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April 6

Twenty sensible questions?

After I posted some questions from New Era Publications who sell Scientology materials they have sent me 20 more. How should one respond to these?

1. Have you ever become frustrated because dealing with the “wrong” person in doing a job for you?

2. Or what about the hours of wasted time trying to come up with an “agreement” with an individual that was below 2.0 on the Tone scale - and you didn't spot this in time?

3. How can you conclude a deal with someone on 1.1 or apathy? Is it actually possible?

4. How do you recognize the tone of a person with only a handshake?

5. Or, what do you need to know about a person who is too fat?

6. How do you know when you have just spoken with a person who is 1.1?

7. How do you sell to people at different tone levels, i.e. cover hostility, apathy, boredom, antagonism etc…?

8. Do beings have different theta “peculiar capabilities” or are we basically all the same?

9. How does reactivity affect the performance of the individual at work?

10. How can you predict a person's honesty, ethics level, persistence and responsibility level?

11. Why does a businessman need to know the tech of Human Evaluation?

12. What is the importance of goals and ideals to survival?

13. What does the ability to conquest the physical universe have to do with a thetan's tone level?

14. How can you introduce someone to Scientology very easily?

15. How does the individual handle truth at various points on the tone scale?

16. How would you like to know how a thetan creates the MEST universe?

17. What is energy?

18. How does a thetan use his mind and body to operate and control motion and MEST?

20. How would you like to know how to tell a person's tone level from the condition of his belongings?

21. How would you like to find out what the true cause of anxiety is?

(I added numbers for easy reference to the questions and some links to help with the Co$ jargon.) Cuddlyable3 (talk) 00:16, 6 April 2010 (UTC)

If there are 20 sensible questions, which one is the crazy one ? :-) StuRat (talk) 00:38, 6 April 2010 (UTC)

Gotta be number 14. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 01:45, 6 April 2010 (UTC)

These questions can only be answered by the Scientology organisation since only they actually use the terms involved. If you want to know the answers, you need to join Scientology. You may wish to research the organisation and find out about the harassment, fraud and general nonsense they spout before handing over any cash, though... If you do, don't expect the answers to actually make sense. --Tango (talk) 00:58, 6 April 2010 (UTC)

I'm sure it all makes sense to a "Cleared Theta Clear". StuRat (talk) 01:20, 6 April 2010 (UTC)

I kept waiting for the question, "And hast thou slain the jabberwock, my son?" ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 01:45, 6 April 2010 (UTC)

DFTT: One should ignore them and hope they stop sending you annoying junkmail. SteveBaker (talk) 01:49, 6 April 2010 (UTC)

Has anyone ever tried to take their tests and things with no intention of joining, just to mess with them? It seems like the kind of nonsense that any sensible person could easily reject. Or are they so good at it that that would completely backfire? Adam Bishop (talk) 15:20, 6 April 2010 (UTC)

They seem to have a strategy of only telling you the logical parts, like improving your life by getting off drugs and alcohol, at first, and leaving the really wacky stuff until you are into them for thousands of dollars and many years of your life. StuRat (talk) 15:37, 6 April 2010 (UTC)

I'll confess, I took their introductory quiz once, just out of curiosity. I scored 9/10 across the board, and decided that any organization which would hold me up as a near ideal has deep and serious problems. --Ludwigs2 20:02, 6 April 2010 (UTC)

Off-topic conversation

Why are Americans so gullable? 78.147.35.82 (talk) 19:54, 6 April 2010 (UTC)

I don't know. If I send you all my credit card account numbers, could you tell me ? StuRat (talk) 20:17, 6 April 2010 (UTC)

Why are non-Americans so condescending and dismissive of Americans? --Jayron32 20:15, 6 April 2010 (UTC)

See the questions at the top of the thread. On the other hand, many Americans can at least spell "gullible". Matt Deres (talk) 20:31, 6 April 2010 (UTC)

Why do Britons have such a penchant for sweeping, uncharitable generalizations? And why are Britons so insulting? Marco polo (talk) 20:30, 6 April 2010 (UTC)

Centuries of assiduous practice, dear boy :^). 87.81.230.195 (talk) 23:01, 6 April 2010 (UTC)

Why do faulty generalizations deserve responses in kind? ---Sluzzelin talk 20:47, 6 April 2010 (UTC)

Dear God - Forgive me - mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa - I actually read this question - AND its responses. Deo Gracias. 92.30.40.36 (talk) 23:38, 6 April 2010 (UTC)

I'm clobbering this off topic banter. You're lucky I don't collapse the crap above it too. If you're not going to give a reasonable answer, don't respond. Buddy431 (talk) 00:44, 7 April 2010 (UTC)

1. yes/no answer 2. yes/no answer 3. Assuming 1.1 refers to covert hostility on the tone scale, yes, people make deals all the time with hostile parties with diplomacy. (ex. Obama's health care reform). If they are apathetic either seal the deal yourself, get a representative to speak for their behalf, or pester them until they go through whatever motions are necessary. 4. Presumably by correlating "tone" with a (hopefully) accurate first impression. Read their body language, observe their dress, and listen to what their saying and how they say it... 5. See Obesity. 6. They were covertly hostile towards you. 7. The same way you sell anything to anyone - tailor your sales pitch to the person. 8. Unproven supposition thetans exist. 9. Assuming reactivity refers to the Reactive mind, this question has a false premise. All of those things listed on the WP page have proven non-somatoform eitologies, assuming the subject doesn't actually have Somatoform disorder. That said, having various mental and physical ailments tends to negatively impact work performance. 10. If you could, con-artists wouldn't exist. 11. They don't. 12. Human behavioral ecology, Evolutionary ethics, Sociobiology. 13. Unproven supposition thetans exist. 14. Send them bizarre questionnaires. 15. Covariance = 0 16. Personally, I'm not interested, also unproven supposition thetans exist. 17. A quantity. 18. Unproven supposition thetans exist. 19. Personally, I'm not interested, since I don't think the tone scale has any value or basis in human psychology. 20. I'm not interested because I already know what causes anxiety: stress, uneasiness, apprehension, fear, worry- reactions to threats that are perceived to be uncontrollable or unavoidable. 23:50, 6 April 2010 (UTC)

I'm impressed with question 7 actually predicting the responses it will get on here. As for question 5,it's obvious-what we REALLY need to know about fatties is...is it possible to bounce up and down on them like a trampoline? Lemon martini (talk) 00:18, 8 April 2010 (UTC)

Blacksmith

What is the difference between an ordinary blacksmith and a master blacksmith?--79.76.156.101 (talk) 01:03, 6 April 2010 (UTC)

There's this WikiAnswer FWIW, according to which, you're looking at 10+ years of training and the approval of your guild. Clarityfiend (talk) 02:12, 6 April 2010 (UTC)

Diversions
The following discussion has been closed. Please do not modify it.
The size of the anvil ? :-) StuRat (talk) 02:21, 6 April 2010 (UTC) Also, the muscles of your brawny arms must be strong as rubber bands. ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 02:22, 6 April 2010 (UTC) I dont understand the above answer: is it some sort of weak joke?--79.76.156.101 (talk) 05:49, 6 April 2010 (UTC) It's a parody of a line from this famous poem. Clarityfiend (talk) 05:59, 6 April 2010 (UTC) Specifically, by Bullwinkle J. Moose when he was reading Longfellow's poem in the Rocky and Bullwinkle feature called "Bullwinkle's Corner". ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 06:15, 6 April 2010 (UTC) The poem says muscles strong as iron bands not rubber bands. So again its not only not funny, but its not an accurate quote. And the poem does not refer to the fact of his being a skilled man.--79.76.239.84 (talk) 02:42, 7 April 2010 (UTC) Bullwinkle said "...rubber bands", Rocky whispered "Iron bands!" to him, Bullwinkle flexed his puny biceps, and Rocky conceded, "Rubber bands!" Get back to us when your sense of humor is out of Intensive Care. :) ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 13:47, 7 April 2010 (UTC) ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 13:47, 7 April 2010 (UTC) I have a sense of humor: but just not yours. Im not familiar with Bullwinkle so the the joke fell on stony ground. Thats the trouble with jokes: it depends on the recipient having the same knowledge as the joker.--79.76.239.84 (talk) 23:49, 7 April 2010 (UTC) Here's a prime example of a *cough, cough* master smith. I couldn't find the Porky Pig rendition. Clarityfiend (talk) 19:29, 6 April 2010 (UTC) That would be th-th-this one:[1] ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 00:35, 8 April 2010 (UTC) Nah, I mean this one, or is that clip part of it? If I remember correctly, Porky gives a once-in-a-lifetime (that's how long it would take him) reading of the poem. Clarityfiend (talk) 03:29, 8 April 2010 (UTC) So we could have someone who prepares and deals with bait and may be known as a baiter,and if he were to fit the qualifications(guild membership or self-employed,employing others)he would be...;) Lemon martini (talk) 00:08, 8 April 2010 (UTC) who is very easily amused Only if he went at it hammer and tongs. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 79.76.236.198 (talk) 17:41, 8 April 2010 (UTC)

See Master craftsman for the general sense of "master" meant here. Specifics probably vary by country. --Mr.98 (talk) 02:41, 6 April 2010 (UTC)

Today the term Master is often used to distinguish a craftsman who is self-employed and employees others. My father was a Master Butcher, without any Guild membership.Froggie34 (talk) 06:42, 6 April 2010 (UTC)

Selling a found cell phone

I found a Blackberry. The phone is disconnected and I do not know who the owner is. Can I sell the phone on eBay without any reprocussions? --67.134.239.205 (talk) 15:21, 6 April 2010 (UTC)

Almost certainly depends where you are. In Britain, the Theft Act 1968 (as amended) requires that you genuinely believe "that the person to whom the property belongs cannot be discovered by taking reasonable steps" – which in your case is highly unlikely, because if you hand it in at a police station, someone who's lost £100s of technology is likely to go looking for it. ╟─TreasuryTag►constabulary─╢ 15:26, 6 April 2010 (UTC)

The OP is in New Jersey —Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.4.186.107 (talk) 22:48, 6 April 2010 (UTC)

You should send this to "lost and found" at your local police station. They will hold it for a set period of time and (depending on where you are) if nobody claims it within a set period you may be allowed to become the owner of it. We cannot offer legal advice so you are strongly advised to speak with your local police (obviously don't dial 999/911 find a local number for them!) and they will advise you of the best process to follow. 194.221.133.226 (talk) 15:28, 6 April 2010 (UTC)

Note that not all jurisdictions give lost property back to those who found it if unclaimed. The police station in my home town (in the US) was notorious about keeping it and auctioning it off itself. This provoked outcry—it demotivates people to report lost property, obviously—but was not illegal in any way. (I don't know if it still does this today—knowing them, it probably does.) --Mr.98 (talk) 16:09, 6 April 2010 (UTC)

What do you mean by "disconnected"? There should probably still be owner information on it even if it does not make calls. Look in the contact book for a phone number for "Mom". Try looking under Options > Owner. --Mr.98 (talk) 16:13, 6 April 2010 (UTC)

If it is a contract phone then the network should be able to identify who the handset belongs to through its IMEI number. Even if it's pre-paid, there may be some authority with which it needs to be registered that will enable the owner to be identified. Failing all that, as mentioned above, it is reasonable that an entry such as "Home", "Mom", "Dad" or "ICE" would exist in the phonebook. Last resort would be to contact the network to identify which were the last dialled numbers from that phone, or even what the number of the last SIM card inserted into the phone was (if such information is kept on record). In short, it is very hard NOT to identify who a lost phone belongs to. Zunaid 20:43, 6 April 2010 (UTC)

Note that eBay does not permit the sale of stolen items and has a specific policy whereby it will cooperate with the authorities if an investigation is launched. If you sell or attempt to sell the phone on eBay rather than making reasonable attempts to trace the owner (which may count as theft, depending on your jurisdiction, as discussed above), then you may fall foul of that policy too. Karenjc 18:17, 7 April 2010 (UTC)

Don't assume that the owner of the phone does not know its whereabouts. One tech-savvy person had a phone stolen recently, and tracked its location via GPS software. The police recovered it, and made arrests. This sort of recovery of property will only become more common. [2] BrainyBabe (talk) 23:39, 7 April 2010 (UTC)

Orientation in space

Hello, Wikipedians. This question concerns a problem of the Star Trek variety! I'd love to know what system one might use, in order to convey verbal directions to a point in 3D space? For instance, when LaForge says there's an incoming Klingon vessel, it might be at "302.20". Disregarding any notion that the script-writers used anything but made up numbers, how can one provide directions in space?

It is true that, say, a holografic representation of the situation, within a frame of reference (whatever it might be; own ship, planet, sun, etc) would be most likely to convey good situational awareness. What I am asking for is a system of conveying 3D space coordinates verbally, where the one most easily adapted by humans (intuitive while precise, etc) can be deemed most successful.

Fighter pilots actually employ a system that is half relevant to this query, one relatively straining on the mind: A radar operator will call out a target's position relative to a predetermined spot on a map, called Bullseye: 45 50 to make the target NE, 50nm out. Onboard, the fighter pilot has an instrument that tells him his own position relative to Bullseye. He must then work out where he is, relative to the target. This, I think, can be a decent benchmark on mental capability. But I digress!

