Wikipedia:Reference desk/Miscellaneous

French translation

I was translating another article from :fr (fr:Championnat de France de football National (D3)). And A terme, la professionnalisation de ce championnat se pose. La Ligue ne veut pas partager son trésor avec d'autres clubs et freine des quatre fers. bamboozled me. I'm takin an educated guess that the last bit means "The league doesnt want to share its treasure with other clubs et is calling a halt", but the sentence has no context. Is the French article poorly written, or is this just one idiom that I haven't got my head round yet? Cheers, cunning linguists --Wonderfool t(c) 20:33, 31 July 2005 (UTC)

Could trésor mean "funding" here? That would be my instant impression of the idiom. Perhaps it is meaning "spoils". I know this is the word used in French for a particular type of Greek building which is built with the spoils of war, so it could be related. [[smoddy]] 21:15, 31 July 2005 (UTC)

Fraternity

I am curious if anyone knows whether there is a University-style frat organisation in Wiki form? I think it could be an interesting experience! Ta, Jay

So this would involve virtually chugging kegs of virtual beer while virtually mooning fellow Wikipedians? DJ Clayworth 03:58, 2 August 2005 (UTC)

I was thinking more along the lines of the self improvement, meeting, philanthropic and social action type activities, but whatever floats your boat! Jay

Why not start one up on Wikicities:? --Theodore Kloba 21:21, August 4, 2005 (UTC)

Physical principles of relativity

What are the physical principles of relativity? Could someone summarize it in simple bite-sized concepts? --HappyCamper 21:50, 31 July 2005 (UTC)

The speed of light is constant. Mass distorts spacetime. Mass and energy are equivalent.

I think that's the big ones right there, unless you had something else in mind. -- Cyrius|✎ 00:27, 1 August 2005 (UTC)

Serbian and Croatian

What's the easiest way to tell written Serbian from Croatian, and vice versa? Tim Rhymeless (Er...let's shimmy) 22:16, 31 July 2005 (UTC)

For one thing, the Serbian language is written in either the Cyrillic alphabet or the Latin alphabet, while the Croatian language is only written in the Latin alphabet. Otherwise, I doubt there's much that's obvious, especially if you don't know the vocabulary of the two languages very well. James 22:31, July 31, 2005 (UTC)

Is Serbian text ever rendered in the Latin alphabet, then? (especially in regards to music/other media) Tim Rhymeless (Er...let's shimmy) 22:53, 31 July 2005 (UTC)

Yes, Serbian is rendered in the Latin alphabet, especially on computers. James 23:00, July 31, 2005 (UTC)

So then, are most of the turbo folk song titles (artists such as Ceca or Aca Lukas) I see in Croatian, or in Latin-rendered Serbian? Tim Rhymeless (Er...let's shimmy) 23:07, 31 July 2005 (UTC)

Probably Latin-rendered Serbian since both singers are from Serbia. The only other difference I know of is that there are some words that have ije or je in Croatian but e in Serbian (e.g. "river" is rijeka in Croatian and reka in Serbian). However, there are words that have ije, je, or e in both languages so this is only diagnostic if you already know which words to look for. --Angr/_{tɔk tə mi} 06:00, 1 August 2005 (UTC)

Pictures of Cedars of Lebanon Trees. Thanks !!!!!

Please see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lebanon_Cedar ¦ Reisio 00:56, 2005 August 1 (UTC)

Latinish

In a Supreme Court decision I'm looking at, Rehnquist uses the line "NEPA (a particular statute) does not require agencies to evaluate the effects of risk, qua risk." I am Latin-inept but am interpretting his meaning in the emphasized part (my emphasis) as being along the lines of "risk as risk itself". (In the context of the case, he is saying that the perception of risk does not need to be included in evaluating environmental risks -- it is a little complicated to explain in brief). Is this a reasonable interpretation? --Fastfission 00:59, 1 August 2005 (UTC)

Wiktionary:qua may be of help. -- Cyrius|✎ 01:22, 1 August 2005 (UTC)

Well, I looked at that, but it didn't really clarify a good translation in this case, so I wanted to just check. --Fastfission 14:45, 1 August 2005 (UTC)

The use of qua in such cases has diverged somewhat from the actual Latin word. It is actually a relative pronoun, which. Somehow, one use in English has been solidified, meaning, as you expected, "blank as blank itself," or another way of saying it would be "blank by virtue of its blankness." Another related phenomenon is the word quorum, which literally means "of which."

Calculators

Hello. How does a calculator work? Thank you

Try the calculator article. -216.119.143.234 04:08, 1 August 2005 (UTC)

Bless em All

Who actually wrote the song Bless 'em All? Many sources say that it was written in 1940 by Jimmie Hughes, Frank Lake and Al Stillman but others state that it originated with the British Army in india in the 1800's. Thanks, Old Bubblehead

This site makes reference to a paragraph from a page that doesn't exist anymore in the Canadian military cadets website.

Bless'em All was first introduced in England around 1916 by Fred Godfrey. The "soldiers" version was seldom heard in civilized areas and Jimmy Hughes introduced the "decent" version in 1940. There had never really been a set of appropriate words with this tune until then. This version of Bless em'All could be openly sung in loud voices with little chance of reprisal. The music was composed by Frank Lake. Although this song is regarded as a World War II song, it's earliest associations are with the Royal Naval Air Service. In some versions, it became the unofficial Royal Air Force song in the years between the wars.

Bless 'em All seems to have been a folk song that was rewritten and introduced into the mainstream by Jimmie Hughes et al in 1940. In particular, the previous version of Bless 'em All appears to have been a much more visceral song entitled Fuck 'em All. -D. Wu 14:25, 1 August 2005 (UTC)

How does bathing affect the digestive system?

In our local culture, we're often asked not to take bath soon after having food. Some people say that it'll cause a big belly. I've also personally experienced an increase in appetite soon after having a long bath in waterfalls. Are these connected? -- Sundar ^{\talk \contribs} 06:27, August 1, 2005 (UTC)

In Australia there is a similar common recommendation that a person should wait 30 minutes to 1 hour after eating before they go swimming. From the results of a google search [1] it seems that swimming after a meal is physiologically fine, as long as you aren't an endurance swimmer, then it may cause cramps. You're probably hungry after swimming because swimming uses alot of energy. --nixie 06:36, 1 August 2005 (UTC)

Sounds plausible. However I didn't mean swimming, just plain bathing. -- Sundar ^{\talk \contribs} 06:49, August 1, 2005 (UTC)

I'm going to say that this is related to any energetic activity - it takes blood and energy away from digestion, and directs it to muscular activity. This can cause cramps, which are potentially dangerous when swimming. I can't think of a reason not to sit passively in warm water having eaten.

Studies have found that swimming in cold water increases the appetite, which makes it a poor choice for exercise. Since you're talking about bathing in waterfalls, I imagine they were significantly cooler than air temp. and that may be what caused the increase in appetite. The scientists behind the study theorized that dropping core temperature turns on a signal to conserve energy, decreasing the metabolism, while increasing appetite. James 13:24, August 1, 2005 (UTC)

Swimming is still great exercise, it just may not be the best one to use if the goal is to lose weight. For those that need to gain weight (yes it does actually occur), or maintain, it would be highly recommended. - Taxman ^Talk 18:39, August 1, 2005 (UTC)

Thanks everyone. The cold water theory seems to be plausible. Can someone create an article on this? -- Sundar ^{\talk \contribs} 04:19, August 2, 2005 (UTC)

Heart rate, after eating (postprandial) heart rate increases by 30% and more, it takes a lot of effort by the body to break eaten food down to absorb as useable energy molecules, so going swimming increases the demand on the heart. 'Cramps' is pain from strong muscle spasm, and one cause while swimming after eating could be the hard working leg and arm muscles are not getting enough blood to keep you afloat and moving on in the water(cramping muscles do not have the same strength and the heart has reached maximum pumping capacity) and if you are still a long way from shore... well... we hope you remember this and dont swim with a full belly. Second part of the question, no comment. Sam.

Three Volapük words

A Finnish book I once read had an article about Volapük. It said the language was hard to learn because of difficult words like (quote) äpakokomla, opesevamol and poibefuloms (unquote), which don't come from any one language. For over a decade, I've been wondering what the heck these words mean. Does anyone here know Volapük enough to tell me the meanings? — JIP | Talk 08:22, 1 August 2005 (UTC)

You could ask volapuk-owner@yahoogroups.com. — Sebastian (talk) 15:34, August 1, 2005 (UTC)

Do I need to join the group in order to receive mail from it? — JIP | Talk 10:53, 2 August 2005 (UTC)

Why, yes. But not for sending mail to an individual person, such as the above. — Sebastian (talk) 15:01, August 2, 2005 (UTC)

OK, thanks. I sent a question to the above address from my home address, but they haven't replied yet. — JIP | Talk 16:23, 2 August 2005 (UTC)

The answer I got from the Volapük list:

Here are the translations of the verb forms given:-

äpakokom-la = It will probably propagate itself (but -la expresses doubt!)

opesevamol = You will have been acquainted

poibefuloms = They will always be fulfilled

These come from the original Volapük by Johann Martin Schleyer. Present-day Volapük is slightly different.

What exactly does "you will have been acquainted" mean, as it has both a future and a past tense? — JIP | Talk 09:20, 4 August 2005 (UTC)

"You will have been acquainted" is in the future perfect tense, which is infrequently used in English, but common in many other languages. It describes an action that will be complete in the future. James 14:38, August 4, 2005 (UTC)

St.

What is the meaning of saint (St.) when the last of a person who is not canonized begins with it? For example, Augustine St. Clare or Richard St. Andre. I have seen an electrical engineer and other non-religious people whose last names begin with St.

Karl.

Do you mean Saint-something in people's last names? It would refer to a patron saint, or a church or town with that patron. Thus, someone associated with a church of Saint Clare some generations back might bear the surname Saint-Clare, or even Sinclair. These names are, most properly, given a truncated pronunciation: Saint-John is usually pronounced sin.jun, and so forth. --Gareth Hughes 10:23, 1 August 2005 (UTC)

Memory restoration

In cases of memory loss for whatever reason, are there any tablets that you would recommend t help in memory recovery/restoration?

L-DOPA reportedly helps working memory, and some people claim St John's wort helps memory too. I doubt these will help recover lost memories however. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 12:48, August 1, 2005 (UTC)

I am not a neurobiologist, but I believe there are a couple of mechanisms for memory so if you're trying to remember the name of your fifth grade teacher, that's quite a different thing from remembering what happened last night at that bar. My understanding is that alcohol can inhibit short term memories from being transfered into long term memory, so the probability of recovering a memory trends towards zero as Blood alcohol content rises [2]. If that is not relevant to your situation, you might want to check out amnesia which has a couple of other causes of memory loss. --CVaneg 17:51, 1 August 2005 (UTC)

Prohibited U.S. international travel

My coworker (a very extreme anti-American) claims that the U.S. government prohibits by law visitation of certain countries, including Cuba. I disagree with him strongly. I claim that the government may WARN its citizens of possible and potential dangers in volatile countries, but does NOT prohibit its citizens from traveling anywhere in the world they choose. Please help settle this debate, or...please advise me to a government agency that can help with this question. Thank you very much!

