Lanfear's Bane | t 13:11, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

The logic of Hannity's argument does not follow, but let me break it down in each part. Essentially he is saying that if someone advocates a certain position but acts contrary to what they say then they are a hypocrite. The next move is more problematic in that he wants us to not believe in any position advocated by a hypocrite.

The main problem with this view is his claim that we can show the view is false because it is advocated by a hypocrite. There may be practical problems with the view the hypocrite is advocating, like it is nearly impossible to follow his view or that it is very hard to follow his view. But these practical concerns do not invalidate the deeper issues of the argument.

There are extreme environmentalist groups, but to discount any claims coming from a particular group within the larger movement because of their share some views with an extremist group seems problematic. You should evaluate their claims regardless of who shares the view.

If you are worried that your donation will go to a group that has positions that you do not agree with then you should do some basic research on the group in question before you donate by listening to both the critics and advocates. You can donate to any group with cash if you are worried about potential government tracking, and the people you give the money to should be understanding if you do not leave a name or any other identifying information.--droptone (talk) 14:29, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

Oh jeez - where do you start? First of all, PETA isn't an environmentalist group - they have nothing to do with saving the planet - they are indeed nut-jobs. So let's cross them off the list. Earth Share are just an umberella group that takes your money, takes out their admin costs and passes it on to some other group. You are better off giving your money to the exact group who needs it and then you know what it's being spent on. So let's cross Earth Share off the list too.

Environmentalism isn't about spending money - if you want to save the planet then do so by your actions - not by writing a check and thinking you've done the right thing. So - when you next come to buy a car - find one that does at least 35 mpg. When you buy a house - make sure it has spectacularly good insulation. Vote against politicians who advocate things like "Clean Coal" and expansion of oil drilling into new areas. Vote for politicians who will lower CAFE limits and join international efforts to lower CO2 levels. Lambasting Al Gore is counterproductive - he has his faults (who doesn't) - but we have to give him credit for FINALLY waking America up to the problem. He may not practice what he preaches - but that doesn't mean that the facts he presented are not true.

As for the scientific situation - there is UNIVERSAL agreement amongst all but the lunatic fringe that there is a problem. Scientists who deny global warming are now regarded with about as much credibility as those who promote perpetual motion machines. The only serious debate is the degree of the problem.

If you are still skeptical about the truth of global warming, you need to look at this as a betting man would. What are the odds that Al Gore is right and global warming is true? I'd put the odds at thousand to one that he's wrong. But you might be skeptical and say it's a 50/50 chance - or maybe you might even go so far as to say there is only a 1 in 10 chance that he's right. But if you are a gambler, winning isn't only about the odds - it's also about the amount you lose if you're unlucky. There are four ways this could come out:

1. If we assume global warming is true, and we do something about it and it really is true - then we saved the planet, that's an incomparably huge win.
2. If we assume global warming is true, and we do something about it and it's NOT true - then we cut our reliance on foreign oil, we improved air quality standards and we increased the amount of time before we run out of oil. That's not a huge win because it was expensive to do - but it's not such a huge loss either. A recent British study estimated that if we take action now, it's 1% of our economy. If you are an average American - it's going to cost you, personally, about $500 a year.
3. If we assume global warming is bullshit and do nothing - and it turns out to be true - we've screwed up the planet. This could be an "End of the World" thing...the consequences are unimaginably terrible. This is the biggest loss there could ever be in the entire history of the world...but, hey - at least you can console yourself because you saved that $500.
4. If we assume global warming is bullshit and it really is bullshit - then we're still going to run out of oil in the near future, so sooner or later, we're going to have to take some kind of action. We just delayed the inevitable.

Look at it this way...suppose I were to offer you a bet: If you give me $10, if you win, I'll give you back $20 - but if you lose: you, your family and all of your friends will be killed. What would the odds have to be for you to take that bet? Would you do it on the flip of a coin? No...would you do it on the draw of a card (if you get the ace of spades, I kill you and all of your family - if you get any other card, I give you $20)...still not a good bet? What do the odds have to be? Even at one in a million, I wouldn't take that bet.

Yet you are prepared to take the risk of killing the planet to save yourself $500 a year? When just about every scientific expert out there is telling you that this is a bet you'll definitely lose?!! When you can see the melting glaciers and the retreating polar ice? When you can count the number of hurricanes ever year? You have to be utterly insane not to take action - urgently - no matter how skeptical you are about the science.

SteveBaker (talk) 14:31, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

Hmmm dubious. The question of economic/political impact are virtual unknowns. It is good that we are getting to the stage that is beyond science, and into political policy - that means we are acknowledging the issue and considering how to deal with it. It isn't, however, a case of 'do now or do later' for every one. This is similar to the advice that you are better to start saving for your pension in your 20s than in your 40s... it's not correct for everyone. Some nations, rich nations for example, should probably consider making smaller (cost) sacrifices now to offset potential bigger ones in the future. Undeveloped/developing nations for example should probably focus on getting their people out of poverty as quickly as possible and utilizing greener methods where financially viable, but not focus as much attention as the established nations. They could plausibly get 'first mover' advantage in the green-world, but it is evident that the wealthiest citizens have the best chance of surviving whatever may come, and while we shouldn't actively court more problems we must acknowledge economic realities and realize that this is a luxury that many nations in the developing world cannot afford to spend massively on given other more pressing priorities. Just as when you a poor in your 20s putting 10% into a pension for when you are 60 might not be a good policy, compared to spending on say education and then when you earn more by 40 saving more at that point. Of course each nation must balance action with non-action, spending with political viability of spending levels. ny156uk (talk) 18:06, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

Sure, but all of that is fine detail compared to the braying donkey crap that is the views of Sean Hannity & Rush Limbaugh --Tagishsimon (talk) 18:16, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

Nicely done, Steve. You make some rather valid points, but I do have to ask, why you like talking to trolls. Rfwoolf (talk) 16:43, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

There is far more than global warming that is of concern to environmentalists. So much more that even if global warming is a false prediction it would by no means show that "the whole environmental movement a scam". I'd recommend (again) reading the Environmentalism page, but this questioner's edit history makes it very hard to continue to assume good faith. Pfly (talk) 02:45, 6 December 2007 (UTC)

• The question is: "Is the whole environmental movement a scam ?". For the answer, see the Wikipedia article on scams, and you'll quickly realize it's "no". Where's the profit? Anyone who has made money on environmentalism, from Al Gore on down, could have made much, much more money by opposing environmentalism. --M@rēino 15:17, 7 December 2007 (UTC)

Duck tape

Does anyone know how to get duck tape off a dogs mouth without pulling out all the hair? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.100.1.143 (talk) 13:49, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

I presume you mean duct tape. And the only things I can think of aren't very good for the dog. WD-40 will dissolve the glue on the tape but I wouldn't want my dog ingesting WD-40. Dismas|^(talk) 13:54, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

"Duck" tape is a brand name of Duct tape. Corvus cornix_talk 17:49, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

• It's disputed which one is the original name of the stuff. See Duct tape#Etymology. --Anonymous, 00:21 UTC, December 6, 2007.

Scissors and extreme care. Did it "cure" the hiccups?--Shantavira|^{feed me} 14:08, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

It stopped them temporarily but they come back whenever he smells or thinks about bacon. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.100.1.143 (talk) 04:16, 6 December 2007 (UTC)

I can't believe people with this kind of a problem think "I know - I'll ask the Wikipedia reference desk!" - however, I think a quick, hard yank to remove the tape is the answer - get it over with quickly, dogs are better at taking pain than they are with prolonged stress. Duct tape (even 'Duck tape'-brand duct tape...yes, you can buy 'Duck tape') isn't all that sticky - it's not going to pull the fur out - it's no worse than pulling a band-aid off your arm. The problem will be that if the tape has been there a while, it'll leave a nasty, sticky residue which you don't want to leave there. WD-40 does dissolve that wonderfully - but you don't want the dog licking WD-40. I think if there is a lot of sticky mess once the tape is gone then I'd try trimming off the sticky fur first - but if that's impractical then wiping with a paper towel that you sprayed with WD-40 to get off the mess - and then IMMEDIATELY flushing the area with something like cooking oil that will dilute and dissolve the WD-40 and leave something not too unpleasant for the dog. For gods' sake don't SPRAY WD-40 onto the dog because it'll get into eyes and nose and mouth and other places where you don't want it. Hence, wipe with a kitchen towel. Follow up from a safe distance with treats - and when the possibility of being bitten to death subsides, you might try to get close enough for a hug. SteveBaker (talk) 14:46, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

Would any sort of edible oil, like cooking oil, lessen the stickiness of the duct tape? Would mild heat (hot water bottle with the temp carefully set not so hot as to cause burns) soften the adhesive? It is presumably stuck to fur, not skin, so could an electric shaver be used to peel away the hair and tape, leaving the skin undamaged (but wierd looking for a while as the fur grows back?) Ripping away the tape has the possibility of damaging the skin. Ever think of consulting the vet? Maybe he would know of less toxic solvents to soften the glue (I know of 2 but I won't name them because I wouldn't want someone dumping them on a dog). I would apply along the edge of the tape with a Q-tip and gradually work it off. Maybe the animal cruelty people in your town have some experience with pets which have been duct taped, and they could offer advice and counsel. Edison (talk) 15:17, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

Well, the tape was already cut along his mouth immediately after he stopped hiccuping. We just didn't want to pull the tape off and pull out his hair. Round pointed scissors worked for the pine resin that driped on him from the pine tree over his favorite place to sleep but we wanted to try something else besides cutting his hair.

He decided the bacon grease was his favorite so I went with that. I think it was a mistake though. Is there any way to stop him from hicupping when we start cooking breakfast? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.100.1.143 (talk) 16:10, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

Wait wait wait. After duct-taping your dog's muzzle to stop him from hiccuping, and then using bacon grease to remove the tape, you are now concerned that your dog will intentionally hiccup for the logical purpose of getting you to duct-tape his muzzle again, so you'll once again need to use bacon grease to remove the tape? --72.10.110.107 (talk) 16:35, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

Yes, we noticed that everytime we stopped at the drive thru when they were cooking bacon he got the hiccups. He loves bacon bits but just seeing the container or hearing us ask if he would like some bacon results in making him hiccup. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.100.1.143 (talk) 04:12, 6 December 2007 (UTC)

In my opinion, you should call your local branch of the SPCA, explain to them specifically how the dog got duct tape on his muzzle, and ask them what the best method of getting it off is. Make sure to give them your name, address, and telephone number so they can contact you. -FisherQueen (talk · contribs) 16:37, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

The local SPCA has a contract with a medical research facility in our area associated with the university. We have seen and owned some of the animals that have been returned from the medical research facility which they are not allowed to kill. None of the the animals lived for more than three months and were sick or had some kind of physical problem that we got from the SPCA. We stopped going to the SPCA for that reason and do not trust anything they have to say since they lied to us about the condition of the animals. Same now with the county shelter. One of the animals that had scars on its chest even dropped dead of a heart attack while we were out walking. If you are concerned about the welfare of animals I suggest you join one of those groups against using animals for research. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.100.1.214 (talk) 09:43, 6 December 2007 (UTC)

How about shutting him outside before you start to cook? Also, fried breakfasts aren't so healthy for you either. SaundersW (talk) 17:10, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

You could just shut him in another room of the house, too. For that matter, who cares if their dog has hiccups? Hiccups don't hurt and will go away on their own. I'd just ignore the dog and his hiccups while you're cooking. Natalie (talk) 18:26, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

I would refer you to my original answer and urge you to ask a vet, like here.--Shantavira|^{feed me} 18:37, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

PETA might also have some suggestions for you. Edison (talk) 20:59, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

As an aside: did you all know that duck tape works ok on the moon. They used it to repair the wheel cover (mud guard) on the lunar rover on Apollo XX (cant remember the mission number)--TreeSmiler (talk) 02:35, 6 December 2007 (UTC)

Also, apparently, the one purpose for which duct tape is not recommended to be used is for sealing ducting etc. --WebHamster 02:48, 6 December 2007 (UTC)

This time we used a strap fastened with velcro and by the time he got it off he had lost all interest in hiccuping. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.100.1.143 (talk) 08:54, 6 December 2007 (UTC)

The proper answer You are too stupid to own a pet. Take your poor dog down to the SPCA or whatever organization is around your area to take care of abused animals. Give them a couple of hundred dollars to care for the animal until someone with more than half a brain decides to adopt it and give it a proper home. And shame on the people here for giving veterinary advice - especially to someone without an ounce of common sense. Matt Deres (talk) 15:53, 7 December 2007 (UTC)

Isnt that comment just a bit incivil?--TreeSmiler (talk) 01:47, 8 December 2007 (UTC)

If ya gotta ask ... —Tamfang (talk) 03:34, 11 December 2007 (UTC)

Armor

Is Felix mentally ill? If so, what is his condition? It seems that someone so fatalistic would have to have some sort of condition (I was thinking maybe some strange variation of SPD) recognized in the field of psychiatry. Any one know? --MKnight9989 14:51, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

Fatalism can be a symptom of certain sub-types of depression.--droptone (talk) 19:18, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

The article says he joined the military as a suicidal gesture. Suicide's article says that "The predominant view of modern medicine is that suicide is a mental health concern", and see the stub section Suicide and mental illness; although other reasons for mentally healthy people to commit suicide are listed as well, none of them seem to apply to Felix. Since his unhealthy behavior seemed to be started by the death of his beloved, and was spurred on by continuing disasters and losses, post-traumatic stress disorder seems most likely. At the end, when he seems convinced that he is destined to live and be a sole survivor, he may take on aspects of delusions of omnipotence. If he's sent off on a long voyage in a solitary spaceship at the end, the isolation and survivor guilt will probably not help. Faithfully, Deltopia (talk) 17:08, 6 December 2007 (UTC)

Thanks I never considered PTSD, but I guess it makes sense.--MKnight9989 13:11, 7 December 2007 (UTC)

Sounds inside the womb

I've been looking for some time but can't find it. Is there anywhere on the internet I can download sounds recorded from inside the womb, similar to what the foetus would hear? Keria (talk) 15:03, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

Correct me if I'm wrong but wouldn't this require a microphone to be placed inside the uterus? If so, I very much doubt this has ever been done as the risk of damaging the foetus would be too great. Unless you're talking about an approximation of sounds that someone reckons a foetus might hear? --Richardrj ^{talk email} 15:13, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

Much as pictures have been taken of babies inside the womb. If this can be done, i know not how, then why not sound. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 12.191.136.2 (talk) 15:52, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

Googling on ultrasound heartbeat .wav led me here. Very cool. --Milkbreath (talk) 16:25, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

I just wanted to make a note that the sounds that may be picked up through a stethoscope or other monitoring device that is placed against the mother's tummy might not be the same that would be picked up by a microphone (or a baby's ear) from inside the womb. The difference being that some sounds that originate from outside the mother's body (such as the father's voice or machinery noises or whatever) can be heard by the fetus inside the womb, although they'd be muffled by having had to pass through the barrier of the mother's abdominal wall and the uterus. So to really hear what a fetus hears, one would have to place a microphone inside the womb. Saukkomies 14:33, 8 December 2007 (UTC)

Vinyl Window Stickers

If i were to put a window decal on the back window of my car, will the small lines that somehow defrost the window interfere with it if i use them?the juggreserection (talk) 17:07, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

No. But if you take the decal off, you may well pull off some of the lines & break some or all of the demisting system. Been there. Done that. --Tagishsimon (talk) 17:15, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

but you see, i live in South Dakota and its like 15 degrees out right now, so i kind of need the defrosters. so would pulling them off ruin the whole system?the juggreserection (talk) 17:17, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

If when removing the decals you pull off any of the lines, then you will break some or all of the system. Depends where the decal is, and how the wires are arranged into a heating circuit. Bottom line: take great care, and if in doubt, do not do it. --Tagishsimon (talk) 17:32, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

The defogger lines are electrically insulated and the decal is non-conductive, so that is not an issue. The heat from the defroster may damage the decal though. If you want to remove the decal, I suggest heating it with a hair dryer to loosen the adhesive. The defogger lines are in parallel, so breaking a few will render only that area inoperable. You can get a conductive paint at many auto parts stores to repair them. Your state might also regulate the placement of decals; here in Virginia, decals are allowed only in the lower five inches of the rear window (although it seems to be well ignored). --— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk - 17:36, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

Are we speaking of self-adhesive bumper stickers applied to the exterior of the glass or "cling" stickers (like the ubiquitous Apple stickers) stuck on the inside? If the former, then they will not interact with the rear-window demister in any significant way because the heater "wires" are on the inside of the glass and the sticker is on the outside. If the latter, then you may find that the heat from the wires discolors the sticker, but there's usually no problem of the sticker croaking the heater.

