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July 2

Liquor Store Laws

I'm 19 and my girlfriend just turned 21. Am I allowed to accompany her into a liquor store while she makes a purchase? We're in Pennsylvania if that's applicable. Thanks 71.175.59.53 (talk) 22:49, 9 July 2008 (UTC)

Can you use any style of jump in high jump?

I was watching this:

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=nnIyjqcOUr8&feature=related

10 seconds in surprised me with how high he got. It appears as if it's 2m - 2.5m. With good high jumping shoes and small style adjustments it could be even better. Would this be allowed? --81.100.112.56 (talk) 00:47, 2 July 2008 (UTC)

Saying that any style is acceptable may run afoul of issues, but you may certainly use unconventional techniques in the high jump. The Fosbury Flop hasn't always existed, for instance. I should also note that the gymnastics surface in the video appears quite springy, which isn't the case for the high jump. — Lomn 00:55, 2 July 2008 (UTC)

On further investigation, that style would be disallowed. High jump competitors must take off from one foot. — Lomn 01:01, 2 July 2008 (UTC)

Thanks! --81.100.113.139 (talk) 21:03, 2 July 2008 (UTC)

Branislav Ivanovic = Brother of Ana Ivanovic?

Is Branislav Ivanovic the brother of Ana Ivanovic? Both are Serbian people with the same surname, but t is not stated on their articles about their relationship. So are they realy siblings?--203.124.2.18 (talk) 03:58, 2 July 2008 (UTC)

Possibly not - the Ana Ivanović article says she has "a younger brother, Miloš", which slightly suggests she has no other siblings. Also, she was born in Belgrade whereas Branislav Ivanović was born in Sremska Mitrovica.--92.40.81.160 (talk) 08:23, 2 July 2008 (UTC)

Ivanovic is a very common name in Serbia. Going on the name alone, it would be highly likely that they're not closely related. -- JackofOz (talk) 11:35, 2 July 2008 (UTC)

Indeed, just like Yankovic: Jelena Yankovic and Weird Al Yankovic are not related. Or maybe......14:29, 2 July 2008 (UTC)

Yes, we have to be careful with language with this subject. All humans are ultimately related to each other, so you can't say that any two people are "not related" without engaging in terminological inexactitude. What we're saying is that 2 people with the same surname do not necessarily have any identifiable or close blood or marital connection. I see 3 scenarios:

Identified and close: e.g. siblings

Identified and distant: e.g. 23rd cousins 18 times removed (which means that for all practical purposes they're not considered to be related, even though they actually are); or

Unidentified: because of our lack of genealogical skills and/or the absence of relevant records, they might have no identifiable relationship at all. But this is not a reason to believe that such a relationship doesn't exist. We just haven't found out what it is yet, and may never be able to find it. -- JackofOz (talk) 17:39, 2 July 2008 (UTC)

Ivanovic is like Johnson, isn't it? --jpgordon^∇∆∇∆ 21:10, 3 July 2008 (UTC)

Guava

I have a guava tree in my kitchen garden. However it is attacked by bats which eat away all its fruits . How do I get rid of the menace? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Sumalsn (talk • contribs)

I imagine 'getting rid of the menace' would be much more difficult than protecting your tree. This may appear naive but you ought to be looking for some sort of net that you can put over the tree when the fruits begin to ripen. This assumes your tree is small enough to cover easily and the cost of a suitable net is within reason. Richard Avery (talk) 06:58, 2 July 2008 (UTC)

Hi Sumalsn. In some places bats are protected by law. Here in the UK "all bats are protected under the Wildlife and Countryside Acts, and even disturbing a bat or its roost can be punished with a heavy fine." I don't know whether there are similar laws in India but it might be worth checking in case you were thinking of taking action directly against the bats.--92.40.81.160 (talk) 08:32, 2 July 2008 (UTC)

If you can't net the whole tree, try plastic bags or netting over the bunches of fruit. Julia Rossi (talk) 11:14, 2 July 2008 (UTC)

or glass-bottles then you could have a guava-fruit in a jar thing like those apple/pear in a jar things you get! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 194.221.133.226 (talk) 12:40, 2 July 2008 (UTC)

Maybe you can get a bat predator. [1] Says: "Numerous anecdotal observations have revealed a wide range of predators for bats. Raptors and owls approach bats and often catch them in flight. Opossums and snakes may wait close to roost sites or attack fruit-eating bats when they approach trees loaded with ripe fruits. Presumably to lessen the risk of being caught by predators such as owls, some bats are known to drastically reduce their activity level during bright nights around full moon (lunarphobia)." -LambaJan (talk) 13:45, 8 July 2008 (UTC)

Dragon/Knight Riddle

A dragon and knight live on an island, which has seven poisoned wells, numbered one through seven. If you drink from a well you can only save yourself by drinking from a higher numbered well. Well number seven is located at the top of a high mountain, so only the dragon can reach it. They decide the island isnt big enough and they have a duel. Each of them brings a glass of water to the duel, they exchange glasses and drink. After the duel, the knight lives and the dragon dies. Why? I've asked a few people and they don't know XD Any ideas are much appreciated. Thanks, KiloT 14:01, 2 July 2008 (UTC)

Are we allowed to assume that the dragon doesn't bring water from well number one? Zain Ebrahim (talk) 14:10, 2 July 2008 (UTC)

Okay, I think we're allowed to assume that the knight is cleverer. Hint: if you were the knight, what would you bring in your glass (knowing how the dragon would react to what it expects you to bring) and how would you prepare for what you expect the dragon to have in its glass? Zain Ebrahim (talk) 14:19, 2 July 2008 (UTC)

Here we go - We'll assume that the knight thinks the dragon is going to give the knight from well 7, so just before the duel the knight drinks from the well numbered 6, poisoning himself (and keeping a little extra to give to the dragon), then when the dragon givs the knight well 7 water to drink this cures the knight, allowing him to live. On the dragon dying stance i'm going to say that the dragon was far too tired to go back up to well 7 (it's a long way you know) after already being up there once, so didn't get the antidote and died. -Benbread (talk) 14:28, 2 July 2008 (UTC)

Why would the dragon bring the only drink that would cure the knight? The dragon would surely bring a drink from well 6 because it knows that it can always reach well 7 but the knight never can, therefore by making the night drink well 6 the knight will never be cured, whereas the dragon can just go to whichever well is required after drinking the first drink and be cured. Am I missing something (sorry just reworded my answer a bit)? 194.221.133.226 (talk) 14:43, 2 July 2008 (UTC)

Oh wait I see - if he pre-drinks a well then the higher-numbered well has no poisoning affect - only acting as a cure? If that's the case then the knight must simply pre-guess the dragon's choice and pre-drink from a lower-numbered well, that way provided the dragon brings a higher-well number down he will be making what was a poison a cure, and then whatever he gives the dragon would require the dragon to go get a drink from a higher-well. The problem here is like benbread said we have to assume that there isn't sufficient time for the dragon to get the cure (since he can access all the wells). Not a good riddle i don't think 194.221.133.226 (talk) 14:50, 2 July 2008 (UTC)

If the knight brought a higher numbered water than the dragon then on exchange he would drink from a low value glass. A drink from a glass leaves content, so the knight at once grabbed the glass the dragon has drunk from. This is a higher number than the one he drank from. So he is saved. AND this is a dual not a drinking contest, so the knight used his weapons to prevent the dragon reaching a well - or perhaps just killed him outright.86.197.172.94 (talk) 15:14, 2 July 2008 (UTC)DT

Good day. The knight could have brought the water from the higher numbered wells. That would seem more likely, at least to me. So the knight grabbed water from a lower level well and a higher number well knowing the dragon would probably get water from a low level well. Then during the duel the playing field is equal you have two glasses of poison and one glass of cure. Either that or the dragon brought a higher level well water thinking the knight would only bring lower levels. Even so I think that there were two glasses of poison and one glass of a cure. I hope I have helped. I know sometimes my answers can be a bit confusing so I hope this one isn't. Have a positively wonderful day.Rem Nightfall (talk) 15:41, 2 July 2008 (UTC)

At this point I'd be more interested to see the purported "solution". Much as Benbread has laid out above, I see no answer that assumes rational players without stepping into "one has time to get poisoned and then cured, but the other doesn't." — Lomn 16:37, 2 July 2008 (UTC)

I think I figured it out: Before the knight comes to the duel, he drinks from Well 1. The dragon chooses to give him the water he knows the knight isn't going to be able to cure, i.e. from Well 6, which actually cures the knight. The knight gives the dragon normal (i.e. not from any of the wells) water. The dragon, convinced he is poisoned, drinks from Well 7, gets poisoned, and, since there is no well higher than 7 with which he could cure himself, dies. 80.123.210.172 (talk) 16:44, 2 July 2008 (UTC)

A brilliant answer. I am convinced. Plasticup ^T/C 17:02, 2 July 2008 (UTC)

I'm not. Where does the non-poisoned water come from? The dragon knows good and well that the non-poisoned salt water doesn't require a drink from Well 7 to cure. — Lomn 17:05, 2 July 2008 (UTC)

It doesn't say anywhere that there aren't any other fresh water sources on the island. The knight and dragon don't normally drink from the poisoned wells, they're just doing it for the duel. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 80.123.210.172 (talk) 17:11, 2 July 2008 (UTC)

In that case, we're just adding silly content to change the parameters of the riddle to fit a proposed solution. Alternately, we've abandoned the notion of rational actors. Why can't the dragon engage in the same trickery? "The knight is smarter" is wholly uninteresting. — Lomn 17:15, 2 July 2008 (UTC)

I'm adding silly content because the riddle is completely idiotic. There is no viable solution that I can think of without adding content. Is this just some elaborate hoax? 80.123.210.172 (talk) 17:19, 2 July 2008 (UTC)

(Rm indent)Yes, the riddle is flawed. The answer I had in mind is the same as 80's above (except I said that the dragon will give the knight water from well 7 - same thing, really). We have to assume that the dragon is silly and would expect water from some well. And I used the fact that they're on an island to assume that there's an abundance of non-poisoned water (it would have been quite obvious if the asker spellled this out). But I'm pretty sure that that's what the asker had in mind. Zain Ebrahim (talk) 17:30, 2 July 2008 (UTC)

I don't think the riddle is flawed at all. The fact that they "live" on the island proves that there must be drinkable water for the knight somewhere. I don't think that qualifies as added content; on the contrary, the only way we could have a situation without a drinkable well is if the riddle specified that there was no such thing or at least said that they'd recently been stranded there somehow. I came to a similar solution and I think it's a lot more sensible than the crap that often gets floated around as "riddles" on the net. Matt Deres (talk) 18:14, 2 July 2008 (UTC)

I agree that the existence of non-poisonous water as well as the dragon's ability to taste salt are clutching at straws. I called it flawed because we have to assume that the knight is cleverer and riddles usually specify if the players are not rational or not equally intelligent. But now that I think about it, the riddle did mention that the knight won so the assumption is not unreasonable. Zain Ebrahim (talk) 19:01, 2 July 2008 (UTC)

My chief problem with an answer like that (specifically, the knight being more intelligent) is that it eliminates the notion of a singular answer. Once disparate intelligences are supposed, why not just say that the dragon was dumb and brought well 1 water? Or that the knight attacked the dragon's vulnerable throat when it tilted its head back to drink? Or that the knight had, in fact, spent years in Australia developing an immunity to iocain powder? All of these "solve" the riddle, and all alter the premise less than adjusting the central puzzle of the riddle by introducing unspecified water sources. — Lomn 19:35, 2 July 2008 (UTC)

Fair enough, but I still prefer the given answer. The riddle is specifically designed to seem to favour the dragon (having access to well #7), but states clearly that the knight won the duel. The "good" answer should account for the result while only playing with the variables given (in this case, the order of drink). While you feel that the outcome removed the possibility of a singular answer, I think it's provided the single reasonable answer. Having the dragon be stupid and bring water from well #1 would only account for the knight surviving, not the death of the dragon. The dragon can only be killed (I think) if it is tricked in the manner described. Matt Deres (talk) 20:50, 2 July 2008 (UTC)

Well, we could assume that the duel involves standing around until one of them falls over dead (maybe you only have 30 seconds to drink from another well and they only have the two carrying vessels), in which case the only way to protect oneself would be to pre-drink. If that's the case, then the knight raced to Well #1 as soon as the duel was called, camped there to keep the dragon from pre-drinking from it and from bringing it to the duel, and then left with a glass of its water at the last second, hoping that the dragon wouldn't sneak out of the bushes and fly to the duel faster than he could run. He also must hope that the dragon didn't collect water before the duel was called.

I don't buy the argument that there must be drinkable water somewhere on the island. We could say that the knight's morning routine is to take his glass over to Well #1, fill it, walk to Well #2, drink Well #1's water from the glass, then immediately drink from Well #2. And likewise for the dragon. --Prestidigitator (talk) 20:13, 2 July 2008 (UTC)

Doesn't anybody have a problem with the dragon bringing a glass of water to the duel in the first place :-)} ?? Once you accept that, then 80.123 and Matt Deres have the basic keys. Ignore the knight for a moment; he's adequately dealt with. Then:

• What is the only scenario in which the dragon must die -- i.e., the only scenario in which there is no antidote? He has to drink from 7.
• The knight can't give him water from 7, therefore he has to drink it himself.
• If the knight gave him water from 1-6, drinking 7 cures him. Therefore, there must be nontoxic water on the island.

No other scenario forces the dragon to die, right? --Danh, 63.231.163.123 (talk) 23:33, 2 July 2008 (UTC)

The other scenario that forces the dragon to die is that it drinks no water after the duel drink. Actually the answer is that the problem needs to be stated much better. For example, must the second drink be consumed immediately after the first to cancel the toxic effects? Nothing in the problem actually stated that the successive drink from the higher-numbered well didn't also need to be cured, so a simple interpretation of the problem statement leaves them both doomed as soon as they take their first drink, for where is Well #8? This doesn't seem to be a very useful assumption, but I think the one about the duel drink being their last (before the life/death determination) is a reasonable one, and gives a sure answer to the problem as well (as I stated above). --Prestidigitator (talk) 08:33, 3 July 2008 (UTC)

The dragon died of old age and the knight drank the brew that is truehotclaws 13:51, 7 July 2008 (UTC)

Toast vs Bread: Calories

Whilst making some toast this morning, as if often the case, my mind drifted away from the charred wheat product i was about to indulge to more serious matters: Namely, which has more/less calories and is "better for you", Toast or Bread (commonly known as antitoast)? Here's my reasoning; When being toasted the bread is exposed to heat which causes the bread particles to become excited (and here's where my theory could be proved null) and presumably an exothermic reaction occurs, probably to do with all that tasty tasty starch being reduced to carbon. But then i though, what about warm toast? Warm toast is generally much hotter than that of the human body so energy in the form of heat must be transferred to the body, resulting in additional energy (just as drinking lots of cold water burns calories). But then, as the smoke alarm started to sound i was struck with a third conundrum; What about the increased hardness and general crunch-factor of toast, surely that would result in more energy being required to process and therefore less calorie gain? It's a dilemma, Wikipedia, so i'm hoping some toast connoisseur could spread some light on it. (Get it, spread? eh?) -Benbread (talk) 14:15, 2 July 2008 (UTC)

As per [2] there's no difference in the calory content of bread and toast. Hail Wiki! 125.21.243.66 (talk) 14:23, 2 July 2008 (UTC)

The calory content of bread/toast doesn't change based on weather it's crunchy or soft, or warm or at room temperature - it only causes a negligible change in the calories consumed to ingest it. Toasting doesn't convert starch to carbon, it only dehydrates the bread somewhat. Hail Wiki! 125.21.243.66 (talk) 14:25, 2 July 2008 (UTC)

But what if you're a particularly bad chef and whilst cooking set the toast alight due to overcooking resulting in a completely charred mess that has been extinguished due to there being nothing left to burn? Hail Benbread (talk) 14:33, 2 July 2008 (UTC)

Hmmm... that would be interesting. AFAIK that should cause a decrease in the caloric content, since some of the oxidation that was supposed to happen inside the body occurs outside and the residue on ingesting doesn't give that much energy (or may even be undigestible). 125.21.243.66 (talk) 14:37, 2 July 2008 (UTC)

Something else to ponder [3]. --LarryMac | Talk 14:59, 2 July 2008 (UTC)

Haha LOL 125.21.243.66 (talk) 15:46, 2 July 2008 (UTC)

Toast absorbs more butter or margarine than bread - that's part of the point of toast. So your total calorie intake will be higher if you choose toast. On the other hand if you don't like bread as much as you like toast, you might be tempted to spread a lot of nutella, jam or lemon curd on the bread, in which case that would be the higher-calorie option. Itsmejudith (talk) 21:44, 2 July 2008 (UTC)

Zune

I have the old model 30 GB Zune. I use it at least 6 hours a day, every day. I usually have it connected to my PC via USB so the battery is always charged. I am now noticing something strange. The battery life at the corner of the Zune is red. I have never seen this before. Can someone tell me what this means? I don't have access to the internet (outside of Wikipedia..), so I apologize for what may be perceived as lack of foot work on my part. --Endless Dan 15:04, 2 July 2008 (UTC)

Make sure that you have the device connected to a high-power USB port. For optimal charging, the Zune device requires at least 500 milliamps (mA) of power. Frequently, USB ports that are located on the front of a computer and on some USB hubs are low-power, 100-mA ports. Typically, the high-power, 500-mA USB ports are on the back of the computer. Additionally, when you suspend the computer or put the computer to sleep, high-power USB ports may be switched to low-power, 100 mA mode.

from zune.net - one possibility87.102.86.73 (talk) 15:18, 2 July 2008 (UTC)

What do the 'charging icons' say? eg from zune.net again

• The device displays the home screen or full-screen charging icons. See Resolution 1.
• The device displays the home screen, follow these steps. See Resolution 2.
• The device displays full-screen charging icons. See Resolution 3.

