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March 3

international airport

When was the first international airport opened? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Delvenore (talk • contribs) 02:08, 3 March 2010 (UTC)

From WP's Airport: "The first international airport to open was the Croydon Airport, in South London, although an airport at Hounslow Heath had been temporarily operating as such for nine months." It opened on 3/29/20.63.17.41.138 (talk) 03:25, 3 March 2010 (UTC)

Actually it opened on 29/3/20, since it was in the UK. Please use internationally recognised forms of dates, such as "March 29, 1920", or ISO 8601 1920-03-29. --ColinFine (talk) 13:33, 3 March 2010 (UTC)

Yeh, that's confusing. So what does the UK call the 29th month of the year? ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 15:28, 3 March 2010 (UTC)

We call it the "we are not so stupid as the yanks when it comes to date formats" month. A long name, I grant you, but boy do we celebrate when it rolls around. --Tagishsimon (talk) 17:19, 3 March 2010 (UTC)

I just think of it that the Brits are right 1 day per month (coincidentally, today), we are right the rest. Googlemeister (talk) 21:28, 3 March 2010 (UTC)

The "we are not so stupid as the yanks when it comes to date formats" month is also known as Vigintiseptember. AlmostReadytoFly (talk) 12:22, 4 March 2010 (UTC)

Wouldn't there need to be two international airports opened at the time? When planes took off from this international airport, I've got to assume they landed somewhere...? Matt Deres (talk) 14:28, 4 March 2010 (UTC)

In the 1920s, you could take off from a nice stretch of road, or a good field, so technically, it would be possible to take off from Croydon airport (technically, Croyden Aerodrome) and land in a field in Holland or whatever. Googlemeister (talk) 14:44, 4 March 2010 (UTC)

Well, if you define an international airport as one with customs and immigration facilities, you technically only need those upon landing... -- Coneslayer (talk) 14:31, 4 March 2010 (UTC)

How long is a Yuga?

I'm reading the Wikipedia page on the Mahābhārata, and I don't understand how far Kakudmi and his daughter traveled. It says they traveled forward 27 catur-yugas, and then the Wikipedia page on yugas and Hindu units of measurement does not make calculating easy. From what I can glean, a catur-yuga is 4 yugas or 12,000 divine years, so if they traveled 27 of them that makes 27 X 12,000 = 324,000 divine years. And since 360 human years equal 1 divine year (it says 100 divine years = 36,000 human years so I divided), they really traveled 324000 x 360 = 116,640,000 human years? Did I do that right? Over a hundred million years? --Ye Olde Luke (talk) 02:46, 3 March 2010 (UTC)

Encyclopaedia of Hinduism, Volume 3, By N.K. Singh, p. 1273, states that catur-yugas are also known as Mahayugas, which are 12,000 divine years, which in turn are 360 human years each. If the source is correct, then the answer is 116,640,000 -- as you said. 63.17.41.138 (talk) 03:41, 3 March 2010 (UTC)

Why don't Databases use a Google Search Algorithm?

Why don't scholarly databases like PubMed use a Google-powered search engine? Why must its users contend with very nit-picky Boolean search engines? Acceptable (talk) 04:35, 3 March 2010 (UTC)

For one thing, PageRank is patented by Google, so others would have to pay Google to use it, if Google would even license it to them. (e.g. Google has Google Scholar, so they may not want other competitor companies like Web of Science to have access to it.) It's not just access to PageRank. Google has a lot of tweaks and adjustments in their search engine, most of which fall under the category of trade secret, which they may not want competitors to have. A government-run system like PubMed might be different, but even then, it's at the whim of Google - for example, a university web director told me that even though Google was freely offering site search for internal university web pages, they were sticking with their old search engine, as the lawyers didn't like Google's terms and conditions. Additionally, places like PubMed have been around long before Google came into being, and may keep the same search system they have had under the "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" philosophy. -- 174.21.237.55 (talk) 06:20, 3 March 2010 (UTC)

I'm afraid 174 is a bit out of the loop. Anybody can buy a Google Search Appliance. Comet Tuttle (talk) 07:11, 3 March 2010 (UTC)

Scholarly database searchers frequently don't care about the popularity of articles, and are often deliberately looking for obscure articles. They may also want to exhaustively search for articles mentioning a term. So the page rank algorithm may not always be appropriate. Additionally page ranking relies on there being links between the articles, which may not be the case - or rather when it is the case, it is explicitly done through citation, which PubMed etc. already takes account of.

As an example of why page ranking is not good for scholarly searches, I have frequently tried searching (Google) for scholarly articles to fill out an unreferenced Wikipedia article; however thanks to page ranking Wikipedia itself and its many clones often "pollute the google space", occupying hundreds of the top spots, and non-relevant popular pages get promoted over relevant but unpopular pages. DJ Clayworth (talk) 14:25, 3 March 2010 (UTC)

The problem generally is that many of these private databases have been using their own do-it-yourself databases and engines for a long, long time. The result is that even if their pages could be easily indexed by the Google Search Appliance (which may or may not be true based on how they are currently designed), there is often institutional inertia and uncertainty that makes them go with the system they have been using for a long time. Additionally, they are probably afraid of breaking backwards compatibility for those users who have spent the requisite time learning how to use their engine. And it might also be the case that a Google-like engine won't produce the kinds of results that are specific for their usage. Lastly, they might not have the IT support they'd like, and converting your entire database to a new format is a non-trivial task when it involves things people care about. And there is something to be said for avoiding buying into dependence on another company's work... Google is great at what they do, at the moment, but one still might not want to put all their eggs in that particular basket. (Even Google can falter in its decisions, as its Buzz episode indicated quite clearly.) --Mr.98 (talk) 14:26, 3 March 2010 (UTC)

What is the highest bit rate Possible of a Youtube Video

When streaming Youtube videos, what is the highest possible audio bit rate of the videos? Does SD vs HD make a difference? Acceptable (talk) 04:44, 3 March 2010 (UTC)

1500kbps —Preceding unsigned comment added by Delvenore (talk • contribs) 11:07, 3 March 2010 (UTC)

For the audio? I doubt it Nil Einne (talk) 11:50, 3 March 2010 (UTC)

The properties of a video that I downloaded from YouTube via a 3rd party site are MP4 610kbps. Cuddlyable3 (talk) 00:00, 4 March 2010 (UTC)

Business Studies

- What are the importance of business studies to junior secondary schools in Nigeria.

- Vividly explain the challenges of business studies in Nigeria.

Please do your own homework.

Welcome to the Wikipedia Reference Desk. Your question appears to be a homework question. I apologize if this is a misinterpretation, but it is our aim here not to do people's homework for them, but to merely aid them in doing it themselves. Letting someone else do your homework does not help you learn nearly as much as doing it yourself. Please attempt to solve the problem or answer the question yourself first. If you need help with a specific part of your homework, feel free to tell us where you are stuck and ask for help. If you need help grasping the concept of a problem, by all means let us know. --Richardrj ^{talk email} 11:08, 3 March 2010 (UTC)

business studies is an important area of study for all countries. Try reading the business studies article. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Telijelly (talk • contribs) 13:50, 4 March 2010 (UTC)

secret underground tunnles

Are there many secret underground tunnles in london? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Delvenore (talk • contribs) 11:01, 3 March 2010 (UTC)

We don't know. If there are, they're secret. --Anonymous, 11:06 UTC, March 3, 2010.

What i mean was mostly secret from like the public and stuff but some people might know. You know like those ghost underground stations that they closed down years ago and sometimes film harry potter in them. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Delvenore (talk • contribs) 11:08, 3 March 2010 (UTC)

Most of Britain's secret underground tunnels (which we know of) were a little west of London, near Corsham in Wiltshire. The Central Government War Headquarters was an entire underground city intended to provide continuity of government in case of a nuclear attack, and also housed a strategic steam reserve until the 1980s. The only part of the base still operational is the Corsham Computer Centre. FiggyBee (talk) 11:19, 3 March 2010 (UTC)

There's a bit of information on rumoured tunnels in London here. --Richardrj ^{talk email} 11:23, 3 March 2010 (UTC)

Interesting – just checked Google Street View for one of the areas mentioned in the above link, around the Mall, Horse Guards Parade and Buckingham Palace. There are no street level views of this area, although pretty much the whole of the rest of central London is covered. Terrorism concerns, perhaps? --Richardrj ^{talk email} 11:41, 3 March 2010 (UTC)

"ghost underground stations that they closed down years ago and sometimes film harry potter in them": Most film work on the London Underground is done at Aldwych or the Jubilee line platforms at Charing Cross, both of which were closed in the 1990s (but could be reopened in the future). FiggyBee (talk) 11:24, 3 March 2010 (UTC)

Not exactly secret, but see closed London Underground stations and Post Office Railway. Gandalf61 (talk) 11:27, 3 March 2010 (UTC)

Not in London (and not secret), but interesting - Williamson Tunnels. Ghmyrtle (talk) 11:35, 3 March 2010 (UTC)

Subterranea Britannia is your friend. --Tagishsimon (talk) 13:51, 3 March 2010 (UTC)

Also see Subterranean London, and a good read is "London Under London: A Subterranean Guide", Richard Trench and Ellis Hillman[1]. Alansplodge (talk) 15:03, 3 March 2010 (UTC)

• So long as you don't trust it on matters of fact. Where it covers subjects I know something about, such as the Underground, I've found quite a few errors. In the section on electrical distribution I found four errors in one sentence. --Anonymous, 17:50 UTC, March 3, 2010.

Of course, some are REALLY secret...[2]. Alansplodge (talk) 15:07, 3 March 2010 (UTC)

[3] —Preceding unsigned comment added by 79.68.242.68 (talk) 04:56, 4 March 2010 (UTC)

Rush hour

Why is the time when traffic travels slowest called the rush-hour? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Dendalonger (talk • contribs) 13:34, 3 March 2010 (UTC)

Because it's when people are rushing (or trying to rush) to and from work. --Richardrj ^{talk email} 13:49, 3 March 2010 (UTC)

Some comedian raised that question decades ago: "How come it's called rush hour when there's no moving?" It's a bit like the McDonald's "rush", i.e. lunchtime, when the lines are long and the workers have to hustle. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 15:25, 3 March 2010 (UTC)

Dendalonger, next time you ask a question here (and you're very welcome to do so), please head it with something more meaningful than "Question". Just imagine if everyone who asks questions here called their questions "Question". Searching for a particular one would be a Kafkaesque nightmare. -- Jack of Oz ... speak! ... 20:19, 3 March 2010 (UTC)

pocket money

how much pocket money does an average american kid aged 15-18 get? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 122.50.141.124 (talk) 15:16, 3 March 2010 (UTC)

I do not have an answer for you (Sorry), but many Americans aged 15-18 have part-time jobs, They may have incomes up to a couple of hundred dollars a week, none of it coming from their parents. APL (talk) 16:53, 3 March 2010 (UTC)

I think that varies pretty widely from kid to kid, depending largely on their parents and whether or not the kid (or the parent) has a job. I know when I was sixteen I was living with my folks and working part-time at a grocery store, pulling in about a hundred fifty dollars a week. This is in no way a scientific answer, but for an unemployed high school student living at home, about twenty dollars a week sounds pretty safe. AlexHOUSE (talk) 17:05, 3 March 2010 (UTC)

Here are some facts on teen spending, which I assume is similar to teen income.

*Teen Market to Surpass $200 Billion by 2011, Despite Population Decline This is a summary of a national survey by a profesional pollster agency.

*Teen Spending Survey here is a survey run by a local (to Los Alamos) branch of the YMCA.

Hope this helps. APL (talk) 17:01, 3 March 2010 (UTC)

(Edit conflict but I spent a while typing it out so I'm throwing it in here anyway) An average American kid that age would likely have a part-time/after-school job, and the kind of jobs most people can get at that age are usually not much more than minimum wage so... whatever minimum wage is in that particular state? If by pocket money you mean getting an allowance from parents, then it might be a little harder to find numbers for that, especially since by 15-18 I don't think most kids are relying on their parents anymore, so I'm not sure whether that would be an "average American kid." Then again, if they're only making minimum wage, they might still be getting a (smaller) amount of "pocket money" from their parents. So you see how this question gets more complicated than you were probably expecting. Cherry Red Toenails (talk) 17:10, 3 March 2010 (UTC)

Unless things in the US are even more different to the UK than I had thought, the idea that "teen spending" = "teen income" could only have come from a non-parent. ;-} Ghmyrtle (talk) 22:32, 3 March 2010 (UTC)

I can't imagine that anyone would organize a formal survey of this information, as it falls outside the purview of regular economics. You could be the first though. Subryonic compound (talk) 18:24, 3 March 2010 (UTC)

You can't imagine why anyone would study a $200 billion sector of the economy? 75.41.110.200 (talk) 19:21, 3 March 2010 (UTC)

Please, prove me wrong! Anyway, there is just no money to be had in looking at how kids get their money. Getting it away from them is where the profit lies. Subryonic compound (talk) 19:24, 3 March 2010 (UTC)

Not American, and I gave up long reading it closely long before it got to formula for Nash equilibria: Teenage Income, Turning 18, and Transfers within the Family 75.41.110.200 (talk) 19:39, 3 March 2010 (UTC)

Our article allowance (money) indicates that "pocket money" is the UK term for what we call an allowance in the US. If this is correct, then income earned at a job should not be included. There are some allowance statistics here, but they're generally old and Canadian. -- Coneslayer (talk) 19:24, 3 March 2010 (UTC)

Here is an answer. "Boyhood in America" gives historical figures. In 2000, 26% of 12 to 19 year olds in the U.S. received allowances. Boys 10-12 received an average $21.90 per week. Those 13-15 received $30.50 per week. Those 16 to 19 received $41.15 per week. They saved some (to buy big-price items). In today's economy, part time jobs can be very hard to get. I wonder if some of the money counts toward "lunch money." "Girlhood in America" has similar info for girls. In 1999, the typical allowance for a high school student was $30 to $46, with girls getting $5 more than boys. I expect that teens often had more money to fritter away on things they wanted (rather than needed) than their working parents had, week in and week out, since a parent did not want his children to feel deprived of the comforts their peers had, such as the ability to go the mall and buy snacks, go to the movies, or just buy "stuff." Edison (talk) 20:23, 3 March 2010 (UTC)

Americans get $65 billion a year in pocket money, find out how many children there are in the country and it may be possible to work out an average for all of them from that. $46 seems a rather vast amount of money, I used to get £2. 148.197.114.158 (talk) 21:21, 4 March 2010 (UTC)

Who gets dividends?

Shares of publicly traded companies are constantly changing hands so who actually gets the dividends? Is it just whoever happens to have the shares when the dividends are issued? --212.120.245.17 (talk) 16:23, 3 March 2010 (UTC)

Essentially yes; see ex-dividend date. -- Coneslayer (talk) 16:29, 3 March 2010 (UTC)

case study on human resource planing

Amar is a stenographer-working as P. A. to the Marketing Manager in Nitco Ltd. Re is an under graduate, of 32 years, unmarried, energetic and competent is his work. He is looking forward to get an executive position in some reputed company at a salary of about Rs. 12,000 p.m. He comes from a middle class family from a small town. At present he is staying with his elder brother who is married, has two children and lives in a two-room apartment. Both the brothers have to send financial assistance to the parents who are stilt staying in their home town with their youngest daughter. Amar's present job consists of secretarial work which requires a lot of typing and personal service to the Marketing Manager/and Amar does not enjoy it much. Yet he works very hard and, so far, the Manager is fairly satisfied with him. Two year back, one of the colleges in the city started evening courses, Amar's working hours were usually between 11.00 a.m. to 6.00 p.m. On some exceptional occasions, he was required to wait till late in the evening. With the encouragement of his boss, Amar joined the evening college and graduated in Commerce. He continued his studies and obtained a Law degree also. He was hoping that his education in Commerce and Law would be useful for getting an administrative job. Nitco Ltd., did not seem to provide him opportunity for advancement in an executive position. He waited for two years as the company had given him ail. the facilities and encouragement to complete his education. Later he left the organization reluctantly and joined another company where he has since become Sales Manager. Question: 1. What is the case all about? 2. Analyze the main problem in the case. 3. As a manager how would you deal the case. 4. give me the other questions that can be asked from this case study? 5. give a short summary of this case?

give the answer of all this question Prasenjitghosh (talk) 17:54, 3 March 2010 (UTC)

Even if you were to ask politely, I'm afraid nobody here will do your homework for you. Karenjc 18:00, 3 March 2010 (UTC)

Why the hell would he become a sales manager if he has a law degree? --Nricardo (talk) 02:28, 4 March 2010 (UTC)

Errors in QI

I'm watching all episodes of QI and they sometimes make mistakes or contradict things they said in previous episodes. Is there a list anywhere of all the errors and false information QI has made over the series? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Delvenore (talk • contribs) 18:11, 3 March 2010 (UTC)

If you go to Google and type qi errors then several websites are served up for you. The first link has what it calls a brief list. Comet Tuttle (talk) 18:35, 3 March 2010 (UTC)

QI#Corrections.2C_mistakes_and_retractions. Vimescarrot (talk) 18:37, 3 March 2010 (UTC)

The show also has a site (no idea if it's official but it has a 'qibbles' section which is kinda like what you're after). http://www.qi.com/ 18:43, 3 March 2010 (UTC)

Arizona seat belt laws

Hello! Having read through our article on seat belt legislation in the United States, I'm under the impression that in Arizona one can ride in the backseat without a seat belt on without being fined (provided they're older than fifteen). Furthermore, since it's a "secondary enforcement," you could really only be in trouble if you were stopped for some other (primary) infraction. Is this correct, or am I way off? I'm a California native who will be cramming into a van in AZ with some friends for a trip across the border, and the concept of legally going without a belt is totally foreign to me. Thanks! AlexHOUSE (talk) 18:38, 3 March 2010 (UTC)

Is this question out of a desire to try it? Can't see the point myself. I'm against seatbelt laws on general liberty grounds, but personally I wouldn't be comfortable riding unbelted. --Trovatore (talk) 00:21, 4 March 2010 (UTC)

This question is out of the necessity of transporting eight people in a seven-person van for a stretch of road through Arizona. I, too, enjoy the liberating feeling of riding unbelted (when I'm feeling rebellious enough, of course). AlexHOUSE (talk) 07:08, 4 March 2010 (UTC)

In that case, regardless of whether seatbelts are legally required, you (well the driver) may still be guilty of overloading. Incidentally, I don't think Trovatore intended to suggest he felt riding unbelted gave him a liberating feeling. Nil Einne (talk) 09:14, 4 March 2010 (UTC)

Right you are, Nil. My folks raised me to always buckle up, and something just wouldn't feel right if I didn't. Especially when I'm driving — the belt gives me a sense of connection to the vehicle, makes it an extension of my will, all that nonsense. --Trovatore (talk) 09:19, 4 March 2010 (UTC)

As an interesting similar example, as some may know I spent the early part of my life in Malaysia where until recently seatbelts in the back seat were neither commonly used nor compulsory. As with many/most? people, I didn't wear them in the back seat but always did in the front seat and it seemed natural. However I moved to NZ where it's compulsory to wear them in the back seats and so I always did and after only a year it felt odd and wrong when I was back in Malaysia for a holiday not to wear a seatbelt in the back seat even if my friends thought me odd. (Of a more changing mentality probably helped as well, for example on the occasions when I end up wearing a lap belt I usually feel uncomfortable given the bad things I've read about them.) Nowadays it's compulsory in Malaysia as well so things may be changing. I could tell a similar story about bicycle helmets although I didn't cycle so much in Malaysia particularlyon the roads as I do here Nil Einne (talk) 04:27, 6 March 2010 (UTC)

The death penalty

Why do they sterilize the needles for lethal injections? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Transfigurations (talk • contribs) 18:48, 3 March 2010 (UTC)

When the state deems a man unfit for survival, they want to keep everything as legitimate as possible, which means last suppers, hearing requests for clemency, and sterilizing needles. There does seem to be a severe disconnect in ethics though, I grant you that. I suppose the MO is to be as humane as possible, even when killing a man in cold blood. It's probably best not to think about at length. Subryonic compound (talk) 18:59, 3 March 2010 (UTC)

Copied straight out of our very own lethal injection article:

