:They can guard the wheel from debris which could chip the finish. A chip in the finish could accelerate rust formation. <span style="font-family:monospace;">[[User:Dismas|Dismas]]</span>|[[User talk:Dismas|<sup>(talk)</sup>]] 23:27, 16 February 2011 (UTC)
:They can guard the wheel from debris which could chip the finish. A chip in the finish could accelerate rust formation. <span style="font-family:monospace;">[[User:Dismas|Dismas]]</span>|[[User talk:Dismas|<sup>(talk)</sup>]] 23:27, 16 February 2011 (UTC)
: They're mainly decorative, but you may wish to replace it if you intend to sell the car at some point in the future. Buyers may subconsciously view a missing or non-matching hubcap as a sign of neglect, in the same way that they'd subconsciously regard an unwashed floor in an otherwise pristine house for sale. --[[User:NellieBly|NellieBly]] ([[User talk:NellieBly|talk]]) 01:39, 17 February 2011 (UTC)
: They're mainly decorative, but you may wish to replace it if you intend to sell the car at some point in the future. Buyers may subconsciously view a missing or non-matching hubcap as a sign of neglect, in the same way that they'd subconsciously regard an unwashed floor in an otherwise pristine house for sale. --[[User:NellieBly|NellieBly]] ([[User talk:NellieBly|talk]]) 01:39, 17 February 2011 (UTC)
::[[Hubcap|Hubcaps]] serve as a cheap means of imitating the styling of magnesium or aluminum alloy wheels, display the car marque and prevent dust entering the wheel bearing. Special hubcap designs modify airflow or are non-rotating for diaplaying advertisements. A wheel cover can also refer to an overall cover on an external rear-mounted spare tire on some off-road vehicles. [http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=User:Cuddlyable3/EDITABLE&action=submit <font color=blue>EDITABLE<sup>link</sup></font>]
::[[Hubcap|Hubcaps]] serve as a cheap means of imitating the styling of magnesium or aluminum alloy wheels, display the car marque and prevent dust entering the wheel bearing. Special hubcap designs modify airflow or are non-rotating for diaplaying advertisements. A wheel cover can also refer to an overall cover on an external rear-mounted spare tire on some off-road vehicles. [http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=User:Cuddlyable3/EDITABLE<font color=blue>EDITABLE<sup>link</sup></font>]
:Girly OR here, but on the occasions I've changed a car tyre, my hands have been much cleaner when the wheels have had hubcaps on! Guess it keeps the wheelnuts clean. --[[User:TammyMoet|TammyMoet]] ([[User talk:TammyMoet|talk]]) 13:00, 17 February 2011 (UTC)
:Girly OR here, but on the occasions I've changed a car tyre, my hands have been much cleaner when the wheels have had hubcaps on! Guess it keeps the wheelnuts clean. --[[User:TammyMoet|TammyMoet]] ([[User talk:TammyMoet|talk]]) 13:00, 17 February 2011 (UTC)
Revision as of 14:13, 18 February 2011
Welcome to the miscellaneous section of the Wikipedia reference desk.
The best answers address the question directly, and back up facts with wikilinks and links to sources. Do not edit others' comments and do not give any medical or legal advice.
I came across this video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3vq_y1hFlrY which was posted almost a year back. I searched for a long time, but couldn't find any info about the release date of the movie, or the studio (aoineko) that created it. I went to the official website too (http://www.aoineko.com/), but since my net connection's too slow, most of their pages didn't load properly for me. Wikipedia doesn't have an article on either the movie or the studio. Any pointers? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 117.97.231.0 (talk) 12:15, 10 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
1. What was the name of the crashed airplane flight that has been reported to have ghosts haunting other airplanes after the scrapped parts have been recycled?
2. The only thing that is guaranteed to keep away just about any form of undead is garlic. Why is that? Who came up with such an idea and possibly when? 64.75.158.193 (talk) 13:42, 10 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
The thing with garlic repelling the undead started with just vampires and was popularized in Bram Stoker's novel Dracula. Our article on garlic has a bit about it. As for why garlic is used rather than, say, broccoli is more difficult to say, except to mention that virtually every plant, number, animal, form of weather, lake, and hand position is considered special or holy or evil or lucky by one superstitious group or another. Matt Deres (talk) 13:59, 10 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Matt has some good source info above, but I think the rationale is not as arbitrary as he implies. Garlic's characteristic odor and taste are actually due to its chemical defense mechanisms. See e.g. Plant_defense_against_herbivory, List_of_repellent_plants, and the toxicology section of garlic. So garlic is actually a pretty good choice for a fictional repellent of a fictional creature. Stoker may have known this, or not, but it is an area where folk wisdom (e.g. the snake-repellent use mentioned above) is fairly consistent with the science. SemanticMantis (talk) 21:04, 10 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
From the novel, it's pretty clear that Stoker knows he's dealing with a long-standing central European bit of folklore, though he implies that such "knowledge" wasn't known in England. Our article says "The association of garlic to evil spirits may be based on the antibacterial, antiparasitic value of garlic, which could prevent infections that lead to delusions and other related mental illness symptoms." and supposedly backs this up with two references. In fact, it's a ridiculous bit of OR; the first reference here mentions the various healthful properties of garlic, but rightly sticks to what studies have shown and doesn't mention anything about being able to prevent delusions in any way (having stomach ulcers doesn't give you visions...). The second doesn't mention garlic at all, but is simply an overview of neurodegenerative diseases. Matt Deres (talk) 01:50, 11 February 2011 (UTC) p.s. - I've removed that nonsense from the article. Matt Deres (talk) 01:54, 11 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Fly larvae are occasionally eaten, as in casu marzu. I've heard that Saami/Lapps enjoy maggots, but can't find an authoritative reference. I don't imagine there's much meat on an adult fly, and can't find any references about them being eaten - maggots are easier to catch. If you eat food kept in insanitary conditions it's likely you'll eat some larvae, grain weevils, etc, and everybody has had the occasional fly flying into their mouth. --Colapeninsula (talk) 15:28, 10 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Unless you've deleted something, I see no request for medical advice here, just a request for information about how the body handles alcohol. It's the sort of thing you expect to find in our articles, although many people wouldn't know how to find the right article. If you find our article alcohol, you find yourself bombarded with a lot of scientific information about a class of molecules. BUT, if you look at the little writing at the top of the page, it suggests that we really want the page alcoholic beverage (alcoholic drink, with a pointlessly pseudo-scientific name). Reading the introduction to that article, I clicked on the promising-sounding blood alcohol level, which has a rather poor section on metabolism of alcohol that tells us The rate of elimination in the average person is commonly estimated at .015 to .020 grams per deciliter per hour (g/dl/h)[citation needed]. Is that really reliable? I went back to the article alcoholic beverage and clicked around, but didn't find an answer or further relevant information, even in ethanol metabolism.
A VERY rough guide is an hour per Unit as measured by a pub measure, ie, a small 35ml whisky or half a pint of beer, or small wine. So if you want to push it to the limit begin by timing yourself from your first swallow, but how much easier and safer is it to get a taxi????? And remember - your kidneys and liver don't go into overdrive to cope with excessive consumption - they only work at minimum wage rate - which is like a supermarket queue - if there's a hell of a queue, there's a hell of a wait - just don't do it. And this from Scotland which has vastly different tolerance levels than other jurisdictions. Oh, by the way, it's not about what you can get away with - it's about NOT killing other innocent people - 92.30.183.72 (talk) 01:18, 11 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
I think the above mentioned Blood alcohol content article contains some good information and also links to outside sources. And I don't understand the presumptuous nature of your response, 92.30...for all you know the OP is asking out of concern for someone else's practices, or writing a novel for that matter. Please don't preach, this is a reference desk and this was a perfectly valid question. 10draftsdeep (talk) 15:59, 11 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
An image was uploaded by someone else, after some prodding from me to find the source, author, date, etc for the file, they did. I'd like to change the file name to the title of the work of art. Anyone know of a template to add or procedure to follow? Heiro21:47, 10 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
An animal doesn't need to be domesticated to ride it. Ostrich racing occurs, even though ostriches aren't domesticated. That said, temperament matters a lot, as a very excitable animal won't tolerate being ridden. -- 140.142.20.229 (talk) 21:31, 11 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Firstly, the physique of a Kangaroo would preclude any ability to ride it. Secondly, they're not adverse to assaulting you if provoked. Thirdly, RSPCA Australiawould cut your balls off be upset. Nanonic (talk) 01:23, 11 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
They're also nowhere near big enough. The largest kangaroos are about the weight of an adult man. Even a light riding horse weighs five times as much. Looie496 (talk) 01:31, 11 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Even if you could find a large enough kangaroo and a small enough rider, and even if the kangaroo was freakishly friendly, and even if the kangaroo could keep its balance with a rider clinging to its back .... I'm not sure they'd make a very pleasant mode of transport. Their locomotion is a bit ... bouncy. APL (talk) 15:43, 11 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Interestingly, in the Moose#Domestication section, there's discussion of a plan in 18th century Sweden to use moose for postal distribution and cavalry, but the plan was scrapped in part due to the aggressiveness of the moose - I can't find any statistics, but a number of web pages mention that moose are actually more dangerous for maulings than bears. (Although there apparently was a breeding program in the Soviet Union to breed tame moose.) As appealing as the image of a Mountie riding a moose is, there is no evidence to support it in practice. -- 140.142.20.229 (talk) 01:37, 12 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
The logic of that statement is not unlike "If they speak French in France and German in Germany, it seems reasonable that they would speak Antarcticese in the Antarctic". -- Jack of Oz[your turn]23:54, 11 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
My Dad used to ask us before trips to Toronto, "You do speak Canadianese, don't you?" Pfly (talk)
All else aside, remember that jockeys need not be adult men, even small adult men. Child camel jockey asserts that children as young as four years old are bought for the purpose and their growth deliberately stunted. BrainyBabe (talk) 14:29, 12 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Indeed. And as a result of those imports, there are now more camels in Australia than in any other country on Earth. Mostly wild. I always said they should have picked Chips Rafferty to play "Lawrence of Australia" rather than Nancy-Boy O'Toole. :) -- Jack of Oz[your turn]08:35, 14 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Why do most car models in the North American market always grow over the years? I'm not talking about average cars in general growing or shrinking, I'm talking about individual models keep growing, and then newer models that never existed before fill the exact same size category of these new grown models. A couple of examples include Ford Explorer going from 2 row seating to 3 row seating and much bigger. I think Honda Accord is now in the Full Size class although it used to be Mid-Size, and in the late 80's was a Compact. This applies to many other cars and light trucks. Also, the definitions for size classes of cars and light trucks themselves have changed over the years to allow for bigger and heavier vehicles in the category, and I think they are now categorizing them based on weight more than dimensions. Whats the reason for this?