Atlant (talk) 17:39, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

Well, Its More of a decal than a sticker. I just dont want to waste money on a decal if its only going to get ruined.the juggreserection (talk) 20:58, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

Expanding on Gadget's response above, but only to focus away from the legality issues surrounding applying "decals" to rear (or any) windows in a car (or any automobile for that matter), but instead to focus on the pragmatic safety issues arising here, permit me to enquire whether in America, as here in the UK, windows in cars are for seeing through - (not for decorating and causing distraction by obscuring the field of vision) - thus maximising the reduction potential of causing or failing to observe the imminency of, a collision, with either an inanimate, stationary, or moving object, but God forbid, a living creature, not least, a person. I apologise for being on the wrong side of 60 and regarding a car as a convenient alternative to walking rather than an extension of my individualistic personality that needs to be enhanced by "wallpaper" in my car. I think the motto is, "There's no point in being seen by others - if you can't see them". 81.145.241.113 (talk) 20:20, 6 December 2007 (UTC)

linking to wikipedia

How can I send people a link to the question above about dogs and duct tape? It's one of the daftest things I've seen in a long time and would love to see it as a link on my friend's blog. (I'd also like to then link to the question before that - presumably from the same person - regarding his dog hiccupping!)

thanks 83.104.131.135 (talk) 17:12, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

Like this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Reference_desk/Miscellaneous#Duck_tape However it'll break in a week or so when the thread is archived ... once archived it'll have a stable URL. note that the duck tape thing is probably a troll. --Tagishsimon (talk) 17:14, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

im not too familiar but i think if you browse to this page and then click the topic in the table of contents and then copy the url, then i think clicking the link will take you right to the question. but dont hold it against me if im wrong.the juggreserection (talk) 17:15, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

Yup, that's the way to do it. --Tagishsimon (talk) 17:17, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

Or, you can use "permanent link" under the toolbox in the top left of the page. --— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk - 17:38, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

yeah, good point. it would be http://en.wikipedia.org/enwiki/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia:Reference_desk/Miscellaneous&oldid=175962462#hiccup_relief & http://en.wikipedia.org/enwiki/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia:Reference_desk/Miscellaneous&oldid=175962462#Duck_tape --Tagishsimon (talk) 18:00, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

Don't forget the guy's first question about curing the dog's hiccups. All good comedy needs the proper set-up. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Reference_desk/Miscellaneous#hiccup_relief --72.10.110.107 (talk) 17:40, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

Region-free DVD player

I'm looking to purchase a region-free DVD player for my girlfriend's parents, who live in Germany. I have a few questions that even the relevant articles couldn't help me solve, and I was hoping you guys could help me out.

First, I've seen advertised "region-free," "multi-region," and "code-free" DVD players...I want them to be able to play American and European (and maybe other) DVDs on their German TV...which categories do I have to look for? Second, I'd love for it to have a SCART connection because that's what they use and are familiar with. I haven't been able to find anything with a SCART out on Amazon, does anybody know of an American retailer where I might be able to find that? Is there another name that is more popular that I should look for? And how good are RCA-SCART converters, if I can't find one...are they a viable solution? Thank you! --ParkerHiggins ( talk contribs ) 21:30, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

Why not just use a European Amazon? That way you can get the voltage right, the TV standard (Germany uses PAL I believe rather than NTSC) and you then also get the European scart standards. Buying anything electronic in the US then expecting it to work in the EU is asking for trouble. --WebHamster 21:53, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

My only concern is now instead of navigating between "code-free" and "region-free," I'll have to do the whole thing in German! And shipping, etc. But I'm looking at it. --ParkerHiggins ( talk contribs ) 22:11, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

"Code free" and "region free" are the same thing really. It's something that's far more common outside the US as far more Europeans buy R1 than Americans buy R2 etc. Most of the Americans I've dealt with had no idea there was a difference in TV standards much less region coding. FYI SCART is actually a European standard having been previously called Peritel and EuroSCART and Euroconnector. --WebHamster 22:45, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

December 6

Eyesight affect photos

Suppose if one is nearsighted and takes photos using a DSLR, or any camera for instance, would the focus of the camera be different than if the person had correct vision? As a result, will the resulting photo be not properly focused? Acceptable (talk) 00:15, 6 December 2007 (UTC)

Most camera viewfinders have a mechanism to adjust for people who are nearsighted so they can see the image clearly without their glasses. If a nearsighted person uses the LCD screen rather than the viewfinder, and their vision is corrected (either by contact lenses or eyeglasses) then the image will be in focus and therefore the photographer will be able to adjust the camera focus just as well as someone with normal vision. In actual practice, many cameras have a system to automatically focus the lens in most situations, so they don't require the photographer to judge focus at all before taking the picture.Thomprod (talk) 02:30, 6 December 2007 (UTC)

Do expect some trouble shooting while wearing glasses though. --antilived^{T | C | G} 09:15, 6 December 2007 (UTC)

With an SLR camera, whether analog or digital, when you look in the viewfinder you're not looking directly at the scene you're shooting; you're looking at a focusing screen inside the camera. See the diagram at that link. It's only a short distance from your eye, but the viewfinder includes its own lens to enable you to focus that close while your eye muscles are set to focus on infinity. The camera is in focus when the image on the focusing screen is in focus; your vision only affects how well your eye can focus on the focusing screen, and that's completely independent.

In other words, with good vision or proper glasses, and the camera correctly set, you see a focused image of a focused image. If the camera is set wrong, you see a focused image of an unfocused image. If your vision is poor but the camera is set correctly, you see an unfocused image of a focused image.

Since I wear fairly strong glasses for myopia, I was able to verify this by taking my glasses off, then setting my SLR for manual focus and pointing it at an object a few feet away. I adjusted the focus control until the fuzziness of the image I saw was minimized -- I was then seeing an unfocused image (no glasses) of a focused image (camera correctly set), and sure enough, when I put my glasses back on, the image was almost perfectly sharp. (The reason it was "almost" was without being able to reduce the fuzziness to zero, it was hard to tell the degree of it with sufficient accuracy.)

Similar considerations apply if the camera uses an LCD screen viewfinder display. The image on the LCD screen will be in focus if the camera is, and your vision only affects how well you can tell if it is.

For the older type of camera with a separate viewfinder, I'm not sure how your vision affects it.

--Anonymous, 02:15 UTC, December 7, 2007.

So, to summarize, I have perfect vision up close, should I be concerned with the focus of my DSLR (without live preview)? Acceptable (talk) 00:57, 8 December 2007 (UTC)

My Nikon D50 allows adjustment from +3.0 (far sighted) to -1.0 (near sighted), so if you're not that myopic you can see the image in crystal clear quality, without the need for glasses. You shouldn't be worried about focus per se, as it will autofocus whether or not you see it clearly, it's just that if you're too myopic for the correction and don't have glasses, you can't see the image and the data below it (shutter speed, aperture etc.) clearly. It would have no effect on your photos, unless you've autofocused on a wrong part of the frame and couldn't check because you can't really see it. --antilived^{T | C | G} 22:36, 8 December 2007 (UTC)

Roland Micro Cube or Line 6 Spider III 15?

Which is an all around better amp? MalwareSmarts (talk) 01:53, 6 December 2007 (UTC)

It's not really a question the ref desk can do much to answer. Presumably you've read about the features they offer, right? You could try reading product reviews, too. Or better yet, play around with them both at your local music store and figure out which you prefer. They've probably both got more bells and whistles than you'll ever use. Does one or the other have particular bells and whistles that appeal to you? Friday (talk) 01:59, 6 December 2007 (UTC)

Roland is better, as line 6 can be hard to use, what with all its added extra effects. But better still is marshall, but the untimate, mmm, is a Mesa Boogie. Excuse me while I drool. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 12.191.136.3 (talk) 13:24, 6 December 2007 (UTC)

Plate

I have a plate with three compartments, I think it's pewter. Stamped on the back is the word's MAYFLOWER GOMHAM, then an anchor and a boat like a clipper ship, then it says E P silver soldered, then the number 012591. I'd like to know what it is and if it's worth anything. Any help will be greatly appreciated.. Thank You CGreenberg001 (talk) 02:38, 6 December 2007 (UTC)CGreenberg001

EP probably means 'electroplated'. The word "Gomham" doesn't occur anywhere in Wikipedias' 2.1 million articles and gets almost zero Google hits (just a few people's surnames and misspellings of "Gotham") - are you 100% sure that's how it's spelled? SteveBaker (talk) 05:04, 6 December 2007 (UTC)

OK - I searched for just 'Mayflower Pewter' - it seems that there is or was a company that made Pewter called "MAYFLOWER". This sounds EXACTLY like your piece: [3] If so, you can buy one new for $45. Here is an example of some of their work on eBay [4] and here [5] is some Mayflower pewter on sale at a British antique store. This stuff doesn't seem to be too valuable - Mayflower pewter items on eBay are selling for just a few bucks - and even in the fancy-schmancy antique store, you can pick up a three-piece collection for 40 pounds. SteveBaker (talk) 05:37, 6 December 2007 (UTC)

I am reasonably certain that Gomham is actually Gorham Manufacturing Company. Take a look at the marks found here [6]. The clipper ship may represent the year 1926. See Gorham date codes here [7]. The 012591 is probably and individual item number. --Seuss (talk) 06:35, 6 December 2007 (UTC)

"EP" = English pewter. DuncanHill (talk) 13:30, 6 December 2007 (UTC)

The Pewter Society offer a free identification service at their website here [8]. As they seem to know more about pewter than might reasonably be expected, I suggest trying that. DuncanHill (talk) 00:24, 7 December 2007 (UTC)

counter intuitive

may you please give the definition for counter intuitive?202.88.234.90 (talk) 08:11, 6 December 2007 (UTC)

Counter-intuitive Rockpocket 08:22, 6 December 2007 (UTC)

work and leisure

will you please give the definition for work and leisure?202.88.234.90 (talk) 08:12, 6 December 2007 (UTC)

Work and leisure. Rockpocket 08:23, 6 December 2007 (UTC)

lol Acceptable (talk) 00:56, 8 December 2007 (UTC)

change

what are the driving forces of change?why are they useful if that is the case?202.88.234.90 (talk) 08:18, 6 December 2007 (UTC)

In what context? Depending on what you are interested in changing, the forces driving it could be very different. See here for some sources for the forces driving change in nature. Rockpocket 08:26, 6 December 2007 (UTC)

Changes are often made just for the sake of change; certainly true of governments or managers just wanting to justify their existence.--88.111.25.42 (talk) 08:40, 6 December 2007 (UTC)

The use of change is that it shakes things up. People have to consider the reasons for things instead of simply accepting their existence. Change is usually accompanied by entropy and chaos. Steewi (talk) 10:45, 6 December 2007 (UTC)

Of course, another driving force of change is large denominations of currency. Steewi (talk) 10:46, 6 December 2007 (UTC)

Necessity is the mother of invention? Dismas|^(talk) 11:26, 6 December 2007 (UTC)

I thought that was Frank Zappa. -- JackofOz (talk) 07:37, 7 December 2007 (UTC)

Human beings have an almost unique relationship to the phenomenon of change. All species have the potential to adapt to changing environmental factors (such as a change in climate or a change in pH levels in the water, etc.) - some to a greater degree than others. But human beings seem to specialize in not only adapting to changing environmental factors, but to actually be the initiators of change themselves. This was theoretically first done when early hominids picked up a rock to use as a tool to break into a large bone to get at the marrow inside, or to pick up a branch to scare away a threatening enemy, or to use a gourd to transport potable water, etc. Once we humans started using tools in a large way, we embarked on a long road that has brought us to where we are today - the most successful large mammal species currently in existence. Because of our use of tools and technology, we actually introduce change in our lives through the use of these tools.

I'm using the term "tools" in as broad a sense as possible, too, so to include the idea that human speech, mathematics, and idealization of theoretical knowledge are included as being "tools" we use to accomplish something. Please don't criticize my use of this term to cover these aspects, I'm merely temporarily using it to accomplish the point of indicating how we are tool users. One may actually go further with this to the point of possibly including the individual conscious mind as a tool that each person creates from birth to help us solve problems in our lives.

Using tools is a double edged sword - it not only helps us to do something easier, but it also carries with it a cost for its use. This cost can be something like (for example) how by using speech, we actually change our perception of the world around us - speech actually changes how we think about something, which creates change when we then act in a way that would perhaps be different than might have been otherwise had we not the capability of speech. Another example (more concrete) is how when we use the tool of the gasoline-powered automobile in large numbers, we are putting more carbon in the atmosphere than the environment can get rid of, which seems to be raising global temperatures.

One of the best examinations of this subject of change is the Indian philosophical concept of Karma, which is basically boiled down to the study of "cause and effect", (also known in philosophical terms as Causality). As humans we cannot help but create (or cause) change (or effects). Usually this is done through action, but even were it possible for a person to completely be free of any action, this itself would be something that would create a change. Therefore, we cause change whether we choose to act or not act. This is part of our mortal existence to which we are inexorably caught. So, by focusing one's attention as much as possible on what kind of change one is instigating by one's actions, it is possible to try to live one's life to produce the most desirable changes as possible. An interesting philosophy that takes this into account is called Consequentialism. Hope all that helps... Saukkomies 15:02, 8 December 2007 (UTC)

Post-script note: By saying that humans can be the initiators of change themselves, I do not imply that humans are the only species that is capable of this. Saukkomies 15:14, 8 December 2007 (UTC)

non future journels

wiki please give the names of some non future journels which are useful to learn about the future?202.88.234.90 (talk) 08:20, 6 December 2007 (UTC)

The Journal of Future Studies [9], The Futurist, Futures Research Quarterly, Futures: The Journal of Forecasting and Planning, Futurics: A Quarterly Journal of Alternative Futures & Futures Research, Technological Forecasting & Social Change: An International Journal Rockpocket 08:31, 6 December 2007 (UTC)

Hey, that's pretty good - not one of those journals hasn't been invented yet! --Psud (talk) 13:20, 7 December 2007 (UTC)

You might also be interested in reading Futurology. SteveBaker (talk) 15:10, 7 December 2007 (UTC)

Generation(s)

What number of years define a generation please--88.111.25.42 (talk) 08:38, 6 December 2007 (UTC)

See Generation. MrRedact (talk) 09:00, 6 December 2007 (UTC)

Splendid, just what I needed, Thanks--88.111.25.42 (talk) 09:04, 6 December 2007 (UTC)

How do they keep highway signs free of snow?

I live in the baltimore area, and I noticed when driving this morning that, while the exit signs, speed limit signs, and other signs at the side of the road were covered in frost/snow, the big green signs that hang over the road and list the exits, distances, etc were completely clear. I can't imagine that the snow didn't blow on to them, since it covered pretty much everything else, and every sign above the road was perfectly clear. I googled it, searched wiki for information about highway signs and searched the annotated code of maryland to see if they said anything about that sort of maintenance, but couldn't find anything. There are little lamp units under the signs, but surely that wouldn't generate enough heat spread around the entire sign to keep the sign completely clear, would it?

Tigger89 (talk) 13:28, 6 December 2007 (UTC)

Well lights do produce a lot of heat and if it is close to the metal of the sign the whole sign would heat as a whole, just a small difference in temperature would cause any built up snow to slide off as opposed to melting all the snow and keep it clear. The lightbulb article does has some figures on efficiency. Heat rising from automobiles and exhausts would also contribute. Lanfear's Bane | t 13:51, 6 December 2007 (UTC)

Ok thank you, I hadn't thought of the heat from the exhaust.

Tigger89 (talk) 14:42, 6 December 2007 (UTC)

While exhaust is a factor, I would expect that radiant heat from the lights is far and away the primary source of heat. If there's even a slight bit of wind, that exhaust is going to be dispersed before it can do much good. Similarly, that dispersal is going to mean that signs beside the road (at least on the downwind side) get about as much exhaust benefit as those above, and as you've noted, those signs don't stay clear. — Lomn 16:18, 6 December 2007 (UTC)

Part of the answer (and I am not a physicist, and I don't comprehend the answer completely) is probably that the metal conducts heat much more readily than most other materials. You experience this first hand when you touch metal outside in the cold; it feels much colder than (for instance) wood, because it conducts the heat more quickly away from your fingers, although the wood is really the same temperature as the metal. So, if there are hot lights burning on the bottom of the metal signs (as the green highway signs), they will conduct that heat throughout the sign and melt off the ice that's formed more easily than if the signs were, say, plastic. What I wonder about is the Stop signs, that don't have lights on them. They clearly gather condensation quickly, and the cold wind should freeze the snow on the front of the sign pretty easily, but I rarely see a sign that is encased in snow (although they often have icicles). Any physics geniuses want to make sense of it all? Faithfully, Deltopia (talk) 16:39, 6 December 2007 (UTC)

If what you're seeing is observed after a snow that's heavy enough to plow, perhaps the roadside signs have had the snow plowed onto them? Light, drifting snow won't stick to a cold metal sign, regardless of lighting, but a concentrated stream of half-melted snow, slush, and sand, directed at the sign at a significant horizontal speed, certainly could. jeffjon (talk) 17:00, 6 December 2007 (UTC)

Signs mounted above highways aren't mounted dead vertically; they're mounted with the visible side tilted downwards towards the road surface. Besides making for better visibility (because they're more-perpendicular to your line of sight looking upwards at them), this also tends to keep them clear of snow, at least non-wind-driven snow. This is not so true of signs at the sides of the road, though. Solar heating of the signs and their relatively slick surface (allowing gravity to work) seems to be the other big factor in keeping signs clear. The angle of repose of melty snow is far, far lower than the steep surface of the signs.