I am neither a Merkin nor an expert on international travel laws, but my gut feeling is that you are right. At least with a valid visa, Merkins can visit Cuba and Cubans can visit the USA. According to what I remember, however, what the USA does prohibit is commercial import/export between the USA and Cuba. — JIP | Talk 14:35, 1 August 2005 (UTC)

You coworker is right, it is illegal for an American citizen to travel to Cuba. I've known people to travel there "illegally" via circuitous routes (to Haiti or Canada, than purchase a ticket on to Cuba) but they're risking a serious fine or possibly jail time. That having been said, if they ever experience any problems while in Cuba, they'd be in a terrible fix since we do not have diplomatic relations with them.

According to the US Department of State "The Cuban Assets Control Regulations of the U.S. Treasury Department require that persons subject to U.S. jurisdiction be licensed to engage in any transaction related to travel to, from, and within Cuba. Transactions related to tourist travel are not licensable. ... Travelers who fail to comply with Department of Treasury regulations will face civil penalties and criminal prosecution upon return to the United States." [3] So you need a license to go to Cuba, and they decide who gets a license. — Pekinensis 14:59, 1 August 2005 (UTC)

I'm pretty sure Cuba is the only country where such a law applies. James 15:05, August 1, 2005 (UTC)

The USDOS site mentions no restriction on travel to North Korea or Iran. — Pekinensis 15:18, 1 August 2005 (UTC)

Shows how much I know, then. Remind me not to answer questions about where Merkins can travel. — JIP | Talk 16:54, 1 August 2005 (UTC)

Hm. The Food Network just had a show with Mariel Hemingway reporting about her grandfather's time in Cuba. I wonder how she was able to get there legally, then? John Barleycorn 19:09, August 1, 2005 (UTC)

Well, maybe she got a permit from the state department. Again, you can go only with permission, and they don't give permission for things like tourism, but they probably would for making a documentary. There are also a slew of commercial restrictions relating to Cuba -- i.e., you can't purchase anything there or sell anything made there in the U.S. (hence all of the hullaballo about Cuban cigars, which cannot be legally purchased -- or possessed? -- in the U.S., though can in many other countries nearby, including Mexico). --Fastfission 19:41, 1 August 2005 (UTC)

Slight clarification on the cigars -- people who have licenses to visit Cuba can bring back Cuban cigars only if their total value is less than $100, and they are not allowed to resell them or trade them. It is illegal to bring Cuban cigars into the U.S. bought in other countries as well (i.e., if you bought a Cuban cigar in Mexico, where it would be legal under local laws, you couldn't bring it into the U.S. legally). This applies to all goods of Cuban origin, as a part of sanctions placed against Cuba since 1963. --Fastfission 19:45, 1 August 2005 (UTC)

It might not be too hard to get your travel classified into a permissable category like scientific or cultural interchange, or charitable work and the like. I know that U.S. commercial travel companies have openly offered scheduled, er, tours to Cuba. TresÁrboles 19:49, 1 August 2005 (UTC)

Tours are regularly scheduled under the loose cultural interchange rules. In fact, someone from my synagogue recently went on such a trip. It's essentially just tourism. You walk around and go to restaurants and see the sites. You can even legally bring a small number of cigars back. The regulations aren't nearly as strict as they appear. Superm401 | Talk 07:09, August 3, 2005 (UTC)

Do you mean that Mariel was in Cuba reporting about her grandfather? Or that she was in America talking about her grandfather? If it is the latter, it is because the embargo against tourist travel to Cuba was instituted 1962. Cuba was not only open to travel, but a huge tourist destination for the entirety of Ernest Hemingway's life. For more information, see the United States embargo against Cuba. James 20:31, August 1, 2005 (UTC)

She was in Cuba. There was one scene where she was actually in Mariel, talking about how she had been named for the place because of its charm, and how it's now industrial and polluted. She also did a tour of her grandfather's villa. But, since it was Food Network, she also did a report on Cuban food, restaurants, and markets. {NOTE: I posted this yesterday, it shows up in my contributions, but somehow when I come to this page today, this paragraph is missing.) John Barleycorn 18:43, August 2, 2005 (UTC)

That factoid would make a nice addition to the Mariel and Mariel Hemmingway articles. Was Hemmingways' house there too, or in another town? -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 19:25, August 2, 2005 (UTC)

It was outside of town, but I don't know the name of the place. John Barleycorn 21:21, August 2, 2005 (UTC)

It is legal to travel to Cuba if you don't spend any money in Cuba for that purpose. For instance, if you travel there on your own boat, eat on the boat, and leave without paying any dock fees or buying any souvenirs, the law is silent. Buying a ticket there, renting a hotel room, or buying food would be a no-no.--Joel 03:42, 4 August 2005 (UTC)

It being a Food Network show, Mariel was obviously eating and drinking. I imagine she stayed in a hotel or two, as well. John Barleycorn 19:17, August 4, 2005 (UTC)

Death Penalty in the US

I have always been under the impression that, in capital cases where the death penalty can be imposed, the jury "must not" have "any" doubt regarding the defendant's guilt. (Johnny Cochran's famous, "If the glove doesn't fit, you must acquit.")

However, a friend has pointed out the fact that there can be doubt, in a juror's mind, regarding guilt. His point is the phrase "guilty beyond a reasonable doubt" implies a juror can have doubt regarding guilt and still convict.

Which is it? Can a juror still have doubt regarding a defendant's guilt and still convict with the death penalty being the potential punishment?

Thanks in advance,

Ed

The burden of proof for all criminal jury trials in the US is "beyond a reasonable doubt." This is a legal phrase, and may have essentially the same result as what you're envisioning as not having "any" doubt. There is not a higher burden of proof for capital cases than non-capital cases, though the jury must be unanimous on the verdict and punishment for someone to be convicted. James 15:02, August 1, 2005 (UTC)

Zero doubt would mean the prosecution would have to disprove the possibility of an evil twin from a parallel dimension having committed the crime. Or psychic mind-control gophers. Which is why the standard is "reasonable" doubt. -- Cyrius|✎ 17:06, 1 August 2005 (UTC)

Which animals have gestation and which not? Where's the limit? (Part 2)

Which animals gestate and which not? For example, are reptiles or flies said to gestate? If not, what's the term they use in biology? 2004-12-29T22:45Z 18:47, August 1, 2005 (UTC)

Hello, and welcome to Wikipedia. For getting an answer, please see the information in the box at the very top of this page. Notinasnaid 19:07, 1 August 2005 (UTC)

I didn't ask the question but I would be interested to know what it is that the questioner is supposed to look at at the top of the page. His/her question is surely in the correct place (Reference Desk) and seems clearly expressed. So what's wrong? - Adrian Pingstone 19:15, 1 August 2005 (UTC)

I already read what people answered before on this page, but I'm not satisfied. I want more specifics. Also, the question is somewhat different, if you take a closer look. 2004-12-29T22:45Z 19:22, August 1, 2005 (UTC)

All animals gestate, the difference is where. All mammals, besides monotremes gestate in their mother's womb. Non-mammals usually gestate in eggs, and these usually develop outside of an adult's body, though there are exceptions.

Hey, that's nonsense. Not all animals have a uterus. Not all animals gestate. What about fish? They don't gestate. That's ridiculous. 2004-12-29T22:45Z 23:18, August 1, 2005 (UTC)

Look again, the anon above you didn't say that all animals have a uterus, just that non-mammals usually lay eggs, ie. the foetus gestates in the egg. Presumably female non-mammals have some sort of egg storing organ (ovaries?) but I'm no biologist so don't know what the technical term is. Lisiate 00:07, 2 August 2005 (UTC)

See [this page], which lists gestation periods for basically every kind of animal. One kind that I'm pretty sure doesn't gestate is the sponge. Reptiles, fish, and birds all gestate in eggs. James 03:41, August 2, 2005 (UTC)

Jack Jones, Novelist, 1884-1970

How can I find more information on Jack Jones? I am looking for "personal" info, as in parents' names, birth place etc. I believe he is a cousin to me. Thank you. D. Harrison

There is somewhat more information here. James 20:38, August 1, 2005 (UTC)

I have found more information and posted it in User talk:128.226.47.62. James 19:10, August 2, 2005 (UTC)

The Divine Proportion

See Golden mean and Golden ratio (they need to be merged). If you have more questions, post them here.
(Above comment by User:Jamesmusik.)

You mean, Golden Mean and Golden ratio should be merged. (Oh, how I hate this case sensitivity — clearly a reason to withold credit from Larry Sanger!) — Sebastian (talk) 07:41, August 2, 2005 (UTC)

Survivability of lung injuries

The article on collapsed lungs states that the condition is a "medical emergency", but does not go into much detail. How long can a person expect to remain mobile/conscious after losing a lung to say, blast damage, or spontaneous collapse? What about after more serious penetrating injuries, like a knife stab or a gunshot wound? Will said person even be capable of performing rudimentary first aid?

I guess what I really want to know is, how a collapsed lung progresses over time without professional medical assistance. Thanks in advance, Tronno 23:09, August 1, 2005 (UTC)

I think the article goes into great detail. The length of time a person will remain conscious depends on the severity of the injury. Blast damage causes the lung to rupture because of overpressure. Depending on the severity, the person may lose consciousness from hypoxia. In case of a penetrating wound leading to an open pneumothorax, a flutter valve (a piece of sterile plastic taped on three sides) can assist in breathing. A stabbing knife wound is less dangerous than a bullet, which tends to tumble in the body, causing a whole host of secondary problems. In both cases, the immediate concern is internal or external bleeding that'll lead to hypoperfusion (shock) and death.

A bystander can apply a flutter valve and apply pressure to other wounds, but usually nothing can be done for a closed pneumothorax. EMTs can provide oxygen therapy by bag valve or positive pressure mask. They can establish a patent airway if one didn't exist before. They can also run fluids to stave off hypovolemia. But if the lung is fundamentally incapable of functioning, there is not much they can do either. -D. Wu 21:32, 2 August 2005 (UTC)

It depends on degree of compromise of function. You can lose a whole lung and do okay. Intentional collapse of a large part of a lung was an early 20th century treatment for tuberculosis. There have been cases of people with Munchausen's syndrome intentionally causing themselves repeated pneumothoraces by puncturing their own lungs with long pins to gain hospital access. alteripse 23:40, 2 August 2005 (UTC)

Thanks for the help, guys! That pretty much cleared it up. Tronno 04:39, August 4, 2005 (UTC)

Pumpkin facts and preservation

I was wondering if anyone knows how many pumpkins are grown/sold each year in the U.S. for purposes of decorations for Halloween, as opposed to those grown for pies or seeds.

I'd also like to know if there is a method to make your pumpkin last longer while sitting on your porch in the elements. I've read a weak bleach solution, WD 40 oil, and vasiline are supposed to work. Anyone know if they do and why? (and I'm not talking about a carved pumpkin, I know they don't have long to live) Could you also list any reference or authority on this if you have it?

