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February 13

Gardening / landscaping: what do you call this?

What do you call it where, you have a layer of walls, each with plants on it? Like these https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/714x657q90/923/WPNirL.jpg https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/960x643q90/924/HPW7mO.jpg Thanks. 67.165.185.178 (talk) 11:24, 13 February 2022 (UTC).[reply]

Terracing. Bazza (talk) 11:55, 13 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Blue reflection

I saw what I think was triply reflected sunlight. There was a double-pane window with a metal spacer. The rays entered through the outer pane, were reflected first on the inner side of the inner pane, then on the spacer, and then on the inner side of the outer pane, before exiting through the inner pane. The path was like the rune, but then upside down.
The reflected light had a vivid blue hue. What could be the cause of this colour? Moving my head in any direction, the hue did not change, but only the intensity. --Lambiam 13:52, 13 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Wouldn't it be nice if it were caused by Lambertian reflectance, a type of nominative determinism. Mike Turnbull (talk) 23:20, 13 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Turn that into a load of bull, Mike. -2603:6081:1C00:1187:E88E:4C8A:1E3F:E1D3 (talk) 01:51, 14 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Measurement of spans of suspension bridges

Wikipedia:Featured_picture_candidates/comparison_of_notable_bridges has a discussion of the measurement of spans of the longest suspension bridges.

Diagrams at [1] and [2] show that the spans are measured from the towers' centrelines. If one assumes that the span is measured from the inner part of the piers instead, the much wider base above water of the Akashi bridge makes it look like it has a significantly smaller span.

Can someone familiar with this topic please respond in the discussion?

Thanks,
cmɢʟee⎆τaʟκ 22:06, 13 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Cmglee the infoboxes at Çanakkale 1915 Bridge and Akashi Kaikyo Bridge list the "Total length" (pier to pier) and the "Longest span" (tower to tower), so I think all is clear in the articles. As far as your SVG file under discussion Here at FPC, after clearing up my misunderstandings, I think your SVG file matches your sources (linked to above) as well as google maps. Bammesk (talk) 04:16, 14 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks, @Bammesk:. Discussion moved to Wikipedia:Featured_picture_candidates/comparison_of_notable_bridges. Cheers, cmɢʟee⎆τaʟκ 21:25, 14 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]

February 14

Earth's axis of rotation

For this question please ignore continental drift or assume it doesn't exist. I know that the Earth's magnetic poles move around over time. I am wondering, does the same thing happen with the geographic poles, that the axis of rotation runs through? Like if you sat down in New York City and waited long enough (millions of years), could you find that NYC is the new North Pole? I know that the axis precesses by a few degrees but I'm looking for a larger effect, like swapping the Northern and Southern hemispheres. Thanks. 2602:24A:DE47:B8E0:1B43:29FD:A863:33CA (talk) 04:08, 14 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Precession is in the constellations, the few degrees of axial tilt change superimposed on that is also in the stars, polar wander on the ground is mostly continental drift (apparent polar wander) and true polar wander. And the constellations themselves scatter like cockroaches after only a few wavy 26,000 year precession circles. Sagittarian Milky Way (talk) 05:09, 14 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]

So the short answer is no. If you set up camp at the South Pole, its location will still be at the South Pole millions of years from now. The solid Earth globe "wobbles" together with its axis of rotation, just like a fast spinning top tends to do; check out the first image in the article Precession. --Lambiam 10:15, 14 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]

There's Chandler wobble. --Wrongfilter (talk) 10:26, 14 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]

The South Pole ice flows downhill to the sea at 10 yards per year, much faster than continental drift. Sagittarian Milky Way (talk) 14:43, 14 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Ah, thanks, true polar wander was what I was wondering about, and those articles have some numbers, which were smaller than what I needed to account for what I was thinking about. Re constellations: SMW, are you saying that if I sat in New York for a mere 100K years or so, the night sky would look completely different? I mean not just slightly perturbed? Interesting. Thanks. 2602:24A:DE47:B8E0:1B43:29FD:A863:33CA (talk) 22:24, 15 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Just saying, in millions of years, Earth might get hit by something with exactly the attirbutes to make (the ruins of) NYC its new pole or swap 'North' and 'South' (relative to the solar system?). Stars and other references for orientation can all shift somewhat. GeorgiaDC (talk) 20:36, 16 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Pregnant woman questions.