"Cannulae are sterilized during manufacture, so using sterile ones is routine medical procedure. Secondly, there is a chance that the prisoner could receive a stay of execution after the cannulae have been inserted, as happened in the case of James Autry in October 1983 (he was eventually executed on March 14, 1984). Finally, it would be a hazard to prison personnel to use unsterilized equipment." AlexHOUSE (talk) 19:02, 3 March 2010 (UTC)

I don't mean to keep plugging Cecil Adams, but he's covered a lot of topics like this with interesting, easy to read articles, (Even if they're only occasionally sourced.) When someone is executed by lethal injection, do they swab off the arm first? APL (talk) 19:09, 3 March 2010 (UTC)

I would also suggest that the authorities use disposable needles. These are not commonly available unsterilised, they are packaged and sold sterile. I would be very surprised if any establishment, whether correctional or healthcare, uses re-usable needles for straightforward venous cannulation. There was a large scale trial done in the USA in the (I think) 60s or 70s, can't find any reference, which showed no difference in infection levels between injections with a prewipe and injections without. As a nurse I can tell you we did it more for the patients' distraction than infection control. Richard Avery (talk) 19:28, 3 March 2010 (UTC)

. Comet Tuttle (talk) 19:41, 3 March 2010 (UTC)

The negative reaction of most people to an execution where the victim is not treated with respect up their last moment, as in the atrocious example of Saddam Husein (video) is the answer. Cuddlyable3 (talk) 21:11, 3 March 2010 (UTC)

To the families of the thousands of people Saddam murdered, he got what he gave. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 02:10, 4 March 2010 (UTC)

_{but not everyone is a fan of retributive justice 203.217.33.23 (talk) 02:56, 4 March 2010 (UTC)}

It's easier to oppose the death penalty if you've never been a victim or known a victim. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 03:10, 4 March 2010 (UTC)

It's certainly difficult to oppose the death penalty if you've been murdered, yes. OTOH, there are as many anti-death-penalty family organisations out there as there are pro. FiggyBee (talk) 03:41, 4 March 2010 (UTC)

Which is why the families don't get to decide. Theoretically disinterested parties decide. And keep in mind it's not exactly "punishment" - it's permanent removal. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 04:11, 4 March 2010 (UTC)

You just said that he "got what he gave", referring to the way a man was treated before his execution! And your earlier point is silly as well. You could just as easily say "It's easier to support the death penalty if you've never been wrongfully executed or known someone who was wrongfully executed." and it would have just as little meaning or relevance to either the point it was replying to, or the original question! More importantly, this is all an off-topic political soapbox tangent which started when Baseball Bugs replied to an on-topic post.APL (talk) 06:09, 4 March 2010 (UTC)

"The negative reaction of most people..." is a supposition. It would be interesting to take a poll and see what percentage of people actually were upset over Saddam being taunted. I suspect the average reaction to anything connected with Saddam's execution was "good widdance to bad wubbish". Read about John Wayne Gacy's execution for a vague comparison. The average citizen of Illinois would have had no sympathy for Gacy being stuck by a dirty needle. They just wanted that scumbag dead. The law decides who dies for his crimes, not the families. But that doesn't mean the families can't celebrate when a human dog is put to death via legal means. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 06:16, 4 March 2010 (UTC)

If that's the case, I feel sorry that the average Illinoisan still is stuck in the early middle ages. I don't think it is, however, when people are given reasonable time to reflect on the issue. --Stephan Schulz (talk) 09:39, 4 March 2010 (UTC)

Given the fact that some people have been executed and later found to be innocent, there is no moral grounds for supporting the death penalty. DOR (HK) (talk) 09:29, 4 March 2010 (UTC)

No human endeavor is perfect in implementation, but that in and of itself does not automatically confer the status immoral, and it is fairly naive to make the statement that imperfect = immoral. Googlemeister (talk) 16:40, 5 March 2010 (UTC)

Reading rights to deaf people

If the police arrest a deaf person, how are their rights read to them? Do all police need to learn some sign language? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Aject8886 (talk • contribs) 19:20, 3 March 2010 (UTC)

No, not all policemen know sign language. But reading of their rights (Miranda warning in the U.S.) doesn't have to happen immediately when you come into contact with police. 75.41.110.200 (talk) 19:26, 3 March 2010 (UTC)

I've got a funny feeling I heard somewhere that many deaf people can read. Richard Avery (talk) 19:31, 3 March 2010 (UTC)

And I've got a funny feeling the OP is yanking our chain. "You have the right to remain silent." Yeh, sure. Like saying to a corpse, "You have the right to remain dead." ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 02:05, 4 March 2010 (UTC)

It's also only required in cases where an interrogation is to be held. So, I'd guess they'd work around it by having the Miranda warning given to the suspect the same way they'd interrogate him (presumably with an interpreter). AlexHOUSE (talk) 19:34, 3 March 2010 (UTC)

Indeed. Lots of people are arrested, and never read any rights at all, since they can be released without being interrogated. Police can even ask you questions or interrogate you without reading you your rights. Miranda warnings are only read before an interrogation when the police believe they will be asking questions which have a material bearing on a potential criminal prosecution. If they are going to be interrogating a deaf person, they would need an interpreter anyways (as with anyone who does not speak a language the police speak) and that interpreter would assisst in the reading of the rights. --Jayron32 21:59, 3 March 2010 (UTC)

Aject8886, next time you ask a question here (and you're very welcome to do so), please head it with something more meaningful than "Question". Just imagine if everyone who asks questions here called their questions "Question". Searching for a particular one would be a Kafkaesque nightmare. -- Jack of Oz ... speak! ... 20:18, 3 March 2010 (UTC)

...Actually, many cops carry a card with the Miranda warning text on it. --jpgordon^{::==( o )} 16:52, 4 March 2010 (UTC)

Clockwork mice

The the clockwork mouse been perfected since the initial concept was shown a few years ago? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 701-DENT-SSU (talk • contribs) 21:49, 3 March 2010 (UTC)

Clockwork mice have been around for years; I don't know about perfected, but they work well enough. On the other hand, this article from January notes that Logitech are currently looking at the feasibility of clockwork computer mice, so it doesn't sound as though they have been perfected. Warofdreams talk 22:55, 3 March 2010 (UTC)

What is humor?

Maybe this is an extremely difficult question to answer, as I've researched and googled fruitlessly, so I'll ask it here. My question is: What is, in the most general terms, humor? What does make people laugh? Is it something that could be labelled as "surprising"? unexpected? witty? Sometimes, something can be humorous but if you changed it just a little it would be offensive. Some other thing could be funny... or simply strange. I've tried to think about it... in vain. Humor is definitely subjective, because people have different cultural backgrounds and somewhat different tastes. Also, there are very different forms of humor. Anyway, I'm pretty sure that a "general rule" could be established.

So, guys, help me, please. What do you think, in the most general terms, humor is? --Belchman (talk) 22:34, 3 March 2010 (UTC)

I'm guessing you're not happy with the dictionary definitions (http://www.google.co.uk/dictionary?aq=f&langpair=en%7Cen&hl=en&q=humour) or the wikipedia article Humour? ny156uk (talk) 23:05, 3 March 2010 (UTC)

Laughing Matters explained[4] [5] [6] [7] [8] (videos) Cuddlyable3 (talk) 23:28, 3 March 2010 (UTC)

Coincidentally, the free e-book this month from University of Chicago Press is Jokes: Philosophical Thoughts on Joking Matters, by Ted Cohen. --Mr.98 (talk) 01:01, 4 March 2010 (UTC)

I recommend Monty Python Live at the Hollywood Bowl, specifically the part where Graham Chapman delivers a professorial lecture on The History of the Jape.Starts at about 4:00 ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 01:51, 4 March 2010 (UTC)

From our article on humour, I found one passage that resonates with my understanding:

Humour frequently contains an unexpected, often sudden, shift in perspective.

Basically, humour is good insomuch as it stimulates a new way of looking at things. Which is why jokes are funniest the first time. Vranak (talk) 02:17, 4 March 2010 (UTC)

If I'm not mistaken, which I very well could be, it was one of the Marx brothers who said something along the lines of "All humor is based on pain, whether physical or emotional". Dismas|^(talk) 06:48, 4 March 2010 (UTC)

For more accurate quotes on the subject, you could see Wikiquote's page on humor. Dismas|^(talk) 06:53, 4 March 2010 (UTC)

Without looking at it first, I'm thinking of one from Mel Brooks: "Comedy is if you get killed. Tragedy is if I have a hangnail." Or maybe the sentences are switched, I forget now. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 07:13, 4 March 2010 (UTC)

They have a similar version there. Also a similar kind of comment by Will Rogers. Here's something to consider: There were lots of gruesome jokes after the Challenger disaster, most of them centered specifically on the civilian, Christa McAuliffe (sp?). Now why would that be? Maybe first because she was a civilian. And maybe also because we wanted to save her, and we couldn't, so instead we ridiculed death. "What's funny" is different for everyone, and there are many styles of humor. Whether one can laugh at a Christa McAuliffe joke is a test for that particular style. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 07:21, 4 March 2010 (UTC)

Wow I'm surprised I'm going to be the first on this. Humour of course is an alien experiment. I offer no proof however because that will end it forever Nil Einne (talk) 09:08, 4 March 2010 (UTC)

I remember reading that story, but couldn't remember what it was called or who wrote it. Thanks for the reminder. (Of course I should have known that Wikipedia has an article on everything, and just searched for it.) Mitch Ames (talk) 10:15, 4 March 2010 (UTC)

There used to be some humor here on the RDs. But that was stamped out a couple years ago by some grumpy strict laced admins 8-( —Preceding unsigned comment added by 79.68.242.68 (talk) 01:08, 5 March 2010 (UTC)

staring

Is there, or has there ever been a law against intently staring at someone to make them uncomfortable? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Crockadoc (talk • contribs) 22:37, 3 March 2010 (UTC)

Laws on Intimidation would almost certainly cover staring at someone with the intent of making them 'uncomfortable' if it got to be enough of a problem. ny156uk (talk) 23:07, 3 March 2010 (UTC)

(ec)Laws against threatening behaviour may cover this kind of intimidation which may include conduct which annoys, threatens, alarms, or puts a person in fear of their safety. Scientologists pay to have other scientologists do this to them and call it "auditing". Cuddlyable3 (talk) 23:09, 3 March 2010 (UTC)

I'm not sure what you're refering to. Scientologists practice staring at eachother for hours but that's not auditing, it's TRs. Entheta (talk) 23:16, 3 March 2010 (UTC)

Yes, specifically TR-0. The TRs are early stages of training to be an auditor. Cuddlyable3 (talk) 23:33, 3 March 2010 (UTC)

True. Although auditing isn't staring per se. :) Entheta (talk) 23:44, 3 March 2010 (UTC)

Staring is apparently the 2nd-most commmonly-used tactic in workplace bullying, which is illegal. Vranak (talk) 01:27, 4 March 2010 (UTC)

What about counter-staring? ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 02:01, 4 March 2010 (UTC)

Generally a person will not engage in bullying if they believe the treatment will be returned quid pro quo. Vranak (talk) 02:12, 4 March 2010 (UTC)

I know staring back works with kids. Never had to do it with adults. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 02:44, 4 March 2010 (UTC)

Common assault is "committed by a person who causes another person to apprehend the immediate use of unlawful violence." If a reasonable person would believe that, in the circumstances, that staring amounted to a threat of immediate violence then it might just be a crime in many common law jurisdictions (not to mention a cause of action in tort.203.217.33.23 (talk) 02:53, 4 March 2010 (UTC)

As ever with legal questions, it depends what jurisdiction you are talking about. The case of the so-called "leering professor" may serve as an example; he swam in the universiy pool with flippers and a face mask, the better to follow and observe female swimmers. 'Richard Hummel, professor of chemical engineering at the University of Toronto, said his sexual harassment case cost him and his university more than $200,000 in costs and fees. Hummel was convicted in 1989 of "prolonged and intense staring" while swimming in a university pool. Maclean's columnist Barbara Amiel called the case "the utter debasement of the genuinely serious nature of sexual harassment." ' [9] The case is referred to in Sexual harassment and sexual consent by Barry Michael Dank and Roberto Refinetti, p91-92 [10]. It is not clear, on the basis of ten minutes' light Googling, whether this was a criminal conviction, or an internal disciplinary matter. BrainyBabe (talk) 22:08, 4 March 2010 (UTC)

Cuba - closed economy.

This may be a wasted question - if so - so be it. Having recently travelled to Cuba for one week on the mainland staying in several towns and villages and seeing the real poverty there; followed by one week on one of Cuba's fabulous islands and experiencing wall-to-wall luxury, fabulous food, drinks, service, accommodation and entertainment, I am drawn to discover what the real economy of Cuba looks like. As in, what is the average annual value of Cuba's exports (sugar, rum, tobacco, medical exportees etc.), as opposed to the value of foreign hard (and other) currency imports via tourism and related industries (food, roads, drinks, toilet paper etc.); and lastly, if there is a surplus of income versus expenditure, where does Cuba invest that surplus? I want to emphasise that I have no political agenda in asking this question, merely curiosity, having seen both sides of Cuba (which I enjoyed immensely BTW). 92.30.141.97 (talk) 23:54, 3 March 2010 (UTC)

Our article Economy of Cuba is a good starting point, with 40 references to enjoy at the end. It says the balance of trade is currently going the other way, with US$3.2 billion of exports and US$10.8 billion of imports. I tried comparing related stats to those of other Latin American countries, with the table at Latin America#Standard of living, consumption, and the environment, but unfortunately, while that table shows a poverty index, that table doesn't have any GDP values for Cuba. Comet Tuttle (talk) 00:11, 4 March 2010 (UTC)

Of course exports and imports are not the only measure of an economy. Things that are produced domestically for internal consumption (which, in the case of Cuba, probably includes nearly all food) also add to the economy. For most of history, that was the most important sector, with long-distance trading being mostly in luxury goods and tourism (except for the fire-and-sword variety, which is rarely a positive economic factor in visited lands) being essentially unknown.--Stephan Schulz (talk) 09:45, 4 March 2010 (UTC)

Try reading the article Cuba, specifically the closed economy section —Preceding unsigned comment added by Telijelly (talk • contribs) 13:49, 4 March 2010 (UTC)

March 4

Art

What is considered as 'good art/painting?> The well known masters are considered to be 'art' at its best, In order to replicate the considered good art what should be understood?

thank you —Preceding unsigned comment added by 121.220.19.233 (talk) 04:17, 4 March 2010 (UTC)

The "Value judgment" section of the Art page looks like editorializing, so it may not help that much, but at least it's a start. Read the full article for possibly more insight. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 04:22, 4 March 2010 (UTC)

The object of art is not replication of someone else's Artistic inspiration. It is having your own. Cuddlyable3 (talk) 04:26, 4 March 2010 (UTC)

So to "replicate good art", using essentially the xerox machine approach, is not really what it's about. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 04:29, 4 March 2010 (UTC)

in the eyes of the beholder —Preceding unsigned comment added by Ditreaium (talk • contribs) 10:56, 4 March 2010 (UTC)

The thing that convinced me was the explanatory note next to An Oak Tree by Michael Craig-Martin. Really sorted out the "Is that art?" question for me. 13:50, 4 March 2010 (UTC)

If you were interested in producing really good art, emulating the masters will not do; you will want to develop your own unique, perhaps idiosyncratic style. Vranak (talk) 15:39, 4 March 2010 (UTC)

Anonymous porn help

Okay I know the title sounds like an intro to trolling. I'm not. Serious question. How do I truly anonymously sign up for and pay a pay porn site? I mean really anonymous. Paypal is not anonymous at all for example. Yeah, it's more hidden than just paying with your credit card but whose account logged the transaction is still out there. Can anyone help me?--162.84.166.14 (talk) 04:28, 4 March 2010 (UTC)

Unless you're engaging in illegal activity of some kind, what's the problem? And how can you pay on the internet without having some kind of identity? ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 04:31, 4 March 2010 (UTC)

That's what he's asking! APL (talk) 06:01, 4 March 2010 (UTC)

Not precisely the same. I'm raising a logical question. We'll see if it has an answer. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 06:06, 4 March 2010 (UTC)

No, seriously, you just rephrased his question.

He said "How can I anonymously pay for a porn site?" and you said "How can you pay without having some kind of identity?"

Unless you think that someone was confused about what "anonymously" means, you did nothing but rephrase his question! (Well, not 'nothing', you did prepend a subtle insult.) APL (talk) 06:20, 4 March 2010 (UTC)

So what's the answer to his question and/or mine? ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 06:23, 4 March 2010 (UTC)

The short answer is: without engaging in fraud, you cannot. I suggest making use of the endless supply of free pornography available on the internet to satisfy your needs. 218.25.32.210 (talk) 05:10, 4 March 2010 (UTC)

I think that you can buy American Express gift cards for cash at places like grocery stores. Comet Tuttle (talk) 05:19, 4 March 2010 (UTC)

The OP could go to his favorite site and simply start the process and see if gift cards are an option. I would guess not, because there's no way to deduct the amount. But there might be a subtlety there I'm overlooking. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 05:27, 4 March 2010 (UTC)

A money order would seem to be the way to go. In the US, you can get them from most any grocery store, bank, or Western Union office. If you can't pay the site directly, maybe you can send it to Paypal or some other service and then pay the porn site that way. I don't know the minimum info that PayPal requires or if you have to prove your identity in the least. Dismas|^(talk) 05:37, 4 March 2010 (UTC)

Why wouldn't a Visa gift-card work? I've never had one, but I've always understood that they worked just like regular Visa cards. APL (talk) 06:02, 4 March 2010 (UTC)

Sure, in a physical store, where they can swipe it and deduct from the amount on it. Maybe there's a way to "virtually" swipe it? Like if there's an instantly-updated central database where the remaining balance on all gift cards is stored? ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 06:05, 4 March 2010 (UTC)

You don't seriously think that the cash value is encoded on the card do you? If only Visa had a gigantic financial database with computer terminals at every point of sale and every online merchant that they could use to track when a card was used and subtract that from an account of some kind. APL (talk) 06:20, 4 March 2010 (UTC)

Actually, I do. But you're obviously smarter than I am. So what's the answer to the OP's question? ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 06:23, 4 March 2010 (UTC)

Anyway, as I said, before the OP rushes out to buy gift cards, he should go to his favorite website and see if the use of gift cards is an option. Although, given that this OP's IP has only this one entry, I wouldn't count on him reporting back to us. But maybe he'll prove me wrong. :) ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 06:28, 4 March 2010 (UTC)

That would be the wrong advice. As I hinted earlier, the cards work with Visa's pre-existing payment network. His favorite porn site wouldn't do anything special to accept them.

The place to check would be Visa's website about the cards. Here is the link right here : Using your gift card. To summarize, the name you give the porno site will need to match the name you use to "register" your card.

It's not clear to me if it's legal to use a pseudonym for this process, but I seriously doubt if they check it out, so I suppose you could just go for it. It's not like you intend to rip anyone off. APL (talk) 06:50, 4 March 2010 (UTC)

Since a gift card is already paid for, I don't know why they would care, other than the possibility of counterfeiting (hopefully they have safeguards for that); and if you say your name is John Smith or Sig Sackowicz or whatever, how would they know whether it's true or fake? Unless they can ask you to hold your drivers license up to your web-cam. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 07:01, 4 March 2010 (UTC)

Erm. Pre-paid Visa cards are available in stores, just like regular gift cards. Of course it will be accepted at paysites just like any other regular credit cards. More importantly though, it's his IP address 162.84.166.14, which i'm sure would be recorded when he makes the website account purchase. --Kvasir (talk) 21:26, 5 March 2010 (UTC)

While it is probably more trouble than you want for this particular transaction, for anonymous transactions people sometimes hire lawyers to perform the transaction for them. The lawyer would be identifiable, but as long as what you are doing isn't illegal, the lawyer is generally precluded from revealing his client's info under attorney-client privilege. Such methods are sometimes used for truly anonymous donations and the like. Of course, that would generally be a very expensive way to obtain anonymity since lawyers are almost never cheap. Dragons flight (talk) 06:31, 4 March 2010 (UTC)

Hiring a lawyer to buy porn for his client. Interesting idea. Getting back to Apple, he's correct that Gift cards generally connect to a database. So, in theory, they could be used online. But there's no substitute for a test. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 06:34, 4 March 2010 (UTC)

In order to use a Visa gift card online you generally have to register an identity for it. In other words, you still need to have something set up that you fill in when they ask for name and billing address on the card. Visa gift cards generally come with instructions on how to set this up, but of course if one is being honest then it would defeat the point. I don't know how difficult and/or illegal it would be register a gift card for online payments under a false name / address. Dragons flight (talk) 06:41, 4 March 2010 (UTC)

The last time that I saw a Visa/Mastercard gift card, which has been some time I'll admit, it didn't have an expiry date which any online pay system will require. Dismas|^(talk) 06:44, 4 March 2010 (UTC)

They do nowadays. And they're advertised as working online, so presumably they've thought of all that. APL (talk) 06:52, 4 March 2010 (UTC)

They may not have an expiry date, but there is usually a monthly maintenance fee, which will eventually deplete the value store on the card. The card is not usually reloadable. --Kvasir (talk) 21:29, 5 March 2010 (UTC)

On the other hand, I don't have the details handy, but I believe that it's possible to use paypal such that they don't won't reveal information other than your email address. (Unless there's a fraud investigation.)