Roberto75780 (talk) 03:46, 11 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
It's not just America, you already cited Honda (Japanese); German car manufacturers follow the same trend. That is how over the years we saw the introduction of the Mercedes Benz C-Class, BMW 1 Series, Audi A1 & A2 etc. It's all about economics and the psychology of "bigger is better". If you're upgrading your car to the latest model you want to feel like you're "getting more" than what the previous model gave you. Q.E.D. Interestingly, none of the manufacturers seem to care that people's garages don't magically grow to keep up. Zunaid09:40, 11 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
I'd guess it's because selling to your curretncustomers is easier than getting new customers. And the current customers are always getting older and fatter and lazier and more interested in comfort than being sleek and hip. So the models get bigger and you bring in new models to sell to younger people. Dmcq (talk) 11:58, 12 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
I'm speculating a bit, but since airports in Canada are quasi-private entities, some of them may just not have consented to release of the numbers they provide by StatsCan, even if they release the data on their own. Under Sec. 12(2)(b) then, the information can not be disclosed, although it can be used to calculate a total. The exceptions in Sec. 17(2)(g) wouldn't apply since an airport is not a "carrier" nor a "public utility" per se. I imagine airports may not be subject to the Freedom of Information Act either, but not positive. Franamax (talk) 06:31, 11 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
OK that does make some sense. The idea behind not letting StatsCan release the figures may have something to do with the appearance of how busy an airport is. If you look at the busiest airports list and the 2009 "Canada's 20 busiest airports by passenger traffic" most airports tend to claim larger figures than StatsCan report. Although not obvious from the list the same holds true for aircraft movements. For example Toronto Pearson claimed 418,017 movements in 2010 but StatsCan says 417,761. I wonder if any government funding is based on the number of passengers/aircraft movements. CambridgeBayWeather (talk) 15:53, 11 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Canada does not have a Freedom of Information Act, but Access to Information laws, both at the federal and provincial/territorial levels. Those only apply to government entities. Privately-run airports would indeed not be coverewd by such laws. --Xuxl (talk) 16:31, 11 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
You are correct on the federal level, but at the provincial level many provinces do indeed have Freedom of Information Acts, search for FOIPOP in your favourite engine. And you're missing the grey zone of airports under the NAS which are owned by the feds but run by Canadian Airport Authorities, which are not really "private" entities but almost a law unto themselves. This is how Pearson airport in Toronto has among the very highest landing fees in the world and is sometimes a matter of controversy in Canada. Franamax (talk) 05:00, 12 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
It may not be the confidentiality of the airports per se as the confidentiality of the users of the airports which is at issue. If you have an airport which is primarily used by a single airline or other entity, the publication of total flights may be seen as compromising their confidentiality. -- Mwalcoff (talk) 00:59, 13 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
I work for On Telecoms S.A. and I have recently updated the company's article on Wikipedia.
I also need to update the logo. As you can see in the company's official website (www.on.gr), the logo has changed.
I am not an autoconfirmed user, nor an administrator and the logo has all rights reserved, so I cannot upload it in the commons section. What can I do to update it? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Maria.economides (talk • contribs) 11:45, 11 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
What I meant to say was, do money-based donations ever cause their desired effect? For example, suppose there was an advertisement saying that people in a developing country would get cleaner water if donated to. Does that actually happen if enough people donate? jciindyysgvxc (my contributions) 13:02, 11 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Yes, as long as the organization is ethical, their goals are achievable, and their methods effective. Many organizations that do good are sustained by donations- I look around my own city and see a school whose construction was 50% funded by donations, a food bank which uses donations of food and money to feed hungry people, and a homeless shelter that uses donations of money, food, materials, time, and skill to provide shelter and services to homeless people... and that's all less than a few blocks from where I'm sitting. Just do your research into the organization you're thinking of donating to, and make sure that they are legitimately using the donations to provide what they say. -FisherQueen (talk · contribs)13:13, 11 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Our article on charitable organizations outlines the criteria by which a number of English-speaking western countries determine whether or not an organization is a 'charity' for tax purposes. In general, they lose their tax-sheltered or tax-exempt status if they fail to use the donations they receive to carry out good works. Many jurisdictions impose caps on the fraction of income which can be used for marketing, fundraising, office staff, and other overhead. There are often public disclosure laws which require registered charities to report on how they spent their money; if you really want to know where your donations are going you should seek out these filings and reports. Charitable donations are a voluntary, personal choice — if a particular charity can't explain to your satisfaction how your donations are going to be spent, take your money to one that will. TenOfAllTrades(talk) 15:46, 11 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
As a man who once "ran" a charitable organization (I was W. Master of a lodge of free and accepted Masons), I can entirely confirm that some donations go directly to charitable works. I was proud of our low overhead and the fact that when we got a check it went right to a charity program, or to pay for an endowment to keep a charitable program running indefinitely. I'm not sure how other charities operate but if your question is "do they ever" go directly towards programs, I can answer firsthand with a yes. My secretary took receipt of checks that were spent the next week on scholarship programs for trade apprentices. 65.29.47.55 (talk) 05:16, 12 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Both Bill Gates and Warren Buffett are giving their money to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The Foundation has clear goals with an actual end (e.g., wipe out polio from Earth) rather than merely cause an effect without end. If there is an answer as to whether money-based donations ever truly cause their desired effect (rather than just perpetuate a continued need to donate), the Gates Foundation should be able to answer that. -- 06:21, 12 February 2011 (UTC)
Similarly, March of Dimes was also founded with a clear goal with an actual end: getting rid of polio in the United States. They succeeded in that goal, but rather than dissolving, they decided in 1958 to try to reduce premature birth and infant mortality, problems that will probably never be eliminated. Buddy431 (talk) 14:03, 12 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Quick queen question
Supposing the Queen gawd bless'er lives to celebrate her 100th birthday, who does the telegram/telemessage/whatever it may be come from?
Will she have a little message with Happy Birthday Me from Me on? Lemon martini (talk) 15:02, 11 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
There are opportunities to rehearse celebrations ahead of that time. On May 12 of this year, at which time she'll be 85, Elizabeth will pass George III and become the second-longest-reigning British monarch. On September 11, 2015 (age 89), she'll pass her great-great-grandmother and move into the number one spot. The pressure will then be off and she can coast to her 100th birthday. --- OtherDave (talk) 02:35, 12 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
How do the airport people get the helicopters without wheels into and out of the hanger? Do they have a special cart that they use to pull it in and out? Googlemeister (talk) 16:17, 11 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
One uses “ground handling wheels” or a proper purpose built towcart. Here is a video of a Robinson 44 Helicopter getting its skates on . [6]--Aspro (talk) 16:40, 11 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
(EC)Ah, different spelling. "Hangar" rather than hanger. Same pronunciation. (I expect the "hanger" spelling is common.) Short OED says Hangar, French, unknown origin, for a shed or shelter. American Heritage Dictionary says from Old French, likely from Latin "angarium," a shed for shoeing horses. I had always assumed they literally hung dirigibles from the beams of the structure to keep them from dragging on the floor. The Wiktionary etymology claims it from from a term for a fence around or hear a house seems unlikely, compared to the AmHeritage etymology from the Latin word for a workshed. Google News Archive shows common use of "hangar" for an airship, aeroplane, or airplane shed by 1910, with the earliest use around 1906 for dirigibles. By 1910 someone commented in an aviation magazine that we had imported "garage" as a word for the shed a car is kept in and "hangar" as the word for a shed an aircraft is kept in. Edison (talk) 19:30, 11 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Thackeray used "hangar" in 1852 to mean a coach-house or covered space for storing a (horse)-coach. The Latin via Old French derivation seems most likely, but the route is obscure. Dbfirs00:00, 12 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Storing Valentine's Day Roses Outside and in the Dark
I bought my live-in GF a nice bouquet of roses today for Valentine’s day. I was planning on stashing them in my home office till Monday morning when I can surprise her with the flowers. However I was told by a co-worker that roses should be kept somewhere cold like outside. The temp between today and Monday has a low of 28 and a high of 45. Is that too cold? Additionally, is it okay to keep it in our dark shed? Will the roses need light? They will be kept in water the whole time. Thank you in advance. --Endlessdan (talk) 19:49, 11 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
I've noticed that live roses can be surprisingly cold resistant provided they're kept out of the worst of the weather; I've seen rose blooms while there was snow on the ground, for example. So long as it's reasonably sheltered, I imagine it would be alright (though, as I said, my experience is more with live ones than with cut ones). Matt Deres (talk) 20:36, 11 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
My mother and grandmother were both florists. I got used to coming home to find roses in the fridge! If the temperature outside doesn't go below freezing you should be fine keeping them outside. It might be better to keep them in a friend's garage or fridge. --TammyMoet (talk) 20:42, 11 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
I agree that prolonged exposure to temperatures below freezing (32 Fahrenheit) would probably damage the roses. I don't think they need light. A refrigerator might be the best solution. If a little heat from your house leaks into your shed so that it won't fall below freezing, that might work, too. Marco polo (talk) 21:27, 11 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
And of course from the disambiguation Lug comes "Lug, the protrusion from the case of a wristwatch to which the strap or bracelet attaches, usually by means of spring pins that bridge pairs of lugs at the upper and lower sides of a watch's case." CambridgeBayWeather (talk) 05:34, 12 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
I have a very clear memory that when I used to have to go to a jeweller or watchmaker (in the UK) to get a new strap fitted, they called the spring-pins lugs, not the projections on the watch. It's years since I have had to do this, but my memory's pretty clear. I can't find any evidence of this use - does anybody else recognise it? --ColinFine (talk) 22:11, 12 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Not sure if this helps, but I found this: "A lug is defined as: extensions on the top and bottom of a watch where the bracelet or strap is attached". Has an illustration in this PDF.Avicennasis @ 20:14, 9 Adar I 5771 / 13 February 2011 (UTC)
Category:New Jersey articles missing geocoordinate data
I received some items from a family member's estate. One of them is a firearm, with "Harrison & Richardson, Model 088" engraved on it. I have very little knowledge of firearms - can someone tell what kind of ammunition would it take? And if I decided to sell it, is there like a "blue book" or similar to let me know a fair price for it? Thanks, 72.77.95.134 (talk) 05:58, 12 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
It may be marked on the barrel. Twelve gauge comes in at least two chamber lengths so you need more information before you know which shell you will need. A gunsmith might be able to answer both your questions. Rmhermen (talk) 17:45, 12 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
If it was made in 1888 I would get it reproofed before firing again anyway. It would have been designed for Black Powder -not modern propellants, so the original proof is void. Also, you don't know what other owners may have done to it which might have introduced weaknesses and thus voiding any subsequent re-proofs.--Aspro (talk) 18:17, 12 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Is Brawn GP the shortest-lived championship winning team in F1 history?