Thanks for any help you can give me.

happy halloween

I live in pumpkin land, and all I know, from my own experience, is that keeping the pumpkin from freezing is pretty much all you need to do. So in November, say, you bring it inside on really cold nights. and let it sit outside during the chilly days (as long as it's not below freezing all day). You could also knit it a thick sweater. This will get you through to early December, usually, but after that, you probably need a root cellar to keep the pumpkins if you live in the northern states. And while we leave our xmas wreaths up at least until Easter here, we don't usually decorate our porches with pumpkins much after Thanksgiving. Papier mâché would be your best bet for winter decor. And a good Samhain to you, too. --Mothperson cocoon 20:37, 3 August 2005 (UTC)

Oh, and with regard to your first question, I have no statistics, but my answer, from what I've seen, would be something on the order of a gazillion. Okay, maybe only a few trillion. But it's up there. --Mothperson cocoon 20:42, 3 August 2005 (UTC)

It seems logical that the bleach would be used to kill any potential mold, mildew, etc. that would eat the pumpkin, while the petroleum products would fill its pores and prevent water from evaporating out of it. As mentioned before, I'm not sure either of these is necessary; most fruits in this family preserve themselves fairly well if they're kept from extremes of temperature etc. If it starts to get splotchy or to shrivel, though, you may try one of those methods to buy a little more time.--Joel 04:51, 4 August 2005 (UTC)

It just occurred to me. Are you living in a southern state? Specifically, a humid southern state? --Mothperson cocoon 20:00, 4 August 2005 (UTC)

difference between Ionizing radiation dan particle radiation

Anyone able to help me explain the difference between these two radiations? Their effects to human's body. Is particle radiation really emits fast little particles that could cause damage in body's cell, and ionizing radiation emits energy that could caused molecules in your body to ionize? Thank you. roscoe_x 03:40, 2 August 2005 (UTC)

The articles imply a distinction that doesn't exist. Ionizing radiation is particle radiation. Non-ionizing radiation is generally not harmful, as it does not have the energy necessary to affect objects at the molecular level. Some kinds of non-ionizing radiation are visible light and sound waves. Ionizing radiation is the kind of radiation most people think of when they talk about "radiation". Basically, everything on the electromagnetic spectrum lower in frequency than Ultraviolet is non-ionizing, while UV and higher is ionizing. James 03:59, August 2, 2005 (UTC)

Hmm, are you sure? I thought that gamma radiation is explicitly excluded from particle radiation, since its particles have 0 rest mass. — Sebastian (talk) 07:25, August 2, 2005 (UTC)

Due to wave-particle duality, all forms of electromagnetic radiation involve particles. Also, see Gamma ray, which discusses gamma photons, which are particles. James 17:31, August 2, 2005 (UTC)

Please, do me a favor and read a question before you reply – especially when someone writes "are you sure". Nobody denied that gamma rays can be regarded as particles. — Sebastian (talk) 23:09, August 2, 2005 (UTC)

You're right, most people wouldn't talk about gamma radiation as particle radiation, despite photons being particles. --Laura Scudder | Talk 15:00, 3 August 2005 (UTC)

Islam without Mecca?

A question I've also asked on the Talk:Mecca page. It may, however, fit better here. Has there been any discussion within Islam of how the religion and Islamic law might adapt if Mecca was destroyed, somehow? What would happen to the Hajj, for example? Please understand that I mean no offense by asking this question. I am merely curious. Thank you very much for your time. - --Brasswatchman 05:58, August 2, 2005 (UTC)

The only reference I've ever heard of that is in the latter books of the Ender's Game series. In all likelihood, it would probably switch to Medina (the 2nd holiest site) or the Dome of the Rock (the 3rd holiest site) →Raul654 06:47, August 2, 2005 (UTC)

• I imagine that unless Mecca was rendered completely uninhabitable (through nuclear weapons or some other similar mechanism) people would probably rebuild on the site of the former city, and try and keep traditions as close to the original as possible. Assuming a nation did decide to render Mecca completely uninhabitable (and I can't think that any entity other than a nation would have that kind of firepower at their disposal) the world would have to be so unstable that in all likelyhood, all major religions and nations would already be in a state of upheaval and there would probably be radical changes for everyone. --CVaneg 21:36, 2 August 2005 (UTC)

CVaneg - agreed. What I'm interested in is how said "radical change" might turn out in this particular instance. My own personal guess is much in line with what you have suggested; I suspect that a third option might be to construct a replica of Mecca, something that fits the same basic geography. I guess that, in this point in time, Islam is unimaginable without Mecca; and if Mecca is lost permenantly, something else would have to fill that vacuum. If anyone else has another guess or suggestion, I'd be very curious to hear what you had to say. Thank you. - --Brasswatchman 02:55, August 3, 2005 (UTC)

I think Muslims would go the geographical location of Mecca regardless of what was there, or how dangerous it was. Medina wouldn't suffice.Superm401 | Talk 07:04, August 3, 2005 (UTC)

Magnetic Resonance of Elements Database

I would like to know where could I or how could I find the subject above. Thanks a lot for your kind attention and reply. Tony V. Villanueva tonyvill409 at yahoo dot com

Webelements.com is usually good for this kind of thing. For example here is NMR data for Beryllium. Dmn / Դմն 12:52, 2 August 2005 (UTC)

Dehydrated potato flakes

Who invented dehydrated potato flakes? We don't seem to have an article about them. We do have Smash potato mix, but it does not address the question.

It is widely claimed that Canadian Edward A. Asselbergs invented them in 1962. [4] On the other hand, Idahoan Foods claims to have been founded in 1960 with the express purpose of producing instant mashed potatoes [5]. I have not found any source that devotes more than one throw-away sentence to the question, and astoundingly, Google does not know of a single document containing both of the words "Asselbergs" and "Idahoan" [6].

Any ideas? Thanks — Pekinensis 15:11, 2 August 2005 (UTC)

Well, Asselbergs definitely was issued a U.S. patent for "preparation of dehydrated cooked mashed potato" U.S. patent 3,260,607, which claimed priority from a Canadian application from 1961. However in his patent application he makes it clear that there are preexisting forms of instant mash potatos in the prior art, in two forms: granules and flakes, the latter of which are dehydrated. For this he cites Canadian patent 561,119, which seems to be the primary form of the prior art he is contending with throughout the application in differentiating his method as unique. One of his references in the paper is a U.S. Department of Agriculture publication from 1954 on "Potato Flakes; a New Form of Dehydrated Mashed Potatoes", which makes me think that they must date from at least that period. --Fastfission 21:07, 2 August 2005 (UTC)

On the Dept of Agr.: two US Department of Agriculture researchers were issued a patent for "Drum drying of cooked mashed potatoes" in 1954 (U.S. patent 2,759,832), which must be what he is referring to. It describes the end product specifically being "as a thin sheet or flake". Another patent by Dept. of Agriculture researchers issued in 1957 (U.S. patent 2,780,552) speaks extensively about flakes specifically as well. --Fastfission 21:14, 2 August 2005 (UTC)

Also, check out U.S. patent 1,025,373 -- a patent on "Dehydrate Potatoes and Process of Preparing the Same", application issued in 1905 and granted in 1912! While it doesn't describe them as flakes, it clearly describes how they could be turned into a wonderful food product with just a little hot water.

So I suppose a lot of this depends on what the definition of "dehydrated potato flakes" is, as "instant mashed potatoes" seems to have been around for almost a century! I haven't read this over word for word, of course, so I might be missing something.

(If you're wondering how I did this: I searched for "Asselbergs, Edward" on the UK patent database, which has a lot of US and Canadian patents in it too, and then took the US patent number there and plugged it into the USPTO website, and then took the cited reference numbers from there and re-plugged them in. I have some scripts which make this sort of thing very quick, which helps a lot). --Fastfission 21:09, 2 August 2005 (UTC)

In all likelihood - some little old lady hundreds of years ago. ¦ Reisio 21:16, 2005 August 2 (UTC)

This is great information; thank you! I really hadn't thought to look at the patent records. I'll try to work this into a stubby article. — Pekinensis 23:31, 2 August 2005 (UTC)

Please have a look at Instant mashed potato. It needs work. A substantial part of the article is FastFission's work, and Reisio's point is taken as well. I have copied this conversation to talk:instant mashed potato. — Pekinensis 01:01, 3 August 2005 (UTC)

The Incas were dehydrating potatoes ages ago. But this probably isn't what you want. --Mothperson cocoon 20:46, 3 August 2005 (UTC)

To the contrary, instant mashed potato links to chuño right at the beginning of the history section. It was a red link, so I translated es:chuño. It could use a good editing to comb out the translationese. — Pekinensis 20:55, 3 August 2005 (UTC)

Cool. I'll go look. --Mothperson cocoon 21:00, 3 August 2005 (UTC)

frustrating find/replace xml problem

I'm sure this will be blaringly confusing, so please ask for clarification if you think you can help.

I have multiple files which are named as such: XYZ_Pg_001.xml XYZ_Pg_002.xml etc up to XYZ_Pg_200.xml

each of these files is a page from a book, and each contains various tags. the most important for my problem are:

page-id: contains the above minus the .xml extension

page-sequence: contains the page number (only not with 3-decimal places as the filenames)

anyway, here's the problem, a whole bunch have the wrong page-sequence tag, and need to be incremented by 2. for example <page-sequence>17</page-sequence> needs to be +2 to <page-sequence>19</page-sequence> for all the files from 17-170. how can I do this? I can't really change much about the XML schema because it's not in my control.

is there a way i can do this either with:

• XML's abilities
• some search-and-replace utility across multiple files that I can input variables into

Argh I can't even explain this properly! Any help? Robojames 16:27, 2 August 2005 (UTC)

Stuff like this is what scripting languages are for. Personally I'd do it in python (string manipulation in bash is icky) but just about anything (perl, bash, python, tcl, ksh) will do. Search and replace in a given file using sed. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 16:56, August 2, 2005 (UTC)

You could also try XSLT. The way I'd go about it would be an XML-to-XML stylesheet (XSL output method = "XML") where the only rule in the entire stylesheet would be <page-sequence>, whose value is the original node's value + 2. I don't know if XSLT is smart enough to convert the text in the node automatically to a number, though. By default, XSLT should leave every other node as they are. — JIP | Talk 17:03, 2 August 2005 (UTC)

Ways of getting around region coding of DVDs

What is the easiest way of getting around region coding of DVDs? Toasthaven2 16:30, 2 August 2005 (UTC)

Rip it and burn a copy - if you use DVDdecripter and DVDshrink the result will be region free. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 16:52, August 2, 2005 (UTC)

Or use a hack from a site such as [7] Shantavira 17:14, 2 August 2005 (UTC)

They don't sound nearly as easy as buying a multi-region DVD player, which are now widely available. Notinasnaid 19:41, 2 August 2005 (UTC)

• I'm not technical at all. I was delighted, having been bought a cheapo supermarket DVD player for my birthday, to quickly put the model number and make into Google, along with the phrase "region hack" and find out that I only needed to press a few buttons to get my Spinal Tap Region 2 DVD to play in my European player. Dead easy it were. (And if Region 2 IS European, I mean the American region, and ...you know... whatever I wasn't supposed to play, I played....) --bodnotbod 01:20, August 3, 2005 (UTC)

Or, if you have a DVD drive on your PC and no region hack is available for your DVD player, install VideoLAN, DVD player software that ignores region coding. --Robert Merkel 01:57, 3 August 2005 (UTC)

I think the Linux kernel, when accessing the drive, also doesn't care about region coding, although I'm not sure if detection is inbuilt into the drive. ;) -- Natalinasmpf 01:26, 3 August 2005 (UTC)

It is built in in more modern drives; however, I think libdvdcss may be able to crack it. Doesn't the DMCA make it illegal to even discuss this in the US? ~~ N (t/c) 07:05, 3 August 2005 (UTC)

Each video title on a movie disc is encrypted with a 40-bit title key. The title keys themselves are encrypted with a disc key, which in turn is encrypted against a list of 400 player-specific keys placed, together with checksums, at the start of the disc. All DVD Forum-approved hardware and software media players are given one of these player keys. The intent was that, should any player be compromised or be found to allow digital video copying, it would have its key rotated off future manufactured batches of DVDs.