So depending on why you wish to be anonymous that may be acceptable to you. (ie: If you're worried that the Porno owners will rat you out or send you incriminating junk mail, then that'll probably work out for you. But if you're secretly a high ranking government or church official worried that anyone might blackmail you, then it probably won't work out for you, because the folk at Paypal would still know.)

APL (talk) 06:58, 4 March 2010 (UTC)

If someone is trying to hide his activities from his church group, he has bigger issues than how to use a gift card online. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 07:03, 4 March 2010 (UTC)

[11] APL (talk) 07:15, 4 March 2010 (UTC)

Whatever point you're trying to make, you're smarter than I am so I don't understand it. What I'm getting at is that if he's engaged in deception, he might want to question his own supposed Christian ethics. Which might have nothing to do with the drive-by OP, who might simply be paranoid about discovery just because he's like that, or at the very least, he might worry his Mom will find out. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 12:38, 4 March 2010 (UTC)

In terms of these Visa etc gift cards, even though they are like credit cards it's my understanding any business can choose to reject them. In particular, since they don't provide any real age verification, many porn sites may choose to reject them for that reason. PayPal for example and other auction sites generally do as well as other sites that rely on credit cards to connect to a real life identity [12]. (As mentioned there you don't however need to register a name here, you simply enter 'Prezzy Card Holder'.)

Also it's it's my understanding that in the US, they're not truly anonymous since you need to provide identification when buying one due to US law related to money laundering and terrorism. There aren't I believe directly connected to the card, but the authorities and perhaps someone with enough resources and willingness to do questionable things could I presume easily track down who bought the card.

Here in NZ, you can buy them without identification and with cash provided the amount is $50 or under (or something like that), although as they're sold by the post office which also operates KiwiBank the vast majority of places would have security cameras and for the same reason trying to hide your face is likely to be a bad idea so while harder, probably not impossible to track you down. Perhaps you could randomly get someone else to buy one for you, but I suspect if some random stranger hidding their face and disguising their voice goes up to someone in the street near a post office and asks the person if they could buy a Prezzy card for them here in NZ, most people are either going to ignore them or inform someone like the police, the people in the shop or any security if present so again, probably not a good idea.

There are of course various other systems designed to offer some degree of anonymity. E.g Category:Digital gold currencies (although e-gold is dead) [13] [14] however the authorities in many countries generally dislike truly anonymous systems so tend to put up laws to block them, and although there's a a number of consumers interested in such systems since by their nature they tend to be open to fraud, run the risk of being shut down at any time and are often run by companies and people many would be reluctant to trust, they haven't tended to work very well. Some porn sites may accept some of these systems, so you're welcome to look.

Ultimately, as with most things where anonymity comes up, it really depends on who your hypothetical adversary is. If it's a government agency or someone with access to a significant amount of resources, getting true anonymity is difficult. Also, it's pointless being too worried about anoymous payment, if you haven't worried about other aspects like ensuring your computer system used to access the porn won't give you away. For example, presuming you live in Brooklyn or somewhere else in New York and use Verizon as your ISP, then you probably shouldn't have asked a question like this here without an account if you're worried about anonymity.

Nil Einne (talk) 08:36, 4 March 2010 (UTC)

If the issue is simply to avoid extended liability caused by fraud or hard to understand small print, why not apply for a new credit card and insist on a low credit limit. I have considered doing just this if I was to get into online poker. It wii also hide your "activities" from other people who have a legitimate need to see your normal credit-card bill (eg. your employer). Astronaut (talk) 13:45, 4 March 2010 (UTC)

Why does your employer have a legitimate need to see your credit-card bill? -- Coneslayer (talk) 13:48, 4 March 2010 (UTC)

If you're claiming expenses from it, for example. Or if you're using the company credit card. Thanks for reminding me of another illicit use that could explain why someone wants to be anonymous. I knew a public official who went to jail for putting strip club visits on his department-issued charge card. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 17:41, 4 March 2010 (UTC)

Every place I've worked has required receipts for expenses, not my credit card statement. -- Coneslayer (talk) 17:46, 4 March 2010 (UTC)

I believe PayPal would generally avoid extended liability etc, you will pay a specific amount and unless you chose to make a recurring payment, they can't come after you for more money either legally or illegally. It was mentioned by someone above that you can avoid giving away your PayPal identity to the vendor. If you don't trust PayPal, then that would be an issue but from the sound of the above the OP's concern is PayPal will still have records. I presume it would also deal with the credit card records issue/employer to some extent in that while they will see you paid for something via PayPal you can probably choose to hide any details which will reveal what, so as far as they are concerned, you could be buying wool for your knitting and it seems unlikely they'll have any reason to demand what for. It may not help with a partner or spouse who may feel they are entitled to ask what for and would probably know you didn't buy wool for knitting. Nil Einne (talk) 14:11, 9 March 2010 (UTC)

I agree with the advice to use free porn sites, instead. You can find free porn up the kazoo, online, including "up the kazoo" porn. StuRat (talk) 00:57, 5 March 2010 (UTC)

If it is simply a case of not wanting your wife to see what you bought with your credit card, you could ask a (single) friend to borrow his card and pay him back in cash. 195.35.160.133 (talk) 12:57, 9 March 2010 (UTC) Martin

Also, some porn sites may be aware that people don't want others to see "HotChicksWithDicks.com" on their credit card bill, so may bill as something less obvious, like "HCWD Industries". They may list this as one of the reasons to join their site versus others. StuRat (talk) 14:47, 9 March 2010 (UTC)

Interstate bus fares in India

Can a user please tell me by approximately what percentage have interstate bus fares in India increased in the course of the last five years. Thank you Simonschaim (talk) 08:22, 4 March 2010 (UTC)

I did a little search on google and got an average from various sites as 17% —Preceding unsigned comment added by Ditreaium (talk • contribs) 10:55, 4 March 2010 (UTC)

Thank you Ditreaium. Can you please let me have details of the sites you found. Thank you. Simonschaim (talk) 12:54, 4 March 2010 (UTC)

Longest steam railway in UK

Which currently in operation stream engine line in the UK has the longest route? (in miles) —Preceding unsigned comment added by Kandorko (talk • contribs) 10:36, 4 March 2010 (UTC)

West Somerset Railway, perhaps? Ghmyrtle (talk) 11:03, 4 March 2010 (UTC)

Surely that would be the main line along which Tornado travels from London to York and sometimes further. Seems to have a regularity of around once a month, though, so maybe this doesn't count. 213.122.14.243 (talk) 11:30, 4 March 2010 (UTC)

According to the note in the North Yorkshire Moors Railway article, the West Somerset Railway is the longest heritage railway in the UK, although the North Yorks Moors regularly runs trains along six miles of Network Rail tracks which, if included, would make it longer. Warofdreams talk 12:44, 4 March 2010 (UTC)

When the Welsh Highland Railway finally links up with the Ffestiniog Railway this will be considerably longer. --rossb (talk) 23:27, 4 March 2010 (UTC)

Car steering wheels

Is there a standard which converts angle of steering wheel rotation into car manoeuvring - IE do all cars behave the same (eg 90 degree on the wheel causes a 5 degree front wheel angle change or something). Or are all cars different at whatever the manufacturer feels like for this model? -- SGBailey (talk) 14:12, 4 March 2010 (UTC)

Not that I'm aware of. I've never compared them and considering I own two Subarus, I doubt there'd be a difference that I could notice. But during an episode of Top Gear, Richard Hammond at one point mentions that he has to turn the wheel of a particular car that he was reviewing quite a bit to get around a corner. So, that would suggest that he'd gotten used to a certain percentage of wheel turn compared to steering wheel turn. Dismas|^(talk) 14:35, 4 March 2010 (UTC)

Series twelve, episode six, the Veritas RS III. Vimescarrot (talk) 15:43, 4 March 2010 (UTC)

No, it's different from car to car. My MINI (BMW), for example, has "quick" steering—a small turn of the wheel results in the car turning more than most cars would. If you look at a car's specifications or magazine reviews, you can usually find specs for "number of turns lock-to-lock", which is how far you can turn the steering wheel from hard-left to hard-right, and for "turning circle" which is the diameter of the tightest turn the car can make. You could probably use those numbers to compare the "quickness" of different cars. Also, I think a car's alignment specs usually give a "turn the steering wheel this much, and the wheel angles should be such-and-such" spec for the car. -- Coneslayer (talk) 15:49, 4 March 2010 (UTC)

I have a vague memory of a car which had a variable relationship between stering wheel turn and road wheel turn, depending upon the speed. Not sure if that can be substantiated. --Tagishsimon (talk) 03:40, 5 March 2010 (UTC)

There are plenty of cars that have variable ratio steering - where they vary the spacing of the teeth along the length of the steering rack. This is designed to keep the steering sensitive at small steer angles but reduce the amount of effort it takes to turn the wheels when the angle is greater. BMW have cars with electronically variable steering ratios so that the sensitivity of the steering can be adjusted by the computer depending on speed and road conditions. (This was actually proposed and demonstrated in a concept car for the second generation of the MINI (BMW) but was dropped from the design in favor of computer controlled power steering during the last few months before the launch. On my MINI, pressing the SPORT button gives you more 'feel' from the steering.) There have been many even more drastic proposals for "steer by wire" systems where the steering wheel isn't mechanically connected to the wheels at all but merely tells the computer where to point the wheels. However there are serious safety concerns with such systems - and they are generally unloved by drivers because they eliminate "road feel". SteveBaker (talk) 04:55, 5 March 2010 (UTC)

Thanks -- SGBailey (talk) 23:27, 5 March 2010 (UTC)

WP:WHAAOE. I'm very surprised no-one has linked steering ratio as yet. While we are giving anecdotal evidence, in 2003 Honda updated their Honda S2000 and (amongst other things) changed the steering ratio to make it "slower" (requires more turns of the steering wheel to get the same number of turns at the wheels) and thus made the car less "nervous" or "twitchy". I guess some people were not used to the quick steering of the previous model. Zunaid 07:04, 6 March 2010 (UTC)

Conversion of 1970 turkish lira in indian national rupee.....

hello guyzzz.... i have a turkish note 20,000 note of 1970 year.... i want to enquire how much will i get it in indian national rupee if i convert the note,i.e., turkish note of 1970 today in india.... ????

the note has followin things riten on it

(i) 2000

(ii) Below this is the serial number that is G59 391049

(iii) TURKIYE CUMHURIYET

       MERKEZ BANKASI

[I GES THE NAME OF THE NATIONAL BANK]

(iv) YIRMI BIN [ Written prominently in the centre]

(v) TURK LIRASI [Writen exactly below the above]

(vi) 14 OCAK 1970 TARIH VE 1211 SAYILI

      KANUNA GORE CIKARILMISTIR

[Writen exactly below the above and in same manner as above]

(vii) BASKAN BASKAN YARDIMCISI [Writen exactly below the above]

Plz do tel me and help me if you can .... i am in a great problem due to this....

Also do tel me the best way to get the lira converted in india. Provided that i live chandigarh,U.T.(CAPITAL OF PUNJAB AND HARAYANA).

I WILL B GRATEFUL TO THE PERSON ANSWERIN MY QUERY.....

ANTICIPATING THANKZZZZ..... :) :) :D :D —Preceding unsigned comment added by Bhuwankant (talk • contribs) 15:21, 4 March 2010 (UTC)

I'm sorry, but the nominal value of your bank note is very roughly 0. Turkey had a currency reform in 2005, going from the old lira to the new lira. A new lira is worth one million old lira, i.e. your 20000 old lira is roughly 2 kurus (2/100 of a new lira), or 1 Eurocent. If I operate Google finance correctly, that is 1.2481 Indian rupees - unlikely to even pay for the bank fee, even if you can find a bank that accepts a bank note for a currency that has been out of circulation for years. You might have more luck if you find a collector, but I have no idea how rare and in demand such notes are. --Stephan Schulz (talk) 15:40, 4 March 2010 (UTC)

To give you an idea of the value, there's a 250,000 lira note -- same period, I suspect -- for sale on eBay for GBP 0.50; and there's been a lot of 8 notes, ranging from 5 to 100,000 lira, that went unsold for GBP 2.85. --jpgordon^{::==( o )} 16:49, 4 March 2010 (UTC)

Actually, the 20,000 lira note was only introduced in 1988, although the E7 emission group of Turkish banknotes was authorised in 1970, but such was the speed of Turkish inflation that the 50,000 lira was introduced in 1989, 100,000 lira in 1991, 250,000 lira in 1992, 500,000 lira in 1993, 1,000,000 lira in 1995, 5,000,000 lira in 1997, 10,000,000 lira in 1999 and 20,000,000 lira in 2001. Notes of less than 250,000 lira were not convertible when the new lira was introduced in 2005 at a rate of 1 million old lira to 1 new one, so it cannot now be converted to any foreign currency. The 100,000 lira note is redeemable for 10 kurus at the TCMB (Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey) until 4 November 2011, while the 250,000, 500,000, 1, 5, 10, and 20 million lira notes can be redeemed until 31 December 2015, after which they will lose all their value. Our article on the Turkish lira is quite informative. -- Arwel Parry (talk) 23:44, 4 March 2010 (UTC)

Looking more carefully, the original question sat 20.000 in the first line, but describes the note as having a text of 2000. If it is a 2000 (old) lira note, the nominal value is about 0.1 Eurocent, and its unlikely that it can be exchanged anywhere at all. However, our article does not mention a 2000 lira note at all. --Stephan Schulz (talk) 12:50, 5 March 2010 (UTC)

"Yirmi bin" means 20,000. The 2000 is likely just a typo. --Xuxl (talk) 16:12, 5 March 2010 (UTC)

Fuhrur

Where can I find english translatioons of full speeches made by Hitler. I am very curious to read these and after years of web searching I have only been able to find short movies of 2-3 minutes of speeches, or short quotes. What I would ideally like (like maybe not the right word)is either subtitled movies of his FULL speaches or transcripts of them translated into english, any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks —Preceding unsigned comment added by 62.172.58.82 (talk) 16:07, 4 March 2010 (UTC)

Well, there's the usual place which only has one link to an English translation, and there are the external links over at his article, where there seems to be a bit more. Hope I helped, and happy reading. --Ouro (blah blah) 18:18, 4 March 2010 (UTC)

Google is your friend. Just type "English translations of speeches made by Hitler" into google. Now, that wasn't that hard, was it. User:Curious Cactus 20:38, 4 March 2010 (UTC)

Cactus, knock it off. If you can't be polite, don't contribute. Woogee (talk) 00:37, 6 March 2010 (UTC)

Never mentioned wars -

Good Morning,

Please, let us know if you have any written/film details of repeated wars between the Polish and Silesian people, esp. in the 1920's. My father fought there as a teenager and my grandfather was injured. We have no souvenirs of any kind from that time, since we were DP's then.

Also, please show a detailed film (if available) with local comments regarding the Spanish Civil War, the volunteers and drafted on either sides and the consequences of that war. We also have connections with some former fighters, but no official pictures/films. Please let us know, (if) and when such films will be published and shown on Military Channel TV.

Thank you.

Gabrielle M. Turner <personal contact info removed>—Preceding unsigned comment added by 63.162.11.146 (talk) 19:10, 4 March 2010 (UTC)

I removed your personal contact information, as noted at the top of this page, no one will phone you or email you, and leaving personal contact information on a public website is a good way to have your identity stolen or to receive thousands of unwanted spam emails every day. That said, these conflicts are not "never mentioned" . We actually have an extensive article on Wikipedia about them, at Silesian Uprisings. Silesia is a region which has for thousands of years been passed between countries like Austria, Poland, and Prussia, and as such, has been the sight of ethnic conflicts for a long time. The specific early 20th century conflicts you are referring to above are explained in the Silesian Uprisings article. The article has a "references" section and a "further reading" section whereby you could find even more info. --Jayron32 19:35, 4 March 2010 (UTC)

Please see the sentences at the top of this page, which say: "Is there any way I can get a faster answer? / Yes, you can search first. Please do this." Jayron has given you a link to the Silesian Uprisings: if you put Spanish Civil War into the search box, you will, I am sure, get directed to the article Spanish Civil War. --ColinFine (talk) 19:55, 4 March 2010 (UTC)

If you want to know if/when films of particular wars will be shown on Military Channel TV,why not contact them and ask? I'm sure they would be able to tell you-and if there aren't any films of that war planned to be shown in the near future and there is sufficient demand for them,they may decide to add them to the schedule. Lemon martini (talk) 23:13, 5 March 2010 (UTC)

organising a fair

supposing hypotheticaaly someone wanted to orgainse a school fair, have stalls selling various things, hold a few competitons, a raffle, get local people and businesses to offer their services in a charity auction, that sort of thing. What might someone have to do in order to hold such an event, other than advertising it, setting up the stalls and getting volunteers to offer things in the stalls and auctions? And how long would all that take?