One of the biggest problems I've seen is dew on the signs as it tends to cancel most of the reflective characteristics of the sign material (for example, Scotchlite). But dew tends to only last a very few hours.

Atlant (talk) 17:35, 6 December 2007 (UTC)

On vertical surfaces, another factor may be vibration. Those large signs are vibrating as traffic rumbles by underneath them. Small signs are stiffer and vibrate less - so perhaps the snow is also being shaken off of these huge signs before it can really build up. I doubt there is any one single reason here. Large signs are also (usually) the dark-green or blue ones - roadside signs are generally white with black lettering. This might allow the dark coloured ones to absorb more sunlight during the day than the white ones. Being retro-reflective, they are very efficient at reflecting light in the wavelengths corresponding to their colour - but since they are designed not to glare out to white under car headlamps, the green ones ought to absorb the red wavelengths pretty well - and perhaps the infra-red very strongly. SteveBaker (talk) 19:31, 6 December 2007 (UTC)

what kind of plant

what kind of plants would be able to survive well in a dorm room? It would get watered regularily, so that wouldnt be a problem, but there just wouldnt be very much sunlight, unless you count flourescent lights as sunlight... —Preceding unsigned comment added by 128.101.53.177 (talk) 20:27, 6 December 2007 (UTC)

One is the snake plant. The jade plant is pretty tolerant. You can't kill an aloe vera no matter what you do, and you can squeeze the juice on hangnails and burns. --Milkbreath (talk) 20:47, 6 December 2007 (UTC)

Things I have found hard to kill in a dorm are spider plant, busy Lizzie and Tradescantia. SaundersW (talk) 20:58, 6 December 2007 (UTC)

I've had a wandering jew for years that has gone to the brink of death on more than one occasion since I'm not really a plant guy. Whenever it gets really bad, I just break off the dead stuff, replant the living stuff, and it takes off growing like a weed again. Dismas|^(talk) 22:51, 6 December 2007 (UTC)

Spider plants and Tradescantias are ideal for this situation. Both thrive on neglect, and seem not to care too much about light levels. DuncanHill (talk) 22:57, 6 December 2007 (UTC)

I"ve had amazing success with the Dracaena fragrans plant (also known as the Corn Plant). Here's a link that talks about it: [[10]]. This plant will grow ANYWHERE. It grows as tall as a low tree, but when it gets too tall I just cut it and place the top in a jar of water for a while till it puts out roots from the bottom where it was cut, and then I plant it in the pot along with its bottom. The bottom part where it was cut will then put out new branches from near the top and keep growing. One plant can therefore be cut and repotted in the same (largish) pot, thus making it quite bushy over time. The leaves naturally grow a bit brownish over long time, which can then be trimmed off to show the attractive trunk. I've grown this plant in a totally dark room, but it does better when there's even a little bit of indirect outdoor light that suffuses into the 15:57, 8 December 2007 (UTC)

Will the poor always be with us?

And where does this quote come from anyway? BrainyBabe (talk) 21:55, 6 December 2007 (UTC)

From Jesus. Matthew 26:11. 207.148.157.228 (talk) 22:19, 6 December 2007 (UTC)

Well unless everyone had exactly the same of everything (life, love, health, money, opportunities etc.) then 'poor' will always exist because it is such a broad-word. Will 'absolute poverty' always exist? Depends on whether we change the definition. The wealth and life of people has increased unbelievably the world over in the past 100 years according to people such as Hans Rosling, who has some interesting presentations on nation wealth across time. I have no idea where the quote comes from, but in some definition poverty will always exist. We're already starting to move from people living on under a dollar a day to considering replacing it with living on under 2 dollars a day - it might sound like small progress but it isn't. ny156uk (talk) 22:25, 6 December 2007 (UTC)

To put it in context, the Gospel of Matthew in the Bible has Jesus say it not long before he dies. A woman uses expensive perfumed oils to anoint Jesus while he is eating, and his disciples berate her for wasting it in this manner, since it could have been sold and the money given to the poor. Jesus uses 'The poor will always be with you' as a way of telling his disciples off for being mean to someone who was trying to do something good. Also, to say that while the poor would always be with them, they would not always have him. I always read it as an injunction not to get picky with other people, pointing out how they could have done something even better. Essentially, not to get 'holier than thou'. Also, that while helping the poor is a good thing, it's a bit vague and will never be finished. Sometimes more immediate concerns take priority. Skittle (talk) 00:16, 7 December 2007 (UTC)

It actually predates the NT. Deuteronomy 15:11 says, "The poor will never cease to exist in the land." -- Mwalcoff (talk) 00:49, 7 December 2007 (UTC)

It's the same sentiment, and no doubt the NT is referencing it, but the actual quote comes from the NT. 130.88.140.39 (talk) 13:08, 7 December 2007 (UTC)

We answered a question similar to this a few days ago. Someone wanted to know what would happen if everyone was rich. The problem is that keeping everyone at the same income level is virtually impossible - and because it removes the incentive to excel, it ends up being a bad thing for society. What is needed is some way to limit the spread of incomes. Nobody really needs more than maybe a quarter of a million dollars a year to be extremely happy and well off and to be able to do the things they want to do in life. At the other end of the scale, nobody deserves to be so poor that they can't eat, have adequate basic health care and plain, simple housing. We need poorer and richer people - but not insanely rich and ridiculously poor. At one time it was calculated that Bill Gates was earning so much money that if he saw a $100 bill lying in the street, it would not be cost-effective for him to bend down and pick it up (he was earning over $100 per SECOND at that time). That is definitely more money than anyone needs. The trick is to limit the extremes without resorting to the failed ideas of full-up communism. —Preceding unsigned comment added by SteveBaker (talk • contribs) 15:03, 7 December 2007 (UTC)

An interesting idea. I would suggest the trick is to limit the lower extreme without creating a ceiling of accruable wealth. The money Bill Gates has is unfathomable (even, i'm sure, to himself) but it circulates through society. It's in banks being used as capital for loans, it's in investments, it's in stock, it's buying X-million pound boats that keep boat-manufacturers/etc. etc. in business. I personally think focussing on how we get the poor richer is much much much more important than making the rich slightly poorer. Remember it isn't a zero sum game, the insanely rich don't have to get poorer for the poor to get richer. The US and Western Europe is home to most of the world's richest people...List of countries by the number of billionaires (some reason Asia isn't on there), and they also are the nations where the respective poor in society are likely to be the richest 'poor' people too (yes some of the rich are rich from exploiting poor around the world, but the poor are also raising in wealth virtually the world over). ny156uk (talk) 01:37, 8 December 2007 (UTC)

What do you mean 'Asia isn't on there'? :-? Skittle (talk) 15:04, 8 December 2007 (UTC) Ah, I see there was vandalism that hung around for weeks and wasn't caught until an hour after you posted... Skittle (talk) 15:08, 8 December 2007 (UTC)

Yes, my question was partly in response to the previous query about what would happen if everyone were rich. It is not quite the same thing to say, what would happen if no one was poor. I guess I am conceptualising a tripartite division: rich, poor, and middling (which most of us reading this are). Perhaps others were thinking of a binary rich/poor division. I have a thought experiment to propose, but will do that as a separate question another day, once I think of a clear wording. And "will the poor always be with us?" , posed as a non-rhetorical question, cries out for an explanation, not just a yes/no assertion. Why does poverty persist? (absolute or relative poverty.) BrainyBabe (talk) 08:54, 9 December 2007 (UTC)

December 7

AN/PEQ

What does AN/PEQ stand for anyways? I've always wondered that, but I couldn't find an answer anywhere. And the others in the SOPMOD like the AN/PVS and AN/PSQ? 67.188.81.158 (talk) 01:22, 7 December 2007 (UTC)

Joint Electronics Type Designation System. AN is Army-Navy, PEQ would be Human Portable, Laser, Special or Combination. FiggyBee (talk) 04:19, 7 December 2007 (UTC)

What is the Canadian cultural Appalachia? Gary, IN?

This question continues the theme from last month. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Reference_desk/Archives/Miscellaneous/2007_November_12#What_is_the_British_Gary.2C_Indiana.3F__Appalachia.3F

lots of issues | leave me a message 02:26, 7 December 2007 (UTC)

Newfoundland is the Canadian Appalachia, complete with poverty, funny accents, a wide diaspora and many jokes at their expense. The Jane and Finch neighborhood in Toronto, while not as bad as the "bad neighborhoods" in most American cities, is the closest thing Canada has to a notorious black ghetto. -- Mwalcoff (talk) 03:38, 7 December 2007 (UTC)

As for depressed urban areas comparable to Gary, Canada does not seem to have any quite as big or bad as Gary, but Brantford, Ontario, and Sydney, Nova Scotia, are both fairly depressed. Marco polo (talk) 21:24, 7 December 2007 (UTC)

I don't know Canada well enough to say what "Canada's Appalachia" might be (or I'm too wary to hazard a guess), but Newfoundland, mentioned above, has the added benefit of actually being part of the Appalachian Mountains. Pfly (talk) 04:07, 8 December 2007 (UTC)

Tough Questions - Wikipedia's "Question Gate" and Shockwave

Who had the idea to call me a troll, assume ABF ? Reminds me of what happened when a Hillary Clinton supporter had tried to prevent "non approved" questions from being asked at one of her engagements.

Other than this matter, the History Channel will air this Friday a show called "Shockwave", which is about the worst explosion to have taken place. I'm referring to a rocket fuel plant that detonated in Nevada.

Should this reference about the show be placed in appropriate articles ? 65.163.115.114 (talk) 06:10, 7 December 2007 (UTC)

I only asked the tough questions about animal protection organizations, environmental organizations. Someone else could have asked these, and really be offensive about it. 65.163.115.114 (talk) 06:16, 7 December 2007 (UTC)

You got fairly good answers to your questions, I thought. As for Shockwave, I don't think it's notable that the History Channel has made a program about the PEPCON disaster, so I wouldn't put it in the article. FiggyBee (talk) 06:52, 7 December 2007 (UTC)

Not the worst explosion. Only 2 dead and 0.25KT. Compare to the Halifax Explosion, with 2000 dead and 3.0KT, or with the Texas City disaster. Or of course deliberate explosions at Nagasaki and Hiroshima. -Arch dude (talk) 07:49, 7 December 2007 (UTC)

Your questions got reasonable answers - but it's a bad idea to rant about things in questions. Ask what you need to know - leave it at that. Also, there is never a guarantee that you'll get a useful answer here. It's a volunteer service manned by whoever feels like coming along and doing it. If nobody feels like answering, you don't get an answer - there is no entitlement.

As for this question, List of the largest artificial non-nuclear explosions is a pretty good start. At the bottom is this table:

Event	Approximate yield
Port Chicago disaster	5 kt
Minor Scale	4 kt
Heligoland	4 kt
Texas City Disaster	2-4 kt
Halifax Explosion	2.9 kt

PEPCON at 0.25kt is a mere damp squib compared to these! I agree with FiggyBee though - the fact that a TV program is made about something isn't sufficiently notable to warrant mentioning it in the body of the article. It would, however, be a valuable addition to the "References" or "External links" section. But this is Wikipedia - "WP:Be bold" certainly applies here. SteveBaker (talk) 14:27, 7 December 2007 (UTC)

Cycling clip

Hi all. I was wondering if anyone knew the story behind this cycling clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RL48rN2ven0 ? As in when it occurred, what was the race, what were the repurcussions for the cyclists and the guy who pushed the guy off the bridge. Thanks. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Akamad (talk • contribs) 06:44, 7 December 2007 (UTC)

Hmmm... a tough one. I couldn't even identify the language - I'm guessing a scandinavian language...(?) A translation would be a good start - maybe there are some clues in the voiceover. A google indicated Japan, but the spectator who does the pushing isn't Japanese and I'm not convinced the cyclist is either. Good question though. Manning (talk) 13:46, 7 December 2007 (UTC)

RTL on Google turns up a Luxemburg station , so maybe it's in Luxembourgish? Also there're quite a number of stations named RTL or BTL. --antilived^{T | C | G} 01:28, 8 December 2007 (UTC)

Yeah, there was another copy of the clip on youtube that had labelled it as Japanese, but I too doubt that. - Akamad (talk) 01:43, 8 December 2007 (UTC)

The sign in the background says “[something] MATA” and the video is tagged with a logo that says “Csiii[something].” What we really need is a translation of the commentary though. --S.dedalus (talk) 08:06, 8 December 2007 (UTC)

The sign looks to me like "A 2 KM META" with what might be an arrow. For whatever that's worth. —Tamfang (talk) 07:11, 13 December 2007 (UTC)

The voiceover might be unrelated to the origin of the clip, as I think I have seen it on the net before and without the voiceover - perhaps that particular clip was taken from some clip show in another country. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 203.208.109.169 (talk) 11:31, 8 December 2007 (UTC)

The voiceover is in Hungarian (although I don't understand it). Csiihi is what it says in the corner. It sounds like the sort of VO and cheap sound effects you get on X's Funniest Home Videos shows. Steewi (talk) 03:00, 10 December 2007 (UTC)

Sorry, Csihi, not Csiihi. Steewi (talk) 03:01, 10 December 2007 (UTC)

Doctor's handwriting

Why do doctors always have such bad handwriting? --Candy-Panda (talk) 10:03, 7 December 2007 (UTC)

So the patient will NOT know how bad the diagnosis is, especially if the patient has "Fat Wallet Syndrome". 65.163.115.114 (talk) 10:11, 7 December 2007 (UTC)

It's to maintain the 'medical mystique', what you can't understand you can't question. Richard Avery (talk) 10:59, 7 December 2007 (UTC)

They study hard for seven years to achieve that level of illegibility. SaundersW (talk) 11:42, 7 December 2007 (UTC)

Do you have data on the handwriting of non-doctors? If not then I don't see what needs to be explained.--droptone (talk) 13:46, 7 December 2007 (UTC)

Doesn't answer the question but is still interesting related reading TIme Magazine - Cause of death - bad handwriting -- Manning (talk) 13:49, 7 December 2007 (UTC)

• A British Medical Journal study found that doctors do NOT have handwriting that is on average any worse than other professionals. See here Manning (talk) 13:55, 7 December 2007 (UTC)

• lol ive been told that i should be a doctor with my handwriting...good thing typing is always legible. Esskater11 14:41, 7 December 2007 (UTC)

• I actually have no idea what my doctor's handwriting is like as I've never seen more than her signature. The trend in these parts (I live in Kitchener, Ontario) is for medical professionals to print off their prescription slips on a printer. Matt Deres (talk) 17:58, 7 December 2007 (UTC)

My doctor also prints prescriptions, I believe that this is fairly standard nowadays in Britain, as it enables computerization of medical records, and computerized warnings of possible adverse drug interactions (especially useful if a patient has a complex drug regime). It should be noted, however, that the Misuse of Drugs Act requires that prescriptions for Controlled Drugs be handwritten by the doctor. (I know this because I used to look after a child who was prescribed Ritalin, and the pharmacist rejected some of her scripts as an idiot doctor had printed them - after that I started reading the BNF thoroughly whenever a child was prescribed anything). DuncanHill (talk) 00:59, 8 December 2007 (UTC)

Donation

This isn't a question. Removed - the banner at the top of the page is more than enough. Lanfear's Bane | t 11:27, 7 December 2007 (UTC)

Not Sure if this is consiered legal advice...