Let's say a pregnant woman suffers something where her brother or boyfriend is killed in a car crash, or is murdered. What affect does the stress have it on the future fetus, let's say for 2 scenarios, where it is 9-months pregnant, or where it is just a zygote. Which case has it worse for the fetus? Did the fetus have a high or low probability of turning out abnormal? 67.165.185.178 (talk) 11:38, 14 February 2022 (UTC).[reply]

Your (or her) best option is asking the question to the doctor. Internet fora (including Wikipedia's Teahoure or Ref.Desk) are definitely not the right place for seeking medical advice. --CiaPan (talk) 11:54, 14 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]

In the event that these may be known cases. 67.165.185.178 (talk) 11:59, 14 February 2022 (UTC).[reply]

Nope. No two cases are the same. Read a leaflet attached to any medical product – each of them lists some side effects. Some happen in one case per 100, some in one per ten thousands, some may happen once per the whole history of mankind.

Every accident may end differently. Some people cut their finger off, then get it sewed back and live happily, while some other may scratch it slightly, get infection and die from sepsis.

Some people loose their dog and mentally break down forever, while some (most?) experience a loss of their parents and – even though traumatized – live normally.

Some catch flu or Covid-19 and seem healthy back in seven or ten days, and some stay in hospitals for weeks and go back home with severe pulmonary dysfunctions.

Nobody in the internet knows any special details of physical, mental and social health of the specific person. All you can possibly get here is information about some average scenarios – but you never know if an average scenario applies, because in reality nobody is average. So, even if you meet five proffesors of medicine here, they won't be able to give you a professionally reasonable answer. The only sensible way to obtain a safe advice is to go see your doctor.

By the way, please see Wikipedia:Medical disclaimer:

WIKIPEDIA DOES NOT GIVE MEDICAL ADVICE.

Best regards, CiaPan (talk) 12:54, 14 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Yea, I'm not asking for solutions to counter it. 67.165.185.178 (talk) 15:53, 14 February 2022 (UTC).[reply]

If OP said "I'm thinking of murdering someone by tampering with his car but worry about the effect on an unborn close relative," that would be seeking medical advice. —Tamfang (talk) 03:21, 15 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]

There is probably a good question in there, along the lines of "does stress during pregnancy cause problems for the mother / for the embryo/foetus?". Mixing up the cause of stress itself is not helpful and is probably why you got hit by the medical disclaimer.

There seems to be some evidence that stress can increase the risk of miscarriage (link to review found from Talk:Miscarriage), but nothing definitive yet. Considering that miscarriage is a well-defined endpoint with a fairly high incidence rate, I would speculate that if we are not sure yet about that, we probably don’t have enough data for the impact of stress on birth defects (which are more rare, more varied, and more or less pronounced). Tigraan^{Click here for my talk page ("private" contact)} 15:19, 14 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]

I think this is a scientific question rather than a medicalone. Medical advice would be to help someone actually in that situation, which doesn't seem to be the case here. This web search gets a lot of matches that might be relevant. You could also look at our article on epigenetics for how some of these effects can persist across generations. 2602:24A:DE47:B8E0:1B43:29FD:A863:33CA (talk) 03:37, 15 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Where does paper from US and Europe come from?