OK so 2011 may not be the best year to ask this question, but with the pain of Brawn GP's departure after only season in F1 still going in my heart (I was a big fan of Brawn in 2009) and with Mercedes GP as well as Michael Schumacher having a disappointing season, I decided to ask this question. Brawn GP only existed for 17 races and one season in F1, but with 8 wins, 15 podiums, 5 pole positions and 4 fastest laps, as well as both the driver's and constructor's championships, it may also be considered one of the best, being the first (and so far, only) team to have a 100% championship success rate. Since then, I have been wondering has there even been any other championship winning team which also lasted for only one season, or competed in less races (less than 17 races). Narutolovehinata5tccsdnew07:42, 12 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Can you please explain the difference between custard and flan? The definitions are not helpful
in Wikipedia nor in other dictionaries. Thank You. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.208.237.78 (talk) 22:54, 12 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
As far as I know, flan is a specific type of custard that comes from Spain. Or possibly, flan is just the Spanish word for "custard" (the test would be, what would Spanish people call other sorts of custard?). But in that case, I think it would still be the case that in English the word flan refers specifically to the Spanish style. --Trovatore (talk) 22:56, 12 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
What a bizarre question! A flan is a flat open tart, and custard is either a baked mixture of milk, eggs etc or a sweet sauce made of milk thickened with cornflour. DuncanHill (talk) 22:59, 12 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
(Translation for Americans: Duncan presumably means cornstarch).
I am unfamiliar with the "flat open tart" meaning. Everything that I've ever eaten that was called flan was basically a warm crème caramel, too eggy for my taste. I had never heard of the eggless custard either; that sounds tasty though. --Trovatore (talk) 23:16, 12 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Our way makes more sense. Cornstarch isn't flour, because it isn't made by grinding grain, but by washing away the starch from the ground grain and collecting it. Cornflour is what you bake into cornbread (yum), just like you bake wheat flour into wheat bread, and white flour you throw out in the trash because it isn't really good for anything. --Trovatore (talk) 00:06, 13 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Not a bizarre question at all. "Flan" has two food related meanings. One is a quiche like dish (either savory or sweet) with a pastry crust and egg based filling. The other meaning is synonymous with Crème caramel which is a type of custard. --Daniel23:00, 12 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Duncan: Where I live, we eat 'custard pie,' which is a flat open tart filled with a baked mixture of milk, eggs etc... it looks pretty much exactly like a flan. Except I think flan is caramelized on top, isn't it? I'd have said, based on what I get when I order them in restaurants, that 'flan' is Spanish for 'custard.' -FisherQueen (talk · contribs)23:09, 12 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
I did check Chambers for flan, that's where the "flat open tart" definition comes from. Flans can be sweet or savoury. A quiche is a kind of savoury flan with a poncy foreign name. A custard tart is a tart filled with custard (the baked sort). You can pour custard over a flan. DuncanHill (talk) 23:18, 12 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
In North and South America as well as the rest of the Spanish speaking world flan = Crème caramel a type of custard. You can look at numerous flan recipes online describing a creme caramel equivalent. --Daniel23:23, 12 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
I was referring to Duncan calling quiche a poncy foreign name for flan, when in actuality they are both originally French words. --Daniel23:30, 12 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
By the way, I don't see the distinction you're making between the words flan and quiche. They're both naturalized loanwords, perfectly fine words in English. It's new to me though that flan derives from French; I thought it was Spanish. Probably it was a French loanword in Spanish first, and came into English from the Spanish. --Trovatore (talk) 23:54, 12 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Flan, for a flat sort of tart, came into English from French. I have no idea how it came into American. Quiche actually comes from German via French. DuncanHill (talk) 23:59, 12 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Maybe I'm getting overly pedantic, but flan and quiche are both English words derived from identical French words. Here is picture of the alternate meaning of flan [9]. --Daniel23:36, 12 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
In the Americas and the Spanish speaking world, the situation is reversed. When someone orders a "flan" here, they don't expect a crust or a fruit topping. --Daniel23:43, 12 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
I answered the question entirely correctly in British English, and commented on how odd the question seemed. You can call that "derailing" if you like, but I'll chalk that up to the difference between American and British English too. DuncanHill (talk) 00:43, 13 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Like Duncan, I was completely unaware of the American meaning of "flan", or of the fact that it had a different meaning there. "Flan" and "quiche" may both be French loanwords, but "flan" is completely naturalised, whereas "quiche" retains not one but two instances of foreign spelling. -- ColinFine (talk) 00:52, 13 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Reminds me of the story about when Bush and Cheney walk into a diner, and Bush says to the waitress, "Honey, how about a quickie?". The waitress blanches and...never mind, I think the punch line's obvious at this point. --Trovatore (talk) 02:47, 13 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
More seriously, to my intuition, quiche is at least as naturalized as flan. In fact I keep wanting to spell it flán, as I imagine it's spelled in Spanish. But is that a hyper-foreignism, like habañero or latté? --Trovatore (talk) 02:52, 13 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
In Spanish, the accent mark exists because you normally place vocal emphasis on the second-to-last syllable in a polysyllabic word. An accent mark is used only when you have to put the emphasis on a different syllable than the one that would be expected; it goes atop that syllable's vowel. A monosyllabic word like flan would never need an accent because there is no ambiguity about where the accent must be placed. Comet Tuttle (talk) 18:04, 14 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
British here as well and I was too completely stumped as to the OP's question, to me it was asking the difference between a liquid and a pastry which made my mind boggle until the answers came in. Nanonic (talk) 02:05, 13 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Which is fair enough and I regret that my post came out snarkier than I intended, but all this confusion can only have hinged on assuming Trovatore was in on some kind of private joke with the OP and then failing to look up flan in that great online encyclopedia we're always talking about where the very first line is "This article is about the open pie. Flan may also refer to sweet custard desserts such as crème caramel..." And when someone actually answers the OP, people again fail to click the link provided where it states everything quite clearly: "In Spanish-speaking countries and in North America, flan refers to crème caramel. This was originally a Spanish usage, but the dish is now best-known in the United States in a Latin American context. Elsewhere, including in Britain, flan usually means a custard tart (French flan pâtissier), sometimes with a fruit topping." I'm sorry; I know I'm being grumpy, but we say right at the top of the page that searching Wikipedia can usually answer your question, so it bugs me when people who know better assiduously avoid following that advice. Matt Deres (talk) 04:50, 13 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
As the OP had already said the definitions on Wikipedia had not been helpful, why would I have then gone and read them when there's a bloody good dictionary on my table already? DuncanHill (talk) 13:13, 13 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
(From someone equally confused as DuncanHill at the original question, since flan in Britain and in France and in a lot of other countries means a kind of pastry) - I think the idea of stipulating that questioners state the country or cultural context in which they ask the question would be really helpful. Sometimes the questioner (and the responders) would have no idea that a concept would be culturally specific. I think the OP probably had no idea flan meant a pastry in the non Spanish/American half of the world, just as those living in the other half mostly have no idea that it means creme caramel in Spanish/American usage. --PalaceGuard008 (Talk) 22:48, 13 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
In France, are you sure? See fr:flan (dessert). It does mention the pastry version as one variant, but the picture has no pastry. (It doesn't look like a Spanish flan either; there's no caramel. It looks like a panna cotta more than anything.) --Trovatore (talk) 23:47, 13 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Yes I agree - in the UK, if you go to the supermarket and buy a "flan base", you will find it is made of sponge cake, and then you will top it with fruit in a sweet fruity glaze. In my experience, quiches are universally savoury, and flans are sweet. How the other half of the world do speak, eh! --TammyMoet (talk) 10:30, 14 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Well you learn something new every day. Until this moment I had never heard of "flan" being anything other than an open pastry tart with some kind of sweet or savoury filling. In my opinion, asking the difference between custard and flan is like asking the difference between a coat and a pair of shoes - both things you wear but otherwise totally different concepts. But "custard" = "flan"? ... Still shaking head in disbelief. Astronaut (talk) 04:05, 14 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
I think the answer to the OP's question got a bit confused in all the head scratching from both sides of the Atlantic. So, in American English, does "flan" exclusively mean a type of custard? Is it like runny, pouring custard or a more solid, tofu-like dessert? Is it another name for creme caramel or is it another name for a type of dessert which is like a creme caramel? Does it have any biscuit or cake-based base to it? --PalaceGuard008 (Talk) 16:38, 14 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Yes, well done, an American website with a preponderance of American usage. Try looking at allrecipes.co.uk, which kicks off with a gruyere flan, a fruit flan, and a rather tasty-sounding chicken flan. DuncanHill (talk) 13:38, 15 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
February 13
Question: Bill T/ Loading Receipt
What is Bill-T? What is Loading Receipt? What is the difference between them? (Truck drivers or truck owners giving the trucks on rent to transfer the goods, they give the bill copy of receipt to the companies which send the goods. My question is what is the difference between the two terms,'Bill-T' and 'Loading Receipt? (As far as my knowledge is concerned, Bill-T is given to you when only your goods are going to be sent to the destination and truck comes back, while, Loading Receipt is given when somebody else's goods also ride with your goods in the same truck and truck goes to other destination to to drop them after your work accomplished. )
Still I need the answer whether I m right or not.
Thank you, — Preceding unsigned comment added by Mrugesh.varsani85 (talk • contribs) 02:56, 13 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Oh geez, anything that starts with "US" followed by another letter can be so many different things.. United States Penitentiary? United States Post? United States Pencils? Pickles? Porno? Take your pick of any word that starts with a letter P, chances are there exists some organization, product or service out there. I guess that would also answer your question about from where it was derived.. -- Ϫ06:12, 14 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Selling advice?