If my band wanted to do a cover of a song and then put it on an EP and sell it(even though it would sold locally and for low profit-like $5 an album) would i have to get permission from the original artist to do it?the juggreserection (talk) 15:00, 7 December 2007 (UTC)

• The "legal advice" rule prevents me from telling you what to do to solve your problem. But I am allowed to tell you how to educate yourself about your problem. This article is a great place to start. --M@rēino 15:22, 7 December 2007 (UTC)

You have to clear permission with the rights holder which is usually either the band or more often their record company, sometimes it's a specific third party company that manages muscal rights for a lot of bands and music producers. Keria (talk) 15:36, 7 December 2007 (UTC)

Aargh websense stuck a big middle finger in my face and said, "you cant look at cleverjoe.com". >:( the juggreserection (talk) 17:31, 7 December 2007 (UTC)

Sorry to hear that! Here's another solid guide to cover music copyrights. --M@rēino 18:32, 7 December 2007 (UTC)

You have to get permission from whoever holds the copyright (may not be the original artist). Otherwise, we call it stealing. —Nricardo (talk) 19:03, 7 December 2007 (UTC)

Nope, anyone can cover a song without permission. They just have to make the appropriate payments to MCPS etc. --WebHamster 03:47, 8 December 2007 (UTC)

Which acts under the authority of the copyright holder. —Nricardo (talk) 02:30, 9 December 2007 (UTC)

Regardless, you don't need their permission. A cover is not a copyright infringement. MCPS collect payment after the fact, an artist performing a cover does not need to request permission from the MCPS before the performance. --WebHamster 02:36, 9 December 2007 (UTC)

But recording is probably a legally different situation to a performance. In a recording situation, there are unlimited replays, so a fixed amount has to be negotiated (or a fixed amount per CD copy). In a performance situation, it's only played once, so you charge for the one performance (or get permission to cover for free within a time period). Steewi (talk) 03:05, 10 December 2007 (UTC)

Why assume the copyright holder even has an agreement with MCPS (or ASCAP or BMI or whoever)? —Nricardo (talk) 04:34, 10 December 2007 (UTC)

It's not an assumption. The other motive for obtaining royalties from the various agencies is that you are also actively protecting your copyright. If it can be demonstrated that you aren't actively protecting your copyright then that copyright can lapse and along with it your right to royalties etc. In the real world it's highly unlikely that a song that is covered won't be protected by MCPS, ASCAP et al. Likewise, at least in the UK anyway, when the cover is performed at a live venue and that venue isn't registered with a royalties agency then no royalties are due as it's the responsibility of the venue to pay the royalties and not the artist performing unlike a cover that is on recorded media. In the later case the royalties are paid to the duplication house --WebHamster 04:51, 10 December 2007 (UTC)

WWII plane ID tag

Charlie, Sugar, Able and How of the 375th Fighter Squadron (E2). The number on the tailfin is the serial.

What is the proper name for the identification number found on WWII fighter airplanes on the tail section of the fuselage? Thank you. Keria (talk) 15:31, 7 December 2007 (UTC)

Which number, what air force? For British aircraft, the big white letters are a squadron code (the letters in front of the roundel are the squadron, the one behind is the unique identifier of that aircraft), and the smaller black alphanumeric is the serial number. Aircraft changed squadron codes frequently (either because the aircraft were reassigned, or the squadron changed code to confuse the enemy), but retained the same serial throughout. The USAAF used pretty much the same system, see the photo ->. FiggyBee (talk) 17:59, 7 December 2007 (UTC)

Thank you figgyBee. I should have been more precise as I was indeed talking about the RAF and a specific Typhoon Squadron my grandfather served in. I asked this question because I wanted to find which specific planes he was flying. You answer my question completely, (white squadron code and black serial number) thank you very much. Since I asked the question I managed to dig up copies of his log book that have been printed in a book (I had no idea they were there) and it shows that they were changing planes every day (I initialy thought wrongly that they would be assigned a plane and stick to it). Thank you again for your reply. Keria (talk) 18:27, 7 December 2007 (UTC)

john travolta

Is it true that john travolta is bisexual? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Dlo2012 (talk • contribs) 18:15, 7 December 2007 (UTC)

While there have been rumors to that effect, such rumors aren't always accurate. Travolta himself hasn't said that he is bisexual, and no reliable sources have offered any compelling evidence of it. -FisherQueen (talk · contribs) 18:31, 7 December 2007 (UTC)

• It's worth noting that Travolta's religion, Scientology, started out as very anti-gay, although it has recently adopted a more inclusive stance. [11] So that might affect his attitudes. On the other hand, it's also worth noting that Travolta himself and many of the characters he portrayed have behaviors that may be called LGBT stereotypes, and that much of the rumors seem to have come from people being way, way too quick to assume that anyone who is a great dancer or has a great eye for fashion must be gay/bi. --M@rēino 18:42, 7 December 2007 (UTC)

quick and straightforward path to a small-scale ecommerce site selling PDFs?

Please see my question here. I request info from anyone who knows the easiest way to set up a small-scale site that sells PDFs one at a time or via subscription.

I wasn't sure whether this is more appropriate here or at the computing questions. If someone tells me I will make sure to put it in the one right place. Thanks. NoClutter (talk) 20:08, 7 December 2007 (UTC)

If you're looking for a way to sell PDF documents that you have created, a Print on demand company like Lulu might be your best bet. In addition to printing paper books on demand, they also provide a mechanism for people to purchase electronic copies of books in PDF format. It's been a while since I used it, so I'm not sure if it would work for subscriptions or what their commission is. One of the options is free to the author, though. Unfortunately, I can't think of an e-commerce package that will do this for you off the top of my head; I'm sure someone else knows of one, though --Kateshortforbob 23:39, 7 December 2007 (UTC)

Verse from Vishnu Purana - a Hindu Mythology book

This verse, a translation, captures the essence of marriage: she is language, he is thought he is reason, she is sense
she is will, he is wish
he is song, she is note
she is motion, he is wind
he is battle, she is might
she is beauty, he is strength
he is lamp, she is light
she is body, he is soul
he is day, she is night

please help me find this verse

- shyamalanawab —Preceding unsigned comment added by 219.65.131.111 (talk) 20:16, 7 December 2007 (UTC)

This site [12] suggests it is from Bhagavata Purana. SaundersW (talk) 22:49, 7 December 2007 (UTC)

thankyou very much, i would still like the verse number & chapter where this verse figure —Preceding unsigned comment added by 219.65.131.61 (talk) 14:13, 9 December 2007 (UTC)

December 8

TV is picking up air traffic control

This is weird. My TV set, when tuned to a certain channel (that broadcasts pictures fine), picks up on what I believe to be the local air traffic control. I have yet to hear them name the airport, but I know ATC-lingo and this is definitely it. It's crystal clear quality, ie what you would hear if you were in the airplane or in the control tower being spoken to. While this is insanely cool (though traffic is low, so only chatter intermittently, about 30-45 minutes between each conversation (made worse by the late hour)), I can't help but think something must be wrong with my TV. This has never happened before today, and no greater changes have happened that I know of that should mean anything to my set. My TV reception is analogue, which you may have gathered already. Any advice or help on this issue? The TV is some 7 years old now, a Grundig of some kind. :) Thanks for all help. This'll be an interesting one. 81.93.102.185 (talk) 00:50, 8 December 2007 (UTC)

ATC frequency is just above FM radio, modulated with Single-Side Band AM (IIRC). Our article on Television channel frequencies doesn't have anything in the ATC range (108.00MHz - 12xMHz), especially in Europe (your IP says you're from Norway). Usually there would be a lot more traffic for commercial airports than that, so you might've picked up an unattended GA frequency for an airfield close to you instead. More information, such as some excerpt and your location would be very helpful. --antilived^{T | C | G} 01:18, 8 December 2007 (UTC)

I am situated near Lakselv Airport, Banak. There should be three relevant control towers 'nearby'; Alta, Tromsø and Bodø Airport (which I think has control over most of northern Norway's airspace). Only minutes ago I heard a plane overhead, not unlikely an air ambulance, and I expect the chatter to continue as he either lands or is dispatched to whatever ATC controls the airspace beyond the local area. The traffic is not at all that heavy, and only rarely are there flights past midnight, especially in this perifery. 81.93.102.185 (talk) 01:33, 8 December 2007 (UTC)

My first thought is a malfunction at the tower causing spurious emissions (that's one for the "Wash your mouth out" thread), or a stork bent their antenna or the deflector thingie that's supposed to keep them from irradiating their neighbors. A strong enough signal will "swamp" the front end in your tuner. I'd ask around the neighborhood to see whether anybody else's TVs are doing it and then call the tower and complain if they are. --Milkbreath (talk) 01:24, 8 December 2007 (UTC)

Interesting! There must be some clue as to the airport; usually you start air traffic communications by saying who you want to talk to and who you are. FiggyBee (talk) 01:27, 8 December 2007 (UTC)

Yes, they likely do, but I forgot to tell there is a slasher movie on right now, and I can't turn down the volume without also lowering tbe volume of the ATC's volume. So I'm left with a lot of screaming and really icky sounds, which admittedly I'd rather not be hearing. For science, eh. 81.93.102.185 (talk) 01:35, 8 December 2007 (UTC)

I called the airport, turns out they've had this problem for the last day or two. So, there you go. At least - granted they stay silent on the TV at the right times - I'll be able to listen in on interesting chatter. Still I'd welcome all ideas as to what exactly is going on, since the control tower person said they were clueless too. 81.93.102.185 (talk) 01:41, 8 December 2007 (UTC)

If you are getting it on broadcast TV you can try changing the length of the antenna cord for something either a few feet longer or a few feet shorter - that usually works pretty well. If you are picking it up on DVD/VCR/Satellite/CableTV stuff then take a trip to RadioShack (or your local equivalent) and buy some large "Ferrite Beads" (sometimes they are called "ferrite EMI filters") you thread the wire that goes from your DVD player (or whatever) to the TV through one of those, bring the wire back over the outside and thread it through again - and that does wonders for reducing the amount of junk you pick up. SteveBaker (talk) 03:16, 8 December 2007 (UTC)

Pretty sure ATC is narrow-band frequency modulation so it would be demodulated by a TV set just fine. (It surely isn't SSB). And the most common reason a receiver intended for one frequency ends up picking up another frequency is that the offending reciever has lousy image rejection so it picks up frequencies that are shifted by 2x the intermediate frequency away from the intended tuning point. Finally, remember that TVs pick up a different range of frequencies when used on cable television than when used for broadcast television.

Atlant (talk) 18:11, 10 December 2007 (UTC)

http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/FindingAids/dynaweb/calher/rick/figures/I0025690A.jpg

what is this? where is this? etc? thank you. --Themirage (talk) 00:58, 8 December 2007 (UTC)

Looking through the rest of the photos in the directory, it's the aftermath of the 6.3 earthquake which hit downtown Santa Barbara on June 29, 1925. FiggyBee (talk) 01:25, 8 December 2007 (UTC)

what is iewa stand for?

--Themirage (talk) 01:18, 8 December 2007 (UTC)

Could be Inland Empire Wrestling Association or Internet Entertainment Writers Association. DuncanHill (talk) 01:24, 8 December 2007 (UTC)

Or the Iowa Education Web Association [13] Rockpocket 01:27, 8 December 2007 (UTC)

2 guitar questions.

What is the tonal difference between a regular Stratocaster and Fat Strat? Also, which is better, for a beginner, a Squier Stratocaster, or a Yamaha PAC012? MalwareSmarts (talk) 01:31, 8 December 2007 (UTC)

Our article on Fat Strat explains it has a humbucker. That article notes, "Stratocasters fitted with one humbucker in the bridge position, resulting in a pickup configuration noted as H-S-S (starting at bridge pickup: H for humbucker, S for single coil) are referred to as "Fat Strats", because of the "fatter", "rounder" tone offered by the humbucker pickup." Can't help with your second question, I'm afraid. Rockpocket 03:32, 8 December 2007 (UTC)

yamaha. everytime. now days theyre all made in the same factory in Taiwan any ways but seriously though. I have a strat, a good one, and I also have alot of yamaha equipment as well as several other brands. I have played for years and years and everytime, ill take yamaha over all else. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.3.151.98 (talk) 04:18, 8 December 2007 (UTC)

Thanks. I'm getting a Yamaha Pacifica. I tried it out at a local music store, tried it out plugged into two Line 6 amps, and it sounded great, even with plastic covering the pickups! MalwareSmarts (talk) 00:17, 9 December 2007 (UTC)

best graphics in a baseball video game?

--Themirage (talk) 01:33, 8 December 2007 (UTC)

who is the judge of montgomery alabama?

--Themirage (talk) 01:35, 8 December 2007 (UTC)

There are lots of judges in Montgomery, Alabama. I guess the top judge is Sue Bell Cobb; she is currently the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Alabama. Rockpocket 03:24, 8 December 2007 (UTC)

1

please can some one help me find psychological assistance and/or mental therepy in my area watford Herts uk thank you

You're in the UK? You want free psychological help? Your first port of call is your GP, if you have one. Make an appointment, explain the problem, and they should offer you appropriate advice. Psychological help is available on the NHS, although getting it can depend on where you live and how serious the problem is. Certainly your GP will do the best they can. If you don't have a GP, or you feel the problem is urgent, you can go to your local Accident and Emergency centre and seek help there. NHS direct might help you find the most appropriate service. In addition, If you just need someone to talk to, The Samaritans can be helpful. Generally, check out this link if you think you are having a crisis. 79.77.13.195 (talk) 14:51, 8 December 2007 (UTC)

If you call The Samaritans you might even get to talk to Phil Selway from Radiohead because he is a listening volunteer there sometimes. But seriously do take care. Therapy can really help you get through whatever you are dealing with now. Don't give up hope, it gets better! Saudade7 16:12, 8 December 2007 (UTC)

Mind, which is a mental health charity, have a helpline (details here [14]) which can help put you in touch with support organizatons in your area. Best wishes, DuncanHill (talk) 01:53, 9 December 2007 (UTC)

The Watford Community Mental Health Team (part of the NHS) have some information at this link [15]. DuncanHill (talk) 02:05, 9 December 2007 (UTC)

There is also an organization called SANEline who can give support and advice, their information is here - [16] DuncanHill (talk) 02:07, 9 December 2007 (UTC)

Afraid of insects, worried

Hi, I have a fear of insects which is quite strong, I even get scared of butterflies. I don't ever want to kill a butterfly, but when they get close to me I panic and try to swat it. What should I do? --Arachnophobic.guy (talk) 04:19, 8 December 2007 (UTC)

You could see a psychiatrist. I can't give you specific medical advice, but I can tell you that you're far from alone. While fear of spiders or wasps (things where the fear is more legitimate, if you take my meaning) are more common, there are plenty of folks who get freaked out at completely harmless butterflies and moths. Under the supervision of some kind of counselor (whether an actual shrink or some kind of therapist), one common method of overcoming the sensitivity is to have the patient handle increasingly more lifelike representations of the bugs they fear. It might start out with pictures, then move on to stuffed toys, more realistic rubber toys etc. and so on. Matt Deres (talk) 15:29, 8 December 2007 (UTC)

I remember reading once that if you have an (irrational) fear of insects, it could be due to some kind of childhood trauma where you realized that you could lose your limbs. Maybe you saw someone with missing limbs or deformed limbs, or maybe you got into some accident where you thought you might lose your own. Now granted, I read this in Readers Digest when I was in 7th grade but that really struck me and I have always remembered it. Something in Psychoanalysis I assume. Saudade7 16:07, 8 December 2007 (UTC)

Congratulations, you have taken the first step to a more comfortable life. Follow Matt's advice. You need to find a therapist who has experience in treating phobias and then talk to him about how he is going to improve your response to insects. However before you do that you need to be really sure that you want to overcome your reaction to insects. The success of the treatment is dependant to some extent on your personal motivation to change your behaviour. The therapy is usually slightly stressful but not frightening and the therapist will not ask you to do anything you do not want to do. It is necessary to generate a little anxiety to show you how easy it is to overcome it, and believe me it is surprisingly easy to overcome it. I look forward to seeing you renamed arachnophile! Good luck. Richard Avery (talk) 11:28, 9 December 2007 (UTC)

Maelstorm

Can a Maelstorm suck in a ship like in Pirates of the Caribean, or was that amped up to make the movie more exciting? How large do malstorms actually get? Maelstorm doesnt have any info. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 128.101.53.177 (talk) 05:27, 8 December 2007 (UTC)

The information in our whirlpool article is rather more comprehensive. According to that, the Saltstraumen pictured in the maelstrom (not maelstorm) article is about as powerful as they get.--Shantavira|^{feed me} 10:23, 8 December 2007 (UTC)

How many soccer clubs?