87.102.86.73 (talk) 15:21, 2 July 2008 (UTC)

Since you use the Zune so much, it's entirely possible that the battery is simply not working at the efficiency it had when the device was new. The fact that you let it charge continuously may also be contributing to the issue; I know that some other electronic devices such as laptops may lose some battery capacity if they are continuously being recharged. --Several Times (talk) 19:48, 2 July 2008 (UTC)

What is it called?

What is it called when an image is placed on a black background, usually with a white border, and a funny caption below it? I see this a lot of websites and forums. What it it's origin? Examples: [4] [5] [6] 79.75.179.174 (talk) 17:29, 2 July 2008 (UTC)

Motivational poster. --Sean 17:54, 2 July 2008 (UTC)

I think you may be looking for LOLCats. DJ Clayworth (talk) 17:59, 2 July 2008 (UTC)

You are definitely looking for the image macro, or a specific form of it at least. --Several Times (talk) 19:41, 2 July 2008 (UTC)

I don't think LOLCats came before Yotsuba's motivational posters, and I wouldn't be surprised if there's ones that came before that too. --Wirbelwindヴィルヴェルヴィント (talk) 20:30, 2 July 2008 (UTC)

Since the OP mentioned that it has a funny caption, it is perhaps a demotivational poster- a mock of motivational posters. Acceptable (talk) 04:56, 3 July 2008 (UTC)

They are called Successories, both the motivational and funny ones. Peace. ReluctantPhilosopher (talk) 06:14, 4 July 2008 (UTC)

Are dogs prostitutes?

could I say that dogs are prostitutes, since they like us as long as we provide shelter and food to them, but they never provide us with food and shelter? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 83.59.90.236 (talk) 17:57, 2 July 2008 (UTC)

Not unless they are having sex with us... DJ Clayworth (talk) 17:58, 2 July 2008 (UTC)

Well in that case my dog is definately......eh....you could say it was a parasitic relationship. But since we benefit (by getting affection), it could be symbiotic moreso. Fribbler (talk) 18:01, 2 July 2008 (UTC)

Temple Grandin, an animal behavior scientist, has said that dogs have probably lived in a symbiotic relationship with humans from the time that we bacame humans. They provided protection and probably assisted in hunting for food and in protecting crops. They also "provided shelter" by driving off animals or people who might have decided to take our shelter for their own use. In more recent millenia they have continued to serve in hunting, protecting, herding, and in search and rescue, as well as being trtained as service animals such as guide dogs for the blind. "Symbiotes" or employees would thus be a good descriptor of many dogs throughout history. There are also dogs which just provide companionship. See also "Eulogy of the dog," [7] by George G. Vest, September 23, 1870, 1 U.S., Congress, Senate, Congressional Record, 101st Cong., 2d sess., pp. S4823-24 (daily edition). Try substituting the word "prostitute" for "dog" in the passage and see if it makes as much sense. Edison (talk) 18:17, 2 July 2008 (UTC)

In any case I don't know how you'd get "prostitutes" out of them. Prostitutes refer specifically to sex workers—the return of sex in exchange for resources. "Happiness" and "sex" are not the same thing. --Fastfission (talk) 19:44, 2 July 2008 (UTC)

Sort of, except you don't have to pay dogs to have sex with them.87.102.86.73 (talk) 20:06, 2 July 2008 (UTC)

example http://www.meancheese.com/pictures/bangkok/dogs3.jpg note the url - bangkok QED.87.102.86.73 (talk) 20:09, 2 July 2008 (UTC)

what about pimps http://blog.meevee.com/photos/uncategorized/2007/11/21/dogs.jpg you bet.87.102.86.73 (talk) 20:10, 2 July 2008 (UTC)

They do provide food. Heck they even fight for your country. As for me, my dogs and I have a symbiotic relationship. We feed and take care of them while they provide companionship and an early warning device.--Lenticel ^(talk) 21:20, 2 July 2008 (UTC)

I take it you mean "prostitute" figuratively as in "a person who misuses their talents or who sacrifices their self-respect for the sake of personal or financial gain" – as if a dog might be a careerist speciesist opportunist. If you make it wider, there's an economy of exchange in there, companionship, protection, hunting skills and alarm notice for food and shelter and a reasonable amount of exercise. So there were times when breeds were kept to provide food as well. In Animals in Translation, Temple Grandin says wolves likely taught humans to co-operate with each other, and that dogs fit into human groups because they're a pack animal that expects a pecking order with allocated responsibilities. You'd have to ask a dog if it's been a fair exchange. A lot of the time it looks like sacrificed self-respect to me. Julia Rossi (talk) 06:12, 3 July 2008 (UTC)

I don't think dogs have a concept of self respect.87.102.86.73 (talk) 12:10, 3 July 2008 (UTC)

Why not? They are reasonably intelligent. Plasticup ^T/C 12:23, 3 July 2008 (UTC)

animals

do animals have heart attacks like humans do? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 79.76.197.50 (talk) 19:40, 2 July 2008 (UTC)

Yes. Well, only those with hearts. Mammals also have cancers, diabetes, glaucomas, etc. Plasticup ^T/C 19:55, 2 July 2008 (UTC)

Videos on iPod

Does anyone know how many Megabytes a 25 minute video takes up on an iPod? I want to download an episode of Family Guy from iTunes, but I have a 4 GB Nano and I don't want to download the episode if it takes up to much space. Thanks! Grango242 (talk) 20:21, 2 July 2008 (UTC)

It should fit. Entire DVDs are often under 4 GBs. --Endless Dan 20:44, 2 July 2008 (UTC)

I think the OP was worried about one episode taking up too much space, not whether it would fit. If you don't get a good answer here, try the Computing desk. Zain Ebrahim (talk) 20:52, 2 July 2008 (UTC)

In my experience, 45 minute shows (i.e. episodes from full-hour slots) take up about 350 MB. I expect that a 25 minute show (which is probably more like 22 minutes if we are talking about a show from a 30-minute slot) would be about 175 MB. Plasticup ^T/C 21:04, 2 July 2008 (UTC)

Thanks a lot! Grango242 (talk) 01:15, 3 July 2008 (UTC)

What's that song?

<thanks for your vote of confidence on this desk, but off to entertainment it goes[8] because.. 1) there is an ent desk for a reason and the quality of questions there should be maintained and 2) it's generating debate (um-ah!) Julia Rossi (talk) 08:08, 3 July 2008 (UTC)>

Non-profits most profitable prophets

Since many non-profit organizations give exorbitant salaries and other benefits to their senior staff, this seems to bypass the spirit of the law, if not the letter. Recent examples include the Red Cross, Blue Cross Blue Shield, and, of course, a whole range of televangelists orgs which seem designed solely to enrich their leaders by collecting money "for charity" and instead using it to buy luxury cars (Creflow Dollar), private jets and mansions (Kenneth Copeland), etc. So, is there any jurisdiction which imposes a limit on how much money can go to individuals who run the "non-profit" orgs ? StuRat (talk) 23:59, 2 July 2008 (UTC)

In the USA, large non-profits make their finances public via IRS Form 990, so donors can decide whether the administrative overhead is excessive, just like with public companies. Most non-profits run on contributions of (presumably) informed donors, so I don't see the problem. --Sean 01:02, 3 July 2008 (UTC)

What makes you think Blue Cross Blue Shield is a non-profit organization? --LarryMac | Talk 01:04, 3 July 2008 (UTC)

Well, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan is a nonprofit, read the 4th sentence in the "Mission" statement on their page: [9]. I'd just assumed this meant all of them were, but maybe not. StuRat (talk) 03:03, 3 July 2008 (UTC)

Wellpoint, which owns/operates BCBS plans in 14 states is clearly a for-profit, publicly traded company. It's not clear to me what the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association is - the article says it's a federation, and their website doesn't really give any clear indication. --LarryMac | Talk 13:13, 3 July 2008 (UTC)

It's clearly impossible for the large organizations, like the American Red Cross, to use only volunteer labor. So they're going to have to hire truck drivers, janitors, HR staff, and so forth to operate. Should the truck drivers be paid a competitive (market) wage for their labor? How about the Oracle admin? The middle-managers? Upper management? At what point in the organizational hierarchy should the pay become sub-market, and what effect will that have on the quality of people you hire? (There may be independently wealthy, brilliant people who want to "make a difference" and will work for free. They'll make great Board members. That doesn't mean they'll take on the upper-management lifestyle of constant travel, long hours, etc.) -- Coneslayer (talk) 01:18, 3 July 2008 (UTC)

I never suggested not paying people at all. If you want me to draw a line, I'd say US$100,000 a year in salary and other compensation is a reasonable limit. I would think there are many CEOs raking in millions a year who would like to retire from their current jobs and lead a major charity, for little or no compensation, as their way to "give back" to the community. After all, many of these "charities" collect money from people who can barely afford it, so asking the CEO of the charity to "get by" on a six figure salary hardly seems like an unfair sacrifice to expect. StuRat (talk) 02:48, 3 July 2008 (UTC)

The article Non-profit organization warns not to generalize "about the comparative cost of a "nonprofit" versus "for profit" organization; there may be internalized profit in a nonprofit organization" since the distinction is between a company that pays shareholders (profit) and a nfp company that pays stakeholders (profit redistributed in other ways). A charity is something else. In Charitable organization it says, "Charities are all non-profit organizations, however, not all non-profit organizations are charities." Then there's misappropriation and some CEOs notoriously walk away with multiples of 7-figure payouts when a company fails spectacularly, so they don't look like the types to reduce themselves to working for 6-figure peanuts. Julia Rossi (talk) 06:24, 3 July 2008 (UTC)

That's a good distinction. I also question whether granting tax-free status to non-charities who pay their execs millions makes sense, but let's limit this discussion to charitable non-profit orgs for now. StuRat (talk) 13:20, 3 July 2008 (UTC)

Julia makes an important point. Harvard University, for example, is a non-profit but not a charity. If the president of the university makes $100k, what do the deans and department heads make? How about the faculty? How will you attract faculty to the schools of business, law, and medicine, given their opportunities in the private sector?

Assuming you meant to limit the discussion to charitable organizations, the same reasoning holds. Suppose you're a talented mid-career Oracle DBA, in charge of the Springfield Datacenter of the American Magenta Cross, making $90k, in line with the for-profit sector. Your boss retires and you get the good news: You've been promoted to Manager of National Database Operations! It's a lot more travel, and your Blackberry will be surgically implanted, but don't worry... you'll be raking in $95k for the trouble! What do you do? What do you do?

The same goes for the CEOs and other upper management. CEOs are interchangeable in the modern business world. Whether that's a good idea or not, it's the reality—you don't have to be a "car guy" to run Ford. If the market rate for a CEO of you org's size is $5M, then what do you expect to get for $100k? Your question seems like it presupposes that the charity can dictate salary ("asking the CEO of the charity to "get by" on a six figure salary hardly seems like an unfair sacrifice to expect") but they simply don't have that power. Employees have excellent mobility between the for-profit and non-profit sectors, so the charities are competing in the same labor market as the for-profits. -- Coneslayer (talk) 11:20, 3 July 2008 (UTC)

Of course the charity has the power to set the salary of their executive staff to be whatever they want. And certainly there are some people willing to work at a reduced salary for a good cause. The only issue I see is if there are enough quality people around to fill all the positions needed. I would guess that there are, but have there been any surveys asking people if they would be willing to work at a reduced salary for a worthwile cause ? Also, even if the CEO isn't quite as experienced, the extra millions the charity gets to keep and avoiding the PR disaster and resulting withholding of donations from paying millions to a CEO may well be worth it. StuRat (talk) 13:11, 3 July 2008 (UTC)

Many of the world's problems disappear if you get to postulate a large supply of capable people willing to work at below-market rates for a good cause. Given the continued existence of these problems, I dispute the existence of this labor pool. -- Coneslayer (talk) 14:00, 3 July 2008 (UTC)

Solving all of the world's probs would take millions of such people, while only hundreds are needed to lead major charities. I believe there are hundreds, but not millions, of such people. Also, I can't blame people who barely make enough to survive as is for refusing a pay cut, but can find fault with millionaires who refuse a pay cut for any reason. StuRat (talk) 22:22, 4 July 2008 (UTC)

The discussion seems to have drifted from my question, whether any jurisdiction currently limits the compensation of executives at non-profits, to a more general discussion of whether such a law would be good. Can we get back to the original Q, please ? StuRat (talk) 13:11, 3 July 2008 (UTC)

July 3

Another musical question

<moved to entertainment desk[10] because we can't have original posters creating new desk purposes without consensus. And for optimal results! Julia Rossi (talk) 08:16, 3 July 2008 (UTC)>

Nixon Road?

Could someone please tell me where this is? maybe someone could google it? --TheGreenGorilla (talk) 01:03, 3 July 2008 (UTC)

Want to give us a town, city, county, state, province, country? --LarryMac | Talk 01:06, 3 July 2008 (UTC)

San Francisco California? i just pulled that out of the air. --TheGreenGorilla (talk) 01:08, 3 July 2008 (UTC)

[11] --LarryMac | Talk 01:13, 3 July 2008 (UTC)

Mugabe opinion

will he lay down his arms if US threatnes to invaid? --TheGreenGorilla (talk) 01:37, 3 July 2008 (UTC)

Probably not. If the US threatened to invade it'd probably get a LOT of opposition — people are not exactly happy with the US as the "interventionist" state, either domestically or internationally. Mugabe would probably try to encourage that, and bank on the fact that it would be easier for the US to do nothing than to start yet another unwanted war. (And the US probably is stretched too thin militarily to possibly open up a new front in a totally different region.) Anyway, there's no casus belli for starting a war with Zimbabwe—they don't endanger US security at all, there's no way you'd be able to sell something like that to Congress or the public without the "mushroom cloud" fear. --98.217.8.46 (talk) 01:52, 3 July 2008 (UTC)

Last time I looked, Zimbabwe has nothing the U.S. needs, so just like the Sudan, Bush may talk, but he won't do anything. Clarityfiend (talk) 03:27, 3 July 2008 (UTC)

Sudan does have some oil, so that might give Bush a reason to invade there. Then again, no matter where he decides to invade, his co-President Dick Cheney will get some lucrative no-bid contracts for his Haliburton buddies, and he'll receive "payment for services rendered" as soon as he leaves office. StuRat (talk) 04:03, 3 July 2008 (UTC)

The only possible military intervention will be from the African Union, which may or may not work. Intervention from non-African countries would just play right into Mugabe's anti-Western-influence spiel. Plasticup ^T/C 11:54, 3 July 2008 (UTC)

Yes, but there are more important issues than whether Mugabe gets to claim that his country would be paradise if not for Western influence. To the American public, establishing true democracy is important, while to Bush and Cheney raiding the public treasury to enrich themselves and their defence contractor buddies would be the goal. So, it would be a win-win situation for all. StuRat (talk) 13:39, 3 July 2008 (UTC)

If Mugabe's propaganda machine is given any more fuel the invading forces could well find themselves "installing democracy" on another unwilling populace. We all know how well that works. Plasticup ^T/C 13:49, 3 July 2008 (UTC)

"To the American public, establishing true democracy is important" — I personally doubt this. The American public cares about something called "true democracy" only in very inspecific ideological terms (most would not really know how to answer truthfully the question of whether the USA was a "true democracy"). They are not interested in wars in the name of "true democracy" unless they feel threatened. --98.217.8.46 (talk) 15:52, 3 July 2008 (UTC)

Eric Shinseki: Ranger?

Was Gen. Eric Shinseki (Ret.) a member of the U.S. Army Rangers? A Ranger Tap is clearly visible on his uniform, but the article does not mention him serving in the Rangers. Thanks. Acceptable (talk) 02:41, 3 July 2008 (UTC)

He would only have to completed the Ranger's 2 month training course to recieve the Tab, and not have actually served in the Army Rangers. You will see most (all?) top US generals have it. Have a look at the other Chiefs of Staff in the template at the bottom of his article. Fribbler (talk) 11:41, 3 July 2008 (UTC)

Michelle Obama and Mccains wife relationship?

what do you think of this? --TheGreenGorilla (talk) 04:41, 3 July 2008 (UTC)

they seem to be getting along with one another. clarify i didnt mean other type of relationship. --TheGreenGorilla (talk) 04:58, 3 July 2008 (UTC)

This sounds like a discussion topic, not a reference question. Plasticup ^T/C 12:22, 3 July 2008 (UTC)

oops --TheGreenGorilla (talk) 12:23, 3 July 2008 (UTC) srry

Well-known people on WP

Are there any well-known/famous people who are known to have accounts on wikipedia...apart from Jimbo? --212.120.246.239 (talk) 07:42, 3 July 2008 (UTC)

User talk:RichardDawkins. I believe it's really him. :) Zain Ebrahim (talk) 07:46, 3 July 2008 (UTC)

No, that's just outmoded superstition with no objective evidence to support it. ;-) DJ Clayworth (talk) 14:12, 3 July 2008 (UTC)

See Wikipedians with articles and Category:Notable Wikipedians. Best of luck in finding many household names in those lists, though. My favourite is Nicholson Baker. --Richardrj ^{talk email} 07:50, 3 July 2008 (UTC)

What is the largest bird in Europe?