A software player is expected to download its key to the DVD-ROM drive via a special set of ATAPI commands; all the major operating systems (including Linux and BSD) offer an interface to do this. The drive then uses that to produce the title keys, with which the player can then decrypt the video title with on the host computer.

There are three main methods of defeating this copy protection:

1. Extract a key from an approved player.
2. Use a cryptographic weakness to derive the disk key from the checksums.
3. Try a brute-force attack on the raw encrypted video data itself.

Desktop computers today are fast enough to perform the second option almost instantaneously. If that fails, the player can fall back on the third option, which, because of the weakness of the cipher, takes just several seconds. This is what "rogue" media players like MPlayer and VideoLAN do, as well as ripping tools as DVD Decrypter.

DVD-ROM drives manufactured prior to about 2000 were RPC-1 drives in that they ignored regions. RPC-2 drives sold after that are tagged in firmware with a region and implement region lockout by checking the region of the discs they play; if there is a mismatch, they simply refuse to return title keys.

There are several popular ways of circumventing this:

1. Change the region of the drive. RPC-2 actually allows for the drive's region to be changed, but only up to 5 times. Beyond that, the firmware will lock the drive to a particular region forever.
2. "Upgrade" the drive's firmware. The firmware is usually executable code for the microcontroller in the DVD-ROM drive; enterprising people have disassembled these and provided patched region-free versions for some common models of drives.
3. Play the disc with a "rogue" media player. Ironically, these still work because they do not need title keys in the first place.

—Ghakko 12:51, 4 August 2005 (UTC)

Won't try to stop you, but playing it in the wrong region player violates the DVD license and therefore copyright law. Just be aware. Superm401 | Talk 07:00, August 3, 2005 (UTC)

I am a stickler for copyright, but do have a multi-region DVD player after establishing that in the UK (where I am) court challenges to the sale of such things failed. What is the DVD license to which you refer? Is it a license to the player or the disk, and where is it printed? How can violating a license be a violation of copyright law... licenses are controlled by contract law, which has no connection to copyright law so far as I know.Notinasnaid 08:38, 3 August 2005 (UTC)

On a Windows PC, also Anydvd will do the trick. (No weblink here, because just last week a notable German court decision held that news portal Heise had violated German copyright law by linking to the software manufacturer's homepage.) regards, High on a tree 18:38, 3 August 2005 (UTC)

The simplest way, in my opinion is to not set your DVD drive's region, and/or buy a cheap DVD player that doesn't have a region. My DVD drive isn't set, and my player is cheapola, and thus, doesn't have a region. When it doesn't have a region, instead of not playing because the region doesn't match, it plays because the regions arn't conflicting.

Credit Bank/Spain

Is there a Credit bank in Spain?

Is Credit Bank a name of a particular bank? Or do you mean this kind of credit bank? If it's neither of those, then there is certainly a bank which offers credit in Spain. Here's a list of banks. James 17:26, August 2, 2005 (UTC)

How many grams of protein do you need for muslce gain

Protein far in excess of the reccommended daily ammount simply won't do you much good. Protein will provide a small benefit in muscle gain if it is consumed directly after you have been weight lifting. Protein supplements are expensive and of verying quality. Frankly, your best bet is to lift and then consume a high protein snack such as a couple of eggs, a packed milkshake or a couple servings of baked beans. This meathod and the consumption of creatine are the only two meathods of artificially augmenting muscle gain that are effective. Sticking to a regular weight lifting program tailored to your goals is unquestionably the best way to build muscle.

Simply lifting weights is not sufficient. You must consume more calories than you burn in order to create muscle mass, and those extra calories should come primarily from protein. James 19:33, August 2, 2005 (UTC)

From Bodybuilding: "It is recommended that bodybuilders receive 1 to 2 grams of protein per pound of body weight (2 to 5 g/kg) to help the body recover and build." This is conjunction with an all-around nutritional program, including eating little fat. James 19:13, August 2, 2005 (UTC)

It's all hotly contested just what the right amount of protein is. I was trying to research the details for weight training and never got a satisfactory idea that there was any consensus. Lots of bodybuilding types will recoommend huge amounts. As far as I know, the medical consensus is that your body cannot use more than a certain maximum and beyond that the protein is essentially wasted, and can be somewhat dangerous in very high amounts due to metabolic byproducts. The 1-2 grams per pound of bodyweight is a common recommendation, but I've heard recommendations that the higher end of that can be dangerous, and that even the lower end is likely to be more than is needed. So even if you stick to the lower end, you'll likely be at the most that your body can effectively use, which is where you would need to be for maximum muscle growth. Of course, the intensity of the workout and getting proper rest are likely to be much more important than your protein consumption beyond reasonable amounts. But no one wants to hear that they have to do real work, which fuels the sales of supplments and crazy recoomendations. - Taxman ^Talk 15:31, August 3, 2005 (UTC)

How many feet is there to a mountian

See Mountain. The Encyclopædia Britannica classifies them as hills if they are under 2,000 feet, and mountains if they are greater than 2,000. James 19:09, August 2, 2005 (UTC)

Metaphorically speaking, this will vary by the geography (how many foothills) and the local dialect. In most figures of speech, a mountain has only one foot.--Joel 04:10, 4 August 2005 (UTC)

Better Sunscreen that is banned in the USA?

I recall seeing on TV something about a sunscreen that is supposed to be more effective than the ones sold in the US. The catch is that it isn't sold in the USA because it is banned by the FDA, despite being used safely abroad for years. What is it and what brands of it exist? I plan to pick some up when I travel abroad for my German/Irish skin which can't take the sun! FunkyChicken! 18:56, August 2, 2005 (UTC)

• The stuff is called "mexoryl"; it hasn't been approved by the FDA yet. The best known formulation with it is "Anthelios XL", sold by LaRoche; it's easy enough to get on eBay. SPF 60+. (Make sure you get the XL; you can get the SPF 60 Anthelios L in the US, and that's also real good.) It's not cheap, but my sun-sensitive wife says it's the best, and her dermatologist agrees. --jpgordon∇∆∇∆ 19:13, 2 August 2005 (UTC)

• Just to let you know, the whole SPF thing is a lot of marketing BS. SPF 20 blocks 95% of all UV rays, while SPF 60 blocks a whopping 98.6%. This is a mere 3.7% increase in protection. That is why the FDA requires sunblock to be marked "SPF 30+," as higher SPFs result in unrealistic claims about their effectiveness [8]. James 19:24, August 2, 2005 (UTC)
  • Yeah. The UVA and UVB blocking numbers are more important -- and I just was informed by my wife that her source for the SPF60 Anthelios was getting it from Canada, anyway. --jpgordon∇∆∇∆ 19:37, 2 August 2005 (UTC)
• That's a wonderful abuse of statistics. Imagine comparing two medical treatments for a serious disease: in one case 95% live and in the other 98.6% live. Not worth it because it's only 3.6% higher? How about in one case 95% live and 100% live. Not worth it because it's only 5% higher? It may not be spectacular, but 98.6% blocking allows (presumably) 1.4% through, while 95% blocking lets 5% through. The former is therefore about 3.5 times as effective. These sort of things are terribly important if you are a vampire. Notinasnaid 19:46, 2 August 2005 (UTC)

• • Now who's abusing statistics? We're not talking about a difference between 95% living and 98.6% living, but between the amounts of UV rays that get through. Blocking 95% of UV rays is sufficient protection for all but all-day exposure to the sun during the summer on a clear day. From the FDA monograph: "real consumer benefit is achieved through appropriate balance of SPF, substantivity, UVA radiation protection, irritation potential, and cost, whereas SPF values above 30 provide only ``incremental benefit and an unnecessary increase in drug exposure." James 20:02, August 2, 2005 (UTC)

• • • However, as Notinasnaid says, the relevent percentages are the about of sun that gets in, not the amount blocked. So the difference between 1.4% and 5% is actually very high, and one could stay out in the sun about 3.5 times longer and receive the same about of UV rays. Obviously the difference is only incremental, and obviously there is a case of diminishing returns, but the difference is still significant. — Asbestos | Talk 10:00, 4 August 2005 (UTC)
• I guess since I'll be going to Canad soon its going to be Anthelios. Are there any other brands? FunkyChicken! 15:01, August 4, 2005 (UTC)

Exploding Potatoes

Where can I find a video of an exploding potato?

A search on google yielded nothing. Therefore:

1. Buy a potato, and a small, legal firework
2. Borrow a video camera
3. Insert firework in potato
4. Turn video camera on and point at potato
5. Light firework
6. Retreat to a safe distance

Alternately, and probably more safely, bake your potato, and don't bother to poke holes in it. If you tape this, you'll have a video of your potato exploding. And do not underestimate the dangers of exploding potatoes. Proto t c 23:11, 2 August 2005 (UTC)

Try overbaking it in a microwave. And what Proto said. Exploding eggs are fun, too, but keep your distance if you do it on top of the stove. Leave the camera, and be in another room. --Mothperson cocoon 20:52, 3 August 2005 (UTC)

Creating a VFAT filesystem on a USB pendrive in Fedora Core 3 Linux

How do I create a VFAT filesystem on a USB pendrive in Fedora Core 3 Linux? As far as I know, I have to stick the pendrive into my computer's first USB port and then use the mkfs command with the correct parameters. The device handling the USB drives in the first USB port is /dev/sda. So I do this:

$ su -
# mkfs -t vfat /dev/sda

And I get told:

will not try to create a VFAT filesystem on /dev/sda

That's it. "Will not try". Why? Because it doesn't feel like it? I don't understand much of the other options to mkfs with the VFAT filesystem. How can I tell what is going wrong? — JIP | Talk 19:20, 2 August 2005 (UTC)

It's skittish about you trying to create a volume on /dev/sda rather than /dev/sda1, as you'll zap any partition table that exists in /dev/sda. As you probably don't want a partition table on /dev/sda, you need to give it the -I option to give it courage:

     mkfs -t vfat -I /dev/sda

The place to look for this kind of info is the man page of the actual mkfs program that makes a given filesystem type, e.g.:

     man mkfs.vfat

Hope this helps. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 19:56, August 2, 2005 (UTC)

Beertables

A beertable and two beerbenchs (?)

Hi@ All, does somebody know who has invented "Beertables" and when? I'm not sure about the correct translation, but you could simply take a look at w:de:Biergarnitur. You could also answer into the diskussion page at the Article in english. greets --84.154.161.166 20:29, 2 August 2005 (UTC)

Um...cave men, most likely. Possibly primates or some other smart nonhuman. ¦ Reisio 20:37, 2005 August 2 (UTC)

Um.. this wasn't a joke, somebody must have invented it, even if it was in ancient times. --84.154.160.62 07:28, 3 August 2005 (UTC)

I don't understand — it looks like an ordinary picnic table to me. What's the difference between a beertable and a simple table with benches? I don't know what the earliest recorded usage of a table is, but I expect they go back before recorded history. Hence Reiso's comment. — Asbestos | Talk 10:17, 3 August 2005 (UTC)

A Beertable is much easier to store and transport, because you can fold the Tablelegs. And the Table legs are made of metal, so perhapps they weren't invented so early... --84.154.160.62 10:21, 3 August 2005 (UTC)

Ah, a foldable table. I doubt you'll be able to find out who invented a foldable table, either, but if you get much more specific and ask something like "Who was the first person to mass-produce a foldable table of these relative dimensions?" or want patent information or something, maybe that can be found. ¦ Reisio 10:57, 2005 August 3 (UTC)

This could all be useful, too. It would be very nice, if you could provide some Informations. Such Tables also used at the Oktoberfest, like this I think these "Beertables" are a bit special foldable Tables also used in Beergardens... --84.154.160.62 11:31, 3 August 2005 (UTC)

Note: The same discussion is taking place in German at de:Wikipedia:Auskunft#Festzeltgarnitur with some links and more chances for success. — Sebastian (talk) 17:58, August 3, 2005 (UTC)

The German Talk is not as useful as this talk :-( I hoped somebody here could help... --84.154.160.62 20:51, 3 August 2005 (UTC)

Could somebody help? --84.154.166.197 22:02, 4 August 2005 (UTC)

Espresso before machines

People who talk about espresso nowadays, and at the talk page on espresso (#Stove-top espresso makers), people say that "true" espresso has to come from a dedicated machine; nothing else is true espresso.