In the U.S., does paper come from trees of South America? What about for Europe? And is there such a thing as tree-farms. As in, farm acres of land, to cut down trees strictly used for paper, and once cut down, space is immediately used to grow more trees to cut for paper. The species being the fastest possible -growing trees. And possibly in a glass-ceiling environment where CO2 gas or so is extra given? 67.165.185.178 (talk) 12:02, 14 February 2022 (UTC).[reply]

See paper pulp and pulpwood for answers. 41.165.67.114 (talk) 13:29, 14 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Tree farm. Sagittarian Milky Way (talk) 14:25, 14 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]

That article seems to be for cutting down trees used for timber and wood, like for furniture. Then is paper not made directly from trees, but made from wood? 67.165.185.178 (talk) 00:17, 15 February 2022 (UTC).[reply]

If you read the article I linked to: "The wood fiber sources required for pulping are "45% sawmill residue, 21% logs and chips, and 34% recycled paper" (Canada, 2014)". So sawmill residue is bulk component. A sawmill making lumber (boards and planks) would still have waste material for making paper. 41.165.67.114 (talk) 05:41, 15 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Largest Wood Producing Countries by Products (percentage of global production 2018) - Pulp for paper: United States of America (25%); Brazil (11%); China (9%); Canada (8%); Sweden (6%); Finland (6%); Russian Federation (5%); Indonesia (5%); Japan (5%); India (3%); Chile (3%). [3] Alansplodge (talk) 15:28, 14 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Why are some countries so different from their percents of the world's forests? Sagittarian Milky Way (talk) 16:12, 14 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Why would we expect them to be the same as their percents of the world's forests? --OuroborosCobra (talk) 17:53, 14 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]

USA 7.5% of the forest acres, BRA 15% pretty similar to its production, CHI 5% not surprising, Canada 9.5% but much less than US, Sweden 0.7% holy crap, Finland 0.6% ditto, Russia 20% too remote?, Indonesia 2.4%, Japan like 0.55%, India ~1.8%, Chile ~0.45%. Less correlation than I'd expect. Sagittarian Milky Way (talk) 01:13, 15 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Again, why are you expecting a correlation in the first place? I do not see any logical reason to expect that correlation in ignorance of any other variables, such as whether the trees are even varieties good for making paper, whether local economies have decided paper production is even a viable focus, and whether local populations have decided to make their forests protected or not. I really don't see any reason to expect that paper production would match forest acreage. --OuroborosCobra (talk) 15:21, 15 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]

I would've guessed Finland was 0.3 to 1/0.3 times its percent of forest acres but you're right not too surprising. I thought Scandinavia was supposed to be environmental? Given the diversity of countries presumably paper trees can be tropical, temperate or taiga and you don't need to be very industrialized but maybe Japan, Sweden and Finland has good climate or soil or species and bad species, soil or climate start near the edge of Russia. Maybe the low price to weight ratio encourages regional centers? Maybe US has heavy forestry import tariffs despite NAFTA, what do I know? Sagittarian Milky Way (talk) 18:14, 15 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]

The more space is taken up by tree plantations, the less is left for natural forests; see Tree plantation § Natural forest loss. Pulpwood plantations are monocultures of species selected for growing fast. --Lambiam 21:16, 14 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]

You do realize there's a wee little country just to the north of the US with a few trees growing on it? Clarityfiend (talk) 21:04, 14 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Finland is a major player on the European pulpwood market.^[4] Sweden is probably the runner-up; they are the leader in softwood lumber. --Lambiam 21:34, 14 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]

According to the figures cited above, Sweden and Finland both contributed 6% of the global pulp-for-paper supply in 2018. Alansplodge (talk) 13:10, 15 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Much of the paper pulp in the U.S. comes from only a few suppliers, actually mostly Georgia-Pacific, but there are a few smaller players in the market in the U.S. AFAIK, nearly all of their supply is domestic. If you get paper in the U.S., it is most likely from U.S. trees. Some of it is privately-owned land, much of it owned by Weyerhaeuser, but a LOT of it is National forests, which is owned by the United States Government, managed by the United States Forest Service, and leased to companies like Weyerhaeuser and Georgia-Pacific to harvest trees. National Forests in the U.S. are multi-use: they do have a conservation and recreation function (like National Parks), but they are also used as a source of timber for building materials and paper. --Jayron 32 13:29, 15 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]

February 15

Artificial Intelligence, any ways to guess gender from names?