--TheGreenGorilla (talk) 07:49, 3 July 2008 (UTC)

did you know this answer? Well, here goes, the Great Bustard. Julia Rossi (talk) 08:47, 3 July 2008 (UTC)

Chicago: 360 N. Michigan Ave.

Is the London Guarantee Building (near the Michigan Avenue Bridge) the same thing as the Crain Communications Building? I asked at Talk:London Guarantee Building but haven’t received an answer. --Mathew5000 (talk) 08:56, 3 July 2008 (UTC)

They certainly have the same address. Here's Crain in Chicago:[12] and here is the London Guarantee Building: [13]. Couldn't tell you how much of the building is occupied by Crain, but they appear to have their Chicago offices there. Fribbler (talk) 11:23, 3 July 2008 (UTC)

Further delving shows me that as of 2001 the building is wholly owned by Crain Communications and has been renamed accordingly. Fribbler (talk) 11:25, 3 July 2008 (UTC)

Thanks, Fribbler. I noticed in Google Streetview [14] that the building had "CRAIN COMMUNICATIONS" over at least one of the entrances, and I thought it was in the same place as the London Guarantee Building, but I couldn't figure out why the Wikipedia article did not mention it. --Mathew5000 (talk) 12:31, 3 July 2008 (UTC)

Yes, I walk by the building every day and can confirm that the Crain name has been stuck onto the London Guarantee Building. Deor (talk) 19:30, 3 July 2008 (UTC)

Colouring Text

I am groping in the dark to find the right code for the colour "red" in my user page. Can anyone point me to a place that lists all the colour codes used in Wikipedia?? La Alquimista (talk) 11:24, 3 July 2008 (UTC)

Wikipedia:Colours suggests you can just use the HTML code "red". I haven't tried it out though. Fribbler (talk) 11:28, 3 July 2008 (UTC)

Web colors. --Richardrj ^{talk email} 11:28, 3 July 2008 (UTC)

Top 10 most famous Wikipedians?

Hi, a previous question reminded me of the time when I tried to browse through the Wikipedians with articles page, but soon gave up because it's just too long and I didn't find anyone I recognized by name. So I'd like to ask, who (in your opinion, I guess) are the most famous Wikipedians of them all? Are there any well-known celebrities or not? The only one I actually know of is Stephen Colbert, but that's sort of a given; and Richard Dawkins as mentioned before, probably. (And you know Jimbo never counts :D ) Thanks in advance, Kreachure (talk) 14:05, 3 July 2008 (UTC)

(Edit conflict.) Do you mean wikipedians famous on wikipedia or in the "real world"? · AndonicO ^Engage. 14:12, 3 July 2008 (UTC)

Real World, surely. The only two I know on the list by name are Peter Hitchens the journalist and John Romero of ID games. Fribbler (talk) 14:15, 3 July 2008 (UTC)

I would think that Ted Allen would be one of the best known among the general public (but he's not active). -- Coneslayer (talk) 14:18, 3 July 2008 (UTC)

An American public ;-) Fribbler (talk) 14:20, 3 July 2008 (UTC)

It's not exactly a list of household names, is it. The only ones I've heard of, apart from the ones named above, are Nicholson Baker, Galen Strawson, Jakob Nielsen and Nigel Short. And I'm thrilled to see that Charles Ingram has an account (*cough*). --Richardrj ^{talk email} 14:27, 3 July 2008 (UTC)

Real world, definitely. I'd rather wait a little while until Wikipedia gets more popular to start asking for celebrities from Wikipedia :) Anyways, I found Grant Imahara from Mythbusters. Cool... probably. Kreachure (talk) 14:42, 3 July 2008 (UTC) Weren't some country's royal family editing their article, identified by the IP being from the palace? Edison (talk) 18:45, 3 July 2008 (UTC)

To readers of books, Poppy Z. Brite and Christopher Cerf, among others, are fairly well known. And Roger Ebert has edited WP, though not for a while. Deor (talk) 19:23, 3 July 2008 (UTC)

Mark Cuban, who only edited his own article (no surprise). I guess most of them are too busy doing stuff that we can write about. Clarityfiend (talk) 23:14, 3 July 2008 (UTC)

Elizabeth Moon seems to have edited some of her own stuff in the past. --Masamage ♫ 23:23, 3 July 2008 (UTC)

Bamber Gascoigne is pretty well known in the UK. You can see a long list of articles whose subjects have edited Wikipedia at Special:WhatLinksHere/Template:Notable Wikipedian. Warofdreams talk 23:38, 3 July 2008 (UTC)

User:Prz = Phil Zimmermann. --Mathew5000 (talk) 23:50, 3 July 2008 (UTC)

I recently wrote a stub for Myer Fredman, who has a username of the same name but is not active. He's famous in my world, but I wouldn't be surprised if the mob have never heard of him. -- JackofOz (talk) 23:50, 3 July 2008 (UTC)

Squeek-squeek, I'm wheeling out the only one I know I can find, Mike Dash aka User:Mikedash. Julia Rossi (talk) 02:34, 4 July 2008 (UTC)

Well, Richard Borcherds, known on Wikipedia as user:r.e.b., is one of the most famous people in the world. (Except, perhaps, among non-mathematicians.) Michael Hardy (talk) 02:41, 4 July 2008 (UTC)

Philip S. Khoury and J. Philippe Rushton are pretty famous to me. But come on, seriously, the most famous is obviously Mike Godwin! Adam Bishop (talk) 12:35, 4 July 2008 (UTC)

Dont forget Weird Al--omnipotence407 (talk) 12:52, 4 July 2008 (UTC)

There are a fair number of people I'm came across who have edited their own articles or talk pages (and perhaps one or two other minor edits). E.g. User:RichardDawkins. If you count these you probably have quite a few candidates Nil Einne (talk) 14:40, 4 July 2008 (UTC)

Richard Stallman, who among other things founded the Free Software Foundation which created the license Wikipedia uses, edited as User:Rmstallman. Graham87 17:02, 5 July 2008 (UTC)

Diamonds

At what tempreture do diamonds melt? If they sometimes come out of volcanoes, then the temp at which they melt must be hoter than magma, so what temp is it?193.115.175.247 (talk) 15:20, 3 July 2008 (UTC)Zionist

According to Diamond, "Above 1700 °C (1973 K / 3583 °F), diamond is converted to graphite". -- Coneslayer (talk) 15:24, 3 July 2008 (UTC)

So at what temp does graphite melt? And what is the average temp of magma? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 193.115.175.247 (talk) 15:39, 3 July 2008 (UTC)

For all your melting-point-of-graphite needs, heres a table from "the world of carbon": [15]. The Magma article gives a temperature range of between 700 and 1300 celcius. Fribbler (talk) 15:55, 3 July 2008 (UTC)

And for all your science needs, there's[16]. Just saying, Julia Rossi (talk) 02:28, 4 July 2008 (UTC)

Horticultural advice?

In my backyard we have planted four sweet basil plants. The two nearest the house are doing great—constantly perky, lots of big, fresh leaves, constant regeneration of removed leaves. The two a little further our are doing lousy—droopy, yellowish, not very many new leaves, nothing very large. Both receive pretty much equal amounts of water and sunlight. Both were initially planted in soil with fertilizer.

What might explain the differences between the two? What ought I do in order to help out the struggling pair? I don't have much of a green thumb, so if this seems obvious to those who do, I apologize... thank you. --98.217.8.46 (talk) 15:47, 3 July 2008 (UTC)

What country/climate are you located in? Fribbler (talk) 15:51, 3 July 2008 (UTC)

Oh, sorry. USA, New England. Very hot and humid in the summer, occasional thunderstorms and heavy downpours. (And obviously in the winter everything dies. That's fine. We just grow in the summer.) --98.217.8.46 (talk) 16:32, 3 July 2008 (UTC)

Plant lots more basil seeds quickly. You will then be able to pick the leaves, even make pesto, before the fall/autumn. It should grow very quickly in hot and humid weather. As with some other herbs, it is a good idea to make weekly sowings so that you always have some at the right stage for picking. Itsmejudith (talk) 16:55, 3 July 2008 (UTC)

We aren't planting seeds, we're working from plants (seeds are too problematic for me). The four plants all came from the same source at the same state of health. Yet two do very well and two do not. That's the question I want answered. Even two plants produces more than enough to make pesto at the end of the year—I know how to pick th leaves off to stimulate production. --98.217.8.46 (talk) 18:22, 3 July 2008 (UTC)

If I were you, I would consider if the ground is different for the two that are struggling, I would consider pulling them up *VERY CAREFULLY* and putting them in a different location, or else "work" the soil. This is where you take a spade or a gardening claw and "agitate" the ground around the plants. It the ground is too hard and dry, the roots won't spread well, and the plant will suffer. Soil acidity can also be an issue. I don't know off the top of my head what acidity is right for basil, but you could probably look it up at www.homedepot.com or something similar. The soil may not seem to be different, but it can change a lot within even a foot or two depending on what (if anything) was planted there before. Happy Gardening! Xavier —Preceding unsigned comment added by 139.76.224.67 (talk) 20:07, 3 July 2008 (UTC)

I keep my basil plants in pots indoors. They are VERY thirsty and need watering two or three times a week, but if I've forgotten to water them, they will perk up in a couple of hours when eventually watered. I suggest you examine the soil drainage around your plants. Astronaut (talk) 22:40, 3 July 2008 (UTC)

I'd give you some advice, 98.217, but I've always been told that you can lead a horticulture but you can't make her appreciate it. :) -- JackofOz (talk) 23:44, 3 July 2008 (UTC)

Recession and prices - I am puzzled.

I always understood that western governments favoured spending their way out of a recession. Yet here we are surrounded by rising oil and fuel prices, rising food costs, rising mortgage and interest charges, and gloomy forecasts about the credit crunch and low investor returns on the world stock markets. Yet the people who are sitting on the capital that could be used to fuel a spending boom so as to get the economy going again are doing exactly that ie. sitting on it. On a more local note, I have been looking today at holiday costs (I live in the UK where the weather at present is very poor, unstable and unpredictable) and am surprised (having just returned from Tenerife where there is massive unemployment due to the downturn in construction and tourism)to see that despite the generality of increased consumer concern about the economy, most of the bigger holiday companies are charging an arm and a leg for a basic 14 day bucket-and-spade trip to the sun. No wonder the resorts were 40% down on seasonal trends. So what am I missing here? If I owned airplanes, or hotels, or jetskis, or bars, or restaurants that depended on bums on seats to survive, but which were all sitting idle, you can bet I would cut my costs to rock-bottom to entice the worried customers in and spend what little they dared on giving themselves a bit of fun; and me a decent income. Or is that too simplistic for our esteemed leaders? 92.17.189.128 (talk) 16:32, 3 July 2008 (UTC)

The airlines are badly hurt by fuel prices, and the restaurants by food prices. You can't cut your prices much when your input costs are skyrocketing. -- Coneslayer (talk) 16:57, 3 July 2008 (UTC)

Edit conflict: Prices already are rock bottom. You said yourself that fuel costs are soaring. This is not a typical recession. This is a recession combined with surging commodity prices. Your complaint about unemployment exemplifies the problems of a recession (slow economy) and your complaint about trips costing too much exemplifies the problems of rising prices (inflation). If the government tried to spend its way out of the recession we would see even more outrageous inflation - which would just make things worse. The best "solution" is an increase in foreign investment, but with xenophobia ruling America and current account deficits in all of the afflicted countries, that savior is ruled out. You can thank the last decade of decadence for that. Plasticup ^T/C 17:01, 3 July 2008 (UTC)

Regarding why people with capital are not investing, if you had a billion dollars of treasury notes, what would you do with it given all this volatility? Btw, the US has passed this act. Zain Ebrahim (talk) 17:19, 3 July 2008 (UTC)

One of the things about capitalist economies is that people get to do what they want with their money. Taking the big picture it may make sense to spend in order to get the economy going again. But looking from the point of view of an individual it doesn't make sense. What happens if you spend lots of money and nobody else does? There is still a recession, but now you don't have any money left.

Incidentally Western governments have not tended to spend their way out of recessions since the days of Thatcher and Reagan. DJ Clayworth (talk) 17:47, 3 July 2008 (UTC)

OK - I accept much of what goes before, but if the future looks so bleak, with no sign of a silver-lining on the edges of the current and looming stormclouds, are we maybe looking at the prospect of another "inspired" war on - now let me see - Iran, to loosen the taps on the oil-wells and also to boost production of US Arms and Munitions? I would have preferred building say a Hoover Dam across the Colorado River but somebody already did that.92.17.189.128 (talk) 18:25, 3 July 2008 (UTC)

How would attacking an oil-producing nation increase oil production? Plasticup ^T/C 18:42, 3 July 2008 (UTC)

That is actually a good idea. I had a similar idea that the U.S.A. can accomplish -- that is to utterly destroy a large oil-consuming nation to decrease global demand. China comes to mind. JeanLatore (talk) 18:49, 3 July 2008 (UTC)

I disagree with your use of the word "accomplish". Zain Ebrahim (talk) 18:52, 3 July 2008 (UTC)

But we've already accomplished so much! Someoneinmyheadbutit'snotme (talk) 19:02, 3 July 2008 (UTC)

I think the UK is still not in a 'technical' recession yet is it? Isn't it 3 months (or quarters?) of negative growth that's required? Anyway the problem with your idea is that the travel companies (and other companies in general) need to ensure they turn a profit. They can sell some units for under 'cost' provided they make an overall profit, but whereas during a positive economic climate it is easier to find people who are less sensitive to price, as the economy turns gloomier people tend to become more price-sensitive. Traditionally we see luxury goods sales drop in these times - holidays are (to many) a luxury that can be forgone. Personally i'm interested in how this economic-climate will affect fair-trade/eco/green sales - are these things going to suffer as people feel the pinch and try to save costs, or will people's desire to help/buy 'ethically' strong enough to survive a gloomy economy when cheaper alternatives are available during a time of need? I'm not sure, but I wouldn't be amazed to see a sizeable slow-down in what has (in the past decade) been a extremely fast growing market. 194.221.133.226 (talk) 08:48, 4 July 2008 (UTC)

I echo the OP's puzzlement. Say there's a travel company with an unsold holiday whose normal sale price is £1,000. At that price, I wouldn't buy it. But if the travel company reduces the price of the holiday to £500, I may well buy it. And yet the point being made by several posters here is that the company would never do such a thing. But why on earth not? If they reduce the price, they make £500. If they don't, they make nothing. Why do they act in such a counterintuitive fashion? --Richardrj ^{talk email} 21:23, 4 July 2008 (UTC)

It may be that the company incur more costs selling that holiday for £500 than never selling it at all. If they don't sell it then maybe they pay nothing to the hotel/airline/other companies, yet if they do sell it they pay fixed-costs to those (as per an agreement) thus sometimes it makes more financial sense to not sell the holiday than to sell it. The risk of not-selling the holiday will be that in the future hotels/airlines/etc. will be more careful about how many seats/rooms/etc. they allocate your firm because they cannot trust your occupancy rates. This could be entirely incorrect but logically a sale isn't automatically better than no sale. I doubt that the tourism industry is seeing a major drop-off in occupancy rates, because I doubt that they will have expected this summer/holiday-season to be as high-volume as the last. Their 'buyers' will surely act on information/research in deciding what expectations to set for their sales during that year (certainly the business I work in takes into account many factors in considering it's expected sales-volumes/growth for the year.) ny156uk (talk) 21:38, 4 July 2008 (UTC)

You meant "...yet if they do sell it they pay Variable costs...", right? Fixed costs are incurred regardless of the sale. Zain Ebrahim (talk) 21:59, 4 July 2008 (UTC)

Yeah sorry, I was thinking fixed more in-terms of that when they fill a room/seat they pay a pre-agree price to the firm (e.g. I'll take 250 nights between July and August in your hotel at a room rate of $10 a room - or something similar) ny156uk (talk) 22:17, 4 July 2008 (UTC)

Pop culture since the mid 1990s

has anyone else noticed that not that much has changed in pop culture, music, fashion etc, (at least for white people) since the mid 1990s? JeanLatore (talk) 18:44, 3 July 2008 (UTC)

Nope. My experience has been quite the opposite. Plasticup ^T/C 19:20, 3 July 2008 (UTC)

how so my friend? JeanLatore (talk) 19:26, 3 July 2008 (UTC)

The following were undeniable catalysts for several revolutions in pop culture since the mid 90's, especially for 'white people': Backstreet boys, Pokemon, Britney Spears, Columbine massacre, Google, 9/11, iPod, Paris Hilton, Iraq War, Youtube, Social networking, many new TV shows since the 90's which are too many to be listed by me here, and a million other things that I don't have the time to list here but nevertheless prove to us that pop culture changes in an almost weekly fashion nowadays, and in fact much faster than in any other era of contemporary history. Kreachure (talk) 20:01, 3 July 2008 (UTC)