I would be very thankful, were you to invest your time and intellectual effort on this question. Thank you in advance. 88.90.16.251 (talk) 18:25, 6 April 2010 (UTC)

Astronomers use the equatorial coordinate system for this purpose, that is two orthogonal angles expressed relative to the celestial sphere. Out in some random part of the galaxy, you'd need a different reference. Fighter pilots (at least in old films) use a system relative to the orientation of their own flight ("nine'o'clock high"). Alternatively you could establish an arbitrary system based on fixed points - the Pioneer plaque described the position of the Sun with respect to a number of pulsars, each of which has an idiosyncratic cadence. But the Enterprise's preternatural speed makes for serious problems for such a celestial system, as those standard markers move and evolve with time, and you see them in radically different positions depending on where you are (because you're seeing with light); that doesn't matter much for ordinary travellers, but things are downright weird for the supralight Enterprise. A number of Star Trek references, including Wikibooks, simply say the Enterprise uses "Starmark Warp Celestial Guidance". As an alternative to an external reference, you could carry with you an internal inertial reference (based on super-accurate gyroscopes); every ship in the fleet gets their own one that was synchronised against the standard one in San Francisco. Again the unscience of Star Trek, with its relativity-flouting and its inertial dampening makes how these might work anyone's guess. -- Finlay McWalter • Talk 18:46, 6 April 2010 (UTC)

In Star Trek they use two systems. Bearings, which are relative to the centre of the galaxy, and headings, which are relative to the direction the ship is facing. In both cases, it's a form of spherical coordinates. --Tango (talk) 18:59, 6 April 2010 (UTC)

(Edit conflict with Tango)

Well, in Star Trek they're theoretically either using two-part bearings relative to the ship (Yaw, then pitch), or three-part coordinates in a system that is never really explained, but seems to be relative to Earth.

However, even when they give bearings, they often give ones that don't really make sense, and/or don't correspond to the special effects shots. APL (talk) 19:00, 6 April 2010 (UTC)

There is one episode where LaForge says there is "a bogey on a five o'clock tangent." Maybe the universal translator fixed that for the rest of the crew... Adam Bishop (talk) 19:18, 6 April 2010 (UTC)

Related question for all editors: What's the name of the "three o'clock" system that pilots use? A quick Google didn't come up with a term for the system, and I couldn't find a Wikipedia article on it. Comet Tuttle (talk) 19:35, 6 April 2010 (UTC)

I am pretty sure they are just called "clock face directions". We lack a wikipedia article titled "clock face directions" perhaps because of the self-evident nature of the system, but a Wikipedia search turns up variations of the phrase "clockface directions" or "clock-face directions" or "clock face directions" used in this context in several articles. --Jayron32 20:13, 6 April 2010 (UTC)

The Memory Alpha article on navigation might be of interest to the OP. Dismas|^(talk) 00:06, 7 April 2010 (UTC)

The OP (me) thanks all for their input and answers, but this is not about Star Trek. I likely should have known better than to bring up that example with LaForge. I've boldened the part of the OP which is important: The approach to verbally provided directions in three-dimensional space; up, down, left, right only go so far. Consider this poor example, if you will: A sphere is seen from its center; directions are provided by adressing individual manifolds (estimations of directions) on the inside surface of this sphere. For instance, were we to denote these manifolds by use of the old degrees, we could have the target be "straight ahead, 45 degrees up", this becomes "360, 45". We then get 270-360-090 = W(est)-N-E or Left-Ahead-Right. On the vertical plane, all values between 000-090 are up from the ship, 090-180 is down on that plane. This is a way of verbally providing these directions. 88.90.16.251 (talk) 01:18, 7 April 2010 (UTC)

You use spherical coordinates or a related system, which is basically what you are describing. You have a choice of where to put zero and what direction to consider positive, but what you describe is a common way. The main choice is whether you consider zero to mean North (one would usually say 0 rather than 360, although they mean the same thing) or to mean forwards. The former is used when plotting a course, say, the latter is used when saying where to look for a nearby aircraft or something. --Tango (talk) 01:29, 7 April 2010 (UTC)

There are also cylindrical coordinates and Cartesian coordinates (x,y,z). All systems would require at least 3 non-collinear reference points to use in establishing direction and orientation. StuRat (talk) 02:03, 7 April 2010 (UTC)

That Memory Alpha article is pretty terrible. But the spherical, ship-centered bearings at least sometimes used on Star Trek TNG would probably be the best way to specify positions in space if they're near your ship. Doing it for things halfway across the galaxy is trickier, because not only to you need a commonly agreed upon reference frame, you need a high degree of accuracy. APL (talk) 03:11, 7 April 2010 (UTC)

The Atomic Rocket is a wonderful resource for all sorts of science fictiony (with an emphasis on the science) stuff about spaceflight. Sadly, their astrogation page seems to talk about everything that's adjacent to your question without answering it! There's even a sister project about starmaps that also doesn't relate. But if you're interested in this question, I bet you're interested in the stuff they do cover. Paul (Stansifer) 03:34, 7 April 2010 (UTC)

Wikinews

Is it true that the first WikiNews interviewee who died was Gene Amondson? --William Saturn (talk) 23:19, 6 April 2010 (UTC)

Renting work animals

Is there an online registry of rental businesses from which I can rent pigs for plowing the garden, and sheep or goats for mowing the lawn? (I do not mean that a pig would pull a plow, as an ox or a horse might do, but that the pig itself is a plow.) -- Wavelength (talk) 23:40, 6 April 2010 (UTC)
I have found the following pages with background information.

• http://www.richsoil.com/pigs/; http://www.round-river.com/pigplowing.html; http://www.journeytoforever.org/farm_pig.html
• http://www.seattlepi.com/local/319789_goats14.html; http://www.allaboutlawns.com/blog/are-farm-animals-a-lawn-mower-alternative.html
• http://www.practicalenvironmentalist.com/gardening/earth-friendly-ways-to-mow-the-grass.htm
• http://www.indyweek.com/indyweek/sheep-goats-electric-mowers-tending-a-sustainable-lawn/Content?oid=1209758

The last one of those says that http://goatfinder.com/ "rents out grass-munchers", but the title bar of http://goatfinder.com/ says
"Free Nationwide Listing Of Goats For Sale - GoatFinder.com". -- Wavelength (talk) 02:58, 7 April 2010 (UTC)

I found http://www.goatfinder.com/renting_goats.htm ("Renting Goats Directory - GoatFinder.com").

-- Wavelength (talk) 16:54, 8 April 2010 (UTC)

Is there anything like that in the UK? I have quite a large garden that could be either 'mown' or 'ploughed' but I do not want the responsibility of looking after them. 92.29.42.231 (talk) 10:32, 8 April 2010 (UTC)

I found http://www.rbst.org.uk/stock-exchange/ and http://www.emmaspigs.co.uk/PigKeepingCourse.shtml.

-- Wavelength (talk) 16:54, 8 April 2010 (UTC)

April 7

Déjà vu by multiple people at the same time?

So A, B and I were in a car. As we were driving over a bridge B threw an apple core out the window into the river. I said I felt like this had happened before. We all experience Déjà vu sometimes so I'm used to it. However A and B both said that they felt like it had happened before too, that they were experiencing Déjà vu also. That's the first and only (and last) time we've everthrown anything in to that river, especially from a moving vehicle. Wtf happened?--92.251.159.250 (talk) 00:25, 7 April 2010 (UTC)

Some possibilities:

1) A coincidence. That is, you both had a similar "tossing an object" experience.

2) Person B is putting person A on. That is, it's not really a déjà vu for them.

3) The power of suggestion. Person B again didn't really have a déjà vu, but person A saying so convinced them that they did, too. This is how mass hysteria starts. StuRat (talk) 00:54, 7 April 2010 (UTC)

4) You really have thrown something out the window before that's triggering a common feeling. I suppose it need not have been in that specific river or from that specific vehicle. Buddy431 (talk) 00:56, 7 April 2010 (UTC)

As the article on Déjà vu says, the cause may not be a confusion with an actual memory from the past, but a glitch in our perception of the present which accidentally processes the short-term memory (of the last second or two) as if it came from long-term memory. (This doesn't address why you all had it at once, I'm just saying. And of course confusion with a real memory might add to the feeling.) 81.131.64.245 (talk) 01:15, 7 April 2010 (UTC)

Someone is changing the Matrix! Run! Adam Bishop (talk) 04:14, 7 April 2010 (UTC)

Perhaps you were stuck in a repeating "time loop" like on a Star Trek Next Generation episode, where eventually each participant in a card game "knew" what cards would come up next. Edison (talk) 14:35, 7 April 2010 (UTC)

Lemon martini (talk) 00:10, 8 April 2010 (UTC) ;)

You're sure you'd already posted something, right?! --Polysylabic Pseudonym (talk) 05:12, 8 April 2010 (UTC)

whoa! deja vu!!! http://comics.com/monty/2010-04-07/ !!!Gzuckier (talk) 06:31, 8 April 2010 (UTC)

How can this car move?

http://punditkitchen.com/2009/10/21/political-pictures-attack-fail/

It seems that this car is warproof. Anyways...

1. Can you identify the car's model? I'm just curious.
2. How can this thing be moving at all? Does it run on willpower or something?

--121.54.2.188 (talk) 08:09, 7 April 2010 (UTC)

Don't know which model it is, but the image caption claims it is a Toyota. However, the badge on the car's front grille, doesn't look like the badge used on Toyotas for the last many years. As for how it can be moving at all, how do you know it was driven at all. Maybe the vehicle was towed, the photo staged, or the soldiers just came across a couple of locals sitting in a car wreck. Even so, cars can still be driven with a substantial amount of bodywork damage so long as the mechanical parts still work and the wheels turn without shredding the tyres. The car in the image looks to have been involved in a crash or maybe rolled, rather then the damage being the result of a hit by some kind of weapon. Whatever happened to it, it was an incident in which the driver was probably lucky to survive judging by the extent of the damage. Astronaut (talk) 09:28, 7 April 2010 (UTC)

Agreed. Looks like mostly body damage to me. Granted, it won't pass a US state inspection but I don't see an obvious reason why it wouldn't move under its own power. Dismas|^(talk) 09:32, 7 April 2010 (UTC)

It looks to me like it was side-swiped by something big and high, like an MRAP, that tore off the side panels and roof. However, the components which make a car drivable are under the hood, on the dashboard, under the car, and the wheels, and they all look to be intact. StuRat (talk) 09:47, 7 April 2010 (UTC)

The main problem would be the structural integrity of the thing. Most (intentional) convertibles have extra bracing in the chassis and more welds in the bodywork than hard-tops. Without that, I'd be worried about it failinng catastrophically at speed. However, without a windshield, I doubt they'll be driving very fast! But I don't see any reason why the engine & drivetrain shouldn't work perfectly. Of course there is always the possibility that this is just a clever fake. SteveBaker (talk) 03:10, 8 April 2010 (UTC)

I cannot tell the exact model. But it's a Corolla van. Probably Toyota Corolla (E100), Toyota Corolla (E110) or Toyota Corolla (E120). Oda Mari (talk) 06:22, 8 April 2010 (UTC)

i've seen videos of FWD cars which were cut in half behind the front seats and still drove around fine with their hinders scooting on the ground like an impacted dog. of course, they had to be slightly modified re fuel tanks, etc but the car in the pic looks to be in pretty good shape, third world wise. Gzuckier (talk) 06:34, 8 April 2010 (UTC)

looking for advice

So, I'm writing a book, as you do, and one of my characters is having some trouble concentrating on their work, motivating themselves to get homework done and so on. A friend of theirs offers a lot of advice that helps, but i have little idea what that advice should be, so far I have only the suggestion to eat breakfast every day and get regular exercise. I would like for the advice they are given to be real, enough that people reading the book could follow it themselves.

Later they arrange a system where, on the first day they go for a short walk, then gradually longer walks, before starting jogging, gradually building up toward more difficult exersizes later. But it seems, not being a particularly physically active person myself, I have little idea what they could be doing after that. Preferably it should be things to help them become more healthy, rather than practicing and gaining skill in a particular sport. So, any ideas?