Greetings,

@ WT:WOMRED#Growth Team Features; we need mentors! I came across one interesting point being discussed by User:Ipigott.

Personally when I visit multiple language Wikipedia where in I do not know the respective language and culture at all, even without taking into account the articles they are editing, I can guess at least few female user accounts, request some help on women's rights related article and do get such help. Even I can make a guess to some extent what likely percentage of women are editing on the wiki project looking at recent changes. Of course I am too rational to claim any supernatural abilities in me, How I have ability to guess gender may be this question pertains to multiple disciplines like cultural, linguistic, anthropology, psychology etc.

But giving such task of guessing gender from user names for software would sound next to impossible. Still what possibilities would exist for AI researcher?

Are there any scientific studies on this topic in above discussed various scientific fields?

Bookku, 'Encyclopedias = expanding information & knowledge' (talk) 12:29, 15 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]

There are at least two separate questions here. When editing Wikipedia and independent of their User Name, editors can set Special:GlobalPreferences#mw-prefsection-personal to the gender which they prefer to be addressed, or deliberately leave this unspecified, which is the default for new accounts. Then any other user can use the correct terms when referring to them, if that has been specified. The Navigation popup gadget (active it on your own page here) will show the gender and other information when you hover over the name of another editor in talk pages and elsewhere. As to the more general question, then "guess" is the best that can be done, although many names, if not Usernames, do indeed mostly get applied to one preferred gender. Mike Turnbull (talk) 13:10, 15 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]

English, at least, has quite a few unisex names, and it would be interesting to see how, or if, AI could somehow figure out the gender based on nothing but the name. --←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 14:50, 15 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Reminds me of the Turing test and Douglas R. Hofstadter's wonderful piece from Scientific American in 1981 here, where male?/female? Chris, Pat and Sandy are discussing what Turing called the 'imitation game'. --T*U (talk) 18:31, 15 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, there is lots of such software.https://duckduckgo.com/?q=name+gender+software] 2602:24A:DE47:B8E0:1B43:29FD:A863:33CA (talk) 22:27, 15 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]

And they are all based on guesswork. If you have a name such as "Chris Smith", and no other information, it is impossible to know what the gender is. --←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 15:15, 16 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Well put Baseball Bugs. Many years ago I knew a family where Chris and Chris were married, and named their first child Chris. Now sort that one out! Martin of Sheffield (talk) 15:24, 16 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Evelyn Waugh was married to someone named... Evelyn Gardner. They didn't have children however. --Jayron 32 15:58, 16 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Even with a given name such as "Andrea" or "Anne" you can't be sure: Andrea Denver, Anne Mulder. --Lambiam 15:49, 16 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Michael Learned would also give such an AI trouble as well... --Jayron 32 15:59, 16 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]

And Christopher Norris. --←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 16:20, 16 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]

On top of all that, now we have the minefield of not knowing whether a random person prefers to be associated with a gender that does not match their outward appearance, or no particular gender, or all genders, or something that changes sometimes; and having to choose one's pronouns accordingly. By the way, where could I get hold of a litre of that "gender fluid"? -- Jack of Oz ^{[pleasantries]} 20:53, 16 February 2022 (UTC) [reply]

Yes, by switching language names can change gender, but maybe that's cheating. In English Andrea is female, in Italian it's male. Andrea Denver is an Italian living in the US. In Dutch Anne is a female name, but in Frisian it's male, the female equivalent being Antje. Have a look at the map on [5] (sorry, Dutch only). Once you know the language, the number of unisex names rapidly drops. And in languages with marking of grammatical gender on nouns, it would nearly always be possible to correctly guess someone's gender from the name. PiusImpavidus (talk) 09:47, 17 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]