You left off Wikipedia. Corvus cornix_talk 21:28, 4 July 2008 (UTC)

the macro-differences are miniscule. Compare 1986 with 1996. Then compare 1996 with 2006. Furthermore, most of the songs on "new rock" radio these days are regularly 15 years old. I doubt back in 1985 the "new rock" stations were playing stuff from 1971 still. But that's what we have with Pearl jam, nirvana, stp, smashing pumpkins, etc still all over the new rock radio now. Fashions are pretty similar to the mid 90s, esp. for young women. JeanLatore (talk) 20:15, 3 July 2008 (UTC)

I take that to mean pop-culture is more nostalgic today than it was then, and also as a testament to how good those acts were. If you think the internet hasn't caused a huge change in popular culture, then I don't know what to say to that. You-tube, myspace, iTunes and peer to peer networks have all had enormous impacts on pop-culture. -- Mad031683 (talk) 20:38, 3 July 2008 (UTC)

Retro is a significant part of modern pop culture, but it's not the core or the majority of it. Kreachure (talk) 20:41, 3 July 2008 (UTC)

Retro is great, at least I enjoy it. I still play games on my NES and Nintendo 64, listen to 90s music, and I'm wearing a Pokémon t-shirt right now. Useight (talk) 00:55, 4 July 2008 (UTC)

I was just thinking about this. The Simpsons episode "Homer's Barbershop Quartet" aired in 1993 and had all kinds of hilarious 80s references -- Rubic's Cubes, Baby on Board signs, Geraldo Rivera opening Al Capone's vault, etc. There was just so much quintessentially 80s stuff. Recently there was an episode that took place in the mid-90s. It just wasn't that funny, and not just because The Simpsons isn't generally as funny as it used to be. The 90s just weren't all that different in terms of pop culture. Emasculated R&B pop on the radio, Seinfeld on TV, Super Mario games on the Nintendo. Technology has changed greatly since 1995, but not culture. -- Mwalcoff (talk) 01:45, 4 July 2008 (UTC)

(outdent) The online things are the biggest changes over the past few years - social networking, online free media (legal and illegal), instant messaging and pop-forums brought the internet out of Mom and Dad's basement and into the valleygirl's bedroom. In the mid 90s, chatting online was (stereotypically) for slashdot worshippers, tech staff, creepy cybersexers and roleplayers. Now it's for cool people, tweens and OMGLOL! fans. The reason it doesn't seem like so much change is that we've lived through it (and many of us as our forming, teenage or young adult years. It's not so noticable. Steewi (talk) 06:30, 4 July 2008 (UTC)

I find this Youtube video reminds me of how much technology has changed culture in the last decade, but maybe that's just me. 86.141.89.124 (talk) 22:41, 4 July 2008 (UTC)

I happen to totally agree with JeanLatore, especially in regards to fashion and music. As 60's, 70's and 80's all had true essence of orginal styles (fashion) for each decade, ever since it has been a mixture of elements from each of those eras.When Cobain and the Seattle scene exploded (grunge) it changed music on a grand scale. Its funny how I remember being excited around the year 2000 to see what was coming next. Well, nothing happened...yet. Don't get me wrong, I think there are some excellent artists making superb music these days, its just that many times I am hearing everything all over again now. Young bands sounding much like bands of the 80's, tired new rock acts that sound like Pearl Jam or Nirvana left over and re-heated.Yes, the 90's had iconic acts, people and culture that defined that decade, but ever since its been a remix of everything since the 60's. cheers, 10draftsdeep (talk) 14:44, 7 July 2008 (UTC)

sleep loss

Is there a link between sleep loss and brain damage or cognative impairment? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.23.66.167 (talk) 23:05, 3 July 2008 (UTC)

I don't think you can get serious brain damage from a lack of sleep, but you do function best by getting right around 8 hours of sleep. Its not good to get much less, and its also not good to get too much sleep. Grango242 (talk) 01:17, 4 July 2008 (UTC)

Ask a doctor. Wikipedia cannot give medical advice 4.158.201.138 (talk) 02:40, 4 July 2008 (UTC)

Who was asking for medical advice? --jpgordon^∇∆∇∆ 04:03, 4 July 2008 (UTC)

The answer is yes (especially cognitive impairment), and in a big way. Sleep deprivation sums it up pretty well. Kreachure (talk) 22:48, 4 July 2008 (UTC)

July 4

Gold from Mountains

Does ore or gold nuggets come down from a mountain or hillside and end up in the streams or rivers? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.157.147.26 (talk) 00:07, 4 July 2008 (UTC)

Yes. See gold and Wikipedia:Reference_desk/Miscellaneous#Gold_In_Rocks Plasticup ^T/C 00:17, 4 July 2008 (UTC)

So, initially it is embedded in the sides of mountains and hills and then through circumstances it falls away or down the hills into the streams (is that correct?), is that why it is so often found in streams and rivers? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.143.241.13 (talk) 13:14, 5 July 2008 (UTC)

From the UK: Aliens or Hoax ?

From the UK:Aliens or Hoax? Just what is this, real aliens or CGI?65.173.105.131 (talk) 05:46, 4 July 2008 (UTC)

Neither. Your own link explains that these are humans wearing masks. This is a form of advertisement, see viral marketing. --Dr Dima (talk) 06:08, 4 July 2008 (UTC)

Thanks man. Can this be placed in any appropriate articles?65.173.105.131 (talk) 06:15, 4 July 2008 (UTC)

Probably not notable enough for that at the moment. This has already been discussed on the desks, see here. --Richardrj ^{talk email} 08:01, 4 July 2008 (UTC)

getting solution

what are the steps involved in finding a solution in any area?11:31, 4 July 2008 (UTC)59.93.112.77 (talk)

Assuming this isn't asking a stupid question on purpose. The steps involved to finding a solution are a matter of logic: First understand what you want to achieve, second detail what you need to do to achieve that - ideally in a step-by-step process. Try to break things down to their important parts and work on solving each of those in-turn. Obviously to cover all 'solution finding' you must be quite generic but different business-theories exist on solving different problems. 194.221.133.226 (talk) 12:15, 4 July 2008 (UTC)

All of the above and the list Process including Business process might be helpful. Julia Rossi (talk) 03:23, 6 July 2008 (UTC)

Identify all the relevant components of both the situation you are currently in and the situation you would rather be in, match up similar components and make a reasonable plan to accomplish the goal presented in each matchup. Review to make sure that no action for one matchup runs counter to the goals in another, or make sure that if it does the effect is acceptable. -LambaJan (talk) 19:20, 8 July 2008 (UTC)

Wikipedia like Question

I love Wikipedia but I would like to try something new do you have a suggestion on where i can edit freely about just about everything type of encyclopedia? thank you --TheGreenGorilla (talk) 12:51, 4 July 2008 (UTC)

How about an internet forum? Personally, I enjoy giveupalready for a more discussion-based internet experience. Plasticup ^T/C 13:08, 4 July 2008 (UTC)

I think there are alternative Wikipedia-type encyclopedias where you can write about anything (the only example I can come up with is WikiPilipinas). Try searching on Google for similar, non Philippine-centric encyclopedias. --Sky Harbor ^(talk) 13:19, 4 July 2008 (UTC)

sky i found zilch sorry but thanks --TheGreenGorilla (talk) 13:35, 4 July 2008 (UTC)

Maybe you are looking for Encyclopedia Dramatica? I am not sure what type of thing you are looking for. Plasticup ^T/C 13:42, 4 July 2008 (UTC)

Uncyclopedia [17] welcomes people to edit the hell out of articles with humor being the goal, as well as being a "giant mass of misinformation." There you can add nonfacts to articles such as Uncyclopedia's Thomas Edison article [18], to supplement the present nonfacts such as that his first invention, when he emerged from the womb in 1147 was a steam powered rattle, or that Edison's electric distribution system lost out to Tesla's alternating current system because Edison had "Electricity men" deliver batteries door to door each morning, or that he invented the electric chair to treat hemorrhoids. Edison (talk) 15:15, 4 July 2008 (UTC)

There is also everything2. --98.217.8.46 (talk) 18:40, 4 July 2008 (UTC)

And H2G2. 86.141.89.124 (talk) 22:34, 4 July 2008 (UTC)

Wikia is what you're looking for, it hosts wikis on just about evrything, most of them don't have as stringent writing policies as us.--Serviam (talk) 12:41, 5 July 2008 (UTC)

Or get yourself some free web space and write whatever you like. It's what the world wide web is for, after all. -Hence Piano (talk) 14:06, 5 July 2008 (UTC)

What is eye salt?

I have wondered this for years and never found an answer. Anybody here know? Thank you. --Freiberg, Let's talk!, contribs 14:53, 4 July 2008 (UTC)

The Plica semilunaris of the conjunctiva located on the inner corner of the eye produces Rheum, also known as as "matter," "sleep," "crusties" or "eye boogers" according to Discoverymagazine.com [19]. It has the function of keeping grit out of the eye so it does not irritate the cornea or sclera. It is a combination of mucus , tears , dead skin cells from the eyelids, leaked blood cells, and dust from the environment. Edison (talk) 15:01, 4 July 2008 (UTC)

Never put salt in your eye...never put salt in your eye...PUT SALT IN YOUR EYE. Adam Bishop (talk) 04:53, 5 July 2008 (UTC)

That is just pure eyewash, and you know it. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 79.76.137.118 (talk) 02:11, 6 July 2008 (UTC)

Roasted chicken

You can buy roasted chickens in a plastic pouch which arent cut up in supermarkets these days. What I was hoping someone could tell me is that if it is safe to buy the roasted chicken, keep it in the kitchen then re-heat it in the oven when I need it warm again? Thanks, 86.145.104.228 (talk) 15:21, 4 July 2008 (UTC)

Does "in the kitchen" mean "in the refrigerator"? If so, I'm sure it will be fine. Plasticup ^T/C 15:44, 4 July 2008 (UTC)

No because you need to let the chicken cool before putting it in the refrigerator. 86.145.104.228 (talk) 15:50, 4 July 2008 (UTC)

Well, yeah, but it's certainly safe to buy the hot roasted chicken today, let it cool down, then put it in the refrigerator and then re-heat it and eat it, say, tomorrow or the day after tomorrow. Of course, you don't want to leave it lying around in the kitchen unrefrigerated any longer than you have to, but it's really no different from any other type of leftovers, and I would expect it to stay edible just as long as any other type of chicken dish as long as proper refrigeration is maintained. -- Captain Disdain (talk) 17:17, 4 July 2008 (UTC)

To be honest the more often you re-heat/cool the product the more likely it is to go off/food poisoning/etc. However that all depends on the conditions in your kitchen, AND how it was when you bought it..

Personally though I have no issues buying that pre-cooked chicken you described (the type that is found in the fridge section, not the sort that is still hot when you buy it), and re-heating it in a microwave or oven. 87.102.86.73 (talk) 18:45, 4 July 2008 (UTC)

I would tend to keep it in the fridge, and eat it fairly rapidly though.87.102.86.73 (talk) 18:46, 4 July 2008 (UTC)

I think the confusion about re-heating chicken (and other fowl) (once cooked) is more widespread than might be imagined. The problem is that many chickens, when slaughtered, carry a strain of salmonella poisoning, which, when heated to the recommended levels, for the recommended duration, is killed off; hence, salmonella-free cooked chicken (or fowl), and unless the carcase is re-connected with another source of salmonella poisoning, it is perfectly safe to eat, either immediately, or soon thereafter, whether cool, or hot after re-heating. So yes, you may safely put it into the fridge for a day or two, so long as it is kept away from any other cooked or raw meats, or eggs for that matter, after which it may be re-heated whole, or in slices, or in chunks for say a casserole type dish. And clearly, given that it should already be salmonella-free, and further given that it will be re-heated to a temperature that will be hot enough, for long enough, to provide a tasty and nourishing hot meal, it will still be perfectly safe to eat. But will my wife believe me? No chance. If it isn't eaten the same day as purchsed, it goes in the trash can.92.16.245.183 (talk) 19:37, 4 July 2008 (UTC)

The tricky part is in the "free" part of salmonella free. Obviously, it's possible to completely kill off the bacteria, but I don't know if it's a good idea to assume that they're all dead, when it could be that the bacterial load has simply been reduced to the point where there's not likely to be infection - if eaten while still hot. A single germ of something is not going to make anyone but the immuno-compromised sick, so it's perfectly safe to eat, but left at the wrong temperatures (which will happen during repeated cooling and heating cycles) that single bacterium could multiple to dangerous levels without coming into contact with anything else. I'm okay with cooling store-cooked poultry and re-heating the next day, but I wouldn't do the trick more than once or for more than one day; those conveniently warm birds are usually the leftover whole raw chickens nobody bought on the shelf the week before. Matt Deres (talk) 20:19, 4 July 2008 (UTC)

Dog breeding = animal cruelty?

Are there any notable groups that oppose the practice of purebreeding dogs altogether, contending that selectively breeding animals into (what are, in my mind) grotesque shapes and sizes results in genetic defects and serious health problems for these poor animals? I am the only one who views this practice as cruel? (I'm not looking to start a debate/diatribe--I am merely wondering if there any known organizations who share this view). Please also note that I'm not interested in the distinction between "responsible," licensed breeders and the shadier, puppy mill sort--I am talking about moral and philosophical opposition to purebreeding in general.--The Fat Man Who Never Came Back (talk) 17:39, 4 July 2008 (UTC)

If it's philosophy you want then I'm sure Peter Singer is opposed to the practice. You could see what the RSPCA in the UK has to say about it, but I doubt that they have denounced purebreeding per se. Itsmejudith (talk) 17:46, 4 July 2008 (UTC)

There certainly are see Dog_breeding#Criticism and Dog_breeding#Genetic_defects as well as the linked http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,163404,00.html

Biologically, this is just asking for trouble. For one thing, the characteristics judges and clubs have decreed to be gorgeous can themselves be bad for the animals' health -- huge heads on bulldogs that make it difficult for them to be born naturally, for example, or the wrinkled skin on Shar-Peis that sets them up for rashes. For another, the best way to produce a puppy with a specific look is to mate two dogs who have that same look. As with any species, though, the closest resemblances are found among the closest relatives. So breeders often resort to inbreeding, the mating of brothers and sisters or fathers and daughters. Or they "line-breed," having grandparents mate with grandchildren or cousins with each other. "If we did that in humans," says Mark Derr, who wrote a scathing indictment of America's dog culture for the March 1990 Atlantic Monthly, "we'd call it incest."

suggest you read it all, obviously it doesn't take a genius to come to the conclusion that "there are moral questions arising from a practice that increases an animals pre-disposition to genetically inherited diseases"..

'Notable groups' certainly includeds 'many vets', Search for "anti pedigree" for more details. eg http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/real_story/3797783.stm

If you were looking for an organisation set up to oppose this I'm afraid I can't find one, maybe here would be a good place to start http://www.naiaonline.org/articles/archives/nobred.htm

I think it's more general to use the less condemming tone of 'let's not make pedigree our only concern and thus show some restraint in breeding for the general welfare of the offspring'

Personall I adore Dachshunds but I wouldn't encourage it..(they suffer from spinal problems Dachshund#Health) 87.102.86.73 (talk) 17:58, 4 July 2008 (UTC)

Most animal rights (as opposed to animal welfare) groups are against breeding dogs for human enjoyment or use in principle. This includes groups such as Animal Aid. However, in practice they tend to promote a more pragmatic view and focus their attention of issues of cruelty and abuse, largely because much of their human resources come from people that "love animals" and hence tend to keep them as pets. As any successful organization knows, it doesn't pay to piss off your patrons. Most of these groups do advise, if people wish to have a dog, to take a mixed breed rescue dog from a pound.

There are people that maintain a strict abolitionism philosophy, though, such as Gary L. Francione and Roger Yates. These guys are totally against any human exploitation of animals as pets and spend as much time criticizing other animal rights groups for take a "new welfarist" approach as they do promoting their own ideas. I don't believe there is a well organized group mainstream that has formed their ideas yet, though. Note however, that it isn't the issue of pure-bred vs nonpure-bred that they are working on, its more one of any pet ownership. Rockpocket 18:54, 4 July 2008 (UTC)

Bribery

Do abrahamic religions forbid bribery? 89.146.76.39 (talk) 17:59, 4 July 2008 (UTC)

Yes. Exodus 23:8. --jpgordon^∇∆∇∆ 19:12, 4 July 2008 (UTC)

But what of indulgences? Could they not have been construed as bribes? The church certainly accepted them for a long time!