These machines can't have been invented that long ago. Did they have espresso before then? Did they call it espresso?

Thanks! --James

• The espresso machine was invented in 1901. I found a useful espresso timeline. Obviously, until the steam was pressed through the ground coffee, it wasn't espresso. --jpgordon∇∆∇∆ 22:35, 2 August 2005 (UTC)

An espresso lover will tell you that espresso must have the crema or foam that forms on the top. It's practically impossible to get crema with a stove top maker, which is why some people say you can't make proper espresso with a stove top pot.--nixie 02:54, 3 August 2005 (UTC)

shell command to change file extensions

I want a quick shell command to change all files with a given extension in some directory tree to the same filename with different extension. can the find utility do this for me? -Lethe | Talk 22:50, August 2, 2005 (UTC)

for i in *.oldext; do mv $i `basename $i .oldext`.newext; done

~~ N (t/c) 23:05, 2 August 2005 (UTC)

To recurse the directory tree:

    for i in `find . -name "*.oldext"` ; do mv $i `basename $i .oldext`.newext; done

-- Finlay McWalter | Talk 23:13, August 2, 2005 (UTC)

If the /usr/bin/rename script is installed, try:

rename -n 's,\.oldext$,.newext,' *

Recursively:

find -type f | rename -n 's,\.oldext$,.newext,'

The -n just does a dry run for testing; remove it to actually perform the rename.

The argument to the rename script can be any Perl code. For example, to word-capitalize filenames ("foo bar" becomes "Foo Bar"):

rename -n 's,\w+,\L\u$&,g' *

To name files after their MP3 tags:

rename -n 'use MP3::Info; if (my $t = get_mp3tag($_)) { $_ = sprintf "%s - %s - %02d - %s.mp3", $t->{ARTIST}, $t->{ALBUM}, $t->{TRACKNUM}, $t->{TITLE} }' *.mp3

To name HTML files after their <title> tags:

rename -n 'use HTML::TreeBuilder; if (my $t = HTML::TreeBuilder->new_from_file($_)->find("title")) { $_ = sprintf "%s.html", $t->as_text }' *.html

—Ghakko 07:40, 4 August 2005 (UTC)

Biology of "size"

Does anyone know about recent research or models of the molecular mechanisms behind size? For instance, what stops a mouse from growing as large as rat, and what stops a rat from growing as large as a human? There are obviously evolutionary benefits and disadvantages to being big vs. small and vice versa. But what genes are driving the evolution of small or large size? Mouse cells and human cells are the same size - something must be regulating the number of cells, or the raw size of the organs. Mr.Bip 23:49, 2 August 2005 (UTC)

The reason they don't get bigger is their cells simply stop dividing. The cells become senescent, meaning they die without duplicating themselves. Just why and how this happens is a topic of intense scientific research, as it is an important part in treating cancer. Cancerous cells never become senescent, which is why they are biologically immortal. The current theory as to why cancer cells continue dividing is that somehow the body controls the length of telomeres during cell division, and when they become too short, the cell is not able to divide. There is an unknown mechanism that regulates the production of telomerase, which rebuilds telomeres. Turning off the production of telomerase would essentially halt growth. An article on its regulation in humans is available here. Cyclin or cyclin-dependent kinase, which control the cell cycle may be behind the signal to stop growing as well. here's an article at MSNBC on the same question. James 00:41, August 3, 2005 (UTC)

James - thanks for your answer, but I'm asking a slightly different question. I understand that cells stop dividing at a certain point governed by various factors, some of which are controversial. The question I have is: what is the molecular biological reason that a human liver is 20 times larger than a mouse liver? (just a random guess for the factor there). Telomerase, cyclins, and Cdks have to do with cell cycle control during adult life, but what controls how large an animal grows from an embryo, given the vast range of sizes in the animal kingdom? Mr.Bip 03:49, 3 August 2005 (UTC)

I'm under the impression that the same signals are involved during development. For an embryo through adulthood, telomerase would be working in overdrive, essentially never allowing a cell to senescent until a genetic trigger shuts off the growth factors. Those growth factors are somewhat well understood as far as bone growth goes and involve growth hormone, thyroxin, androgens, and estrogen, but the factors that control organ growth are not well understood at all, much as almost every other aspect of gene expression is poorly understood. It's an area of intense research. In essence, there are genes that turn on and off growth, but they have yet to be identified. Interestingly enough, the July, 2005 issue of Science has a section celebrating the journal's 125th anniversary with 125 questions yet to be answered, among which is: "How do organs and whole organisms know when to stop growing? A person's right and left legs almost always end up the same length, and the hearts of mice and elephants each fit the proper rib cage. How genes set limits on cell size and number continues to mystify." [9] and [10] James 04:08, August 3, 2005 (UTC)

Web Services?

Does wikipedia support web services? If so, where can i get more info? (posted by 69.164.88.46, moved by James 01:31, August 3, 2005 (UTC))

A Web service is a collection of protocols and standards used for exchanging data between applications or systems.

• We have a vast pool of PD, GFDL and fair use images, sounds and text, but Wikipedia is primarily meant to provide information, so I think the answer would be no. What kind of data did you have in mind? - Mgm|^(talk) 09:21, August 3, 2005 (UTC)

Information on Conviasa Airline

Hello my name is Rhajan and I am a travel agent in Trinidad, I am having lots of problems with respect to making reservations and the ticketing of flights to Margarita Island. My question here tonight is if you can assist me in contacting Conviasa Airlines directy....eg phone/fax/e.mail/website/address. Thank you in advance...any assistance is appreciated.

Indeed. I have updated the Conviasa article to include a link to their official site http://www.conviasa.aero. — Pekinensis 02:48, 3 August 2005 (UTC)

Microsoft Jet

Need some help on Microsoft Jet Database Engine: I have tried quite hard to see what locking mechanism this used. I need to know if it uses read and write locks, and whether it uses Strict two-phase locking (was asked on FAC). - Ta bu shi da yu 05:22, 3 August 2005 (UTC)

Does this question have anything to do with this recent read lock error on Wikipedia? This afternoon, I couldn't click on "edit this page" without getting an obscure SQL error. --HappyCamper 06:44, 3 August 2005 (UTC)

Not that I'm aware of... we don't use Jet for Wikipedia (thank goodness). Anyone have any idea? - Ta bu shi da yu 06:18, 4 August 2005 (UTC)

Casting Director

I am looking for anything and everything related to the revenue that these firms generate, the profits that their partners take home, individual contract rates per production, anything that can give me a better sense of the yearly incomes of these people. Obviously, the top top Casting Directors make alot, but I don't know exactly how much. If one could provide this data (but not solely for the top directors), it is what I'm looking for.

Ideally, I would like percentiles/groupings (i.e. 2% of casting directors had revenues (or profits) in excess of x dollars a year) or some other way to gauge the comparative success of one casting director to another.

USAT Sea Flasher

I am trying to help a friend research his fathers military career.

On one of the documents he has, which is a complete itinerary of his fathers time is the Army during WWII, it mentions a ship which was used for transport as the "USAT Sea Flasher."

We have been trying to locate ANY information on the above ship and have been unable to find anything.

If anyone has info, please contact me at Rangemastr@aol.com

Thank you James D. Zimomra

Well, Google has some information [11]...including that a troop-carrying ship called the "Sea Flasher" was damaged in Okinawa on May 3rd, 1945, after being shelled by another US ship (I'm assuming accidentally). ¦ Reisio 11:02, 2005 August 3 (UTC)

• You may want to contact the United States Naval Institute. They have all sorts of books on naval history. You can find them at http://www.usni.org/ FunkyChicken! 16:24, August 3, 2005 (UTC)

Removing/Overriding Copy Control Technology

Do computer (Windows) programs that can burn DVD's and override copyright protection technology (a Content-Scrambling System) also do the same for audio discs that utilise Copy Control. The particular CD's I want to be able to burn are Beastie Boys's To The 5 Boroughs and Red Hot Chili Peppers' Greatest Hits and Videos. And yes i know it's illegal i don't care. I have the Australian versions of these CD's. Cheers, --Jake--07:50, 3 August 2005 (UTC)

If the CD has been ripped already (to MP3, Ogg, or the like, not a DRMed format), any program can burn it. However, I assume you mean you're having trouble ripping it because of copy control. Just what kind of errors are you getting? ~~ N (t/c) 08:16, 3 August 2005 (UTC)

I'll let you in on a little "secret". Every time I hear about some new brilliant scrambling scheme, I laugh. The one program you need is Opcode Direct to Disk (OpD2D). It lets you record any sound playing over your speakers in unscrambled MP3 audio. Essentially, that means if you can hear a file you can convert it to plain MP3. It just requires a little effort to get the starts and stops timed right. It's definitely possible to do, though. Good luck, and remember using this is a violation of the US DMCA. Superm401 | Talk 20:11, August 3, 2005 (UTC)

Most copy protection methods can be broken more easily. One (that marks all audio tracks as data) can be fixed with a small patch to cdparanoia; another (that uses an autorun exe that blocks ripping) can be disabled by holding down "Shift" to disable autorun while inserting the disk (or using Tweak UI to disable autorun totally). ~~ N (t/c) 03:01, 4 August 2005 (UTC)

Thanks superm for the opd2d, i'm looking in to it. The two cd's i have only allow me to play the music tracks through their own macromedia players. I am not having errors, but the individual tracks are not accessible. I think they use EMI Copy Control.

N: What is "a small patch to cdparanoia"? --Jake--11:27, 4 August 2005 (UTC)

cdparanoia is a popular CD-ripping program, in Linux at least. A slight modification to it can bypass a form of copy protection whose name I forget, but it's not EMI. However, if the CD has its own player, I suspect it uses an autorun-type protection. Hold down Shift while inserting the CD. If as a result the player doesn't start, I bet you'll be able to rip it. ~~ N (t/c) 19:21, 4 August 2005 (UTC)

Netscape

How was netscape ever supposed to make money?

Maybe advertising, corporate setup & support, but most of all - businesses make money by fast, accurate transmission of information...like on the internet. A better internet browser for consumers means more profit for businesses. 2cents ¦ Reisio 11:17, 2005 August 3 (UTC)

Most web companies in the mid-ninties were happy rising along on the internet bubble. I don't know what Netscape's specific business plan was, if any. — Asbestos | Talk 11:23, 3 August 2005 (UTC)

By doing this:

• Selling corporate versions of the browser
• Setting the server software that talked to their client (webserver, LDAP, email, application-server, etc.). The more browser traffic there is, the more server software they can sell.
• Most people never change their browser's homepage, so Netscape set it to their corporate portal. So if you bought books from their bookseller affiliate, or travel from their travel affiliate, Netscape would get a cut.