I have recently inherited some WW2 artifacts. A Nazi flag, armband, and officer's dagger. I'm told they were taken from the battlefield during the war by my American soldier relative. I have no interest in holding on to them long-term. What would be a good place for me to sell these? (I'm in the US.) I don't know much about their value so I'm suspicious of just using ebay- I want to get a reasonable price. I'd also like to avoid selling them to somebody who might have, shall we say, an excess of enthusiasm about Nazi paraphernalia. Any advice is helpful- (By the way, is it legal for me to have / sell them? I have no idea exactly how they were obtained but it probably wasn't through any official means.) 24.60.54.68 (talk) 17:49, 13 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
In Germany, owning them might be illegal, but I can't imagine it's illegal in the U.S., where you can own just about anything. If it were me, I would start with a respected historical museum and see what advice they could give. ←Baseball BugsWhat's up, Doc?carrots→ 20:28, 13 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
I'd be a little careful — to my knowledge there's no prohibition in any US state against owning Nazi memorabilia per se (and such a prohibition would in my amateur estimation run afoul of the First Amendment), but it certainly can be against the law to knowingly possess or sell stolen goods. That was how I was reading "not obtained through official means"; I apologize if that was a misinterpretation. --Trovatore (talk) 00:48, 14 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks T- that is exactly what I meant. (I don't think these items were "stolen" in the conventional sense, but I have no idea what constitutes "stolen" in wartimes.) 24.60.54.68 (talk) 12:01, 14 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
There are websites dedicated entirely to WWII memorabilia and collectible items. It's a risk you take that you might end up selling to a neo-nazi but I'd assume as many people play the "red side" at re-enactments or just have an interest in the history as have any lurid interest, if not more. 65.29.47.55 (talk) 23:05, 13 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Have you asked his other descendants? Whilst they might not mean much to you, other relatives may have a greater sense of history and see them as marking an important event in the family history. Physical possession may have passed to you but I think it would be appreciated if you asked around first. The cost of obtaining them could out weigh anything else you might currently own – if you see what I mean.--Aspro (talk) 21:29, 14 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Average snowfall per state
I've searched for hours and can't find a list of the average snowfall per state per year of United States states. My question would be if anyone could find such a list? Albacore (talk) 18:21, 13 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Well start with Florida with an average 0 inches per year. But I am not certain it would be very meaningful in general. In Michigan, for instance, Detroit averages 41 inches a year but Marquette gets 141.[13]75.41.110.200 (talk) 18:35, 13 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
I notice that the How-stuff-works map is not using the same dataset I linked to. I checked and both South Bend, IN and Alpena, MI are shown one zone too low. The local differences can be quite large (South Bend, Indiana is only 70 miles from Fort Wayne but South Bend in the lake effect zone gets 71 inches/year while Ft. Wayne gets only 32.) 75.41.110.200 (talk) 19:12, 13 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
"Average snowfall" is ambiguous. Would "total number of acre-feet of water that precipitates in the form of snow" be something like what you have in mind? (I don't know whether such a list exists, but at least it is something definite to look for.) Looie496 (talk) 18:45, 13 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
As kind of implied by 75.41, snowfall by city is more likely to be meaningful. Chicago's huge amount recently was increased due to lake effect. It might make more sense to look at the average per weather station (i.e. airports), since per state is not going to very meaningful. Oregon and Washington, for example, don't get all that much snow in general, but the Cascade peaks, which form a large natural "snow fence", get seriously dumped on. ←Baseball BugsWhat's up, Doc?carrots→ 20:15, 13 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
I could look into the idea of creating such a page for the United States. Snowfall is a highly variable quantity, like rainfall, and reporting standards are much more varied than liquid precipitation. This means there is less standardization in snowfall measurements than rainfall...it's not as simple to measure snowfall as you might think. You could measure snowfall every 24 hours, 12 hours, 6 hours, 3 hours, etcetra, and if you clean off the snowboard/measuring surface, you will get different totals for the exact same snow event. In some respects, this is a fractal issue which I do not believe we touch upon well enough in the snow article as it is currently written...maybe it's a better issue for fractals. In any event, there's no harm in checking to see if enough information exists for such an article. It will have to wait for the numerical weather prediction FAC to end before anything is accomplished by myself. Thegreatdr (talk) 23:03, 14 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
2012
So, another question about this end of the world thing next year, I understand there have been quite a few such recently. I was just wondering, though, is it true what I have heard, that lots of people all around the world are planning on playing the same music right at the end, for some reason? 79.66.107.197 (talk) 19:36, 13 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Have you tried googling this subject? I would start with [2012 music] and see what, if anything, turns up. Obviously, the possibilities are endless. Any song having to do with farewells would be appropriate, and there are a brazillion of those types of songs. "We'll Meet Again" would seem especially fitting. ←Baseball BugsWhat's up, Doc?carrots→ 21:08, 13 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
We should make it clear, yet again, that there is absolutely no reason to believe that the world is any more likely to end in 2012 than in any other year. I don't think there is even any consistancy about when during 2012 the world is supposed to end, so I'm not sure how people can plan to play music at the end. It sounds like the kind of thing that someone proposes on Facebook without really thinking about it, gets spread around a bit, and then forgotten about a few days later. --Tango (talk) 21:20, 13 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
I have heard of this on a couple of other fora recently, though I didn't pay much attention at the time. I believe, though, they both agree the song of choice was one called Forsaken, or something similar. I know someone that apparently already has it, seems it is actually about the end of the world. Though I do agree, if they can't seem to decide on which day is the end, how are they to narrow it down to a couple of minutes? 148.197.121.205 (talk) 19:49, 14 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
And just to spice things up (or maybe to beat the competition, who knows) some fundamentalist evangelicals have recently started preaching the end of the world would come sometime in May this year, so the Mayan thing is not the only predicted end of the world looming ahead. TomorrowTime (talk) 20:46, 15 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Technically, no. Unless they are some rare collectible for some reason, i.e. special year, mint mark, mistake during production, etc.. Then they are worth whatever you can get a collector to pay for them. Heiro20:39, 13 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
As currency, no, per Heironymous' response; at the store, they're still worth one-hundredth of a dollar. I'm assuming that you're interested in what they might be worth to a collector, however. This page lists wholesale prices for wheat pennies compiled by a coin collector. You'll be able to sell the most common ones for three or four cents each, but a handful are worth more than a dollar and two or three are worth more than a hundred dollars. TenOfAllTrades(talk) 20:47, 13 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
(ec)Actually they are. Each has significantly more than one cent's worth of copper at current prices. 95% of 3.11 grams = 2.95 grams of copper. Copper is right now about $4.50 per lb (454 grams), or right about 3 cents per cent. Collect (talk) 20:50, 13 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
And if you do melt them down, they are no longer wheat pennies! I would speculate that the pennies, or at least some of them, are far more valuable to collectors than would be their metalic content. But using for purchase at a store, they are still worth just one penny, unless you can convince the cashier to buy it from their own money. ←Baseball BugsWhat's up, Doc?carrots→ 21:04, 13 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Condition is everything. A wheat penny in mint condition may be worth dealing with. A crappy worn wheat penny may be worth more than 1 cent, but not enough more to justify the effort of finding a buyer. Looie496 (talk) 00:43, 14 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Well I found 9 of them in 5000 pennies I got from the bank last week if someone wants to do the math to figure out the obsolescence rate. Granted 5000 might not be a large enough sample size, but it is what I have. Googlemeister (talk) 22:11, 16 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
As Snow White rode off with her prince at the end of the movie, I only counted six dwarfs that she kissed??? And, which one did she miss?
Thanks for your help.
<email redacted> —Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.59.216.168 (talk) 22:57, 13 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Aww, nope! 68.59 is correct though. She only kisses six of them. First Bashful, then Grumpy, then three at once, the only one of whom I recognized was Doc, and finally Dopey. So that narrows it down to Happy, Sneezy, or Sleepy. ---Sluzzelintalk23:36, 13 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
OK, dug out the Platinum Edition DVD release and checked. In the scene, the Prince picks up three dwarfs individually: Bashful first (he blushes after being kissed), Grumpy and lastly Dopey. Between Grumpy and Dopey, he picks up three dwarfs at once, with Snow White kissing, in order: Doc (the only dwarf with glasses), Sneezy (will get to this in a moment) and Happy (similar facial hair to Doc, but no glasses). As Baseball Bugs suggested, the dwarfs' attire is consistent throughout the film. I went back to the scene where Snow White guesses each dwarf's name ... she identifies Sleepy as he's yawning, and he's seen wearing an olive green shirt. Sneezy is wearing a tough-to-name color (grayish purple is the best I can come up with), but it is that color shirt, not Sleepy's olive green, the middle dwarf is wearing. --McDoobAU9319:50, 15 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Is there any website that has exhaustive lists of cover art for wine labels, or a forum where such things are discussed? Ideally, a graphic index like Symbols.com but for label colors/shapes. I'm trying to identify a bottle of wine from a photograph, and it is not possible to read any text; can make out only a flower and a swatch of color on a black label. If it helps, I think it's a California wine or possibly Canadian. Squidfryerchef (talk) 01:19, 14 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
I always did want to know what those needle-like things sticking out of mountain bike wheels were, I'm guessing they're indicators of wear? The article on Tread doesn't seem to say specifically what these are for. -- Ϫ06:07, 14 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
I never thought of them as wear indicators since they wear off so quickly. If you used them as an indication of wear, you'd be replacing tires every few weeks. Dismas|(talk)06:09, 14 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Yes, the rubber needle-like things are, as Nanonic said, sprues, which is what 65 said too. Sort of thing you used to see explained on Blue Peter when they visited a tyre factory. DuncanHill (talk) 09:49, 14 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
You'll find tread wear indicators within the grooves of the tread, generally in the form of a bar of rubber joining the two walls of the groove. When the tread has worn down such that the indicator is flush with the top of the groove, your tyre is shot. (Actually, it's probably shot before this ... in the UK you're allowed just 1.6mm of tread. In Germany, 3mm is the minimum.) --Tagishsimon(talk)09:57, 14 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
I somehow doubt they would be sprues in the sense of "place where material was injected", as there are a rather large number of them. My understanding is that they are wear indicators, but not in the sense of informing the user of the tire when to replace it, but informing the retailer if the tires have been used. Someone coming back with most of them rubbed off, saying "you sold me a defective tire" would be asked if it was defective before they managed to ride ten miles on it. -- 174.21.250.120 (talk) 15:56, 14 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Hmm.. I don't think so.. that link reads: "After molding, tires are cooled down. Small knobs, called spew, appear on the exterior of the tire. They are created by purpose Рallowing steam and air to escape. Before final inspection, most of the spew gets removed.". That doesn't sound like a fit because they are not exactly "knobs" and they are clearly not removed. In any case, I'm surprised Wikipedia doesn't have a mention in any article on this. -- Ϫ17:16, 14 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
And again, the article on "sprues" reads "the sprue will solidify and need to be removed from the finished part". These needle-like things are never removed, they're on every mountain bike tire i've ever seen. -- Ϫ17:18, 14 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
My experience squares with 24.189's, but maybe they are packaged differently in different countries. But if I opened a pack of sponges, and they were wet, I would take them right back to the store and get a refund or exchange, as I would be very suspicious of their sanitary condition. ←Baseball BugsWhat's up, Doc?carrots→ 08:58, 14 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
There's nothing wrong with your sponges. Manufacturer Glocos claims "Our PVA sponges, flannels and towels are offered moist in air tight packaging ensuring a soft, smooth, refreshing feel and hygienic finish."[20] Sponges are moistened before packaging so they look better in the packet and to ensure they don't dry out and crack, as Corvus cornix said, rather than giving you a dry brittle unattractive product. [21]--Colapeninsula (talk) 12:53, 14 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
I bought a mop over the Internet with a sponge head that could be squeezed by moving a lever attached to rollers. When teh mop was delevered, the sponge was damp. I'm thiking, who used this? When the sponge dried, I realized that the lever could not be moved because the dry sponge head could not be compressed. The company likely kept the sponge head moist so people would not think that the lever was broken when trying to squeeze a dry sponge head. -- Uzma Gamal (talk) 14:50, 14 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
