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March 17

A Question about Wikipedia's searches

WP:TITLE#COMMONNAME says that we should use names and terms that readers are most likely to look for in order to find an article. Is it possible to access Wikipedia server logs to determine what search terms our readers are using to access an article? A Quest For Knowledge (talk) 02:29, 17 March 2010 (UTC)

This question should probably be asked at The technical desk of the Village Pump which is more suited towards questions of a technical nature related to Wikipedia. The ref desks are more for getting answers to questions one might find in the content of Wikipedia articles. --Jayron32 02:38, 17 March 2010 (UTC)

I don't know about searches, but you can see page view statistics for each redirect from the history tab. Warofdreams talk 21:36, 17 March 2010 (UTC)

Bugs

There are these small bugs on my computer screen. No matter how many I squish they keep coming back. They're very small white colored. They always crawl on the screen, no where else. What are they called? Money is tight (talk) 02:53, 17 March 2010 (UTC)

"Sockpuppets". :) Unless they're in front of the screen. I've had gnats alight on my screen occasionally. This might be a stretch, but is it possible you could photograph one of them, or a cluster of them, and upload it? Unless an entomologist turns up here first. :) ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 02:57, 17 March 2010 (UTC)

Where in the world are you? Is it summer where you are? Dismas|^(talk) 03:43, 17 March 2010 (UTC)

Is it summer anywhere? --Polysylabic Pseudonym (talk) 06:14, 17 March 2010 (UTC)

Good point. We're a few days from the equinox. Do some insects "swarm" around the time of the equinoxes? ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 06:38, 17 March 2010 (UTC)

Summer officially ended in Australia on 28 February, but right now it's hot, humid and very uncomfortable where I live. There are plenty of flies and bugs. In real terms, it's still summer here. -- Jack of Oz ... speak! ... 07:08, 17 March 2010 (UTC)

Do you have plants in the room? They might be infested with some kind of whitefly, in which case give them a spraying.--Shantavira|^{feed me} 08:31, 17 March 2010 (UTC)

I get small black gnats on my computer screen in warm weather. They are small enough that they seem to get through the window screens. For some reason, they seem to be attracted to the computer screen. At night it may be because it's the brightest object in the room, but they also seem to be attracted during the day. Perhaps the static charge (it's a CRT) sucks them in as they fly past ? I just squash them with a finger when they land, and then have to use window cleaner and a paper towel on the screen at least once a day. I've found that either glue boards or plates filled with dish-washing detergent will tend to reduce their numbers, but not all the way to zero. StuRat (talk) 14:55, 17 March 2010 (UTC)

I live in Australia. It's not cold or hot right now. I have no plant or organic stuff in my room. They usually crawl on the front screen when my monitor is off. They aren't really a problem I'm just wondering what they are because they crawl on my other PC as well. And they can't fly or jump. Money is tight (talk) 02:59, 18 March 2010 (UTC)

Family tree software

Can anyone recommend a decent software package that allows me to log my family tree. There are so many on the market (and free ones to download), but I want a decent one that allows me to have pictures attached to the people and has a nice user-friendly interface. I am hoping that someone here has some experience with them and can recommend a good quality package that is worth all the effort of inputting all the data, etc. Thanks. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 91.111.107.244 (talk) 15:06, 17 March 2010 (UTC)

Family Tree Maker is probably the leading title but most boughten programs allow export in the GEDCOM format which allows you to move files between different programs. Free programs may not have any export capabilities. Rmhermen (talk) 18:31, 17 March 2010 (UTC)

Agreed. Whatever software you use, make sure they allow creation of GEDCOM format files. I have Family Tree Maker, and am happy with it. Woogee (talk) 21:46, 17 March 2010 (UTC)

Brazil_entertainment pricing

My question concerns pricing for various forms of entertainment in Brazil. For instance; a soccer game, a baseball game or a concert. This could be either in Brazilian currency or dollars. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Elpebbo (talk • contribs) 18:41, 17 March 2010 (UTC)

So, do you want to know the economic factors that influence the determination of such prices, or just how much those things will cost to a purchaser? If the latter, the question is too general to be easily answerable, as it would depend hugely on specific locations and on the 'quality level' of the specific event, just as elsewhere.

(For example, a ticket for a soccer game between top-level teams in São Paulo will likely cost a lot more than one in a lower league in a small town elsewhere; a concert by The Eagles in a major venue in central Brasilia will be much more expensive than one by a local band in a small club in the suburbs. Such things are universals.)

It's possible that a responder here may come along with specific knowledge of these sort regarding Brazil, but since only you know what you have in mind, you would probably get better answers faster by googling for Tourist or Entertainment Information websites in the Brazilian location(s) you are interested in. 87.81.230.195 (talk) 00:57, 18 March 2010 (UTC)

Football prices: For games at top São Paulo club, Corinthians, ticket prices seem to be from R$ 30 (~US$ 17) for seats behind the goal to R$ 100 for the better seats (and R$ 180 for a VIP seat). For example, see this page (click "Setores e Preços", prices are in Reals).

Cinema prices: A major multiplex in downtown São Paulo shows movies for R$ 7 - R$ 16 depending what day you go and whether or not the screen has Dolby Digital sound and 3D. See this page.

Concert prices: The British band, Franz Ferdinand, are playing in São Paulo next week. According to this site, tickets are R$ 180 or R$ 240 (which seems incredibly expensive to me - I wouldn't expect to pay that much to see them here in the UK).

... not as hard as I imagined finding out this kind of info, despite knowing no Portuguese :-) Astronaut (talk) 08:14, 18 March 2010 (UTC)

Night sky photo

Hey how this photo [1] taken, potentially? I know it's a panorama, but how do you get such detail in the stars. Sure, the exceptionally dark sky is an advantage, but still... Aaadddaaammm (talk) 20:33, 17 March 2010 (UTC)

If you check the original source at APOD, you'll see that it's a composite of 30 images. At a guess, those 30 include both fixed shots (to get the ground) and rotating shots (to get stellar detail). Otherwise, it's just a very very sensitive camera with a very very good lens. — Lomn 20:43, 17 March 2010 (UTC)

Rotating shots - like rotating at the same speed as the earth to prevent the stars making lines, with the necessary long shutter speeds? Aaadddaaammm (talk) 21:06, 17 March 2010 (UTC)

See the articles Telescope mount and Equatorial mount. Cuddlyable3 (talk) 21:32, 17 March 2010 (UTC)

Based on the star density and my experience with night photography, I'd say that's about a 30-second exposure. At those shutter speeds, a wide-angle lens (the sort you'd need for a 360-degree panorama in only 30 images) won't show star trails. --Carnildo (talk) 23:54, 17 March 2010 (UTC)

It's worth reading High dynamic range imaging which is the technique that allows the wide range of brightnesses to be spanned in a single final image and which would allow the exposure times needed for the stars to be balanced against the exposures used for the ground. It's also worth noting that they obviously picked a moonless night. SteveBaker (talk) 02:54, 18 March 2010 (UTC)

Remarkable oil spill defenses

Dear Wikipedians, I am hoping for some help. :) I am looking for a part of the world, a city or a stretch of coast, that has remarkably good measures against any oil tanker cracking open. I am not sure how to go about my search beyond what I've already found out about some areas (the Texan coast being among the places I've tried to study), so I am hoping for some help if anyone here knows anything. Help would be endlessly appreciated. =) 77.18.12.92 (talk) 22:19, 17 March 2010 (UTC)

Prevention against oil tanker collision/leak or defense against from oil spills damage? --Kvasir (talk) 22:49, 17 March 2010 (UTC)

Prince William Sound[2].—eric 23:20, 17 March 2010 (UTC)

I believe some harbors have the ability to completely close themselves off from the ocean. This is meant to be used for flood control, but also has the potential to totally stop an oil spill from infiltrating. StuRat (talk) 23:37, 17 March 2010 (UTC)

@Kvasir: Both, as a matter of fact. What EricR linked gave a very good example (thank you, EricR!), where there are demands for preemptive measures along with the strictly defensive methods of protection. I quote from Prevention and response plan:

... The prevention portion of this plan requires that each laden tanker transiting Prince William Sound must be escorted by two vessels, one of which must be a specially equipped prevention and response vessel or tug...

I am very glad that this benchmark was provided. Even if these numbers are somewhat bloated (as one can imagine), they provide a very good example. 77.18.67.54 (talk) 09:18, 18 March 2010 (UTC)

March 18

What kind of Violoncello is this and where would I be able to buy one?

The title pretty much says it all, but here is a description and a picture.

I was wondering what material this Violoncello is, and why it has no backside compaired to other Cellos I have seen on eBay? I had been thinking it was a type of plastic subsitute, but I wasn't exactly sure, plus I am not familiar with shopping for insturements online, and I had asked because I was looking to buy a Cello.

Also, which sounds better? A wooden Cello or a aluminum/plastic subsitute?