That last point is where the big money was, and is. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 11:36, August 3, 2005 (UTC)

What is common law crime?

What is a common law crime? Always does a common law crime need 'Mens rea'?

A common law crime is one which has not been written down as a law, but is based on the history of court cases from the past several hundred years in the US and Britain. Very few common law crimes are actually prosecuted as common law anymore, since the basic crimes that are still considered crimes have all been heavily legislated into meticulously detailed statutes. The most basic common-law crimes are murder and manslaughter, mayhem, rape, larceny, robbery, burglary, arson, assault and battery, perjury, forgery, bribery, and conspiracy.

One example of a common law prosecution was Jack Kevorkian. Michigan's assisted suicide law expired, so there was no statute banning it. Instead, common law forbid it, even in cases where the person was easing someone's pain and they happened to die (which was an exception in the then-expired statute). Michigan's Supreme Court ruled that since there was no statute on the issue, common law prevailed, and Kevorkian was tried three times for four deaths under common law, but never convicted until Michigan passed a new assisted suicide law, mainly because of the uncertainties regarding violating a law that has never been defined.

Some aspect of mens rea is almost always required for any criminal prosecution, common law or otherwise. For instance, in the assisted suicide common law, you could not be convicted if you accidentally aided in the suicide. Strict liability crimes are the exception, but are all of a minor nature. James 13:48, August 3, 2005 (UTC)

Sexual Attraction

I don't find that I am attracted to black women. Mixed race white/black yes, but black no. Does this make me a racist? Also I am really attracted to Jewish women. Is this a fetish or is it becuse they are hot?

• No, whether you are sexually attracted to someone or not has no bearing on racism. However, if you believe black women, or black people in general, to be less worthy, filthy or anything else demeaning because of the color of their skin, you might be harboring racist views. I've got no idea why you are attracted to Jewish women. - Mgm|^(talk) 15:09, August 3, 2005 (UTC)
• One theory I have heard has something to do with old National Geographics and photos of naked or topless women. They were invariably women of color and it created a sort of exotic eroticism. Perhaps you looked at too many old National Geographics as a child and were desensitized? As for your attraction to Jewish women, I can't say. However, I have seen my share of attractive and unattractive Jewish women, which is the norm for all women. FunkyChicken! 16:17, August 3, 2005 (UTC)
• You are no more racist than if you prefered brunettes, or like green eyes.--84.66.63.119 19:25, 3 August 2005 (UTC)
• It's not a fetish, Jewish women are just hot :P (i keed, i keed! like Triumph would say) gkhan 12:42, August 4, 2005 (UTC)

Golieth grouper

Information re this fish with picture if possible please

The scientific name of the Goliath grouper (note the spelling) is Epinephelus itajara. So far, we only have a one-sentence article on the genus Epinephelus, but the google image search for either Goliath grouper or Epinephelus itajara yields quite a few nice images. — Pekinensis 15:55, 3 August 2005 (UTC)

I happened to have the National Audubon Society Field Guide to Fishes: North America on my desk which notes that the Goliath grouper was previously called the Jewfish. It can get to 7'10" or 2.4 m long and 680 lbs. or 309 kg. Rmhermen 16:40, August 3, 2005 (UTC)

The Jewfish article lists a whole host of fish the name it refers to, but not specifically this species. As to the renaming it mentions: It can't mean that all of these fish are named "goliath grouper" now, can it? — Sebastian (talk) 18:10, August 3, 2005 (UTC)

I beleive that the renaming refers specifically and only to this species. Rmhermen 18:23, August 3, 2005 (UTC)

I found our article it is under Itajara. I will work on cleaning this up. Rmhermen 18:37, August 3, 2005 (UTC)

Nice job on that. I don't know a thing about fishes, but it sure looks like a nice fish article. — Pekinensis 22:26, 3 August 2005 (UTC)

a question about a measurement

i needed to know as far as dry ingredients go which has the greater amount .3 oz or .06 oz?

0.3 oz is "Three tenths of an ounce.". 0.06 oz is "Six hundredths of an ounce.". The first would be represented by the fraction 3/10, the second by the fraction 6/100. 0.3 is much larger than 0.06. [12] ¦ Reisio 16:00, 2005 August 3 (UTC)

To be precise, 0.3 oz is five times heavier than 0.06 oz. That doesn't necessarily correpond to five times more, though (e.g. in terms of teaspoons) if the two ingredients aren't the same substance. Certainly five time heavier, though. — Asbestos | Talk 16:45, 3 August 2005 (UTC)

The stadium used by Real Santa Barbara

Does anyone out there know the stadium that was used by Real Santa Barbara of the American Professional Soccer League in 1990? I want to say that they used Harder Stadium, but I'm not sure. Thank you. --fpo 15:56, August 3, 2005 (UTC)

Laptop strange power problem

I'll be bringing my laptop in to get fixed, but the problem is strange enough that I thought people here might know what's wrong with it.

My laptop doesn't react to being plugged into an outlet through any transformer. The battery is drained and, when plugged in, no lights or anything come on and the computer can't be turned on. What is strange, though, is that, when a transformer, which works perfectly, is plugged in to the computer at the outlet, the little light on the tranformer starts flashing and a strange beeping sound comes out of the tranformer. As far as I know, the tranformer has no mechanism for making a beep, and so the sound is something in the hardware malfunctioning(?). This happens with any transformer I use.

Also possibly of interest, if the tranformer is plugged in (by itself) and then unplugged, the little light, as usual, takes about ten seconds to completely fade away. However, if the tranformer is plugged in, then unplugged, then attached to the computer (within those ten seconds), the light shuts off imediately, as if the charge is instantly draining away into the computer (which isn't itself grounded or anything).

Anyone know what kind of problem this might be? Thanks, --James

• Have you:

1. Tried the suspect transformer with another computer?

2. Tried using other cables?

3. Tried another battery in the computer?

That may help in finding the problem! FunkyChicken! 16:20, August 3, 2005 (UTC)

Hi FunkyChicken. 1) I don't have another computer to try the transformer on, but have tried three other transformers and they all do the same thing, so it's the computer, not the tranformer. 2) Cables ditto. 3) AFAIK, the power doesn't need to go through the battery to work. cf. plugging in your laptop without a battery - it should still work fine. I don't think the problem can be the battery, therefore. Thanks however, --James

• • Then it sounds that it may be a problem with the power pickup of your computer. FunkyChicken! 17:03, August 3, 2005 (UTC)

It sounds like you have a very smart transformer. The beeping noise may be from an over-current protection circuit, and ditto the flashing light. It sounds like you have a short circuit in the computer or in the battery, which would explain the power draining out of the transformer so quickly. Have you tried removing the battery and then plugging the computer in? I realize many computers won't run in this state, but it may solve the flashing-beeping problem, in which case the problem is probably in the battery.--Joel 04:31, 4 August 2005 (UTC)

ipod not beeing seen properly in Windows XP Home

File:Problem-1.png

Click to see larger image

File:Problem-2.png

Click to see larger image

My 4th generation ipod isn't beeing seen properly when hooked up to a firewire connection in Windows XP Home. It looks like it may be some sort of driver problem, however other firewire external hard drives work fine and it sees the ipod when hooked up to USB. Also the ipod draws power from the firewire connection. Is this some sort of driver problem? If so where can I find drivers. I tried searching for drivers but it was futile! FunkyChicken! 16:41, August 3, 2005 (UTC)

The firewire driver will ship with your firewire card (or your motherboard, if the firewire controller is built into the chipset). There's not really an "iPod driver", just the basic firewire driver and the make-firewire-devices-look-like-drives driver (USB calls that the "mass storage device" driver, firewire will surely call it something similar). So, you should try:

• Updating your basic firewire driver (or chipset driver). Even though other devices work, maybe the new iPod does weird stuff that your current firewire driver doesn't anticipate.
• Question: is there a preference inside the iPod to enable/disable the firewire interface? If so, maybe the default is to enable USB and disable firewire.
• Are you using the cable that came with it, or are you assuming that another (identical looking) cable will work alike. If so, maybe that's an unsafe assumption.

-- Finlay McWalter | Talk 21:38, August 3, 2005 (UTC)

Please elaborate on "not being seen properly"

• I have used a few cables - all Apple produced and work properly with the ipod on other machines - to rule it being the cable out. The ipod works fine on several other machines. Other firewire external hard drives work fine on the machine. So it is really odd. And please do look at the images on the right! Thanks! FunkyChicken! 03:32, August 4, 2005 (UTC)

Barycenter

I made some images for barycenter and other orbit related articles. I was wondering, on the article, is the barycenter in the correct place on the last image? &#0149;Zhatt&#0149; 17:29, August 3, 2005 (UTC)

Looks correct to me. The barycenter is in the common focus, right? BTW, they are nice and very instructive pictures! — Sebastian (talk) 18:23, August 3, 2005 (UTC)

Google Maps

I wonder about the choice of patches of high resolution on google maps. Sure, some are straightforward. The above-average resulution of Iraq and the area of Kabul makes me assume they buy their images from the US military. But this huge patch of the Baltic Sea in high resolution seems particularly pointless. I assume they must have some automated way of submitting these patches, as nobody in their right mind would waste bandwith with that. dab (ᛏ) 17:39, 3 August 2005 (UTC)

• Perhaps somebody is looking for Russian subs? FunkyChicken! 18:02, August 3, 2005 (UTC)
  • so what were they up to here, looking for terrorists? dab (ᛏ) 18:11, 3 August 2005 (UTC)

• Google gets its images from all over the place. They have obviously searched for high resolution images of, for example, Massachusetts, but the rest seems to depend on what their different suppliers gave them for their money. Bandwidth is not a problem, as the image which is sent is the same size (in bytes) whatever the resolution: the rest is just database technology. Physchim62 20:40, 3 August 2005 (UTC)
  • I do assume they gzip the data at transmission? The Baltic Sea bit is essentially white noise... But I suppose you're right, it just still doesn't make sense to buy a hires image of so many square miles of ocean. The non-US hires images do seem militarily relevant, see this one [13] for example, a weird structure in Algeria, the only patch of hires data in the entire country. dab (ᛏ) 21:57, 3 August 2005 (UTC)

• The basic images, for much of the world, are public domain NASA Landsat 7 images. Detailed views of many major US metropolises aren't infact satellite images at all, they're orthographic aerial photography, undertaken by the USGS. Both of these sources are free and are served by several websites, and are available using NASA World Wind. I think a lot of the higher detail stuff (other that US urban) is from IKONOS. There is also an old monochrome dataset collected by the military Corona satellite, which is now declassified - google doesn't use this, but Microsoft does (hence a recent and very silly Slashdot conspiracy-theory, when folks noticed apple's HQ in Cupertino,CA didn't show up on Microsoft's antique corona images - but it hadn't been built then). Absolutely positively none of the imagery is from any kind of modern military satellites - the US (and everyone else) doesn't admit anything about them - you're certainly not going to see unadulterated KH-12 imagery in the public domain for decades. Patches of unexpected detail have several, all rather prosaic, interpretations. Firstly, commercial imagery like IKONOS is collected partially on a bespoke basis, and it's very common for oil companies, governments, developers, and municipalities to order commercial imagery of their own stuff. So frankly any little detailed facility you see in the desert is going to be an oil facility, paid for by the owners. Secondly is registration - to make satellite images montage nicely together takes some skill and some software - images need to be deformed to fit the globe, and positioned and scaled so they mesh properly with other images taken by different satellites at different times. Doing this is hard for featureless places like deserts and oceans, as there aren't features to help. So when there is a feature in such a block of blankness, be it a village or an island, that's going to get registered properly sooner than an empty place. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 22:39, August 3, 2005 (UTC)

Why do I feel sort of sick when I look at a close-up of Quebec City (focus on - say, the Chateau Frontenac)? That's surely not an aerial photo, so why does a satellite photo produce such a physical reaction? --Mothperson cocoon 22:37, 4 August 2005 (UTC)

My unscientific reply would be: Because your body knows that if you were to have such a view in reality chances are that you're in danger. Sounds rather like acrophobia than fear of flying to me. — Sebastian (talk) 22:51, August 4, 2005 (UTC)

Information

I would be very much grateful if you could please advise my where to find what is the total food production and expenditure of each of the first 15 economies of the world. I have spent more than a week searching without success.