I've been buying these pre-dampened sponges for awhile. I have always been suspicious of them—consequently I always rinse them out before using. I assumed there was something soapy in them, to help with average household cleaning chores. But I guess it's just water. I'll probably continue to rinse them before using. "Paranoia strikes deep; Into your life it will creep; It starts when you're always afraid; You step out of line, the man come and take you away." (lyrics from For What It's Worth (Buffalo Springfield song)) Bus stop (talk) 15:07, 16 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Custom made diamond jewelery
Why is purchasing quality diamonds loose more expensive than buying jewelery, plucking the diamonds out, and then throwing the gold in the garbage? I want to buy loose diamonds for custom made-to-order artisan diamond setting rings, and I realized that it's cheaper to actually buy diamond solitaire rings or studs, pluck the diamond out, and throw gold in the garbage. I'm shopped around at a few sources, and even compared diamonds that had the exact same GIA or EGL grading reports on all the Four C's (clarity, cut, color, clarity) and very very similar dimension ratios. All of these diamonds are natural, not-enhanced diamonds and none are from a different better source (i.e. non-"blood diamonds"). Am I missing something here? Why would it be consistently cheaper to buy identical diamonds set in jewelery and then throw away (or better yet, of course pawn/scrap the precious metal)? Roberto75780 (talk) 08:24, 14 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
This does defy reason, so I think there might be something wrong with your methodology. Have you tried a comparison of two pieces with exactly the same GIA certs? (As exact as possible, I guess.) Comet Tuttle (talk) 17:41, 14 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
I have no special knowledge of the gem trade, but from other commercial buying experience, I can proffer a possible reason. The makers of the finished jewellery are likely to be buying their diamonds in much larger quantities than an artisanal maker, and may therefore be able to negotiate a lower price/larger trade discount from the suppliers, one which more than offsets the cost to them (and hence the price to their customers) of the associated settings. Similar price structures apply in many sectors: for instance, a large supermarket company which buys a book for sale by its entire chain - probably tens of thousands of copies in one order - pays so much less per copy than an independent bookstore pays for its order of a few tens of copies that it can sell those books for a lower price than the independent pays for its copies, and still makes a profit on them. 87.81.230.195 (talk) 18:16, 14 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
De Beers might explain something. They cornered most of the Diamond gemstone market ages ago, and more-or-less provide their partners with good deals (to maintain help maintain the monopoly). Everybody else will get a much worse deal. --Stephan Schulz (talk) 13:08, 15 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
My son's primary school classes are being mixed up at the start of the next school year. That is to say, the four classes in his year will be broken up and the children will be mixed up into new classes, as opposed to keeping the same children together year on year. How prevalent is this practice in the West? And what arguments have been put forward by educationalists for and against it? --Viennese Waltz09:42, 14 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
I had 550 people in my graduating class by the time we got to high school, so that's what? 22 classes spread over 5 elementary schools, 4-5 classes each school. Every year we had different classmates, they didn't keep us in static groupings year-to-year. 65.29.47.55 (talk) 22:23, 14 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
At the large UK primary where I'm a governor we have an annual intake of 90 (3 classes of 30). 20 per class would be regarded as a pretty good ratio and our teachers would love it. Classes are not remixed each year as a matter of principle, but I have known this done for practial reasons (timetabling issues, for instance, so that certain pupils receiving targeted interventions all end up in one registration form, or so that a particular group of pupils are taught a core subject by a specialist in that subject. It's also been done where one class lost a significant number of pupils in the year due to families moving away, and the year as a whole needed to be rebalanced. In my daughters' secondary (small class sizes) it also happened once when personality clashes in one of the form groups caused continual conflict. There was a great deal of disquiet and protest from the pupils in the other form group when the move was announced, but in fact the new arrangements proved very successful. Karenjc10:27, 14 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Just a guess: This may be done in conjunction with the plans of the current city administration to expand the concept of the Gesamtschule (= a united system of secondary education) form the current 10% to, ideally, 100%. For those who are not familiar with it: the Austrian educational system until recently has split children at the age of 10 essentially into two groups according to their aptitude. Basically, at 10 you are prematurely (and possibly unjustly) put into the box of blue collar workers or the box of white collar (potential) academics. Shuffling kids around in primary school may be done with the aim to prepare pupils for mutal competition, but also for mutual support. --Cookatoo.ergo.ZooM (talk) 11:58, 14 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Oh! And one more thing. Some friends of mine have a daughter who attends a Waldorf school. They stay in the same class with the same teacher through all 8 years of their elementary education. Dismas|(talk)12:00, 14 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
That was standard when I went to school and it's still standard now here in Ontario. Each year, the grade/cohort would be mixed so that the three or four individual classes would have a different make-up from the year before. The one kind-of caveat is in the French Immersion classes where there really aren't enough kids in the program - even so, the two classes do not stay the same year after year. Hmm, I see now that we don't have a proper article for my use of cohort. Here in Ontario (and the rest of Canada, I think), "cohort" is used to describe a particular "year" of kids, so that all the kids at a particular level/grade/year would be part of a single "cohort". The other terms "grade", "year", etc. have too many other commonly used meanings in the education system. Matt Deres (talk) 14:41, 14 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Standard in the western US. My WP:OR is that the principal gets a list of all the kids who have been enrolled in school for the next year and I believe the #1 priority is to distribute the "problem" kids evenly so that one teacher isn't burdened with all of them. There are other priorities but I believe they all get in line behind that one. There is teacher input, but it's the principal who makes the decisions. Comet Tuttle (talk) 17:38, 14 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
When I was in grade school we had a different group and a different "home room" teacher every year. Presumably that was so the kids would experience some diversity. In junior high and high school the home rooms were grouped pretty much alphabetically, so the home rooms tended to be similar from year to year, but of course you would go from teacher to teacher during the course of the day, rather than staying in one room all day as was done in elementary school. ←Baseball BugsWhat's up, Doc?carrots→ 20:25, 14 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
I went to an elementary school that tracked students by "ability," and most kids stayed at the same level each year. In other words, the kids with the most-active parents (usually the wealthier ones) made sure their kids were in the "top" group each year. Once in high school, there were regular, "college-prep" and "honors/Advanced Placement" classes all along the way, so again, you tended to have the same peers through the years. The exception was in stuff like health class and gym that wasn't tracked, in which case you'd get more of a random mix of kids. -- Mwalcoff (talk) 00:32, 15 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
It's rather sad to think of kids being pigeonholed so early. As I recall, we took a standard achievement test of some kind, around 6th grade, and based on the results we were either placed in the standard classes or the "accelerated" classes, although the homerooms remained alphabetically grouped. And you're right, the only other time we saw the "other type" of kids was in P.E. ←Baseball BugsWhat's up, Doc?carrots→ 02:03, 15 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
I too went to a partially tracked school system (just to clarify it was in the U.S. Midwest in the 70's and 80's.) Some subjects (math and language) were tracked, others were homeroom-based (social studies, gym) Don't remember which group science fell into. Rmhermen (talk) 13:34, 15 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
I recently took a test that said it was to find out what career path would be a good choice for me; turns out that in fact it was the Myers-Briggs test. While I did attend a psychology class back in school, I had never heard of that test before. Looking it up on Wikipedia made me wonder if it's more of an "esoteric" approach, like blood types in Japanese culture or astrological signs.
To me, it seems to be rather unknown on the European side of the big pond. Is that so, or am I mistaken?
Also, assuming that it is more serious than astrological signs, I am curious if there are any "perfect match" suggestions for the different personality types. ;-)
The article you link to explains it quite thoroughly. MB is very common in the west with human resources professionals, careers counsellors, and many others who are not trained psychologists. It is not scientifically justified - psychologists seem to prefer Big Five personality traits though even they are not universally considered valid. There are more criticisms here:[23][24][25][26].
There are also many websites with information on what careers supposedly are good for different types: google Myers Briggs careers or something similar. But while it may be fun or offer ideas for careers you hadn't though of, they should be regarded with caution, as you suspect. --Colapeninsula (talk) 16:33, 14 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
While I did read the article I linked to, I had a hard time understanding it, as English is not my native language, and aside from average, everyday conversations and the occasional novel I'm only used to technical documentation in English, not Psychology. Later (after asking my question here) I had the idea of checking out the "Simple English" copy of it, which was a lot easier to understand. -- 78.43.71.225 (talk) 22:41, 16 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Well I took a battery of tests like that at work once and it indicated I was totally unsuited for the work I was happily doing and very well too I might add. I wouldn't place much reliance on them if there is something which you do like doing. On the other hand if there isn't anything like that then it is probably reasonable enough to start of on some random path indicated by them and being told that it's just for you :) Dmcq (talk) 11:01, 15 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
The best career path is something you really enjoy doing. Tests are of doubtful use. One day back around 1970 I did two tests in one day with two major IT companies of the day. One said "Look elsewhere". The other offered me a job. I worked happily in IT for over thirty years. (Didn't actually accept that job offer though.) HiLo48 (talk) 11:18, 15 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
When I did my requisite "what will I do with my life" floundering in college, at the college career center I took the MBTI along with other career interest tests. Having gone through the process, I would say the main benefit of such tests is to open you up to possible suggestions. (hypothetical dialog:) "This test says that you have a personality suited for a career as an accountant, zookeeper, landscape architect, ..." - "Hmm ... now that you mention it, being a zookeeper always sounded like an interesting job. I should learn more about it." They shouldn't be taken as definite, but act more to focus your thoughts and get you to think more about the topic. ("There may be a number of introverts working customer relations, but are you sure *you* are going to be happy with the level of social interaction typical of the job?") -- 174.21.250.120 (talk) 17:52, 15 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Hi, OP here. Thanks for all of your insights. The thing is, I've spent more than 13 years in various IT jobs (and liked it, most of the time), but was wondering if it wasn't time for something completely different. One of the jobs suggested by the test was optician - and I must say, while I would never have come up with the idea myself, it does seem quite interesting. The other suggestions the test came up with were interesting in theory, but would require a university degree, which, at my age, is pretty much out of the question (by the time I would finish university and the required training for the job suggested, it would be rather unlikely that any employer would hire me, due to age and missing experience). That is why I was looking for more suggestions for my type. Oh, and of course, if there's a perfect match, personality-wise, between two different Myers-Briggs types, that would be interesting to know, too. ;-) -- 78.43.71.225 (talk) 22:41, 16 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
International beneficiary funding schemes
Dear Sir or Madam,
Do you know of any international beneficiary funding schemes that cover all costs,please?16:51, 14 February 2011 (UTC)212.219.142.118 (talk)
Many college football scholarships pay for everything, but you gotta be good at playing football. Are you looking for an artist in residence program that will pay all costs through, for example, a non-repayable monetary grant? -- Uzma Gamal (talk) 14:50, 15 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Within the Schengen countries for persons barred from travelling outside of their own borders because of for example court orders or parole conditions how are they stopped from gaining entry into any of the Schengen states when border controls are almost non exsistent? Does each country supply the other with lists of banned travellers? Is this done electronically, paper based? or is it simply the luck of the draw whether or not the individual is pulled over randomly for checking? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Oceanted (talk • contribs) 21:50, 14 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
I'm working on a project that involves controlling a small robot (the iRobotroomba) using the Microsoft Kinect. I'm supposed to name the project but I can't think of a witty enough title.