Atlant (talk) 21:26, 4 July 2008 (UTC)

Indeed, and some others thought so too , see Indulgence#Protestant_Reformation

The false doctrine and scandalous conduct of the "pardoners" were an immediate occasion of the Protestant Reformation. In 1517, Pope Leo X offered indulgences for those who gave alms to rebuild St. Peter's Basilica in Rome. The aggressive marketing practices of Johann Tetzel in promoting this cause provoked Martin Luther to write his Ninety-Five Theses, protesting against what he saw as the purchase and sale of salvation. In Thesis 28 Luther objected to a saying attributed to Tetzel: "As soon as a coin in the coffer rings, a soul from purgatory springs"

87.102.86.73 (talk) 21:32, 4 July 2008 (UTC)

No. --S.dedalus (talk) 05:24, 7 July 2008 (UTC)

What exactly have you been offering an omnipotent deity in terms of favours, S.dedalus? DJ Clayworth (talk) 15:12, 7 July 2008 (UTC)

MIscapped FAcebook PRofile

I just registered for a Facebook profile, and accidentally capped the first two letters of my last name. Is there a way to fix this? --Ye Olde Luke (talk) 21:55, 4 July 2008 (UTC)

There is here. It looks like you will have to make a request, and Facebook will have to review it.--omnipotence407 (talk) 22:36, 4 July 2008 (UTC)

That did it. Thanks! --Ye Olde Luke (talk) 23:37, 4 July 2008 (UTC)

Calling a whole computer a CPU

How did that start? 67.169.56.232 (talk) 22:27, 4 July 2008 (UTC)

See Synecdoche. It's a pretty standard device. Consider also "screen" for "monitor". Matt Deres (talk) 00:33, 5 July 2008 (UTC)

Not to be confused with Schenectady.--The Fat Man Who Never Came Back (talk) 02:56, 5 July 2008 (UTC)

Hardy har har. —Keenan Pepper 05:43, 5 July 2008 (UTC)

July 5

Foreign Aid

Which countries do not receive foreign Aid? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Dwestgate (talk • contribs) 00:45, 5 July 2008 (UTC)

Do you mean foreign aid from a specific country, or from any country? Over what time period? I am sure that every country in the world has accepted aid from another country at some point in its history. Plasticup ^T/C 03:42, 5 July 2008 (UTC)

What kind of foreign aid? Developmental aid, disaster aid, food aid, military aid? The U.S. received disaster aid in the form of search and rescue teams, etc, during Hurricane Katrina a few years ago. Would that count? The U.S. provided a military presence in Iceland from 1941-2006. Would that count? Rmhermen (talk) 13:35, 5 July 2008 (UTC)

I think we can safely say that countries that don't exist anymore no longer recieve foreign aid. --Ye Olde Luke (talk) 16:47, 5 July 2008 (UTC)

NCHS Life Tables

I'm sorry, currently? I'm curious because in my research I want to compare it to national debt. Economic Aid.—Preceding unsigned comment added by Dwestgate (talk • contribs) 05:07, 5 July 2008 (UTC)

When are there no tables past 2004? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Wikindeling (talk • contribs) 04:32, 5 July 2008 (UTC)

I accidentally delete a friend on YouTube and I added the user back

I accidentally delete a friend on YouTube. I was rushing and thinking about the OU (kosher). I accidentally click the "Remove Friend" buttin and I addedthe user again. I'm afraid the user will reject (denied) me. What should I do? Should I pray for the user to add me again? Jet (talk) 04:46, 5 July 2008 (UTC)

Well if they are your friend why not call/speak/email/text them and explain this. I'm sure anyone who is a friend wouldn't consider this anything more than a little odd - it's hardly like it takes effort on their behalf. ny156uk (talk) 07:53, 5 July 2008 (UTC)

If I may be so bold, I feel our friend Jet is a member of the well known and well loved Reference Desk band of trolls. See Wikipedia:Reference_desk/Archives/Miscellaneous/2008 January 1#How to be a YouTuber's friend when s/he denied me to be her/his friend on YouTube? for a similarly silly question. These sorts of questions amuse me, but I doubt other Reference Desk regulars appreciate them.--The Fat Man Who Never Came Back (talk) 17:59, 5 July 2008 (UTC)

Really? Jet has an extensive history of contributing the main space it appears. Perhaps we should give him/her the benefit of the doubt and assume that’s/he is simply confused by the YouTube layout? --S.dedalus (talk) 05:23, 7 July 2008 (UTC)

Couldn't get a answer on Humanities or Entertainment

Is 大戲, or Cantonese opera, in A flat Major?68.148.164.166 (talk) 06:06, 5 July 2008 (UTC)

Have you tried the language desk? Julia Rossi (talk) 00:29, 6 July 2008 (UTC)

That sounds to me a bit like 'is rock music in A flat major?' If all the songs in the entire genre are in the same key you'd think that would be significant enough to be in the article. Nevertheless, I learned the music from the soundclip in the article enough to know the key, and it's C# Major Pentatonic. -LambaJan (talk) 18:24, 7 July 2008 (UTC)

child development

pyshical,social and cognitive aspects of growth of a child aged between 2-3yrs ——— —Preceding unsigned comment added by 41.220.225.10 (talk) 08:22, 5 July 2008 (UTC)

Yes, they definitely all exist. That is, if you mean "physical". I'd suggest you have a look at some of Wikipedia's articles on the subject, such as child development. Either that or actually ask a question. Grutness...wha? 09:01, 5 July 2008 (UTC)

Garden Party Games

We are organising a traditional English garden party and would appreciate suggestions for activities suitable for adults. Along the lines of: guess the weight of the cake; how many sweets in a jar; what is the time on a watch sealed in a package. In each case the winner takes the item as a prize. Thanks in advance for the (hoped for) avalanche.86.209.28.131 (talk) 14:59, 5 July 2008 (UTC)DT

Instead of "guess the weight of the cake", why not have "guess the weight of the hostess"? (Prize: the hostess). Or maybe you don't want to go down that road. ;) You could try pass-the-parcel (prize: whatever's in the parcel), or croquet (prize: the croquet set, though it might not be easy to get hold of in the Paris area). Also, here's a link to games played at Butlin's in the past.--87.252.35.195 (talk) 18:29, 5 July 2008 (UTC)

If you play at garden parties, you might want to consider this article.

Atlant (talk) 21:03, 5 July 2008 (UTC)

Charades is very traditional, and similar guessing games, such as pictionary, human putty, and so on. Steewi (talk) 00:31, 7 July 2008 (UTC)

I might be a bit late now, but I would suggest a tombola, there isn't a specific article and indeed what is in the raffle article isn't quite what I think of as a tombola, but it is common in fetes in England. In brief, it is similar to a raffle but the selection of prizes are allocated to specific winning tickets prior to the draw (prizes are generally smaller than in a real raffle though, bottles of wine, cakes and books are normal). People then pay a fee to draw a ticket from a hat. If the number drawn matches the number allocated to a prize then they win that prize. It is basically the same as a raffle but the prizes are won instantly, rather than waiting for a draw at the end of the day. According to raffle they are also a way of circumventing licensing laws!Franmars (talk) 10:27, 7 July 2008 (UTC)

How much money will a music artist typically make off an album?

For example, 50 Cent's Get Rich or Die Tryin' sold 12 million units worldwide, and is $9.99 on iTunes. How much money out of that $120million (if its the same price everywhere) does 50 actually see? How much does a music artist typically make from the sale of an album? Thanks. 70.105.164.43 (talk) 15:11, 5 July 2008 (UTC)

Well, first of all, whatever 50 Cent makes off an album of his, it's probably not going to be what a typical artist makes from an album. There are a number of reasons for this, the chief among them being that 50 Cent is not a typical artist; he is -- at least in terms of popularity -- an exceptional one. Secondly, much of the sales took place outside of iTunes, and a new album in the stores tends to cost more than $9.99. It's also possible that the royalties are different for an online sale than they are for a store sale. Thirdly, to (kind of) answer your actual question: I don't know exactly how the royalties for sales work out for artists, but of course the idea is that the artist gets a percentage of the sales. However, there are a lot of factors that affect this.

Naturally, the percentage varies depending on how good a deal you've got (50 Cent presumably has a pretty good deal, at least these days, as he's a very popular artist and therefore has obvious leverage in negotiations), but in addition to that, the actual performer isn't the only one getting a cut of the profits. Usually, the person who wrote the song also gets one, and so does the producer, and as it's not uncommon for there to be numerous song writers or performers on a CD, things can get a little complicated, with lots of people getting little slices of the profit. So a big factor in this is how much of the actual creative work the artist is doing himself. I wish I could provide you with some typical numbers here, but, well, I can't; I tried to look things up, but couldn't find anything definite.

Also, bear in mind that a successful album also spans singles and music videos, which can be a pretty significant source of income, and all sorts of merchandising, which tends to bring in a lot of money for successful artists. These things go beyond the scope of your question, but you may want to take them into consideration anyway. -- Captain Disdain (talk) 19:52, 5 July 2008 (UTC)

Although I too, can not give specific numbers, most artists that are signed onto a record label receive only a small portion of the total revenues from the album sales; the producers receive most of it. On top of that, the artists themselves have to pay for recording time and all sorts of other expenses that further allocates the revenue towards the producers. That is one of the reason you see so many rap artists, like 50 Cent, creating their own "mini-record label" within a larger record label in an attempt to generate a larger stake in the profits.

50 Cent, specifically, owns G-Unit Records, which, I believe, is further owned by Dr. Dre's Aftermath Records, which is further owned by Interscope Records, which is owned by an even higher parent company. As a result, I would imagine 50 Cent would receive a larger portion of the album sales than artists such as Clay Aiken, whom, I believe, do not own their own record companies. Acceptable (talk) 04:27, 6 July 2008 (UTC)

One indicator of how little artists actually receive from digital downloads is the Radiohead experiment. They put their album up for sale on their website, and they let the user choose what he wanted to pay for it (including not paying at all). They had it up for two months. Read what Thom Yorke had to say about the experiment:

In terms of digital income, we've made more money out of this record than out of all the other Radiohead albums put together, forever — in terms of anything on the Net. And that's nuts.

Indeed it is. --Oskar 16:11, 6 July 2008 (UTC)

It's worth bearing in mind digital downloads come in various shapes or forms. iTunes for example is extremely large and have significant clout meaning that they can afford to dictate their terms including taking a significant proportion of the profit. Smaller sites in generally probably can't afford to and so may have to give the artist a larger share of the profit (however this may mean fewer total customers for the artist so it's not necessarily better for them). Clearly selling your songs directly means you only lose out on whatever PayPal or whoever your payment processor takes (but unless your already a big artist it may be hard for you to get people to even visit your site so no one may notice the songs you're selling) Nil Einne (talk) 07:28, 7 July 2008 (UTC)

Flashes from Zen Vision W

The flashes from my Zen Vision W, which I told you about earlier, are real, not my imagination. I've just seen one while looking directly at the device. The screen flashed a solid light gray for about a tenth of a second, while the device was turned off. What is the cause of this? JIP | Talk 17:33, 5 July 2008 (UTC)

So the backlight turned on by itself? --antilived^{T | C | G} 23:43, 5 July 2008 (UTC)

Seems like that, yes. And it turned off by itself immediately afterwards. JIP | Talk 18:18, 6 July 2008 (UTC)

I'd like to direct you to the science desk - where the 'flashing light experts' hang out.. One moment please...

Please see Wikipedia:Reference desk/Science#Flashes from Zen Vision W. Good luck87.102.86.73 (talk) 19:33, 6 July 2008 (UTC)

Weekly Universe

Is there a article on the article Weekly Universe?65.173.105.131 (talk) 19:24, 5 July 2008 (UTC)

Well, if you searched for "Weekly Universe" and came up with nothing, I guess not; if it's of enough notoriety to be included in wikipedia (in other words, something enough people would find noteworthy, etc.) then cretae one.209.244.187.155 (talk) 19:54, 5 July 2008 (UTC)

ferdinand maximillion, i have one of his walking sticks.

hi there, im new to your site and found lots of information on maximillion, my quistion is i have one of his walking sticks do you know who would be interrested in it, ie a musume. if you can help please let me know many thanks. terri —Preceding unsigned comment added by 92.9.201.125 (talk) 19:26, 5 July 2008 (UTC)

To which "Ferdinand Maximilian" do you refer? We have articles on five or six people with that name. Fribbler (talk) 22:49, 5 July 2008 (UTC)

Additionally, if the person in question is of suitable historical significance for his walking stick to be of interest to a museum or a collector, you should also make sure that you have some way of proving that it is, indeed, his walking stick, as opposed to any other walking stick from the appropriate era. -- Captain Disdain (talk) 23:44, 5 July 2008 (UTC)

If you know which Maximillion, you can contact the curator for that century's artefacts. Some museums have periodic times (such as once a month) when the public can bring along stuff to be identified or assessed. If he's a VIP he might have a museum in his name somewhere. So yeah, contact your museum, Julia Rossi (talk) 03:18, 6 July 2008 (UTC)

If the querent talks about Ferdinand Maximilian I, last emperor of Mexico, then Miramare in Trieste is the only museum. Chapultepec Castle in Mexico City is today the Historical Museum. The man is buried in the local Imperial Crypt in Vienna and, of course, there is Manet´s painting of his execution.

About half a year ago there was an exhibition where it said that he gave a - well, royal - tip to the solders entrusted with this final task.

And here I am, answering questions for free on the the WP:RD when I could make a maxi million in maxico. --Cookatoo.ergo.ZooM (talk) 15:34, 6 July 2008 (UTC)

hi there, thank you all for your responces.yes it is ferinand maximillion 1 it has his crest and the man fom the antiques road show confirmied it. he was very pleased.thanks for your help. terri —Preceding unsigned comment added by 92.9.212.21 (talk) 21:24, 7 July 2008 (UTC)

Women bodypainted topless

Why do so many female body painting models (not all of them though) go topless while being painted? The idea is to present the most of one's body to be painted, not necessarily all of it. They're already wearing panties while painted, surely a thin top covering just enough of the breasts to be decent wouldn't hurt the effect that much? JIP | Talk 19:52, 5 July 2008 (UTC)

• Killjoy. --jpgordon^∇∆∇∆ 20:55, 5 July 2008 (UTC)

You may be missing the point, which is simply that body painting is about painting the body, not tops -- small or otherwise. Whether that's a reasonable distinction or not can be argued, of course, but then you might just as well ask why some people want to play specifically a Fender Stratocaster rather than, say, a Gibson Les Paul, even though you can play the same songs on just about any guitar: the answer is simply that the end result or the process itself is different, and details tend to matter quite a bit in art. Also -- I know I'm stating the obvious here, but anyway -- people like titties, and a lot of people like showing their titties, either for fun, for art, or for money, or all three. That's by no means a factor in all cases of topless body painting, but it's certainly one in a lot of it, especially when done for commercial purposes. -- Captain Disdain (talk) 21:18, 5 July 2008 (UTC)

The Captain speaks the truth. Also, in some cases there's an artistic point to be made about the nature of the naked human body. I've seen several body-paintings that look just like clothes if you don't look closely (and then suddenly, it's like, "Hey, an areola!"). This gives the artist a way to comment on nakedness and the clothedness. Mostly, though, it's about the honkers.--Oskar 22:36, 5 July 2008 (UTC)

Well, this sounds reasonable. I am by no means advocating women covering up their breasts while painted, I was merely asking. (Hey, as a man, what do you think I would think?) I have seen body painting in two different places: at the World Bodypainting Festival in Seeboden, and at the Health & Beauty Fair in Helsinki. Female models go topless in both places, but in Helsinki they are more shy about their breasts until they are fully painted. JIP | Talk 18:18, 6 July 2008 (UTC)

Visiting U S need to buy oxygen Maryland area. Resident of British Columbia

I'm hoping to visit my great niece for four days July 31 to Aug. 3. I'm 91 and use oxygen therefore can only go if I can buy the commodity and have it delivered I will of course get a doctor's prescription, if in the event I can't buy it then I shall have to cancel air and accommodation and probably never see her again.. I would deem it a favour to be advised of the cost, thank you in advance. C. Baker —Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.69.101.26 (talk) 21:31, 5 July 2008 (UTC)

There appear to be a number of firms providing home care medical equipment including oxygen. Here is a contact for a company which serves Maryland, having a medical branch in Linthicum Heights, MD 21090 (sorry, I am European and know nothing about the state).

I hope a local USian across the pond can advise you on the cost. A Californian supplier charges around USD 60, but this clearly depends on the volume. I hope you will enjoy your visit with your grand niece. --Cookatoo.ergo.ZooM (talk) 22:34, 5 July 2008 (UTC)

I would suggest a google search for medical oxygen and the name of at least the county that your great niece lives in. Im sure you will be able to find a supplier. But really, you would have to contact them first. If you cant find a supplier online, I would recommend calling the hospital nearest your daughter, and Im sure that they could give you some options.--omnipotence407 (talk) 03:15, 6 July 2008 (UTC)

Come on, oil don't come in "barrels" anymore, do they?