Here are some picture references of Kanon Wakeshima and her Violoncello:

http://vitamindrop.files.wordpress.com/2008/05/wakeshima_stillprom1.jpg

http://jpopayuhongaku.files.wordpress.com/2009/09/30d44e62280100_full.jpg

http://userserve-ak.last.fm/serve/_/12326279/Kanon+Wakeshima+profile.jpg

http://a0.vox.com/6a011016392491860c011016767cd0860d-500pi

67.169.145.45 (talk) 00:17, 18 March 2010 (UTC)

My, she's cute. No idea what sort of instrument she has, but there do exist good non-wood cellos. Yo Yo Ma speaks highly of this one[3], which is made of carbon fiber, and is inexpensive for a cello. (There exist banjos at twice that price.) I would value Yo Yo Ma's opinion of a cello. PhGustaf (talk) 00:40, 18 March 2010 (UTC)

By the way, the time has long since passed - long since passed - since it's been necessary to spell out violoncello. The word cello is fully accepted, even in the most formal of contexts, as the word for the musical instrument. There are still some pockets of resistance holding out for needless formality, but they dwindle by the minute. -- 202.142.129.66 (talk) 01:18, 18 March 2010 (UTC)

At least the older spelling leaves us opportunities to mock poseurs who spell it "violincello". PhGustaf (talk) 01:38, 18 March 2010 (UTC)

In the 60s, when nudity was all the rage, there was some deal about a woman playing the cello topless. Johnny Carson remarked that she brought down the house when she played "Flight of the Bumblebee". ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 03:15, 18 March 2010 (UTC)

My great-aunt Lala, of blessed memory, was a cellist, and saw that show. She was much incensed, especially because the performer was sweating onto a "beautiful instrument". That said, I've always found female cello players, both those I've known and those I haven't, to be especially attractive. Perhaps it's about the intensity; perhaps it's about the posture. Hard not to fall in love with her[4]. PhGustaf (talk) 04:26, 18 March 2010 (UTC)

We do have an article on the topless cellist, Charlotte Moorman. ReverendWayne (talk) 04:40, 18 March 2010 (UTC)

And you don't even have to acknowledge its origin by apostrophising it as an abbreviation - 'cello. -- Jack of Oz ... speak! ... 07:23, 18 March 2010 (UTC)

I don't see anything in those pictures which suggests that there is anything special about the cellos in them. --ColinFine (talk) 08:43, 18 March 2010 (UTC)

Well, Kanon's cello has no back, and I was wondering why that was. Also, her cellos look plastic, and I was just wondering who makes a plastic subsitute cello. And I say violoncello mainly because I prefer the full name sometimes. And as for Yo Yo Ma, I looked at the cellos that Luis and Clark (or something like that) made, and it's $7,000?! I can get a completely new wooden cello, plus a violin, for $100 on eBay. Though all I was asking really was who makes plastic cellos, and why that one that Kanon has has no back.

67.169.145.45 (talk) 04:57, 19 March 2010 (UTC)

I should point out it's easily possible those cellos are simply props. The use of props is of course common in professional photography and they may do that with the cello for a variety of reasons. This File:Kanon Wakeshima 20090705 Japan Expo 05.jpg however would be a real cello Nil Einne (talk) 10:57, 19 March 2010 (UTC)

They are electric cellos. Electric violins are available too. The reason they don't have a body is that, in a "normal" stringed instrument, the body provides the amplification for the sound. If you are plugging into an amplification system, you don't need a solid body at all as the amp and speakers fulfil that function. Hence the backless versions. As for a maker, you might be interested in this: [5]--TammyMoet (talk) 16:03, 19 March 2010 (UTC)

(EC)But one of her three cellos is red. She calls it 七千重/Nanachie. You can see it here. See 2009.03.13(fri). I read all entries but there was no mention about who made it. Oda Mari (talk) 16:07, 19 March 2010 (UTC)

The coat might be Japanese lacquer or Cashew paint. Oda Mari (talk) 17:08, 19 March 2010 (UTC)

Yes. I see nothing in the four pictures you posted that suggests that they are not wooden cellos, with unusually coloured lacquer. My first cello (a factory-made East European one) was bright orange, but still wooden. (There's also nothing in those pictures that shows a missing back). --ColinFine (talk) 18:38, 19 March 2010 (UTC)

how do companies benefit from foreign exchange swaps?

123.3.110.165 (talk) 01:49, 18 March 2010 (UTC)

Forex swap explains this. SteveBaker (talk) 02:45, 18 March 2010 (UTC)

Inserting a brain chip nasally

I'm writing a science fiction story, and I was trying to come up with a way that a character could have a chip inserted into his brain without requiring brain surgery. I remembered learning about how Ancient Egyptians would remove the brain through the nose of corpses, and I'm wondering if it would be pushing the bounds of realism to have the chip inserted through the nose. Is this a feasible option, assuming the chip could somehow attach itself to the brain? 169.231.8.41 (talk) 06:16, 18 March 2010 (UTC)

Perfectly feasible, although you'd still have to go through some bone & soft tissue to get to it. See, for instance, pituitary tumour removal performed through the nose. --Tagishsimon (talk) 06:20, 18 March 2010 (UTC)

One scenario perhaps worth considering is: does the chip actually have to be in contact with the brain? Considering that EEG machines are quite capable of reading brain waves through a bony skull and a thick layer of scalp, is it possible in your sci-fi scenario to have a contactless chip work the other way round and have an electrical signal affect the brain waves from afar (ie. just placed up the nose near the brain, without all that annoying brain surgery)? Astronaut (talk) 06:34, 18 March 2010 (UTC)

If you want to at least be marginally realistic, you should also consider what the chip is supposed to do, and perhaps have its location be related to its purpose; have it placed on the skull or inside the head near a place where it will affect a certain function. --Jayron32 06:44, 18 March 2010 (UTC)

Depending on the science fiction genre and how far into the future you're looking, you could have someone spice the victims food or drink with nanotech robots - each about the size of a bacterium - have them make their way individually into the blood stream - then, when they reach the blood-brain barrier, attach themselves to the appropriate spot and assemble themselves into the required device. SteveBaker (talk) 12:04, 18 March 2010 (UTC)

Or insufflate them in some cocaine or something if the nasal route is desired. --Sean 14:54, 18 March 2010 (UTC)

Using nanobots provides an opportunity not to target any single spot in the brain, which allows for more meaningful and useful effects, since things like learning and reasoning and recognition have no brain locations... or maybe they do, see grandmother cell. 213.122.16.62 (talk) 13:43, 20 March 2010 (UTC)

You may be interested in lobotomy. If I understand correctly, some procedures were done either through the thin part of bone in the eye socket or through the nasal cavity. These were more like gross (in both senses of the word!) manipulations of the brain matter, but there may be stuff there of interest to you. Matt Deres (talk) 14:58, 18 March 2010 (UTC)

(ec)As an alternative to inserting the chip up the nose you could go behind an eye. See the articles Leucotome and Orbitoclast instruments developed for Lobotomy. Apparently Raquel Welch has medical experience of another way in by injection but it needs a little Submarine. -Cuddlyable3 (talk) 15:00, 18 March 2010 (UTC)

heck, why not get Shakesperean and go through the ear - nanobots in a liquid dropped in the ear of some sleeping person, making their way up the aural nerve system. It's SciFi, dude - style counts for more than veracity. --Ludwigs2 15:01, 18 March 2010 (UTC)

By the wonders of British invention - we already have nasal chip insertion - look![6] :-) Alansplodge (talk) 17:49, 18 March 2010 (UTC)

In Total Recall, Arnold pulled a brain chip out through his nose...so it has kind of been done before. Adam Bishop (talk) 18:37, 18 March 2010 (UTC)

The OP's best bet might be to write to the film's creators and ask how they did it. :) ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 15:51, 19 March 2010 (UTC)

Any penetration into the brain, whether from the sphenoid sinus , from the orbit of the eye, or through the top of the skull, would be "brain surgery." Surgeons routinely used a holesaw called a trephin to penetrate the skull well over 200 years ago, to correct depressed skull fractures or to remove blood clots, and even with no knowledge of germs, a large portion of patients (a quarter or a half in some reports) survived. In your sci fi, it should not be that advantageous to insert a chip from the sinus rather than by lifting a flap of scalp and drilling through the skull, especially if the sinus route would require pushing a lead through a long span of brain tissue to get to the target portion of the brain. Undergrads were placing leads into rat brains by stereotaxic surgery 30 years ago to do electrical recording and brain stimulation for junior level psychophysiology experiments. As long as it is speculative for a story, could a chip be inserted in an artery in the neck and steered up into the brain? Edison (talk) 19:18, 18 March 2010 (UTC)

You dropped at least one zero from your trepanation date. Matt Deres (talk) 23:07, 18 March 2010 (UTC)

Trephaning 2000 years ago is taken care of by the "well over" phrase. The outcomes were better in 1810 than in AD 10. Edison (talk) 04:00, 20 March 2010 (UTC)

Weren't the older procedures performed using a drill rather than a holesaw? --Carnildo (talk) 23:42, 18 March 2010 (UTC)

No, they used a hole saw in ancient Greece, to make a circular opening in the skull. A "drill" sounds like a device intended to make a tiny opening. One goal by the early 19th century was to open the skull without penetrating the dura mater, or lining of the brain, which a drill would have been more likely to pierce. Cave men used a flint knife to make repeated circles until the skull was penetrated. They did it to correct depressed skull fractures, but have also been accused of unnecessary surgery to "let out evil spirits." In either case, skulls found by archeologists show partial or complete healing of the skull in such operations done even in the Stone Age. The ancient Greeks knew that an impact on one side of the skull could cause a dangerous blood clot on the opposite side which could be removed by such an operation. Edison (talk) 04:00, 20 March 2010 (UTC)

Trepanning is needed like a hole in the head. Oh wait. HalfShadow 16:02, 19 March 2010 (UTC)

He has High Hopes. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 16:33, 19 March 2010 (UTC)

One problem is that the situation doesn't allow any time for recovery, so the chip must be inserted without any recovery time; they must immediately be ready for action. 169.231.8.81 (talk) 22:27, 18 March 2010 (UTC)

The chip can be placed on or under the skin over the location of the brain that it needs to access, then nano-thin, highly controllable electrodes could push their way through skull and into the brain. --Polysylabic Pseudonym (talk) 04:21, 19 March 2010 (UTC)