80.47.88.128 (talk) 10:18, 7 April 2010 (UTC)

For the exercise régime, perhaps they could come across a copy of the RCAF 5BX exercise programme. Our article has a link to the programme, with descriptions of the exercises involved. DuncanHill (talk) 10:28, 7 April 2010 (UTC)

As for motivation, how about a series of small rewards ? Like, when they get their homework done, they get to eat a cookie ? StuRat (talk) 11:31, 7 April 2010 (UTC)

I know this will not look like the most helpful response, but for the exercise bit, why not give it a shot yourself before writing it? The best authors write what they know, and learn what they don't know but want to write about. Rather than writing something about how easy it is to scale up an exercise regimen from nothing, why not give it a shot yourself first? It'll give you deeper insights into how it works and how your characters would view the situation. It'll produce more realistic writing and more realistic characters, especially if you are hoping your readers will be able to actually get something out of reading it. --Mr.98 (talk) 14:05, 7 April 2010 (UTC)

Port on BMW bumper

What is this little port on the rear bumper of some BMWs? If it's for servicing the car in some way, why is it in such a prominent spot? Thanks. --Sean 15:05, 7 April 2010 (UTC)

WAG: It may have something to do with the advanced vehicle detection systems in newer models of luxury cars, for example some cars are equipped with "back up cameras" that show you the view behind your car; others have proximity sensors to tell you when you are going to hit something behind you, and they either sound a warning or automatically apply the brakes for you. My guess is that this has something to do with one of those sorts of systems. --Jayron32 15:21, 7 April 2010 (UTC)

If it's like my MINI (BMW), opening the cover reveals a threaded hole for screwing in a tow hook. There's a similar port in the front grill. -- Coneslayer (talk) 15:23, 7 April 2010 (UTC)

It is indeed a rear tow point. The tow hook screws in once you remove the little panel. See this link. Dismas|^(talk) 19:32, 7 April 2010 (UTC)

WARNING: It's not intended for towing the car serious distances - it's just enough to winch the car up onto the bed of a tow truck or to pull you out when you get stuck in snow or mud or something. You should find the eyelet/hook thingy somewhere in with the tools for changing the wheel, etc. It's exceedingly dangerous to use it for long distance towing because the hook can easily become unthreaded! (One of the members of my local car club found this out to his cost when towing his car just over a mile to the nearest garage!) SteveBaker (talk) 20:40, 7 April 2010 (UTC)

yeah, it's not literally a tow hook, it's a tie-down hook to keep the car on top of the carrier which is actually toting it around. Gzuckier (talk) 06:35, 8 April 2010 (UTC)

On page 113 of the owner's manual for my '09 MINI Cooper'S (which is a BMW design) calls it a "tow fitting" and talks about towing the car using it. When I've had cars put on the back of the carrier, they've chained up the axles and put those nylon webbing things around the wheels...I've only seen them use the tow fitting to pull the car onto the bed of the truck. But other car manufacturers may be different. SteveBaker (talk) 03:06, 9 April 2010 (UTC)

Thanks to all for the (surprising) answer! --Sean 15:12, 8 April 2010 (UTC)

hepatitis a

My partner developed hepatits a and jaundice in pakistan and was hospitalised. Is there a posibility that i could contract hepatitis a from him? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Kathyhollyoake (talk • contribs) 15:26, 7 April 2010 (UTC)

The answer to any "is it possible?" type of question is typically going to be "almost anything is possible". To get a useful answer, please see a doctor. You could also read the Hepatitis article. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 15:29, 7 April 2010 (UTC)

Or even Hepatitis A. 130.126.109.178 (talk) 17:26, 7 April 2010 (UTC)

Made in Korea

If I buy a product in the US and it has the label "Made in Korea", what are the chances that it was made in North Korea as opposed to South Korea? Googlemeister (talk) 18:13, 7 April 2010 (UTC)

Pretty much zero. StuRat (talk) 18:15, 7 April 2010 (UTC)

When it comes to sports federations, for example, "Korea" usually refers to the South (Korea Republic). North Korea is usually called "DPR Korea" or "Korea DPR" or something to that effect. Rimush (talk) 18:44, 7 April 2010 (UTC)

Yes, with the D being for Democratic. I wonder, does any country which is actually democratic put that in it's name ? Or is it the same effect as "Honest Al's Discount TVs" (if Al were really honest, he wouldn't need to convince people by putting it in his name). StuRat (talk) 19:24, 7 April 2010 (UTC)

You made me wonder that too, so I tried to find out. Defining democracy in terms of Polity IV, the only democracy with "Democratic" in its full name that I can find is Sri Lanka. --Tango (talk) 20:06, 7 April 2010 (UTC)

And how many non-democratic Democratic nations did you find ? StuRat (talk) 01:39, 8 April 2010 (UTC)

A dozen or so. --Tango (talk) 02:18, 8 April 2010 (UTC)

Well, that certainly is a lopsided enough ratio to support the "Honest Al" theory. StuRat (talk) 03:31, 8 April 2010 (UTC)

Yes, it is. (A dozen or so is all of them - I went through List of countries searching for "demo".) --Tango (talk) 16:48, 8 April 2010 (UTC)

What about the Democratic Republic of the Congo? 92.30.145.113 (talk) 23:21, 7 April 2010 (UTC)

According to our Democratic Republic of the Congo article, "Mobutu institutionalized corruption to prevent political rivals from challenging his control". They now have new leadership and a new constitution as of 2006, and corruption is down somewhat, so maybe they can now be considered truly democratic. StuRat (talk) 01:35, 8 April 2010 (UTC)

I think one should reserve judgement for more than 4 years before declaring a country democratic. They've only had the one general election so far, that's not really enough to see if they are going to make democracy work. --Tango (talk) 02:18, 8 April 2010 (UTC)

A country where the military rapes and kills at will is not democratic. Rimush (talk) 09:32, 8 April 2010 (UTC)

What if everyone votes that the military should be allowed to rape and kill at will? Or, at least, what if the raping and killing does not interfere with the process of free elections? "Democratic" does not necessarily mean "good and just", just that people get to vote. APL (talk) 16:25, 8 April 2010 (UTC)

Heroin? SteveBaker (talk) 20:32, 7 April 2010 (UTC)

In Prague, I once saw a Cold War-era coffee cup marked "MADE IN D.P.R.K." In English! -- Mwalcoff (talk) 00:03, 8 April 2010 (UTC)

100% for nuclear bombs and missiles. Just don't let Jack Bauer hear about it. Clarityfiend (talk) 03:22, 8 April 2010 (UTC)

I once came across a website where you could find DPRK stuff, primarily propaganda like cartoons and books IIRC and stuff to indicate your support for the DPRK. I don't know how much, if any of it was actually made in the DPRK of course Nil Einne (talk) 02:47, 12 April 2010 (UTC)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_exploration

I was just looking for pretty pictures and came across this one, look at the page and under the heading rational there is a picture od Buzz, and it states that he is a chriastina, what relavance does this have to tghe rest of the article, I would try to find out for my self, and am , there are 2 ways to go about doing this, 1 is to read it my self, and 2 is to read your responses tomorrow —Preceding unsigned comment added by 62.172.58.82 (talk) 19:05, 7 April 2010 (UTC)

The caption says "Astronaut Buzz Aldrin, a Christian, had a personal Communion service when he first arrived on the surface of the Moon". It's describing the extension of religion into space, which is arguably part of space exploration. I suppose one could argue that it belongs in a separate article, though (along with our recent question about which direction Muslim astronauts pray). StuRat (talk) 19:21, 7 April 2010 (UTC)

Since those are the only two interesting facts we have about religion in space, I'm not sure it really warrants an article. It might warrant its own section in the space exploration article, I suppose. --Tango (talk) 19:30, 7 April 2010 (UTC)

<shrug> we already have an article about Sex in space - so why not?! SteveBaker (talk) 20:27, 7 April 2010 (UTC)

Maybe we need an article about Golf on the moon, starting (and ending, so far) with Alan Shepard's attempt to turn the moon into a driving range. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 23:03, 7 April 2010 (UTC)

I don't know about two facts. An 18 page guidebook was published for Muslims in space as part of the Angkasawan programme so there's probably a decent amount you could write about that. [3] I know things which came up include fasting and prayer times and the ref also mentions ablution. I believe we've discussed some of this a while back (I'm not referring to the mention of one aspect referred to above). And there are other things like kosher food and celebrating the Jewish shabbat [4]. Edit: Wait why are we even talking about this? We already have a Religion in space and it's existed long before this discussion. P.S. Golf in space Nil Einne (talk) 02:33, 12 April 2010 (UTC)

A third interesting fact is mentioned at Apollo 8#Historical importance — the astronauts read from Genesis and NASA was subsequently sued, and although the lawsuit was dismissed, it apparently made NASA skittish about public displays of religion in space by these government employees, so Aldrin's Communion was private. (Side note: I think this belongs very, very low on the list of reasons Apollo 8 was "historically important".) Comet Tuttle (talk) 23:20, 7 April 2010 (UTC)

There is no law against government employees displaying religious beliefs (or lack thereof). But maybe they should have had a disclaimer like "these views do not necessarily reflect those of the management." ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 23:54, 7 April 2010 (UTC)

True, but they aren't allowed to make it appear to a reasonable observer that the government is officially endorsing (or favoring) any religion, and the 3 most prominent Americans in the world at that moment reciting Genesis on their way back from the first human orbit around another world, with the US having spent billions of dollars to elevate them to the position where they do that — this reasonable observer has a problem with that. Comet Tuttle (talk) 01:29, 8 April 2010 (UTC)

As an American watching on TV at the time, it never occurred to me that their reading from Genesis was anything more than their personal expression of how they felt at the time. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 18:57, 9 April 2010 (UTC)

Considering all the taxpayer money it would cost to lift even a crucifix into orbit, the atheists may have a point. StuRat (talk) 01:48, 8 April 2010 (UTC)

In case anyone misses it above, we already have religion in space Nil Einne (talk) 02:48, 12 April 2010 (UTC)

EDLP

Hi. I have just been reading an article about pricing structure in supermarkets. It turns out that "EDLP" is one strategy that supermarkets use to lure so-called "large basket shoppers". The quote is:

Furthermore, EDLP stores get a greater than expected share of business from large basket    
shoppers; HILO stores get a greater than expected share from small basket shoppers. 

Does anyone know what EDLP stands for ? Robinh (talk) 20:24, 7 April 2010 (UTC)

Every Day Low Pricing. SteveBaker (talk) 20:28, 7 April 2010 (UTC)

(ec) This link says it's "Every-Day-Low-Price" and the other principal strategy is apparently HILO, the "high-low strategy". Everyday low price is our stubby article on EDLP. Comet Tuttle (talk) 20:29, 7 April 2010 (UTC)

Thanks guys. Obvious when you know. Robinh (talk) 20:44, 7 April 2010 (UTC)

I just rewrote the Everyday low price article, mostly based on 2 one-page web pages. If you have further information (on EDLP, or on the Hi-Lo strategy, which has no article yet), please go for it. Comet Tuttle (talk) 20:56, 7 April 2010 (UTC)

I guess the quote makes sense, because people who shop for sales will only get the few items they want which are on sale at the HILO, then go to the everyday low price stores for everything else. I tend to do this myself. StuRat (talk) 01:22, 8 April 2010 (UTC)

Is HILO advertising the loss-leaders but having higher prices on everything else? 78.146.107.183 (talk) 20:11, 12 April 2010 (UTC)

April 8

French people

Why aren't French people fat? Their food has lots of fat, oil, sugar, etc. --70.129.184.122 (talk) 01:07, 8 April 2010 (UTC)

See French Paradox#French diet comparisons. Clarityfiend (talk) 01:14, 8 April 2010 (UTC)

All that smoking and adultery ? :-) StuRat (talk) 01:17, 8 April 2010 (UTC)

Ah, le Tigre Woods diet. Clarityfiend (talk) 01:44, 8 April 2010 (UTC)

Some of them are fat...(oh crap! my (french) wife is coming - quick, pretend someone else typed this!)

NO! You are completely wrong! All french people are definitely very, very thin! (Sheesh - don't you hate it when people don't sign their posts?) SteveBaker (talk) 02:56, 8 April 2010 (UTC)

You may want to read the book French Women Don't Get Fat by Mireille Guiliano. I haven't read the book, but I think it's worth pointing out that Europeans don't drive everywhere like Americans so often do, living in cities with little parking. -- Mwalcoff (talk) 03:14, 8 April 2010 (UTC)

in my experiences of France (mostly Normandy region) people don't seem to care about 'little parking' - they just park anywhere there is a space..or to put it more accurately they'll just nudge your car forward (with theirs) until it creates a space big enough for their car! 194.221.133.226 (talk) 08:27, 8 April 2010 (UTC)

One place I saw (slightly) fatter French people was at huge out-of-town shopping malls where you have to drive to get there, there's ample parking and plenty of fast food. Umm, the dangers of an american lifestyle. Astronaut (talk) 03:42, 8 April 2010 (UTC)

Who's thin? [5] Richard Avery (talk) 06:02, 8 April 2010 (UTC)

Must be in their genes.--Rallette (talk) 11:01, 8 April 2010 (UTC)

At least some of them will be eating a Mediterranean diet, which is apparently very good for you. Alansplodge (talk) 16:00, 9 April 2010 (UTC)

I don't know who left that unsigned post, but need I remind people that SB has an obvious WP:COI and so shouldn't be trusted in this instance? Nil Einne (talk) 01:48, 10 April 2010 (UTC)

The Right Honourable Seán Dublin Bay Rockall Loftus

How did Seán Dublin Bay Rockall Loftus manage to become Lord Mayor without being affiliated to one of the major political parties? 86.45.133.15 (talk) 02:16, 8 April 2010 (UTC)

Lord Mayor of Dublin is an symbolic position, it doesn't really mean much, so there is no particular reason for the council to choose one of its members from a major political party. It is also not unusual for independents to do well in local elections (party policies are usually to do with national issues, so aren't relevant), so him being on the council isn't at all strange. --Tango (talk) 02:30, 8 April 2010 (UTC)

And, in general, there are all sorts of reasons why a party might nominate an independent, or someone from another party, for such a post. If they don't think that one of their own members can win the post, then they might support someone with similar views to them, or tactically choose someone unaffiliated or from a minor party to prevent a major opposing party from taking the post. Alternatively, they might nominate someone in return for political concessions - support on one or more issues. For a symbolic post, they might choose someone in order to reduce their time for meaningful political activity; for a difficult post, they might see it as a "poisoned chalice" and choose someone in order to threaten their popularity. Warofdreams talk 10:07, 8 April 2010 (UTC)

True north

Is there any kind of print or image that can be used to find true north?.. I've heard of using a watch and what not but I was wondering if there is something that could be tattooed on my skin so that I could always find true north . Thanks for any help 188.81.80.78 (talk) 14:05, 8 April 2010 (UTC)

I think not. IIRC, the watch trick depends upon knowing what time it is & where the sun is ... the two together allow you to figure out true north based on the sun's position. A static image just does not have the necessary information. --Tagishsimon (talk) 14:13, 8 April 2010 (UTC)

For the watch trick, see direction finding watch. --Richardrj ^{talk email} 14:24, 8 April 2010 (UTC)

You could always tattoo a star chart on your skin (several, if you want to be good for any location/any season), but in the northern hemisphere it's pretty easy to find the pole star anyway, which is as close to north as you'll get by eye. In the southern hemisphere, I guess you could find the South pole, and take the opposite direction as north. There's no pole star though, but I think you can get pretty close using Crux somehow. Buddy431 (talk) 14:36, 8 April 2010 (UTC)

A simple map would also allow you to find true north, provided that you can locate and identify the landmarks from the map. StuRat (talk) 17:49, 8 April 2010 (UTC)

Use a compass with a magnetic declination adjustment, set properly for your geographic region. 66.127.52.47 (talk) 18:00, 8 April 2010 (UTC)

If the sun or moon is clear enough to cast shadows, put a stick in the ground so that its shadow vanishes, and wait a few minutes; when the shadow moves, it will point due east. (I learned this from a television character who was making a point about the value of reading.) —Tamfang (talk) 19:15, 8 April 2010 (UTC) — Come to think of it, he didn't say due. —Tamfang (talk) 15:57, 10 April 2010 (UTC)

Pity the TV character didn't know what they were talking about, then. This is based on the idea that the Sun's motion in the sky is westward. That's only true near solar noon. 6 hours later, if it's still up, it's moving north or south, depending on which hemisphere you're in. --Anonymous, 19:28 UTC, April 8, 2010.