Why do people measure oil prize in barrels? It makes no sense to me, oil hasn't come in barrels since like the There Will Be Blood times, has it? I mean, you get it out of the ground, into a pipeline, into a tanker, then to a refinery, from there to tank car and finally to a gas station. I probably got that chain wrong, but the point is: at no point in the chain is the oil in a barrel, right? So why are people reporting "Oil hit $100 a barrel!" instead of reporting "Oil hit 85 cents a liter"! (or, if you're a silly American, "Oil hit $3.22 a gallon!")? I realize that it's a tradition, but it's not like we prize the cost of wheat in sheafs. --Oskar 22:31, 5 July 2008 (UTC)

Well wheat is priced in bushels as far as I know. Another outdated measurement. And diamonds in carats. I'd say changing to litres, although it would make sense, would be very disruptive as people are used to hearing about the 'per barrel' price. Fribbler (talk) 22:47, 5 July 2008 (UTC)

When oil refineries buy oil on the wholesale market, they buy it by the barrel. It is a good standardized unit of measurement that lets us compare prices across many decades. It also abstracts the price of the raw commodity from "retail effects" that might distort the price at the pump and not reflect the underlying value. Plasticup ^T/C 22:52, 5 July 2008 (UTC)

But you could still compare it to old prizes, a barrel is simply 117.35 liters (or so google tell me). And the liter is also a very good standardized measurement, since we use it for, you know, everything else. And also, tankers (boat or car) presumably have a capacity measured in a regular volume measurements, and pipelines in liter/[some time unit]. Same thing for refineries. Doesn't measuring oil in an artificial unit that hasn't had connection to the real world for half a century just make everything more cumbersome? There seems to me that there is a whole lot of converting from barrels to liters and back to barrels for no good reason. --Oskar 23:04, 5 July 2008 (UTC)

Well, I dunno. It's really no different than someone selling paper by the pallet or eggs by the dozen, is it? -- Captain Disdain (talk) 23:39, 5 July 2008 (UTC)

Well, eggs come in discreet units, so there's not really a unit that makes sense. And paper actually come on pallets (unlike oil). But I guess you have a point, commodities come in many strange units. --Oskar 01:26, 6 July 2008 (UTC)

I'm not sure what you mean when you say a barrel is an "artificial unit". It, at least, refers to actual containers that existed at one time, unlike the liter which really is artificial. I suspect that the continued use of the barrel as a unit of measurement in the petroleum sector is due to path dependence. Since nearly all of the infrastructure (tankers, refineries, pipelines, commodity markets) is measured in barrels, very little conversion has to take place and changing the whole system to metric would be expensive and disruptive without much benefit. --D. Monack | talk 02:58, 6 July 2008 (UTC)

I in turn don't know what you mean when you say "the liter ... really is artificial". The litre not only existed at one time, but still exists, and is in very wide use. (Except in certain countries, where, despite not using it, they've chosen to change its spelling to liter.) -- JackofOz (talk) 15:23, 6 July 2008 (UTC)

I don't know if artificial is the right word (I would use "abstract"), but barrel is much more concrete in the sense that barrels are standardized in terms of shape and size. A litre is like an inch or a pound; it doesn't look like anything in particular. Oil barrels were created first and the unit of measure was derived from that whereas a litre is just the volume taken up by a kilogram of water; it's not based on anything else. Matt Deres (talk) 15:42, 6 July 2008 (UTC)

Hi. This isn't really relavent to your question, but err, since when is oil 85¢/litre "expensive"?! We here in Canada pay on average roughly the equivalent of $1.40 USD per litre, and there's more fuss over it in the US, where it's cheaper, than in Canada! In Europe, they pay roughly the equivalent of over $2.00 USD! Thanks. ~AH1^(TCU) 19:50, 6 July 2008 (UTC)

Hi. The current Canadian average price for oil, by the way, is equivalent to ~$163.80 per barrel (or $5.30 per gallon). Thanks. ~AH1^(TCU) 19:53, 6 July 2008 (UTC)

They're talking about unrefined crude oil. I suspect you're thinking about some sort of processed oil product, like gasoline or heating oil. APL (talk) 20:56, 7 July 2008 (UTC)

Standardisation is the reason. WP has an unhelpful article (for this purpose) on Standardisation in oil industry. Basically, the hassle involved in changing the unit would offset any good that may come off it. Players in the Petroleum industry and commodities-trading industry (see Commodities market and Commodities exchange) use the barrel as a unit of measurement which imho gives it a very tangible "connection to the real world". A futures trader would be more interested in the price per barrel. Also, quoting the price of brent crude in litres wouldn't be very helpful because people who buy/sell petrol in litres (e.g. the retail market) don't buy brent crude and don't all pay the same price. They only look at the oil price to gauge the relative value of oil to determine what might happen to the the price they pay. I can't see how much good will come off changing the unit for this purpose. Zain Ebrahim (talk) 13:27, 7 July 2008 (UTC)

July 6

Solve this puzzle and win some bragging rights!

I created this puzzle and was then told it was too hard, so I want to see if anyone can get it. First to explain the solution correctly will win the right to gloat or a barnstar (I've never given one to anyone so be the first!). The numbers in each row share a common feature with one another. Please explain what it is.

• 1
• 2, 5, 10
• 3, 4, 6, 9, 11
• 7, 12, 15
• 8, 13, 14

The order of the numbers within a row does not matter. Additional numbers can be added to the series. If you passed 5th grade you probably have the knowledge you need to solve this puzzle. Happy solving! Sifaka ^talk 00:06, 6 July 2008 (UTC)

I *think* I've solved it. If I'm correct, then you can add more numbers like this:

• 1
• 2, 5, 10
• 3, 4, 6, 9, 11
• 7, 12, 15, 20
• 8, 13, 14, 16, 19
• 17
• 18

Mind you, four could have gone in a different row... Am I right? Cute, and nasty, too! Grutness...wha? 01:07, 6 July 2008 (UTC)

Right on! Four belongs where it is, but your placement for all the numbers is correct! You win the prize! Sifaka ^talk 03:33, 6 July 2008 (UTC)

Actually you were right about the four having the possibility of being in a different place... Sifaka ^talk 03:33, 6 July 2008 (UTC)

What's the solution??? ~EdGl (talk) 03:03, 6 July 2008 (UTC)

Spoilers!!! Highlight to see it. Sifaka ^talk 03:33, 6 July 2008 (UTC)

• Hint:Try thinking writing them in a different numeral system
• Answer:When each number is written in roman numerals, each row represents the number of strokes used to write that number. 11 = XI = 3 strokes so row 3, 5 = V = 2 strokes so row 2, 19 = XIX = 5 strokes so row 5, etc...

I'm guessing whoever told you it was too hard isn't someone who does number puzzles very much. The two things the seasoned puzzler knows to look for before anything else is patterns formed by either spelling the numbers out as words, or changing them to roman numerals. - 89.168.238.53 (talk) 14:54, 6 July 2008 (UTC)

Bass distortion

I have an Ibaneze practice amp for my bass that unfortunately does not feature distortion/overdrive... I did, however, once get it sounding like it was distorted (it was impossible to tell the difference between it and actual distortion) by fiddling around with the settings. But I can't seem to get back to that sound and I'm not sure why. On the amp I can control bass, treble, middle, and volume, and on the bass itself I can control bass, treble, pickup sensitivity, and volume. Anyone have any idea what combinations of settings might get it back to its pseudo-distorted sound? I need to just get a new amp, obviously, but I'm a little short on cash at the moment and wouldn't mind being able to play overdriven songs before then. --69.146.230.243 (talk) 02:00, 6 July 2008 (UTC)

If you boost the treble quite a lot on both you can usually get a pretty nasty sound. You could, of course, just get an overdrive pedal—it'll be cheaper than a big new amp, and probably have more variability to its sound than the distortion built into the amp. --98.217.8.46 (talk) 15:31, 6 July 2008 (UTC)

True... It's a sucky amp to begin with, though, so I need to get a new one eventually. But I'll try the treble and see if it doesn't help. Thanks --69.146.230.243 (talk) 20:48, 6 July 2008 (UTC)

Seems to me if you turn up your bass volume and pickup sensitivity all the way you have a chance of overdriving the amp. If that doesn't work the turn up everything all the way on both the bass and amp, except of course for the amp volume (you want to overdrive the circuits, not your ears). -LambaJan (talk) 18:07, 7 July 2008 (UTC)

Help Wanted

I've been trying to upload images by going to

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:Upload

but everytime I go there, I'm asked to log in, even if I already am. Then, when I try to log in, I'm told that no one with the username La Alquimista exists!! Please help. La Alquimista (talk) 05:50, 6 July 2008 (UTC)

see meta:Help:Unified login —Preceding unsigned comment added by Tcsetattr (talk • contribs) 07:31, 6 July 2008 (UTC)

Do you have an account on Commons? It is not the same system as Wikipedia. You probably need to create a new account there. --98.217.8.46 (talk) 15:32, 6 July 2008 (UTC)

instruction to use valiya narayanatailam

i would like to know how to use valiya narayanatailam. is there any after effects for this oil. can male and female use this regularly. we are 64 and 60 years old —Preceding unsigned comment added by 78.100.2.3 (talk) 08:21, 6 July 2008 (UTC)

Please understand that we cannot give medical advice regarding your specific case or possible side-effects (whether it's conventional or ayurvedic medical advice). Please seek a professional medical doctor or pharmacist for your query. ---Sluzzelin talk 09:00, 6 July 2008 (UTC)

AS Roma Strip

Could someone be kind enough to tell me what the Red, Wite and Green circle on the AS Roma strip represents. Thanks. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 79.71.248.179 (talk) 11:15, 6 July 2008 (UTC)

File:Coccarda italia.png

It's a cockade ("coccarda"), similar to a roundel, carried by holders of the Coppa Italia. The colors are the Italian tricolore, see the article on flag of Italy for possible interpretations of the green, white, and red. ---Sluzzelin talk 11:36, 6 July 2008 (UTC)

Foot

would it be corrent to say that all animals have

a least one foot? For example snails and snakes

could be considered their whole body as one foot? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 79.75.255.21 (talk) 16:59, 6 July 2008 (UTC)

I don't think so. I can think of many examples of animals without feet. Fish, for instance. Plasticup ^T/C 17:02, 6 July 2008 (UTC)

A snail has a foot (it is a gastropod); a snake does not.--Shantavira|^{feed me} 17:16, 6 July 2008 (UTC)

The late S. Freud has proposed the term Pedis Envy for the traumata experienced by species having no feet or less. --Cookatoo.ergo.ZooM (talk) 18:36, 6 July 2008 (UTC)

Perhaps you mean limb? 87.102.86.73 (talk) 18:09, 6 July 2008 (UTC)

parodies of wikipedia

out of all the parodies of wikipedia, like

uncyclopedia and encyclopedia dramatica, w

hich is the biggest and most active. Thank

s —Preceding unsigned comment added by 79.75.255.21 (talk) 18:14, 6 July 2008 (UTC)

ED has approx 2x hits of U - source http://www.alexa.com/87.102.86.73 (talk) 18:41, 6 July 2008 (UTC)

I disagree with that. Uncyclopedia has a traffic rank of 6,309 [20] whereas encyclopediadramatica is much lower down with 13,823,307, and doesn't even show a graph as it's not in the top 100, 000 [21]. Also, a quick glance at both site's recent changes logs and Uncyc has a lot more activity than ED. JessicaN10248 12:56, 7 July 2008 (UTC)

There are 2 m's in it... http://www.alexa.com/data/details/traffic_details/encyclopediadrammatica.org87.102.86.73 (talk) 15:21, 7 July 2008 (UTC)

There is one m but it's http://www.alexa.com/data/details/traffic_details/encyclopediadramatica.com 87.102.86.73 (talk) 15:24, 7 July 2008 (UTC)

Which has 'rank' 2000-3000 depending on what day of the week.87.102.86.73 (talk) 15:25, 7 July 2008 (UTC)

drainage grids

Hi everyone! I hope someone can help me here, I'm looking for the company that makes drainage grids, similar to the one in this picture: http://www.eriding.net/media/photos/maths/060627_psimmons_mp_maths_env_maths3_120.jpg Can one order them directly from the supplier? Thanks. RHODOPSIN DRINKER (talk) 19:56, 6 July 2008 (UTC)

They're almost certainly made by a foundry, and often have the foundry name on. They are also called manhole covers.. that article actually gives the names of major manufacturers of, luckily. (if you want more help on this page you'll have to tell us what country you're in, and if it's a big country possibly the state as well.) Hope that helps.87.102.86.73 (talk) 20:20, 6 July 2008 (UTC)

They would normally by purchased from your local builders' merchant rather than the manufacturer.--Shantavira|^{feed me} 07:15, 7 July 2008 (UTC)

Style of Shoes

Within the past several month here in Canada, I've seen quite a few teenagers/young adults walking around in a specific style of shoes that I am unable to name. These low-cut shoes are characterized by their slim, form-fitting shape and are very "slick" looking. Puma shoes like these ones: [[22]] are a prime example, so are these Lacoste ones: [[23]]. Adidas ones: [[24]]

By style of shoes I mean, like skater, "gangsta", "preppy", etc...

Thanks. Acceptable (talk) 20:53, 6 July 2008 (UTC)

They look like sports sneakers that would mostly be worn by atheletes (or slang, "jocks"), but really anybody could wear them. Highly doubt skaters would wear them, since they favor wider shoes like DCs, Etnies, and Vans (all skateboarding shoe brands). Also punks don't wear sneakers like that. ~EdGl (talk) 02:23, 7 July 2008 (UTC)

They actually look like track shoes, without the spikes. Maybe an athletic-inspired street version? Plasticup ^T/C 02:52, 7 July 2008 (UTC)

I've been searching around some more, could they be driving-styled shoes? Acceptable (talk) 03:09, 7 July 2008 (UTC)

How to Compliment Wikipedia?

How do I compliment Wikipedia?

Just state:"This is a hell of a website! Keep up the good Work!"?65.173.105.27 (talk) 21:25, 6 July 2008 (UTC)

• The best compliment you can give is to contribute via editing or make a donation. Exxolon (talk) 22:32, 6 July 2008 (UTC)
• I've found that it goes well with fish, chicken, and even pasta on occasion. --Several Times (talk) 16:02, 7 July 2008 (UTC)

Well, better that than "a nice Chianti and some fava beans".

Atlant (talk) 18:19, 8 July 2008 (UTC)

can someone identify this SUV?

Image:PCMS.jpg (or tell me where I should go to ask?) ninety:one 21:44, 6 July 2008 (UTC)

From the shape of the windows, this looks like a Chevrolet Tahoe to me - according to our article, the Tahoe is widely used by Brazil's police forces -- Ferkelparade π 21:59, 6 July 2008 (UTC)

wikipedia is amazing, thank you :) ninety:one 22:13, 6 July 2008 (UTC)

July 7

UK SIZES TO US SIZES

I'm a size 8 in the UK... but what letter would that be, like an S(small); M(medium); L(large)? PLEASE TELL ME! Thank Youuuuu :) BringMeTheHorizon112 (talk) 00:09, 7 July 2008 (UTC)

We need more info. Is that your hat size, dress size, man's shoe size, or all of the above ? StuRat (talk) 02:19, 7 July 2008 (UTC)

Googling UK SIZES TO US SIZES gives this helpful page as the first hit. 152.16.59.190 (talk) 04:07, 7 July 2008 (UTC)

Size 8 UK dress size is definitely not M or L. It is S or XS. You should try the clothes on anyway because whatever the system the labels are often inaccurate. Itsmejudith (talk) 11:08, 7 July 2008 (UTC)

How many MB's does 1 minute of music and 1 minute of video take up?

I'm wondering how much space music and video take up on a computer hardrive. In addition to the above question, about what length would the music (or video) have to be to take up one GB of space? I realize different file formats (such as .mp3 and .m4p) will take up different amounts of space, so what are those different amounts of space? Thanks. 70.105.164.43 (talk) 00:19, 7 July 2008 (UTC)

This depends on the so-called bitrate, that is, how many bits per second a multimedia file takes up. Higher bitrate = higher quality = bigger size. So one minute of video can take up anything from a few megabytes to as high a number as you want. Say you have a music file with a bitrate of 256 kbit/s (this is the quality you get from the DRM-free files from iTunes and from the Amazon MP3 store) one minute will be 256 kbits/s * 60 s = 1.875 megabytes (this is a fairly high quality for audio). A standard youtube video has a bitrate of around 320 kbit/s, so that would be 2.34 megabytes. However, as I said, these are not hard and fast numbers, especially the video one. Youtube is fairly low quality, those numbers can grow virtually without limit. One minute of DVD-video (at about an average bitrate of 4.5 Mbit/s) is at 33.75 megabytes. --Oskar 01:52, 7 July 2008 (UTC)

Oh, yeah, as for how much music and video it takes to fill a gigabyte

• iTunes/Amazon DRM-free music: 9.10 hours
• Youtube quality video: 7.28 hours
• DVD quality video: 30.34 minutes

(I love Google calculator :) Here you can really see the difference between different qualities in video. --Oskar 02:32, 7 July 2008 (UTC)

It's worth bearing in mind you can easily get DVD quality video at a much lower bit rate (at least half) by using a more efficient codec, e.g. H.264, compared to the rather old MPEG-2 used in DVDs. Nil Einne (talk) 06:52, 7 July 2008 (UTC)

Religions without Claims of Evidence

Once, when I asked others if religions other than Christianity also claim to have proofs or evidences for themselves as the one true religion just as Christianity does, in Claims of Evidence for Other Religions as the One True Religion, one person replied: It is not too difficult to imagine a religion which says, "We don't claim to have any proof or evidence for our religion. You just have to believe it!".

Do such religions actually exist? If so, then what are religions are like that? If they don't have any evidence for themselves, why would anybody believe in them? Why would anybody be so stupid to believe in a religion which doesn't have any evidence for it? If you tell or show the evidences that Christians have, or claim to have, for Christianity to the believers of such a religion, what would they say and think?