All AI approaches require training data; a set of inputs with corresponding correct answers. Given that those data are quite simply not available over the set of Wikipedia editors, the best that you could expect would be for the AI to repeat the skew attributable to the initial assumptions. 37.166.208.180 (talk) 19:56, 17 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]

I think some respondents here have missed the point. The question was about guessing gender, and I'd expect guessing in this context to mean choosing an answer with a reasonably high probability of being right, not determining a right answer with certainty. There is never certainty anyway (people in this modern era can switch gender at any time). Names could be misleading even in earlier times, e.g. Waltons' actress Michael Learned. I do have the impression that those software models do reasonably well at guessing genders from names, but I would never claim them to be perfect. 2602:24A:DE47:B8E0:1B43:29FD:A863:33CA (talk) 22:08, 17 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]

February 16

Minor biology question

In Columnella, why are some of the discoverers(?) in brackets and some not? Clarityfiend (talk) 23:10, 16 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]

The reason was entirely an accident of formatting, and entirely unrelated to anything scientific. I have amended the article to insert brackets in all places where they were missing. Dolphin (t) 23:48, 16 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks. So nothing juicy like being a member of the Illuminati or the Cabal? Clarityfiend (talk) 09:49, 17 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Not as far as you should know ;) --Jayron 32 13:16, 17 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]

The name and date after a binomial name is a reference to the authorship and date of the publication that first formally described the species. The official convention is to put these in brackets if the species was first described in a different genus. See International Code of Zoological Nomenclature Article 51.3. I have reverted User:Dolphin51's change, so that the brackets now again match those in World Register of Marine Species. Jmchutchinson (talk) 10:10, 18 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Resolved

Clarityfiend (talk) 12:46, 19 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]

February 17

Did anytime NASA or any space agency save Earth from major calamity?

Did anytime NASA or any space agency save Earth from major calamity? Like diverting mountain-sized comet etc. Rizosome (talk) 16:17, 17 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Only in movies. --T*U (talk) 18:09, 17 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]

No, they have not, but they may be very likely in the process of causing one. --Jayron 32 19:43, 17 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]

That particular Internet meme calamity was not caused by NASA. That meme is caused by the Internet echo chamber of know-it-alls learning their physics from Sandra Bullock in that thing. 85.76.97.34 (talk) 16:08, 18 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]

No Janes were ever harmed by NASA. Clarityfiend (talk) 00:11, 18 February 2022 (UTC) [reply]

I'd argue their work on climate change is helping to moderate, if not avert one. Fgf10 (talk) 00:14, 18 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]

I got the answer from this line: Only in movies. Rizosome (talk) 15:02, 20 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]

human detecting when mobile phone is about to ring

Please ignore any hypothetical medical aspects to this question (I know about that policy, and will ask a Dr if it becomes an issue). The question is intended as purely about detecting electromagnetism biologically.

Yesterday evening I was resting in bed, not really asleep, when I had a sudden feeling of panic (something like an electric shock in my chest) that lasted about 1 second, enough to bolt awake. A second or two later, my cell phone rang. I'm aware of LED gizmos that flash when your phone is about to ring, due to some kind of change in the electromagnetic environment when the tower connects to the phone (I guess the phone's transmitter powers up). So I'm wondering whether I did a similar detection biophysically somehow.