If you really want an "out there" kind of idea - how about not bothering with the chip? You could have some kind of external stimulator (let say something that fits over your fingertip that stimulates the nerves of the skin) - and have it send data to your brain that introduces something like a computer virus into some relatively little used part of the subconscious and takes over the brain's circuitry directly to perform whatever function it needs to do. You could have the users/victims of this technology have some kind of silly mental defect while they are infected - like maybe anything that is colored blue now seems to smells faintly of pine-needles! (This idea somewhat comes from Snow Crash) SteveBaker (talk) 14:12, 19 March 2010 (UTC)

Of course all this will be moot after the next computer trade show, when a certain corporation will announce the iSnot. PhGustaf (talk) 04:07, 20 March 2010 (UTC)

I seem to remember that one of the Mission: Impossible films has a plot where the bad guys insert time bombs into the brains of two of the good guys. They do this by forcibly injecting them through their nose cavity, propelled with highly pressured air. This injection does not damage the agents' bodies but once the time bombs explode, the agents die immediately, without showing any outwardly visible wounds. This seems pretty similar to what you're after, only that the devices would be used to control the agents, not to kill them. JIP | Talk 20:26, 22 March 2010 (UTC)

about matlab

how to stabilize the video using matlab???? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Jk143 (talk • contribs) 11:33, 18 March 2010 (UTC)

How to stabilise what video? You need to explain the problem you are having in detail if we are going to stand a chance of being able to help. --Tango (talk) 11:39, 18 March 2010 (UTC)

Do you mean Matlab? DJ Clayworth (talk) 13:48, 18 March 2010 (UTC)

Bill Gates' car?

What kind of car does Bill Gates drive?196.37.99.82 (talk) 12:05, 18 March 2010 (UTC)

Porsche 959. Apparently. Vimescarrot (talk) 12:12, 18 March 2010 (UTC)

I wonder if it has a bumper sticker that says "THIS is my Other Car". ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 15:49, 18 March 2010 (UTC)

Its the kind that has all different versions of windows in it of course?--79.76.137.66 (talk) 02:39, 20 March 2010 (UTC)

. . . and it's forever crashing. 86.4.186.107 (talk) 16:58, 20 March 2010 (UTC)

Luckily it's quite easy to recover from a crash. Simply close all the windows, switch it off, back it up, switch it back on and open all the windows again. Zunaid 17:23, 22 March 2010 (UTC)

The worst part is having to type the admin password in every time you want to shift gears. SteveBaker (talk) 19:38, 20 March 2010 (UTC)

...or having to restart for lane changes to take effect. Some jerk on the Internet (talk) 12:40, 22 March 2010 (UTC)

eight-pack

Will a child of 13 years,who is an eight pack grow tall?117.196.140.248 (talk) 14:02, 18 March 2010 (UTC)

What's an "eight pack"? --Sean 14:57, 18 March 2010 (UTC)

It's 33-1/3% more than one of these. A rare anatomic variation of the Rectus abdominis muscle is called an eightpack. A person might have an eightpack but no one can "be" an eightpack. Cuddlyable3 (talk) 15:07, 18 March 2010 (UTC)

Rulers and Nationality

Mykola Azarov is the new prime minister of the Ukraine, but can bearly speak Ukraine, he is from Russia. Hitler was from Austria but rules germany. what percentage of national rulers, rule a country from which they do not originate? are there any other notable examples of interest? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 62.172.58.82 (talk) 15:12, 18 March 2010 (UTC)

George I and George II of Great Britain as well as William the Conqueror come to mind, although William was a special case. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 15:43, 18 March 2010 (UTC)

Barrack Obama according to some, Uncle Joe Stalin was from Georgia (the country not the US state), although the USSR did possess Georgia during his time in power. Googlemeister (talk) 15:53, 18 March 2010 (UTC)

That's likely a BLP violation, unless you're just being funny. :) For example, many of those who believe that are apparently from Mars. :) ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 15:56, 18 March 2010 (UTC)

See Barack Obama citizenship conspiracy theories. Rmhermen (talk) 15:58, 18 March 2010 (UTC)

Which, if you notice is where the link in my earlier statement goes. Googlemeister (talk) 16:06, 18 March 2010 (UTC)

It's generally unwise to use the title of one article as the text for a link to a different article ("the principle of least surprise" and all that). I would have used the "according to some" bit of that sentence as the link text. --Tango (talk) 16:12, 18 March 2010 (UTC)

Technically Barrack Obama is only a redirect to Barack Obama not the title of an article. Nil Einne (talk) 11:26, 19 March 2010 (UTC)

The Founding Fathers of the United States were so concerned about mixed loyalties that the US Constitution requires the President to be a natural-born citizen of the US (with an obvious exception for those born before there was a US). StuRat (talk) 15:58, 18 March 2010 (UTC)

• Napoleon Bonaparte originated from Corsica. To this day there is still a strong nationalist sentiment on the island (not because of Napoleon of course).
• Current Taiwanese president Ma Ying-jeou was born in British administered Hong Kong to Hakka parents from the Chinese mainland.
• Otto of Greece -- son of a philhellene Bavarian king -- was elected to the throne of Kingdom of Greece. He was later deposed and a Danish prince was elected George I of Greece. ---Kvasir (talk) 16:08, 18 March 2010 (UTC)

Most of the elective Kings of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth were foreign princes, which is what eventually led to the Partitions of Poland. See List_of_Polish_monarchs#Polish-Lithuanian_Commonwealth for a list; the first such elected King was Henry of Valois who thought so much of being elected Polish King that he pretty much forgot about it after inheriting the throne of France. He never formally abdicated, he just up and walked away from his role as King of Poland. The next two centuries featured contested elections and various wars of succession. Foreign elected kings often raided the Polish treasuries and milked the country dry of resources for their own countries. It was an absolute disaster, governmentally speaking, until Prussia, Austia, and Russia put an end to the whole fiasco, and ended the existance of the state. --Jayron32 17:23, 18 March 2010 (UTC)

Alberto Fujimori was born in Peru to Japanese immigrants, and has dual Japanese and Peruvian citizenship. His first language, learnt from his parents, was Japanese. He later learned Spanish. He became President of Peru, but ended up fleeing Peru and absconding to Japan. He was later extradited from Chile, and is now languishing in a Peruvian prison where he's serving 25 years. This was the first time that an elected head of state has been extradited back to his home country, tried, and convicted of human rights violations. -- Jack of Oz ... speak! ... 17:56, 18 March 2010 (UTC)

James I of England (Scottish, when Scotland was independent) and William III of England (Dutch) were other foreigners who accepted invitations to take the English throne. --Normansmithy (talk) 18:30, 18 March 2010 (UTC)

The current Governor General of Canada is from Haiti, if that counts. And because I cannot miss an opportunity to mention the crusades, the first three crusader kings of Jerusalem were from what is now France/Belgium. That kind of thing happened a lot more often in the Middle Ages, of course, and in the ancient world too - the Roman emperor Trajan was from Spain, although that was of course Roman at the time. Adam Bishop (talk) 18:35, 18 March 2010 (UTC)

I thought about our GG from Canada, but they don't really "rule". The ultimate head of state is Queen Elizabeth II, whose citizenship I'm not sure (or is she constitutionally a Canadian?) Besides, foreign-born GG isn't new, or unique to Canada. Most early ones in the Commonwealth realms hailed from the UK.

Also I didn't mention about any conquering kings and emperors because that's pretty obvious. Same with colonies and their foreign governors/head of state. --Kvasir (talk) 18:56, 18 March 2010 (UTC)

No, Elizabeth is above questions of citizenship. She's not a citizen of any country, in particular not of any of the countries over which she reigns. She might even be regarded as stateless, in a sense. Yet, there are laws in these countries that dictate her behaviour and treatment. -- Jack of Oz ... speak! ... 19:16, 18 March 2010 (UTC)

Can a stateless individual hold diplomatic immunity? Googlemeister (talk) 19:28, 18 March 2010 (UTC)

I can't answer that. But when she visits other countries, UK diplomats are obviously highly involved with their local counterparts in making the arrangements, and the local people obviously accept that the UK people are acting on behalf of the UK government and/or on the Queen's personal behalf - but because she's their queen, not because she's a citizen of their country as such. We could do down many hypothetical paths here. Like: if the Queen was visiting the USA and got it into her head she really liked the place and wanted to stay, could she apply for political asylum, or US citizenship? Would she be in breach of any British or Commonwealth laws by so doing? -- Jack of Oz ... speak! ... 19:40, 18 March 2010 (UTC)

She can not qualify for political asylum as she does not even come close to meeting refugee status according to US qualifications.