The best I could come up with were: Kinect-ed and Force Roomba but they're not good enough.
Can anyone come up with a better idea? Extra points if it involves a pun.
I'm designing a stripped down version, but yes, the robot can have any attachment added to it. So it could clean the carpet, wash your floors etcetera. Hasanclk (talk) 02:10, 15 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
I like the sound of Kroomba. Kroooooom-ba. But it's not very witty. How about Sputnik 4? (There were only 3 Sputniks, not counting the 40th anniversary editions.) --Mr.98 (talk) 02:13, 15 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Good Spot - Since your software controls the moving robotic vacuum cleaner like a dog (where "Spot" is a common dog name) and, once controlled, the previously free roaming dog becomes a good dog, and "spot" also can refer to a spot on the floor that becomes good once cleaned, "Good Spot" seems to fit. From tess2.uspto.gov the Good Spot name seems available for a product such as yours. If you use this name or a name inspired by this name, please donate what ever amount you think reasonable to Wikipedia. -- Uzma Gamal (talk) 14:36, 15 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Natalla, a feminine-sounding name that incorporates Natal, which was Microsoft's code name for Kinect before they came up with the name Kinect. Comet Tuttle (talk) 23:54, 17 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
I want to know is Delhi a State or Union Territory??
I'm not sure I'm following your Big Bang reference. Since the destruction of the elevator, the only way to travel between floors in Leonard's building is via good old-fashioned stairs. What escalator are you thinking of? TenOfAllTrades(talk) 01:32, 16 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
I'd have thought (WP:OR warning!) that escalators would be rather inefficient in a residential building - you have to have an 'up' and a 'down' one for each floor, and they need to keep running all the time. They are much more efficient in moving large numbers of people over considerable distances: e.g. the London Underground ones - even with these, if there are more than two available, they tend to shut duplicated ones down during off-peak hours. AndyTheGrump (talk) 02:32, 16 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Well, that might kind of the point. How rich do you have to be to do things efficiently, after all?
To begin - this is not going to be a racist comment. I am simply curious to know if anyone can explain something I saw today in a British Supermarket whilst queuing for my turn at the checkout. There was an Asian family at the head of the queue doing a very large shop and filling their trolleys and baskets. When the cashier told them the cost, they all - men and women - began hunting in their wallets, purses, and pockets - and paid their bill entirely with British one-pound coins - oodles of them. When they had left and it was my turn, I said jokingly to the cashier that they looked as though they had won big-time on a slot machine. But she turned to me and said, quite matter of factly, that it was quite common, if not the norm, for Asian people to do that. Like I said, this is not intended to be racist in any way, and if the cashier hadn't said what she did, I probably wouldn't have given this a second thought. Just curious. 92.30.155.5 (talk) 19:41, 15 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
The most obvious explanation would be that, in your area, Asian families are likely to own laundromats. (Or maybe they are called laundrettes in the UK.) If not laundromats/laundrettes, my guess would be that they own some other retail business using coin-operated equipment. Marco polo (talk) 20:25, 15 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Marco polo makes an interesting suggestion, which I can't add to, but I have had a very similar experience that is mysterious to me as well: When I was in high school (in the US), I worked in the box office at a movie theater, in those days (early 2000s) we only accepted cash, so I processed thousands of cash transactions (sometimes over $10k in a day. After a busy weekend, the cash room would have well over $300k in mostly small bill cash, but that is another story). I noticed that Caucasians almost never used bills larger than $20, however Latinos would frequently use $100 bills. My speculation at the time was that it had something to do with some culture aversion to ATMs (most of which only give out $20s), but I really didn't (and still don't) have any idea. I think the short (bad) answer is that different cultures deal with money in different ways, but I'd be interested if anyone can give any further details. --Daniel20:33, 15 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
I have no idea if this is accurate for your circumstances in the theater or not but people who do not have a checking or savings account will often get their paychecks cashed at grocery stores and the like. The store will often cash their checks using large bills such as $100s. Let's say you make $500 in a week, it's a lot easier to carry around a few $100s rather than 25 $20 bills. So, maybe in your area, the Latinos were predominantly in these circumstances. Dismas|(talk)20:41, 15 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
I'll equally try to find a local industry - ethnic group link. If you live in a small place, even one single company, if it's big enough, can have an impact in the behavior of the people. Construction workers often get paid in cash, if they get paid $300 each week on Friday, it is normal to try to pay $100 on the weekend. Another point are Chinese in Europe managing 1€/article shops (the name varies). tThat would explain several Chinese carrying loads of €1 coins. The funny part is that members of this group are probably not aware of they paying with a different payment mean. Quest09 (talk) 18:05, 16 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
By the way, "Asian" in a UK context means South Asian: Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi, Sri Lankan. In the 2001 Census classification, used by most public bodies, "Chinese" didn't come under the general Asian/Asian British heading. Unlikely to be construction workers, who are paid into bank accounts, by cheque or in banknotes. Pound shop owners/managers is a possibility, but wouldn't they shop at the cash-and-carry rather than a supermarket? Itsmejudith (talk) 12:57, 17 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Why wouldn't pound shop owners shop at a supermarket? I don't have much UK-experience, but some big supermarket chains like Sainsbury's and Tesco are known for their amazing low prices, comparable to wholesales chains. Quest09 (talk) 17:33, 17 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
If you are refering to Wikipedia, then once you are logged in select "my preferences" at the top of the screen, and you will then find the option to amend your choice of "skin" which is the page colour etc... Oh and please do not use caps lock as it has the effect of shouting! gazhiley.co.uk13:56, 17 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
In Jonathan Franzen's novel Freedom (p.347 of my Farrar Straus Giroux copy) there is a reference to a "massive Eisenhower-era utility building that marred the architectural vistas of almost every Tribecan loft-dweller". Which building is being referred to here? TriBeCa is no help. Thanks, --Viennese Waltz09:18, 16 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
I have done some searching using Google Maps and cannot find a massive utility building in Tribeca that dates to the Eisenhower era. The only massive utility buildings in the area are 33 Thomas Street, which was completed in 1974, during either the Nixon or Ford presidency, and 32 Avenue of the Americas, completed in 1932 during the Hoover presidency. Marco polo (talk) 20:43, 16 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
"big shoe bazaar" - question original posed as article
Hi all,
Question asked by Quuuu2 was originally created as article Bigshoebazaar.
Is there any page with the name or content under the tag of big shoe bazaar or what was its content? Can you please sort out this query? I would be extremely glad to know about the details of the page filed under the name of big shoe bazaar.