Bowei Huang (talk) 01:55, 7 July 2008 (UTC)

All of them? I don't mean to be flippant, but when you talk about "proof" the way you do, you mean something like scientific evidence, and there's no religion that provides that, not even Christianity. That's why they're called faiths, because you have to have faith in them. People believe in them because they want to believe in them, because it gives them comfort and makes them feel loved. It has nothing to do with looking at all religions objectively and then picking the one that's the most plausible. People who look at the world that way are called scientists.

Ask a person from some religion "How do you know, for a fact, that what you believe is true?" most of them will say that they feel the presence of God inside of them, or that they look at the world and see purpose in it, or something like that. They couldn't care less about the ontological argument for the existence of God or anything like that (although the teleological argument seems to have won a lot of people over recently). Most people just simply subscribe to the religion in which they were raised.

Personally, I don't subscribe to a religion, but I understand those who do. I understand why they don't need a proof. It's not for me, but hey, judge not lest ye be judged, right :P In my opinion, analyzing religion through the lens of "What proof is there?" is the wrong approach, since lets face it: there is none. --Oskar 02:09, 7 July 2008 (UTC)

If there was incontrovertible proof that a religion was the one true one, either:

• vast numbers of people from other religions would become adherents, or, more likely
• the religion would cease to exist because there's nothing to believe in any more. It would have become a matter of accepted fact (no different than the existence of Henry VIII or the achievements of Roger Federer), not faith or belief, and religions are all about believing in things that can't be proven scientifically one way or another. -- JackofOz (talk) 02:34, 7 July 2008 (UTC)

Bowei Huang is not asking whether religions actually have proof of their veracity. He is asking whether they all claim to have proof. Off the top of my head I cannot think of any religions which make no claims to evidence, but I am sure that some exist. Are you willing to count "cults"? Plasticup ^T/C 02:49, 7 July 2008 (UTC)

I had some liberal Jewish religious teachers who told me that we can't prove that our religion is "true," but, similarly, no one can prove that it's untrue, and therefore, we can assume it's true for the sake of its rituals, traditions and ethics, which tie into its metaphysical beliefs. Not everyone follows the same reasoning, however, and some consider that line of thought downright atheistic. -- Mwalcoff (talk) 02:52, 7 July 2008 (UTC)

I consider that line of thought stupid, but that's just me. --Oskar 02:59, 7 July 2008 (UTC)

You may have been talking to an adherent of Reconstructionist Judaism. I'm no expert on that sect, but it is interesting for this discussion in that Reconstructionist Judaism is an explicit rejection of theology. Their main "belief" is that Judaism is culturally important and should be preserved by performing Jewish rituals. It makes no truth claims about God or any other theological concept so it may satisfy the original poster's question. --D. Monack | talk 06:33, 7 July 2008 (UTC)

I guess it depends on what you mean by religion. To me, a sytem which contains no spiritual beliefs but is simply about preserving culture is not a religion. (This doesn't mean it's followers are stupid or it's unimportant.) For example, I preserve some part of my Chinese culture including the reunion dinner on Chinese New Year eve following some of the rituals on rare occasion (e.g. ancestor veneration). But I don't actually believe in any of this from a spiritual context and wouldn't say I practice any religion nor do I consider these religions practices of mine even if a lot of this originates from what are generally regarded as religious practices. But to answer Bowei's question, I think many non-organised religions and also Eastern religions are less focused on proof then simple belief. It's IMHO a different philisophy. It's not so much about 'you must do this or otherwise you'll go to hell' nor is there any call to convert people. If you believe you believe if you don't you don't. I'm not saying there are is no proof, obviously there will still be a lot of 'I did whatever and then whatever happened' from people who believe that carrying out (or not carrying out) some ritual or following (or not following) some practice either helped or harmed them but by the nature of most non-organised religions, there is no general concern about proving the 'religion' must be true/correct. Nil Einne (talk) 07:19, 7 July 2008 (UTC)

These were Reform Jews, not Reconstructionists, although I sometimes can't tell the difference either. I think the way to look at is that since science can't answer certain metaphysical questions, one assumes that his ancestors have been right in their metaphysical assertions for 3,000 years rather than assumes that they are wrong. I think that what Nil says applies to most cultures outside of Christian and Muslim ones. That is to say, "This is what we believe, this is what we do, and what other people believe or do is their own business." With that philosophy, there really is no battle to "prove" which religion is the "correct" one. Religion is simply part of a particular culture. -- Mwalcoff (talk) 23:42, 7 July 2008 (UTC)

Archaeology and the Book of Mormon may be of interest.--droptone (talk) 12:25, 7 July 2008 (UTC)

You mean postmodernism? Relativism? Bowei Huang (talk) 05:57, 8 July 2008 (UTC)

Buy Tickets Don't Use Them

I recently bought some baseball tickets for a game in august, however after purchasing some i realized i got tickets which were all the way at the top of the seating section i was looking at and so i decided to get some that were lower. all in all it was a total of $20 i spent. I want to make sure i won't get a no show charge for not sitting in those higher up seats. These lower seat tickets i got are the ones i am using. i was wanting to call the box office to release the earlier seats but they were no help. is it common for a sports club to charge you if you do not cancel earlier tickets?--logger (talk) 02:38, 7 July 2008 (UTC)

The short answer is yes, you will be charged. This response presupposes you have left a credit-card number in order secure your tickets. As far as the organization is concerned, you have purchased both sets of tickets, which you may have done for any number of reasons. I don't know of any group, sports or otherwise, that allows you to return purchased tickets. The organization does not care if the seats are used, however, or even if they are picked up; they only care about being paid for them once they are sold/reserved. This is personal experience speaking, which may be too much WP:OR for you. ៛ Bielle (talk) 02:55, 7 July 2008 (UTC)

These tickets are non refundable and i realize i can not get any refund back, all i want to do is release those seats for other fans and void those earlier tickets.--logger (talk) 03:04, 7 July 2008 (UTC)

I've never encountered any scenario where you can simply "release" the seats and "void" the tickets. You could, however, sell them for face value on Craigslist or some other web site. Or sell them near the stadium on game day. As long as you sell them for face value and/or away from the premises of the stadium, you shouldn't have to worry about being arrested for scalping. Check your local laws for specifics on this before attempting it though. Dismas|^(talk) 03:54, 7 July 2008 (UTC)

You can also just give them away, if re-selling them is not an option. As you are going to the event anyway, drop by the "day of game" sales window and just give them to someone in line. Be a hero! ៛ Bielle (talk) 03:59, 7 July 2008 (UTC)

Or (better) be a ticket tout at the entrance and get (more than) your money back! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 79.76.171.151 (talk) 23:31, 7 July 2008 (UTC)

Some sports teams will accept donations of unwanted tickets for charitable purposes (sick kids, etc.). -- Coneslayer (talk) 11:59, 8 July 2008 (UTC)

What to drink when sweating

What drink should one drink when sweating, but not physically active? Such a scenario could arise when one is lying or slowly walking on a very hot and sunny day. Sports drinks that replenishes electrolytes and other vital minerals lost through sweating are usually high in calories and are suited for those that sweat due to physical activity. Does there exist a drink that has the mineral-replenishing ability of a sports drink, but without the caloric content? Thanks. Acceptable (talk) 03:17, 7 July 2008 (UTC)

Propel is similar to Gatorade, Powerade, and the like, but it only has 6 grams of sugar and 30 calories in a 24 ounce bottle. Also, to be honest, nothing works like plain old water. Grango242 (talk) 03:59, 7 July 2008 (UTC)

Plain water is good. Slightly salted water can be better.86.219.36.166 (talk) 10:23, 7 July 2008 (UTC)DT

SLATED water??? have you not hered the frase "whater water everywhere and not a drop to drnk?" it means you MUST NOT drink salt water. NOT. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Mud Flood (talk • contribs) 16:44, 7 July 2008 (UTC)

The body needs electrolytes (such as salt) in order to maintain a salt-balance in the blood. If you're sweating a lot for a long time and you only drink plain water, there is a small risk of you suffering from water intoxication because you have to few electrolytes (this is a small risk for amateur marathoners, for instance). If you drink seawater, the opposite thing happens, you get too much electrolytes in the body. To get rid of all that extra salt, the body dehydrates itself. In other words, you die of thirst. However, if you have just the right amount of saline, that's great for drinking. In medicine, you use a saline solution of 0.9% NaCl, so that seems to be the sweet spot --Oskar 17:22, 7 July 2008 (UTC)

Ever been to an NFL training camp? A sign in the cafeteria says, "Remember to put two shakes of salt on all of your food." -- Mwalcoff (talk) 23:43, 7 July 2008 (UTC)

It might be good to keep in mind, in this connection, that most people already get far too much salt in their diet, and what they lose in sweat is, more likely than not, a step to the good. Obviously this varies with individual circumstances and is just my personal, non-professional, understanding of the matter. --Trovatore (talk) 04:22, 8 July 2008 (UTC)

Mineral water! That stuff is great! Get the kind that's high mineral content. I prefer if it's sparkling, particularly naturally sparkling (it doesn't make a difference but I figure it's less processed). It's great on it's own and doesn't take very long to get a taste for, but it's also good with a splash of juice, like cranberry or pomegranate. Actually, price dictates I don't drink that stuff all the time but you can get some juice and add maybe 1 part to 4 or 5 parts regular water and that really refreshing and it stretches your juice to where it's cheaper than fancy bottled stuff. You can even get condensed lemon or limeade and do the very same thing. One thing that sounds terrible but is actually worth a shot is soy sauce, 1-2 packets to 12 or so ounces hot water. Maybe cold water too. I've only tried hot but it was _good_. I'm thinking of finding things to blend it with but I haven't yet (I'm thinking of some kind of lemon or something). One last thing... and this isn't for good taste (I don't mind it but I fully recognize that it's awful for some people): pickles and pickle juice. This is more for if you're running around playing sports all day but it's a good way to get a lot of what you need without all the extra sugars. -LambaJan (talk) 19:47, 8 July 2008 (UTC)

Training and eating

When I go training, particularly early in the morning, what is it best to eat before? --212.120.246.239 (talk) 08:33, 7 July 2008 (UTC)

Banannas. they are high in posasissum and goodness.— Preceding unsigned comment added by Mud Flood (talk • contribs)

It depends on what type of training you're doing and how intense it is. This provides a guide for runners.-Wafulz (talk) 18:05, 7 July 2008 (UTC)

Wipro

who is the CEO of wipro? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 58.2.236.143 (talk) 13:58, 7 July 2008 (UTC)

Azim Premji. Fribbler (talk) 14:47, 7 July 2008 (UTC)

Russia

I have read the article on Russia numerous times and have read the articles for as many particians thereof as I possibly can, from the Jewish Oblast to Siberia and many many others inbetween. However I still have an almost unnatural fasination with what is very very far from where I originally come from, however. What I still wish to know, is how did such a large county develop? how were all these minor regions brought under one Tsar? and why have they not disbanded over the centuries, they all have different cultures, different languages, and are vastly seperated by enormous areas, yet they all are Russian? How can Chukoltka honestly consider themselves to be even vagly related to Omsk and how can moscow all the way in the east maintain control over Kamchatka further more how can they be happy being ruled by Moscow? Please help me to understand this Thanks193.115.175.247 (talk) 14:02, 7 July 2008 (UTC)Zionist

Have you read Russian conquest of Siberia? While this article does not tell the complete story, it provides the essentials. The Russians were able to conquer this vast area because they had European technologies, particularly weaponry, much more advanced than those of the various peoples who inhabited Siberia before the conquest. Essentially, the Russian empire was brought under the control of the tsar by superior force of arms and the superior organization of a modernizing state. The empire did not disband over the centuries because the Russian-dominated state was able to put down any challenges to its control, even after Communists took over and reconfigured those state structures. The Russian state, like any other state, retained legitimacy for its ethnically Russian subjects largely through ideology. During the tsarist period, the key ideologies were the image of the benevolent, paternalistic tsar and the religious sanction of the Orthodox church for the tsar's rule. During the Communist period, the key ideology was that the benevolent, paternalistic Communist leadership was fulfilling Marx's prophecy and championing the interests of workers and peasants. Most of the productive resources, and particularly the industrial infrastructure of the Russian state lay within areas with ethnic Russian majorities, and so the state maintained control of these resources. This control allowed the state to put down any challenges to Russian control by the numerically much smaller ethnic minorities. As you may know, some parts of the former Russian empire did in fact disband after the collapse of Communist control in 1991. However, the post-Communist Russian state, which has increasingly relied for legitimacy on an ideology of the benevolent, paternalistic strongman (Yeltsin, Putin) as the nationalist defender and champion of the Russian people, has so far successfully put down the only serious challenge to its power (in Chechnya) by a subordinate ethnic group. As before, the state controls organizational and material resources that allow it to overwhelm any challenge to its power by an ethnic minority, and the state's willingness to deploy those resources with deadly effect in Chechnya has probably discouraged other ethnic groups from attempting to break free of control by Moscow, even if they aren't happy about Moscow's control. Marco polo (talk) 14:45, 7 July 2008 (UTC)

It has been said many times than Russia managed to create an Empire but not a Nation—it was able to use military force to build up a gigantic landmass into a single major political entity, but it never managed to produce a feeling of "Russianness" to unite the various groups. Hence it is often considered a rather fragile arrangement, relying solely on the strength of an often aggressive state to hold the whole thing together. --98.217.8.46 (talk) 16:06, 7 July 2008 (UTC)

Optimising gear raitios

What sort of things do you need to look at when optimising the gear ratios of a car for a particular race? --RMFan1 (talk) 14:44, 7 July 2008 (UTC)

I believe this is frequently done in things like formula 1 and stock car racing. The general idea is that you can trade top speed for better acceleration at lower speeds. So, if the track is short and/or twisty, and you know you won't go above a certain speed, they gear for better acceleration. Given enough gears, of course, you don't need to make such tradeoffs. I don't know if the limited number of gears tends to be due to rules or due to engineering constraints. Friday (talk) 14:50, 7 July 2008 (UTC)

It is also possible to optimize ratios for specific corners. If a circuit only has one very low speed hairpin then you can change the ratios so that they are optimal for that corner. If you tried to accelerate out of the corner in third and the car seemed to "bog down" because the rpms were too low or if you tried to accelerate out in second and had to shift very early, then you might want to make some adjustments to your gearing.

Similarly, you can set the highest gear to work best with the longest straightaway. You don't want to run up against the rev limiter at the end of the straightaway and you also might not want to have a lot of top speed left, depending on what the rest of the course is like. Recury (talk) 20:23, 7 July 2008 (UTC)

High-end clothing in the UK

Greetings,

In France, high-end clothing is sought from brands such as Lacoste, Ralph Lauren, Vicomte Arthur, Cyrillus, Saint-James etc.

What are their British counterparts?

Thank you in advance,

--Anon 18:38, 7 July 2008 (UTC)

Lacoste and Ralph Lauren are internationally known. The others may be as well. I don't know, I'm not that into fashion. So, what are you asking? Are you looking for brands that are in vogue and have a lot of popularity amongst certain demographics? Or are you asking if those brands are simply available in the UK? Dismas|^(talk) 19:02, 7 July 2008 (UTC)

I understand that the brands that I referred to, other than Lacoste and Ralph Lauren, are unknown outside of France, so I would like to know what their equivalents are in the UK, and which brands are renowned there for high-quality clothing.

--Anon 19:18, 7 July 2008 (UTC)

Burberry is the only one I know off the top of my head. If you're desperate, you can have a look through the articles at Category:High fashion brands and try to pick out the British ones. Recury (talk) 20:34, 7 July 2008 (UTC)

In that list I recognise only Aquascutum and Pringle of Scotland. There is also Fred Perry (scroll down to see the fashion brand mentioned). But I think labels have a different place in UK culture than they do in French culture. In the UK the chav stereotype can easily become attached. This leads some people to avoid buying clothing with labels at all. Or they wonder why they would pay a premium when they could buy a similar item at Marks and Spencer. Itsmejudith (talk) 21:13, 7 July 2008 (UTC)

Thank you for your answers.

--Anon 18:18, 8 July 2008 (UTC)

the rich jerk

what do you think about therichjerk.com —Preceding unsigned comment added by 66.74.73.68 (talk) 19:50, 7 July 2008 (UTC)

I know that my Macafee Siteadvisor gives it a big red X, and "breached browser security" as the summary.... Fribbler (talk) 20:01, 7 July 2008 (UTC)

At a glance it looks like a pretty typical get rich quick scheme. You pay the jerk money for the "plans" on how to get rich. (Apparently, the plans include such sure-fire techniques as convincing other people to pay you for the "plans" on how to get rich!) See this article:[25] The only thing new here is the attitude, otherwise sites like this are dime-a-dozen. APL (talk) 20:48, 7 July 2008 (UTC)

I think participating in the laughable scheme the site is peddling is going to make the participant feel very sad and stupid. (The "proof" section is very impressive, though! Nobody could ever fake that kind of solid and undeniable evidence.) -- Captain Disdain (talk) 21:19, 7 July 2008 (UTC)

Thanks CD, I think this is just the very case where we need a user with official military grade disdain :-) Fribbler (talk) 23:19, 7 July 2008 (UTC)

staplers

why do some staples open outwards and others inwards? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 90.210.72.103 (talk) 21:19, 7 July 2008 (UTC)

Depends on how the plate in the stapler is placed. Ive been known for changing it and other students can't figure out what is going on :) --omnipotence407 (talk) 21:31, 7 July 2008 (UTC)

Stapler with staple plate

staples bent outwards and inwards

If you click on the image to enlarge it, you can see the staple plate Omnipotence is talking about: it has two types of guide for bending the staple. It is currently set to bend staples outwards, but can be rotated to present the inwards-bending form. Gwinva (talk) 23:13, 7 July 2008 (UTC)

Can I ask a follow up question? Is there an advantage to one or the other direction of bending the staple, perhaps under different circumstances?Artpainter (talk) 23:38, 7 July 2008 (UTC)

It is easier to remove the staple when it is bent outwards. People sometimes do it that way when they know they are going to have to take the staple out. Plasticup ^T/C 00:20, 8 July 2008 (UTC)

There's a real reason, believe it or not...