This situation is not actually as "absurd" as it sounds. There are many monarchies in exile, what we call pretenders. One example is Constantine II of Greece who fled Greece in the 1967 coup. According to our article he travels under a Danish diplomatic passport (being a descendant of the Danish royal house and a Prince of Denmark in his own right). He was stripped of his Greek citizenship in 1994, which means he had one. It's not clear though the restoring of the 1952 constitution made him a Greek citizen like everyone else, or he had one while king. Over the years it seems there has been a constant battle between Constantine and the Greek government over his rights as a Greek citizen, use of his name, and access to his property in Greece. Claiming political asylum isn't that far fetch for a monarch in exile. --Kvasir (talk) 19:55, 18 March 2010 (UTC)

Leopold I of Belgium was from Bavaria. Alansplodge (talk) 21:29, 18 March 2010 (UTC)

There is a difference between a monarch in exile and a pretender (although they can overlap). To be a pretender, there has to be someone else with a more widely accepted claim to the throne, but there is no need to be out of the country. A monarch in exile has to be out of the country, but there doesn't have to be another monarch (the monarchy can just have been abolished). --Tango (talk) 21:56, 18 March 2010 (UTC)

Yeah i was speaking more about the overlap case -- pretender of an abolished monarchy -- which is the case with most pretenders these days. --Kvasir (talk) 22:33, 18 March 2010 (UTC)

You may be interested in Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Humanities/2010 February 15#Head of State Citizenship since while not quite the same question, many of the examples and discussion that arose may be relevant here. As with all things that relate to human nationality and origin, it's not always going to be simple. For example Abhisit Vejjajiva who I gave in the previous discussion was born and received his education in the UK, however he returned/went to Thailand not long after his education IIRC, and as I pointed out in the earlier discussion could have been a Thai citizen from birth (being born to a prominent Thai family) and even could have always even considered himself a Thai citizen rather then British. In a more hypothetical case, the children of diplomats or some soldiers may be born and spent much of their early lives overseas however they would almost definitely be citizens from birth of the country of their parents and many would vehemently dispute it if you claim this means they don't originate from the country of their parents. BTW in terms of monarchs, since this isn't a question about citizenship but about origin, as someone mentioned above the monarch of the commonwealth realm countries is born in, educated in and spents much of their life in the UK. If that country isn't the UK, some would question whether these people can really understand or represent their country and this is one of the catalysts for the republican movement in many of countries. (Of course in all cases of a monarchy, some would consider the monarch so disconnected from the 'common people' that it doesn't matter if they were born in and educated in the country they represent.) Nil Einne (talk) 11:11, 19 March 2010 (UTC)

Maximilian I of Mexico was Austrian. Weepy.Moyer (talk) 19:59, 20 March 2010 (UTC)

South Korean president Lee Myung-bak was born in Osaka in 1941 (Japan proper, but at a time when Japan and Korea were united in one state), and North Korean supreme leader Kim Jong-il was apparently born in the Russian Far East, or, if you believe the state, on a mountain that according to many but not all is on the Chinese-Korean border. 84.46.27.15 (talk) 03:44, 23 March 2010 (UTC)

going out with an older guy

hi, is there anything wrong with going out with an older guy?? I met this guy on the internet and we went to meat up and he is nearly 40 yrs old but we got on well and was a good time been seeing eachother a few times and nothign wrong "physically" but some of my friends are a bit grossed out I told them thats not their problem and they should leave us alone but has got me thinking..... what do you think??? Salza boo (talk) 15:39, 18 March 2010 (UTC)

To some extent it depends on how old you are yourself. But let's suppose there's a 20 year gap or so. If you happen to get married, when you're 40 he'll be 60. That's when the age gap might start to really show. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 15:45, 18 March 2010 (UTC)

What might happen in 20 years' time in the event of getting married is not something that most people would base their decision on as to whether or not to go out with someone in the present. I say, "Yes, great idea!" --Richardrj ^{talk email} 16:43, 18 March 2010 (UTC)

That's true, which is all the more reason to bring it up. The young are not especially known for thinking toward the future. That does not mean one should refuse to date someone just because of an age disparity. It's just something to potentially consider, at some point down the road. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 16:53, 18 March 2010 (UTC)

It is also going to depend on your culture. Some cultures, a 20 year old woman with a 40 year old man would not be viewed negatively. In other cultures, there would be social prohibitions frowning on this match. There are various legal implications of relations between minors and adults that will vary based on location, so if you are a minor, there could be legal issues. Googlemeister (talk) 15:49, 18 March 2010 (UTC)

Absolutely. If the OP is underage, that could spell big trouble for the 40-year-old, and that's definitely something to be considered in the here-and-now, not just down the road. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 16:55, 18 March 2010 (UTC)

Sorry, but the Ref Desk is not a discussion forum. We can't answer your question. — Lomn 15:50, 18 March 2010 (UTC)

Wait, I'll undo the collapse for a bit to ask: Isn't there a Wikipedia article on this type of relationship? I was a little surprised to find that a search for things like spring/autumn romance did not yield anything. (To the original poster: Know that most of the answerers here are "older guys", so it is in their own self-interest to give you an enthusiastic "yes, great idea!" Comet Tuttle (talk) 16:35, 18 March 2010 (UTC)

Of course there's a Wikipedia article on it, there's one on everything! It's at Age disparity in sexual relationships. --Tango (talk) 16:49, 18 March 2010 (UTC)

Thanks for the pointer. Wow, what a bad article. Comet Tuttle (talk) 17:03, 18 March 2010 (UTC)

Well, nobody said Wikipedia had a good article on everything! That article should probably be moved to Slang terms for age disparate relationships or something, really... --Tango (talk) 17:15, 18 March 2010 (UTC)

See [7] for a graph of the "Half age plus seven" dating rule. Some think it favors the older party a bit. Edison (talk) 19:10, 18 March 2010 (UTC)

Nice. This graph also says dating before age 14 (with anyone) is unacceptable. --Kvasir (talk) 19:14, 18 March 2010 (UTC)

If we restrict ourselves to sexual relationships, then the law would tend to agree. (Give or take, depending on jurisdiction.) --Tango (talk) 21:58, 18 March 2010 (UTC)

I came to the conclusion that this was perhaps how the rule was derived. --Kvasir (talk) 22:07, 18 March 2010 (UTC)

My take was the difficulty of keeping the upper and lower limits on either side of the individual's age, given that (1/2 of 13) + 7 = 13-1/2. DOR (HK) (talk) 07:35, 19 March 2010 (UTC)

Yes, any point less than 14 the lower limit is greater than the upper limit according to the rule, which is invalid. --Kvasir (talk) 17:14, 19 March 2010 (UTC)

We could fix that by increasing the complexity of the equation to that of second or third order. Googlemeister (talk) 19:21, 19 March 2010 (UTC)

I would be interested in seeing that asked in the math reference desk. :) --Kvasir (talk) 19:56, 19 March 2010 (UTC)

What is the issue? If you are 12, date no one younger than 13. If you are 20, date no one younger than 17 (been there, done that). If you are 60, the lower limit is 37. If you are 90, then the lower limit is 52. Seems quite sound, all around. This equation was taught in elementary school algebra. Edison (talk) 03:50, 20 March 2010 (UTC)

Except that while the 12 year old is not supposed to date anyone younger then 13, the 13 year old can't date the 12 year old according to the rule. Specifically, the 13 year old can't date someone younger then 13.5 years old. But the 13.5 years old can't date anyone younger then 13.75 years old. And the 13.75 year old can't... The 14 year old can date a 14 year old although depending on how exact you demand this to be, this could be difficult. Past that age it starts to get more realistic. For example a 15 year old can date a 14.5 year old. (Clearly no problem for the 14.5 year old who can date a 15 year old being older then the 14.25 year old minimum, the 14.25 year old also having no problem with the 14.5 year old since they can date anyone 14.125 years or older...) If there is exactly one day difference between a couple then they will first be able to date when the younger one is exactly? 14 years and one day old) Nil Einne (talk) 08:38, 20 March 2010 (UTC)

For our protagonist, it is not his/her problem if the paramour is breaking the rule. Nothing says that it is reflexive and universal. All the same, it is apparently intended to set a lower limit for the older person's choice of a younger dating partner. There may be some limit of the older one being 14 or older for it to avoid the problem pointed out by Nil Einne. Edison (talk) 01:02, 21 March 2010 (UTC)

I don't think I was the only one to point it out, it was basically what everyone above you was discussing. Also I don't really understand "For our protagonist, it is not his/her problem if the paramour is breaking the rule. Nothing says that it is reflexive and universal". The whole point of the rule is it doesn't technically set a limit on the upper age of your partner, but if both parties follow the rule then it does set a limit on the age appropriateness of relationship. If only the younger party follows the rule, then the rule generally becomes irrelevant (not entirely since under the age of 14 the rule semi breaks down as we've been discussing.) and the issue of age appropriateness isn't answered. Since you were the one who suggested the rule in the first place, I had presumed you were suggesting the older party should follow it since if not it doesn't seem relevant. Of course, a more complex reading of the rule might be that for that if one is to follow it then they always need to apply it to the younger party in the relationship (be that them or the other party) rather then applying it to themselves when it's irrelevant (i.e. when they are the younger party). In any case even if we do apply the rule below 14, while most would suggest a 6 year old shouldn't be dating at all, if they are somehow 'dating' I don't think many would agree that a 10 year old is the youngest person they should date even from the viewpoint of the 6 year old. Nil Einne (talk) 08:41, 21 March 2010 (UTC)

There is nothing wrong in going put or datind or going around with the old guy at all. If your are compatible and happy witth him that all matters. I myself dated the guy exactly double of my age and usre to think that it could be wrong but i realized that nothing is wrong in that at all. I was never happy like that before and we never had any phisical relations but still loved each other so much, i believe after my parents he was the one who loved me the most. We were also thinking of getting married. The reason i am using past tense everytime is that, he not theer anymore in this world. And i cherish all my moment spent with him.