148.197.114.158 (talk) 19:41, 4 March 2010 (UTC)

Well, you would also have to get the permission of the authority of the location you wish to hold the fair. So, if you wish to hold it at school, you will likely have to contact the school administration. If you wish to hold it in a public park, you will have to work with your local "park district" or "parks and recreation commission" or some such. It can take a long time to plan such an event, especially if you are the sole person interested in it. Even if you can get a sizable organizing committee together to help plan and organize and contact everyone and advertise it, it will likely take several months if not a full year, depending on the scope and scale of the fair. --Jayron32 20:22, 4 March 2010 (UTC)

Your jurisdiction (such as your town or city) may also have rules about "games of chance" like raffles. They may be prohibited, or may require obtaining a license or permit, which could take money and time. -- Coneslayer (talk) 20:27, 4 March 2010 (UTC)

Be aware that for public gatherings you often need a license or permit. The police may ask you to stop and disperse the crowd if you do not. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Curious Cactus (talk • contribs) 20:31, 4 March 2010 (UTC)

What if, hypothetically, such events had been held each year in the same place, only this time it might be, perhaps, larger and organised by different people 148.197.114.158 (talk) 21:59, 4 March 2010 (UTC)

And don't they do something where people organise social events at american schools, I'm sure I've seen such on lots of TV programs and films, where they choose a theme and hire entertainment and get food and such like. It never seems to take them all year. 148.197.114.158 (talk) 22:01, 4 March 2010 (UTC)

In the UK, you'll also need to get liability insurance (which will be part of the licencing conditions). Your local town council (or equivalent body) is the best place to ask for specific information. Tevildo (talk) 22:58, 4 March 2010 (UTC)

If this event has been held at the same place, and I assume at the same time, under the leadership of different organizers than the "hypothetic" one here, there is probably going to be a conflict if someone else decided to hold a bigger event of the same kind, at the same place. DOR (HK) (talk) 09:35, 5 March 2010 (UTC)

The local authorities as well as those who control the venue may have concerns about keeping order, avoiding incidents such as people getting trampled rushing the stage, avoiding fights and drunkenness, etc. As mentioned above there may be requirements for permits, liability insurance, health inspection of food vending operations, proper installing of electric supply to avoid overloaded circuits, sanitation, crowd control, maximum occupancy of indoor venues and proper (not chained shut) exits, or if outdoors adequate provision of portable toilets. An event has lots of people crowded together, exits may be limited to prevent people sneaking in, food preperation may not keep hot food hot and cold food cold, temporary and overloaded wiring may be used, and people may be drunk or looking to cause panic. On TV shows all this is just left out in general. For classic big-scale versions of "what could possibly go wrong" see Altamont Free Concert(riots and homicide), (food poisoning), (food poisoning), (more food poisoning), (fire at fair), (electric short cause carnival fire), (riot at carnival), (riot at carnival). People have died in senseless stampedes at soccer matches and rock concerts (alcohol involved much?). A successful event may also seek donations of money , goods or services from merchants, including buying ads in a program. Money is needed up front to get acts under contract which will draw a crowd, or to secure commitments from vendors, ride operators, or whatever. Planning is needed to make sure the people do not behave like crazed livestock due to bottlenecks in travel routes. Edison (talk) 16:30, 5 March 2010 (UTC)

Space

Resolved

When was the last space launch to put anything into orbit? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Curious Cactus (talk • contribs) 20:37, 4 March 2010 (UTC)

From SpaceFlightNow, the last launch was a Proton rocket from Baikonur, Kazakhstan, carrying several GLONASS navigation satellites. It was launched on March 1st at 21:19 GMT. The next will be a Delta IV this evening. anonymous6494 20:43, 4 March 2010 (UTC)

Thanks User:Curious Cactus 20:44, 4 March 2010 (UTC)

longest continuously used firearm

Is the Colt M1911 the longest continuously used firearm model for any of the world's armed forces, excluding purely ceremonial firearms? Googlemeister (talk) 20:53, 4 March 2010 (UTC)

According to M1911 pistol, it stopped being standard issue in the U.S. 1985, but there are several countries that appear to use it. Given that the article still lists "present" as the end date for the use of the weapon, a 99 year service life for a single model is likely the all-time record for a mass-produced weapon of any kind. Apparently, if it ain't broke.... --Jayron32 21:04, 4 March 2010 (UTC)

Actually, to make a minor correction to my above post, it appears that the current model, the M1911A1, has been in use since 1924, so that's a 76-year service life, not 99. Still impressive though. --Jayron32 21:06, 4 March 2010 (UTC)

The SMLE has been in continuous use (not with the same armed forces, admittedly) from 1895 to this day (115 years). Tevildo (talk) 22:51, 4 March 2010 (UTC)

(ec, was just about to say that) :::Modifications like that don't count, it's the same weapon essentially, and the M1911 is still used by the US armed forces even if it isn't standard issue. .45 ACP is a powerful alternative to 9x19 parabellum. I think the Lee-Enfield would probably be the oldest firearm still in service, it entered srevice in 1895 and is used by many commonwealth reserve forces, notably canada, and some police services.--92.251.175.175 (talk) 22:57, 4 March 2010 (UTC)

The cannon. User:Curious Cactus 22:56, 4 March 2010 (UTC)

What about the Brown Bess? If "minor" modifications are allowed, it was in use from 1722 to 1854. The original "Long Land Pattern" was in use for 71 years, the "Sea Service Pattern" for 76 years. --Stephan Schulz (talk) 00:12, 5 March 2010 (UTC)

Cannons have changed greatly over the years. Most notably, in the late 1800s and early 1900s, the interrupted screw breech, the muzzle brake, and hydraulic recoil suppression were introduced, and time and impact fuzes became reliable. --Carnildo (talk) 01:18, 5 March 2010 (UTC)

Some individual cannons have seen very long service - the Dardanelles Gun was made in 1464 and was still in use in 1807. Warofdreams talk 11:30, 5 March 2010 (UTC)

One needed big stone balls to fire that 343 year old cannon at an enemy. Edison (talk) 16:05, 5 March 2010 (UTC)

is that a 343 year old cannon with big stone balls in your pocket, or are you just happy to see me?--Jayron32 00:39, 6 March 2010 (UTC)

Parts of speach

Is there a name for the following phenomenon where a singular uses plural while the same plural uses the singular, eg, My lung feels like a smokers lung. Juxtaposed with, My lungs feel like a smokers lungs. To clarify, My lung (singular) feelS (plural) like a smokers lung Juxtaposed with, My lungs (plural) feel (singular) like a smokers lungs. Thank you, p.s., this is not a medical question lol. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.3.145.145 (talk) 21:34, 4 March 2010 (UTC)

Isn't "feel" plural, and "feels" singular? Correct usage, as far as I know, is "Bob feels angry," but "Bob and Alice feel angry." To me, your two sentences are completely correct; there is nothing grammatically abnormal about them at all. "My lung feels like a smoker's lung", while "my lungs feel like a smoker's lungs". Xenon54 / talk / 21:57, 4 March 2010 (UTC)

OP seems to be under the misapprehension that "add 's'" = "plural" - this only applies to (some) nouns, not verbs. --PalaceGuard008 (Talk) 22:00, 4 March 2010 (UTC)

You might want to move this to the Language Desk. BrainyBabe (talk) 22:12, 4 March 2010 (UTC)

Language desk is thataway ---> WP:RD/L User:Curious Cactus 22:57, 4 March 2010 (UTC)

However, it was a real peech of a question. :-) StuRat (talk) 01:00, 5 March 2010 (UTC)

Since your question is about adding the letter 's' to words, I feel I should correct your grammar mistake involving that same topic: you mean "smoker's". It is a lung belonging to a smoker, so we need a possessive apostrophe. --Tango (talk) 04:55, 5 March 2010 (UTC)

March 5

Solar Energy in Deserts

If all the world's energy came from solar energy and all the world's solar enrgy came from hot deserts, how many percent of all the world's hot deserts would they occupy?

Bowei Huang 2 (talk) 05:34, 5 March 2010 (UTC)

The question is unanswerable from the parameters given. Solar energy refers to a wide range of applications and technologies, without knowing what sorts of solar power generation you are talking about (photovoltaics? solar-heated steam turbines? etc etc) it is quite literally impossible to even begin to consider an answer. Furthermore, the premise seems flawed; it would be impractical and generally a bad idea to place the entire world's energy production capacity into a single technology or energy source. Even if you wish to consider converting the whole world to a "green" energy system which could run independent of fossil fuels or nuclear, a diverse system consisting of solar, wind, hydroelectric, tidal-force, geothermal, biomass combustion, hydrogen fuel, etc. etc. system would be required. Devising an energy system based on a single source or technology is a Bad Idea, for many reasons. --Jayron32 05:40, 5 March 2010 (UTC)

I can tell you for a fact that no configuration of solar apparatus using only the worlds deserts as a stationing platform would supply the entire wolds power consumption needs. R12IIIeloip (talk) —Preceding undated comment added 10:00, 5 March 2010 (UTC).

Why ? A rough calculation shows that an area of 3 million square kilometers of photovoltaic panels operating at a very conservative 5% efficiency could produce 10²¹ Joules of energy per year, which is the same order as the world energy consumption. The area of the Sahara desert alone is over 9 million square kilometers. Gandalf61 (talk) 10:36, 5 March 2010 (UTC)

Then there would be the energy losses from storing and transporting all that energy (especially if you need to transport energy from Africa to China) constructing all that infrastructure and all those solar cells, batteries, etc. StuRat (talk) 13:34, 5 March 2010 (UTC)

Sure, but then the Sahara is only one desert. China has the Gobi quite nearby (ok, it's only hot part of the year ;-). India has the Thar Desert, Australia is a desert (modulo small rounding errors), and even the current oil-producing middle eastern states have the Empty Quarter. It's neither wise not plausible to rely on solar only, however, it's quite possible. --Stephan Schulz (talk) 14:16, 5 March 2010 (UTC)

Desert shows that each continent has a large enough desert to probably supply its peak energy needs, with the conservative assumptions of 5% conversion used by Gandalf. Unless some improbable worldwide East-West high voltage grid were built to feed power to the dark side of the globe from the sunlit side of the globe, efficient storage would be needed on each continent. Energy storage technology is not a whole lot better (maybe 1 order of magnitude )than it was 100 years ago when cities had large DC battery banks which could power the downtown during peak demand or a generation outage, and when electric boats and electric cars were in commercial use. A lack of advanced energy storage is a major barrier to an "all solar" energy economy. Edison (talk) 16:00, 5 March 2010 (UTC)

I take it that they don't consider Europe to be a continent, then ? You'd need to send that energy a long way to get to, say Ireland or Norway. StuRat (talk) 03:56, 6 March 2010 (UTC)

Solar panels in deserts of the world could make a large contribution to the world's energy needs. The sun provides about a kilowatt of energy input per square meter, or the equivalent of a 1000 megawatt nuclear plant per square kilometer. Reality check: the solar panel would need to track to sun to get the most benefit, and naturally there is no output at night and diminished output on overcast days or when there are sandstorms. The conversion efficiency to electricity has been increasing slowly over time, with 40% now attainable, but efficiencies around 20% are more common, since the cost of the cells must be considered. The solar electricity can go to the grid during daylight hours, which are peak load hours for many utilities when air conditioning and commercial loads are more important than electric heating or nighttime residential use. Electricity can be transported long distances at extremely high AC or DC voltages, but transmission lines are very expensive to build, and people have a "not in my back yard" attitude towards having them pass through their communities. They are also easily sabotaged, and the cost of guarding solar arrays and transmission lines adds to the cost, if the deserts or transmission routes in question are in regions of political turmoil. There are considerable losses in the long distance transmission of power. Solar has some things in common with wind, nuclear and hydroelectric: the initial capital costs are extremely high compared to a fossil fuel plant, followed by low costs per kilowatt hour generated during the life of the plant. These types of power do not contribute much to greenhouse gases during their operation, in contrast to oil, gas, or coal fueled generation. Hydro and nuclear have in common that they typically can run flat out for extended periods, compared to the off and on quality of solar and wind. Rather than solar arrays in the desert, I like solar arrays on south-facing or flat roofs right where the load is. Edison (talk) 15:49, 5 March 2010 (UTC)

Edison's method would be far more applicable in a suburban setting in Arizona then an urban setting in London or Vancouver. Googlemeister (talk) 16:36, 5 March 2010 (UTC)

Given the failed outcome of the "real" Edison's promotion of DC for electric power distribution can user Edison show any example of electricity transported "extremely long distances at extremely high DC voltage"? Cuddlyable3 (talk) 18:03, 5 March 2010 (UTC)

This is an encyclopaedia: High-voltage direct current. Particularly relevant quote: "For long-distance distribution, HVDC systems are less expensive and suffer lower electrical losses" 131.111.248.99 (talk) 18:27, 5 March 2010 (UTC)

Edison's DC distribution system suffered from needing to transmit the power at end-user voltages (DC voltage conversion hadn't been invented yet), leading to high currents and the resulting high transmission losses. --Carnildo (talk) 01:06, 6 March 2010 (UTC)

Edison, you said solar panels "do not contribute much to greenhouse gases during their operation, in contrast to oil, gas, or coal fueled generation". While true, it's important to include the entire power plant life cycle, including production and disposal, in the equation. When judged in that manner, solar panels aren't so wonderful, as the power and materials used to create them and dispose of them is far more than that for a fossil fuel plant which generates a comparable amount of power over it's life. StuRat (talk) 18:54, 5 March 2010 (UTC)

Do you have a decent citation for that? It seems really unlikely. SteveBaker (talk) 00:59, 7 March 2010 (UTC)

Why is that ? As Edison said "the initial capital costs are extremely high compared to a fossil fuel plant". Those higher costs correspond with the greater effort required to set up all those solar panels and tracking mechanisms, from mining the materials to manufacturing and delivery/installation. StuRat (talk) 06:08, 7 March 2010 (UTC)

Covering huge amounts of desert would have an enormous impact on their ecosystems. I have spent much time in two different deserts, and they are subtly and wonderfully alive. ---— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk 00:56, 6 March 2010 (UTC)

Check out this image.--droptone (talk) 13:25, 8 March 2010 (UTC)

Question (sneezing when asleep)

Why don’t you sneeze when you’re asleep? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Jetterindi (talk • contribs) 09:28, 5 March 2010 (UTC)

The Wikipedia article sneeze says "Sneezing cannot occur during sleep due to REM atonia - a bodily state wherein motor neurons are not stimulated and reflex signals are not relayed to the brain. Sufficient external stimulants, however, may cause a person to wake from their sleep for the purpose of sneezing, although sneezing occurring afterwards would take place when partially awake."

I did find one sleep expert who claimed that there's no research into whether people sneeze in their sleep.[15] However, most sources say no.[16][17] From the case reports I could find, even patients with intractible sneezing (who keep sneezing for weeks or months) don't sneeze in their sleep[18][19] --Normansmithy (talk) 11:35, 5 March 2010 (UTC)

I've added to the title to make it actually useful. StuRat (talk) 13:37, 5 March 2010 (UTC)

Ahh---Stu! You just woke me up!--79.68.242.68 (talk) 01:15, 6 March 2010 (UTC)

Well, that's certainly nothing to sneeze at. :-) StuRat (talk) 03:50, 6 March 2010 (UTC)

corporate killings in russia

I've heard that in Russia contract killings on executives are ordered by people who want to take over the job. But for the guy who ordered the hit and takes over, won't people be inclined not to deal with him? How does the system work.

Yesatomic (talk) 10:12, 5 March 2010 (UTC)

Would you be inclined to get on the bad side of someone who ordered a contract killing? Dmcq (talk) 12:26, 5 March 2010 (UTC)

I think if it's as bad as you're saying and they're all doing it, then I don't think it would matter, really. --KägeTorä - (影虎) (TALK) 12:34, 5 March 2010 (UTC)

Presumably it's rare and done in secret, so nobody knows who, if anyone, ordered the killing. I'm sure this is illegal, although bribing the right officials might get them to look the other way. I've thought about this question in other fictional contexts, namely a Star Trek episode where people moved up by assassinating their leaders, and also with vampires. In both fictional cases and the (possibly) real case you mentioned, you essentially have a predator/prey relationship. In such relationships, the number of predators is controlled by the prey just as the prey are controlled by the predators. In your case, if the number of people engaging in assassination became too high, then the "prey" would take effective action, like living in a bunker protected by a squad of armed guards, and would also force the criminal justice system in Russia to do their job properly. StuRat (talk) 13:26, 5 March 2010 (UTC)

Wikipedia has general articles on Politics and Political corruption. The article on Russia has sections about Government and Human Rights.The Russian Executive posts the OP mentions are posts that hold power in goverment, companies or media and their subordinates have little choice in dealing with them, regardless of their inclinations, Cuddlyable3 (talk) 14:37, 5 March 2010 (UTC)

They might not have choice if he is a big boss man they have to deal with him even if he kill their friends R12IIIeloip (talk) —Preceding undated comment added 14:39, 5 March 2010 (UTC).

Long night

Where is it nighttime for half the year? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Yelopiclle (talk • contribs) 14:00, 5 March 2010 (UTC)

There is no place on Earth where the Sun is invisible for 365/2 days. See the articles Arctic circle and Antarctic circle if you are just interested in the Polar night of twenty-four hours continuous night time. I put a title on your question. Cuddlyable3 (talk) 14:10, 5 March 2010 (UTC)

Note that the poles come closest. However, since sunset is defined by the passing of the entire solar disk below the horizon, the angular size of the sun and atmospheric refraction serve to lengthen "day" with respect to "night", preventing a scenario where "day" and "night" are both exactly half a year long. — Lomn 14:20, 5 March 2010 (UTC)

Wrong Lomn. You mean half a day 12 hours, not half a year. Cuddlyable3 (talk) 14:40, 5 March 2010 (UTC)

I see nothing wrong with Lomn's statement. At the poles, day and night are each approximately half a year, but not exactly (for the reasons he gives). -- Coneslayer (talk) 15:33, 5 March 2010 (UTC)

Coneslayer, if one interprets Lomn as meaning by "day" the accumulated length of all days in the year, and by "night" the accumulated length of all nights in the year, and we limit the scenario to large flat areas such as seas and deserts then his argument holds true. If more conventionally we understand "day" and "night" to be divisions of a 24-hour period that are separated by the events sunrise and sunset then there is a day in the year when they are equal; it is shifted slightly from the Equinox for the reasons Lomn gave. I apologise to Lomn for my lack of insight into the first interpretation and strike my former comment. Cuddlyable3 (talk) 16:41, 5 March 2010 (UTC)

I meant "day" as "the sun is above the horizon" and "night" as "the sun is not above the horizon"; the poles provide the only areas where you'd approach a single half-year "night" in this context -- though you're certainly correct that most locales will have a given midnight-to-midnight period that's half and half. I note, though that length of day mentions the Northern hemisphere having slightly longer days, on average, than the Southern hemisphere due to the Earth's orbital eccentricity. It's possible, then, that latitudes near the South Pole might have exactly one-half the year in night and exactly one-half the year in daylight, and that if really really close to the pole, might have a single exactly-half-year day and a single exactly-half-year night. Others are welcome to confirm or refute, but I don't like trig that much. — Lomn 16:46, 5 March 2010 (UTC)

No Lomn. Your definition of "day" is shorter than the time of daylight, which is strange when you are aware of the angular size of the Sun. That is not the "day" used to define the equinoxes. By "poles" you presumably mean within the (Ant)Arctic circles and you are wrong to claim a half-year night is ever experienced there. A 24-hour night is experienced there. It is incomprehensible to speak of a "single exactly-half-year day" or "single exactly-half-year" night" because neither occurs of the surface of Earth.Cuddlyable3 (talk) 17:45, 5 March 2010 (UTC)

I think my definition is a reasonable paraphrase of that used at length of day, though certainly other contexts exist. What I find more puzzling is the insistence that the length of "day" or "night" under this definition is capped at 24 hours. Polar environments (particularly those beyond 80° latitude) experience periods far in excess of 24 hours where the sun remains entirely above or entirely below the horizon. The poles themselves experience (barring those niggling physical imperfections) a single sunrise and a single sunset over the course of a year. How then is it incomprehensible to say that the poles experience a roughly-half-year day and a roughly-half-year night? — Lomn 18:53, 5 March 2010 (UTC)

Lomn I tell you politely that you are wrong. You misunderstand what happens at the North and South poles. Please read the article Midnight sun. Your statement "The poles...experience...a single sunrise and a single sunset over the course of a year" is false. Having linked to length of day you should understand that there are alternate meanings of the word "day" but no scope for you to "paraphrase" (you mean redefine) it as anything else. If the subject confuses you please do not post here. Cuddlyable3 (talk) 21:30, 5 March 2010 (UTC)

Similarly quoting from midnight sun, "the length of the time the sun is above the horizon varies from 20 hours at the Arctic Circle and Antarctic Circle to 186 days at the poles" (emphasis mine). An observer at the North Pole would see the sun rise some time around the Spring equinox, remain above the horizon for six months, and then set at the Fall equinox. You appear to be inferring too much from the "the sun is visible for a continuous 24 hours" line; while this is true, 24 hours is in no way the limit for how long the sun remains above the horizon. Alternately, please describe to me exactly how the sun is behaving at the poles. I don't believe I'm confused by the subject at all, but I'm confused by your stance on it. — Lomn 21:57, 5 March 2010 (UTC)

Thank you Lomn for your patient correction. I have struck my previous post. The poles are two point locations exactly on the axis of rotation of the Earth so that Earth rotation is not a component of those locations' movements orbiting around the Sun. Therefore the cycle of light and darkness at the poles is the year of 365.25 days. The light period is slightly longer than half the year because of the finite angular size of the Sun and atmospheric refraction. Those are noted as corrections in the article Sunrise equation. Some confusion arose because I wished to keep distinct day meaning calender day = 24 hours during which the observed elevation of the center of the Sun returns to any angle, and daylight time. At the poles there is only daylight time. Cuddlyable3 (talk) 16:44, 7 March 2010 (UTC)

If as Cuddlyable3 suggests one interprets "night" as the accumulated length of all nights in the year, and if one disregards twilight and the points raised by Lomn, then the answer to the OP is "practically everywhere". —Tamfang (talk) 21:03, 5 March 2010 (UTC)