How many mens soccer clubs are there worldwide, including all countries and all divisions of play? 75.21.180.188 (talk) 17:32, 8 December 2007 (UTC)

Unfortunately it's impossible to answer for all levels of play as there are many amateur, school and Sunday League teams that are not part of a formal Football Association. For example, the English football league system contains around 7,000 teams (the number changes yearly) which includes both professional and non-professional sides but doesn't cover all clubs playing in the country (the FA says it may be nearer 37,500 including youth clubs). These figures are for England alone and are all estimates. 62.136.140.178 (talk) 18:50, 8 December 2007 (UTC)

I've also asked if anyone from Wikipedia:WikiProject Football can help. 62.136.140.178 (talk) 19:03, 8 December 2007 (UTC)

Just including Football Association team from each country. 75.21.180.188 (talk) 20:39, 8 December 2007 (UTC)

Volume of a bag

Aside from a water displacement method, what would be an accurate way of finding the volume of a plastic shopping bag and a Ziploc bag? Thanks. Acceptable (talk) 17:43, 8 December 2007 (UTC)

Fill it with a known-density material and weigh it? —Keenan Pepper 19:58, 8 December 2007 (UTC)

The problem with that method is that plastic bags stretch. Sancho 20:00, 8 December 2007 (UTC)

So what is your definition of the volume of a plastic bag? I would argue that any useful definition has to include the fact that they stretch. SteveBaker (talk) 23:32, 8 December 2007 (UTC)

Were you asking what mine definition is or what User:Acceptable's is? Sancho 05:26, 9 December 2007 (UTC)

Well, Acceptable's definition would be more useful for answering the question - but I'm curious as to why you'd discount the "fill, then weigh" approach on the grounds that the bags might stretch - when the usefulness of knowing the volume is probably in knowing the post-stretched volume. Personally, I think filling the bags with water then measuring the volume of water using a measuring jug would be a good measurement - but filling with water and weighing will obviously work just as well. That's a measurement of the interior volume. The volume of the actual bag itself would be tough to measure - you'd have to somehow squash them up into the smallest possible space without air getting in there...urgh! SteveBaker (talk) 14:32, 9 December 2007 (UTC)

I was just unsure how I would convince myself that I'd "filled" the bag... I could always just put a bit more in and it would fit. I guess you could fill the bag until it breaks, then measure what falls out. Sancho 22:56, 10 December 2007 (UTC)

Polystyrene beads would not stretch the bags, if you have access to those. --Tagishsimon (talk) 17:45, 11 December 2007 (UTC)

The neatest solution would be to measure how many plastic bags can fit into the plastic bag...you may award yourself extra marks for amusement value--Tagishsimon (talk) 17:46, 11 December 2007 (UTC)

Well, I was trying to find the maximum volume that the bag could hold. But the water displacement method worked better than I thought it would. Thanks. Acceptable (talk) 15:43, 9 December 2007 (UTC)

Water is probably far denser than the average contents of a plastic shopping bag. So I would advise a researcher to collect a sample of plastic shopping bags as filled by baggers at stores (selecting the type of stores is part of the problem of definition: some baggers put one object in each bag). Then determine the volume and mass of the contents of each bag. Weigh the objects and determine their volume by measurement and geometry, or by water displacement if irregular shaped. This would be a determination of the actual used volume for the bag in practice, as well as of the typical density of the goods placed in the bag. Now select a fill material with that density. Perhaps it would be like Cheerios (no idea in the absence of data). If that were so, then having determined the density of the fill material, pour it into the bag up to some determined fill level and weigh it. This is an Operational definition of the volume of the bag. If you filled it with shredded styrofoam or Ping pong balls, you would get a smaller volume than if you filled it with water (or marbles, sand, or lead shot). Another approach would be to have it opening-down under water and fill it with air. Its lifting power would be a quick index of "volume" but with a different operational definition. Edison (talk) 17:39, 11 December 2007 (UTC)

What is the French cultural Appalachia? Gary, IN?

My apologies if the theme is boring. lots of issues | leave me a message 22:02, 8 December 2007 (UTC)

I don't understand the question. What do the French, Appalachia, and Gary, Indiana have to do with one another? Dismas|^(talk) 23:52, 8 December 2007 (UTC)

He has been asking what the [insert nationality] version of Appalachia and Gary are. It helps to know that Appalachia is stereotypically poor, rural, and backwards, and Gary is stereotypically a depressed urban hellhole. Adam Bishop (talk) 00:06, 9 December 2007 (UTC)

I am aware of the reputations of each of them but was unaware of the history of the questions here. Thanks for the explanation! Dismas|^(talk) 04:33, 9 December 2007 (UTC)

I have been lurking on this one, not having any specific opinions, and can say that I do not find the thread boring in the least. I knew about the reputation of Appalachia; learning about that of Gary will help me pick up on more American pop cultural references. There are others, aren't there, places that stand for a certain ambience or kind of people. Doesn't Missoula, Montana represent being a long way from anywhere else? (A more tame version of Timbuktu?) Or have I got it wrong? BrainyBabe (talk) 09:10, 9 December 2007 (UTC)

I've never heard of Missoula as being used as a metaphor for the "middle of nowhere." The term often used is Podunk. -- Mwalcoff (talk) 18:13, 9 December 2007 (UTC)

There's another term, too, which is more vulgar. Some people prefer not to actually say the naughty words, so they abbreviate it to "BFE"[17]. Saukkomies 18:42, 9 December 2007 (UTC)

BrainyBabe, it is always a delight to respond to someone who is interested in my country (the US). I'll plug in my own opinions about what you were asking about, but keep in mind they are just my own ideas - others may have completely contradictory thoughts about this. So here goes: There are some places in the US where people are almost as rooted to the immediate place around them as they are in the typical traditional European areas. Many people living on Manhattan Island think that anything west of the Jersey Shore is off the map. I lived in the South Side of Chicago a while (around 111th Street), and personally met people who had never seen the Sears Tower in downtown Chicago. I know of people who have never been more than 20 miles from where they were born - and I'm not talking just about old people, but people who are in their 20s and 30s, too.

So the idea of Missoula representing someplace that is far from anywhere else is relative! If you happen to live in the West, Missoula doesn't seem to be far away. But if you live in Long Island, New York, maybe it does. Keep in mind that the West is the fastest growing area of the United States - and has been for the past 25 years or so. There are some major metropolitan urban areas out West that in no way can be thought of any more as just "cowboy towns". I'm talking about places like Denver, Salt Lake City, Las Vegas, Phoenix, L.A., San Francisco, Portland, and Seattle. With so many people living within a day or two drive away, I doubt that Missoula is really that "far away" as might be imagined...

Missoula itself has a very strong reputation of being a liberal-minded haven for published authors, artists, and free-wheeling hippies. I read somewhere that Missoula has more published authors per capita than any other town in the US - including New York City. There are a handful of such towns in the US that are like Missoula, more or less. They all have one thing in common: they have large universities. So along with Missoula, there is Boulder, Colorado; Eugene, Oregon; Madison, Wisconsin; Santa Cruz, California; Athens, Georgia; Bloomington, Indiana; and probably some others I don't know about. One town that is NOT on that list (in my opinion) is Berkeley, California, which in spite of its reputation for being a very radical school back in the 1960s, is from what my own experience has shown me to be quite conservative. It is rather Santa Cruz (down near Monterey) that is the real hippie college town of California. At any rate, if Missoula represents anything in the broader consciousness of America, I'd say it would fall into this category of very liberal (read: hippie) college towns.

I would say that if anyplace in the Lower 48 States (not including Alaska and Hawaii) represented the "back of beyond", it would probably be somewhere in the middle of Nevada or North Dakota. Nevada has taken on in the popular culture of the US an image of being the place where really weird stuff happens. This comes up a lot in movies that portray Nevada as a scary desolate place where serial killers, sociopathic hermits, and dirt-poor trailer trash wackos live. Of course Nevada is actually a very beautiful place with lots of wide open desert and pine-covered mountain ranges where eagles fly and there's nobody around to hassle you. North Dakota is a flatter, more agricultural version of Nevada, and would (in my opinion) be also a place where people would say is far from anywhere.

Finally, Gary, Indiana is probably what I would consider to be close to the most heavily industrialized parts of the Ruhr Area factory towns (or rather, what my impression of the Ruhr towns is - which may be outdated). It has lots of big mills and factories, including some of the few steel mills that are still in operation in the US. The air always smells in Gary from the pollution. It also is an incredibly congested traffic corridor, as it sits at the very southern bottom of Lake Michigan. A couple of major east-west Interstate Freeways (I-90 and I-80) converge and pass through Gary and its neighbor city of Hammond, Indiana. All traffic that is going from north of a line that stretches from San Fransisco to Chicago that is heading east must pass through this corridor. Likewise, traffic heading west that is coming north of a line stretching from Gary to New York City must also pass through this corridor. This makes it one of the most heavily-traveled sections of road in North America. Every day thousands of big semi trucks drive along that stretch of Interstate, making it a nightmare to drive in, especially in inclement weather. So, Gary is not really one of the prettiest spots in the US... Saukkomies 18:41, 9 December 2007 (UTC)

For "middle of nowhere" in the 48 states I'd suggest northern Maine and maybe northern Michigan. Also perhaps parts of Wyoming and northwestern Nebraska. Missoula is on I-90! You can't miss it. None of this relates to the Appalachia of France. I couldn't say, but might it be Burgandy? Brittany? Pfly (talk) 10:19, 10 December 2007 (UTC)

Hey, I live in Northern Michigan! Okay, well, I do see your point. :) Saukkomies 23:58, 10 December 2007 (UTC)

Thanks everyone, especially Saukkomies. That list of university towns is interesting; would I be correct in adding Austin, Texas? The Ruhr is largely post-industrial now, as is Sheffield (the English Gary). There is a series of joke maps sold as posters, depicting a geographically truncated view of the world. The one I know best is from the point of view of a New Yorker, where, as is stated above, not much exists west of the river, bar a hazy gimpse of Hollywood a long way away. What is this series called? BrainyBabe (talk) 07:46, 11 December 2007 (UTC)

Thanks, Brainybabe. It is good to know about the Ruhr and Sheffield developing into post-industrial towns. They sound like many of the old "Steel Belt" cities in the U.S., such as Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Chicago, Illinois, Cleveland, Ohio, Erie, Pennsylvania, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and Buffalo, New York, to name a few. All of these cities have fairly successfully developed a healthy economy beyond heavy industry. I leave off a couple of cities that quite haven't made it, including Detroit, Michigan and Gary, Indiana, which are still struggling along. As per Austin, Texas - I would say that I'd be inclined to agree with you about it being roughly in the same category as the other very liberal college towns I named. Perhaps it would be most closely akin to Madison, Wisconsin, since both cities are not only very liberal college towns, but are also the capital cities of their respective state. That adds a different influence with all the government employees and legislators present. But, yes, I've never been to Austin, but I have heard it is a wonderful city with lots of culture and which is very liberal. The map you mentioned is very familiar to me, too, but I'm not sure where I've seen it exactly. Saukkomies 07:39, 11 December 2007 (UTC)

Brainybabe, maybe you are thinking of Saul Steinberg's New Yorker cover of March 29, 1976[18] . --Gui Moquette (talk) 14:09, 11 December 2007 (UTC)

The Name 'Dakota'

Trendy in the US as a child's name, but I was told it's offensive and insensitive. Is it? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 125.238.77.72 (talk) 23:48, 8 December 2007 (UTC)

Well, not to the good folk of North Dakota and South Dakota. They might be a little miffed if you referred to either state as just "Dakota", but that's understandable (despite the publicity provided by Doris Day). I imagine these 2 states are sometimes referred to collectively as "the Dakotas". -- JackofOz (talk) 01:42, 9 December 2007 (UTC)

Yes, Jack, they are referred to as "the Dakotas". Dismas|^(talk) 04:31, 9 December 2007 (UTC)

I am fairly certain there is nothing offensive about Dakota. It is the autonym (name used for themselves as a people) by the Santee Sioux people. The states took their name from the indigenous people who lived in the eastern Dakotas. (Jack is correct that North and South Dakota are collectively referred to as "the Dakotas".) The closely related Lakota people occupied much of the central and western Dakotas. What some Dakota/Lakota people find offensive is the word Sioux. As the Sioux article explains, the word Sioux was taken from the language of the neighboring Ojibwa people and was long believed to be insulting, though in fact it may originally have meant just "speaker of a foreign language". Still, many Dakota/Lakota people today find the word Sioux offensive. Marco polo (talk) 02:33, 9 December 2007 (UTC)

Someone should tell Susan Janet Ballion. Rockpocket 07:03, 9 December 2007 (UTC)

There could, possibly, be people of Dakota ethnicity who object to the use of their ethnicity as a given name. Corvus cornix_talk 04:35, 9 December 2007 (UTC)

I am not Native American, but I do have some friends who are, and have been exposed to a degree to Native culture. I had the opportunity to go to a booksigning by the noted Native American author Sherman Alexie back in 1999 when he was in Chicago. He discussed a wide range of topics with the fairly large crowd that came to hear him, and one of the topics he covered was the recent phenomenon of naming children after Indian Tribes, which Dakota is one, of course. He named a bunch of similar names like this: Lakota, Shawnee, Hopi, etc. And then he started to jokingly suggest that they should also name kids after ALL of the tribes, including Ho Chunk (a tribe located near Chicago in Wisconsin). So it seems that at least one Native American author seems to regard this practice as innocuous and good material for humor. --Saukkomies 04:37, 9 December 2007 (UTC

• Several years ago, some element of North Dakota government or civil society proposed to rename itself simply "Dakota", so presumably they don't find it too offensive. --Sean 04:41, 9 December 2007 (UTC)

My guess is that the reason someone might find it offensive, or rather insensitive, is because a non-Dakota (people not state) person is using their name for a non-Dakota child, thereby watering down the meaning of 'Dakota' as a way of identifying themselves. If you say 'I'm Dakota', people might not know whether you're talking about your nationality or your given name. It could be considered disrespectful of the culture, because you don't necessarily educate a daughter called Dakota in Dakota ways or name her such as a matter of pride in her heritage, but rather as a part of a fad. I've no doubt that naming a child after an Australian Aboriginal group would be considered in rather poor taste. Steewi (talk) 03:21, 10 December 2007 (UTC)

December 9

Gary Owens/Eric Boardman educational videos

This might also go in the Entertainment desk, but this section seems better staffed, so I'll ask here: Is there a collective name for the edutainment videos hosted by Gary Owens and Eric Boardman that were popular in the late 1980s/early 1990s? These are some of the titles I remember; hopefully someone will recognize them:

• Dinosaurs, Dinosaurs, Dinosaurs! (Gary Owens is turning into a dinosaur, so Eric must collect water from the Crystal Palace Dinosaur Court to stop the transformation)
• Son of Dinosaurs (Gary and Eric must protect a dinosaur egg with a living embryo from some sort of "Evil Russian"-type character)
• Prehistoric World (don't remember if it had a "plot", but it mainly concerned extinct mammals of the Cenozoic; Eric and Gary visit the La Brea tar pits and meet Dougal Dixon)

Thanks! Zagalejo^^^ 07:02, 9 December 2007 (UTC)

They don't seem to have been marketed as a series, but they were produced by Midwich Entertainment, and if you search [19] this list for "Midwich" you will find a couple. SaundersW (talk) 14:00, 9 December 2007 (UTC)

Ah. Seems to be a few I never heard of. Thanks for looking into it! Zagalejo^^^ 22:11, 9 December 2007 (UTC)

What is the American equivalent of a British newspaper reader?

Following on from the place associations above...

What is the American (and indeed other nationalities') equivalent of the British stereotype embodied in the well-established phrases "a typical Guardian reader" (left-leaning, university educated) and "a typical Daily Mail reader" (right-wing, xenophobic, Little Englander)? Thanks. BrainyBabe (talk) 09:17, 9 December 2007 (UTC)

I would say "Liberal" and "Redneck" would be the comparable versions of those stereotypes. There are other versions - "NPR listner" and "Nascar Dad" would kinda fit too. But at least Daily Mail readers read...that's something you couldn't accuse that section of the US public of doing! SteveBaker (talk) 14:22, 9 December 2007 (UTC)

Perhaps a New York Times reader and a Rush Limbaugh listener? Note that there are big differences between the political views of the Guardian and the NYT, but I've heard the phrase "New York Times-reader" to refer to East Coast liberal intellectuals. -- Mwalcoff (talk) 18:10, 9 December 2007 (UTC)

Here are some of my own perhaps inaccurate perceptions of a couple of stereotype newspaper readers in the US (and I get these perceptions from having worked as a Reference Librarian at a busy urban Serials Desk for a number of years):

• People who subscribe to or read the "Wall Street Journal" are considered to be either very much into business, or are thought of as being politically moderate intellectuals.
• People who subscribe to or read the "New York Times" (especially people who do not live in New York) are considered to be liberal and highly enducated. Within New York City this distinction does not apply.
• People who subscribe to or read "The Washington Post" are considered to be very liberal, but perhaps not quite as sophisticated or intelligent as the New York Times readers.
• In Chicago (which is really two separate cities joined together) there are two major daily newspapers, each of which has its own very specific readership and stereotypical reader. The "Chicago Tribune" is more popular among readers on the city's North Side, and its readers are more middle class, traditionally conservative, and educated. The South Side paper is the "Chicago Sun Times", whose readership is more working class, traditionally liberal, and not-so-educated.