Any thoughts about this? A quick web search didn't find anything. I don't remember noticing this effect if my phone rings while I'm awake. Thanks. 2602:24A:DE47:B8E0:1B43:29FD:A863:33CA (talk) 23:11, 17 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Certain birds and fishes can perceive electric / magnetic fields: see bioelectromagnetics, perception and behavioral effects of electromagnetic fields, and electroperception. While evidence in humans is scarce, especially in air medium and at radio frequencies, it is conceivable that perhaps something rare and undiscovered may be present in some individuals. Another explanation could be happenstance. How often do you feel panic or something similar during evenings? How often do you get phone calls during that time? Perhaps they simply happened together. GeorgiaDC (talk) 04:00, 18 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Evidence in humans is scarce, but not non-existent. For example, it appears that humans are sensitive enough to sense changes in Earth's magnetic field. Sensing when a phone is going to ring is very different of course and very susceptible to confirmation bias. Matt Deres (talk) 13:56, 18 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Beyond GeorgiaDC's explanation that this might be something you are regularly experiencing that you happened to attach to the phone ringing, another far more mundane (and therefore IMO likely) explanation is that your phone was already doing something before you detected it ringing. Many smart phones will turn on the screen maybe a second or two before they have an audible ring, if your phone was within your line of sight, you might have noticed this. Phones can of course also affect other things notably speakers so if your phone was near a speaker that was playing music, you might have heard this. Alternatively it's possible it had an audible ring before you became aware of it. Either way in your sleepy state you misinterpreted the surprise from whatever your phone did or cause as a physical sensation, and probably also misinterpreted the time between the surprise and your phone ringing. Edit: line of sight may be indirect especially in a darkened room since the brightness of the phone may light up the ceiling or whatever even if the phone is completely out of even your peripheral vision.) Nil Einne (talk) 10:26, 18 February 2022 (UTC) 11:55, 18 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]

A third possibility is that you had been dreaming, and the phone woke you up, and that in the fraction of a second that this happened, your brain concocted a story to explain this, involving an apparent electric shock apparently happening before the phone rang. Note that sense of time in dreams is screwy: I've had "long" dreams, that seamlessly incorporated the event that woke me from that dream, in a way that is unlikely to be possible unless the whole dream actually occurred and was triggered by the thing that woke me. Also note that its possible to start dreaming before you fall asleep, and to continue dreaming after you wake up: see Hypnagogia and Hypnopompic. Iapetus (talk) 10:39, 18 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]

I am surprised nobody linked yet to our article about electromagnetic hypersensitivity.

Short version: some people complain of headaches (and other symptoms) which they attribute to the presence of electromagnetic fields nearby. A considerable number of scientific studies have been done on the subject (along the lines of: turn on and off a transmitter at random, ask the subjects if the transmitter is on or off, see if they do better than random chance). The conclusion of those studies is pretty clear: the symptoms are due to the nocebo effect rather than actual physiological sensitivity.

Presumably, if a patient in those studies could reliably feel an "electric shock through the chest" whenever the transmitter was turned on, they would have scored very high on detection ability, and we would have heard of them by now. Maybe OP is just much better at detecting EM fields than all of the participants in electrosensitivity studies, but the explanations above seem more plausible. Tigraan^{Click here for my talk page ("private" contact)} 14:36, 18 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]

And also Synchronicity. {The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195} 90.193.130.191 (talk) 11:55, 19 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]

February 18

Has anyone ever tabulated element yields in the r-process

The r-process produces heavy as well as light elements and I've seen many papers graphically displaying the expected element yields for a given mass number and electron fraction, but none displaying them in tabular format. Anyone know one that does? Jo-Jo Eumerus (talk) 16:31, 18 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]

How about this one? Pritychenko, Boris (2020). "Determination of Solar System R-Process Abundances using ENDF/B-VIII.0 and TENDL-2015 libraries". arXiv:2012.06728 [astro-ph.SR]. --Amble (talk) 22:18, 18 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]

February 20

Where do birds go in a bad storm?

We just had one in England, so it got me thinking. I live by the sea, so I know what the gulls do. They either go far out to sea and ride out the storm on the water, or try to fly above the storm. Or they go inland and find an open space (less risk of flying objects), such as a field and hunker down until it's over. I think it depends on the strength and type of storm.