Painting II

I painted something using oild based paints, I mewesed it up by doing alot of grey that I now want to change to whit, it is possible to cover up the greay with the white, even thougfh I made the grey by mixing the same white with black? what technique should I use to do this? do i just need to apply layer after layer? how can i remove the small details of the grey, it has ruined an other wise wonderful picture, in my opinion —Preceding unsigned comment added by 62.172.58.82 (talk) 20:36, 18 March 2010 (UTC)

If the oil paint is not yet completely dry (which may take weeks, depending on how thick it is) or perhaps even if it is dry, you can usually remove it with varsol or turpentine. Dip the tip of a cotton swab into a tiny bit of the removal agent, and then rub the area you wish to remove very gently with it; repeat until all the paint you want to remove is gone. Just remember to keep the removal agent restricted to the area you want to remove and to keep changing the cotton swab. It can be a messy procedure if you are not very careful, and can also affect surrounding pigment. You can paint over the grey with white once the grey is dry. White is opaque and covers almost everything fairly well. *Consumer warning: I know quite a bit about acrylics and water colours, but not much about oils. Bielle (talk) 22:21, 18 March 2010 (UTC)

I think that removal of the paint would tend to remove adjacent paint, as well, so I'd just wait until it dries and paint over it. StuRat (talk) 04:18, 19 March 2010 (UTC)

You may have to paint several coats of whit to get enough opacity. Or perhaps even mix up your own more intense white, using pigments. Are you using zinc oxide white? Titanium oxide is probably not suitable for canvas but would be more intensely white. Graeme Bartlett (talk) 12:51, 19 March 2010 (UTC)

March 19

Inventor of grid-style calendar?

Who invented the modern, grid-style calendar, the kind you probably have on your wall? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.37.237.212 (talk) 11:01, 19 March 2010 (UTC)

Probably the same person who invented the paper calendar. 78.147.2.253 (talk) 17:00, 19 March 2010 (UTC)

Actually, a grid would also work on clay tablets. Thus, the inventor probably is anonymous, and "from antiquity". StuRat (talk) 17:33, 19 March 2010 (UTC)

Oh, come on. It could have been done, therefore it probably was done? Citation needed.

Actually, the question is slightly ambiguous, and it might make a difference. There are two kinds of "grid-style calendar" commonly seen today. In one, each grid square is filled by a number: the calendar is only for the purpose of showing you the relationship of specific dates to days of the week. These seem to be what Stu is talking about.

The other sense of "grid calendar" is one where for each day a small number is placed in a large grid square, leaving you space to write in any things like appointments you want to remember for that day. Unless you intended to keep the thing forever, that style only makes sense with a medium that you would considere disposable, or perhaps an erasable one. It would make sense if it dated only from the era when paper became cheap. Therefore, that must be the case. :-)

In The Book of Firsts (1974), Patrick Robertson does not give calendars a full entry, but does give the dates 1454 for the first printed calendar (by Gutenberg) and 1845 for the first advertising calendar (advertising an insurance company in Auburn, New York). --Anonymous, 18:57 UTC, March 19, 2010, according to my calendar.

For something as common sense as a grid calendar, I can't imagine that nobody would have thought of it until paper came along. How else would they record dates ? A 365-day long clay tablet ? StuRat (talk) 22:06, 19 March 2010 (UTC)

Image:Roman-calendar.png is from 60BC and looks like it might be a form of grid calendar. Googlemeister (talk) 19:19, 19 March 2010 (UTC)

Fixed your link (was pointing to a thumbnail version).

Thanks. That's an interesting calendar, but it is not a grid. Our present typical grid calendar has one row for each week and one column for each day of the week. This Roman calendar has one column for each month and one row in each column for each day of that month. So a 29-day month has 29 rows while a 31-day month has 31 rows. They aren't what you'd call uniformly spaced, but the rows in each column do use the full height; hence the rows don't form a grid reading across the calendar.

It's interesting in two respects. First, it shows the pre-Julian Roman calendar, with 13 months, as leap year. Note that July and August still have their old names (Quintilis and Sextilis) and the leap month is shown as Intercalarius: the names appear in the top line in abbreviated form. The bottom line shows the lengths of the months, although it's hard to read because the consective Roman numerals are almost run together. You have to carefully parse what looks like "XXIXXXIIXXXXIXXIX..." to see that it means "XXIX, XXIIX, XXXI, XXIX...", i.e. 29, 28, 31, 29, etc. Note also that 28 was written as XXIIX rather than XXVIII. In classical times "subtractive" forms of Roman numeral like IV and IX were only used when necessary to save space, unlike our modern treatment where there is a definite rule for when to use them, and obviously saving space was necessary here.

The other point of interest is that the actual dates are not shown. Instead each day is shown as one of 8 days of the week, lettered A–H. The Roman representation of dates was a bit verbose even when abbreviated and perhaps this was another way to save space. The date we call March 12, for example, would be "4th (counting backwards and inclusively) to the Ides of March": in abbreviated Latin perhaps "IV ID MAR". They could have just written "IV", though, and it's interesting that they didn't. (A date later in March, after the Ides, would be counted backwards and inclusively from the Kalends of April.) --Anonymous, 21:21 UTC, March 19 (or XIV KAL APR), 2010.

Man, that was a really impressive explication. (I couldn't make heads or tails of that image.) —151.203.13.50 (talk) 00:14, 24 March 2010 (UTC)

Thanks. It's now been called to my attention that on the image page there's a link to this page, which has a smaller, but full-color, image of the same calendar. The page also explains some of its other features. In the color image you can see that the run-together Roman numerals actually are easily read, because they're in alternating colors. --Anonymous, 07:46 UTC, March 24, 2010.

Circular grids seem to have been more common in ancient times, but here's a rectangular grid calendar from ancient Egypt: [8]. StuRat (talk) 22:16, 19 March 2010 (UTC)

No, that does not have a "carriage return" at the start of each new week. Read the dates down the right-hand column -- from what I make out, it seems to go from the 25th of one month to the 7th of the following month. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.44.13.87 (talk) 07:05, 20 March 2010 (UTC)

Maybe their weeks were 14 days long ? There are also special symbols for the end of the month (a comet ?) and the beginning (the month name ?). StuRat (talk) 18:33, 20 March 2010 (UTC)

The ancient Egyptians used a 12 month calendar of 30 days each (360 days). That suggests to me that the purpose was to create a neat and tidy year planner for accounting purposes ( i.e. grid-style calendar). I would not read too much in to a photo of a broken and incomplete hieroglyph, the purpose of which was to display a narrative. --Aspro (talk) 19:25, 20 March 2010 (UTC)

how to cite an article?

Can anyone tell me ,how to cite references while writing an article. Do we make a bibliography (at the end of article)? list of References or use footnotes? do we use apa , mla? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 115.186.7.89 (talk) 12:10, 19 March 2010 (UTC)

Questions about using Wikipedia belong at Wikipedia:Help desk. However see Wikipedia:Referencing for beginners with citation templates as a good place to start. DJ Clayworth (talk) 13:09, 19 March 2010 (UTC)

building self esteem the right way

I have the hugest crush on my neighbor but he is a really big player and he is really good looking and he knows it. When I first met him, it was at a mutual friend's party several weeks ago. We got really drunk and made out. He told my friend that I was really hot and he asked me to be his friend on facebook.

I saw him last week and he seemed really nervous to talk to me. He was smiling a lot but he was stuttering a lot. I was really nervous (because I am super, super shy) and I said I had to go and I walked away. I was embarrassed that he could see that my ears were turning red. But maybe he took that as I was not interested because now, on facebook, he keeps talking about how many girls want him or how many numbers he got, whatever.

I tried to talk to him on facebook but he ignored my comment. So I took him off as my friend. I want him to like me but I couldn't take me obsessing over his facebook account. Was this the right thing to do to rebuild my esteem? --Jenna bomba (talk) 15:35, 19 March 2010 (UTC)

The Reference Desk deals with requests for factual information, not relationship advice. DJ Clayworth (talk) 15:43, 19 March 2010 (UTC)

e/c The ref-desk isn't your best place to find an 'agony aunt' - as it's not really designed as a discussion forum (though there's plenty of discussion that goes on). You're best finding an agony-aunt style forum and asking there.194.221.133.226 (talk) 15:44, 19 March 2010 (UTC)

There is also an article on Self-esteem that might be worth reading. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 15:46, 19 March 2010 (UTC)

If you do not get an adequate response here Jenna, try this. Vranak (talk) 16:09, 19 March 2010 (UTC)

There's a shyness article here on Wikipedia, and the bottom of that article has links to other, related articles. Sorry, we're an encyclopedia, and I should mention that encyclopedists have historically not had the reputation of being great with the ladies. They're more like a bunch of monks. Historically, of course. Comet Tuttle (talk) 16:32, 19 March 2010 (UTC)

He was probably nervous because he really likes you a lot and is afraid of being rejected by you, or he feels he should not have a close relationship with a neighbour. (Been there, done that). Men get shy too. The boasting about how many girls want him is just boasting - means nothing. Perhaps he did not realise that the person on Facebook is you, or did not notice. Find him and walk up to him and chat with him, and tell him you like him and give him compliments. 78.147.2.253 (talk) 17:06, 19 March 2010 (UTC)

Maybe this is where texting comes in. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 22:59, 19 March 2010 (UTC)

Definition and meaning of the term "Franchise state"

Th question I have is" What is a franchise state? Bob —Preceding unsigned comment added by Bbossan (talk • contribs) 23:16, 19 March 2010 (UTC)

These are U.S. states that have regulations more protective of distributors or retailers licensed to sell trademarked goods than the relevant Federal regulations. See this article for a more detailed explanation and a list of the franchise states. Marco polo (talk) 01:33, 20 March 2010 (UTC)

March 20

Contest Officials

When a company like McDonalds, Coca-cola, or Hershey has a contest so the first person to find the right cap or send in 1000 wrappers so they win $10,000 or something like that, who officiates them? There has to be some means of checking to see if they actually give out the prizes to the winners, or if there is even a winning golden ticket in a wonka bar (the real one). 134.126.192.188 (talk) 00:52, 20 March 2010 (UTC)