I would expect local geography (whether you're on a mountaintop or in a valley) to make a huge diff on the length of the "longest day" and "longest night", near the poles. So, there might very well be one or more spots which meet that criteria. StuRat (talk) 18:41, 5 March 2010 (UTC)

Depends on whether you're using "horizon" as the ideal reference (the sphere, the geoid, what have you) or the physical reference. I think most almanacs will use the ideal. — Lomn 18:53, 5 March 2010 (UTC)

Yes, I'm sure almanacs do just assume that the Earth is a perfect sphere, but not because this gives better results, just because it's easier. I'm sure that someone living in a valley wants to know when the Sun really disappears from view, not "when it would disappear, if that mountain wasn't there". With computers and a detailed topological survey of the Earth, it may now be possible to give the correct times of sunrise and sunset at every location, rather than the very rough approximation we're used to. Does anyone know of such a program ? StuRat (talk) 14:36, 7 March 2010 (UTC)

It's worth noting that atmospheric refraction makes the sun visible for longer than it would be if we had no atmosphere, and its finite radius again makes it visible when its center is below the horizon. The reference cited says that these can add about 34' and 16' of arc to the sun's visibility. PhGustaf (talk) 00:55, 6 March 2010 (UTC)

If this is a quiz question - I'd bet good money that the answer is the dwarf-planet Pluto. It rotates once every 366.73 earth-days - so it has almost exactly six months of continuous night followed by six months of what passes for daylight there. (Of course, it's kinda cheating because it's not dark for half of a Plutonian year - which is about 250 earth years long...but if it's a quiz question, they may not be that picky). SteveBaker (talk) 05:30, 6 March 2010 (UTC)

(Ignoring optics:) There's no trigonometry -- it's just subtraction: on any day, subtract the sun's DECLINATION (which moves from 23+ to zero to 23+ to zero) from the poles' LATITUDE (90) and the answer is the lowest latitude where it is always "day" or always "night". If you call daytime "when the center of the sun is above the horizon" and nighttime "when the center of the sun is below the horizon," and define "center of sun" and "horizon" ideally, the answer to "Where is it nighttime for half the year?" is: at the poles. For a moment twice each year, the sun's DECLINATION is zero. At that moment, the sun's center moves above or below the horizon at the north and south poles. From fall to spring, it is night at the north pole; from spring to fall, it is night at the south pole. At any distance whatsoever from the poles, however, this condition of "exactly half a year of night" decreases; finally, at any LATITUDE lower than that of the arctic circles, there is never any consecutive 24-hour period during which the sun is up or down ... because the arctic circles are latitude 90 degrees minus the sun's maximum declination of 23.45 degrees, that is, 66.55 degrees -- just as the poles are latitude 90 degress minus the sun's minimum declination of zero degrees, that is, ninety degrees. Anywhere between latitude 66.55 (90-23.45) and 90 (90-0), the sun will stay up or down longer than a day, and more days in increasing latitude, reaching to a maximum of 182.5ish days exactly at the poles. Again: this defines "up" or "down" (day or night) as when the center of the sun is above or below an idealized horizon at that latitude. It's all about this: 90 minus the sun's declination, expressed as latitude on earth; the declination is zero at the first moment of spring and fall, when the sun crosses the horizon at the poles (and then there's 182.5 days of day or night), and at maximum (23.45) at high winter and summer, when there is "one" 24-hour day or night at the arctic circles. 63.17.52.111 (talk) 12:24, 7 March 2010 (UTC)

Social life

Can you be cool without saying a word? In a way that you don't really iniate conversations or make up some crazy and funny stuff for others amusement but they still want to invite you to places and spend time with you? I'm an introverted person and my personality is really killig my social life (and even I need friends to spend time with every now and then) but they just don't seem that interested in spending time with me because I'm too silent and less outrageous. I tried to be all cool, talkative and spontaneus but you know how that ends, you come across as a phony looking only more awkward while getting extremely exhausted in the process. How can I be my silent self and still be accepted as part of the group? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Candercore1 (talk • contribs) 14:10, 5 March 2010 (UTC)

Perhaps you can read some biographies and ascribe to the personality types you read about. Perhaps projecting quality wit would be more productive than quantity content -- so find biographies of funny people, like Richard Feynman or Steven Spielberg. Also, the more worldly you become, the more worthwhile information you'll have to contribute to conversations, rather than just ranting. DRosenbach ^{(Talk | Contribs)} 15:27, 5 March 2010 (UTC)

"Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than open your mouth and remove all doubt." While a few manage to be both laconic and witty (Calvin Coolidge springs to mind), it is only a few. It is, on the other hand, entirely possible to be a valued and valuable friend without saying much. You can be kind, compassionate, helpful, thoughtful, reliable and (top tip for scoring with girls) a really good listener, without saying much at all. Good luck! BrainyBabe (talk) 16:13, 5 March 2010 (UTC)

No you can't. If you don't talk to communicate with people they will not communicate with you. You don't have to be the life of the party, you can be a quiet shy person and that's fine so long as your talk to people often enough. Otherwise they'll just think your a sad loner. Don't be afriad, you'd be surprised how many (by many I mean most) people are actually either insecure or idiots. Google brings up this great site http://www.succeedsocially.com/ --92.251.205.84 (talk) 17:00, 5 March 2010 (UTC)

Select a group with whom you genuinely have a shared interest (hobby, belief system, politics, lifestyle etc.). To yearn for acceptance and invitations from a group where one has only silent frustration to offer characterises the identity crisis that some experience as teenagers but I don't presume that is your state. Wikipedia has an article on the ambiguous word Cool (aesthetic). Cuddlyable3 (talk) 17:03, 5 March 2010 (UTC)

I replaced the title "Halp"(sic). Cuddlyable3 (talk) 17:05, 5 March 2010 (UTC)

Speaking from many years of experience, I'd say accept that you are never going to be the life of the party, but understand that there are more valuable and important things that you can offer. As BrainyBabe says, your best strategy is probably to be a solid and caring friend, someone who listens and goes out of his way to help others, someone people can turn to. This is a better basis for true friendship than the funny but superficial chatter that gets people invitations to parties. If you are truly an introvert, you probably prefer genuine one-on-one interactions to parties anyway. There are certainly chatty extroverts who will not value what you have to offer. But who needs them? Let them have their amusing but superficial babble fests while you concentrate on building solid lifetime friendships with people who really value you. As for cool, I think it is mostly a matter of self-confidence, at least appearing to be one's own man (or woman), and not letting frustrations get to you. Those are things you can achieve without saying a word. Marco polo (talk) 17:09, 5 March 2010 (UTC)

I'm also a pretty quiet person with not a lot to say, and I've found it to actually be helpful sometimes for befriending chatty people because they can yak away and I just insert the occasional monosyllabic acknowledgement, or a quick question or comment to keep them going. I don't need to say much, and they're happy to have someone to talk to who doesn't keep trying to get a word in edgewise. Cherry Red Toenails (talk) 22:16, 8 March 2010 (UTC)

People change over the years, so you will probably become more chatty with time if you want to. Your quietness may be because you are in more mature settings that you were not so familiar with when younger. When you become more familiar with them, talkativeness will come. I have a personal hypothesis that peoples personality is kept stable over time by people staying in the same kind of settings with the same expectations for behaviour. When those change, your personality changes. You may be suffering something akin to stage fright which will wear off with time. 78.151.126.97 (talk) 17:57, 10 March 2010 (UTC)

What is the Dots typeface?

Anyone know what the Dots typeface is? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Curvebill (talk • contribs) 16:38, 5 March 2010 (UTC)

Without the context that you're seeing it in, it's hard to give you a solid answer. Googling for "dots typeface" yields many results. This is just one. Dismas|^(talk) 16:45, 5 March 2010 (UTC)

A dot font is a typeface in which the characters are formed from dots. Example. Cuddlyable3 (talk) 17:11, 5 March 2010 (UTC)

To give you a little context, dot matrix printers once only worked with dot fonts. While screens and most modern printers also used dots, the difference is that they touch each other, forming a continuous line or curve, while dot matrix printers had visible gaps between the dots. Why use such a dot typeface when you don't need to ? Perhaps for nostalgia, maybe to make it obvious the info comes from a computer, or perhaps just because you like it. Also note that some modern dot fonts may use different sized dots, not necessarily aligned in a rectangular grid, unlike the original. StuRat (talk) 18:32, 5 March 2010 (UTC)

You imply that dot matrix printers are obsolete. While no longer used by consumers, they are still heavily used in industrial applications, report printing and transaction printing. GM tried laser printers on their assembly floor with very bad results. ---— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk 00:53, 6 March 2010 (UTC)

Really ? What happened ? StuRat (talk) 03:46, 6 March 2010 (UTC)

The assembly robots seized the printers and used their lasers in a rampage. —Tamfang (talk) 15:21, 6 March 2010 (UTC)

Actually I mean the Dots candy typeface. Curvebill (talk) 16:46, 9 March 2010 (UTC)

A brand logo is usually drawn by hand. —Tamfang (talk) 21:16, 11 March 2010 (UTC)

Well, here. I have two examples that show that the typefaces are the same. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:DotsCandy.jpeg and http://www.visittucson.org/includes/images/listings/Sun-Tran-Logo-color.jpg

School Uniforms

A lot of schools in the UK require students to ware awful, uncomfortable uniforms. If a school child refuses to ware a school uniform they can be expelled from the school. My question is; if the student is willing to go to school, and behaves in every way except waring the school uniform, what repercussions might they face from the government if they keep getting expelled from school for not wareing the uniform? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Jortasan tenke (talk • contribs) 17:20, 5 March 2010 (UTC)

Homeschooling is a legal option in many areas. It is apropriate for children with special needs. It should include basic language skills such as how to spell "wear" and "wearing". I removed an image that is irrelevant to school uniforms. Cuddlyable3 (talk) 17:50, 5 March 2010 (UTC)

Obviously "awful, uncomfortable uniforms" is somewhat subjective; I never had much problem with mine (though the colour was just a little too bright/distinctive). From merely my own personal experience as a student (and not as one familiar with getting expelled) I would say that a) the situation is incredibly unlikely b) it would be interpreted as if one were expelled for another reason (e.g. truancy), except where that was combined with external aggravating factors (e.g. a criminal record). Thus I dare say they would experience no exceptional "repercussions" from the government other than those doled out to serial expellees. - Jarry1250 ^{[Humorous? Discuss.]} 17:51, 5 March 2010 (UTC)

They might live their whole lives without learning how to spell the word wear correctly. Our article on school uniform provides evidence that the situation isn't just part of the UK experience. As for the consequences, I'd guess they'd be the same as the consequences for anyone who won't obey the working rules of a school, such as kids who get kicked out for truancy or bullying or something. Matt Deres (talk) 17:52, 5 March 2010 (UTC)

(ec) In England, it's up to the school what the uniform is and how they enforce compliance.[20] In England local authorities have a statutory duty to provide education to children, and there are a wide variety of ways this can be performed for excluded pupils e.g. transferring to another school, home tuition, in a special unit, or even in a secure unit.[21] Legally, parents might be punished if they are found partially to blame; social services may become involved and will probably try to find why the child is refusing to wear uniform, referring to a psychologist etc. However, it is impossible to predict what would happen in an individual case. --Normansmithy (talk) 18:02, 5 March 2010 (UTC)

If your uniform is uncomfortable it is almost certainly because it doesn't fit properly, or you aren't wearing it correctly. Both of those are relatively easy problems to fix. --Tango (talk) 19:51, 5 March 2010 (UTC)

Google Street View

My dream job would be to operate one of Google's street view cars, driving around the country exploring every nook and cranny. I would love it! Anyone ever find any interviews or information on the drivers as to their jobs, what it is like, how they operate? God I want that Job! I am a realist, I know its not bloody likely, a very limited fleet but I'm just interested in it beyond what the article says.--98.116.22.3 (talk) 17:32, 5 March 2010 (UTC)

Google contract out much of the work although they do have some drivers of their own[22] so you might be able to set up a company and get the contract for Street View in a certain area. A rival service, Everyscape, also has employed people for street photography; according to ABC they advertised the work on their website.[23] --Normansmithy (talk) 17:46, 5 March 2010 (UTC)

I would expect that they need to drive slowly, which would lead to people honking behind them and maybe homeowners calling the cops because they see someone "casing the neighborhood". So, it might not be the ideal job you think it is. StuRat (talk)

When they were photographing around where I live, the trucks had logos from a couple of different companies on them - they seem to be able to do their work at the speed limit even along freeways. You can tell that's true because if you step along a street using streetview, you can see the other cars that were behind the truck. It's very clear that there isn't a long line of cars stuck behind a slow moving truck and you can look forwards and see the truck easily keeping up with people in front of them. The only oddity I saw was a sign on the truck saying something about it not making lane changes (which makes sense when you think about it). SteveBaker (talk) 04:38, 6 March 2010 (UTC)

For a blog of a brief informal interview with a UK Street View driver, check here. For an alternative, amusing, and completely fictional take on the desirability of 'Street View Driver' as an occupation, may I recommend this video. TenOfAllTrades(talk) 13:33, 6 March 2010 (UTC)

Regarding promotional offers on products

Often I have noted that in case of promotional offers on a product (for example, getting some freebie or an extra quantity of the same product that you are buying), the offer fine print generally includes a message of the form that the product is also available without the offer.
To elaborate, if a company is selling some product 'XYZ' with a 20% extra offer, the fine print of the offer also mentions the availability of the same product 'XYZ' without the offer.
Is there any particular reason for this ? I mean, why would anyone prefer to buy a lesser quantity for the same cost ? I am not sure if this is a general worldwide phenomenon, but this is quite a common thing in my country ( India ).

At the same time, in spite of the fine prints in question, I have never been able to find two versions of the same products in the market; one with offer and one without the offer (except for the case where there might be some old stock lying around). So, I was wondering if this had something to do with legal requirements.

Any ideas regarding this ?? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 122.177.210.207 (talk) 19:18, 5 March 2010 (UTC)

I don't know any specific laws for that kind of offer, but I know in the UK that there is a law that says something must have been on sale at the full price for at least 6 weeks (I think) before you can advertise a lower price as being a discount. It is probably something similar - you can't say that the "free gift" is free if actually it is just part of the product you are paying for, so that means the product has to be available without the free gift. It doesn't make any sense for it to be available concurrently with the version with the free gift, though... --Tango (talk) 19:37, 5 March 2010 (UTC)

Yea, that's definitely not the case in the US, where they throughly abuse the word "free". One common example is products which are "free, you only pay shipping and handling", or, as I like to put it, "absolutely free for $10". We do have some other similar oddities, though, like that any product which includes a sweepstakes ticket must also include instructions on how you can get one for free, without buying the product. If they didn't do that, they would be "running a gambling operation without a license". StuRat (talk) 21:02, 5 March 2010 (UTC)

That's certainly the most common way they get you. Since the value of the product plus the actual cost of postage is likely less than they are charging for "shipping and handling", they are still making a profit on these "free" things. In many cases, the objects involved are so tiny, you can't help wondering why they couldn't just pop the two things into one box! Very often they don't even tell you how much the shipping & handling charge actually is unless you actually demand to know it when you place your order. You see this same scam in offers to refund your money if you aren't completely satisfied - they don't refund the shipping and handling - so they make a profit whether you demand your refund or not. It's amazing how blind people are to this kind of scam. Don't get me started on how carefully worded those counterfeitreplica "gold" coin adverts are...or the ones where they advertise "for just $xx.99 you can find out just how good our product is" (meaning you are paying to 'rent' the thing for a week and it's gonna cost you an absolute fortune to either ship it back or buy it)...or where they tell you that you'll pay "just $19.99 a month!"...without ever telling you how many months you'll be paying for it for. You'd think that actually telling people how much this thing costs wouldn't be that hard! Then you get the "computer learning...just try my software" guy - who will indeed ship the first disk to you for free - then proceed to charge you hundreds to thousands of dollars for all of the subsequent ones he sends you whether you ask for them or not! Dishonesty in that kind of direct mail advertising isn't just common - it's actually universal. SteveBaker (talk) 04:19, 6 March 2010 (UTC)

Last time I checked, the universe included more than just the USA. The UK doesn't have anywhere near the kind of misleading advertising the USA does (we do get adverts that I think should be illegal, but they aren't anywhere near as bad as American ones). --Tango (talk) 05:40, 6 March 2010 (UTC)

Yes - there are all sorts of trading standards laws that make this kind of thing much harder to get away with in the UK. Also, the cost of TV advertising in the UK is very much more per viewer than in the USA - so the margins for these kinds of enterprise are much thinner. SteveBaker (talk) 06:27, 6 March 2010 (UTC)

Last time I was in the US I saw those counterfeitreplica gold coin adverts. It took me a couple of watches before I could pick when they stopped talking about the real one and started talking about the counterfeitreplica. Very tricky. :) FiggyBee (talk) 05:46, 6 March 2010 (UTC)

Yeah - it's AMAZING how carefully they handle that transition. They spend a ton of time extolling the virtues of the real coin (it's purity and rarity) - which is pointless because that's not what they're selling you. The only slight hint is when they say "You can order your copy of..." - they are choosing that word "copy" with great care to make it sound like they are using the meaning: "instance of" or "duplicate of" rather than the other meaning: "facsimily of". They also carefully state the amount of gold in the real coin in ounces and that of the fake in milligrams - knowing full well that their target audience wouldn't know a gram from a kip. They go on to vastly exaggerate the increasing cost of gold (not that it matters since you're going to get about 50 cents worth of unrecoverable gold-leaf!). What you have here is a chunk of worthless cheap metal with a gold coating maybe a few micometers thick. I'd be quite surprised if they cost even $1 each to make - and they're selling for $20. Despite the ridiculous "limited to 10 copies per household" effort, I'm pretty sure they're selling these fakes in the millions...and they certainly wouldn't be worth even $1 on the open market. It's not even though you could pass it off as the real coin because it won't be anywhere near heavy enough to give it the obvious 'heft' of a solid gold coin. It's an out and out scam and it's quite outragous that it continues to air. SteveBaker (talk) 06:27, 6 March 2010 (UTC)

One of the Axioms of Modern Life that should be taught to all people from birth is that any product which cannot be handled before being purchased is a scam. Its the basic principle of informercials and other "not sold in stores" type commercials. If its not sold in stores, its because no one would buy it if they could actually handle the product. Coin collectors aren't interested in buying gold-painted knockoff coins, you can get a good set of knives anywhere, you can't make your wang bigger by taking a pill, and even WalMart sells nice, big toaster ovens with rotisserie attachments. They don't want their products sold in stores because if you could actually handle the product in person, you'd never buy that. If it was the sort of thing that handling it would make you think that buying it was a good idea, they would actually sell it in stores. --Jayron32 06:39, 6 March 2010 (UTC)

That axiom seems a bit extreme, to me, as there are other reasons why items might not be available in brick and mortar stores. One is that they are just too specialized of a product to have the sales volume a retail store would require to stock them. This is especially true is you live in a rural area, but even an urban area with lots of stores may not find some rarer items. For example, I buy my socks over the Internet, because I can't otherwise find the combo I want, which are cotton tube socks that are both calf-length and black. The closest thing I find at stores are gym socks, white with colored stripes at the top. StuRat (talk) 16:55, 6 March 2010 (UTC)

Yeah - I agree, "Jaron's Axiom" is a bit extreme. I buy lots of things from places like Amazon.com where I can't handle the item. The point being that when you buy a book or a CD from a well-known seller, you have some confidence in what you're going to get. A better axiom is to not do business with strangers...companies whom you don't know and which friends have not recommended to you. When you buy something from a TV ad, you not only don't know the company - but in all likelyhood, you'll never know who they really are. If the product is horrible (it almost certainly will be) then you may decide never to buy something from them again - but since you don't know who "them" is, then how can you avoid them when the next TV offer comes along? Without the need for reputation to sell their product, and in the absence of laws to prevent what they do - they can get away with anything. SteveBaker (talk) 19:14, 6 March 2010 (UTC)

Well, its not that you couldn't handle those socks or that CD. They sell that brand of socks or that CD or Book in stores even if YOU can't find it in a store convenient to you. The two are different situations. The fact that it is, in general, sold in stores means that people are availible to handle the merchandise, which is a check on the bullshittedness of the seller. The axiom is not "Any product which you don't handle you shouldn't buy". Its "products that cannot be handled before purchase (by anyone) should not be bought." I by lots of things I don't handle first, but I don't buy stuff that is "not availible in stores" anywhere... --Jayron32 01:13, 7 March 2010 (UTC)

I still say there are many items which are too specialized to be offered in any store anywhere. A brick-and-mortar store needs to have a certain turnover rate to cover their costs, and items below a certain level of popularity would simply never be profitable for them, even in the midst of a huge center of population. An Internet store, on the other hand, has much lower stocking costs, as that just means having boxes in a warehouse versus displayed on shelves. They also have the advantage of having customers from all over the world, which can result in more sales than at any single retail store. StuRat (talk) 05:56, 7 March 2010 (UTC)

It's amazing what I miss by not watching teevee. —Tamfang (talk) 22:28, 7 March 2010 (UTC)

Largest museum

Which is the largest museum in the wold in terms of floor space or capacity? (not talking about the number of exhibits, but the actual volume or space the building would take up or could be filled with.) —Preceding unsigned comment added by PennyCrayon.name (talk • contribs) 22:56, 5 March 2010 (UTC)

This says the Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg is the largest single museum, and the Smithsonian Institution in DC is the largest museum complex. However, neither of these claims appear in our articles. Our Hermitage article says it's "one of the largest". If it’s not the largest single museum, what would be larger? -- Jack of Oz ... speak! ... 23:47, 5 March 2010 (UTC)

I've heard that claim being made about the Louvre, and our article states right in the first sentence that it's "one of the largest museums in the world", though it's unsourced and it doesn't say whether it refers to number of works of art or actual size. Belisarius (talk) 01:24, 6 March 2010 (UTC)

According to this, the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History encompasses 1.5 million sq. feet (but only 325,000 of that is exhibit and public space), while the Louvre article claims 652,300 sq. feet of exhibition space, and a blacklisted site pegs the Hermitage at only 418,230 sq. feet. (156,714 for exhibits). Clarityfiend (talk) 04:51, 6 March 2010 (UTC)

The only figure I could find for the total Louvre footage is 1.6 million, but the source is a bit iffy. Clarityfiend (talk) 04:58, 6 March 2010 (UTC)

The Vatican collection has to be up there. BrainyBabe (talk) 13:51, 8 March 2010 (UTC)

March 6

Touhoumon help

In Touhoumon, how do I get Mimi-chan (the ICBM)? --70.250.214.164 (talk) 02:17, 6 March 2010 (UTC)

Charles Whitman's father

what is charles whitmans father's name? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 173.27.62.152 (talk) 02:53, 6 March 2010 (UTC)

I guess you didn't read Charles Whitman. It says that his father was "Charles Adolph Whitman". SteveBaker (talk) 04:08, 6 March 2010 (UTC)

Local Water Catchment Area For The Sydney Northern Beaches

Dear Wikipedia Volunteer-

I am doing a science project and was wondering if you could tell me what the water catchment area is for the Sydney Northern Beaches, NSW, Australia.