The seagulls are physically strong, thick plumaged birds and powerful flyers, however. What do the rest of them, do? I'm thinking of the ubiquitous urban pigeons, sparrows, crows, starlings and such. --Iloveparrots (talk) 00:37, 20 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Some can perch in thick trees with claws that grasp automatically when muscles are relaxed. Others may gather on the leeward side of structures, vegetations, or forests. See 1 2 3 4. Most still need to feed and drink, however, especially to maintain body temperature against the weather. Sometimes they find insects hiding in the same places as they are from the storm. Sometimes they're unlucky and starve or exhaust themselves, even for seabirds who can fly with the storm or shelter within its eye as long as they keep pace with its movements. On a personal note, it's not uncommon to find birds under/inside people's domiciles around here during a major storm. GeorgiaDC (talk) 07:01, 20 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]

The gulls come inland. When I lived in Whitley Bay, Tyneside we could always tell when there was bad weather out at sea, the school playing fields (about a mile inland) were covered in gulls. What's more, even if disturbed they walked, hopped or if they had to made a short flight. They certainly did not want to be up in the air. Martin of Sheffield (talk) 08:26, 20 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Some original research: at the height of the storm at midday on Friday in Hertfordshire (about 45 miles from the Essex coast), there were blue tits, great tits, nut hatches, a robin and a lesser spotted woodpecker at my birdfeeder which was swinging around violently. So I think the answer must be that they keep calm and carry on. Many garden birds are territorial, [6] so they won't stray far from home. Alansplodge (talk) 11:43, 20 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]

The robin sits in a barn to keep himself warm. DuncanHill (talk) 12:16, 20 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Clockwork Orange, the Ludovico technique - would it actually have worked?

For anyone who didn't see the film or read the book, it involved aversion therapy. The government, in the story was experimenting with curing criminal behaviour by exposing people to graphic images of violence, rape, war, genocide and such while simultaneously pumping them full of drugs which brought upon a feeling of sickness and a "death like, paralysis state". The idea being that long term mental associations would be formed that would cause even the thought of doing such things to make it physically impossible to act upon such impulses because of permanent changes to the psyche. Like a an aggressive thought would cause the sickness and paralysis to return until the person purposefully rejected that thought, the idea being that it was now physically impossible for the subject of the experiment to commit an aggressive act.

The story was obviously a warning against such things. That it was better to be a bad man than to be compelled to "goodness" against one's will.

Question I have here, is would this have actually worked in real life? I know that attempts at aversion therapy WRT things like homosexually didn't work, so I'm curious. I'm suspecting that various governments probably tried such things over the years. Just watched the movie on DVD... — Preceding unsigned comment added by Iloveparrots (talk • contribs) 02:19, 20 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]

The reports on the effectiveness of aversion therapy are a mixed bunch, and controlled experiments described in sufficient detail to make them repeatable are rare. When reasonably effective at all, this appears to depend on the condition being treated. There is no body of established psychological theory that would allow one to predict the effectiveness of operant conditioning by torture for what seems to be sociopathy. --Lambiam 10:18, 20 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]

You may be interested in Classical Conditioning in “A Clockwork Orange” from Psychology Today. Alansplodge (talk) 11:50, 20 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]

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 :<small> No [[Calamity Jane|Janes]] were ever harmed by NASA. [[User:Clarityfiend|Clarityfiend]] ([[User talk:Clarityfiend|talk]]) 00:11, 18 February 2022 (UTC) </small>
 *I'd argue their work on climate change is helping to moderate, if not avert one. [[User:Fgf10|Fgf10]] ([[User talk:Fgf10|talk]]) 00:14, 18 February 2022 (UTC)
+I got the answer from this line: Only in movies. [[User:Rizosome|Rizosome]] ([[User talk:Rizosome|talk]]) 15:02, 20 February 2022 (UTC)
 == human detecting when mobile phone is about to ring ==