Funny you should ask. In the summer of 2001, McDonald's played a major role in an FBI sting operation, as the independent company that ran the games was ripping everyone off.[9] The government does take an interest in the outcomes of sweepstakes in order to reduce or prevent fraud, but to what extent I don't know. In this particular case, they figured out what was going on, and set up that summer's game as a trap for the thieves. Once the conspirators were arrested, McDonald's had a special giveaway offer to their customers nationwide. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 01:40, 20 March 2010 (UTC)

One thing they sometimes do that seems like a scam is to keep all the unclaimed prizes, especially if they make it difficult to determine if you're a winner. One such sweepstakes required that you come in to the store to check your number against the winning numbers listed. But what percentage of the people who are mailed the sweepstakes tickets will actually do that ? StuRat (talk) 18:28, 20 March 2010 (UTC)

Creating electronic device

I've done some stuff on digital and analogue electronics in my uni course, and want to try some of it out for myself. What I'm doing is building a really simple circuit around a 555 timer that will blink an infrared LED to repeatedly trigger my camera after a given period (set using a pot) has passed. Question: the stuff I've done in courses has been using breadboards or larger components and croc clips; how should I connect and secure (since this is an actual device I'll use 'in the field') all the components together? I have a soldering iron kicking around somewhere, but was thinking about putting it some sort of plastic backing? 94.168.184.16 (talk) 01:07, 20 March 2010 (UTC)

Do you have a local electronics store that caters to experimenters, like Fry's Electronics? They'll usually have small plastic and/or metal boxes you can use for your gadget, along with perforated board stock to mount your electronics on. A good way to solve a problem like this is to wander around the store and see what looks interesting — often your use for something won't be what the manufacturer intended, but that's part of the fun. This is much easier in a B&M store than on the internet. PhGustaf (talk) 01:21, 20 March 2010 (UTC)

I forgot: If you want to keep an electronic gadget for a while, solder it together. Perforated boards make this easy; they'ss be right next to the little boxes. PhGustaf (talk) 01:28, 20 March 2010 (UTC)

In the UK, Maplin is the place to go for small electrical components suitable for building your small hobbyist electronic gadgets. They publish a useful mail-order catalog if you're too lazy to visit a store (or live too far away), and they have an online business too. I can't say if their service is now as good as I remember, I've not ordered anything for years. As for constructing youre circuit, you could design your own PCB, etch it and mount the components, but I always though that was too much like hard work when you could solder your components onto pre-made stripboard, using a drill-bit to remove the copper strip where you needed the track to stop. Astronaut (talk) 01:52, 20 March 2010 (UTC)

I concur with Astronaut, strip board is the easiest way to go about this project. --Aspro (talk) 12:58, 20 March 2010 (UTC)

Thanks, folks :-) 94.168.184.16 (talk) 13:27, 20 March 2010 (UTC)

I've got a stack of perf-boards that are actually wired up just like a solderless breadboard. (Similar to a strip board, but with a gap down the middle, and rails on the sides.) I've forgotten where I got them. It may have been Radioshack.

And some people swear by these Rectangle Wired Perf Boards. APL (talk) 17:57, 20 March 2010 (UTC)

A manual wirewrap tool

When I'm going to make a fairly simple circuit, I sometimes use a solderless breadboard to get it working (it's easy to plug and unplug components to experiment or if you make mistakes) then I either solder together the circuit on stripboard. Stripboard is better when the circuit is simple and/or uses large amounts of power. However, for complicated circuits, the effort to figure out how to route the signals around on the stripboard traces gets complicated and horribly error-prone.

So for more complex stuff, I use Wirewrap construction on perforated board that has no copper at all. Wirewrap is vastly better when there are a crazily large number of interconnections and the voltages and currents are small - as is typically the case with computer circuits and such like. I've built wirewrapped gadgets with over a thousand interconnects on a fairly small board - that's utterly impossible with stripboard or even with commercial one or two layer PCB's. Wirewrap is also good for prototyping because it's easy to undo connections when you realize that you made a boo-boo. Wirewrap is also more suited for working at home with the family because there are no noxious solder fumes. I have an electric wirewrap gun - they are pretty expensive - but I picked mine up for $5 from a company that was going out of business...but you can use a manual wirewrap tool instead and those are pretty cheap. Wirewrap is good enough that it has been used in commercial production environments and is more reliable than hand-soldered boards - especially if the person doing the soldering is not skilled in the technique.

Many of the things I make are a mixture of wirewrap and soldered construction because (as I said) you can't really transfer large amounts of power through those skinny wirewrap wires. I tend to solder power and ground wires first - then wirewrap the signal wires afterwards.

Making your own circuit boards is interesting, and the end result looks really professional - but it's an awful lot of hassle and needs messy chemicals - and you can't make complicated things that way without ending up with gigantic circuit boards.

Most of the things I make end up being computer-controlled in some manner - and I use the Arduino system for that. This allows me to start working with a $26 computer board that I can just plug into a USB port on my PC to download and debug software - then I'll buy a stand-alone Arduino computer chip for $5 to install on my finished board for the sake of compactness and cheapness - and the $26 Arduino goes back on the shelf ready for the next project. It's easy to wirewrap to the pins on the Arduino board while debugging - then move those connections to the dedicated computer chip when I'm ready to switch over to that.

SteveBaker (talk) 19:29, 20 March 2010 (UTC)

For a weeny teeny project like this, I think that 94.168.184.16 would be better of just sticking to strip board. Wire wrap will require the extra expense of wire wrap IC sockets, wire, tools, etc. Also, I found that students made an utter mess of their first attempt ( and their second, third... ). Better to find someone who can show you how to solder properly. Does the project look like this .. [10]? Uhmm, Yummy!--Aspro (talk) 20:25, 20 March 2010 (UTC)

The Amazing Adventures Of Spider-man Ride at Universal Studios

Hi someone type that Bill Fagerbakke played the voice of Hydro-Man and Dee Bradley Baker played the voice of Electro I would like to know if they's true or not thanks? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Bandrade77 (talk • contribs) 04:56, 20 March 2010 (UTC)

Well you typed the bit about Dee Bradley Baker. Why don't you tell us?--Shantavira|^{feed me} 07:33, 20 March 2010 (UTC)

Presumably because he doesn't know? I don't know if IMDB pages actually have this sort of information. Dee was credited for Electro in a video game on his page. Bill has no mention of hydro-man on his page. So that doesn't really tell us anything. Vimescarrot (talk) 09:46, 20 March 2010 (UTC)

How many beds at Rouge Valley Centenary?

I'm trying to write an article on a local hospital, Rouge Valley Centenary. I would like to know how many beds the hospital has, but all the information I can find on this topic gives a figure I know to be outdated -- many sources say 366, but this dates from 2004 or earlier, and the hospital has undergone expansion since then. Can anyone find me a reliable source indicating the current number of beds at this hospital? If I can't find anything, I could call them and ask myself, but a phone call is not really a reliable source. --✶♏✶ 08:27, 20 March 2010 (UTC)

I can see your point. From looking at their site, I think it is likely that other info may also be difficult to find citations for. Now that it has amalgamated with Rouge Valley Health System it will be easier to not think of the Centenary as a separate entity. Instead, include it and its history ( and the other hospital building and clinics) as part of the bigger corporate body of Rouge Valley Health System on that article page. This is because the Rouge Valley Health System management will justify their inflated salaries by forever changing things around between different sites ( I’m not kidding). If you try and maintain separate articles it will become nigh on impossible, because official publications will tend to give information by speciality, with the identity of which physical building(s) often not being mentioned at all. Leave the bed issue to one side for now, as the more important aspects are not size but scope and nature of the services offered at the Centenary location and the other sites. With it all contained within one article, I expect that it will also be easier to see then what other information is lacking. Perhaps then, it will be time to email the RVHS Director of Public Affairs and Community Relations to ask for citable sources. --Aspro (talk) 14:59, 20 March 2010 (UTC)

The reason I want to separate the articles is that the two hospitals have very different histories, and there is enough pre-amalgamation history to write about that I think in the end it would amount to two different articles. (I'm mostly going on old newspaper sources and stuff; you can see the page in my user subspace to take a look at what I've assembled so far.) Maybe I'm a little biased because I was born there :) Anyway, I guess that's not really important. Thanks for the input. If you're from around here or know some stuff about it, I hope you'll contribute to this topic. --✶♏✶ 06:11, 21 March 2010 (UTC)

Depiction of doctors

In cartoons and popular art from the middle of the twentieth century to about the 1970s, doctors are always depicted as wearing, in addition to a stethoscope, a large circular mirror on their heads. My question is: did doctors actually wear mirrors like this, and what were they used for? And, why did they stop using them? 87.194.239.235 (talk) 17:13, 20 March 2010 (UTC)

We have an article on head mirror which answers most of your questions. ---Sluzzelin talk 17:24, 20 March 2010 (UTC)

Thank you. I had a look at the mirror article, but it wasn't mentioned there. 87.194.239.235 (talk) 17:48, 20 March 2010 (UTC)

You can still get them, so presumably some doctors still prefer them to pocket flashlights. APL (talk) 17:51, 20 March 2010 (UTC)

I would expect them to be used in places which lack electricity or a supply of batteries. StuRat (talk) 18:15, 20 March 2010 (UTC)

The advantage to the head mirror was that it was a hands-free device. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 21:43, 20 March 2010 (UTC)

If you look at head mirror, as Sluzzelin suggested, it answers your question about what the mirrors were used for. They were very widely used in the twentieth century and probably earlier. They fell into disuse with the arrival of battery operated head lamps, and nowadays the wide use of fibre-optic viewing devices. Richard Avery (talk) 22:54, 20 March 2010 (UTC)

The doctor I saw as a young man certainly used one. It is a reflector which concentrates the light from some lamp with its parabolic shape, and by looking through the hole in the center he could see a brightly illuminated throat, nasal passage or ear. It provides superior illumination to a handheld penlight, by being coaxial with the eye's line of sight. Edison (talk) 00:49, 21 March 2010 (UTC)

When to Change Transmission Oil?