Hm. The daily motion is always in a plane perpendicular to the axis ... I'll have to try it. :( —Tamfang (talk) 04:20, 9 April 2010 (UTC)

Meanwhile, as an existence proof, consider a location in the Arctic summer with 24-hour daylight. Near solar midnight the sun is in the north and is moving eastward, as it circles around the sky day after day. In the mid-latitudes we just lose the northern part of that circle as it goes below ground. --Anon, 06:04 UTC, April 9, 2010.

A Wikipedia article explains how to use a banana as a compass. Place a banana on the Berlin Wall. East is where a bite has been taken out of it. Cuddlyable3 (talk) 23:50, 8 April 2010 (UTC)

Assuming you're in the Northern Hemisphere as your IP address suggests, try looking for Polaris in the night sky. If you cross the equator, Southern Cross explains how to find South. Zoonoses (talk) 00:17, 9 April 2010 (UTC)

Telling South by the sun without knowing the time (if you've got all day to spare): put a stick in the ground so that it's standing upright, then mark where the tip of the shadow falls at regular(ish) intervals. The direction where the shadow was shortest is South (or North if you're in the southern hemisphere). Alansplodge (talk) 15:22, 9 April 2010 (UTC)

Vice versa. The shadow points away from the sun, eh? --Anonymous, 23:30 UTC, April 9, 2010.

Generally vice-versa, yes, although the direction will be reversed in summer at latitudes lower than the subsolar point. FiggyBee (talk) 06:54, 13 April 2010 (UTC)

IIRC, moss growing on tree trunks can also be used as a rough indication of which way is north. Moss prefers a shady spot and therefore is more prevalent on the side of the trunk facing away from the midday sun. Astronaut (talk) 17:43, 9 April 2010 (UTC)

Perhaps very generally, but it is probably not a good idea to rely on that indication heavily, as the moss tends to grow in the more shadowy side, which, depending on local geography, might not be the north side. Googlemeister (talk) 18:51, 9 April 2010 (UTC)

If you looked at where the moss was on a few hundred trees spread over a reasonably wide area, that might work, but it's more of an urban legend than a real wilderness technique. --Tango (talk) 16:02, 10 April 2010 (UTC)

I was taught the moss one in Cubs, and also the urban equivalent. In this part of the world, satellite TV dishes point south :-) 93.97.184.230 (talk) 22:13, 11 April 2010 (UTC)

symbols

There is a symbol on my shower gel bottle and shampoo and on numerous others it is a picture od a round, flat jar with the lid floating off it, and on the side is written 12m, does any one know what this is? what does it mean? it is in black and white next to the recycle symbol. Any Ideas? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 62.172.59.90 (talk) 15:30, 8 April 2010 (UTC)

I guess it is inducating the product should last for 12 months after being opened. I think I'm right in thinking that such markings are increasingly common on non-food items. I'll try to find a reference. --Tagishsimon (talk) 15:35, 8 April 2010 (UTC)

Period-after-opening symbol. --Tagishsimon (talk) 15:36, 8 April 2010 (UTC)

period after opening symbol, thats it thanks —Preceding unsigned comment added by 62.172.59.90 (talk) 18:35, 8 April 2010 (UTC)

InterRail question

I plan on making an InterRail journey this summer to be finally able to visit the World Bodypainting Festival, and to stop at a tourist destination along the way, without once travelling by airplane. I have already planned a journey from Stockholm to Kraków, from there to Spittal an der Drau, and from there back to Stockholm. The problem is, the trip from Stockholm to Kraków takes about a full day, the trip from Kraków to Spittal an der Drau takes a bit more than half a day, and the trip from Spittal an der Drau to Stockholm takes a bit less than a day and a half. That's more travelling days than the minimal InterRail pass allows for, and I feel that the next expensive pass is overkill, because I don't intend on spending that many days. I have thought that one option would be to instead use the trip from Vienna to Spittal an der Drau as a normal, non-InterRail railway trip. Surely this is possible? Do I have any other options? Please note that I am intentionally trying to avoid ever boarding an airplane during the entire trip. JIP | Talk 19:28, 8 April 2010 (UTC)

Certainly there's nothing forcing you to use your InterRail card if you don't want to - an ordinary adult 2nd class ticket from Vienna Westbahnhof to Spittal-Millstaettersee will cost around €59 one way. (Krakow to Spittal via the Zebrzydow border route/Breclav/Vienna costs €102.20 2nd class - see http://www.jizdenka.cz/). The only thing you have to ensure is that you have enough valid days on your InterRail to cover the other journeys that you want to make. -- Arwel Parry (talk) 21:20, 8 April 2010 (UTC)

Two things. As Arwel pointed out, you don't need to use the Interrail pass for all journeys and are free to purchase separate tickets for sections. If you do travel by train internationally, it's much cheaper to purchase a ticket just to the border, and then to get off at the border and purchase the ticket for the section in the other country (this is usually possible, the trains usually wait a while, i. e. between Poland and the Czech Republic I've done this myself; make sure i. e. at the international ticket office at the main railway station in Kraków that this is the case for your connection; when in doubt find someone Polish-speaking to assist you, the English of the people working there can sometimes be terrible). Also, if you need to, have you considered hitch-hiking? It can be difficult in Austria, I know, but Poland and the Czech Republic are quite hitch-hiker-friendly places. --Ouro (blah blah) 11:53, 9 April 2010 (UTC)

It has been many years since I had an Interrail pass and hitch-hiked around Europe (two different trips), but if I were you, I might choose a segment outside of Austria, preferably in Poland or the Czech Republic, to travel on a regular ticket without the Interrail pass. The reason is that Austria has (or used to have) much higher rail fares than Poland or the Czech Republic. As for hitch-hiking, as a young male, I found it could be great fun. (It is riskier for women.) It is helpful to 1) stand in a place where a driver can see you from some distance and where it is easy and legal for a driver to stop, 2) to have a sign indicating your destination or general direction in the local language (e.g. "Vídeň" for Vienna if you are in the Czech Republic), and 3) to be clean-cut looking and fairly conservatively dressed (try to look like a nice student who is going to visit his grandparents but is too poor for the train). Marco polo (talk) 17:23, 9 April 2010 (UTC)

Thanks for the replies. I figure that what I might do is catch a late evening train (by InterRail) from Kraków to Vienna, and then a morning train (as a normal trip) from Vienna to Spittal an der Drau. The InterRail rules state that if an overnight train leaves after 19:00, it only takes up one travelling day, provided it arrives after 04:00 the next day. This, however, applies to that specific train only, connecting trips do take up an extra travelling day. 59 € doesn't sound so bad for the trip from Vienna to Spittal an der Drau. It's only a bit less than double the cost of a train trip from Helsinki to Tampere, with the distance being roughly one and a half times as long. And considering I would be travelling in a foreign country, I would want to minimise the hassle and risks involved. That would allow me to use the return trip from Spittal an der Drau to Stockholm completely by InterRail, which would save me a lot of money. JIP | Talk 19:47, 9 April 2010 (UTC)

Umm, I'm not quite sure if the effect is what you want. If I read you correctly, you want to travel from Kraków starting late evening on day "A", arriving Vienna in the morning of day "B", then travel on to Spittal later on day "B". I don't know if InterRail works the same way FIP (rail staff) tickets do (which I use), but in that circumstance I would date the ticket with day "B"s date, since you're starting the journey after 19:00, so the whole journey to Spittal would be covered by InterRail. The question that then becomes relevant is 'are you planning to do any travel earlier on day "A", or will you have stayed in Krakow for a day or more?'. I'd suggest you have another read of the InterRail rules to check which date you should be putting on the ticket. Regards, -- Arwel Parry (talk) 00:01, 11 April 2010 (UTC)

Looks like I had misread that part of the InterRail rules and thought I had to mark day "A" as the travelling day and arriving in Vienna on day "B" on the same train would be covered, but not the trip from Vienna to Spittal an der Drau. I reread the rules and found out that I'm allowed to mark day "B" instead. This solves my original problem - I simply have to leave Kraków after 19:00 on day "A", and I can use as much of day "B" to get to Spittal an der Drau as I want. JIP | Talk 03:26, 11 April 2010 (UTC)

Webshop user behaviour logging (Not Google Analytics or similar)

I have no experience with e-commerce on the sellers side, but I was wondering how much 'logging' control an administrator of a webshop site has when using a commercial webshop platform. Ie. by admin I mean the guys selling stuff using a webshop.

And does some of the webshop platforms allow 'live' logging of user behaviour?

Thanks 85.81.121.107 (talk) 19:50, 8 April 2010 (UTC)DB

Yes, you could have a lot of logging, you could have it live. Even basic weblogging (just looking at requests from users) gets you a lot of information, much of it real-time. If you had a more sophisticated (AJAX) solution, you could find out exactly what they were clicking on the moment they clicked. There is some information you won't get, because the browser won't give it to you, but Javascript will give a LOT of information away, and that could all be harvested for someone watching on the server end of things. Note that this information would generally only be available to whomever is hosting the website—it's not like I, person with no connection to you or the sites you visit, could get this information. But if you visit another website, they can get a lot. They already do, quite regularly. --Mr.98 (talk) 22:27, 8 April 2010 (UTC)

Though I should add, there are limits. They can't, for example, read stuff off your hard drive. The browsers won't give them that information. But the limits are a lot less than most people know—people are often surprised that browsers can give real-time browser information, OS information, screen resolution, things of that nature. Even mouse position, window position, mouse movement, etc. But only within the site's own window—they can't (generally speaking) see what you are doing with other sites. (Cookies being the one main exception to this in some cases.) --Mr.98 (talk) 22:29, 8 April 2010 (UTC)

Sugar, sugar!

Is there a difference betweem confectioners sugar and powdered sugar? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 99.137.227.240 (talk) 19:54, 8 April 2010 (UTC)

No, see confectioner's sugar. StuRat (talk) 21:13, 8 April 2010 (UTC)

Some people make a distinction between the two based on the presence/absence of anticaking agent (commonly cornstarch). For most practical purposes, though, they can be used interchangeably. -- 140.142.20.229 (talk) 17:09, 9 April 2010 (UTC)

April 9

Do you eat at a table and not do other things while eating?

Just wondering how many people sit at a table while eating and don't watch tv or use a computer or w/e while eating.--92.251.166.223 (talk) 00:39, 9 April 2010 (UTC)

Well, if there are other people at the table, I talk with them. If not, then I wouldn't eat at the table at all, but in front of the TV and/or computer. StuRat (talk) 00:43, 9 April 2010 (UTC)

It's just my wife and I, so we eat on the couch while watching TV and the dogs watch us while waiting for handouts. Dismas|^(talk) 01:02, 9 April 2010 (UTC)

I only sit at the table if we have guests. We should really try to find some survey results rather than having our own survey, though, since this is a ref desk! --Tango (talk) 01:20, 9 April 2010 (UTC)

You can see some survey figures here. -- Wavelength (talk) 03:13, 9 April 2010 (UTC)

When I am alone (and when I was single) I eat (and ate) in front of the computer always practically. When me and my girlfriend eat together, we eat in the kitchen, where there's no TV or anything. We avoid eating and watching TV or anything at the same time, except for snacks during films. --Ouro (blah blah) 11:47, 9 April 2010 (UTC)

A bunch of Wikipedia editors probably isn't a very representative sample of anything (except Wikipedia editors, I suppose). Still, I almost always eat at a table. When I'm alone, I read a newspaper. Buddy431 (talk) 14:47, 9 April 2010 (UTC)

Wow buddy same here, I was a bit surprised when I heard someone saying most people don't, although I hhavent' seen any actual statistics before now. Thanks.--92.251.159.197 (talk) 16:29, 9 April 2010 (UTC)

If with company, with relatives or visiting people, I definitely prefer to sit at a table and talk (and so it seems do the other people I eat with). However, when alone at home I usually eat in front of the TV (though in my old house, which was much larger than the current place I live, I often ate at the table with the newspaper in front of me). Astronaut (talk) 17:29, 9 April 2010 (UTC)

public access tunnel directly under capitol building for vehicles

My son claims a few years ago he drove directly under the capitol building thru a public access tunnel.