If you click on the red link above, you will see the notice stating that the article was deleted because it was "blatant advertising ... with no meaningful, substantive content".--Shantavira|feed me13:00, 16 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
What "rights" are you referring to? Can you give some representative examples of the sorts of "rights" we should be thinking of, and even their corresponding "obligations"? I think we should have a more finely-honed question so that our responses can be more targeted. Bus stop (talk) 14:58, 16 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
And in practice, if that is all you are looking at, there was some truth for that. Arguably the position of many slaves (whether in the American South, or the emancipated serfs in Russia) was far worse after they had been liberated than it had been before. But that calculus clearly does not take into account the fuller ramifications of slavery, of human needs. --Mr.98 (talk) 13:46, 16 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
For some odd reason, the slaveowners apparently never actually asked the slaves that question, opting instead to "speak for them". Once slavery was ended, most of them split, and that was as good an implied answer as any. ←Baseball BugsWhat's up, Doc?carrots→ 13:58, 16 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Err, actually, when slavery ended, most of them became share croppers, which had arguably worse conditions than under slavery. I'm not apologizing for slavery. But I think it's important to emphasize that things got worse for many before they got better. And they didn't get close to parity with the white population until well over a century later. --Mr.98 (talk) 19:18, 16 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
I wonder what obligations you have in mind. I think if you made it clear what those obligations were, you'd see how "happy" you should or should not be. Do you think that the Soviet people were pleased by lacking the obligation of voting once every few years? --Mr.98 (talk) 13:46, 16 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
In some cases not having the rights of citizenship in a country can allow one to avoid the obligation of military conscription—so in that case I think a lot of people would be real happy. Qrsdogg (talk) 14:23, 16 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Conscription is not everything: if you are a US-citizen, you get taxed on your worldwide income, no matter where you are (exemptions apply, for avoiding double taxation, for example). That's a right that I don't want to have. Quest09 (talk) 14:40, 16 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Your European taxes level includes health care (in Spain, UK and France, at least) and discounted college fees, sometimes even free. Quest09 (talk) 15:03, 16 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Every single time this comes up, an American (usually Bugs) feels the need to 'explain' this to people who live in a country where precisely how it is funded, and what is covered, is mentioned at every election, and in much of the political discourse in between. Do you think the electorate of these countries are so stupid they do not know how taxation works? And given you are replying to a message that explains the tax includes the price of healthcare, what are you even trying to prove? That you don't understand? Anyway, look at this 'huge' difference in tax rates between the UK and the US, then remember the UK citizens paying that tax don't have to pay health insurance or hospital bills, and if they received higher education they are paying off much lower loans. Which is the point Quest was making: you're not usually going to be worse off, financially. 86.164.25.178 (talk) 17:32, 16 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Really, Bugs, you're going to judge an IP's longevity based on the record first post? That's a fairly big logical error. Even named accounts can have different origin dates. I have been here for a very, very long time, myself, much longer than this account lets on. --Mr.98 (talk) 19:18, 16 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
She's been here since 2003, and it's pretty obvious from my comment that I've been around longer than this IP address: I'd expect most people to be able to put that together, but then I'd also expect most people to realise that the word 'free' does not usually mean 'nobody paid for it at any point', and that Quest was even specifically referring to cases where some people actually do receive something that is free for them. After all, I paid no tax in order to get free eye tests and glasses in my childhood. I 'buy one, get one free' without assuming the supermarket magicked the 'free' product into existence without anyone paying anything. And I edit a 'free' encyclopedia that requires huge amounts of donated money to run. 'Free' does not only have the single, narrow meaning you imply, and it is frankly insulting to 'explain' that things paid for from the public purse require money from the public purse, every time someone mentions that the taxes of many countries include the price of healthcare for all citizens. 86.164.25.178 (talk) 19:46, 16 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
I see no evidence that anything exists outside my personal experience at this precise moment: I'm surprised you see evidence I'm anything other than a fleeting thought in your dreaming mind. Once we reject that mode of thought, we have to accept less rigorous proof. And at some point, you have to decide: is everyone else using a word wrong, or does the word have a different meaning to what you thought? You are using the word 'free' to mean something different to the meaning people have explained it means in this sentence, and then are insisting that they are wrong because the sentence isn't true if the word means this different thing. If "nothing is free" following the meaning you are using, and people are explaining how many things are free, perhaps the solution is not to assume they are all too stupid to realise this, but perhaps to assume your meaning of the word is not the relevant one. 86.164.25.178 (talk) 20:32, 16 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Yeh, the typical IP attitude, feeling free to take personal attack shots at others without having to account for it. And you wonder why I have such rock-bottom regard for IP's. However, in the case of "free" goods and services, "free", as in "free of charge" means "not having to pay money for it". How are you not having to pay money for it? Or have you figured out a tax dodge so that you can stick everyone else with paying for it? ←Baseball BugsWhat's up, Doc?carrots→ 20:39, 16 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Please, feel free to point out where I have made a 'personal attack shot', since that is a policy violation and I take Wikipedia policy seriously. I do not wonder why you have such rock-bottom regard for IP's: life is too short, and it is not relevant. "After all, I paid no tax in order to get free eye tests and glasses in my childhood". I pay taxes so that the health service and schools and fire brigade and police and functioning roads are available for everyone: using them is free for me, and for anyone else who needs to use them, regardless of how much or little they have paid into the system. I pay the same amount in tax, whether or not I use them. Using them is free for me, and was before I had paid any tax at all. What costs money is providing the system, and I pay for that. Reading Wikipedia is free for me, although money has to be paid by someone at some point for it to be available. As explained, this is the usual meaning of the word 'free' in this context, and is the meaning people have in mind when they say "we have free healthcare". It is "free at the point of use", although obviously it has to be paid for by society as a whole. When someone explains that the taxes paid include the cost of healthcare, which is free, they clearly are not using the word 'free' in the way you have defined it, and responding to them with 'nothing is free' is not especially productive. 86.164.25.178 (talk) 21:01, 16 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Oh, so "brain in a vat" was supposed to be a compliment, then? OK, you can continue to delude yourself as to what "free" is, that's up to you. And I will continue to point out that delusion when it arises. ←Baseball BugsWhat's up, Doc?carrots→ 21:10, 16 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Under 86's logic, it would appear that any insurance payouts are free money, regardless of how much their premiums cost them. If you want to consider that free, I guess no one can stop you, but I won't buy into that delusion. Googlemeister (talk) 22:07, 16 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Paying insurance premiums is not a purchase of payouts. It is purchasing freedom from possible loss(es) that may also give freedom from worry and FUD. I hope Googlemeister doesn't find that the insurance he buys turns out to be an illusion. State healthcare is a form of insurance. Quest09, Warofdreams and IP user 86.164.25.178 have all used "free" in a comprehensible way. It is a pity that Baseball Bugs expresses his persuasion that state involvement is undesireable in bombastic terms that do not advance any cogent analysis of the subject. User 86.164.25.178 is no less worthy of regard than Baseball Bugs, is wrongly accused by the latter of personal attack where they made none, and gives a reasoned account for what they are saying. However it is as unhelpful to categorise what Americans do "every single time" as to categorise negatively our IP-using contributors. I don't where "brain in a vat" arose but it is a notable philosophical concept that can be traced back to Plato's Allegory of the Cave. Cuddlyable3 (talk) 14:57, 17 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Yes. I'm personally very happy I don't have the right to randomly shoot strangers in the street, that is, rather, that I'm happy other people don't have that right. After all, we could have a society where people were free to do what they like - anarchy (of either sort) - and that isn't so hard to believe as a possible. - Jarry1250[Who?Discuss.]17:38, 16 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Just to reiterate my point, you have to outline the real "obligations" first to know if they are worth the trade-off. Example: I am obligated, every so often, to show up for jury duty. That is perhaps kind of a hassle (though honestly I have never gotten to the stage where I've even had to show up to the courthouse, much less been drafted into a jury, personally), but if you compare not having to do that with the costs of having a jury-less legal system, it seems like a pretty minor sacrifice. Another example: I am (in the US) obligated to register with the Selective Service and potentially be drafted. That might be somewhat scary, to be sure, but this is actually a pretty compromising position, if I don't want compulsory military service (which is common in societies with less "rights", as well as a number of liberal democracies as well) or don't want my nation to be totally undefended should it get into a big war (which would have high costs for me as well). That's a more questionable compromise, though I'm not sure a society with "less rights" would be a better alternative there (one could argue that a nation should have an entirely volunteer army, which is essentially what the US has in effect, and that seems to be working more or less well in terms of security). Another example: I have to pay sales and income tax. Question: Would a society with less rights have more or less taxes? Technically speaking I can affect how much I am taxed, though in principle that can be complicated and difficult. That is actually a tremendous "right" in the American system. Going to a system with less rights would probably result in me having no control over that process, and would probably still result in taxation (which seems inevitable anyway). Another example: I have the obligation of voting once every few years. Does that "burden" (election cycles, endless advertisements and articles, the actual work of voting) balance out against the "convenience" of having no control over my government? It looks like an absurd formulation when you put it that way. I think one cannot talk about the abstract principles here without actual concrete examples, and I think most examples lean on the side that the "burdens" are relatively light compared to the "benefits" of being without rights. --Mr.98 (talk) 19:18, 16 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
I'm reminded of what Will Rogers said about that grand and glorious experiment in freedom called the Soviet Union. When someone griped about the American income tax, Rogers retorted, "In Russia, they ain't got no income tax. But they ain't got no income!" ←Baseball BugsWhat's up, Doc?carrots→ 19:22, 16 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
\Here's a concrete example: I am delighted that my own goverment denies me the right to keep a gun in my home. I have no wish for my daughter to find it and accidentally kill herself or her sister with it, or for a burglar to take it off me and kill me with it if I attempt to use it to defend us. I have no desire to kill anyone. I happily forgo any responsibility for maintaining or licensing a gun, or keeping it locked securely away, in exchange for a law that says ordinary citizens don't need them and will be punished for owning them. As recompense for the "tyranny" of the state preventing me from keeping a gun in my house, I expect said state to use my taxes to make it as difficult as possible for criminals to get hold of illegal guns, and to lock up anyone caught with one for a long, long time. Society balances individual rights against the general good, and one man's indispensable right may be his neighbour's unwanted responsibility. If the pendulum swings too far one way, you have anarchy; too far the other way and you have totalitarianism. Everything else is a compromise of sorts. Karenjc23:50, 16 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
... and I'm happy that the same government as Karenjc's (I think) allows me the right to keep a (licensed) gun in my home, and that it imposes some very onerous restrictions on where I keep it and how I use it, and makes it difficult to obtain a licence. I agree that these balances are all compromises, and I think the governments on both sides of the pond get things roughly correct in balancing freedoms against responsibilities for their respective populations. We do have the power to change things if most of us think that they are getting it wrong. Dbfirs08:53, 17 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
As long as we're on opinion, I don't think it's about right. I'm for much more individual liberty and much less emphasis on social order. I further claim that whether most of us think it's about right is not the point. --Trovatore (talk) 09:06, 17 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Well you do have more liberty in your country, and some other countries have less, but at least we can change the situation if most of us want to do so. I'm with you in supporting individual liberty, and I often wish there was less regulation here, but I'm willing to compromise if the majority want to keep the legislation. Dbfirs09:17, 17 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
OK, I think I could live happily in your Utopia, and I'd be delighted with just nineteen laws, but what happens when others have a different interpretation of how "natural law" should work when our freedoms clash? In a large society, who acts as "Arbitrator"? Dbfirs09:57, 17 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Yes, who decides which laws are "natural"? One of the reasons people generally prefer democratic deliberation over appeals to natural law is that one guy's natural law is another guy's arbitrary theocracy. (Whether you appeal to Nature or to the Good Book or whatever, it is still an appeal to authority parsed through human interpretation.) I find natural law to be a pretty ridiculous thing to base one's convictions on; even the Declaration of Independence is rather ridiculous if you read it as actually trying to describe how natural law would work (is it really "self-evident" that all men are created equal? I admit it is not self-evident to me in the least!). --Mr.98 (talk) 14:44, 17 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
I'm happy that I don't have the right to buy a gun, as it means that I'm unlikely to be shot by a nutter or criminal, or by accident. I understand the clip of the grandmother who attacked people trying to rob a jeweller's has been shown in the US - you can see that nobody is worried about getting shot. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=he52NKjhqx8 Wordsworth wrote a poem relating to the OPs question: Nuns Fret Not at Their Convent's Narrow Room. http://www.bartleby.com/101/533.html Most people are content to live by the rules of society, in return for what it brings, rather than having the right to do whatever you like in an anarchic wilderness. 92.24.182.65 (talk) 22:22, 17 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Would a bullet with spiral grooves on the outside fired from a smoothbore gun spin as a smooth bullet fired from a rifled gun does? If so, why is this mechanism unused? If not, why not? 128.223.222.23 (talk) 16:19, 16 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Bullets are made from soft(ish) material. Bullets swage when fired - you need to form a good seal between bullet and barrel so the expanding gasses push the bullet instead of rushing past it. So, this does not sound like it would work very well. Whereas rifled barrels do work quite well. Friday(talk)17:18, 16 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Rifling inside a bore not only imparts spin, but the bore itself imparts straightness to the trajectory, at the same time that it is imparting spin. I would think that grooves added to the outside of a bullet would be much less tolerant of imperfection, as any such imperfections would be magnified over the course of the long flight of the projectile. Imperfections that might be found in the rifling inside the bore are negated by the control exerted by the straightness of the bore. Once the projectile leaves the bore, all but the slightest imperfections I think would be likely to introduce perturbations that would be magnified in the course of a long flight. Bus stop (talk) 18:23, 16 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Some shotgun slugs have inclined protrusions around the outside, but they provide no spin; instead they reduce friction inside the barrel and allow the slug to pass through the choke. The gas seal is provided by wadding. anonymous649419:01, 16 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
On May 22, 2010, Cote de Pablo was at Acqualina Resort & Spa in Sunny Isles Beach, FL.[30] You can send a letter to the spa and ask them to forward it (although the agent approach might be better). -- Uzma Gamal (talk) 10:19, 17 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
They're mainly decorative, but you may wish to replace it if you intend to sell the car at some point in the future. Buyers may subconsciously view a missing or non-matching hubcap as a sign of neglect, in the same way that they'd subconsciously regard an unwashed floor in an otherwise pristine house for sale. --NellieBly (talk) 01:39, 17 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Hubcaps serve as a cheap means of imitating the styling of magnesium or aluminum alloy wheels, display the car marque and prevent dust entering the wheel bearing. Special hubcap designs modify airflow or are non-rotating for diaplaying advertisements. A wheel cover can also refer to an overall cover on an external rear-mounted spare tire on some off-road vehicles. EDITABLElink
Girly OR here, but on the occasions I've changed a car tyre, my hands have been much cleaner when the wheels have had hubcaps on! Guess it keeps the wheelnuts clean. --TammyMoet (talk) 13:00, 17 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
February 17
How many ¥ would the taxi fare be from Itoman, Okinawa to Cape Soya, Hokkaido?