My 2008 Ford Focus owners manual says that you should change the transmission fluid in an automatic transmission at 97K miles. The manual doesn't say anything about a manual transmission. Any ideas on when I should change it's fluid? 174.20.74.135 (talk) 21:09, 20 March 2010 (UTC)

Is this a legit car? Your dealership should be the ones to advise you about this.--Aspro (talk) 21:15, 20 March 2010 (UTC)

Err. Remember me? I bought a car off you last week! I need to change the transmission fluid but I can’t find when in the manual.

Dealership: Just look on Wikipedia!

I have, but it doesn't say.

Dealership: Well what do you expect me to do about it ? I just sold you the car!

--Aspro (talk) 21:33, 20 March 2010 (UTC)

Click and Clack say [11] "Manual: Most manufacturers recommend that manual transmission fluid be changed every 30,000 to 60,000 miles. Under heavy-duty use, some manufacturers suggest changing transmission fluid every 15,000 miles.". SteveBaker (talk) 00:51, 21 March 2010 (UTC)

And, as you may know, on the R53 MINI Cooper S, the manual transmission fluid is said by the manufacturer to be a "lifetime" fluid. I assume this means that when the fluid gives out, your transmission's lifetime is over. I replaced mine at 50,000 miles or so. -- Coneslayer (talk) 03:03, 21 March 2010 (UTC)

March 21

what is this study called ?

Study about words those sound alike in different languages, how their meanings relate to each other. What is this study called ? Any reference in web ? If anything not there, please suggest me a new ?-logy. Also, what we can call if we group words based on how they sound / are pronounced / uttered. For example, we have thesaurus, for grouping words together based on their meanings. --V4vijayakumar (talk) 09:31, 21 March 2010 (UTC)

Comparative linguistics? --Saddhiyama (talk) 10:38, 21 March 2010 (UTC)

Words that sound the same but have different meanings (usually within one language) are homophones. Cuddlyable3 (talk) 21:13, 21 March 2010 (UTC)

Sounds like the false friends article could be helpful to you. 75.157.57.12 (talk) 00:14, 22 March 2010 (UTC)

Thanks for your responses. Comparative linguistics looks related. Both homophones and false friends have different meanings, whereas in my case I am looking for words sound same and mean related. --15.219.201.68 (talk) 02:47, 22 March 2010 (UTC)

So, having written a book...

I'm not sure this is the best place to put this, but can't think of anywhere better. as the title suggests I have written a book and now seek to get it published. However there are a few points I want to make sure of before I start the long process of finding a publisher.

1-I have heard that many companies, recieving thousands of letters, emails and so on every day will ignore every one not sent via an agent and throw them away without a second thought, but is this the case for every single company, or are there some, perhaps small companies that don't have too many submissions to deal with each day, that might take a quick look first?

2-would sending a letter/email to every single potential publisher in the country at the same time work, rather than waiting for a reply from each before moving on to the next?

3-As for getting an agent, there are thousands out there, I have heard that there is an entire huge book on nothing but their contact details, how do I choose from amongst them, or would I have to write to/email every one that might be interested?

4-A final point, hypothetically could I sell all rights to the first book to the company for a very small fee, such that they can then print it, getting more of the profits, see how well (or not) it does and perhaps consider a more traditional arrangement for the rest?

148.197.114.158 (talk) 10:26, 21 March 2010 (UTC)

The ref desk really isn't the best place for this type of question. Try google. This search has loads of pages giving advice on getting published. --Tango (talk) 10:52, 21 March 2010 (UTC)

I have certainly heard the same, that reputable publishers very often do not read any unsolicited submission that hasn't come via an agent. It is the disreputable or vanity publishers who will often accept "anything" (at the author's expense).

As for sending letters/emails to every publisher, I recently read a story (either here on the ref desks or elsewhere) about a guy who bugged so many publishers so often that they have taken out cease and desist notices and written open letters to him in a attempt to get him to stop bugging them (I wish I could remember the guy's name or find a link to the story I read) - you certainly do not want to get into that situation.

Getting an agent, might be difficult, but it is probably easier than finding a publisher. You might find the information in Writers' and Artists' yearbook useful. Astronaut (talk) 11:12, 21 March 2010 (UTC)

Searching for the above mentioned link, I notice you asked a very similar question in December. The answers you got then, contain some advice about publishing. Astronaut (talk) 11:17, 21 March 2010 (UTC)

I've actually heard from friends who have gotten "real" publishing deals (e.g. with Knopf and FSG) that getting the good agent is the hardest and most important aspect. Once you can convince a good agent that your project is worth taking on, they are the ones who really know how to get the big publishers on board. That is how my friends managed their good deals—they spent maybe a year finding the right agent, and then the agent figured out the rest. I haven't done this myself so I can't say, and my sample size is small (two), but it is something I have heard. How one distinguishes between good and bad agents is probably by the difficulty of getting them! --Mr.98 (talk) 14:33, 21 March 2010 (UTC)

So in summary the only companies that will even take a look without an agent are those I should be avoiding, and the only way to get an agent is to send at least an outline of my book idea to every single one? 148.197.114.158 (talk) 15:23, 21 March 2010 (UTC)

This is basically true. 1. The smaller publishers do have a slush pile but the larger publishers send back form letters telling you they did not read your manuscript. 2. This is called doing a 'multiple submission' and you're still stonewalled by item #1. 3. The "Writer's Market" comes out yearly and lists publishers and agents. Go to your library for this. By the way, googling "agent query letter" is valuable. 4. The publishers want to print a book that will sell millions of copies, not a book that they get for close to free (from the author) and it sells only 1000 copies, so I don't think your proposal will stir interest. Comet Tuttle (talk) 16:36, 21 March 2010 (UTC)

Send a short excerpt of your book with a short covering letter ("I look forward to hear whether you are interested in publishing my new book XXXXXXX"). Emphasis on the words short. Emphasis also on laying out these documents. You can't put too much care into making that first impression. For example, your post above spells receiving wrongly; Would should begin with a capital at point no. 2; the word "single" is redundant after every; points nos. 3 and 4 are poorly styled run-on sentences. Here are answers to the numbered questions.

1. No publisher can afford to ignore material that fits their market but many will throw out submissions that look amateurish. The only value agents bring is that they supposedly know ahead of time what a publisher needs. A quick look is all that an unknown author will get so make it good!

2. You don't say the genre of your book but you need to identify who publishes that type of book. Write to as many of those publishers as you can as fast as you can. Keep a record of where you send to avoid sending twice to anyone. Be prepared to get a lot of rejections.

3. There is nothing an agent can do that you can't do, and there are "thousands" of agents who charge money for doing less than that.

4. Wait until a publisher replies that they want your book before trying to negotiate. Traditionally they offer a lump sum for full rights and/or a royalty deal.

My advice is to run your text through a spelling checker and get a discerning friend or two to read it and give opinions. Magazine publishers can be an easier market for a new author because they need a constant flow of fresh material. Cuddlyable3 (talk) 21:11, 21 March 2010 (UTC)

You might also consider self-publishing. Mitch Ames (talk) 01:49, 22 March 2010 (UTC)

How many square metres of ground are required to feed someone for a year?

How many square metres of ground are needed to provide a person with all the nutrients that he requires for a year?

Thank you in advance for your replies,

88.189.248.66 (talk) 14:31, 21 March 2010 (UTC)

It would depend on the fertility and climate of the area, and of the type of food, vegetables for example could support more people than meat over the same area. However, English units mentions the the now obsolete unit of the hide, that is the area that can feed one family, usually equal to 4 to 8 bovates, each of 15 acres. therefore one family can eat off of 60-120 acres, though working out how large an area one person would need, would require knowing how many people were considered to be in that family. also farming is a little more efficient now, so likely a slightly smaller area would suffice. 148.197.114.158 (talk) 15:13, 21 March 2010 (UTC)

Farming isn't a little bit more efficient, it's massively more efficient. Then there's hydroponics, whereby no surface area is required at all, if done undergound with artificial lights (same thing for mushrooms). StuRat (talk) 16:39, 21 March 2010 (UTC)

Here's a detailed analysis: [12]. They came up with one acre (4,046.8564224 m²) producing enough calories for 2.42 people. Doing the math, that works out to about 1672 m² per person. This will, of course, vary dramatically depending on the crops and what other nutrients are to be provided. StuRat (talk)

John Seymour (author) holds that a family can be entirely self-sufficient on five acres. Gwinva (talk) 21:39, 21 March 2010 (UTC)

You might find the article on Ecological footprint interesting. Of course it goes far beyond purely "feeding" Vespine (talk) 01:07, 22 March 2010 (UTC)

getting schoolboys to join in with "Glad to Be Gay"

If in doubt, file under Misc. The singer Tom Robinson had a hit in the mid-1970s with "Glad to Be Gay", and the song continues to be closely associated wih him. He has taken it on the road in the decades since; he is from time to time invited to schools, and has sung this song there. I heard him tell the following story. I paraphrase:

I was invited to a posh boys' school to address its assembly, where, as usual, I sung "Glad to Be Gay". I wanted to get the boys to join in with the chorus, so I told them that of course gay people love to sing the song, and well-adjusted heterosexuals are perfectly happy to sing along in solidarity, but that people uncomfortable with their sexuality are not very enthusiastic about it. (puase for dramatic effect) You never heard such a full-throated rendition of the chorus! All the boys singing at the tops of their voices, and looking out of the corners of their eyes to see if their friends could tell from the volume just how happily heterosexual they were!