I disagree it was directly under the building. Perhaps nearby under capitol grounds but not directly under building. Who's right.

Thankyou.

(Mrs.) Nancy A. Baughman <contact info redacted> —Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.60.182.65 (talk) 02:22, 9 April 2010 (UTC)

Yeah - go to Google maps and type "Capitol building, Washington DC" - scroll over to the left and you'll see that highway 395 goes under the "reflecting pool" to the west of the Capitol building. It doesn't go right under the Capitol building though - so I guess you're right. SteveBaker (talk) 02:42, 9 April 2010 (UTC)

There are, however, tunnels that do go directly under the Capitol building, just not accessible by the general public, except by invitation. See United States Capitol subway system. --Jayron32 03:48, 9 April 2010 (UTC)

(OR) Many years ago (pre-9/11), I was a reporter doing a story in the Capitol. I got lost and found myself down in those tunnels, and it took forever to figure out how to get back. — Michael J 22:08, 9 April 2010 (UTC)

Perhaps you need to be a Stonecutter to access them Lemon martini (talk) 19:38, 10 April 2010 (UTC)

woman

When I am trying to initiate intercourse with my girlfriend, I either cuddle her and kiss her and then try to take her shirt off. Or I start to touch her, well recently, she will stop me and tell me to go to sleep. So I do. Then she will wake me up and yell at me that we naver have sex. I tell her that last night I tried to take her shirt off and she asked me what I was doing so I said I am trying to take your clothes off so we can make love, but you told me to stop and go to sleep so I did, now you are angry because I stopped when you told me to. So my question is, when a woman tells you no stop you have to stop right? If not it is rape, right? I don't understand what I have done wrong, it would appear that she wants me to force myself on her, but I am not going to do that. I am a gentle person and would like to make sweet love, what am I missing here? Does she want me to force her? Maybe a woman can help. This relationship is over, as I ran away this morning and am not going back, but my prev girlfriend only ever wanted sex in the doggy style, I don't understand this either. Please help so I can improve future relationships. Thanks —Preceding unsigned comment added by 93.186.23.206 (talk) 10:55, 9 April 2010 (UTC)

"'No' always means no . . ..'No' has always been, and always will be, part of the dangerous, alluring courtship ritual of sex and seduction, observable even in the animal kingdom" - Camille Paglia, Source. Though telling you to go to sleep is a pretty forceful "no". —Preceding unsigned comment added by Droptone (talk • contribs) 13:27, 9 April 2010 (UTC)

I would suggest looking somewhere else. You don't need to put up with that crap. There are 3 billion females on this planet. Googlemeister (talk) 14:10, 9 April 2010 (UTC)

Agreed. She's jerking him around, and he was wise to flee. I'm guessing that when she complained, instead of arguing with her about the previous night, if he had said, "OK, let's do it right now," she would have found a reason not to. However, one alternative to fleeing could have been to say, "I don't understand", and put the ball back in her court. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 14:30, 9 April 2010 (UTC)

What Baseball Bugs says about doing it right now is probably very true. She might have some problems of some kind that you should have helped, but there's no way of knowing. But then there is noone who doesn't have problems of some kind.--92.251.159.197 (talk) 16:33, 9 April 2010 (UTC)

She probably needed more romance, like telling her she's the prettiest girl on Earth, who has ever lived, or will ever live, and also in all parallel universes. If you can get through that without cracking up, she may open up. StuRat (talk) 14:41, 9 April 2010 (UTC)

The most romantic, sexiest thing you can do for a woman is clean the house, cook the meal, sit her down with a drink and tell her she means the world to you. --TammyMoet (talk) 15:00, 9 April 2010 (UTC)

I want a source for this. --Ouro (blah blah) 15:33, 9 April 2010 (UTC)

No it isn't, it is obviously a great thing to do but classic romantic stuff is better.--92.251.159.197 (talk) 16:30, 9 April 2010 (UTC)

You wanna source? Try any married woman, or woman who has to look after a home as well as work, kids, big kids (i.e. men)... We don't fall for classic romantic stuff. We know you're only after one thing if you go down on one knee - usually expecting us to do the same! --TammyMoet (talk) 18:59, 9 April 2010 (UTC)

You've got it right. The "traditional" romantic stuff needs to be done also, but it's not enough. Exceeding expectations once in awhile will work wonders. Am I right? :) ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 19:34, 9 April 2010 (UTC)

Well that depends on your home situation, if like most relationships the woman does the housework well then probably. However I clean up after myself and she cleans up after herself and we split hte rest of the jobs such as mowing the lawn (me) and emptying the bin (her).--92.251.159.197 (talk) 19:48, 9 April 2010 (UTC)

And if you did her chores sometimes, especially if she's weary (as with the song "Try a Little Tenderness"), you could score big-time points by doing "her" work for her, as it would exceed expectations. If you have a bright line dividing "your" work and "her" work that's never to be crossed, that's more of a "roommate" relationship than a "love" relationship. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 20:01, 9 April 2010 (UTC)

Welcome to the world of women! Women are not consistent creatures, you just have to accept that. You can try talking to them and trying to understand, but your chances of success are never high. --Tango (talk) 15:15, 9 April 2010 (UTC)

And lest anyone get too concerned, one can say the same thing about men. Human beings are not consistent creatures. Relationships are often fraught. A good relationship is usually the one in which you and your partner are crazy in the same kind of way. --Mr.98 (talk) 15:54, 9 April 2010 (UTC)

Or perhaps in mutually complimentary ways, such as a sadist and a masochist. StuRat (talk) 16:23, 9 April 2010 (UTC)

The one time she came to my house I cleaned it so it was spotless, so I could show her that my house is not as much of a mess as hers, she was 3 hours late and then said that she had already eaten, so I ate alone by candle light, she then also said that she does not want to come to my house as it is to far to travel, I should know I spend every second day at her house and have to do the commute! Later in the relationship I told her I had to work at 6am the next day, so I gave her a 2 hour massage and then stated that I need to go to sleep because I am working, she then started shouting at me that we never spend anytime together, and continued on until 3am. I was then very tired but agreed to go back to her house that night after work, I fell asleep as you do when you have only had 2 hours sleep the night before, she then wakes me up at 4am as she wants to have a cigarette and does not want to smoke alone. And now this stuff above, man I think I have been used! Reading it now, it seems so strange that I put up with all this if only for 1.5 months. She acts like she is a super model, and she certainly is not. The small amout of sex was dreadful, and I am a man so it must have been bad. Well thanks wikipedians, onwards and upwards. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 62.172.58.82 (talk) 16:29, 9 April 2010 (UTC)

To my mind, she's playing a game called, "You can't win." So, as with the movie War Games, "the only way to win is not to play." I'm also reminded at this point of a Fifth Dimension song called "Carpet Man". You did the right thing by leaving. But I'll also say this - cooking and cleaning for a woman are very romantic things to do - for the right woman, i.e. one who appreciates it. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 17:06, 9 April 2010 (UTC)

Reminds me of Should I Stay or Should I Go, by The Clash: [6]. StuRat (talk) 17:51, 9 April 2010 (UTC)

A very wise man once said (paraphrasing) "If you are in a relationship with a woman, you can be right or you can be happy. But not both at the same time." --Jayron32 18:42, 9 April 2010 (UTC)

Womenfolk and menfolk have different conceptions of what the relationship is. Bus stop (talk) 19:25, 9 April 2010 (UTC)

Bus Stop is hereby given the Understatement of the Day Award. :) ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 19:32, 9 April 2010 (UTC)

Indeed. And on the goals of an arguement within the relationship. A woman's goal is to win the arguement. A man's goal is to not be in the arguement. Those are easily resolved goals as long as the man is willing to always lose. --Jayron32 19:41, 9 April 2010 (UTC)

From My Little Chickadee:

W.C. Fields: "I never argue with a lady!"

Mae West: "Smart boy!"

←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 19:36, 9 April 2010 (UTC)

Funny how most (possibly all except Tammy Moet) of the people here giving us the good oil about the arcane ways of women, are men. Men have always misunderstood women, and vice-versa. That's at least part of the point of being different. (I gave up even trying years ago.) So, I'm not entirely sure their comments, well intentioned as they are, can be completely trusted. But on the other hand, asking a woman to reveal her secrets, or expecting there to be quality information available in a reputable source ... sorry, it doesn't work that way. There's a reason why there has to be this tension between men and women. Harry knew what he was talking about. Inherent uncertainty and unpredictability and confusion are part of the game. It's a woman's biological role to frustrate men - apparently it keeps their sexual energy high or something. Add to that the individual characteristic of being an outright bitch, and you've got quite a problem on your hands. (Not saying your girlfriend is one of those, but some women do take their role as Arch-Frustratrix uber-seriously.) Unfortunately, it's not the sort of problem that anonymous people on the internet, particularly males, can help you with.  :) -- Jack of Oz ... speak! ... 21:23, 9 April 2010 (UTC)

I know. Start calling her Trixie. She'll think it's cute and affectionate. Only you will know what it really stands for. Unless she also reads this page.  :) -- Jack of Oz ... speak! ... 21:26, 9 April 2010 (UTC)

Oh, yeh, that could work. Hey, it's already almost a lost cause anyway. Jerry Seinfeld once said a couple of cogent things on this subject (many cogent things, actually). One is that men and women are like firemen and fire, respectively. Men can be ready at any time, like an emergency. Woman can get really hot, but the conditions have to be right. The other thing he said was that in terms of attracting women, "Honking horns and yelling out the window are [unfortunately] the best ideas we've come up with so far." ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 22:07, 9 April 2010 (UTC)

Headphone clip is broken

The little clip on my headphones which is used to attach the cord to your shirt or jacket so that it doesn't get in your way is broken (see pic, it's blurred but you get the idea). I have still got the other part of the clip but I have failed to glue it back on using superglue. The clip is hardwired to the headphones so it's not possible to buy a replacement part, and I'm certainly not going to buy a whole new pair of headphones just for that. Please provide suggestions as to how I can attach the black plastic bit you see in the picture to my clothes without the clip, thank you. --Richardrj ^{talk email} 14:51, 9 April 2010 (UTC)

Carefully cut apart a pen lid (of the appropriate shape - some rely on the pen body as a 'back', other clips are all on the lid) and manipulate/glue as necessary? Or attach a paperclip/safety pin as necessary? 94.168.184.16 (talk) 14:55, 9 April 2010 (UTC)

If using a paper clip (or butterfly clip), be sure to use a plastic one, as the sharp ends on metal ones might snag on clothing. StuRat (talk) 16:20, 9 April 2010 (UTC)

I would probably glue something like an alligator clip to it with superglue. --Mr.98 (talk) 17:00, 9 April 2010 (UTC)

(ec)A small alligator clip might work. In fact, there's a plastic one on my own cellphone's headset. Less likely to break, I suspect, than the item the OP refers to. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 17:01, 9 April 2010 (UTC)

SIPHON PUMPS

A [SIPHON PUMP] is defined as being a device consisting of a conduit bent and forming legs of unequal length, this conduit has an inline holding canister at the upper bend. The action of pressure of the atmosphere forces liquid up the shorter leg of the conduit immersed in it, while the continued excess weight of the liquid in the longer branch causes a continuous flow. Withdrawal of the liquid at the upper bend is metered when both the outlet and inlet of the siphon are shut off, the canister is emptied of it's contents and shut air tight. The siphon flow begins when the flow valves open and allow for the purging of trapped air below the source liquid inlet. The SIPHON PUMP will withdraw liquid repeatedly from the canister that can be positioned above the source as disclosed in US Patent # 5358000. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 12.155.114.134 (talk) 16:09, 9 April 2010 (UTC)

Yes, and why have you posted this here ? Do you have a question for us ? StuRat (talk) 16:15, 9 April 2010 (UTC)

Perhaps the OP thinks we should have an article on siphon pump, but a siphon and a pump are different things, so that expression is misleading; we have a comprehensive article about the siphon, which is what he/she means.--Shantavira|^{feed me} 17:18, 9 April 2010 (UTC)

Homosexual male referring to himself as "Miss"?