In the US there are also strong stereotypes that go along with news magazines such as the conservative "US News and World Report", or the liberal magazine "The Nation". -- Saukkomies 20:05, 9 December 2007 (UTC)

Wall Street Journal readers are politically moderate? The paper's editorial stance sure doesn't reflect that. Corvus cornix_talk 21:32, 9 December 2007 (UTC)

To be clear, neither Chicago paper is explicitly marketed as a "North Side" paper or a "South Side" paper; they both cover the entire city. I'm a North Sider, but I've always read the Sun-Times. Zagalejo^^^ 22:10, 9 December 2007 (UTC)

As I mentioned, my reviews of readership of various papers was my own perception, and was not meant to be stated as fact. However, one person's Moderate is another person's Liberal - or Conservative. These terms are quite ambiguous. As far as the Chicago Trib and the Sun Times, I lived for years both on the South Side and the North Side of Chicago. If you live on the North Side it would quite easy to be unaware that the Southsiders consider the Sun Times to be "their paper", and that the Trib is the Northsider's. Northsiders are for the most part pretty oblivious to many of the nuances of Southside culture... Just an observation... -- Saukkomies 22:50, 9 December 2007 (UTC)

Well, the South Siders may consider the Sun Times to be "their" paper, but I've never gotten the impression that it's specifically meant for them. The Sun-Times' North Side coverage tends to be comprehensive, and the letters to the editor come from all over the city. Zagalejo^^^ 04:07, 10 December 2007 (UTC)

Newspapers in the United States are kind of different from the ones in the UK -- they tend to be regional near-monopolies, and there really isn't a "national" newspaper (please no one bring up USA Today). So most people read the newspaper from their city, or from the nearest large city, rather than one that reflects their political biases. The New York Times and Wall Street Journal do have some national readers for political reasons, but it's a very limited effect -- really Journal readers are more likely to take it because of its financial coverage than its politics.

Most large cities also have one or two free weekly newspapers, supported entirely by advertising. These usually (but not always) lean a bit further left than the mainstream papers, but lots of people (like me) who tend not to agree with their politics still enjoy reading them for their information about cultural happenings and alternative film. --Trovatore (talk) 21:56, 9 December 2007 (UTC)

Trovatore is right. There is a limited national newspaper audience so comparisons are hard. But radio programs have wider reach. The Guardian reader transplanted to America would listen to NPR. While the expat Daily Mail reader would go with Rush Limbaugh. But what would the Tele subscriber listen to? lots of issues | leave me a message 23:28, 9 December 2007 (UTC) —Preceding unsigned comment added by Lotsofissues (talk • contribs)

Fascinating speculation. Thank you all very much. BrainyBabe (talk) 07:39, 11 December 2007 (UTC)

Wikipedians who are in school

For the hell of it I have been cruising around the user pages of those who edit here and have noticed that several wikipedians seem to be in school. Some make note of it on their user pages by leaving those little box things to broadcast the fact (couldn't find an example), some leave messages or template on thier names space to advise people of that fact (KiaraFan13 (talk · contribs) and MBK004 (talk · contribs), respectively), and some seem to have vanished to better deal with school (TomStar81 (talk · contribs)), and others seem to have left altogther because they couldn't handle the pressure (Omicronpersei8 (talk · contribs). Out of curisotiy, just how many wikipedians are in school, how many others have taken leave or quit do to school, and how many seem to have trouble dealing with both school and wikipedia? 75.39.197.219 (talk) 09:41, 9 December 2007 (UTC)

Wikipedia doesn't demand any information from editors - you can edit without logging in - and even if you do create an account, you don't have to provide any information whatever in order to do so. So we really don't know the age range of Wikipedians. You have to be careful about simply counting the number of users who self-identify as being in school because you're assuming that these people are as active as older Wikipedians - and that they spend as much time on productive editing as older people. To take your examples:

• KiaraFan13 has only made 79 edits in total - of which only 18 have been to actual articles - an amazing 121 edits by this user have been deleted!!
• MBK004 has clocked up around 6000 edits - but only 1000 of those were to articles - most of the rest was in talk pages and a negligable percentage which have been deleted.

Those are two very different editors! The first is new here - and evidently (from the number of deletions) having a hard time getting to grips with the way things work. The second appears to be a productive and active editor. Let's look at the two who dropped-out:

• TomStar81 has an amazing 14,000 edits more than half of which were to articles and WP pages.
• Omicronpersei8 clocked up an incredible 51,000 edits in about ONE YEAR, that's 140 edits per DAY! More amazingly still, this was not mere chit-chat. 31,000 of those edits (close to 100 edits per day!) were in articles.

They were both incredibly active. Sometimes, that level of activity borders on unhealthy obsession. Certainly, it's hard to imagine these people getting much else done. It's not surprising that sooner or later real-life kicks in and these very active people realise that there are other things in life and take a Wikibreak.

I now have 10,000 edits (which puts me into the top 2000 Wiki contributors...by this rather dubious measure) - but I've been here for three years - making for a much more healthy 10 edits per day average. —Preceding unsigned comment added by SteveBaker (talk • contribs) 14:16, 9 December 2007 (UTC)

So the unanswered question is now how many of these users have trouble dealing with wikipedia and school. I think the number is split about evenly, I have seen a number of users that ID as being in school but do not seem to leave for any length of time because of it, and the opposite extreme where people leave becuase the wiki consumes them. In an case, thank you for the answer. 129.108.227.171 (talk) 06:00, 11 December 2007 (UTC)

boxing

how much did tickets for the mayfield vs. hatton fight at the mgm sell for? RobertsZ (talk) 11:24, 9 December 2007 (UTC)

I found a press release saying the mayweather-hatton tickets were just under $1,000 for the "cheap" seats and $42,000 for ringside. Dave6 ^talk 08:23, 10 December 2007 (UTC)

Organization

When I was very young growing up in the Polish neighborhood around St. Casimir Catholic Church, I was a member of the Parziki.(hnot sure about the spelling) The uniform consisted of a page boy type outfit. I'm looking for information on what the Parziki was all about. Also there was a similar group of girls but don't know what the name was that they used. Any information would be appreciated. Thank you, Jim Skrocki —Preceding unsigned comment added by 66.61.50.213 (talk) 15:00, 9 December 2007 (UTC)

Perhaps Związek Harcerstwa Polskiego— Polish Scouting Association? Not sure where you are located, but there is a parallel organization in the U.S.—see the links at the bottom of the article. --— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk - 15:24, 9 December 2007 (UTC)

Doesn't sound like the ZHP, the scouting uniform looks different. I did a little bit of quick Googling but can't find anything related to the information you provided, sorry. 'd be happy to help in case you can add something new. Cheers, Ouro (blah blah) 18:45, 9 December 2007 (UTC)

Scouting in Poland has a list of a dozen other scouting-like organisations. Maybe one of those rings a bell? SteveBaker (talk) 23:08, 9 December 2007 (UTC)

recycling of solid waste in India

In recycling we generally see four bins for different type of waste for sorting of waste.What are these colours of bins/boxes and in which type of colour which type of solid is put in? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 61.2.93.140 (talk) 17:51, 9 December 2007 (UTC)

Can anybody read shorthand?

I posted this at the Language desk a week or so ago and nobody could read it. I thought I would try here, just to get a slightly different audience. Thanks.

I was doing some work in an archive today and among a bunch of regular writing I found this:

shorthand?

shorthand?

The author was an early/mid 20th-century American scientist—I am pretty sure it is shorthand? But I wasn't able to really figure out what the heck it meant, and I've never really done anything with shorthand before. Note that this is my re-copying of the original (as best I could!) so there might be little errors in it that are imperceptible to me, but it should be largely correct. No, I don't have the original scanned, but this is pretty much what it looked like.

I don't have much in way of context. It was in a list of responses from other scientists to a report. For this one it was just "<name> -- Re: Section IX: <shorthand>". I have no idea what it would likely be saying or even what it would be really referring to (I'm not sure which report it is talking about).

If anyone had any suggestions as to what it might say, I'd be very interested. I'm intrigued that it's the only thing in these archival papers that was written like this (everything else is just in English) and I'm pretty curious as to what it says. Thanks a ton. --Panoptik (talk) 18:33, 9 December 2007 (UTC)

That is definitely shorthand. My mother is "fluent" in it, and I'm about to leave for her house, so I'll let you know in a few hours (if no one else gets to it first). :) --Masamage ♫ 20:55, 9 December 2007 (UTC)

It is often difficult to read other people's shorthand, but I'd love to know. Hopefully Masamage's mother can work it. Steewi (talk) 03:26, 10 December 2007 (UTC)

Okay, we've been poking at it for a while, and so far our best rough draft looks like "this save for (???) doctors/doors be for another(?) r-oo-g-t-s". Not too amazing; the difficulty is exactly what Stewi points out. "R oo g t s" really has us confused; is there a name that might be imitating? And what general field of science are these reports about?

Since you recopied it, could you maybe clarify a couple things from the original draft? For instance, when you wrote symbol 3, did you start from the top or the bottom? It makes a difference between 'th' and 'f'. Also, after the symbol with the long line and the loop (and the curve hovering over it), there's a very small line. Is that really a line, or is it a dot? And is that the correct angle? And how accurate is that hovering curve? Then, in the second-to-last symbol (the one that looks like 'or' in cursive), is the line coming from the top of the loop really curved, or is it straight? Finally, did you add the quotes around the thing, or are they present in the original?

Sorry for the deluge of questions. We'll look at it again tomorrow. :) --Masamage ♫ 07:39, 10 December 2007 (UTC)

A thought. If the quote marks are in the original, and it's in a list of responses from other scientists, might the scientist whose archive you're looking through have copied this from something someone else wrote, thus adding an extra layer of potential error? In which case, you'd have to get creative in interpreting it. Skittle (talk) 07:45, 10 December 2007 (UTC)

Getting a photograph of the original would probably help the translators - shorthand is a very subtle thing - tiny variations can make a lot of difference. SteveBaker (talk) 12:18, 10 December 2007 (UTC)

Well, that's a great start! "This save for" sounds very plausible as a response to a section in a report. Doctors/doors sounds a little odd and out of place. I'll think about what that might be. Could "be for" be "before"? As to your questions:

1. It's entirely possible the last part might be a name. Any possibility of it spelling GROVES? Just a thought. As for the general field of science, the report is in reference to early nuclear weapons policy. He's a physicist but in this capacity he's acting as an administrator.
2. Symbol 3: I really can't recall. It's probably a 50/50 toss up how I did it. You're probably better off assuming that it could go either way.
3. Long-line and loop: it looked pretty much like that. I'd assume it was a line though again since he was just writing this for himself and probably quickly so it might be a dot that he just let get too long or something.
4. I think the "or" looking thing was curved at the end. Note that the last symbol might have been a little less angular (I had trouble getting its shape exact, I think it might have been a bit more curved).
5. Quote marks were in the original.

Hope that might clarify a little bit? Anyway thank you and thank your mother for this, any effort at all is GREATLY appreciated and don't feel put out if my transcription of another guy's shorthand is illegible -- the odds are stacked against you, any meaning you can get from it at all is massively impressive! --Panoptik (talk) 15:08, 10 December 2007 (UTC)

Sorry for the long delay in acknowledging this; the internet connection has been funky-tastic today. Mom's gone to bed, but I'll leave this window open tonight so that we can look at it more in the morning regardless of what the network's up to. It's been fun; she got out her old textbook and we've been digging around. And thanks for the extra info! That should help a lot. :) --Masamage ♫ 06:33, 11 December 2007 (UTC)

December 10

Amp question.

With an amp like a Line 6 amp, would different guitars sound different? My only experience with a Line 6 with test-driving my first electric (boy, that was a fun test drive! Three words: Distortion and tremolo!), and I'm just wondering, would different guitars sound different? MalwareSmarts (talk) 00:26, 10 December 2007 (UTC)

yes. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 128.101.53.177 (talk) 05:43, 10 December 2007 (UTC)

Help

Hi dose any body know 2 video games that was made from 1990-2005 1 is know or knot 2. talisman or talismans these games are fun —Preceding unsigned comment added by Wonderingaly (talk • contribs) 01:16, 10 December 2007 (UTC)

Your going to need to learn how to write legible English before we can answer your question. Esskater11 01:34, 10 December 2007 (UTC)

That should be "You're going to need..." 64.236.80.62 (talk) 16:24, 10 December 2007 (UTC)

Esskater, please don't be rude to people.

Wonderingaly, could you clarify your question a little? Do I understand that you are looking for one game made at some point between 1990 and 2005 that was called Know or was called Knot, and another game that was called Talisman or was called Talismans? Could you provide a little more detail about what you remember of these games? That would make it much easier. What machine did you play them on? What sort of games were they? Anything else? 79.77.13.195 (talk) 04:30, 10 December 2007 (UTC)

1990 to 2005 is a fairly long time in the history of video games. Can you narrow it down a little? Can you describe the gameplay at all? FiggyBee (talk) 06:18, 10 December 2007 (UTC)

Talisman (video game) says there is a downloadable game that will be released soon and there was a game called Talisman for the ZX Spectrum released in 1985. No information so far on "Now or Not", "Know or Knot" or "Know or not". SaundersW (talk) 09:29, 10 December 2007 (UTC)

Re-attachment of genitals

After being exposed to an unpleasant video clip of the "BME Pain Olympics", where the user ties up his genitals and voluntarily cuts it off, aside from a sensation of nausea, I became curious. Should one's testicles and penis be cut off, would it be possible surgically re-attach them (at a hospital of course)? If so, to what degree of success would the result take? As well, would there be a lot of blood loss? Please note the video is completely not-work safe and I recommend not even watching it. Acceptable (talk) 03:00, 10 December 2007 (UTC)

It has happened before. Lorena Bobbitt became famous for severing her husband's penis. It was reattached successfully (so I'm told). There are a lot of blood vessels in the human penis, so there would be quite a lot of blood loss, and would require a very careful and long amount of surgery. I don't know how useful it would be, afterwards, for all purposes, but it would at least function for urination. A man can still urinate after such an accident, I think, although he would not be able to do so standing. Another famous case was William Minor, a major contributor to the first edition of the Oxford English Dictionary, and long-term patient in a mental institution. Steewi (talk) 03:31, 10 December 2007 (UTC)

It seems there is an article - penis removal. Ouch! Please don't experiment. Steewi (talk) 03:32, 10 December 2007 (UTC)

I hate you becuase now i must watch that video out of courioisty. Esskater11 03:35, 10 December 2007 (UTC)

Steewi, it was useful enough for John Wayne Bobbitt to become a porn star afterwards! Adam Bishop (talk) 08:14, 10 December 2007 (UTC)

Bobbit is a family name that Charles Dickens might have chosen for a character with a similar challenge. Edison (talk) 03:17, 11 December 2007 (UTC)

futures

how to address a group of professional employees on the subject "How studying about futures helps us in coping the world today?" —Preceding unsigned comment added by 202.88.234.42 (talk) 07:53, 10 December 2007 (UTC)

I think more context is needed before any meaningful response can be given. Which profession are the audience in ? Which country are you in ? Which "futures" are you studying - do you mean social futures, economic futures, scientific futures, or something else ? There is a financial instrument called a futures contract - is this what you are studying ?? Gandalf61 (talk) 11:08, 10 December 2007 (UTC)

Identifying an alcoholic beverage

File:Hromcikova horka11.jpg

I would appreciate your assistance in identifying this alcoholic beverage purchased in Brno yesterday and given to me as a present. Is this a traditional Xmas drink? I was told that it is sold to be drank worm on the street.--Golf Bravo (talk) 12:10, 10 December 2007 (UTC)

As+,

A spot of Googling indicates that this is a Czech beer with a taste of marzipan and almonds. If you happen to like beer, you better stick to Duff´s. Doh, --Cookatoo.ergo.ZooM (talk) 13:43, 10 December 2007 (UTC)

What is "As+"?--Golf Bravo (talk) 15:25, 10 December 2007 (UTC)

BTW, this beverage is not a beer! Although it is manufactured by a brewery.--Golf Bravo (talk) 19:15, 10 December 2007 (UTC)

It is a metheglin. DuncanHill (talk) 19:19, 10 December 2007 (UTC)