Any chance of finding a source for this? BrainyBabe (talk) 14:40, 21 March 2010 (UTC)

Ask him? Ghmyrtle (talk) 20:54, 21 March 2010 (UTC)

If true, it's an interesting experiment in peer pressure. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 14:47, 21 March 2010 (UTC)

Might it be reverse psychology in reverse? Bus stop (talk) 14:52, 21 March 2010 (UTC)

More like Reverse discrimination to me.--121.54.2.188 (talk) 07:45, 22 March 2010 (UTC)

Well adjusted Wikipedians can sing along with this video. Cuddlyable3 (talk) 20:14, 21 March 2010 (UTC)

It's neither reverse discrimination or reverse psychology, it's merely temporarily moving the goalposts of typical schoolyard homophobia and nothing Mr Robinson should be especially proud of (ie, the boys were loudly singing along to prove they weren't gay; if they were genuinely secure and unconcerned about their sexuality they wouldn't have let themselves be bullied into singing). FiggyBee (talk) 08:09, 22 March 2010 (UTC)

street lights

have you ever noticed street lights, the long pole is thinner at the top is there any very scientific reason about is? thanx--Myownid420 (talk) 17:06, 21 March 2010 (UTC)

While I can't point you to a reference, I can see two straightforward reasons for a tapered shape to the pole. First, the post at the base is supporting slightly more weight (due to the full length of the post being above it) and more importantly is subject to a greater bending torque (due to wind, people leaning on the post, etc.). Small displacements at the top of the post can deliver large forces to the bottom of the post, and a broader cross-section at the bottom means that the post is less likely to snap off at the base.

The second reason that I see is that objects attached to metal or concrete posts are often supported (partly or wholly) by metal straps or brackets which wrap around the entire perimeter (or circumference, for round posts) of the pole. Straps which fit snugly at one point along a tapered pole can't slide downwards. TenOfAllTrades(talk) 17:18, 21 March 2010 (UTC)

Masts, flagpoles, and lamp and sign standards are susceptible to damage from wind induced resonance. Tapering helps resist this - this article in Structure Magazine says "...round (or octagonal) tapered light poles are less susceptible to it than square ones. The natural frequency of a tapered light pole varies along its length, which makes it less likely to develop overall resonance from a constant wind. This is evident in the common types of poles used for highway lighting, flagpoles, and traffic control/signage structures." The same authors go on to give more details, and to list other countermeasures against WIR, in this note. -- Finlay McWalter • Talk 19:36, 21 March 2010 (UTC)

Thank you, Finley, for providing a correct and well-sourced answer, instead of just guessing. StuRat (talk) 01:20, 22 March 2010 (UTC)

Karl Gauss

i have searched all day for the man called karl gauss and cannot find him.my teacher says that carl gauss is a different person.can you please help me in finding this mathmatition.thank you for the help.dean —Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.218.48.176 (talk) 17:37, 21 March 2010 (UTC)

email deleted. Carl Friedrich Gauss was a mathematician - are you certain it's not him you're looking for? --Phil Holmes (talk) 18:00, 21 March 2010 (UTC)

A quick Google finds both spellings for the same individual, the one with the magnetic personality. PhGustaf (talk) 18:03, 21 March 2010 (UTC)

He was also, you know, just very very normal.

One of his standard deviations, apparently, was the use of the Carl spelling, which is unusual for a German. At least someone on talk:Carl Friedrich Gauss says that he used both spellings. --Trovatore (talk) 19:12, 21 March 2010 (UTC)

I think that it's less about the difference between "Carl" and "Karl" and more about the fact that, at least according to what I think, "Carl Gauss" is not exactly an unusual name. There must be hundreds, if not thousands, of Carl Gausses, in history, some still living. It's only that the world-famous mathematician is the only one so famous as to have articles in many Wikipedia editions written about him. JIP | Talk 21:03, 21 March 2010 (UTC)

Not really following. What exactly is about the fact that there are other people named "Carl Gauss"? The fact that the OP is having trouble finding info? That doesn't really seem likely -- the first six hits for "Karl Gauss" in double quotes, and the entire first page for "Carl Gauss", appear to be about the mathematician. --Trovatore (talk) 21:29, 21 March 2010 (UTC)

The OP says he has searched for a man called Karl Gauss. He says his teacher says Carl Gauss is a different person. I am fairly sure that if the mathematician is meant, "Karl Gauss" and "Carl Gauss" are the same thing. Therefore if the OP's teacher is convinced that it's a different person, then it must be because it's actually a different person than the mathematician. There are very many, but none nearly as famous. On the other hand, it just might be that the OP's teacher really doesn't know that in German, "Carl" and "Karl" are usually just different spellings of the same name, not completely different names that don't have the slightest thing to do with each other. JIP | Talk 21:38, 21 March 2010 (UTC)

Yeah, I think the simple explanation is that the OP's teacher is just wrong. I thought that was too obvious to mention. --Trovatore (talk) 21:39, 21 March 2010 (UTC)

I guess the simple answer is if you can find anyone named Karl Gauss who's a mathematician you've answered the question. As JIP says there must be many unfortunately an internet search isn't going to go very far since you just find Carl Gauss. It could be this is intentional. It's not clear in what context this was asked. Perhaps try looking in the library to see if there's any book by Karl Gauss (probably not the only thing I find on Amazon other then Carl Gauss is Karl-Markus Gauß who isn't a mathematician) or look in a Who's Who or something perhaps. Alternatively are you sure there's no one named Karl Gauss in your school (please don't tell us you don't know the name of the teacher who asked this question and it could be Karl Gauss)? Of course if you're teacher didn't specify mathematician but simply any Karl Gauss then perhaps the Markus person is intended. Of course it could be anyone but at least the Markus is well known enough you can probably write something about them. That got me thinking and I looked at de:Gauß (Begriffsklärung) but the only other one who comes close is de:Carl Joseph Gauß the more famous Carl's great grandson (if the Google translate was correct) who also wasn't a mathematician or a Karl but also probably someone you can write about, e.g. [13] [14]. Nil Einne (talk) 22:09, 21 March 2010 (UTC)

Personal possession of firearms illegal in Japan?

My little brother told me that in Japan, it is illegal for private persons to possess firearms, only the authorities and the military can possess them. Is this true? JIP | Talk 20:49, 21 March 2010 (UTC)

Gun law#Japan agrees, but it is unreferenced. --Tango (talk) 20:51, 21 March 2010 (UTC)

Gun politics#Japan agrees, and is better referenced. -- Finlay McWalter • Talk 21:10, 21 March 2010 (UTC)

Kopel, David. (1993) "Japanese Gun Control".—eric 21:06, 21 March 2010 (UTC)

Has 'Con Air' ever happened?

I was watching the film Con Air again last night and I was wondering if anything remotely like the events depicted in the film have ever occurred, even attempts or a much smaller scale event, maybe involving a bus even?

Thanks, 130.88.162.46 (talk) 22:20, 21 March 2010 (UTC)

A bit of Googling found at least one case where a prisoner hijacked a prison (mini)bus in Canada: [15]. TenOfAllTrades(talk) 22:49, 21 March 2010 (UTC)

Not a mode of transport but prisoners have taken control of the prisons that they were in. The Attica Prison riot is probably the most notorious. Dismas|^(talk) 23:30, 21 March 2010 (UTC)

March 22

Meeting celebrities

Why do most regular people tend to freak out or make a fool of themselves if they meet their favourite celebrity? --124.254.77.148 (talk) 06:47, 22 March 2010 (UTC)

Because they're nervous. They know it's probably their only chance to meet the person and they understandably want to tell the person how important their music/acting/whatever is to them. I, on the other hand, do not freak out when I meet my favourite musicians. Instead I attempt to engage them in conversation about things that might be of interest to them. The last thing they want to hear is "I really love your work" or "what did you mean by that lyric" or "when are you going to play my town". --Richardrj ^{talk email} 08:38, 22 March 2010 (UTC)

Because if you like that person to the point of adoration, than coming face to face with someone you admire greatly is somewhat of an overwhelming experience, you don't know what to say or do because that moment of meeting your idol is very surreal, as most people don't ever imagine that they would actually get this close to a celebrity they love. Even seeing your favorite musician live at a concert isn't quite the same as actually meeting them, since musicians don't talk to their fans one on one when they're onstage, they usually address the crowd as whole rather than individually. Hell, even celebrities themselves freak out when meeting their idols. What do you imagine you would if you met your favorite celebrity? 24.189.90.68 (talk) 08:40, 22 March 2010 (UTC)

Tom Selleck Biography

It says that in 2006 Tom, alongside Richard Rowley, started a charity. When you click on Richard Rowley it says he died in 1947. Is that the biography for the wrong Richard Rowley? Lady Sherwood (talk) 06:48, 22 March 2010 (UTC)

Yes, that's the wrong Richard Rowley, and I unlinked it. The right Richard Rowley might be the one at[16], and he might be deserving of an article.

The better place to bring up matters like this is the article's talk page. PhGustaf (talk) 07:20, 22 March 2010 (UTC)

Or it might be this Richard Rowley. It seems that Selleck has had, at least, casual associations with multiple "Richard Rowley"s. Dismas|^(talk) 07:25, 22 March 2010 (UTC)