I would greatly appreciate your help.

Thanks,

A curious student. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Growlingcow (talk • contribs) 05:00, 6 March 2010 (UTC)

A quick google search turned up this: [24] which looks like it might be useful. It has maps of all 245 major watersheds in Australia. I'm not as familiar with Australian geography as you are, but you could probably figure out which watershed area matches which geographic area you are looking for. --Jayron32 05:14, 6 March 2010 (UTC)

Looking at a Gregory's street directory for Sydney, there is the Narrabeen Creek , McCarrs Creek Mullet Creek Deep Creek Middle Creek (with Oxford Falls on it, South Creek draining Cromer and Cromer Heights all going to Narrabeen Lakes; Greendale Creek draining the Brookvale area into Curl Curl Lagoon behind Curl Curl Beach; Dee Why Lagoon behind Dee Why Beach; and the Manly Creek. These are many different basins connected via different paths to the sea. Do you want to know the area in square kilometers? Graeme Bartlett (talk) 06:27, 8 March 2010 (UTC)

WhY cAn'T eLePhAnTs JuMp?

Why cant elephants jump? thanks —Preceding unsigned comment added by Growlingcow (talk • contribs) 05:03, 6 March 2010 (UTC)

For the same reason that you can't avoid writing in camel case. --Jayron32 05:11, 6 March 2010 (UTC)

Actually, elephants can jump a (seemingly) very small amount...about a foot - they are so big that this looks like a really pathetic effort. I've seen circus elephants who could squat back on their back legs and kinda do a double-footed "hop". It hardly looks very athletic though.

It's an odd fact that almost all animals can jump roughly the same height from a standing jump. About a foot. A flea can do it - a frog can do it, a dog can do it, a human can do it and so can an elephant. There are of course exceptions in the case of specialised jumpers - but as a general rule, it's more or less true. At first sight, that's a suprising thing - the difference in height and weight between a flea and an elephant is VAST - so how come their performance is so similar?

The reason for this relates to the mathematical nature of volumes versus areas. When you take a simple shape (a spherical cow, for example) and you double the radius - then the surface area of the sphere gets four times larger and the volume gets eight times larger - and that means that the sphere also gets 8 times heavier. The implication for animals that are very roughly the same shape is that when an animal is twice as tall, it's eight times heavier - but the cross-sectional area of its muscle is only four times larger. The amount of power that muscles can deliver in a short punchy move depends almost entirely on the cross sectional area. So when an animal gets twice as big, the ratio of weight to muscle cross section halves...meaning that it can only jump half as high relative to it's size. So if you double the height of an animal that can jump about a foot - and you get a much bigger animal that can still only jump about a foot. If you halve the size, then the same rule operates in reverse and still, they can jump about a foot.

CAVEAT: Things are a lot different for a horizontal jump though - and some animals (like maybe kangaroos) have special apparatus to help them jump higher than the other considerations would suggest...and as for all "spherical cow" explanations, this is a very rough approximation, some animals only jump six inches and others can manage a couple of feet - but very, very few can jump either 10 feet straight up and very, very few can't manage to jump at least an inch. SteveBaker (talk) 06:02, 6 March 2010 (UTC)

I would think there would be many insects that can't jump at all, like millipedes, and also many animals that live on the sea floor. StuRat (talk) 16:41, 6 March 2010 (UTC)

I don't disagree - hence the large "CAVEAT" at the end of my answer. SteveBaker (talk) 19:01, 6 March 2010 (UTC)

White men? --Dweller (talk) 12:52, 8 March 2010 (UTC)

US army designation system

M16A4 rifle
M4A3E4 tank
M240B machine gun
Could someone please explain what these designations mean? I assume the M16 part stands for "model 16", but what about the letter? Why the numbers? Why does some equipment advance to B while other equipment advances to A2? Does the E4 bit signify an experimental model, and how does that work? Thanks in advance.--92.251.192.70 (talk) 11:03, 6 March 2010 (UTC)#

There's not always a firm system in place, so comparing one piece of equipment to another isn't likely to indicate much. However, to take one example {the M4 Sherman variants): M4 was the tank family, as contrasted with the M3 tank. An was an engine variant, in this case a Ford V-8. En represented a further armor/armament variant, in this case an upgraded main gun.

For similar variance, consider the H-60 Blackhawk. Mainline models jumped from the UH-60A to the UH-60L, with virtually no letter usage in-between. Then the next major model is the UH-60M. Then there's a "UH-60M Upgrade", whatever that means. So we advance 12 letters, then one letter, then no letters, for a series of upgrades. The initial medical variant was the UH-60Q, the next was the HH-60L. Different schemes entirely, even though it's the same progression. So I don't think there's a fixed "meaning" to be derived from the minutiae of naming schemes, even if overall general trends can be observed (the 1962 United States Tri-Service aircraft designation system). — Lomn 14:37, 6 March 2010 (UTC)

I understand the aircraft designation system, I'm just interested in this army one. What would an M16B be, for example?--92.251.192.70 (talk) 14:41, 6 March 2010 (UTC)

Do you mean M16 rifle, M16 mine or M16 MGMC anti-aircraft variant half-track? If the M16 rifle, then the variants are listen in the article, but there is no M16B. We do have a list of U.S. military vehicles by model number. See M4 Sherman and M240 machine gun. ---— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk 14:57, 6 March 2010 (UTC)

I was talking about the rifle, and yes I know there is no M16B. I am saying what modifications would have to be mae to get an M16B? For example I can tell you exactly what an RS-19 plane would be even though it doesn't exist, just from the designation. Could someone explain how the US army designation system works?--92.251.192.70 (talk) 15:14, 6 March 2010 (UTC)

An M16B would be an M16A with sufficient modifications to no longer be considered an "A". --Carnildo (talk) 04:40, 7 March 2010 (UTC)

And I'm asking what sort of modifcations are considered to create a "B" rather than and "A5".--92.251.205.164 (talk) 12:38, 7 March 2010 (UTC)

flea jumping the Eiffel Tower

Supposedly if an flea was the size of a person it could jump the Eiffel Tower in a single bound. But if a flea actually was zapped to the size of a person using some machine, wouldn't it collapse under its own weight because it's used to much smaller gravity? And wouldn't it have trouble breathing? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Axlity (talk • contribs) 11:17, 6 March 2010 (UTC)

If it were the size of a person it wouldn't be able to jump as high as a person per the explanation in the #WhY cAn'T eLePhAnTs JuMp? section, above. However flees jump so high relative their size that it would be equivilant to a human jumping as high as the eiffel tower. And if a flea were somehow increased to the size of a human, it wouldn't collapse under its own weight, or I suspect, be affected much at all, as all of its body would be the same size relative to the rest of its body. I guess it would be signifcantly weaker, but apart from that, fine.--92.251.192.70 (talk) 11:22, 6 March 2010 (UTC)

I believe you're wrong about the enlarged flea's not collapsing under its own weight, as its exoskeleton would be insufficiently strong to support its increased weight. See On Being the Right Size. Deor (talk) 13:42, 6 March 2010 (UTC)

Agreed. It would also suffocate, lacking lungs, which larger land animals need to distribute oxygen to cells in the interior (sea animals needing gills). StuRat (talk) 16:35, 6 March 2010 (UTC)

Not certain about fleas, but for a comparison; ants are said to be amazing because they can lift 100 times their own weight - but if we were the same size, we could do that too. Then again, fleas do use a specific method of jumping which we don't have available to us - so we probably wouldn't have flea-like agility at their sizes. Vimescarrot (talk) 11:41, 6 March 2010 (UTC)

It's not used to "smaller gravity" either, it's used to the same gravity as everything else on Earth. (I think I asked about this on the Science RD once, basically gravity is very weak and things living on Earth are very small, so it doesn't really matter very much.) The worst problem is that having a human-sized flea would be extremely freaky. It gives me the willies just thinking about it. Adam Bishop (talk) 12:28, 6 March 2010 (UTC)

Well, we do have many human-sized blood sucking parasites, hence the word politics ("poly", meaning many, + "ticks"). StuRat (talk) 16:33, 6 March 2010 (UTC)

The thing to remember when scaling is that if cross-section (which is, roughly, "strength") squares, then volume (which is, roughly, "weight") cubes. If you make something three times as big in every dimension, it will be nine times as strong, but weigh 27 times as much. This is one reason giant human-shaped robots are not really practical. FiggyBee (talk) 06:53, 7 March 2010 (UTC)

Asian airline ID requested

Which airline do these flight attendants belong to?

Thanks, --Scriberius (talk) 11:34, 6 March 2010 (UTC)

It looks like these uniforms, which are AirAsia. Vimescarrot (talk) 11:43, 6 March 2010 (UTC)

hair care

i've got lots of hair problems. first of all, my hair is very weak, just pull it a little, and it'll come out. i've also got dandruff, and my hair is just, just... well, wavy... in a sense. no matter how hard i soak it lots of water, it just wont straighten properly, which leads to horrible hairstyles. plz, could anyone tell me how i can take care of my hair? of course, i know, different types of hair require different treatments, but the thing is that i dunno what kind of hair is mine. should i use shampoo and conditioner frequently, or go to some other treatment? any kind of help or website will be welcome. thanx —Preceding unsigned comment added by 122.50.132.191 (talk) 13:05, 6 March 2010 (UTC)

Straight hair is waaay over-rated. Wavy hair is much better. As for the dandruff, well showering every day should sort that out. If you already do or that doesn't work I suggest you seek medical help.--92.251.192.70 (talk) 13:16, 6 March 2010 (UTC)

Bad advice. I can shower every day and still have scalp trouble, if I don't use a dandruff shampoo. —Tamfang (talk) 22:44, 7 March 2010 (UTC)

Are you male or female? We can't give medical advice here, but we should be able to give advice on self-care. Also, letting us know where you live might give us a clue as to what products might be available in your area. --TammyMoet (talk) 13:48, 6 March 2010 (UTC)

First, I don't think hair care falls under the umbrella of medical advice (although women sometimes say "my hair is so ugly I could just die !"). If you're male, cutting it shorter might be an option. If you're female, and/or don't want to do that, I suggest some "product", such as hair mousse and/or a moisturizing conditioner to hold down the frizzies. I have to disagree with the previous response that washing your hair frequently will control dandruff. In fact, some dandruff is actually due to overly dried scalp from such washing or an allergy to it or is shampoo buildup flaking off.

You really need to determine which type of dandruff you have to treat it. Try being extra careful to rinse, first, and fully submerge your hair in the bathtub while running your fingers through it repeatedly. If this isn't the problem, try a moisturizing shampoo, in case it's dry skin that's the issue (here "dry" means a lack of oil, not water). And just trying different brands can help you to find if you're allergic to the ingredients in one brand. You also might want to try something with aloe, mint, or eucalyptus in it if your scalp is itchy.

If none of this helps, try specific dandruff-control shampoos, such as Selsun Blue and the "hard stuff", the T-Sal/T-Gel system. And, until you resolve this dandruff issue, wear only light colored tops and coats (although you can actually get dark dandruff if you dye your hair dark). Also try to only comb the surface of your hair, since deep combing can bring up a new batch of dandruff. So, save the deep combing for home, right before you shampoo.

As for straightening your hair, that probably requires a flat iron, and is very hard on the hair, so it's not a good idea if your hair is already weak. There's nothing inherently bad about wavy hair, though, and many people with straight hair go out of their way to make it wavy. So here, I agree with the previous advice to love your hair the way it is.

As for strengthening your hair, just be sure you have a good, balanced diet. Some nutrients, such as protein, are more important for hair than others, but just getting enough of all nutrients will likely solve the problem, if it's a deficiency causing it. Getting more than needed never helps, in such a case. If your diet is poor, improve it, or, if you can't, at least take a multi-vitamin/multi-mineral pill. On the other hand, if others in your family have the same type of hair, it may just be genetics. StuRat (talk) 15:49, 6 March 2010 (UTC)

Use conditioner on it for a start. And ignore what there jokers are saying about hair straightening damaging the hair. It's half true if you do it yourself and botch it or if you use a load of chemicals. But just go to the salon and have it done professionally and it won't do any damage at all. —Preceding unsigned comment added by VCRVLC1010 (talk • contribs) 17:09, 6 March 2010 (UTC)

Royalty

Have there ever been any kings or queens of America? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Jainanie (talk • contribs) 13:44, 6 March 2010 (UTC)

No. The United States of America has been a republic since it came into existence in 1776.--92.251.192.70 (talk) 13:52, 6 March 2010 (UTC)

But there has been an emperor! Adam Bishop (talk) 13:54, 6 March 2010 (UTC)

"America" is a quite generic term. If you are referring to the United States of America, then the answer is no, for the United States has only elected presidents. However, other countries in the Americas have had monarchies - Mexico under Emperor Maximilian I, and Brazil under Emperors Peter I and Peter II. Even today, Queen Elizabeth II is still technically the leader of Canada. Xenon54 / talk / 14:19, 6 March 2010 (UTC)

Not technically at all, she actually is the monarch.--92.251.192.70 (talk) 14:55, 6 March 2010 (UTC)

I think "technically" here means she doesn't have any of the powers we would associate with a queen of "the good old days", like pointing to someone they dislike and saying "off with his head !". (Well, they could say it, but it's not gonna happen.) StuRat (talk) 15:19, 6 March 2010 (UTC)

That particular pronouncement is a favorite of The Queen of Hearts, and even in that fictional world it seems that no one actually loses their head. Vranak (talk) 17:56, 6 March 2010 (UTC)

Of course. But there were certainly many monarchs who could, and did, order beheadings, such as Henry VIII. StuRat (talk) 18:55, 6 March 2010 (UTC)

In any event, she is not the "leader" of Canada. That's the Prime Minister of Canada. The Queen is the Queen of Canada. Modern constitutional monarchs reign, but do not rule. -- Jack of Oz ... speak! ... 19:50, 6 March 2010 (UTC)

@ StuRat: Her powers as Queen of Canada are largely identical to her powers as Queen of the United Kingdom. Yes, they aren't the same as those of the monarchs of the Age of Absolutism, but still, insofar as she is the Actual and 100 % All The Way Without Any Technicalities the Real Queen of the United Kingdom, she is also the Actual and 100 % All The Way Without Any Technicalities the Real Queen of Canada. --Jayron32 01:05, 7 March 2010 (UTC)

Well, there is Queen Latifah. If this is some type of trivia quiz, that might be the answer they are looking for. StuRat (talk) 15:19, 6 March 2010 (UTC)

Queen Elizabeth I was the first British monarch to hold territories in the area now covered by the USA, and George III was the last. Napoleon Bonaparte held huge tracts which he sold off to the US to finance his invasion of Britain. I bet he wished he hadn't. Alansplodge (talk) 15:28, 6 March 2010 (UTC)

Well, France never would have been able to hold onto that land, after having lost Canada to the British, the only question was whether they would lose it to the US, British, or Spanish. So, it was better to sell it and get money than fight for it and lose money, soldiers, and face. StuRat (talk) 16:18, 6 March 2010 (UTC)

Liliuokalani was "Queen of Hawaii " until 1883. Alaska was owned by Russia, and thus under the Tsar, until sold to the US in 1867. Parts of the Pacific Northwest were claimed by Britain until the 1846 Oregon Treaty, and thus under the British monarch. Florida and parts of the Southwest were under the Spanish monarchs until they became US possessions in the 1800s (some became Mexican and then independent first). StuRat (talk) 16:15, 6 March 2010 (UTC)

The early settlers often refered to the heads of Indian tribes and confederations as Kings. King Philip's War for instance involved no Spaniards. Rmhermen (talk) 15:36, 6 March 2010 (UTC)

Of course there were! George III of the United Kingdom was the last legitimate king of the Thirteen Colonies. But the colonies were ruled by the English - and later, British crown for over 150 years. Parts of what is now the USA were ruled by a long succession of Kings & Queens from the house of Stuart and Hanover. SteveBaker (talk) 18:57, 6 March 2010 (UTC)

Go to San Francisco.In the right clubs,you'll find a wide selection of American queens. Lemon martini (talk) 19:28, 6 March 2010 (UTC)

The US also has a Queens, New York. Dismas|^(talk) 01:18, 7 March 2010 (UTC)

And the adjacent borough of Brooklyn is also Kings County, New York. --Anonymous, 01:25 UTC, March 7, 2010.