Drank worm on the street. Maybe this beverage is a part of the Diet of Worms. :) (Sorry, this was unavoidable.) -- JackofOz (talk) 22:49, 10 December 2007 (UTC)

Thank you. Medovina is a mead.--Golf Bravo (talk) 09:40, 11 December 2007 (UTC)

District Directors of the Immigration & Naturalization Service (now defunct)

The Immigration & Naturalization Service (INS) was folded into the Dept. of Homeland Security (DHS). I'd like to know how many of the District Directors (DDs) active pre-DHS (say, in 2000)had been in the Border Patrol I don't need names. A simple statement telling me that of the 35 or 36 there were X with Border Patrol experience.Adegorf (talk) 14:11, 10 December 2007 (UTC)Adegorf

XM Fund

Hi,

My dream job would be to be a hedge fund manager. I have been able to consistantly outpreform the S&P 500, and have just recently gained investment selection control for a small partnership--I'm already beating the S&P 500 by a about 7-10% so far. I would like to know how I can use this record and perhaps gain a position as hedge fund manager (or to gain angel investors) without having any formal education in the area (I'm an automath with regard to investing) XM (talk) 17:24, 10 December 2007 (UTC)

It's hard to get a finance job without a diploma in the field. Demonstrated success in this area, at least, enough success to get someone to hire you, would probably make it a moot point -- you'd have to score a lot of money without minimal losses, at which point you'd probably just want to keep rolling in the cheese until you could retire without needing a job. Your best bet would probably be to try and get at least an MBA and then use your record as resume. That said, call some hedge funds, talk to their human resource managers, and see what they think; their ideas of what would impress them are vastly more important than ours :) Good luck! Faithfully, Deltopia (talk) 18:20, 10 December 2007 (UTC)

Truck engine / radio interference

I have a portable XM satellite radio receiver that I can move between my two vehicles, as well as use in a small "boombox" unit in the house. Both vehicles have the same mounting unit / adapter which has a connector for the antenna, a 12VDC power source that goes into the cigarette lighter, and a minijack output. In my car, I connect a cassette adapter to the output and insert the cassette into the car's stereo and everything is OK. The stereo in my pickup truck has an input jack on the face, so I just have short mini-to-mini cable connecting the XM unit. In the truck, there is contantly a whiny/buzzy sound, which gets higher in frequency as the RPMs of the engine increase. Is there something I can plug in somewhere amongst all the connections to make the noise go away? NB: I can't switch to the cassette adapter, because the truck's in-dash unit has no tape capability. --LarryMac | Talk 20:43, 10 December 2007 (UTC)

There are two possibilities:

1. That the 12 volt supply from the accessory socket in your truck is producing a 'noisy' output (very common) and the XM radio has poor power filtering (which would be most reprehensible in something intended to be mounted in a car). If you can run the XM radio from an internal battery and disconnect the 12v input, then if the noise goes away when you do that, then this is likely to be the reason. If that is so, then you need some filtering on the aux input. I believe you can get a gizmo to do this in your local car parts store...if you are somewhat handy with electronics then sticking an appropriate capacitor across the 12volt outlet ought to fix it.
2. It might be that the wire from the XM radio into the trucks input jack is picking up noise from the engine's electrical system. In this case, you probably need better shielding on the wire - you could try (just to see) wrapping some kitchen foil around the wires and perhaps touching a corner of the foil to a bare metal part on the truck body (an exposed screw head or something). It's also possible that the ground wire in your cable is broken or making poor contact so that the only ground connection between the XM radio and the truck's sound system is going the long way around through the 12volt outlet, through the body of the truck and thence to the truck's audio system. Doing the 'running the XM radio from a battery' test would make the radio signal disappear entirely if the wire were broken. Either way, buy another cable - ideally, one with a coaxial cable so that the grounded shielding can better shield the audio signal.

SteveBaker (talk) 22:18, 10 December 2007 (UTC)

All good advice, except an RF choke in the 12V is usual instead of a capacitor at the socket, I'd say. You can get noise filter kits at any auto parts store, but don't be too disappointed if you never solve the problem 100%. Some vehicles are just very noisy that way. Some people even go so far as to replace their spark plug wires with ones designed to suppress RF interference. --Milkbreath (talk) 22:39, 10 December 2007 (UTC)

I wondered about that - but this is a digital satellite box - I don't think it's prone to RF interference. I suspect it's more likely to be audio-frequency interference - and for that, a capacitor might be a better choice. I agree that it may be tough to get a 100% fix though. But I bet you can get it "good enough" with some simple tricks. You'd learn a lot about the problem by running the XM radio on batteries. SteveBaker (talk) 00:47, 11 December 2007 (UTC)

Right. If the noise is there on batteries, it's RF. The RF is heard as an audio fequency because it's coming from a device (almost certainly the ignition system) that is sending out bursts of RF at an audio rate which are more or less accidentally detected and rectified amplified in the victim device. --Milkbreath (talk) 01:55, 11 December 2007 (UTC)

Thanks, guys, I'll try to throw together some kind of battery pack together as soon as I can. Work is insane this week. --LarryMac | Talk 20:02, 11 December 2007 (UTC)

Wikipedia caught in Iceland White House Scandal

Just heard on FOX News, CNN that some Iceland national got hold of the SECRET phone No.# to the White House, and Google and Wikipedia is involved. Can this be placed in appropriate articles ? This scandal JUST HAPPENED. 65.163.115.114 (talk) 22:48, 10 December 2007 (UTC)

We alredy have material on this here. DuncanHill (talk) 22:50, 10 December 2007 (UTC)

This really doesn't need to be 'placed in appropriate articles' - it's a news story - it's not material for an encyclopedia. Even though it talks about Wikipedia itself, that doesn't give it any special notability - read WP:ASR. SteveBaker (talk) 02:55, 11 December 2007 (UTC)

It's not much of a story - it looks like the kid used Wikipedia to get some biographical information on the current President of Iceland. So what? -- Arwel (talk) 07:51, 11 December 2007 (UTC)

This anon is totally obsessed with following "breaking news" that JUST HAPPENED on Fox, no matter how insignificant. He writes like this frequently. He's annoying but harmless, don't worry about it. Adam Bishop (talk) 17:03, 11 December 2007 (UTC)

Ice Storm nails Oklahoma, other states

Can any of this be placed in appropriate articles ? Seen this on The Weather Channel, FOX News, CNN, some of the local channels. The event is still going on. 65.163.115.114 (talk) 23:30, 10 December 2007 (UTC)

Has anyone pointed you to WikiNews before? While run-of-the-mill weather isn't really encyclopedic, it is news-worthy, and writing about it would be most suitable there. I've noticed that this distinction is often appropriate for the current events you see on CNN, etc. — Lomn 13:37, 11 December 2007 (UTC)

Did you even read the answers to your previous question? The answer is the same. Wikipedia is an encyclopedia - it is not a newspaper. They are not at all the same kind of beast! If we wrote articles about every storm going on everywhere in the world, we'd be adding about 10,000 articles a day just about the weather in various parts of the world! There is no point in looking at the News every day on TV and wondering why every single news story isn't in Wikipedia. Granted some very major events may warrant an article. Hurricanes that hit landfall in inhabited areas are generally going to get an article - and sometimes, the story is written as events unfold - but that's not typically the case. Articles about newsworthy subjects are quite commonly still being researched and written about years after they happened. One article I contribute to (Alexander Litvinenko poisoning) wasn't started until a month after the event happened and is still being edited fairly frequently an entire year later. If these ice storms turn into something very major with hundreds of deaths or major cities being crushed under the weight of ice - then maybe we should consider writing about it - but there is no hurry...quite the opposite in fact. With a space of time between the event and the writing, we can take a more dispassionate view of the events - look at all of the analysis people did as to the causes - treat it as a piece of history - not as something that is uniquely important to us right here and now. An encyclopedia is there for people who want to know about this event in a year, ten years or a hundred years from now. People who want to know whether it's OK to drive to their parents house in Oklahoma tomorrow shouldn't be trying to do that using an encyclopedia for chrissakes - it's about as relevent as trying to find a recipe for chocolate chip cookies by looking up "cookie" in a dictionary! So, please - stop posting these kinds of question every time you see something interesting in the news! SteveBaker (talk) 16:48, 11 December 2007 (UTC)

Cunnilingus and Fingering

Whenever I perform oral sex and/or finger my girlfriend, she stops me before she achieves an orgasm, saying that she has an intense feeling to urinate. This is particularly true when I stimulate her g-spot. She is afraid she is going to urinate on me, but as far as I can tell that sensation is normal, and is often supposed to happen. But if we continue would it result in her urinating on me? Or is perhaps the sensation due to ejaculatory fluids about to come out of the urethra? I don't know too much about all of this stuff, and I'm not particularly excited about doing a field test if she will end up peeing on me. Thanks for the help. --71.98.23.145 (talk) 23:27, 10 December 2007 (UTC)

It sounds like she could be afraid of having a female ejaculation. Rockpocket 00:46, 11 December 2007 (UTC)

Well she's never had an orgasm before, and doesn't know what it feels like. She tells me she thinks she's going to pee all over me. Will she, or is it most likely female ejaculation? --71.98.23.145 (talk) 01:08, 11 December 2007 (UTC)

You do know that urine is normally sterile, right? In any case, the pressure on the bladder may be coming from a different direction, as Rockpocket correctly states. Dan Savage has covered this topic [[20], as have numerous other sex writers. Any good sex manual will describe and explain the phenomenon. (I suppose that is an example of the no true Scotsman fallacy.) BrainyBabe (talk) 07:26, 11 December 2007 (UTC)

Perhaps the best way to solve this would be to encourage your girlfriend to ensure she empties her bladder (in the traditional way) before you begin your sexual activity. Then give it a go and see what happens. Ultimately, no-one can tell you what will happen for sure, if it is a concern for you both you could always discuss it with your doctor. Rockpocket 19:38, 11 December 2007 (UTC)

Thanks for the link BrainyBabe, but I couldn't find which article you were talking about. I enjoyed reading Savage Love anyways (I usually get my fill from The Onion). And Rockpocket, I suppose that is what we are going to try, thanks for the advice. But lol don't worry, this isn't medical advice and we'll go to the doctor if we have any concerns. I suppose my main question was answered though: that it's normal for a woman to feel like she is going to urinate when the g-spot is stimulated. --71.117.35.87 (talk) 21:22, 11 December 2007 (UTC)

Odd characters

How on earth do I type a lowercase "s" with a dot over it? I don't have one in my special characters, and I can't figure out how to do it in unicode. 138.192.86.254 (talk) 23:31, 10 December 2007 (UTC)

Is there such a character? What's it used for? In what language? SteveBaker (talk) 00:43, 11 December 2007 (UTC)

Perhaps the page Wikipedia:Naming conventions (Unicode) (draft) could help? I don't know a lot about unicode, but that page displays a large number of odd characters that I am able to simply copy and paste elsewhere. The S and s letters with dots over (and under, and both as well!) are shown in the section "Latin extended additional", and perhaps elsewhere too. Let's see if it works here: Ṡ and ṡ -- yes, no? Looks right to me. That's using Template:Unicode, in case it isn't obvious. Pfly (talk) 01:02, 11 December 2007 (UTC)

P.S., the Dot (diacritic) page might be useful too. The Diacritic page contains links to lots of similar pages. Unicode Phonetic Symbols might be a useful jumping off point too. Pfly (talk) 01:06, 11 December 2007 (UTC)

If it is for typing a particular language rather than say, for maths, and if you are using Windows XP (lots of ifs...) then you can set up your keyboard using control panel, regional and language options, language tab, details, add (pick the language you want) and setting up the language bar on your dek top. That way you can switch into the mode that has the s-dot when you need it. This page [21] will then help you to find where the appropriate key is lurking! (well, I looked to see what language it could be, and couldn't identify it from the keyboard, so I checked here Alphabets derived from the Latin and couldn't find it either, so scrub all the above. I've left the post though because it might be interesting to somebody else!) SaundersW (talk) 11:20, 11 December 2007 (UTC)

The language is Sioux, the word is "Tiyospaye" as used in Deloria's book "Waterlily." Thank you all for your help. 138.192.86.254 (talk) 17:32, 11 December 2007 (UTC)

master bateman

2 questions:

• Too much masturbation=bad side effects?
• Circumsised= less pleasure? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.23.77.208 (talk) 23:51, 10 December 2007 (UTC)

For your first question, it depends how much. Masturbating will not harm you in any way, unless you're doing it too rough and injure yourself. Myths used to suppose that masturbating too much would cause blindness, acne, or baldness, but these have been proven false. In short, you can masturbate as often as you like, and if you're gentle enough there will be no negative physical side effects.

For your second question, different people say different things. Some males who were circumsized in adulthood claim that it feels less pleasurable to have sex, others claim it has had no effect at all. If it does make a difference, it would be negligible--that area is so packed with nerves it's going to be very sensitive and feel very pleasurable no matter what. Basically, it's very subjective and we can't give you a definite answer. --71.98.23.145 (talk) 00:07, 11 December 2007 (UTC)

I'd say there's a decent chance of condoms giving you a problem if you're uncircumcised, though. The extra layer might prevent the foreskin from pulling back fully. 138.192.86.254 (talk) 00:17, 11 December 2007 (UTC)

We evolved that little fold of skin for a reason. Chopping it off is mutilation and I predict that one day, it'll be regarded in the same way as female genital mutilation. SteveBaker (talk) 00:42, 11 December 2007 (UTC)

It is already so regarded by many people, and has been for a long time. -- JackofOz (talk) 00:44, 11 December 2007 (UTC)

Thanks Guys:

So you won't lose the ability to feel sexual sensation or anything? Like, its not necessarily supposed to tingle with excitement every time its touched by the self, right?

And let's say you, to put this lightly, dry hump once a day and use your hand once a day as well. All of this won't damage or kill the nerves?

I'd say this information all wasn't for me, but, to be frank, you can't see me, so... :) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.23.77.208 (talk) 00:51, 11 December 2007 (UTC)

Actually it's been shown that, in moderation, male masturbation is physically beneficial for you (beyond the obvious pleasure benefits). Men who go for long periods in their life without ejaculating are more prone to prostate problems, including prostate cancer. As regards the circumcision question, well, "less pleasure" is subjective as it's arguable that not all the pleasure of sex is physical. Less sensitive would be more correct. But yes, in the majority of cases there is some degree of loss of sensitivity of the glans in circumcised men. This is primarily due to 2 reasons. The first one being that the constant rubbing of the glans against underwear over a period of time will ultimately reduce the sensitivity of the nerve endings. The other consideration is that the glans is not skin per se, it's a membrane that should be kept moist. This is the purpose of the foreskin, so when the foreskin is removed then so is its natural moisturising function. This results in the glans drying out to various degrees, this in turn also affects the nerve endings. There is also a combination answer to the combining of your questions. Masturbation of a circumcised penis and an uncircumcised one has to involve different techniques whereby the skin on the shaft of the penis has to take the place as a stand-in foreskin. Over-energetic, errr, errr, "downstrokes" can actually result in splitting the frenulum and/or the skin on the dorsal side of the penis where the shaft meets the glans (where there will be scar tissue from the circumcision op). --WebHamster 04:33, 11 December 2007 (UTC)

Masturbation is in itself perfectly harmless, of course, but it is worth noting that any activity carried out to excess (i.e. to the exclusion of normal life) can have negative side effects. Drinking water is a good thing, for example, but it is possible to die from drinking way way way too much water (as Leah Betts is believed to have done, in a misguided attempt to protect herself from the effects of ecstasy). Likewise with masturbation. Sean Thomas wrote a book called Millions of Women Are Waiting to Meet You, a memoir of internet dating (ISBN 978-0306815485), in which he confesses to having masturbated himself into hospital: he was spending so much time with online porn that he forgot to sleep, and got run-down, and caught a (non-sexual) infection, and ended up as an in-patient. I suppose it is all a question of the wank/life balance.

I read of a study that attempted to answer the subjective question of pleasure and circumcision. In the 1990s many Russian Jews immigrated to Israel; many men decided to have circumcisions as adults, not having been circumcised as infants. The researchers leapt upon this cohort, as you can imagine. And the results? When the men were asked to report their sexual pleasure several months after the operation, a third said it was better, a third said it was worse, and a third said there was no difference.