Thank you very much in advance.

Adriana Maciel Mexico

Have you tried the FAO [14]? Rmhermen 17:59, August 3, 2005 (UTC)

• One very important question what are the "first 15 economies of the world"? Do you mean chronologically, per capita income, etc.? FunkyChicken! 18:00, August 3, 2005 (UTC)

Start up Business failures

I am researching the rate of Start up Service Business failures in 2003-2004. I found the statistic of 1 in 10 fail the first year but did not feel the source was reliable and the article was from 1998. Can you help me find more pertinent data ? Susan

According to the U.S. Small Business Administration, "Two-thirds of new employer firms survive at least two years, and about half survive at least four years. Owners of about one-third of the firms that closed said their firm was successful at closure." A firm can cease operations and still be successful from a cash flow perspective, of course. [15] Rhobite 21:10, August 3, 2005 (UTC)

Geology of Venus

Is "geology" the correct term to use to describe other planets? I've seen "selenology" used for the moon, and "planetology" for other planets. Is the word geology the official term used by international astronomical associations? John Barleycorn 19:21, August 3, 2005 (UTC)

Selenology is basicaly "study of the moon" - you'd still need another term for "study of the earth (as in land/matter/etc.) of the moon". Geology: "4. The scientific study of the origin, history, and structure of the solid matter of a celestial body." [16] ¦ Reisio 19:48, 2005 August 3 (UTC)

Selenogeology, perhaps? Superm401 | Talk 20:01, August 3, 2005 (UTC)

A geosynchronous orbit is for earth while, appently, a areosynchronous orbit is for mars. So could areogeology work for mars? I don't know what to use for Venus.

&#0149;Zhatt&#0149; 20:11, August 3, 2005 (UTC)

Areology was used in this sense by Robert Heinlein in at least some of his novels. But that has no bearing on whether actual scientists use it, and may have been a stylistic flourish or an effort to show the patriotism of the local scientists.--Joel 04:41, 4 August 2005 (UTC)

The pattern is you use the Greek name of the god rather than the Roman ("-ology" is Greek-derived). Hence, it's "Aphroditology", of course. I think this may be on file somewhere with the IAU. BTW, no, I wouldn't recommend changing the name of the article.--Pharos 00:37, 4 August 2005 (UTC)

Scratch that; apparently Cytherology is preferred; see Planetary science for a list.--Pharos 00:49, 4 August 2005 (UTC)

The idea of having separate words for the study and orbit of each planet is fundamentally flawed, requiring new words to describe the same thing with every new discovery. It will probably give way to "abuse" of the 'geo-' prefix in the future. But that's just my opinion. --Cyrius 02:10, 4 August 2005 (UTC)

Assigning values to function keys

Ok, I know how to do this in unix like systems, but in Windows 2000 and XP how do I assign a text string to a function key so that it pastes in when I hit the key. It would really help in some editing situations. Microsoft.com was useless, as was the OS's help system. Thanks - Taxman ^Talk 22:10, August 3, 2005 (UTC)

There's a proprietary program called Regsoft that does it. I don't think it would be that hard to code a program that did the same thing. I can't do it myself, but I'm sure someone on Wikipedia can :) Hopefully, they'll release it as open-source. It would seem to be a simple matter of keeping a process running in the background and trapping some keystrokes. I could do it in JavaScript, but it would only work in your web browser and for the document that was running the script. Ahh.... Superm401 | Talk 22:27, August 3, 2005 (UTC)

So how do you do it in unix-like systems? Ojw 23:11, 3 August 2005 (UTC)

You can redefine keyboard scancodes in the registry. I've used this to disable keystrokes on kiosks before. Now that I've typed this response I see that it has nothing to do with your question, but I'll post it anyway. Nyahh. Rhobite 01:19, August 4, 2005 (UTC)

Filing a Small Claims Lawsuit in California

If I have had trouble with a corporation in California, is it possible to sue them in California Small Claims Court if I live in a different state? I searched the California Department of Consumer Affairs website, but couldn't find an answer. Thanks!

Nolo Press publishes some really great legal books for the non-lawyer. One of them is Everybody's Guide to Small Claims Court in California. I haven't seen it, but the other books of theirs that I did use were very handy, and entirely accessible. Sure, you can sue them in California, but if you're buying stuff from them then you can probably sue them in your own state court too. If you sue in California, you'll have to appear in court (possibly several times) there, which may exceed the sum you're suing for. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 23:29, August 3, 2005 (UTC)

Combinatorics: License Plates

How many different license plates are there with the following property: the first group contains three different digits, but the second group is a different ordering of the same three digits? For example, 036-603.

Karl.

• Hm, we helping with homework here? This one's easy, I think. There are 10 * 9 * 8 combinations for the first three; and any three unique things can be arranged six ways, and the first trio eats one, so it's going to be 10*9*8*5. --jpgordon∇∆∇∆ 00:58, 4 August 2005 (UTC)

• I know that some combinations are not used by certain states for some reason, I only know this because there are certain blocks reserved for prop plates in California. FunkyChicken! 03:27, August 4, 2005 (UTC)

Can you, perhaps with an illustration, explain "the first trio eats one, so it's going to be 10*9*8*5?" The answer is 3600, so you are right, but I don't understand what you mean when you write that the first trio eats one. Karl

• Based on your statement of the problem, the arrangement of the digits in the second group can not match the order of the first group, i.e. 036-036 is not valid. Thus, out of the six possible ways to arrange three digits, one of those ways has been eliminated, i.e. "eaten", leaving the 5 that Jpgordon used in his solution. LarryMac 17:50, 4 August 2005 (UTC)

Combinatorics: United States Senate

The U.S. Senate has two senators from each of the 50 states. In how many ways can a committee of five senators be chosen if no state is to have two members on the committee? Karl.

• I think that would be 100 * 98 * 96 * 94 * 92. (First you can pick any of the 100. Then you have to rule out that state, so there are only 98 senators left to pick from. And so on.) --jpgordon∇∆∇∆ 00:56, 4 August 2005 (UTC)
  • No. (! means factorial) It would be 100 * 98 * 96 * 94 * 92 / 5!. If I have a Senator Specter, Santorum, Rosenberg, Williams, and Montgomery on a committee it's the same as if I had Santorum, Williams, Montgomery, Rosenberg, and Specter. Order doesn't matter and hence must be compensated for in the calculation. Superm401 | Talk 01:33, August 4, 2005 (UTC)
    • To me, it makes sense to express it like this: 50!2^5/45!5! . You choose one of the 50 state pairs originally there, then one of the 49 remaining, and so on. Then you multiply by 2^5 to take into account the fact that either senator could be picked for any state. I explained the 5!. Ask if you have questions. Superm401 | Talk 01:37, August 4, 2005 (UTC)

I thank both responders, especially the example of order and explanations of S401. So the answer is 67,800,320. Karl

• I'll glibly lie that I was assuming that sequence was relevent, since Senate committees have senior and junior members. --jpgordon∇∆∇∆ 21:23, 4 August 2005 (UTC)

Fictional work about world with age-limit

A few days ago I was watching University Challenge on BBC 2 and a question came along about a fictional world from I think a book in which people weren't allowed to live past 30. I missed the answer to the question and I'd love to learn more about it. Has anyone got an idea who wrote it and what it was named? - Mgm|^(talk) 00:51, August 4, 2005 (UTC)

• Sounds like the movie Logan's Run to me. (It seemed like a good idea when I saw it 30 yrs ago. Now I don't think I approve of the concept.) --jpgordon∇∆∇∆ 00:53, 4 August 2005 (UTC)
  • lol! - Ta bu shi da yu 06:28, 4 August 2005 (UTC)
• I can remember a question about Logan rocks before this which may give it a certain connection. Looks about right. Thanks! - Mgm|^(talk) 01:00, August 4, 2005 (UTC)

It's also the basis of an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation except in that the age is 60, if I recall correctly. Dismas 02:48, 4 August 2005 (UTC)

The episode is "Half a Life". But I agree with jpgordon that Mgm is probably thinking of Logan's Run. Chuck 15:12, August 4, 2005 (UTC)

Also, the teen exploitation flick Wild in the Streets. -- Jmabel | Talk 06:44, August 4, 2005 (UTC)

It's not an uncommon theme in science fiction, although probably all such plots are paying homage to Logan's Run. I watched this episode of Futurama tonight (as a rerun) where the age limit is 160. That I could accept for a few more years.-gadfium 09:00, 4 August 2005 (UTC)

Also figures in Children of the Corn, which is a short story. Meelar (talk) 17:14, August 4, 2005 (UTC)

earthquake between 809-829 bce

I have looked for information about a earthquake recorded in the bible book of Amos 1:1. This same earthquake was mentioned in Zechariah 14:5. I have been looking to find anything on this quake and wonder if you may have any information on this quake. It took place about 8 miles south of Jerusalem between 809-828 BCE. It must of been a big quake as to have Zechariah make mention of it some 300 hundred years later. Do you have any information that would support this account from any historical or archeological findings?