Japan has some of the most expensive taxi fares in the world; much of them now exceeds $5/mile (which is about the fare of a limousine in the United States.)
Now, if we got Itoman's local taxi fares, and calculated in the distance the wheels actually move + the ferry fees + all the tolls to ride all the way up the nation, what would the total fares be once the passenger is about ready to disembark at Cape Soya? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.179.187.21 (talk) 01:13, 17 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
A few thousand to ten or more thousand US dollars? The driver would also probably want to charge the return fare (that is standard in case of long-distance taxi routes in Poland - not inside the city but if you'd want to go i. e. between two voivodeships). Factor in any additional costs like food, accomodation... I suppose this is just a theoretical exercise, isn't it? --Ouro (blah blah) 09:21, 18 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Presumably enough to buy you a brand new car you could ride yourself for the distance and keep after the journey :) Also, I'm wondering, why Itoman? If you are aiming strictly for distance, wouldn't Yonaguni be even further away from Soya? And if you are just going for extreme + settled points, there's settled islands further South from Itoman, like Ishigaki. TomorrowTime (talk) 09:52, 18 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
I'm guessing that's maybe one third of the distance the OP is suggesting, without ferries? So all in all maybe somewhere generously upwards from a million yen? TomorrowTime (talk) 11:55, 18 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
statue to Mary Wollstonecraft
I am fascinated to read, as a source to her article, that:
Many words were spoken on the subject of woman suffrage last night at the National Arts Club, 119 East Nineteenth Street, where the "Quaint" Club and the "Twilight" Club entertained at dinner the Men's League for Woman Suffrage. The battle raged mostly about Mary Wollstonecraft, an early advocate of woman's rights, in whose memory a statue is about to be erected. ("The Suffrage Cause Invades Men's Club". New York Times. May 25, 1910.)
The Quaint Club was a monthly New York dining club, founded in 1882,"quaint+club"+tucker&q="quaint+club" which met at "the best hotel in town""quaint+club"+best+hotel&q="quaint+club"+"best+hotel" - in the late nineteenth century, this was apparently the Waldorf. The article you mention is the latest source I can find for its existence. The Twilight Club apparently held their 686th dinner in 1914, but I suspect that both it and the Quaint Club died out during or soon after World War I - by 1938, the Twilight Club was clearly long-gone.[32]Warofdreamstalk12:08, 17 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
I hope this isn't deemed an inappropriate question, but I stumbled onto an old discussion in the WP archives, and, after looking at the edit history of the parties involved, I find some aspects of the story rather unbelievable. It was difficult to navigate the discussion in its entirety and to its conclusion (if one exists), so my question is: Was it ever resolved definitively whether User:172 and User:Cognition were really the same person? David Able20:02, 17 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Can you at least please give us a link to the "old discussion" you stumbled onto (or do you want us to find it by also stumbling onto it rather than going straight to it?) -- Jack of Oz[your turn]20:45, 17 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
User_talk:172#Indefinitely_blocked. From what I can gather, this is related to the whole LaRouche debacle a couple of years ago: see Wikipedia:Requests_for_arbitration/Lyndon_LaRouche and Wikipedia:Requests for arbitration/Lyndon LaRouche 2. Among other things, people were inserting material about LaRouche's view into different topics that probably really wouldn't warrant a mention of his view (i.e. the Bertrand Russel FAC: [33]). See also these ANI arcives: [34] and [35]. I wasn't around when this was going down, but the long and the short of it seems to be that the Wikipedia has put in place a de-facto ban on Lyndon LaRouche being mentioned in any articles that are not directly associated with him, and of banning any editor who is unfortunate enough to mention that he doesn't believe LaRouche should die in hell-fire. user:Cognition continued to make such insertions, and got banned. Someone decided to run a checkuser on Cognition (or maybe 127, and I can't find when that happened, but it must have been around September 2009, as that's when 127 got blocked). The weird thing is, 127's been a productive editor since forever (2002), and I guess a pretty staunch Anti-LaRouche editor (I haven't dug into his contributions much). Still, Wikipedia decides to block a productive editor because someone who can see his IP address has decided he's also an unproductive editor on another account. I have my own opinions about our blocking/banning policy, but this isn't a forum. Buddy431 (talk) 22:24, 17 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
On a related note, this type of thing really highlights what is both one of Wikipedia's strengths, but also some of its weaknesses. Wikipedia keeps publicly viewable histories of all the edits to all its pages, (with certain exceptions like Oversight and Revision Deletion). This allows us to go back and reconstruct what's happened in the past: it's relatively hard to make all traces of some incident go away, as much as people try at times *cough* Rlevse *cough*. On the other hand, we do a pretty poor job of indexing or otherwise making this history easy to access. The history is preserved on each page, but on busy noticeboards and talkpages (where much of the action happens, so to speak), it quickly gets buried. If you're lucky, there's an archive that covers reasonably short periods of time, but even then, you're stuck searching through lots of posts that aren't necessarily related to each other. Check out Wikipedia:Administrators'_noticeboard/IncidentArchives, which is 2 years out of date. If you only have a vague idea of when or where something happened, God help you in trying to search the archives. Throw into this mix the one type of history that is not publicly viewable: deleted content, and trying to reconstruct what went on in the past can be pretty difficult. Buddy431 (talk) 22:56, 17 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks. I felt a bit nosy by asking this, but it is very frustrating when you get caught up in a old thread, only to have it fizzle out with no link to any continuation of the discussion. @JoO- I didn't link to it because I wasn't really sure where to link. I stumbled onto it in the process of trying to figure out what the difference in a "ban" and a "community ban" was, and ran across a list of banned users that someone had compiled (again, I don't know the link where I was at that point), but I found myself following a random thread of links and difs through a rather muddled, but very interesting incident, only for it to stop seemingly in mid-conversation on an old ANI board. My apologies if this was confusing. I figured some "old blood" Wikipedians would remember the incident, as it seemed like it was a big deal at the time. :) David Able00:42, 18 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Only if you're the one that posted the comment, or it was something posted on your wall. Hover your mouse pointer over the post and a little X should appear in the upper right corner of it, which you can click to remove the post. I don't know if Facebookk's mobile phone interface offers this option. Zunaid09:59, 18 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Wild guess: lawyers' fees, trademark registration, web hosting, attending conferences and expos, office expenses, employing some admin staff? But I'm sure if you contact them they'll tell you (have you tried that?) --Colapeninsula (talk) 09:55, 18 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
"If you want to contact representatives of The Document Foundation for questions about your donation, our spokespeople will be happy to answer your e-mail."[37]; contact info[38]. --Colapeninsula (talk) 09:57, 18 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
"Not for profit" just means not paying dividends to shareholders. It doesn't rule out salaries to employees, investments in buildings and projects or advertising. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Cuddlyable3 (talk • contribs)
According to their web page, To legally form The Document Foundation in Germany, a minimum of 50,000 Euros is needed. Additionally, All donations will be used for establishing The Document Foundation, and any funds remaining after the fifty-thousand euro capital stock has been accumulated will be fed directly into the future foundation's budget to cover operating expenses. They go on to explain why they want to establish the organization in Germany. decltype (talk) 10:17, 18 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
It is because under German law, the charity will have to be 'supervised' by the local authority to make sure it is keeping to its charter. Local authorities obviously don't want people setting up dozens of little homes for stray cats as foundation charities.[39]--Aspro (talk) 10:19, 18 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
"A woman called the BBC earlier..."
Before the Great Storm of 1987 in the UK, when Michael Fish made his infamous claim that there wouldn't be a hurricane he said a woman had called in to warn about a hurricane but, don't worry, there wouldn't be one. A woman called Anita Hart claims this was her. Is there any evidence either verifying or disproving that claim, or anything other than the youtube clip linked to on the wiki page? 130.88.162.13 (talk) 12:19, 18 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
The article Great Storm of 1987 has one badly drafted and context-free reference to Anita Hart. To decide on the veracity or otherwise of her claim, we would need to see where and how she is claiming that the woman was her. --Viennese Waltz12:38, 18 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Indeed, I was wondering if anyone know where any such information could be found. For example, what program is that youtube clip from? Looks like More4 to me, but that only narrows it down. 130.88.162.13 (talk) 12:43, 18 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
There are interviews with Anita Hart in various newspaper articles including the Daily Mirror [40] and the Daily Telegraph [41], so she is real enough, but it doesn't answer the question as to whether she was the person. Mikenorton (talk) 13:02, 18 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
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