I just heard Gok Wan reffered to on TV as "Miss Gok Wan". He's male. I would very much like to be reffered to as "Dr." or "Sir", or even better, "Your Highness". I wouldn't get away with that, so why is he allowed to call himself this?--92.251.159.197 (talk) 16:41, 9 April 2010 (UTC)

Freedom of speech. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 16:58, 9 April 2010 (UTC)

"Dr.", "Sir", and "Your Highness" are all titles that only people who have attained a certain status can use. For example, a person needs to earn a doctoral degree at an institution of higher learning to legally call himself or herself "Dr." The titles "Sir" and "Your Highness" can only be used by people who are monarchs or who have been recognized for their achievements by a monarch. In contrast, there are no legal restrictions on who may call himself or herself "Miss". You can call yourself "Miss" too if you like. Marco polo (talk) 17:04, 9 April 2010 (UTC)

If you are going to take seriously anything Gok Wan says then I think you deserve whatever annoyance you receive. Come on, he's almost ficticious! Caesar's Daddy (talk) 07:52, 10 April 2010 (UTC)

I'd like to see your source for there being a legal restriction to calling yourself "Dr." or "Sir" or any other title in the US. If you were to impersonate a doctor or defraud someone, then I could see the issue but simply referring to yourself as a doctor, I've never known that to be illegal. Dr. John seems to get away with it. As well as Dr. Johnny Fever. Dismas|^(talk) 17:16, 9 April 2010 (UTC)

Yes, you can call yourself pretty much anything you want to in the USA, as long as it's not for fraudulent reasons or violates some specific law. I don't think "Doc" Gooden has an advanced degree. (Although he seems to dabble in pharmacology from time to time.) ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 17:21, 9 April 2010 (UTC)

Neither do Dr. Demento, Dr. Dre, or "The Doctor" of Doctor and the Medics. – ClockworkSoul 18:58, 10 April 2010 (UTC)

It's not at all unusual or a recent phenomenon for gay men to refer to themselves facetiously as "girls" or whatever. In the 1960s movie The Boys in the Band, for example. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 17:12, 9 April 2010 (UTC)

Yeah but "Mister", "Misses" and "Miss" convey certain information about the person, so they're being difficult just for the sake of it. If they want to be women let them get transexual procedures done.--92.251.159.197 (talk) 17:33, 9 April 2010 (UTC)

See Self-determination. Ultimately, its up to the person what they want to call themselves. It's not really either your business or your problem. When a person asks to be called "Miss" or "Mister", neither really causes measurable harm to you. So I'm not sure you have a grievance here... --Jayron32 18:01, 9 April 2010 (UTC)

Yes, self-determination. And I call what the OP is saying "nannyism". The late, great Alan King said, "The world is full of little dictators trying to run your life." Those little dictators, as he called them, are often called "nannies". You're being rather blunt by telling the OP it's none of his business, but guess what - you're right. That Gok Wan guy isn't being "difficult", he's just doing what he feels like doing in order to be funny and entertaining. And whether he ever chooses to get a sex-change operation is entirely his own concern. I don't think there are all that many gay men who want to give up their "equipment" - even the gay men who call themselves "girls". ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 18:13, 9 April 2010 (UTC)

I would add gender identity as a more specific article on the topic. -- Coneslayer (talk) 18:15, 9 April 2010 (UTC)

The essence of the OP's complaint is "Why doesn't Gok Wan change something for my convenience?" And that kind of viewpoint is the essence of nannyism. Now, if Gok Wan's TV ratings were to drop off, specifically due to him calling himself that, then he might change it. The best way to get someone to change something is to appeal to their selfish interests. Telling them to change something just because you don't like it is not likely to get any response beyond an MYOB. I don't see anything suggesting that Gok Wan would gain anything by dropping that nickname and/or lose anything by retaining it. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 18:21, 9 April 2010 (UTC)

I think most people are rather missing the point. Wasn't this on Sharon Osbourne's A Comedy Roast last night? In which case, it was the job of everybody there to mock everyone else - especially Sharon, but certainly other comedians are fair game. I could be wrong...but I assumed that was it. Vimescarrot (talk) 18:35, 9 April 2010 (UTC)

I find it a little annoying that he would want this, but only because he's telling me what to call him. My definition of 'Miss' does not include men, so if he wants me to call him that, he can change his name. He has the freedom to want to be called whatever he wants: We have the freedom not to call him that.Aaronite (talk) 18:39, 9 April 2010 (UTC)

And who's forcing you to call him that, or trying to? ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 18:45, 9 April 2010 (UTC)

You are. You're massively overreacting, no need to get so defensive, I'm simply asking if this is a common phenonemom, and stating that I don't particularly like it because it's confusing. Similarly I wouldn't like someone calling a pot a pan. I am not suggesting there be legislation or any other crap, which would be absolutely ridiculous, and which is what you are defending against. Surely you would have a problem if I set up a really smelly and noisy meat factory just opposite your home? Does that make you a nanny? No. I also have problems with uptight people such as yourself jumping the gun just because of someone's opinion. Do I find his title odd, confusing and slightly irritating? Definitely. Have I suggested legislation or other action to "force" Gok Wan to call himself Mister? No I haven't. Would I? No, never. If anyone is being a nanny it's you, in your attempts to so vigorously destroy our opinions.--92.251.159.197 (talk) 19:46, 9 April 2010 (UTC)

I'm... what? Forcing you to call him that? No, I'm not forcing you to do anything. You can call him whatever you want to. Now, if he's a personal friend, you should maybe call him what he asks you to call him, as a matter of courtesy. But since you find "Miss" confusing, I have to assume that the two of you are not buds. In fact, why is it confusing at all? He's just being funny. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 19:58, 9 April 2010 (UTC)

During that show there were jokes about him but I assume that wasn't one as nobody laughed.--92.251.159.197 (talk) 20:20, 9 April 2010 (UTC)

Probably not, if it's what he normally calls himself. But you know he's a man and that he likes to call himself "Miss" for whatever reason. So where's the confusion? ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 20:24, 9 April 2010 (UTC)

Welcome to the modern age. The issue here is that "Miss Gok Wan" has (apparently) a female sexual identity, and would like to be referenced that way. you are under no obligation to do so, of course, but that's what it is. This is different from being gay - gay men often have a masculine sexual identity with a sexual preference for other males, rather than a sexual identity of being female. title like 'Doctor', 'Sir', or 'Your Highness' are conferred according to particular academic or social qualifications - no one is under any obligation to use those, either, mind you - but sexual identity labels are supposed to accord to the person's inherent sexual identity. You simply disagree with "Miss Gok Wan" about the nature of his/her inherent sexual identity, and the question is: what grounds do you have to disagree with him/her on what sexual identity he/she has? --Ludwigs2 20:44, 9 April 2010 (UTC)

Near as I can tell, the "confusion" boils down to the fact that Gok Wan won't conform to convention. That's not "confusion", it's "conformism". ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 20:55, 9 April 2010 (UTC)

No the confusion in that "miss" and "mister" tell us something about the person, their sex. If I was told Miss Gok Wan will see you now I would expect a female.--92.251.159.197 (talk) 23:40, 9 April 2010 (UTC)

And if, at some point in the past, I had met Shirley Povich and Michael Learned, I might be surprised to discover that the former is a man and the latter is a woman. But I would soon get over it. :) ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 23:54, 9 April 2010 (UTC)

Yes, but conformism is a form of ontological confusion - equating 'what I think is right' with 'what is right'. kind of a pandemic problem on wikipedia...--Ludwigs2 21:03, 9 April 2010 (UTC)

To address the original question:

...I wouldn't get away with that, so why is he allowed to call himself this?

OK, the basic problem is that the premise of the question is false. The OP could, in fact, "get away with" calling himself anything he wants to, as long as it's not being used for fraudulent purposes. Elvis Presley was called "The King of Rock and Roll". Michael Jackson was called "The King of Pop". Neither of those guys had any known royal lineage. Yet they were able to "get away with it", because it was just a nickname. Likewise with "Miss Gok Wan". He is free to call himself that, and others are free to not call him that. Does the OP have any further puzzlements, or is it clear now? ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 21:16, 9 April 2010 (UTC)

 In The Short Reign of Pippin IV: Pépin meets a young American who asks, "What kind of king are you?" "What do you mean?" "Well, my father is the Egg King of Petaluma, and Benny Goodman is the King of Swing...." "I am King of France." "The hell you say!" —Tamfang (talk) 16:20, 10 April 2010 (UTC)

There are probably a number of people who have "Doctor" in their name who lack the advanced degrees usually associated with that title.

It's more a matter of force of personality than any sort of conspiracy. If you introduce yourself as "Doctor So-and-so" with enough confidence that no one laughs in your face, then that's your name. (If anyone says "Doctor of what?", honestly answer that it's just an affectation, or vaguely answer "Of life" or some other such question-dodging nonsense.)

"Doctor" is probably an easy one. Introducing yourself as "Miss"(if male) or "King" will be a bit harder, but persevere. Eventually people will just shrug their shoulders and humor you. (See Emperor Norton.)

Sure, it's slightly confusing to dodge convention like that, but there's no law against being slightly confusing! APL (talk) 22:54, 9 April 2010 (UTC)

The funniest thing to me about this complaint is that Gok isn't even his birth name and while it sounds like it may be a male Chinese name to me (although I'm far from an expert), I'm going to guess the majority of British people would have no idea of this were it not for Gok Wan and if it were a female name, I'm going to take a while stab that the OP would still be complaining that Gok Wan should change his/her name. I should also point out that although some of the above statements appear to be presuming Gok Wan has a female sexual identity, this may be the case, but I haven't seen much evidence for this and a quick search isn't providing much supporting evidence. I think people are reading too much into one comment from one show which may or may not have been intended as a joke and we have no real indication that this is how he/she prefers to be identified. Perhaps he/she doesn't even care... Nil Einne (talk) 01:19, 10 April 2010 (UTC)

Hmm. On the Internet, and being upset due to considering the someone's "misuse" of gender identification. 92.251.159.197 is likely to be upset more in future. --203.22.236.14 (talk) 06:26, 10 April 2010 (UTC)

I agree with you, OP. But as you can see, homosexuals are rather untouchable nowadays. --Belchman (talk) 10:41, 10 April 2010 (UTC)

So you think it would have been different if Gok Wan were heterosexual? Nil Einne (talk) 05:51, 11 April 2010 (UTC)

Did you consider that there may have been an element of piss-taking in the introduction? --TammyMoet (talk) 14:24, 10 April 2010 (UTC)

I'm surprised that no one has mentioned Dame Edna Everidge (fictitious sex and title). —Tamfang (talk) 16:20, 10 April 2010 (UTC)

Excellent point. For that matter, what about Mrs. Doubtfire? ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 16:26, 10 April 2010 (UTC)

Less interesting imho; that character would not expect to be addressed as "Mrs Doubtfire" (what kind of a silly name is that anyway?) by people who know his real name. —Tamfang (talk) 06:39, 11 April 2010 (UTC)

Looking for reliable ear buds

My teenager constantly breaks the ear buds I buy for his iPod, often from pulling on the cords. A couple of times he cranked up the volume so high that the speakers went bad. I want to find a set that will last him years instead of months. Is there such a creature? Hemoroid Agastordoff (talk) 17:29, 9 April 2010 (UTC)

Listening to them at the highest possible volume is extremely bad for one's hearing, my iPod Nano is usually set at about at third of max volume.--92.251.159.197 (talk) 17:34, 9 April 2010 (UTC)

I suspect that if you make him pay for replacements, they will last much longer. StuRat (talk) 17:38, 9 April 2010 (UTC)

I'm with StuRat. If he's breaking them, make him buy the replacements. Then, he will work to make them last longer. If that means he has to wait longer because he doesn't have the money right now, then so be it. Last I checked, having a functioning personal music player was pretty high up on Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, and as such, I don't expect his health or his psychological well being will be much affected by the lack of an ipod. --Jayron32 17:59, 9 April 2010 (UTC)

My ipod is ALAWYS at full volume and I find this is still not loud enouigh, head phones come and go the best thing to do is buy expensive ones, I have had hundreds over the yaesr but the ones I have at the moment, sennheiser are the best I have ever had, in quality of sound, durability, material, the wire cannot get tangled. brilliant, I do not want to advertise but will never use any other brand again, although I am sure they will not last for ever and I will need to get a new pair at some stage. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 62.172.58.82 (talk) 18:19, 9 April 2010 (UTC)

Health warning - that kind of behaviour is likely to make you go deaf. 78.147.131.74 (talk) 21:13, 9 April 2010 (UTC)

Absolutely. If he has it up all the way, maybe he's already had hearing loss and is compensating for it. It would be best to get to a hearing doctor and get tested. You can't fix hearing loss, but you can keep it from getting worse. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 23:00, 9 April 2010 (UTC)

You could check out Bose headphones (somewhat expensive) for sound quality and durability, or you find very cheap headphones at most retail stores if you just want to replace them frequently at low cost. good luck, hope this helps...(since you didn't ask for parental advice or the effects of listening to music of high volume.) 10draftsdeep (talk) 20:14, 9 April 2010 (UTC)

I found earbuds at $1.50 a pair in WalMart - at that price, it really doesn't matter how long they last. SteveBaker (talk) 02:32, 10 April 2010 (UTC)

Don't subsidize your teen's future hearing loss. If he is putting them at a level that can blow our headphones, he is listening to them at extremely unsafe levels. Whether or not you care about that enough to encourage him not to do it, you certainly shouldn't pay for replacements. --Mr.98 (talk) 02:32, 10 April 2010 (UTC)

Possible hearing loss is an issue. I suggest you find out why he cranks the volume up so high. There is no substitute to talking with him though if he has hearing loss, you might end up having to shout :-P As for ear buds, putting the financial responsibility on his shoulders might make him take more care of his stuff. Astronaut (talk) 08:58, 10 April 2010 (UTC)

If I were the OP, I'd be quite disappointed with the responses. Apart from 10draftsdeep (and to some extent SteveBaker) nobody is attempting to answer the question, just supplying unrequested parenting advice. I too have the same problem as the OP's teenager, and I am not careless. I pay for my own in-ear headphones, and they all break within a few months. Almost all headphones, regardless of brand, have weak points where cord meets the plug or within the plug. Unfortunately, the more expensive brands may have better perceived sound quality (because for some reason audiophiles are the norm), but I am yet to find any that have build quality as a selling point. /Coffeeshivers (talk) 13:52, 10 April 2010 (UTC)