Entertainment titles aside, the United States Constitution is clear that titles of nobility are not permitted. The constitution is rare when it directly affects people, most constitutional provisions regard the organs of government that then can affect people, but in a few places, like oaths, treason, and nobility, it does directly address individuals. Shadowjams (talk) 09:40, 7 March 2010 (UTC)

King George III ruled over parts of the present United States of America while the United States under the Continental Congress had sovereignty over other parts. The Brits left New York City on Evacuation Day long after fighting ended in the American Revolution, and stayed around in parts of the present U.S northeast for years after. During the War of 1812, the British crown once again exercised sovereignty over parts of the present U.S. northeast. It was part of the United States of America under the Constitution, but the British occupied it and exercised control on behalf of the King, including collecting customs duties. The occupied New Englanders considered secession from the U.S. and the signing of a peace treaty with their erstwhile King.[25] Edison (talk) 01:04, 8 March 2010 (UTC)

logo

I want to create a logo of a medicine shop . So what is the important thing to create this logo ?Supriyochowdhury (talk) 18:15, 6 March 2010 (UTC)

What are you asking ? Do you want help in designing the logo, or do you want to know what software to use, or how to print it ? If you want help in designing it, there are various medical symbols, like the ℞ symbol, mortar and pestle, and the caduceus, which you might want to incorporate into your logo. Here's a pic with those and a few others: [26]. You probably also want the name or initials of the shop in the logo. Beyond that, maybe a smiling person ? (As a person bent over the toilet, vomiting, might not go over very well. :-) ) StuRat (talk) 18:25, 6 March 2010 (UTC)

Side view of man downing pills from a bottle and rubbing his belly? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 79.76.171.183 (talk) 21:19, 6 March 2010 (UTC)

The important thing in the design is to make sure that it is sufficiently different from other medical logos that it's not going to create a trademark conflict (you'd have to talk to a trademark lawyer about how close is too close, etc.). It's also important from a marketing perspective that it's something that people can associate with. Some people go for something that's recognisable as what it's trying to sell: that is a shoe for a shoe store, or a book for a school. Others go for something more abstract, but easily recognisable, such as the Nike swoosh. Either way, it has to be distinctive. Steewi (talk) 03:39, 7 March 2010 (UTC)

A decent design agency. Or if you can afford it, a design agency with good branding credentials. Home-made efforts can be excrutiatingly awful, except for the odd occasion when an amateur is truly gifted. If you do insist on doing it cheaply yourself, make it extremely simple. And go for legibility over design every time. People will try and find you by what you're called, not by what your logo looks like. --Dweller (talk) 12:49, 8 March 2010 (UTC)

I'm not sure it would be worth it, even if they can afford to hire a "professional" to create the logo. That is, would the additional money spent on such an effort result on a return in investment in a reasonable time frame ? If this was a clothing manufacturer which intended to have the logo on their clothes, then I'd say yes. Or even if it's a large chain of medicine shops. But I get the impression it's a single store, in which case the number of additional sales due to having a excellent logo is sure to be quite low. You might argue that they could grow to be a much larger firm in the future, but, of course, they could always redesign their logo at that time, as many do. StuRat (talk) 15:59, 8 March 2010 (UTC)

Debt obligations.

I'm collapsing this whole section. The OP hasn't asked a question and is just soapboxing. I have nothing against the people that have attempted to give helpful responses, but they aren't actually answering the question since there is no question. --Tango (talk) 22:12, 6 March 2010 (UTC)

The question seems to be: I have to ask what misguided "legitimacy" this position might be based upon. Is this ambiguous in some way I have missed? Bielle (talk) 18:41, 7 March 2010 (UTC)

Extended content

So - you lend me a sum of currency because I cannot pay my bills - and I promise to repay my debt. But then, my family objects on the grounds that YOU are bullying me into repaying that debt. And so, I decide to ask my family to vote on whether I should repay the debt, and my family says, "NO". So, in the theory of "might is right", I refuse to honour my debts to you, and retain the love and support of my family, who have now resultantly and collectively renaged on their corporate debt commitments to you. Ridiculous though the foregoing scenario might sound, it bears a strange resemblance to the stance currently being adopted by Iceland against the UK Treasury and I have to ask what misguided "legitimacy" this position might be based upon. And yes, I am a disaffected UK Investor whose investment interest rate currently stands at 0.5% against what it used to be at 5.6%. 92.30.40.175 (talk) 18:32, 6 March 2010 (UTC) Do you have any links or search terms we can use to find out the particulars of this case ? Without that, it's difficult to comment. However, there are generally two reason whereby a debtor may have their debts canceled: If the original contract is found to be invalid, such as if there was fraud involved, or if the debtor is unable to pay, which typically requires bankruptcy to be declared. On an international scale, a country can simply default on it's debts, meaning it admits it's unable to pay, which is similar to bankruptcy. StuRat (talk) 18:41, 6 March 2010 (UTC) Is this what you're talking about: [27] ? StuRat (talk) 18:51, 6 March 2010 (UTC) Except the family aren't objecting on the grounds that you are being bullied, they are objecting on the grounds that you will have to take their money to pay back the debt. It's an awful situation yes, and it vertainly shouldn't have happened, I'm sorry for you. But you can hardly expect the average icelandic citizen to pay mroe taxes when htey don't even understand what happened and why.--92.251.207.117 (talk) 19:22, 6 March 2010 (UTC) Wikipedia has an article on 2008–2009 Icelandic financial crisis. The OP is an investor who seems to have knowingly taken a risk in hope of reaping a profit and in this case it didn't work out well. Cuddlyable3 (talk) 19:37, 6 March 2010 (UTC) Er --- I am sorry - but they elected their Government to act on their behalf and therefore cannot plead ignorance - that I believe is how democracy works. 92.30.40.175 (talk) 19:36, 6 March 2010 (UTC) Many of them didn't.--92.251.207.117 (talk) 20:31, 6 March 2010 (UTC) And your point is ?????????? The minority vote rules ?????? I don't think so - unless Iceland has suddenly become a rogue state ???? 92.30.40.175 (talk) 21:17, 6 March 2010 (UTC) I think that the position of many Icelanders is that they don't accept the international agreements that make them collectively responsible for the deplorable actions of a few of their countrymen. These Icelanders mostly recognize that by rejecting those agreements (even though their elected government previously accepted them, perhaps not fully understanding the ramifications), they will face consequences in the form of impaired access to the international financial system, but, considering what the international financial system got them, they are willing to accept those consequences. Marco polo (talk) 22:06, 6 March 2010 (UTC) Indeed I would note that often if a member of a family takes on a debt, it doesn't mean all members of the family are responsible when they didn't personally sign on as guarantors. And even if they did, in some cases if they didn't understand what they were signing or it was illegal, the contract may be void. For example, even if the person had given power of attorney to someone else, I don't believe it's definite the person will be liable if the person who has power of attorney signs something which was outside the intended remit of the power of attorney and which the person had never agreed upon. So the analogy is flawed in multiple ways. Nil Einne (talk) 09:56, 8 March 2010 (UTC)

Soy sauce with makizushi

Should maki be eaten with shoyu? How should it be dipped, with the shoyu touching the nori or the rice? Thank you. 142.68.140.42 (talk) 19:27, 6 March 2010 (UTC)

See Makizushi —Preceding unsigned comment added by Xcargo321 (talk • contribs) 21:50, 6 March 2010 (UTC)

I'm Japanese. There's no rule. If you want shoyu, eat with shoyu. If not, do not. The man on the left eats makizushi twice in the video here. 2:18 and 3:56. It is also OK to drip shoyu a few drops on makizushi when the sushi is not tight enough. Of cource not from the small dish, but from the container like these. Do not hesitate to eat with your fingers. It's easier. Just enjoy! Oda Mari (talk) 06:22, 7 March 2010 (UTC)

See this one too. Oda Mari (talk) 07:55, 7 March 2010 (UTC)

Implicit trust

Around half an hour before lessons were to end, someone would always call out "i can smell gas" in science class (because there were gas taps for bunsont burners) and the teacher would always go "everyone stay clam, we need to leave the room while we check etc etc". This happened every other lesson for months, and he never once gave the impression he suspected people were just saying it to get out of class early. What is that called, where someone just keeps believing what you say is true no matter how many times you do it to them? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Merrit400 (talk • contribs) 21:32, 6 March 2010 (UTC)

Extreme gullibility —Preceding unsigned comment added by 79.76.171.183 (talk) 21:54, 6 March 2010 (UTC)

Or he felt it was better to be on the safe side and always assume the risk is genuine. He may also have not wanted to punish people for calling out falsely because that would discourage genuine calls. --Tango (talk) 22:15, 6 March 2010 (UTC)

Or the gullible ones are the pupils that the teacher is happy for an excuse to get rid of. That is called having the last laugh. Cuddlyable3 (talk) 23:41, 6 March 2010 (UTC)

Or maybe just be glad that you're out of compulsory school. And remember that lesson. That centralized government planning telling you what to do is the most efficient way of doing things in an educated, organized society. Or maybe that's not quite right.... Shadowjams (talk) 10:25, 7 March 2010 (UTC)

The Boy Who Cried Wolf comes to mind. Usually it's interpreted to be a cautionary tale for people in the boy's position, but it can also be interpreted as a cautionary tale for people in the villagers' position. (That is, even someone who's raised false alarms in the past may raise a real alarm at somepoint.) -- 174.21.235.250 (talk) 18:35, 7 March 2010 (UTC)

March 7

Speeking question

Is it possible to speak without your lips ever touching your front teeth? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 79.76.196.132 (talk) 00:33, 7 March 2010 (UTC)

Yes, but certain letters would be difficult to pronounce. See ventriloquism for details - that is basically what you are talking about, except ventriloquists don't let their lips move at all. --Tango (talk) 00:35, 7 March 2010 (UTC)

It's pretty much mandatory if you have dental braces. --antilived^{T | C | G} 10:20, 7 March 2010 (UTC)

Ask this person to tell you. Cuddlyable3 (talk) 17:22, 7 March 2010 (UTC)

Yes. —Preceding unsigned comment added by TrialicWave (talk • contribs) 18:55, 7 March 2010 (UTC)

I'm reminded of Joss Whedon's remark (in DVD commentary on "The Harvest") that it was cruel to ask an actor to say "Jesse was an excruciating loser" through vampire teeth. —Tamfang (talk) 22:51, 7 March 2010 (UTC)

It's impossible to speak "good English" (here left deliberately undefined) without the lips on the front teeth. It's needed to pronounce /f/ and /v/ properly. However, if you pronounce /f/ and /v/ as [Φ] and [β] instead of [f] and [v], it's possible, but will sound a little weird. As Antilived mentioned above, when you have dental braces or a dental plate, it changes your speech a bit to accomodate the difference (I developed a bit of a lisp). Steewi (talk) 02:09, 8 March 2010 (UTC)

Soap Opera

Why are they called soap operas? they rarley have anything to do with soap and rarley do they sing opera please explain. thanks —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.3.145.145 (talk) 01:58, 7 March 2010 (UTC)

According to our article soap opera:

The name soap opera stems from the original dramatic serials broadcast on radio that had soap manufacturers such as Procter & Gamble, Colgate-Palmolive, and Lever Brothers as sponsors and producers.

Intelligentsium 02:05, 7 March 2010 (UTC)

(ec)These kinds of shows originated on radio, and were frequently sponsored by the makers of soap and other products that it was assumed would be of interest to their target audience. The "opera" part is just being funny - ascribing high class to something mundane. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 02:07, 7 March 2010 (UTC)

Opera, generally, is not "high class", but extremely accessible, funny, and with storylines so ridiculous they put Neighbours to shame (the exception to this is Wagnerian opera, which is not to be wished on anyone). People who think it's some high-falutin' boring snobby business usually know nothing about it. Likewise Shakespeare, whose works are actually full of your mom jokes, cross-dressing, and terrible puns. FiggyBee (talk) 06:41, 7 March 2010 (UTC)

Maybe "classical" would be the better term. Tony Randall was a big fan of opera, in part (as he once explained to Johnny Carson) because they have such racy storylines, or as he put it, because they are "dirty". ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 14:02, 7 March 2010 (UTC)

In fact, radio shows frequently had the sponsor in the title: "The Johnson Wax Program, starring Fibber McGee and Molly." The Lux Radio Theater, which was sponsored by Lux soap. That kind of thing. One of the last vestiges of that approach was the TV anthology series called the Hallmark Hall of Fame. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 02:09, 7 March 2010 (UTC)

I believe I read they were called "operas" because of their reputations for being overly emotional and dramatic. (In the US they were -- and are -- aired in the early afternoon, so their primary audience would be housewives.) Although I believe the prevailing European practice is to air soap operas in the early evening (18:00 to 20:00), the term is still used in British English and most European languages (with the exception of Spanish and maybe German, which prefer "Telenovela"). Xenon54 / talk / 02:48, 7 March 2010 (UTC)

Was? See Hallmark Channel (International). Woogee (talk) 06:42, 7 March 2010 (UTC)

The soap part comes from the misogynistic male view that only women would enjoy a soap opera and they'd be enjoying it while washing the dishes. It's an extremely dated, offensive term which should not be used. —Preceding unsigned comment added by TrialicWave (talk • contribs) 18:54, 7 March 2010 (UTC)

We've had a statement of the source of "soap", thank you, which is nothing to do with your claim, TrialicWave. Or was that intended as a joke? What we haven't had (nor does Soap opera give, on a quick scan) is a documented source for 'opera'. --ColinFine (talk) 19:07, 7 March 2010 (UTC)

I googled ["soap opera" origin] and a number of entries came up. This one, about Procter & Gamble, might be considered at least as trustworthy a guess as the others.[28] And many of them seem to be using the "opera" part as a somewhat humorous synonym for "drama" (maybe you'll recall from the movie Tootsie how the producers insisted that their shows be called "daytime dramas" rather than "soap operas"). I wouldn't say the explanation is definitive, but something to keep in mind is that western movies were often called "horse operas", i.e. basically the same joke, humorously dubbing those works with a high-falutin' connotation. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 01:46, 8 March 2010 (UTC)

gallileo, io, thor

there is or was an article on the main page stating that gallileo flew through a plume from the volcano thor on io and collected data, do we have an article on what data was collected and what we learned from this please? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.3.145.145 (talk) 02:38, 7 March 2010 (UTC)

You might wanna check out the Galileo (spacecraft) article for more info. 24.189.90.68 (talk) 04:18, 7 March 2010 (UTC)

I did, and it did not give me the info i am looking for —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.3.145.145 (talk) 12:08, 7 March 2010 (UTC)

There's an inital report here, this looks pretty good, and some likely other (paper) sources appear in the refs of Volcanism on Io. Deor (talk) 16:25, 7 March 2010 (UTC)

Oh, and see especially Thor (volcano)#August 2001. Deor (talk) 19:24, 7 March 2010 (UTC)

War Crimes

Has anyone been tried for War Crimes in the 21st century? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Suhgi yostiba (talk • contribs) 11:08, 7 March 2010 (UTC)

The article List of war crimes may help you. --Phil Holmes (talk) 11:17, 7 March 2010 (UTC)

One current trial is that of Radovan Karadžić who stands accused of:

• Five counts of crimes against humanity (Article 5 of the Statute - extermination, murder, persecutions on political, racial and religious grounds, persecutions, inhumane acts (forcible transfer));
• Three counts of violations of the laws of war (Article 3 of the Statute - murder, unlawfully inflicting terror upon civilians, taking hostages);
• One count of grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions (Article 2 of the Statute - willful killing).
• Unlawful transfer of civilians because of religious or national identity.

131.111.248.99 (talk) 13:56, 7 March 2010 (UTC)

The ICC's first trial, of Congolese militia leader Thomas Lubanga, began on 26 January 2009. On 24 November 2009 the second trial started, against Congolese militia leaders Germain Katanga and Mathieu Ngudjolo Chui. Cuddlyable3 (talk) 17:27, 7 March 2010 (UTC)

There are also ongoing trials of former Khmer Rouge leaders in Cambodia for war crimes, crimes against humanity etc under both Cambodian and international law [29]. Sadly we don't seem to have specific articles on these. Saddam Hussein was tried for various crimes against humanity and he would likely have been tried for war crimes were it not for his execution Nil Einne (talk) 10:08, 8 March 2010 (UTC)

Royal Mail -- Return to Sender?

I've just moved into a new flat. How can I get all the mail delivered to the former tenants returned? Can I just write 'return to sender' on the envelope and dump it in the post box? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.189.9.247 (talk) 17:48, 7 March 2010 (UTC)

A quick Google turns up [30], which seems to advocate doing pretty much exactly that, albeit for junk mail. Obviously it'll have to have a return address on the envelope somewhere. You can do it unstamped - the recipient just has to pay the difference, as usual. 131.111.248.99 (talk) 18:05, 7 March 2010 (UTC)

Yes, you just cross through the original delivery address and write "gone away - return to sender" on the front of the envelope, and stick it in a convenient post box. DuncanHill (talk) 18:24, 7 March 2010 (UTC)

• Here is the "official line" from the Royal Mail - [31]. DuncanHill (talk) 18:47, 7 March 2010 (UTC)

You could also find out maybe from the estate agent where the previous people moved to and send it to them and ask them to get their addresses changed on their forms. —Preceding unsigned comment added by TrialicWave (talk • contribs) 18:53, 7 March 2010 (UTC)

You actually can write 'Return To Sender' (or even 'RTS') on the envelope and either put it in the postbox or take it to the post office. I did it plenty of times when I moved into my last flat. --KägeTorä - (影虎) (TALK) 22:23, 7 March 2010 (UTC)

Would "gone away - return to sender" mean the same thing over there as it does here in the US? When I read "gone away", I take it to mean that someone will be back. As in, "They've gone away but will be back in a couple weeks". To my ears/eyes, saying "Moved - return to sender" would be more clear that the intended recipient no longer lives there. Dismas|^(talk) 22:49, 7 March 2010 (UTC)

If you knew where they had gone away to, you would cross through the old address and put their new one on, and the PO would redirect it for free. If you knw they were coming back, you'd hold on the the post for them. "Gone away", in Britain, does not (in postal terms) imply any potential for return. DuncanHill (talk) 22:54, 7 March 2010 (UTC)

I put 'not at this address' on the ones that come through my door. They never come back to me (no idea whether they make it to their intendent recipient but i'm betting based on the envelopes 99% of it is junk-mail anyways). ny156uk (talk) 23:10, 7 March 2010 (UTC)

It may take a while for all the databases to be updated. I'm still getting mail for the previous occupant 3 years later!! I write 'Gone away' above the address and repost it, nothing has returned. Richard Avery (talk) 07:12, 8 March 2010 (UTC)

Landlord

Is the landlord of a property responsible for the roof or is the person living directly below the roof (and thus having attic space) responsible? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Eisoser4 (talk • contribs) 18:29, 7 March 2010 (UTC)

This will be a matter of local law and/or the terms on the rental contract. It is not something that the Ref Desk can answer except in terms so general as to be near useless in any specific instance. Bielle (talk) 18:35, 7 March 2010 (UTC)

In the majority of cases, the landlord is responsible for exterior maintenance. StuRat (talk) 19:45, 7 March 2010 (UTC)

Also, in most cases the landlord is responsible for the functional systems of the house, so one would also include HVAC, electrical, and plumbing in what is usually the responsibility of the landlord as well as the structural integrity of the building. Usually, cosmetic maintanance is the responsibility of the renter, so they are usally responsible to keep the grass mowed, for example. Depending on the specifics of the contract, other things like interior painting, fixtures, and furniture can fall to varying degrees to either the landlord or the renter. --Jayron32 21:29, 7 March 2010 (UTC)

It may also depend on whether you are renting the entire house, or merely a portion of it (e.g. an apartment/flat in a house), and the time period for which it was rented (e.g. a month-to-month or yearly lease, versus a 30-year lease or a lease for life). In most of the apartments I've rented, the landlord was responsible for all routine maintenance issues of items which would stay with the apartment if I vacated, e.g. including ovens and refrigerators. I could not imagine that repair of a roof, which is a major financial outlay and would benefit the owners and occupants far into the future, would be the responsibility of a tenant who may be vacating the premise in less than a year. However, your local laws and rental contracts can vary significantly. I'll also note that if the damage to the roof was caused by maliciousness or willful neglect by the tenant (e.g. they tore shingles off in a drunken stupor, or held a party on it, damaging tiles) most jurisdictions would hold the person causing the damage, rather than the landlord, to be responsible. -- 174.21.235.250 (talk) 03:15, 8 March 2010 (UTC)

American military

Found it.