By the way, the general question about masturbation and self-harm goes equally for girls and women as it does for boys and men: perfectly harmless, and may indeed confer health benefits. BrainyBabe (talk) 07:18, 11 December 2007 (UTC)

December 11

XXX

May I ask why, Pornography is sometimes abbreviated with these letters. It doesn't make sense to me. Esskater11 04:16, 11 December 2007 (UTC)

X-rated#United States. "Some even started using multiple X's (i.e. XX, XXX, etc.) to give the impression that their film contained more graphic sexual content than the simple X-rating." FiggyBee (talk) 05:49, 11 December 2007 (UTC)

Note that XXX, centred at the bottom of the page, also used to be used to indicate the end of a (typewritten) article draft submitted by a reporter, in the days of a press card in the old fedora hat. This then became, in a twist of humour, --30--. BrainyBabe (talk) 06:57, 11 December 2007 (UTC)

In the old cinema classification system used in the UK, prior to ?1975, the X-rated films were those that were prohibited for viewers under 18 years of age. They invariably contained scenes of a strong sexual nature or extreme violence. The multiplication of the X to XXX is perhaps the result of modern inflation. Richard Avery (talk) 08:56, 11 December 2007 (UTC)

According to History of British film certificates the X-certificate lasted till 1982, and before 1970 meant the film was restricted to over-16s. I don't think it's true to say that X-films contained 'invariably contained scenes of a strong sexual nature or extreme violence' - they were just those considered 'unsuitable for children'. For example, several of my contemporaries managed to see The Graduate when they were 15. AndrewWTaylor (talk) 09:19, 11 December 2007 (UTC)

According to the OED, X, XX, and XXX have been used to designate increasingly potent varieties of alcoholic drinks since at least 1827. Pfly (talk) 09:42, 11 December 2007 (UTC)

And according to popular legend, the Queensland beer XXXX (or Four-X) is so called because they can't spell "beer". :) -- JackofOz (talk) 11:23, 11 December 2007 (UTC)

I think that both FiggyBee and Pfly are correct. Partly the XXX is due to the use of the X rating in the U.S., and partly it is due to the use of XXX in the distilling of spirits. The reason that XXX came to be used by distillers was primarily due to the making of Moonshine, which is whiskey (or other alcoholic spirits) made without a government license. The best Moonshine was run through a distillation process more than once - three times being considered very good quality. Each time a batch of Moonshine was distilled, the Moonshiners would place an X on the jars containing that batch. So three Xs on the outside of a jar of Moonshine would indicate that it had been distilled three times. This became integrated into popular American culture so that three Xs would be synonymous with Moonshine, which is of course illegal. So, by taking the X movie rating and turning it into a triple X, the porn industry was making a tongue-in-cheek joke about their film - that it was borderline illegal, and that it was very potent stuff. -- Saukkomies 07:54, 11 December, 2007. (UTC)

Do some female bodybuilders have YouTube accounts?

I'm just wondering...do some female bodybuilders have YouTube accounts? And if there are, list me some of them. Not trying to be weird. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Sirdrink13309622 (talk • contribs) 05:39, 11 December 2007 (UTC)

You've failed at trying not to be weird, though. However, I have taken the liberty of Googling a bit, you can start here. --Ouro (blah blah) 18:45, 11 December 2007 (UTC)

Was there anything hard about typing "Female bodybuilder" into Youtube? [22] SaundersW (talk) 20:51, 11 December 2007 (UTC)

Video Game Death

I was recently playing Halo 3 online deathmatch over X-Box live with a buddy and as he kept dying he started getting extremely frustrated and began adamantly claiming that it was completely random whether he died or the other guy did in close fights. It seems to me that whatever game mechanism decides who "wins" in a given situation would at least be internally consistent, and knowing that we have at least one resident video game programmer I was hoping someone could shed some light on whether or not this is true. So, all things being equal, is it as random as he seems to think, or are his lack of skills to blame? Azi Like a Fox (talk) 06:40, 11 December 2007 (UTC)

Well, random chance is internally consistent. But I would imagine that the battles in Halo go like this. Each part of the body has a max potential damage rating, e.g. with guns that shoot bullets only the head has the max potential damage of death. You factor that in with the max damage of the gun, you will get a value that max damage the gun can cause with one shot. As to his claim that "it was completely random whether he died or the other guy did in close fights", in a small number of trials you will not be able to determine whether this is true or not. But as the number of games goes up (and as the outcomes remain the same), it becomes increasingly unlikely that random chance is involved. He is most likely right that there's an element of chance, but it is no more justified to claim that poker is random chance as it is Halo 3 battles. In each situation, there are probabilities at play, but you can also change the probabilities with skill.--droptone (talk) 12:32, 11 December 2007 (UTC)

(Yeah - I'm the resident ref-desk game programmer) I can't claim to know how Halo is programmed and I don't work for Bungee/Microsoft (and if I did, I probably wouldn't be allowed to talk about it) - but on general principles, you don't introduce randomness into something that's human-skill based. You add randomness to introduce variety into an otherwise 'canned' situation, the AI opponents don't always hit when they shoot - so randomness is probably added for them. But there is simply no need to do that when humans are in there aiming and mashing buttons. There is always some 'randomness' introduced by the network 'ping time' of your computer/console and (if you were playing on a PC), your computer's frame rate. If your communication back to the Halo server is slow then the rate and the precision at which your button presses reach the server may be poorer than the person you are playing against. Networking software is really unable to do much about that.

But "he kept dying" is not an indication that any of these things are the case. Perhaps the other player is simply better at aiming than he is? Perhaps your opponent is better at aiming at moving targets? Maybe your friend isn't doing a good job of making use of cover and dodging when necessary? If it was completely random, he would die roughly half the time - but then if he was playing against an evenly matched opponent, he'd die half the time too. How could he possibly tell which it was? If he's dying MORE than half the time then it's really unlikely that it's random because if it was, it would be random for both players and he'd still have a 50/50 chance. So if he's dying MORE than half the time then for sure he's a less good player than his opponent. If we need to sooth his ego, then we could suggest that perhaps his opponents are getting better ping times. I don't know about Halo - but games like Doom and Quake always let you know what your ping time was to each of the available servers - and you'd be well-advised to pick the server with the shortest ping time. If Halo doesn't let you choose - then it's probably picking the best one for you automatically.

SteveBaker (talk) 13:05, 11 December 2007 (UTC)

"but on general principles, you don't introduce randomness into something that's human-skill based", Steve? Of course you do - at least as far as first person shooters are concerned. Most games will have some sort of randomised inaccuracy built into each weapon - learning how to use each weapon in the most efficent way is part of the skillset that players need. So yes, all other things (the weapons used, the skill and reactions of the players, the evenhandedness of the situation, ping times) being equal, and unless both players in a firefight can kill each other at the same time (which can happen in some games but not others, depending on how the bullet flight is modelled) it is going to be random who wins - how else could it be? FiggyBee (talk) 16:11, 11 December 2007 (UTC)

Yeah - actually, you're probably right about weapon inaccuracy. (I should explain that I'm a graphics guy - shooting and multiplayer stuff isn't my speciality). I guess what I really meant was that you don't introduce randomness unnecessarily and arbitarily in the sense that the OP's friend seems to imagine. Simulating a real weapon does indeed require a bit of randomness - but it's not like the game flips a coin to decide who lives and who dies. But in the end, even if there was no randomness in the game at all - it would still SEEM random because of variance of ping times - and because (as you say) someone has to win - even in a closely matched game - because humans are human and our performance is never 100% consistent. SteveBaker (talk) 16:27, 11 December 2007 (UTC)

This necessary low-level randomness, though, should not be construed as saying that Azi's friend is right in that high-level Halo conflicts are determined randomly. From the player level, skill is absolutely a major factor, drastically overriding the game's randomness. As Droptone noted above, both weapon type and hit location are used by Halo to factor damage. For the specific case, Halo's melee combat is particularly effective if you hit someone in the head -- I've got a friend who's quite good at this, so I just don't get into close combat with him any more. This may be part of what Azi's friend is running into. — Lomn 16:38, 11 December 2007 (UTC)

"Seventeen" and Iraq war?

Does the number 17 have any particular significance to the Iraq war prior to November 8 2006 (which was before the Blackwater shooting)? NeonMerlin 06:52, 11 December 2007 (UTC)

What are you talking about? If it's some sort of numerological question, know that you can find "significance" in any number if you start searching for coincidences left and right. --24.147.86.187 (talk) 15:28, 11 December 2007 (UTC)

I have no clue what you're driving at, but try 17. --Milkbreath (talk) 16:42, 11 December 2007 (UTC)

The Doors

A non English friend asked my what the doors were singing about when they mention :...wallow in the myre... Now I was sutably embarresed that I could not answer this and so have been doing a little research. Dictionary.com describes Myre as a small insect. I doubt the doors did much wallowing in small hard working insects. So what is a Myre(spelling might be a bit off)Thanks —Preceding unsigned comment added by 12.191.136.2 (talk) 13:40, 11 December 2007 (UTC)

"Mire" is another word for mud (eg "mired boots" = "muddy boots"). A Mire, like "Grimpen Mire" in "The Hound of the Baskervilles" is a marsh or bog (on Dartmoor). Wallowing in mud is a pastime recommended by Flanders and Swan SaundersW (talk) 13:46, 11 December 2007 (UTC)

. . but only if you're a hippopotamus. All together - "Follow me, Follow..... Richard Avery (talk) 16:25, 11 December 2007 (UTC)

Aw, Richard, why can only the hippopotamus enjoy that? SaundersW (talk) 17:16, 11 December 2007 (UTC)

This topic refers to The Doors, by the way. Edison (talk) 17:22, 11 December 2007 (UTC)

Sizes of Wiktionary and Wikipedia in different languages

I am somewhat struck by how much bigger the English Wikipedia is than the other language Wikipedias (which I would expect), while the French Wiktionary (French Wikipedia is 3rd largest) is larger than English Wiktionary. Also, German Wikipedia is 2nd largest, but German Wiktionary is much smaller than the others. Is there a good reason for this?--Filll (talk) 14:34, 11 December 2007 (UTC)

Doing a bit more investigation myself, I see some information on Wiktionary. English and French have traded the lead over time. A lot of the entries on both the English and French versions come from bot entries and public domain dictionaries. What is curious to me is that the German version has not done this as well. Are there no bots in the German version? Is the German language less amenable to the use of these bots? Are there no public domain German dictionaries to steal from?--Filll (talk) 15:07, 11 December 2007 (UTC)

French is an unusual (perhaps unique) language in that there is a legally sanctioned body who administer it. The Académie française is a government run group of about 40 people who rule on what is legally French and what is the work of evil foreigners. They meet regularly to sanction what French words will be used for things like new terminology for computers and to provide alternatives for (typically) English words that are creeping into common usage. Hence, for example, the commonly used French word "Parking" (meaning exactly what you'd expect it to mean) is not legal French and does not appear on (for example) road signs. Instead there is some much longer phrase that's been deemed acceptable by the "language police". Anyway, that means that there is an "official" dictionary: The Dictionnaire de l'Académie française - and I vaguely recall that it's free of copyright (it's certainly available for free online) - and therefore may have been the basis of the French Wiktionary. There is no equivelent document in English or German and any free input that either of those Wiktionaries may have gotten wouldn't be as comprehensive as the Academie dictionary. However, there are only about 30,000 words in Academie-sanctioned French (although French Wiktionary isn't bound by their rules - so they may well have more). By contrast, the complete Oxford English Dictionary has about a third of a million words. On that basis alone, sooner or later, I'd expect English Wiktionary to trample the French one into the dust! SteveBaker (talk) 16:14, 11 December 2007 (UTC)

German does have the Duden, although that is not quite the same as the Académie. It's more official than the OED though. Adam Bishop (talk) 16:58, 11 December 2007 (UTC)

Pewter

Hi, what can you tell me about Mayflower Pewter, such as dates, origin etc. Regards Coral —Preceding unsigned comment added by 172.188.62.218 (talk) 15:08, 11 December 2007 (UTC)

This question has been answered above (See December 6 "Plate") with specific reference to the external site provided in the last line of the answer. Bielle (talk) —Preceding comment was added at 18:52, 11 December 2007 (UTC)

ten million times

it happens over ten million times in a year?what is it 1.am not sure but cud it be either a human breathing or blinking(thats what google gave me) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 212.49.77.226 (talk) 15:54, 11 December 2007 (UTC)

There are about 31 million seconds in a year. So this would be something that happens to a person roughly every three seconds? I would imagine blinking would be it. Breathing is more like once a second, heartbeats don't work either. SteveBaker (talk) —Preceding comment was added at 15:59, 11 December 2007 (UTC)

See Blink though. According to the article, "women and men do not differ in their rates of spontaneous blinking, averaging around 10 blinks per minute in a laboratory setting". So suppose the average period awake per day is 18 hours ... 10 * 60 * 18 * 365 = 3,942,000 so either a) maybe not or b) poor question or c) whatever that might be. --Tagishsimon (talk) 16:07, 11 December 2007 (UTC)

The article Respiratory rate suggests adult humans breathe from 12 to 20 breaths per minute, not the "once per second" SteveBaker gave above. (I think he must have been on the treadmill at the time. :-)) That's a breath every 3 seconds, at the fast end, and thus about 10 million breaths in a 31 million-second year. Bielle (talk) 18:15, 11 December 2007 (UTC)

Yeah - what was I thinking? But as you say, one breath every 3 seconds is at the high end - it would be less on the average - so you'd be unlikely to hit 10 million per year. Blinking doesn't work either since you don't blink when you're asleep and (according to the article blink) two to ten seconds is typical. 10 million per year is too many for blinking too. SteveBaker (talk) 19:30, 11 December 2007 (UTC)

I find nothing so silly as the influx of poorly-written riddles the Reference Desk gets. Usually they are poorly worded to begin with and of extremely dubious veracity anyway. --24.147.86.187 (talk) 18:28, 11 December 2007 (UTC)

I agree - my first thought was "What happens in the entire universe as few as 10 million times a year?" but since that's unanswerable and unlikely to be what was wanted, I observed that the OP thought it was to do with humans. I was still thinking in terms of perhaps the world-wide birth rate (nope, not even close, it's gotta be ten times that) or the rate of car accidents (better). But since the OP seemed basically happy with blinking and breathing...I thought it best to determine the time interval (about once every 3 seconds) and go from there. But (as usual) if you read the question too closely, it says "OVER 10 million times a year" - so almost any reasonably frequent process would do. Uranium atom fissions? Dung beetle fatalities? Cases of someone hiccuping a prime number of times? Trees falling in the forest - but not making a sound? Stars going supernova? That way lies madness! As I've said before, these "riddles" generally rely on someone who thinks they've come up with an amazing fact attempting to impress everyone else with an answer that the others will never think of. Since the audience is very often stunned into not thinking about it and immediately saying "I have no idea" - the person phrasing the "riddle" can feel superior. If a bunch of people such as those of us who hang out here were replying ("The number of cases of someone hiccuping a prime number of times?"), the riddler would very soon lose interest in trying to tie the question down tightly enough so that only the one single answer he'd thought of would fit it. Oh well, you've gotta go with what you've got. SteveBaker (talk) 19:30, 11 December 2007 (UTC)

vegan plus meat

Friend have been demi-veggie for many years (lacto-ovo vegetarian plus fish and shellfish). Their first child had severe allergies to shellfish, peanuts, tree nuts, and eggs, but gradually outgrew all but the first two. With the second child they followed the advice "no milk before one, no eggs before two, no nuts before three" (that's years, not o'clock, by the way). The baby has indeed proved to be severely allergic to milk. A vegan diet with no nuts would be a real challenge to this family. There are lots of online resources for people thinking of becoming vegetarian, but not much for those moving the other way. I tried googling "vegan plus meat", a phrase I have heard used before now, but got nowhere. Any ideas? I am NOT asking for dietary advice per se -- just guidance to where I can educate myself on how to change one's digestive habits, taste buds, kitchen systems, etc. to meet current needs. BrainyBabe (talk) 17:09, 11 December 2007 (UTC)

I couldn't find much (beyond inane Yahoo! Answers), except that there appears to be a name for what you are considering: Flexitarianism. Rockpocket 20:13, 11 December 2007 (UTC)

Broadening what vegetables are eaten may be worth a try. Aside from the usual supermarket fare of carrots, celery, broccoli etc which get old pretty fast, there's some great possibilities with lentils (e.g. veggie samosas), chickpeas (hummus), black bean & quinoa salad, refried beans with red rice to name a few of my favorites. Also, are the seafood items as fresh as possible? The challenge of sticking to fish instead of meat is acquiring it in an acceptably-fresh state, which may not be easy if you live in a small inland community. Vranak (talk) 21:00, 11 December 2007 (UTC)

Mattress Replacement

What are the regulations for Massachusetts regarding mattress replacement? I bought my Englander brand mattress in January or February of 2000 and have since lost the receipt. The credit card companies only have records going as far back as 2001. The store I bought it from have computerized records going back to 2001, and claim that paper records are in the basement but would be very difficult to find and therefore won't look. What recourse do I have?