I'll answer the original question. No. If you simply want a recommendation of durable earbuds without the prescription they last years even in the face of significant mistreatment, it seems obvious from the question even without trying (and once I have tried and seeing the answers here further proving the point) that a simple internet search will provide a much more useful answer. Note that your requirements are clearly quite different from the OP, as the OP requires headphones which can survive 'cranked up the volume so high that the speakers went bad' yet 'will last him years' which I presume isn't you since you said you aren't careless. Also the wording of the OP's question suggestions we aren't simply talking about accidential tugging on the cord but careless pulling so again, not like you I presume. In addition, if the OP provides details which suggest there are much better answers then the ones you asked for, they shouldn't be surprised if people provide those answers. If they don't want such answers, they should use a commecial service which guarantees they won't provide such answers, the RD isn't it. Note that the answers aren't simply 'useless' parental advice. If he has problems with his hearing then getting him tested and the problem resolved may very well be a more effective way of getting him earbuds that will last for years. If the volume needs to be very loud because the earbuds don't fit, then getting buds which do fit similarly may very well help ensure he has earbuds which last for years. (In fact probably so would making him buy them himself or simply talking ot him, but let's not go there.) Nil Einne (talk) 07:18, 11 April 2010 (UTC)

Ear buds do not fit properly into my ear, so I find that if I am using them I must turn the Ipod up to maximum volume. They are not overly loud its just that they are meant to sit very close to your ear. Slightly more expensive headphones (rather than those useless ear buds) tend to be more ruggedly constructed. Look for thick cables (some are even made with a rope-like material) and strong looking construction of the structure. Also get him to try them out to see if he likes them.Jabberwalkee (talk) 14:08, 10 April 2010 (UTC)

Stock broker jackets

Why do stock brokers wear those characteristic jackets? 71.161.45.84 (talk) 18:31, 9 April 2010 (UTC)

When there was on-floor trading (which I believe even the New York Stock exchange has finally stopped), brokers from each firm wore jackets of different colours for differentiation and identification purposes. -- Flyguy649 ^talk 18:35, 9 April 2010 (UTC)

And a ref. -- Flyguy649 ^talk 18:36, 9 April 2010 (UTC)

Do they have extra-long sleeves? Clarityfiend (talk) 22:46, 9 April 2010 (UTC)

The system that needs the coloured jackets is called Open outcry which is (or was) generally used in trading financial futures rather than stocks and shares (in London at least). Apparently the London Metal Exchange still uses it. Not my specialist subject though. Alansplodge (talk) 22:58, 9 April 2010 (UTC)

They have not stopped. There's still on floor open outcry trading for the NYSE the CBT and the AMEX, not to mention lots of other smaller boards (Philadelphia exchange maybe? not sure). PvsKllKsVp (talk) 21:03, 10 April 2010 (UTC)

u2 video, dancing with a fan

In which video can we see Bono dancing with a black fan wearing a blue top?--Quest09 (talk) 18:59, 9 April 2010 (UTC)

Possibly I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For. I remember some interaction with people on the street in Las Vegas in the video for that song. 10draftsdeep (talk) 20:21, 9 April 2010 (UTC)

How many people served in both Gulf wars?

Being that the two wars were relatively close together, is it known how many people served in both? As in were on the ground in Iraq both in 1991 and 2003? 188.223.41.225 (talk) 23:14, 9 April 2010 (UTC)

Well, those wars were 12 years apart, and the number of active military personel who serve 12 years is actually quite small. Secondly, and this is becoming a problem with this current war, that number is even smaller when some of those years are spent in active combat duty; the U.S. armed forces are having a hard time finding qualified people to serve in the Captain or Sargeant ranks since those ranks generally require 4+ years of experience, and most people that end up in heavy combat don't re-up after their first contract expires. I don't know the actual number, or even how to find it, but I suspect that its not that large of a number, relative to the size of the whole military. --Jayron32 05:02, 10 April 2010 (UTC)

One who served in both wars was Saddam Hussein Abd al-Majid al-Tikriti, general and Commander in Chief of the Iraqi Mujahed Armed Forces. Cuddlyable3 (talk) 22:01, 10 April 2010 (UTC)

That's true, although saying he "served" in both wars understates matters a tad. :) I would think a number of career officers on all fronts might have been in both of them. I suspect the OP might be more interested in actual combat troops who were in both. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 13:14, 11 April 2010 (UTC)

April 10

rigoletto concertina

I picked one of these rigoletto concertina up the other day anyone know the history of this? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.140.117.169 (talk) 00:40, 10 April 2010 (UTC)

Have you tried looking at the WP article concertina which contains a paragraph about the history of the instrument. Richard Avery (talk) 07:24, 10 April 2010 (UTC)

Continental Divide in the Eisenhower Tunnel

Does anyone know if there's a sign marking the Continental Divide in the middle of the Eisenhower Tunnel? I've never been closer than the Loveland Pass, and I don't have all night to use Street View through the tunnel; please don't bother doing it yourself just to answer this question. Nyttend (talk) 00:45, 10 April 2010 (UTC)

This youtube video is someone driving through the tunnel (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BNWur19vjBk) maybe that'll be a quicker way for you to find out? ny156uk (talk) 08:17, 10 April 2010 (UTC)

I don't think so. I've driven through it before and I don't remember any sign. But I wasn't looking, and it's possible that they've added one too. PvsKllKsVp (talk) 21:01, 10 April 2010 (UTC)

This may be a tad nitpicky, but isn't the continental divide on top of the mountain? ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 21:54, 10 April 2010 (UTC)

Well, the location where the road passes under it could still be marked. I also don't recall seeing such a sign when I've driven through there, but that wasn't any time recently. --Anonymous, 22:13 UTC, April 10, 2010.

Thanks for the video; it's definitely faster than Street View. Yes, the Divide is on top of the mountain (picture), but I was asking about a sign underneath, as Anonymous suggested. I went to the Divide a year ago (my only time that far west :-), so now I'm quite glad that my friends agreed to go up to the Loveland Pass instead of through the tunnel :-) Nyttend (talk) 01:19, 11 April 2010 (UTC)

Creative Industry/Engineering boundary

Is there a clear boundary between creative product design and product engineering? Im assuming that the creative industry use market research etc to come up with new concepts for products while the engineering industry turns concept into reality. Thanks. Clover345 (talk) 11:40, 10 April 2010 (UTC)

The creative people can design something elegant looking that won't work at all, then the engineers design something functional, but butt-ugly. Eventually they compromise and come up with a reasonable product. StuRat (talk) 12:50, 10 April 2010 (UTC)

There is no really clear line between functions whilst a new idea is being thrashed out. Obviously each has its own speciality, but separation occurs after the proposal is operational. i.e. There is no point designing a brilliant campaign if the product specs are not known. Equally it is silly to produce a super product and then discover there is no market. So, wherever the concept originates it has to be a team effort to get it successfully on to the market. And, incidentally, there should not be a compromise. This suggests that some factors are given up in return for others. The whole new product development process should be one of co-operation.Froggie34 (talk) 13:45, 10 April 2010 (UTC)

It's totally going to depend on the industry. Take the car industry, for example - the creative folks (mostly) make non-functional (and typically, impractical) "concept cars" - which are either ignored or used only to 'inspire' the actual product. To contrast that - look at the video game business (which is what I do), and the creative and engineering people are completely working together every step of the way. SteveBaker (talk) 15:38, 10 April 2010 (UTC)

Lost contacts

Most of my friends are contacts that I know exclusively online...via Wikipedia, online games, random introductions...It has occurred to me a few times that any of them could die and I'd never find out. Or...Would it be possible for me to find out if they'd died? How much information would I need, and what would I need to do? Vimescarrot (talk) 12:17, 10 April 2010 (UTC)

If you knew their real names and their cities you could either check obituary records or contact their local coroners. Other than that, not a whole lot. Wikipedia does have a page on Wikipedia:Deceased Wikipedians, but it is certainly incomplete. --Mr.98 (talk) 14:30, 10 April 2010 (UTC)

If they are from the U.S., and you know their names and they are distinct, or your know their names and locations, you can use the social security death index.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 14:36, 10 April 2010 (UTC)

Thanks...How often/when does the social security death index get updated? Vimescarrot (talk) 14:49, 10 April 2010 (UTC)

And is there an equivalent for the U.K. and other countries? Vimescarrot (talk) 17:20, 10 April 2010 (UTC)

Sorry, no idea and no idea. I will say that names come up fairly quickly after deaths though, in my experience.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 01:23, 11 April 2010 (UTC)

Ok. Cheers. This should come in useful. *bookmarked* Vimescarrot (talk) 09:54, 11 April 2010 (UTC)

Heidi Illustrator William Sharp

I would like to find biographical information about the particular William Sharp who illustrated the 1945 Grosset & Dunlap Illustrated Junior Library edition of "Heidi" by Johanna Spyri. I have this book,(given to me on my 10th birthday in 1945). Your article about "Heidi" shows an illustration that does not match the style of the art work in my copy of the book. Apparently yours is the original book and mine is a later edition. "AskArt" online research information includes four persons by the name William Sharp, but it is unclear, and seemingly unlikely, from the art examples provided, whether any of the four is in fact the illustrator of the book I have. Sites providing information about Grosset & Dunlap, Inc. are not helpful because that company has devolved into a mass-market paperback business, apparently with no archives of the company's earlier publications. 98.248.63.139 (talk) 16:14, 10 April 2010 (UTC)

I did a few searches for him at a newspaper archives site (subscription required) and was able to confirm that he (this William Sharp) also illustrated a book called Five Little Peppers and How They Grew but nothing else. Maybe you or someone can run with that cross-referencing detail to find more.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 17:27, 10 April 2010 (UTC)

This site http://www.artfacts.net/en/artist/william-sharp-125751/profile.html#Biography (subscription required) seems to have a biography. All that can be read without it is that he was born in 1900 in the Austro-Hungarian Empire in Lemberg (now Ukraine), left Europe in the era of the Third Reich and died in 1961 in Forest Hills, New York City. Apart from illustrating childrens books he seems to have developed a sharp pen for the social, racial and political reality of the Cold War period. The Queens Museum in NY seems to hold a collection, so maybe you can contact them for help. --91.113.80.216 (talk) 21:07, 10 April 2010 (UTC) Oops, --Cookatoo.ergo.ZooM (talk) 21:14, 10 April 2010 (UTC)

A used-book search turns up (along with some false hits) other books that he illustrated, mainly in the 1940s, including the Heritage Press edition of Rousseau's Confessions and A Treasury of Stephen Foster. Deor (talk) 21:24, 10 April 2010 (UTC)

This site http://lambiek.net/artists/s/sharp_william.htm has a very short biography (studied art in Lemberg, worked in Berlin, left Nazi Germany in 1934, etc). --Cookatoo.ergo.ZooM (talk) 22:13, 10 April 2010 (UTC)

How to catch a wabbit

I want to know how to catch a rabbit with household items. I can't be doing stuff like buying guns, professional traps, or other things not normally found in a household. I don't want to wait in hiding for a long time or have to dig holes or anything like that. So basically I'm looking for a trap I can build without a lot of time spent out of household items. And no, to those "funny people" (wo)manning this desk, the answer "Lie in the grass and make carrot noises" is not helpful. Thanks 68.248.227.64 (talk) 17:51, 10 April 2010 (UTC)

Hey, dat always works on me, Doc! ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 18:15, 10 April 2010 (UTC)

Well, what "rabbit-proof" items do you have in your home that could be used to hold the rabbit ? A milk crate might work, so you could set it up with some bait under it and a stick holding it up, tied to a string. Then wait and watch and pull the string when he goes under it. You'd then need to run out and put some weight on it before he can get a paw under the edge and lift the crate enough to escape. Putting a car floor mat under it would also prevent him from digging his way out. However, what do you plan to do with the rabbit ? If you plan to take it out to the woods and release it, for example, then you need some way to seal off the bottom better, during transport. StuRat (talk) 17:59, 10 April 2010 (UTC)

My cat catches rabbits. The last one he caught he brought into the house, unscathed if a little nervous, and released him in the junk room. When I eventually found said bunny, it was a piece of cake to pick him up by the scruff of his neck and put him in a shoe box. I held it closed while I walked to the woods at the end of the school yard and released him there. However, if you'd like to eat the rabbit, may I recommend a piece of wire bent into a noose and placed at bunny head height along the rabbit run?--TammyMoet (talk) 19:06, 10 April 2010 (UTC)

Say I wanted to keep the rabbit as a pet, or eat it. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.248.227.64 (talk) 19:22, 10 April 2010 (UTC)

Or both Lemon martini (talk) 19:37, 10 April 2010 (UTC)

Well, if you want to keep it, you'll need a cage. Unless you already have one at home, you'd better buy one first, so your not stuck watching a rabbit under a milk crate. You could also use some types of cages as traps, like ones that have doors which slide up and down. StuRat (talk) 20:27, 10 April 2010 (UTC)

just as an aside: wild rabbits are not quite as lovable as the over-bred, super-tame decorative rabbits you get in pet stores. they are wild rodents, and can be a bit bad-tempered. --Ludwigs2 20:59, 10 April 2010 (UTC)