Has the American armed forces grown in size related to Americas population growth or has the number of armed forces personnel remained pretty much at a static level? —Preceding unsigned comment added by CaKrunWn (talk • contribs) 22:55, 7 March 2010 (UTC)

It has decreased in size relative to america's population over the last 20 or so years--92.251.216.41 (talk) 23:06, 7 March 2010 (UTC)

I found a nice graph in this CRS report; see thumbnail to the right. That's active duty military personnel divided by 1000, so around 1952 it peaked at around 3.7 million. By contrast, this BBC pic has a US population graph as the topmost graph. As you can infer from the graph, it's the demands of US foreign wars that determines the military size; the two big peaks there are for the Korean War and the Vietnam War, both of which utilized the draft (see Conscription in the United States). I would expect "armed forces growth = population growth" to be true in a place like Israel, with its mandatory military service. Comet Tuttle (talk) 07:22, 8 March 2010 (UTC)

Note that the chart starts in 1950. The numbers would have been much higher during WW2. Also note that modern fighting concepts tend to limit "troops on the ground" in favor of more use of air power and, recently, drones. Since those methods tend to be more expensive, the military budgets can go up even at times when troop levels go down. Also, more use of contractors means that the budgets and total number of people (versus soldiers) deployed might both go up, despite what the chart indicates. StuRat (talk) 09:50, 8 March 2010 (UTC)

March 8

How do I avoid abuse when asking for more information about a Wiki reference?

If I don't understand the entry provided in Wiki; where do I go to ask for clarification without being subjected to abuse? OR: Am I using this site incorrectly? Often; entries are defined with explanations that require advanced tertiary degrees to understand. In an encyclopedia that is intended for the general public, these entries provide no benefit to the ordinary reader. I understand that the "Discussion" tab is provided for contributers and editors to collaborate on the shape and content of the main page. It is not there for "Readers" to ask questions. So I presumed that the Reference Desk may be a source of charitable advise regarding my difficulties. I thought that the "Talk" pages were provided for just such a purpose; however, when I posted my questions there, I received answers that either:

1. Ignored the questions or answered a different question
2. Repeated the complex and opaque language in the original definition
3. Provided additional examples that only led to additional confusions

I, dutifully, thanked contributers for their help and pointed out the existing and additional confusions that transpired from their answers and attempted to ask my questions in a more targeted form. I was assailed by contributers with insults and gratutious advise regarding solutions to my ignorance. This behavior appears to be common throughout the Internet; however, I was surprised to encounter it here. Nevertheless, I apologised for my initial ignorance and my veracity in admitting to my continueing ignorance - presuming that reasonable people understand the difference between ignorance and intelligence. Now, I am perplexed: Is there no place within Wiki where I can ask genuine questions without having to endure the sorts of comments my enquiries provoked? I am merely trying to use Wiki in a manner that I thought stood it apart from other encyclopedias: an on-line source of information, constantly under review and improvement, in the hands of the people who hold the knowledge - not just a single entry, take it or leave it. I assumed that the community writing the definitions would appreciate additional questions from genuine readers. If sufficiently interested and motivated to help, they could gauge the source of my misunderstanding and re-work the entries to render them more accessible to the average person. But no; some entries seem to be testimony to the brilliance of the contributers and show little interest in providing useful information to the general reader beyond expecting them to marvel at the intelligence of the geniuses that wrote the page. I can't pick up a tertiary volume on any esoteric science or technology and expect to understand the language, as it is not written for the lay-person. Is this the same for Wiki? If so; I'm sorry. GPCViriya (talk) 01:05, 8 March 2010 (UTC)

This is an ongoing problem at Wikipedia, where a group of experts dominates the edits of an article, and write it in such a way that only they can understand it. I've personally worked very hard to fix one such article, which even one of the founders of Wikipedia had criticized as being overly complex, only to have it continually changed back to the same PhD level article it was when I started. I suggest asking your questions on the appropriate Ref Desk. You might still get some of those type of answers, but hopefully there will be some people who can also gauge the audience (you) and provide answers at the desired level. StuRat (talk) 01:20, 8 March 2010 (UTC)

Thank you for your support. I am a genuine fan of Wiki and have benefitted greatly from it as a resource. I fear that my writing is too clumsy and leaves the wrong impression at times, causing people offense when none is intended. Maybe there is scope for the PhD's to invite educators to provide a more general explanation for public consumption and still expand the topic to the highest level for the sake of completedness.
GPCViriya (talk) 05:06, 8 March 2010 (UTC)

Yep - it's certainly an endemic problem in some math and science subjects. If you take something really basic like Force - I'd want to see "F=ma" in there someplace near the top - just like our Momentum article puts p=mv right there in the second sentence. But Force goes on for two long sections before it gets into the equations - and then it starts off with a vector differential equation for chrissakes! I can't think of anyone anywhere who could understand the concept of a vector differential equation who'd need to look up the equations for Force! Even the info-box says that it's the differential with respect to time of mass times velocity - a true statement but since masses of things don't change much and the differential of velocity with respect to time is more simply stated as 'acceleration', it's really unhelpful to someone who actually NEEDS to understand this subject. It does eventually gets around to say F=ma (albeit with some arrows over the top). But for a kid in highschool - the obvious, simple explanation needs to come first. There are much worse examples out there - this was just the first one I looked at.

A complaint about the complexity of the article most certainly does belong on its discussion page. However, requests for clarification do not. The Ref.Desk can answer questions like that - but you need to explain that you've already tried to understand the article and cannot - or we'll just point you right back to the article.

05:15, 8 March 2010 (UTC)

I agree that this is a persistent problem on many, many math and science articles. I do ask for clarification and simplification on the talk pages of these articles and my advice in response to abuse is to remain very patient and remind the regulars that an encyclopedia is written for the layman. Usually they know it's a problem (again, WP:OR). Comet Tuttle (talk) 06:59, 8 March 2010 (UTC)

Just pointing out that articles in need of rewriting can be added to the queue at WP:COPYEDITORS. Ghmyrtle (talk) 08:01, 8 March 2010 (UTC)

Is there a name for the phenomenon, so it can be countered with some pithy guideline like K.I.S.S.? Hmm no sig but the voice is strangely familiar...213.122.53.235 (talk) 12:33, 8 March 2010 (UTC)

I don't see the problem with the force article. The third sentence pf the article says "Newton's second law can be formulated to state that an object with a constant mass will accelerate in proportion to the net force acting upon and in inverse proportion to its mass". That is a clear high-school description of "F=ma". If you put equations in the lede section then you fall foul of another group of readers who complain that the article is too mathematical and does not explain its concepts in "plain English". Gandalf61 (talk) 12:55, 8 March 2010 (UTC)

I would contend that the given sentence is at least as mathematical as the equation, and don't really see any way to reduce it without going to something like "force is equal to mass times acceleration". 131.111.248.99 (talk) 13:30, 8 March 2010 (UTC)

And why not say it that way ? It's simple, concise, and yet still defines the terms for those who may not know what "m" and "a" represent. StuRat (talk) 15:51, 8 March 2010 (UTC)

I'm not convinced that anyone has abused this user. He or she asked a question about space on the science ref desk and received a number of helpful answers. When he or she disagreed with the answers, they were reminded to be polite to the ref desk contributors. No abuse, just careful help.

FWIW I would suggest that if there are aspects of the Space article which they don't like, they should raise them at the talk page and will likely get a good hearing. --Phil Holmes (talk) 15:39, 8 March 2010 (UTC)

Limits

I have been brushing up on limits in my spare time (I don't usually use them in my profession, but I'd like to know them). So if I remember right from high school maths, in $\lim _{x\to a}{bx^{n}}$ or some such formula, couldn't you just substitute a for x to find the limit (unless doing so would result in an undefined solution, as in $\lim _{x\to a}{\operatorname {bx^{n}} \over \operatorname {x-a} }).$ In the latter case, I would have to try to get the a out of the bottom or modify the limit to not result in an undefined solution. After I do that, am I correct in assuming I can just plug a in for x whereever? 68.76.146.111 (talk) 03:22, 8 March 2010 (UTC)

You might get a good answer here, but you might improve your chances by posting this on the math page. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 03:25, 8 March 2010 (UTC)

Yes for the first example, since the expression doesn't do anything odd around x=a. However, you're not going to be able to get the a out of the bottom in the second case. As Buzz Lightyear would say, you're just going to + or - infinity (if not beyond). Clarityfiend (talk) 03:44, 8 March 2010 (UTC)

Beyond. Right. As in the final section of 2001, "Beyond the Infinite". Or as a weird math teacher once said to our class in reference to irrational numbers, "There are at least an infinit number of irrationals." ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 03:53, 8 March 2010 (UTC)

And thats just on WP:RD! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 79.76.232.131 (talk) 04:45, 8 March 2010 (UTC)

[32] ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 08:07, 8 March 2010 (UTC)

Your math teacher knew what he was talking about. There are different sizes of infinity. There are exactly the same number of rational numbers as there are integers ($\aleph _{0}$), but there are strictly more irrational numbers ($2^{\aleph _{0}}$). See cardinal number and Cantor's diagonal argument for a start. --Trovatore (talk) 09:51, 8 March 2010 (UTC)

Do prices include sales tax in California?

In brick-and-mortar stores in California, do sticker prices in brick-and-mortar stores normally include applicable sales taxes? NeonMerlin 05:58, 8 March 2010 (UTC)

No. PhGustaf (talk) 06:03, 8 March 2010 (UTC)

In my experience, the answer is "extremely rarely, so much so that a store that does this would certainly have to put signs up all over the place telling the customer about it". I can't actually think of a store in California that does this. Comet Tuttle (talk) 06:57, 8 March 2010 (UTC)

Occasionally a store like Orchard Supply Hardware will have a "We pay the sales tax!" weekend sale. But incorporating the sales tax into the usual price of a product is, I think, illegal in California. PhGustaf (talk) 07:08, 8 March 2010 (UTC)

Really? I'd be interested to see that law. I can't think of a reason to prohibit such behavior; it certainly doesn't mislead the consumer into buying something that's more expensive than he's expecting. If anything it makes the consumer think the price is higher than it is; then he gets a pleasant surprise at the register. --Trovatore (talk) 09:44, 8 March 2010 (UTC)

I've read it here before and the reason given was checkout operators and others may cheat the customer who doesn't realise the sales tax is built in and make them pay extra which they pocket. Personally I think the better way to handle it would be make it compulsary to include the sales tax or make it abundantly clear if they aren't as done in most countries who use a GST/VAT. Of course just moving to a GST/VAT may be better but that's no an argument for here. Nil Einne (talk) 10:15, 8 March 2010 (UTC)

Taxes in the US are generally itemized. One common exception would be at sporting and theatrical events, where the taxes are built in on the concession items, presumably to help keep the lines moving. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 08:03, 8 March 2010 (UTC)

Another case where taxes might be included is a concession stand which sells snacks or other low cost items. One reason is that they don't have to calculate the taxes while the customer waits. Another is that they can use "round numbers" for prices, to the nearest dollar, quarter, dime, or nickel, so as to limit the time needed to make change. Those differences could make the line move twice as fast, and therefore make a big difference in total sales. Some dollar stores take that practice to the extreme, and make everything a dollar so no price tags, math or change is needed, although I've seen others that do add taxes. StuRat (talk) 09:38, 8 March 2010 (UTC)

As someone who comes from a jurisdiction in which taxes are included in the advertised price, I must say I find it very confusing and misleading to go into a shop and be charged more than the price on the label. DuncanHill (talk) 10:06, 8 March 2010 (UTC)

And even worse than that are ads that say "Only have a dollar in your pocket ? Well you can still get any of the items off our value menu for just that". Anyone trying to do so will quickly find out that they can't, since sales tax takes the price over the dollar they have. StuRat (talk) 10:56, 8 March 2010 (UTC)

Not sure about the US situation, but here in the UK whether or not you get a price with VAT (what repalced sales tax in the UK) seems to depend on the primary nature of the type of customer a seller deals with. Prices quoted by retail chains tend to be VAT inclusive, whereas firms who primarily deal with 'trade' customers tend to list the VAT as a seperate item... Some firms I've dealt with sometimes list two prices... Sfan00 IMG (talk) 10:16, 8 March 2010 (UTC)

After some searching, the two reasons for not including tax in the price that sound most reasonable to me are A) If tax were included, then the tax would somehow have to be deducted from the prices when non-profits and churches purchase items. They don't get charged sales tax in the US. and B) it eliminates confusion for the manufacturer because tax rates are different between states and even from one town to the next. So they can set their price for their product and not have to worry about what the tax rate is for a market. So, for instance, McDonald's can have their "dollar menu" or whatever and the price remains the same. The store charges the tax and that's that. If they had to include the tax, then they'd have to advertise it as a "something close to a dollar but maybe not depending on your local taxes menu". Dismas|^(talk) 10:57, 8 March 2010 (UTC)

Visa Inquiry...

Hello Sir/Madam,

With due honor i wish to appreciate your services and ask a visa related question.

Am a successful business man in Cameroon who wish to take a vacation by going on a touristic tour to Singapore, Kosovo, and Georgia. please i understood this countries were visa free for a Cameroonian. so i will like to know if there are still visa free for a Cameroonian this year 2010???????. 'If yes', what is required on entry the countries listed above?????. —Preceding unsigned comment added by FRUERIC (talk • contribs) 09:47, 8 March 2010 (UTC)

I have formatted your question so that it's easier to read and changed the heading to be more descriptive. I'm sorry, I don't know the answer to your question. Dismas|^(talk) 10:21, 8 March 2010 (UTC)

Have you picked these countries solely because of their visa-free status for Cameroonians? They are very far apart. Also, while Singapore is well known for its tourism, Kosovo and Georgia are emphatically not, and are indeed dangerous places which many countries strongly advise their citizens not to travel to (that said, so is Cameroon...). FiggyBee (talk) 10:41, 8 March 2010 (UTC)

I think you exaggerate, in the case of Georgia. There are plenty of attractions - our article on Tourism in Georgia provides a very brief summary - and British government advice states that much of the country is safe enough for travel. They also state that "most visits to Kosovo are trouble-free", although I'm not aware of any significant tourism infrastructure there. Warofdreams talk 13:17, 8 March 2010 (UTC)

The usual sources of information about visa requirements are embassies or consuls of the countries concerned, and travel agencies. Cuddlyable3 (talk) 12:25, 8 March 2010 (UTC)

Paintings

How is a paintings value determined? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Techcolis (talk • contribs) 13:41, 8 March 2010 (UTC)

I think generally by reference to the prices paid for other paintings by the same painter, and then taking account of secondary considerations such as the state of the market, the relative importance of a particular painting, etc. There is a fair amount of smoke and mirrors involved in the art market, and the process is at best somewhat arbitrary. --Tagishsimon (talk) 13:52, 8 March 2010 (UTC)

Somewhat related articles: Art finance, Economics of the arts and literature, Art valuation, Art world economics, Art dealer. Bus stop (talk) 14:18, 8 March 2010 (UTC)

Paintings are often sold by auction and thuis it depends on what people are willing to pay for them, which, as mentioned above, affects what other paintings are valued at. The price is therefore influenced by the prominence of the artist. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 62.172.59.90 (talk) 20:11, 8 March 2010 (UTC)

Most expensive material

What is the most expensive (moneywise) material on earth? I guessed diamonds but I could be wrong. --Reticuli88 (talk) 15:51, 8 March 2010 (UTC)

I've heard that pound-for-pound Saffron is more expensive than Gold. Never investigated to see if that's true though. Diamonds may well be worth more. Would you include or exclude man-made materials? 194.221.133.226 (talk) 16:10, 8 March 2010 (UTC)

No, no exclusions --Reticuli88 (talk) 16:23, 8 March 2010 (UTC)

I also heard inkjet printer ink was more expensive than gold! This link gives a grouse about it. [33] --TammyMoet (talk) 16:26, 8 March 2010 (UTC) link added--TammyMoet (talk) 16:28, 8 March 2010 (UTC)

Maybe Moon rocks are expensive, at the present time. Bus stop (talk) 16:32, 8 March 2010 (UTC)

This site suggests antimatter and LSD are worth more than diamonds. -- Flyguy649 ^talk 16:33, 8 March 2010 (UTC)

There are any number of materials that are truly priceless. At infinite value, they're hard to beat. I'd head the list with any of my vital organs, which currently are priceless, but could potentially be acquired at a quite remarkable discount at some point in the future. --Dweller (talk) 16:35, 8 March 2010 (UTC)

I don't think there's a real answer to that question. One candidate might be Californium. This is a real material, in that it's used in milligram quantities, but is said to have an interesting property: a .45 bullet made of the stuff shot onto a concrete wall would compress into a critical mass and go kablooie. That would be one expensive bullet. PhGustaf (talk) 16:37, 8 March 2010 (UTC)

Californium cost $60m per gram in 2000[34]. In contrast rhodium is according to the Wikipedia article the most expensive precious metal at $80,000/kg.

In contrast, William Shakespeare's signature is reportedly worth $3 million[35], and a 10x10 cm piece of paper with his name on might weigh 1 gram. --Normansmithy (talk) 16:52, 8 March 2010 (UTC)

Great source about Californium. It makes sense here to consider a "material" as "something one can make stuff of" — objects of antiquarian or personal value don't count. PhGustaf (talk) 17:05, 8 March 2010 (UTC)

According to our article, it is almost certainly antimatter, specifically antihydrogen at $62 trillion/gm. Googlemeister (talk) 16:53, 8 March 2010 (UTC)

Sorry, but my lungs are far more valuable than that. --Dweller (talk) 16:57, 8 March 2010 (UTC)

Technically, your lungs are not a material. If they were, I would gladly sell 1 gram of my lung tissue for $US62 trillion. Googlemeister (talk) 17:26, 8 March 2010 (UTC)

In what sense are your lungs priceless, exactly? I'm sure one could hire someone to acquire them for rather less than trillions of dollars, and they certainly wouldn't sell for that much on the open market. Algebraist 17:03, 8 March 2010 (UTC)

I currently own them and therefore set the market price. I'm sure there's a nice case study here on elasticity of demand, as the price is entirely unrelated to demand and interestingly/peculiarly related to supply. On your other point, if you're going to hire someone to acquire things (presumably nefariously) the prices for all these things are rather more arbitrary than the figures we're bandying around. A bloke down the tube offered me a gram of anti-matter for a fiver this morning. --Dweller (talk) 17:09, 8 March 2010 (UTC)

did you ask him to shake the container to make sure that it was still in there? Googlemeister (talk) 17:24, 8 March 2010 (UTC)

You have two lungs (I presume) and can survive with one, so would you really be unwilling to sell a lung at any price? I find that hard to believe. It wouldn't be too hard to buy a replacement lung on the black market with some of that money, for a start. Few things, if any, are truly priceless. --Tango (talk) 17:55, 8 March 2010 (UTC)

An excellent point... if I had said "lung". But I said "lungs". --Dweller (talk) 19:53, 8 March 2010 (UTC)

An excellent point... if a pair of lungs could be considered a material. Honestly, your lungs have very little value to anyone but you, and trying to sell you your lungs back probably will not work well either. Googlemeister (talk) 20:09, 8 March 2010 (UTC)

Ink ($/ml) in a typical inkjet printer cartridge is a potential candidate, albeit artificially inflated by HP and the likes. --Chan Tai Man 20:24, 8 March 2010 (UTC)

Not a pull-up, not a chin-up

In the pull-up, the palms are facing away. In the chin-up, they are facing you. But, how is it called when you are pulling your body up with the palms facing each other? --Mr.K. (talk) 17:47, 8 March 2010 (UTC)

Mitt Romney

I need an address so I can send him some material. Rich Wareing —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.49.175.91 (talk) 18:06, 8 March 2010 (UTC)

I removed your physical address from this posting. It is not necessary to post your physical or e-mail address here, because we answer all questions right here. (It's also a bad idea to post them, for privacy reasons.) As to your question, our Mitt Romney article implies he's unemployed at the moment, but you may be able to send him your material via his PAC. Though his signature is right at the top, the text at the bottom claims it's "not authorized by any candidate or candidate's committee", so you should write them an e-mail first to see what to do. Comet Tuttle (talk) 19:07, 8 March 2010 (UTC)

S$1.8K - S$2.5K Sales Secretary cum Coordinator

What does this secretary have to do?--Mr.K. (talk) 18:47, 8 March 2010 (UTC)

Wi-Fi friendly after-hours place in central charlotte

Hey, I'm working in Charlotte (NC) today and I'm not going to be able to leave until around 9/9:30 or so. I know a lot of places close after people leave the area for work. But I'm looking for a place where I can just sit for like 4 or so hours on my laptop, get free WI-FI, not buy anything, and it be a relatively comfortable environment. Any ideas? Chris M. (talk) 19:00, 8 March 2010 (UTC)