Seeing as the Book of Amos was not written until 750 or 749 BC and it says specifically that the sermon was given two years before the earthquake and during the reign of Jeroboam, son of Jehoash, the middle 8th century BC is the accepted time frame for the earthquake. Evidence of a sudden destruction is evident at Hazor, Megiddo, and Tell Deir 'Alla, but other than that, little is known. There is an excellent site on the Megiddo excavations as well as for the Hazor excavaions. James 15:41, August 4, 2005 (UTC)

what are gregarian chant

I assume you are refering to Gregorian chant? --Mairi 03:14, 4 August 2005 (UTC)

European evolution vs the rest of the world

What did Europe have - and, perhaps to a lesser extent, some Asian and North African countries - that allowed its inhabitants to become more technologically advanced than many other races, especially tribal nations. Is it the weather, or evolution, or brain size, or avaliable resources? It seems odd that while some areas of the world were trying to create flying machines, other cultures were still being discovered that lived in caves. (no prejudice, I am merely curious) --Jake--10:56, 4 August 2005 (UTC)

You might be interested in reading Guns, Germs, and Steel. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 11:07, August 4, 2005 (UTC)

One of my favorite books. The author makes the case that the answer to that question is entirely geography. There's currently a PBS series on the book for those interested in a preview of the book's argument. --Laura Scudder | Talk 17:11, 4 August 2005 (UTC)

I don't remember the source, but one historian has suggested the development of precision laboratory glassware in the West was a significant contributing factor to the development of science and technology, cumulating to the industrial revolution. --HappyCamper 11:49, 4 August 2005 (UTC)

Well certainly the Steam Engine was humongously important, don't you think? There would have been little revolution without it. An argument I like is that of Isaac Asimov in his foundation series, where he says that the only way a civilization is to succeed is to have only enough resources to barely survive (that way you have to invent stuff and make war all the time). Seems to make sense to me, there is certainly more need for invention in England than in the jungle. There you can just pick fruit from a tree, in colder places you have to grow them. However, I claim no special knowledge in the area, and Asimov is perhaps not the guy to trust in these issues. I just think it makes sense :P gkhan 12:37, August 4, 2005 (UTC)

What made them leave the cradle of life for the cold lands of the North in the first place? Maybe these people were just innately (or genetically) unsatisfied with what they had. ¦ Reisio 12:53, 2005 August 4 (UTC)

Desertification from overgrazing combined with deforestation. The cradle of life looked much more appealling before we started farming it like mad. The development of hay didn't hurt in making the North more livable either. --Laura Scudder | Talk 17:11, 4 August 2005 (UTC)

It is also worth pointiing out that Europe has a history of distrupting technological progress with violent imperialism. When the spanish conquistadors arrived in the Americas, they noted that a variety of cultures (the Aztechs in particular) had amazingly complex social and agricultural structures. Unfortionately, they didn't have guns and suffered mass slaughter. This is just one example, but europe did not really emerge as a technological powerhouse until the industrial revolution. Prior to that, it had been scouraged by the dark ages, religious wars and disease.

Wikipedia's 666,666th article?

I see that wikipedia has just about hit 667,000 articles in English, and out of curiousity (morbid, perhaps :) ) I was wondering which article was the 666,666th. - grubber 12:43, 2005 August 4 (UTC)

Rats rats rats. There's a pool. And I lost by well over a month. I can't give you the exact name of where you can find this out, but someone else will, forthwith, I'm sure. It's the 666,666th article pool --Mothperson cocoon 13:30, 4 August 2005 (UTC)

Where was this pool? - grubber 13:44, 2005 August 4 (UTC)

The 666,666th pool?

The 666,666th article was, strangely, 666666. Apparently, Sasquatch created it right on the dot, took a screenshot and then deleted it. —Ghakko 13:47, 4 August 2005 (UTC)

Wikipedia:666,666th pool. Neutrality won, lucky devil. --Mothperson cocoon 13:50, 4 August 2005 (UTC)

And of course it would be someone like Sasquatch who could achieve such brilliantly evil machinations. --Mothperson cocoon 13:55, 4 August 2005 (UTC)

Seeing as it's now deleted, I don't think it counts any more. I'm willing to accept the article after it (which would have originally been the 666,667th article) as the "real" 666,666th article. And anyway seeing as the article has been deleted, I can't find out the time it was created. — JIP | Talk 13:57, 4 August 2005 (UTC)

Agreed - anybody know what it is? ¦ Reisio 16:43, 2005 August 4 (UTC)

Sasquatch created it at 07:45, 4 August 2005; its contents were simply "666666 = twice the evil!" It was CSD'd the same minute (well done, RC patrol!) and gone by 07:49 (Sasquatch thoughfully added a wikilink to evil before it finally went). -- ALoan (Talk) 14:07, 4 August 2005 (UTC)

Is that 06:45 in UTC? From your user and talk pages, I surmise you are British. You guys would normally have the same time as UTC, but it's summer now, and I think you have daylight savings time, just like we Finns do. So you're currently 1 hour ahead of UTC, as I think UTC is not affected by daylight savings time. — JIP | Talk 14:23, 4 August 2005 (UTC)

You are correct. During the summer, the Brits switch from Universal Coordinated Time (UTC) to British Summer Time (BST). Where I live, on the US East Coast, we go from EST (Eastern Standard Time) to Eastern Daylight Time (EDT). →Raul654 16:55, August 4, 2005 (UTC)

Oh, apologies - I just "cut and paste"d the time: yes, that was BST (UTC/GMT+1): UTC would be 6:45 and 6:49, respectively. -- ALoan (Talk) 17:12, 4 August 2005 (UTC)

buzzing mosquitoes

--69.197.81.161 16:11, 4 August 2005 (UTC)I have read your article relating to mosquitoes, and I understand now that the buzzing noice is produced by the wingbeats of the insects. I still feel that for some reason only some mosquitoes produce this sound and not others. Maybe it is just that only the ones close to your ears you can hear, but I'm sure that I have shooed some away from my ears that I had "felt" there rather than heard there.

So, what's your question? "...is this really true?", perhaps? ¦ Reisio 17:55, 2005 August 4 (UTC)

Map of top tier England football club stadiums

I've created a very comprehensive website which shows on a map of England (with maps zommed in for some of the bigger cities) the locations of all top tier England club stadiums: http://footballclubs.dyndns.org/

It'd be wonderful to offer a link to it for people surfing the Wikipedia, for English football topics. Can you guys do this?

Nice map, I put a link to it on List of English football stadiums by capacity. David Sneek 18:42, 4 August 2005 (UTC)

Pronounce "Quis custodiet ipsos custodes"

How do you pronounce "Quis custodiet ipsos custodes" in English?

If you're not pronouncing it properly (a la Latin), you can pronounce it however you like. ¦ Reisio 17:45, 2005 August 4 (UTC)

The (loose) translation is "Who will guard the guards?" Flcelloguy | A note? | Desk 17:48, 4 August 2005 (UTC)

It is Latin and has not really become incorporated into the English language, so there is not really an English pronunciation; if there were, it would depend on your accent anyway. Given that Latin is the language equivalent of the undead, there is not really a "proper" Latin pronunciation either. I would suggest that the best you could do would be to pronounce every syllable - e.g. "kwis cuss-toad-ee-et ip-sos cuss-toad-ees". Note that a Roman may very well have pronounced it rather differently, as may anyone else that you speak to. -- ALoan (Talk) 17:55, 4 August 2005 (UTC)

See also: Latin spelling and pronunciation David Sneek 18:36, 4 August 2005 (UTC)

I am thinking of giving up making English approximations of foreign language pronunciations. English has very complex pronunciation rules, compared to pretty much every other language used in Europe and Asia (I don't know about African or native American languages). Explaining something simple in a difficult way is far more difficult than explaining something difficult in a simple way. I can say "Finnish is pronounced like German", "German is pronounced like Japanese", "Japanese is pronounced like Latin", but if I put English there somewhere, I have to go through all sorts of hoops to give even a remote approximation. — JIP | Talk 19:00, 4 August 2005 (UTC)

I think your accents would fall something like this: quis cus-to'di-et i'psos cus-to'des, where the ' marks the previous syllable as accented. --Laura Scudder | Talk 18:49, 4 August 2005 (UTC)

How do you make bales of hay?

How do you make bales of hay? I mean, what is the procedure that people use to dry up the grass, and roll them up? Certainly this is not done by hand. What is the machine used to do it? Why do they seem to be randomly spaced out when the are on the field? Do you need to store them outside for a while before taking them inside?

And finally, do cows prefer hay, or grass? Thanks for the answers! --HappyCamper 17:25, 4 August 2005 (UTC)

• See Hay and Baler. Can't help with what cows like to eat. Joyous (talk) 17:28, August 4, 2005 (UTC)

• As to the spacing in the field: the balers eject each bale when it's the right size, after collecting enough hay off the ground. If the crop yield is perfectly uniform over the whole field, then you should expect a bale exactly every so-many metres apart, as the baler is hauled up and down the field. In the real world hay is likely not perfectly uniform owing to rich and poor spots in the field, crop circle damage, etc. Traditionally hay was cut and left to thoroughly dry before it was baled or stored, to prevent subsequent mouldering or even fires owing to spontanous combustion (yes, really!), but more recently techniques have emerged to bale and store "green" (undryed) hay for better nutrient content; see silage. Once baled, hay can be put into storage immediately, but the larger bales are reasonably weatherproof and can be left outside, possibly with a loss of the outer few inches of hay. Some farmers wrap them in plastic material for better protection; there's a machine separate from a baler that does this. I think cows prefer fresh grass, certainly it's more nutritious, but year-round pasture is unavailable in many climate zones. Traditional small farmers pastured their cows in summer and fed them hay and supplemental feed over the winter. Sharkford 18:02, 4 August 2005 (UTC)

How does the bale of hay not separate apart when it falls off? It looks like it's just rolled up. --HappyCamper 20:19, 4 August 2005 (UTC)

According to the baler article there is some twine that is wrapped around the bale, although it may or may not be knotted, depending on the type of baler. --CVaneg 21:06, 4 August 2005 (UTC)

"Baling wire" is a kind of very flexible thin wire that automatic balers use to tie the bales with. Joyous (talk) 21:16, August 4, 2005 (UTC)

Oh, I see. I didn't think that wire could hold the whole thing up. Thanks! --HappyCamper 21:44, 4 August 2005 (UTC)

cricket-

Please could you tell me when the first 5 day test began , also did they have a break for Sunday.

Thanking you in anticipation rick

I am not certain as to the date of the first ever five-day Test, but that length was settled upon after the Second World War. Up to 1938 there had been Tests lasting until the tenth day. The break for Sundays happened in every Test in England until 1981. It has not happened since. [[smoddy]] 21:55, 4 August 2005 (UTC)

How to pronounce "Geschichte" and "tsch", "sch", "sh" and "ch" in German

I hope the langauge experts out there can help me out again. How does one pronounce "Geschichte" and for that matter, all these consonant clusters (correct terminology?) "tsch", "sch", "sh" and "ch"? For the latter, I know these change with context, but I haven't figured it out what it is yet. When I try speaking in German, I feel as if I'm speaking with a lisp since I am pronouncing all of them as the cedille (c with a comma under it). --HappyCamper 20:18, 4 August 2005 (UTC)

• You could start with our article German language#Pronunciation. The second "ch" is pronounced as a hard G sound similar to the Dutch Scheveningen and Den Haag. Sh and is as the English equivalent and "ch" may be a hard G or something else depending on the word. I've yet to find suitable examples of "something else". - Mgm|^(talk) 21:17, August 4, 2005 (UTC)

Help

I am inquiring about the possibilities of moving to the midwest. Can you please help me in locating a community that needs a doctor. I'm board certified in Ob/Gyn, and can also do some family practice. I would like to do this in a small town, not more than a 25,000 population draw area, and some community that has a real need for a physician. Enclosed is my resume. Email URL alexkmd at bellsouth.net Thank you. Alex Kammer, M.D.,FACOG.

Try monster.com. This is an encyclopedia. Sorry, we can't help you. Hermione1980 20:34, 4 August 2005 (UTC)

Well, assuming that Dr. Kammer wants to open a private practice, I don't know how much Monster could help him. I would think that he could get some population and income statistics from the United States Census Bureau to help narrow down his search to some viable areas that can support a practice. After that, since he's targetting relatively small towns, I would imagine that the best thing to do is call the local city hall, town counsel, or equivalent body and ask about their community's relative need for medical services. They might also be able to provide him with some sort of business development assistance to help him defray his costs. This method is a bit labor intensive, but I can't really think of a better way. --CVaneg 21:02, 4 August 2005 (UTC)

Instead of calling every small town in the Midwest, might I suggest contacting the states' individual medical associations first? John Barleycorn 23:24, August 4, 2005 (UTC)