Curl the points inward for a "permanent" staple; turn the plate around and push them outward for a much more easily removed and thus more temporary staple. --Danh, 67.40.169.42 (talk) 00:21, 8 July 2008 (UTC)

But, of course, this brings up the further question, why would someone who only wants a temporary fastener use a staple at all when paper clips are designed specifically for that purpose ? This might explain why the outward bending staple setting is rarely used. StuRat (talk) 04:41, 8 July 2008 (UTC)

The temporary staple is probably a bit more secure than a paper clip and less likely to lead to the pages becoming unordered through repeated removal of/reassembly with the paper clip. Me, I like binder clips.

Atlant (talk) 18:06, 8 July 2008 (UTC)

A temporary fastener is needed when papers are passed from one person to another in the knowledge that they will need to be separated - and then, perhaps, re-stapled. (No need for a staple remover.) Or because what is stapled must be removed by the other person, i.e. a form attached to a letter. In which case it is courtesy not to hard staple.86.216.123.52 (talk) 14:27, 8 July 2008 (UTC)DT

I thank those who have suggested that the outwardly pointing staples are easier to remove. That idea hadn't occurred to me. My feeling is that the difference in ease of removal is probably slight. Has anyone read a claim by a stapler company that the intended feature is as you describe it, or does anyone have any other source stating that as the purpose for the outwardly pointing staple?

The answer I thought I was going to hear was that the outwardly pointing staples were meant to be less likely to damage fragile varieties of paper. My reasoning is that the staple contacts a larger area of the paper with the outwardly pointing staple, than it does with the inwardly pointed one. Even that I would have found to be a bizarre explanation, but it was the only one that I could think of. Artpainter (talk) 21:11, 8 July 2008 (UTC)

Our own article on staples recites the "easy to remove" meme, as does, for instance, ehow.com (to which I cannot link because that website is on our linkspam list - the articler is at /how_2265680_remove-staples.html). The following is OR: I've just stapled a circa 140gsm card with a couple of staples, one outwards & one inwards. I can now reveal that it was v.easy to remove the pinned staple, but the clinched staple is still embedded and I'm buggered if I'm going to risk an injury trying to get it out bare-handed. --Tagishsimon (talk) 00:11, 9 July 2008 (UTC)

Seagull pet

Can I keep a seagull as a pet? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 79.76.171.151 (talk) 23:28, 7 July 2008 (UTC)

This link [26] may help you! Fribbler (talk) 23:31, 7 July 2008 (UTC)

Yes[27],[28] (may require login). Also, I have personally raised a baby gull to just beyond fledgling age. I could've probably kept her as a pet if I'd wanted to - but she started to become very 'assertive' and more interested in the outside world and the other gulls than she was in hanging around with me. It's against the law to keep wild-caught native birds as pets in many places though (I've never heard of anyone breeding gulls in captivity)... --Kurt Shaped Box (talk) 23:41, 7 July 2008 (UTC)

In addition, I just found this forum post, with pictures of someone's pet gull. Most of the 'pet' gulls I've heard about have been lame-but-otherwise-healthy birds (as a result of wing fractures that won't heal correctly) that are unable to return to the wild and have been returned to the person who first found them by the veterinarian (I'm not 100% sure if they're supposed to do that) as an alternative to euthanasia. --Kurt Shaped Box (talk) 23:57, 7 July 2008 (UTC)

One more image I just found (unsure of the exact context). --Kurt Shaped Box (talk) 00:02, 8 July 2008 (UTC)

My main concern would be are they house trainable? Richard Avery (talk) 07:27, 8 July 2008 (UTC)

Many species of parrot can be house trained but I have no idea about the gulls. I certainly never tried with the gull I looked after (I noticed that she didn't like to shit in the basket where she slept) - she was in the garden most of the day anyway. FWIW, 'bird people' usually grow quite tolerant of bird poop in the house and on the clothing anyway... --Kurt Shaped Box (talk) 10:26, 8 July 2008 (UTC)

Obesity and genetics?

Why is it that some people, like myself, never seem to get fat no matter how much they eat, whereas some people seem to get fat from nothing? Is it caused by genetics? What physiological "feature" causes this? --antilived^{T | C | G} 23:45, 7 July 2008 (UTC)

I "enjoy" the ability to eat whatever and never gain weight, while my brother gains weight by just looking at food. It seems to be a mix of genetics and metabolism. Fribbler (talk) 23:54, 7 July 2008 (UTC)

Genetics plays its part. For example, individuals with certain allelic variants of MC4R (PMID 18454148) and FTO (PMID 17434869) and LEPR are fatter than those without those alleles. There will be many more of these type of genes as yet undiscovered that, in combination, predispose people to obesity.

In terms of what physiological "feature" is involved. In the case of MC4R and LEPR, both are receptors found in the central nervous system. Their normal function is to limit/regulate food intake. What happens is when you are sated, the circulating levels of leptin and insulin bind receptors in the arcuate nucleus (including LEPR). Through a cascade of intermediate signaling molecules, melanocortin is produced and AGRP is suppressed. The melanocortin then binds to MC4R on the surface of hypothalamic neurons which, through and unknown mechanism, results in the reduction of food intake. When the MC4R or LEPR protein is non-functional, that mechanism no longer works and your body still thinks you are hungry so you continue eating. In extreme cases, when the gene is entirely non-functional, individuals will literally eat themselves to death. However, the mild sub-clinical variants appear to also have an effect on appetite. There are other genes (such as MC3R) which regulate the metabolism of the food already eaten. Variants in a gene like this, for example, could explain why some people never seem to get fat no matter how much they eat, while others can't seen to keep the weight off no matter how little they eat. Rockpocket 01:07, 8 July 2008 (UTC)

Hmmm interesting. I eat in big servings and my weight never seem to change much, so I guess it's my metabolism then. --antilived^{T | C | G} 06:57, 8 July 2008 (UTC)

July 8

Airliner Names

The first A380 purchased by Qantas is about to be named after a famous Australian pioneer aviatrix. Are there any other commercial aircraft in the world named after a woman?Govgirl (talk) 01:06, 8 July 2008 (UTC)

Virgin America has an airliner named Jane (as in Plane Jane) [29] and pretty much the entire Virgin Atlantic and Virgin Blue fleet have women's names. According to Virgin, "Very few of our aircraft have been named after [real] people, however in 1993 Princess Diana had an aircraft named after her which was called Lady in Red. In 2002 Claudia Schiffer named an aircraft Claudia Nine. HRH Queen Elizabeth II named one of our A340-600 aircraft Queen of the Skies". [30] Rockpocket 01:58, 8 July 2008 (UTC)

How much power is required for the Internet?

Excluding all PCs/modems/instruments that end users use to connect to the Internet, is there any estimated figure of world wide power consumption by Networking hardware which keeps the Internet functional? - manya (talk) 04:11, 8 July 2008 (UTC)

This guy http://www.kk.org/thetechnium/archives/2007/10/how_much_power.php has a guess at it..87.102.86.73 (talk) 13:58, 8 July 2008 (UTC)

Post World war 2

I would like to find out some history of the reason that C.A.R.E parcels were issued to some of the poorer families after the second world war.

From our article CARE Package - "In 1945, the newly-formed CARE (then the Cooperative for American Remittances to Europe) initiated a program to send food relief to Europe, where large numbers of people were at risk of starvation in the wake of World War II. " There is also a link in CARE (relief) to a brief history of the organization on the CARE website, which gives a little more detail. --LarryMac | Talk 14:35, 8 July 2008 (UTC)

An Austrian website has the following: The US CARE relief scheme, which was set up in Austria after 1946 to support individuals, kindergartens, hostels, schools and hospitals (CARE parcels) served as a model to the organisation. In terms of 1998 money, the CARE donations made available between 1946 and 1957 reached a value of ATS 1.2 billion.

The ATS (Austrian Shilling) is, of course, long obsolete and has been replaced by the Euro. The 1:1 equivalent would be some 87 million EUR, but it is not obvious what area they are referencing. --Cookatoo.ergo.ZooM (talk) 15:38, 8 July 2008 (UTC)

Russia II

Thanks for the previous answers, and further more... Why are there more Russians all over Siberia than native peoples eg Tatars, also, why is there such a large percentage of Ukranians in Russia? Thanks —Preceding unsigned comment added by 193.115.175.247 (talk) 15:20, 8 July 2008 (UTC)

To start with the first part of your question, there are in fact some rural pockets of Siberia where non-Russian ethnic groups form a majority. However, it is true that, across Siberia as a whole, ethnic Russians form a large majority of the population. The reason for this is that there was a large migration of Russians from European Russia into Siberia from around 1600 to maybe 1950. These Russians either moved voluntarily seeking land to farm, were stationed there for military or political duties and ended up settling there, or were moved to Siberia forcibly by the state for political reasons and ended up making their permanent homes there. The Russian imperial state encouraged peasant farmers to migrate to Siberia by granting them freedom from serfdom upon their migration. Most of the indigenous peoples of Siberia did not practice agriculture but lived instead by hunting and foraging or by herding livestock. These methods of sustenance cannot support high population densities. By contrast, the agriculture practiced by Russian peasants could support much higher populations in a given area. With the backing of the Russian state, Russian migrants occupied the most fertile areas, and their population in areas where they settled soon outnumbered that of the indigenous inhabitants. As for the second part of your question, on Ukrainians: until 1991, Ukraine was part, first, of the imperial Russian, then, of the Soviet state. Like ethnic Russians, Ukrainians were compelled or induced to settle in Siberia. Also, many Ukrainians in imperial or Soviet times were assigned to work or other duties outside the Ukraine in regions, including European Russia, that are now part of the Russian Federation. Therefore, when Ukraine became independent of the Soviet Union in 1991, many ethnic Ukrainians found themselves on the Russian side of the border. (Likewise, many ethnic Russians now live in Ukraine.) Marco polo (talk) 18:12, 8 July 2008 (UTC)

Abducted by the Daleks

Where can I buy "Abducted by the Daleks" on DVD? 86.136.7.234 (talk) 16:54, 8 July 2008 (UTC)

There are two copies on eBay (UK) at the moment.--Shantavira|^{feed me} 17:02, 8 July 2008 (UTC)

The online retailer "xploited cinema" stock it. Be quick though as they are winding down operations.--80.176.225.249 (talk) 19:35, 8 July 2008 (UTC)

A very chunky bottle of wine:

I've got a bottle of 1970 Chateau Beau-Rivage, in the bottom of the bottle is a large clump of something, (I'm not sure what it is). If the bottle is disturbed the clump will break up into smaller chunks and darken the wine. My question is....Is it safe to drink the wine after the particles have settled to the bottom, and what are the particles? Derulk (talk) 18:08, 8 July 2008 (UTC)

Possibly lees. --LarryMac | Talk 18:11, 8 July 2008 (UTC)

This is not uncommon in old red wines. In fact, some kinds of port are commonly decanted to remove the dregs.[31] Rmhermen (talk) 18:20, 8 July 2008 (UTC)

Wine is normally taken off its lees before bottling; what forms in the bottle during aging is more often called "sediment", and its formation is normal (and copious in ports, as Rmhermen points out). It is not harmful, but if it's poured into the glass, the texture is unpleasant. Thus the sediment is normally allowed to settle over a period of days (either with the bottle upright, so that it settles to the bottom, or with the bottle in a decanting cradle, so it can be poured without disturbing the sediment). The wine is then carefully poured into a decanter, stopping before the sediment pours out. A candle (or, in modern times, a flashlight) is useful for observing the shoulder and neck of the bottle, to know when to stop. -- Coneslayer (talk) 18:39, 8 July 2008 (UTC)

Sediments are common in aged red wines. The presence of sediment does not mean that there is anything wrong with the wine. Plasticup ^T/C 19:46, 8 July 2008 (UTC)

Quote

I need a good quote for a particular situation. As it goes, there is a person/acquaintance/friend I will never see again. Not in a tragic sort of way, she and I are just moving to different places and we're not close enough to exchange e-mails/phone numbers. I want a good quote acknowledging that even that we will probably never cross paths again, I wish them luck/will always remember them.--Endless Dan 19:45, 8 July 2008 (UTC)

"Saying goodbye doesn't mean anything. It's the time we spent together that matters, not how we left it." Don't tell her it's from Southpark. Plasticup ^T/C 19:50, 8 July 2008 (UTC)

Though we'll probably never cross paths again, I wish you luck and I'll always remember you. -Endless Dan (I thought it was pretty good). -LambaJan (talk) 20:00, 8 July 2008 (UTC)

Kinda reminds me of We May Never Pass This Way Again -LambaJan (talk) 20:04, 8 July 2008 (UTC)

LOL - LambaJan, I suppose my own words could work. --Endless Dan 20:09, 8 July 2008 (UTC)

Human Resource Implications of Outsourcing in Developing Nations

Detailed explanation of Human Resource Outsourcing, Outsourcing and also the implications of human resource implications of outsourcing. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 41.205.167.156 (talk) 20:13, 8 July 2008 (UTC)

You may want to look at our articles on Human resources and Outsourcing (particularly the criticisms) if you haven't already. —Pie4all88 (talk) 20:58, 8 July 2008 (UTC)

Any speaker-builders out there?

Hi, all. My kid is attempting to build a couple of speaker cabinets for bass guitar work; I'm involved due to the need to use power tools from time to time :-)}. He's done much research, we have purchased a couple of books, and read a couple of others; while there's a great deal of science in parts of the process, there's a glaring lack of it in one area. Perhaps we have experts on insulation here?

We are struggling with how much or how little insulation to add to the box, and of what type.

• One author said he had lined his cabinet with leftover asphalt shingles, which in my opinion is as good as no insulation at all -- they're dense and rigid, and expecting that surface to soften or eliminate interior echoing is flat-out counterintuitive.
• Some authors say a couple of inches of fiberglass (or its non-fiberglass equivalent is sufficient. This implies to me that the goal is to reduce but not eliminate interior sound.
• One book shows a picture of low-density egg-crate style foam. This stuff absorbs a lot of sound energy (I think) -- and implies (to me, at least) that the goal is the opposite of what I concluded in the previous bullet!

So, is there ANY science here? What are we REALLY trying to accomplish with insulating the box? How much? How little? Or does it not really matter that much? Many thanks, --Danh (and his kid), 67.40.169.42 (talk) 00:22, 9 July 2008 (UTC)

I thought the intent is to dampen standing waves found at resonant frequencies, for which purpose both of the last two techniques - fibreglass, or foam - seem appropriate. And I think it's reasonable to say that there will be better or worse egg-crate profile foams; I'd think some would be inferior to fibreglass. How much or how little is, I think, mainly a tuning issue which is best accomplished by experimentation. You can work out the resonant frequencies of your box since wavelength equals the velocity of sound divided by the frequency, and standing wave lengths will be the whole or fractions of the distance between parallel surfaces ... but I don't think that knowledge will help in determining how much insulator to stuff into the thing. My limited experience: the bigger the cabinet, the more is stuffed into it. See also Loudspeaker enclosure#Closed-box enclosures--Tagishsimon (talk) 00:41, 9 July 2008 (UTC)

First of all: you dont need two cabs; one will be quite sufficient because 2 cabs will only give you 3 dB increase (which is almost inaudible).

Second, the wadding inside is to reduce the cabinet resonances (not the panel resonance). BAF wadding is commonly recommended. It also increases the apparent volume of the cab (which is a good thing) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 79.76.144.199 (talk) 00:47, 9 July 2008 (UTC)

Please see Bass instrument amplification for more info.

Hornets&wasps when do they?

Hi I was wondering when do Hornets&Wasps go to sleep,how long do they sleep for and when do they come out? I'm up at 5:00am and I've seen them flying around and in my pool(alive) I didn;t think that they were "up" at that hour. So what I can;t find on Google,Yahoo and in your artticles is ther sleeping habits. Does temp. affect there sleeping or what? THANK YOU FOR UR TIME AND FOR TAKING THE TIME TO ANSWER ALL OF MY ABOVE Q'S Sincerly:§IrishPhantom —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.150.116.26 (talk) 00:58, 9 July 2008 (UTC)

The best I can give you, quickly, is from Signatures Of Sleep In A Paper Wasp by B.A. Klein, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, who states: "Polistes flavus paper wasps spent extended periods from dusk until several hours after sunrise in a relatively motionless state, with bodies usually contacting the substrate, antennae lowered, and with occasional limb-dangling in the direction of gravity." You did not say when sunrise is, wherever it is you live. I suspect other wasps, or even other colonies of paper wasps, might have slightly different sleep patterns. Oh - and this looks good. --Tagishsimon (talk) 01:07, 9 July 2008 (UTC)