That's not to say that the domestic rabbit is always peaceful; I had a Black Satin buck from shortly after his weaning until his death, and he was rather unpersonable — try to coax him out of the cage (without hurting him) and he'd scratch painfully, and the only time he ever got out by himself, he returned happily as soon as he'd eaten a bit of grass less than one rabbit length away from the door of the cage. Nyttend (talk) 01:24, 11 April 2010 (UTC)

A student of Latin was flattered when his companions invited him to join their rabbit hunt. As the party lay in hiding a rabbit appeared and the student shouted Illic a lepus!. His companions chided him for frightening the rabbit away but the student protested "How could I have known the rabbit understood Latin?". Cuddlyable3 (talk) 21:32, 10 April 2010 (UTC)

Either that student was blonde or named Ole. Or both. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 22:54, 10 April 2010 (UTC)

Rabbits arent rodents their lagomorphs :). But doesn't waiting to pull a string when a rabbit enters a trap count as waiting? I think I'd be there for a while before a rabbit came to sniff the bait. 68.248.227.64 (talk) 00:28, 11 April 2010 (UTC)

Soft drink can rabbit trap --203.22.236.14 (talk) 01:07, 11 April 2010 (UTC)

That link relates the story of a redneck kid who kills tame rabbits at his college and ends up with 28 bloody pelts in his dorm room. This behavior resulted in a visit from the cops, which was somehow a surprise to him, but certainly not to me. StuRat (talk) 04:14, 11 April 2010 (UTC)

Assuming you don't want a live rabbit - Snare trap says that a snare is by far the simplest - and the most effective. All you need is a length of thin, flexible wire. SteveBaker (talk) 02:24, 11 April 2010 (UTC)

Dust bunnys can of course be easier to catch. Bus stop (talk) 03:39, 11 April 2010 (UTC)

I don't know if I should tell you this as its probably a horrible way for a rabbit to die, but you could make a snare from a piece of wire, such as picture wire. The rabbit is held in terror with the snare cutting into it until you find it and kill it. Snares are also bad because they can catch other animals, perhaps foxes or cats, and if caught by a limb then they may lose the limb. 84.13.169.129 (talk) 11:01, 11 April 2010 (UTC)

questions and answers

why can't a browser give a direct, plain, English answer to a plain English question? Are we waiting for an artificial inteligence to emerge? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 89.240.89.112 (talk) 18:14, 10 April 2010 (UTC)

Given the trouble that many of us humans at ref desk have interpreting questions from users, it shouldn't surprise you that a machine would have even more trouble figuring it out. Sometimes you can go into google and type a simple question and it might take you to the right place(s), or at least get you in the ballpark so that you can do narrower searches. Do you have an example of a question you're wanting to ask the browser? Or is this just a general observation? ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 18:17, 10 April 2010 (UTC)

Agreed, the problem is that most people aren't at all clear when they ask a question. Consider your Q, which is better than most, but still not perfect. You didn't capitalize the first letter, which may confuse an AI looking for the start of the sentence. You used the wrong term, "browser", instead of "search engine". You also spelled "intelligence" wrong. Now a human has no problem figuring out what you meant, in this case, but an AI might. Ask Jeeves, now Ask.com, did try that approach, but they had limited success. StuRat (talk) 18:28, 10 April 2010 (UTC)

See http://www.google.com/help/features.html. -- Wavelength (talk) 18:37, 10 April 2010 (UTC)

Wolfram Alpha thinks it can... --Belchman (talk) 18:40, 10 April 2010 (UTC)

Maybe we should turn over some of the crazier questions here to that program and see what it can come up with. Even keeping it simple, I wonder what it would do with Bill Cosby's question, "Why Is There Air?" ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 18:46, 10 April 2010 (UTC)

Wolfram Alpha was prepared for that one, including Cosby reference! see here ---Sluzzelin talk 20:38, 10 April 2010 (UTC)

Yes and no. The original context was Cosby's girlfriend, a philosophy major, asking the question. It wasn't really about the scientific origin of molecules. It was about the great "whys" of the universe, or whatever. It was also Cobsy being silly. The next question to ask would be, "How much wood would a woodchuck chuck..." and see if they have a canned answer or if they "think about it". ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 22:14, 10 April 2010 (UTC)

I asked it, "Who will win the pennant in 2010?" and stumped it.[7] Back to the ol' drawing board! ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 22:18, 10 April 2010 (UTC)

It couldn't handle the bunny question above either. --203.22.236.14 (talk) 01:30, 11 April 2010 (UTC)

Now that was entertaining...Certain search engines have predictive capabilities-if a question has already been answered,it assumes you will want to go to it again and so will make suggestions. I typed in 'Why is there air?'-on having reached 'Why is there a' it gave me a helpful list of possible alternatives.Top was 'Why is there a dead Pakistani on my couch'. Go on try it :) And no,I haven't a clue... Lemon martini (talk) 19:42, 10 April 2010 (UTC)

Artificial intelligence research used to be more oriented towards recreating human levels of intelligence (which is necessary to be able to answer questions in general). Around the time of the first AI winter, it became clear that, for the foreseeable future, no real progress can be made towards that. Currently research in those areas is focused on more limited tasks. Paul (Stansifer) 21:11, 10 April 2010 (UTC)

The BBC published a story on this on the day before this question: Why machines do not understand human speech. They don't spend much time asnwering their own question before opting instead to big up some Palo Alto Research Centre work. Still. It's almost apropos. --Tagishsimon (talk) 23:50, 10 April 2010 (UTC)

Until machines become smart enough to "read between the lines", as humans do, they will remain stupid machines. Decades ago, a teacher told us that humans were smart, slow and inaccurate; whereas computers were fast, accurate, and stupid. It remains ever thus. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 01:42, 11 April 2010 (UTC)

See http://www.answers.com/. -- Wavelength (talk) 04:30, 11 April 2010 (UTC)

Why do horses get more jittery and unruly after eating oat bran than after wheat bran?

A woman who owns a stable and has been taking care of 15 horses for about two years (And thus, to me, seems fairly experienced), she told me that the horses do get noticeably more jittery and unruly after eating oat bran than after eating wheat bran.

1. Have you seen this claim, or something similar, stated as a fact in any authoritative book about horses?
2. Have you yourself experienced something like this, or something similar, about (your) horse(s)?
   If so, then how, by what words, would you describe the effect of oat bran on a horse?

I intend to search, in scientific research reports, to find out the reason why behind this phenomenon. Therefore I need as many keywords, facts and observations as possible.
Could you please help me?
--Seren-dipper (talk) 20:01, 10 April 2010 (UTC)

wikt:feel one's oats probably isn't scientifically helpful, but shows that it's a widely observed phenomenon. 66.127.52.47 (talk) 04:48, 11 April 2010 (UTC)

[8] uses highstrung, [9] uses hot (also [10] I think) while [11] uses heated, [12] + use fizzy; and [http://www.wowhorses.com/horse-feed-behaviour.html uses hyperactive behaviour. [13] has relevant discussion and [14] + [15] relevant research. Perhaps also [16] although only very minor. Also while not directly relevant to the question [17], [18] and [19] may be of interest. Also you may want to look into the research of Dr. Paul McGreevy. I have no particular interest in or experience with horses and found these all from the description you provided (well some from 'oats wheat horse' or 'oats wheat horse behaviour' but mostly 'oats horse behaviour' since it appears to be oats in particular that are singled out as the issue) so you probably already have enough to start your research Nil Einne (talk) 06:51, 11 April 2010 (UTC)

One war in the whole 20th century?

I once heard about someone who claimed that instead of stuff like WWII, spanish civil war, korean war etc there was just one war 1914-89. DOes anyone know where I can read more about this? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 92.251.158.90 (talk) 20:46, 10 April 2010 (UTC)

The claim may relate to teaching of Jehovah's Witnesses that the current world era, or "system of things", entered the "last days" in 1914. Jehovah's Witnesses' doctrines on the End Times, are explained in detail in their literature. For example, they teach that the Greek word parousia, often translated as 'coming', means 'presence'. Cuddlyable3 (talk) 21:17, 10 April 2010 (UTC)

Or more in the mainstream, this[20] or this[21] "The War of the World; 1914-1989" by Niall Fergusson, Allen Lane, 2006. Alansplodge (talk) 22:15, 10 April 2010 (UTC)

Ah yes this book is what I was looking for, not that Jehovah's Witnesses thing. Thanks to both of you anyway--92.251.158.90 (talk) 22:47, 10 April 2010 (UTC)

See also the short twentieth century. — Kpalion^(talk) 08:05, 11 April 2010 (UTC)

Is the airline industry considered part of public transportation?

Is the airline industry considered part of public transportation? We pay fares to ride an airplane and airports are like transit malls. WJetChao (talk) 23:50, 10 April 2010 (UTC)

Well, there is a small section on the subject within the public transportation article. The wording of it is a little odd, but it seems to suggest that what we consider "public transportation" is schedule-driven; that is, the bus stops, picks up whoever's there, and leaves. It doesn't wait long. You could think of several differences. One is that public transportation as we think of it is unreserved, "first-come, first served". Airline bookings are reserved in advance, whereas bus and commuter train are "show up and board". If that makes sense. So in that sense, AMTRAK would not be "public transportation" either. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 23:58, 10 April 2010 (UTC)

FFS. The whole industry isn't, but scheduled passenger services are clearly well within the definition of Public transport. See p1 & p2 in that article. --Tagishsimon (talk) 00:05, 11 April 2010 (UTC)

Not all busses are show-up-and-board; Greyhound encourages buying well in advance, and you pay far more for a ticket if you buy for that day instead of buying a week or two ahead of time. Nyttend (talk) 01:25, 11 April 2010 (UTC)

Yes. Greyhound would not fit the standard definition. City busses would. Assuming there really is a standard definition. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 01:38, 11 April 2010 (UTC)

Our Public transport article provides a reasonable definition: "a shared passenger transportation service which are available for use by the general public, as distinct from modes such as Taxicab, car pooling which are not shared by strangers without private arrangement." In what way would Greyhound not fit that bill? And then the article provides sections on Airlines, and Buses and coaches. There's no assertion that public transport = turn up & go, contrary to the repeated direction of your assertions. --Tagishsimon (talk) 02:02, 11 April 2010 (UTC)

I'm going by what the lead has to say about it, whose examples all seem to be the "turn up and go" variety. Yet later on it talks about airlines and such. So don't blame me for the article being unclear and self-contradictory. I am at this point uncertain as to just what the term "public transportation" is supposed to mean. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 04:46, 11 April 2010 (UTC)

Uh are we reading the same article? (Quick check in the history suggests it hasn't changed much.) From the lead (second and third paragraph):

Public transport modes include buses, Ferrys, trams and trains and 'rapid transit' (metro/subways/undergrounds etc). Intercity public transport is dominated by airlines, coaches, and intercity rail. high-speed rail networks are being developed in a many parts of the world.

Most public transport runs to a scheduled timetable with the most frequent services running to a headway. Share taxi offers on-demand services in many parts of the world and some services will wait until the vehicle is full before it starts. Paratransit is sometimes used in areas of low-demand and for people who need a door-to-door service.[1]

How exactly does this imply that it all are the turn up and go variety? Most of the examples for intercity transport are clearly not the turn up and go variety. Even in the first sentence of that paragraph, buses, ferries and trains are not always the 'turn up and go' variety. Note also key words like 'include', 'most' etc.

The article is no FA but the lead seems decent enough other then some minor issues (like the capitalisation of ferrys and the non capitalisation of high speed which I've fixed). It first gives a resonable definition of what public transportation is that Tagihsimon has already mentioned. It then goes into more details, including giving examples.

Nil Einne (talk) 06:13, 11 April 2010 (UTC)

April 11

Is this a boil, a wart, a bite, something else?

I know there's a restriction against medical advice, but hopefully asking what this inflammation could be doesn't really count. If anyone could clarify it for me, it'd be great. http://imgur.com/B8683.png 202.10.95.178 (talk) 03:02, 11 April 2010 (UTC)

See your doctor —Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.248.227.64 (talk) 03:08, 11 April 2010 (UTC)

It could be anything. None of us here are dermatologists. See as noted above, go see a doctor. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 04:48, 11 April 2010 (UTC)

Removed questionable diagnosis from 68 Nil Einne (talk) 08:09, 11 April 2010 (UTC)

No one wants to see that!!! Its disgusting, put it away, and only show it if YOUR DOCTOR asks specifically to see it. Really man, have some decorum!

Most effective bike lock

What is the strongest type of bike lock? With these sorts of things they get better if you pay more but is there a design which is the strongest? Thanks. Chevymontecarlo. 10:09, 11 April 2010 (UTC)

Good article here going through pros and cons of the different lock types.Dalliance (talk) 10:34, 11 April 2010 (UTC)

http://www.whycycle.co.uk/safety_and_security/bicycle_locks/

Great! Thanks! :) Chevymontecarlo. 10:44, 11 April 2010 (UTC)

Propery

Are any of the following houses real? By that I mean bit just sets on television shows, can you tell me who they are owned by and whether or not it would be possible to but them, Nile's house from Fasier, or Frasiers apartment, alternativley the beech house in Two and a half men. Thank you —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.3.145.145 (talk) 13:22, 11 April 2010 (UTC)

White after Labour day

Oft times in american shows one hears the frase uttered that one should not wear white after labour day, why not? Please explain. Thank you —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.3.145.145 (talk) 13:24, 11 April 2010 (UTC)